A letter from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (1106-09)

Translated letter:

Anselm, the archbishop, to his dearest friend and son Robert and to his most beloved sisters and daughters Seit, Edit, Thydit, Lwerun, Dirgit and Godit, sending the greeting and blessing of God, and his own, if it is worth anything. I rejoice and give thanks to God for the holy intention and holy way of life you are leading together in the love of God and in holiness of life, as I have learned through our brother and son, William. Your love, dear to me, dearest daughters, requests that I should send you some admonition to teach and inflame you towards leading a good life, although you have with you our beloved son Robert, whom God has inspired to take care of you according to the will of God, and to teach you daily by word and example how you ought to live. Yet since I ought to support your holy petition if I can, I shall try to write you a few words to satisfy your desire. My dearest daughters, every action, whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, earns praise or blame according to the intention behind it. For the root and principle of all actions that are in our own power lie in the will, and even if we cannot do what we wish, yet each of us is judged before God according to his will. Do not therefore consider only what you do but what you intend to do; not so much what your deeds may be but what your intention is. For every action which is done rightly, that is to say with a just intention, is right, and whatever is done without a right intention is not right. The man with a just intention is called just, one with an unjust intention is called unjust. Therefore, if you wish to live a good life, continually keep watch over your will in both great and small things, in those things subject to your power and in those over which you have no control, so that your will may not deviate from righteousness in any way. If you wish to know whether your intention is right: what is subject to the will of God is certainly right. Whenever you plan or think of doing anything great or small, speak thus in your hearts: "Does God want me to want this or not?" If your conscience answers: "Yes, God does want me to want this and such an intention pleases him," then whether you are able to do what you want or not, cherish that intention. If, however, your conscience tells you that God does not want you to have that intention, then turn your heart away from it with all your might. If you want to drive it completely away from you, exclude the memory and thought of it from your heart as far as you can. Consider and observe the modest advice I give you about how to exclude a bad intention or a bad thought from yourselves. Do not struggle with wicked thoughts or with a wicked intention, but when they molest you do your utmost to occupy your mind with some useful thought and intention until they disappear. For no thought or intention is ever driven out of your heart except by some other thought or intention which does not agree with it. Therefore, be so disposed towards useless thoughts and intentions that by attending with all your might to profitable ones your mind may refuse to remember them or to take any notice of them. When you wish to pray or to engage in any good meditation, if thoughts which you ought not to entertain irritate you, never wish to give up the good you have started because of their irritation lest their instigator, the devil, may rejoice because he made you give up the good beginning, but overcome them by despising them in the way I have described. Do not grieve or be sad because they molest you, as long as by despising them, as I said, you do not submit to them, lest in a moment of sadness they return to your memory and renew their irritation. For it is customary with the human mind that whatever delights or saddens it returns to memory more frequently than whatever it feels or thinks ought to be ignored. A person zealous in the pursuit of a holy intention should behave in the same way in the face of any unbecoming emotion of the body or the soul, such as the "sting in the flesh" [2Cor.12:7] of anger or envy or vainglory. For such feelings are most easily quenched when we refuse to indulge in them or to think about them or to carry out anything at their suggestion. Do not fear that such emotions or thoughts will be imputed to you as sin as long as your intention does not associate itself with them on any account, because there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh" [Rom.8:1]. For to walk according to the flesh is to give in to the will of the flesh. The Apostle, however, calls every vicious emotion in soul or body "flesh" when he says: "The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh" [Gal.5:17]. We easily quench such suggestions if, according to the advice given above, we crush them when they first start. But it is difficult to do so once we have admitted their heads into our minds. I give you as much thanks as I can, dearest friend and son Robert, for the care and love you bestow on these handmaidens of God for God's sake, and I beseech you with my whole heart to persevere in this holy and pious intention. You can be certain that a great reward from God awaits you for this holy zeal. May almighty God always be the guardian of your whole lives. Amen. May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sins, make you always progress towards the better in humility and never fail.

Original letter:

