A letter from Honorius III, pope (1223)

Translated letter:

Honorius bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Blanche illustrious queen of France, greetings and apostolic blessing. Desires which attend to piety and pertain to the salvation of souls, we are bound to help with a certain hand of solicitude and effectively support with diligent zeal within our ability. Therefore, dearest daughter in Christ, inclined to your honorable requests, which we willingly favor in their faithful and devout purpose, to enter once in your life with ten honorable women into a Cistercian monastery at the time of a general chapter, and to see the convent and the others gathered there, which you assert you desire not a little because of devotion, we grant you free license by the authority of the presents. To no one, therefore, of our grant, etc. If anyone, etc. Dated at the Lateran, 7th kalends of April, in the fifth [seventh] year.

Original letter:

Honorius episcopus, servus servorum Dei, Blanchae illustri reginae Franciae, salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem. Vota, quae pietatem respiciunt, et ad salutem pertinent animarum, quadam manu sollicitudinis juvare tenemur, et pro posse nostro diligenti studio efficaciter promoveri. Eapropter , carissima in Christo filia, tuis honestis supplicationibus inclinati, quam libenter fideli, devotoque in proposito confovemus, intrandi cum decem honestis mulieribus, semel in vita tua, tempore capituli generalis, Cisterciense monasterium, et videndi conventum, et alios congregatos ibidem, quod devotionis causa te non modicum asseris affectare, liberam tibi auctoritate praesentium concedimus facultatem. Nulli ergo nostrae concessionis, etc. Si quis autem, etc. Datum Laterani, VII kal. aprilis, anno quinto [septimo].

Historical context:

The pope agrees to the queen’s request to enter a Cistercian monastery with appropriate ladies once during a chapter meeting. Gregory IX sent the same letter a decade later. The permission is recorded thus in the Regesta Honorii: Blanchae Francorum reginae concedit facultatem intrandi cum decem honestis mulieribus semel in vita sua Cisterciense monasterium et videndi conventum monachosque ibidem congregatos. Laterani VII. Kal. Aprilis anno septimo. “To Blanche, queen of the Franks, he concedes the ability to enter once in her life with ten honorable women [the/a] Cistercian monastery and to see the convent and monks congregated there.”

Printed source:

Horoy, Honorii III Romani Pontificus, Opera Omnia, 4.303, Epistolae book 7, ep.83; summary in RHP, 2.119 #4264.

Date:

1223