43. To Gondulph, Archbishop

Anselm, archbishop, to the reverend Bishop Gondulph, greeting.

I hear that our lord the king is demanding from the prior and monks of our church money which they neither have nor can have, since, as I am told, they owe no small sum to their creditors and are in great straits for want of the bare necessaries of life. Even for the work taken in hand by the Church they are unable to collect half of what I had estimated would be wanted; and if they had it, the king ought not to exact anything from them, to whom as monks nothing belongs, not even their own selves, nor have they any right to give or lend anything which is not their own. Wherefore I command and beg you with entreaties to persuade the king to give orders that all our possessions shall remain quietly undisturbed until I come back, as he promised; for if God grant me a prosperous return I will do the king service as I proposed and as I owe to my lord and king. If he shall do this, I will give thanks to God, and to him; but if he will not hear my prayers, and chooses to do aught I would complain of, then — let him do, as lord, what shall please him; but he will not to my mind be doing what he ought. For I and the monks are not divided; all things which are arranged for their service belong to me and are under my government; and if they are in want I am bound to expend on their need whatever I have got. Thence since each temporal misfortune affects my spirit in its own peculiar way and degree, the very fact that this afflicts them touches my heart more deeply; and you know that I ought not to give my consent to so unusual and unheard-of a proceeding: and since I ought not, therefore I dare not, suffer money to be extorted from monks and their prior: hence it is not advisable for me or anyone that this custom should be by any agreement introduced into the Church of God.