Flambard brings a suit against Anselm on the day of enthronement. by the announcement of a hostile suit against the new archbishop. We are not told what was its exact nature, only that it was something which, in the eyes of strict churchmen at least, wholly concerned the affairs of the Church, and with which the King's court had nothing to do.[1] In the older days of England such a distinction could hardly have been drawn; after the separation of the jurisdictions under the Conqueror, it may have been fair enough. Whatever the actual matter in dispute was, we can understand the general indignation at the choice of such a moment for the serving of the notice, at the malice which would not let even the first day of the Primate's new dignity pass unmolested. We can also easily picture to ourselves the fierce swagger of Flambard, graphically as it is set before us.[2] And we can listen also to the mild grief of Anselm, inferring from such treatment on the first day of his primacy what the troubles of his future life were likely to be.[3]
Other events of the year. After the enthronement more than two months still passed before the final rite of consecration admitted Anselm to the fulness of his spiritual office. They were months of no small moment in the history of Britain. They beheld the last invasion of Malcolm, his death,[4] the death of his saintly wife, the uprising of Scottish
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 20. "Indignationi hoc quoque non parum doloris adjiciebat, quod negotium unde agebatur ad jura ecclesiæ pertinebat, nec in aliquo regalis judicii definitionem respiciebat."
- ↑ Ib. "A rege missus quidam nomine Ranulphus, regiæ voluntatis maximus executor, qui, spreta consideratione pietatis ac modestiæ, placitum contra eum ipsa die instituit, et ferus ac tumens, tantum ecclesiæ gaudium conturbare non timuit." Directly after; "ut nec primum quidem suæ dignitatis diem permitteretur in pace transigere."
- ↑ Ib. "Ex præsentibus futura conjecit, et quia multas in pontificatu angustias foret passurus, intellexit atque prædixit."
- ↑ The consecration of Anselm and the death of Malcolm are oddly joined together in the new Canterbury Chronicle published by Liebermann, (p. 4); "1094. On ðison geare me bletsede Anselm to biscope ii. ñ. Decemb.; and on ðison geare me scloch Malculm cing."
