48. To Prior Helgot.
The Letters of St. Anselm
48. TO PRIOR HELGOT.
Anselm intercedes for Cunfrid, the brother of Abbot Roger of Lessay.
TO HIS LORD AND REVEREND FATHER, SWEETEST FRIEND HELGOT':
BROTHER ANSELM, WISHING ENDURING PROSPERITY IN THIS LIFE
AND IN THE LIFE TO COME ETERNAL BLISS
LORD ABBOT ROGER2, being so certain of you and me that the fire of charity has fused us into one heart and one soul, that he himself cannot be unwilling that what one knows the other should know, has asked me to recommend to your holiness his brother Gunfrid, who lives at Caen.
Not that he expects that either his injustice in any matter should be overlooked by you or that he should be excused by you from any of the service he owes the lord abbot or your monastery; but that, for the sake of our love, you should deign to show the charity which you know you owe to all your neighbors in a friendlier way to him, as reason shows it to be necessary. If, therefore, your prudence judges that what such a friend requests of me in no unseemly fashion I can in no way refuse in seemly fashion, there re mains nothing else but for you freely to grant what is proper for all friends.
Greet our sweet and venerable father and lord, the lord abbot,3 and all our beloved fellow-monks and brothers4 who are with you. May the peace of God, which surpasses all our senses, guide your hearts and minds.5 c. 1075/78.
NOTES 1. Helgot seems to have succeeded Hernost as prior of Saint Stephen's at Caen in 1075 (see Epp 1, 25, 29, 407).
2. Roger, a monk of Bee, tenth in the Bee profession-roll, became first abbot of Lessay. He died in August 1095; see OV II: 124, 126.
3. William Bona Anima; see Ep 18.
4. Certain monks of Bee left for Caen with Lanfranc when he was made first abbot of Saint Stephen's in 1063.
5. Phil 4:7.