to another motive. It would not be for the soul's health of Anselm himself if he stayed away when his friend so deeply needed his help.[1] To this argument Anselm yielded; for the sake of friendship and of his friend's spiritual welfare, he would go, let men say what they would about his motives for going.[2]
He is bidden to go by his monks. But the invitation of Earl Hugh was not Anselm's only motive for his journey. Another cause was added which a little startles us. The business of the abbey in England, business to be done with the King, still called for the abbot's presence there. The monks sought to have the royal exactions on their English lands made less heavy.[3] At this moment Anselm was not at Bec; he was spending some days at Boulogne with his friend and correspondent Countess Ida.[4] While there, he received a message from Bec, bidding him, by virtue of the law of obedience, not to come back to the abbey till he had gone into England and looked after the matters about which he was needed there.[5] Such a message as this from monks to their abbot sounds to
- ↑ Hist. Nov. 15. "Tertio mandat illi hæc, si non veneris, revera noveris, quia nunquam in vita æterna in tanta requie eris quin perpetuo doleas te ad me non venisse." There is something very striking in the frequent mixture of strong faith with evil practice in men of Earl Hugh's stamp. But his cleaving to such a man as Anselm is at least more enlightened than the fetish-worship of Lewis the Eleventh. Cf. Church, Anselm, 173.
- ↑ Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 15) gives his reflexions at some length. They are summed up in the words of William of Malmesbury, Gest. Pont. 78; "Cæterum quid homines loquerentur ipsi viderent, cum quantum sua interesset, eorum obloquia, honesta diu conversatione vitasset." He adds, "Simul et jam rumor de ejus archiepiscopatu, minas olim intentans, longinquitate temporis detepuerat."
- ↑ Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 79. "Ut prædiorum suorum vectigalia lenito intercessionibus suis rege levigaret."
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 15. Several letters of Anselm are addressed to her. See Appendix Y.
- ↑ Hist. Nov. 15. "Mandatum est illi a Beccensibus ne, si peccato inobedientiæ notari nollet, ultra monasterium repeteret, donec transito mari, suis in Anglia rebus subveniret."
