30. To Roger, Robert, and other Abbots

Anselm, by the grace of God archbishop of Canter bury, to Roger, abbot, and Robert, son of Count Hugo, and other monks of the monastery of St Ebrulf.

It is very well known, nor can it by any means be concealed, how you broke into the monastery of St Edmund, and by what violence you sought to control the election by the brethren of that church and compel their consent to your disorderly will. How irreligiously, how against the monkish vow, and against the rule of St Benedict which you professed, and contrary to Holy Scripture, which says, "No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God," and how directly against God Himself you are acting in this, may God Himself see, who discerns between the shepherd and the ravening wolf. I cannot indeed prevent my lord the king from appointing you over the lands; but over the souls for whose behoof an abbot is chosen and appointed none but those to whom God has given the power of binding and loosing can place any one. That Church is in my primacy and archbishopric, and the consecrations therein belong of right to the archbishop of Canterbury, whom, as you are well aware, I am. Then, of those rights which belong to me I have never yielded, nor do I yield, a single one to you; but rather I pray God, and I will strive so far as, God helping me, I am able, that God may turn the heart of my lord the king to that which best pleaseth God, and is good for his soul; and that God may make him alter his heart according to God's will if so be he doeth aught against it. You are Christians under the Christian law, and you profess to live according to the monastic profession. If you act contrary to that, you plainly confess that you are neither Christians nor monks. I warn you therefore, as Christians and monks, to prove that you fear God more than man, and steadily to desist from the wickedness you have entered upon. If you choose to resist God rather than men, I warn you, God will resist your souls: God, to whom is said "the poor committeth himself unto Thee," will Himself see, and perceive if henceforth you cause any sufferings to the brethren of that Church.