A letter from Ivo of Chartres (c.1091)

Translated letter:

Ivo, by the grace of God humble bishop of Chartres, to Adela, noble countess: to know the right in Christ. The royal blood in your excellence descending from both lines manifestly commends the nobility of your family in the eyes of men. But the probity of your morals and generosity of your hand in giving, as I have learned, surpass this in religious minds. I am, therefore, astonished that with your cousin Adelaide, whom you say you love, you strive with such zeal to defend or hide her adulterous relations with William. You do not look prudently enough to your own salvation or others' nor do you consider how much danger or infamy threatens me over this. For how will the sword of the spirit placed in my mouth dare to strike those far from it who have been polluted by a similar contamination if it will not dare to touch or if it hides those near to it? Will they not say to me from the gospel: First cast the beam from your own eye so that you may see the speck in ours [cf. Matt:7:5]. The apostle forbids me such tolerance with terrible words, saying about the perpetrators of this kind of crime: Those who do such things deserve death, and not only who do them but who consent to the doing [Romans 1:32]. Blessed Ambrose calls those who consent dissimulators or defenders. That is why I ask your highness with all my strength not to be angry with me, since my witness is he to whom the abyss of the human conscience lies bare. It is not my or other's ill will that keeps me from taking hold of this, but only the rigor and love of justice such that if there is no other way, I prefer to incur the ill will of men than to abandon the law of my God. But I will concede to your request only on the condition that both of them swear that they will stay free of carnal intercourse until the case is finished. Otherwise, I must strive with frequent reproaches to call up from the depths of lower hell the four day death that spreads its stench far and wide (John 11:39).

Original letter:

Ivo, Dei gratia, Carnotensium humilis episcopus, Adelae nobili Comitissae, recta in Christo sapere. Regius in excellentia vestra sanguis ex utraque linea descendens, nobilitatem generis in oculis omnium manifeste commendat. Sed hanc apud religiosas mentes morum probitas, et larga ad erogandum manus, quantum didici, vehementer exsuperat. Unde miror qua ratione consobrinam vestram Adalaidem sicut vos ipsam amare dicatis, cujus adulterinos cum Gulielmo complexus vel defendere vel protelare tanto studio laboratis, nec saluti vestrae vel illorum satiscommode providetis, neque quantum periculum vel quanta infamia mihi super hoc immineat aliquatenus praecavetis. Quomodo enim gladius spiritus in ore meo positus ferire audebit longe positos simili contagione pollutos, qui tangere non audebit vel dissimulabit juxta se positos? Nonne dicturi sunt mihi illud evangelicum, Ejice primum trabem de oculo tuo, ut postea videa festucam in nostro? Hanc porro me habere tolerantiam terribiliter Apostolus vetat , de hujusmodi scelerum patratoribus dicens: Quoniam qui talia agunt, digni sunt morte; nec solum qui faciunt, sed etiam qui consentiunt facientibus. Consentientes autem B. Ambrosius dissimulantes vocat, vel defendentes. Qua de re obnixe peto, ut non indiguetur adversum me vestra sublimitas, quoniam testis mihi est ille cui nuda est abyssus humanae conscientiae, me hoc non arripuisse causa malivolentiae meae vel alienae, sed solo rigore et amore justitiae: in tantum ut, si aliter fieri non possit, malim hominum incurrere malivolentiam, quam legem Dei mei derelinquere. Quadam autem conditione condescendam petitioni vestrae, si uterque juraverit quod ante finitam causam a carnali conjunctione se immunes custodiant: alioquin satagendum est mihi, ut mortuum jam quatriduanum longe lateque foetentem crebra admonitione de inferno inferiori valeam evocare. Valete.

Historical context:

Adela had asked Ivo to intervene to help, perhaps to legitimate the adulterous union between her cousin Adelaide and William [of Breteuil]. This was a very awkward request for Ivo because he had taken such a strong stand against the adultery of the king of France, Philip, and Bertrada of Montfort, for which he had been imprisoned by a supporter of the king. LoPrete identifies this Adelaide as most likely Adeliza, the daughter of Judith (mentioned by Orderic Vitalis), herself the daughter of Adela's paternal aunt Adelaide, sister of William the Conqueror; she suggests that Adela had political reasons to want the son of her cousin's union legitimated, and he did become a supporter of Adela's brother ('Adela and Ivo,' 135-36).  Adeliza subsequently married Raoul III of Tosny.*

Scholarly notes:

* See LoPrete, Adela, 235-36 and 462 #37.

Printed source:

Jean Leclerq, Yves de Chartres: Correspondance (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1949), ep.5, pp14, 16; also in PL 162, ep.5 c15, and HGF 15, ep.1 p.70.

Date:

c.1091