A letter from Hildebert of Lavardin (c.1101)

Translated letter:

In your husband’s absence, concern for the county/comital rule weighs more heavily on you. You administer it as a woman and one who does not need the help of a man (1) nor of unsollicited counsels; you have whatever is necessary to govern a realm. Such a combination of good things in a woman is surely the result of grace, not nature. The grace of God heaped up titles/signs to be praised in you for the glory of [your] sex and to temper your power. For you put aside the woman when you cultivate chastity in beauty and you restrain the countess when you preserve clemency in power. The one reconciles man to you, the other the people. From one you acquire reputation, from the other favor. Either good is striking enough in itself and worthy of note, not needing an alien tongue, but clemency receives more praise because it is of benefit to more people. The beautiful protects the self with modesty, but a gentle rule keeps the realm safe. The place of this virtue is among the powerful who rule over others by right of birth or force or the benefit of election. It is not with the people, who have no power to punish. But they hate cruelty from those on high and adore clemency; nature teaches that one is assigned to beasts, the other to men. It is fitting that men be softened by clemency, that beasts be feared for cruelty. Therefore to be cruel is to have commerce with beasts and deny man/humanity. Reason is specific to man, by which he surpasses other animals and yields to God; and reason has no consort with cruelty. It makes its divine dwelling with God and the wise, while cruelty rejoicing in blood moves to the depths. Why therefore should human society be given to cruelty, whose dwelling reason despises so from on high, abandons to such a distance, abjures so constantly, ignores so completely. She has another dwelling, with many others among whom clemency does not hold the last place; just as there is nothing more appropriate to humanity, so there is nothing more glorious in a prince. She should accompany reason as a woman-in-waiting to the mistress of the household softening her severe powers with judgment, interceding for milder spirits, sparing the guilty. Reason presides over all virtues, orders the goals of all, and declares the time for their functions. A compendious chapter of Seneca about clemency keeps watch for princes which is brief without being obscure so it is not tedious for those occupied by great matters to read. Take it up for yourself and having taken it up remember what you learned before from yourself and for yourself. A few examples: “It is the part of mercy to cause some abatement of a sentence that aims at revenge. He who does not remit the punishment of wrong-doing is a wrong-doer. It is a fault to punish a fault in full. He shows himself merciless whose might is his delight.” “It is a shining virtue for a prince to punish less than he might. It is a virtue to be forced by necessity to take vengeance, not to visit it voluntarily. The merciful man when injured savours of something great and godlike.” “A good prince punishes no one without being punished, proscribes no one without suffering. A good prince follows up crime, yet keeps in mind the man whom he is punishing.” “A good prince masters himself, serves his people, esteems lightly the life-blood of no man; if it is an enemy’s yet it is of one who may become a friend; if it is a criminal’s, yet it is a human being’s; whoever it may be, because he could not give it, he considers it a crime to take it away. Therefore its effusion is ever his confusion.”(2) Let these suffice to the docile soul that loves discipline. From which the more diligent may easily see how cruelty hurts while clemency helps the powerful. Fare well.

Original letter:

