Letters. 1103. Letter I. Edith aka Matilda Dunkeld Queen Consort England (age 23) to Archbishop Anselm (age 70).

To her piously remembered father and worthily reverenced lord, Anselm the archbishop, Matilda, by the grace of God qaeen of England, the least of the handmaidens of his holiness, wishes perpetual health in Christ.

I give unnumbered thanks to your unceasing goodness, which, not unmindful of me has condescended, by your letters presented to me, to shew forth your mind, though absent. The clouds of sadness in which I was wrapped being expelled, the streamlet of your words has glided through me like a ray of new light. I embrace the little parchment sent to me by you, as I would my father himself: I cherish it in my bosom, I place it as near my heart as I can; I read over and over again the words flowing from the sweet fountain of your goodness; my mind considers them, my heart broods over them; and I hide the pondered treasures in the very secret place of my heart. Yet, while I praise all you have said, at one thing alone I wonder; that is, at what your discreet excellency has said about your nephew. Yet I do not think I can deal otherwise with your friends than my own. I might say with mine than my own, for all who are yours by kindred are mine by love and adoption. Truly the consolation of your writing strengthens my patience, gives and preserves my hopes, raises me when falling, sustains me when sliding, gladdens me when sorrowful, softens me when angry, pacifies me when weeping. Farther, frequent, though secret, consultation promises the return of the father to his daughter, of the lord to his handmaiden, of the pastor to his flock. I am encouraged to hope the same thing from the confidence which I have in the prayers of good men, and from the good will which, by skillfully investigating, I find to be in the heart of my lord. His mind is better disposed towards you than many men think; and, I favouring it, and suggesting wherever I can, he will become yet more courteous and reconciled to you. As to what be permits now to be done, in reference to your return, he will permit more and better to be done in future, when, according to time and opportunity, you shall request it. But even though he should persist in being an unjust judge, I entreat the affluence of your piety, that, excluding the bitterness of human rancour, which is not wont to dwell in you, you turn not from him the sweetness of your favour, but ever prove a pious intercessor with God for him and me, our common offspring, and the state of our kingdom. May your holiness ever fare well.

Letters. 1103. Letter II. Edith aka Matilda Dunkeld Queen Consort England (age 23) to Pope Paschal II.

To the highest pontiff and universal pope, Paschal, Matilda, by God's grace queen of the English, trusting that he will so dispense in this life the rights of the apostolic dignity, that he may deserve to be numbered among the apostolic senate in the joys of perpetual peace with the companies of the just.

I give all the thanks and praise I can to your sublime holiness, O apostolic man, for the things which your paternal charity, as though for admonition, has deigned to send to me and to my lord the king, both frequently by the words of your legates and also by your own writings. I visit the threshold of the most holy Roman apostolic seat, and as far as it is lawful and I am able, clasping your paternal knees with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind, praying with importune and opportune petition, 1 cease not, nor will I cease, to entreat, till I know that my submissive humility, or rather the persevering importunity of my application, is heard by you. Yet let not your excellency be angry, let not the prudent Roman clergy, people, or senate, be amazed at this my rashness, that thus I presume to speak. Once, once, I say, we and the English people, - then how happy! - had, under your apostolic dignity, Anselm (age 70) our archbishop, a foster-child of the Holy Ghost, the most prudent counsellor and pious father of us and the aforesaid people. From the most opulent treasures of his Lord, whereof we knew him to hold the keys, he took abundantly, and bestowed them upon us more abundantly; for this same faithful minister and prudent dispenser of the Lord seasoned those things which he bestowed with the most excellent salt of wisdom, softened them with the sweetness of eloquence, and sweetened them by the wonderful conceits of rhetoric. And so it was that neither did the tender lambs lack the abundant milk of the Lord, nor the sheep the richest fatness of the pastures, nor the pastors the most opulent satiety of aliments. But now, when all these things are otherwise, no thing remains but that the pastor wanting food, the flock pasture, the young milk, utter forth the heaviest groans. Since, by the absence of the chief pastor, Anselm (age 70), each is deprived of something, or rather all of all things. In such lugubrious mournings in such opprobrious grief, in such deformity and loss of our kingdom, nothing remains to me, stunned as I am, but, shaking off my stupor, to fly to the blessed Apostle Peter, and his vicar the apostolic man. Therefore, my lord, I fly to your benignity, lest we and the people of the kingdom of England perish in such a defect and lapse. What good will our life do us when we go down to corruption? Let your paternity take good counsel concerning us, and deign, within the term which my lord the king asks of your goodness, to let your paternal bowels be moved towards us, that we may both rejoice at the return of our dearest father. Archbishop Anselm (age 70), and preserve, uninjured, our subjection to the holy apo8tolic see. I, indeed, taught by your most sound and gracious advice, will as far as woman's strength may suffice, and with the help of worthy men, which I shall procure, endeavour, with my whole power, that my humility may, as far as possible, fulfil what your highness advises. May your paternity enjoy eternal happiness!