Peter the One-eyed

ON BL. PETER THE ONE-EYED, EIGHTH ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX, CONFESSOR NOT A BISHOP,

IN THE YEAR 1186

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Peter the One-eyed, also called of Igny, abbot of Clairvaux in Gaul. (B.)

BY V. D. B. & R. D. B.

§ I. The immemorial cult of Bl. Peter, his royal family, his monastic life and offices at Igny and at Vauclair. He is recommended to Pope Alexander III for the cardinalate.

The cult of Bl. Peter the One-eyed, whose praises and deeds we are undertaking, was never either celebrated or fully manifest. [Bl. Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, in books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,] Since, however, more than a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII concerning the veneration of the servants of God, Peter is called SAINT in published works — which title, when it affects the person and not the conduct, is held and has been held by the Roman tribunals as a species of public cult — we cannot but grant him a place in our Work. First of all, then, in the Life which Thomas de Radolio, an entirely contemporary author, wrote, he is very often called blessed man, holy man and other names of that kind; and his death is described in words taken from the divine Office of St. Martin. With no less veneration do other very ancient writers treat him. But, what is chief, Vincent of Beauvais, who died in the year 1262, openly reckons him among the saints, prefixing to chapter XXVIII of book XXX of the Speculum historiale this title [Speculum historiale, book XXX, ch. 28 ff., Nuremberg edition, 1483; likewise Bibl. mundi, vol. IV, p. 1193, Douai, 1624.]: "Of SAINT Peter of Clairvaux, and of his good beginnings and works"; which he then follows through five chapters, having as guide Thomas de Radolio, or rather Helinand, monk of Froidmont, who in his Chronicles, book XLIX, abridged Thomas's writing. Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilio, by no means omitted him in the catalogue of the saints; but (book III, ch. CC) at the 14th day of March, on which he believed him to have rested in the Lord, he wrote a whole chapter on SAINT Peter, abbot of Clairvaux. Thence in the more recent martyrologies, menologies and other books of the kind of the Cistercian Order he nowhere appears except with the praise of saint or blessed; so that his public cult, although obscure and slight, never ceased.

[2] and in other more recent ones he is constantly called saint or blessed. Thus he comes at the 14th day of May in the Cistercian Calendar printed at Dijon in the year 1617; and likewise at the same day in Chalemot with a long eulogy and the title of blessed. With the same title Henriquez and Bucelin praise him at the 18th day of May; and so in the Cistercian Calendar or Martyrology of the Cistercian Order, which came out by public authority in the year 1689, there is read at the same day, but in smaller letters: "At Clairvaux, of Bl. Peter, abbot; who was more illustrious for innocence of life and simplicity of heart than for the splendour of the royal blood from which he was begotten." Bernardo de Brito the Portuguese and Bernabé de Montalbo the Spaniard, both Cistercian historiographers, call him saint; Angel Manrique in the Annals and Chrysostom Henriquez in the Fasciculus Sanctorum constantly call him blessed. Finally in the Catalogue of the Saints, Blessed and Servants of God of the Cistercian Order, which Sigismondo Alberti published at Monreale in Sicily in the year 1712, there comes in its order "St. Peter, called the One-eyed, of the royal blood of the Franks, eighth abbot of Clairvaux, who died on the 14th (otherwise the 18th) of May 1186, accustomed to the converse of the Mother of God and of other saints." In the Praetermissi at those three days our predecessors mentioned Bl. Peter; but they referred him to the present day, on which we shall show in its place that he died. But hence arises the greatest ease of erring, since on this day, the 29th of October, Henriquez, Bucelin and the Cistercian Calendar celebrate Bl. Peter of Châlons, monk of Clairvaux, placed in the Exordium Magnum Dist. VI, ch. 10, in Bibl. Cist., vol. I, p. 245. among the most illustrious disciples of St. Bernard. But it will be enough to have pointed out the rock, so that the reader may avoid it.

[3] [He seems to have been a grandson of Philip I, king of the Franks, and of Bertrada.] Peter, to use the words of his biographer, "was by fatherland an Italian, of parents exalted according to the dignity of the world (as was said)." But in the Exordium Magnum, which Conrad, abbot of Eberbach, wrote at about the year 1192, he is related to have been a kinsman of the king of the Franks Dist. II, ch. 31, p. 77.; which testimony cannot be held of no account, since Conrad, as he himself testifies Dist. VI, ch. 10, p. 245., was a monk at Clairvaux under Bl. Peter the One-eyed as abbot; about whose family he could not but hear much. Caesarius of Heisterbach Dialogi miraculorum, dist. VI, ch. 11, Bibl. Cist., vol. II, p. 170., who relates some things unknown to others and must be held a second witness, speaks still more clearly: "He was," he says, "according to the flesh noble, and a blood relation of Philip (II), king of France, who was an especial lover of holy simplicity." Finally in the Gallia christiana Vol. IV, col. 803. he is said to be "of a noble stock from Nangis"; which could not have been proposed without some warrant. And the testimonies of the Exordium Magnum and of the Gallia christiana agree with one another. For Philip I begot by Bertrada, whom in the year 1092, having expelled his lawful wife Bertha, he had taken in her place, Florus, who entered into marriage with the heiress of the lordship of Nangis in the archdiocese of Sens [Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, p. 572, and Expilly, Dict. géogr., vol. V, p. 15.]; so that, since Bl. Peter must have been born about the year 1120, he may easily have been the son of Florus, grandson of King Philip I, and so a near blood relation of Louis the Fat, Louis the Younger and Philip II, in whose reigns he himself lived. Had Amaury Duval noticed these things Hist. litt. de France, vol. XVI, p. 514., he would surely not have written that this royal family was invented by the monks (as here and there elsewhere), in order to add greater splendour to their order. He errs, however, when he affirms that it is handed down by all historians that Bl. Peter was begotten of the blood of the kings of Gaul; for not all, as Henriquez Fasciculus SS. Ordinis Cisterciensis, book II, dist. 22, p. 214., followed the Exordium Magnum as guide. For Helinand, monk of St. Mary of Froidmont, and those who followed him, Vincent of Beauvais, Peter de Natalibus and St. Antoninus, narrate that "he always concealed the sublimity of his family (as far as he could) by dissimulation"; which words were first used by Thomas de Radolio. Daunou thinks Hist. litt. de France, vol. XIV, p. 620. that the holy man was born in the castle of Marcigny near Cluny; because Du Chesne Hist. des card. français, vol. I, p. 151. supposed that he was the brother of Henry, cardinal of Albano, who was born in that place; but, as Daunou himself observes, this opinion is by no means certain; indeed I do not doubt that it will be disapproved by all who have read the life of Bl. Peter, the Exordium Magnum, Helinand and others, finding nowhere any trace of this brotherhood. It remains, therefore, that we follow either the biographer or the Exordium Magnum. The former affirms that Bl. Peter was an Italian and went to the Gallic lecture-halls for the sake of letters; Conrad of Eberbach that he was a kinsman of the king of the Franks, and therefore born at Nangis. The latter is preferable, since Conrad, having lived long at Clairvaux, could be taught the family of Bl. Peter much better than Thomas de Radolio, a stranger to Clairvaux (being a Benedictine monk), and who confesses that he could not attain to many things,

and in the first place that Bl. Peter was accustomed to conceal his sublime family, certainly from Thomas himself. Now of Igny * and his other seats.

[4] [At Igny he becomes monk and prior, then abbot at Vauclair, and afterwards at Igny.] Igny, not far from Reims, namely five leagues, was at that time a new plantation of the Cistercian order; since it was founded in the year 1126 by Rainald II, archbishop of Reims, with a most ample endowment, to be the fourth daughter of Clairvaux Gallia christ., vol. IX, col. 300.. It was governed first by Bl. Humbert until the year 1143 or 1144; then by Bl. Guerric. Under one or the other abbot Bl. Peter entered that house of asceticism, and at once was seen to emulate his most holy companions. Wherefore he was appointed prior of Igny. While he was discharging this office, the abbatial see of Vauclair, in the diocese of Reims, became vacant; which, a daughter of Igny, owed its life to Hugh, count of Roucy, founder of the monastery of Vauclair in the year 1148 Gallia christ., vol. IX, col. 312.. The first abbot had been Adam; the second Robert, who was sitting in the years 1159 and 1161; the third Bl. Peter himself, who was presiding in the year 1164 Ibid., col. cit.. How it then came about that he himself was created abbot of Igny the biographer narrates; but why did he not add the marks of time? For, as may be seen in the Gallia christiana Ibid., col. 301., the catalogue of the abbots of Igny in the twelfth century is very difficult. But, omitting useless discussion, these things are certain. After Bl. Guerric there sat there Godfrey, at least from the year 1159 until the year 1162, in which he was made abbot of Clairvaux. Then came Hugh, who could hold the helm of Igny only a few months. Bernard followed, who is said to have sat in the see of Igny seven years, yet not beyond the year 1169, in which year it is established from a diploma that Bl. Peter was abbot of Igny; which see he held until the year 1179, in which he received the crozier of Clairvaux. Therefore Videbatius and Herveus are to be struck out, whose names occur in an ancient list, and the latter of whom would have been abbot of Igny in the year 1171; and likewise Godfrey II, whose name is read in a copy of a charter of William I, archbishop of Reims, of the year 1177. For the opinion of the Maurists Ibid., col. cit. is not to be admitted, that Bl. Peter renounced the abbacy of Igny some time before he was called to the helm of Clairvaux; for that he discharged this office until the year 1179 is plainly manifest from the testimony of Thomas de Radolio.

[5] [He labours at the harvest; for his miracles he is recommended to Pope Alexander III.] While he was abbot he did not shrink from the heaviest labours of the harvest. Helinand, monk of Froidmont, is witness In Tissier, vol. VII, p. 203.: "At a certain harvest time," he says, "he had gone out with the brethren to the labour. While then the monks were resting in silence, the abbot saw three most beautiful women coming among the brethren, of whom one wonderfully excelled the others. Then the abbot went to meet them and said: 'Surely you are very bold, who come thus among us. Do you not know well that a woman must not come among us? among the brethren, that is, of our order?' Then she who was more illustrious than the others: 'I may well come among my own. For I am Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, who come to visit my reapers; and this is Mary Magdalene, and this is Mary of Egypt.' Hearing this, the abbot fell at her feet; and when he wished to embrace them, she vanished." Whether these things happened at Vauclair, at Igny or at Clairvaux is not clear. But while he was governing the abbey of Igny, Peter, cardinal priest of the title of St. Chrysogonus and apostolic legate in the Gauls, gave a notable testimony of his virtues. Alexander III had long since written to his legate a letter containing that he should inquire what persons from the kingdom of the Franks or from those parts could be promoted into the Roman church. To him about the year 1177 Cardinal Peter replied in a secret letter, indicating eleven names; among which were Henry, abbot of Clairvaux, and Bl. Peter, of whom he relates these things Duchesne, Franc. scriptt., vol. IV, p. 560; Migne, Patrol., vol. CC, col. 1371.: "Although the venerable man P., abbot of Igny, is not very lettered, yet since the Lord frequently deigns to work miracles through him, there is to be no doubt whatever of his holiness."

* Igny

§ II. On the spiritual and temporal administration of Bl. Peter when made abbot of Clairvaux.

Bl. Peter is elected abbot of Clairvaux and by no means archbishop of Toulouse. Let our guide now be the chronographer of Clairvaux, who from the year 1147 to 1192 diligently noted the affairs of his monastery Migne, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1248 ff.: "In the year of the Lord 1175, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of November, Gerard, abbot of Clairvaux, was martyred at Igny"; of which matter more occurs in the Life of Bl. Peter. "In the year of the Lord 1176, the abbot of Hautecombe, Dom Henry de Marcigny, promoted to be abbot of Clairvaux, presided for about four years … In the year of the Lord 1179 … in the month of March, Pope Alexander III held a great council at Rome in the Lateran palace; in which council the abbot of Clairvaux, Dom Henry, was made cardinal bishop of Albano. And in the same year, on the 1st of November, King Philip was crowned at Reims, and reigned about forty-four years. There was elected," certainly after the 1st day of November, "as abbot of Clairvaux Peter the One-eyed, abbot of Igny, whose life we have. He is found to have presided for seven incomplete years" — whence elsewhere he is said to have been six years at Clairvaux [D'Arbois de Jubainville, Études sur les Abb. Cist., pp. 353 and 355; Lalore, Le trésor de Clairvaux, p. 236.]. Daunou suggests Hist. litt. de France, vol. XIV, p. 621. that at this time Bl. Peter refused to accept the archbishopric of Toulouse, to which he had been elected; not rightly. Henry de Marcigny, the predecessor of Bl. Peter and presently bishop of Albano, and not Bl. Peter, was elected to this see in the year 1178; which thereafter was vacant for some time [Compare d'Attichy, Flores hist. cardin., vol. I, p. 203; Gallia christ., vol. XIII, cols. 18 and 19.]. The letter of Peter of Celle, VIII of book VIII, otherwise LXXX of book II Migne, vol. CCII, col. 527 ff., vol. CC, col. 1383 and vol. CCI, col. 1400., in which he asks of Pope Alexander III that the burden of the archbishopric of Toulouse be not imposed on his most beloved brother the abbot of Clairvaux, and those others of the community of Clairvaux (which are read among the letters of Bl. Peter, nos. XIII and XIV), in which the monks ask the same Alexander and the king of the Franks not to permit their abbot to be taken from them and made bishop of Toulouse, those, I say, do not pertain to Bl. Peter, but to Henry his predecessor.

[7] He is slow of speech, and his appearance does not please everyone. The new abbot of Clairvaux did not please everyone, some saying that he was more severe than was just, others finding fault with his outward appearance. Thomas de Radolio narrates that he was indeed most severe towards himself, but kind to others, and so did not shrink from dispensations. His appearance was by no means handsome, as Thomas relates in many places; he was short of stature, lean, and had already become one-eyed at Vauclair. But let Helinand, monk of Froidmont, be heard, who contracted Thomas's words: "He wished," he says Chronic. book XLIX, in Tissier, Bibl. Cisterc., vol. VII, pp. 200 and 201., "to seem worthless, not to be proclaimed humble. Worldly graces he neither had nor sought to have, such as polished eloquence, comeliness of person, industry in worldly business, a popular liberality. He possessed inward goods; in outward things he rejoiced to be obscure. Nor was he as obscure and worthless as he thought; but with those who thought rightly he was very venerable and lovable … And to very many who did not know him intimately he seemed simple and dull, because he was slow of speech and, when he spoke, like a layman, or one speaking Latin very badly." Nevertheless, since at that time the zeal for virtues and the love of discipline still flourished greatly among the monks of Clairvaux, these complaints about their new abbot were those of few.

[8] yet by most he is made much of for the virtues of his soul, What and how great he was in the eyes of most of the monks of Clairvaux (for he experienced not a few adversaries as well) may be learned from chapter XXXI of distinction II of the Exordium Magnum Ibid., vol. I, p. 76 f.: "OF THE VENERABLE MAN, DOM PETER, EIGHTH ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX. After the universal mother, namely the holy Roman church, which has the plenitude of power, had taken to share in her solicitude Dom Henry, formerly abbot of Clairvaux, when the abbots and brethren of Clairvaux were seeking most earnestly whom they should substitute in his place, there quickly presented itself from near at hand the most fragrant sweet odour of the virtues of Dom Peter, abbot of Igny, of whom we made mention above (dist. II, ch. 27 and 28); who had obtained this special grace from the men of his time, that he was proclaimed holy and good, chosen out of thousands. Him, therefore, as a worthy successor of worthy men, they elected with unanimous consent eighth abbot of Clairvaux; worthy, I say, who, ascending to a higher place in recompense for the reverence of his humility, should be appointed minister of the temple of the Lord, which is built of living stones. Of which it is said through Ezekiel, that 'in eight steps was its ascent'; the Holy Spirit signifying this, that by the eight steps of the principal virtues one ascends to the eighth of eternal beatitude. This servant of God, although before taking up the government of the church of Clairvaux he had been held perfect and holy in the judgement of all, nevertheless, as though his past life had been of no moment, began to stretch himself to a new contest; striving in every way to give to his voice the voice of power, that is, not to destroy by deed what he taught by mouth; to show all just and holy things by deeds rather than by words; to keep also the footsteps of the preceding fathers continually before his eyes; especially of our most holy father Bernard, whose unworthy vicar he judged himself.

[9] [especially for his gentleness, his spiritual care of the monks, his self-denial and humility.] "And while he flourished in the other virtues, he was so adorned with the grace of gentleness that in his bearing, in his gait, in his face, in his speech nothing else shone forth but the signs of holy humility, which had rooted itself deeply in his heart. Finally, having committed almost the whole administration of the house in temporal things to the cellarers and providers of the same house, he resolved himself to be free for God alone and to attend to the salvation of souls. For whenever he could be unoccupied, he sat alone in silence in the parlour, his face cast down to the earth; so that if any of the younger or weaker brethren had been struck by a multitude of temptations, or weighed down by any trouble whatever, he might have free opportunity of going to him; and him too at once, according to the grace given him, with saving

admonitions and the sweetest words of edification, he strengthened for the endurance of the contest undertaken for Christ. For the rest, how rigid a chastiser of his body he was appears sufficiently from this, that he was never clothed with two tunics and two cowls at once, but either with one cowl and two tunics, or with one tunic and two cowls, even in the harshest cold. He also very rarely used boots. To frugality and thrift he gave himself so far that, using even the common foods most sparingly, he proved himself to seek some kind of sustenance for the frail body rather than to indulge the incitements of gluttony. He always had it in his heart, and frequently on his lips, that he was unworthy, that he was insufficient to rule so great a house; that he was less fit and less discreet for one to whom so great a multitude of abbots and brethren from all parts of the world ought to look.

[10] King Philip II promises him that he will be the champion of Clairvaux. "Whence also he is said to have said once to the king of the Franks, to whom he was related: 'See, my lord king, that I, so small a manikin, having no standing at all, poor too in mind and reason, have undertaken to rule so sublime a house; and I fear gravely lest perhaps through my imprudence and insufficiency the state of Clairvaux, which up to now has remained inviolate, be shaken.' The king, much delighted with his humility, answered him: 'Why, lord father, do you cast yourself down into such faint-heartedness as to wish to desert the care of the souls which, with God as author, you have undertaken to rule? Do not, I pray, do so; but, according to the grace bestowed on you by the Lord, do not neglect to exercise vigilantly the care of the Lord's sheepfold. Be you only abbot within, in the things which pertain to the honour of God and the salvation of souls; I will be abbot outside, in all things which concern the advantage of your house, by protecting your possessions and rendering them free from every exaction, and by striking with the vengeance of royal punishment everyone who with malign will shall presume to disturb you in any way.' The most pure and God-pleasing conversation of this blessed man in holy religion is indicated more manifestly by that glorious revelation which we have set forth above (ch. XXVIII); through which he was worthy to see and hear, not only with spiritual but also with bodily eyes and ears, the glorification of Gerard, martyr of Christ, formerly abbot of Clairvaux. How abundantly, indeed, he was suffused with the sweetness of heavenly grace, and how far from ineffective an intercessor he proved for the wicked and sinners, that wonderful and truly memorable conversion at the last of Baldwin, a knight and most wicked sinner, manifestly declares."

[11] He goes before the most holy monks by example: After Conrad of Eberbach has narrated this conversion from the letter, which is also inserted in the Life, he proceeds thus: "But if before taking up the government of Clairvaux he is recognized to have been so perfect" (for when he was abbot of Igny he converted Baldwin), "after he merited to become pastor and ruler of this religious house, from which (as blessed Bernard testifies in one of his sermons) God gathers every year the best and most precious revenues of souls, shall we think that nothing of merits accrued to him? Surely it accrued; because he heaped up his former religious life with later holiness by manifold increases of virtues; so chastising in himself the restless occupations of Martha that he embraced with the whole affection of his mind the quiet of Mary through the study of sacred contemplation; so teaching his subjects to walk the strait and narrow way that he showed that the law which he imposed on others was first to be kept in his own holy conversation." Nor is there any doubt that he was a truly pious man, religious and a pattern of the monastic virtues; for which reason he is called by the Magdeburg Centuriators Century XII, ch. 10, col. 1653. a notable hypocrite, who worshipped the God Maozim and made himself the intercessor of others; inasmuch as he celebrated Mass for the dead and did many other things after the example of St. Bernard, whom nevertheless Luther could not but call a saint. But these things belong to the sixteenth century. Now, however, what sober man among the Protestants approves these abuses?

[12] How greatly the zeal for virtues and discipline then flourished at Clairvaux. But to return to Conrad, he would not close his book without first praising again the outstanding discipline which he had seen at Clairvaux in the times of Bl. Peter and his successor Warner. "After," he says [Recapitulatio, in Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. I, p. 245, and in the Exordia Ord. Cist. according to the Pamplona copy published in the year 1871, p. 491.], "that bright Valley had sent its first and most illustrious abbot, St. Bernard, after thirty-one years to the palace of the supreme Emperor, … through his holy successors, of whose virtues we have comprised some things above, the vigour of holy religion was preserved in that same glorious house and endured unimpaired, as in the times of the venerable and God-worthy man Dom Peter, and of his successor Dom Warner, afterwards bishop of Langres, by the favour of divine grace it was granted us to prove. For the Lord is our witness that, when at Clairvaux we were subject to the claustral disciplines and the observances of the sacred Order, we saw there so much of religion and gravity, so much of purity and seemliness, that very often, exulting in the grace of God, we said in our hearts that if our lawgiver himself, the most blessed father Benedict, whose Rule we have professed, were living in the flesh and ruling that holy community himself, the institutes of the sacred Order could not have been observed more strictly in that place. For negligence, or levity, or dissoluteness, which is the ruin of the Order, had no place there at all; but a holy emulation of flourishing virtues and of brotherly charity was vigorous there; and what is more wonderful, there was no need for the prelates to compel individuals to these things by any severer chastisement, because that holy house held, as though transmitted to it by hereditary succession, the avoiding of vices and the applying of itself to virtues." And then he reviews the names of some most holy monks who had flourished at Clairvaux at this time.

[13] Less versed in temporal affairs, In administering temporal affairs, however, the blessed man was much less versed, preferring to leave them to the cellarers and providers, himself attending almost wholly to the salvation of the monks. In which he is surely to be praised, provided that he kept the officials subject to himself, demanded accounts, and governed them. But he seems to have been averse in mind from this stewardship, and to have made less of it. How far this befits one who has not the ownership of things but only their administration, let others judge. Hear meanwhile Caesarius of Heisterbach, in distinction VI of the Dialogue of miracles, of whose chapter XI this is the title and text Tissier, vol. II, p. 170.: "How much the simplicity of Dom Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, availed with his adversaries. Dom Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, one-eyed from sickness, a holy man in name and in fact, an imitator of Peter the apostle and a son of the dove, because he was of great and pure simplicity. With him and his brethren a certain knight was contending over certain goods. A day was fixed on which the knight should either come to terms with the abbot or enter into suit before a judge. The knight came on the day with his friends; the abbot also came, taking with him only a certain simple monk. They came, however, not on horses but on foot. And since the abbot was a venerable lover of peace and poverty, and a despiser of transitory things, he said to the knight before all: 'You are a Christian man; if you say on your word of truth that these goods over which there is contention are yours and ought to be yours, your testimony will suffice me well.' He, caring more about obtaining the goods than about the word of truth, answered: 'In truth I say that these goods are mine.' To which the abbot: 'Let them then be yours; I for the rest will not claim them again.' And so he returned to Clairvaux. The knight too, returning to his wife as a victor, when he had recounted to her in order what the abbot had said and what he himself had done, she, terrified at words so pure and so simple, answered: 'You have acted deceitfully against a holy abbot; divine vengeance will punish us. Unless you restore its goods to the monastery, you will lack my company.' Terrified, he came to Clairvaux, renounced the goods of his own accord, and asked pardon for the undue vexation of the holy abbot."

