Consecration of Anselm at Canterbury. December 4, 1093.
Thomas of York.
Other bishops present.
Absence of Herbert,
Wulfstan, nationality against the foreign innovations or reforms which Malcolm and Margaret represented in the eyes of their native subjects. The affairs of Scotland, of Wales, of Normandy, were all on the Red King's mind at the same moment, as well as the affairs of Anselm. But it is these last that we have to follow for the present. Early in December, on the second Sunday in Advent, the more part of the bishops of England came together at Canterbury for the consecration of the new metropolitan. At their head was the Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeux. It was the privilege of his see—so the loyal historian of the church of York takes care that we should know—when Canterbury was without an archbishop, to consecrate bishops and to put the crown on the king's head within the vacant province.[1] Whether the one available suffragan of the northern province came along with Thomas, in the form of William of Durham, we are not distinctly told. But of the bishops of the province of Canterbury eight must have been there. Robert Bloet was the elect of Lincoln; but he, like Anselm, was himself awaiting consecration. Of the rest three were absent, and among those three were the only two who were English either by birth or by adoption, the two whom we could have most wished to have a share in the work. Herbert of Thetford must now have been on his penitential journey to Rome or on his way back.[2] The holy Wulfstan, the one Englishman by descent as well as by birth who was left among the bishops of England, the only one who had been a bishop in
- ↑ T. Stubbs, X Scriptt. 1707. He adds emphatically, "Hæc interim fecit Thomas archiepiscopus, nec quisquam episcoporum erat qui hæc in sua ipsius diœcesi præsente archiepiscopo præsumeret."
- ↑ Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 21) describes the consecrators as "Thomas archiepiscopus Eboracensis et omnes episcopi Angliæ," except the two who sent excuses. But Dr. Stubbs does not seem to reckon the Bishop of Durham among the number.
