Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/150

Hostile dealings of the Bishop's own men.

The Bishop called on to "do right." asked to be restored to his bishopric. Lanfranc answered that he had not been disseized of it.^[1] In the course of this dispute one or two facts of interest come out. It appears from the Bishop's complaint that some of the chief men of the patrimony of Saint Cuthberht had made their way to the meeting at Salisbury, and that not as their bishop's friends. They, his own liegemen, had abjured him; they held the lands of the bishopric in fief of the King; they had made war upon him by the King's orders, and were now sitting as his judges.^[2] But the main point was that the Bishop should, before matters went any further, do right to the King, that is, acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Court.^[3] This demand the Bishop tried to evade by every means; but it was firmly pressed both by Lanfranc and by the lay members of the Court. These last seem to act in close concert with the Primate, and the ecclesiastical writer brings out in a lively way the energy of their way of speaking.^[4] In answer to them the Bishop spake words which amounted to a casting aside of all the earlier jurisprudence of England, but which were only a natural

1. Mon. Angl. u. s. "Episcopus surgens precatus est regem ut episcopatum suum quem jamdiu sine judicio abstulerat sibi redderet. Lanfrancus vero, rege tacente, dixit, 'Rex de episcopatu tuo nihil tibi abstulit vel aliquis per eam neque breve suum vidisti per quod te de episcopatu tuo dissaisiret vel dissaisiri præciperet.'"
2. The Bishop now tells his grievances at length. After other wrongs the King "misit comites et barones cum exercitu suo, et per eos totum episcopatum meum vastavit, terras quoque et homines et pecuniam Sancti Cuthberti et meam mihi abstulit. Nostram etiam sedem me ad tempus abjuvare coegit; ipsi etiam casati ecclesiæ qui mei homines ligii fuerant et quidquid habebant de casamento ecclesiæ tenebat ex præcepto regis guerram mihi fecerunt, et terras suas de rege tenentes pacifice hic eos cum rege video adversum me convenisse."
3. "Rectitudinem facere" is the technical phrase. See Appendix C.
4. "Tunc laici hujusmodi verbis Lanfranci totius Angliæ primatis animati, adversus episcopum exclamantes dixerunt 'injustum esse quod rex episcopo responderet antequam regi fecisset justitiam.' Laicis vero hæc et alia multa declamantibus et iterantibus, facto silentio, dixit episcopus."