B.[erengar] has gone to Rome according to thy wishes and letters of invitation. Now is the time for
thee to act with Christian magnanimity (nunc magnanimitate christiana tibi agendum est), lest
Berengar have the same experience with thee as at Tours [1054], when thou camest to us as delegate
of apostolic authority. He expected thy advent as that of an angel. Thou wast there to give life to
souls that were dead, and to kill souls that should live .... Thou didst behave thyself like that person
of whom it is written [John 19:38]: ’He was himself a disciple of Jesus, but secretly from fear of
the Jews.’ Thou resemblest him who said [Luke 23:22]: ’I find no cause of death in him,’ but did
not set him free because he feared Caesar. Thou hast even done less than Pilate, who called Jesus
to him and was not ashamed to bear witness: I find no guilt in him ... To thee applies the sentence
of the gospel [Luke 9:26]: ’Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall I be
ashamed before my heavenly Father.’ To thee applies the word of the Lord [Luke 11:52]: ’Woe
unto you, for ye took away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and hindered those
that were entering.’... Now the opportune time has come. Thou hast Berengar present with the pope.
If thou again keepest silence on the error of those fools, it is clear that thou formerly didst not from
good reasons wait for the proper time, but from weakness and fear didst not dare to defend the
cause of the innocent. Should it come to this, which God forbid, we would be wholly disappointed
in our great hope placed on thee; but thou wouldst commit a monstrous injustice to thyself, yea
even to God. By thee the Orient with all its perverseness would be introduced into the Occident;
instead of illuminating our darkness, thou wouldest turn our light into darkness according to the
best of thy ability. All those who excel in erudition and judge the case according to the Scriptures,
bore testimony that Berengar has the right view according to the Scriptures .... That popular delusion
[of transubstantiation] leads to pernicious heresy. The resurrection of the body, of which Paul says
that the corruptible must put on the incorruptible, cannot stand, if we contend that the body of Christ
is in a sensuous manner broken by the priest and torn with the teeth (sensualiter sacerdotum manibus
frangi, dentibus atteri). Thou boastest of thy Rome that she was never conquered in faith and military
glory. Thou wilt put to shame that glory, if, at this time when God has elevated thee above all others
at the papal see, that false doctrine, that nursery of the most certain heresy, by thy dissimulation
and silence should raise its head. Leave not thine honor to others, by retiring to the corner of
disgraceful silence."
- A letter of Berengar to Pope Gregory VII. from the year 1077, in which he addresses him
as "pater optime," and assures him of his profound reverence and love (p. 182 and 230). He thanks
him for a letter of protection he had written to his legate, Bishop Hugo of Die (afterwards Archbishop
of Lyons), but begs him to excuse him for not attending a French council of his enemies, to which
he had been summoned. He expresses the hope of a personal conference with the pope
(opportunitatem vivendi praesentiam tuam et audiendi), and concludes with the request to continue
his patronage. "Vel [i.e. Valeat] Christianitas tua, pater optime, longo parvitati meae tempore
dignum sede apostolica patrocinium impensura." The result of this correspondence is unknown.
Berengar’s hope of seeing and hearing the pope was fulfilled in 1078, when he was summoned to
the Council in Rome; but the result, as we have seen, was his condemnation by the Council with
the pope’s consent. - A letter of Berengar to Archbishop Joscelin of Bordeaux, written in a charitable Christian
spirit after May 25, 1085, when Gregory VII. died (p. 196 and 231). It begins thus: "The unexpected
death of our G. [regory] causes me no little disturbance (G. nostri me non parum mors inopinato
[a] perturbat)." The nostri sounds rather too familiar in view of Gregory’s conduct in 1079, but