Petrus Project
  • The Petrus Project
  • The Plan
  • The Team
  • The Authors
    • Peter the Venerable
    • Peter of Poitiers
    • Radulf of Sully
    • Richard of Poitiers
    • Bernard of Cluny
    • Radulf Tortarius
  • The Texts
  • Resources
  • How to cite this resource
  • Miracle Stories
    • Two Books on Miracles
      • Book I, Prologue
      • 1.1 A miraculous arrival in the county of Auvergne
      • 1.2 About the priest who unworthily celebrated the divine mysteries
      • 1.3 About he who could not swallow the body of Christ before he confessed himself
      • 1.4 About the death of a certain brother and his confession at the end of his life
      • 1.5 . About another brother false in his confession
      • 1.6 About one who was freed from the devil by a true confession
      • 1.7 How demons were put to flight by holy water
      • 1.8 About Gerard, a monk of pure and simple life
      • 1.9 About notable things which happened in and around Cluny
      • 1.10 About the miraculous apparition of Stephen, called, “the White”
      • 1.11 About a similar apparition of Bernard Grossus
      • 1.12 With so much envy the devil has always raged against Cluny
      • 1.13 About the brother whom [the devil] wished to deceive in the guise of an abbot.
      • 1.14 About the brother who heard demons boasting about their shameful acts.
      • 1.15 The story the Blessed Hugh narrated in chapter at Christmas Vigil.
      • 1.16 About the brother who saw demons processing as if monks
      • 1.17 About the old monk Alger
      • 1.18 About Armannus the novice, whom the devil terrified in the guise of a bear
      • 1.19 About the angel of the Lord who showed the place where the brothers uncovered Christ's cross
      • 1.20 About the dawdling brother Benedict, who saw a crowd of men dressed in white.
      • 1.21 About Turquillus, prior of the sisters of Marcigny
      • 1.22 The miracle which happened at this same monastery of Marcigny.
      • 1.23 About the dead knight who appeared three times to a certain priest
      • 1.24 About Guido, the bishop of Geneva [Guy of Faucigny]
      • 1.25 About a certain priest who died a terrible death.
      • 1.26 About Geoffrey III, the lord of Semur-en-Brionnais.
      • 1.27 About the dead knight who appeared to Humbert of Beaujeu
      • 1.28 Another chapter about an apparition in Spain.
      • Book II. Prologue
      • 2.1 About the oppressor of the church who was seen taken by the devil
      • 2.2 How someone buried alive, was fed by angel due to the masses and prayers of the Church
      • 2.3 An apology why in his narration, the writer of these deeds cannot retain their time and order
      • 2.4 About the good birth and adolescence of the Lord Matthew, Bishop of Albano.
      • 2.5 How he cleaved to the Venerable Ralph of Rheims, afterwards the Archbishop.
      • 2.6 So greatly desiring the monastic life, he abandoned ecclesiastical honours.
      • 2.7 Choosing Cluny due to the great reputation of its customs, he took the habit of a novice at SMdC
      • 2.8 How he conducted himself before God during his priory
      • 2.9 How he acted with his subordinates
      • 2.10 How he proved to be, both to those near and far
      • 2.11 How he maintained order most strictly when he was summoned by abbot Peter to Cluny
      • 2.12 Concerning the Cluniac schism fuelled by Pontius who had been abbot.
      • 2.13 On the end of the Cluniac scandal and the wisdom of the Lord Matthew.
      • 2.14 How he took up the bishopric of Albano and how he maintained holiness within himself
      • 2.15 How he prohibited that moneys be exchanged by Jews, when he was still a prior
      • 2.16 About the Schism of the Roman Church and how he virtuously defended the Catholic Side.
      • 2.17 About his glorious death accompanied by miraculous signs.
