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Letter CL. To Pope Innocent

(A.I). 1133.)

He praises the Pope for various acts of authority; and then urges him to oppose strongly the ambition of Philip, who was endeavouring to obtain the Archbishopric of Tours by illegitimate means.

1. May the members share in the health of the head! May the anointing oil which descended to the beard from the head also run down to the utmost skirts of the clothing! If when the shepherd is smitten the sheep are scattered, may they return to their pasture without fear when he is strong and well! What I mean is this: Many a report of your frequent glorious successes is making glad the city of God. It is, therefore, but fitting that your prosperity should be the strengthening of the Church; and that, when God exalts him that He has chosen out of His people, she also may see herself exalted, and feel the stronger by an increase of vigour. For if she have suffered with him, she ought also to reign with him. That is at once worthy of you and necessary for us. What is it then? If in times of fear and distress the arm of justice was not shortened, nor the zeal for equity cooled, are we to give way now that we are nearing the goal? Shall the virtue which shone brightly in weakness succumb in power?

2. To come to the point, with how strong a hand has the famous monastery of Vezelay1 been set in order? The Apostolic majesty thought that it ought not to give way, no, not for a moment, either to the insane outbreaks of an armed populace, or to the unbridled madness of mutinous and wrathful monks, or to what was more powerful than all — the forces of mammon. What shall I say of S. Benedict?2 Was the indignation of a king able to repress the spirit of liberty kindled and girded to battle against flesh and blood? So in a wonderful way were the churches of S. Memmius3 and S. Satyrus4 transformed, from being synagogues of Satan to become again sanctuaries of God, whether the workers of wickedness would or no. Nor at Liege was the threatening and savage sword of a passionate and angry king able to enforce acquiescence in his urgent and wicked demands.'5 Who can sufficiently praise the bolt that was hurled, even though it was from a distance, against the dis-5 turbers of the church of Orleans,6 by the same powerful hand in the last few days? Truly the bow of Jonathan turned not back, nor his sword returned empty. Nevertheless, by this word the king indeed was disturbed, but not all Jerusalem with him. He himself at last allowed his anger to cool. He was, indeed, fearful and scrupulous of taking up arms against the Lord, and against His Anointed. Your majesty has been exalted above the heavens, but only in order that so good a beginning may be adorned with a fitting ending. This, indeed, is what all who love you are eagerly looking for, and they are demanding its speedy arrival.

3. With equal zeal, and with as powerful an arm, it is necessary for help to be immediately lent to the Church of Tours. Otherwise she is even now on the point to perish, unless you speedily help her. The spirit of Gislebert7 lives again, they say, in Philip, who is at once his nephew according to the flesh, and the heir of his ambition. With what a lust for power this youth burns is shown by the protracted and cruel tortures inflicted on his mother church, by which the unhappy man has almost disembowelled her, in order that he may be brought forth to honour. How ever, by the will of God an end has at last been put to his misdoings, that is to say, if only what has been done against him, as justice dictated, and his wickedness com pelled, and peace called for, be ratified by Apostolic authority. But God forbid that the benign majesty of the Holy See should confound its faithful servants, to whom the settling of this matter was graciously entrusted. God forbid it that cruel ambition should find a supporter in the defender of innocence. This is what his audacity is bidding him try for, this is what he madly hopes to find. Once and again has the despiser of the Apostolic decree eluded the stroke of justice; and does he now again, with still more impudent rashness, venture none the less to present himself before the face of your equity? Is there any one who cannot see the impiety of the attempt of this man, who places no confidence whatever in righteousness, to attack the tower of strength with the forces of mammon? But we are safe; it is Innocent who is to be tempted, and the son of iniquity shall not come nigh to hurt him.

4. As to the rest, most sweet Father, while we sigh for your presence, we talk to each other of the memory of your abundant kindness; the one consoles us for the want of the other. This is never absent from our hearts; it is often in our mouths, it is salt to every speech, it soothes the ear, sweetens the mouth, refreshes and enkindles our hearts. It is foremost at the meetings of the saints, it is their chief topic of conversation; it lends wings to their petitions, and nerves them to prayer. And now I pray earnestly for you and yours that the Eternal One, for Whom and on behalf of Whom you labour in time, may count you worthy of eternal memory. Amen.

Footnotes

  1. Vezelay, in the Diocese of Autun, was founded by Gerard, Count of Nevers, and Bertha, his wife, about the year 821, for nuns, who were afterwards replaced by monks, and they by regular canons, A.D. 1537. A reformation of this monastery was first instituted at the instance of Henry, Duke of Burgundy, by William, a follower of S. Mayeul, Abbot of Cluny. Then, again, Hugh, another Abbot of Cluny, restored its waning discipline. From this it came to pass that Paschal II. had it placed entirely, A.D. 1 103, under the Abbot of Cluny. Cf. Duchesne (notes, ad Biblioth. Cluni}. But the monks of Vezelay, attempting to throw off the yoke gradually, were again compelled by Innocent II. to submit. The historian of Vezelay thus speaks of this: "Although the monks of Vezelay had for nearly three hundred years from the first foundation of their house quietly and without opposition enjoyed the liberty of choosing for their head one of their own number, or a brother from some other monastery, yet the Cluniacs, a much later foundation, endeavoured to surreptitiously gain a supremacy over them by first claiming an assenting voice, then the right of election, falsely asserting that the charge of the Order of the Abbey of Vezelay had been given them by Paschal II. From the same cause a grievous scandal arose under Innocent II. on their reclaiming their natural liberty; but a certain Alberic was thrust upon them by the Cluniacs, who were supported by force by Innocent and the Count of Nevers, and all the brethren nearly of the monastery were thrown into fetters." ↩

