Sede Vacante 1153

Sancti Bernardi Opera Genuina I (Paris 1835), Epistola CCXC, pp. 239-240:

Domino Ostiensi, de Jordano Cardinale

Pertransiit Legatus vester de gente in gentem, et de regno ad populum alterum, foeda et horrenda vestigia apud nos ubique relinquens. A radice Alpium et regno Teutonicorum, per omnes pene ecclesias Franciae et Normanniae, et circumquaque circumiens usque Rotomagum, vir apostolicus replevit, non Evangelio, sed sacrilegio. Turpia fertur ubique commisisse; spolia ecclesiarum asportasse: formosules pueros in ecclesiasticis honoribus, ubi potuit, promovisse; ubi non potuit, voluisse. Multi se redemerunt, ne veniret ad eos; ad quos pervenire non potuit, exegit et extorsit per nuntios. In scholis, in curiis, in triviis, fabulam seipsum fecit. Saeculares, religiosi, omnes male loquuntur de eo: pauperes, et monachi, et clerici conqueruntur de eo. Homines quoque suae professionis, ipsi sunt qui magis exhorrent et famam ejus, et vitam. Hoc testimonium habet et ab his qui intus, et ab his qui foris sunt. Non sic dominus Johannes Paperone, non sic: cuius laus est in Ecclesia, quippe honorificantis ubique ministerium suum. Legite litteraws has domino meo. Ipse viderit, quid de tali homine faciendum sit: ego liberavi animam meam. Dico tamen praecipitatione qua soleo: Bonum est ei si purget ipse curiam suam, et sic liberet conscientiam suam. Decreveram ista tacere: sed venerabilis Prior Montis-Dei ad hoc me impulit, et animavit ut scriberem. Et scitote minus me dixisse, quam publice praedicatur.

This highly intemperate letter brings no credit to St. Bernard. His geography is wildly rhetorical and exaggerated. He implies that Cardinal Jordanus has a susceptibility for pretty boys—which, absent any details or evidence, verges on the libellous. Jordanus' cupidity, Bernard says, knows no bounds (though Jordanus may only have been collecting monies due the Holy See in a vigorous fashion). But Bernard is not writing of his own knowledge, only responding to a request from the Prior of Montis-Dei. Cardinal Jordanus must have made some decision to the disadvantage of the good Prior, who is seeking support from a fellow monkish leader who has influence in Rome. For more than a quarter-century Bernard had been peppering the Papal Court with letters of recommendation, or ex-parte letters about ecclesiastical politics in France and the Empire—most of which matters were none of his business. In them he is usually specific and detailed when he had the evidence. But he was an irrepressible meddler and "Besserwisser", and harshly unfair and un-Christian in his activities (cf. Peter Abelard)..