Letter LV. To Geoffrey, Bishop of Chartres

(Circa A.D. 1128.)

He begs that Geoffrey would receive and assist a certain religious recluse who had deserted his calling, but was repentant.

To the most faithful and prudent servant of God, GEOFFREY, Bishop .of Chartres,¹ BERNARD, of Clairvaux, servant of the poor of Christ, health and the fulness of the glory of the everlasting hills.

The more fame and honour the holiness of your life pro cures for you, the more labour it brings you. Thus the person who brings you this letter, and on whose behalf it is written, has felt himself, like so many others, drawn to you from far, by the fragrance of your pity, and by the hope of finding in you not only counsel what he ought to do, but also aid to accomplish it. This is his case. He had for the love of God shut himself in a certain cell, intending to live as a recluse. He himself will explain to you the causes why he quitted his cell and broke his vow.² Now he desires to return to his purpose; but intends to ask your help for so doing, if you will accord it to him at my request by this letter, with which he was desirous to strengthen his application. Act, therefore, in your accustomed way; give help to this unhappy man, and the more since I know you hold yourself a debtor both to the wise and to the unwise; quickly draw this wandering lamb of Christ from the jaws of the wolf, bring him back to his former pasture, and order him to be reclosed in some little cell near one of your houses; unless, perhaps, you see that some other course is the better for the man to take, and you succeed in convincing him that he ought to take it.

Footnotes

1. Bernard was a great admirer and publisher of the virtues of this great prelate, of which he was an eye-witness, inasmuch as he was frequently associated with him by the Pope in transacting business of the Church (Lift of S. Bernard, B. ii. ch. i, 2, 6, etc.). He was a man truly apostolic, whose character, disposition, and ability were closely allied to those of Bernard, as is shown by the affectionate memory in which the latter testifies that he held him. In the life of William, Duke of Aquitaine, he is called " a man full of the spirit of power and wisdom." He died 24th Jan., 1 138. ↩

2. Grimlac, in his Rule for Solitaries, shows that it was not permitted to those who had been with solemn ceremony enclosed in their cell to quit it again. ↩