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Letter CLI. To Philip, the Intruded Archbishop of Tours. L

(A.D. 1133.)

He expresses the great grief he felt that Philip should attempt to gain the Archbishopric of Tours by illegitimate-means.

I am grieved for you, my dear Philip, but I beseech you mock not at my grief. For if by any chance you think that there is no cause for grief, then you are the more to be grieved for. Whatever you may think about yourself, for my part I think that a fount of tears is insufficient to lament for you. My grief is not one that calls for ridicule, but for compassion; for it is not a grief for flesh and blood, not for the loss of things that perish, but for you yourself, Philip. I cannot better describe the greatness of my grief than by saying that Philip is the cause of it. And when I say this, I declare the great lamentation of the Church, who once cherished you in her bosom, as a lily springing up, adorned with every celestial gift. Who, then, was there that did12 not loudly proclaim you to be a youth of good hope, a young man of good disposition? But, alas! the fair promise has disappeared. From what hope has France, who bore and nourished you, fallen! O, did you but know! But if you would apply your heart unto wisdom, you would also learn to grieve, and your grief would prevent mine from being sterile. I should go on if I were to give way to my feelings, but I do not wish to say much while in uncertainty, or to tight as one that beats the air. But I have written this that you may know my affection for you, and may learn that I am near you, if perchance God should inspire you with a desire for a conference, and if you should be willing to grant me what I greatly long for, an interview. I am at Viterbo,3 and I hear that you are staying at Rome. Vouchsafe to write back to me to say how you receive this letter of mine, that I may know what I ought to do, whether I am to grieve more or less. But if you despise everything, and will hi no way listen to me, I for my part shall not lose the fruit of my letter, for it proceeds from charity; but you will have to give an answer for your contempt before the dread tribunal.

Footnotes

  1. " On the death of Hildebert, Bishop of Tours, A.U. 1 137, the Canons of that Church were expelled by violence by Count Geoffrey. Then when they were to elect another Bishop they were divided into two parts. For some of them, contrary to the decrees of the sacred canons, elected a certain Philip, nephew of the ambitious predecessor of Hildebert in the same See, who was called Gilbeit. This was opposed by others. Philip immediately hurried away to the pseudo-pope Anacletus for confirmation and consecration, and then returned to Tours. Meanwhile Hugh, a wise and noble man, was canonically elected by the wiser part of the same clergy, and was consecrated in Le Mans by Guy and his comprovincials. When Philip heard of this he fled secretly, carrying off with him the ornaments of the Church." The above is taken from the Acts of the Bishops of Le Mans given in the third volume of the Analccla. While all this was going on, Bernard, who was then staying at Viterbo, wrote this Letter to Philip. Then he, having become more reckless, harassed the Church of Tours by his ambition, on the death of Anacletus, and the Saint wrote in the following year, 1138, the preceding Letter to Pope Innocent against him. But under Archbishop Hugh, who at length silenced Philip, that happened which Innocent ↩

  2. II. speaks of (lib. iii. ep. 79): " The party of D61 has added that Eugenius III., our predecessor of good memory, entrusted to Abbot Bernard, of Clairvaux, of happy memory, the task of allaying the controversy between the Churches, whose decision the Church of Tours refused to abide by." This Letter was written long afterwards by Innocent III. in the cause of the Church of Tours against the metropolis of D61. ↩

  3. Bernard was staying, therefore, at Viterbo, in Etruria, and in the year 1133, when he was sent by Innocent into Germany to Lothaire; and from this place the preceding Letter to Innocent seems to have been written. For more about his stay at Viterbo see Sermon 2 in Cantica, n. 14. ↩

Chapter 151 of 491