Anselm goes to England. us like a reversal of all monastic order; but it seems to have been held that, while each monk undoubtedly owed obedience to the abbot, the abbot himself owed obedience to the general vote of the convent. To these two influences, the law of obedience and care for Earl Hugh's soul, Anselm at last yielded. He set sail from Boulogne or Whitsand, and landed at Dover. He was now within what was presently to be his own province, his own diocese; and that province he was not again to leave till he sought shelter on the mainland in the character of archbishop and confessor.
Anselm at Canterbury. September 8, 1092.
His first interview with Rufus.
The immediate business of Anselm led him to Chester,
and to the place, wherever it was, where the King was
to be found. We are told that he made the best of his
way to his sick friend,[1] who was so eager for Anselm's
coming that he despised all other spiritual help.[2] But it
is plain that he tarried on the road to see the King.
From Dover his first stage was Canterbury. There he was
alarmed by the welcome given him by a crowd of monks
and laymen who hailed him as their future archbishop.
It was a high festival, the Nativity of our Lady; but
Anselm, wishing to give no encouragement to such greetings
as he had just received, declined to officiate at the
celebration of the feast. He tarried but one night in the
city, and left it early the next morning.[3] He then went to
the King. The reception which he met with showed that
Rufus must have been for the moment in one of his better
moods. Anselm indeed was a chosen friend of his father,
- ↑ "Citato gressu, ad comitem venit," says Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 15), where he leaves out the interview with the King which he describes in the Life.
- ↑ Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 79. "Hugo . . . quanquam in supremis positus, omnium in confessione supercilium recusans, Anselmum expetebat; veteris amicitiæ pignus apud eum depositurus si moreretur."
- ↑ Vit. Ans. ii. 1. 1. "Cum quasi ex præsagio futurorum multi et monachi et laici conclamarent illum archiepiscopum fore, summo mane a loco decessit, nec ullo pacto acquiescere petentibus, ut ibi festum celebraret, voluit."
