Letter CCCVII. To the Same

(A.D. 1153.)

He defends the Bishop of Beauvais against unfavourable reports. He relates in what extremely poor health he is; and what had happened to the Archbishop of Lyons.

1. I write to you in great haste, and consequently with less care, because the traveller who is to convey this is hastening his departure. It is a wonderful coincidence, but a very convenient one. Brother G. Fulcher has just arrived with your letter and that of my lord almost at the same moment as [he stranger who bears this; by the providential care, no doubt, of God that I might have a means for reply ing to you at once; which otherwise I might not have been able to do. however much I wished, with sufficient quickness. As you placed first what concerned the Bishop of Beauvais, so I begin with this in my reply. You know that he is a free agent, his life and character are not in my power, but in that of the State. If he acts sometimes otherwise than he ought, or is becoming to him, i am able to lament it, but however much I may wish to correct it, that is not in my power. But yet I ought to say to you that up to the present I have had no occasion to remark that he absents himself frequently from his diocese; nor have I ever heard that this is the case. His brother Robert has come to him, and now is staying with him. I have not yet heard that he has committed, or led the Bishop to commit, any action disgraceful or criminal, and it would be very wonderful if any such had reached you while it was unknown to me. I will do all in my power to persuade him as you wish, to resign his See, if ever I have a fitting and reasonable opportunity. I should already have done so if I had been able without offending the Bishop, and if I had not feared to see him replaced by some one still more useless in the Diocese. He came himself to see me in Lent, prepared to go to Rome on account ot a certain appeal; and he would have done so if I had not dissuaded him. The motive of my dissuasion was this, that it did not seem to me that the purpose which called him to Rome, or the people by whom he was accompanied, were such as were becoming to the person of a young man who was a Bishop. Yet he still proposes to set out at a convenient season. He is your brother; you ought to have consideration for him, so that his adversaries may not prevail against him. I could wish that you had written to him rather than to me, and given him a brotherly warning respecting the reports which have reached you about his conduct.¹

2. I have felt that you were anxious about the state of my health. It is true what you have heard. I have been sick even to death,² but for the present I am in a measure restored. But I feel that it is not for long, for the state of weakness in which I am passes all belief. This I say, however, without pretending to set bounds to the Providence of God, which is able to recall even the dead to life. Kindly let my reply in this matter be not only to yourself, but also to my lord, for whom I earnestly pray. Be so good also as to associate with yourself the Bishop of Frascati, to express to him in my name, and with the fullest devotedness in your power, my best thanks for his extreme condescension and anxiety about my health.

3. As to what has happened to the Archbishop of Lyons,³ this is the truth. He had set out on a journey, with an honourable suite, as became an Archbishop, and much money; but when he was scarcely beyond his own limits, lo! he fell into an ambuscade of his enemies. What would a man of his impetuosity of character do? To pass on was impossible; to retreat and give up his journey Deemed to him less tolerable than any captivity. Part of his people he sent back, part he caused to scatter; he disembarrassed himself of most of the money he had brought with him, retaining only sufficient to meet the cost of his journey with the few followers which he kept with him. What more? He went forward with only three or four attendants, he himself, nevertheless, being dressed as a servant; mixed up his troop with the promiscuous crowd of travellers, as one of them, and so reached Saint-Eloi.⁴ There finding himself ill, he was conducted to Montpellier; where he remained a considerable time, and spent on physicians all the money he had, and more.

Footnotes

1. Henry, the son of Louis le Gros, and brother of Louis the Younger, Kings of France, being then Bishop of Beauvais, did not enjoy, it appears, a very good reputation with the Pope. Wherefore Bernard replies that he lamented the errors of the Bishop, if there were any, but was quite unable to amend them. In the Life, B. iv. c. 3, is recorded how S. Bernard had predicted that it would not be long before this young man was converted, and embraced a religious life. Following Baronius in his Chronology, we have placed that event in 1 149. It appears certain that it was in this year he was made Bishop of Beauvais, as Sirmondus remarks. The date of 1161 for his election to this See by Henriquez is then far from the truth. He became Archbishop of Rheims in 1 163. It was quite against his own will that he was promoted to the Episcopate, as is shown by many of his Letters. S. Bernard himself was uneasy on account of his premature elevation, and thought that Peter, Abbot of Cluny, ought to be consulted, as may be seen in his Letters (B. v. L. 8). There is a Letter of the same Henry, written to Suger, Abbot of S. Dcnys, in Gallia Christiana, in Episc. Bel vac. Another, written to the Abbot of Cluny, which we add to j:his note, we suspect to have been dictated by Bernard himself, or, at least, composed in imitation of Bernard. It is not improbable that it was the former, since Bernard wrote many times for other persons, even for Bishops. If it is not by him it cannot be denied that it is imitated from his writings. Compare the beginning with Letter 236, and the latter part with Letter 16. "To the most reverend of fathers and the most dear of friends, Dom PETEK, Abbot of Cluny, Brother HENRY, by the will or the permission of God Bishop-Elect of Beauvais, offers his own self and all that he *is able to do. May Almighty God forgive you what you have done. You have recalled to men a man who was buried, and by your advice, which has been too well confided in, I find myself exposed and resting on a terrible sea of cares, so that the lofty height of honour claims me again. In my ignorance my soul is troubled because of the chariots of Aminadab, which I have undertaken to rule, while I have need of being ruled myself, and not to rule others. They have put my hands to brave deeds when I have need of bravery. I am made a watchman to the House of Israel while I have not the needful prudence. I am become a debtor to the wise and to the unwise, for which I need righteousness, and am sent to be a preacher to the people of God, for which I have need of temperance, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I should myself (which may God forbid) be a castaway. But what are those things and what am I, or where are they and what am I?.... But in whatever manner this be done, and whatever issue the Lord our God give to the matter, I am none the less one of your followers, and entirely prepared to render you all the services that you may deign to demand of me. Receive me as your servant, your friend, your son, .and associate me by a lasting bond to the holy community over which you preside by the grace of God, as one of its members, a monk in its bosom, for I do not wish to call myself here by my title of Bishop." — [A/We of Horst.] I think that this Letter was not written by Bernard, but rather by Nicolas of Clairvaux, his secretary, who has written many other Letters under the name of Henry, and particularly the thirteenth, to Peter the Venerable, and the twenty-sixth, to Hugo of Compiegne. — [Note of Mal'illonJ\ It is clearly not by S. Bernard. — "[E-] ↩

2. Geoffrey cites these words in the Life, B. v. n. 3. ↩

3. Heraclius. ↩

4. See notes to Letter 241. ↩