Liber Tertius, Caput II. Quis modus in appellationibus ad Sedem apostolicam adhibendus sit.
The Weight of Appeals
Bernard introduces the subject of appeals to the Apostolic See, warning that this necessary provision can lead to ruin if handled without restraint.
Since we've brought up the subject of appeals, it makes sense to explore it a bit. These matters require great and sincere care, so that what was given out of necessity isn't rendered useless through misuse. It seems to me that these appeals could lead to serious problems if they're not handled with the utmost caution. People from all over the world turn to you. This indeed testifies to your unique primacy. But if you have any wisdom, you won't take pleasure in the primacy itself, but in its results. To the apostles, it was said: Don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you. They appeal to you, as I've said — and would that they did so as fruitfully as they do necessarily.
Compassion for the Oppressed
Bernard urges the pope to let compassion and indignation stir within him, comforting the oppressed while ensuring the oppressor regrets his actions.
Would that when the oppressed person cries out, the oppressor might feel it, and the godless one not grow proud at the very point where the poor person is set ablaze. What could be more fitting than that those who are oppressed should flee to the calling on your name, while the crafty do not shrink away from it? What could be more perverse, more utterly contrary to what is right, than that the one who did wrong should rejoice, while the one who endured it is wearied for nothing? You most inhuman man, you are not moved toward the person on whom inflicted injuries have heaped up grief, the toil of the journey, and the losses of expenses; and yet, most sluggish of all, you are not moved against that other one, who has been in part the author and in part the cause of all these calamities for the first. Be alert, man of God, when these things happen: let compassion be stirred, and let your indignation be stirred as well. One response you owe to the one harmed, another to the one doing the harming. Let that one be comforted by restoration of losses, by satisfaction for injuries, by an end to false accusations: but deal with this other one in such a way that he comes to regret having done what he was not afraid to do, and that he does not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.
The Bounds of Just Appeal
An appeal made without just cause is itself unjust and should harm the appellant rather than the accused, since appeal is a refuge, not a loophole.
I think the same person who appealed without cause perhaps ought to suffer it. The reasoning of justice and of divine unchangeable equity prefixes this formula to you — and, unless I'm mistaken, the very law of appeals itself — so that an appeal unlawfully seized may neither benefit the appellant nor harm the one appealed against. For why should a man be wearied in vain? How full of justice it is that the one who wanted to harm his neighbor should rather harm himself! To have appealed unjustly is unjust; unjustly and with impunity, it is the kindling of unjust appeals. Every appeal, however, to which a lack of justice did not compel, is unjust. Appeal — not so as to burden others, but if you yourself are burdened, you may. An appeal must be from a sentence.
Presumptuous Appeals and Their Abuse
Appeals made before a sentence are presumptuous, and many wicked people have used appeals as cover to commit ongoing sins without fear.
An appeal before a sentence is altogether presumptuous, unless it is made on account of some obvious wrong. So when someone who has not been wronged appeals, it's clear that he intends either to burden his opponent or to buy time. An appeal is not a loophole but a refuge. How many people we know have appealed under pressure, using the appeal as a way to get away with what is never permitted? We know that some people, for as long as they lived, were allowed by the support of an appeal to commit wicked acts — for instance, incest, adultery. What kind of thing is this — to give cover to baseness, something that ought especially to be feared by the base? How long will you ignore or fail to notice the murmuring of the whole earth? How long will you sleep?
The Antidote Turned Poison
Appeals are now undertaken lightly and wickedly everywhere, terrifying the good rather than the bad, so that the remedy has become a poison.
How long before your consideration wakes up to such a great confusion and abuse of appeals? They're done beyond law and divine right, beyond custom and order.1 No place, no manner, no time, no cause is distinguished—or person.2 They're undertaken lightly everywhere, for the most part wickedly. Those wishing to act maliciously—were they not especially accustomed to be terrified by these very things? Now they become a source of terror to terror itself from these things—and this to good people.3 The antidote has been turned into poison. This is no change of the right hand of the Most High.4
Paralyzed by the Thunder of Appeals
Wicked men now appeal to prevent bishops from punishing crimes or dissolving unlawful marriages, weaponizing the refuge of the wretched against the good.