[14] he nevertheless seeks remedies of law from Pope Alexander III, Yet do not believe that Bl. Peter was entirely supine in the management of these affairs. For bad times had already come for the monks. Kings, dukes, counts, knights, bishops, with wonderful liberality, had given to St. Bernard and his disciples muddy valleys, impassable forests and barren deserts. These they, by the labour of thirty or fifty years, had changed into fertile fields, pleasant meadows, pastures. When those nobles or their descendants saw this happy conversion, they repented of their former liberality, and strove in every way, even with false testimonies, to rescind the old donations, or to demand them back by a feigned action of loan or deposit, so that they might pour out the extorted money in luxury and revelling. Bl. Peter was tormented in mind, understanding that he and his brethren were labouring for buffoons and gluttons [Tissier, Biblioth. Cist., vol. III, letter I, p. 264; Migne, Patrol. latina, vol. CC, cols. 1381 and 1382.]. Wherefore before the 30th day of August of the year 1181, on which Pope Alexander III departed from the living, he sent him two letters; in one of which he complains that the Cistercian order is harassed by seculars with lawsuits, plunder of goods and frauds; against which evils he implores help: "We pray," he says Ibid., loc. cit., "that the tenor of the ancient custom be restored to us by your privilege: namely, that if anyone shall have demanded from any of our monasteries a thing not due or doubtful, the abbot of the place, being required at the peril of his own conscience, and the monk or lay brother, ordered by virtue of obedience, should allege the truth of the matter; and thus the decision of their doubtful cause should stand on their word of truth. If you do this, you preserve our rights to us without injury to others. But if perhaps this way pleases you less, find some other remedy whatever, which, when it has removed perjury from the cupidity of the wicked, may make the loss of undue payment cease from us."

[15] which were scarcely suitable to avert the plunder of goods and lawsuits; Pope Alexander certainly could not grant such a privilege, contrary to all law and equity. Since, however, some remedy was necessary, Bl. Peter did not lose heart. Wherefore he sent a letter Letter IX, in Migne, vol. CCI, col. 1404. to Cardinal Henry, his predecessor, and to Bernered, not long before abbot of SS. Crispin and Crispinian at Soissons, then cardinal bishop of Palestrina, begging their help: "Our church," he says, "is placed, as you know, among untamed peoples, stubborn with Gallic boldness; who, while they squander their own through intemperance, plunder and prey upon the property of others through violence. And therefore through the mediation of your solicitude we ask that a rescript of the apostolic see be extended to us, by which there may be established for the archbishops and bishops of our land a general mandate

authority, that they do full justice to us concerning our malefactors, and that no absolution go forth afterwards upon them, unless worthy satisfaction precede. Let villages, towns and cities cease from participation in the sacred mystery as long as the plunder of Blessed Remigius remains there; so that indemnity for the things removed may come to us, while the solemnity of the divine offices is forbidden to them." Certainly the bishops did not lack authority to punish those depredations with interdict; but since it did not seem safe to them to use their power, it was hard for the pontiff to compel them.

[16] yet readily yielding. In those things, however, which he could prudently do, Alexander did not fail the monastery of Clairvaux; and so in another letter Ibid., letter II, vol. CC, col. 1382. Bl. Peter thanks the same pontiff for benefits conferred on the Cistercian Order, chiefly because he had ordered that the monastery of Balerne, a daughter of Clairvaux in the diocese of Besançon, should win its cause unless the adversary demonstrated a forty-year prescription; asking then that the suit be finished quickly, since the plaintiff was striving to drag the matter out so that, on the death of the commanding pontiff, the mandate should expire. Bl. Peter certainly hated lawsuits; wherefore, when a merchant complained of the brethren of Chéry, he wrote to the abbot Letter VII, in Migne, vol. CCI, col. 1396.: "Since he asserts that in the purchase of cattle which he had bought from your brethren he was cheated to the sum of almost three hundred shillings, we wish that your discretion inquire diligently into the matter, and, if it finds what is asserted to be true, make good the loss of the aforesaid N. by reasonable compensation." For, as he says there, "no small progress in charity is shown when the gain of brotherly peace is preferred to private profits."

[17] [Bl. Peter, accompanied by other abbots, visits the monasteries of the line of Clairvaux or has them visited by others.] After Caesarius has related those things above, "This blessed man," he adds, "in the times of our elders visited in our cloister," namely Heisterbach or the Valley of St. Peter, in the diocese of Cologne; but he also visited many other monasteries of the filiation of Clairvaux, "having with him certain abbots of his order, going through the neighbouring regions," as the biographer says. Witness too is Herbert, abbot of Mores, using these words Acta SS., vol. IV of August, p. 330.: "When recently the venerable abbot of Clairvaux Peter was visiting his monasteries, which in the province of Reims, by the breathing of the Spirit of God, flourish most beautifully, we too, having set out with him, came one day together with him to the monastery of Vauclair"; and then he proceeds to narrate that he found there the book of Miracles, or the sixth of the Life of St. Bernard; and that it, having been plunged in water and shut for some time in a wet saddle-bag, was afterwards found dry and uncorrupted. The monasteries which he could not visit himself he took care should be visited by others in his name. Certainly he made Herbert, abbot of Sobrado in Spain, visitor of the abbey of Moreruela, as Herbert himself is witness: "It is proved," he says [Ms. codex of the thirteenth century, no. 4883 of the Royal Library of Brussels; compare Manrique, Ann. Cist. at the year 1180, ch. II, no. 5.], "to look to the glory of the eternal king whenever something gloriously done by him is spread abroad by a subject soldier. Wherefore I, Herbert, abbot of Sobrado, desire that the things which happened in our presence should come to the knowledge of many for the edification of hearers. In the year, then, from the Incarnation of the Lord 1184, by the injunction of the lord of Clairvaux, I was bound in the parts of the Spains to visit a certain abbey of the Cistercian order, named Moreruela; in which there happened under our eyes what we attest in order." Thus far Herbert, whom Manrique calls Hymbert and whose visitation he ties to the year 1180. Before the year 1218 Herbert is not found in Yepes's catalogue of the abbots of Sobrado.

§ III. He visits the monasteries. The murder of the abbot of Trois-Fontaines. The settlement of a dispute between the monks of Trois-Fontaines and of Cheminon.

[While in the year 1181 he visits Trois-Fontaines, the monk Simon kills Abbot Alard. Bl. Peter's letters to the abbot of Cîteaux] But Bl. Peter himself also made many other visitations, which we shall refer to their years. First of all, in the spring of the year 1181 he was with the abbots of Ripatorium, of Chalade, of Haute-Fontaine, of Orval and of Cherlieu, in the monastery of Trois-Fontaines in the diocese of Châlons; which, the first daughter of Clairvaux, had been endowed in the year 1116 and occupied by monks two years later. And as, when he was abbot of Igny, he had been witness of the death of Bl. Gerard, abbot of Clairvaux, cruelly slain by Hugh de Bazoches in the monastery of Igny, so in the monastery of Trois-Fontaines he saw Abbot Alard killed by a certain Simon, his monk, and dripping with blood. The time we have learned from the Chronicle of Clairvaux, where these things are read Migne, Patrol. latina, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1249.: "In the year of the Lord 1180 (old style), at Trois-Fontaines, at the time of the visitation which Abbot Peter of Clairvaux was making, at the entry of March, it happened that the venerable man Abbot Alard was killed by a certain hypocrite monk." What the blessed man both experienced and did at that time he himself wrote to William of Toulouse, who, twice formerly abbot of Savigny in the diocese of Avranches, was created abbot of Cîteaux in the year 1179 and retained this office to the year 1181 Gallia Christiana, vol. XI, col. 546, vol. IV, cols. 988 and 989.. "Steeped," he says Tissier, Bibliotheca Cisterciensis, vol. III, p. 266., "in bitterness of spirit and touched inwardly with grief of heart, what I am to say to you, father, or what I am to do, I do not know, sated with heavy affliction and misery. But you, from the things which shall be written, attend and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. For a sharper blow has lately torn open the scar that had closed over the past wound; so that I who lately lamented the parricidal funeral in the death of a father am compelled now also to deplore the same in the only-begotten of Clairvaux. And to the greater heap of my miseries, each was in a manner extinguished between my hands, each slain in my presence; so that the sword of this sorrow might pierce the soul of the bereaved old man the more cruelly, the closer it struck me, wretch, and the more pressingly it stabbed from near at hand. For it happened, a few days ago, that we were performing the office of visitation in the house of Trois-Fontaines, which is the first among our daughters; and behold, the abbot of that place enters the sacristy of the church, where he had lately erected an altar of blessed Bernard, to perform as usual a private prayer, so that after this, the solemnities of Mass having been celebrated, he might be restored more devoutly to us and to the pressing business. And while he lingered there and stood with the angels of God before the Lord, Satan also was present among them, permitted to stretch out his hand against him; so that that most innocent father received death there where he was seeking the author of life. For there entered after him a man of Belial, Simon by name, who, having shut the door so that he might kill in secret, attacks his father the aforesaid abbot, swinging the edge of an axe at his head; nor did he desist from hacking his face and crown until that father, no longer wretched but still pitiable, crowned with laurel in his own blood, breathed out his spirit into the hands of Him to whom he was praying. After this, one hour having passed, the most cruel parricide went away and did not fear to celebrate Mass, so that he might take to himself the devotion of the priesthood as a veil for his crime. For a long time, amid the tumult of the mourning and assembling monks, the parricide lay hidden unknown; although the voice of the blood flowing without intermission showed the man of blood, whenever he came near the bier, by a kind of dripping testimony. Whence afterwards, being put to account for these and certain other conjectural signs, he confesses himself guilty of the crime committed; worthy indeed to obtain no pardon, who found in him no cause of death. And behold now, best father, he is held taken and chained in bonds; for whom we most instantly supplicate you that, on a fixed day, after counsel and deliberation had with the brethren, such a penalty may be determined against him as ought to put an end to the occasion of like presumption."

[19] and his letter to the monks of Trois-Fontaines on the same matter. Shortly afterwards he communicated to the monks of Trois-Fontaines what William of Toulouse, with the chapter of Cîteaux, had determined concerning the sacrilegious Simon: "Further," he says Ibid., Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. CCI, col. 1396., "concerning that miserable parricide they have resolved by settled counsel that, although not only his presence but even his memory renews horror and grief alike, nevertheless, to avoid greater scandal, you should have him kept under strict custody until the (general) chapter, sustaining the wretch's life with bread and water only, except that on three days of the week your humanity may bestow on him some pottage. For we and you must beware lest, while we wish that he should not escape from our bonds, the violence of hunger extinguish him in our hands." This custody is the more opportunely commended because Hugh de Bazoches had somewhat earlier escaped from Igny. That these unspeakable crimes were committed in Cistercian houses of asceticism is surely not wonderful if one considers the condition of human weakness. Everywhere at that time there were most holy monks in this most severe Order; discipline was vigorous, piety flourished, the hard and penitent life was in honour. But since the Cistercian monasteries were then reckoned penitential institutes, even most criminal men were readily admitted, so that they might expiate their past crimes by fasts, abstinences, long-continued prayers. Among these were many nobles, most of them fierce and bold by nature. Although divine grace subjected their disposition to the yoke of Christ, it could not but happen that sometimes their former vices were provoked and that they blazed up especially against their superiors. Let us wonder, then, rather that so many sinners in those houses of asceticism came to the highest holiness, than that some dogs returned to their vomit.

[20] He makes peace between the monks of Trois-Fontaines and of Cheminon. At the end of that latter letter Bl. Peter adds: "But as for what remains to be done in your affairs, behold, we are at home, ready for every help of consolation and peace, when the time of counsel shall have come before you." By which he seems to indicate the dispute which had arisen between the monasteries of Trois-Fontaines and Cheminon, and which he had lately resolved to settle. Namely, for the foundation of each there had been given in the year 1116 a part of the wood of Luiz, the boundaries of each not having been rightly defined by Hugh, count of Vitry. Hence discords; which in the year 1181 Bl. Peter attempted to settle. "Peter, abbot of Clairvaux," so it is read in the judgement Gallia christiana, vol. IX, col. 958., "decreed that the pastures be common between the brethren of Trois-Fontaines and the brethren of Cheminon, except only that the brethren of Cheminon shall not gather acorns nor have them carried off, save what the pigs eat in the beech-wood or oak-wood. If any herdsman shall have broken the peace knowingly or maliciously, a lay brother of Trois-Fontaines, indeed, set over a villa or rustic estate, shall be publicly beaten in the chapter of Cheminon on the first Sunday, and on that day shall eat on the ground in the same house; and a lay brother of Cheminon shall make the same satisfaction in the house of Trois-Fontaines. Witnesses of the peace concluded: Harduin of Ripatorium, Eustace of Chalade, Giraldus of Haute-Fontaine, Stephen of

Orval, Hellinus of Cherlieu, abbots, in the year 1180"; which is before Easter of the year 1181. But in the following year a new dispute arose, because the monks of Cheminon had built a larger tile-works. Wherefore, to correct this, Bl. Peter sent to Cheminon Deus-Amicus, abbot in the Argonne, with G., prior of the same house, and Peter, abbot of Vaux-Lucent (Vallis-Lucens), and the abbot of Ripatorium. They answered that they stood by the judgement on this matter given by the abbot of Clairvaux and confirmed by the chapter of Cîteaux; adding that they had asked pardon, and had appealed to the judgement of the abbot of Clairvaux, to whose will they submitted themselves. At length in the year 1183 the general chapter so sanctioned the peace that the monks of Cheminon should build a simple tile-works Ibid., same vol., cols. 958 and 959.

§ IV. The deeds of Bl. Peter from the year 1181 to the year 1184. Cardinal Henry. The abbey of Bakony. The visitation of the monasteries of the diocese of Troyes and of Normandy.

[When Henry, formerly abbot of Clairvaux and then cardinal and legate, deposed the archbishops of Lyons and Narbonne,] Thus the Chronicle of Clairvaux proceeds In Migne, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1249 f.: "In the year of the Lord 1181 there died at Clairvaux the venerable Eskil, archbishop of the Danes, having taken the habit of the order; who had long stayed at Clairvaux, and had substituted for himself an archbishop in Denmark, Absalon by name. And the bishop of Albano, Henry, not long since abbot of Clairvaux, sent as legate into Burgundy, deposed two archbishops, of Lyons and of Narbonne; took by a miracle the castle of the heretics which is called Vallis *; presided over the general chapter at Cîteaux, and in the following year returns to the curia in the time of Pope Lucius." In the Fasciculus of the Saints of the Cistercian Order, book I, dist. 30, is read the Life of Eskil, which our predecessors passed over at the 10th day of April, because the archbishop of Lund never seemed to have been publicly venerated. Although Bl. Peter could not but have much intercourse with him, his name is nevertheless not mentioned there. But I strongly suspect that Henry is the legate whom Bl. Peter is read, in chapter XXV of his Life, to have followed for some time. That Henry is said to have deposed the archbishop of Lyons is a difficult passage [Compare Gallia christiana, vol. IV, col. 130; D. Bouquet, Recueil, etc., vol. XVIII, p. 745.]; which is also found in Alberic, monk of Trois-Fontaines, and troubles many; but the knot is by no means untied by Baluze, who judged that the deposition of Peter of Narbonne and Achard of Arles, pronounced in the year 1080 in the synod of Avignon, was referred to the times of Henry the legate. For the chronographer of Clairvaux was contemporary, writing only things which he had seen or heard, and who could by no means have erred in narrating the deposition of an archbishop of his own ecclesiastical province; nor is he alone, since the Tablets of the tombs of Clairvaux agree with him In Henriquez, Fasciculus SS., vol. I, p. 366.. Since Guichard died in the middle of the year 1180, and about a year later Jean aux Belles-Mains had not yet been translated to the see of Lyons, it could easily have happened that meanwhile another was elected, who, because he held the see of Lyons for a very short time (being deposed by Henry the legate), left no memory of himself [Manrique, Annales Cist., at the year 1182, ch. 2; Pagi, Critice Baronii, at the year 1181, no. 7; Vaissette, Hist. du Languedoc, vol. III, p. 58.]. But Bl. Peter is not read to have had any part in these things.

[22] [Bl. Peter does not seem to have given his opinion concerning the successor of either,] On the other hand, whether he was a counsellor in the affairs of Narbonne, it seems, may be asked. For it is most certain that Pons d'Arsac was deprived of office by Cardinal Henry, and that the election of a successor came into his power by compromise. Witness is Lucius III himself, in the letter which he issued at Velletri on the 17th day before the Kalends of June in the year of the Incarnation 1182 to the chapter of Narbonne: "Our venerable brothers," he says [Gallia christ., vol. VI, instr., col. 46; Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCI, col. 1170.], "the bishops of Maguelone and Béziers, coming to us, suggested to our presence that, when your church was destitute not only of an archbishop but also of other persons, you promised under oath that you would obey without any contradiction the mandate of our venerable brother the bishop of Albano, who was then discharging the office of legation in those parts, concerning the ordering of that church. But because the same bishop returned to the apostolic see before he had ordered your church, we, wishing to provide that no inconvenience should come to the same church through lack of persons, gave command to the aforesaid bishop that, as had been compromised to him by you under the religion of an oath, he should order the already mentioned church. He, with the counsel of the aforesaid bishops, filled the three vacant archdeaconries and the sacristy in that church with suitable persons, and instituted a certain canon." Although, then, the church of Narbonne was destitute of an archbishop, and Henry the legate had returned to the apostolic see before he had ordered it, two men nevertheless, as it seems, called themselves bishops elect: Jean aux Belles-Mains, bishop of Poitiers, who on the Roman journey was elected to the see of Lyons, which he soon ascended; and Bernard Gaucelin, bishop of Béziers, who for several years called himself in the Gauls elect of Narbonne, but was confirmed by Pope Lucius III only in the year 1184 Gallia christ., vol. IV, cols. 130 and 131, and vol. VI, cols. 56 and 57.. Since, then, this election was doubtful, and so seemed null to Henry and the canons (although John and Bernard each defended his own election), the legate was chosen as judge by compromise. Wherefore it could be contended that the reply of Bl. Peter, which is reported by the biographer Thomas, ch. XXV, no. 51, belongs here; especially since Bernard was not permitted to ascend the see of Narbonne before the third year, although his competitor, placed on the throne of Lyons in the year 1181 or the following, had ceded all his right to the see of Narbonne. But an insuperable difficulty stands in the way. That man, namely, who was made bishop against the opinion of Bl. Peter was still living in the year 1204; but Bernard died in the year 1191. Then his competitor, Jean aux Belles-Mains, could not have been called a false penny, since he spent the last years of his life most holily at Clairvaux, never blamed before.

[23] but to Garmundus and Hugh de Noyers, contending over the bishopric of Auxerre. Wherefore I inspected all the catalogues of the bishops of the Gauls, searching for a bishop elected in the year 1181 or 1182, whose election had been ambiguous, who was more illustrious for nobility than for virtues, and who was still living in the year 1204; and I found no other than Hugh de Noyers, bishop of Auxerre. Hear Robert of Auxerre, a diligent and contemporary writer Chronographia, fol. 87, and in D. Bouquet, vol. XVIII, p. 250.: "In that same year (1182) the canons of Auxerre elected as prelate Garmundus (Clément), fourth abbot of Pontigny, not so much by his own merit as by the anxious zeal of his brother Giles, then exalted by the king above the others at court. But when certain of the persons of the church had resisted, both parties therefore set out for Rome, and were detained there a long time, because, many reasons being alleged on both sides, the business could not be ended. But meanwhile, a very great mortality raging there, Garmundus dies, and so the contention is ended." Yet Cardinal Henry ratified the election of Garmundus; which could scarcely have happened unless he himself was the judge by compromise. This approval is declared by an instrument made at Poitiers on the Kalends of April of the year 1182 and published by Martène Ampliss. collect., vol. VII, col. 91.; in which it is read that G., elect of Auxerre, deliberated with Cardinal Henry himself over the controversy which was raging between the abbots of Sainte-Croix of Bordeaux and of Saint-Sever concerning the church of Blessed Mary of Soulac. In the Deeds of the bishops of Auxerre In Labbe, Bibl. Mss., vol. I, p. 470. there is no memory of Garmundus, none of the troubles which afflicted the church of Auxerre after the death of William de Toucy. In these Deeds Hugh de Noyers is said to have been taken from treasurer to be bishop about the year of the Lord 1183, about the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary; but in the brief Chronicle of Auxerre In Bouquet, vol. XII, p. 300.: "1083. The lord Bishop Hugh was ordained or enthroned Compare Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 196. on the 4th day before the Ides of March, and consecrated on the morrow"; so that the omission of the election was plainly deliberate. But whatever this may be, on the testimony of Robert, Garmundus did not much deserve to be made bishop; and Hugh de Noyers, sprung from a most noble family, was a soldier rather than a bishop, extorting money from his subjects In Labbe, Bibl. Mss., vol. I, p. 471., unjustly arrogating to himself the forests of the church Ibid., p. 481. and perpetrating many other things which do not become a bishop; he lived until the 29th of September of the year 1206. And so all the things which the biographer Thomas has easily fit him.

[24] In the year 1182 he sends out a colony to Bakony in Hungary. "In the year of the Lord 1182 a community was sent from Clairvaux to found the abbey of Boccan in Hungary"; in which matter, known from the Chronicle of Clairvaux [Migne, Patrologia, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1250. Compare Manrique, Annales Cist., at the year 1182, ch. V, nos. 5 and 6; Timon, Epitome rerum Hungar., p. 23.], Bl. Peter certainly had no small part. This abbey is situated in the diocese of Veszprém, in the forest of Bakony [Jongelinus, Notitia abb. ord. Cist., book IV, p. 43. Bombardi, Topogr. Hung., pp. 140 and 141.]. Because the wedding veil of Gisela, widow of King St. Stephen, is preserved in its treasury, its foundation is ascribed to this queen Korabinsky, Geographisches Lexikon von Ungarn, p. 854.; but wrongly, since Gisela lived in the eleventh century. Fessler attributes the same foundation to Béla III Die Geschichten der Ungern, vol. II, p. 318.; I hardly dare trust a writer by no means accurate in this place. Pope Innocent III wrote to its abbot a decretal letter on the penalty of those who committed the crime of forgery. In the middle of the eighteenth century Bombardi wrote of the Cistercians of Bakony Topographia Hungariae, p. 141: "These, out of the old ruins (in which a basilica of unusual size, sacred to the divine Trinity, and therefore furnished with only three but very large windows and as many columns, can be measured to this day), are building a new dwelling in the wastes of Zirc." More recent writers think that the monastery which arose at Bakony was after some years transferred to the place Zircz *. But some have supposed that the monasteries of Bakony and Zirc are entirely different. In the year 1786 there were 16 monks Korabinsky, p. 854.. These, long since torn from Clairvaux their mother, communicated with the Bohemian Cistercians; but in the year 1815 public authority broke these bonds of obedience. The buildings, estate and gardens are praised very highly Neueste Beschreibung des Königreiches Ungarn, p. 287, Leipzig, 1832.. In the year

1855 Márton Hosszú was abbot General Schematismus des Ungarischen Klerus, p. 214.. It has pleased us to discourse a little more accurately about this monastery, both because Bl. Peter sent out this one colony, and because Manrique, the historian of the Order, did not even know where in the world it stood.

