109. TO HUGH,: Archbishop Of Lyon.
The Letters of St. Anselm NOTES 1. Mainer, son of Gunscelin of Echauffour became a monk of SaintEvroul, was made prior by Abbot Robert of Grandmesnil (1059-61), and elected abbot in 1066. He ruled capably for twenty-two years and seven months till his death in February 1089; see OVII: 144-150 and passim.
2. Anselm's second journey to England took place from mid-Lent until just after Whitsun 1086; see Ep 115. M. Chibnall, 'The Relations of St Anselm with the English Dependencies of the Abbey of Bee
1079-1093', Spicilegium Beccense I (Paris, 1959) 522, suggests that the Domesday survey might have provided the reason for Anselm's sec ond journey to England in order to secure the titles of his abbey to its lands. For the Domesday survey see ASC in EHD II: 161, and EHD
II: 851-852; V.H. Galbraith, The Making of Domesday Book (Oxford, 1961). See also Epp 116, 118, and H.E. Salter, 'Two Deeds about the Abbey of Bee', EHR 40 (1925) 74-6.
3. Serlo succeeded Abbot Mainer in 1089 as abbot of Saint Evroul. In July 1091 he became Bishop of Seez, where he ruled till his death on 27 October 1123.
109. TO HUGH,
ARCHBISHOP OF LYON.
Anselm is pleased by the interest and appreciation shown by Archbishop Hugh of Lyon for the works he had sent him. He asks him to change their titles to Monologion and Prosolgion and states his intention of writing further treatises.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, HUGH, THE VENERABLE ARCHBISHOP
OF LYON: BROTHER ANSELM, WISHING HIM A HOLY LIFE IN THIS
WORLD AND A BLESSED ONE IN THE WORLD TO COME.
THE WEIGHT OF AUTHORITY causes me to ascribe weight to my trifles. Since your highness values our little works so highly that you have deigned to ask for them and read them,1 I flatter myself not a little that they please so great a man. I do not, therefore, think your prudence would deride me if I devised more apt titles for these little works.
I pray, that if you could once more obtain the little books I sent at the command of your holiness, you call the one
The Letters of St. Anselm
(which I called Monolocjuium) Monologion,2 erasing the redun dant heading 'On the reason of faith'; and the other you entitle Proslogion, and not Alloquium; and following this cor rection to the titles you should emend the end of the Preface of the smaller book, in which these titles are mentioned.
At this point it is neither necessary to explain why I am eagerly asking for this alteration to be made—only if it can be done—nor is it consistent with the brevity I intended for this letter. If you do this according to our request, I wish to repay your paternity so that, if God permits me to write those works I wish to write,31 will not withhold them from your sight since I hope they will please you no less than the previous ones.
May God, by his protection, watch over and continue to watch over your fidelity, which I have commended once and for all to my heart which trusts and will no less con tinue to trust in the kindness of your holiness. c. 1085.
NOTES 1. See Ep 100.
2. For the development of this work, see Ep 72.
3. See Ep 100.