      • 2.18 About the vision which the prior of Saint Zenon saw about him
      • 2.19 About the vision of another brother
      • 2.20 How he put demons to flight with the sign of the cross and about his untiring devotion
      • 2.21 About the revelations shown to him before death and about the glory which he said awaiting him
      • 2.22 How he passed from this world at the light of dawn on the holy and glorious day of Our Lord
      • 2.23 The services celebrated for him and the honourable gathering in the Basilica of Saint Fridian
      • 2.24 About a certain evil monk who died most wickedly
      • 2.25 About the vision which I myself saw when staying in Rome
      • 2.26 About the vision of Brother Enguizo
      • 2.27 About the Statutes of the Carthusian monks
      • 2.28 About a certain Carthusian brother
      • 2.29 Another chapter on the same topic [the Carthusians]
      • 2.30 About the miracle of the Roman Candles in the Church of the Mother of God
      • 2.31 About the miraculous vision of a certain boy keeping vigil
      • 2.32 About a certain boy at Silvigny brought back to life by Saint Maiolus
      • 2.33 About the false confession of a certain brother
    • Life of Raingarde
    • Life of Peter the Venerable
  • Letters
    • The Letter Collection
      • Prefatory Epistle
      • Prefatory Epistle (more complete?)
      • 1. To Pope Innocent (1137)
      • 2. To Matthew of Albano (1134/35)
      • 3. to the Lord Chancellor Haimeric (1123/41, likely 1137)
      • 4. to Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen (1130/8)
      • 5. To Hato, Bishop of Troyes (1122/46)
      • 6. To the same (Hato) (1122/46)
      • 7. To the same (Hato) (1134)
      • 8. To Stephen, a priest skilled in the law (1125/6)
      • 9. To Peter, the schoolmaster
      • 10. To the same (Peter)
      • 11. To Pope Innocent II (1136/37)
      • 12. To William, Bishop of Embrum (1122/41)
      • 13. To Odo, the abbot of Saint-Lucien de Beauvais
      • 14. To Theodard, Prior of La Charité
      • 15. to Adela, Countess of Blois
      • 17. to Pope Innocent (1133/34)
      • 18. to Hato (1122/46)
      • 19. to Dulcianus of Montpellier, learned in the Law
      • 20. to the servant of God, Giselbert the hermit of Silvigny(?)
      • 21. to Pope Innocent (1138)
      • 22. to Hato, bishop of Troyes (1128/46)
      • 23. to Pope Innocent (1132/36)
      • 24.
      • 25.
      • 26. To his son beloved in Christ, Peter of Poitiers
      • 27.
      • 28. To Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (c. 1127)
      • 29. to Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux (1138)
      • 32. to Pope Innocent (1135/43)
      • 33. to Pope Innocent (1132/40)
      • 34. To the Lord Chancellor Haimeric (1132/40)
      • 35. to the abbots of the Cistercian Order (1132/40)
      • 36. to the same (1133/40)
      • 37. To a certain heretic
      • 38. to Peter, the Archbishop of Lyons (1131/ 9)
      • 39. To Pope Innocent (1133)
      • 40. to Gilo the Schismatic (1130/4)
      • 42. a response of Lord Peter to Prior Theodard (1132/36)
      • 43. Again, to Prior Theodard of La Charité-sur-Loire (1130/9)
      • 44. to King Sigard I of Norway (1122/30)
      • 45. to the Brothers of St. Andrew of Northampton, about their Copyist Thomas
      • 47. to Matthew of Albano (1131/5, likely 1134)
      • 48. to the Carthusians, in consolation of their dead brothers (1122/37)
      • 49. To Henry, the Bishop of Winchester (1131)
      • 50. To Stephen, a Cleric of Lyons (1132/36)
      • 51. To the Knight Hugh Catula
      • 53. Again to his Brothers, in Epitaph of his mother (1135)
      • 55. to Henry, the Bishop of Winchester (1131/56)
      • 56. To the same (1135)
      • 58. To this son, beloved in Christ, Peter of Poitiers
      • 59. to Henry, bishop of Winchester (1134/35)
      • 60. to the same (1136)
      • 65. to Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux (1137)
      • 66 To Gilo the Schismatic (1138)
      • 67. to William, the Bishop of Orange (1130/41)
      • 68. To Count Amedaeus.
