66. TO LANFRANC,: Archbishop Of Canterbury.
The Letters of St. Anselm
66. TO LANFRANC,
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
Anselm praises the monks Lanfranc, the Archbishop's nephew, and Osbem, for the progress they have made in their monastic vows and warmly recommends that the latter be kindly received on his return to Canterbury from Bee. Anselm also sends copies of the Epistles of Saint Paul.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, ARCHBISHOP LANFRANC, TO BE
ESTEEMED BY THE RESPECT OF REVERENCE AND THE AFFECTION OF
LOVE OF MOTHER CHURCH': BROTHER ANSELM SENDS HIS WHOLE
SELF.
ALTHOUGH YOUR PATERNAL HOLINESS receives a let ter of my humility more rarely than you should, my heart nevertheless retains unblemished, written upon itself and not elsewhere, the fidelity it owes you. About my most be loved, your nephew,2 your messenger, who saw how mat ters stand with him and heard about them from him can tell you more than my letter can tell if you question him about them. With regard to myself, however, he has so at tached himself to me, not only for your sake but even more for his own, not against my will—not to mention the debt of fraternal charity—that in nothing I could do to his ad vantage would I want to withdraw myself from him.
Dom Osbern,3 whom your authority ordered to be sent back to you, has, I admit, attached himself to my soul with the attachment of such affection that my heart could not endure separation from him without considerable rending.
My conscience, more than my pen, is witness of this, that he has lived among us in such a way that among all who sincerely love the intention of good will he deserves the af fection of charity rather than the harshness of anyone's severity. Wherefore, although your holy goodwill, always in the habit of helping good men, needs no reminder, yet my love, supported by the merits of the aforenamed brother compels me to beg with all my strength—not only because he deserves it but also because your faithful servant desires
The Letters of St. Anselm it and, desiring, demands it—that receiving him kindly you will treat him kindly unless you perceive that his way of life has earned him something else. Furthermore, since I dare not tell you to send him back to us sometime, I think
I can freely say this: that as long as I live I should never wish to be separated from him.
We are sending you the Epistles of blessed Paul,4 gladly obeying your command. But since there is in that volume some of your work which we have not got anywhere else, you can perceive easily enough what we would like you to have copied for us at some time or another. A certain knight brought us a hundred twenty shillings; twenty of them are being spent as you ordered. c. 1076.
NOTES 1. See Epp 25, 32, 39.
2. For young Lanfranc see Epp 25, 30, 31.
3. See Ep 39.
4. For Archbishop Lanfranc's commentaries on the Epistles of Saint Paul, see PL 150, lOlff; H.H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge, 1933) 155-196 and 200-205; M. Gib son, 'Lanfranc's Commentary on the Pauline Epistles', Journal of Theo logical Studies, N.S. 12 (1971) 86-112; M. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bee (Oxford,
1978) 50-61.