Letter CLXXXV. To Eustace, Intrusive Occupier of the See of Valence

(A.D. 1138.)

Bernard exhorts him to think of his age and his approaching death, and not to give ear to the perfidious counsels of flatterers.¹²

To the illustrious EUSTACK, Brother BERNARD sends greeting.

1. I often wish your salvation, my illustrious brother, though I do not often write. Who shall forbid the wish? Neither laws govern, nor princes hold sway over the affec tions. They are free, especially if led by the Spirit, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. iii. 17). Thence it is that I am now venturing to write to your greatness as though I were some great one, though, I confess, I have neither been bidden, nor asked, nor invited by you to do so. But what if charity bid me? Another may, perhaps, take it differently; I have determined by this letter, so far as in me lies, and with true charity, to remind an illustrious man of his salvation, to arouse him from sleep, to recall him to himself, to summon him to grace. Who knows whether God will turn, and pardon, and leave a blessing behind Him? Nay, who knows not what and how great are the riches of His goodness, and long suffering, which a merciful and compassionate God has treasured up for him? In short, He is merciful, He spares, waits, and hides Himself even till now, having made Himself as a man who heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs, delaying to strike, ready to pardon. But thou, my Lord, how long? Thou, I say, O good man, how long wilt thou hide thyself from Him? how long wilt thou despise Him? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (Acts ix. 5). Knowest thou not that the goodness of God is leading thcc to repentance? How long wilt thou, after thv hardness and impenitent heart, heap up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath? (Rom. ii. 4, 5).

2. Or is it not according to thy hardness indeed, but according to thy shame? What matters it according to what you are perishing? O, shame, void of reason, enemy of salvation, ignorant of all honour and honesty! This truly is that of which the Wise Man says, that there is a shame which bringeth sin (Ecclus. iv. 21). Is it, then, a shame for a man to be overcome by God, and is it to be held a disgrace to humble one's self under the mighty hand of the Most High? That glorious King David says thus: Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou viightest be justified in Thy sayings and mightest overcome when Thou art judged (Ps. li. 4). The highest kind of victory is to yield to the Divine Majesty; and not to strive against our mother, the Church, is the highest honour and glory. O, perversity! You are not ashamed to be polluted, and yet you are ashamed to be cleansed. There is a shame, according to the Wise Man, which brings glory (Ecclus. iv. 21), viz., that which keeps from sin. But even if you are not ashamed to sin, there remains a glory, though it comes late, viz., when shame brings back that which guilt had banished. They, whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is covered (Ps. xxxii. i), hold the second place of blessedness. An honourable covering is that of which it is said, Confession and beauty are in his sight (Ps. xcvi. 6, VULG.). Who will grant me to see you in golden apparel, •so that I can say to you also: Thou hast put on confession and honour, thou hast clad thyself with light, as with a garment (Ps. civ. i, 2); Return, O Shunamite, that we may see thee (Cant. vi. 13); Awake, awake, put on thy strength, put on the garment of salvation (Isa. hi. i); Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Eph. v. 14); Confession perisheth from the dead as from one who is not (Ecclus. xvii. 28).

3. How long will you forget yourself, for ever? How long will you sleep in death, O ornament of the noble, but grief of the faithful? How long will you be stubbornly opposed to your spiritual good, an exile from your honour, a rebel against your salvation? Why do you proceed to consummate your previous excellent character and actions with so different an ending? How can such an old age, which ought to be spent quietly in fruitful deeds of mercy, wipe out the punishment due to all your past days, or blot out their guilt? Why, alas! should your hoary head alone, which should be reverenced, be robbed of its accustomed veneration; why should it alone sink unhonoured into the .grave, when it should have been especially respected? Have pity on thy soul by pleasing God (Ibid. xxx. 23); For they who please men have been put to confusion, for God hath despised them (Ps. lui. 5). The time of man is short; to the old man death is at the door. You have a short, a very short time with those who say to you, Well! well! Let it be also a light thing to you to be judged by them, or by man's little day, since you are even now ready to be brought before the scrutiny of angels; and, un happy man that you are, are being hastened by the very failure of nature before the dread tribunal of Christ. You ought to be preparing yourself for that judgment, to be conforming yourself to that world, to be seeking the favour of that Court, and dreading rejection from it. Why are you disturbed by the opinion of those whose praise at that day will be found not to render you approved, nor their abuse to condemn you? In short, the children of men arc vanity, the children of men are a lie in the scales, that they may alike deceive in their vanity (Ps. Ixii. 9).

4. Besides, those who call you blessed lead you into error; they give you words and take back gifts. Vain both, but especially the words. And you deceive from vanity like them; but you are more deceived, they less. For you give what at all events is worth something, and you give it to the ungrateful and undeserving. Indeed, they love your goods, not you; nay, rather they love neither you nor yours, but they seek their own. Your goods, as far as they can, they will hunt after with their empty and lying flatteries. Their words are smoother than oil, and yet they are very darts (Ps. lui. 21). And therefore David said: The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head (Ps. cxli. 5). By them the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul and the wicked is blessed (Ps. x. 3). It is not I, then, but the Wise Man who bids you beware of them. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not (Prov. i. 10). Attend rather to Him who judges in equity for the meek of the earth; the meek whom your pastoral can-does not feed, but whom your secular power oppresses, over whom you would have no power at all except it were given you from above. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. But listen to this: Judgment is severe for those who govern, and mighty men shall be mightily tormented (Wisd. vi. 6, 7). If you fear this you will take care; if you disregard it you will fall into it, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. x. 31). May the one true God avert this, who wishes not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live (Ezek. xviii. 23, 32). My mind bids me say more, but you perchance would not listen. Rough words please not, although true and wholesome, because they are bitter and disagreeable to the taste. Therefore I will put my ringer on my lip till I knowr how this is received; but you may believe that I will be agreeable to you if I can, yet not with pen or with tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Footnotes

1. Either Andrew, Bernard's brother, a Cistercian, or the one mentioned in Letter i 76, or Andrew of Baudiment, mentioned in Letter 226. ↩

2. The Pontiff wished to have a colony of Cistercians placed at Rome in the Church of S. Anastasius at Aquae Salviae. Another colony which was under the rule of another Abbot Bernard, who was afterwards Eugenius III., had been sent to Farfa, and this he placed at Aquae Salviae A.n. 1 140. See the third book of his Life, n. 23, and also S. Bernard's Letters 343 and 345. ↩