      • 69. to Hato, the Bishop of Troyes (1138)
      • 71. The Response of Bishop Hato to him (1138)
      • 74. The Response of Abbot Bernard to Peter, the Abbot of Cluny (1138)
      • 75. to John Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople (likely 1138/9)
      • 76. to the Patriarch of Constantinople
      • 78. A Letter from Godfrey, the Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne to Peter, the Abbot of Cluny (1131/43)
      • 79. A response of Peter to him (1131/43)
      • 80. to the brothers at Mont Thabor
      • 81. To Hato, the Bishop of Troyes (1122/46)
      • 82. to the King of Jerusalem
      • 83. to the Patriarch of Jerusalem
      • 85. A Letter from Hato, Bishop of Troyes to the above Peter (1141)
      • 86. the Response of Abbot Peter to the Bishop Hato (1141)
      • 88. to Henry, Bishop of Winchester (1129/56)
      • 89. to Albero, Bishop of Liège (1136/45)
      • 90. to King Roger of Siciliy (1139/41)
      • 91. To Pontius, Abbot of Vézelay (1138/56)
      • 94. to the monk Gregory
      • 95. To Hato, Bishop of Troyes (1141)
      • 96. the Response of Bishop Hato to him (1141)
      • 97. to Pope Innocent
      • 98. to the same (1140)
      • 99. Again to Pope Innocent
      • 100. to the Clerics of Lyons (1141)
      • 101. to Pope Innocent (1141)
      • 102. to Milo I, bishop of Thérouanne (1140)
      • 105. to Aimard, the Archbishop of Narbonne (1143)
      • 106. to Geoffrey, the Archbishop of Bordeaux (1143)
      • 108. to Guarinus, the Bishop of Amiens (1127/44)
      • 109. to Suger, the Abbot of Saint-Dénis (1130/51)
      • 110 from Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to the Lord Abbot (1143/44)
      • 111 The Reply of the Lord Abbot to Bernard of Clairvaux (1144)
      • 112. to Pope Celestine (1143)
      • 115. to Abbess Eloise (1143/44)
      • 116. to the lord Pope Lucius
      • 118. to Pope Lucius (1144)
      • 120. To Rainard, Cisterican abbot. (1134/50)
      • 121. to Hato, the Bishop of Troyes (1145)
      • 123. A letter of Peter of Poitiers to Peter his abbot, then dwelling in the forest of Cluny
      • 124. The return letter of the Lord Peter the Abbot to the same
      • 125. The Return letters from some companions to Peter of Poitiers from the woods of Cluny.
      • 126. The Letter of Robert, a learned man and Master of Physic
      • 127. The Letter of Gislebert, a noble and literate youth
      • 128. The return letter of Peter of Poitiers to the Lord Abbot and his colleagues
      • 129. The letter of Peter, the lord Abbot, to this Peter.
      • 131. to king Roger of Sicily (1146)
      • 132. to the Carthusians (1137/43)
      • 134. To Theobald, Bishop of Paris (1146)
      • 135. To the Prior Odo and the Brothers of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields (1147/50)
      • 136. To Geoffrey, the Cistercian abbot of Les Roches (1137/56)
      • 137. To Geoffrey, the Bishop of Chartres (1135/48)
      • 138. to Peter, Abbot of St. Augustine at Limoges (1137/56)
      • 139. To Stephan, formerly Archbishop of Vienne (1148)
      • 147. to Ademar II, abbot of Figeac
      • 148. From Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
      • 149 Reply of the Lord Abbot Peter (1149)
      • 150. Again to Bernard of Clairvaux (October 1149)
      • 151 to Nicholas of Clairvaux
      • 153 From Bernard of Clairvaux
      • Letter 158a (?)
      • 159. To the brothers at [St. Martial of] Limoges (1142?)
      • 161 (1148/52) To the Priors and Subpriors of Cluniac places.
      • 162. to the King of Sicily
      • 166. a Response of the Lord Abbot to him [Suger of Saint-Dénis] (1150)
      • 167. From Heloise to PV
      • 168. To Heloise.
