Sermon LXIV. On the Temptations of the More Advanced, and on the Manner of Catching Heretics, Represented by Foxes

"Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines, for our vineyard hath flourished."

Here I am, my brethren, to fulfil the promise I made you. "Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines, for our vineyard hath flourished." These foxes are temptations. Now it is necessary that temptations come, for who shall be crowned "unless he strive lawfully"? And how shall we strive if there be none to oppose us? Therefore, "when thou comest to the / service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation." For be assured that "all that will live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Moreover, temptations vary according to the variety of the spiritual seasons. At the beginning of our spiritual life, when whatever of good appears in us is only like the tender blossom on a young vine, we are liable to open assaults from the violence of that pestilential frost which I dwelt upon in the preceding discourse, and warned the novices against. But the "contrary powers" will by no means venture to oppose themselves thus manifestly to such as have attained to a high degree of holiness. For persons of this class they are more accustomed to be concealed in ambush, like crafty little foxes, dressing up vices in the clothes of virtues. How many have I known, for instance, who after entering on the "ways of life," after advancing to better things, after walking and progressing well '. and securely in the "paths of justice," have at last| — oh, the pity of it! — been shamefully overreached by the cunning of these foxes, and compelled to lament when it was all too late the destruction in themselves of the fruits of virtue!

I behold a religious making rapid strides towards perfection. Suddenly he is met with a thought — rather let me say, with a little fox, which arrests his progress. "If only I were at home," he begins to say to himself, "to how many others, brethren and relatives, friends and acquaintances, might I not communicate the spiritual treasure which I here enjoy alone! They love me, and would readily yield to my exhortations. ' To what purpose is this waste? ' I will go to them, therefore; I shall be able to save many of them without compromising my own soul. There is nothing to be feared from the change of place. For, after all, what difference can the place make, provided one is occupied in well-doing? Unless, indeed, that I shaU doubtless be safer there where I shall spend my time more fruitfully." What need to say more? The wretched man quits his monastery, not as an exile returning to the home-land, but rather like a dog going back to his vomit. He goes and perishes miserably. He loses himself, without saving any of his friends. Here, my brethren, is one of the little foxes, the delusive hope which this man entertained of bringing his dear ones to God. You also, if you care to take the trouble, will be able to find or to recognise for yourselves and in yourselves, many other little foxes like unto this one.

Nevertheless, if you desire it, I will show you a second. I will even point out a third and a fourth little fox, on condition, however, that you shall prove yourselves diligent in trying to catch those which from my descriptions you may discover in your own vineyards. Sometimes, then, when a monk is progressing favourably, he feels himself bedewed on a sudden with an unusually generous downpour of heavenly grace. The desire of preaching now enters his soul, not, mind you, to his parents and kindred, for he remembers the words of St. Paul, "Immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood"; but he would announce the Gospel more purely, more profitably, and more courageously to strangers and all, without any distinction. It seems to him the part of prudence to follow such an attraction. For he is afraid of incurring the curse of the Prophet, pronounced against him who should hide from the people the corn he has privately become possessed of.¹ Besides, he fears lest he should be disobeying the command given in the Gospel if he does not "preach upon the house-tops what" he has heard "in the ear." It is a fox, my brother, and a fox more dangerous than the preceding, in proportion as his coming is more sly. But I will catch him for thee. First of all, there are the words of Moses, "Thou shalt not work with the firstling of an ox," which St. Paul interprets for us when he says, speaking of the apostolic office and those qualified to fill it, "Not a neophyte, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil." The same Apostle writes in another place, "Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was." And again he asks, "How shall they preach unless they be sent?" Now! we know that it is not the business of a monk to instruct j others but to weep over himself. With these and similar/ testimonies, gathered from Scripture, I can make for myself a net that shall catch this little fox, and prevent him from destroying my vineyard. For the passages I have just quoted make it plain and indubitable that the office of preaching publicly is neither befitting for a monk, nor expedient for a novice, nor permissible for one who has not been sent. How utterly devastated, then, must the vineyard of his conscience be,, who allows himself to act against all three: fittingness, expediency, and authority! Whenever, therefore, anything V such is suggested to your minds, whether the suggestion comes from your own thought or is inspired by the spirit of malice, recognise it as a guileful little fox, that is to say, as evil masquerading under the appearance of good.

