The Bishop comes with a safe-conduct. ready to come with a safe-conduct, and to prove before all the barons of the realm that he is wholly innocent of any crime against the King. He adds that he would willingly come at once with the Abbot. He had full faith in the King and his barons; but he feared his personal enemies and the unlearned multitude.[1] Who were these last? Are we again driven to think of the old popular character of the Assembly, and did the Bishop fear that the solemn proceedings of the King's court would be disturbed by a loyal crowd, ready to deal out summary justice against any one who should be even suspected of treason? The King sent the safe-conduct that was asked for, and the Bishop came to the King's court.[2]
The Bishop's ecclesiastical claims. The two Williams, King and Bishop, now met face to face. William of Saint-Calais pleaded his rights as a bishop as zealously, and far more fully, than they had been pleaded by the bishop who was also an earl. The Bishop of Durham, as Bishop of Durham, held great temporal rights; but William of Saint-Calais was not, like his predecessor Walcher, personally earl of any earldom. Bishop William's assertion of the new ecclesiastical claims reminds us of two more famous assemblies, in the earlier of which William of Saint-Calais will appear on the other side. In forming our estimate of the whole story, we must never forget that the man who surprised the Red King with claims greater than those of Anselm is the same man who a few years later became the counsellor of the Red King against Anselm. In
- ↑ Mon. Ang. i. 245. "Hoc in veritate vobis mando quod libenter cum hoc abbate venissem, nisi plus inimicos meos et indoctam populi multitudinem timuissem quod de vestro brevi et baronum vestrorum fiducia dubitassem."
- ↑ Ib. "Rex visis his litteris misit conductum episcopo et bene affidavit eum per litteras suas quod per eum vel per suos homines nullum ei damnum eveniret usque quo de rege rediens Dunelmum intraret. Perrexit ergo episcopus ad regem."
