Letters418 Letter CDXVIII. To Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen. (Circa A. D. 1152)
Letter CDXVIII. To Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen. (Circa A. D. 1152)
He requests that a donation made to the Abbey of Savigny may be confirmed by the Archbishop.
To his dear father and lord, Hugh, by the grace of God, Archbishop of Rouen, and to the whole Church in that place, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and the assurance of his prayers.
I wish your Benignity to be credibly and certainly assured, that Philip, * * Lord Bishop of Bayeux, has at my request gianted a tilled field, situated before the farmhouse of Ecurie, and containing four acres of land, to your sons, my brethren at Savigny, in my presence, and in that of the Reverend Father Lord Henry, 5 now Archbishop of York, Guy, Lord Abbot of Charlieu, and others of your brethren. Wherefore I beg and earnestly entreat your Piety, being very dear to me as you are in the Lord, to take measures as regards them, your sons before mentioned, in your fatherly care and kindness, that they be not disturbed or troubled henceforward, in their possession of this field. If anyone, now or at any time, shall attempt to impugn their title to this field, or to eject them from it: let it be the task of your charity to interpose in their defence and on behalf of the Abbey which is yours, and so to defend their right, that they may possess it without 1 Philip Harcurius (Harcourt?)
Cultura. The word is only used in this sense in very late Latin.. The classical and proper meaning is Culture. (E.)
Grangia; only found low Latin: ‘dicuntur a grants quce ibi reponuntur’ (Lyndwood). (E.)
4 Acra: not a promontory or headland, which is the classical sense, but £ cert a terrce portio mensurata! The amount of it varied extremely in different countries, and even in the same country at different times. Cowell says: ‘apud Anglos acram esse quantitatem terra? sexdecim perticas in longitudine continentem et totidem latitudme.’ The Roman per tic a or decempeda was a measuring rod ten feet in length, however: while the English ‘rod, pole, or perch’ is 16’/a feet. Spelman derives Acra no doubt rightly, from Ager. (E.)
5 This must have been Henry Murdach, previously Abbot of Fountains. He died in 1153. See letter 106, and note. (E.)
Domino et patri dilectissimo HUGONI, Dei gratia Rotomagensi archiepiscopo, et universae Ecclesiae Rotomagensi, frater BERNARDUS, Clarae-Vallis vocatus abbas, salutem et quas potest orationes in Domino.
Scire volumus benignitatem vestram et certum perhibemus testimonium veritati, quod dominus Philippus Bajocensis episcopus culturam, ante grangiam de Escuris sitam, et quatuor acras terrae continentem, filiis vestris fratribus nostris Saviniacensibus concessit nostra prece, et in praesentia nostra, simul et reverendi patris Domini Henrici, modo Eboracensis archiepiscopi, et domini Guidonis abbatis Chari-Loci, et aliorum fratrum nostrorum. Quocirca petimus et obnixe deprecamur charissimam in Domino Pietatem vestram, quatenus praefatis filiis vestris, ne forte super eadem terra deinceps inquietentur, paterna sollicitudine et paterno provideatis affectu. Si quis autem vel nunc vel alio tempore aliquam eis de cultura ista seu movere calumniam, seu violentiam inferre voluerit; sit vestrae charitatis opponere vos murum pro domo quae vestra est, et vindicare ei jus suum, ut sine inquietatione illud possideat: siquidem haec est veritas et certa veritas quam vobis scribimus.