[25] Then he visits the monasteries of the diocese of Troyes, In the same year or at the beginning of the following, the blessed man visited the monasteries of the diocese of Troyes with John of Beaulieu and Theodoric of Boulancourt, abbots; certainly with them he subscribed the charter by which Simon, lord of Beaufort, gave to the Premonstratensian monastery of the Chapel of St. Mary at Planches, in the diocese of Troyes, the grange of Flacenia, the rent and the land-tax, with the approval of Agnes his wife and of his brother Hugh, lord of Brecae Histoire de la maison de Dreux, proofs, p. 21.. The year 1182 is indicated, but not the time of the year, so that this charter may easily belong to the first months of the year 1183.

[26] and writes to the archbishop of Mainz. To the end of the year 1183 is to be referred letter IV of Bl. Peter to the archbishop of Mainz, Conrad of Wittelsbach. He had been elected to the see of Mainz in the year 1160; but because he had gone off into the Gauls to Pope Alexander III, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa had taken care to substitute for him Christian of Buch, who followed the party of the antipope Octavian. Conrad was nevertheless consecrated by Alexander cardinal priest, bishop of Sabina and archbishop of Mainz; but somewhat later he was made archbishop of Salzburg, yet in such a way that when Christian died at the end of the month of August he himself again ascended the see of Mainz Gallia Christ., vol. V, col. 475 ff.. Bl. Peter accordingly wrote to him with congratulations Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. III, p. 265.: "After the victory won over the ancient hostility, by which in your hands holy mother Church, schism being vanquished, has triumphed; after the laborious contests of proven faith, through which by you the strength of the empire and the glory of the imperial majesty shone forth, there was not lacking to you an angel of Satan to strike the triumphant one with the blows of his malice." And after more things of this kind he proceeds thus: "And since divine grace has restored you to the expectation of our sons of Eberbach, may your presence, we beseech you, much more now cherish them and that house itself, which up to now has been preserved under the shadow of your name and has prospered in all things, and not permit it to be harmed or disturbed in anything … Especially do we commend to your benevolence our most dear brother, and your most devoted son, Arnold, abbot of the same place, who succeeded Dom G. (omitted in the catalogues) on his return from there … But if anyone shall have suggested anything untoward to you in disparagement of him, let iniquity rather lie to itself, and let the mouth of him who speaks iniquitous things be overwhelmed by your rebukes."

[27] [Pope Lucius III orders him to see to the writing of the Life of St. Peter of Tarentaise.] On the 9th day of December 1183 Pope Lucius III sent to Bl. Peter and to his namesake the abbot of Cîteaux a letter already published in this our Work Acta SS., vol. II of May, p. 322.. On the 8th day of May of the year 1175, namely, St. Peter, from a Cistercian monk archbishop of Tarentaise, had died; and since he was illustrious for miracles, the Cistercian chapter asked Alexander III and then Lucius III to enrol the blessed man in the list of the saints. At Anagni on the fifth day before the Ides of December of the year 1183 Compare Jaffé, Regesta RR. PP., p. 843., Lucius replied to the abbots of Cîteaux and Clairvaux that nothing was to be done too hastily: "Meanwhile we will," he adds, "and command that you have set down in writing those things which are certain concerning the acts and conversation of the aforementioned archbishop." Both abbots, of whom the former had been elected bishop of Arras in that very year and was consecrated in the following year, asked by letter Acta SS., vol. II of May, p. 322. Geoffrey, abbot of Hautecombe, to take this burden upon himself. Geoffrey accepted the office offered, sent a letter to each abbot Ibid., p. 323, and wrote the Life which is read in the Acta Sanctorum at the 8th day of May.

[28] [In the year 1184 he visits the monasteries of Normandy; his fortitude in punishing a monk of Mortemer.] In the year 1184 the blessed man visited the monasteries of Normandy which acknowledged Clairvaux as their mother. For in this year he brought to Savigny two fingers and some teeth of Bl. Serlo Gallia christiana, vol. XI, col. 546.. On which journey he notably chastised a monk of the abbey of Mortemer, in the diocese of Rouen, not caring that the worthless man relied on the friendship of Henry, king of England. The king took this greatness of soul of Bl. Peter ill, and poured out his anger on the monks of Mortemer. To console them Bl. Peter sent them a letter with this beginning Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. III, p. 269. In Migne, vol. CCI, col. 1402.: "Having heard the roaring of the rising tempest which the blast of diabolical malignity stirs up against you and your house, we strive, with what anxious prayer we can, to rouse again the sleeping Jesus." He then exhorts them to patience, bidding them await better times. And he ends with these words: "Let the discipline of the order, the love of brotherhood, the sincerity of charity persevere in you; and then no adversity is to be feared where no iniquity holds sway. Let the fear of God and contempt of the world live in you, and all things are overcome. We too, according to what you yourselves ask, have directed messengers and letters to the lord king and to other persons; hoping that very soon peace and tranquillity may opportunely smile upon you, provided only that the rod of discipline which you bear neither falls under these blasts nor withers."

[29] [He writes to the bishop of Winchester and to others to appease the anger of the king of the English.] All those letters have perished, except one, given to Richard Toclive or More, bishop of Winchester, from which we understand well with how much fortitude he discharged the office of visitor. Read it; it is certainly most worthy to be read [Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. III, letter IX, p. 267; Migne, Patrol., vol. CCI, col. 1397]: "Having received with thanksgiving the letter which you sent, we are directing messengers and writings to appease the mind of the king; hoping that, if he recognizes the purity of what was done, the clemency of his face will be made serene, and he will turn to mercy what he was disposing to anger. You too, lest, the truth being unknown, you should take doubtful things for certain, believe us rather, commending, if you please, your faith to a most faithful testimony, that whatever was done and decided concerning that man, the necessity of law and the sincerity of equity drove it; nor was there any perverse consideration there which would derogate from the honour of the king, but a simple and timely provision that the purity of the order and the name of the person should not become cheap as the ignominy grew. But as for his asserting that he has been seized and set as it were in prison, let him see what he says; lest perhaps he reckon this rather for a prison, that he is not permitted to go round the earth and walk through it, so that going he may speak against his brethren, and set a stumbling-block against the sons of his mother. Stopping your ears, then, henceforth against vain suggestions, act, we beseech you, and stand for us with the lord king; that he may not shut up his mercies in anger, nor hold as guilty, with himself as judge, those whom the sincerity of an unblamed action proves innocent. And may he regard the house of Mortemer with his accustomed piety, lest it too pay by the place of punishment for the fact that, after the likeness and custom of the living sea, it does not retain dead flesh." Whether Bl. Peter won his cause is not established. But Richard, who in the year 1189 succeeded his father Henry II in the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy, conferred notable benefits on Mortemer; at whose coronation William Ptolemy, abbot of Mortemer, was present Gallia christ., vol. XI, cols. 309 and 310.

* Lavaur

* Zirez or Zirtz.

§ V. Bl. Peter's journey to Verona to Lucius III. The judgement on the lay brothers of Grandmont. The nuns of Montreuil reduced to a hundred. Dealings with Sancho I and Bl. Teresa. Letters of unknown date. Their order.

[In the year 1185 Bl. Peter meets Pope Lucius III at Verona. The clerics expelled by the lay brothers of Grandmont] In the year 1185 Bl. Peter undertook a journey into Italy at the request of Pope Lucius III, as is related in the Life. Where, since it is said: "The same pope was old in age, heavy with old age, touched by the sickness of which he afterwards also died," the last times of the life of Lucius are to be understood; and since he departed from the living on the 25th day of November of the year 1185 at Verona, where he had been staying from the middle of the month of July of the year 1184 Compare Jaffé, Regesta Roman. Pontif., p. 846 ff., Bl. Peter must have gone to Verona in the autumn of that year. In the same year the blessed man was involved in the most grave business of the Grandmontines, which raised an incredible scandal in all the Gauls. St. Stephen of Muret, the founder of the order, after the example of the hermits of Vallombrosa, of Camaldoli and of other Italians, had introduced lay brothers, also called laymen, bearded ones, etc.; so that the monks might attend more freely to spiritual and divine offices only, while the lay brothers looked after the administration of temporal things, being ordered to render account of their stewardship once a month. But these, understanding that the monks lived by the labour of their hands, gradually came to the point of holding the clerics in the place of chaplains, and of lording it over them in spiritual things no less than in temporal Compare Jacques de Vitry, Hist. occid., ch. XV, p. 313 ff.. When William de Treignac, sixth prior general, wished to do away with this abuse, they cast him into prison, stripped him of his office and intruded in his place a certain Stephen Compare Gallia Christ., vol. II, col. 650., more than two hundred clerics being expelled [Letter of the Grandmontine clerics to the Roman pontiff, in Migne, vol. CCXI, col. 430.]. Which crime seems to have been propagated to all the houses of the Order.

[31] he admits partly to Clairvaux, and he is appointed judge of this business. The fugitives, mercifully admitted into the monasteries of Cîteaux and Clairvaux, brought their complaints to the Roman curia Ibid., loc. cit., which designated five judges, namely the abbots of Cîteaux, of Clairvaux, of Saint-Denis, of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and of Sainte-Geneviève, all men of integrity. These subjected to excommunication, as we gather from letter CXXXV of Stephen of Tournai, given to Albert, chancellor of the Holy Roman Church In Migne, vol. CCXI, col. 418., a certain Stephen, whom the lay brothers had irreverently and against the sacred canons intruded into the place of the prior, who had neither yielded nor died; including under the same sentence all those who obeyed him as prior. They also assigned twenty cells to the clerics, in which they might serve God peaceably without disturbance from the lay brothers; understanding from the letter of the lord pope (Urban III) that it was better that they should live in their own houses than beg in those of others, or of the Cistercians. All those also of the Grandmontine Order who should hinder this their mandate they likewise subjected to excommunication.

The lay brothers did not obey, alleging, plausibly enough, that the abbots of Cîteaux and Clairvaux were suspect of favour towards the clerics whom they had admitted into their cloisters; and they approached some of the ministers of Urban III with money. Meanwhile Stephen of Tournai, who, being abbot of Sainte-Geneviève, had taken part in all these things, wrote to the abbot of Cîteaux and to Bl. Peter to rouse them to fortitude. "Not yet," he says in letter CXXXIV Ibid., col. 417., "has the sentence been committed to execution, not yet has it passed into a judged matter; and by shameless delays the informers are proud, the judges are mocked, the clerics beg, the poor of Christ are exiles, and still in the houses which you assigned to them the foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests. Let the judicial vigour of the order burn in you, neither fearing the threats of princes, nor admitting the feigned hiding-places of hypocrisy." But money won with certain courtiers, and a new mandate of Pope Urban came out that, two fellow-judges being added, the business should be treated only under the number of seven. On receiving this, those five judges preferred to stand by humbly rather than to labour uselessly. This cause then occupied several pontiffs, and was ended only under Pope Innocent III. But since Bl. Peter had no part in these things, we think they are to be omitted.

[32] He reduces the nuns of Montreuil to a hundred; Montreuil (also called Veronica and Holy Face) had been founded by Bartholomew, bishop of Laon, in the year 1136, on the borders of the Thiérache and Hainaut, near the town of La Capelle; where the number of nuns quickly grew to three hundred. Among these religion and severity of life burned wonderfully; so that not by spinning or weaving only (which is women's work), but also by digging the fields, uprooting the forest, tearing out thorns and brambles, they procured their living in silence, kindling many men of both sexes to contempt of the world by their examples. Yet such great harshness and poverty, arising from the excessive multitude, did not please Bl. Peter. Wherefore, since Montreuil acknowledged Clairvaux as its mother, he ordered Gilbert, abbot of Foigny from the year 1186 and vicar of the Cistercian Order in Picardy, to visit the convent and to establish that no nuns should be admitted thereafter until the number had been reduced to a hundred Gallia christ., vol. IX, cols. 638 and 639. Compare ibid., col. 630..

[33] he accepts the monastery of Macenaria, offered by Sancho I, king of Portugal; To the same time belongs the letter which Bl. Peter wrote to Sancho I, who at the end of the year 1185 had succeeded his father Afonso in the kingdom of Portugal. Sancho had written to him first, offering him "the Monastery of Castineria, which out of love of pious religion he had thought of transferring to the title of the Cistercian Order." The blessed man gratefully accepted it, "bearing in the Lord a ready will that, when the abbot of the place should come, he should receive from him fitting support and help." A monastery of Castineria which was Cistercian before the year 1245 I have found none at all; but I scarcely doubt that in place of Castineria we must read Macenaria or Manzanaria, commonly Mazeradam, Maceiradam, Massegradao. Jongelinus Notitia abbatiarum ord. Cist., book VI, p. 34., Brito Chronica de Cister, part I, book V, ch. 4, p. 569 ff. and others relate many particulars about this house of asceticism. They would have it that this monastery already in the middle of the twelfth century followed the laws of the Cistercians. But in the chronology of the Cistercian Monasteries (an authentic document, at any rate, which contained the order of the abbots sitting in the Cistercian general chapter), the monastery of Manzanaria was written down on the Kalends of December of the year 1186 Annales Cist., at the year 1186, ch. IX, nos. 7 and 8.. But previously the house of Manzanaria, in the diocese of Viseu, at the second milestone from the episcopal city, was in the hands of other monks, namely the black or Benedictine; just like that very one which Bl. Peter accepted. For Innocent III, confirming its goods and possessions in the year 1212, uses these words Ibid., loc. cit.: "Which the same monastery possessed before it took up the institutes of Cîteaux." For many centuries it flourished greatly under Alcobaça, the most celebrated Cistercian monastery of all Portugal; which, since it followed the laws of Clairvaux Jongelinus, Notitia etc., book VI, pp. 29 and 34., so Macenaria too was of the line of Clairvaux.

[34] and he writes back to St. Teresa, his daughter. When Sancho sent his letter to Bl. Peter, at the same time (who would doubt it?) there wrote to him Queen Teresa, daughter of King Sancho I, who in the year 1190 married her kinsman Alfonso IX, king of León De Sousa, Historia genealogica da real casa Portugueza, vol. I, p. 109 ff.; but, dismissed in the year 1195 by order of Pope Celestine III, she took the Cistercian habit in the year 1228 in the monastery of Lorvão; where she came to such holiness that on the 17th day of June (as may be seen more fully in the Acta Sanctorum at that day) she obtained ecclesiastical cult. In the year 1186, however, she was a young girl, humble, pious and beneficent towards the poor, especially the Cistercians; called queen, as being the king's daughter. These things Bl. Peter gives her as praise in his letter XI, and exhorts her to go on so In Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. III, p. 267. Migne, vol. CCI, col. 1398..

[35] Letters whose date is unknown or which are not Bl. Peter's. There survive some letters of Bl. Peter In Tissier, Bibl. Cist., vol. III, p. 264 ff. whose date is entirely unknown to me. The third he sent to the chancellor, that is to Albert Sartorio de Mora, cardinal priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Laurence in Lucina, chancellor of Alexander III, Lucius III and Urban III, formerly a Cistercian monk. To him he commends Stephen II, bishop of Autun or Augustodunum, maliciously appealed against by his own people to the apostolic see; of which vexation nothing is related in the Gallia christiana Vol. IV, col. 397.. In the eighth he exhorts Simon of Montaigu to persist in doing good to his neighbours. The tenth he sent to the abbot of Vaux, if I am not mistaken, to Theobald, abbot of Vaux-en-Ornois, in the diocese of Toul; of whom he complains that by night (lest the damage should be evident) he had sent back a book spoiled by dripping water (from which it appears how much books were then valued); urging that he send him back another forthwith. By the sixteenth, given to religious established in Germany, he admits and grants a mutual communication of prayers. The eighteenth, finally, is very difficult. It was given to Reginald Fitzjocelin, bishop of Bath, and to Robert, abbot of Forde, to whom the Roman pontiff had committed the cause which was being agitated between the monks of Fountains * and the Lord of York. He warns them therefore that it is false that the venerable man Dom Philip, on behalf of the community, had renounced the cause and the complaint. But among the abbots of Fountains no one named Philip occurs, and from the year 1179 to 1190 William held the abbatial crozier there Monasticon Anglic. nov., vol. V, p. 288 ff.. Which question is the more difficult to untie because, although a history of the abbots of Fountains exists, copiously written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, no mention is made there of a controversy of the archbishop of York with the monks of Fountains. There remains one letter, namely XV, which I have so far passed over. It was written to Cadorus, or rather Cadurcus, archdeacon of Bourges; that they were not honoured with his visitation the monks of Clairvaux complain; whom, "so that they might be bereft of the solace of both parents (Abbot Henry and Prior John), on one day, in the absence of the abbot, the death of the prior struck very dreadfully Compare Manrique, Annales Cist. at the year 1179, ch. II, nos. 1 and 9.; … thence certainly the more sad, that from weariness at the delay they were ceasing to hope for the coming of the aforesaid father (the abbot), which they had long been awaiting." This letter was manifestly written while Abbot Henry, having set out for the Lateran Council, was detained at Rome by Pope Alexander III, and before Bl. Peter was elected in his place.

[36] A new order of all his letters. And since we have been much occupied in reviewing the letters ascribed to Bl. Peter, it pleases us to indicate in this place the order which (if they should seem to need publishing again) ought to be kept.

LETTERS WRONGLY ASCRIBED TO BL. PETER.

LETTERS RIGHTLY ASCRIBED TO BL. PETER.

* Founteyns abbey

§ VI. Bl. Peter's journey to Speyer. His death. Burial. Biographers.

Bl. Peter's journey to Speyer and the favour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Besides these things, which so far we have striven to put in order after a fashion, Bl. Peter undertook a journey to Speyer, whose time we have nowhere been able to discover. It is narrated by Caesarius of Heisterbach Dialogi miraculorum, dist. VII, ch. 11, in Tissier, vol. II, p. 190., a writer most pious to be sure, in these words: "Of Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, to whom St. Mary gave a blessing in the church of Speyer. A cause arose that certain of the abbots of our Order should be sent on the business of the Order to the emperor Henry, son of Frederick; among whom the chief seemed, as well in holiness as in dignity, Dom Peter the One-eyed, abbot of Clairvaux … And because the lord of Cîteaux could not come in his own person, he sent his prior in his place. When they came to Speyer and had prayed in the church of the blessed Mother of God, whose structure is of stupendous size, all rising quickly from prayer and going round to examine the buildings of that church, the aforesaid Peter, whose thought and delight were not in corruptible buildings but in the structure of the heavenly Jerusalem, persevered in prayer. At length, all having gone out, when they had been honourably greeted by the canons in the porch of the church and invited with much insistence to dinner, it was asked by a certain abbot in whose honour the church had been consecrated. When the clerics answered, 'In honour of Our Lady,' the abbot of Clairvaux added inconsiderately: 'And I knew it.' The prior of Cîteaux, considering this word, was silent then indeed; but as soon as they had gone out of the city, remembering the same word, he said to the abbot: 'Lord abbot, tell me: how did you know that the minster of Speyer had been consecrated in honour of Our Lady?' He, grieving over the word uttered, answered: 'It seemed to me well to say so, that the Mother of God and Queen of the heavens should be the patroness of so wonderful a structure.' The prior, knowing well his holiness, and conjecturing from the answer that something had been revealed to him in the church, added: 'I on this journey act in the place of the lord abbot of Cîteaux; by whose authority I command you to tell me nothing but the truth.' Then he, constrained by obedience, answered with shame: 'When, prostrate before the altar, I prayed more attentively for my sins and my negligences, the blessed Virgin Mary herself, appearing to me, gave over me the blessing which our Order is accustomed to say over those returning from a journey, in these words: Almighty, everlasting God, have mercy on this your servant, and whatever of evil thing or of idle speech sight or hearing has stolen upon him on the way, all of it by your ineffable goodness

mercifully forgive, through Christ our Lord.'" These things were related to me by a certain abbot, a religious of our Order, in whose house the same Peter often made visitation. From the blessing he understood that she was the patroness there.

[37] which belong perhaps to the year 1185. To these Manrique adds the following Annales Cist., at the year 1186, ch. VI, nos. 3 and 4.: "So Caesarius; … so that in the same city in which Bernard (which however is not probable) Acta SS., vol. IV of August, p. 206 ff., his successor Peter was visited by the blessed Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, advocate and patroness of both. Nor were there lacking those who from these words of Caesarius conjectured that Peter lived up to the time of the emperor Henry; who, it is ascertained, did not succeed his father Frederick before the year 1191" (rather 1190). These Manrique then corrects from the Tablets of Clairvaux. Certainly before the death of Bl. Peter, who we shall show below died in the year 1186, Henry VI was not emperor; nor was he called emperor by Caesarius except by anticipation; which figure or fault no historian can avoid. But that Henry, in place of his father, is related to have summoned some Cistercian abbots to Speyer, this cannot seem wonderful to anyone. In the Gesta Treverorum In Watterich, Pontificum Rom. Vitae, vol. II, p. 661. at the year 1185 we read: "King Henry, son of the emperor, came to Trier and its neighbouring parts with a heavy multitude; and, led on by the counsel of certain wicked men, broke … the immunity of the clergy and the liberty of the citizens." On this journey perhaps to the Rhineland parts Henry summoned the Cistercian abbots to himself at Speyer. To the year 1185 is also to be referred the admission of the monastery of Oya in Galicia among the daughters of Clairvaux. It was formerly a monastery of Benedictines, who, on the testimony of Manrique, attracted by the fame of St. Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, admitted Cîteaux under Clairvaux Manrique, Annales Cist., at the year 1185, ch. V, no. 7 ff..

[38] In the year 1186, on the 29th day of October, Bl. Peter dies, In what year, finally, Bl. Peter died is by no means doubtful. In the contemporary Chronicle of Clairvaux we read these things In Migne, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1250.: "In the year of the Lord 1186 there died at Clairvaux" (rather at Foigny) "a most reverend man, Abbot Peter the One-eyed; whose Life, Dom prior, I believe you have, and therefore I pass over him briefly." Likewise Robert of Auxerre, canon of the abbey of Saint-Marien of the Premonstratensian Order, a shrewd and diligent man, who died in the year 1212, wrote of the blessed man at the year 1186 these few words [Chronologia published by Nic. Camuzat, fol. 88, and D. Bouquet, Recueil etc., vol. XVIII, p. 253.]: "In the same year Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, a man celebrated in the opinion of holiness, slept in Christ." Vincent of Beauvais agrees Speculum hist., book XXX, ch. 40.. The day became known from an old Martyrology of Clairvaux Manrique, Annales Cist., at the year 1186, ch. VI, no. 10., where the name of the blessed man is written at the 29th day of October. Likewise from the Tablets of Clairvaux Ibid., no. 1. and from an ancient Catalogue of the abbots, where it is read Ibid., no. 10.: "The eighth abbot of Clairvaux, Peter the One-eyed, from abbot of Igny, was abbot here * six years; whose Life is had in the volume of the Life of Bl. Bernard. He died on the fourth day before the Kalends of November. On the fourth day before the Kalends of November died St. Peter, eighth abbot of Clairvaux." Of his most pious death Thomas de Radolio related much; Conrad, abbot of Eberbach, but in the lifetime of Bl. Peter a monk at Clairvaux, these few things: "Having then," he says Exordium magnum, in Tissier, vol. I, p. 81., "laudably completed the days of his life, he paid the debt of all; and he who for a while had sown in tears, closing his eyes in the death of the flesh, in the joy of immortal life reaps eternally the sweetest sheaves of his labours. His venerable body was laid up with fitting honour in a sarcophagus raised above the pavement, in the little cell in which we said above that the martyr of Christ Gerard was placed; where, sleeping and resting in peace in the selfsame with his blessed colleague, he happily awaits the day of the general resurrection and the glory which will then be rendered to the saints."

