Letter CCLIV. To Warren,- Abbot of S. Mary of the Alps

(A.D. 1136.)

Bernard praises in this aged Abbot the zeal with which he undertakes the reformation of his house.

To his reverend father, worthy of all veneration, WARREN, Abbot of the Alps, and to all his brethren in the same place, Brother BERNARD, the servant of their holiness, desires that they may ever advance from good to better.

1. I find that to be true of you, my father, which I recollect that I have read in Holy Scripture: When a man has been perfected, then only he begins (Kcclus. xviii. 6).

1 I.e., charity. -' Or Guarine. Rest is due to you in your old age, you have won your crown, and, lo! like some new soldier in Christ you are stirring up opposition to yourself afresh, you are provoking the adversary, and though a weary old man you are taking on you the part of the strong by compelling your old enemy to renew the conflict, and that in some degree against his will. For in relinquishing churches and ecclesiastical benefices under an inspiration from heaven, contrary to your usual custom and the traditions of your predecessors,1 you are destroying synagogues of Satan, i.e., cells under no parent house,¹ in which three or four brothers are wont to live with no rule and no discipline, and in banishing women from the monastery,² and in being more than ever vigilant in other good deeds of piety and sound learning, you are making the first and greatest sinner fulfil the verse: He shall see it, and be wrath, lie shall gnash with his teeth and consume away. But what matters it? You, on the other hand, amid his confusion are solaced, and can sing to your God, They that fear Thee shall see me, and rejoice because I have put my trust in Thy word (Ps. cxix. 74). And there is no fear that the enemy will overcome one who has not yielded to old age. The mind is stronger than time, and even while the body is growing cold in death a holy zeal glows in the heart, and while the limbs grow helpless the vigour of the will remains unimpaired, and the ardent spirit feels not the weakness of the wrinkled flesh. And this is no wonder. For why should it fear the destruction of its old home when it sees a spiritual building-daily rising on high and growing for eternity? For we know that if this earthly house is dissolved we have a 1 I.e., in relaxing- discipline (see ep. 91). build i tiff of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. v. i).

2. But someone will say, " What if a man is cut off by death before the spiritual building is finished?" I answer, that the perfect can advance no further. And he who is advancing shows by the very fact that he is advancing that he is not yet perfect. We can with all confidence give an unhesitating reply to that question. We will say, He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time (Wisd. iv. 13). He who embraces eternity may well be said to embrace a long time. For has not he who passes into eternity fulfilled a long time? And, therefore, he rightly claims for himself a reward proportioned to the time he has spent here, if it be measured not by length of years, but by greatness of mind, that is, not by the flight of time, or number of days, but by devotion of the soul to God, or by its inextinguishable desire of ever advancing further. For he retains by virtue what he loses by time. Moreover, real virtue knows no end, is not bounded by time. Thence it is that the verse says, Charity never faileth (1 Cor. xiii. 8). And, again, The patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever (Ps. ix. 18); and, The fear of the Lord is clean and abideth for ever (Ps. xix. g). The righteous never thinks that he has attained (Phil. iii. 13), he never says, // is enough; but he is always hungering and thirsting after righteousness, always striving as much as he can to be more righteous, always endeavouring with all his might to advance from good to better. For he gives himself up to the service of God, not, like a mercenary, for a year or for a fixed time, but for ever. Hear again the voice of the righteous as he says, / ?£•/// never forget Thy precepts, for with them TJwu hast quickened me (Ps. cxix. 93). It is not, then, for a time only. Therefore his righteousness remains, not for some little space, but for ever (Ps. <?xii. 3). And so the everlasting hunger of the righteous deserves an everlasting satisfaction. And though he is made perfect in a short time, yet he is reckoned to have fulfilled a long time because of the endlessness of his virtue.

VOL. II. 48 3. How, again, can shortness of time be a hindrance to the devotion of the good if it is not enough to excuse the obstinate wickedness of the lost? For, undoubtedly, the evil of an impenitent and obstinate mind, even though worked out in a short time, is visited with eternal punishment, because what was short in time, or in deed, was made up for by obstinacy of will; so much so, that if he were never to die he would never cease to wish to sin; nay, he would wish to live always that he might sin always. There fore the same thing in another way can be said of him, Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled a long time, inasmuch as he deserved to receive the reward of many ages, nay, of all ages, who never wished to change his mind. And so an unwearied desire for progress, and a ceaseless striving for perfection is reckoned to be perfection.

