A letter from Hildebert of Lavardin (c.1120?)

Translated letter:

From what I hear about you my spirit rejoices and exults; for I hear that you have been led to the path of God’s commands and run unobstructed to the land of the living. I also hear that from rich [you have become] poor in spirit, from a most brilliant countess surrounded by troops of followers, a humble nun and like the most abject handmaid you provide what is necessary to the other daughters of Christ who serve the Lord with you and serve most obligingly. This change is indeed a change to the right, the Highest. In it, it is necessary that you give attention to that [word] of the wise man: “Son, as you approach the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation” (Eccli.2:1). To which service I do not doubt that you have certainly acceded, since you came to the service of Christ through prudence/wisdom. Indeed it was wisdom that you chose “to be abject in the house of God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners” (Ps.83:2). You would err, however, if you thought that among the temptations that will emerge your choice is safe and can be consumed without serious conflict. In it, indeed, adverse forces will attack your spirit, the prosperous will agitate, elation will fatigue. Against this sort of opposition, it is necessary that you fight so the enemies who have attacked a woman find a man. Because you might think otherwise that you could do little except the good to which you bound yourself in wisdom, you might obtain through fortitude against harm, through temperance in good fortune, through humility in things done rightly. Israel was broken by adversities in the desert; by the burning of thirst and the lack of food, it grumbled against Moses; in divine afflictions it prefers Egyptian servitude. Since therefore fortitude perished in them, they are read to have perished through serpents. Again the people sits to eat and drink in the land of Madian; here it rises to play, swollen with gluttony and drunkenness (Exod.32). Whence it happened that twenty three thousand of them fell in one day, devoured by swords in punishment of intemperance. You see, therefore, o daughter of Jesus Christ, with how much solicitude it must be guarded, and fortitude in harm, and temperance in good fortune. Indeed, contempt of the world needs both, if one is lacking whatever is chosen in wisdom is empty. You would err, however, if you thought having adopted these your purpose was safe; if navigating in this great and spacious sea, you believe you have reached the harbor. Let humility remain which, that you might receive the awaited reward, it is necessary to add to the others. That course is consummated by humility, by which it is crossed from sands to true sufficiency, ascended from muddy homes to heavenly mansions, reverted from a [temporary] dwelling to the fatherland. If you don’t know what this course is, read Augustine, writing in these words to Macedonium: “Virtue in this life is nothing but loving what should be loved; fortitude is to be turned away by no harms, temperance by nothing illicit, justice by no pride.” Humility in this place is understood by the name of justice, as the consummation of the others and the enclosed place/perfection of virtues. Whence the Lord says to his disciples: “Learn from me that I am mild and humble of heart and you will find rest in your souls” (Matth.11:29). Now Peter and Andrew left the boat and the nets. Now John offered the sacrifice of virginity. Now Matthew gave up the toll-gathering. Now the other apostles said: “Lord, behold we have left everything and followed you: what will become of us/what will we have?” (Matth.19:27). Pay attention to why the enemies of the flesh and the world are invited to humility; what they needed for the fullness of perfection who followed Christ, having left everything but Christ. It is a great treasure, it needs great care; for the thief is anxious to dig up, to steal, to carry it off. It was a precious and inestimable treasure for the apostles, that grace of redemption and the divine talk of it. It was a treasure for them, nothing to be got from it except to hate vice and embrace virtue. It was a treasure for them to advance in heavenly love daily by its miracles and examples. It was suitable for humility to be the guardian of this treasure and by its watchmen achieve the removal of pride, which where that could not subsist, it allows someone to come with difficulty. Indeed when that sign of the similitude of God had arisen, he rushed from the heavenly height to the lower parts of earth. It was a certain prerogative of beatitude for his father to be more expressly similar to the creator. Truly how much higher he was in position, so much lower is he made in power and glory. For indeed the glory which he had from grace pride lost which envies all; the lower however he achieved by no merits. For those who spontaneously follow him to the depths are many, because he draws many by various temptations. In those, however, whose face is looking to the city to which he will not return who has left, so much envy is burned that it would be little to them to have inflicted death by which the body, not the soul, dies, unless he inflicts that by which body and soul die. Thus it is that he never ceases to oppose them, completely in that as they look at the sulphur and fire of Sodom with Lot’s wife, they do not think of Joseph’s tunic, and they cease to sacrifice the end of the host. But he fights over everything with passion/pride, by which alone he knows himself to be conquered as he believes with that alone he can conquer everyone. You, therefore, remember to embrace humility, knowing that there is nothing by which to triumph more gloriously over Satan. Oppose his darts with the shield of humility, because if he finds it impenetrable, he will be confounded and will stop persecuting you. Whence Bede on Luke: “With every temptation of Christ exhausted, the devil receded from him at that time.” You see that devil stubborn in zeal, so that he does not stop envying the shoot of the true church in virtue, yet he fears just things since that rises more frequently to triumph.

