Letter CXXXI. To the Inhabitants of Milan

(A.D. 1135.)

The inhabitants of Milan, who had been reconciled to Pope Innocent, seemed to be wavering in fidelity to him. Bernard exhorts them to remain faithful, and reminds them of the recent benefits conferred upon them by the Roman See.

To his friends, all the clergy and laity of Milan, BER NARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting in the Lord.

1. God is dealing well with you; the Roman Church is treating you well. One acts as a Father, the other as a mother. And, as a matter of fact, what has not been done that should have been done? You asked that honourable persons should be sent you from the Curia, to God's glory and your own honour, and it has been done.¹ You asked that your unanimous decision about the election of your venerable father2 should be confirmed, and that has been done. You wished for what is forbidden by the sacred canons to be done, except under great necessity, to be made lawful in your case, viz., for a bishopric to be raised to an archbishopric, and that, too, has been granted you. You asked that your fellow-citizens should be rescued from the hands of the men of Placentia, a thing which I neither can nor will pass by, and this has been done. I ask you, lastly, what reasonable request that the daughter has made has the loving mother refused or even postponed for a time? To sum up all, you will shortly have the pallium, the fulness of honour. But now listen to me, illustrious people, noble race, famous state. Listen, I say (and I speak the truth; I lie not), to one who loves you, who is zealous for your good. The Roman Church is very mild, but she is none the less powerful. Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation, that he who does not wish to be crushed by her power must not abuse her kindness.

2. But someone will say, " Yes, I will pay her the reverence that is her due, but not a whit more." By all means do so, for if you give her the reverence she deserves, you give her all, for fulness of power over all the churches of the world has been given to the Apostolic See as her special prerogative. He, therefore, who resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. She can, if she see fit, appoint bishops where before there were none. Where they exist she can degrade some, exalt others, as reason bids her, so that she can make bishops into archbishops and 'vice versa, where she sees necessity. From the ends of the earth she can summon the most exalted ecclesiastics and compel them to appear before her, not merely once or twice, but as often as she sees fit. Moreover, it is in her power to punish all disobedience, if by chance anyone should endeavour to resist her. This, too, you yourselves have found to your cost. What good did your last rebel lion do you,² and the disobedience which your false prophets wickedly enticed you into? What fruit had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? See what loss of power, glory, and honour you suffered in the persons of your suffragans.³ Who was able to stand up for you and withstand the just severity of the Apostolic authority, when, provoked by your audacity, it determined to cut off your members, and strip you of your old and illustrious honours? And you would at this moment be a hideous and headless mass if mercy rather than power had not been directed towards you. Who will have power to forbid greater disasters still if, which God forbid, you again provoke them? See, then, that you do not again fall away, for know for a certainty that you wrill not so easily find a remedy a second time. If anyone should say to you that in part you should obey and in part refuse to obey, although you have felt the full weight of the Apostolic power and the completeness of its authority, then I ask whether such a man has not either been deceived or wishes to deceive. But do what I bid you, for I am not leading you astray. Give yourselves rather to humility and to meekness, knowing that God giveth grace to the lowly, and that the meek shall inherit the earth. Be careful to keep the good will of your mistress and mother now that you have regained it. Study so to please her for the future, that she may be pleased, not only to keep safely for you what she has restored, but also to add what she has not yet given.

Footnotes

1. Guido of Pisa, Matthew of Alba, and Geoffrey, Bishop of Chartres, were sent with Bernard (Life, lib. ii. n. 9) to reconcile the inhabitants of Milan to the Roman Church. They had stirred up a schism because of the deposition of Archbishop Anselm, who had been elected by them. 2 i.e., Ribault, who had been chosen by them for Bishop after the deposition of Anselm. ↩

2. He is speaking of the rebellion in which, following Ansel m of Pusterla, their Archbishop, the Milanese took the side of Conrad against the lawful Emperor Lothaire. Sigonius relates the matter (del Reg. Ital. lib xi. A.D. 1128). He says: " Conrad, supported by several princes, claimed the throne against Lothaire. Then, elated by temporary good-fortune, he hastened with an army into Italy, and having made Archbishop Anselm and the Milanese his friends, he received the crown of the kingdom at Monza, over-ran Lombardy, and drew to his side most of the States. For this the Archbishops of Mentz, Magdeburg, and Troves, by the command of Lothaire, excommunicated him. Honorius, however, punished not only Conrad but also Anselm, who had crowned him, and the people who had received him. Cf. Otto of Frisingen (Chron., lib. vu. c.i 7). ↩

3. By following Archbishop Anselm and supporting Anacletus and Conrad. The dignity was restored to them on their repentance. And S. Bernard must be understood to have spoken of this restoration above when he said that the bishopric had been exalted into an archbishopric out of grace to the Milanese. For this see enjoyed Metropolitan dignity from the beginning. We must not omit what Sigonius relates (del Regn. Ital., lib. xi. A.D. 1133): "Innocent having been twice received courteously and honourably by the Genoese rewarded them by exempting their Bishop from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Milan, and by placing under him one half of the Bishops of Corsica. ↩