Letter CCLXXXVII. To the Bishop of Ostia, on Behalf of the Same Abbot

(A.D. 1153.)

My lord, the Abbot of S. Denys is being accused by the wicked, but by all the good men in his Church and neighbourhood he is excused. I ask your Christian love for him the more earnestly because my esteem for him has been and still is very great. Befriend him with your kindness, if not because he is a friend of mine, yet, at all events, because the charges brought against him are neither true, nor likely. If he is burdened with debts, then the necessity of the time is evidently the cause of it, although his debts are nothing like the amount stated. As to the alienation of his lands, the charge is easily proved to be false. For I suppose that not even his enemies themselves can possibly suspect him of the death of G —; inasmuch as he kept this same G — and all his companions in shelter from their enemies, and with much labour snatched them from the very jaws of death. For all this, and because especially I know of the underhand dealing of Raymond, I earnestly beg you to vindicate writh all care the innocence of the Abbot.¹