85. To Richard, a Monk

Anselm, by the grace of God archbishop, to his dearest brother and son, Richard, monk of Bec, greeting, and the blessing of God.

When you know how much I love you, you ought not entirely to despise my advice and injunctions, and by thus despising them vex me and the abbot to whose care I commended you. Now I have so often warned, advised, and enjoined you to moderate your indiscreet abstinences and bodily austerities according to the command of the aforesaid abbot; you have so often promised to obey my will and his in this matter, and yet you still obstinately stick to your own way. I am afraid that while you want to have a reward, or rather obtain reputation or foolish self-glorification for your self-denial, you may instead be incurring punishment for disobedience. Assuredly since simple obedience deserves a greater reward than unusual abstinence from food, so he is more severely punished by whom the former is despised than by whom the latter is neglected. For obedience can save a man without this kind of abstinence; but without obedience such abstinence can avail only to condemnation. Yield therefore, yield, and put yourself entirely at your ruler's disposal, if you wish to obey me, if you wish to please me, if you wish to retain my love for you, if you wish to prove yours for me, and therefore do not wish to vex me and the abbot you are under, and to annoy the brethren among whom you live, by your indiscretion. For it is plain enough that your bodily frame and your natural temperament cannot bear what your rashness presumes to do. May the Almighty Lord lead you in His way and in His truth. Amen.