      • 172. To Everard, Master of the Templars (1148/53)
      • 174. to Pope Eugenius (1145/33)
      • 181. to the abbot of Clairvaux (1151)
      • 183. to Philip the Prior of Clairvaux (March, 1151)
      • 184. to Galcher, the cellarer of Clairvaux (March, 1151)
      • 185. To his nieces
      • 186. To Basil, the Prior of the Carthusians (1151)
      • 192. to Lord Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (1152)
      • 193. To his Nicholas (1152)
    • Additional Letters
  • Legal Texts
    • Statutes
      • Bibliography
      • Summary
      • The Statutes of Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny
      • Later Statutes
    • Managing Cluniac Accounts
    • Papal Bulls
      • Calixtus II's Papal Assent to the election of Peter the Venerable
      • Innocent II's approval of Peter the Venerable's ability to set statutes
      • Various partially translated charters
    • Charters
      • Latin charters (1122-56) from Bibliotheca Cluniacensis
  • Poems & Liturgy
    • In defence of Peter of Poitiers
    • A liturgical prose, in honour of the Mother of the Lord
    • Another liturgical prose in honour of the Mother of Our Lord
    • Hymn, in honour of Holy Mary Magdalene
    • Hymn about the Holy Father Benedict
    • Another Hymn about the translation and coming of this Father Benedict
    • A rhythmic verse on Saint Hugh, abbot of Cluny
    • A verse in honour of Count Eustache
    • A verse in epitaph of Prior Bernard
    • Verse in epitaph of Peter Abelard
    • Verse in epitaph of Rainald, Archbishop of Laon
    • A rhythmic verse, on the resurrection of our Lord
    • Rhythmic verse in praise of the Saviour.
  • Polemic
    • Bibliography
  • Peter of Poitiers
    • Letter to abbot Peter (Sicut precipere)
    • Panegyric in praise of Peter the Venerable
    • Letter to his critics
    • Against the Barbarian
    • Epitaph of Pope Gelasius II
    • Epitaph of Bishop Adefonso
    • Preface to Peter the Venerable's work against the Saracens
  • Richard of Poitiers
    • Chronica
    • Chronica - Dedicatory Epistle
    • BNF, n.a.l. 670 - Transcription (in progress)
  • Resources
    • A(n) Historiographical Note on Researching Twelfth-Century Cluny
    • Manuscript and Early Printed Sources
      • Paris, BNF, ms. latin 17716
      • Pierre de Montmartre, D. Petri venerabilis, ... Opera
      • Patrologia Latina
    • Digital Resources
    • Biographies
      • Giles Constable
      • Denise Bouthillier
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  1. Letters
  2. The Letter Collection

Prefatory Epistle (more complete?)

PreviousPrefatory EpistleNext1. To Pope Innocent (1137)

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To his most reverend lord and the sweetest father Peter, the abbot of the sacred Church of Cluny, from Peter of Poitiers, sinner and feeble monk, as if from the most devoted son to the best father.

I have seen, most beloved father, and I examined with much care [your] little book –it leaving my hands scarcely a single moment. The more frequently it is read, the more completely it captures the soul of the reader; the more its nuances are considered, the more sweetly it tastes. And O all-bearing scripture, most deserving of praise, which as Flaccus himself said, Never fear the clear keenness of a judge.You –the font of wisdom, the font of eloquence, the font of learning– immediately outshine all the lanterns of our talents with the brightness of your brilliant eloquence. I certainly imagined that I knew something, until now. But now, not only do you look like the most learned man to me, [but] truly what might we be–all of our time who either are capable or imagine themselves capable of something in letters– in comparison to yours. Indeed, I when I consider your most lucid, most wise and most melodious sayings, and then I return to my inept and boring puerilisms, truly I am ashamed that I imagined to know anything. And indeed, now I have long been aware that the keenness of your ability, but also the very studies, stand out among philosophers of our Gaul –especially in these times in which all rush towards death. On account of which truly, I saw the aforementioned codex, not in the manner that it is equal to them –I prefer your excellence– but also I do not hesitate to compare it with those most perfect works of earlier times. Thus indeed we see that you have attended assiduously to the knowledge of all the liberal discipline, in such a way that we should have known that your heart is constantly enlightened with hidden inspiration only by Him through which the gifts of knowledge are distributed to everyone; we find it miraculous that this man is still almost a youth, and what is more marvelous, in the time of our world in which we perceive the study of letters utterly abandoned or left for dead, he is able to take in so many things, more than it is able to be believed. For as I should remain silent about divine letters, which always you have in view by retaining both testaments in your memory, who ever discoursed anything more subtle than Plato, more logical than Aristotle, more beautiful and abundantly than Cicero? What grammarian was more instructive, what