A letter from Peter the Deacon (1139)

Translated letter:

To lady Richiza, empress of the Romans, protected by God, after the end of this life the decision of the eternal kingdom. Many times, invincible empress, I began the move of consoling your eminence, many times I continued. That I should carry it further many things invited me, particularly the faithfulness of our lord emperor Lothar, then the love of your august mercy to our unworthy selves, that though I could not completely stop your tears, I might certainly at least wipe them away; that I should slow down, however, I knew it should not meet your sorrow too quickly, while it was raging newly, lest those comforts would rather irritate, exaggerate, enflame it. For often we see that untimely medicine is most harmful to those diseases. So I waited while the strength of that sorrow decreased, so that mitigated by delay it might permit itself to be touched and moved by sustaining remedies. Yet before I accost it, I shall reduce some things by which it is excited in memory and what seem already almost covered over, I shall cut off and thrust out, in the solemn and best mode of consoling. For they weep and sigh longer, whose delicate minds long happiness has weakened, lust has made effeminate, who fixed their hope entirely in the world; who either do not know the goods that are perennial or, if they know them, neglect them being lulled by worldly pleasures. And almost all the healthy have gone through different cares, their conversation, according to the Apostle is in heaven who weigh the vanities of the world and the joys of heaven with prudent and discreet heart, and bear the most serious with an immoveable constancy. Why should I go on? number how many calamities, how many misfortunes you have experienced from infancy, almost as if you were born in them, as I might say. Our lord emperor Lothar of happy memory who chose you as his spouse, moved up to the imperial burden, with whom alone he joined all the business of the Roman empire, after the many anguishes you shared, after you traversed as I might say the Roman world with him, when you hastened the day of return to the imperial home with him, alas the grief, you buried him with the deepest sorrows of many comrades. I pass over so many dangers, so many fears, coming without respite, which you bore with such a caesar. Now, now, when you have not yet composed the prior griefs completely, grief is added to your grieving, and when the solace of so many hardships, namely the only one remaining you thought you had was in your living son-in-law, Henry, duke of Bavaria, suddenly his untimely death was announced to you without warning. Clearly the recent wound is the heaviest in all the things that happened to you after the death of our lord Lothar; it did not break the whole, but it did, I confess, divide the breast and the guts: blood did not pour from your intact body struck by such wounds, like veterans who though pierced through suffer themselves to be cared for patiently and without sighs, while lightly wounded recruits make a lot of noise. For, most clement lady, the faithful do not grieve, the Apostle says, like those who have no hope: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so God through Jesus will draw up with him those who slept.” Therefore, most clement lady, we urge you to receive consolation; for this death, what else is it than the leaving of the body, the putting down of heavy weight? You were born, o empress, you will die. Where will you go that you will not die? What can you do, that you will not die? Let the lord God console you, who deigned to die of his own will. When you see that Christ died for you, do you disdain to die? You will die whether you wish to or not. Where do you go, where do you flee that you will not die? Whether today or tomorrow, in the future there is no doubt, it must be believed. Whatever you do, you fear, you flee, it is the future. Therefore, my most pious lady, virilely put off lamentations and wailings and womanly tumults; for when your grief is the harsher, so much the more must virtue be summoned by you, and as with a known enemy already often conquered the fight must be more bitter. Second [times] do not take out the strong and wise, nor do adverse matters draw them down. One bears those things easily who always expects them; they are hard on the one to whom they come suddenly. Who is not puffed up by happy things, nor restricted by changed things, has a soul of established firmness unconquered in either state. For he is expert in that happiness that can combat unhappiness: to be affected by infinite grief when you have lost one of the dearest; indulgence is unsuitable; but harshness is inhuman to none [not outside the human experience], for not to feel sorrow is not man’s [lot], and not to bear it, is not virtue’s. It is best to be temperate between both, to feel desire and to repress it; especially when it does not suit your excellence to grieve excessively. The greatest solace is to think that what happened to you others have suffered in the past, and all will suffer [in the future]. Rejoice that you have had as husband the Roman emperor: think that what you had was most delightful, what you lost was human. That you had such a one, place among the highest goods; it is not for you to think how much longer you might have had him, but how long you did have him. In him, death did not wish your satiety, but to follow its law. Let the spirit remain a while in battle; death takes another at another time, it will destroy noone, it will certainly except nothing. Whoever is brought to life, is destined to death; but let the spirit of the wise never fear what is necessary, always await what is uncertain.

Original letter:

