172. To Everard, Master of the Templars (1148/53)

To the venerable man and a lord truly very dear to me, Everard the master of the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem, brother Peter, the humble abbot of the Cluniacs sends whatever salvation and love is possible.

You are monks in your virtues, knights in your actions: the first you foster spiritually, the second you cultivate physically. For your brothers you expose your souls to life, your bodies to death; you have presently shed blood not yet shed which daily you offer to be shed for God in war. You indeed partake of that greatest and highest charity, about which the Saviour says: None has a better love than this, that he offers his soul for his friends.This is the reason, for which, as I wrote above, I always loved you singularly, for which I honoured you, for which I revered you. I have done this until now and I will do this through the grace of God as long as their is breath in my nostrils. With this trust, in which he always loving, hopes that he is loved by he whom he loves, I hope also that I am loved by you and to be heard as a friend if I suggest anything. A noble person, the lord Humbert of Beaujeu coming recently from overseas, returned to our regions and with immense rejoicing, he was received from that land. Though I was away at that point, pulled to other parts by business, and upon returning I discovered so much jubilation about his coming that I scarcely would have been able to believe it, had I not seen it. Clerics were rejoicing, monks were giving thanks, rustics were applauding, and every chorus of churches adjacent to us seemed to repeat a new song.

May your Cluny give you this same hope about him, Cluny which requires your counsel and help more than all the monasteries and churches of our territories. Therefore I pray and I give counsel, as your intimate friend, as you know, that if you have any complaint with him upon his return to us, may you reserve it for the time being and since he is a wise and discrete man, leave him to the judgement of himself and his conscience.