Epistola
by Anselm of Laon
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/162/epistola/
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## Epistle

[1587A]To the venerable abbot H. of Saint Lawrence, Anselm, humble son of the Church of Laon, greeting.

We must see to it, my lord, that the question which is being handled among you in this way does not lie in a strife of words rather than in the meaning. To examine right meanings is the part of men; to wrangle over words is the part of boys, who understand only thinly what they say or hear. These the Apostle rebukes: *Do not become children in understanding [n: (I Cor. XIV, 20)]*. But he commands: *In malice be children [n: (ibid.)]*. Not attending to these things, certain men, greatly puffed up with the name of knowledge, ignorant of the meaning of the Fathers, languish — as the Apostle says — about questions and strifes of words. The opinions indeed of all catholic men are diverse, but not opposed, and run together into one agreement; yet in the words there sound certain seeming contrarieties [1587B] and conflicts, at which the little are scandalized, by which the vigorous are exercised, over which the proud contend, and from which the approved are set apart — those who, while others languish, readily show the dissonant to be in concord.

In this class of conflicting words, these are set forth in the Scriptures: *The Lord does not will evil.* Likewise, *he wills all things that come to pass,* among which are also evils, nor does anything come to pass with him unwilling, refusing, and constrained. He does not indeed will evil — that is, he does not love it, does not hold it pleasing, does not approve it, but hates, forbids, and condemns it.

Further, it is agreed that God made the rational creature of free will, that it might be able to merit; but that free will cannot of itself either be directed to what is greater or persist in the good in which it was made, though of itself it can fall, if it be left to itself. [1587C] Divine grace, therefore, is at hand for it, ready to help, but not to compel — which would be to take away the freedom it had given. If, then, the free will, being forewarned, hears and consents, it is directed by grace; if it refuses, it is left, and being left to itself it falls. And who would deny that God wills both to direct the one who consents to him and to leave the one who renounces him? For since *all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth [n: (Psal. XXIV, 11)]*, just as he wills what belongs to mercy, so no less does he will what belongs to justice. He wills therefore, through mercy, to help the one who consents; he wills also, through justice, to leave the one who refuses. This leaving is spoken of in the Scriptures as handing over to a reprobate mind, as hardening, as casting down; for God is not the author and kindler of [1587D] evil, but while he justly, as we have said, leaves a man, the rational creature is handed over to a reprobate mind, is hardened, is cast down. Let no one, therefore, deny that God, being merciful and just, both wills to have mercy and wills to harden, as the Apostle says: *On whom he wills he has mercy; and whom he wills [sic: vul] [1588A] he hardens [n: (Rom. IX, 18)]*; and Augustine on that verse: *God handed them over to a passion of ignominy [n: (Rom. I, 26)]*: It is manifest that God works in the minds of men, inclining their wills whithersoever he has willed, whether to good by his mercy, or to evil by his judgment — sometimes open, sometimes hidden, but always just. The divine page is full of expressions of this kind, which no hasty man ought to take amiss, but should attend to prudently and with diligence.

Avarice is properly called *the service of idols;* for the avaricious man attributes to money what is owed and belongs to God. This happens in three ways: for the avaricious man desires to have money, and to increase it when he has it, and not to lose it. So the worshiper of God desires to have charity, [1588B] which is God, and to increase it both in himself and in his neighbors, and not to lose it. And therefore that vice is spiritually called the worship of idols, because in the aforesaid manner it renders to money what is owed to God, and by so worshiping it makes it its god. For that which each man loves above the rest, where he sets his heart and his desire, he establishes as his highest good, and worships as God.

The love of earthly things is poison; the love of higher things is oil. To earthly things the soul is inclined of itself, and descends; to higher things it is raised up and ascends not of itself, but through God. But when it is poured over with the higher oil, torn away from earthly things, it seeks and loves the eternal. Between the barrenness of the poison and the richness of the oil there is a certain [1588C] middle, and a certain degree: namely, that the soul should will to be unwilling toward lower things, and will to be willing toward higher; and in these two there is grace together with free choice, and those two degrees are equal, and equal in merit, yet distinct and ordered. The love of higher things is from God alone; the love of lower things is from man.

If God snatches a man out of the pit of sin and draws him forth, it is a wondrous mercy; but if he forsakes him, it is the highest equity and justice. For first he shows the pit beforehand and teaches the danger, and forbids him to approach. But the man, despising all these things, falls of his own accord; to him therefore God justly there when forsakes. God the sinner is scourged, God visits him, that he may be snatched away — which comes of mercy. But if he prospers, he grows the more filthy and is ensnared — which is justice.

