144. TO GIRARD, BISHOP OF: Therouanne.
The Letters of St. Anselm if they want to be a temple of the Holy Spirit,6 who cannot be divided and therefore cannot live in discord. Farewell. c. 1090/91 NOTES 1. See Epp 85, 139.
2. See Ep 119.
3. Cf. Is 42:3, Mt 12:20.
4. Cf. Lk 5:31.
5. Eph 4:3.
6. 1 Cor 6:19.
144. TO GIRARD, BISHOP OF
THEROUANNE.
Anselm begs Bishop Girard of Therouanne to relieve a certain monk of Bee of his responsibility for the church of Saint Wulmar.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, THE REVEREND BISHOP GIRARD' OF
THEROUANNE: BROTHER ANSELM, STYLED ABBOT OF BEC,
TOTALLY HIS.
BECAUSE OF THE URGENCY of this matter it would be expedient to say many things, but because of many circum stances I am prevented from doing this at present. I express myself briefly, therefore, and beg your paternal piety with great feeling to act and to persuade our lord the archbishop of Rheims2 on your behalf and ours that, in what concerns the discretion of your prudence, this brother of ours3 should not be harassed any longer without reason, nor the church of Saint Wulmar4 be robbed of appropriate advice and or derly government because of him. It is impossible for him to remain in that church in peace any longer for many reasons—which would take too long to repeat now—or for him to progress towards anything profitable no matter how hard he works.
The Letters of St. Anselm
Wherefore, I beseech you again and again not to wield your authority with such censure that you irreparably break the spirit of your neighbor to no purpose by your severity.
Do not, I beseech you, lead the fleeing lamb any closer to the wolves; do not entrust the taming of lion-cubs to sheep; do not drive an innocent and protesting man into the Chal dean's furnace5 without achieving any good. Let someone else be established in his stead—for he has proven that he cannot do it—someone whose mind may be better prepared to endure the internal and external battles against bad be havior, and who will attempt somehow, with God's help, to see whether he can purposefully reconcile members of the community. If your judgement has decided otherwise and will not change—we hope not—first restore peace and goodwill in the afore-mentioned church and then recall a man of peace and goodwill into a house of peace and among men of goodwill. Farewell. c. 1084/92.
NOTES 1. Girard was Bishop of Therouanne from 1084-1096; see GC X:
1541-1543. This bishopric in the Pas-de-Calais had been created as a suffragan of Rheims by Saint Omer/Audomar (+ c. 669) out of the civitates Morinorum et Bononiesium. In 1567, after the destruction of the city of Therouanne by Emperor Charles V on 20 June 1533, the see was translated to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
2. Archbishop Reginald/Rainald of Rheims, 1083—21 January 1096; see
GC IX: 75-77.
3. Possibly Lanfrid, as 'Lanfredus abbas' one hundred ninety-first in the Bee profession-roll; see also Ep 186.
4. Saint Wulmar was born near Boulogne-sur-Mer where he also died in 700 or 710. Originally married, he entered the monastery at Hautmont where he was initially employed cutting wood and tending cat tle. Later he was admitted to the priesthood. After having been a hermit for a time he founded a monastery for monks at Samer and one for nuns at Wierre-aux-Bois near Boulogne. After his death his body was brought to Boulogne, whence it was later translated to Blandinienberg near Ghent; see H. Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
(Oxford 1978) 415.
5. Dan 3:19.