Letter CXXVII. To William, Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine, in the Name of Hugh, Duke of Burgundy

(Circa A.D. 1132.)

William was of the party of the Antipope Anacletus; Bernard urges him to abandon it, and to range himself on the side of Innocent.¹

To WILLIAM, by the grace of God, the illustrious Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine, HUGH, by the same grace, Duke of Burgundy, sends greeting, bidding him fear Him who is terrible, and who takes away the spirit of princes.

1. I can no longer hold my peace about your mistaken line of action, though you are my near kinsman and dear friend. If any of the people perishes he perishes alone; but the error of a prince involves many, and ruins as many souls as he rules over. Nor are we raised on high, as vou know, to destroy our subjects, but to govern them. He by whom kings reign, has put us over our subjects to protect them, not to overthrow them; we are the Church's keepers, not her masters. But since you are known to have dis charged that function laudably, and in a way befitting the greatness of your power, on other occasions, I can but wonder by what craft you have been induced to desert your mother and mistress in the time of her dire need, unless, indeed, those counsellors of yours have succeeded in per suading you that the whole Church has been led to recognize Peter Leonis. They are lying men whom, with Anti christ their head, the Truth shall destroy with the breath of His mouth. By the mouth of David He tells us that His Church is spread abroad to all the ends of the earth, and to all the nations of the Gentiles.

2. They have, it is true, the Duke of Apulia² on their side; but they have no other supporter of any power, and him they secured by the ridiculous bribe of a usurper's crown. I ask you, what goodness, or virtue, or honour do they bring forward on the part of their Pope that we should favour him? If what is commonly said of him be true, he is not fit to have the government of a single hamlet; if it is not true, it none the less is fitting that the head of the Church should be of good repute as well as of blameless life. Therefore, it is safer for you, my dear kinsman, when you acknowledge any one as universal Pope, not to depart from the common mind and agreement of the universal Church, and to receive him that the whole monastic order and all the kings have acknowledged; it is also more to your honour and more expedient to your salvation to receive Innocent as Pope. He appeals to his blameless life, his unblemished character, and his canonical election. His enemies have not a word to say against the two first of these; the third was indeed found fault with, but the unprincipled men who did so have been lately caught in their falsehood by the most Christian Emperor Lothaire.

Footnotes

1. He was the ninth of this name, or, as some think, the tenth, and, by the influence of Gerard, Bishop of Angouleme, he took the side of Anacletus, and per secuted the adherents of Innocent (Of. Life of S. Bernard, lib. ii. c. 6). What William of Malmesbury (de reg. Aug. lib. v.) says about the incest and other crimes of \illiam, Count of Poitou, must be understood of this man's father, William VIII., as John Besle has pointed out. For Peter, Bishop of Poictiers, who was banished by the Count, he says, ended his days in exile A.D. 1117. But William IX. succeeded his father A.D. 1126, as the same author says in his French History of the Counts of Poitou. Cf. also Baronius (A.D. 113;) if more information about his life and all that he did is wanted. He is dealt with at length in Vita Bernurdi (lib. ii. c. 6). Much, however, that is said of him is fabulous. He was converted by S. Bernard. It is certain, on the authority of Ordericus, his contemporary, who is supported by other influential writers, that William, moved to penitence, set out on a pilgrimage to the shrine of S. James (Compostella), when he was taken ill, " and died on the sixth day of the Passion, April gth, before the altar of the Blessed Apostle, after being fortified by Holy Communion," about the year i 137. ↩

2. The Antipope Anacletus, to gain the support of Roger, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, honoured him with the title of King of Sicily (Baronius A.D. 1 130, No. 0). Innocent, however, afterwards, having been overcome by him in battle, and having been taken prisoner, confirmed the title as the price of his freedom. How much better would it have been had the Pontiff maintained his rights by the agency of others, if there really was need to take up arms, instead of going him self to war and being forced to accept disadvantageous conditions. Cf. Baronius (A.D. 1 139, vol. xii.). VOL. I. 27 O ... what intent, or by whose advice, that happy disposition ↩