Letter of Lanfranc to Pope Alexander II; from English Historical Documents, 2.636.

To Pope Alexander, the chief shepherd of holy Church, Lanfranc, an unworthy prelate, canonical obedience. I know no one, holy father, to whom I can widi greater propriety unfold my troubles than to you, who are the very cause of these calamities. For when William, duke of Normandy, drew me forth from the monastery of Le Bec, where I had assumed the religious habit, and appointed me to preside over that of Caen, I found myself unequal to the task of governing a few monks. Therefore I cannot comprehend by what dispensation of the Almighty I have been promoted at your behest to undertake the supervision of an innumerable multitude. The aforesaid prince, after he had become king of England, tried every means to bring this about, but laboured in vain, until your legates, Ermenfrid, bishop of Sitten, and Hubert, cardinal of the holy Roman Church, came to Normandy, caused the bishops, abbots and magnates of that land to be assembled, and in their presence and by virtue of the authority of the apostolic see commanded me to undertake the government of the church of Canterbury. Against this I pleaded in vain my incapacity and unworthiness, my ignorance of the language and of the barbarous people. My plea did not avail. What need of further words! I gave my consent, I came, I took the burden upon me, and such are the cares and troubles, the discomfort of mind I daily endure, so great are the annoyance, the suffering, the losses caused me by different persons pulling me in opposite directions, the harshness, avarice and baseness....