Letter CDI. To Baldwin, Abbot of Chatillon

(Formerly No. 338).

He reassures this Abbot, who from a false report, feared that he had offended Bernard.

Since you fear so much that you have offended me, I infer that you love me much. But lay aside this apprehension; for what you feared is not the case. I have looked carefully into the report, as you advised, and I find that the mischief was in the mouth of the person who told this to you. You may be sure that one of two alternatives is the fact. the man spoke to you out of suspicion, or else from mere malignity. Doubtless the fraud of which he has been guilty, shall recoil upon his own head, this iniquity fall upon his own path. For he is the culprit in this, which he falsely imputes to another.