Bishop Alexander, servant of the servants of God. Beloved sons, to all the faithful in the realm of France, [we give] apostolic blessing and [we wish them] good health.
You will all have been able to learn, from the accounts of travellers, of the trials, tribulations, sufferings and troubles experienced by the towns, castles and other
places in the Eastern Lands; nevertheless, it has seemed appropriate to us, not without much concern, to remind you of these things, and to urge you even more insistently
to exercise your charity in the face of these disasters. By the inscrutable will of God,
many towns and castles have been wholly or partly reduced to ruins or razed to the
ground by the earthquake, and a multitude of people have lost their lives in the ruins. And emboldened by this, the enemies of Christ have tyrannically occupied some
Christian places. Amongst these is a large and populous village belonging to the Church of Nazareth, where, for their sins, clergy and other inhabitants have been taken
prisoner. For this reason, and because of other troubles, the canons of the above-mentioned church find themselves in a state of such want and poverty that, unless the
other faithful come to their aid, they will no longer be able to remain in His church and pay their Creator his tribute. [-J. Issued at Tuscolo on the sixth day before
the Ides of December [8 December]
