A letter from Peter Damian (1067)

Translated letter:

To empress Agnes, Peter, sinner monk, service. I lament your absence daily that I am not with myself, rather I sigh that my heart is far away from me with new sorrow. Where my treasure is, there clearly is my heart. For my treasure without doubt is Christ, who I know is concealed in the treasury of your breast, so I depute you the seat of heavenly treasure, therefore I never recede from you wherever you turn. But since when you left us, you would never have snatched that chance, so to speak, if our permission had not been given, would that with Zachariach my tongue had altogether stiffened at the oracle of the archangelical announcement, or with Isaiah a burning stone from the altar by the hand of a Seraphim. [Isa.6:6] Since according to scripture “death and life lie in the hand of the tongue,” rather let it alone incur death by losing the function of speech, than by speaking heedlessly it disturb the life of so many holy men. For when he says: “Alas that I have been silent,” I can truly say : Alas that I have spoken. Further, Moses he stayed alone with the Lord on the mountain until he received the dyptich (tablets) of the decalogue which he would bring to the people. But as scripture testifies: “The people seeing that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, gathering before Aaron said: Arise, make us the gods who will precede us. For we do not know what has happened to this man Moses, who led us from the land of Egypt” [Exod.32:1]. If the difficult return of Moses did such harm to the people of God that they lost faith, forged a calf from metal and worshipped the idol, how much loss do you think your delay might cause to the holy life and pious desires of the many who hoped they would, by the example of your guidance, cross over not from land to land, from Egypt to Canaan, but from earth to heaven, from the world to paradise. When Moses who achieved such divine familiarity that he merited the inaccessible conversation of almighty God did such harm when he did not swiftly return, how much do we think your delay affected those who followed their leader and forerunner in the way of God, who [went] not from the depths to the heights, but rather you descended from heavenly contemplation to the flatness of earth, that is to the royal court. Although I believe it surely that, as the angels sent on divine missions, never depart at all from him by whom they are directed, but within rushing constantly in the execution of the delegated service, always fix the focus of their unmoved sight on his face, so you, wherever you go, wherever you rush, you do not avert your eyes from the face of your heavenly spouse, as suits the mother of the king, which was said about the mother of Samuel, that “her expressions are not changed further into different ones” [1Sam.1:18]. For Elijah and Elisha individually say in their remarks: “The lord God of Israel lives in whose sight I stand.” [1Kgs.17:1] And it must be noted that any holy one does not assert that he sits with God, as the Lord says to Moses: “You, however, stay with me and I shall speak to you,” [Deut.5:31] since he truly contemplates God to his advantage, who while he strives to divest himself from affairs of the world, does not snore in slothful quiet through idleness, but always erect, occupies himself with good works for God’s sake. Since therefore a crowd of holy people are crushed by timidity about the hope of your return, the desires of those waiting frustrated already many times, despair of your return. Come back, my lady, come back and gladden the hearts of the pious saddened by your absence, gladden them with the swiftness of your promised/desired return, lest longer delay wear them down who desire to see the serene beauty of your angelic face. And so that you do not spurn my speaking with prophetic words, I exclaim with Jeremiah: "Come back virgin Israel, come back to your cities. How long will you be given to pleasures, wandering daughter?” [Jer.31:21-22] Although your journey is not to be ascribed to wandering but rather to obedience and solid reason, I shall say to you with the voice of the Roman church, the new universal church that in the Canticles calls to the old synagogue, "Return, return, o Sunamite, return that we may contemplate you" [Cant 6:12]. Sunamite can obviously be translated captive or despised. But how is it fitting to you that you be called captive or despised? And yet you can not unfittingly be called despised, without doubt, since you were once distinguished by royal fillets, who remember the compliance when you were surrounded by many troops, striking you who were seen with the splendor of jewels and of diverse culture, now content with the formlessness of gray clothes, and you are cut off from wordly pomp and all the service of thronging ministers. Yet how shall we show that you ought to be called a captive? But that now comes to memory, what the Lord says to the children besieged in Jerusalem by the Chaldaean king: “Behold I put before you the path of life and the path of death. Who lives in the city will die by the sword, hunger, and disease, but who comes out and flees, going over to the Chaldaeans who now besiege you, he will live and his soul will be as a spoil to him.” [Jer.21:8-9] Clearly, as it seems to us, he now lives in the city who loves the exile of this world over the fatherland, who planted the root of his hart in the love of earthly possession. They are called Chaldaean captivities through whom are