Letter CCCXXXVI. To A CERTAIN ABBOT.* On the Same Subject

(A.D. 1140.)

To his very dear brother and co-Abbot, Brother BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes a zeal for the Lord according to knowledge.¹

It must needs be that offences come, so that those who are approved may be made manifest. If any one is the Lord's servant, let him take the Lord's side, for His cause is now in question. The truth is attacked; the vestments of Christ are torn in pieces, the Sacraments of the Church divided. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, the well-being of the Church is compromised, and the simple faith of believers ridiculed; the lion is on the point of arising from his lair against the Church that he may make a prey of the nations. Already Peter Abaelard² goes before Antichris³ to prepare his ways, speaking differently from tradition with respect to matters of faith, of the Sacraments, and of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He writes, teaches, and disputes; and his words tend to the subversion of the hearers. With Arius he distinguishes degrees and inequalities in the Trinity; with Pelagius he prefers free will to grace; with Nestorius he divides Christ, by excluding His Humanity from the fellowship of the Trinity. But in all these things he boasts that he has won over the Roman Church to his side; that the Romans have received his books and his opinions into their hands and hearts; and that those by whom he ought to be judged and condemned have taken upon them his defence. May the Lord look upon it, and judge, if the mouth of that man who speaketh unrighteousness be not speedily closed. The bearer of this will explain to you the details at greater length.