[39] [and he is buried beside Bl. Gerard, in the cell where the bodies of SS. Bernard and Malachy had rested.] He had said above, in distinction II, of the burial of Bl. Gerard Exord. Mag., p. 72.: "His holy body was venerably laid in a sarcophagus raised above the pavement, before the doors of the oratory of Clairvaux, in the little cell which had once been built for the reception of the bodies of the holy confessors Bernard and Malachy." And in the book of the tombs of Clairvaux [Henriquez, Fasc. SS. Ord. Cist., book II, dist. XLI, ch. 5; Manrique, Ann. Cist., at the year 1186, ch. VI, no. 8 and vol. I, p. 506. Compare Lalore, Trésor de Clairvaux, p. 200.]: "In the great cloister, under the first arch, next to the door of the church, rest the venerable men, worthy of the memory of the good, Dom Gerard VI and Dom Peter VIII, abbots of Clairvaux; of whom the former, after a laudable life, was slain innocent for justice and zeal for the order; the other, a most fervent emulator of holy poverty and humility, was illustrious in his life for many virtues. May we merit to have them as patrons with God. Amen." Then the following epitaph was placed for Bl. Peter:

PETER, LIGHT OF THE LAW, SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK OF IGNY,

HE WAS HERE, AND DESERVEDLY A HOLY AND KINDLY MAN.

EIGHTH SHEPHERD AND ALSO RULER OF CLAIRVAUX

HE WAS HERE FOR SIX YEARS. AFTERWARDS HE DIED.

Henriquez called up this inscription Fasc. SS. O. Cist., book II, dist. XXII, ch. 9, p. 231. from the book of the tombs of Clairvaux; since the marble itself, the sarcophagus and the cell seem long since to have perished. They had been placed in the cloister of the chapter, on the right, almost at the very entrance of the church [Compare Guignard, Lettre sur les reliques de saint Bernard etc., in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CLXXXV, col. 1669 ff.]. In the month of February of the year 1792 the church was sold with the monastery; two years later it was converted into a glass-works Ibid., col. 1693., and gradually almost destroyed. In the year 1808 public authority bought back the buildings of the monastery, which it changed into a prison Ibid., col. 1787.. More does not concern us.

[40] [Conrad, abbot of Eberbach, first praised Bl. Peter, then Thomas, monk of Reuil, who had previously written the Life of Bl. William, abbot of Saint-Thierry;] The first after his death to write, or at least to collect Histoire littér. de la France, vol. XVII, p. 364 f., the praises of the blessed man was Conrad, abbot of Eberbach, while he was still a monk at Clairvaux under Garnier de Rochefort, successor of Bl. Peter, who held the helm of Clairvaux from the year 1186 to 1191. From his writing, to which, as I have more than once noted, the name Exordium Magnum of the Cistercian Order belongs, I have excerpted those things which Thomas de Radolio, the biographer of Bl. Peter, did not touch, and inserted them in the Commentary and the Annotations to the Life. Thomas de Radolio never saw the Exordium Magnum; about whom Amaury Duval reports very strange things Ibid., vol. XVI, p. 512 ff.. For he calls him Thomas Rodolius or Rodelius, monk of Igny (although he read in the old catalogue of the Royal Library of Paris that there was once kept there the Life of Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, by the author Thomas, monk of Radolium); he makes him a disciple of Bl. Peter, and says that he wrote his Life in the year 1189 or 1190. He relates then that Bl. Peter, if credence is given to Thomas, was summoned to Rome by Lucius III when he was sick, although Thomas does not even name Rome, and Lucius did not see Rome after the spring of the year 1182. Moreover he continually mixes what Conrad, Caesarius, Helinand and others have related about Bl. Peter with Thomas's treatise, putting more zeal into jeering than into inquiring. There are thus as many errors, which indeed I would have passed over in silence had not Duval himself attacked both Thomas and Bl. Peter with a plainly immodest censure, scarcely less irreverent than the Magdeburgers adduced at the beginning. What you may wonder at, the very reverend Sevestre, author of Migne's Patrological Lexicon, copied Duval word for word Dictionnaire de patrologie, vol. V, col. 1232 ff.. To Thomas, therefore, neither Rodolius nor Rodolius was the surname, nor was the monastic habit put on him at Igny. He was a monk of Radolium, commonly Reuil, in the diocese of Meaux, on the left of the Marne, not far from the former convent of Jouarre Compare Gallia Christ., vol. VIII, col. 1671.. He was a familiar and friend of Bl. Peter, by no means his disciple, being a Benedictine and not a Cistercian, as he himself openly professes in the Prologue and in the letter to Bl. Peter; and in the Prologue he reports that he is writing in the year of the Incarnation 1204. It appears that Thomas was then advanced in age; certainly, on account of the dimness of his eyes, as he says in the Prologue, he had not been able to attend sufficiently to the labour of the file. Nor is this his first writing; for, to say nothing of the letter to Bl. Peter which he added at the end, he himself states in the Apology that he had written the Life of Bl. William, formerly abbot of Saint-Thierry and then monk of Signy, hitherto unpublished, but once read by the Maurists Ibid., vol. IX, col. 187.. He is not, however, elegant, nor polished, and abounds more in words than in matter, more devoted to false rhetoric than to history; which is the common blemish of that time. However that may be, he was a lover of virtue and of good men.

[41] [an accurate author, but too fond of marvels. Others followed him; but Caesarius of Heisterbach goes his own way.] He often conversed with Bl. Peter and at all times made very much of him; and the things which he admired in him he faithfully related. He had often dealt concerning Bl. Peter with Adam and Walcher, Cistercian abbots of Longpont; often also with Gilbert, formerly prior of Clairvaux, then abbot of Bohéries and of Foigny; and likewise with others; for everywhere he indicates what testimonies he uses; so that no one can doubt his good faith. But he sins in this, that he wrote not the deeds of Bl. Peter but rather his marvels; which consist chiefly in visions. Certainly God sometimes honours his servants with heavenly visions; but how difficult it is to distinguish the operation of the imagination from divine illumination Amort will teach in his outstanding work on Revelations. But in no place or time was less discernment shown than in the twelfth century in the Gauls; and although the books of the Cistercians of this age are full of visions, they by no means alone showed themselves the more credulous; it was rather the common fault of that time. Which fault, however, from

piety (if it is lawful to speak so) it proceeded; since the pious are much readier to believe in the dealings of God and the saints with men; so that even from this a safe judgement may be formed of the religion of Bl. Peter and of Thomas of Reuil. If, then, those visions please anyone less, let the lively faith of Bl. Peter please him, his confidence in God and his readiness to communicate with him. Henriquez, when he wrote the Fasciculi of the saints of the Cistercian Order, Col. [ ] used Thomas's writing, but took away some things and mixed in others from Conrad, Caesarius and Helinand. Manrique had the same in his hands while composing the Annals of the Cistercian Order, but published only the principal parts. Helinand, Cistercian monk of Froidmont in the diocese of Beauvais, who died his day in the year 1227 and brought his Chronicles down to the year 1204 Compare Fabricius, Bibl. latina, vol. III, p. 198., abridged the treatise of Thomas de Radolio, adding scarcely anything of his own; whom (as I have noted elsewhere) Vincent of Beauvais followed, and him Peter de Natalibus and St. Antoninus of Florence. Caesarius, monk of Heisterbach in the diocese of Cologne, finished in the year 1222 the twelve books of Dialogues on the miracles, visions and examples of his age Ibid., vol. I, p. 319.; in which he related a few things about Bl. Peter, received from elsewhere than from the Life and the Exordium Magnum.

[42] From the seventeenth century many others have praised Bl. Peter. In the year 1602 there came out twice a Life of Bl. Peter of a sort, inserted in Cistercian Chronicles. Bernardo de Brito Chronic. de Cister, first part, book VI, ch. 24, p. 832, edition of 1720., general historian of the Order, affirms that he followed, besides Peter de Natalibus, Vincent of Beauvais and St. Antoninus, a book on the origin of the Cistercian Order (which I interpret as the Exordium Magnum), and the Pratum spirituale, book V, ch. 15. In vain have I searched out what that book is. Bernardo de Brito relates some things which I have not found elsewhere, or at least not so explicitly, for example that before his entry at Igny he visited many holy places of Gaul, especially the basilica of St. Martin of Tours. Elsewhere he explains much about his virtues, and at the end adds that his name comes among the canonized saints, and that his feast is celebrated by the Church on the 14th day of March. But I think these and many other things were added by him by conjecture; so that Henriquez in the Fasciculus and Manrique in the Annals, writers certainly not hard to please, suppressed them all in silence. Bernabé de Montalbo, Cistercian monk of Monte-Sión near Toledo, and historian of the same Order of the Spanish observance, in the same year 1602 brought out the first part of the Cistercian Chronicle, with the Life of Bl. Peter inserted [Primera parte de la Coronica del orden de Cister, book IV, ch. 40 and 41, vol. II, p. 150 ff.]; in which he followed Vincent of Beauvais as guide, amplifying much, and at the end bringing forward on his own that the blessed man departed from the living on the 20th day of September of the year 1183. Miraeus in the Cistercian Chronicle Pp. 181 and 182. scarcely mentioned Bl. Peter, content to copy the words of Robert of Auxerre; De Visch in the Bibliotheca Cisterciensis Pp. 270 and 312. reviewed his brief praises and letters, not distinguishing the genuine from the spurious. Of the Fasciculus of the saints of Henriquez, which was first published at Brussels in the year 1623 and then at Cologne in the year 1631, and of the Cistercian Annals of Manrique, a little more recent, we have made mention often enough. Henriquez in the Menology at the 18th day of May states that Bl. Peter is celebrated in the book of the illustrious men of the Cistercian Order, dist. 11, ch. 32, which is the same as the Exordium Magnum; in the Speculum exemplorum of Heinrich Gran, dist. III, §27, and in the Laurea Evangelica of Angel Manrique, book III, dist. 7. He is praised also in the Cistercian Annals Vol. III, pp. 7 and 120. which Boniface Hiltprand, abbot of St. Anne's in Lower Bavaria, collected from the annals of Manrique and wrote in German, and which came out in the middle of the last century; but no new diligence appears in them. Daunou on the contrary, in the notice of Bl. Peter which he had inserted in the Literary History of France Hist. littér. de France, vol. XIV, p. 620., was truly diligent, although he slipped into some errors. Of the composition of Amaury Duval we have spoken above Ibid., vol. XVI, p. 512 ff.. Now follows the Life of Bl. Peter, by the author Thomas, monk of Reuil.

ANNOTATA.

* read: hic, here

TREATISE OF DOM THOMAS, MONK OF REUIL, ON THE LIFE OF THE VENERABLE FATHER DOM PETER, ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX

From the codex of Troyes, of the thirteenth century, collated with two Brussels codices.

Peter the One-eyed, also called of Igny, abbot of Clairvaux in Gaul. (B.)

BHL Number: 6730

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

LETTER OF DOM THOMAS, MONK,

IN THE LIFE OF DOM Beati A and B. PETER, ABBOT Prioris et abbatis Igniacensis et postea Clarævallis. B. OF CLAIRVAUX.

Why Thomas, monk of Reuil, wrote the Life of Bl. Peter. To his lord and friend Walcher, abbot of Longpont ^a, brother Thomas ^b, monk of Reuil A omits Thomas de Radolio., greeting. While Master Adam, your predecessor and companion and ours, was still living, we three A and B omit. used to confer together many times about matters concerning the profit of the soul; and I, mostly setting forth the examples of good men Sanctorum A., was very often asked by you to commit them to writing; but, conscious of my insufficient eloquence, I spared desk and pen. On the other hand, however, fearing the guilt of silence, I noted down in letters some things about Dom Peter, abbot of Clairvaux Clarevallensis A.. That writing I send to you. If there is any sin in the speech or outside the speech, that is, in the writing or in the sense, I commit the correction to your tongue and understanding. For I, for certain reasons and especially on account of the dimness of my eyes, have not been able to attend Me assuescere A. sufficiently to the labour of the file Huic A., nor, after the manner of bears, to lick my offspring and to shape, as was fitting, the formless and rough material. If the writing seems unworthy of the light, bury it; if it is not to be handed over to the tomb, make it manifest before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh; that is, before those who fear God, to whom the things that are God's taste like honey on the palate of the heart. For the pride of those who hate God, which Quæ A. ascends continually, despises and mocks things of this kind; indeed it does not fear to disparage their writers. As, then, pearls are not to be scattered before swine, so do not give the holy one of whom we have written to dogs, but to those who have learned from Christ to be meek and humble. Such perhaps will find in our letters some A omits. rest for their souls.

HERE BEGINS THE PROLOGUE OF THE FOLLOWING WORK.

In the year 1204, when iniquity abounds, Since in many and various ways the Most High has never ceased to govern, never ceased to glorify his Church which he himself founded, he has always provided for it, with continued power, men distinguished by virtues and signs, which is almost the effect of a special heavenly grace, since by this faith is strengthened and emulation of virtue is provoked Prolixatur A.; as the historical series, brought down from the very bodily presence of the Saviour to our time, namely the one thousand two hundred and fourth year of his A omits. incarnation, and committed to writing, declares. But in this time, since iniquity has abounded, the charity of many has grown cold (Matth. XXIV); from which we fear an eclipse even of faith itself; for truths are diminished from among the sons of men, and the holy man has failed (Ps. XI): he namely who, full of grace and fortitude, should do Faciebat A and B. wonders and great signs among the people (Acts VI), and should say confidently

Audenter B.: "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me" (John X); or rather of the faith, through which God decreed to save those who believe in him.

[3] Thomas undertakes to write the Life of Bl. Peter, distrusting himself, The primitive Church needed signs and revelations, and possessed them abundantly; but the Church grown Tenera A, erecta B. and advanced needs the same nourishment, so that the same medicine which bestowed health may preserve it once bestowed; for which recent signs seem more efficacious than old ones, as is the case with the drugs of physicians, which through their very age are proved to work little in most cases. But because there is none that does this good, no, not one (Ps. XIII), I believe I act usefully in proposing to recall from the dead, as far as our pen can do it, a man of virtue Veritatis A. and singular in our time, whom I saw, whom I knew, Peter, abbot of Clairvaux; so that as living A omits. he edified the living, so also dead he may edify them Eos iterum A.. And as he is, as we believe without doubt, in eternal memory, so may he be in the memory of men, namely to strengthen their faith and to kindle in them Exorandum pro eis A. the love of God. But from this purpose the consideration of myself strives greatly to call me back, "whose bodily presence is weak and speech contemptible" (II Cor. X), and I fear to be charged with presumption, who have shamelessly A omits. seized upon a subject that should be reserved for the most eloquent. And I fear lest so great a man be esteemed according not to what he was but to what he is described as by an unskilled poet B omits Vereorque–describitur.. Finally, few are the things of his that I know; more have not come to our knowledge.

[4] but brought to it by the silence of others. Whence, many years having now passed since his death, I kept silence and listened and waited whether there would be anyone of his Order, that is of Cîteaux, where the multitude of the wise is the health of the world, especially one who had stood by him assiduously and familiarly, who would weave his history. But so far I have neither found nor heard of him. For the philosophers of that order spend more effort on silence than on the pen. This necessity, then, striking down the causes of my silence set out above, impels me to gather, as if certain fragments, lest they perish, the few things which I have learned from him or from good men about him, and to describe them with such pen as I have. Perhaps on this occasion some noble man of urbane eloquence, having nothing of rusticity mixed in his speech, will rhetorically rework what has been enormously handled. Moreover he will supply also those things about that man which are hidden from us and are lacking in our little work. Indeed he will convert our clay into silver, slag into gold, barley loaves into fine flour, waters either insipid into wine or bitter into sweetness, by the grace diffused on his lips (Ps. XLIV). Meanwhile, however, for our A omits. labour, such as it is, let those who will deign to read these things not be ungrateful to me; rather let them repay me with favour and affection, if not for the usefulness of the work, yet for the intention of usefulness. Now since B omits., as has been said before us, it is unseemly to flow abroad in the proem and to be girt short in the narration, enough Finis B. up to here of the Prologue; now, with Christ presiding, let us set our fingers to the narration.

HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF THE FOLLOWING WORK [From codex A. B omits this index; but prefixes its own title to each of the first eleven chapters.]

Of the fatherland of Peter and his holy conversation at Igny A omits., I.

Of his vision before he entered Igny, II.

That in his novitiate he felt as it were a certain spirit come A omits. into A omits. him A omits., from which he was ever afterwards the same, like himself, in every event, III.

Of a certain person, as is credible, angelic, which used to wake him when asleep in choir, and which he himself saw, IV.

Of the pain of the head which he once suffered at vigils and from which he was miraculously freed, V.

Of the great sweetness of God which he himself experienced, and the author's invective against the incredulous, VI.

That he was prior of Igny, then abbot of Vauclair, and that a certain vision preceded his election, VII.

Of the hireling who wished to set fire to the grange of Vauclair and was wonderfully prevented by the man of God, VIII.

Of the disease from which he suffered in the same abbey, and his deliverance, IX.

How he was transferred from Vauclair to Igny, and of the presage of the monk Robert about this, X.

A divine answer on the same matter to the monk Nicholas, XI.

Likewise another answer to the same Nicholas about doing penance, XII.

Of the discretion of Dom Peter towards himself and towards his subjects, XIII.

Of his A omits. wonderful vision concerning the knight Baldwin, XIV.

The author's testimony concerning the same vision, XV.

Of the vision of Dom Peter concerning Henry, count of Champagne, XVI.

Of a dead brother whom he manifestly saw after his death, XVII.

Of a certain sick man A omits. for whom he prayed, and the sick man saw himself being beaten by him in his sleep, XVIII.

How it was revealed to him that he would be abbot of Clairvaux, XIX.

Of the death of Gerard, abbot of Clairvaux, at Igny, XX.

Of the vision of a certain brother of Clairvaux which preceded the election of Peter, XXI.

Of his election as abbot of Clairvaux, and of Gilbert the prior A omits. freed from fevers through him, XXII.

Of the horse of the same Gilbert freed by the same Peter from the evil habit of falling, XXIII.

How the Roman pope summoned him and honoured him, XXIV.

Of the election of a certain bishop and the praiseworthy word of Peter concerning his election, XXV.

Of his patience when he lost his eye, XXVI.

What, being about to choose a prior of Igny, he answered a certain brother, XXVII.

Of his coming to Reims and his manner in riding, and the author's presage of his death A omits Et auctoris præsagio de morte ejus., XXVIII.

Of his death at Foigny, XXIX.

Of his tooth which one of the brethren wished to extract when he was dead A omits., and of his burial at Clairvaux, XXX.

Of a quite gracious vision of a certain monk and prior after his death, XXXI.

The author's apology for the imperfection of the work and the lesser credulity of some, XXXII.

The author's letter, while he was living, to A adds eumdem. the man of God A adds missa., and the epilogue of the work, XXXIII.

Conclusion of the work, XXXIV.

Here end the chapters.

HERE BEGIN [A adds Vita.] THE ACTS OF BLESSED PETER, ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX.

CHAPTER ONE.

The birth and monastic life of Bl. Peter. He becomes abbot of Vauclair and of Igny.

CH. I

Peter was by fatherland an Italian, of parents, Bl. Peter, a native of Italy, becomes a monk at Igny as was said, exalted according to the dignity of the world; which however, as far as he could, he always concealed with the utmost dissimulation ^a. He, as a young man, seeking the Gallic lecture-halls for the sake of letters, came Devenit B. to Igny. This place, not far from Reims, was at that time a new plantation of the Cistercian Order ^b. There, having seen the heavenly conversation of the brethren, kindled into the love of God, he took the habit of religion. The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow strivings. For, He working in him whose word runs swiftly (Ps. CXLVII), he was perfected B omits. in a short time as if Sic B. he had fulfilled many times. He was of middling stature, yet approaching A and B add magis. the shorter; slender of body, or rather wasted, and in that very slenderness sinewy and solid. In food and clothing exceedingly frugal and sparing; in food readily taking nothing beyond the common, and often withdrawing much from himself even of the common. His clothing at all seasons alike was a tunic and cowl, except a single tunic or Et A. cowl which he took in addition to the usual in winter time. Footwear which is called boots he never used, not even in winter ^c, and as for socks ^d he used only simple ones. He attended the vigils of the brethren not only continually but so persistently that, when on account of some labour he had occasion to rest, he did not relax his spirit, unconquered B adds ab oratione et. from psalmody. He had a scarcely credible facility in prayer; and although its practice is difficult, he went to it easily whenever he was free, and could scarcely be called away from it even when business called.

[6] where he is eminent in virtues. Many excel in many virtues and are emulators of excellent gifts, but very rarely is a true and perfect humble man found. He is, as I judge, the one whom blessed Bernard thus defines: "The truly humble man," he says, "wishes to seem worthless, not to be reputed humble." This good this saint obtained singularly and wonderfully. For certain graces by which temporal glory is chiefly acquired, namely polished eloquence, comeliness of person, industry in worldly business, the bearing of domestic care and from that the greater lordship, and being popularly generous, he neither had nor sought to have. Meanwhile, since he possessed not notably ^e those goods with which he shone in the eyes of the Lord, and strove as far as he could to conceal them, surely he thought himself worthless and obscure in human judgement. And because he rejoiced in this obscurity, and sought it in every way, saving only his conscience, it is permissible to conclude that he was truly humble. And surely in this respect, as I think, he had in his time neither an equal nor, without doubt, a superior. Nor yet did he obtain, as he thought, this worthlessness which he chiefly sought. For to those who knew how to judge rightly, who were skilled to distinguish pretence from truth, hypocrisy from gold, fruit from leaves, he was venerable, and appeared singular and wonderful. Accordingly, since the excellence of his religion made him superior even to the great, and his singular humility made him equal to the infirm and the lowest, both together rendered him to all at once reverend and admirable, dear and lovable.

CH. II

[7] Having set forth a few, indeed very few, things about the manners of Dom Peter in comparison with his merit, He is led there by a vision. let us follow up some things which suitable witnesses have handed down to us, in which the testimony of God, which is greater, is proved to have appeared more manifestly. When he had come, as we have said before, into the Gauls, it happened that he approached Igny. One night, then, before he had come to the house, he saw in a vision of the night that he was entering a hall of exceeding beauty. And a seat was placed in it, and on the seat sat a woman of very reverend face and bearing. As he entered the palace, horrible black dogs ran at him with a rush, as though about to kill him A omits. at once. But the venerable lady, having put those dogs to flight with great authority, called him to her, and, soothing him with gentle hands and kindly address, bade him be entirely fearless and secure. What this vision portended is an easy conjecture. For that hall was the house of Igny, the woman sitting was blessed Mary, the black dogs

seem to signify the evil demons. The rest tends to this sense.

