Imadus of Paderbom, Tiedo of Brandenburg, Burkhard of Lausanne, Bruno of Verona: to brother Hildebrand.
Although it was well known to us, when thou didst first invade the helm of the church, what an unlawful and nefarious thing thou, contrary to right and justice, wast presuming with thy well-known arrogance to do: we nevertheless thought best to veil the so vicious beginnings of thy elevation by a certain excusatory silence; hoping, namely, that such wicked commencements would be rectified, and to some degree obliterated by the probity and zeal of the rest of thy reign. But now, as the lamentable state of the church universal proclaims and bemoans, thou dost, with pertinacious continuance, fulfill the promises of thy evil beginnings through the still worse progress of thy actions and decrees. For although our Lord and Saviour impressed upon his faithful followers the special advantages of peace and charity—in testimony of which toomany proofs exist to be comprised in the extent of a letter—thou, on the contrary, striving after profane novelties, delighting more in a widely known than in a good name, being swelled with unheard of pride, hast, like a standardbearer of schism, torn with proud cruelty and cruel pride all the members of the church, which, following the apostle, were enjoying a quiet and tranquil life before thy times. Thou hast, with raging madness, scattered through all the churches of Italy, Germany, Gaul and Spain the flame of discord which, through thy ruinous factions, thou didst start in the Roman church. For by taking away from the bishops, as well as thou wast able, all the power which is known to have been divinely conferred upon them through the grace of the holy Spirit, which chiefly manifests itself in ordinations; and by giving over to the fury of the people all the administration of ecclesiastical affairs —seeing that now no one is bishop or priest over any one unless he has bought this by most unworthy assent from thy magnificence—thou hast disturbed, with wretched confusion, all the vigour of the apostolic institution and that most beautiful distribution of the members of Christ which the Teacher of the nations so often commends and inculcates. And thus, through these thy boasted decrees, —we can not speak of it without tears—the name of Christ
