Letter CCCXXXIV. To GUY, OF Pis A. Against the same Abaelard

(A.D. 1140.)

To GUY, Abbot of Pisa, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes a sound mind in a sound body.¹²

I know that you have so much affection for me (as I for you) that I should with great confidence entrust to you my dearest interests; but it is with more confidence still that I entrust to you those of Jesus Christ, who is to be loved tar more than I. The cause is Christ's, since Christ Himself is in question, and the truth is in peril. The garments of Christ are being divided, when the Sacraments of the Church are rent in pieces; but His seamless robe is entire, which is woven from the top throughout. For this tunic is the unity of the Church, which does not admit of cutting or division. Man is not capable of dividing that which has been compacted from above, and made firm by the Holy Spirit. Though heretics sharpen their tongues like serpents, though they arm themselves with the sharpest weapons of the intellect, in order that they may disturb the peace of the Church; yet though they are the gates of hell, they shall not prevail against her. If you are truly her son, if you recognize the bosom which bore you, do not desert your mother in her peril, do not withdraw your support in the time of tribulation. Magister Peter has recourse to the Curia, that the authority of the Apostolic See may serve him as a wall and a rampart to protect the errors which he has taught and written, and in which he has impugned the Catholic Faith.