29. To The Monk Ralph.
The Letters of St. Anselm NOTES 1. These versions of the marian prayer are Oratio V, VI, VII in AOO III:
13-25; trans. B. Ward, The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm (Pen guin, 1973) 107-127.
2. See also Anselm's instructions in the Preface to the Prayers and Medi tations.
3. B. Ward, The Prayers and Meditations, 61, dates this letter to 1072, while Schmitt, AOO 111:135, dates it prior to Gundulf's election to the see of Rochester in 1077.
29. TO THE MONK RALPH.
On behalf of Prior Helgot of Caen Anselm urgently requests Ralph to score an Antiphonal and asks him for the date of the death of a recently deceased monk for the calendar of Bee.
TO HIS LORD AND DEAREST BROTHER, RALPH1: BROTHER ANSELM,
WISHING HIM BLISSFUL ETERNITY AND ETERNAL BLISS.
THE REVEREND DOM PRIOR Helgot2, our beloved and loving friend, and yours, desires you to be encouraged by his prayers to score the Antiphonal and he is of the opin ion that the burden of no other labor should threaten this work. Since, therefore, in his venerable humility he does not want his prayers to weigh so heavily that they could interrupt you in the work impending, although he could, he earnestly begs us to take care to join our prayers to his for the sake of the afore-mentioned labor. But since neither he nor we intend so to lessen the burden of the desired work by demands on friends that we resort to burdening you with our pressing supplications—contemplating and putting be fore you its utility for your neighbors and the rewards for your charity and obedience—this we ask your fraternity, this we advise your love: that you not regret the time you will ingly spend writing for others, nor disdain to add this to the work demanded of you. And if you say that this is noth ing or very little: indeed it is nothing, or very little, but just as you have decided that very little is adequate, so we have
The Letters of St. Anselm
no doubt that even a little is useful. But if the fulness of your generosity heaps on even more than our petition pre sumed, we so admire your goodwill with thanksgiving that we totally ignore the serious inconvenience it may have caused.
As to the man who recently received the habit of a monk from you on his deathbed, if he also received the blessing, tell us his name and the date of his death so that it may be written into our calendar.
1075-1079.
NOTES 1. This Ralph does not seem to be the same person to whom Epp 12 and 13 are addressed.
2. See Ep 25.
30. FROM LANFRANC,
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
Archbishop Lanfranc begs Anselm and the community of Bee to pray for him and his endeavors in England, as the country is corrupt in many ways. He is delighted at the joy with which his nephew Eanfranc was received at Bee, and the relief he brought for Anselm. He requests sound and considerate training for his nephew, who seems to be stubborn.
TO MY LORD, FATHER, BROTHER, AND FRIEND ANSELM: LANFRANC
THE SINNER, PERPETUAL GREETING FROM GOD.
YOUR HOLINESS KNOWS VERY WELL what is good for me. For when I came into the land of the English, just as when I set out for Rome, I revealed to your holiness every thing concerning my affairs, which I considered needed to be revealed at the time. Pray and beg your friends and the members of your household, therefore, to enter into prayer that Almighty God may either guide me to better fruit or lead my soul out of the prison of this flesh, confessing his
The Letters of St. Anselm holy name. For this very land in which we live is daily shaken by so many and such great tribulations, defiled by so much adultery and other filth, that there is scarcely a class of people left who either consider their own souls or aspire at least to listen to the saving doctrine of making progress towards God.1
The letter2 which you sent through Dom Robert I received gladly and read even more gladly; but when I recall the joy with which I still reread it—I cannot express this in writingthen remembering this joy I read it again; and the reason for this was certainly, as the letter states, because you have received with great joy my brother's son, dearly beloved by me, whom I love as my own soul. Through this event you have incurred the greater trust of my love towards you.
And I rejoiced especially and above all because you assert ed that the burden of the prior's office, which previously seemed unbearable, has been lightened for you by his coming.
