To Jorannus, Abbot of Saint Nicasius of Rheims
SELECT E D LETTERS
rebuking it. Justice should always be eager, but never hasty.
All that pleases is not lawful, so all that is lawful is not always expedient at the moment. But you know all this better than
I, so I will forbear from saying any more. Pray for me without ceasing, for I am ceaselessly sinning.
[33] To Jorannus, Abbot of Saint Nicasius of Rheims With the reclame of the new Cistercian movement difficulties were always arising through monks of the old observance wishing to leave their monasteries for the Cistercians. Naturally it would nearly always have been the best and most fervent subjects of the old monasteries who wished to do this. The following letter is written to comfort Abbot forannus on the loss of one of his monks, a certain Brother Drogo, to the Cistercians. If it is read with the two following letters which are also concerned with the same brother, St. Bernard is shown in a very human light.
Apparently Drogo did not persevere with the Cistercians, but returned to St. Nicasius before his profession.
Later on Abbot forannus himself left the Benedictines to become a Carthusian.
Mabillon ascribes this letter to the year 1 120.
HE WHO bore in his body all our griefs knows how deeply I sympathize with you. I would willingly counsel you if I knew what to say, and help you if I knew what to do, even as I hope for the counsel and help of him who knows all things and to whom all things are possible.
I would certainly never have advised Brother Drogo to leave you, if he had consulted
ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
me on the matter; I would certainly never have received him 1 But, as you know, here, if he had come to me after leaving you.
I have done what I could by immediately writing to the abbot who received him. What, my father, can I do more than this now? As regards yourself, you know as well as I do that perfect men are 'confident not only in their hope of attaining glory as sons of God, but are confident even over their afflictions', being consoled by those sayings from the Scriptures:
'Pottery is tested in the furnace, man in the crucible of suffering. Though a hundred trials beset the innocent, the Lord will bring them safely through them all. We cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without many trials. All those who are resolved to lead a holy life in Jesus Christ will meet with persecution.' But this is not to say that we are not to commiserate with our friends when they are in trouble, for we do not know what the out- ' come of it will be, and there is the chance that they may fall away. With the saints and elect trouble makes for endurance, endurance gives proof of their faith, and a proved faith gives ground for hope. But with the damned and reprobate on the contrary trouble makes for faint-heartedness, faint-heartedness for worry, worry for despair, and that is the finish.
2. So that you may not be drowned in this horrid storm, so that you may not be swallowed up in the depths, so that the mouth of the insatiable pit may not close over you, do you in humble prudence take care that you are not overcome by evil, but rather overcome evil by good. And overcome you will if you put your hope in God and patiently await the issue.
If Brother Drogo 2 should be brought to his senses either by his fear of you or by the difficulty of what he has undertaken, well and good; but if not, then for your own good you must 'bow down under the strong hand of God' and not kick against the ruling of heaven, because what is of God cannot be undone.
1. Cf. the following two letters.
2. Apparently this brother was sometimes known as 'Hugo-Drogo', because he was held in such high esteem by Hugo, Abbot of Pontigny.