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Letter CCXIV. To the Same

(Circa A.D. 1140.)

He recommends Nicholas, Bishop of Cambray, and Abbot Gottschalk.

If any regard for me, any recollection, however slight, of me, still remains in the heart of my lord, and if his child finds any small portion of the grace he once found in his sight, let him now experience it on behalf of that illustrious and humble man, Nicholas,1 Bishop of Cambray. I confess tha2 I am under obligation to him, and that I am in debt for all that I can do, not only because he honours me and mine, whenever he can, but also for his uprightness, meekness, and justice, virtues which can recommend him also to you. And, if I mistake not, those who trouble him are false men, and truth is not in their mouth. In short, you are sure to approve of him, and there is no need for me to multiply words about him. He has, too, with him a religious and holy man, Abbot Gottschalk,'3 on behalf of whom, in like manner, I earnestly ask a hearing for his requests, if my intervention can lend any power to his merits. For I believe that he will make no petition which is unworthy of being granted.

Footnotes

  1. In most copies neither the name, nor even the initial, is found. One copy only has the name in the margin. Nicholas presided over the Church of Cambray from A.U. 1 140 to A.D. 1 167. ↩

  2. Hugh. ↩

  3. These words " of S. Martin's Mount " are wanting in all the manuscripts, and so is Gottschalk in some, others have the initial G. He was Abbot of Mount S. Martin at Arras, of the Order of Praemonstratensians, and is praised in Letter 253, n. 4; he was afterwards Bishop of Arras (see Letter 284). ↩

Chapter 214 of 491