Letter CDXLIV. To a Certain Abbot

Letter CDXLIII in Eales's numbering.

Respecting a certain monk who wishes to migrate to another order: which Bernard disapproves of his doing.

A brother when he came to consult my simplicity, took back with him the following advice or rather opinions.¹ He adduced no suitable reason for wishing to desert his place and his order; there seems to be no reason why he should be permitted to migrate to another. His scruple rests principally upon a vow which he says he had previously taken, but which seems to have been only a somewhat hasty word, followed by no consequent action. Such a vow cannot possibly take precedence of another which, though taken later, was deliberate, and not left as a mere word, but rendered farther binding by making profession and taking the habit; especially when the former seems to have been neither stricter nor more severe than the latter. Wherefore, I think that you who have to render account for his soul to the Lord, cannot safely give him the licence which he asks for: since it is written: The Lord shall count among the evil doers those who consent to their iniquity (Ps. cxxv. 5 Vulg.) Receive him then, kindly, as a son, and watch over him carefully, as one committed to your charge; you will find him, if I do not mistake, willing to follow your counsels, and to submit himself to whatever you shall direct.