The Bishop again summoned by Walkelin.
Interposition of the Counts.
He at last crosses to Normandy. still repeatedly forbidden to cross, even alone.[1] In answer to an earnest message that he might be allowed to go to Rome, the King sent Walkelin Bishop of Winchester with two companions, one of them Hugh of Port, a well-known Domesday name, to summon him to send Geoffrey for trial to Durham and to appear himself in London at the Christmas Gemót to answer for the deeds of his men.[2] In defiance of all prayers and protests, the King's officers kept the Bishop in ward night and day; in his sadness he sent a message to the Counts who had given him the safe-conduct, praying them by the faith of their baptism to have him released from his imprisonment and allowed to cross the sea.[3] They answered his appeal. At their urgent prayer, the King at last let him cross. He sailed to Normandy, where he was honourably received by Duke Robert, and—so the Durham writer believed—entrusted with the care of his whole duchy.[4] Perhaps it was owing to these new worldly cares that, though we often hear of him again, we do not hear of him as a suppliant at the court of Rome.
Importance of the story of William of Saint-Calais. The tale of Bishop William of Durham is long, perhaps in some of its stages it is wearisome; but it is too important a contribution to our story to be left out or cut short. It sets before us the earliest of those debates in the King's court of which we shall come
- ↑ He offers, "Solus, si liceat, transfretabo."
- ↑ Mon. Angl. u. s. "Rex misit ei Wintoniensem episcopum et Hugonem de Portu et Gaufridum de Traileio, et per illos sibi mandavit ut Gaufridum monachum ad placitandum de prædictis forisfactis Dunelmum mitteret, et ipse Londoniam iret, ut in nativitate Domini de hominibus suis ibi rectitudinem regi faceret."
- ↑ Ib. "Episcopus tristis misit ad comites Alanum et Rogerum et Odonem, mandans eis impedimenta sua, et conjuravit eos per eam fidem quam in baptismo susceperant et quam sibi promiserant."
- ↑ Ib. "A Roberto fratre regis comite Normannorum honorifice susceptus, totius Normanniæ curam suscepit."
