Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

170 ST. BERNARD.
the persecution of the Jews, upon
which he wrote as
follows :
Does not the Church triumph more fully over the Jews by convincing
and convicting them from day to day, than if she, once and for ever, were
to slay them all by the edge of the sword? . . . For if the Church
did not hope that they which doubt will one day believe, it would be vain
and superfluous to pray for them but on the
; contrary she piously
believes that the Lord is gracious towards him who returns good for evil
and love for hatred. 1
Bernard s work was done. His old friends and comrades
were dropping on every hand. Suger,
the Abbot of St.
Denis, next to himself the most venerated ecclesiastic in
France and his much loved friend, died in 1151. Then in
1152 Count Theobald of Champagne, and in 1153 Eugenius
the Pope, his pupil, his child in the faith, fell asleep. He
felt that his hour was at hand. The prayer of his monks
was ceaseless and importunate. But why do you thus
detain a miserable man ? he cried. You are the stronger,
you prevail against me
; spare me, spare me, and let me
depart. A gradual failing of the brain came on ;
that brain
which had influenced every great event and movement in
Christendom in his times. Public affairs ceased to interest
him. Marvel not, he said, when they tried to rouse him,
for I am no longer of this world. Looking
round on his
weeping brethren, he exclaimed, I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better ;
nevertheless the love of my children urgeth
me to remain here below. Then raising his dove-like eyes
to heaven he said, But the Lord s will be done. A
moment, a sob, and it was done. Bernard was for ever
with his friends and with the Lord.
L
Epist. 365.