3. to the Lord Chancellor Haimeric (1123/41, likely 1137)

Incomplete first draft.

I ask, therefore, in accordance with your now longstanding and sincere friendship with me, that in the present business (which is not mine except by charity), charity itself ought to have been heard more than I and to have been believed more by the proven truth more than by my writing. In our parts (which I suppose that you know from your part), the order of things is so changed, the ecclesiastical peace is so disturbed among many, that the members of the body of Christ rise against one another, and just as if one’s finger threatened to pluck out his eye, or as one’s hand stretches out to cut off his foot, thusly internal discords devastate themselves and this is pursued not only with swords but also with hatreds, not only by murderers, but also by lusts.