1. TO LANFRANC, ARCHBISHOP: Of Canterbury
1. TO LANFRANC, ARCHBISHOP
OF CANTERBURY
Anselm congratulates Lanfranc on his elevation to the archbishopric of Canter bury, assures him of his continuing devout love, and asks that this letter be shown to the brothers of Bee at Canterbury.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, ARCHBISHOP LANFRANC,1 DEEPLY
REVERED WITH MUCH LOVE AND LOVED WITH REVERENCE BY ALL
CHRISTIANS; BROTHER ANSELM, TOTALLY HIS.
GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST,2 who placed the light of your faith and wisdom on a lofty lampstand3 that it might give light to all who are in his house.4 We pray, therefore.
Almighty God that it may so burn that it is not consumed, that it may so light others that it may never be extinguished.
And, having long imparted its light on the English, may it be transferred to the eternal participation in divine light with the angels.5 And just as we wish our virtues, if any there be, to be yours, in the same way we do not hesitate to consider your virtues, however many, to be ours. For although so many unexpected changes in circumstances fre quently endeavor to separate you from me, they will, however, never be able to succeed. I do not mean that they will not separate our closely united souls from one another but that my devoted soul will certainly not be drawn away from you. Wherefore, even if I do not express what you know and I do not doubt, you cannot altogether escape him whom you carry within you: indeed, you are not able to desert him who follows you wherever you go and embraces you wherever he may be.
The precious cup you gave to a very dear friend of a dearest friend, you said—as Dom Hernost6 told me—you wished to give with joyous kindness and friendly confi dence. Therefore I certainly do not return your gift to you, lest I render myself in the least way offensive to you, but instead I very freely give you the most precious thing I pos sess in the world.
The Letters of St. Anselm After the letter directed to your highness, let our beloved brothers,7 who are with you read this, our very brief but adequate note, sent to them. My longing for you continu ally increases and the love of which you were once aware within me never diminishes.
1070.
NOTES 1. Lanfranc, born c. 1010 at Pavia, a famous lawyer, left Lombardy about 1035. Having founded a famous school at Avranches, he withdrew from the world and became a monk at Bee in 1042 in the newlyfounded monastery of Abbot Herluin, who made him prior in 1045.
William the Conqueror appointed him abbot of his new foundation.
Saint Stephen at Caen, in 1063. Four years after the conquest of En gland he raised his trusty advisor and agent to the archbishopric of Canterbury (1070). In this office Lanfranc brought about the normanization of the old English Church in close cooperation with King Wil liam I. He died on 24 May 1089; see The Letters of Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. and trans. H. Clover and M. Gibson (Oxford, 1979);
M. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bee (Oxford, 1978); S. Vaughn, 'Lanfranc at Bee: A Reinterpretation', Albion 17 (1985) 135-148.
2. Lk 2:14.
3. This letter was written at the time of Lanfranc's consecration on 29 August 1070.
4. Mt 5:15.
5. Anselm is making a pun on Saint Gregory's 'non Angli sed Angeli', (Bede, EH II I, 134).
6. Hernost—a monk of Bee; according to the Bee profession-roll, Rule,I:
394-396 he was sixty-ninth in profession rank and thus the immedi ate junior of Anselm in the community of Bee. At the time of this let ter Hernost was prior of St Stephen's, Caen. He had succeeded
Gundulf when Gundulf followed Lanfranc to Canterbury, see Letters of Lanfranc, 61. Lanfranc called Hernost to be Bishop of Rochester in 1075; on 29th August he was consecrated, but he died the following year on 15 July 1076.
7. When Lanfranc was promoted to the archiepiscopal see of Canter bury and left for England, he took with him a number of monks who had already gone with him to Caen—Gundulf, Herluin, Henry and the priest Albert. This was the beginning of the transfer of a large number of Norman monks to England to help in the normanization of the conquered island. Monks from Bee were influential at Christ
Church, Canterbury, Rochester, Chester and Colchester. The monasteries of Bee and Caen provided England with fifteen heads