Their friendly discourse. to it. Anselm came to Windsor, and was admitted by the King to his most familiar converse in the sight of the lords and of the whole multitude that had come together.[1] Cardinal Walter came in at the lucky moment, and was edified by the sight. He quoted the scripture, "Behold, how good and joyful it is brethren to dwell together in unity." He sat down beside the friendly pair; he quoted other scriptures, and expressed his sorrow that he himself had not had any hand in the good work of bringing them together.
Anselm asked to take the pallium from the King.
He refuses.
The wild bull and the feeble sheep thus seemed for
a moment to pull together as friendly yokefellows. But
a Norman king did not, in his character of wild bull, any
more than in his character of lion, altogether cast aside
his other character of fox. He, or Count Robert for him,
had one shift left. Or it might almost seem that it was
not the King's own shift, but merely the device of
flatterers who wished to win the royal favour by proposing
it. Would not the Archbishop, for the honour
of the King's majesty, take the pallium from the King's
hand?[2] Anselm had made no objection to receiving
the staff from the King's hand, for such was the ancient
custom of England. But with the pallium the King
had nothing to do; it belonged wholly to the authority
of Saint Peter and his successor.[3] Anselm therefore
refused to take the pallium from the King. The refusal
was so clearly according to all precedent, the proposal
the other way was such a manifest novelty, that nothing
more was said about the matter. It was settled that, on a
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 33. "Cum curiæ illius apud Windlesorum se præsentasset et familiari alloquio in conspectu procerum et coadunatæ multitudinis ipsum detinuisset."
- ↑ "Ut pro regiæ majestatis honorificentia, illud per manum regis susciperet."
- ↑ "Rationabiliter ostendens hoc donum non ad regiam dignitatem, sed ad singularem beati Petri pertinere auctoritatem."