Good men are appealed by the wicked so that they don't do good, and they hold back, terrified by the sound of your thunder.✦ Finally, bishops are appealed lest they dare to dissolve or prohibit unlawful marriages. They are appealed lest they presume to punish or restrain plunderings, thefts, sacrileges, and things of that kind in any way. They are appealed lest they be able to drive away or remove unworthy and infamous persons from sacred offices or benefices. What remedy do you find for this disease, when something found as a remedy is discovered as a cause of death? The Lord was zealous for his house of prayer, made into a den of robbers — but you, his minister, disregard the refuge given to the wretched, weapons for iniquity?✦ You would see the portions of the oppressed snatched away everywhere, and people rushing to appeal — not so much those already burdened as those wanting to burden others. What is the meaning of this mystery?
The Reluctance of the Wrongly Appealed
Those wrongly appealed against often do not go to Rome to defend themselves, preferring to lose at home rather than face a curia biased toward appellants.
It's your job to consider this, not mine to devise it. And why, you ask, don't those who have wrongly been appealed against come, ready to prove their innocence and expose the malice?5 I'll tell you what they usually say to this: "We don't want to be harassed for nothing." There are people in the curia who are more inclined to favor the appellants and support the appeals. For those who are going to lose at Rome, it's better to lose at home.6
Love Justice, You Who Judge the Earth
It is not enough to uphold justice; the pope must love it and pursue it zealously, rather than treating appeals as a hunting sport for the clever.
I confess that I don't completely disbelieve them. What are you giving me in return for these constant appeals being made today — who reimburses the cost of the journey, or pays back the person they may have appealed against? It would indeed be remarkable if, under your examination, all — both those who appeal and those who are appealed against — turned out to be in the right. Love justice, he says, you who judge the earth. It's not enough to uphold justice unless you also love it. Those who merely uphold justice hold it fast; those who love it grow zealous for it. The lover of justice seeks justice and pursues it; and beyond that, it persecutes every injustice. It's nothing to you — and nothing to those who treat appeals as a kind of hunting sport. I'm ashamed of the saying, because among pagans it's already become a byword: 'We drove two fat stags.' To put it more gently, there's more cleverness than justice in this. But if you love justice, you don't chase after appeals — you endure them. Still, what benefit does the justice of one person bring to the churches of God, where the judgment of those with vested interests prevails otherwise? But that will be a matter for that place, when the things surrounding you begin to be set in motion (below, IV, 5).
Usurpation Destroys the Grace of Good Things
Appeals must not be despised, but usurped appeals cause greater harm because they strip away the grace even from the most precious things, like the Sacraments handled unworthily.
So don't think you're turning your attention to this consideration idly — this is the very consideration by which you can, if possible, bring appeals back to their proper and lawful use. And if my opinion is being sought on this — or rather, if it's being carefully weighed — I say that appeals should not be despised, but neither should they be seized and abused without limit. Furthermore, what I should judge more outrageous about these matters, I wouldn't easily say — except that usurpation seems to introduce a certain necessity born of contempt, and for that reason the things that cause greater harm must perhaps be pursued more aggressively.7 Or is it not truly more harmful — something evil in itself, and worse from the very moment it comes into being? Isn't it the very thing that either weakens or destroys even the law of nature itself? For often it not only strips away the grace of value from even the most precious things — it takes that grace away entirely. What is more pleasing than the Sacraments? Yet when they are usurped by the unworthy, or handled unworthily, they are by no means received with favor.8
A Sun of Justice, Not a Shield for Iniquity
While legitimate appeals are a necessary sun of justice, usurped appeals aid iniquity and drive people either to yield their rights or to despise lawful procedures.