rhetorician was more ornate, what dialectician was more forceful, what arithmetician was more mindful, what geometrician was better ruled, what musician was more melodious, what astronomer was more perceptive? But also if we dare to say something about the holy fathers, you restore something akin to each of the four rivers of paradise which irrigate the whole world after the holy evangelists, since you advance as speedily as Jerome, as profusely as Augustine, as profoundly as Ambrose and as clearly as Gregory. Rouse yourself, most eloquent of men, and strive to serve to your faithful companions-in-servitude – not only by speaking but also by writing – the nourishment of your learning, in which you most certainly abound more than all your predecessors. You will be able to offer much benefit not only to us, but also to those far away, not only to the living but also to all future Christians, if you –as your fathers did– bequeath to posterity, just as the Holy Spirit inspired you, such monuments of your brilliant genius in sermons, letters and different treatises.To this end, supernal providence constituted your sanctity in the sublime watchtower of his Church so that you may defend those hastening along the path of Zion to the joys of the eternal Jerusalem against the incursions of the Babylonian invaders, and you are able to lead back all the wandering travelers to the path of the royal way by not remaining silent all day and night. Make an effort, therefore, O great splendor of our world, O bright star divinely arisen in the world, lest uselessly the treasure entrusted to you remain hidden, but instead when paid out in more and more small offerings [coins] through which your industry increased hundredfold, may it acquire the highest state of immortality for us and you. I know that I am truly reckless since I dare to exhort you in such a way, but be not ignorant with respect to me, most serene pity, about what I greatly presume. For not immoderately do I fear that you, most beloved father, reject ostentation with every effort, lest perhaps as if under this intention of excesses you prefer to remain hidden. It ought to be foreseen, most discreet man, lest while you fled that excess praised by men, you omit those things by which that faithful paterfamilias, that evangelical servant, merits to be much praised by the good. Consider, I beseech, that if the holy fathers had written nothing before, thinking of reasons like this, but they would have passed over with inactive silence however much the good life, no doubt, neither would they have acquired so many people for God, nor would they have held among us so celebrated and sweet a memory. By writing however, they merited to please God through the double fruit of holy preaching and they offered an example of pious imitation to all coming after them. Thereby is that they impressed such a great love of Him onto all the hearts of the faithful when God speaking in them is attended to, and the teachings of the Holy Spirit are honoured. And so, through divine grace’s miraculous workings, it happens that while they inflame the charity of God in the minds of those reading or listening, the very amiable and greatly desired ones are the cause of the love of Him among the faithful of God, and this we are able to admire with pious agreeableness. The live in their words although already dead, they spiritually show their presence to us daily, though they are not seen corporally. Truly, what am I doing when I urge such things to your majesty and when I extol it with excessive verbiage as if it were a difficult or strange thing for the office of your person, since Cluniac abbots have maintained a zeal for writing under special prerogative from ancient times? They certainly are not compelled by authority alone to write, but even if they did not do so, they would necessarily be ashamed, as degenerate offspring and one much different from the parental image are. Concerning the most glorious fathers of whom, he alone suffices as an example to us, who also lived as the first founder of our city, and who firstly merited to be the prince of this whole republic, the first father of this monastery, the first parent and nurse of all the sons in Christ, [namely]blessed Odo, I say, the foremost of holy men, glorious in learning and miracles. Since who, not only among us but also through almost all the Latin Churches, is recognized to be the most celebrated especially for studies of this sort, to have transmitted to his successors, as a just inheritance, the grace of this responsibility, and to whose beginning is seen to have dedicated. But if you object that some of them wrote almost nothing, let be absolved Aymard, along with both Hughs, to whom namely the ultimate realization of this erudition lacked; let Maiolus be absolved, since perhaps he did have free time for this. But you, how do you state your excuse, who –if compared to them– you alone among them hold your tongue? O holy lord Father, venerable in merit and most beloved, may the merciful and omnipotent God watch over now and forever your blessedness praying for me.

Horace. Ars poetica.

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