Letter CCLXXVI. To the Same, After the Death of the Bishop of Auxerre
(A.D. 1151.)
He informs the Pope of a strange will made bv the Bishop.
1. I have a point to mention, which I would have brought before you earlier, if I had known what I now know. There is a man who has made Israel to sin. He, I mean, who, when the holy Bishop1 was somewhat dull and confused in the presence of death, made him die almost intestate. For on the suggestion and entreaty of Stephen he left to his nephew according to the flesh, a young man, and a secular, incapable of being of service to the Church, almost all that he had got together for the episcopal table, and left little or nothing for the poor and the churches. They say that he has left him seven churches, tithes, and the meadows in the Bishop's own forest, besides, which is a blot on all religion, of his moveables, all his vessels of gold, and his own equipages, and since these would not be enough to enable him to complete a journey to you to get these bequests confirmed, they say that he has left orders for the equipages of a monastery to be handed over to him. There are some, indeed, who think that the Bishop knew nothing of these bequests, but that Stephen did all and set his seal to what he liked, and it is very likely; for only last year, when the Bishop was, as was thought, at the point of death, they made him give a church to this same nephew; but when he afterwards recovered he declared, as I have found out, that he knew nothing of having made the donation. Again, who can believe that a holy and spiritual man, if he had his understanding, and was in his right mind, would have made a will like this? What man of the world is there who would say that this was the will of a priest? Is this the disposition of that sober and spiritual man who adjudges all things and is himself judged by none? Who in heaven or in earth would not sit in judgment on him if this is to remain so?
2. Dothou, then, O servant of God who holdest the sword of Peter, cut off this shameful confusion from religion, this scandal from the Church, this crime from the Bishop, and from all spiritually-minded men who loved him in the spirit and not according to the flesh, and take bitterness and grief from your own heart. Arise, Phinehas, stand and make propitiation that the plague may cease. Stand, I say, inflexible against flesh and blood, the battering ram by which undoubtedly the children of this world attempt to shake the wall of your constancy. You will show true affection for the uncle if in a matter of this kind you oppose the nephew.
3. Know this also, that the holy men, the Dean of S. Peter at Auxerre and the Prior of S. Eusebius, acting for himself as well as for the Abbot of S. Laurence, when ready to set out to you to lay before you the first election of the Church of Auxerre, were prevented by the opposite party through the Count of Nevers,2 and deterred from coming. Indeed, the Count himself summoned them to him, and commanded them not to think of it, and prohibited them with grievous and open threatenings, and this the Prior made known to me and complained of by the above-named abbot, and his brother according to the flesh, and by the Dean sent to us about this same matter, and he asks me by them to bring it before you. I said before, and I repeat it, recollect what took place at Nevers. The law is sometimes best observed when something is done contrary to law. Those who discourse wisely about your Keys, place the one in discretion, but the other in power.
Footnotes
Chapter 276 of 491