Letter CCLXXII. TO THE BISHOP OF LAON. Bernard presses him to show pious liberality

(A.D. 1152.)

I am yours. If you know this, nay, because you know it, the bearer of this can be effectually and surely reconciled by me to you, and through you to everyone else that he may have offended. Otherwise you offend one whom you admit to be your friend, and this, surely, you dare not do. Since you first became a Bishop till now, I have received no blessing from you, neither purse, nor scrip, nor sandals for the feet.¹

A LETTER OF POPE EUGENIUS TO THE CISTERCIAN CHAPTER.

(To WHICH EP. CCLXXIII. WAS AN ANSWEK).

EUGENIUS, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved children G.,² and all the Abbots assembled at Citeaux, in the Name of the Lord, health and Apostolic benediction.

1. We should much like, dearly beloved, to be present in person at the meeting of your holy brotherhood, because, as we walk with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, so would we discuss together His life-giving power, and His advances in the soul. But since we have been, by the Divine will, placed in the midst of the ocean to guide the ark of the Church, and as we are tossed about by a succession of raging storms, so that we have to do, not what we would wish, but what we wish not; and as we are tied by the duties of the government entrusted to us, and cannot, therefore, turn our steps wheresoever we will, we come to TO THK CISTKRCIAN CHAPTER. 771 you in spirit and by letter, and, so far as is possible, are present in your assembly in charity and earnest desire for you; we desire, indeed, and pray you with our whole heart to be of one mind with us, and to implore by your common prayers a greater gift of God's grace for us. Though stationed on the top of a mountain, and beaten by the winds that blow from every quarter, yet we hope by God's help to be able to withstand the tempest, if we merit to obtain God's help through your prayers. But that we may be able to have confidence that your prayers for us are heard, and that we may obtain by your intercessions what we cannot obtain by our merits, we wish you of your charity, in those things which belong to God, such as the obedience due to the Order, and the maintenance of discipline, to be anxiously looking forward to those things which are before, neglecting what is behind, so that no cloud may show itself in your works, to prevent your prayers at any time from rising to the throne of God.

2. And, therefore, as you come together, dearly beloved, take common counsel to correct whatever amongst some of you needs correction, and to enact whatever may need enactment for the salvation of souls and the good of your Order, because he who despises little things, by little and little decays (Ecclus. xix. i), and do not leave uncorrected any lesser faults you may find among yourselves. For to no purpose are the gates of the city guarded if a single opening is left to the enemy, as the Scripture says, A leak neglected is as bad as a violent wind, and You have escaped threat perils; see that you do not perish on the beach. Look, I beseech you, to the ancient fathers who founded our sacred Order, and notice how they left the world, despised all earthly things, let the dead bury their dead, fled into solitude, and sat with Mary at thefeet of Jesus (S. Luke x. 39), while others were busying themselves in their various ministries; and so the further they had fled from Egypt the more copious showers of heavenly manna did they receive. They truly went forth from their land and from their kindred; they forgat their own people and 772 A LETTER OF POPE EUGENIUS.

their father's house; and since their King greatly desired their beauty He made them to increase into a great nation, and He sent out their shoots to the ends of the earth, so that the brightness of their charity filled the whole body of the Church, and the woman of Zarephath (1 Kings xvii. 10-16) at their words filled numberless vessels with the little oil which she had in a cruse. Truly they received the first fruits of the Spirit, and their pleasant ointment has run down even to us.

3. See, then, in thought and deed that you do not fall below their virtues, but that you be in the bough what you were in the seed, and bring forth the same seed and fruit as did they from whom you received your life. Take notice how they whose lamps are extinguished desire to receive oil from you, and how many, who have become filthy by wallowing, like sows, in their own mire, ask to be placed under your rule and to be commended to your prayers, that they may receive grace from above. And since the children of this world are always endeavouring to drag you against your will into obedience to them, and sometimes wish to call you from the quiet of contemplation and the silence of the desert to take part in their affairs, recall to your memory the institutions of your fathers, and, looking upon them as examples for all time, prefer to be doorkeepers in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness (Ps. Ixxxiv. n). And because you have nothing which you did not receive, think of the goodness of the Lord, of your own unworthiness, so as to follow in the footsteps of Him who said, When ye have done all that is commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants (S. Luke xvii. 10). If you have received diversities of tongues, grace for working healings, knowledge of prophesying, if your words are more fragrant than the most costly ointments, if the world honours you and takes pleasure in running in the odour of your ointments, it is all nothing but the work of Him who says, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work (S. John v. 17).

Footnotes

1. This was Walter of S. Maurice, formerly Abbot of S. Martin at Laon, who, A.D. 1151, was appointed to succeed the pious Bishop Bartholomew, who, after an episcopate of 33 years, retired to the Cistercian Abbey of Foigny, which he had himself founded. There is extant a beautiful Letter of his to Samson, Archbishop of Rheims, in which from his retreat at Foigny he clears himself from the accusation of having wasted the goods of the Church at Laon. ↩

2. Goswin, fifth Abbot of Citeaux. ↩