4. But if to be anxious to be perfect is to be perfect, evidently not to wish to go forward is to fall back. Where, then, are they who are wont to say, " It is enough for us, we do not wish to be better than our fathers? " O, monk! do you not wish to go forward? " No." Do you wish then to go back? " Certainly not." What do you wish, then? "I wish so to live, and to remain in what I have attained to, as never to suffer myself to become worse, nor wish myself to become better." Then you wish for what is impossible. For what is there that stands still in this world? And certainly of man it has been specially said, He fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in one stay (Job xiv. 2). Again, did the Maker Himself of man and of the world stand still as long as He was seen on the earth and dwelt with men? On the testimony of Scripture, He went about doing good and healing all (Acts x. 38). He went about, then, not unfruitfully, not carelessly, not idly, not with slow foot, but as it was written of Him, He rejoiced as a giant to run His course (Ps. xix. 5). Moreover, no one catches a runner if he does not run himself. What avails it to follow Christ with the feet if we do not succeed in laying hold of Him with the hand? Therefore Paul said, So run that ye may obtain (1 Cor. ix. 24). Do you, O Christian, place the goal of your course and of your race where Christ placed His. For however far you may have run, if you do not persevere even unto death (Phil ii. 8) you do not obtain the prize. The prize is Christ. But if while He runs you stop still, you do not make Christ yours, but you rather put Him at a distance, and you will have to fear what David speaks of when he says, Lo! they that are far from Thee, O Lord, shall perish (Ps. Ixxiii. 27). And so, if to advance is to run, when you cease to advance you cease to run. And when you begin to leave off running, then you begin to go back. Hence, we plainly see that not to wish to advance is nothing but to go back.

5. Jacob saw a ladder, and on it angels, where none was .seen sitting down or standing still, but all seemed either to ascend or descend (Gen. xxviii. 12); whence we are plainly given to understand that in the state of this mortal life no half way between going forward and going back can be found; but in the same way as our body is always either increasing or decreasing, so also must our spirit be either advancing or retreating. We must notice, however, that the spirit does not receive its increase or suffer its loss from the changes of the body. For in a robust and active bodv there always dwells a more effeminate and lukewarm soul; and, again, in a weak and infirm body a stronger and more vigorous soul flourishes. And this the Apostle testifies that he found true in his own case: When I am weak, he says, then am I strong. And he also gladly glories in his infirmities, in order, he says, that the power of Christ may dwell in me (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10).

6. And what I thus show by example I can also prove by sight, whilst in you, my father, is manifested to us the truth •of the saying, Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. iv. 16). For whence springs your zeal to renew your Order if it is not from a renewed mind? So does a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bring forth good things (S. Matt. xii. 35). So does a tree bring forth good fruit (S. Matt. vu. 17). Your fruit is the first and purest. But what tree but purity of heart bore it? Did ever an impure mind seek after and choose purity with such zeal for the monastic rule? Pure water does not flow from a muddy spring, nor does a pure thought from an unclean mind. It is undoubtedly from within that this delightful fount arises; and from that inward fulness there bursts forth that plenteous supply; so that which is beautiful in the mind is also pleasing in action.

7. Follow your father, my sons; be imitators of him, as he is of Christ. Say: We will run in the savour of thy ointments (Cant. i. 3). In truth, he is a good savour of Christ in every place (2 Cor. ii. 14). For to say nothing of you, who, being with him, perceive his fragrance around you, there has come to us, who are so far away, such a plenteous and pleasant odour from his zealous efforts, that it is to us most certainly an odour of life unto life. I think that in heavenly places also they have perceived this pleasant odour, and that they sing with more festive joy than usual: Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like a pillar of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? (Cant. iii. 6). And again another: Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates-with pleasant fruits (Cant. iv. 13). If any of you does not hear this joyous strain in heaven he is envious. If any one does not perceive this odour, let him (by your leave I say it), let him imagine that it exists.

Footnotes

1. To scatter cells of this kind broadcast would be fatal to the observance of discipline; the rule could not be observed by so small a number. Ep. 400 calls them " obediences," so does ep. 150, n. 2. ↩

2. That is from the Church, for formerly in the Benedictine, as well as Cistercian houses, the rule was observed of not admitting even strange monks into the Church (Orderic. tit., lib. viii. p. 714). The Carthusians admitted religious only into the choir (Guigo Statuta ex.). For the interdiction of women from entering into Benedictine Churches see Prefalio ad Scecul. i. n. 112, and ad Scec. ii. n. 53. ↩