Settlement of the affairs of Bec. that the milder mood of the Red King had not wholly passed away. If Anselm had been thrust aside with any violent or sarcastic answer, it would surely have passed into one of the stock anecdotes of the reign. Our only other description of the scene paints Rufus as held back from any disrespectful treatment of Anselm by a lingering reverence for the friend of his parents. He turned the matter off with a laugh. He could not hinder what men chose to say of him; but so holy a man as Anselm ought not to believe such stories.[1] It is not even clear whether Anselm brought himself to speak at all on the particular business which had brought him to the King's presence. King and Abbot parted; it would seem that nothing was done about the affairs of Bec for the present; but we may gather that, at some later time, the lands of the monastery were relieved from the burthens of which they complained.[2]
Anselm at Chester. Anselm now went on to Chester, where he found his friend Earl Hugh restored to health. But the change in the foundation at Saint Werburh's still needed his presence, and the special affairs of his own house had also
- [Footnote: (see his editor's note) to have first written, "Data secreti copia, flagitiorum
obscœnitatem quibus regem accusabat fama incunctanter aperuit." He then struck out the strong words in Italics and changed them to the vague "cuncta."]
- ↑ Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 79. "Famæ licentiæ non se posse obviare dictitans; ceterum sanctum virum non debere illa credere. Neque enim procaciore responso exsufflare hominem tunc volebat, sciens quanti eum pater et mater pendere soliti essent dum adviverent."
- ↑ Eadmer, in the passage quoted above, distinctly implies that nothing was said about the affairs of Bec, and adds, "Finito colloquio divisi ab invicem sunt, et de ecclesiæ suæ negotiis ea vice ab Anselmo nihil actum est." William of Malmesbury, on the other hand, describes Anselm as speaking of them at this interview ("necessitates quoque suas modeste allegans"), and William as settling them as Anselm wished ("ille omnia negotia Beccensis ecclesiæ ad arbitrium rectoris componens"). I should infer from this, and from the words "ea vice" in Eadmer, that things were settled in the end as the monks of Bec wished, but not at this interview. William of Malmesbury is never very strict as to chronological order.