[1588D]If some sin begins to displease a man, and he wills to abandon it, if he does this for God's sake, it is good, and proceeds from the gift of grace; if it comes about otherwise, it is not good — as when lust is sometimes reined in lest money be spent, or something similar: this is not [1589A] for God's sake, nor from the gift of grace. Likewise if someone gives away his goods, if he fasts, if he prays, and so on: for God's sake it is good, and a gift of grace; if otherwise, it is not good. Now that for the sake of which he acts, he loves; and according to that love it ought to be called good or evil.

Man in his sensuality is like the brute animals, which are not condemned on account of the sensuality they obey and consent to; but man is condemned for it, because he has reason — and yet he is made like the senseless beasts of burden. So too the evil angel, on account of the excellence of his nature, was more gravely and irrecoverably condemned; man, because he was weaker, has been restored.

The human soul, preserving the likeness of the Trinity, consists of a threefold nature: for it has being, living, and the governing of the body; it has also reason, concupiscence, [1589B] and anger. This is the natural Trinity. For upon reason faith is founded, which is its light; and just as reason naturally goes first (for we discern before we desire), so faith, which is the first light of the soul, goes before the other virtues. Above cupidity is hope, which is its light; above anger, charity, ruling and illumining it. As anger naturally burns, so charity spiritually glows. To these three there cohere understanding, will, and memory, and the three set down before — being, living, and the governing of the body. There are three things which overturn and drive out the spiritual Trinity: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, the pride of life. These three are opposed to faith, hope, and charity; and while a man consents to them, he falls from the virtues, and they are set one against one. [1589C] But there are three which call back, and make a man return to the remembrance of the spiritual Trinity: namely, the fear of death, the fear of judgment, and the hope of eternal things. There are three which consummate [ *f. confirmant* ]: namely, justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The love of God is the light of hearts, the medicine of wounds; it looses the chains of sins; it works in angels, it works in men — for that love is not idle. It is like a lamp in the middle of the house, by whose rays each single thing in the house is discerned: stones, timbers, and the rest. So *the spiritual man judges all things.* This love works in men in diverse and in many ways. In those who are still in the world, it makes them clothe the naked, feed the needy, visit the sick. Those who are in the cloister do not do these works, for they have [1589D] their hands fastened and their feet bound under the yoke of obedience; in them the love of God works fasting, prayer, voluntary subjection, solicitude for the virtues, and advancement in them. In the angels it works that they cleave to God unceasingly, delight in him, and love him. This same thing it will work in the just after this life, for charity does not fall away. And it is like a ladder having two sides, the love of God and of neighbor, and middle rungs by which one ascends to the top, until the crowning fullness and perfection be added, which will be in the life to come. The Apostle enumerates the rungs, saying: *Charity is kind,* and so forth; and there are, as I believe, fifteen of those rungs. He who climbs the ladder leans with one foot upon the earth, and sets the other on high. By the earth [1590A] are signified the earthly supports which are necessary even to those ascending, for use and sustenance, not for delight. The other foot is the advancement of the virtues, reaching toward the top. Charity is also a city set foursquare; for it loves God, loves itself, loves the friend [sic: *diligitamicum*], loves the enemy. It has also the four cardinal virtues joined and cohering to it, which are the square of the city: humility, prudence, fortitude, temperance. Humility is the fruitful mother and nurse of the virtues. It is twofold: the first, that a man cast himself down, and despise what is of himself, and lie beneath others. This is the beginning and mother of the virtues. And after he has been advanced also, and has an abundance of virtues, humility is necessary, lest he grow proud over what he has, but be humbled lest he fall — as is shown in the [sic: *canticograduum.*] [1590B] Fortitude likewise is twofold: by it we resist the vices in the present; in the life to come we shall cleave to God bravely. According to this latter effect it will endure; according to the other it will fall away. The same can be said of the other two.

The crown of clerics, which is round, designates perfection: in what is round there is neither beginning nor end, because the eternal things which are their inheritance lack beginning and end. They have no portion in the land, like Levi, but receive tithes from their brothers, which again look toward perfection. But while they seek to have a portion in the land, they act against their profession, and lose their inheritance, and persevere neither in the lot of their brothers nor in the lot of Levi, though they ought to be mediators between God and men.

Clerics are chosen for preaching and for teaching [1590C] those under them, but monks for praying; because clerics, on account of the distractions of their office and of business, could not continually be free for prayer. Nevertheless, by reason of necessity, at the bishop's command, monks often take up the office of preaching and teaching.