Original letter:

Quoties quae circa te aguntur audio, laetatur et exsultat spiritus meus; audio enim te deduci in semitam mandatorum Dei, et ad terram viventium inoffenso currere vestigio. Audio etiam de locuplete pauperem spiritu, de splendidissima et constipata cuneis obsequentium comitissa, humilem monacham, atque ad instar abjectioris ancillulae, caeteris filiabus Christi, quae tecum Domino serviunt, et providere quod necessarium est, et officiosissime famulari. Sane haec mutatio, mutatio dexterae, Excelsi. In ea necesse est ut illud sapientis attendas: “Fili, accedens ad servitutem Dei praepara animam tuam ad tentationem” (Eccli. II, i). Ad quam profecto servitutem te accessisse non dubito, cum ad Christi servitium per prudentiam accessisti. Prudentia siquidem fuit quod elegisti “abjecta esse in domo Dei, magis quam habitare in tabernaculis peccatorum” (Ps. LXXXIII, ii). Falleris autem, si inter emersuras tentationes, tutam putas electionem tuam, et eam sine gravi certamine consummandam. In ea siquidem spiritum tuum adversa pulsabunt, prospera concutient, elatio fatigabit. Adversus hujusmodi necesse est ita dimices ut hostes mulierem aggressi, virum inveniant. Quod aliter minime fieri putes posse, nisi bonum, cui te per prudentiam obligasti, per fortitudinem in molestiis obtineas, in secundis per temperantiam, in recte gestis per humilitatem, Israel adversitatibus in deserto frangitur; ardore sitis et defectu mensae circa Moysen murmurat; divinis miserationibus AEgyptiaecam praefert servitutem. Quia igitur in eis fortitudo periit, a serpentibus ipsi periisse leguntur. Idem quoque populus in terra Madian manducare sedit et bibere; dehinc ut ludat surgit, distentus crapula et ebrietate, fornicatur (Exod. XXXII). Unde factum est ut viginti tria millia eorum in una die caderent, gladiis in ultionem intemperantiae devorati. Vides ergo O filia Christi Jesu, quanta sollicitudine custodienda sit, et in molestiis fortitudo, et temperantia in secundis. Siquidem utroque mundi contemptus eget, quorum si desit alterum, quidquid per prudentiam eligitur, inanescit. Falleris autem si talia haec adepta, tutum jam putas propositum tuum; si navigans in hoc magno mari et spatioso, portum te credis attigisse. Restat enim humilitas, quam ut repositum accipias bravium, reliquis necesse est adjungi. Humilitate cursus ille consummatur, quo de aerumnis ad veram transitur sufficientiam, de luteis domibus ad coelestes ascenditur mansiones, de incolatu ad patriam remeatur. Si nescis quis iste cursus sit, Augustinum lege, his ad Macedonium scribentem verbis: “Virtus in hac vita nihil aliud est quam diligere quod diligendum est; nullis inde averti molestiis, fortitudo est; nullis illecebris, temperantia est; nulla superbia, justitia est.” Humilitas hoc in loco, nomine intelligitur justitiae, tanquam caeterarum consummatio et clausula virtutum. Unde et discipulis suis Dominus ait: “Discite a me quia milis sum et humilis corde, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris” (Matth. XI, 29). Jam Petrus et Andreas naviculam et retia dimiserant. Jam Joannes virginitatis obtulerat holocaustum. Jam telonearium Matthaeus deposuerat. Jam caeteri dixerant apostoli: “Domine, ecce nos reliquimus omnia et secuti sumus te: quid ergo erit nobis?” (Matth. XIX, 27). Attende cur ad humilitatem invitantur carnis hostes et mundi. Attende quo egebant ad perfectionis plenitudinem, jam secuti Christum, relictis omnibus praeter Christum. Magnus thesaurus, magna eget custodia; fur enim sollicitus est ut effodiat, ut furetur, ut traducat. Erat apostolis pretiosus et inaestimabilis thesaurus, ipsa redemptionis gratia et divinum ejus colloquium. Erat eis thesaurus nihil ab eo edoceri, nisi odisse vitium et amplecti virtutem. Erat eis thesaurus, in amorem coelestium quotidie miraculis ejus proficere et exemplis. Huius thesauri custodem oportuit esse humilitatem, et ejus excubiis accessum superbiae amoveri, quae ubi ipsa subsistere non potuit, aegre sustinet aliquem pervenire. Ea siquidem orta signaculo similitudinis Dei, in inferiores partes terrae de coelesti sublimitate corruit. Patri ejus quaedam erat praerogativa beatitudinis, expressius esse similem Creatori. Verum quanto fuit conditione sublimior, tanto factus est potentia inferior et gloria. Gloriam vero quam ex gratia habuit, et quam omnibus invidet, amisit superbia; inferos autem nulli quos meritis est adeptus. Ad inferos enim qui eum sponte sequuntur, multi sunt, eo quod plures multimodis tentationibus ipse trahit. In illos autem, quorum facies est spectantis ad civitatem de qua ipse non rediturus exivit, tanta uritur invidia, ut ei parum sit illis inflixisse mortem, qua corpus, non anima, moritur, nisi infligat et illam qua corpus et anima moriuntur. Hinc est quod eis nunquam cessat adversari, totus in hoc, ut cum uxore Lot ad sulphur et ignem Sodomae respiciant, tunicam Joseph non attendant,et hostiae caudam immolare desistant. Porro super omnia elatione pugnat, qua sola sicut se novit superatum, sic universos eadem sola credit posse superari. Tu igitur humilitatem amplecti memineris, sciens nihil esse quo gloriosius de Satana triumphetur. Illius jaculis scutum humilitatis oppone, quod si ipse invenerit impenetrabile, confundetur, et te persequi desistet. Unde et Beda super Lucam sit: “Consummata omni tentatione Christi, diabolus recessit ab illo usque ad tempus.” Vides ipsum diabolum in studio pertinacem, ut verae virtuti Ecclesiae sobolem invidere non desinat, tamen justa formidat, quia frequentius resurgit triumphari.

Historical context:

Hildebert praises Adela for taking the veil and exhorts her to the virtues necessary to salvation. This letter is included because it is likely that Adela is the A addressed (see von Moos, Hildebert, 324).

Printed source:

PL171 ep.1.4, c145-48

Date:

c.1120?