No one must doubt that if he dies on this expedition for the love of God and his brothers his sins will surely be forgiven and he will gain a share of eternal life through the most compassionate mercy of our God. So if any of you has made up his mind to go to Asia, it is here instead that he should try to fulfill his vow, because it is no virtue to rescue Christians from the Saracens in one place, only to expose them to the tyranny and oppression of the Saracens in another. May almighty God arouse in your hearts a love of your brothers and reward your bravery with victory over the enemy.—Letter of Pope Urban II to Bernard and the other Catalan counts preparing to go on the First Crusade He presided over synods held at Girona in 1068, 1078, and 1097, and was forced to act against his simoniacal relative, Wifred, Archbishop of Narbonne. Around 1068 Bernard, Wifred, and the bishops Berengar of Girona and William of Vic had to expel by force the simoniacal abbot of Ripoll, Miro. In 1070 he subjected the monasteries of Santa Maria de Ripoll, Sant Pere de Besalú, and Sant Martí de Les to that of Saint-Victor de Marseille. It was probably at the instigation of his relative Hunald, abbot of Moissac, that Bernard ceded Ripoll to the jurisdiction of the abbot of Saint-Victor, Bernard de Rodez, at a meeting of the two on 27 December 1070. On 2 February 1071 a Marseillaise abbot, Bernard, is already recorded acting in charge of Ripoll. Bernard had granted the monastery of Cuberes to the Cluniac foundation of Moissac by 1073. In 1078 he joined his three monasteries of Sant Pere de Camprodon, Sant Pau del Fenollet (Valloles), and Santa Maria d'Arles de Tec to Moissac.<ref>Josep Puig i Cadafalch (2003), "Un cas interessant d'influència francesa a Catalunya: Sant Joan de les Abadesses," in Escrits d'arquitectura, art i política, ed. Xavier Barral i Altet (Institut d'Estudis Catalans), 277; translated from "Un cas intéressant d'influence française en Catalogne: Sant Joan de les Abadesses," Revue de l'Art Chrétien, 1 (1914).</ref> In December 1077 in a synod was held in Besalú by the papal legate Amatus, Bishop of Oloron. Bernard, acting upon the advice of the legate, deposed and replaced the simoniacal abbots of his realm. He then issued a charter wherein he listed the