The Medieval Church · c. 1148–1153
On Consideration
De Consideratione
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
What it is
Advice to a former monk now pope: the litigation will swallow you, you are not the successor of Constantine, and you must keep time for yourself or lose your soul.
Why it lasted
The frankest thing ever written to a pope by a friend, and quoted by reformers and papal critics ever since.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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