Letter LI. To Haimeric, the Chancellor, on the Same Subject

(A.D. 1128.)

To the very illustrious HAIMERIC, Chancellor of the Holy Roman See, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, health and all that the prayer of a sinner can avail.

How long will it be true to say, All who -will live piously in Christ suffer persecution (2 Tim. iii. 12)? How long shall the rod of sinners be extended over the heritage of the just? Who shall enable the just to stand¹ against those who have oppressed them?

Who can bear to see so great a degree of discord between heaven and earth, that while the Angels rejoice at the amendment of the evil, the sons of Adam rage and are envious? Has not Jesus by His sufferings and His blood purified the things which are in heaven and those on earth; and was not God in Him reconciling the world unto Him self? Formerly the Archbishop had nothing but praise, when he was ruled only by the desires of his heart — nothing but approval as long as his life and conversation were worldly. But now simony is sought for under the swaddling clothes of the infancy of Jesus, and a malign curiosity searches among the rising virtues (of the prelate) for even the ashes of dead vices. You see clearly that it is Jesus Himself who is the mark for the hostility of these men. In His name I beseech you; for His sake I am a suppliant to you. He is well worthy both of your reverence and of your pity. Stand fast for Him in the defence of the Archbishop, and remember that you yourself must one day stand before Him to be judged. Farewell.

Footnotes

1. Some read in great constancy here, but the words are wanting in MSS. ↩