87. To Bishop Odo.
The Letters of St. Anselm
87. TO BISHOP ODO.
Anselm promises to carry out willingly what Bishop Odo ofBayeux ordered about Osbern who recently died.
TO HIS REVEREND [FATHER] AND MOST DEARLY BELOVED LORD,
BISHOP ODO1: BROTHER ANSELM, WISHING THAT HE MAY SO PASS
THROUGH TEMPORAL GOODS THAT HE MAY DWELL IN ETERNITY.
WE HAVE RECEIVED with humble obedience and obedient humility the letter which your paternal highness sent me and our brothers2 about your faithful Osbern, who has just died. We have decided to refuse nothing of your petition but in every way the most beloved lord and kindest father is to be obeyed we determined to submit to your command.
Since we recognize that you have deserved the reward of love and good conduct, we would show ourselves greatly culpable if we refused to subject ourselves obediently to your will. What is in the letter I accept most gratefully since I read in it the certitude of the mutual love between your high ness and my lowliness. Although I cannot doubt it, having learned it in my own conscience and through my own ex perience, nevertheless it is a delightful mark of honor and an honorable delight to me when such an important per son deigns to show this to someone so insignificant. early September 1078.
NOTES 1. Odo, a half-brother of William the Conqueror, was bishop of Bayeux from 1050-1097; see D.C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (London,
1964) 119-132, 243-245 and passim; D. Bates, The character and career of Odo, bishop of Bayeux (1049/50-1097)', Speculum 56 (1975) 1-20, and D. Bates, Normandy before 1066, (London, 1982) 202-16 et passim; EHD
11:983.
2. As Abbot Herluin is not mentioned this letter must have been writ ten after his death on 26 August 1078. MS N confirms this by stating that this letter is epistola ultima prioratus. Anselm has not yet been elect ed abbot; see also VA 44.
LETTERS WRITTEN BY
ANSELM
AS ABBOT OF BEC
MS London, British Library, Cotton: Nero A VII, fol. 94r: up to this point are included the letters of Dom Abbot An selm which he wrote while he was Prior of Bee. Those which follow, however, he sent after he had taken on the title and office of Abbot.
The Letters of St. Anselm
88. FROM ABBOT FULK.
Abbot Fulk of Saint Pierre-sur-Dives, quoting the advice Anselm sent him in the same situation, implores Anselm to accept the burden of the abbacy in obe dience to the will of God.
TO HIS LORD AND VENERABLE FATHER. ANSELM, HIS SPECIAL AND
DEAREST FRIEND OF FRIENDS, TO BE ENCIRCLED WITH THE
EMBRACE OF HIS WHOLE HEART AND WORTHY OF BEING NAMED
WITH HONOR: HIS MOST FAITHFUL FRIEND FULK,1 WISHING HIM
EVERY GOOD, HAPPINESS, BLESSING, AND GRACE A MORTAL CAN
OBTAIN FROM THE LORD.
MOST LONGED-FOR FATHER, greatly to be blessed, even though my knowledge compared to your knowledge should be called foolishness rather than knowledge, yet God, when he wishes, may shape rational words2 even through dumb animals. I pray that your piety may accept kindly the words of my foolishness.
First of all, therefore, I glorify God who so deigned to direct your actions that all the brothers of your monastery, by unanimous decision, chose your paternity to preside over them.3 Next I pray, I admonish you as my dearest lord, that you allow to be carried out what is demanded of you by brotherly love, trusting in the help of Christ, remembering what was said by the Apostle: Charity does not seek its own.4
Then I speak to you in your words and set before you your own advice; with it you once advised me when I inquired about a similar matter. It is indeed a wonderful victory to prevail over somebody with his own weapons.
'We know, in fact,' you say, 'that it is safer for a man to flee such a burden as much as possible, fearing his weak ness, than to take it lightly on his shoulders, trusting in his strength. But since it is written: No one lives for himself, and no one dies for himself but whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's;5 we ought so to walk in the path of righteousness between the fear of our own weakness and obedience to the Lord's will that we are seen to disregard
The Letters of St. Anselm neither. First of all, therefore, commend yourself by pure affection of mind to divine Mercy, that he may arrange your life according to his good pleasure. And then with a sim ple mind and humble effort, in whatever way you canexcepting only by sin—refuse to take on the burden. And if you cannot decline it except by sin then submit obediently and bear it conscientiously/6 See, dearest father, the words with which you advised me. See how someone behaves when the same thing hap pens to him, just as you pointed out. Therefore I can see no way how you can refuse this burden inasmuch as brotherly love has imposed it on you since, at God's com mand, you ought to lay down even your life for them. Over come by brotherly prayers accept patiently the yoke of the Lord lest—God forbid!—there be any disagreement in the Lord's flock because of you. You should know that our prayers and those of our brothers—whatever they may be worth—will not be lacking to you.
Moreover, dearest father, I pray that you deign to tell my poverty the date on which you are going to receive the bless ing, if you know it, because I want to be present, at least in spirit. Farewell my lord; farewell, my dear friend; fare well, my kindest father. God grant that 1 may rejoice at your promotion.
September 1078-22 February 1079.
NOTES 1. Fulk, Abbot of St Pierre-sur-Dives, see Ep 61.
2. Cf. Num 28:22.
3. RB 5:12; CSEL 75 [21, 39.
4. 1 Cor 13:5.
5. Rom 14:7.
6. A verbatim quotation from Ep 61.