Epistolae et miscellanea
by Richard of Saint Victor
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/196/epistolae-et-miscellanea/
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## LETTER ONE. [n: ( Epist S. Thomae Cantuar. edit. GILES. t. II, p. 200.)] OF ERNISIUS THE ABBOT AND R. THE PRIOR OF ST VICTOR OF PARIS, TO ROBERT OF HEREFORD.

[1225A]

To ROBERT, bishop of Hereford, ERNISIUS the abbot, and R. the prior of Saint Victor of Paris.

Our Church conceived great joy at your promotion, and your hearers were gladdened with no small hope — indeed all the scholars, roused to the love of letters and the cultivation of virtues by the example of your labor and success. And we rejoiced for this reason: because we loved you above the rest, and the Church of the English — which, beyond the charity we have toward all Churches, we love with a certain special affection, [1225B] nature urging it — we trusted would profit by your learning, and be stirred by your religion to the cultivation of the divine law, and be strengthened against adversities by the office of your preaching and the example of your virtue. But now we grieve beyond measure that neither have our desires concerning you been fulfilled, nor has the Lord heard our prayers for you. And would that your ears were at the mouths of the scholars, and that you might hear the sighs of the religious, that so your spirit might be raised up — which is said to be weighed down by the burden of riches, and to be weakened by the love of holding a bishopric and by the affluence of delights. For, as they say, riches have made you firm — riches which in the school and in the frequent traffic of words you used to call *canigenae*. You then used to paint in word the comely figure of bishops, whom, according to our wish, you would now [1225C] express in doctrine and in life. Were you not then performing the office of a whetstone, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *which can render iron*
*sharp, though itself having no share in cutting?*
[n: (HORAT. Ars. poet. V, 304.)] It is a wonder if your ears do not ring from the chatter of scholars, the detraction of rivals, and the complaints of friends. Against your father and consecrator — and him an exile for the justice and liberty of the Church — you lately appealed together with others, who seek the subversion of justice and their own overthrow; and by placing your portion with the impious — whereat we grievously sorrow — you have very greatly blackened your reputation. For did you not see the letters of appeal [1225D] which the bishops sent to their archbishop? Certainly, if you did not see them, it was foolish — that charity may, by your leave, speak the truth — to set your seal, without examination, [1226A] to a testimony in so great a matter, and one that must be carried to the Roman Church. But if you did see them, with what conscience, with what effrontery, did you dare to assert, and — as you write — to proclaim with all confidence, what not only the whole neighborhood, but almost the whole Latin world, knows to be false? For you proclaim — of whom you thus write, and that he may use above all your authority — you sign a writing together with the bishop of London, that your king, even if now and then he has offended as a man, is prepared to correct all his excesses, and to obey justice in all things, and, if he be not believed, even offers a surety; and you add: *For he loves those who rebuke him, and gladly listens to those who chide him.* But he who thinks this to be true, what will he believe to be false? For the man's ways are well known, [1226B] so that you who proclaim such things would have to seek a stranger — but one outside the Latin world. But you who build up his justice, what innocence do you allege in the casting out of women and in the proscription of innocent little ones? But these things, and things like them, the Lord will judge, and will strike both the doer and those who consent with an equal penalty. Consider, meanwhile, what sentence those bishops will then receive, who now lend their patronage to such great injuries. These things, most sweet Father, we have written to you in sincere charity, that you may be mindful of your doctrine, of your office, of our desire, and of the divine judgment; that you may redeem your reputation, and may strive to raise up the Church, which is falling to ruin in your hands. Yours we have been, yours we are, and, God being favorable, we shall always be ready for your honor and [1226C] service.

## LETTER II. OF THE PRIOR OF ST VICTOR OF PARIS AND R. THE ABBOT OF ST AUGUSTINE, TO POPE ALEXANDER.[n: ( Ibid. )]

To ALEXANDER the pope, the prior of Saint Victor and R . . . , formerly abbot of St Augustine.

To holy men, etc.-- *See under Alexander* III.