Absentia mariti (a) laboriosior tibi cura consulalatus incubuit. Eam tamen et femina sic adminiatras, et una, ut nec viro, nec precaris consiliis necesse sit adjuvari. Apud te est quidquid ad regni gubernacula postulatur. Sane tantus bonorum conventus [f. conceatus] in femina, gratiae est, non naturae. Gratia Dei praedicandos tibi titulos cumulavit, quibus et sexui esses ad gloriam, et potestatem temperares. Defers enim feminae, dum colis in pulchritudine castitatem; comitissam reprimis, dum servas in potestate clementiam. Illa tibi virum conciliat, haec populum. Inde nomen acquiris, hinc favorem. Utrumque bonum per se quidem satis insigne est atque conspicuum, nec linguae supplicat alienae. Caeterum clementiae plurimam laudis accedit, quia pluribus prodest. Quippe formosa pudica sibi providet; mitis autem principatus regnum servat incolume. Hujus profecto virtutis locus est apud potentes, qui jure parentum, vel vi, vel electionis beneficio, caeterie principantur. Apud populum vero non ita, cui nulla est potestas puniendi. Ipse antem ex alto crudelitatem detestatur, adorat clementiam, quorum alterum feris, alterum hominibus natura docuit assignandum. Ea sanxit oportere homines mansuescere clementia, timeri feras crudelitate. Igitur crudelem esse, cum feris est habere commercium et hominem diffiteri. Praeterea suum est hominis ratio, qua caetera supergreditur animantia, Deo cedit; atqui rationi nullum est penitus cum crudelitate consortium. Illa cum Deo et cum sapientibus divinam pepigit mansionem; haec ad intima et sanguine gaudentia demigravit. Quae igitur societas homini ad crudelitatem, cujus lares ratio tam superne despicit, tam longe relinquit, tam constanter abjurat, tam penitus ignorat. Aliud habet illa contubernium, atque aliis cohabitatoribus constipatur, inter quos clementia non ultimum possidet locum, qua sicut humanitati nihil est affinius, ita nihil gloriosius in principe. Ea rationem, quasi pedisse qua matrem familias, comitetur oportet, cujus arbitrio severas potestates emolliat, miliores animos advocet, reis parcat. Omnibus enim virtutibus ratio praesidet, omnibus fines ordinat, omnibus suorum tempora denuntiat officiorum. De clementia quoque compendiosa principibus capitula Senecae vigilavit, in quibus ideo brevitatem dilexit non obscuram, ut magnis occupatos legere non taederet. Ea igitur pro te, et ad te suscepta suscipe, atque recordare quae dudum didicisti ex te, et pro te. Pauca ea sunt: “Clementiae est aliquid ultrici detrahere sententiae. Quisquis nihil reatus impunitum relinquit, delinquit. Culpa est totum persequi culpam. Immisericordem profitetur, cui quidquid licet, libet.” Item: “Gloriosa virtus est in principe, citra punire quam liceat. Virtus est ad vindictam necessitate trahi, non voluntate venire. Magnum quid est et divinum sapit, offensus clemens.” Item: “Bonus princeps neminem sine poena punit, neminem sine dolore proscribit. Bonus princeps ita crimen insequitur, ut quem punit, hominem reminiscatur.” Item: “Bonus princeps sibi dominatur, populo servit, nullius sanguinem contemnit; inimici, sed ejus qui amicus fieri potest; nocentis, sed hominis. Cujuscunque sit,quia non potuit dare crimen, putat adferre. Ideo quoties funditur,confunditur.” Suffciunt haec animo docili et amanti disciplinam. Ex quibus diligentiores facile percipient quantum vel crudelitas obsit, vel prosit clementia polestati. Vale.

Historical context:

Hildebert encourages Adela in her regency, urging her to show clemency and recommending Seneca on the subject. From Hildebert, who was bishop of LeMans (1096-1125) and archbishop of Tours (1125-c.1133), three or four letters and one or two poems to Adela survive. They have little to do with the practical details of government, tending more to praise or personal requests.

Scholarly notes:

(1) "Vir" could mean husband, but Hildebert uses "maritum" for husband in another letter to Adela, 3.8, and I take his meaning here to be that she does not need anyone to tell her what to do, though Hildebert gives her some advice anyway. (2) The translation of these quotations from Seneca were taken from the Loeb Classical Library, Seneca Moral Essays, transl. by J.W. Basore, who identifies them as fragments preserved in Hildebert’s letter.

Printed source:

Peter von Moos, Hildebert von Lavardin, 1056-1133 (Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1965), Pariser Historische Studien 3, 341-3; also PL171 ep.1.3 c144-45, only differences a totum where von Moos gives totam and an est which he omits.

Date:

c.1101