Letter XXXV. To Magister Hugo Farsrr

(A.D. 1128.)

He commends to him the cause of a certain Humbert, and -warns him not to blush at retracting a certain erroneous opinion.¹

To his very dear brother and co-abbot, Brother BERNARD, health and assurance of the most sincere affection.

I commend to your protection, with the greatest confidence in your goodness, the poor man Humbert, who is said to have been unjustly disinherited. I have undertaken, for the love of God, to plead his cause with your Count, and I hope that you will help me, with the assistance of the Lord of Heaven, to reconcile him with his earthly prince, so that he may be restored to his country, his wife and children, his property and friends; for by taking the trouble to effect this you will both free from the hands of a sinner a man who is in distress, and will be labouring at the same time for the welfare of his oppressor. You will show yourself helpful to me in no small degree, without mentioning that by performing the office of a peacemaker you will prepare for yourself a high place among the children of God. Let us speak now of another matter. It has been reported to you, as I hear, that I have thrown into the fire the letter that your Holiness lately favoured me with. Be so kind as to believe that I preserve it carefully, for would it not have been the effect of envy, or rather of madness, rashly to condemn a work useful and praiseworthy, in which there was nothing but what was sound in faith, salutary in doctrine, and tending to spiritual edification? I ought, however, to except one passage, because between friends no timid and dangerous flattery ought to influence them against the truth. One passage, I confess, troubled and still troubles me, that in which you endeavoured to sustain and defend in beginning your work an opinion which you had put forth already in an interview between us respecting the Sacraments. If you will reflect upon the doctrine that you supported in that interview you will see whether it agrees or no with the teaching of the Church. It will be a mark of your candour and humility not to be ashamed to be corrected if you have ever held an opinion not conformable to sound doctrine. Farewell.

Footnotes

1. I find many of this name about this period. Two monks: the one of Lagny, who is praised in the sixth book of the Res Diplomatica (p. 585), the other of S. Lucian of Beauvais, of whom the Necrology makes mention thus: " The 2^th March died Hugo Farsit, a professed monk." It may be the same who is mentioned in the History of Louvet, p. 555. There was a third Hugo Farsit, who was Canon Regular of S. John des Vignes, who is praised in the Necrot»gi/ of the Church of Soissons. Abaelard mentions a fourth of that name in his Sermon on S. John Baptist, p. 967, wheie he makes mention of S. Norbert and of Hugo Farsit, the companion of his Apostolate, perhaps Hugo. Abbot of Promontre and successor over the Order, who was his first and most remarkable disciple, and to whom Letter 253 was addressed. I think that he to whom the present Letter was addressed was the same to whom Hugo Metellus, at that time Canon Regular of Toul in Lorraine, inscribed Letter 34 of the MS., " To Hugo of Chartres, the venerable Magister." In fact, Hugo, of whom S. Bernard speaks, was abbot of a monastery situated on the lands of Theobald, Count of Champagne, at Blois or at Chartres, according to some writers. ↩