he accuses of falsehood, were Girard archbishop of York, and Herbert of Norwich, whose errors were discovered by the more veracious legates, William afterwards bishop of Exeter, and Baldwin monk of Bec. Anselm[1] the archbishop was now again, in the time of this king, an exile at Lyons, resident with Hugh, archbishop of that city, when the first letter which I have inserted was despatched; for he himself possessed no desire to return, nor did the king, through the multitude of sycophants, suffer his animosity to be appeased. He deferred, therefore, for a long time, recalling him or complying with the papal admonition; not from desire of power, but through the advice of the nobility, and particularly of the earl of Mellent, who, in this affair, running counter to reason more from ancient custom than a sense of right, alleged that the king's majesty must be much diminished if, disregarding the usage of his predecessors, he ceased to invest the elected person with the staff and ring. The king, however, considering more attentively what the clear reasoning of the epistles, and the bountiful gift of divine favours, plentifully showered down upon him, admonished, yielded up the investiture of the ring and staff for ever, retaining only the privilege of election and of the temporalities. A great council, therefore, of bishops, nobles, and abbats, being assembled at London, many points of ecclesiastical and secular business were settled, many differences adjusted. And not long after, five bishops were ordained in Kent, on the same day, by archbishop Anselm: William to the see of Winchester; Roger to Salisbury; William to Exeter; Reinald to Hereford; Urban to Glamorgan. In this manner a controversy, agitated by perpetual dissensions, and the cause of many a journey to and from Rome by Anselm, met with a commendable termination. Henry's queen, Matilda, descended from an ancient and illustrious race of kings, daughter of the king of Scotland, as I have said before, had also given her attention to literature, being educated, from her infancy, among the nuns at Wilton and Romsey. Wherefore, in order to have a colour for refusing an ignoble alliance, which was more than once offered by her father, she wore the garb indicative of the
- ↑ He had been recalled on the king's accession, but afterwards quitted the kingdom again.
