Letter CCXLIII. To the Romans When They Revolted Against Pope Eugenius

(A.D. 1146.)

At the instigation of Arnold of Brescia, the Romans tried to establish the ancient Republican liberty in place of the Pope's authority, leaving him only tithes and free will offerings. Bernard reproves them sharply for in gratitude.¹

To ihe nobles and chief men, and to all the people of Rome, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, writes, desiring that they may eschew evil and do good.

1. My speech is to you, O great and famous people, though I am mean and of no reputation, of small stature, and smaller influence. And, indeed, when I consider who I am that write, to whom I am writing, and, at the same time, how differently another may judge mv action, I am held back by very shame. But it is a smaller thing to endure shame before men than to be condemned before God for silence, withholding of the truth, and concealment of righteousness. For He Himself says: Tell MV people their sins (Is. Iviii. i). It will be, moreover, tor a testimony to me before God if I shall be able to speak. / have not Jud Thy righteousness within mv heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Tliv salvation (Ps. xl. 10). Therefore I am not afraid, though my modesty recoils from it, to write from afar to a glorious people, and by these letters from over the Alps from an obscure person, to warn the Romans of their danger and sin, if perchance the}' will listen to me and cease from their evil ways. Who knows whether they will be converted at the prayer of a poor man, though they will not give up their power for threats, nor for the whole armed force of the strong? Did not once in Babylon a whole people at the words of one person, and he a youth, return to a just judgment, after they had been seduced by old men, but unjust judges, and so innocent blood was saved on that day (Susannah i.)? So also now. though I am but a youth, and of no reputation, a youth, I mean, not by the small number of my years, but of my merits, yet God is able to give such power to my words that it may come to pass that a people which has been confessedly led astray may return to a better judgment. This, then, is my answer to those who may think that they ought to be angry with me or indignant at my interference.

2. If this is not enough, I add another consideration. The cause is common to all, and there is no distinction of small or great. There is pain in the head, and therefore it is not a matter of no concern to the smallest or the most extreme members of the body. Nor does it pass one by. 'I his great pain, because it is so great, has reached even to me, though I am the least of all. and because it is of the VOL. II. 46 head it cannot but affect also the body, of which I am a member. When the head suffeis, does not the tongue exclaim for all the members of the body that it, too, suffers with the head, and do they not all confess by it that the head is theirs, and its pain is theirs too? Suffer, me then, a little to bewail before you my grief, which is not only mine, but that of the whole Church. Is it not her voice which to-day is heard crying throughout the world: " My head suffers, my head is ill? " Is there any one Christian in the whole world, even though he be the last, who is not proud of this head, which has been exalted by the triumph, adorned by the blood of those two princes of the earth who bent their heads/the one to the axe, the other to the Cross P² And, therefore, any wrong done to the Apostles affects every Christian, and as their sound went out into all lands (Ps. xix. 4) so their wrong is felt by all everywhere, every where it is bewailed and wept.

3. What has made you, O Romans, offend the princes of the world, who are, too, your own special patrons? Why do you provoke against yourselves, by a madness which is as unbearable as irrational, the King of the Earth and the Lord of Heaven, by audaciously and sacrilegiously attacking the holy Apostolic See, which has been raised on high above all others by its sacred and regal privileges, and why are you stiiving to lessen its honour when, if need were, you should defend it alone against the world? Are you, O Romans, so foolish as not to judge and discern what is iood, and, instead, to defile as much as you can the head of all as well as of yourselves, for which you should not shrink from laying down your own lives if necessity demanded it? Your fathers brought the world under the rule of your City; you are hastening to make your City the derision of the world. See, the heir of Peter has been driven by you from the seat and city of Peter. See, by your hands the Cardinals and Bishops, ministers of the Lord, have been robbed of their goods and houses. O dull and foolish people! O silly dove without heart! Was not he your head, and were not his eyes yours? What, then, is Rome now but a body deprived of its head, a face without eyes, a darkened countenance? Open, unhappy nation, open your •eyes, and see your desolation even now close at hand.

