Letter CCCXIX. To Thurstan, Archbishop of York

(Circa A.D.

He advises and begs him not to resign his See: but if there are &ood reasons for his doing so, and the Pope sanctions it, he should seek a religious house of strict observance for his place of retreat.¹²

To the Reverend father and lord THURSTAN, by the grace of God Archbishop of York, BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes health in the present life and in the future life eternal.

1. I praise you for desiring quiet, and that you long to rest in peace in the Lord. But those reasons which you allege for laying down your pastoral charge seem to me insufficient: unless (which I do not believe, and may God torbid) you have some mortal sin to reproach yourself with, or permission has been given you by the supreme Pontiff to resign.³ You have not forgotten, I am sure, that rule of the Apostle: Art thou bound unto a ivife? seek not to be loosed (1 Cor. vu. 27). By an engagement, such as you say you have taken, a Bishop is not bound any farther than that he should persevere in the ministry to which he has been called.

2. It seems, then, to me, without attempting to impose 'my advice upon you to the prejudice of any that is wiser, that you should continue to hold the office that you have now, and should exhibit in a Bishop the humble dress and the holiness of life of a monk.⁴ However, if some secret motive makes it a duty for you to lay down your charge, or if the Pope indulges your wish for quiet, I advise you, according to my humble lights, not to let any degree of hardship in food or clothing, nor any extremity of poverty deter you from entering some religious house where you may hope to find the most strict observance. Although you must remember in houses of this kind, though every thing is sacrificed to the soul, yet this must be so done that due account is taken of age or of weakness. As I am entirely devoted to you, I pray God most earnestly to inspire you to whatever course of action may be for the best; and to enable you so to carry the burden and heat of the day that you may receive in the evening the denarius of the parable impressed with the image of the King.

Footnotes

1. Formerly No. 329; the former No. 318 is now No. 314. ↩

2. Formerly No. 372; the former 319 is now No. 399. ↩

3. Bernard here recognizes two legitimate reasons in a Bishop for laying down his charge: the necessity for doing penance on account of some great crime, and the permission of the Pope. At one time Bishops were reduced to the rank of simple priests on account of capital crimes, for instance on account of fornication, theft, perjury, and homicide; but it seems after these words of Bernard, that there was some other mortal sin which rendered it necessary for a Bishop to resign and retire into a monastery in order to do penance for it. This Letter appears to have been written a little before the death of Thurstan, which Ordericus places in 1139 (B. xiii. p. i 19, where he speaks of him as brother of Andin, Bishop of Evreux). To the same Thurstan were written Letters 195 and 235. ↩

4. It was not permitted to monks, when they became Bishops, to change their former habit and manner of living (Read Prcefat.il., Satcul* iv. n. 178, sij(j. et. 189). But how many things have changed since that time! Read a sermon of Abaelard on S. John the Baptist, p. 966! The conviction spread in many minds that the life of a Bishop, as it then existed, was incompatible with the practice of monastic rules; and many monks who were elected to the Episcopate refused altogether to accept it. Such was Guy, Abbot of Clairvaux, who, having been elected to the See of Rheims, at the death of Archbishop William, constantly refused to accept it for that very reason (Baluz, Miscell. Vol. ii. p. 247). VOL. II. 54 ↩