Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/422

400"habitation. Here will I pray without ceasing for my sins and yours; here with constant prayer will I implore that He whose love has separated us for a little while, will join us in another life happy and inseparable,—in whose love we may live forever and ever. Amen.'"

If Bernard was severe toward those who threatened some loved person's weal, his anger burned more fiercely against those whom he deemed enemies of God. Heavy was his hand upon the evils of the Church: "The insolence of the clergy—to which the bishop's neglect is mother—troubles the earth and molests the Church. The bishops give what is holy to the dogs, and pearls to swine."

Likewise, fearlessly but with restraint arising from his respect for all power ordained of God, Bernard opposes kings. Thus he writes to Louis the Fat, in regard to the election of a bishop, with many protests, however, that he would not oppose the royal power—for which we note his reason: "If the whole world conspired to force me to do aught against kingly majesty, yet would I fear God, and would not dare to offend the king ordained by Him. For neither do I forget where I read that whosoever resisteth power, resisteth the ordinance of God." But—but—but—continues the letter, through many qualifyings which are also admonitions. At last come the words: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, even for thee, O king." Thereupon the saint does not fail to speak his mind.

Bernard's fiercest denunciations were reserved for heretics and schismatics, for Abaelard, for Arnold of Brescia, for the Antipope Anacletus—were they not enemies of God? Clearly the saint saw and understood these men from his point of view. Thus in a letter to Innocent II. he sums up his attitude towards Abaelard: "Peter Abaelard is trying to make void the merit of Christian faith, when he deems himself able by human reason to comprehend God altogether. He ascends to the heavens and descends even to the abyss! Nothing may hide from him in the depths of hell or in the heights above! The man is great in his own eyes—this