Letter CXXXVIII. To Henry, King of the English
(A.D. 1133.)
He asks for assistance to Pope Innocent from the King.
To the most illustrious HENRY, King of England, BER NARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes health, prosperity, and peace.
To wish to teach you, and especially about what con cerns your honour, would be the part either of a fool, or of one who knows nothing at all of you. It is enough for me, therefore, to state the case simply and in as few words as possible; when a hint is enough many words are superfluous. We are on the threshold of the city, salvation is at the doors, righteousness is our companion, but the Roman military want other food than that. And so by righteousness we appease God, by our arms we terrify the foe, but VOL. I. 28 we have not the bare necessaries of life. You know better than I what should be done to finish the good work that you have begun in your magnificent and honourable reception of my lord, Pope Innocent.1
Footnotes
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What Henry I. did may be seen in the Life of S. Bernard (lib. ii. c. i. n. 4). William of Malmcsbury also says (Hist. lib. i.): — " Innocent having been shut out of Rome, crossed the Alps, and hastened into Gaul. There he was received by the whole Church on this side of the Alps. Moreover, King Henry, who was not easily to be moved from any position that he had once taken, voluntarily acknowledged him at Chartres, and at Rouen loaded him with presents, not only from his own stores, but from the nobles and also from the Jews." Roger of Hoveden, too, relates this same reception (Annals A.D. i 131). Further, in the year 1 132, according to Fulk, editor of the Chronicle of Beneventum, when the Emperor Lothaire was besieging Rome for the purpose of restoring Innocent, and had not sufficient force to take the city, being sup ported by only two thousand soldiers, Bernard, who was with him, sought by this Letter reinforcements from the King of the English. These, however, Henrv was unable to supply. We learn from a Letter of Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen, to Pope Innocent, what a Christian and pious death he died, A.D. 1135. This Letter is well worthy of preservation, and may be seen in the History of William of Malmesbury (lib. i.), and in Baronius (Annals A.D. 1135). ↩
Chapter 138 of 491