was not any mere breach of ecclesiastical rule—such breaches he had to speak of, but he would not speak of them first;[1] the burthen on his soul was the hideous moral corruption, a new thing on English ground, which had become rife throughout the land. Unless King and Primate, each in his own sphere, each with his own weapons, worked together to root out this plague, the kingdom of England might share the fate of the cities which it had come to resemble. A strict law was needed, the very hearing of which would make the guilty tremble.[2] The words of Anselm were general; there was no personal charge against William; the Archbishop simply appealed to him as King to stop the sins of others. But all this makes us feel more strongly the wonderful character of such a scene, where two such men could be sitting side by side and exchanging their thoughts freely. But the heart of Rufus was hardened; he answered only by a sneer. "And what may come of this matter for you?" "For me nothing," said Anselm; "for you and for God I hope much."[3]
- ↑ He passes by the smaller matters—"ut illicita consanguineorum connubia et alia multa rerum detestandarum facinorosa negotia taceam"—and goes straight to the sin of the reign, "noviter in hac terra divulgatum," which "jam plurimum pullulavit multosque sua immanitate fœdavit." See Appendix G.
- ↑ "Conemur una, quæso, tu regia potestate et ego pontificali auctoritate, quantus tale quid inde statuatur, quod cum per totum fuerit regnum divulgatum, solo etiam auditu quicunque illius fautor est paveat et deprimatur." What would have been the nature of the punishment? Something more, one would think, than an ecclesiastical censure, as it was to be a decree of the King. Anselm had no objection to very severe punishments on occasion (see N. C. vol. v. p. 159; cf. vol. iv. p. 621). But when he was able to legislate on this subject (see N. C. vol. v. p. 223), it was in an ecclesiastical synod, and the penalties are milder.
- ↑ "Non sederunt hæc animo principis, et paucis ita respondit, 'Et in hac re quid fieret pro te?' 'Si non,' inquit Anselmus, 'pro me, spero fieret pro Deo et te.'" I suppose the meaning is something like what I have given. Again one longs for the actual words in their own tongue.
