12. To William, Bishop of Embrum (1122/41)

Partial first draft.

To our venerable beloved, the lord archbishop William of Embrun, brother Peter, the humble abbot of Cluny sends best wishes.

If a dispute is able to have a place between friends, I could offer only a minor grievance about a friend: I am not refused some large gift by him but, I assert, I am denied both the sight of him and a reunion with me. If this is the cost of friendship, however, then it must patiently be endured. Or if monastic humility has perhaps become contemptible to pontifical sublimity, it is not surprising [to happen] between hierarchical ranks, but it is a tremendous shock under the privilege of friendship. For an old love never feels the change of positions, which knows that a complete fidelity keeps a friend safe during any reversal of fortune. Therefore, if you wish to establish a conclusion helpful to us [and[ honest to you about the issue of our difference of opinion, at least take care to fulfill now what you neglected before. Come to us therefore along with the current messenger, that you might expiate all that you failed in the past and show [yourself] a friend in the matter, which you promised in words.