Fix your eyes now, my brethren, on another of the little foxes. How many in the full glow of spiritual fervour have exchanged their monasteries for the desert solitude, only to be thence vomited forth again in a state of tepidity, or if retained, retained without the discipline of the desert, not alone in laxity but in absolute wickedness! Then, at last, from the ruined condition of the vineyards, that is, from the corruption of the life and conscience of such unfortunates, it became apparent that the fox had been busy. These persons fancied that, as they received so many heavenly favours whilst living the common life in the mid>t of their brethren, they would reap still more abundant spiritual fruit if?hey lived alone. The thought seemed good to them. But the event has proved that it was really one of the little foxes that destroy the vineyard.² And what else but a spoiling fox shall I call that abuse which so often and so gravely disturbs the peace of this very house? I speak of that singular and superstitious abstinence, practised by some amongst us, whereby they render all as disagreeable to themselves as themselves to all. Is not discord such and so general a devastation of the consciences of the persons responsible, and so far as depends on them, the destruction of the magnificent vineyard, which the Lord's own Right Hand hath planted here? I mean the unity which has bound you all to each other in the bonds of peace. "Woe to the man by whom scandal cometh." "Whosoever shall scandalise one of these little ones"— too fearful to recite are the words which follow. But how much more terrible is the sentence he deserves, who scandalises not a single believer, but so numerous and so holy a community as ours! Be he who he may, he shall bear a most heavy judgment. But of this elsewhere.

Let us here examine carefully the words spoken by the Bridegroom concerning those cunning little foxes which destroy the vineyard. They are called little, not because they are little in malice, but on account of their subtlety and craft. For this species of animal is noted for its natural slyness, and is always very ready to do harm in secret. By reason of such characteristics the fox appears to me to typify admirably certain extremely subtle vices, which conceal themselves under the fair show of virtues. What these vices are I have already been some time explaining, and have presented you with a few examples to illustrate my teaching. It is their peculiarity that they can do us no hurt unless they succeed in imposing on us by a pious exterior and so leading us to mistake them for virtues. But in reality they are always either the vain thoughts of man's mind, or the inspirations of evil angels, those angels of Satan who transform themselves into angels of light, "preparing their arrows in the quiver" — that is, in secret — "to shoot in the dark the upright of heart." Hence it appears to me that the reason why they are described as little is this, that whereas all the other vices betray themselves by their grossness so that they are easily recognised, these because of their subtlety are very difficult to detect and consequently very difficult to guard against, except for such alone as are perfect and experienced and have the eyes of their hearts enlightened for distinguishing between good and evil, and especially for the discerning of spirits. For persons so privileged can say like St. Paul that they are not ignorant of Satan's devices and counsels. And consider if this be not the reason why the Bridegroom commands His Spouse not to exterminate, or to drive away, or to kill the little foxes, but rather to catch them: because, namely, these spiritual and crafty animals require to be observed and examined with all diligence and caution, and so caught in their cunning, according to what is written, "I will catch the wise in their own craftiness." Therefore, whenever a deceit is discovered or a fraud detected, or a lie exposed, we may then say with perfect truth that the little fox, which was destroying the vines, has been caught. It is in the same sense we speak of a man being caught in his words. So you may read in the Gospel that "the Pharisees going, consulted among themselves how to catch Him (Jesus) in His speech."

It is in this way, then, that the Bridegroom would have us catch the little foxes that destroy the vines, namely, by detecting them, by exposing them, by confounding them. For it is the characteristic of such subtle vices that they lose their power for harming the moment they are discovered, so that for them to be exposed is to be vanquished. Who but a madman would knowingly and deliberately put his foot in a trap which he has detected? Therefore you have done all that is necessary with regard to these little foxes when you have caught them, that is, when you have unmasked and exposed them, because they are unable to live in the light. The same is not the case with the other vices, which come upon us without any disguise, openly wound us, make us their witting captives, overpower our resistance, in a word, employ against us not fraud but force. Hence in dealing with them what we need is not so much careful observation, since they attack us openly like savage beasts, but rather a firm defence. It is only in the instance of those little foxes, those mighty dissemblers, whose capacity for mischief depends on concealment, that nothing more remains to be done once they have been caught in their craftiness and dragged forth into the light. For they live in dens. Here, then, is the reason why the Bridegroom commands that they be caught and calls them little foxes. Or perhaps He uses the word "little" to intimate that we ought to keep careful watch and take hold of our passions as soon as they appear and are still young and weak; lest, if permitted to grow, their power for evil should also increase, as well as the difficulty of catching them.

