21. To Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons

Brother Anselm, called either by command or per mission of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his lord and dearest friend, the honoured Archbishop Hugh: mayest thou long shine in this life, and ever rejoice in the next.

If all things are to be done with prudence, those are chiefly to be carried out with wisdom wherein the only point in question is how the will of God shall be obeyed. I beseech therefore your holiness, that for God's sake, and for the love I know you bear me, you would seek counsel of God and impart it to me. To speak briefly: I think you will have heard how suddenly I was raised to the archiepiscopate. Before I gave my consent, I had plainly said that I favoured the Lord Pope Urban, and was against Guibert; and for six months I did and said all I could without sin in order to be dismissed. But being, however, on many accounts constrained by the fear of God, I yielded me sorrowfully at the command of my archbishop and to the election of the whole of England, and was consecrated; perchance I trembled with fear where no fear was; but I could not tell; God knows, and I cannot yet be sure. Soon after, our king intending to set out for Normandy, was in need of much money. Before he had asked me for anything, by the advice of friends I promised him no small sum: God knows with what intention. He rejected it as too little, that I might give more; but I would not. Thanks be to God, who pitying the simplicity of my heart, caused it to happen thus, lest, if I had promised nothing or little, there might have seemed a just cause for anger; or if he had accepted it, it might have been turned into an accusation against me and a suspicion of nefarious purchase. From that time he has appeared to seek opportunities against me. I spoke about the pallium; he would not let me fetch it so long as he had acknowledged no pope; nor even allow me to give notice to the lord pope of this excuse for delay. I have held out until now by the advice of the bishops in order to avoid useless variance, if perchance God might cause some thing to happen in the meantime which should induce him to accept the lord pope. I begged that a council might be summoned, which had not been done in England for many years, in order that some things in that kingdom which seemed on no account endurable might be altered. I also warned him to correct some things which he seemed to me to be doing wrongly: openly enraged on these accounts, he told me I had lost his affection. I answered that I would rather he were offended with me, than God with him; and with that I left his presence. The next day, returning to him, I said I would gladly give him satisfaction, if he could find in me any fault against him (of which how ever I was myself unaware), and I begged him to give me back his affection. He replied that he would not then either accept satisfaction, or give me back his favour, unless I would tell him what reason there was for his restoring me to it. I saw that he wanted the money, which I would not give, lest I should seem to be acknowledging a fault which did not exist. Then he got so angry that he spoke as he ought not; and some considerable lands, which Archbishop Lanfranc had held in his father's time and that of this king undisturbed up to the day of his death, in part he gave, and in part is preparing to give, to his soldiers, under some pretext of military tenure, according to which he wills me to cede these lands: whereas I say that he has no right to compel me to cede lands which the archbishop my predecessor held so long peacefully, and which he himself gave to me on the same terms on which that other held them.

Now this is what I spoke of as military tenure. Because, before the Normans invaded England, those lands are said to have been held by English soldiers under the Archbishop of Canterbury, and these soldiers died without heirs, he, the king, wants to assert that he can constitute as their heirs exactly whom he will. Now your wisdom shall hear what I think about the foregoing, so that in your letter you may either approve of my opinion, or refute it, giving your reason: and strengthen me in that which the rather ought to be held to. But this is what I think: The king gave me the archbishopric as Archbishop Lanfranc had held it until the end of his life; and now he takes from the Church and from me that which the Church and that very archbishop so long held in peace, and which he himself gave to me. Now I am very sure that this archbishopric will be given to no one after me otherwise than as I shall hold it at the day of my death; nor, should any other king succeed in my life-time, will he grant it to me otherwise than as he shall find me holding it. Therefore if until my death I shall have held the archbishopric impaired, in that way the Church would lose through me. If indeed it were some other person, to whom appertained not the guardianship of the Church, who did her this injury or patiently put up with it when it had been already done, it is plain enough that in the future no objection could be taken to the possessions of the Church being restored to her. But now, since the king is his own advocate, and I the guardian, what will be said in future but that since the king did it, and the arch bishop by consenting confirmed it, it ought to be valid. It is therefore better for me in God's sight that I should not thus hold possession of the lands of the Church, but being, after the fashion of the apostles, poor, should do the office of a bishop as a witness to the violence done, than that by retaining that possession diminished, I should render that diminution irreparable. And, there is another thing which I think also. If, being consecrated bishop metropolitan, I do not for a whole year demand a reigning pope, nor the pall, when I can do so, I ought rightly to be removed from the honour. If I cannot effect these without losing the archbishopric, it is better for me that it should be forcibly taken from me; better indeed is it that I should reject the arch bishopric than be false to the apostolic see. Thus I think, and thus I shall act, unless you write to me to say why I ought not so to act. May Almighty God so guard your sanctity by His grace in this life, that happiness may be your lot in the life that is to be. Amen.