understood the holy apostles, truly the disciples of the one who “rising on high led captivity captive and gave gifts to his men.” [Eph.4:8] Of which master that disciple affirmed he was following his footsteps, who writing in the second [letter] to the Corinthians says: “Walking in the flesh, we do not fight according to the flesh. For the arms of our army are not carnal, but powers from God to destroy fortifications, destroying the counsels of the body and every height that raises itself against the knowledge of God, and driving back every understanding into captivity in the service of Christ. [2Cor.10:3-5] It is not unfitting, therefore, that the holy apostles be designated by the Chaldaeans, who drive back those raising themselves to the height of this world against the knowledge of God and all understanding into captivity and thus turn the souls of men from the prince of the world as captured riches of spoils into the service of Christ. What wonder, then, if the word captive is suitable to you who, seized by the holy apostles from the hands of the world have been made the plunder of God, and according to the precept of the old law, with shaved head and cut nails, as a new bride you were led into the bedchamber of the redeemer? And that similitude is also fitting to you, like the noble fish in whose mouth a drachma was found, you were captured from the depth of the swelling waters by the hook of the heavenly fishermen. About whom the Lord says also through Jeremiah: “Behold I shall send you many fishermen and they will fish for them” [Jer.16:16]. He is a poor fish who is not caught in the nets of these fishermen, an unhappy soul who is not captured by the victory of such warriors. Whoever therefore lives in the city, dies by hunger, disease, and the sword, but for those who flee to the Chaldaeans, life will be preserved. “Who loves his soul will lose it, and conversely who hates his soul in this world will keep it in eternal life.” [John 21:25]. According to the apostle: “Therefore let us go out to him outside the camp, carrying his disgrace. For we do not have a permanent city here, but we seek one in the future.[Heb.13:13-14. We ought therefore to flee to the camp of the enemies, so we are not compelled to perish in the city, so that each of us tears out the root of his heart from the desire for this world and comes to the laws of apostolic giving. And so that he does not feel the overthrow of the city that will perish, but lives preserved in the pilgrimage of flight, let him follow the rule of the one who said to Abraham: “Come out from your land and your people, and come into the land which I shall show you” [Gen.12:1] In Zachariah, also, this flight is suggested, that the faithful soul be called forth, that he flee his own into pilgrimage. For he says: “O, o flee from the land of the north, the Lord says, since I have dispersed you into the four winds of heaven” [Zech.2:6] And he swiftly adds: “O Zion, flee who live with the daughter of Babylon, since the Lord God tells his army: he sent me after glory to the peoples who have despoiled you” [Zech2:7-8] If it is harmful to remain in the city, how much more pernicious is it to return to walls already deserted? Do you understand what I say? Clearly it is glorious to leave the fatherland for God, but it is an affront to retreat to things rejected since it was written about the holy animals that “their feet were straight feet and they did not turn back as they went” [Ezek.1:7,9]. I come back, therefore, to changing [your] return, not loudly, but affectionately. And thus the more silent, the more strongly I call: “Come back, come back, Sunamite, come back that we may look on you”[Cant.6:12]. Where follows soon: “What will you see in this Sunamite but a chorus of armies?” [Cant.7:1]. The chorus is clearly the harmony and arranged order of singers, while the camps pertain to the military ranks and stations of the warriors. Which diversity certainly is not dissonant with whatever holy soul set in the ranks of the heavenly army, since whoever is truly dedicated to God and joins himself to his fellows in fraternal charity, fights against the forces of the spiritual enemies. For while he is bound to his brothers in harmony, he is sweetly in harmony with God. While he is contending not vigorously with his own passions, he does not stop joining his arms to arms. Therefore the minds of saints are choruses of camps, since while they rejoice with God in the unanimity of fraternal love, fortified against aerial powers with the cuirass of virtues and girded with the sword of faith they do not cease to struggle strenuously. We saw what was wondrously thriving in you while you were in the arena of battle, while the spiritual gymnasium held you in its contests, while you visited the threshhold of the fisherman, we saw and rejoiced. But after you gave your presence back to the royal hall, the treacherous suspicion arose in us, that, though the strength of holy purpose remains always fixed and immoveable in its stability, yet through the clefts of sight and hearing a gentle breeze flows through and lightly strikes the branches of vacillating and wavering thoughts. And as it is written about the tree that is planted by running waters that its leaf never falls [Ps1:3], from the flourishing tree of your holy mind the apple of holy work will not fall down, yet it is to be feared lest the leaf of fervent and most sincere will may fall. If eyesight even in brute animals is so strong that when Jacob put various rods in front