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LIAM II.

remon

larly that the sin of sodomy was grown intolerable. He WILmoved likewise that the monasteries might be provided with K. of Eng. abbots, the revenues spent upon the religious, and not applied to a secular and foreign use. The king replied, he The king disgusted would call a council when himself thought fit; that Anselm's with the predecessor durst not take those freedoms with the king his archbishop's father. It seems the archbishop had told him, that though strance. his highness was the patron and protector of the abbies, yet his prerogative did not reach so far as to make him the proprietor; that these estates were given to God Almighty, and therefore desired his highness would please not to make seizure of them.

268.

Hist. Nov.

p. 24.

This discourse exasperated the king; and Anselm, perceiving it was to no effect to urge the point any farther, took his leave of the court. But afterwards reflecting that, unless the king's dissatisfaction was removed, the Church and Anselm endeavours for kingdom would be disturbed; therefore, to put himself the king's in a condition to act with advantage in his station, he ap-favour, and applies to plied to the bishops to entreat the king to receive him into the bishops for their mefavour; and, in case they were refused, he desired them to diation. enquire into the reason of his displeasure, that if he had offended he was ready to submit and make satisfaction. Eadmer, When the king heard this, he replied, he had nothing to charge the archbishop with; but, for all that, he should not be reconciled to him. The bishops, returning to Anselm with this answer, told him, that if he designed to have the king friends with him, he must part with five hundred pounds at present, and promise the king as much more as soon as it could be raised; and that there was no other way of doing his business. To this Anselm replied, That this method might prove very unfortunate; that the king might probably be angry again ere long, upon the same prospect; that the tenants of the archbishoprick had been miserably harassed since the death of his predecessor, that to take any more from them would be their utter undoing. "Besides," says he, "God forbid that I should do anything to make the world believe my sovereign's favour is mercenary. I owe the king allegiance, and ought to be tender of his honour; how then can I be true to these engagements if I go about to bring an ill report upon his justice, and offer to buy his friendship with a little money, like a horse in a fair? At

a thing of that dignity,

ANSELM, this rate, royal favour would be valued no higher than the Abp. Cant. proportion of the sum. But far be it from me to undervalue and to put so paltry a consideration in balance against it. Your way, therefore, will be, to persuade the king not to set a price upon his reconciliation, but to receive me upon frank and honourable terms, and treat me as his spiritual father; and, for my part, I am ready to pay him the duty of a subject. But as for the money, since he was pleased to refuse it, I have given the greatest part of it to the poor, and have now nothing to offer of that kind." This being reported to the king, he appeared very angry, and declared he would never look upon him as his ghostly father; that he hated his prayers and benedictions, and therefore he might go whither be pleased. "Upon this," says Eadmer, who was one of Anselm's retinue, "we withdrew from court." As for the king, he sailed into Normandy, with a vast deal of treasure on board, which was all spent to no purpose; for his brother Robert made so vigorous a defence, that he was forced to drop the enterprise and re-embark.

Eadmer, ibid.

him.

The king Upon his return Anselm waited on him, and humbly displeased begged he might have the liberty of going to Rome, to reat Anselm's owning the ceive his pall from pope Urban II. The king was disgusted pope without leave from at the mention of Urban, told him, he did not own that bishop for pope; and that it was neither his father's custom, nor his own, to suffer his subjects to declare any person pope without his leave and approbation, and that if anybody presumed to invade this branch of his prerogative, he should look upon it as an attempt against his crown. This misunderstanding between the king and the archbishop occasioned a great debate; and Anselm desired the question might be laid before the bishops and great men of the kingdom, whether his allegiance to the king and his engagements to the pope were reconcileable; if not, he was resolved rather to quit the kingdom than renounce the pope. A. D. 1094. To put an end to this controversy there was a council or A council at convention held at Rockingham castle. Here Anselm, Rockingham to put opening his cause, told them with what reluctancy he acthis differ- cepted the archbishoprick; that he was over-borne into that station by their importunity; that he made an express reserve of his obedience to pope Urban; that he was now

an end to

ence.

WIL

K. of Eng.

brought under great difficulties; that he desired their advice to find out a method to disentangle him; that he LIAM II. might neither omit any part of his allegiance, nor fail in his due regards to the holy see.

The bishops told him they could give him no advice, unless to resign himself wholly to the king's pleasure, and not to insist on any reservations upon the score of spiritual authority. That there was a general complaint against him for intrenching upon the king's prerogative; that it was prudential for him to drop his respects to Urban, that bishop (for they would not call him pope) being in no condition to do him either good or harm; that his fate and fortune depended on the king; that it was therefore his interest to submit without reserve, and be entirely governed by the orders and direction of the court.

