Liber Primus, Caput IV. Quae servitus digna, quae indigna servo servorum Dei.
Paul's Servitude vs. Yours
Bernard contrasts Paul's free, charitable servitude with the Pope's slavish entanglement in worldly affairs, urging him to heed Paul's warning not to become a slave to human beings.
And don't throw the Apostle's words back at me now, where he says: "Though I was free with respect to all, I made myself a servant to all."✦ That's a far cry from you. Was it for the sake of shameful profit that he served people with that kind of servitude? Did the ambitious, the greedy, the simoniacs, the sacrilegious, the concubinarians, the incestuous, and every other kind of human monster stream to him from all over the world, so that by his apostolic authority they could either obtain church offices or keep the ones they had? So the one who made himself a servant was a man for whom living meant Christ and dying meant gain, so that he might win more people for Christ, not pile up profits for greed.✦ So there's no reason for you to claim Paul's remarkably resourceful work and his free and generous charity as a cover for your own slavish way of life. How much more worthy of your apostolate, how much healthier for your conscience, how much more fruitful for the Church of God, would it be to listen instead to his words elsewhere: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human beings!"✦ What could be more slavish and more degrading, especially for the supreme Pontiff, than to sweat over matters like these, and on their behalf—I won't say every day, but practically every hour?
When Do We Pray?
Bernard laments that the Pope's time is consumed by secular laws and lawsuits rather than prayer, teaching, building up the Church, and meditating on God's law.
When do we pray, finally? When do we teach the people? When do we build up the Church? When do we meditate on the law? And indeed, laws clamor daily through the palace — but the laws of Justinian, not of the Lord. O Justus, even this? You see it yourself. For the law of the Lord is flawless, converting souls.
The Shepherd Silenced
Bernard challenges the Pope to speak freely against the perverse servitude of worldly business, warning that unwilling endurance still makes one a slave to iniquity.
These, however, aren't so much laws as lawsuits and quibbles that undermine justice. You then — shepherd and bishop of souls — with what mind, I beg you, do you always endure her chattering and gossiping in your presence without ever silencing her?1 I'm wrong if this perversity doesn't trouble you. I think it even compels you at times to cry out to the Lord with the prophet: 'The wicked have told me fables, but not according to your law.'2 Go on, then — and dare to speak freely under the weight of this great burden, from which it isn't lawful to withdraw your neck.3 For if you can and don't want to, you're all the more a slave to this very perverse will of yours. Isn't the one enslaved to iniquity a slave? And most of all.
Willing or Unwilling Slave?
Bernard presses the Pope to see that willful servitude to vice is more wretched than forced servitude, and urges him to spare himself from these occupations even if leaving the chair seems impossible.
Unless, perhaps, you think it more unjust for a person to be subject to you than for vice to rule over you. What difference does it make whether you serve willingly or unwillingly? For even though forced servitude is more pitiable, willfully embraced servitude is more wretched. And what do you want me to do, you say? So that you would spare yourself from these occupations. Impossible, perhaps you'll reply — it would be easier to say farewell to the chair itself. I would urge this to be right, if it were a matter of breaking them off entirely and not merely interrupting them.
Read the original Latin
Nec mihi reponas nunc Apostoli vocem, qua ait: Cum essem liber ex omnibus, omnium servum me feci. Longe est istud a te. Numquid hac ille servitute hominibus inserviebat in acquisitione turpes quaestus? Numquid ad eum de toto orbe confluebant ambitiosi, avari, simoniaci, sacrilegi, concubinarii, incestuosi, et quaeque istiusmodi monstra hominum, ut ipsius apostolica auctoritate vel obtinerent honores ecclesiasticos, vel retinerent? Ergo servum se fecit homo, cui vivere Christus erat, et mori lucrum, ut plures lucrifaceret Christo, non ut lucra augeret avaritiae. Non est igitur quod de solertissima Pauli industria, et charitate tam libera quam liberali, servili conversationi tuae patrocinium sumas. Quam tuo dignius apostolatu, quam salubrius tuae conscientiae, quam fructuosius Ecclesiae Dei audias potius ipsum alibi dicentem: Pretio empti estis, nolite effici servi hominum! Quid servilius indigniusque, praesertim summo Pontifici, quam, non dico omni die, sed pene omni hora, insudare talibus rebus, et pro talibus?
Denique quando oramus? quando docemus populos? quando aedificamus Ecclesiam? quando meditamur in lege? Et quidem quotidie perstrepunt in palatio leges, sed Justiniani, non Domini. Justene etiam istud? Tu videris. Nam certe lex Domini immaculata, convertens animas.
Hae autem non tam leges, quam lites sunt et cavillationes, subvertentes judicium. Tu ergo pastor et episcopus animarum, qua mente, obsecro, sustines coram te semper silere illam, garrire istas? Fallor, si non movet tibi scrupulum perversitas haec. Puto quod et interdum compellat clamare ad Dominum cum propheta: Narraverunt mihi iniqui fabulationes, sed non ut lex tua. I ergo, et aude liberum profiteri sub tam gravi mole inconvenientiae hujus, et cui fas non sit cervicem subducere. Nam si potes et non vis, multo magis servus es hujus ipsius tam perversae voluntatis tuae. An non servus, cui dominatur iniquitas! Et maxime.
Nisi tu forte indignius judices hominem tibi, quam vitium dominari. Quid interest, volens servias, an invitus! Nam etsi coacta servitus miserabilior, sed affectata miserior est. Et quid vis me facere, inquis! Ut tibi ab his occupationibus parcas. Impossibile fortasse respondebis, facilius cathedrae valedicere posse. Recte hoc, si rumpere, et non magis interrumpere ista hortarer.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩'pastor et episcopus animarum' is Bernard's direct address to the pope; 'illa' refers to the Roman curia or the institutional machinery of the papal court. The sharp tone is deliberate: Bernard confronts the burden of administrative entanglement.
- 2 ↩Quoted Psalm text: 'Narraverunt mihi iniqui fabulationes, sed non ut lex tua.' This corresponds to Psalm 118:85 (Vulgate). Candidate allusion recorded; final resolution deferred to Moses reference check.
- 3 ↩'I' is likely an imperative (i, 'go') rather than the pronoun, given the hortatory context and the following 'aude'. 'fas non sit cervicem subducere' conveys that the office cannot honorably be abandoned — the pope is bound to endure.
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