A letter from Ivo of Chartres (1102-1103)

Translated letter:

Ivo, humble minister of the church of Chartres, to Adela excellent countess, to abound in patience and inward peace. Because of the highest charity by which I love your rule, I have already twice admonished your princely rule that you not immediately grant what your officials, impelled by wrath, urge but wait until you return to us in order to hear and learn the truth of what has been done. For all the canons of St. Mary [Notre Dame] were and are ready to pursue by our hand what both reason dictated and justice demanded. So they show themselves ready to pursue full justice in relation to you and your men; they say that, on your command, your sergeants violently seized the grain stores* of the church at Châteaudun and at Bonneval and the wine of lord Hilduin the cantor/chanter in the tanners' district, and they committed many indignities against the clerics and their men. So the clerics are insistent that I interdict/forbid the divine office in the city and the whole diocese, until they recover the goods that they claim were unjustly and precipitously taken from them. And since I can not neglect justice, I asked them for a delay, which I got only with difficulty, so that I could send to you and enjoin your excellency a third time to correct what was wrongly done. So I admonish and advise you to have the clerics' goods restored to them, so that such an illustrious church not be deprived in such holy days of the divine office, and so that those coming not spread reports/rumors about you which would be unbecoming. For when things can be repaired, precipitous judgments should not be pronounced, nor should the fury of the spiteful be sated in irregular/extra-legal ways. Therefore, moved by the heartfelt charity with which I love you, I have admonished and admonish you again, that you correct what should be corrected and defer whatever harsh measures you intend to take until after a lawful hearing. Do not let yourself, once your anger is calmed, repent of having done what you will see, when guided by reason, you should not have done. If you do not wish to acquiesce to my oft-repeated admonitions and petitions, and you reject just satisfaction, do not be amazed if I who had been prepared in all things to rejoice in your joys and suffer in your sorrows now sorrow with those sorrowing and grieve with those grieving. Fare well.

Original letter:

Ivo, humilis eccelesiae Carnotenais minister, Adelae excellenti Comitissare, patientie et pacis abundare visceribus. Pro summa caritate qua diligo principatum vestrum, jam semel et secundo monui celsitudinem vestram, ut quod dictante ira suaderent vobis servientes vestri, non statim reciperetis, sed reditum vestrum ad nos, ad audiendam et cognoscendam veritatem rerum gestarum, exspectaretis: quia parati erant et adhuc sunt omnes canonici B. Mariae ad exsequendum per manum nostram, et quod ratio dictaverit, et justitia exegerit. Cum itaque ad omnem justitiam exsequendam erga vos et erga vestros promptos se exhiberent; praecepto vestro, sicut dicunt, vestri servientes annonam ecclesiae apud Castrum-duni et apud Bonamvallem violenter acceperunt, et vinum domni Hilduini cantoris in vico coriariorum saisierunt; plurima etiam indigna clericis et hominibus eorum intulerunt. Postulant itaque clerici summa instantia ut in civitate et per totum episcopatum divinum officium interdicam, donec sua recipiant quae injuste et praepropere sibi esse ablata reclamant. Et quia justitiae deesse non possum, postulavi ab eis inducias, quas vix impetravi, donec ad vos nunc tertio mitterem, et ad corrigendum quod perperam factum est, excellentiam vestram commonefacerem. Moneo itaque et consulo, ut clericis sua restitui faciatis, ne tam praeclara ecclesia in tam sanctis diebus divino privetur officio, et de vobis a transeuntibus, qualem non deceret, publicetur opinio. In recuperabili enim re non est tam praeceps danda sententia, nec malivolorum inordinate satianda saevitia. Monui itaque et iterum moneo, suadente caritate qua praecordialiter vos diligo, ut quod corrigendum est corrigatis, et quidquid duriter facere intenditis, usque ad legitimam discussionem differatis: ne, digesta ira, poeniteat vos fecisse quod faciendum non fuisse ratione docente videbitis. Quod si admonitionibus et petitionibus meis toties repetitis acquiescere non vultis, et justam satisfactionem respuitis, ne miremini si doleo cum dolentibus, et lugeo cum lugentibus, qui per omnia paratus eram et gaudiis vestris congaudere, et doloribus condolere. Valete.

Historical context:

This and ep.116 (PL 162) are part of an ongoing dispute over sworn oaths and the need for papal dispensation for them, which was connected with the larger issue of admitting low-born men into the cathedral chapter (see LoPrete, 'Adela and Ivo,' 147 and Adela, 255-58, 465-66 #43). By the time of this letter there have been violent seizures and attacks by Adela's men, but Ivo still seeks a peaceful resolution of the dispute.  As LoPrete pointed out to me, "throughout this letter Ivo is walking a rhetorical tight-rope between moral exhortation to a leading lay lord and technical legal procedural language; i.e., it is conceivable and likely that he has 'invited' her to some sort of semi-formal hearing/tribunal/talks that she has refused to attend."  He is trying to reach a settlement "out of church court," but she is not cooperating so "the semi-technical language can serve as a veiled threat."

Scholarly notes:

* Annona may also refer to the taxes owed by the church's tenants assessed in grain.

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