A letter from Adam Marsh

Translated letter:

To the illustrious lady A., countess of Leicester, Brother Adam.

I have written briefly since there was no time to write more at length.  From that sentence of God which says, “Let us make him a helper similar to himself,” we are clearly instructed that the wife is held most strictly to the husband, and by constancy of vigor and prudence of discernment  and gentleness of kindness to expend perpetual zeal of help in all things in which either God is worshiped or [it is] lived justly or judged rightly.  Because of which every conjugal soul who does not strive to fulfill this in all ways is proved to violate damnably the individual sharing of life in which according to the law of matrimony she had sworn to serve uncorruptly.  [Those] minds are known to all to incur the offense of such violation of duty, which do not fear to disturb the most beloved peace of marriage through the demonic furors of wrath.  Whence this [teaching] formidably opposes such [passion]:  “Wrath kills the foolish man, that is the soul, and envy strikes down the small one.”  Certainly while gentleness is lost through wrath, the similitude of the divine image is marred, wisdom is lost, vice is admitted, justice abandoned, companionship destroyed, harmony broken, truth darkened.  From wrath arise quarrels, swelling of the mind, insults, clamor, indignation, pusillanimity, blasphemies.  Of necessity, despair follows, from which are born malice, rancor, pusillanimity, despair, sluggishness towards precepts, wandering of the mind towards illicit things.  In wrath the heart beats fast, it drives to attack on the neighbor, it presses the tongue to curse, it devastates the mind within, generates hatred of the most dear, and dissolves the bond of friendship.  Let it not be that such an execrable disease should thrust down the soul raised high with such multiple glory of illustrious titles, into the detestable ignominy of a fatal abyss!  I pray that the most peaceful grace of the most pious Virgin intervene with the blessed author of pacific love, so that the peace of God which overcomes every sense, may guard your heart and your intellect.

[Given] the sublety of clear thought, it is no wonder, I implore,  that I follow up that very sharp thing from the sharper words of the saints.  For the rest, what more wanton culture leads matronly modesty into perverse mistrust?  Will prostitutes’ faces not dispute the visages of chastity? Who is there who does not condemn this madness, which continues from day to day  with such  outlays of costs, with so many ministering labors, the mad zeal for superfluous ornament, through which the Divine Majesty is provoked and honorable glances are offended,  unless he is pleased by the impudences of pimps?  Is it not an injury to Divinity to paint the face which it decorated with the privilege of beauty with I know not what follies of wandering erasure/overlay?  Let us hear the divine Apostles,  whose Prince says:  “Let women be subject to their husbands, so that if they do not believe the word, they may be won over by the the conversations of their wives, beholding the holy conversation with fear.  Let there not be the outward hairdo or the wearing of gold or the adornment of clothes; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in what is incorruptible, of the quiet and modest spirit, which is rich in the sight of God” [1Peter 3:1-4].  And the Doctor of the gentiles, who became all things to all, that all might be won over, cries out to all mortals:  “That women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly apparel; but what becomes women professing piety, through good works” [1Tim.2:9-10]. If only the transparent breast might reveal how great the anxiety to the fearful heart, because it is necessary to insist with dissuading trifles of such destruction, among so many matters of salvation, about which, unless excluded by foolishness of this kind, it would be so necessary to have speech to the most splendid industry of your piety. Not in vain, I beg, may I have agitated the weapons of heavenly emulation into the holy breast for the wounds of God; I trust that, with the Divinity propitious, the excesses of more profuse adornment will perish as lasting ingorance of protraction, neglected within because of the zeal for honorable maturity.  Let me be pardoned, I beg, that more anxious sollicitude did not suppress my pen of harsh rebuke or rather of salutary persuasion, since I do not know whether it is divinely conceded to remain in the flesh until I might enjoy the desirable conversation of your sublimity. I equip my letter, even unwilling.  For it might be [possible], if opportunity permits, to extend the speech at greater length over how much more.

May your dearest nobility be well.  And may the illustrious count be well.  May your distinguished progeny be well.  And may your worthy house be always well in Christ and the most blessed Virgin.

