The final sentence. Lanfranc asserts the authority of the King's court.[1] The King then steps in with one of his short speeches; "You may say what you will, but you shall not escape my hands, unless you first give up the castle to me."[2] The Bishop then makes a shorter protest than usual, the drift of which seems to be that he is ready to suffer any loss rather than be personally arrested.[3] The sentence of the Court is now finally passed. A day is fixed by which the Bishop's men should leave the city of Durham and the King's men take possession of it instead.[4]
The Bishop asks for an allowance.
Answer of Lanfranc.
The judgement of the Assembly had thus formally gone
against the claims of the Bishop of Durham; but his
resources were not at an end. Defeated on all points
of law, he makes an appeal to the King's generosity.
Will his lord the King, he now prays, leave him something
from his bishopric on which he may at least be
able to live? Lanfranc again answers; "Shall you go to
Rome, to the King's hurt and to the dishonour of all of
us, and shall the King leave lands to you? Stay in his
land, and he will give back to you all your bishopric,
except the city, on the one condition that you do right
to him in his court by the judgement of his barons."[5]
- ↑ Mon. Ang. u. s. "Non est justum ut placitum vel judicium regis pro aliqua contradictione longius procedat, sed quotiens in curia sua judicium agitur, ibidem necesse est ut concedatur vel contradicatur, tu ergo judicium nostrum vel hic concede, vel hic evidenti ratione contradicito."
- ↑ Ib. "Rex ait, 'Dicas licet quidquid velis, non tamen effugies manus meas nisi castellum prius mihi reddas.'" The Bishop has just before spoken of "Roma, ubi debeo et ubi justitia magis quam violentia."
- ↑ Ib. "Cum vos non solum episcopatum, verum et omnia mea, injuste abstuleritis, et ipsam modo sedem violenter auferre velitis, pro nulla re quam facere possim capi me patiar."
- ↑ Ib. "Constituta est ergo dies qua episcopus urbem suis hominibus vacuaret et rex ibi suos poneret."
- ↑ Ib. "Tu pro regis damno et omnium nostrorum dedecore vadis Romam, et ipse tibi terram dimitteret? Remane in terra sua, et ipse episcopatum tuum præter urbem tibi reddet, ea conditione quod in curia sua judicio baronum suorum rectitudinem sibi facias."
