51. To the Knight Hugh Catula

To our most beloved friend, Hugh Catula, brother Peter, the humble abbot of the Cluniacs send greetings and much love.

Compelled by the great affection of love, by which I am held to you, I am unable not to rejoice about your health, and not to grieve about the danger. You know by what chain you are held bound not to me, but to God, or rather, more truthfully, you are bound to me on account of God, when (with none compelling, though with the spirit God inspiring) you placed your body and soul (in the presence of witnesses) in my hands consecrated to the heavenly mysteries, when you delivered your very self to be a monk under my judgement, when as a sign of your offering you wished your hair to be cut off and to be watched over by me, and finally when you swore that you would receive the habit of sacred religion on the agreed day at Cluny. And now, I hear, you plan to go to Jerusalem in contravention of the divine judgement, which says: You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord and in opposition to the prophet, who said, I will pay you my vows which my lips uttered. But who can believe that a wise man can become irrational in so important a matter? Let him believe, let anyone who wants believe this; I deny that I believe it inwardly. It is unworthy that such things would be believed by me about so great and so very deep and true a friend.