113. To Abbot Peter.
The Letters of St. Anselm
poverty, hard work and submission, as do holy men. For he who humbles himself will be exalted.5
I have briefly expressed these points, dearest friend, as you asked; but your prudence can add much more than I have said when you enlarge upon them. If, however, your holiness wants to read at greater length something written by me about the fullness of eternal blessedness, you can find it at the end of my little book called Proslogion.6 There
I dealt with complete joy. Farewell and pray for me. c. 1086.
NOTES 1. In Ep 45 Hugh is called the hermit of Caen.
2. Cf. 1 Cor 2:9.
3. Rom 12:15.
4. Mt 22:40.
5. Lk 18:14.
6. See Ep 109.
113. TO ABBOT PETER.
Anselm discusses the case of the novice Ursus, who had first come to Bee with the intention of becoming a monk there, and had then gone to Abbot Peter's monastery with the same intention, but eventually returned to make his profes sion at Bee.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, THE REVEREND ABBOT PETER1: BROTHER
ANSELM, STYLED ABBOT OF BEC, WISHING THAT THROUGH THE
HOLINESS OF THIS LIFE HE MAY OBTAIN THE BLISS OF THAT TO
COME.
I ACKNOWLEDGE MYSELF to be the brother of your holiness, as you charged me, and to want to preserve this fraternity as you requested. Since you wish to claim the cleric Ursus,2 who made his petition and monk's vow3 with you and is now staying with us, we shall do no less for you in his regard than we would expect to be done for us by your charity.4
The Letters of St. Anselm You should know that he made a petition and the monk's vow to us before doing so to you. If by this, therefore, you— to whom he later made that petition and that vow, having been won over by the insistence of your prayers—consider you can justly recall him, then we to whom he made this
[vowj earlier of his own free will, having come from a long distance and not having been forced by any persuasion of ours—can, far more justly, retain him. Furthermore, he is under a much greater obligation to preserve the truth of his first, free, promise than to violate that same first promise.
If you have witnesses to the afore-mentioned petition and vow and to his profession, we who hold the statement of his will with witnesses and his profession, and received his earlier promise, have more.
Moreover, it is no secret to your prudence that so long as a novice, without obligation, voluntarily seeking the monastic way of life, lives in a monastery before his profes sion, according to our Rule he can be relocated to test his stability. Nor in the meantime can anybody force him to remain, but he must be given the unrestricted opportunity to leave. I do not say he does not sin if, having been misled by diabolical persuasion, he takes fright and abandons the good intention he has embraced and what he has often, by word of mouth, truly promised; but, I say, although he can be accused of lying in God's sight, it is not, however, up to the abbot violently to exact what he promised from him.
You realize that both you and I are equally bound to ob serve this reasoning. Wherefore, if you want the afore mentioned cleric to return to you, send for him; and if he chooses, he may have the unrestricted opportunity of go ing away from us; if, however, he does not choose to do this, he should not have to suffer accusations from your pru dence for wanting to stay with us, nor should we harbor any intention of driving him away. In this way, I suggest,
I am behaving towards you with paternal affection, as you requested, if I do not refuse to do to your fraternity what
I would expect you to do fairly to me.
The Letters of St. Anselm
We have replied to your accusation, which you say is the reasoning behind our excuse; yet since this matter is being discussed between us and you, we dare not give you ad vice. Nevertheless we are not prevented from saying how we would act in a similar situation. It is our policy at least never to hold an unwilling novice before his dedication, which he makes by voluntarily accepting the cowl, if he should wish to go to any other monastery; but at the same time absolving him as far as we can, we give him our ad vice, if he asks for it, and our help. But if, forsaking his good intentions, he should no longer want to be a monk, we do not absolve him from the vow he has obligated himself to carry out; but not bringing any pressure to bear on him, we abandon him to the judgement of God to whom he ob ligated himself. If, however the afore-mentioned cleric re mains with us, and you want to retain the possessions he gave to us just as he gave himself before he made his peti tion and monk's vow to you, you will not endure any ac cusation from us because of this. Farewell. c. 1087/88.
NOTES 1. Possibly abbot of Ivry in the diocese of Evreux from about 1071.
2. He seems to be two hundred fifty-sixth in the Bee profession-roll. This would suggest a date about 1087/88; see also Epp 37, 146.
3. On the reception of monks, see RB 58:19, 20, 29.
4. See RB 61:14.