96. TO RICHARD AND THE: Other Monks.
The Letters of St. Anselm
not put off changing your life from day to day,6 and whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength J This short letter of ours may be a sure sign to you that our brotherly allegiance is prepared for this.8 c. 1080.
NOTES 1. Cf. Lk 8:14.
2. Mt 11:28.
3. 1 Jn 2:17.
4. 1 Jn 2:15.
5. Col 3:1-2.
6. Si 5:8.
7. Qo 9:10.
8. This is another 'lettre de vocation'; see Epp 2, 37, 56, 99, 101. The form here is unusual, however, because Anselm uses a medley of scriptural quotations.
96. TO RICHARD AND THE
OTHER MONKS.
Anselm assures Dom Richard and the other monks of Bee living at Saint Neots in England of his fraternal and paternal love. He admonishes them to live a truly monastic life. He forbids Dom Henry, the cellarer, to drink in public places and asks Dom Henry de Goumay to wait patiently for a reply to his letter.
BROTHER ANSELM, STYLED ABBOT OF BEC: TO HIS BROTHERS AND
DEAREST SONS, RICHARD AND THE OTHERS OF THE COMMUNITY
OF BEC LIVING IN ENGLAND,1 GREETINGS AND PATERNAL BLESSING
WITH LOVE.
IF YOU ARE HEALTHY, if you are prospering, and in short, if you are living in harmony and according to God's will, then my soul congratulates your charity with fraternal and paternal affection. My conscience is my witness that nothing makes me happier than the prosperity and righteousness of those who—I know not by what divine judgement—are committed to my lowliness; nothing grieves me more than
The Letters of St. Anselm opposition and injustice towards them. Wherefore I beseech you as brothers, I admonish you as dearest sons, that you always bear your monastic obligation in mind so that what the habit of your profession publicly declares you may dis play in your lives and conduct.
To be sure, neither place nor time excuses anybody from being able to live a good life, since no one, wherever he may be, can ever exclude goodwill from the hearts of men against their will, and a code of good behavior founded on the harmony of the world can endure in any confusion. God never demands deeds beyond our abilities when he per ceives the soundness of our goodwill and good behavior.
Therefore I want you so to present yourselves in public in everything, without looking for excuses, that you show yourselves to be lovers, not of the world or of those things which are in the world,2 but of God and those things which belong to God. To the extent that others praise God for your good way of life, you will be able to rejoice in God in this life and in the next, and I indeed will be able to rejoice with you, my brothers and sons.
As for Dom Henry, who was cellarer, I hear he is behav ing in a disorderly fashion in many respects and particularly in drinking, to the point that he drinks in taverns with drunkards and gets drunk with them. If this is true I can not say how much my heart grieves over this brother's great downfall. Nor will this wretched sin long remain the only one, for unless it is corrected swiftly by God's solicitude, he will be dragged by it to other precipices of death.
Therefore, to the extent that an abbot ought to forbid a monk, this I forbid—although I am a sinner—by the authori ty of God and his saints and by our own, that after he has been informed about this our prohibition, he may no longer venture to drink in taverns or in the company of those who get together only to get drunk. This also I command, that if he is unable to avoid the afore-mentioned disorderly con duct, he should not neglect to do penance according to the judgement of our lord Archbishop Lanfranc, or the lord
The Letters of St. Anselm
Bishop Gundulf, or yourselves, and thenceforth he should with God's help take care to protect himself from drunken ness and foul language. And if he refuses to amend, thenregardless of all the advantages we might have through his presence in England—I would much rather he return to us to be guided by our discipline than that, by staying away from discipline for so long, he be irretrievably lost.
I kindly request Dom Henry of Gournay to await patiently and with a calm mind what he so earnestly enquired about in his letter until Dom Richard, who, I heard from the king, is shortly about to come to us, has arrived. He should bear with gentle patience and patient gentleness what will then be arranged on our advice and that of our brothers for him and for all of you who have been sent to England for the sake of that same lord Richard.3 c. 1080-81.
NOTES 1. See Epp 90, 91, 92, 93, 94.
2. Cf. 1 Jn 2:15.
3. Dom Henry of Gournay and Dom Richard were monks of Bee sent to England to found the community at Saint Neots at the request of Lord Richard and Lady Rohais; see Ep 94.