of them, they conceived in contemplation of them, and so afterwards the differing color of their offspring corresponded to the varieties of rods, how much more certain is it that human hearts thriving on reason know how to judge what they see, what they take in with their exterior senses, they afterwards depict in their imagination. And though these never propose what is to be done through deliberation, yet as they very often wind through our thoughts, they sometimes diminish their cleanness and purity. For as it is read about David, when he walked on the roof of the royal dwelling, he saw a woman washing herself across the way, who was no doubt Bathsheba. He saw and certainly fell. He opened his eyes and the enemy entered in. So death entered through his window and as is read elsewhere, his eye stole his soul. Three decades plus two years have passed since I changed my student robe and hood. And no one could ever persuade me to return to the house from which I had set forth, a swift traveller, except once, by I know not what destiny, I crossed on a stormy night that gate on a public road. The second time I was compelled to visit my oldest sister of holy life who had brought me up in the place of a mother and then lay very sick. But I confess such a mist of shameful modesty covered my eyes that while I was inside the house I scarcely saw domestic things. Truly, from the sight of secular things and worldly conversation, renewed wars rise again so the deadly stings of nettle and brambles that had lost their power, bristle in the field of the mind more perniciously. Dinah, indeed, when she went out to see the women of the outer region, was found by Shechem, the prince of that land, and compelled to submit to his obscene desire. The Levite from the mountainside of Effraim, who did not want to acquiesce to the prayers of his father-in-law to remain with him, lost his wife on the journey. When he had cut his wife's corpse into pieces, he moved the hearts of Israel to avenge that filthy and enormous crime. Shimei, son of Gera, was ordered to remain within the limits of his own home, prohibited from running here and there by a threatening sentence. But when he followed his fleeing slaves in the manner of an owner, he was immediately punished by a suitable cut of an avenging sword and as he sought his rights against servile people, the foolish possessor lost himself in the unfortunate affair. For as it is written: "Who commits a sin is the slave of sin" [John 8:34], he seeks slaves who fled, who returns to the acts once committed which he had scorned as the servile works of a former life. That you, bride of Christ, might therefore be free from the society of these slaves, let nobility of custom live in you, do not wallow in family or the titles of eminent ancestors. Helena, wife of the elder Constantius, whose son, the great Constantine became emperor after the death of his father in Brittain, was an innkeeper, Roman histories testify. But she glowed with the fervor of such faith, the affection of such pious devotion, such ingenuity of holy conversation, that now in her honor many churches in different kingdoms are built in her honor, which is rare or impossible to find with other noble queens. Ruth, also, who lived so poor and humble that she collected the remaining stalks of grain behind the threshers, moved with the switch like the threshers, and what she picked up and cleaned with the winnow, she carried to her equally poor mother-in-law on her own back. From this woman David had his origin, from whom that king surely came who reformed the whole world, seizing it from the yoke of slavery back to the claims of its ancient freedom. You, also, since coming with Ruth from the region of the Moabites, have begun to make your pilgrimage already to the land of Israel; do not seek ever again the paternal lands, but with Naomi who is called beautiful and bitter, persist from now on in your own dwelling. “Do not,” she said, “call me Naomi, that is beautiful, but call me Mara, that is bitter, since the almighty has filled me with great bitterness” [Ruth 1:20] Which seems most fittingly to apply to the church, since it is truly beautiful with the adornment of spiritual virtues and always bitter at the weight of attacking presures. Thus it is that the groom says to her in the Song of Songs: “Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate(1), without what lies hidden within” [Cant.4:3]. The pomegranate is indeed bitter in its rind but very sweet in the inside. In the same way the holy church bears the bitterness of fierce persecutions on the outside, but beautiful within, it preserves its sweetness through the innocence of its gentlest charity. Who says similarly to her spouse: “My beloved is white and ruddy” [Cant.5:10], white with virginity, ruddy from the shedding of precious blood. You say to the Roman church what she said to her mother-in-law: "Do not press me to abandon you or go back. Wherever you go, I shall go. Where you remain, I shall remain. Your people will be my people, your God my God" [Ruth 1:16]. And since Ruth is said to mean hastening, according to the sacrament of this word do not delay longer, but give the swift and solemn happiness of your return to all the holy people of Italy and let our lord pope see his desire and revive your staff, the shepherd Hildebrand(2), and my reed with your sight, as the returning Joseph did Jacob. May bishop Lopert though absent direct the sign of his hand on me, but bless me through the presence of the spirit.

