Peter the Venerable

And Abelard understood profoundly what was happening to him, that he had encountered somebody who was speaking the truth, and he withdrew from this public debate.

And within a short time, after a prayerful meeting with Bernard, recanted, submitted himself to the authority of the church, and retired to Cluny, where he lived under the protection of Peter the Venerable, the abbot there, and died there just a few years later.

It is a tragic story, but at its heart, I think, is the humility of Bernard, but also Bernard's love for the church and a desire not to destroy somebody, not to destroy Abelard, but to help lead him to the truth.

And that, I think, is a lesson for us as we contemplate this great doctor of the church.

Scribendum est.

Petrus venerabilis.

1157.

Agradior vos, non ut nostris sepe faciunt.

He classes Muslims with Jews and Waldenses.

Western Europe, according to Keller, was ignorant even of the century in which Muhammad was born, and Hildebert, the Archbishop of Tours, wrote a poem on Muhammad in which he is represented as an apostate from the Christian Church.

Petrus Venerabilis, whose pregnant words stand at the head of this chapter, was the first to translate the Quran and to study Islam with sympathy and scholarship.

He made a plea for translating portions of the scripture into the language of the Saracens, and affirmed that the Quran itself had weapons with which to attack the citadel of Islam.

Even following three so-called friends of the Jews, they were held in low self-esteem.

Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter the Venerable, and Pope Innocent III, all three spoke out murderous attacks on the Jewish people.

Bernard of Clairvaux characterized the Jews in his writings as more than bestial, an evil seed, and a race who have not God for their father but are of the devil." Peter the Venerable, a contemporary of Bernard, was known as the meekest of men.

He was a model of Christian charity.

Yet he said this of the Jews, I doubt whether a Jew can really be a human.

Even following three so-called friends of the Jews, they were held in low self-esteem.

Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter the Venerable, and Pope Innocent III, all three spoke out murderous attacks on the Jewish people.

Bernard of Clairvaux characterized the Jews in his writings as more than bestial, an evil seed, and a race who have not God for their father but are of the devil." Peter the Venerable, a contemporary of Bernard, was known as the meekest of men.

He was a model of Christian charity.

Yet he said this to the Jews, I doubt whether a Jew can really be a human.