Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/681

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William of Warelwast and Urban.

Urban's answer.

Excommunication threatened.

April 12, 1099.

  • wards himself. Soon after came William of Warelwast,

with a message from the King to the Pope. The diplomacy of the future bishop of Exeter was at least straightforward. "My lord the King sends you word that he wonders not a little how it can have come into your mind to address him for the restitution of the goods of Anselm." He added, "If you ask the reason, here it is. When Anselm wished to depart from his land, the King openly threatened him that, if he went, he should take the whole archbishopric into his demesne. Since Anselm then would not, even when thus threatened, give up his purpose of going, the King deems that his own acts were right, and that he is now wrongfully blamed."[1] The Pope asked whether the King had any other charge against Anselm. "None," answered the envoy. Urban had gained an advantage. He poured forth his wonder at a thing so unheard of in all time as that a king should spoil the primate of his kingdom of all his goods merely because he would not refrain from visiting the Roman Church, the mother of all churches.[2] William of Warelwast might go back to his master, and might tell him that the Pope meant to hold a council at Rome in the Easter-week next to come, and that, if by that time Anselm was not restored to all that he had lost, the sentence of excommunication should go forth.[3]

  1. ↑ Hist. Nov. 51. "Si causam quæris, hæc est. Quando de terra sua discedere voluit, aperte minatus est se illo discedente totum archiepiscopatum in dominium suum accepturum. Quoniam igitur, nec his minis constrictus, quin exiret omittere noluit, juste se putat fecisse quod fecit et injuria reprehendi."
  2. ↑ Ib. 52. "Quis unquam audivit talia? pro hoc solo primatem regni suis omnibus spoliavit, quia ne sanctam matrem ecclesiam omnium Romanam visitaret omittere noluit?. . . Et pro tali responso mirabilis homo huc te fatigasti?"
  3. ↑ Ib. "Certissime noverit se in eodem concilio damnationis sententia puniri quam promeruit."
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