Original letter:

Imperatrici Agneti, P[etrus] peccator monachus servitutem. Dum tuam mestus absentiam cotidie lugeo, me ipsum mecum non esse, immo cor meum a me procul abesse novo merore suspiro. Ubi scilicet est thesaurus meus, ibi et cor meum. Thesaurus enim meus proculdubio Christus est, quem quia reconditum in erario tui pectoris non ignoro, thesauri caelestis exedram te deputo, ideoque prorsus a te quocumque verteris non recedo. Sed quia cum a nobis egressa es, nequaquam in faustum, ut ita loquar, arriperes, nisi noster assensus licentiam prebuisset, utinam vel cum Zacharia lingua mea tunc penitus obrigesceret ad archangelice denuntiationis oraculum, vel cum Ysaia per manus Seraphin calculum ex altari suscepisset accensum. Ut quia iuxta scripturam “mors et vita in manu lingue” consistit, potius ipsa per amissum locutionis officium sola mortem incurreret, quam tot sanctorum virorum vitam incauta loquendo turbaret. Nam cum ille dicat: “Ve michi quit tacui,” ego veraciter dicere possum: Ve michi quia loquutus sum. Porro Moyses tandiu cum Domino solus in monte perstitit, donec decalogi dypticum quod populo reportaret accepit. Sed sicut scriptura testatur: “Videns populus quod moram fecisset descendendi de monte Moyses, congregatus adversus Aaron ait: Surge, fac nobis deos qui nos precedant. Moysi enim huic viro, qui nos eduxit de terra Egypti, ignoramus quid acciderit.” Si ergo difficilis Moysi reditus tantum Dei populo nocuit ut fidem perderet, vitulum ex metallo conflaret, ydola coleret, quantum putas dispendium sanctae vitae multorum piisque prestolantium desideriis tuae remorationis tarditas pariat, qui non de terra in terram, hoc est ex Egypto in terram Chanaan, sed de terra ad celum, de mundo ad paradysum per tui ducatus exemplum se transituros esse sperabant. Cum ergo Moyses qui ad tantum perductus est familiaritatis divinae fastigium, ut inaccessibile Dei omnipotentis mereretur alloquium, tantum nocuit quia cito non rediit, quantum putamus tua retardatio his qui in via Dei ducem atque preambulam sequebantur offecit, que non ex imis ad summa, sed de caelesti potius contemplatione ad mundi planitiem, hoc est ad aulam regiam descendisti. Quamquam pro certo crediderim quia, sicut angeli divinitus in ministerium missi, nunquam ab eo prorsus a quo diriguntur abscedunt, sed intra ipsum iugiter in delegati muneris executione currentes, inreverberati optutus aciem semper in eius speculatione defigunt, sic et tu quocumque graderis, quocumque discurris, ab aspectu sponsi caelestis oculos non avertis, ut idipsum genitrici congruat regis, quod de matre dicitur Samuhelis, quia “vultus eius non sunt amplius in diversa mutati.” Nam et Helias et Heliseus viritim in suis allegationibus dicunt: “Vivit Dominus Deus Israhel in cuius conspectum sto.” Et notandum quod sanctus quisque non se Deo perhibet sedere, sicut Moysi Dominus ait: “Tu autem sta hic mecum et loquar ad te,” quia nimirum ille salubriter Deum contemplatur, qui dum a mundi studet vacare negotiis, non per ignaviam otiosa stertit quiete remissus, sed bonis se exercet operibus in Deum per intentionem semper erectus. Quia igitur multorum turba sanctorum a spe tui reditus quadam iam pusillanimitate franguntur, prestolantium te vota totiens iam frustrata deficiuntur, teque de cetero redituram esse diffiditur. Revertere iam, domina mi, revertere, et corda piorum quae de tui contristantur absentia, votivi reditus celeritate letifica, ne tue reversionis diffidentia diutius contabescant, qui serenam vultus angelici speciem videre desiderant. Et ut in me vociferante prophetica saltim verba non spernas, cum Hieremia simul exclamo: “Revertere virgo Israel, revertere ad civitates tuas. Usquequo deliciis dissolveris, filia vaga?” Quamquam iter illud tuum non quod vagationi, sed hobedientie potius asscribendum sit et solide rationi. Dicam etiam tibi ex voce Romane aecclesie, quod in Canticis nova universalis ecclesia clamat veteri synagoge: “Revertere, revertere, Sunamitis, revertere