126. To Pope Urban Ii.
The Letters of St. Anselm
5. The Roman cleric John, having gone to study in France, was attract ed to Anselm and became a monk at Bee about 1082/83, one hundred seventy-seventh in the Bee profession-roll. After being an assistant to bishop Fulk of Beauvais for some time (see Epp 128, 129), he returned to Rome and became abbot of the monastery of Saint Saviour at Telese. In 1099/1100 he was made cardinal bishop of Tusculum (to day Frascati) and in 1101 was sent to England as papal legate; see
Tillman, Legaten, 22-23; CS 667-668. John died in 1119 see VA 106; HN 96-97.
6. For Hubert, subdeacon and papal legate, see Ep 102.
126. TO POPE URBAN II.
Anselm begs Urban II to support Bishop Fulk of Beauvais in his endeavor to enforce celibacy and to prevent the ordination of priests' sons. He requests papal protection for Bee.
TO HIS REVEREND LORD, URBAN, SUPREME PONTIFF OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH: BROTHER ANSELM, SERVANT OF THE
SERVANTS OF GOD AT BEC SENDS FAITHFUL SERVICE WITH DUE
SUBJECTION.
WITH MY LIPS AND HEART I give thanks to your High ness as much as I can because you have deigned to honor my lowliness with a letter of your kindness and to gladden me with your apostolic blessing. For the tribulation you and the Roman Church suffer—which is our tribulation and in deed that of all the faithful—we do not cease to pray God incessantly that he may relieve you from the days of adversi ty until a pit be dug for the wicked.1 We are sure, even if it appears to us to be taking a long time, that he will not per mit the rod of the wicked to rest upon the lot of the righteous,2 because he will not forsake his inheritance,3 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it A With regard to our most beloved bishop of Beauvais5: hav ing closely examined his entry into office as diligently as I could, and knew how to do, I constrained him to take on the episcopal burden, for he was so constrained by various forms of—as far as I could ascertain—pious pressure from
The Letters of St. Anselm the king of the French, the clergy of Beauvais and many others, with the consent of the archbishop of Rheims6 and with nobody disagreeing, that, had I not done this I would have feared offending God. Your holiness knows with what resolve he once sought you out after having received the bishopric,7 what he did and how he returned. Why he now presents himself again to your majesty you can learn more fully from his lips than through my letter. For I know that he himself despises untruth—and above all in this matter and in your presence—and hopes for the sake of his purity of conscience that truth will not oppose him in this mat ter.8 Truly your prudence has no need of our advice, nor does your justice need our entreaties in the long drawnout stages of his case.
Therefore I say only this now because I do not know whether this—as indeed the situation is or will be—has al ready come to your notice through someone else because that same bishop suffers no less persecution for the sake of righteousness9 than for trying to follow your command in obe dience. The canons and priests of his diocese, with very few exceptions, and certain laymen, are so incensed with him and so inflame any strangers they can by whatever means they are able, that they immoderately curse not only him but also those who offer him some consolation, and try to make them appear detestable; and with the prophet he can say, Every day they wrest my words, all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps.10
Certainly the canons and priests do this to him because he wants to restrain them from vicious habits and above all from reproachable dealings with women, and because he tries to prevent their sons, or those whom they elect at their pleasure to be their heirs, from hereditary succession to prebends and from promotion to holy orders. But he does not want to favor the laity because of their disorderly in trusion into matters of the Church. For this reason I con sider it absolutely necessary that you send him back greatly
The Letters of St. Anselm
strengthened by your letter, and as a suppliant servant I ask this of my lord. And so, by commending him to the Archbishop of Rheims, the other neighboring bishops, the clergy and the people of Beauvais and the nobility of his diocese, may your authority so fortify him against malicious plots that in carrying out your commands he may find them not so much adversaries as helpers.
I presume to beg a favor of your holiness' generosity for the church of Bee; but this presumption does not so much rise from my rashness as descend from your reverend and dearest kindness to me, which you deigned to show to my lowliness by a letter you sent by the afore-named Bishop of Beauvais and by messages conveyed to me by him and certain other persons. Our monastery is a new foundation, not yet confirmed by tradition or by apostolic authority or privilege, but preserved in your time by divine providence and the command of your clemency. So that [our monastery] may rejoice at being honored and confirmed by some gift of your authority as your holy discretion sees fit, we do not plead by any merit of our own but commit our selves to the divine will and to your holiness. I think it is not unknown to your excellency that a number of bishops rejoice not so much in nourishing monasteries by their pater nal piety or in improving them by episcopal solicitude, as in weighing them down with a kind of harsh tyranny and their own personal will. Such a thing, however, we do not fear under the paternal holiness of our reverend Archbishop
William,11 faithful friend.
Your servants, my co-servants and fellow-monks, the brothers of our community, who do not cease praying daily with me for your paternity, desire to commend themselves, with me, to your prayer and blessing. c. 1091.