Anselmus archiepiscopus: amico et filio carissimo Roberto et sororibus et filiabus suis dilectissimis Seit, Edit, Thydit, Lwerun, Dirgit, Godit salutem et benedictionem dei et suam, si quid valet. Gaudeo et gratias ago deo de sancto proposito et sancta conversatione, quam invicem habetis in dilectione dei et vitae sanctitate, sicut didici per fratrem et filium nostrum Willelmum. Poscit vestra cara mihi dilectio, filiae carissimae, ut aliquam vobis scribam admonitionem, quae vos doceat et accendat ad bene vivendum, quamvis vobiscum habeatis dilectum filium nostrum Robertum, cui deus inspiravit ut vestri curam secundum deum habeat, et vos cotidie, qualiter vivere debeatis, verbo et exemplo edoceat. Quoniam tamen sanctae petitioni vestrae, si quid possum, favere debeo, pauca vobis vestro competentia desiderio scribere tentabo. Filiae carissimae, omnis actio laudabilis sive reprehensibilis ex voluntate habet laudem vel reprehensionem. Ex voluntate namque est radix et principium omnium actionum, quae sunt in nostra potestate; et si non possumus quod volumus, iudicatur tamen coram deo unusquisque de propria voluntate. Nolite igitur considerare tantum quid faciatis, sed quid velitis; non tantum quae sint opera vestra, quantum quae sit voluntas vestra. Omnis enim actio quae fit recta, id est iusta voluntate, recta est; et quae fit non recta voluntate, recta non est. Iusta voluntate dicitur homo iustus; et iniusta voluntate dicitur iniustus. Si ergo bene vultis vivere, voluntatem vestram indesinenter custodite, in magni et in minimis, in iis quae potestati vestrae subiacent et in iis quae non potestis, ne aliquatenus a rectitudine declinet. Si autem vultis cognoscere quae vestra voluntas sit recta: illa pro certo est recta, quae subiacet voluntati dei. Cum ergo aliquid magnum vel parvum facere disponitis vel cogitatis, ita dicite in cordibus vestris: Vult deus ut hoc velim, an non? Si vobis respondet conscientia vestra: vere vult deus ut hoc velim, et placet illi talis voluntas: tunc, sive possitis sive non possitis quod vultis, voluntatem tamen amate. Si autem conscientia vestra vobis testatur quia deus non vult vos illam habere voluntatem: tunc toto conatu avertite ab illa cor vestrum; et si bene illam a vobis vultis expellere, in quantum potestis, eius cogitationem et memoriam a corde excludite. Quomodo autem pravam voluntatem aut pravam cogitationem a vobis excludatis, hoc parvum consilium quod vobis do, intelligite et tenete: Nolite litigare cum perversis cogitationibus vel perversa voluntate; sed cum vobis infestae sunt, aliqua utili cogitatione et voluntate mentem vestram, donec illae evanescant, fortiter occupate. Numquam enim expellitur de corde cogitatio vel voluntas, nisi alia cogitatione et alia voluntate, quae illis non concordat. Sic igitur vos habete ad inutiles cogitationes et voluntates, ut toto nisu intendendo ad utiles, mens vestra dedignetur eas saltem recordari vel aspicere. Cum autem vultis orare aut aliquam bonam meditationem intendere: si vobis tunc importunae sunt cogitationes quas non debetis suscipere, numquam propter illarum importunitatem bonum quod incepistis velitis dimittere, ne instigator illarum, diabolus, gaudeat quia vos a bono incepto facit deficere; sed eo quem dixi modo illas contemnendo superate. Neque doleatis neque contristemini de illarum infestatione, quamdiu illas, sicut dixi, contemnendo nullum eis assensum praebetis, ne occasione tristitiae iterum redeant ad memoriam et suam importunitatem resuscitent. Hanc enim habet mens hominis consuetudinem, ut hoc unde delectatur aut contristatur, saepius ad memoriam redeat, quam hoc quod negligendum sentit aut cogitat. Similiter se debet habere persona in sancto proposito studiosa in quolibet motu indecente in corpore vel anima, sicuti est stimulus carnis aut irae aut invidiae aut inanis gloriae. Tunc enim facillime exstinguuntur, cum et illos velle sentire, aut de illis cogitare, aut aliquid illorum suasione facere dedignamur. Neque timeatis quod huiusmodi motus vel cogitationes vobis ad peccatum imputentur, si nullatenus voluntas vestra illis se associat, quoniam "nihil damnationis est iis, qui sunt in Christo Jesu, qui non secundum carnem ambulant." Secundum carnem enim ambulare est: carni voluntate concordare. "Carnem" autem vocat apostolus omnem vitiosum motum in anima vel corpore, cum dicit: "caro concupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus autem adversus carnem." Facile quidem huiusmodi suggestiones exstinguimus, si principium earum secundum praedictum consilium conterimus. Difficile vero, postquam caput earum intra mentem admittimus. Tibi, amice et fili carissime Roberte, gratias quantum possum ago pro cura et dilectione, quas erga easdem ancillas dei propter deum habes, et precor toto affectu, ut in hac sancta et pia voluntate perseveres. Certus enim potes esse, quia magna te pro hoc sancto studio apud deum retributio exspectat. Omnipotens deus sit semper custos totius vitae vestrae. Amen. Absolutionem et remissionem omnium peccatorum vestrorum tribuat vobis omnipotens et misericors dominus, et semper ad meliora cum humilitate faciat vos proficere et numquam deficere.

Historical context:

In this letter, the translator Walter Froehlich comments, Anselm "emphasizes the importance of will and intention in leading a holy life, a concept later developed by Abelard." The judge of the woman's intentions is her individual conscience. Anselm sent at least one other letter to this small religious community of noble Anglo-Saxon women a few years earlier, ep.230.

Printed source:

Sancti Anselmi Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, Opera Omnia, ed. F.S. Schmitt (Edinburgh: T. Nelson, 1946-63), ep.414, 4.359-62; translation and annotation from The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, trans. Walter Frohlich, Cistercian Studies 97, 3v (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1990-1994), 2.184-87.  Cistercian Publications Inc. Editorial Offices, Institute of Cistercian Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. All rights are reserved; downloading and copying for any purpose other than private research is prohibited.

Date:

1106-09