ut intueamur te.” Sunamitis plane vertitur in captivam vel despectam. Set quomodo tibi congruit ut captiva vel despecta dicaris? Et ut despecta quidem non incongrue dici possis, nulli dubium est, quia que regalibus olim fueras infulis insignita, que frequentibus obsequium meminebas cuneis circumfulta, que splendore gemmarum ac diversi cultus videbaris nitore conspicua, nunc pullarum vestium deformitate contenta, et a secularibus pompis et ab omni pene constipantium ministrorum cerneris obsequio destituta. Illud autem qualiter ostendemus ut in captivam merito debeas appellari? Sed illud nunc in memoriam venit, quod obsessis in Iaerusalem a Chaldaico rege filiis Iuda per Hieremiam Dominus ait: “Ecce ego do coram vobis viam vitae et viam mortis. Qui habitaverit in urbe hac morietur gladio, fame et peste, qui autem egressus fuerit et transgressus fugerit ad Chaldeos, qui obsident vos, vivet et erit ei anima sua quasi spolium. Plane sicut nobis videtur, in urbe nunc habitat, qui mundi huius exilium pro patria diligit, qui radicem cordis in terrene possessionis amore plantavit. Chaldei vero captivitates dicuntur, per quos sancti intelliguntur apostoli, illius nimirum discipuli, qui “ascendens in altum captivam duxit captivitatem, dedit dona hominibus.” Cuius magistri se perhibet sequi vestigia ille discipulus, qui ad Corinthios secundo scribens ait: “In carne ambulantes non secundum carnem militamus. Nam arma militiae nostrae non carnalia, sed potentia Deo ad destructionem munitionum, consilia corporis destruentes, et omnem altitudinem extollentem se adversus scientiam Dei, et in captivitatem redigentes omnem intellectum in obsequio Christi. Non ergo incongrue per Chaldeos sancti designantur apostoli, qui mundi huius altitudinem extollentem se adversum Dei scientiam, et omnem intellectum in captivitatem redigunt, et sic animas hominum a mundi principe velud dives quoddam spolium raptas in Christi obsequium vertunt. Quid ergo mirum si captivae tibi vocabulum congruat, que per sanctos apostolos rapta de manibus mundi, facta es preda Dei, sicque iuxta legis antiquae preceptum, rasa cesarie, unguibus precisis, nova sponsa translata es in thalamos redemptoris? Et ut illa quoque tibi similitudo conveniat, velut nobilis ille piscis in cuius ore didragma repertum est, ex intumescentium profunditate fluctuum hamo caelestium capta es piscatorum. De quibus etiam per Hieremiam Dominus ait: “Ecce ego mittam piscatores multos et piscabuntur eos.” Miser ille piscis qui piscatorum istorum retibus non includitur, infelix anima que sub talium bellatorum triumpho non captivatur. Quisquis ergo habitaverit in urbe, fame et peste et gladio moritur, illorum autem qui transfugerint ad Chaldeos, vita servatur. “Qui amat animam suam perdet eam, et a contra qui odit animam suam in hoc mundo in vitam aeternam custodiet eam.” Iuxta apostolum: “Ergo exeamus ad eum extra castra, improperium eius portantes. Non enim habemus hic manentem civitatem, sed futuram inquirimus. Debemus ergo ad hostium castra transfugere, ne compellamur in urbe perire, ut unusquisque nostrum ab huius mundi desiderio radicem cordis evellat, et in apostolicae deditionis iura deveniat. Et ne periture urbis excidium sentiat, sed in transfugii peregrinatione servatus vivat, illius sequatur imperium qui ad Abraam dixit: “Exi de terra tua et de cognatione tua, et veni in terram quam monstravero tibi.” Apud Zachariam quoque hec eadem fuga suggeritur, et ut de propriis ad peregrina transfugiat, fidelis anima provocatur. Ait enim: “O, o fugite de terra aquilonis, dicit Dominus, quoniam in quatuor ventis celi dispersi vos.” Ubi et presto subiungitur: “O Syon, fuge que habitas apud filiam Babilonis, quia hec dicit Dominus Deus exercituum: Post gloriam misit me ad gentes que expoliaverunt vos.” Quod si noxium est in urbe manere, quanto perniciosius est moenia iam deserta repetere? Intelligis ipsa que dico? Gloriosum plane est patriam pro Deo relinquere, pudoris est autem ad ea que semel abiecta