Original letter:

Breviter scripsi, quia prolixius scribere non vacavit. Ex illa Dei sententia, qua dicitur, " Faciamus ei adjutorium simile sibi," evidenter instruimur, quia uxor viro districtissime tenetur, et per vigoris constantiam, et per discretionis prudentiam, et per benignitatis clementiam, jugem juvaminis impendere sedulitatem, ad omnia in quibus, aut Deus colitur, aut juste vivitur, aut recte judicatur. Propter quod omnis anima conjugalis, quae modis omnibus hoc implere non satagit, individuum vitae consortium, in quod secundum legem matrimonii intemerate servandum conjuravit, damnabiliter violare convincitur. Cujus praevaricationis reatum prae cunctis mentes incurrere comprobantur, quae per daemoniales irarum furores amantissimam conjugii pacem perturbare non formidant. Proinde contra tales formidabiliter illud occurrit, " Virum stultum, id est, animum, interficit iracundia et parvulum occidit invidia." Nempe dum per iram mansuetudo amittitur, divinae imaginis similitudo vitiatur, sapientia perditur, vita amittitur, justitia relinquitur, socialitas destruitur, concordia rumpitur, veritas obumbratur. De ira rixae, tumor mentis, contumeliae, clamor, indignatio, pusillanimitas, blasphemis proferuntur. Quam necessario sequitur tristitia, de qua malitia, rancor, pusillanimitas, desperatio, torpor circa praecepta, vagatio mentis erga illicita nascitur. In ira cor palpitat, in concussionem proximi propellit, in maledictionem linguam impingit, mentem intus devastat, odium carissimorum generat et foedus amicitiae dissolvit. Absit ut tam execranda pestis animum, tan multiplici illustrium titulorum gloria sublimatum, in ignominiam exitialis barathri detestabilem detrudat! Subveniat, oro, placidissima piissimae Virginis gratia apud benedictum Auctorem pacificae dilectionis, ut pax Dei, quae exsuperat omnem sensum, custodiat cor vestrum et intelligentiam vestram.

Nec miretur, obsecro, perspicuae considerationis subtilitas, quod rem acerrimam ex sanctorum eloquiis acrius sum insecutus. Caeterum, quid cultus lascivior matronalem pudicitiam in sinistram ducit suspicionem? Numquid non discrepabunt meretricii vultus et facies castitatis? Quis est qui hanc insaniam non execratur, quae cum tantis sumptuum impensis, cum tot ministrantium occupationibus, indies continuatur, vesanum studium ornatus superflui, per quem et Divina Majestas provocatur, et offenduntur aspectus honesti, nec nisi lenonum placetur petulantiis? An non est Divinitatis injuria, speciem quam venustatis decoravit privilegio, nescio quibus ineptiis peregrinae superinductionis fucare? Audiamus divinos Apostolos, quorum Princeps sic ait: " Mulieres subditae sint viris suis, ut et siqui non credunt verbo, per mulierum conversationem lucrifiant,  considerantes in timore sanctam conversationem.  Quarum sit non extrinsecus capillatura aut circumdatio auri aut indumenti vestimentorum cultus; sed qui absconditus est cordis homo in incorruptibilitate quieti et modesti spiritus, qui est in conspectu Dei locuples." Doctor etenim gentium, qui omnia om­nibus factus est, ut omnes lucrifaceret, cunctis clamat mortalibus: " Mulieres in habitu, ornatu, cum verecundia et sobrietate ornantes se non in tortis crinibus, aut auro, aut margaritis, vel veste pretiosa; sed quod decet mulieres promittentes pietatem per opera bona." Utinam perspicuum pectus panderet quanta sit anxietas cordi pavido, pro eo quod oportet dissuadendis tantae perniciei nugacitatibus insistere inter tot salutis negotia, de quibus, nisi per hujuscemodi fatuitates excluderetur, sermo tam necessarius foret habendus ad splendidissimam vestrae pietatis industriam.

Non incassum obsecro, propter Dei vulnera, tela coelestis aemulationis in sancta vibraverim praecordia; confido quod, Divinitate propitia, de caetero penitus in neglectum devenient ob studium honestae maturitatis luxus profusior ornatus perituri tam diutina protractus imperitia. Ignoscatur mihi, obsecro, quia anxior sollicitudo calamum objurgationis asperae, immo salutiferae suasionis, non compescui, cum ignorem utrum in carne morari divinitus concedatur quousque desiderabili sublimitatis vestrae fruar colloquio. Succingo epistolam vel invitus. Esset enim, si daretur opportunitas, super quam plurimis tractu prolixiori sermo protendendus.

Valeat carissima nobilitas vestra. Valeatque comes illustris. Valeat et vestri proles eximia. Valeat quoque digna domus vestra in Christo semper et beatissima Virgine.  

Historical context:

It is not known what prompted this admonition from Adam to Eleanor to be a more submissive wife, but, as Wilkinson points out, Eleanor acted on her own in various matters, perhaps not always in consultation with her husband who may have been put out.  Adam also takes the occasion to chide her for her attention to what he sees as excessive personal adornment.

Printed source:

Adae de Marisco Epistolae, ed. J. S. Brewer (London:  Longman, 1858), Monumenta Franciscana, 2.294-96, ep.159.