98. To The Monks Of Bec.
The Letters of St. Anselm 2. The brother in question is Theduinus, the first monk to make profes sion in the new church after it had been consecrated by Archbishop
Lanfranc on 23 October 1077. He is one hundred-fourth in the Bee profession-roll.
3. The court of King Philip I of France (1060-1108) was quite close in Paris.
4. About the relationship of the tract appended to Ep 97 and 'De casu diaboli' see AOO 48*-49*, 164* footnote 29; and VA 28.
98. TO THE MONKS OF BEC.
Anselm writes from England to his community at Bee. He informs them about his safe journey and his cordial reception by Archbishop Lanfranc. He admon ishes his brothers to live diligently according to their monastic vows and begs them to pass this information to Lady Eve.
TO HIS FELLOW-MONKS AND MOST BELOVED BROTHERS WHO
SERVE GOD AT THE MONASTERY OF BEC: BROTHER ANSELM,1 THEIR
SERVANT AND CO-SERVANT, WISHING THEY MAY ALWAYS LIVE IN
A HOLY WAY AND RECEIVE THE REWARD OF A HOLY LIFE.
SINCE I KNOW AND KNOW for certain that your love, ever most dear to me, longs with your full attention for news about my health and well-being, I cannot weary you by any delay. Accordingly, having set out by sea on the same day
Dom Girard2 left me, at the hour called the first, divine pro tection brought me by your prayers to the soil of England at the ninth hour, after a successful voyage and without any of the mishaps many voyagers usually have to suffer, and allowed me to reach our lord and father Archbishop
Lanfranc by evening, when I was received with joy at his country house called Lyminge.3
I am writing this letter the following day, and by it I wish to satisfy your afore-mentioned desire and remind you al ways to be fervent in your holy intent and to progress towards the better. Therefore I beg of you as a brother, ex hort you as a father, that you so strive to live in peace and according to your monastic obligations that as the reward for your efforts you may succeed in being blessed and I may someday rejoice at your blessedness. May the almighty Lord
The Letters of St. Anselm
guard you with his protection from all adversity and show you his mercy in the continuing prosperity of your body and soul.
Tell our mother and lady. Eve,4 since she, with you, is waiting with the same longing to hear about her eldest son,5 to pray that, just as she, with you, obtained my safe journey by her prayers, despite your fears, so she may obtain my joyous return to you rejoicing. c. 1079/80.
NOTES 1. Concerning Anselm's first visit to England Eadmer states: 'In the very year of his consecration therefore Anselm set out for England' (VA,
48), which would point to a date not later than February, 1080. This is questioned by F.S. Schmitt (AOO III: 228) and M. Chibnall, 'The Relations of St Anselm with the English Dependencies of the Abbey of Bee 1079-1093', Spicilegium Beccense 1 [Paris 1959] 522). They both suggest 1081 or possibly late 1080 as the likely date for Anselm's first journey to England. The purpose of this journey was to inspect Bee's many possessions in England and to see Lanfranc; see VA, 48, which also contains a list of the Bee estates in England.
2. Dom Girard of Arras would have been the most suitable guide to Wissant, the port of embarkation for England between Boulogne and Calais, as he was familiar with the roads, customs, and language of Flanders; see Epp 14, 15, 23, 164.
3. The archbishop's villa at Lyminge, on the road from Lympne to Can terbury, stood on the site of a Roman military station which had been superceded by a residence of the kings of Kent in Anglo-Saxon times; see Rule I: 228.
4. The widow of William Crispin and mother of Gilbert Crispin, see Ep 147 and Rule I: 226.
5. Anselm regarded Lady Eve as his mother and she regarded him as the eldest son of her adopted children, the monks of Bee.