Hoiv in a short time lias her beauteous colour been changed (Lam. iv. i); how is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces (Lam. i. i).

4. But these are but the beginnings of evils, I fear worse.

If you persist, are you not on the point of perishing? Re turn, return, O Shunamite! return to a better disposition;! recognize now, though it be late, the ills, the great ills, which you have suffered, or are still suffering. Bethink you for what cause and reason, by what agents, and to what uses you have, not long ago, squandered all the ornaments and revenues of all the churches belonging to you; think how, by impious hands, all the gold and silver which could be found on the altars or in the [form of] altar vessels, or in the sacred images themselves, has been stolen and carried off. Of all this how much do you now find in your purses? Further, the beauty of the house of God has irrecoverablv perished. And what has made you now repeat this evil-doing, to call down on you again those evil days? What ampler gain or more sure hope is there now to rouse you? There is only this, that your latest doings are seen to be more heedless than the former, because then not only many -of the common people, but also some of the clergy and princes in different parts of the world took your part in that schism. But now your hand is against all, and the hand of all against you. The whole world is wholly clear from your blood, except you yourself alone, and your children within you. Woe then to you now, O wretched people, and double woe, and this not now as before from foreign nations, not from the ferocity of barbarians, not from thousands of armed soldiers. Wroe to you only from the face of your own people! Woe to you from your servants and friends, from civil war, from cruel searchings of heart, from the sufferings of your children.³

5. Do you now recognize that all are not peaceably disposed who are of your own house, nor all friendly who seem to be so? And even if we had known it before, we are now taught more plainly by your example the full truth of that saying of the Lord which He spake — that a man's enemies shall be those of his own household (S. Matt. x. 36). Woe to brother from the brother in his midst, and to children from their parents. Woe to them, not from the sword, but from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. How long will you so-evilly encourage each other in your evil-doing? How long will you lay one another low with the swords of your lips, ruin one another, be consumed one by another? Assemble yourselves, ye scattered sheep, return to your pastures, and to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. Return, ye wanderers, to your first love. 1 say this not as an enemy to revile you, but as a friend to rebuke you. True friend ship brings sometimes rebuke, never flattery.

6. But I add to it entreaty. For Christ's sake, I beseech you, be reconciled to God, be reconciled to your princes (I mean Peter and Paul), and to him their vicar and successor, Eugenius, whom you have driven from his house and home. Be reconciled to the princes of the world, lest haply the world begin to take up arms on their behalf against your folly. Know you not that when they are offended you can do nothing, that when they are favourable you have nothing whatever to fear? Under their protection you need not fear, O renowned city, home of the brave, for thousands of the people that set themselves round about you. Be recon ciled, then, to them, and at the same time to the thousands, of martyrs, who, indeed, are with you, but yet against you, because of the grievous sin which you have committed, and to which you obstinately cling. Be reconciled to the whole Church of the Saints, who are everywhere scandalized when they hear of your evil doings. Else will this very page be a witness against you. And the Apostles and Martyrs themselves will make a firm stand against those who have dishonoured them and deprived them of the glory of their labours. But let us all now alike hear an end of talking. I have pointed out what is right, pointed out beforehand to you your danger, not concealed the truth, exhorted you to better things. There now remains, either that I be delighted by your speedy amendment, or grieve inconsolably at the sure knowledge of the righteous punishment ready to fall on you, that I wither and pine away for fear and looking after those things which shall come on the whole city.

Footnotes

1. Cf. DC Consideratione, c. 2; Otto of Frisingen (Chronic., lib. vu. c. 31; and Gesta Frid., lib. ii. c. 20). The followers of Arnold are called heretics by Bonacursus, who classes them with the Cathari and Passagii, and accuses them of saying that Sacraments ministered by evil men avail nothing (Spicil., Vol. Hi. p. 85). ↩

2. I.e., S. Peter and S. Paul: of whom the latter was beheaded, the former crucified, at Rome. — [E.] ↩

3. Ad cor (mini. ↩