131. To Countess Ida.
The Letters of St. Anselm
131. TO COUNTESS IDA.
Anselm encourages Countess Ida to persevere in leading a virtuous life. He in forms her about King William I's reaction towards her request for her monastery.
TO HIS REVEREND AND DEAREST LADY, COUNTESS IDA1: BROTHER
ANSELM, WISHING THAT SHE MAY REACH ETERNAL THROUGH
TEMPORAL RICHES.
JUST AS THE TRUE LOVE I bear for your reverence for God's sake cannot fail in its purity, so it should never fail in giving wholesome advice. Although I would continual ly hope, therefore, that your prudence will in every respect be vigilant, lest the crafty enemy by some trick harm your intention of leading a good life, nevertheless, if I go so far as to suggest that you carry out even more assiduously what you are already doing well, this should not be adjudged superfluous. Nobody can maintain the degree of goodness in life which he has already achieved if he does not con tinually seek to progress towards even higher virtues. Some one who wants to avoid falling back, therefore, must continually strive for perfection. So may your reverence guard itself, nay, rather, may God guard your heart and lips and actions always and everywhere, that your life may never and nowhere fall into any sin great or small.
I told the king of the English2 what you had asked with regard to your monastery,3 but he was certainly not pleased that I did so. Please send us Dom Richard's4 money through the bearer of this letter. Farewell.
After 1086.
NOTES 1. See Ep 82.
2. William I, during Anselm's second visit to England from mid-Lent till just after Whitsun 1086; see Epp 108, 118.
3. Possibly the monastery of Saint Vaast near Le Touquet where Coun tess Ida is buried.
4. See Ep 114.