80. To G., Canon of St Quintin

Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his beloved brother and friend G., Canon of St Quintin: greeting, and may God ever guide you by His wisdom.

I hear that your fellow-brethren of B., canons of the church of St Quintin, wish, not inconsiderately, but for many reasons, to remove the Lord O., who is at present your abbot, from that dignity, and to substitute your fraternity in his place, but they fear lest your devout self should not easily consent to their intention, on account of your love for the peace you at present enjoy. Since therefore they know that you love my individual self; and hope you will believe in my advice rather than in that of anyone else, they beg me to lay before your charity what I think about it. Now if in the body of Christ we are members one of another, and it is specially so in a congregation of religious; if anyone will not allow the other members, and yet more, the whole body, to make use of him as a member, I do not see how he can prove himself a member of that body; and if that body be the body of Christ, how he can show himself to be a member of Christ. And there is another thing; that no one who acts rightly wishes to live for himself alone; but exactly as he desires and believes that if he is a member of God all the advan tages of other members will be his in a future life, so ought he to will that if there be aught of good in him it should belong to others in this present life. Therefore, so far as I may, I advise, and pray you, son, brother, and dearest friend, that if the whole, or the greater part, of your community, with the approval of the reverend bishops of Carnotes and Paris who were your nursing fathers, should pressingly elect you to what I named above, by no means to shun it or stand out against persuasion. I even consider it better for you lovingly to preserve in your mind the peace of contemplation while actively fulfiling the work of brotherly charity, than if despising others' prayers and their need you were to choose contemplation alone. Farewell.