We know well that thou art a saint! Thou hast no need to prove it to us by performing miracles which will destroy our humility.

Be not so zealous for thy reputation as to augment it to the injury of our salvation.

This is what we ask of thee, expecting it of thy love.

If not, we declare unto thee by the obedience which we once owed to thee, we will unearth thy bones and throw them into the river." Stephen obeyed up to the time of his canonization (1189), but from that time forward ambition, avarice, and luxury made such inroads upon the solitude of Grammont that its monks became the byword and scoff of the Christian world.[8] Pierre of Limoges was not entirely without reason in fearing that his monastery would be transformed into a fair-ground; members of the chapters of most of the cathedrals kept wine-shops literally under their shadows, and certain monasteries did not hesitate to attract custom by jugglers of all kinds and even by courtesans.[9] To form an idea of the degradation of the greater number of the monks it is not enough to read the oratorical and often exaggerated reproofs of preachers obliged to strike hard in order to produce an effect.

We must run through the collection of bulls, where appeals to the court of Rome against assassinations, violations, incests, adulteries, recur on almost every page.