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Letter CDII. To Baldwin, Bishop of Noyon

(Formerly No. 336).

Bernard recommends a young man to him pleasantly.1

To Baldwin, Lord Bishop of Noyon, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and a recompense even greater than his deserts.

I send you a young man, the bearer of this letter, to eat of your bread, that I may make proof, by seeing whether you permit this reluctantly or no, of your avarice or liberality. Do not mourn over it, do not weep: he has but a little stomach, he will not eat much. Yet I (shall) thank you; if he returns from you fatter in body and more instructed in mind as well. Let the manner2 of speech I have used stand instead of a seal, for mine is not at hand, nor is your friend Geoffrey.3 2

Footnotes

  1. About his election there is a letter of the Chapter of Noyon among those of Abbot Suger (No. 44); and in the same collection are found many of the same Baldwin, then Bishop, about the Church of Compiegne; they are No. 157, 158 and 162. From Ep. 44 it appears that Baldwin was Abbot of Chatillon before being Bishop. It was to him that Bernard wrote Letters 279 and 401; and he is himself the writer of Letter 426. ↩

  2. Maneries: Low Latin for Modus, used here in the sense of manner, or mannerism. Mod. Fr. maniere. John of Salisbury uses the word (Metalog. C. 17) and other authors, but it is rare. See Du Cange, Sub voce (E.) ↩

  3. The secretary of S. Bernard at this time, who had therefore the custody of his seal (E.) ↩

Chapter 402 of 491