They incur greater condemnation, because they do not give the reverence that is due. I admit that appeals are a great and universal good for the world, and as necessary as the sun itself is to mortals. Truly, it is a kind of sun of justice, shining out and convicting the works of darkness. On the whole, they are to be fostered and upheld, but the ones necessity extorts, not cunning devises. All appeals of this kind are usurpous: they do not help in need, but aid iniquity. Why should they not fall into contempt? How many yielded even their own rights to such people, so as not to be worn out by a long and futile journey! More people, however, unable to bear losing their appeals, have rashly despised less convenient procedures and loftier names.
Scandalous Cases of Abused Appeals
Bernard recounts examples from Paris and Autun where appeals were used to disrupt marriages and episcopal elections, proving that usurpation breeds contempt.
Let me give an example that's relevant here. A certain man had publicly betrothed a wife for himself. The wedding day has arrived, everything is ready, many guests have been invited. And suddenly a man who's been lusting after his neighbor's wife bursts out with an unexpected appeal, claiming she was promised to him first and ought to be his instead. The bridegroom is stunned, everyone is at a loss, the priest doesn't dare go forward, all that preparation comes to nothing; each guest heads home to have his own dinner, and the bride is left hanging — away from the table and the bridegroom's chamber — until a response comes back from Rome. This happened at Paris, that noble city of the Gauls, a royal seat. Again, in the same city, another man had betrothed a wife and set the wedding day. Meanwhile an accusation surfaces, with certain people saying the two ought not to be joined. A case is brought before the church's tribunal, but the sentence is not waited for; the appeal is made without cause, without any real hardship, solely for the sake of frustrating delay. But that person — whether unwilling to lose what he had prepared, or unwilling to be frustrated any longer of the company he longed for — nevertheless carried through what he had proposed, whether by treating the appeal with open contempt or by quietly ignoring it. What about the case recently presumed by a certain young man in the church of Autun? Namely, when the holy bishop had died and the clergy wished, as is customary, to elect another for themselves, that man stepped forward as an appellant, blocking the proceedings until someone had gone to Rome and returned from the city — yet he himself did not defer to that appeal. For when he saw that he was being treated with contempt — as someone who had appealed without reason — he gathered to himself those he could, and on the third day after the election had been held by others, held his own.
Strangle Usurpation in the Womb
Since contempt flows from usurpation, the pope must punish usurped appeals severely to remove the excuse for contempt and restore proper order.
Since it's clear from these and countless similar cases that usurpation isn't born from contempt but contempt from usurpation, you can see for yourself what your zeal almost constantly claims for itself when it disregards that other thing. Do you want to put a tighter check on contempt? See to it that the worthless offspring of a most wretched mother is strangled in the very womb. This will happen if usurpation is punished as it deserves. Remove usurpation, and contempt has no excuse. Furthermore, being beyond excuse will drive out boldness. Therefore let there be no usurper, and there will be no contemner, or at most a very rare one. You do well to send many cases back to those with jurisdiction, or to those who can assess them more quickly, since you've denied the support — or rather the refuge — of appeals.
Entrust Cases Where Knowledge Is Certain
By sending cases back to local judges who can assess them more quickly and safely, the pope spares the faithful labor and expense, though he must carefully choose whom to entrust.
Where knowledge is more certain and more accessible, there a decision can be safer and more expedient. How full of grace, how full of benefit to so many people, that through this you spare them both labor and expense alike! But to whom would you entrust such a matter in this way? That's something you must attend to by every possible means. I could usefully add many things on the same subject to these remarks, but mindful of my purpose, content for now to have given an opportunity for other matters, I pass on.
Read the original Latin
Et quoniam incidit de appellationibus, prosequi aliquatenus non erit ab re. Magno in his et pio opus intuitu est; ne quod magna fuit necessitate provisum, male utendo reddatur inutile. Mihi videtur et in multam posse eas devenire perniciem, si non summo moderamine actitentur. Appellatur de toto mundo ad te. Id quidem in testimonium singularis primatus tui. At tu, si sapis, non primatu gaudebis, sed fructu. Apostolis dictum est: In hoc nolite gaudere, quod spiritus subjiciuntur vobis. Appellatur ad te, ut dixi: et utinam tam fructuose, quam necessarie.