The virtues are called the arms of light: arms, because they cut down their contraries; of light, because, the darkness being driven out, they make light for the mind. Continence goes before lust, humility before pride, and so with the rest. By the nails of the virtues the nails of the vices are driven out; by the nails of justice the just man is fastened to the cross of penitence. The nails of justice are the recollections of sins and the several contritions of the heart. The first and greatest nail, which prepares the way for the others, is the fear of the Lord: when this goes first and prepares the way, the others can be driven in — and never otherwise.

[1590D]For three things we are to render an account: for this, that we are men, that is, rational, lest we have received our soul in vain; for this, that we are Christians, lest we have taken up the name of the Lord in vain; for this, that we have been called into some part of the lot of the saints, whereby we are called clerics or monks, that is, lest we receive the grace of God in vain.



## Epistle (cont.)

Those who read the divine page and understand it, and yet do not live according to it, know how to build the house of God and to teach others about it, but they themselves are unwilling to enter. And while with zeal and great eagerness they store up that knowledge in memory, they gather it as it were manna — but it rots, because they have a tender and weak stomach, and the juice of that food is not diffused through the members [1591A] of the soul, nor can it be digested. The manna used to rot as it were from a certain faithlessness of those who kept back more than was necessary; and likewise these men, who are unwilling to live spiritually and to be formed, gather up more than is needful for them; nor do they diffuse it into their life and their conduct, but gather it for glory and for gain. And although it rots, still they do not feel the putrefaction and the stings of the worms, because they are occupied about vain and useless things, which are the flowers of the world holding their minds fast. But when these have passed away, they will feel the prickings and the stings of the worms proceeding from the aforesaid corruption.

Drunkenness, wholly feeble, first destroys the memory, scatters the senses, neglects the mind, confounds the understanding, [1591B] stirs up lust, entangles the tongue, tangles speech, corrupts the blood, dulls the sight, disturbs the veins, weakens the sinews, stops up the ears, troubles the inward parts, overturns the sense, makes the brain sodden, enfeebles the limbs, breaks sleep, hinders with the monthly courses. Drunkenness, moreover, is the mother of outrages, the matter of faults, the root of crimes, the origin of vices, a whirlwind captured, the overthrow of sense, the storm of the tongue, the tempest of the body, the shipwreck of chastity, an ignominious sickness, easily persuaded to evil, the foulness of conduct, the disgrace of life, the infamy of honor, the corrupting of the soul. Wine indeed is not rejected in its use, but condemned in excess.

Sobriety is wholly comely, wholly useful; it first [1591C] preserves the memory, sharpens the senses, keeps the mind pure, steadies the countenance, keeps modesty whole, mitigates vice, tends the face, polishes the ears, unburdens the brain, frees the tongue, unfolds speech, strengthens the blood, tends the veins, braces the sinews, despises lust, enjoys sleep, restores the body, prolongs old age. Without these every man becomes contemptible.

A stade has one hundred and twenty-five paces; eight stades make one mile; from one mile [1592A] and another half is made one league; three miles make two leagues.

AUGUSTINE. « The prophet Isaiah more openly designates holy Mary, saying: *There shall come forth a Rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root [n: (Isa. II, 1)]*. That this rod brought forth nuts was an image of the Lord's body; for the nut has in its body a threefold union of substance: the husk, the shell, and the kernel. In the husk, the flesh; in the shell, the bones; in the kernel, the inner soul is compared. In the husk of the nut it signifies the flesh of the Savior, which had in itself the harshness, or the bitterness, of the passion. In the inner kernel it declares the sweetness of the divinity, which bestows nourishment and supplies the service of light. In the shell, inserting the wood of the cross, which did not divide what was [1592B] without and within, but joined by the interposition of the wood those things of the Mediator which were earthly and heavenly — as the Apostle says: *For he by the blood of his cross made peace for the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth (Colos. I, 20*. »

*For my yoke is sweet and my burden light [n: (Matth. XI, 20)]*. There is a burden which carries and lightens the one who bears it — that is, the light burden of the Gospel, and the yoke of Christ, sweet to those converted to Christ. He who before could not bear the precepts of the law, afterwards finds the precepts of the Gospel light, through cooperating grace. He who at first could not fulfill *thou shalt not kill,* afterwards finds it light to lay down his life for his brothers; and so with the rest. So, when a heavy burden is laid upon a beast of burden, and it shies away as though the load were unbearable, a rolling four-wheeled cart is brought up — that is, [1592C] the Gospel running through the whole world — and the burden which at first it shied from as heavy, it afterwards draws doubled without labor. So the little bird which, unfledged and without wings, cannot carry itself, once the weight of feathers and wings is added, flies away without labor. So too hard bread, which of itself cannot pass down, by the addition of milk or of some other liquid may be able to be strained down in the throat.
