Letter CIX. To the Illustrious Youth, Geoffrey De Perrone, and his Comrades

He pronounces the youths noble because they purpose to lead the religious life, and exhorts them to perseverance.¹

To his beloved sons, GEOFFREY and his companions, BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes the spirit of counsel and strength.

1. The news of your conversion that has got abroad is edifying many, nay, is making glad the whole Church of God, so that The heavens rejoice and the earth is glad (Ps. xcvi. n), and every tongue glorifies God. The earth shook and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sinai (cf. Ps. Ixviii. 8, 9), raining on those days more abundantly than usual a gracious rain which God keeps for His inheritance (Ps. Ixvii. 9, 10, VuLG.). Never more will the cross of Christ appear void of effect in you, as in many sons of disobedience, who, delaying from day to day to turn to God, are seized by sudden death, and go down straightway to hell. We see flourish again under our eyes the wood whereon the Lord of Glory hung, who died not for His own nation only, But also that He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad (S. John xi. 52)." He, yes, He Himself draws you, who loves you as His own flesh, as the most precious fruit of His cross, as the most worthy recompense of the blood He shed. If, then, the Angels Rejoice over one sinner that repenteth (S. Luke xv. 10), how great must be their joy over so many, and those, too, sinners. The more illustrious they seemed for rank, for learning, for birth, for youth, the wider was their influence as examples of perdition. I had read, Not many noble, not many wise, not manv mightv hath God chosen (1 Cor. i. 26, 27). But to-day, through a miracle of Divine power, a multitude of such is converted. They hold present glory cheap, they spurn the charm of youth, they take no account of high birth, they regard the wisdom of the world as foolishness, they rest not in flesh and blood, they renounce the love of parents and friends, they reckon favours and honours and dignities as dung that they may gain Christ. I should praise you if I knew that this, your lot, were your own doing. But it is the finger of God, clearly a change due to the right hand of the Most High (cf. Ps. Ixxvii. 10 VULG., Ixxvi. n). Your conversion is a good gift and a perfect gift, without doubt descending from the Father of lights (S. James i. 17). And so to Him we rightly bring every voice of praise who only doeth marvellous things, who hath caused that plenteous redemption that is in Him to be no longer without effect in you.

2. What, then, dearly beloved, remains for you to do, •except to make sure that your praiseworthy purpose attain the end it deserves? Strive, therefore, for perseverance, the only virtue that receives the crown. Let there not be found among you Yea and Nay (2 Cor. i. 18, sg.), that ye may be the sons of your Father which is in Heaven, with whom, you know, there is no -variableness, neither shadow of turning (S. James i. 17). You also, brethren, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as bv the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii. 18). Take heed with all watchfulness not to be yourselves found light, inconstant, or wavering. For it is written, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (S. James i. 8), and again, Woe be ... to the sinner that gocth two ways (Ecclus. ii. 12). And for myself, dearly beloved, I congratulate you, and myself not less, for, as I hear, I have been reckoned worthy of being chosen to have a part in this, your good purpose. I both give you my counsel and promise my help. If I am thought necessary, or, rather, if I be deemed worthy, I do not decline the task, and so far as in me lies will not fail you. With eager devotion I submit my shoulders to this burden,² old though they be, since it is laid on me from heaven. With a glad heart and open arms, as they say, I welcome the fellow-citizens of the saints and servants of God. How gladly, according to the prophet's command, do I assist with my bread those that flee from the face of the sword, and bring water to the thirsty (cf. Is. xxi. 14). The rest I have left to the lips of my, or rather your, Geoffrey. Whatsoever he shall say to you in my stead, that, doubt not, is my counsel.

Footnotes

1. A very ancient edition reads Geoffrey de Parrone, which is a well-fortified town on the Somme. So it is from that place that Godfrey derives his name and lineage. He was one of those whom S. Bernard is said to have converted t> religion in Belgium (See Life, Bk. iv. Chap. 3). A companion in his conversion was the other Geoffrey, afterwards Prior of Clairvaux. The authority for this is Herman, a monk of Tournay (Spicilfium, Vol. xii. p. 479), where he speaks of S. Bernard, and says that " from the Church of S. Mary, of Tournay, as well as from the diocese itself, many famous clerks followed Dom Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, by whom they had attained to the grace of conversion." Herman relates this fact, p. 476, after the twenty-fourth year of the Episcopate of Simon, Bishop of Noyon, who acceded to that See 1122. This Letter, therefore, can not, as Manrique thinks, be referred to 1 131. Peter de Koya, a novice of Clair vaux (see Letter 479, 2, 9) gives praise to Geoffrey de Perrone. This is Mabillon s view, but Horst does not agree, because he believes this same Geoffrey to have been Prior of Clairvaux, of whom he has this account :— " This man S. Ber nard converted to religion in Flanders, with twenty-nine other noble and cultured youths. But now that he is hesitating and delaying. Bernard urges him forward in this Letter. Afterwards he became Prior of Clairvaux, the fifth in order, and at length being elected Bishop cf Tournay (others say of Nantes), he declined the honour. Peter of Blois records the story thus." We read that Geoffrey de Perrone, Prior of Clairvaux, being elected Bishop of Tournay, entirely refused the election. Afterwards, when he was dead, he appeared to a certain brother, who asked how it was with him, and in reply he said, " The Holy Trinity has revealed to me that if I had undertaken the Episcopate I should have been of the number of the lost." So by this instance he struck the hearts of certain other prelates, saying, " What, then, will become of those unhappy beings who, of their own will and pleasure, drown themselves in the flood of worldly cares, who pass their life among vanities, dining luxuriously, sleeping, drinking, sitting at the receipt of custom, paying out cash, seeking the things that are their own, or rather the things that are Caesar's, and not God's? " So Peter of Blois, Letter 102. To the same effect Ccesarius, Bk. ii. c. 29. See on the matter Henriquez, Menologium, Feb. 15. VOL. I. 24 ↩

2. Hence it is clear that Bernard was already approaching old age when he wrote this Letter. ↩