Utinam cum oppressus clamat, sentiat oppressor, et non superbiat impius unde incenditur pauper. Quid tam decorum, ut ad invocationem tui nominis oppressi effugiant, versuti non refugiant? Quid e regione tam perversum, tam recti alienum, ut laetetur qui malum fecit; et qui tulit, inaniter fatigetur? Inhumanissime non moveris erga hominem, cui illatae injuriae cumulavere dolorem et labor itineris, et damna expensarum: sed nihilominus ignavissime in illum non moveris, qui huic tot calamitatum partim auctor, partim exstitit causa. Evigila, homo Dei, cum haec contingunt: moveatur miseratio, moveatur et indignatio tua. Alteram laeso, alteram laedenti debes. Consoletur ille damnorum resarcitu suorum, satisfactione injuriarum, fine calumniarum: cum isto ita agatur, ut poeniteat fecisse quod non timuit facere, et non de poenis innocentis rideat.
Arbitror idem debere pati illum, qui sine causa forte appellavit. Formulam hanc justitiae praefigit tibi et divinae incommutabilis ratio aequitatis, et, ni fallor, ipsa appellationum lex, ut illicite usurpata appellatio nec prosit appellanti, nec appellato obsit. Utquid enim frustra fatigatus sit homo? Quam plenum justitiae, ut sese potius laeserit, qui voluit proximum? Appellasse inique, iniquum est; inique et impune, iniquarum appellationum fomes. Iniqua autem omnis appellatio, ad quam justitiae inopia non coegit. Appellare, non ut graves, sed si graveris, licet. Appellandum a sententia.
Ante sententiam improbe omnino, nisi ob manifestum gravamen, praesumitur appellatio. Qui igitur non gravatus appellat, liquet quia aut gravare intendit, aut tempus redimere. Non est autem suffugium appellatio, sed refugium. Quantos novimus appellasse pulsatos, quo interim liceret, quod nunquam licet? Nonnullis etiam, quoad vixerunt, licuisse appellationis suffragio nefaria scimus, verbi gratia, incestum, adulterium. Quale est hoc, turpitudini patrocinari, quod vel maxime formidari a turpibus oportebat? Quousque murmur universae terrae aut dissimulas, aut non advertis? Quousque dormitas?
quousque non evigilat consideratio tua ad tantam appellationum confusionem atque abusionem? Praeter jus et fas, praeter morem et ordinem fiunt. Non locus, non modus, non tempus, non causa discernitur, aut persona. Praesumuntur leviter passim, plerumque et nequiter. Volentes malignari, nonne his potissimum terreri solebant? Nunc terrori ipsi ex his magis fiunt, atque id bonis. Antidotum versum in venenum. Non mutatio dexterae Excelsi haec.
Appellantur boni a malis, ut non faciant bona: et supersedent a voce tonitrui tui formidantes. Denique appellantur episcopi, ne illicita audeant matrimonia solvere vel prohibere. Appellantur ne rapinas, ne furta, ne sacrilegia, et quae ejusmodi sunt, punire ullatenus vel cohibere praesumant. Appellantur, ne indignas et infames personas a sacris officiis beneficiisve repellere seu amovere queant. Quod tu invenis remedium morbo huic, ne quod repertum ad remedium fuit, reperiatur ad mortem? Zelatus est Dominus domum orationis factam speluncam latronum: tu ejus minister diissimulas miserorum refugium datum arma iniquitati? Videas praeripi passim partes oppressorum, et prorumpere ad appellandum non tam gravatos, quam gravare volentes. Quid hoc mysterii?
