Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter 188

Summary

To the reverend lords and fathers, the bishops and cardinals of the curia, from the child of their holiness.

1. No one doubts that it is your business in particular to remove scandals from the kingdom of God, to cut down thorns as they spring up, to settle disputes. For such was the command of Moses when he ascended the mountain: ‘You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them.’ I mean the Moses who came by water, and not in water only, but in ‘water and blood’. Indeed He was more than Moses, for He came in blood also. And since instead of Hur and Aaron we have the zeal and authority of the Roman Church over the people of God, we are right to refer to it not questions, but hurts to the faith and injuries to Christ; insults and scornings to the Fathers; scandals to those living now, perils to those who will come after. The faith of the simple is being laughed at, the secrets of God are being ripped out; questions concerning the deepest matters are being heedlessly opened to discussion; the Fathers are being abused because they judged that such questions should be put to sleep rather than solved. Hence the Paschal Lamb, contrary to God's commandment, is either boiled in water or torn up raw: beastly the practice and beastly the mouth. What is left is not ‘burned with fire’ but trampled underfoot. In this manner human wit is laying claim to everything, keeping nothing back for faith. It is attempting things too high for it, searching into things above its ability; it is rushing into matters divine, defiling holy things rather than unlocking them; it is not opening things shut up and sealed, but tearing them apart; and whatever it finds inaccessible, it thinks of no account, and does not deign to believe it.