sunt, retrograde conversionis postliminio repedare, cum de sanctis animalibus scriptum sit, quia “pedes eorum pedes erant recti, et non revertebantur cum incederent.” Revertor ergo adhuc ad mutationem reversionis, et non clamose, sed affectuose. Atque ideo quo silenter, eo magis valenter inclamo: “Revertere, revertere, Sunamitis, revertere ut intueamur te.” Ubi mox sequitur: “Quid videbis in Sunamite hac nisi choros castrorum?” Chorus plane concentus est et dispositus ordo canentium, castra vero ad militares acies et stationes pertinent bellatorum. Que profecto diversitas a sancta qualibet anima atque in procinctu caelestis militie constituta non dissonat, quia nimirum quisque Deo veraciter deditus, et se proximis in fraterna karitate confederat, et adversus spiritalium hostium cuneos infederabiliter pugnat. Nam dum fratribus per concordiam nectitur, Deo suaviter concinit. Dum passionibus vero propriis non nerviter obluctatur, velut armis arma conserere non desistit. Sanctorum ergo mentes et chori sunt et castrorum, quia dum Deo in fraternae dilectionis unanimitate coniubilant, adversus aerias potestates virtutum lorica muniti et fidei mucrone precinti strenue dimicare non cessant. Quod in te mirabiliter viguisset, dum esses in arena certammis, dum gympnasium spiritalis te teneret agonis, hoc est dum limina tereres piscatoris, et vidimus modo, et gavisi sumus. At postquam aule regie tuam presentiam reddidisti, sinistra nobis suspicio repente suborta est, ne videlicet, quanquam sancti propositi robur inmobile semper ac fixum in sua stabilitate permaneat, per rimas tamen visus et auditus aura saltim tenuis influat, et vaccillantium atque nutantium cogitationum vel leviter ramos inpellat. Et cum scriptum sit de ligno quod plantatum est secus decursus aquarum, quod folium eius nullatenus defluat, quanquam de vernanti sanctae tue mentis arbuscula pomum sancti non corruat operis, timendum tamen est, ne folium saltim decidat ferventis et sincerissime voluntatis. Porro si tantum oculorum visus etiam in brutis animalibus valuit, ut dum eorum aspectibus varia Iacob virgulta proponeret, illa mox in eorum contemplatione conciperent, et sic postmodum discolor foetus virgarum varietatibus responderet, quanto magis certum est quod humana corda ratione vigentia, dum sciunt diiudicare quod cernunt, ea que sensibus exterioribus hauriunt, intra semetipsa postmodum ymaginando depingunt. Et licet haec per deliberationem nequaquam sibimet agenda proponant, dum tamen ea sepius in cogitationibus versant, a sua nonnunquam munditia et puritate degenerant. Nam et de David ita legitur, quia dum deambularet in solario domus regiae, vidit mulierem se lavantem ex adverso, nec dubium quin Bethsabeae. Nimirum vidit et corruit. Aperuit oculum, et ingressus est inimicus. Sic per fenestram eius mors introiit, et sicut alibi legitur, oculus eius depredatus est animam eius. Tres plane annorum decades subiuncto fere biennio transacte sunt, ex quo clericalem cycladem cuculla mutavi. Nec unquam michi persuadere quis potuit, ut vel ante domum quidem ex qua prodideram properus viator incederem, nisi semel tantum michi nescio quo pacto scriptum est, ut ante ianuam illam via publica intempesta iam nocte transirem. Secundo quoque conpulsus sum, ut primogenitam michi sanctae vitae germanam, quae me vice matris aluerat, et tunc egerrima decumbebat, inviserem. Set tunc fateor oculos meos tanta caligo verecundi pudoris obduxit, ut cum intra domum consisterem, domestica vix viderem. De secularium nempe rerum et mundanae conversationis aspectu rediviva rursum bella consurgunt, ut urticarum vepriumque ferales aculei, qui pungendi vel urendi vires amiserant, in agro mentis nostre perniciosius inhorrescunt. Dina quippe, dum ad hoc ut mulieres extraneae regionis cernat egreditur, a Sichem terrae illius principe repperitur, et sic obscene libidim subiacere compellitur. Levites de latere montis Effraim, qui socerinis precibus ut cum eo maneret acquiescere noluit, uxorem itinere