Letter CCLXXXVI. To the Same, on Behalf of the Same

(A.D. 1153.)

If secret calumnies and craft have prevailed against the Abbot of S. Denys, I am clean from his blood, for I wrote before against his bitter foes. But what accusation do they bring against the man? Is it not a fact that they cannot find whereof to accuse him? And if they have good grounds for accusing, how is it that he is acquitted by all his neighbours who are of a right conversation? He is accused of having incurred many debts, of having mortgaged his lands, and wasted his goods, as though all this could not have happened from necessary and good causes. An assembly of that Church gave me an account of all these things, and testified through a trustworthy person that things are not as they have been reported to you. Nevertheless, let an inquiry be held, for in matters of this kind we place more confidence in what we see than in any oath; and if things are found to be as his accusers maliciously state, no matter how it came about, then let not the Abbot be excused. If they are not so, then let not these informers gain anything by their falsehood. They charge him with the death of a certain man; if he cannot clear himself let him die. And yet anyone can see how unlikely it is that he should have handed over to death a man whom but a little before he had rescued from it. How can these men have the audacity to insinuate such charges into your mind, when they have seen and known the zeal of the Abbot in freeing those who before had committed homicide, and in punishing those who had avenged the blood of a relation? Lastly, if you had known them well, it would be enough to make you disbelieve any unsupported statement of theirs. May God help your Holiness, that the deceitful tongue may not avail anything against the Abbot's innocence.