68. To Muriardachus, King of Ireland

To Muriardachus by the grace of God illustrious King of Ireland, Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, sends greeting and his prayers, and may the mercy of God ever guide and protect him.

I give thanks to God for the many good things I hear of your highness. Among which is this, that you cause the people of your realm to live in such peace as that all good men who hear of it give thanks to God and desire for you a long life. For where there is peace, it is possible for all the well-disposed to do what they choose without being disturbed by the bad. Wherefore your highness, by whom God has done these things, may most certainly look for great reward from Him. Upon this foundation of peace it is easy to build the other things which are required by the religion of the Church. I therefore pray for the permanence of your good dispositions, that you may examine where there are any things in your kingdom which need alteration, on account of the reward of eternal life; and for the continual increase of God's grace in you, so that you may earnestly seek, God helping you, to amend them. For nothing which can be corrected should be thought trifling, since God sets down to the account of all not only the evil they do, but likewise the evils they do not correct when they can. And the more powerful those who ought to correct them may be, the more strictly will God require of them in proportion to the power mercifully entrusted to them, that they should will and act rightly. Which seems chiefly to apply to kings, since they are known to have the chief power among men and that which is the least opposed. But if you cannot do everything at once, you ought not on this account to give up trying to go on from good things to better, since God is wont graciously to perfect good intentions and good efforts, and to requite them with perfect bliss. I hear that marriages are dissolved and rearranged most irregularly in your kingdom, and that those nearly related to each other scruple not against the canonical prohibition to live together, either under the name of wedlock or in some other fashion, and this they do openly, without incurring any censure. Also, the bishops who ought to be the pattern and example of canonic rule to others, are, so I hear, consecrated irregularly either by a single bishop or in places where they should not be ordained. These, and other things which the greatness of your wisdom shall perceive to need correction in Ireland, I beg, adjure, and advise you, as one whom I greatly love, and whose progress in all ways I long for, to seek to correct in your kingdom according to the advice of good and wise men; and I pray God that you may go from your earthly kingdom to the heavenly kingdom. Amen.