Letter CLXXXVIII. To the Bishops and Cardinals of the Curia on the Same Subject

(A.D. 1140.)

He warns them, to vigilance against the errors of Peter Abaelard.

To the Lords and reverend Fathers, the Bishops and Cardinals who are of the Curia, the son of their holiness sends greeting.

No one doubts that to you it specially belongs to remove scandals from the kingdom of God, to cut down thorns as they arise, and to allay quarrels. For so Moses enjoined when he ascended the Mount, saying, You have Aaron and Hur with you, if any question arise yo2i shall refer it to them (Ex. xxiv. 14). I speak of that Moses who went through water, and not through water only, but through water and blood. And He is therefore more than Moses, because He went through blood. And since in place of Aaron and Hur the zeal and authority of the Roman Church presides over the people of God, to it we rightly refer not only doubtful questions, but attacks on the faith, injuries done to Christ, scorn and contempt cast on the Fathers, the scandals of the living, the dangers to posterity. The faith of simple folk is scoffed at, the hidden things of God are exposed, questions about the most exalted truths are rashly ventilated, the Fathers are derided because they held that such things are rather to be tasted than solved. Thence it comes to pass that the Paschal Lamb, contrary to the command of God (Ex. xii. 9), is either cooked with water, or is eaten of raw in a rude and bestial fashion. What is left is not burnt with fire but is trodden under foot; so human reason usurps for itself everything, and leaves nothing for faith. It tries things above it, tests things too strong for it, rushes into Divine things; holy subjects it rather forces open than unlocks, what is closed and sealed it rather plunders than opens; and whatever it finds out of its reach it holds to be of no account and disdains to believe. Read if you please the book of Peter Abaelard, which he calls a book of Theology, for it is in your hands (since, as he boasts, it is read by many at the Curia), and see what things are said about the Holy Trinity, about the generation of the Son, about the procession of the Holy Spirit, and many other things he says repugnant to Catholic ears and minds. Read too that other book which they call a book of his Sentences, J and that one¹ which is entitled Know Thyself, and notice what a crop of blasphemies and errors is there flourishing. See what he thinks about the Soul of Christ, about the Person of Christ, about the descent of Christ into Hades, about the sacrament of the altar, about the power of binding and loosing, about original sin, about concupiscence, about the sin of delight, about the sin of infirmity, about the sin of ignorance, about the work of sin, about the will to commit sin. And if you think that I have rightly stirred, bestir also yourselves; and bestir not yourselves in vain; act for the place you hold, the dignity of your office, the authority you have received, in such a way that he who has exalted himself to heaven may be cast down to hell, so that the works of darkness which have had the audacity to come forward into the light may be reproved by the light; so that while he who sins publicly is publicly reproved, others may learn to restrain themselves, putting, as they do, darkness for light, disputing at the cross roads about Divine things, speaking evil in their writings, and writing it in their books; and that so the mouth of them who speak wickedness may be stopped.

Footnotes

1. Abaelard denies in his Apology that he had ever written any book of this name, and therefore brings forward the accusation that it had been put forth against him through malice or ignorance; and Duchesne asserts the same in his notes. " S. Bernard," he says, "attributes to Abaelard this book of Sentences in ignorance in his i88th Letter," as though he had attributed to him the books of Sejitences written by Peter Lombard. But Peter was not so unknown to S. Bernard that he should fall into this mistake. He sings his praises in Letter 410. Moreover, when this Letter was written Peter had not published his Sentences. We have certainly a book which is undoubtedly Abaelard's, commonly called Sic et non, the heading of which runs: " Here begin sentences taken from the Holy Scriptures which seem opposed to each other: because of which opposition this compilation is called Sic et unit." S. Bernard may have alluded to this when he wrote. Besides the other works of Abaelard ivimeci by Duchesne we have a book of his on the six days of creation dedicated to ↩