Position of the bishops.
Anselm makes no exclusive claims.
His second speech. the administration of Rufus and Flambard. Neither as priests of God, nor as Witan of the realm, nor simply as freemen of the land, was there any strength or counsel in them. Their answer seems almost to imply that they cast aside the common decencies, not only of prelates but of Christian men, that they fully accepted the ruling of their sovereign, that the will of God was not to be put into comparison with the will of the King. Anselm is not doing like some before and after him, not even like his chief enemy in the present gathering. He is not asserting any special privilege for his order; he is not appealing from a court within the realm to any foreign jurisdiction. He asks for counsel how he may reconcile his duty to God with his duty to the King; and the answer he gets is that he has nothing to do but to submit to the King's will; the law of God, and seemingly the law of England with it, are to go for nothing. But there was at least some shame left in them; when they had given their answer, they held their peace and hung down their heads, as if waiting for what Anselm might lay upon them.[1] Then the Primate spoke, seemingly not rising from his seat, but with uplifted eyes, with solemn voice, with a face all alive with feeling.[2] He looked at the chiefs of Church and State, prelates and nobles, and told them that if they, shepherds and princes,[3] could give no counsel save according to the will of one man, he must betake him to the Shepherd and Prince of all. That Shepherd and
- [Footnote: obviare possit, consilium a nobis expectas, frustra niteris; quia in hujusmodi
nunquam tibi nos adminiculari videbis."]