CH. III

[8] When, then, Peter had been received, a most devout young man, How in his novitiate he became always like himself. he did not ascend to perfection little by little and by increments, but put on beauty as it were in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye. He put on strength and girded himself with power (Ps. XCII), persevering most constantly the same in every place, at every time, finally in every fortune. When a certain abbot A omits., his familiar, who related this to me, wondering at the constancy of his already advanced age, inquired into the cause of such great sameness, not only as a diligent but even as a persistent explorer, he, as he was most kind and was easily overcome by his familiars, answered: "When I was," he said, "a novice, a kind of spirit seemed to me perceptibly to enter into me. From that time until now that spirit, that power or working Affectio A and B., in a manner rules over me, governs and leads me like the sheep of Joseph. When I am scattered through outward things, it frequently gathers me inward; when I wish to attend to other things, it compels me to prayer; the things which are thrust upon the eyes or din in the ears, it makes me sometimes not perceive." These things which the blessed man confessed about himself under a certain violence of charity agree with what Pope Gregory says thus in a certain homily: "Him whom the charity of eternal life has perfectly absorbed, it renders as it were insensible outwardly to earthly desires." So too this man, conversing in thought and in eagerness in that eternal fatherland, and made conformable to immovable things, remaining unmoved in himself, restrained with great strength of mind, not penal but as if innate and natural to him, every motion of the heart and leap of the mind, and all the little turmoils and tempests of the soul by which men are seen to boil and to fluctuate, and which true religion bids us lay aside.

CH. IV

[9] While Cum A. he was still a novice or new in the Order, He is wakened by an angel when dozing in choir. he was once attending the night vigils; while the others sang the psalms, he, standing in choir and wearied, was dozing. He felt as it were A omits. the touch of someone who, tapping him, gently woke him. He thought it the prior, whose custom it was to go round the choir and wake the brethren who had fallen asleep. Awakening and opening his eyes, he saw no one. And when this had happened often, and, often wakened, he did not see the waker, he understood that it was a divine power, and took it ill that it offered itself to him and hid itself. One night, then, when he had felt the accustomed waker, roused, he quickly and intently opened his eyes, and saw standing by him a young man, shining and comely, and, to use his words, having golden hair; who at once departing from him went through the middle of the choir, and slowly, and, manifestly seen by him, after he had appeared a long while, disappeared. This he himself related to me; but also what I shall add he likewise himself narrated.

CH. V.

[10] At midnight on a Sunday the brethren were singing psalms in the oratory, and he with them. He is miraculously freed from a pain of the head. A pain of the head attacked him, and so violent that he thought of going out of the choir. When for doing this A omits Ad quod agendum., not bearing the pain, he moved himself, he heard a voice teaching thus: "Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my infirmities" (Ps. XVII). Strengthened by this voice he remained in choir; and after a little interval, as the pain grew stronger, he again was disposing himself to go out, and again the aforesaid voice sounded. What more? all that night and the following Sunday until the end of the conventual Mass that conflict did not cease, of the pain, namely, and of the voice, the former compelling him to go out, the latter admonishing him to remain. In that Order it is a solemn custom that all communicate on Sunday ^f. Wherefore, when he had come up in his order and had bowed humbly at the horn of the altar, it seemed to him that a stone of great weight fell from his head; and at once raising himself and receiving the holy Eucharist, he was saved from all that pain ^g.

CH. VI

[11] Now how near he was to God can be estimated from what I shall add. He is confirmed in the faith by heavenly sweetness; I was speaking once with him about the reason of our faith; and when I confessed to him as to a familiar that I was sometimes A omits. struck by some temptation against it, at the same time I asked him whether he had ever felt anything of temptation of this kind. "I do not deny," he said, "that I have often been touched by a thought of this kind, but manifold experience of the faith has made firm all its infirmity." Going further, I presumed to ask what it was that had made such firmness in him. He, as he was meek and humble of heart, and towards friends easy and tractable: "Many things," he said, "concerning God, and sometimes I have felt something such that, when I ceased to feel it, I bore it more heavily A omits Quod–tuli. than if Quasi A and B. I were thrown into a burning furnace." I call Christ and our common hope to witness that he said these same words to me.

[12] on which occasion Thomas inveighs against the incredulous, The incredulity of some, or, what is worse, the envy of believers, has compelled me to append this attestation, who through hardness of heart cannot believe, or through malice will not have it believed, that the servants of God had or that moderns have such great grace. "Wits," as blessed Jerome says, "like men testing wines, venerate the old and despise the younger." Is God the God of the ancients only? is he not also of the younger? God is no respecter of persons nor of times, but in every nation and in every time he that fears God and works justice is acceptable to him (Acts X). Why then Ergo A. should not this man have been acceptable to God, and so that he received A adds non. grace from God through which he experienced concerning God those things which only the most perfect merit to experience, since he himself was perhaps most perfect? And indeed in certain graces, so to speak, worldly, he was without doubt unequal to many. For, as we set forth at the entry of this work, he was neither beautiful in form above the sons of men, nor clothed in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps. XLIV), nor in chariots and in horses, nor careful and troubled B omits Et turbatus. about many things (Luke X) through industry in outward business, nor of the giants who groan under the waters (Job XXVI); he did not walk in great things and in wonders above himself (Ps. CXXXI); but in all these the Lord is not. For he is not, as it is written, in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the whistling of a gentle air (III Kings XIX), and in the voice which came to Elijah and to his counterpart John, which this friend of the bridegroom, who stood, often and intimately heard.

[13] and against those who value and care for nothing but outward things. Since some did not know his inward brightness, judging according to the face, they at times esteemed him less ^h. Envious and senseless men once despised the great Martin, likewise saying that a man despicable in countenance, sordid in dress, unsightly in hair, was unworthy of the episcopate; nor yet were those outward graces, and, as we have named them before Prænominavimus B., worldly, lacking to this man; he had them sufficiently, but in them he kept temperance, lest, if he were held assiduous in them and by them, he should be small or nothing in those things which he loved above them and ought to love; which many prelates do, indeed even glory in this, rejoice in this, boast of this, that they are industrious in outward things and that things succeed for them in those; while meanwhile, casting away their inward things, they do not feel the inward loss, and, putting after the things which ought to be put first, namely the care of souls, they commit to others to be cared for the souls which they themselves ought to care for, relying on their own prudence and not hoping in the Lord. On account of which God too sometimes deserts such men and delivers them into the hands of their enemies, and catches the wise in their craftiness (Job V). But he, trusting in God, caring for inward things, committing outward things to faithful men, since he himself cared for God, had his God as his caretaker, as in what follows, when we come to that place, will be proved by evident argument.

CH. VII

[14] But now, returning to the order of the narration, let us say that when he had lived singularly in the singular Illo A. Order, Bl. Peter becomes prior of Igny, and after a vision abbot of Vauclair. he was made prior of Igny. And when he was fulfilling this office too quite vigorously and laudably, he was elected abbot of Vauclair, which is one of the daughters of Igny ⁱ. This election of his was preceded by such a vision. It seemed to the abbot who was then presiding over Igny that a candlestick burning and shining, placed before the principal altar, suddenly went out through the greater window; and after a little while Dom Peter was elected. In that Vauclair two things happened to him which I learned not from common and uncertain report, but from the account of a religious brother, monk and cellarer of the same abbey, named Nicholas.

CH. VIII

[15] A certain one of the hirelings of that place could not get his wages, A hireling, thinking to set fire to a grange of Vauclair, although he had frequently demanded them; the cellarer, namely, dissembling, indeed for certain reasons unwilling to pay, and asserting that by right they were not to be paid to him. When he wished to refer this to the abbot, he could not; for the abbot was then sick, and the cellarer did not allow this man to go in to him. The servant, then, raging and kindled by anger, which is a short Brevi B. madness, went to one of the neighbouring granges of the abbey, carrying burning coals in a pot, and, secretly setting fire beneath, was disposing himself to burn the grange. While he was thinking this, the servant of God was present, and asked what he wished to do. He was terrified with violent stupor; and since he could not conceal the matter, he confessed his purpose and the cause of the purpose. To whom the abbot said: "Do not do this crime; but tomorrow come to me in the infirmary; I order your wages to be restored to you ^k, nor will there be anyone to shut off your entry to me."

[16] he orders his wages to be restored to him, wonderfully. He did as he had been commanded, and on the morrow, no one preventing, coming to the abbot, he begged him to fulfil his promise. Now the abbot was ignorant of all these things, but, dissembling his ignorance, he diligently inquires into and hears the course of what had happened; and having sent the man away with sure hope of having his wages, he says thus to the aforenamed Nicholas, who was ministering to him: "Truly, brother, if we thought of the Lord, the Lord would think of us." He, conjecturing that he had heard something which was great, followed the man as he went away, and, prudently and ingeniously promising both to conceal the counsel and to hasten the business, extorted the narration of what had happened.

This is the first and great miracle; and the second is like it, not in form but in grace.

CH. IX

[17] The disease which they call fistula had afflicted the man of God and made him languid A and B add: Ipse morbum celabat, sed se morbidum celare non poterat.. At Vauclair he is unexpectedly freed from a fistula. There passed through that place a certain monk of Clairvaux, celebrated in the art of medicine. The brethren suggested it to him, and he advised and persuaded the abbot to let him examine the disease. He saw it, and answered the brethren that it was a fistula, and in such a place that it could not be cut and thereby healed; adding this word: "If this man sees Easter, he will never die any more." Signifying, namely, that he could not be healed, and would die within such a term. He recovered, however, and lived many years afterwards; but how he recovered has hitherto been unknown.

CH. X

[18] After he had presided over the brethren of Vauclair for some time ^l, While he was going to the election of the abbot of Igny, it happened that the abbey of Igny had no abbot. It is the custom that the subject abbots, or daughters, come together for the election of the principal father and abbot. The man of the Lord Peter, then, taking with him a certain Robert, a religious and lettered monk of Igny, whom he had with him as a familiar for his consolation, was coming to Igny. And he prayed the Lord to inspire him to whose election he ought to aspire. While he was thinking and at the same time praying these things, he heard a voice saying thus: "When you come to that place," and it designated the place to him by a certain mark which I do not remember, "you will learn what you seek." He was already almost reaching the place and had not obtained his wish. He prayed therefore more attentively, and knocked at the Lord about the payment of the promise. The voice therefore, coming to him again B adds est, et., said thus: "Ask that monk who accompanies you; he will tell you who is to be abbot."

[19] he is told by his companion that he will be abbot. Having at once summoned the monk, namely the aforenamed Robert, the father addressed him in this way: "We are going," he said, "to Igny, and I believe that the election of the abbot will depend very much on me. You, then, who know the manners of the brethren by much experience, intimate to me whom you judge most worthy of this office." But he, not by a prophetic spirit but by desire of that man's promotion, and since he loved him and knew him worthy of promotion: "Without hesitation," he said, "and without deliberation I will answer. I judge no one more worthy than you, and therefore I foretell that you will be the abbot." But the man of the Lord kept all these words, pondering them in his heart; and although he could no longer be ignorant of what was to be concerning himself, he nevertheless questions him again, saying thus: "I know, brother, and I am certain that you would wish my promotion, but this is not placed in your will. I wish, then, by all means that you name another who is worthy to be elected." — "I will name no other," he said; "you will be abbot, you all desire." They came to Igny, and by the unanimous consent of all, without any contradiction, he was elected abbot; which election nevertheless another such presage, as I may say, preceded.

CH. XI

[20] There was in the abbey a religious and good brother, who long discharged the office of precentor, The same is revealed to a monk of Igny. named Nicholas. He himself related to me that at the time when that see was vacant and the brethren were in suspense and awaiting the election, he, anxious about this business, was continually praying the Lord that he would provide them with a suitable abbot. To him, praying to the Lord on one occasion, a voice manifestly said thus: "Nicholas, you will have an abbot, and he will show you what you must do. Seek O vere A and B. the blessed one. O admirable man, O Peter, truly an imitator of Peter." And therefore rightly the Lord bore him the testimony which he had first borne to Peter, the Prince of the apostles. And in truth, not only to the aforenamed brother, but to all who were in the house, and to outsiders also who merited to see, hear and know him, he showed an example of the truest and Christian religion. For some years ^m he presided over that abbey in holiness and justice before God, with a great name, with celebrated fame, in good odour before the world.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER TWO.

The zeal and humility of Bl. Peter. The conversion of Baldwin of Guise. Visions of Bl. Peter concerning him. Other visions. The killing of Bl. Gerard, abbot of Clairvaux.

CH. XII

The aforesaid Nicholas was kindled by his singular and arduous conversation, Bl. Peter impels a delicate young man to penance. and at the same time was admonished to understand the things which were set before him and proposed to him by him. And Qua A, quam B., mindful of the voice which he had heard, and knowing that he must prepare similar things, he wished to attempt something even above the common order. But because he was delicate and weak, he by no means presumed. Placed in this fluctuation, he once heard a voice saying thus: "Nicholas, never fear to do penance." This I seem to myself to have placed fittingly for the confirmation of those who are in faintness of spirit and in tempest (Ps. XXXIV), who fear the hoar-frost and the snow rushes upon them (Job VI). A measure, however, is to be set to boldness, and a pious and discreet discernment of bodily frailty is to be had; and this is to be attended to: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matth. XXVI); and care of the flesh, as not in desires, so in necessities, is to be taken; which I noticed that the saint of God did so.

CH. XIII

[22] For when A omits. I was eating with him once, and seeing him not tasting the fish set before him, He is sparing of food and seems dull. and sparing the other foods none the less, and pitying him, I reproached him with excessive sparingness: "On the contrary," he said, "I would eat more sparingly, did I not spare my body." He spared his body, then, even when he both was and seemed most sparing in food and drink. From which it is also rightly conjectured that in other things too he was temperate, discreet and moderate. Since he so sought the excellence of virtue as not to let go temperance, which, fourth among the principal virtues, has such grace that without it the other three graces cannot be gracious; well, then, did I hear a certain religious and wise man, namely Gilbert, abbot of Foigny ^a, say of him that he had seen no one to whom singularity had turned out less badly; doubtless he governed his singularity singularly, that is temperately and prudently, although to most who did not know him intimately he seemed simple and dull; which happened to him from slowness of speech, and because when he spoke his tongue smelt of Latium ^b. Finally he hid all his goods the more studiously.

[23] [But in truth he was a prudent good superior, severe to himself, but kind to others and granting dispensations,] He was, however, in truth A omits. of a perspicacious mind, and of much sound counsel, and moderate and discreet in his works and in ruling his subjects. Finally, when I had once met a venerable man, industrious and at the same time upright, his cellarer, complaining namely that, as was said, his abbot was religious indeed but hard, excessively severe and at the same time rustic, he answered, who knew his manners, his life, his institutes, his custom by long companionship and experience: "Truly," he said, "he is hard and severe, but to himself, not to others. For to others he is kind and merciful, and so much so that we, who have the greater care of him and are his helpers, sometimes murmur at his kindness and patience, excessive as it seems to us, saying, not in disparagement but in zeal, that the fervour of the Order has grown lukewarm in his time; but when we weigh his intention, when we hear the reasons for his works, given beforehand and rendered to us by him, and weigh them when heard, we recognize that he ought A omits. to act so and not otherwise; since, attending more to the spirit and charity, which is the law of God and the bond of perfection, and from which alone life proceeds, than to the letter, and than to the institutes and inventions of men, he easily estimates the loss of certain observances; not, however, letting them go, not neglecting them, not despising them, but tempering them according to the person, the place, the time; while he attends on the one side to the rigour of the Order, on the other to human infirmity, labouring with all his strength to be a faithful steward; which he believes he then attains without doubt, if from certain indulgences, although they seem to bring some mark and some loss, he has received the compensation of the charity of the brethren and of peace and of voluntary service; not making much of it if he is disparaged by some on this account, while a pure conscience and the truth of God attest for him."

[24] because he did not place holiness in external works, but in justice. Indeed this man was not of those who, straining at a gnat, swallow a camel (Matth. XXIII), who tithe every herb and leave the weightier things of the law; who, having no discernment between good and evil, good and better, evil and worse, and, what is worse, seeking the things that are their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's (Phil. II), although they seem to keep watch over the care of the flock, yet themselves erring by ignorance or malice, and sending others into error,

do many things, profit little, bear many leaves but small fruit; indeed they often quarrel about goat's wool and suffer nothing over the affliction of Joseph. But Peter, taught by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that by the works of the law no man shall be justified (Gal. II), and that God is a spirit, and those who adore him must adore in spirit and truth (John IV), a most ardent emulator of spirit and truth, possessed abundantly the justice, not which is of the law and of works, but which is of the spirit and of God. By which he too, being just, justified his dispensations, and by the authority which followed his holiness he obtained for them not only victory but also favour. These things having been set out, by way of digression perhaps, yet hanging on the subject, we shall make our return to the subject. Meanwhile the man of God saw a vision most worthy of great admiration and no less Necnon A. of memory and relation. As I found it written by another ^c, I have joined it to what we are writing. It is of this kind.

CH. XIV

[25] Once, when the abbot of Igny, Peter by name, He narrates the conversion a man conspicuous for all holiness, had come to Ourscamp ^d, the whole house, joyful and glad at his coming, rejoiced, showing such reverence as his holiness required. Then the lord abbot and the prior, because they had learned that he had seen a vision, which they desired to hear from the mouth of him who had seen it, separating him from the midst, lead him aside, as though to speak of more secret matters. And when they had sat down, they address him venerably and begin to entreat him that he would deign to disclose to them the course of the vision which he had seen. He, trembling and fearful, and as though not knowing what they were asking, dissembles as far as he can that he had seen a vision, and by no means acquiesces in their prayers. They ask once and again; he refuses. Overcome, however, by their laudable importunity, both because the prior shows him by the testimony of the Scriptures that he is guilty of sin against a brother who hides from a brother a matter of edification, and because he can refuse nothing to the lord abbot, since he tenderly loves him by whom in turn he himself is no less loved, at length, with words scarcely bursting out, he begins his narration thus:

[26] [of Baldwin of Guise in the territory of Reims; at whose death he stood by and gave him the monastic habit.] "There was in the archdiocese of Reims a certain knight named Baldwin ^e, a man illustrious in family, a man overflowing in temporal goods, but no less abounding in sins. For he left no evil undone, except what he could not do. This knight, at the time when he was waging war with the archbishop of Reims, inflicted very many evils on the whole country and especially on the neighbouring houses; but the property of our house, which he embraced with a more ample affection of love than the other houses of religion, he not only did not carry off, but even protected from any others whatever, showing much reverence to our property and to all of us. It happened, however, that he at length fell into bed, touched by bodily sickness. And when he knew that he was going to die, I was summoned by his messenger to come and visit him; and, summoned, I came at once. And having heard his confession, when I saw that he was led by penitence and that for the rest he had a good will, I advised him to renounce the world and take the religious habit. He acquiesces in the counsels; he seeks leave from his wife, but cannot find it. Seeing then that he did not have leave to come, after I had anointed him with the holy oil, I returned to the monastery. Meanwhile, a few days having passed, the disease growing stronger, when no hope of him any longer remained to his kinsmen, he is brought to our monastery by those same kinsmen ^f. He is met as he comes, and is devoutly received by us. He is carried into a cell, is clothed in the sacred habit, and keepers are assigned to him. These, when one night they felt him approaching death, strike the board to call the brethren together, as the custom of our Order demands. The brethren are roused, they come to the sick man; I too am present among the others; I fulfil the office; the community sings the seven psalms, but the sick man does not yet depart. Seeing then that he would not die so quickly, lest the brethren who were to attend the sacred vigils should be too much afflicted, I nod to them to go back to rest.

[27] Visions of two brethren In that hour two of the brethren saw two visions concerning the sick man. The vision of one, in his bed, was this Sic A.: he seemed to see that the whole community stood before the sick man, and, bowing humbly to him, impressed the kiss of peace on his lips. The other saw, but in a vision of the night, that the sick man, lying in bed, wished to rise from the bed but could not. And when he was beside him to help him, the sick man said: 'Do not help me; I do not need your help; for blessed Benedict helps me, who also commands the abbot that he himself make my tonsure.'

[28] and of Bl. Peter himself "Without delay the board is struck a second time. The brethren are roused again, they come again to the sick man. The sick man departs from the body, and the body is carried into the church. And there, some brethren remaining to sing psalms around the dead man, the community goes back to rest. I too that night, being a little sick, go with the others to rest. And when I lay in bed, still awake and not yet asleep, I began to think with myself and as it were to say to myself: 'Lord my God, what will become of this man, whom the bonds of so many sins bind? What does it profit him that he confessed his evils Peccata A.? What that he repented at the last? What that he took the habit of religion? Where is he now? Is it well with him or ill?' While I silently think this with myself, I hear a voice saying thus: 'He greatly needs help.' Hearing, then, that he needed help, I at once go to the church in spirit, and, as though bending the knee before each of the altars of the saints whose memory was kept there, with all the devotion I can I implore their patronage, that they might obtain mercy from the Lord for him who needed pardon. And this done, my eyes are closed, and suddenly I slip into sleep.

[29] visions of his sincere penitence. "And as soon as I had begun to sleep, I feel myself weighed down as it were by a great mass; and I understood that it was a malign spirit which was oppressing me, which also said to me: 'What is it that you intend to do?' I answered: 'What,' I said, 'do I intend to do?' 'Do you think,' he said A omits., 'that you can take Baldwin away from me for the mere habit of religion which he has taken?' 'I think so,' I said. 'Ought he not,' he said, 'by right to be mine, who served me all the time of his life; who remained in his sins to the end of his life?' To him I: 'I do not deny it. But did he not confess his sins, did he not repent at the last, and take refuge in the mercy of God? And if I am silent about all else, do you not know that the blood of Christ was shed for sinners for the remission of sins? By that precious blood which flowed from the side of Him sleeping on the cross, I adjure you, accursed one, to depart hence forthwith and to have no power over him.' Having heard the name of the blood of Christ, not bearing the power of the adjuration, he departed vanquished and confounded. But I, exhilarated as at a victory, bursting out into a voice of jubilation and praise for exultation of heart, began to sing 'Te Deum laudamus.' And I sang it in my sleep up to the place where it says 'Tu Rex gloriae Christe,' where, waking from sleep and beholding in clearer light the course of what had happened, I completed the whole hymn to the praise and glory of God. And while I still had that verse in my mouth — 'In te Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum' — the clock falls and the bell is rung for Matins. I go to the vigils, not unmindful of the voice which had told me that Baldwin needed help. All night I direct prayer to God for him.

[30] [Bl. Peter enjoins prayers on the brethren, and himself celebrates Mass for him for thirty days.] "When day had come, the brethren being assembled in chapter, I enjoin them to offer the saving victim for the dead man without interruption up to the thirtieth day, resolving myself also to do what I enjoined on others, that is, to sacrifice for him for thirty days. Through those thirty days, then, in which he was prayed for by all of us, Baldwin often appeared to me, coming before me and standing by me in whatever place I was. He appeared in the guise of a suppliant, as though he were saying that he needed help, and were asking to be prayed for; and this he did most of all when our devotion was lukewarm and A omits. languishing A omits., or when for whatever cause I could not celebrate Mass. I do not say that he appeared to me daily through those thirty days, but often through those thirty days. It happened too that one day I set out for the granges of our house, and on that day I could not sing Masses. And when I was returning to the monastery, he appeared to me on the way as a suppliant and much sadder than he was wont, as though he wished to say that on that day I had been unmindful of him ^g.

