omnes neruos ingenij tui ... Westmonest. vij. Febr.
J. Barrie Hall
Wherefore M. Stephen, since you be so playnly aduertised of my mynde and intent, I shall pray you to extend all the sinews of your intellect that this matter may be brought to effect, sparing no expenses, promises or labours: as you see the minds and affections of men, whether in private matters or in public, so let you adjust your actions. You and your colleagues have no lack of very considerable power, a power not limited or restricted by any bounds or conditions, and, whatever you do, you may know that it is pleasing to and endorsed by the king and me. For, to be brief, we have reposed everything in your intellect and fidelity. Nothing further remains to be written, except to beg and entreat that almighty and all-powerful God make your actions bring forth fruit. From my heart farewell. From the palace of Westminster, 7 February, I who am most desirous of your safe-keeping and distinction, T. Ebor.
QVem modo miratur ... mea sorte sua.
J. Barrie Hall
The famous Berengarius whom the world now admires and will always admire, has died never to die: while he possessed the highest eminence in the holy faith, the final day, daring an outrage, finally carried him off. A day of ruin and treason to the world was that day on which there was grief and the uttermost ruin of things; on which the estate of the church, the hope and the glory of the clergy, the cultivator of justice was brought down with the bringing down of justice. Whatsoever philosophers, whatsoever poets have sung, has been surpassed by his intellect and his eloquence. A more holy and a greater wisdom, undertaking a greater scheme, filled his hallowed breast and mouth with God. His heart desired wisdom, his voice brought it forth, and his action put it into effect: thus each separate thing lent its support to its Maker. A man of holiness and wisdom, whose fame grows by the hour: whoever is the greatest of men is less than he. He who made wealth held on to few honours: to him the pauper was preferable to the rich man, and justice preferable to gain. To him ample circumstances did not impart sloth or luxury; many high honours did not make him proud. He turned his eyes neither to silver nor to gold, but grieved whenever he lacked someone to give these things to. He did not cease to lend support to the resourceless in their ruin, until he himself by giving was poor also. His care was to follow nature, to make use of the laws, and to deny his mind to vices and his mouth to deceits, to set virtues before wealth, truth before falsehood, to say and do nothing empty of sense, to harm no one, to do good to everyone, to drive away from mind and hand favour and popular gain. His clothes were of rough weave, he took no drink before he was thirsty, no food before he was hungry. Chastity made her abode in him, and, as lust conquers the impure, so he conquered lust. Our parent nature, he said, has pitted chastity against the world, and, while others degenerate from it, it is born to me. Justice, which used to wander and had almost abandoned the world, he enclosed in his holy breast. A man holy from boyhood, he as much surpassed his own fame as fame surpasses the world. His fame is less than his merits, and, though it fly through all the world and though it always increase, it will yet not equal them. A man pious and serious, a man so modest in both that envy could gnaw at him in neither. For envy bewails him whom it had previously carped at, and it did not so carp at and hate him as it now praises and loves him. As previously it groaned for his life, so now it groans for his death, and complains that his days have quickly departed. A man truly wise, and blessed in every respect, who enriches heaven with his soul and the earth with his body. May I after death, I pray, live and take my rest with him, and my portion could not be more blessed than his portion.
Præter hoc autem ... ductam non reliquerit, &c.
J. Barrie Hall
From an ancient martyrology of the church of Canterbury
Besides this, moreover, we command by our precept that no one should hear mass from a presbyter whom he knows without doubt to have a concubine or a woman secretly introduced. Whence also the holy synod has decreed this chapter under excommunication, saying: Whoever among priests, deacons, subdeacons since the constitution of our holy predecessor Pope Leo of blessed memory, and of Nicholas, concerning the chastity of the clergy has openly taken a concubine or has not left one already taken, etc.
To you making enquiry whether you ought or ought not to receive communion from a priest who has been taken in adultery or has merely been stained with rumour concerning this, our reply is: No one, however polluted he be, can pollute the divine sacraments which stand as purgatory of all contagions, etc.
LAnfrancus Archiepiscopus ... Londoniæ habuarunt.
J. Barrie Hall
Archbishop Lanfranc gave to the church of St Andrew, because they anciently belonged as of right to that church, in Southwark, Mortlake, London, the monastery of St Mary with its lands and houses which Livingus the priest and his wife had in London.
De Clerico vxorato ... respondere cogatur.
J. Barrie Hall
In the year of our Lord 1261 from an old book written in the hand of Assaph.
Concerning a married cleric who knowingly takes in a man publicly banished, so that it can be proved against him, it seems to us that he is obliged to make reply in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. But if he makes his residence in the land of a lord, and it should happen that he be mulcted, his entire mulct is owed to the lord. But if he makes his residence in the land of a bishop, the mulct is to be divided between the bishop and the lord. But if the wife of some such cleric knowingly or willingly in his absence takes in [a man publicly banished], the woman is to make reply in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the cleric is not to be punished by reason of her act nor is he to be compelled to make reply on her behalf unless he wish to.
Integritas vitæ ... coniugis usu.
J. Barrie Hall
From Mantuanus.
Integrity of life, knowledge of the laws, worship of the dwellers in heaven, and protecting the poor, brought you amid popular applause the mitre and crook of Poitiers, while you show no care for mortal things, while you live to yourself, content with your lot, far from all ambition. Your offspring did you no harm, and the wife conjoined to you in lawful marriage did not stand in your way: at that time God did not shudder at the marriage chamber, the cradle, and the marriage torches. All that was prized was virtue, which now is unknown and of no account, but dwells among the ordinary folk with worn cowl. Therefore some people say that laws against matrimony are bad laws. The wisdom of the fathers, they say, did not pay particular attention to what nature refuses to endure and what she is able to tolerate. Christ, they say, did not wish to place on our shoulders this unpleasant yoke; that burden which up to now has created very many monsters was devised, they say, by audacious piety. They wish it to be safer to travel along the road where the divine law permitted and to follow the steps of the ancient fathers, whose life with a wife was better than ours is now when marriage and recourse to a wife are excluded.