But if we interpret the Bridegroom's words allegorically, taking the vines to mean churches and the foxes heresies, or rather heretics, then the sense will be that heretics are to be caught, not driven away. They are to be caught, I say, but with no other force than the force of arguments wherewith their errors are refuted.³ For themselves, let them, if it is possible, be reconciled to the Church, let them be brought back to the true faith. Such is the desire of Him "Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Such also is the wish of the Bridegroom, as He signifies in this place where He does not simply say, "Catch the foxes," but "catch us the foxes." Therefore He wants these foxes to be won over to Himself and His Spouse, the Catholic Church, and expresses this desire by saying, "Catch us the foxes." Consequently, whenever an experienced and learned member of the Church undertakes to dispute with a heretic, he is bound to make it his aim, not merely to convict his opponent of error, but also to convert him to truth. For he should bear in mind the words of St. James, "He who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins." But should the heretic be unwilling to return, and, after being once and a second time admonished, remains sum obdurate in his error, then according to the Apostle's injunction he must be avoided, as one entirely corrupted. Thenceforth it will be better, at least in my opinion, to drive away such a fox, or even to put him under restraint, than to permit him to go on destroying the vines.

It must not, however, be supposed that he has accomplished nothing who has conquered and confounded the heretic, clearly and unmistakably distinguished truth from its counterfeit, exposed by plain and unanswerable arguments the wickedness of wicked doctrines, and "brought into captivity every understanding" "that exalt eth itself against the knowledge of God." For by doing so much he has really caught the fox, although the heretic has not been brought to salvation. And he has even caught the fox for the Bridegroom and the Bride, although not in the sense in which we have been speaking. For even though the heretic refuses to raise himself from the mire, the Church by his defeat has been confirmed in the faith. And surely the Bridegroom takes delight in the prosperity of His Spouse, "for the joy of the Lord is our strength." Besides, He makes it plain how He reckons our advantage as His own, by so graciously associating Himself with us in the command whereby He orders that the foxes be caught not for Him alone, but for Him and for us. "Catch us the little foxes," He says. Take notice, my brethren, how He deliberately uses the pronoun "us." What language could be more sociable and condescending? Does it not seem to you that He is speaking here as a father of a family who has nothing proper to himself, but regards all his possessions as common to his wife, and his children, and his household? Yet He Who speaks is God, although He speaks now not as God but as our Bridegroom.

"Catch us the little foxes." See how companionably He speaks Who has no companion. He might have said, ** for Me,"but He preferred to say," for us,"delighting to make us His associates. Oh, the sweetness! Oh, the beauty! Oh, the power of love! And is the Highest of all become thus as one amongst all? Who hath wrought this wonder? It is love, my brethren— love, which knows nothing of dignity, abounds in condescension, is mighty in its emotions, resistless in its pleadings. What can be more powerful than love which triumphs over God Himself?⁴ Yet at the same time what more gentle since it remains always love? What, I ask, is the nature of that force so violent in the pursuit of victory, and so unresisting under violence? "He (the Son of God) emptied Himself" in order to make us understand that it is through the influence of love alone that the Plenitude has been poured out, the Supreme levelled down, the Singular made an associate. With whom, O admirable Bridegroom, with whom dost Thou associate Thyself so familiarly? "Catch us the foxes," Thou sayest. For whom with Thyself? Is it for the Church of the gentiles? Yea, for that Church which is a collection of sinful mortals. We know her and what she is. But Thou, Who art Thou, That art so devoted and so zealous a Lover of this Ethiopian Spouse? Not surely another Moses, but a greater than Moses. For art Thou not He WTio is declared "beautiful above the sons of men"? But this is saying too little; for Thou art also the Splendour of Eternal Life, and the Brightness and Figure of the Father's Substance, and lastly art Thyself over aU things, God blessed for ever. Amen. Letter of Eberwin, Provost of Steinfeld, to

St. Bernard, in which he explains the false

DOCTRINES of THE COLOGNE HERETICS AND BEGS

THE HOLY Abbot to combat them.

Eberwin, the humble Provost of Steinfeld, to his reverend Lord and Father, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishing him comfort in the Lord and praying him to comfort the Church of Christ.

