120. TO HAIMO AND RAINALD,: His Kinsmen.
The Letters of St. Anselm
about you in England in connection with this affair. May your charity, dear to me, prosper and not do anything which makes me sad because your kindness is a joy to me.
Spring 1086.
NOTES 1. This might be Robert of Brionne, a monk of St Wandrille, about whom Anselm wrote to his prior Walter; see Ep 143.
2. For Anselm's second visit to England, see Epp 108, 118.
120. TO HAIMO AND RAINALD,
HIS KINSMEN.
Writing from England Anselm rejoices at the arrival of his relations Haimo and Rainald at Bee. He supports their wish to give up the vanity of the world and seek the glory of God. He encourages them to take ori the monastic vow, thus also becoming his spiritual relations. Finally he implores Jesus and beseeches him to persuade Haimo and Rainald to enter the monastery at Bee.
TO HIS MOST BELOVED AND LONGED-FOR KINSMEN, HAIMO AND
RAINALD1: BROTHER ANSELM, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
LIVING AT BEC, WISHING THEY MAY DESPISE VANITY WITH ALL THEIR
STRENGTH AND STRIVE FOR TRUTH WITH THEIR WHOLE HEART.
WHEN I HEARD, souls most beloved of my soul—whom my soul loves as itself and for whom it desires what it desires for itself—when I heard that you had come such a long distance to seek my face2 I cannot express what great joy flooded my heart, how much my hope for you increased, how high my already ardent longing for you flamed up, even intensely. Already my eyes desire, most dearly beloved, desire to see your faces, already my arms stretch out to take you in their embrace. My mouth yearns for your kisses; whatever remains of my life longs for your company, that my soul may rejoice with you in the complete joy of the life to come. This, the innermost depths of my heart
The Letters of St. Anselm choose for you, dearly beloved, passionately entreat for you; this I hope for more confidently and yearn for more ardently, because the will of the Most High has already led you to Normandy. For praying I trust and trusting I pray to him who has accomplished so much by his grace, that according to my wish he may bring what he began to a perfect end.
But since my longing torments me until I have seen what I desire, in the meantime my mouth speaks out of the abun dance of my heart.3 Taste, most cherished friends, how sweet the Lord is,4 something you can never know as long as the world is still sweet to you. You know, my dearly beloved, that the world and its desires will pass away,5 but God and all his glory shall remain. Someone who loves the world, there fore, chases vanity and will attain wretched indigence, but someone who, having despised the world, binds himself to God, follows truth and will attain blissful abundance.
But why do I hesitate openly to express the desire of my heart? I may speak, but let God persuade. My longed-for friends, you can do nothing so good as to grasp the inten tion of monastic life. Nowhere can you do this better than with him who desires this for you and who can, God granting, serve and advise you. In any case, I do not de ceive you, because I am your friend and certainly I am not deceived, because I have experienced it. Let us, therefore, be monks together, let us serve God together, so that we may rejoice together over each other now and in the future.
We are one flesh and one blood; let us be one soul and one spirit.
Moreover, you have approached, by approaching you enkindled the fire, by enkindling you burst into flame, by bursting into flame you fused my soul with your souls. It can be torn away but it can no longer be separated. You cannot drag it into the world with you. Either you remain with it, therefore, or you tear yourselves away from it. But if you cling to it you will be not only blood kinsmen but also spiritually akin6. Indeed, if you cut yourselves off from
The Letters of St. Anselm
it you will no longer be blood kinsmen but really men of flesh and blood. If you should come to this, judge for your selves who you will be and what will be said about you.
Heaven forbid, dearest friends. God avert this, dearly be loved, lest you irreparably wound the soul which loves you and unselfishly cares for you, lest you so insupportably con found my good expectations for you.
O, how my love burns within my heart; how all my af fection strives to break out at once! How it seeks to express itself in words but no words suffice; how much it wants to disclose itself, but neither time nor parchment can con tain it. O, speak to their hearts, good Jesus; without you no voice can prevail on their ears. Tell them to give up every thing and follow you. Promise them that when you come to judge, they will sit with you and judge with you. Do not separate from me those whom you have joined to me by such affection of flesh and spirit, but gather them up with those serving you, whom you commanded me to serve.
Lord, you are my witness within, and the tears I shed while writing this are my outward witnesses to how much my heart would rejoice if they were to enter the monastery with me, which is what I want: if they should do this elsewhere, how anxious and uncertain my mind would be since I know better what is good for them; if they held on to the world how grieved and sad my soul would be. I talk too much but I am compelled to do so by my immense love. O, you whom I love and long for, farewell, and stay well. Stay,
I say, and remain. O that before I return I may hear that you have started on this way, and that when I come I shall find this.7
Spring 1086.
NOTES 1. Only Haimo seems to have followed Anselm's fervent plea by be coming a monk at Bee. He may be the one hundred ninety-sixth in the Bee profession-roll; see also Rule I: 252-255.