not been better off during the vacancy than now that the archbishopric was full.[1] And all this while, heavy as William professed to deem the crime of so much as giving Urban the title of Pope, William's own dealings with Urban were neither slight nor unfriendly.
§ 5. The Mission of Cardinal Walter. 1095.
Events of the months of truce, March-May, 1095.
Assemblies of the year.
The months of truce between the King and the Archbishop
were, as our next chapter will show, busy months
in other ways. William Rufus was all this time engaged
in another dispute with a subject of a rank but little
below that of the Primate, a dispute in which, at least
in its early stages, the King appears to much greater
advantage than he commonly does. A conspiracy against
William's throne and life was plotting; Robert of Mowbray
was making ready for revolt, and his refusal to appear,
when summoned, at the Easter and Whitsun assemblies
of this year was the first overt act of his rebellion. We
may conceive that Anselm did not attend either of those
gatherings; that of Whitsuntide we know that he did
not. It might be more consistent with the notion of
the truce that he should keep away from the King's
presence and court till the time which had been fixed for
the controversy formally to begin again. At Easter and
for some time after, Anselm seems to have stayed at
Canterbury, and, while he was there, the metropolitan
city received an unexpected visitor, who did not allow
himself to be treated as a guest.
Position of Urban. The year which we have reached was one of the most memorable in the history of the papacy. Urban, though not in full possession of Rome, had kept his Christmas there a year before, and his cause was decidedly in the
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 32. "Ut fere universi conclamarent melius sibi absque pastore jam olim fuisse quam nunc sub hujusmodi pastore esse."