"I will rejoice at thy words as one that hath found great spoil." For in all thy words and in all thy writings thou dost "publish the memory of the abundance of God's sweetness," and especially so in thy sermons on the Canticle of the mutual love of the Bridegroom and Bride, that is, of Christ and the Church; so that, like the chief steward, we can truly say to the Bridegroom, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." He has appointed thee His cupbearer to dispense to us this most precious wine. Let it be ministered to us, therefore, without interruption. Do not be sparing of it, because thou canst never empty the water-pots. And let not thy weak state of health, holy Father, be alleged as a reason for discontinuing thy task, since success in the discharge of this duty depends much more upon piety than upon any exercise of bodily strength. Neither ought est thou to excuse thyself on the plea of thy multiplied occupations. For I know of none so important as to deserve to take precedence of this work which vitally concerns the common good. Thou hast now, most holy Father, to draw for us from the fifth water-pot. Of the first we have drunk as much as we needed, and thereby have been rendered wise and strong against the learning and power of the Scribes and Pharisees. The second fortifies us to meet the arguments and persecutions of pagans. The third is a defence against the subtle deceits of sectaries. The fourth protects us from false Christians. In the fifth we shall find security against the heretics whose appearance has been reserved for the last age of the world, and of whom "the spirit manifestly saith "—speaking by the mouth of St. Paul — "that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devil's, speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving. ' ' The sixth shall inebriate and strengthen the faithful against him who shall be revealed in this apostasy from the faith, "the man of sin "and "the son of perdition," "who opposeth and is lifted up above aU that is called God or that is worshipped," "whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seductions of iniquity." After this, a seventh waterpot will not be necessary, when the sons of men "shall be inebriated with the plenty of God's house" and made "to drink of the torrent of His pleasure." O good Father, thou hast already given us in abundance out of the fourth water-pot everything that any of us can need, beginners for their correction, proficients for their edification, the perfect for their consummation; and so long as the world lasts, men shall find in thy teaching a protection against the tepidity and depravity of false brethren. But it is now time to draw from the fifth water-pot, and to dispense the wine it contains as a defence against these modern heretics who are everywhere and in all the churches issuing forth from the bottomless pit as if the day of the Lord was at hand, and their prince and leader on the point of being dissolved. The verse of the epithalamium of Christ and His Church, which, as thou hast signified to me, thou art next to expound, viz., "Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines," applies very well to this mystery of iniquity and brings thee to the fifth waterpot. I beg of thee, then, holy Father, that thou wouldst distinguish the various doctrines of this heresy which have come under thy notice, and opposing to them the arguments and authorities of our faith, wouldst so refute and destroy them.

Here amongst ourselves in Cologne we have lately discovered heretics, some of whom have already done penance and been reconciled to the Church. But two of them, namely, he who is called the Bishop of the sect, with his associate, resisted us in a public assembly of the clergy and laity, the Lord Archbishop being present and many of the great nobles. They defended their heresy from the words of Christ and the Apostle. But seeing that they could not prevail, they asked to have a day appointed them when they would bring learned men of their own party, promising to make their submission in case these doctors should fail in their defence; otherwise they declared that they were ready to die rather than abjure their errors. After this, they received warnings during the space of three days. Then, as they still refused to renounce their heresy, the people in an excess of zeal, dragged them away in spite of us, placed them in the fire and burned them. Now the most wonderful thing of all was that these heretics submitted to and endured the torment of fire not only with patience, but even with joy. On this point especially I should like, if I were present with thee, to hear what thou hast to say, how thou canst explain in the case of these sons of Satan such fortitude as is hardly to be found in the most perfect members of the Church of Christ.

