will cleave to God."[1] They did as he bade them; they went, and Anselm was left almost alone; the few friends who clave to him sat apart at his bidding, and prayed to God to bring the matter to a good ending.[2]
Part of the lay lords.
Anselm's promise to obey the customs.
In all these debates it is the bishops who play the
worst part. They seem to say in calm earnest the same
kind of things which the King said in wrath or in jest.
After a short delay, they come back, accompanied by
some lay barons, and the tone of their discourse is at
once raised. Anselm has no longer the laity on his side,
as he had at Rockingham; nor can we wonder at the
change. The speech which is now made is harsh, perhaps
captious; but at all events the stand is now taken
on direct legal grounds, no longer on the base motives
confessed to by the bishops. The King sent word that
Anselm had troubled him, embittered him, tortured him,
by his complaints.[3] The Archbishop is reminded that, after
the suit at Rockingham and the reconciliation which followed
at Windsor—a reconciliation which is now attributed
to the earnest prayers of Anselm's friends[4]—he had
sworn to obey the laws and customs of the realm, and to defend
them against all men.[5] After this promise the King
had believed that Anselm would give him no more trouble.[6]
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 38. "Bene dixistis, Ite ergo ad dominum vestrum, ergo me tenebo ad Deum."
- ↑ Ib. "Unoquoque nostrum qui admodum pauci cum eo remansimus ad imperium illius singulatim sedente, et Deum pro digestione ipsius negotii interpellante." There is something strange in this last word.
- ↑ We here get a climax; "Sæpe diversis eum querelis exagitasti, exacerbasti, cruciasti."
- ↑ The wording is remarkable and subtle; "Cum tandem post placitum quod totius regni adunatione contra te apud Rockingeham habitum est, eum tibi sicut dominum tuum reconciliari sapienter peteres; et, adjutus meritis et precibus plurimorum pro te studiose intervenientium, petitioni tuæ effectum obtineres."
- ↑ See above, p. 531.
- ↑ Hist. Nov. 39. "Quibus opem credulus factus sperabat se de cætero quietum fore."
