A letter from Peter the Deacon (1139)

Translated letter:

To his most excellent and pious lady, Richiza, protected by God, the great and pacific august empress of the Romans, the servant of your empire, [wishes] after the power of the present kingdom eternal happiness. Though a cut nerve hurts and a sad spirit grinds bones, yet our emperor Lothar is not to be mourned as those who, as the Apostle says, do not have hope. He has reached his [end], in which there is the highest good, in which there is all goodness, all justice, all piety, and all holiness. He has reached him who does not cease to call out his precepts to his servants: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened; and I will make you rest. Elias hastening asks that his soul be received by him. And after many things: [omitted passages?] Is one to be mourned, therefore, in death? Very little; for what is more absurd than that you weep as for something special what you know is prescribed to all? This is to raise up the spirit [life] over its condition, not to accept common law, to refuse fellowship, to be inflated with the mind of the flesh, and to ignore the measure of that flesh. What is more absurd than to ignore what you are, to affect what you are not? Or what is more imprudent, that you know the future, and cannot bear it when it happens? Nature itself calls us back and removes [us] from such sorrows with its sharing. For who is there, however heavy his suffering, however bitter his grief, in whom the spirit does not sometimes relax? Nature has this [power] that though men may be in sad affairs, yet if they are men they will slowly lead the mind away from sorrow. There are said to have been people who mourned the birth of men and celebrated their deaths, not imprudently: for they thought that those who came into the world of this life were to be mourned; those indeed who emerged from the storms and floods of this world they considered were adorned with joy not unjustly. For death is equal for all men, without distinction to the wealthy. Such a Caesar had this daily before his eyes who, as we saw and experienced, while we were involved in his service, showed the young knight beneath the imperial cloak of another army. For before the dawn of light he heard mass for the dead, then for the army, last the mass of the day, then distributing food and drink widely to widows, orphans, and the rest of the poor, he relieved complaints and oppressions of the churches, and at the end he labored in the care of the empire. For as long as he remained at Cassino, every night he went around the cloister and all the offices of the monastery, desiring to know, if the abbot or any deacon [were there], how each one lived under the rule of St. Benedict. And when morning came, he moved through all the churches of the monastery in bare feet for prayer. Though he did this, however, he was never cut off from the company of archbishops, bishops, abbots, clerics, or monks, so that he would fulfill what is read: And his conversation was with the wise and religious. Who would not wonder at his gravity when, coming to the chapter to settle the arguments of the brothers which had arisen over the election of the abbot, from the hour of prime to vespers, not indulging in food nor drink, he did not leave? With what affection, with what love he held the church of Cassino, he showed when he said he would rather let all privileges and concessions of the churches be uprooted than lessen anything in the offices and privileges of the church of Cassino. And he would rather take away the elections of all the bishops, archbishops and abbots in the whole Roman world, than only that of the abbot of Cassino. For he said, if the abbot were not elected by consent of the monks, he would not be abbot, and whoever takes away the election from the monks uproots all the rights of the monastery. And when he did all these things, he was a staff for the blind, food for the hungry, hope for the suffering, solace for the grieving; and so he excelled in each virtue as if he did not have the others. He honored priests as lords, clerics as fathers, poor men as sons, widows as mothers; frequent in his admonitions, ever watchful in his vigils, he offered tears to God not men. Tears are shed by mouths, and with a resolute soul I do not seek to hide the grief I suffer. For after he made our smallness the student of Bertulf the chancellor, after he paid with the office of secretary (logothete), of scribe and auditor, after he granted a session at his feet, after he worked out from secrets, after he had instructed enough about those who attain eternal life, with you present and all the courtiers there, taking my hand and commending [me] to Guibald the abbot, he said to him: If there are traces of affection, of love for me in your heart, show it in this one, hold him in the place of a dearest and only son, for love of us. When the august Roman emperor and Caesar, called the father of his country, said these things, to reconcile discordant clerics in peace, while he strove together with your excellence, he rendered body and soul to heaven. Take comfort, therefore, very quickly, and according to the precept of Solomon, accept consolation for your sorrow. But perhaps you say: How can I accept consolation, when I have lost the one I loved? Are these things not common to us with the world and its elements, since we cannot hold created things in perpetuity through time? She has not lost her husband who shows chastity; she is not widowed in marriage who has not changed the name of her husband. Remember what David did: for when he lost his son, he rose, ate, drank and said: I go to him, he indeed will no longer come to me. Directing your thoughts to these things, most excellent lady, temper yourself so from imminent sorrow, strive so that you are able to see God with happy insight as is fitting. The congregation of Cassino also directs service of salvation and consolation and prayer for you, and they ask that you have in the place of a son the boy Menon, the son of lord Ptolemy, who is with you.

Original letter:

