Skip to main content

A letter from Ivo of Chartres (1107)

Sender

Ivo of Chartres

Receiver

Adela of England, Countess of Blois

Translated letter:

Ivo, humble minister by the grace of God of the church of Chartres, to Adela, excellent countess, to know the good and do it. We heard that on your orders, you have forbidden to our sons, the canons of St. Mary [Notre Dame] travel [access to roads], bread, water, and all the necessities of this life which are under your authority. What else is this than to condemn to death without a hearing or a trial innocent men who do not bear arms? For hunger and thirst kill just as much as the sword does. What more barbarous edict could barbarous Turks, persecutors of the Christian name, promulgate against the servants of God than to deny them the necessities of life? Wherefore, by admonishing I counsel and by counseling I admonish your nobility that you change the unconsidered rigor of your sentence for the better until there is a hearing and not condemn to death with such a severe sentence those who have not been judged nor convicted. We have tempered our sentence out of love for you, though it is just and established by law; we have not denied even to their persecutors the sacraments of baptism, confession or penance which suffice for the salvation of souls in need. Act therefore so that the glory of the strong woman commended by Wisdom will be broadcast about you throughout our provinces, rather than the cruelty of the perverse woman detested by Chrysostom in Herodias.(1) If you do not wish to acquiesce to my sound and pious admonitions, I enjoin you through the present bearer to name a suitable day for pursuing a just settlement.  I enjoin you by the peace that you swore this year in the hands of the lord pope, and indeed in my hands three years ago.  Meanwhile allow the sons of the church to possess their goods freely according to the agreed terms of the peace. If you spurn all these [admonitions], know for certain that with contrite and humbled hearts, the cathedral church, along with all the churches subject to it, will, before the body and blood of the Lord and the relics of the saints, daily perform a liturgical clamor(2) against all the perpetrators of and assentors to this evil and will invite all neighboring bishops, with the churches subject to them, to do the same. I say these things in sorrow, yet mindful of your honor and reputation, seeking nothing other than that you have justice done according to custom and law and if there is any charge/claim  against the church, you shall have justice. Fare well.

Original letter:

Ivo, humilis Dei gratia Carnotensis ecclesiae minister, Adelae excellenti Comitissae, bene sapere et bene facere. Interdictus est, ut audivimus, praecepto vestro filiis nostris canonicis B. Mariae, exitus viarum, panis et aqua, et omnia huic vitae necessaria quae sunt sub potestate vestra. Quod quid aliud est facere, quam homines innocentes et arma non tenentes sine audientia et sine judicio morti destinare? Ita enim necat fames et sitis, sicut gladius. Quod enim truces Turci, christiani nominis persecutores, possent truculentius edictum in Dei servos promulgare, quam necessaria eis vitae subtrahere. Unde monendo consulo et consulendo moneo nobilitatem vestram, quatinus inconsideratum sententiae vestrae rigorem usque ad audientiam in melius commutetis, et non convictos, non judicatos, tam severa sententia morti addicatis. Nos enim pro amore vestro sententiam nostram, quamvis justam et judicio diffinitam, temperavimus; nec baptismi sacramentum, nec confessionem, nec poenitentiam, quae saluti animarum in necessitate sufficiunt, etiam ipsis persecutoribus denegavimus. Ita ergo vos habetote, ut laus fortis mulieris, quam sapientia commendat, de vobis praedicetur: non crudelitas perversae mulieris, quam in Herodiade Chrysostomus detestatur, per omnes nostras provincias publicetur. Quod si sanis et piis admonitionibus meis acquiescere non vultis, commoneo vos per pacem quam praesenti anno in manu domni Papa, ante autem tertium annum in manu mea promisistis, quatinus diem competentem exsequendae justitiae per praesentium portitorem nobis denominetis, et interim filios ecclesiae, secundum institutum pacis, suis rebus libere potiri permittatis. Quod si haec omnia contempseritis, procul dubio sciatis quia ecclesia corde contrito et humiliato, adscitis sibi omnibus ecclesiis subjectis, quotidie ante corpus et sanguinem Domini, et sanctorum patrocinia, clamorem faciet adversus omnes hujus mali patratores et consentaneos, et ad hoc ipsum ex debito omnes vicinos episcopos cum ecclesiis sibi subjectis invitabit. Dolens haec dico, consulens tamen in hoc honestati et famae vestrae: nihil aliud quaerens nisi ut secundum morem et legem justitiam facitatis, et si qua adversus ecclesiam calumnia est, justitiam habeatis. Valete.

Historical context:

The letter is about yet another jurisdictional dispute, in which Adela has taken punitive action against the canons and Ivo threatens ecclesiastical sanctions unless she rescinds it.  LoPrete notes that Ivo is less conciliatory here than in the earlier 1102-03 dispute.  He refers to the oath Adela swore (by November 23, 1104) to Ivo as part of the formal resolution to that dispute to uphold the peace she had broken.  He also refers to the peace oath she swore to pope Paschal II probably when he visited Chartres in 1107.  See LoPrete, Adela, pp.259-60, 469-70, #50 and 296-97, 477-78, #66.

Scholarly notes:

(1)  LoPrete notes that this is a reference to the widespread Pseudo-Chrysostom sermon on the beheading of John the Baptist, a misogynist rant using Herodias to condemn all (biblical) women as more dangerous than wild beasts and serpents and that "this is the only letter in which Ivo evokes gender-specific exempla for Adela's benefit" (see Adela, p.262, fn .39).

(2) There is a formal liturgy based in part on certain "cursing" psalms used to threaten evil-doers named in litanies with damnation until they amend their ways.  For references, see LoPrete, Adela, 480 #68.

Printed source:

PL162 ep.179 c180-81; also HGF15 ep.110 p.141-42, same text with 2 variations in spelling

Date:

1107, after Easter, April 14