constitutus amisit. Qui dum cadaver uxoris in frustra concidit, ad ultionem turpis et inmanissimi sceleris totius Israhel corda permovit. Semei filius Gera proprie domus limite contentus esse precipitur, huc autem illucque discurrere minaci sententia prohibetur. Sed dum fugaces servos velud herili more persequitur, digna mox ultoris gladii perfossione multatur, et dum ius suum in personis servilibus repetit, infelici commercio semetipsum stultus possessor amisit. Enimvero cum scriptum sit: “Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati,” ille servos qui se fugerant repetit, qui ad ea que contempserat prioris vitae servilia opera denuo committenda recurrit. Ut ergo tu, sponsa Christi, ab horum servorum societate sis libera, vivat in te nobilitas morum, nec libeat iactare prosapiam vel titulos eminentium proavorum. Helenam nempe, Constantii senioris uxorem, cuius filius, magnus videlicet Constantinus, post patris obitum in Brittania creatus est imperator, stabulariam fuisse Romanae testantur historiae. In qua tamen tante fidei fervor incanduit, tam pie devotionis affectus excrevit, tanta denique sancte conversationis ingenuitas claruit, ut nunc in eius honore constructe nonnullae repperiantur per diversa regna basilicae, quod ex aliqua nobilium reginarum vel difficile, vel certe inpossibile est invenire. Ruth quoque tam pauper ac tenuis exstituit, ut residuos spicarum culmos post metentium terga colligeret, virga more triturantium cederet, et emendicata per agros ac purgata ventilabro ad coegenam socrum propriis cervicibus comportaret. Et ex hac tamen David originem duxit, ex quo nimirum rex ille processit, qui totum mundum de iugo servitutis eripiens in libertatis antique titulos reformavit. Tu quoque, quia cum Ruth de Moabitarum regione progrediens iam in terra Israhel peregrinari coepisti, noli de cetero paterna rura repetere, sed cum Noemi que pulcra dicitur et amara, individua deinceps cohabitatione persiste. “Ne,” inquit, “vocens me Noemi, id est pulchra, sed vocate me Mara, id est amara, quia valde me amaritudine replevit ommpotens.” Quod nimirum apte congruere sancte videtur aecclesiae, quia et pulchra veraciter spiritalium decore virtutum et amara semper est ingruentium tolerantia pressurarum. Hinc est quod ei sponsus dicit in Canticis: “Sicut fragmen mali punici, ita genae tuae, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet.” Malum quippe punicum et amarum in cortice et dulce satis est in medulla. Sic videlicet sancta aecclesia persecutionum quidem extrinsecus sevientium amaritudinem tolerat, sed intus pulchra per innocentiam suavissimae caritatis dulcedinem servat. Que de sponso suo similiter dicit: “Dilectus,” inquit, “meus candidus et rubicundus,” candidus videlicet virginitate, rubicundus pretiosi sanguinis effusione. Dic ergo tu Romanae aecclesiae quod dixit illa socrui suae: “Ne adverseris,” ait, “michi ut relinquam te, et abeam. Quocumque enim perrexeris pergam. Ubi morata fueris, et ego pariter morabor. Populus tuus populus meus, et Deus tuus Deus meus.” Et quia Ruth festinans dicitur, tu secundum huius vocabuli sacramentum noli diutius moras innectere, sed festivam tui reditus sollempnemque letitiam sanctis omnibus totius Italiae celerius redde, ut et dominus noster papa suum videat desiderium, et sustentator ille tuus baculus Hildeprandus, meus autem arundineus, tanquam Iacob veniente Ioseph ad tuum reviviscat aspectum. Lopertus episcopus absentis quidem manus in me signaculum dirigat, sed per presentiam spiritus benedicat.

Historical context:

While Agnes is at the imperial court, Peter laments her absence, worries about its effect on her and on others who are deprived of her, and tries to persuade her that Rome and the church is now her real home, as it is his.

Scholarly notes:

1 Malum punicum should be an orange, but in the biblibcal passage it is normally translated as pomegranate.
2 Hildebrand would become pope Gregory VII.

Printed source:

MGH BDKz ep.149, 3.546-54

Date:

1067