[31] He sees him on Good Friday still needing suffrages. "When the thirty days had now passed, on the day on which the cross is adored by all peoples ^h, when I was sitting in the presbytery clothed in the priestly vestments Vestimentis A and B., to celebrate the sacred solemnities of the Mass, and the second lesson was already being read in the church, looking I saw two men clad in purple, exceedingly beautiful and desirable to see, coming through the middle of the choir, who were leading between them, in the middle, brother Baldwin clothed in ysembrunus ⁱ; and when they had brought him before me in the place where I was sitting, they presented him to me and said: 'This is Baldwin.' And behold, as I was thinking what they were going to do with him, they lead him to the altar and so offer him. And this done, the vision is not seen. And brother Baldwin, who had so often appeared to me, from that day and for the rest never appeared to me. Returning then to myself and considering what a vision of this kind figured, I understood that after brother Baldwin had been offered to the altar he was reconciled; but by the black garment with which he was clothed, that there was still in him some stain of sins and that he was subject to penance. Behold, you know what I saw concerning this knight.

[32] On another dying man he puts the habit, "A little before this man of whom we have spoken died, a certain knight placed at the point of death sent for me to visit him. When I had come to him and had heard his confession, I could counsel him nothing better than to renounce the world and take refuge in the mercy of God, which alone I believed remained for him. I therefore showed him Vauclair,

a certain house of our Order which was nearer to his house, and he is clothed in the habit of religion; and I return to Igny. And when that night I lay in bed, still awake I began to think within myself and as it were to say to myself: 'What, do you think, will the habit of religion which he has taken profit this knight? What he did, he did not so much willingly as unwillingly. For if he had still had time for doing evil, perhaps he would have done evil things. Finally, he did not so much dismiss his sins as his sins dismissed him.'

[33] and he understands how useful this is. "While I think these things with myself, I hear a voice saying thus: 'It will profit him much. And know this, that over him and over anyone who dies in the habit of the Cistercian Order Religionis A. the devil will have no power until sentence has been given concerning him.' Hearing the voice, I at once understood that what it said could be true, such a likeness stealing into my mind. If a king has a servant who is hated by all, as long as that servant has with him the king's signs and his letters, and as long as it is uncertain whether he is loved by the king or held in hatred, he can walk safe in the midst of enemies without contradiction. But if it has been declared that the king holds him in hatred, and if he has cast him out of his house, from this point there will be none who does not tear him to pieces. So too he who has with him the signs of the warfare of Christ, bearing his marks in his body, clothed in the habit of religion, which is the tunic of the Saviour, can penetrate safe the wedges of his enemies, nor has the devil any power over him, still being ignorant what the Lord wills concerning him. But if the will of the judge concerning him has been made clear, and the sentence pronounced has stood witness that he does not please God, from this point the malign one receives power and can exact the debt to the last farthing ^k. Strengthened therefore by this vision, I counselled brother Baldwin to renounce the world even dying. For I knew that the habit of religion, even taken at the very moment of death, could profit even a sinner however great."

[34] The anonymous writer confirms the truth of these visions by oath; This vision the venerable abbot of Igny saw; which left us no scruple of doubt because it was not passed to our ears through a third person, but related by the very mouth of him who saw it. And although his testimonies are become exceedingly credible, I nevertheless, so that more certain faith may be had in this vision, confirm it with such an attestation: unless the vision which is set out in these letters is true, let my shoulder fall from its joint and my arm be broken with its bones; let the sky which is above me be brass and the earth iron; instead of wheat let the thistle spring up for me and instead of barley the thorn.

CH. XV

[35] To the foregoing attestation I add my testimony A adds quod.: likewise Thomas with his testimony. although it does not have the weight of authority, it certainly has the sincerity of truth. When, then, the relation set out above had come into my hands, I was not content with the testimony of the writing, but I strove at the same time to have the opportunity of the one who saw it. Not nakedly, not openly, but, so to speak, furtively and by certain insinuations which it would be long to set down and set out here, I tried to persuade him to narrate to me for my edification what he had seen concerning the knight Baldwin. What more? Overcome at length by my importunity, and overcome none the less by love and pleadings, he answered thus: "I will tell what you ask, but it will be heavy for me to tell it." In order, then, and consonantly with the writing, he confessed all things to me, and so from memory that I greatly wondered at his memory.

CH. XVI

[36] Henry, count of Champagne, son of that Theobald whose memory is contained with praises and deservedly in the Life of St. Bernard, Bl. Peter foresees Henry, count of Champagne, taking the cross. once begged the servant of God to pray to the Lord for him. He celebrated Masses to intercede for him; and when the mystery was completed, and he had turned to his ministers to say the last collect, he saw the absent count present, having the sign of the cross on his garment, as those are wont to have who propose to set out for Jerusalem. Not yet, however, as the count afterwards professed, had he fitted the sign of the cross to himself, but on that day, after much fluctuation, after long deliberation, he had firmly resolved without doubt to do it ^l.

CH. XVII

[37] The blessed man was once sitting in chapter. It was the anniversary of the death B omits ab obitu. of a certain brother. He understands that a dead monk still needs suffrages, The precentor, to whose office this belonged, suggested to him that he should absolve the brother, as was the custom. He absolved him, having first said in a low voice such a word: "He needs absolution." A certain one of the seniors, whose name was John, through whose report also I learned this, was sitting not far from him and heard the word said. Seeking out, when opportunity was given, the cause of that saying Inquirens B., he heard from him: "Lately," he said, "he appeared to me perceptibly while I was awake, and, asked whether he yet saw our Lord, he answered: 'Not yet the time'; and having said this he disappeared." The aforesaid John testified that he had lived religiously and long in the Order, and in the two years preceding his death had been wearied by a very troublesome disease, and, as he himself thought, a purgatorial one.

[38] because the justice of God is severe. But doubtless not only narrow but long is the way that leads to life (Matth. VII), and to the vision of the supreme good and of that surpassing nature, to which no one but the most purified can come, as the Life itself testifies and says: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Matth. V). Who then shall glory that he has a clean heart? Yet so that he who glories may glory in the Lord, that is in the truth which does not lie, not in opinion which deceives and is deceived. For there are many in whom iniquity lies to itself, fashioning and painting the mercy of God according to their own will, whereas the mercy of God does not make void his justice, and through many tribulations, that is purgations, we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts XVII). Let not those, then, who have put their hands to strong things (Prov. XXXI) disdain the discipline of the Order, which for the present seems to have something not of joy but of sorrow. But to those exercised by it, it will render the most peaceable fruit of justice in this life, and of glory in the future. Let them not murmur at the harshness of the way, but attend to the aforesaid brother, who by long-continued and arduous conversation, by two years' suffering of the body, purged like gold in the furnace and tried like silver in the fire, was not even so found perfect. Therefore let even those who are not conscious of evil in themselves put the bridle of fear on presumption, and fear, and let their wings drop. For there is need of long labour of the file, so that, material things and the phantasms of things being scraped off from the soul, the memory may hold nothing, the reason see nothing, the will love nothing except God, who is the original form of the memory, the incorporeal light of the reason, and the fiery incitement of the will, the supreme good, the blessed good, the beatifying good of man B omits Opus–hominis.. These things being briefly said to rouse certain sleepers, let us return to our purpose.

CH. XVIII

[39] In a building small things A omits. are sometimes proved necessary no less than great: He teaches a sick man patience in a vision. I shall therefore set down here something small, which, even if it merits no favour for usefulness, will yet merit pardon for brevity. I have a brother, not unknown to you whom the present discourse addresses. He, wearied from youth to old age by manifold diseases, is proved to have drawn out a long martyrdom. At one time the troubles of his body grew so far that he was thought to be failing. I wrote to the man of God, still remaining in the flesh, that he would stretch out the hand of intercession. On the night on which he was praying for the sick man, it seemed to him that he stood naked before the man of God and was being most severely beaten by him. He wondered at that man's unwonted severity against him, but to his wondering his conscience answered: "It is God who beats you." He lives to this day, bearing the scourge more patiently, of which he interprets God to be the author. To someone perhaps it will seem an empty dream, but the concurrence of that man's prayer and of this vision provoked me to write this. Now what I shall add the blessed man himself related to me.

CH. XIX

[40] He was in a certain church and in his prayer was confessing to the Lord. He is told in a vision that he will be abbot of Clairvaux. There appeared to him as he prayed the figures of SS. Bernard and Malachy ^m. Turning to them he directed his prayer and intention. Then one of them said to him: "You will be abbot of Clairvaux." They disappeared and he remained terrified. Terrified, I say, because, as he afterwards confessed to me with a groan, he would never have wished this to happen; and yet he could not doubt about A omits. this A omits. which he had heard from God.

CH. XX

[41] Some interval of time having passed after these things, the abbot of Clairvaux Gerold, At Igny Hugh de Bazoches, not bearing correction, an upright man and adorned with many graces, came to Igny. There was then at Igny a certain monk, or rather demoniac, a Judas among the apostles, a Satan among the sons of God, Hugh de Bazoches: he had offended the Order in very grave excesses, and the abbot aforenamed Prædictus A. him in regular punishment A and B add corripuit.. Having found, then, an opportune time to avenge his injury, driven by wicked furies, turning dire poison in his breast, he was considering with himself the abbot's death. When, then, it was evening one day, a certain religious and humble brother, Haymo by name, a native of Reims, was sitting in the vestibule of the house of the sick. He, as he himself confessed to me, saw manifestly two persons of horrible form, which he could not doubt to be demons, enter that house. At that time that satellite of Satan, the aforesaid Hugh, was lying with the brethren sick in body, himself sick in mind.

[42] he kills Bl. Gerard, abbot of Clairvaux; whom Henry de Marcigny succeeds. At midnight the abbot rose to confess to the Lord and attended the night vigils. Necessity demanding, he went into the conventual dormitory. Where Hugh, lying in wait to kill the innocent (Ps. X), with an iron weapon prepared for the crime, wounded him mortally. He lived until the following day ⁿ. About evening, the brethren being placed before him, he said: "Direct me, Lord, in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and on you have I waited all the day (Ps. XXIV)." And when he had said this he fell asleep in the Lord; and, as we believe, a notable martyr, he went to heaven crowned with laurel in his blood. His body, having been composed according to custom, Abbot Peter brought to Clairvaux ^o, fearing greatly lest what he had heard should be fulfilled: "You will be abbot

of Clairvaux." But the lot of this ministry fell to a certain Henry, a man mighty in deed and word; who having shortly afterwards been taken up as cardinal bishop [p], that see was vacant, and again the election of an abbot was being treated.

ANNOTATA.

p. Of Henry de Marcigny, abbot of Clairvaux and bishop of Albano, it has been spoken in the Preliminary Commentary, nos. 3, 6, and others.

CHAPTER THREE.

Of the election of Bl. Peter as abbot of Clairvaux. He heals the sick. The journey to Verona. The election of a certain bishop. Bl. Peter becomes one-eyed. His

charity. He dies.

CH. XXI

There was at Clairvaux a claustral prior, Gilbert, today abbot of Foigny ^a. [Gilbert, prior of Clairvaux, learns from the vision of a certain brother that Bl. Peter, humble in appearance,] He, knowing intimately and very well the most sincere holiness of the blessed man, namely as his unique and familiar friend, was anxiously thinking of transferring him from Igny to Clairvaux. While he was turning this over in his mind, one of the brethren, entirely ignorant of his mind and intention, confided to him, saying: "I bear," he said, "a pious solicitude for our house, and I do not know whom the Lord proposes to provide for us as shepherd. However, such a vision has been shown to me: it was announced to us that Christ the Lord was coming Advenisse A. to this house. We were running to meet him at the doors of the monastery. We saw him having neither comeliness nor beauty, short of stature, poor in dress, contemptible in appearance; yet it was doubtful to no one that he was the Lord Jesus Christ."

[44] but excelling in virtues, will be abbot. Bringing this vision together and comparing it with his own purpose, Gilbert could interpret Christ as nothing other than Peter, a most true Christian and truly a christ, that is, anointed with the heavenly chrism, that is, with the Holy Spirit; who in the eyes of men seemed poor and small, the last of men and as it were struck by God; but all his glory was from within, where the precious pearl shone in his heart and where there was a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob: a tabernacle, I say, constructed by faith, charity and the other virtues, as by hangings, gold, silver and precious stones, adorned, spacious, beautiful and precious, but covered outwardly with haircloth; where the desire of the divine vision was, for an odour of sweetness to the Lord, where the concert and consonance of reason and of the affections, rendering a honey-flowing harmony, soothed even the divine hearing. Fittingly, then, and deservedly Christ appeared in the dress of poor Peter; and He who will transform the body of our lowliness, made like to the body of his Nostræ A and B. glory Infirmitatis A and B. (Phil. III), transformed the body of his glory, made like to the body of our infirmity A and B omit Transformavit–nostræ.; and being in the form of God and equal to God, he emptied himself, made in the likeness of Peter, and found in habit as he (Phil. II).

CH. XXII

[45] Gilbert, then, made bolder by this vision, called together the neighbouring abbots, and Peter by name; Bl. Peter, who had fled, is elected abbot in his absence; and Peter indeed, summoned, fled. The others nevertheless, coming, with the consent of the community, elected him in his absence. Nor was there anyone to oppose it, since all knew his admirable virtue. Being sought, then, he was found in a certain grange of that Order, living among the lay brothers. And on that day he was found in the meadows turning hay. Led thence to Igny, since he could not be overcome by prayers, he took up the office, compelled by the authority of the Order, unwilling, not wishing, bound to it.

[46] having been found, he heals Gilbert of a fever. On the morrow, when they wished to set out and make for Clairvaux, a violent fever seizes the above-named Gilbert, who was one of those seeking him, seeking the man of the God of Jacob (Ps. XXIII). The man of God came to him complaining and saying that everything had been done through him, and now against the laws of friendship he was deserting him in necessity. He put forward his necessity, not a lie; to which the holy abbot answered: "Rise, let us go hence; the fever will not harm you Nobis B. any further." He rose and went with the servant of God, and after a little while the fever left him. And so, brought as far as Clairvaux, he was received by the brethren as an angel of God, as a man sent from God, with the devotion and favour of all. He came to them not in loftiness of speech, not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in showing of the spirit and of power, in the truth and perfection of the Christian religion, of which things he showed them venerable examples.

CH. XXIII

[47] After some time he was visiting the abbeys, daughters of Clairvaux, and Gilbert with him, the new abbot of Bohéries ^b. Now Gilbert was riding a horse, otherwise indeed comfortable, but which very often struck its foot against the stones and was a danger to its rider. Peter, noticing that the horse frequently stumbled with its feet and fearing a fall for Gilbert, reproved him for using that animal, from which he could very easily incur a fall and injury of body. To this he said: "It carries me gently and fitly and is not treacherous, on account of which I greatly embrace its use. But if you fear for me and wish to benefit me, ask the Lord that it may no longer suffer from this fault." — "Is it so," he said, "that prayers are to be poured out rather than poured forth? Does God take care for oxen? (I Cor. IX). Yet I pray God that it may not so fall as to do you harm." And he used it Eo A and B. afterwards for many years, and it did not fall, for it was of steady foot. And lest it be ascribed to chance rather than to the merits of Peter, as soon as Gilbert, translated to Foigny, left the horse and Bohéries ^c, one of the brethren of that place mounted the horse, under which, or rather upon which, the quadruped fell so cruelly that the brother, his leg broken, was carried back unhappily injured to the monastery.

CH. XXIV

[48] On account of his outstanding holiness and conversation, He is summoned to Verona by Pope Lucius III; and because no one could do these signs unless God were with him (John III), which also bore witness to one another, as cinnamon and aromatic balm he gave forth an odour, and as choice myrrh he gave a sweetness of odour (Ecclus. XXIV); and this odour had spread itself far and wide, and over all the hill country, not only of France but of the other regions, all these words were noised abroad, and his name was celebrated, and very many held him as a prophet, and saw him with joy, as being a friend of God and his familiar. Finally the Roman pope ^d, moved by so happy a fame, showed sufficiently how much he valued him, when, wishing to see him, he called him to himself. Sad, as they say, he undertook that pilgrimage, but, obedient to the Supreme Pontiff, he did not delay to go. That pope was old in age, heavy with old age, touched by the sickness of which he afterwards also died.

[49] [who receives from him Penance and the Eucharist, and gives him an abbey and other things.] Gladdened nevertheless by his coming, adorned in precious vestments, sitting on the tribunal, with a ring of cardinals standing round, he received him festively and joyfully. Then leading him into a secret place, laying aside the apostolic majesty, before him, or rather in truth before Christ, who appeared in him by evident signs, humbling himself, he confessed all his sins to him, and from the most sacred hand of him celebrating Mass in his presence he received the holy Eucharist; he wished also to take the habit of the Cistercian Order, but the man of the Lord, by what counsel indeed I do not know, but surely by a sound one, did not permit it to be done. The lord pope also gave him a place in A omits. which he might establish, or rather re-establish, an abbey of his Order, since there had been an abbey there, but it was then destroyed, and the expenses necessary for completing it ^e. After these things, the servant of God having stayed with him for some time Diu B., since he did not wish to remain, he permitted him to return, honoured, indeed also rewarded Remuneratum A; B omits quin–muneratum..

[50] Thomas vindicates the Roman curia. The Roman Curia is disparaged because it is wont to receive favourably the faces of the great and to drain the wealth of the powerful ^f; let it now be disparaged more sparingly. In Peter, poor, and in this respect not unlike the great Peter, who had neither gold nor silver, it venerated naked virtue, confessing by the very facts that what the ethical poet says is true:

Silver is of less worth than gold, gold than virtues.

In his sight Peter appeared empty-handed, and freely found favour, did not buy it; and he to whom the kings of Tharsis and the islands offer gifts offered gifts to poor Peter, whence Peter too might build upon the rock a church of his Order. Happy Peter, who, though he was subject to every A omits. human creature for God's sake, triumphed over golden mountains, not by his own strength, but through God. Happy too the Roman pope, who, though he was a golden mountain raised on the top of the mountains, nevertheless subjected himself for God's sake B omits Propter Deum. to the humblest of all men.

CH. XXV

[51] To what has been set down I shall add some small thing, from which nevertheless something great may be estimated. [In an election referred by compromise to Cardinal Henry, Bl. Peter advises choosing neither of the two candidates.] In a certain episcopal church of Gaul a dissension arose among the clerics over the election of a bishop ^g. A Roman cardinal was present, to whom the clerics compromised, proposing two to him, that whomever he named all should elect. The cardinal consulted Peter which of them seemed better to him; to one of them, because he was noble and seemed lavish, more favoured very zealously, and they wished very much that the holy abbot should bear witness for him; as though they would promote him more plausibly and with sounder conscience whom so great a man had preferred by his testimony. He was not a reed shaken by the wind, he did not seek to please men but God; therefore, answering according to his conscience and the truth, he said: "In two false pennies a better cannot be found." They were confounded because Peter despised them. Nay rather, they were not confounded and would not blush; for they elected that man none the less.

[52] The wisdom of this counsel is proved by experience. He lives to this day, noble indeed in family but not noble Nobilis A. in virtue; and it would be easy, but it is not necessary, to name the person; it is enough if the writing speaks of the matter and does not speak of the author. One may behold in Peter's few words the four cardinal virtues: prudently, indeed, he did away with the comparison of the two in good; for because neither was good, the other A omits. ought not to be called better. Justly none the less he acted, who did not hide justice in his heart, who spoke the truth and the salvation of God (Ps. XXXIX): truth begets hatred, and while he did not A omits. shrink A omits. from meeting the hatred of some and offending favour in speaking the truth, he was brave and in himself

… Wholly smooth and rounded.

They did not believe his word, and he gave way as if vanquished; he did not on this account stir up a quarrel, did not put on sorrow, did not disparage those who thought otherwise; and by this he showed the temperance and modesty of his heart. It will perhaps seem inept and vain to assert such great, that is four principal, virtues in so great a man by so light and so fragile an argument, since they have been very frequently proved in many and various ways and by things clearer than light itself. But, as someone says, "it is the part of a skilled craftsman to enclose great things in a small one"; which in the brief example set forth, namely, we A adds sic. judge we have done.

CHAPTER XXVI

[53] The virtues of this man, indeed, were proved and shown by many signs, and those remarkable ones, as we have set out above; Bl. Peter, the loss of an eye at Vauclair moreover his patience, which is exercised by harsh things as humility is by mean ones, was proved in him by a most powerful argument, which we have nevertheless passed over. While he was abbot at Vauclair, he was afflicted by a most violent illness. The violence of this malady, mounting to the fore-part of his head, so dissolved one of his eyes that, liquefied, it flowed out wholly and utterly, and, leaving the hollow socket empty, it made the man of God, blessed by God even then, one-eyed. Let the enormity of so great a trial be attentively considered, and let there be weighed in the balance of just judgement, with devout consideration, the excruciating pain, the debasing disfigurement, the deprivation of sight rendering him less useful, and above all this, that in all these things he did not sin Omits A. with his lips, nor spoke anything foolish against God, but, as holy Church sings of the martyrs:

No murmur sounds, no complaint, but with silent heart the mind, well conscious, keeps its patience.

[54] he bears it patiently and meekly. So this man, like a most meek lamb before its shearer, without a voice Sic adds B., did not open his mouth, but was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things (Psalm XXXVIII); nay rather, he used to say that he had escaped one of his enemies, so that he might fear the other more than the one he had lost. Not that this most accomplished man felt the senses or members of his body to be adversaries to him, since they were rather weapons of justice for God; but doubtless he said these things for the comfort of those who bore the losses of the body with difficulty, transforming them into himself through compassion, likening himself to them through humility. For he had subdued his members which were upon the earth by assiduity of labour, by ardour of charity, by the bonds of discipline, commanding them, not serving them, using them, not enjoying them, nay already, so far as he himself was concerned, not needing their use and as it were despising their begged-for support Immo — contemnens omits B.. For he, as is read of the great Martin, having passed beyond human nature, with heaven as witness, enjoyed God as present and as helper; and, as though by the Spirit of the Lord, he went out of himself in mind through Him to Him, to whom others scarcely ascend by conjectures of the senses and labours of the body. And there was fulfilled in him the Scripture which says: And His communication is with the simple (Proverbs III); and how familiar he was to Him will appear, though from many things, yet from what I shall add.

CHAPTER XXVII

[55] While he was still abbot of Igny, the brethren at one time had no prior, He will not choose a prior of Igny except after much converse with God. and when he put off appointing one, a certain senior, inquiring the reason for the delay, heard from him: "I do not cease to ask the Lord about this, and I receive no answer from Him." That senior named one whom he judged suitable. "The Lord by no means wills this," said he. From these things it may be asserted without doubt that, as Moses did, so this man spoke to the Lord as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus XXXIII). Doubtless, as that man, when he was to speak with the Lord, ascended the mountain, so this man stood upon a great summit, not of the mountain but of the mind, where after the manner of many he consulted the Lord, but after the manner of few he heard the Lord.

CHAPTER XXVIII

[56] But returning to Clairvaux, let us say that a little before his death, When he had gone to Reims and was returning with his biographer, the man of God Peter, drawn there by domestic business, came to Reims. Eo tempore morabatur in cœnobio gloriosi martyris Nicasii. Adds B. On this occasion I both saw him coming and, as he went away, I myself Omits A. escorted ^h him a long way. I gazed on him no less reverently, no less affectionately, than on an angel. I gazed on him, and there came to mind the memory of the great Martin, whom Sulpicius Severus, that noble orator, describes in a shaggy garment, wrapped in a black and hanging cloak, carried on an ass, nay a little ass. This man, conformed to Martin and his manifest emulator, was carried on a horse a little bigger than an ass. He also carried, after the fashion of a saddle-bag, the scapulars of the boys going on foot, and, clothed in a hanging and old cope, he bore the likeness of a poor rustic more manifestly than that of an abbot. He was, moreover, small of stature, thin and wasted of body, not wanton of senses but quiet Perhaps quietis.; and, his earthly affections being tamed, he was suspended in thought and as it were absent to those present, so that he seemed not a man but a spirit. Such I saw him then, such I noted him, such I believed him, for which reason I have both spoken and described him as such.