Dominie suae excellentissimae atque piissimae Richiza a Deo protectae, magnae ac pacificae Romanorum imperatrici Augustae PETRUS, vestri imperii servus, post praesentis regni potentiam aeternam felicitatem. Licet nervus incisus doleat, et spiritus tristis ossa conterat, non tamen adeo lugendus est dominus noster imperator Lotharius sicut et hi, sicut dicit Apostolus, qui spem non habent. Ad suum perrexit, in quo summum bonum est, in quo omnis bonitas, omnis justitia, omnis pietas, omnisque sanctitas est. Ad illum perrexit qui sua praecepta servantibus clamare non cessat, Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis; et ego vos requiescere faciam. Elias festinans rogabat ut acciperetur a se anima sua. Et post multa : Dolendumne est igitur in decessu ? Minime, quid enim absurdius, quam ut id quod scias omnibus esse praescriptum, quasi speciale deplores ? Hoc est animum supra conditionem extollere, legem non recipere communem, consortium recusare, mente carnis inflari, et carnis ipsius nescire mensuram. Quid absurdius quam nescire qui sis, affectare quod non sis? aut quid imprudentius, quod futurum scias, id eum acciderit ferre non posse? Natura ipsa nos revocat, et hujuscemodi moeroribus quadam sui collatione subducit. Quis enim tam gravis luctus, aut tam acer inest dolor, in quo non interdum relaxetur animus? Habet hoc natura, ut quamvis homines in tristibus rebus sint, tamen si modo homines sunt, a moerore mentem paulisper abducant. Fuisse etiam feruntur quidam populi, qui ortus hominum lugerent, obitusque celebrarent, nec imprudenter: eos enim qui in hoc vitae saeculum venissent, moerendos putabant; eos vero qui ex istius mundi procellis et fluctibus emersissent, non injusto gaudio prosequendos arbitrabantur. Mors aequalis est omnibus hominibus, indiscreta divinibus. Hanc quotidie prae oculis tantus Caesar habebat, qui sicut vidimus et experti sumus, dum in ejus versaremur obsequiis, sub imperiali chlamyde alterius militiae tirocinium ostendebat. Prius enim in lucis crepusculo missam pro defunctis audiebat, dehinc pro exercitu, postremo missam diei, demum cibum potumque viduis, pupillis ac ceteris pauperibus large distribuens, quaestiones et oppressiones ecclesiarum relevabat, et in ultimo in cura imperii insudabat. Quandiu enim Casini remoratus est, omnibus noctibus ita claustrum et omnes officinas monasterii, ac si abbas vel quilibet decanus circuibat, scire cupiens, qualiter unusquisque sub B. Benedicti magisterio viverent. Factoque mane, per omnes monasterii ecclesias causa orationis discalceatis pedibus incedebat. Licet autem hoc ageret, numquam a consortio archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, abbatum, clericorum, vel monachorum sequestrabatur, ut impleretur in eo quod legitur : Et cum sapientibus ac religiosis sermocinatio ejus. Quis autem ejus gravitatem non miretur, cum ad sedandas dissensiones fratrum, quae pro electione abbatis ortae fuerant, ad capitulum veniens, ab hora prima diei usque in vesperum, non cibo, non potui indulgens, exinde non egrediebatur? Quo autem affectu, quove amore Casinensem dilexit ecclesiam, ostendit, cum dixit prius se sinere omnia privilegia et concessions ecclesiarum convelli, quam aliquid de dignitatibus et privilegiis Casinensis Ecclesiae minui: et prius sineret electionem omnium episcoporum, archiepiscoporum et abbatum qui sunt in toto orbe Romano tollere, quam solummodo Casinensis abbatis. Dicebat enim, Abbas si ex consensu monachorum electus non fuerit, abbas non est, et quicunque electionem monachis tollit, omnia monasterii jura convellit. Et cum haec omnia ageret erat tamen caecorum baculus, esurientium cibus, spes miserorum, solamen lugentium; et ita singulis virtutibus eminebat, quasi caeteras non haberet. Sacerdotes honorabat ut dominos, clericos ut patres, pauperes ut filios, viduas ut matres, creber monitionibus, pervigil in vigiliis, lacrymas Deo non hominibus offerebat. Volvuntur per ora lacrymae et obfirmato animo non queo dolorem dissimulare quem patior. Posquam enim nostram parvitatem discipulum Bertulfi cancellarii effecerat, postquam logothetae, exceptoris et auditoris officio remuneraverat, postquam sessionem ad pedes suos indulserat, postquam a secretis effecerat. postquam de his quae ad vitam aeternam attinent, satis instruxerat, te praesente et cunctis imperii aulicis adstantibus, manum meam apprehendens et Guibaldo commendans abbati, dixit ad eum: Si qua meae dilectionis, si qua mei amoris in vestro corde vestigia sunt, in isto ostende, eumque pro nostro amore loco charissimi et unici filii habe. Haec cum dixisset imperator augustus Caesarque Romanus, et pater patriae nominatus, ut clericos discordantes in pace reconciliaret, una cum vestra excellentia dum studeret, corpus et animam coelo reddidit. Confortare igitur, strenuissima, et juxta illud Salomonis praeceptum, Accipe consolationem propter tristitiam. Sed fortasse dicis: Quomodo possum accipere consolationem, cum eum quem diligebam amisi? Nonne haec nobis cum ipso mundo elementisque communia sunt, quia ad tempus creata in perpetuum tenere non possumus? Non amisit virum quae exhibet castitatem : non est viduata conjugio, quae non mutavit nomen mariti. Recole quid David fecerit: is enim cum amisisset filium, surrexit, comedit, bibit, et dixit: Ego vado ad eum, ille vero amplius non revertetur ad me. Haec igitur, excellentissima domina, advertens, ita vos ab iminente tristitia temperate, ita studete, quatenus Deum ut decet felici cernere possitis intuitu. Salvationis etiam et consolationis et orationis obsequium vobis congregatio Casinensis dirigit, puerumque Menonem filium domini Ptolomei, qui penes vos est, vobis commendantes, rogant ut illum loco filii habeatis.

Historical context:

In this letter, Peter consoles the empress for the death of Lothar, praises Lothar's religious devotion, and describes his own gratitude to the emperor. A monk at Monte Cassino, he was exiled for a decade because of his support for abbot Oderisius; shortly after his return in 1137, he was sent to Lothar's court on behalf of the monastery. Lothar was apparently so taken with him that he appointed him his chaplain and secretary, and might have attached him permanently to his person had Abbot Wibald not insisted on Peter's return to the abbey.

Printed source:

PL 173, c.1139-41.

Date:

1139