127. To Pope Urban Ii.
The Letters of St. Anselm NOTES 1. Cf. Ps 93:13.
2. Ps 124:3.
3. Ps 93:14.
4. Mt 16:18.
5. See Ep 125.
6. Archbishop Reginald/Rainald du Bellay of Rheims had received the archbishopric by royal investiture during the vacancy of the papal see after the death of Gregory VII or Victor III. He had obtained the pallium from the cardinals; see A. Becker, Papst Urban II (Stuttgart,
1964) 191.
7. See Ep 125.
8. Anselm seems to refer to the suspicion of simony which pursued Bishop Fulk. He was eventually cleared of this charge in 1093; see
A. Becker, Papst Urban II, 190, 696.
9. Cf. Mt 5:10.
10. Ps 55:6.
11. Archbishop William Bona Anima of Rouen, 1097-1100; see Ep 23.
127. TO POPE URBAN II.
Anselm secretly begs Pope Urban II to relieve Bishop Fulk of Beauvais of his episcopal office because he is too weak to bear the burden and mforms him that his judgement was overwhelmed by the wishes of those who wanted Dom Fulk of Bee as their bishop.
TO HIS REVEREND LORD, URBAN, THE UNIVERSAL PONTIFF OF ALL
CHRISTIANS: BROTHER ANSELM, TOTALLY HIS.
WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE BISHOP of Beauvais11 state briefly but with great feeling and I desire that it be of im portance to your piety. Not only does he make no progress in his diocese but he is hindered in his administration, nor does he advance the aims of the Church, nor do I or any of those who know the case and want to examine it before God expect anything better, but rather worse, in future, not because there is any guilt of evil desire in his innocent life but because he is not the quality of person who can sustain such a burden, ward off the onslaught of such malice, or guard against such encompassing snares. Hence I very much fear he will be swallowed up by more excessive
The Letters of St. Anselm
gloom2 in which his heart dwells with even greater anguish and in which he is bound by no other bond than your com mand alone.
Wherefore, I and other of his friends in God prostrate our selves in spirit with him at the feet of your mercy, [beggingl that your heart may open to him and mercifully snatch him from the great evil and peril in which he feels himself use lessly trapped. Do not prevent the meek lamb from fleeing from the midst of the wolves and lions surrounding and snapping at him, nor the innocent child from coming out of the Chaldean's furnace.3 To my lowliness it appears that this can be done quite easily and your excellency can hear him through me if you so deign. In this way, then, unless something else presents itself to your prudence, malice will never pride itself at having prevailed through falsehood, but innocence will give thanks at having escaped through freedom of mind.
Your wisdom may perhaps wonder why I appear to con tradict myself by wanting him, whom I persuaded to be come bishop, to desert the bishopric. But I admit to him from whom I ought not hide my conscience that I felt and predicted the evils he suffers before he was asked to take on the bishopric; but they who clamored to me, asking for him by common consent and with great importunity, over whelmed my judgement.4 In my heart I was afraid to claim that God was greater in my judgement and will alone than in the hearts of the many who unanimously clamoring asked for him, in all simplicity for God's sake. This also impressed itself on my mind, that often God works more through the life of the unlettered seeking the things which are God's than through the cleverness of the learned seeking those things which are their own.5 Behold, now it lies quite clearly before you why I agreed to his being made bishop and why
I now wish to change what, after being persuaded, I con ceded. Let it be subject to your judgement whether what
I am doing or what I have done is to be punished, corrected, or accepted.
The Letters of St. Anselm May almighty God long preserve your paternal holiness for us in complete prosperity. Amen. If it please, I desire and beg that this letter be for your eyes alone, whatever you may see fit to do in this matter. c. 1091.
NOTES 1. See Epp 125, 126.
2. 2 Cor 2:7; RB 27:3 (CSEL 7512:90).
3. Cf. Dan 3:93.
4. Compare this argument with the advice given in Ep 52.
5. Ph 2:21.
128. FROM JOHN THE MONK.
Dom John asks Anselm to answer Roscelin's concept of the Trinity.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER ANSELM: BROTHER JOHN,1 HIS SERVANT
AND SON, WISHING WHAT A SERVANT WISHES HIS LORD, A SON
HIS FATHER.
WE KNOW FOR SURE, venerable father, indeed we know that your insight proceeds by solving even those knotty problems of Scripture at which most others fail. Therefore your diligence should not be reluctant to write to me and certain other friends what faith, simple prudence and pru dent simplicity thinks about the three persons of the god head for the common good of catholic Christians.
This, now, is the question which Roscelin of Compiegne2 poses: 'If three persons are merely one thing and not three individual things like three angels or three souls in such a way that in will and power they are entirely the same: therefore the Father and the Holy Spirit became incarnate with the Son'. He says that Dom Lanfranc, the archbishop, has yielded to this argument and that you yielded to him during a disputation. But with regard to the three angels