Tuum est considerare, non meum commentari istud. Et cur, inquis, male appellati non veniunt, ostensuri suam innocentiam, malitiam convicturi? Dico quod dicere ad haec solent: Nolumus vexari frustra. In curia esse, qui proclivius faveant appellantibus, foveant appellationes. Cessuris Romae, domi cedere satius.
Fateor me non omnino decredere his. Quem das mihi in tam crebris appellationibus quae hodie fiunt, qui pro expensis itineris vel nummum restituerit illi, quem forte appellarit? Mirum vero si ita omnes et appellantes justi, et appellati rei vestro examine inventi sint. Diligite, inquit, justitiam, qui judicatis terram. Parum est justitiam tenere, nisi et diligas. Qui tenent, tenent; qui diligunt, zelantur. Amator justitiae inquirit justitiam, et prosequitur eam: porro omnem injustitiam persequitur. Nil tibi et illis, qui appellationes venationes putant.
Pudet elogii, quod apud Ethnicos jam vertitur in parabolam: Duos movimus cervos pingues. Ut mitius loquar, plus facetiae quam justitiae hic. Tu si amas justitiam, appellationes non affectas, sed sustines. Verumtamen quid emolumenti affert ecclesiis Dei tua unius hominis justitia, ubi sententia praevalet aliter affectorum? At istud loci illius erit, cum coeperint versari quae circa te sunt (Infra, IV, 5).
Nunc vero non te existimes otiose vacare considerationi huic, qua appellationes ad legitimum, si fieri potest, revoces usum. Et si hinc mea quaeratur vel potius curetur sententia, dico appellationes ut non contemnendas, sic nec usurpandas omnino. Porro horum quid insolentius censeam, haud facile dixerim: nisi quod usurpatio quamdam videtur inducere contemptus necessitatem, ac per hoc forte acrius insectanda, quae amplius nocet. Aut non vere nocentior est, mala in se, in partu pejor? Nonne ipsa est quae ipsum jus quoque naturae aut extenuat, aut exterminat? Nam saepe rebus etiam pretiosissimis pretii gratiam non modo demit, sed adimit. Quid Sacramentis acceptius? Usurpata tamen ab indignis, indigneve tractata, minime acceptantur.
Magis habent damnationem, quia debitam venerationem non habent. Fateor grande et generale mundo bonum esse appellationes: idque tam necessarium, quam solem ipsum mortalibus. Revera quidam sol justitiae est, prodens ac redarguens opera tenebrarum. Prorsus fovendae et manu tenendae sunt: sed quas extorsit necessitas, non calliditas adinvenit. Usurpatoriae sunt hujusmodi omnes, non subvenientes in necessitate, sed opitulantes iniquitati. Quidni veniant in contemptum? Quanti ut talibus quoque deferrent, etiam de proprio cessere jure, ne longo et casso itinere fatigarentur? Plures tamen sua amittere non ferentes, appellationes minus opportunas, et celsa nomina importunius contempserunt.
Dico aliquid, quod ad rem pertinet, exempli causa. Quidam sibi publice desponsaverat uxorem. Adest dies celebris nuptiarum, parata omnia, invitati multi. Et ecce homo concupiscens uxorem proximi sui, in vocem appellationis inopinatae prorumpit, affirmans sibi traditam prius, suam potius esse debere. Stupet sponsus, haerent omnes, sacerdos non audet progredi, frustratur omnis ille apparatus; descendit quisque in domum suam, suam coenam manducaturus, sponsa a mensa et thalamo sponsi suspenditur, quousque Roma reditum est. Parisius contigit hoc, nobili Galliarum civitate, sede regia. Rursum in civitate eadem quidam sibi desponsata uxore diem constituit nuptiarum. Interim emergit calumnia, dicentibus quibusdam non debere conjungi.
