Letter CDXXVII. To the Bishop of Troyes

Letter CDXXVI in Eales's numbering.

He disapproves that he has bestowed the office of Archdeacon upon a very young man.

To the venerable father H., by the grace of God Bishop of Troyes,¹ Brother Bernard, health, and his respectful duty.

The courtesy of your Highness is the cause that emboldens me when needful, to write to you with what is undoubtedly presumption about your affairs. I undertook to make request to you on behalf of your excellent son G., or rather to give a piece of advice in your own interest. I wonder then that you, whose high character I have warm respect for, should, for what reason or at whose opinion that it was advisable, I cannot conjecture, have thus acted respecting the Archdeaconry, of which G., whom I mentioned, is so well able to discharge the duties, as to prefer to bestow it upon a mere boy, who is not able to discharge the duties himself;² so wrongly and in defiance of your duty, as it seems to me.

For if you have built up anything of good, you have again (which may God avert!) destroyed it. But sufficient has been said to a man of understanding. If you fear men, the Gospel teaches you whom you ought to fear still more. If you wish to please men, yet it is better to be the servant of God: if you owe anything to Caesar, to God you owe still more.

Footnotes

1. [This was Hatto, to whom were written Epp. 23 and 203 of Bernard, and a greater number among those of Peter of Cluny.J ↩

2. [The holy Doctor was always greatly indignant at the bestowal of ecclesiastical dignities upon boys. That is shown by Ep. 271, in which he blames Count Theobald for endeavouring to procure them for his young son William: as also by Tractat. de Offic. Episcopor. c. 1 7 and De Consider at. III. 5.] ↩