[57] he would not go ahead of others, lest he cause them trouble from the dust. So when, conversing about various things, we were going along the public highway ⁱ, the dust raised by the footsteps of those going ahead, and driven back by the wind blowing from the opposite direction, caused us trouble; then I say to him: "Let us go ahead of those in front, so that we may escape the storm of this dust." — "If," said he, "we go ahead of those walking in front, they will be in the lot in which we are, and this punishment will come back upon its own head; nor is it the counsel of charity to trouble one's neighbour with a view to one's own advantage." I blushed, I confess, observing in myself the care of myself and the carelessness of others, but in him the more excellent way, that is, the greater charity: when would this man burden his neighbour in grave things, who took care not to hurt him in light ones? Meanwhile we went on, and the dust did not cease to sting us nor the wind to vex us. So, having compassion on him, and measuring his mind by my own mind, although he by a special patience of mind overcame the suffering of the body, correcting the counsel which he had rebuked, I said: "Broad is the way that leads us: let us join our companions side by side; so, with them unharmed, we too shall be safe from the dust, the wind, and the storm." He agreed, and so walking, and conversing about various things as we said before, we spent a great part of the day. And when reason invited me to return, and we were just about to be separated, touched inwardly with sorrow of heart and drawing sighs from the depths, I said: "Does bitter death thus separate us?" Nor did I say this as Quasi A. foreknowing the future, yet by it I foretold things to come. For after no great interval of time he passed from this world to the Founder of the world. Concerning his passing I shall briefly tell what those who were present Adfuerunt A. have testified to us, and so I shall conclude this narration.

CHAPTER XXIX

[58] So Peter, when he had presided over the monks of Clairvaux for some years, Longing to die, he is seized by illness at Igny; having gone out from Clairvaux, having with him certain abbots of his Order, going about the neighbouring regions, began to fall gravely ill and to be Repente adds A and B. deprived of the strength of his body. And while he kept silent, but the sickness spoke of imminent danger, Gilbert ^k, named above, who was always anxious about him, for indeed he loved him tenderly, came to him and said to him: "Lord, so far as I judge from your condition, it is near that you will depart from us." To this he answered: "This I think and hope; for in this year I have poured out many prayers to the Lord that He would deliver me from the body of this death (Romans VII)." Meanwhile the disease increased, the sick man was distressed Omits B.. Yet scarcely and with toil they came as far as Foigny. There it seemed good to the brethren that he should be anointed, and they wished to carry him from the upper room where he had received lodging down into the lower house, where this could be done more fittingly.

[59] he receives the last sacraments and dies most devoutly, But he, who had never been overcome by any labour, by any pain, and was not to be overcome by death itself, compelled his failing limbs to serve the spirit. He rose, went down, was anointed, returned, and remained thus all night until evening; and when the brethren had already sung Compline, Gilbert, after the manner of a faithful friend, stood nearer to his friend, from whom, doubtless, he was a little later to be separated, and who seemed already to be at his last breath. Thinking this, the abbot of Vaucelles ^l, who himself also was standing nearby with the others, broke out in these words: "What are we doing, brethren: this man is departing from us." Hearing this, the man of the Lord, raising his hand, signed to them that he would depart not then but on the morrow; the brethren therefore meanwhile kept silence, but he, spending the whole night in prayers, commended his passing to the Lord. As dawn broke the darkness, the brethren gather to him, and he, with what effort he could, impressed upon them the love of God: and when he could not speak to them, he yet did not cease to pray to the Lord. And so, as he had been peaceful and quiet, so peacefully and quietly, in that very prayer in which he was confessing to the Lord, he sent forth his spirit to the Lord who gave it; and to what other would that spirit go than to the Spirit of God, nay of the Lord Deum A and B., with whom, by cleaving to Him, he had been one spirit, to whom many and great merits raised him, from whom no malice separated him, in whom also the Holy Spirit found His own likeness, nay Himself, and the deadly spirit found nothing deadly.

[60] [having first confessed to several abbots all his sins from the beginning of his monastic life.] How far all malice was from him, how great innocence was in him, was testified in my hearing by that Gilbert named above and more than once Ille — nominatus omits B., who with other fellow-abbots heard ^m his confession, and who knew, even without confession, as the Psalmist says to God, his sitting down and his rising up. He testified, therefore, that for all the offences which he had confessed at his end, and which he had contracted in all his life after beginning his monkhood, to use his words, no more ought to be enjoined than the Miserere mei Deus and the Our Father to any penitent. And if by the old proverb, "Equals are most easily gathered with equals, and like things are naturally fitted to like," it may be concluded without doubt, as is true, that this Peter Omits A., poor and small, enters heaven rich ⁿ, and, having imitated the life and manners of the saints and angels, is joined to them in fellowship. But now that his spirit has been worthily placed according to his merits, let us follow the obsequies of the body.

CHAPTER XXX

[61] One of the brethren proposed to extract one of his teeth, A monk tries in vain to extract a tooth of the dead man. desiring, that is, to keep it as a treasure and as relics; from Et A and B this he presumed he would easily do it, because the dead man had his mouth open. Approaching therefore to commit a pious theft, he found the mouth closed and so stopped up that he could not carry out his purpose. It was noted by some, and held as a sort of miracle; but I, to judge presumptuously, think this, that he kept even in death the singular humility which he had had alive. His little body was washed, which even lifeless possessed not horror but grace, and, placed upon the bier,

although in his mortal humility he had wished for burial at Igny, it was nevertheless carried as far as Clairvaux. And the brethren, as we have heard, placed Peter ^o where St. Bernard had first been laid, on account of the grace of his merits and because it was the tomb of a just man: doubtless agreeing with the testimony of certain persons to whom this man seemed of no less merit than that one. For, if I may say so with the leave of those who think otherwise, that man indeed, exalted in the word of glory (Ecclesiasticus XLVII), a man of great counsel, the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof (IV Kings XIII), a scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, bringing forth out of his treasure new things and old (Matthew XIII), bore much fruit in his time in the Order of Cîteaux, in the Church of Christ. He, I say, a burning and a shining light (John V), set upon a candlestick, that it might give light to all who are in the house of God (Matthew V), like a most limpid lamp Ac lucerna adds A. spread the rays of his light far and wide Sicut diffudit omits B.; but this man, to speak briefly, like a kindled coal, but covered with the ash of his poverty, had less indeed of splendour, but not less of ardour.

CHAPTER XXXI

[62] After the death of the outer man and the burial of the corruptible body, [A monk prior is freed from a temptation of the flesh, according to Bl. Peter's prediction.] that his inner man, that is, the mind of the man, had gone away indeed but had not perished, although faith also holds this, was nevertheless proved by the following argument. A certain monk, prior of a certain little cell [p], used to frequent the holy man. He, assailed by a certain grave temptation and entangled in the bonds of sin, earnestly begged his counsel and help. The man of the Lord, bestowing on him a word of comfort, bade him have good hope of his deliverance Vir — jubebat omits B.. But when the report of his funeral had come to him, as though he had lost the hostage of his redemption, almost despairing of his deliverance, he addressed the dead man as if living, and called upon him about the fulfilment of his promise. While he was knocking in this way at the door of the divine mercy, Peter, the saint of God, appeared to him in his sleep, and, consoling him, declared that he had been saved Liberaretur. A. from all his temptation. Awaking, and reckoning what he had seen and heard as a dream, he nevertheless awaited the outcome of the pledge. And behold, within a few days, a certain person, by unlawful love of whom he was bound, and while she lived he had no hope of being able to be healed, is announced as dead; and thus the snare was broken, the sinner set free, and the word of the just man fulfilled.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. A cellula in this place is a small monastery; which kind of monasteries were afterward called priories.

CHAPTER FOUR.

The good faith of the biographer. Praise of Bl. Peter. Letter to Henry, monk of Longpont.

CHAPTER XXXII

This discourse, too, which has so far been held about this just man, is completed; [The author, who had once written the Life of Bl. William, asks that he be believed.] completed, I say, but not more fully, because I have not set forth, either plainly or with sufficient elegance, the things which could or should have been said about him. For as we said in the proem, this saint, who began as a young man and died an old man, without doubt did many things which are unknown: and if they are known, they are known to others, but not to me. For, to repeat what I once said when writing of the lord William ^a, abbot of Saint-Thierry, who was one and the first of those who wrote the life of St. Bernard: when the foregoing things were told me, I did not intend to write them, nor was I anxious to search out more; but now, when I had decided to set my hand to the pen, there was neither opportunity nor means of seeking more. Nevertheless I fear lest I be judged by human day to have extolled this man with excessive praises, as though I had one judgement about him living and another about him dead; and likewise, because I undertook to commend him, that I allowed myself to say marvellous or great things rather than true ones, after the manner of certain persons who in declamatory fashion are wont to multiply lofty speech more studiously than truthful, or of the poets,

Poets who sing of marvels, but not things to be believed;

and to clear these things away altogether, or to soften them somewhat, although no one could doubt the foregoing unless he were very perverse, and yet because I am a debtor to the wise and the unwise, I shall place here the letter which I presented to him while he was still alive and was abbot of Clairvaux, so that it may be both an apology against the incredulous and an epilogue of the present work, and that in it the sameness of my judgement upon him, present and past, may be recognized. Having set down the greeting first, then, speaking and writing to him I said thus:

CHAPTER XXXIII

[64] "I am Thomas, the brother of Philip, that is, one of the two brothers of Reuil ^b whom you used to love, He gives the letter, full of praises, which he had once sent to Bl. Peter, while Your Beatitude still presided over the church of Igny, and the brethren of that place rejoiced in your presence, who now bear your absence the more heavily, the more they have learned by the experience of absence what your presence conferred. But, as is read of the great Martin, of whom, to speak according to my conscience, you are an unconquered imitator, you have been taken from us, you have been given by God to those of Clairvaux; if only the monks of Clairvaux recognize the grace of God in this gift of God, if they do not look upon vanities and lying follies, if they know how to judge not according to the appearance but with just judgement. What, then, they themselves judge about you, let them see to it; I steadfastly assert, having testimony in this from all who judge rightly, that whoever does not admire and love you is certainly deceived not a little Non parum omits A. and errs, or at any rate is ignorant either of your virtue or of the true nature of virtue itself. Those of Clairvaux may have had glorious charisms in other fathers; in you, assuredly, if they do not wish to dissemble, they have what is approved the more dearly the more rarely it is found, the exemplar of true and Christian virtue; whose perfect image and substantial truth is not in the great and marvellous things of this world, nor in those things which are glorious according to the judgement of the age, but in firm faith, in fiery charity, in deep humility, in the contempt of and abstinence from visible things, in the love and experience of invisible ones. These are your riches, and true ones; these you possess magnificently. In the consciousness of these you despise the other things in which others excel, which is a stronger thing to do than to have. Let your brethren therefore see these things, and if they wish to glory, let them glory in the Lord; they have, above others, this glory of excellence, that they have in the things of God a singular man.

[65] asking for his prayers. But let so much be said thus far, which I do not doubt are few for the dignity of the matter, but which I do not doubt are many and very burdensome to your most profound and singular humility. For the rest, as St. Jerome writes to St. Paula, neither the praises of Christ, even if I should wish it, being adjured, nor your praises to keep silent

can I. Even now, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness and kissing them with a pious embrace and the utmost devotion, I pray, my Father, my Father, and, if I so great a sinner dared to say it of so great a servant of God, my friend, that you would keep in memory Thomas your son, who writes this to you, and Philip my brother, and that you would render this recompense for the very great love which we bear toward you, that you would at some time entreat for us by name God, who is common to all but your own; these things are desirable to me above gold and very precious stone (Psalm XVIII). Nor is it a wonder: for as God is never supplicated without hope of mercy, so I steadfastly believe that you never supplicate Him without obtaining His mercy; and if not in full in the things which you ask, yet to some benefit of those for whom you ask. And it is altogether just that He should hear you in your prayers above others, since above the others of our time whom we have known you hear Him in His commandments Conclusio operis adds A.."

[66] He exhorts the readers to imitate Bl. Peter. Let us gather into one the things that have been set out, and, as it were under a single ray of the sun, let us weigh them not only with mindful but also with wakeful thought. Let us close this little work, and, fixing its goal, let us conclude, not only probably but also necessarily, that Peter was a most true servant of Christ. Let us imitate him, and if we cannot follow him by imitation of his virtue, let us reach him by the affection of due veneration and love. Let us believe in Christ and love Him in whom he himself believed and whom he himself loved, and loving whom he was a saint, and being a saint he worked the virtues set out above and many others passed over. Let us believe, I say, in Christ, but with the faith that works through love, so that, thus believing in Him, after the temporal life we may obtain the eternal life which is in Christ, nay which is Christ Christus A., and to which Peter has gone forward Amen adds A..

CHAPTER XXIV

[67] Omits A. To Master Henry, monk Omits A. of Longpont ^c, brother Thomas of Reuil Omits A., greeting. In a letter to Henry, monk of Longpont, From the little work which I composed on the life of the venerable Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, you judge that the letter placed at the end of the same work should be removed, both, to use your words, because it does not sufficiently pertain to the matter of the subject, and because it bears the mark of flattery, being addressed to a living man: from which, too, the malicious and envious find occasion of detraction. I give much credit to my elders, and therefore to your judgement, but I give some credit also to my own: hence, without prejudice to your judgement, I presume to say: "It does not seem so to me." For since I intended to praise that man, worthy of the praise of virtue, and the letter contains his praises by way of epilogue, it is proved without doubt to pertain to the matter of the subject. But it displays the blemish of flattery, having been presented to a living man; by a At A. like reasoning great men will be called flatterers who wrote down the praises of great men while they were still living, of whom by name, to pass over the rest, Sulpicius Severus and William, abbot of Saint-Thierry, wrote the histories and praises, while they were still living, Ipsis adhuc viventibus omits A. of the great Martin and of your Bernard. Nor did those men become vain in their thoughts on account of their praises, whose glory, doubtless, was not human praise, though true, but the testimony of truth and a good conscience: nor did these writers fear the tooth of the envious so as to keep them from writing those things whereby they hoped to please God and to edify the humble.

[68] he tries to clear the former letter of flattery, With this view certain of them, knowing and prudent men, put their hands into the flames which those kindled who, goaded by envy, despised and carped at the things which they themselves could not Omits A. attain. Therefore I too, although as unequal to them Omits A. in purity as dwarfs to giants, nay incomparably more so, when I offered his praises to the man while living, was in no way serving flattery, because Quam A. I knew it did not please him; but, to confess the truth and reveal my counsel, I both said true things and wished in this manner to commend him to his brethren: fearing lest, since, as St. Bernard says, everything humble is accounted a disgrace, they should think little of him, of whom, seeing his outward humility, nay, to speak more properly, his humiliation, they were perhaps ignorant of, or paid too little attention to, his inward brightness. This I thrust before their eyes, and although speaking directly to him, I had them more in view obliquely.

[69] not caring for the tongues of the envious, Let the letter remain, then, if you approve, and let it contain the praises of the saint even with my blushing: for in it I had in mind not my own glory but that of God and of His servant; I am prepared to bear with equanimity the tongues of enemies, which such an occasion especially sharpens. Certainly if I had wished to have men's tongues at peace, I should have had to keep silent altogether, since I do not know how to speak; and likewise if I should wish to pacify them altogether, not the letter alone but absolutely everything would have to be deleted, because the envious are ready to carp at everything, and to the well-disposed, who are indeed learned and skilled in judging by the arts, everything or most things will deservedly Omits A. be pleasing. Therefore, with a reservation, as the proem testifies, what I have written I have written, so that the readers might bear with a little of my foolishness, and meanwhile, content with our ineptitudes, might wait for those who would treat more aptly the matter ineptly treated.

[70] and commending the little work to Hugh, former abbot of Longpont. Note these things diligently, dearest one, and so that you may either believe me, or perhaps more strongly prevail, since it is an ordinance not only of the Law but also of the Gospel that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should stand (Matthew XVIII), let the lord Hugh, your former abbot ^d, see our little work, who, having practice in letters of this kind, will be skilled to judge of it. He, when the sons of his mother fought against him, not knowing how to yield, went forth and departed after the footsteps of our flocks: but now, as I hear, as if by a kind of postliminium he has returned by another way into his own country. For the former he did by greatness of mind, the latter by modesty; there strong, here modest, in both places just. But I forbear, lest again I be judged to flatter.

[71] He has corrected what he had said of the avarice of the Roman curia. But that passage in our little work in which the Roman Curia seemed to be disparaged, since it is not safe to write against those who can proscribe, I agree should be deleted or, as seems good to you, turned about, which I have done myself ^e. If anyone, simply for love of the saint, should wish to copy out the little book, would that he not omit to copy this letter, so that by it the readers may be satisfied; and what the prologue placed before the book Præmissus libro omits A. does and intends, let this postlogue, so to say, sent Hic adds A. to you, repeat.

Here ends the treatise of the lord Thomas, monk Omits A of Reuil, on the life of the venerable father the lord Peter Monoculi adds A., abbot of Clairvaux. Amen adds A. ^f

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES AND VISIONS OF BL. PETER OF IGNY, FOLLOWING THE LIFE OF BL. PETER, ADDED BY A CERTAIN LOVER OF THE HOLY MAN

From a manuscript codex of Troyes of the thirteenth century, collated with the Brussels codex.

Peter the One-eyed, also called of Igny, abbot of Clairvaux in Gaul. (Bl.)

BHL Number: 6731

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER ONE

The feverish healed by Bl. Peter while still living. Likewise those suffering from a fistula and from wounds. He invokes William, who was slain.

Bl. Peter, whom God consoles and princes revere, That Blessed Peter, newly made abbot, heard a consoling voice. The lord Thomas of Reuil wrote down faithfully and Et B. devoutly many things about Bl. Peter, the venerable abbot of Clairvaux, but passed over very many: of which I am admonished Moveor B. to note down some which I have heard narrated by faithful men. So the blessed man, transferred from prior of Igny to abbot of Vauclair, under compulsion of regular election and obedience, approached the office laid upon him unwillingly and fearfully; and when, utterly distrusting his own strength, he was grievously distressed, considering on the one hand the arduousness of the government of souls, on the other the fierceness of secular princes, he heard the voice of divine consolation saying to him: "Do not fear, I will go before you, and will humble the glorious ones of the earth." This kind promise of His the Lord fulfilled with such evidence,

that in all things He was in a wonderful manner his forerunner and helper, and made even the highest Quosque B. princes subject Subditos B. and devoted to him. The Emperor Frederick ^b, a powerful and great-souled man, venerated him with immense affection. If ever they met together, he would at once run to the holy man, and, clasping the man of God to himself with both arms, would also take off his cope with his own hands, against his will. Louis ^c too, king of the Franks, is shown to have loved the servant of God so much that whenever he came into his presence, laying aside royal pride, he was wont to rise and kneel, and most devoutly to kiss the socket of the lost eye. With no unlike humility or devotion William ^d, son of Count Theobald, archbishop of Reims, embraced the man of God; if he chanced to meet him on a journey, he would dismount to meet him as he came, namely so that, seated, he might more freely enjoy the welcome conversation of the saint.

[2] He is restored from illness. How he was freed from fevers. When one day they were thus talking together, it was made known to the archbishop that the abbot was tormented by fevers; he at once commanded him to go into the infirmary as soon as he should arrive at the first monastery of our Order. The saint bowed to him who commanded, and arriving about the sixth hour, without delay carried out what he had been commanded, and went into the infirmary. Having fulfilled the obedience, bowing reverently, he immediately went out in haste, and, taking from the hand of the prior the bell of the refectory, which had already begun to be rung, he ate with the community. On the morrow, celebrating Mass, he heard a voice saying: "Do you wish to be healed?" When he answered: "I do," it was added: "Pray to God and you will be healed." He prayed, and soon obtained the promised health.

[3] By his kindness they recover That he bore the infirmities of others. In the heart of the holy man there was a wonderful compassion for the infirmity of others, a wonderful abundance of mercy. A devout imitator of our most merciful Redeemer, of whom it is read: "Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows," he sometimes, so that relief might be brought Conferret B. to others, willingly chose to be sick, at times taking fevers from the feverish, which for the most part he felt for one day or two.

[4] two lay brothers Of two lay brothers freed from fevers at Chaudum Chaudium B. ^e. In a certain grange of Signy ^f which is called Chaudium, two young lay brothers, Godfrey and Samuel, were afflicted with fevers. When the holy man, the abbot of Igny Igniacensi B., had entered that house, brother Godfrey begged him to have pity on him. The man of God, at once stretching out his hand to him with the blessing of the Lord, mercifully, cheerfully, without delay restored him to the health he desired. Samuel, hearing this, coming forward in like manner anxiously begged that he would help him. To him the saint said: "Be quiet, brother, it is not expedient for you to be healed; suffer willingly the scourge of God, so that the sickness of the body may be for the salvation of your soul." When he would by no means be quiet, and Omits B. the other lay brothers also, who flocked together from every side, asked with excessive insistence that, as for Godfrey, so for Samuel too the blessed man would mercifully come to his aid, he said: "Since you are not quiet when I admonish you, and against my will you all with one mind entreat with importunate prayers that this man be freed from fevers Quatenus — exoratis, omits B., behold, I will fulfil what you desire: only, you will recognize what comes of it." So Samuel, the man of God stretching out his hand to him with the blessing of the Lord, healed in body, not in heart, departed from the community of the lay brothers, never to return afterward. That all things were done thus was related to me by Godfrey himself, of whom it treats, who was the best carpenter of Signy, a praiseworthy and honourable man without complaint. I had, however, heard it in the same way earlier from another Factum adds B.. Nor is it a wonder that it is narrated by many which it befell many to marvel at; namely that the blessed man not only removed fevers from others with such ease, but also foresaw with unmovable truth the malice hidden in Samuel's heart.

[5] and a monk, feverish; Of two monks, one freed from a fever, the other from a fistula. The cantor Canto B. of Signy, the lord Martin by name, being feverish, when he did not have the bodily presence of the blessed man, saw him in a dream caressing him with his accustomed gentleness Caritate B. and saying: "Brother Martin, may the Lord Omits B. Christ heal you by His wonderful mercy." At this word awaking, he exulted in the Lord over the health he had gained, with due Cum debita omits B. thanksgiving; and, rejoicing in Christ, he told how he had been freed from fevers through the man of God, although he was not present in body.

[6] Astilimus, sick with a fistula, Of a monk freed from a fistula De — liberato. omits B.. Likewise at Signy, in like manner, the blessed man, through a vision, freed another monk, Astilimus by name, from the disease of a fistula, by which he had long been afflicted, the merciful grace of Christ working.

[7] another monk, troubled with pain of the head, Likewise at Signy a certain monk, whose name was Pontius, was troubled with a violent sickness of the head. When by the excessive pressure of the infirmity he was allowed neither to sleep nor to rest, he set out the affliction by which he had long been troubled to the man of God, who then presided over the monks of Igny, when he came to Signy. O wonderful power of God! At once, at the touch of his sacred hand, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, he obtained the desired comfort and relief alike.

