Letter CCCLVII. To the Same

(A.D. 1142.)

He begs Malachi not only to continue his friendship for¹ him, but to increase it; and he asks Malachi to give him proof of this by caring for and favouring the brethren he has sent.²

To his very dear father and most reverend lord MALACHI, by the grace of God Bishop, Legate of the holy and apostolic See, the son of his Holiness Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes health, and sends the assurance of his humble prayers.

1. How sweet to me, lord and father, are your words! how pleasant the remembrance of your holiness! If I am capable of any feeling of affection, of devotedness, and of gratitude, it is due to the kindness of your feeling towards me. But there is no need of many words, where the feelings are strong; for I trust that the Spirit of God which is in you will bear witness with your spirit, that I am entirely devoted to you. You also, dear and longed for father, will not have forgotten the poor Religious, who is bound to you by bonds of charity, and whose soul bears you in everlasting remembrance. For I do not commend myself to you as if for the first time, since I now for a long time glory in the Lord, that my humble self has been favoured to find grace in the eyes of your Holiness; but I pray that your friendship, though not new, may increase daily. I commend to you my sons, or rather yours, the more earnestly as they are so far removed from me. You know how entire is my confidence in you, after God, since I sent them to you, as it seemed to me that it would be wrong not to yield to the request of your Holiness. Do that which seems good to you, only open to them the bowels of your kindness, and have a care of them. Let not your diligent solicitude grow cold on their behalf, nor the plantation perish which is the work of your right hand.

2. I have already learned both from your letter, and from the report of my brethren, that your house is in a prosperous state, and is multiplied both in temporal and spiritual things. I greatly congratulate you upon this, and render thanks with my whole heart both to God, and to your paternal solicitude. But as there is stiil need of much vigilance, especially in a new country and among a population unaccustomed to a monastic form of religion, I entreat you in the Lord not to withdraw your hand, but to perfect happily what you have well begun. Concerning my brethren who have returned from that place, I should have been well pleased if they had remained; but it may be the case that those of your country whose characters are less disciplined, and who have shown a great repugnance for our observances, which were new to them, have been in great measure the reason for their return.

3. I have sent back to you Christian, my very dear son and yours, having instructed him as well as³ could in all that concerns our Order, and I hope that he will be still more exact in observing them. Do not wonder that I have not sent any other brethren with him, since it is not easy to find n't persons who will willingly consent to go, nor was it my plan to oblige any to go against their will. My dear brother Robert1 has acquiesced in my request for this time, like an obedient son. It will, therefore, be your part to render him all the assistance in your power, as well in buildings as in other things necessary, that the interests of your house may be promoted. I suggest to your Paternity, also, that you should persuade those religious, upon whom you are counting lor the house you are about to found, to unite others with themselves by coming to their Order. That will be of the greatest advantage to the house, and you will be the better obeyed. May your Holiness continue in health, and be mindful of me before the Lord Christ.

Footnotes

1. Formerly No. 317; the former No. 357 is now No. 370. ↩

2. Archbishop Usher, who gives this Letter as No. 43 in his Irish Letters, takes occasion to enter into many details about Mellifont and other Cistercian Monasteries of the same province. ↩

3. It is not quite clear who this Robert was. Perhaps he was the same as the holy man of that name, who is praised by Serlo in his " History ot Fountains " (Monasl. Anglic., pp. 743 and 749). Formerly a monk at Whitby, he made common cause with the Religious, who left a monastery at York, and who are mentioned in Letter 95 and the following. Or it may toave been Robert, the cousin of Bernard (Let. I.) ↩