To this Anselm returned, that the compass of his allegiance was not so comprehensive as they suggested; that he engaged to be no farther the king's subject than the laws of Christianity would give him leave; that as he was willing "to render to Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's," so he must likewise take in the other part of the precept, and "give unto God that which was God's." Upon this, William, bishop of Durham, a court prelate who had inflamed the difference, and who managed the argument for the king, insisted, that the nomination of the pope to the subject was the principal jewel in the crown; and that by this privilege the kings of England were distinguished from the rest of the princes of Christendom. Which, by the way, is a plain concession, that other princes did not pretend to a right of determining about the elections at Rome, and giving their subjects what pope they pleased. But to return to Eadmer, the bishop of Durham, who told Anselm, that by denying P. 28, 29. the king this privilege he broke his faith, cancelled his allegiance, and brought great disturbance upon the kingdom.

269.

desert Anselm, and

This Anselm looked upon as no answer; however, the majority of the bishops being either gained or overawed by The bishops the court, threw up their canonical obedience, and renounced Anselm for their archbishop. The king would have had renounce them have gone farther, brought him to his trial, and deposed ical obedihim in the council. But this they told him they could not do, because he was their primate. When Anselm heard his

their canon

ence.

ANSELM, suffragans had disclaimed him in this manner, he complained Abp. Cant of the hardship, and demanded the regard of a metropolitan.

Dacher.

Spiceleg. tom. 9. p. 123.

refuse to disclaim him.

Eadmer,

p. 30.

By this usage he found himself embarrassed in his station, and disappointed in the temper of the English. The difficulties of going through made him somewhat uneasy: as appears by his letter to the Irish bishops. In this letter he complains that he was deserted, where he had reason to expect assistance. That those who put themselves under his jurisdiction had renounced him; and that he had in a great measure lost the good opinion of his friends.

He therefore desires the Irish bishops would put up their prayers in his behalf; "that God would inspire him with fortitude and resolution, to preserve the government of the Church, and appear boldly against disorder and licentiousness." And, in the close of the letter, "If there should happen," says he, "any difficulty in your country about the consecration of bishops, or any other matter relating to ecclesiastical discipline, I desire you would inform me of the case, and take the assistance of the best advice I can give you."

The king, having brought over most of the bishops, applied to the temporal nobility, and bid them disclaim the The tempo- archbishop, and follow the prelates' precedent. To this ral nobility they answered, that since Anselm was their archbishop, and had a right to superintend the affairs of religion by virtue of his station, it was not in their power to disengage themselves from his authority, especially since there was no crime or misdemeanour proved against him. This generous declaration of the barons made the bishop's compliance look more uncreditable. The king, to sound the prelates to the bottom, put the question to them, whether they renounced all obedience to Anselm, without any limitation, or whether they renounced him only so far as he pretended to act by the pope's authority. The test being put with this distinction, the bishops were divided in their answer, and some of them could be brought no farther than to desert him in his engagements with the pope. This the king looked upon but as half compliance, and was by no means satisfied with it: for, as Eadmer reports, he did not think himself a complete monarch unless he melted the mitre into the crown,

Eadmer,

p. 28.

and grasped the possession of all jurisdiction, both spiritual, WILand temporal.

LIAM II.
K. of Eng.

That which embarrassed the court in this affair was the great privilege of Anselm's character; for, according to the Idem, p. 29. principles of that age, the archbishop of Canterbury could be tried by nobody but the pope or his delegation. This put the king to a stand, and prevented the prosecution of his disgust.

However, Anselm perceived his stay in the kingdom might give him farther disquiet, and therefore desired a passport to go beyond sea, till it pleased God to put an end to the present disturbance. The king was somewhat shocked at this motion; for though he was willing to be rid of the archbishop, yet he would have had him first thrown out of his see, and not have embarked with the advantage of his character. But finding his deprivation impracticable, he consulted the temporal lords: for, as for the bishops, he thought they had suggested too rugged expedients, and given him wrong measures. The barons advised the king to stop Anselm, and give him his final answer next morning; at which time the temporal peers came to the archbishop, and, representing to him how desirous they were to remove the misunderstanding between the king and himself, proposed a sort of truce from March to Whitsuntide; during The controwhich interval the difference was to sleep, and nothing done pended for which might be prejudicial to the pretensions of either party. some time. Anselm agreed to this motion, only with a salvo for all due regards and submission to pope Urban II. The king allowed the proposal, notwithstanding the limitation interposed; and so all things were to rest till the time above mentioned. And thus Anselm, who had great hopes of getting quit of his archbishoprick, and retiring from the world, was disappointed.

Things having thus far the face of an accommodation, Anselm had leave to return to Canterbury, but found little comfort in the new expedient; for long before the truce, if we may call it so, expired, the king broke through the agreement, banished several clerks who were Anselm's favourites, had the groom of his chamber seized in the archbishop's palace, and fined and harassed his tenants in a very severe manner. In short, those that held any estate

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