## LETTER III. OF WILLIAM, PRIOR OF OURSCAMP, TO RICHARD, PRIOR OF ST VICTOR. *He asks that one of his little works be copied out.* [n: (MARTENE, Ampl. Collect., VI, 235.)]

To his beloved lord RICHARD, prior of St Victor, brother William, called prior of Ourscamp, greeting in [1226D] the Lord.

Your little book, which you commanded to be sent back to you, [1227A] I myself brought back in Lent; but since you were then not at St Victor, I entrusted it to brother Hugh, your guest-master, charging him to return it to you. But we ask that you send us some little work of yours which we have not yet had, namely *On the dream of Nebuchadnezzar,* or *Lighten thy face upon thy servant.* For this too we had begun to copy, but we found it unfinished in your exemplar. Farewell.

## LETTER IV. OF G., PRIEST OF ANILCOURT, TO RICHARD, PRIOR OF ST VICTOR. *He asks of him the Passion, or the nine lessons concerning St Victor, to be inserted in a Breviary.* [n: (MARTENE, ibid. )]

[1227B]

G., by the grace of God priest of the Church of Anilcourt, to his beloved brother R., venerable prior of the Church of St Victor of Paris, greeting.

We charge and ask your love that you send us, by the bearer of these presents, the passion of the blessed Victor, which is not found among us, or the nine lessons transcribed from that passion. For we are writing a certain book which they call a Breviary, in which we have thought it fitting to insert them. Farewell.

## LETTER V. OF G. TO RICHARD, PRIOR OF ST VICTOR. *He desires to learn what he has transacted with the king and the abbot of St Germain concerning his affair.* [n: (MARTENE, ibid., col. 237.)]

[1227C]

To his most dear RICHARD, venerable prior of St Victor, the humble brother G., the same greeting as to himself.

If you had a prosperous journey from us to your own place, if you found favor in the sight of the king, if rightly and prosperously with the lord abbot, if you met with the abbot of St Germain concerning our affair, let your love not be burdened to signify it to us by the bearer of these presents. Greet for us the lord abbot, who will find our humility ready not only to serve, but to obey in whatever things shall please him. Greet for us the lord Roger, abbot of Eu, our most dear friend.

## LETTER VI. [n: (G. PRIORIS ECCLESIAE S. ALBANI AD R. DE S. VICTORE.DUCHESNE, Scrip. franc., IV, 747. sequentes ex eodem fonte prodeunt.)]

[1227D]

To his venerable lord and friend, master R., prior of Saint Victor, his own G., prior of the Church of Saint Alban, greeting and the wholeness of sincere love.

I give you thanks — such as are unspeakable — that so copious a fruit of your grace smiled upon my brother Matthew; and from those kindnesses I measure with how great security I ought to commend to you the bearer of these presents, my nephew. I pray, therefore, that the kindness which went forth toward the one may extend itself to both, and that a doubled charity may render me manifoldly [1228A] obligated to you; and that I may rise up with heaped-up joy, let your love send back to me some token of your will, whereby you may take proof of my love. Farewell.

## LETTER VII. OF THE SAME TO THE SAME.

To his venerable friend, and deservedly honorable, Richard, prior of Saint Victor, his own G., prior of the church of St Alban, greeting and the affection of due love.

Because you have provided for the advancement of my brother M., who sojourns in your parts for love of knowledge, with so singular a favor, with so peculiar a prerogative of generosity, I give thanks to your love; nor will mute letters [1228B] easily be able to unfold what of love and service my mind promises to you. But would that it might come to pass that the execution of the deed might speak with living voice the affection with which I embrace you! For how could I hope from your eminence for the kindness which the aforesaid Matthew proclaims was conferred upon him by you — from that eminence of which I have deserved nothing at all? For I see plainly how your prudence has committed to tenacious memory that loving saying of Cato's: *If you wish to be loved, love.* It remains, then, that what you have begun with so fertile a beginning, you may be willing to clothe over with an ankle-length tunic. But as for me, though the means of recompensing be lacking, the affection nevertheless will not be lacking. And this small gift I send to you not for a gift's sake, but as a token of love, asking in return that the titles of your writings [1228C] may become known to me by a reply, should occasion be found. And I will take care that, if copies be not lacking, our England may shine with the treasure of your knowledge.

