Abbreviata species facti in causa abbatis Anselmi in Monte S. Michaëlis prope Bambergam Ordinis S. Benedicti quoad spiritualia

...and is most foreign to the Laws. For as long as the violent acts reviewed above are not annulled by supreme authority and the Abbatial power is not effectively restored in its entirety, together with both Pontifical and Imperial protection, there will never be peace in the Monastery. No truly regular discipline can be introduced and stabilized, and no Abbot will duly fulfill his Office. Thus, the Abbey will always be in imminent danger of suppression and total destruction. To prevent such an evil, however, the most holy Tridentine Synod, gathered in the Holy Spirit, providentially provided and more strictly commanded that Religious must live indispensably according to the tenor and rigor of their Rule (at least regarding their vows and common life), and Superiors must take care that this is observed very strictly. The Holy Synod was not ignorant of how much splendor and utility arises in the Church of God from monasteries that are piously instituted and correctly administered (Chapter 1, Session 25, on Regulars). To this end, it was further sanctioned in the same Session, Chapter 8, that all monasteries which are not subject to General Chapters or Bishops, and do not have their own ordinary NB. Regular Visitors, etc., are held to form themselves into congregations, etc. Similarly, in the Fourth Lateran Council, and derived from this in Chapter 7, on the State of Monks, it is read that it was constituted that Diocesan Bishops should most attentively take care that monasteries subject to them are not burdened with undue loads, because the Supreme Pontiff Innocent III wishes the rights of Superiors to be served in such a way that he does not want to sustain the injuries of inferiors. And there it is further strictly commanded that Advocates, Patrons, Magnates, etc., be restrained by Ecclesiastical Censure, lest they presume to offend monasteries in their persons and property, and if perhaps they have offended, they should not omit to compel them to satisfaction, so that the monks may serve Almighty God more freely and quietly, etc. Therefore, it is all the more repugnant to the sacred Canons that the Abbey of Saint Michael, which is exempt from its Imperial Foundation and has been possessorily united to the Burschfeld Congregation for more than two hundred years, has been not only subtracted from the Bamberg Ordinariate but also, from the whole of this time of extorted subjection, has been so narrowed that Abbot Christopher of the most illustrious Family of Guttenberg, in 1723, having a grave sermon to those gathered in Chapter regarding the miserable state of the Monastery, used the following words among others:

Lord, save us, we are perishing: for the rights of the Monastery, and indeed the Privileges originating from the holy Foundation, are being brought into controversy by your Adversaries and are being despoiled by unheard-of violence, so that their destruction is not far off but stands in the open, with injustice spreading and absorbing everything possessed until now; while we flee to the help of Almighty God: A Sound from Heaven comes: As you cultivate me, so I visit you, because you carry only the Habit and Tonsure of the holy Order; but you do not follow the Life of the Saints at all, not rendering your emitted Vows to the Lord God, but nevertheless studying the conversion of morals which you promised, renouncing and repeating and embracing the joys which the world offers, extirpating and casting out the fraternal unity which is the bond of perfection, turning the Cloister of the Monastery into a dovecote or a tavern, finally adoring God with your lips, but being far absent in your heart; but where will this journey lead you! Not to the ultimate End which we intend, because the path of the wicked shall perish, etc.

And a little later in the same Chapter, Father Anselm was declared Prior by the professor of both laws in the following formal terms:

That it may be more easily put into work (namely, that the monks might grasp discipline conformable to their Vows and the Holy Rule), subscribing to the plurality of your Vows, I designate as your Leader Father Anselm, who in my name will strive to preside over you in such a way that, having defeated the vices which have hitherto ruined the Monastery, he will supplant the claustral discipline and the Religious Life which the strict Judge demands of us, and will demand in the future, which may God the Almighty and Most Merciful command to happen happily.

After six months, the same Father Anselm, canonically elected Abbot, wished to complete with greater effectiveness the work which had been begun as something holy during the short time of his Priorate in reforming discipline. These things are now compared with writings and sayings produced in various places by various persons and by the Confreres of the Order themselves carelessly produced to the prejudice of the innocent Abbot in favor of the guilty. And many things written and said contrary to the eighth Commandment of God will be revealed. But who, with a Christian mind, reflects and resolves to make condign reparation for the truth, for justice, and for the reputation and cause of the Abbot, which have been more wounded thereby! What should the Abbot do, constrained on all sides? He cannot be silent and yield to acts that are so many and such, and unjustifiable regarding their substance and circumstances, whether directly or indirectly approved, because the prejudice concerns Religion, Justice, Truth, and the holy Benedictine Order to the scandal of many. Therefore, nothing remains except that he continue to cry out, and cry out more loudly, to God in heaven and to God's supreme Vicar on earth, until he is most clemently heard, and his most just cause regarding the point of spoliation, the stable restoration of discipline in his Monastery, and the future confirmation of the restored Provostry of Saint Faith according to the cited Constitutions of Trent, is fully discussed and effectively provided for; in so far as the Abbot of the Imperial Monastery of Saint Michael near Bamberg of the Order of Saint Benedict (by means of truly Regular discipline, and the faithful and useful administration and dispensation of the Monastery’s goods and rights according to the authority from the Imperial Foundation and the protection of the Emperors...