The following are the heretical beliefs they profess. They claim, in the first place, that they alone constitute the true Church, because they alone walk in the footsteps of Christ, and are the only faithful imitators of the apostles; for they seek not the things of the world (they say) and possess neither houses, nor lands, nor money; nothing of which was owned by Christ, nor permitted His disciples to own. "Whereas you," they say to us, "add houses to houses and fields to fields, and strive after the wealth of this world; so that even they who are accounted the most perfect among you, such as the Canons Regular and the members of monastic orders, possess all these things, if not as individuals, at least in common." Of themselves, they speak in this wise, "We are Christ's poor, having no fixed dwelling-place. Like the apostles and the martyrs, we suffer persecution, fleeing from city to city, and living as lambs in the midst of wolves. And yet our lives are holy and very austere. We practise fasting and abstinence and persevere night and day in working and praying, whilst we seek from our labours no other fruit than the bare necessaries of life. All this we endure because we are not of the world. You, on the contrary, love the world, and have peace with the world, because you are of the world. The pseudo-apostles, who corrupted the word of God, and sought the things that were their own, have caused your fathers and you to wander out of the safe path. We, like our fathers, being true-bred apostles, have ever remained and ever shall remain in the grace of Christ. It was in order to distinguish between us and you that He said, * By their fruits you shall know them.' Our fruits are our fidelity in following in His footsteps." These sectaries do not allow to be used as food any kind of milk, or anything made from milk, or in general anything connected with procreation. They make such abstinence a matter of boasting against us. Their sacramental rites are performed with great secrecy. Yet they freely acknowledge to us that every day whilst seated at table, conformably to the example of the Lord and His apostles, they consecrate and change their food and drink into the Flesh and Blood of Christ by the words of the Lord's Prayer, that so they may nourish themselves as being His body and members. They say that we have no truth or reality in our sacraments, nothing but a mere shadow and human tradition, v^ It is openly avowed that amongst them baptism is conferred and received not only with water, but also I with the Holy Ghost and with fire. In support of this, I appeal is made to the testimony of St. John Baptist, Kwho, whilst baptising with water himself, said of Christ, "He shall baptise you in the Holy Ghost and fire"; and in another place, "I baptise with water, but there hath stood One in the midst of you Whom you know not"—as if implying that He was to baptise them with a baptism different from his own. This baptism.

II. according to them, ought to be given by the imposition of hands, which they endeavour to prove from the words of St. Luke. For this Evangelist, descnbmg, in the Acts of the Apostles, the baptism of St. Paul, which was administered to him by Ananias at the command of Christ, makes no mention of water, but only of the imposition of hands. Similarly, wherever else they can discover any allusion to imposition of hands either in the Acts or in the Pauline Epistles, they wiU have it to be understood of the baptism by the Holy Ghost and fire They give the name of Elect to every person thus baptised amongst them, and affirm that such a one has power not only to baptise in the same manner others who are found worthy, but also of consecrating at his table the Body and Blood of Christ. The lowest class in the sect are called Hearers, whence they are raised by imposition of hands to the rank of Believers The Believers are allowed to join in their prayers, and after a sufficient probation are admitted amongst the

Elect Our baptism they regard as nothing xyorth. They condemn marriage; but for what reason I have never been able to find out from them, either because they are afraid to make it known, or rather because they do not know what it is themselves.^

There are other heretics also in this piace, differing widely from those I have been speaking of; and it is the mutual wrangling and contention between the two sects that have revealed the doctrines and P^ctices of both. The second class of heretics deny that the Body of Christ is made present on the altar because the priests of the Church are none of them validly ordained. The apostolic dignity, they say, has been corrupted by mixing in worldly affairs; and Peter's successor, by not fighting for God as Peter fought, has deprived himself of the powers to ordain, originally conferred upon Peter. Now what the Pope does not himself possess he cannot communicate; and consequently the archbishops and bishops, who live as worldlings in the Church, are also without the power of validly ordaining priests. AU such prelates, according to these sectaries, have received nothing more than the power of jurisdiction and preaching. And in this sense they understand the words of Christ where He says, "The Scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses; all things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you observe and do." Thus they render valueless the priesthood of the Church. They reject all the sacraments, except baptism alone. And even this, in their judgment, should be administered to adults only; because these, as they confess, are really baptised by Christ, whoever the visible minister may be. They admit no efficacy in the baptism given to infants, or to any others without faith, on account of what is said in the Gospel, "He that belie veth and is baptised shall be saved." All marriages are by them declared to be sinful, save that which is contracted between two virgins. This doctrine of theirs is grounded on the words wherewith the Lord replied to the Pharisees,

"What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." For they argue that God joined the first human pair as virgins, and wants all other marriages to be modelled upon that. They find further support in the answer given to the same Pharisees when they raised an objection from the bill of divorce. Christ said to them, "From the beginning it was not so," and, "He that shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery." They also appeal to the words of St Paul, "Marriage is honourable m all, and the bed undefiled" They have no faith in the intercession of the saints. As for fasting and other mortifications endured to make satisfaction for sin, they teach that the just do not want them, and that they are unnecessary even for sinners, because "in whatsoever day the sinner shall lament his sin, it shall be forgiven hun. All other observances in the Church, which have not been established by Christ or His immediate disciples, are condemned as superstitious. The existence of any purgatorial fire to be endured after death is not admitted They teach, on the contrary, that all souls, as soon as they are separated from their bodies, pass at once either to everlasting pain or to everlasting repose, agreeably to the words of Solomon If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there it shall be." And in this way they deny any efficacy to the prayers and sacrifices offered for the dead.

