106. TO GILBERT, ABBOT OF: Westminster.
The Letters of St. Anselm
106. TO GILBERT, ABBOT OF
WESTMINSTER.
Anselm congratulates Gilbert Crispin on his promotion to the abbacy of West minster.
TO HIS MOST BELOVED GILBERT1, ONCE HIS SON BY DIVINE
PROVIDENCE, NOW BY THE GRACE OF GOD HIS FELLOW ABBOT:
BROTHER ANSELM, WISHING HIM A LONG AND HOLY LIFE IN
PROSPERITY IN THIS WORLD AND A BLISSFUL LIFE ETERNALLY IN
THE WORLD TO COME.
EVEN IF I WRITE YOU somewhat belatedly, my beloved friend, having been hampered by illness, to congratulate you on the recent grace conferred on you by God, it is not out of indifference for what concerns the kindness of my will that I say: Glory be to God on high and on earth joy to men of goodwill,2 because he has publicly shown his judgement of you, which till now he had kept hidden, even though, as far as human assessment was concerned, we always thought very highly of you.
In that way of life in which, by holding you always in his grace, he trained you in wisdom and nurtured you in holi ness, then, he set you up as a father, a teacher, and a pas tor of souls. Much more is to be expected from you, and others like you, whose life has been nurtured by a holy way of life, than from me and others like me, whose life was once worn down by a worldly way of life. Of you it is to be expected that, since you have been promoted to the care of others, your good example will be successfully followed, as long as you teach others to be like yourself; but, of me, it is to be feared, since I am weighed down by such a bur den, that my bad example may be magnified in the secret judgement of God. Therefore the more we can expect from your holiness in having accepted the office, the more cheer fully and freely can we rejoice in your having been granted this grace.