  2. This was S. Benedict's on the Po, which had been dealt with by Popes Gregory VII. and Calixtus II. as Vezelay had been, that is to say, it was forbidden to choose its Abbot without the counsel, provision, and precept of the Abbot of Cluny, and the man of their choice was prohibited from seeking episcopal benediction without the Abbot's commendatory Letters. But, when the monks began to act differently, Innocent, at the instance of Peter the Venerable, gave order by Letter (Bull. Cltment. iii., A.D. 1 187, Biliioth. Cluni, col. 2452), that Abbot William, having been elected and admitted without the consent of the Cluniacs, should appear before them and pay them due obedience and reverence. ↩

  3. S. Memmius was sprung from the once famous family of Memmii at Rome, was sent by S. Peter into Gaul, and became first Bishop of Chalons. A famous C'hurch of Canons was founded in his honour in the same city, 'which afterwards, by the command of Innocent II., took the rule of the Regular Canons of S. Augustine. ↩

  4. Matilda, wife of Godfrey de Bouillon (or Boulogne, on the English Channel, according to William of Tyre, lib. ix. c. 5), and first King of Jerusalem, sought and obtained from Pope Paschal the body of S. Satyrus, whose memory is kept on March 7th, and erected for it at Bourges a collegiate house of secular Canons. But so easily do we deteriorate, that within a few years they had degenerated intoworldliness and licence, and were expelled by the order of Innocent ,md replaced by Augustinian Canons, as the Memorials Historiarum says: — " In the year 1138 there nourished the Order of Canons of S. Victor of Paris, whose name was famous throughout the world for the high character and great learning of its members, whom it sent forth into various Churches throughout the world, as a fruitful vine gives forth its branches to be transplanted. For at this time there were two professed Canons made prelates of the Roman Church; the Cardinals, Hugh, Bishop of Tusculum, and Master Ivo, as well as nine Abbots. In the Church of S. Satyrus, at Bourges, Abbot Ralph,'' etc. The Necrology of S. Victor, of Paris, adds to this, on the 5th of February, the name of " Dom Andrew, Abbot ot S. Satyrus, and Canon of our Order." Stephen, Abbot of S. Genevieve, at Paris, and afterwards Bishop of Tournay, commends in a Letter to Pope Lucius III. the grave and regular discipline of this monastery. Add to this that in a terrier of the episcopal estates and the benefices of France this Abbey is said to be under the rule of S. Augustine. ↩

  5. We must, it seems, understand this of the right o' investiture claimed by J.othaire, and resisted by Innocent. Abbot Conrad of Ursperg says that " at this very time the Pope went to Lothaire to seek his help against Peter and his sup porters." Doubtless the Emperor thought this too good an opportunity to be lost, and proceeded to demand from the Pope a restoration of the right of investiture, which had been held for so long by his predecessors. The Pope accordingly was not a little perplexed, and sorry that he had ever come, and anxious, too, that he might depart. For he was unable to grant the request of the Emperor in a matter in which the Church had before suffered so many troubles. However. by the intervention of S. Bernard, he was able to leave the Emperor in safety Otto of Frisingen gives a more favourable account of the transaction (lib. vu. c. 18). ↩

  6. Who these were we learn from Letters used by D'Achery (Spicil. Vol. iii., p. 153)- First, from a Letter of Archembald, Subdean of the Church of Orleans, to Henry, Archbishop of Sens, we gather that the instigator of this trouble was a certain John of Orleans, who afterwards ordered Archembald to be put to death (ep. 161), and who had been intruded into the office of Arch deacon. When Archembald and other clerks opposed him, they suffered grievous injuries, and the loss of nearly all their goods at the hands of him and his supportLrs, Bartholomew Capicer, Zacharias Paganus, the Archdeacon, James, Subdeacon of S. Anianus, and others. Hence, at the end of the Letter he asks th it " full justice may be done him against the malefactors." Archbishop Henry, to whom they had fled for help, owing to the See of Orleans being vacant, was asked " to give order that the Church which had been defiled with bloodshed and sacrilege, should put an end to such things, or suffer interdict, and not to delay to avenge these men's misdeeds, which affected even his Lordship the Pope." There is extant also another Letter of the same tenor sent by Geoffrey, Bishop of Chartres, to the same Henry. It may be that this intruder John was maintaining his position by the support of the King. At length, however, Pope Innocent entrusted the charge of this matter to the above-named Geoffrey of Chartres. acting as his legate, and thus compelled the guilty to make satisfaction. ↩

  7. Gislebert or Gilbert, the predecessor of Hildebert, who was translated, A.D. i 125, from the See of Le Mans to that of Tours, which he held for six years and six months (cf. note to ep. 122). On his death, Philip, nephew of Gislebert, by his evil attempts on the See, in which he was supported by Anacletus, gave occasion for the writing of this Letter and of the next, which, however, was the first written. Philip being compelled to retire, Hugh was canonically elected (cf. Analect), Vol. iii. p. 338). ↩

Chapter 150 of 491