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Letter CCLXXI. To Theobald, Count of Champagne

(A.D. 1151.)

Bernard warns him that he ought not to advance his young son to dignities in the Church.

You know how much I love you, but how much God knows better than you. I do not doubt also that for the sake of God I am beloved by you. And if I should offend Him you ought no longer to love me, for God would not be on my side. For who am I that so great a prince as you should care for one so small as I, unless it is that you believe God to be in me? Therefore to offend Him will not be good for you. And this I shall certainly do, if I do what you ask. For I am not unaware that honours and ecclesiastical dignities are the due of those who have both the will and the power to administer them worthily, and for God. Moreover, you must know that it is neither right for you, nor safe for me, that those should be acquired for your little boy by my prayers, or by yours.1 And, moreover, in most churches it is unlawful even for an adult to hold pluralities, except under dispensation given, either because of some great necessity of the Church, or great individual benefit. Wherefore, if this reply seem to you ungracious, and you are determined to carry out what you have in your mind, spare me in this matter, for, unless I mistake, you can easily obtain what you want by yourself and by your other friends. And so you will none the less gain what you wish, and I shall not have sinned. Assuredly, I wish well in all things to our little William,2 but, above all, that he may have the favour of (iod. Thence it is that I am unwilling that he should have anything against the law of God, lest he lose God's favour. And if another wish differently, I am un willing that he should gain it through me, lest I, too, lose God. But when he wants anything which he can have according to God's will, I will prove myself a friend, and, if need be, will not withhold my efforts. I need not labour much to excuse my righteous dealing before a lover of righteousness. Please excuse me to your Countess,2 in accordance with this reply of mine.3 770 A LETTER OF POPE EUGENIUS

Footnotes

  1. We must notice and admire in this Letter the signal virtue, zeal, and constancy of the Saint, who, in a matter which he felt was contrary to the interests of the Church and to his own conscience, refused to comply with the request of a great prince like Theobald, to whom he was greatly indebted as a liberal benefactor to Clairvaux. Bernard (ep. 42 n. 25) ] complains bitterly that boys are promoted to ecclesiastical dignities because of their high birth, and that pluralities are allowed. It is extant among his tractates, the second in order, Vol. ii. ↩

  2. This was Matilda, daughter of Count Engelbert, brother of the Bishop of Ratisbon, as appears from the Life of Norl-ert, c. 32, where we read: " Norbert took the legate of Count Theobald to Ratisbon. For the Bishop of that State was of noble birth, and his brother was the powerful Count Engelbert, who had some grown up unmarried daughters, one of whom, Matilda by name (Orderic sub finem lib. 13) was espoused to Count Theobald." ↩

  3. This was the fourth son of Theobald; he was raised first to the See of Chartres, then to Sens, then to Rheims, and finally was made Cardinal and Legate of the Roman Church in Gaul. He consecrated his nephew, Philip Augustus; it was to gratify him that Alexander III. confirmed to the See of Rheims the right of consecrating the French King. Pet. Cell, writes of him (ep. 5 lib. i); Peter of Blois, epp. 28 and 122, and others. ↩

Chapter 271 of 491