With regard to him I will tell you briefly and honestly what I feel: even if he were living among pagans I would love those pagans more than other pagans and would give them anything in the world I possessed. So I give as much thanks as I can for all these things to God, to the lord abbot and to all of you, for I always find you to be, towards me and towards all those who are loved by me, just as I would wish you to be. But since as a man, particularly of his age, en tering the service of God, he is inwardly torn by many varied temptations through the suggestions of the tempting spirits, and tormented within and without by many diverse prompt ings of the flesh, it is very important that you let him share your conversation3 very frequently and that you order all those whose teaching could be good for him to have a talk with him whenever necessary.
When he was leaving me I commended him with pray ers and commanded him not to read any lesson either in the refectory or in the chapter house or in the monastery this year, until he had a knowledge of the psalms and some
The Letters of St. Anselm
familiarity with his order. He completely disdained this wish of mine and by the insistence of his prayers extorted per mission to read from you. For this reason I had planned to send him a very harsh letter, but having seen your other letter I abandoned the anger I had conceived against the rashness of his mind.4 c. 1072/73.
NOTES 1. Lanfranc's judgement of the Anglo-Saxon church is questioned by R.R. Darlington, The Ecclesiastical Reform in the Late Old English
Period', EHR 51 (1936) 385-428, and Frank Barlow, The English Church 1000-1066 (London, 1962), preface and passim.
2. See Ep 25.
3. Anselm was renowned for his conversations and sermons, some of which were reproduced in the Vita Anselmi by Eadmer. Further sur viving collections and fragments have been edited by R. W. Southern and F.S. Schmitt, Memorials of St Anselm (London, 1969).
4. This letter is included in The Letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canter bury, edited and translated by H. Clover and M. Gibson, Oxford
Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1979) Letter 18, p. 97.
31. FROM THE SAME TO HIS
NEPHEW LANFRANC AND HIS
COMPANION WIDO
Archbishop Lanfranc encourages his nephew Lanfranc and Wido to brotherly love. He forgives his nephew for not following his instructions, thanks to An selm's intercession, but warns him not to do it again.
TO HIS MOST BELOVED BROTHERS LANFRANC1 AND WIDO:
BROTHER LANFRANC WISHING PERPETUAL BLESSING FROM GOD.
SINCE YOU LOVED EACH OTHER from godlike motives while in the world, as I believe, I ask that you ask God that with his assistance you may love each other in that holy way of life which you have taken on. Each should be a com fort to the other in tribulation; from the life and teaching
The Letters of St. Anselm of the other each should follow the example of a holy way of life. Show humility to everybody and with wholesome criticism restrain your tongues from any sort of brotherly disparagement. If anybody enjoys speaking maliciously2 about the life of any of your brothers, and if he refuses to improve after having been corrected by you, then he should be cut off from your conversation. Whatever others say about you, possibly praising and glorifying you because you gave up your parents, your possessions, and carnal delights for God's sake, always return inwardly to your conscience, realize that you are sinners and beg by constant prayers that God may be gracious towards your sins.
Against you, my beloved nephew, I had conceived great rancor of mind because you obviously transgressed my com mand, the first of its kind that I gave you. But thanks to the intervention of the venerable father, Dom Anselm, whom I wish to obey as God, I forgive you this fault with a sincere heart.3 But I warn you not to commit such an offence again, because the more dearly I love a friend, the more severe is the anger which I conceive against him for even a small fault.
May Almighty God protect you with his grace, bless you, and mercifully absolve you from all sins. c. 1073.
NOTES 1. Lanfranc and Wido/Guido arrived at Bee about Easter 1072, and were among the last four to make profession in the old church before the community moved to the new church in late October 1073; see VA
16. They are the hundredth and hundred and first in the Bee profession-roll. Having made his profession in 1073, young Lanfranc remained at Bee for about fifteen years. Anselm speaks highly of him as a monk Ep 39. Nevertheless Lanfranc left Bee to become Abbot of Saint Wandrille after the death of Abbot Gerbert on 4 September 1089, against the wish of his abbot, Anselm; see Epp 137, 138. He is not heard of again after that.
2. Literally 'gnawing with Theon's tooth'. This is taken from Horace, Ep I: XVIII. 82; see Clover-Gibson, The Letters of Lanfranc, 98-99.
3. See Ep 30.