A letter from Alexander III (1180, June 17)

Translated letter:

Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved daughter in Christ, noble woman countess of Troyes, greetings and apostolic blessing. We have received the letters of your magnitude with fitting benignity from one we love with paternal devotion and your husband, the noble man count Henry with special charity and wish to obey in whatever we can with a clear conscience. But howevermuch we wish to defer to your nobility, we can not fail in justice to L. the cleric who asserted that you committed very serious injuries against him in your anger and without reasonable cause, nor can we recall something without canonical obstacle from them to whom we have already committed it long since with fixed term. Do not, therefore, impute it to less affection that we do not satisfy your will; but you should refrain from your persecution of that cleric for the sake of divine love and your own salvation, and restore what you had taken from him injustly on the advice of evil men or carry out the judgment which justice will dictate by examination of the delegation. Toscolano, 15th calends of July.

Original letter:

Alexander episcopus servus servorum Dei dilecte in Christo filie nobili mulieri comitisse Trecensi salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Magnitudinis tue literas ea, qua decuit, benignitate recepimus, sicut eius, quam consideratione paterne devocionis et nobilis viri comitis Henrici viri tui speciali caritate diligimus et volumus, in quibus salva conscientia possumus, exaudire. Ceterum quantumcunque tue velimus nobilitati deferre, L. clerico, qui indignatione tua sine causa rationabili gravissimas se asserit iniurias pertulisse, deesse in iusticia non valemus, nec causam ab eis possumus sine impedimento canonico revocare, quibus eam iam pridem commisimus terminandam. Non ergo minori affectioni deputes, quod tue non satisfacimus voluntati; sed divini amoris intuitu et proprie salutis obtentu ab ipsius clerici persecutione quiescas et restituas, que pravorum consilio mota iniuste fecisti auferri aut sub examine delegatorum iudicum, quod iusticia dictaverit, exequaris. Dat. Tusculani XV Kal. Iulii.

Historical context:

The pope refuses to remove a cleric in a dispute in which both Marie and the cleric claim to have been wronged and asks her to restore what she has taken, at least until a judgment has been rendered by a legation he has presumably appointed. Theodore Evergates notes in a private communication that the action referred to in this letter is "the only act I know of in 1180."

Printed source:

Epistolae Pontificum Romanorum ineditae, ed. S. Loewenfeld, ep.325, p.193.

Date:

1180, June 17