80. To Abbot Paul.
The Letters of St. Anselm
80. TO ABBOT PAUL.
Anselm rejoices at Paul's promotion to the abbacy of Saint Alban's and thanks God for raising Paul up as an example. He tells the abbot-elect that the differ ence of language ought not to prevent him from teaching his monks through the example of a kind and gentle father, and admonishes him to rule wisely and prudently.
TO HIS LORD AND FATHER, THE REVEREND AND BELOVED ABBOT
PAUL1: BROTHER ANSELM, WISHING HE MAY SO LIVE IN HOLY
PROSPERITY IN THIS WORLD THAT HE MAY LIVE IN BLESSED
HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD TO COME.
GLORY BE TO GOD ON HIGH2; in his eyes your life in private was so pleasing that he elevated it to be an exam ple in public and made it a guide to those directing their course along the narrow path of virtue from earth to heaven.
Wherefore you should rejoice not only at the reward for the holiness of your life in the heavenly kingdom but also mul tiply the joy of eternal happiness over the many whom you have gained for God.
For although your holiness is placed over barbarians3 whom you cannot teach by words because of the difference of your languages, yet you will not be able to make any ex cuses before the just Judge if you fail to win others for God.
For what you cannot say to them in words you can show by your life. And, just as good convinces more effectively by example than by word, so good habits are loved in some one silent and eloquence despised in someone sluggish.
Strive therefore rather to be loved by everybody for your gentleness and mercy than to be greatly feared4 for an austere justice which spares no one. Let men from all walks of life who are committed to you rejoice at being entrusted to a father and shepherd; and let them not shudder at being handed over to a tyrant and extortioner. Let those connected with you be glad that an advisor and helper has come to them from God, not complain that an invader of other men's property or a persecutor has forced his way in from an alien place.
The Letters of St. Anselm There are many prelates of our order who, fearing that God's cause will be ruined in their hands, behave in such a way that God's law is destroyed in their hearts.5 They try so hard to be wise for fear of being cheated by others that they become cunning at cheating others. They try so hard to be cautious for fear of being too generous and squan dering unwisely what they possess that they become mi sers and what they have saved rots uselessly away. They are always trying so hard to procure something for God's servants and the poor and for his holy place that they are always deceitfully attempting to extort something from somebody. They are so animated with zeal for correcting the foolish that they burn with cruelty or with greed for col lecting money.
All this, then, your prudence should diligently beware of. Arrange the public matters entrusted to you in such a way that your interior disposition conforms to divine precepts and your mind always says to God: Let my sen tence come forth from your presence.6 Against those who would harm you defend yourself through prudence so that by your single-mindedness you intend harm to no one; as it is writ ten Be wise as serpents and innocent as dovesP So guard the possessions of your monastery that you do not forget what is written: Someone who possesses the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and shuts off his compassion towards him, how can the love of God dwell in him?8 And also: Give and it shall be given unto you.9 Take the trouble to increase these very possessions without banishing from your mind Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.10 Censure sinners in a way that involves neither cruelty nor greed, for it is written:
If a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore him in a spirit of meekness, taking care of yourselves lest you also should be tempted.1' And The covetous... will not inherit the kingdom of God.12
I write about these things to your paternity, my dearly beloved, not because I think you would act otherwise, but because you
The Letters of St. Anselm
ordered it and I want a letter of mine to reach you; in order to achieve this I had to say something.
Summer 1077.
NOTES 1. Paul's election as abbot of Saint Alban's took place on 28 June 1077 (see AOO 111:203) or on 4 July 1077 (see AOO 56*); see also Heads
66. Paul was another nephew of Archbishop Lanfranc. He had been a monk at Caen. With the help of his uncle he 'set his house, hitherto comparatively undistinguished, in the high intellectual and religious position which it was to retain for centuries'—D. Knowles, The Monas tic Order in England, (Cambridge, 1966) 113. Paul died on 11 Novem ber 1093.
2. Lk 2:14.
3. Abbot Paul upset his Anglo-Saxon community by slighting 'the tombs of his predecessors, and referring to them as uneducated sim pletons'; D. Knowles, The Monastic Order, 118-9.
4. RB 64.15; CSEL 75/2:165.
5. Ps 118:126.
6. Ps 16:2.
7. Mt 10:16.
8. 1 Jn 3:7.
9. Lk 6:38.
10. Ex 20:17.
11. Gal 6:1.
12. 1 Cor 6:10.