Letter LXXVI. To the Abbot of the Regular Canons of S. Plerremont

He considers what is to be done in the case of a man who, after a long time spent in a monastery and in the habit of a religious, has returned to the world and contracted a second marriage.¹²

To the most Reverend the Father of the Canons of S. Pierre-mont, Brother BERNARD, health and the affection which is due to him.

Since it pleased your worship that this brother should consult my unworthy self, I have let him know my opinion without at all pretending that he ought to follow it, that I may not stand in the way of better advice. Not to weary you by repeating circumstances which you already know, this is the sum of my advice. It is very dangerous, perhaps unlawful, that a man who has so long dwelt in a convent and worn the religious habit, should have returned to the world; also that he who with the consent of his former wife, while she was living, had long observed absolute continence should contract a second marriage is indecent and dishonourable. Yet since the marriage was publicly and solemnly performed as others are, and with out protest or opposition, it does not seem to me safe that the man should dismiss his wife against her will, unless he shall have had recourse to episcopal authority or advice, or at all events to an ecclesiastical and canonical judgment.³ But since, in my opinion, the great danger in which the man now is, is due, in no small degree, to you (in that you deferred too long his taking the vow, though he wished and desired to do so, and thus gave opportunity to the tempter to precipitate him into those unhappy courses), I counsel and advise you in the name of charity to employ all your efforts to rescue the unfortunate- man, even at any cost. Address yourself, for instance, to the wife herself, and obtain from her a promise to dismiss her husband and live in continence, or procure that the bishop should summon them both before him and separate them, which I believe may justly be done.