## LETTER VIII. OF THE SAME TO THE SAME.

To his venerable brother and friend R., prior of Saint Victor, Br. S., humble minister of the Church of Saint Alban, greeting and the due service of sincere love.

The little works of master Hugh, which, sought from every quarter in our parts, we were able to find, we have gathered with the utmost zeal and most exact diligence, as writings of so great veneration, and out of them we have reduced very many into several volumes. But since, by report ascertained, we have learned that some of the treatises of the aforesaid [1228D] man are held among you, which in the lands on this side of the sea either are not at all, or as yet are rare in our England, we have handed to the bearer of these presents brief notes of those things which are in our possession. Trusting, of course, in your charity, that in the works committed to him he ought, in the eyes of your sincerity, to obtain by our intervention the fullness of grace. We therefore earnestly ask and beg your holiness that you would kindly grant to the aforesaid bearer of these presents the opportunity of inspecting the treatises of master Hugh, out of reverence for the blessed Alban and in regard for our prayer, if it please you; and that he may more conveniently, in whatever way, have copied out those which [1229A] he shall find not to be had among us, we pray that the favor of your counsel and likewise of your aid, in the regard of fraternal charity, may breathe upon him in the present business. Farewell.



## LETTER IX. OF M. TO RICHARD.

To the lord R., by the grace of God prior of the Church of Saint Victor, his own M., greeting — to which he rather longs cheerfully to ascend.

Among the things which I deposited in your house are two linen cloths and two hand-towels, of the use of which I now have need. Wherefore let your kindness bring it about that both be distinguished from one another, and that one of the linen cloths, which lacks embroidery, together with whichever [1229B] of the hand-towels is the newer, be sent to me by this our friend, brother Walter. But let the rest, placed together, be kept in your custody as before, until I come to you. Give thanks to your venerable friend the prior of Saint Evurtius, and to this bearer of these presents, brother Walter, who out of veneration for you are ready to show me more things than I would wish to receive from them for nothing. Farewell forever in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wherever on earth I may be, I am yours, desiring to comply with your will and to serve your generosity. Which the matter itself, God granting, will unfold, if ever the time to come shall afford us occasion of serving you.

## LETTER X. OF THE SAME TO THE SAME.

[1229C]

To the lord R., by the grace of God prior of Saint Victor, his own M., greeting — to which the way of truth leads.

Whoever leans upon the grace of those whose friendships he has earned discloses the tokens of his own success. For whosesoever affections each has won for himself by merits, by the right of those same [1230A] he discharges their offices, so far, however, as accords with honesty. And so I, brought into your friendship not by this track — but by that whereby the kindness implanted in you showed me beforehand the approach — entered freely into your grace. For while I call to mind the condition of your goodness, it becomes clearly known to me that your generosity, as is fitting and expedient, lies open to all. Wherefore, that I may comply with your excellent custom, I approach the magnificence of your charity, that you would grant some place of gentle affection and pious desire to lie open to me with you. For the friendship of the lord Walter, prior of Saint Evurtius, I render you manifold thanks. If anything shall please you, you will be able to send word by this my messenger to your friend the prior of Saint Alban. Farewell. If [1230B] any of your friends remain in the places through which this boy will have his journey, I pray that your love send him on to them, lest they suffer injuries to be done to him on the way. Farewell forever.

## LETTER XI. OF G., PRIOR OF ST ALBAN, TO RICHARD.

To his venerable friend, and deservedly honorable, Richard, prior of Saint Victor, G., prior of the church of Saint Alban, greeting and the affection of due love.

Because you have taken pains diligently to carry through my petitions, long since entrusted to your care, I confidently attach the present one to the rest. Bend, therefore, to my prayers, as your custom permits, and let your love receive the bearer of these presents, my brother M., [1230C] commended for my sake, and in whatever he shall have need let your counsel support him, that I may have more manifold thanksgivings to render you. Let your love graciously receive the little gift which I have sent to be presented to you on my behalf, and regard rather the affection of the sender than the smallness of the thing sent. Farewell.
