With desire I
have desired to see your face and to speak with you;
greatly for my own sake but more for yours ... For your
sake for three causes: because you are my lord, because
you are my king, and because you are my spiritual son.
In that you are my lord I owe and offer to you my
counsel and service, such as a bishop owes to his lord
according to the honour of God and the holy Church. And
in that you are my king I am bound to you in reverence
and regard. In that you are my son I am bound by reason
of my office to chasten and correct you ... Christ
founded the Church and purchased her liberty with His
blood, undergoing the scourging and spitting, the nails,
and the anguish of death, leaving us an example that we
should follow in His steps. Whence also says the
apostle, "If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with
Him. If we die with Him, with Him we shall rise again".
The Church of God consists of two orders, clergy and
people. Among the clergy are apostles, apostolic men,
bishops, and other doctors of the Church, to whom is
committed the care and governance of the Church, who
have to perform ecclesiastical business, that the whole
may redound to the saving of souls. Whence also it was
said to Peter, and in Peter to the other rulers of the
Church, not to kings nor to princes, "Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it". Among the people
are kings, princes, dukes, earls, and other powers, who
perform secular business, that the whole may conduce to
the peace and unity of the Church. And since it is
certain that kings receive their power from the Church,
not she from them but from Christ, so, if I may speak
with your pardon, you have not the power to give rules
to bishops, nor to absolve or excommunicate anyone, to
draw clerks before secular tribunals, to judge
concerning churches and tithes, to forbid bishops to
adjudge causes concerning breach of faith or oath, and
many other things of this sort which are written among
your customs which you call ancient. Let my lord,
therefore, if it pleases him, listen to the counsel of
his subject, to the warnings of his bishop, and to the
chastisement of his father. And first let him for the
future abstain from all communion with schismatics. It
is known almost to the whole world with what devotion
you formerly received our lord the pope and what
attachment you showed to the Church of Rome, and also
what respect and deference were shown you in return.
Forbear then, my lord, if you value your soul, to
deprive that Church of her rights. Remember also the
promise which you made, and which you placed in writing
on the altar at Westminster when you were consecrated
and anointed king by my predecessor, of preserving to
the Church her liberty. Restore therefore to the Church
of Canterbury, from which you received your promotion
and consecration, the rank which it held in the time of
your predecessors and mine; together with all its
possessions, townships, castles, and farms, and
whatsoever else has been taken by violence either from
myself or my dependents, laymen as well as clerks. And
further, if so please you, permit us to return free and
in peace, and with all security to our see, to perform
the duties of our office as we ought. And we are ready
faithfully and devotedly with all our strength to serve
you as our dearest lord and king with all our strength
in whatsoever we are able, saving the honour of God and
of the Roman Church, and saving our order. Otherwise,
know for certain that you shall feel the divine severity
and vengeance.