[8] a lay brother suffering with a fistula, Of a lay brother healed of a fistula. In another monastery of our Order a certain lay brother was so afflicted in the manner of a fistula * that he could not rest, and those lying sick alongside him were likewise deprived of the benefit of rest by his groaning and crying. The holy man approaching him wiped the wound, which had been covered on account of the unbearable stench, against his will, bent his knees, poured out a prayer, conferred a blessing, and kissed the horrible and fetid wound; having put back the bandage, he admonished the sick man to trust in the divine clemency and humbly to invoke the aid of heavenly mercy. A wonderful thing! After the kiss of the holy man the stench fled, the horror departed, the bitterness of pain ceased, and the crying was stilled. The patient, astounded, afterward finding himself wholly restored to health, magnificently blessed God who works wonders.

[9] and a certain man struck with a mortal wound. Of a wounded man healed. There were present at Signy the lord Roger, bishop of Laon ^g, and his brother Renaud, lord of Rozoy. It happened, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, that, when two of the poorer of their servants were drenched with wine and inflamed with anger, one attacked the other with a blade and, striking him hard in the belly, wounded him mortally. At once, by the command of the lords, the striker is seized, bound, kept to be put to death; the man struck, carried into the infirmary of the guest-house, is thought about to die very quickly and in no way to escape. Roused by the uproar, the blessed man, who was present, then abbot of Igny, entreats for the captive that he be released by the mercy of the bishop and the lord of Rozoy. Although he was held in veneration by all, this supplication of his is nevertheless frustrated, lest impunity breed boldness, if strict vengeance should not follow so evident and so monstrous a crime. Frustrated in this part, the saint asks that the killing of the bound man be deferred, and, if by the power of the almighty physician health should be granted to the wounded man, that he be released from his bonds and allowed to go away free. This is granted to the saint all the more quickly, the more confidently nothing else is expected for the wounded man than a sure and swift death. But the man of God, presuming on the omnipotence of the Saviour, goes in to the wounded man, touches the place of the wound, and blesses it, and prays more earnestly, and, a devout consoler of the anxious, exhorts him to wait for the divine mercy. After this, having gone bodily into the cloister, he does not withdraw in spirit from the sick man, persisting with him in thought and longing and pressing God for him with devout prayers. The care of the sick guests belonged then to a certain monk named Radulph, who, when previously he had exercised the priesthood in the world, had been joined to the community of Signy, so that, having thrown off the secular burden, he might serve as a soldier of God more freely and sincerely in the way of life of the Cistercian Order, with his desire fixed on high. He, ready and efficient in all the exercises of regular discipline, eager in vigils, vigorous in the chanting of the psalms, unwearied in labour, had already lived for many years at Signy, not only without complaint but with much grace. He, a careful fulfiller of the office laid upon him, frequently visiting the aforesaid wounded man, thought, by reason of the size of the wound and the vehemence of the pain, that he would die forthwith. Returning into the cloister, he waited, with ears ever attentive, to be called back at once by the lay brother who with him had charge of the sick guests, to commend the soul and to carry the body into the oratory. And when he had not been called back at all that day, nor even the following night, while the community had risen for vigils, on the morrow returning more quickly to the same man and finding him at rest, with immense wonder he asked whether he was still alive, and how he was alive, or what had happened to him. He said to him: "I am alive, and, restored to health, I am ready to get up and go away, if I dared; but the holy one-eyed man stood by me three times this night, three times applied healing to my wound, and, not wishing it to be known how I was healed, strictly commanded that I should not get up or go away while my companions were present, but should lie still and quiet." Having said these things, he rested lying down, as he had begun. Afterward, when all the others had gone away, he departed silently, as he had been commanded. That this happened thus was related twice in my hearing by him who was spoken of above, the infirmarian of the guest-house.

[10] Out of humility he greases shoes. That he greased shoes taken by stealth. The man of the Lord, though he flourished with such great virtues, did not, as is wont to happen, walk in great things and wonderful things above himself, but rather in small things and wonderful things below himself, so that he is said sometimes to have secretly greased shoes taken by stealth. In which work, though indeed very small, he gave no small example of humility, in which he is to be compared, not to say preferred, not to the least but to the greatest men. Great was Blessed Martin, who does not know it, of whom it is related that, newly professed in the army, he drew off and wiped his servant's shoes. What of humility does that work not have? Yet behold, as it seems, this man did more than Martin, since it is much meaner to have greased shoes than to have wiped or drawn them off.

[11] He invokes William, who was slain. The same father, while he was acting as Christ's deputy, set out on a journey into a far country, to act as visitor. Passing therefore through a forest, he found the grave of a certain man who had lately been slain there by robbers. Then the holy father ordered all who were in his company to go ahead, and, getting down from the horse on which he sat, he prayed, and when he had made his prayer, he said with an intelligible voice: "I adjure you by God to inform me quickly of your state." At this voice he who had been dead said: "Passing through this place I was killed by robbers, yet clean of many sins in which the men of this world are wont to be entangled. Whence, led by the angels before the tribunal of Christ, there, after completing the penance of my purgation, which will shortly be ended, I have obtained eternal life." At this the abbot said with tearful voice: "Pray for me, brother." And he: "You will pray for me and I for you." Then the abbot, commending his soul to the Lord, mounted his horse, and so, having returned to his people, what he had done and heard

he covered in silence; but they, while these things were being done, hiding under a tree, had learned everything. From that day the abbot was accustomed to invoke that man in the litany of the saints which he said privately, before the lord Gerard, who was slain in the house of Igny for justice ^h. But after some time, while he was making his accustomed invocation, he heard a voice saying to him: "Put Gerard before William." And the man's name was thus.

ANNOTATIONS.

There is no reason for us to wonder that Bl. Peter often met the Emperor Frederick, otherwise Barbarossa, since he could not but frequently be in the neighbourhood of the abbey of Clairvaux after he had added the county of Burgundy to his dominion by his second marriage: for, as is reported in the Affligem Continuation of Sigebert, having left his wife (as though she were related to him), in the year 1156 he married Beatrice, the only daughter and heiress of the count of the Burgundians, Reinald by name [Pertz, Monumenta historica Germaniae, volume VI, page 403; compare page 506; Art de vérifier les dates, page 668, edition of 1770.]. Of his devotion toward Bl. Peter, which the anonymous writer mentions, Frederick gave an outstanding indication when, faith having been pledged on both sides, he took the Cistercian Order under his protection. The diploma of this, drawn up between the years 1179 and 1186 and entered in the cartulary of Clairvaux, was made public by the learned man H. D'Arbois de Jubainville [H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Études sur l'état intérieur des abbayes cisterciennes, page 389; compare page 174.]. Since it plainly concerns Bl. Peter the One-eyed and illustrates his Life, we have thought it should be copied here:

Frederick, by the grace of God emperor of the Romans and ever august, to all his men and faithful ones his grace and every good. We make known to all of you that, venerable persons of the Cistercian Order having come to us, namely Peter of Clairvaux and Bernard of Bellevaux, abbots, with other religious confrères of theirs, we have taken care to obtain from them, for our salvation, that, when the term of the present life is completed, the full office should be performed for us through all the houses of the same Order, as they have been accustomed to do for one abbot. Since, therefore, we are henceforth bound to the whole of the aforenamed Order by special love and devotion, we have received all their places and possessions into our protection and defence, commanding you and firmly enjoining that you take care to provide for the honour and peace of the same Order, and that you do them strict justice when they come to you, knowing that whatever good is bestowed on them by the diligence of your solicitude will be pleasing to us. But if anyone should attempt to bring false accusation or violence upon the aforesaid Order, or should be less diligent in correcting those brought upon it, let him know for certain that the imperial majesty would avenge their oppression, as of our brothers and friends, as would be due.

What the mutual rights and duties of princes and monasteries were in such relations the author of the Commentary has explained in another work Examen historicum et canonicum libri Mariani Verhoeven, page 200 and following..

* Read morbo.

CHAPTER TWO.

The snares of the demon laid bare. Avoidance of lawsuits. The sick restored by Bl. Peter. Visions. Miracles after death.

He sees a demon waiting for a thieving lay brother, The same abbot had the custom of visiting his granges rather often without a horse to ride, both he himself and the brethren who accompanied him and clung to him more familiarly. One day, returning from this visitation, he stood before the gate of Igny, and, raising his eyes, he saw an Ethiopian ^a, very black, horrible to see, sitting upon the top of the gate. To him he said: "What are you doing here, O shameless one?" And the demon: "I am waiting for a certain brother who is in the dormitory of the lay brothers." Hearing this, the abbot entered the gate, and, leaving off prayer, turned aside into the dormitory of the lay brothers; and, standing hidden on the upper step of the dormitory, he saw a certain lay brother running about to almost every bed, and stealthily taking from them gaiters, or a tunic, or something else. When he had watched this for some while, the abbot, who had before been hidden, came into the open and beckoned him with his hand to come to him. The lay brother, terrified at the sight of the abbot, followed him as far as the gate of the monastery. Then for the first time the abbot addresses the lay brother thus: "Do you see, brother, the one who is sitting upon the gate?" And he: "Not at all." The father therefore prayed that the Lord would permit him to see the demon. And when the prayer was made, the lay brother saw a most foul Ethiopian standing upon the gate. Then the father: "Brother, this is he who was waiting for you, to make you return to the world this night with your theft, that is, to the deadly pleasure of this world." Hearing this, the lay brother fell at the feet of the abbot, begging pardon for his guilt with groaning and contrition of heart. The abbot, moved with mercy over him, forgave the offence, admonishing him not to consent any more to so wicked and deadly a temptation. At this the demon hurled many insults at the father, and, reviling the monastery, went away confounded.

[13] and offering food to the monks in the dining-hall. At another time the same father, returning from the visitation of the granges, entered the monastery at the hour when the brethren were taking their meal. First finishing his prayer with the brethren who had come on foot with him, he turned aside alone into the cloister, and, raising his eyes to the door of the refectory, he saw a certain young man in white garments running very swiftly about the refectory. Struck with vehement wonder at this, he entered the door contrary to custom and presented himself to the sight of the brethren; and as he stood in the doorway, he observed the aforesaid young man visiting the tables of each one, and he carried as it were a very large dish containing various and most delicate courses. All these he offered with all solicitude to those eating, according to the desire of each, and before the faces of those who consented to his suggestion he stood for a longer time, but the tables of those who spurned his fictions he passed by with a leap, as if someone had touched live coals with bare feet. But the venerable father, calling him into the parlour of the monks, said, with no blessing first given: "Who are you, and who gave you this power, that, entering the refectory of the brethren freely, you should presume to serve them what is not lawful?" And he: "What concern of yours is my going in or my going out? Do you not know that power is from the supreme abbot? Licensed by him, I very often enter the church, the cloister, the dormitory, the refectory, and, except only one, I frequent all the other offices, and as opportunity offers in them, as you see at present, I bring upon those who dwell in them the importunity of evil desires. For one office is a burden to me and contrary, and if ever I enter it, without delay, whether I will or not, I am driven out angry and confounded." Then the abbot: "Which is the office into which entry is forbidden you?" And he: "It is called the chapter, in which, for the things I suggest to the brethren, all receive correction, by private or by common confession." Having said this he vanished, and the father adored the Lord for so great a revelation.

[14] Bl. Peter avoids lawsuits. Nor is it to be passed over that [Quæ] B. lawsuits, displeasing to God, were also displeasing to the man of God, which is proved by the following example. As I learned from the account of the prior of Igny, Count Robert of Braine wished to take a great possession away from the monks of Igny. On the day appointed, surrounded by a throng of many companions, he awaited the coming of the monks of Igny, and Omits B. thought that the abbot also would come with other fellow-abbots, and would bring with him for so great a business some jurists and advocates; and behold, the man of God, coming in on foot, greeted the count. The count, greatly wondering that he had come alone and on foot, answered: "And I would greet you, lord, if you did not wish to disinherit me and my children." To him the saint said: "It is not of our profession nor of our Order that we should do injury to you or to anyone else. If the possession which you claim is yours, keep it; but if it belongs to the monastery of Igny, beware lest, by vexing us unjustly, you provoke against Ad adds B. yourself the wrath of God, who is the protector of our house." Having said this he went away silently. As he went away, it was said to the count by his companions and friends: "He will not contend otherwise; he will not produce other advocates against you; but since he is of great merit with God, beware lest you stir up against you the wrath of God, as he warned." The count, pricked in conscience, at once followed him as he went, and, bowing humbly to the saint, said: "Pray for me, I beseech you, reverend father; I give up every complaint in peace, and Omits B. I return your possession to you free, nor will I trouble you any more about it."

[15] He drives away a most grievous disease from a monk, Of a monk of Igny freed from a grave infirmity. When the holy man, already transferred from Igny, was presiding over Clairvaux, at Signy a certain young monk, known to the holy man and also loved by him with special affection, was held by a most grievous sickness. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there was no soundness in him; his heart, throat, brain, and both temples were troubled with a pulse of such vehemence that the hand of any companion, laid even outwardly over the clothes upon the patient's heart, was visibly moved by the violence of the inner motion: both ears were weighed down by a constant ringing; arms, legs, feet, and vitals were tormented by a wonderful shuddering of cold. At times, when his belly was applied rather closely to the fire, drops of sweat abundantly, by the force of the heat, from the head

were poured out, yet the horrid cold was in no way driven from the inner parts. The bitterness of so great a torment beset both groins, so that he walked with difficulty and with immense trouble. Through the failure of natural heat, not digestion but corruption followed the taking of food; whence it happened that, when the monk moved himself before others, lest he be thought to complain without cause, the sound of the undigested food was heard openly by all, as in a half-full skin the sound of water or of any liquid lying hidden within is heard. He could not read, meditate, sing, or sustain the other exercises of regular discipline, his head being burdened with manifold and excessively prolonged pain; he feared to be wholly deprived of sense and memory; he was so troubled and had failed so far that he was reckoned either about to die at once, or to remain useless in perpetual languor. The blessed man, having heard by report, through the venerable father, then abbot of Igny, the lord Gerard, who, taken by force from Signy, had succeeded him, of the so great sickness of his beloved one, and being asked to help him, interceded for him with constant solicitude with the wonderful mercy of the almighty physician. Amazing working of the divine power! O mercy of the Saviour, more efficacious than every medicine! Yielding to the prayers of the holy man, the heavenly physician made so efficacious an antidote that the young man without delay felt the efficacy of the devout prayer and the pious succour, recovering wonderfully, without delay, against the hope and opinion of men. Afterward the blessed man, setting out on the business of the Order, laid his hands on the aforesaid young man, who had been sent to meet him at Vauclair, poured out a prayer, and in the name and power of Him who quickens the dead confirmed the benefit of relief that had been begun. So the monk, who was thought to have wholly failed and to be unable to escape any longer, was strengthened by the prayers of the holy man, the mercy of Christ working; he who before could not attend vigils, fast, or sustain the study of reading and meditation, after this, for thirty years and more, obtained, especially in the aforesaid and in every exercise of regular discipline, a greater capacity than he had had before the sickness. This is that monk who bears witness of these things, and has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true; who so rejoices that he obtained temporal help by the prayers of the holy man, and so prays with humble insistence, that by his merits and intercession he may deserve mercifully to obtain from the Lord a share in perpetual rest. Amen.

[16] and heals ulcers. Of a monk of Vaucelles. There was at Vaucelles a certain young man, a monk by profession, and Omits B. a Levite [b] by office, named Nicholas; he was very gracious and very lovable, but, like a leper, full of ulcers. It happened that Blessed Peter came there while, according to custom, he was visiting the monasteries of Clairvaux. The monks standing round, the sick man, called by his friends, stood in the midst. Then indeed some began to extol his meekness, and Omits B. others to proclaim his innocence, and all to beset the saint with prayers that he would help the pitiable man. Wonderful humility! Without any hesitation he orders water to be brought to him, then washes, wipes, and kisses Osculatur B. both the feet and the other members which the infirmity had seized. When this was done, he so perfectly drove away the foulness of the ulcers that not even a trace of them remained in the whole body. That this is so is asserted by a good and prudent man, Roger, once a monk of Vaucelles, now of Foigny. By whom also what is added is narrated A narratur omits B..

[17] To Bl. Peter there appear in a vision, now others, A vision of Blessed Peter. One day, while the man of God was giving himself to prayer before the altar more attentively than usual, he sees on high two very venerable persons, displaying an episcopal countenance and habit, and when he vehemently desired to be with them, suddenly caught up, he was mingled in their company. After a little while those three persons seemed in a wonderful manner to be united in a certain way, so that they differed in nothing; and as the saint wondered, a voice sounded from heaven, saying: "Great is the glory of spirits, where there is so great a union of three."

[18] now the most blessed Virgin Another vision. The venerable father, passing once through a certain place, saw a church not far from the road, and, going inside, began to pray, and when he perceived that he was visited from heaven, he prolonged his prayer for a very long time. Meanwhile those who accompanied him stood before the doors, and were wearied, and murmured to one another about the excessive delay; yet no one dared to interrupt him while he was intent on heavenly business. At length, his prayer ended, he went outside and took up the journey he had begun. And as they conversed while going along, a monk of his household came up, saying that he had delayed too long, that no small part of the day had passed, and that they could have accomplished a great part of the journey; finally, that the very long delay had been wearisome to all. Then, having asked the cause, he begged him earnestly not to hide anything from him. Then indeed, bowing his head, being most modest, he said: "Blessed Mary stood by me and spoke with me and gave me a blessing. For which cause, doubtless, I have rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Peter of Péronne, a monk, declares that he heard this from the chaplain of the blessed man.

[19] and a dying monk. Another vision. While still abbot of Igny, at a certain time, as he was making a journey, it happened that he drew near to Foigny, and when he was already near the gate of the monastery, there sounded to him on the spot the voice of one saying: "Go in, and commend a soul to God." Going in without delay, he went on into the infirmary of the monks, and found Donatus, a monk of Vauclair ^c, at the point of death; having heard his confession, he gently consoled the frightened man and absolved him. The following night, standing at the nightly vigils, he saw between his own stall and the prior's a person of venerable countenance and habit, often bending the knees and suppliantly stretching out the hands toward the altar. Watching this for a long time, he heard the same person saying to him: "Pray for that soul, that the divine mercy may grant it the place which it has prepared for those who love it." Thus admonished, he at once began the litany, and when it had been silently said through, soon the sound of the board ^d was heard, by which, according to the form of the Order, the community is called together to the help of one dying. Having heard the board, therefore, going out hastily from the choir, he hastened to the commendation of the soul. The litanies are sung, or the other things which ought to have been said solemnly according to the time and place. Meanwhile the sick man, coming back to himself, breathed again a little, and, while those who were present waited, spoke secretly with the abbot as long as he wished. The brethren having returned into the choir, he is carried back to his little bed, and, tasting a little, he rested. A little later the pain grows heavy again, again the brethren are called together and run up, and the sick man is taken from human affairs. The obsequies completed and the body buried, the holy man openly admonished all to help the dead man devoutly, and to some he made known more secretly what he had seen and heard.

[20] The wine with which Bl. Peter's entrails were washed heals a lay brother Of a lay brother of Foigny. When the holy man had died at Foigny, his body was disembowelled, and was carried back by the monks of Clairvaux to the place over which he had worthily presided. Little cloths were dipped in his blood, the entrails were washed with wine, and the wine, which would be of benefit for various ailments, was divided and faithfully kept by many. Given this wine to drink, a certain religious lay brother of the same monastery, Robert by name, rejoiced that by the merits of the holy man he was at once perfectly freed from the pain of figs, by which he was most grievously troubled.

[21] and a novice of Aulne. Of a novice of Aulne. By the same wash Robert, a novice of Aulne, deserved to receive the desired health; he, after the passing of the holy man, the community having been dispersed by the burden on the house, happened to be living at Foigny. He was distressed by a dangerous sickness, namely a very hard inflammation of the neck, which could be softened by no art, to which no relief could be applied by iron, by fire, or by any medicine. When he thought he would in no way escape and awaited only death, the narrator of these things, a monk of Foigny, Peter of Péronne by name, the dovelike keenness of whose eyes seems to show to those who look upon him the inner splendour of the eternal sun, said to him: "You know, brother, with how great trouble you are tormented, and that human skill cannot help you; I exhort you therefore to have your neck washed with the wine with which the entrails of Blessed Peter, abbot of Clairvaux, were washed, which I have in my keeping, and to invoke suppliantly upon yourself the clemency of God the almighty physician." The sick man gave thanks, and asked that the promised wine be shown to him; he was washed, and, the divine mercy working through the prayers of its faithful servant Peter, at once the excessive hardness of his neck was softened, and he obtained entire health.

[22] The blessed man is assured of the glory of Abbot Gerold, A vision concerning the lord Gerold. When the lord Gerold ^e, the venerable abbot of Clairvaux, had been slain at Igny, so great was the grief of the holy man, so great the sorrow, so inconsolable the weariness, that he could neither recall his mind from the anxiety of bitterness, nor spare himself, nor even answer others about necessary things without excessive difficulty. Upon him thus afflicted the Father of mercies and God of all consolation kindly poured the desired solace of His mercy, and changed his sorrow into joy. This revelation was made on the road to Clairvaux, while the holy man was escorting the monks of Clairvaux, who were carrying the body of the martyr to the place over which he had worthily presided. By this revelation the bitterness of his feeling is driven back, the groaning is stilled, the sighs are calmed, the tranquillity of heart and serenity of countenance are restored, a more cheerful face, a more eager speech, and a readier answer are brought back to him. The blessed man, by those who did not desist from their eagerness to inquire, is compelled to confess what he had seen, what had been revealed to him about the glory of the lord Gerold.

[23] and he sees him joined to the martyrs. A vision concerning the same matter. To this vision another vision is fittingly joined, which the man of God is related to have seen afterward concerning the same matter Visioni — narratur omits B.. So while Vir Domini Petrus adds B., snatched away from Igny, he presided over the monks of Clairvaux, he evidently expressed in himself, by worthy manners, the meaning of both names; for indeed he could worthily be called Clairvaux, who, humble of heart, bright of life, though higher in rank, nevertheless remained in the same constancy of humility. Igniacus, again, is so called as if ignis accensus, a kindled fire, or ignis acutus, a sharp fire, or ignis et acus, fire and needle. Which name likewise fitted him most aptly, who, according to the two properties of fire, namely fervour and splendour, fervent in charity, splendid in action, reproved the sloth and lukewarmness of the negligent, not in the gall of bitterness, but in the spirit of meekness. Given to such a pursuit, he was daily borne toward the heavenly fatherland, with his desire fixed on high. But, shut in the prison of the flesh, he was compelled to endure in body the hardship of the present exile. Thus disposed, on the night of the Lord's Nativity, after Nocturns, the hymn "Te Deum laudamus" having been completed and the Gospel lesson read through, devoutly intent on prayer, he went out of the oratory under the leading of the Holy Spirit, and Omits B. coming into the cloister he passed before the chapter-house and Omits B. saw an abundant light within. There he saw a multitude of saints seated and the Lord presiding over the chapter. Gently summoned by Him, with due humility, with fear and reverence, he enters. Approaching nearer, he is directed to see Blessed Gerold joined with glory and honour to the holy martyrs. Likewise he is bidden to see St. Bernard in wonderful beatitude, joined to the company of the blessed confessors and apostolic men. The man of the Lord is gladdened by so wonderful a vision, he delights in the most sweet presence of the Lord and of the saints as in all riches, most of all over the, shown to him, of the blessed

Gerold and of St. Bernard, he rejoices magnificently in the Lord Magnifice — gratulatur omits B.. Meanwhile the Mass was being sung solemnly Solemnis B., until, as the cantor began: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth," the vision was taken away from the man of God, and He vanished who had appeared to him with a great company of saints, the Holy Lord, God of Sabaoth.

ANNOTATIONS.

APPENDIX.