Letter CCXXXVI. To the Whole Roman Curia, on the Same Subject

(A.D. 1143-)

To my lords and reverend fathers, the Bishops and Cardinals of the Curia, Brother BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, health, and the assurance of his pool" prayers.

1. What concerns all must be written to all. Nor am 1 afraid of being charged with presumption because, though 1 am least of all, I do not think that any injury done to the Roman Curia is no affair of mine. I am, I assure you, continually being consumed, so much so that I am even weary of life. In the House of God I see dreadful things. And since I have no power to correct them, I, at all events, bring them before those whose business it is to correct them. If they amend them, well. If not, I have liberated my soul: you have no excuse for your sin. You are not unaware that a sentence was pronounced by our lord, Pope Innocent of good memory, with the general consent of the Roman Curia and of yourselves, making void the election, or rather the intrusion, of William of York, unless the other William, who was at that time Dean, should deny on oath what was charged against his namesake. And it did not escape you that this was not a judicial sentence but one of mercy, and undoubtedly so, because William had himself asked for this. Would that that may be adhered to, and that what has been done against it may not stand. For the one did not swear, and the other sits in the chair, which I now call a. chair of pestilence. Who is there to send against this fornication the sword of Phinehas, or to make Peter exercise his power, and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked? Many are calling on me with all their heart to urge you to punish this sacrilege as it deserves. Other wise I am bound to tell you that there will be an exceeding great scandal in the Church of God, and I am afraid that the authority of the Roman See will receive heavy loss and great damage, if punishment is not inflicted on the man who has perverted its general sentence, and in such a way, too, that others may fear to do the like.

2. WThat am I to say of his boast that he has secret letters, truly letters of darkness? I would that they were from the princes of darkness, and not from the princes of the Apostles. Behold the children of the uncircumcised have heard; they whisper it about that the Roman Curia, .after having given so outspoken a sentence, now sends contrary letters privately. What am I to say to you? If this grievous scandal which is scandalizing not only babes, but also the mighty and the perfect, does not rouse you; if you have no compassion for the poor abbots whom the Apostolic summons has dragged from the ends of the earth, if you feel no pity for the great and godly monasteries, which are threatened with destruction under the burden of this man, if (which I ought to have said first) zeal for t he-House of God is not eating you up, is the craft of so deadly a foe to be allowed so to prevail that the princes of the Church bear with equanimity her infamy and their own shame? What matters it though the man did obtain sacrilegious consecration? Surely it will be far more glorious to overthrow Simon when he has been elevated than to frustrate his efforts to rise. Moreover, what will you do for the religious men who do not see how with a safe conscience they can receive even the ordinary sacra ments from the leprous hand? If I am not mistaken they will rather flee than join hands with death. They will prefer exile to eating things offered to idols. But if the Roman Curia compels them against their consciences to bend the knee to Baal, God will see it and judge. So, too, will that heavenly court in which no ambition can subvert judgment. Lastly, your son beseeches you by the bowels of mercy of our God that, if you have any zeal for God, you, as friends of God, will have pity on His Holy Church, and, as far as you can, prevent any countenance being given to so detestable an affair.