Ad judicium Ecclesiae causa delata est sed non exspectata sententia, appellatum est sine causa, sine gravamine, solo frustratoriae dilationis intuitu. At ille, sive perdere quae pararat, sive dilectae tandiu frustrari consortio nolens, nihilominus quod proposuerat, contempta sive dissimulata appellatione peregit. Quid illud quod in Autissiodorensi ecclesia nuper a quodam adolescente praesumptum est? Nempe defuncto sancto episcopo, volentibus clericis alium, ut moris est, eligere sibi, intervenit ille appellans, et vetans ne fieret, quousque isset et redisset ab urbe: cui tamen appellationi nec ipse detulit. Nam cum videret se contemni, tanquam qui irrationabiliter appellasset; accitis quos potuit sibi, tertia die post factam ab aliis electionem, fecit suam.
Cum itaque ex his et innumeris talibus liqueat, non ex contemptu gigni usurpationem, sed ex usurpatione contemptum: videris tu, quid sibi velit, quod zelus vester assidue pene vindicat illum, istam dissimulat. Vis perfectius coercere contemptum? Cura in ipso utero pessimae matris praefocari germen nequam. Quod ita fiet, si usurpatio digna animadversione mulctetur. Tolle usurpationem, et contemptus excusationem non habet. Porro inexcusabilitas ausum explodet. Non sit proinde usurpator, et contemptor nullus erit, aut admodum rarus. Bene facis tu, quod appellationum negato suffragio, imo suffugio, multa remittis negotia ad cognoscentes, vel qui noscere citius possunt.
Ubi enim certior ac facilior notio, ibi decisio tutior expeditiorque esse potest. Quam plenum gratiae, quam multorum perinde per hoc et laboribus parcis, et sumptibus! At quibus sic credas, id tibi omnimodis attendendum. Poteram multa de eodem utiliter addere his: sed memor propositi mei, contentus interim occasionem dedisse, ad alia transeo.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.19.16-Exod.19.19 — On the third day, when morning came, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceedingly loud; and all the people in the camp trembled. Exod.19.17 — Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Exod.19.18 — And Mount Sinai was entirely in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire; and its smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. Exod.19.19 — And the sound of the trumpet was going on and growing very loud; Moses was speaking, and God was answering him with a voice.
- ↩Isa.56.7;Jer.7.11;Matt.21.13 — For I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Jer.7.11 — Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. Matt.21.13 — And he said to them, "It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers."
Notes
- 1 ↩fas here means divine law or what is religiously permissible, paired with jus (human law); rendered 'divine right' to capture the God-anchored constraint.
- 2 ↩aut at the end may be corrective ('or rather') rather than purely disjunctive; rendered with '—or person' to leave that force open.
- 3 ↩The clause is compressed: the appeals process, meant to protect, now terrifies even those who should be unafraid, and harms good people. Rendered to preserve the paradox without over-explaining.
- 4 ↩Likely alludes to Psalm 118:16 (Vulg. 117:16) 'The right hand of the Lord does valiantly' / 'dextera Domini fecit virtutem'; rendered as candidate pending Moses resolution.
- 5 ↩Translating 'male appellati' as those wrongly appealed against (the respondents), fitting the context of ecclesiastical appeals to the Apostolic See.
- 6 ↩Translating 'cedere' as 'lose' or 'give in' in the context of legal appeals; 'satius' rendered as 'better'.
- 7 ↩The phrase 'contemptus necessitatem' is syntactically ambiguous: it could mean 'a necessity arising from contempt' or 'a necessity of contempt.' The translation takes it as the former — that abusing the appeal process breeds a contempt that then becomes entrenched.
- 8 ↩'acceptantur' rendered as 'received with favor' rather than merely 'accepted' to preserve the theological nuance that God does not look with favor on Sacraments that are usurped or profaned.
De consideratione (On Consideration) companion
Make consideration a daily appointment
Bernard told Eugene to set aside time every day. Chosen Portion holds that time for you, free.
Bernard's core prescription — a fixed daily time reserved for examining the soul — is exactly the habit Chosen Portion installs with its daily devotional portion.
- One 10-minute daily portion for self-examination and prayer
- Reflection prompts drawn from historic texts, not improvised journaling
- A visible streak that protects the daily interval Bernard insisted on