Dominae RICHIZAE a Deo protectae Romanorum imperatrici, PETRUS DIACONUS, post prasentis vitae metas aeterni regni calculum. Multoties, imperatrix invicta, impetum coepi consolandi vestram eminentiam , multoties continui. Ut id protinus facerem, plurima invitabant, praecipue autem domini nostri imperatoris Lotharii defuncti fidelitas, tum vestrae augustalis clementiae in nos indignos dilectio, ut lacrymas vestras etsi ex toto sopire non potuissem, interim certe vel abstersissem: ut retardarem autem, sciebam dolori tuo, dum recens saeviret, praepropere occurrendum non esse, ne illum ipsa eadem solatia potius irritarent, exagerarent, accenderent: nam saepe videmus in ipsis quoque morbis immaturam medicinam esse perniciosissimam. Exspectabam itaque dum ipsemet dolor vires suas deponeret, ut mora mitigatus tangi se quodammodo, attrectarique ad remedia sustinenda permitteret. Ante tamen quam cum eo congrediar, adero illi, et aliquanta quibus excitetur in memoriam reducam, et quae jam quasi obducta videntur rescindam et proferam, optimo videlicet ac solemni genere consolandi. Hi itaque fleant gemantque diutius, quorum delicatissimas mentes enervavit longa felicitas, effeminavit luxuria, qui spem suam omnino fixerunt in saeculo; qui, quae sint bona illa perennia, vel ignorant ex toto, vel si sciunt, oblectamentis sopiti mundialibus negligunt. At quorum fere omnes sani per diversas curas transierunt, quorum, juxta Apostolum, conversatio in coelis est, qui et vanitates saeculi, ut caeli gaudia, prudenti ac discreto corde perpendunt, gravissima quoque quaelibet immobili constantia perferunt. Quid pergam referre? numera quot calamitatibus, quot infortuniis ab infantia ipsa jactata sis, cum in eisdem fere, ut sic dicam, innata fueris. Felicis memoriae dominus noster imperaior Lotharius, qui te sibi in conjugem elegerat, ad imperiale fastigium promoverat, in quam solam cuncta negotia Romani imperii commiserat, post multas quas cum ipso pertulisti angustias, post orbem Romanum, ut ita dixerim, cum eo peragratum, cum in dies ad imperiale domicilium cum eo accelerares regressum; heu! proh dolor, multorum sociorum dolore gravissimo extulisti. Transeo tot pericula, tot metus, quos sine interstitio incursantes in te cum tanto caesare pertulisti: modo, modo, cum nondum priores luctus integre composueris, lugenti adhuc tibi luctus adjunctus est, et cum quasi solatium tot aerumnarum, quod videlicet solum residuum erat in vivente genero vestro Heinrico duce Bavariae te habere putares, subito nec opinanti vobis mors ejus immatura relata est: gravissimum plane est omnibus quae vobis post decessum domini nostri imperatoris Lotharii obtigerunt, recens vulnus; nec autem summam rupit, sed pectus, fateor, et viscera ipsa divisit: nec ex intacto corpore tuo hic sanguis effluxit per ipsas cicatrices percussus, sed quemadmodum tirones leviter sauciati, tamen vociferantur, ut veterani quamvis confossi patienter ac sine gemitu curari se patiuntur: non enim, clementissima domina, ita lugendi sunt quique fideles ait Apostolus, sicut et caeteri qui spem non habent: Si euim credimus quod Jesus mortuus est et resvrrexit, ita et Deus eos qui dormierunt per Jesum adducet cum eo. Ergo, clementissima domina, ut consolationem accipiatis, hortamur; ista enim mors, quid est aliud, nisi relictio corporis, depositio sarcinae gravis? Nata es, o imperatrix, moritura es; quo ibis ut non moriaris? Quid facis, ut non moriaris? Ut Dominus Deus tuus consolaretur te, propria voluntate mori dignatus est. Quando vides Christum pro te mortuum, tu mori dedignaris? Ergo moritura es, velis, nolis. Quo evades? quo effugies ut non moriaris? Hodie sit, cras sit, futurum est, dubium non est, credendum est. Quid, ergo agis, times, fugis! futurum est. Ergo, mi piissima domina, lamentationes et ululatus ac si muliebres tumultus a te viriliter amove; quando enim dolor iste vester durior est, tanto major vobis virtus advocanda est, et veluti cum noto hoste et saepe jam victo acrius congrediendum; fortem ac sapientem nec secunda evehunt, nec adversa demittunt; facile illa fert qui semper expectat; illi sunt gravia, quae sunt repentina; qui laetis rebus non se inflavit, nec mutatis contraxit, adversus utrumque statum invictam animam tenet jam exploratae firmitatis. In ipsa namque felicitate quia contra infelicitatem posset, expertus est: infinito quidem dolore, cum aliquem ex carissimis amiseris affici; inepta indulgentia est; nullo autem iuhumana duritia; nam et non sentire dolorem, non est hominis, et non ferre, non est virtutis. Optimum inter utrumque temperamentum est, et sentire desiderium, et reprimere; praesertim eum nec excellentiae vestrae conveniat immensum tristari: maximum solatium est cogitare, id vobis accidisse quod omnes ante passi sunt, omnesque passuri. Gaude itaque habuisse te virum Romanum imperatorem: cogita jucundissimum esse quod habuisti, humanum quod amisisti: quod talem habuisti, in summis bonis pone; non est cogitandum vobis quam diutius habere illum potueris , sed quamdiu habueris: non in eo mors vestram satietatem, sed suam sequi voluit legem. Stet tantum animus in procinctu; mors alium alio tempore comprehendet, neminem interibit, nullum certe excipiet. Quisquis ad vitam editur, ad mortem destinatur; sed animus sapientis quod necesse est numquam timeat, quod incertum semper exspectet.

Historical context:

Peter writes to console the empress for the deaths of her husband, Lothar, and her son-in-law Henry of Bavaria.

Printed source:

PL 173, c.1137-39.

Date:

1139