Anselm draws up a form of prayer. draw up a prayer fitted for the purpose. Anselm, after much pressing, agreed; he drew up the prayer; it was laid before the Assembly, and his work was approved by all.[1] The Gemót broke up, and prayers were offered throughout England, according to Anselm's model, for the appointment of an archbishop, a prayer which on most lips doubtless meant the appointment of Anselm himself.[2]
The year 1093.
William's sickness at Alvestone.
Discourse about Anselm before the King.
Before the Assembly broke up, a memorable year had
begun. It is a year crowded with events, with the
deaths of memorable men, with one death above all
which led to most important results on the relations between
the two great parts of the isle of Britain. With
these events I shall deal in another chapter; we have
now mainly to trace the ecclesiastical character of the
year as the greatest of all stages in the career of Anselm.
The Assembly had doubtless been held at Gloucester,
and, after the session was over, the King tarried in the
neighbourhood, at the royal house of Alvestone, once a
lordship of Earl Harold.[3] There he was smitten with
a heavy sickness. The tale has a legendary sound; yet
there is nothing really incredible in the story that he fell
sick directly after he had been guilty of a mocking speech
about Anselm. Some nobles were with the King at
Alvestone, and one of them spoke of the virtues of the
Abbot of Bec. He was a man who loved God only, and
sought for none of the things of this world. The King
says in mockery, "Not for the archbishopric of Canterbury?"
The remark at least shows that Anselm and the
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 13. Anselm's chief objection was that the making of prayers was a specially episcopal business; "Episcopi, ad quos ista maxime pertinebant, Anselmum super reipsa consuluerunt. Et quod ipse orationis agendæ modum et summam ordinaret, vix optinere suis precibus ab eo potuerant. Episcopis enim præferri in tali statuto ipse abbas fugiebat."
- ↑ Ib. "Institutæ igitur preces sunt per Anglorum ecclesias omnes."
- ↑ See Domesday, 163. The entry of Alvestone comes immediately before the entry of Berkeley.
