A letter from Lambert, bishop of Arras (1096-1100)

Translated letter:

Lambert, bishop of Arras by the mercy of God, to his honorable lady Clementia, countess of Flanders, greetings and service with prayers. We wish your nobility to know that certain parishioners of ours, pilgrims on their way from Rome, crossed all the foreign lands without incident; but when they came to your land, they were robbed by your provost G. at Bapaume. We, wishing to carry out the office that pertains to us, ordered him to give back either freely or by surety what he had unjustly taken in the peace. When he refused to do that, we excommunicated him from the lord's supper. Now, however, we beseech your mercy that you deal with the man according to this peace and have their things restored to the pilgrims. If they are not restored, unable to change the statutes of peace we shall put the whole city in which this crime and many other crimes have occurred under ban. Farewell.

Original letter:

Lambertus, Dei miseratione Atrebatensis episcopus, honorabili dominae suae Clementiae Flandrensium Comitissae salutem et obsequium cum orationibus. Nobilitati vestrae notum fieri volumus quosdam peregrinos parochianos nostros, Roma venientes, omnes extraneas terras quiete transisse: tandem in vestra terra pervenientes a praeposito vestro G. apud Batpalmas depraedati sunt. Nos vero ministerium quod ad nos pertinet facere volentes, mandavimus ei ut libere vel per fidejussorem, quod injuste in pace abstulerat, redderet. Illum hoc facere renuentem in coena Domini excommunicavimus. Nunc autem misericordiam vestram exoramus, ut secundum pacem istiusmodi hominem tractetis, et peregrinis sua reddi faciatis. Quod si redditum non fuerit, nos statuta pacis mutare non valentes, totum castrum, in quo hoc facinus et alia multa facinora acta sunt, in bannum mittemus. Vale.

Historical context:

The bishop complains that pilgrims have been assaulted by her provost in Bapaume. He has excommunicated the provost who refused to return what he had taken and asks her to intervene to avoid his extending the ban to the whole city.

Printed source:

HGF 15, p.183, ep.12/31, PL162 c.659, ep.31; text same except for fidejussorem/fidejussionem. Also in Le Registre de Lambert Évêque d’Arras (1093-1115), ed Claire Giordanengo (Paris: CNRS, 2007), E.30.

Date:

1096-1100