Against all these evils, so manifold and multiform, I beseech thee, holy Father, let thy zeal be aroused to renewed activity. Let the sharp point of thy arrow be aimed against these savage beasts. Do not tell us that the "tower of David," whither we have fled, is sufficiently "buUt with bulwarks"; that "a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men. For we are inexperienced and unskilled in the use of these arms; and we therefore desire that thou holy Father, in thy zeal, wouldst fit them to our hands, so that we may become thereby more quick in discovering and more powerful in resisting so many monsters, i would also have thee know that, as we learn from some of them who have been reconciled to the Church, these heretics are exceedingly numerous, are to be found in almost every part of the world, and have amongst them many of the clergy and members of religious orders. Those who were burned, declared to us in their defence, that their heresy has existed secretly from the time of the holy martyrs to the present day m Greece and certain other countries. These are the heretics who caU themselves apostles, and have a pope of their own. There are others who refuse to recognise our Pope, without, however, setting up another in his place. These apostles of Satan have living with them certain females who-as they say-observe continence either virgins, or widows, or their own wives, some of them m the class of the Elect, others in that of Believers Herem also they claim to be following the example of the apostles, who "had power to lead women about "Farewell in the Lord.

Footnotes

1. The reference is apparently to Proverbs xi. 26, "He that hideth up corn shall be cursed among the people; but a blessing upon the head of them that sell."— (Translator.) ↩

2. The Saint is here condemning the change from the monastic life to the hermitical, not absolutely and in itself, but only when it is made imprudently and out of levity. He is thus in perfect accord with his great master, St. Benedict, who, in the first chapter of his holy Rule, defines the true hermit as one that "has exchanged the cloister for the desert, not in the first fervour of his conversion, but after having been long tried in a monastery, and there taught to fight against the devil by the many good examples and instructions of his brethren," declaring him who is thus disciplined to be "now prepared to fight against his own passions and evil thoughts with no other assistance but the grace of God." But experience had taught St. Bernard that very few are ever really qualified to engage their spiritual foe in single combat.— (Translator.) ↩

3. "Capiantur, dico, non armis sed argumentis." Similarly St. Augustine (In Ps. lxxx.), "Vulpes insidiosos maximeque haereticos fraudulentos significant. . . . Istae vulpes significantur in Canticis Canticorum ubi dicitur, ' Capite nobis vulpes pusillas exterminantes vineas.' Capite nobis, convincite nobis. Capio enim eum quem de falsitate convinco." St. Bernard's way of dealing with heretics and unbelievers would be this: first of all, every effort should be made to lead them back to the truth. If, nevertheless, they continued obdurate, yet refrained from any attempt to propagate their errors, they were to be avoided, but left in peace. Should they refuse to abstain from proselytism, he would have them deprived of their liberty. It was in accordance with these principles that, in 1146, whilst he was preaching the Second Crusade, he took his stand between the Jews and the fanatical followers of the bloodthirsty Rodolph and prevented a wholesale massacre of an innocent people. We are fortunate in possessing a contemporary account of this event from the pen of a Jewish writer, Joshuah Ben-Meir: "The Jews suffered anguish. They trembled and shuddered, finding no hope or refuge anywhere. Then they cried to God, ' O God, Adonai,' they said, ' look on us with pity.' . . . The Lord God was moved by the groans of His people; He remembered His covenant and returned to His great mercies. He raised up against this cruel Belial (Rodolph) the wise Bernard of Clairvaux. This priest calmed the people and said, ' March towards Sion. Defend the tomb of our Christ. But touch ye not the Jews. Speak to them with mildness, for they are of the flesh and bones of the Messiah. If you molest them you will run the risk of touching the very apple of the Lord's eye. No, the disciple Rodolph has not preached according to the truth; for Truth Itself has said by the mouth of the Psalmist: slay them not, lest at any time my people forget Thus spoke this wise man, and his words were powerful, for he was loved and respected by all. They listened to him. and the fire of their anger was cooled; and they did not accomplish all the evil they had intended to do. The priest Bernard had not however, received either money or ransom from the Jews it was his heart that led him to love them, and suggested to him to speak good words for Israel." Cf. Ratisbonne s Life. p. 360 UEng. Trans.).— (Translator.) ↩

4. "Quid violentius? Triumphat de Deo amor."St. Augustine has the same thought thus expressed." O charitas, quam magnas vires habes! De coelo Deum deposuisti. — (Translator.) ↩