=Source.=--Simeon of Durham, _De injusta vexatione Willelmi episcopi
primi_, ed. Arnold, vol. i., p. 171. (Rolls Series.)
King William the younger disseised[23] the bishop of Durham of his
own lands and the lands of his church on 4 March, and caused his men
and all his goods to be taken, wherever he could; he also ordered the
bishop to be taken, and laid many snares for him; but by God’s will
the bishop escaped them, and coming to Durham, sent his messenger to
the king with the following letter on the very day on which he entered
Durham:
“To his lord, William, king of the English, William bishop of Durham,
greeting and loyal service. Know, my lord, that your men of York and
Lincoln detain my men under arrest, and have seized my lands, and
would have taken me also, if they could; and they say that they have
done all these things at your command. I request you, therefore, as my
lord, to cause my men and my lands to be restored with my chattels to
me, as your liege man, whom you have never appealed[24] of any crime,
and who has never stood on his defence before you. If you will appeal
me hereafter of any crime, I am ready to justify myself before you in
your court at a convenient term, on receipt of a safe conduct. But I
earnestly beg you not to treat me so basely and dishonourably, nor to
disseise me unjustly, upon the advice of my enemies. For it is not
every man who may judge bishops, and for my part, saving always my
order, I undertake to offer you complete satisfaction; and if at the
present you desire to have my service or the service of my men, I offer
you the same at your pleasure.”
The king, however, on receiving and hearing the bishop’s letter, gave
the bishop’s lands to his barons before the eyes of the messenger whom
the bishop had sent, and again commanded the bishop to come to him, on
the condition that if he should refuse to abide by the king’s will, he
might return safely to Durham. But when the bishop, on hearing this
answer, was ready to go to the king, he sent first to the sheriff of
York, asking for a safe journey to the king’s presence. But Ralph
Paynel, who was then sheriff, refused a conduct not only to the bishop
but to all his messengers and men desiring to go to the king; he even
seized the bishop’s monk who was returning from the king, and killed
his horse, permitting him, however, to go on his way thereafter.
Furthermore, on the king’s behalf, he commanded all the king’s men to
do harm to the bishop wheresoever and howsoever they could. So, when
the bishop was thus prevented from seeking the king either in person
or by messenger, and had endured the destruction and devastation of
his lands without any retaliation for seven weeks and more, the king
at length sent to him the abbot of St. Augustine’s, commanding him,
as he had before commanded, to come to his court with the abbot. The
bishop, however, fearing the snares of his enemies and the king’s
anger, answered that he could not come without a safe conduct, and sent
his messengers in the abbot’s company with a letter to the king to that
effect....
The king, on seeing this letter, sent the bishop a safe conduct, and
assured him by letter that no hurt should be done him by the king
himself or his men, until he should have left the king and reached
Durham once more. The bishop, therefore, went to the king, and prayed
to be put on his trial as a bishop. The king replied that he would
consent to a trial only if the bishop would plead in a lay court and
forego the safe conduct granted to him; if he should refuse so to
plead, he must go back to Durham. The bishop then asked the archbishop
of York and the bishops there present to advise him thereon. But the
bishops replied that the king had forbidden them to advise him. Then
the bishop pressed his archbishop to advise him, as a matter of
right, due to his church and to himself. The archbishop therefore made
request to the king thereon, but reported to the bishop that it was
impossible. So the bishop himself prayed the king to allow him the
advice of his archbishop and primate and the bishops, his peers, but
the king summarily refused. The bishop then offered to purge himself of
the charge of treason and disloyalty; the king, however, rejected the
offer, and the bishop returned to Durham. Meanwhile the king had seized
there more than 700 men and considerable booty.
Again therefore the bishop sent a letter to the king by one of his
monks.... The king replied by seizing and imprisoning the monk who
brought it, and sent his army against the bishop; and after the troops
had laid waste the bishop’s lands with fire and plunder, the barons
opened negotiations with the bishop, and both parties agreed to a
solemn covenant....
On the strength of this, the plea was respited on both sides until 10
November, and on that day the bishop came to Salisbury.... The bishop
rose in court and prayed the king to restore to him his bishopric,
which he had long ago taken from him without a judgment. The king
said nothing, but Lanfranc replied, “The king has taken away no part
of your bishopric, nor has any other man at his command, nor have you
seen his writ disseising you or commanding you to be disseised of your
bishopric.” The bishop rejoined, “No, but I have seen Ralph Paynel, and
I see him here; and he, by the king’s command, has disseised me of the
whole of my bishopric in Yorkshire....” Lanfranc replied, “The king
summons you to make your defence to him, and his barons have brought
you here to that end; yet you ask that he first make his defence to
you! First defend yourself, and then ask what you are now asking.” The
bishop said in answer, “My lord archbishop, do you say that by way of
advice or by way of judgment?” “By way of advice, of course,” said he,
“but if the king will listen to me, he will make a judgment of it soon
enough.” At these words of Lanfranc, the primate of all England, the
lay barons were aroused and cried out against the bishop, asserting
that it was contrary to right that the king should answer the bishop
before the latter had justified himself to the king.
The lay barons gave utterance to this and many other statements, with
much repetition, but when silence was restored, the bishop said, “My
lords, barons and laymen, allow me, I beg you, to say what I have to
say to the king, and to make my answer to the archbishops and bishops.
I have nothing to say to you, and since I have not come here to receive
your judgment, I reject it altogether; even if it had pleased our
lord the king and the archbishops and bishops that you should meddle
with this matter, it would not have befitted me to submit to such an
indignity.” The king then said, “I trusted that the bishop would first
answer me touching the charges I make against him; I am astonished
that he asks for anything else.” Thereupon earl Alan and earl Roger
said, “We have brought the bishop to justify himself to the king.” To
which the bishop replied, “Robbed as I am, I am ready to answer, if I
be tried canonically, for I will not go one step beyond the law of my
order in this suit.” Roger Bigot then said to the king, “You should
tell the bishop whereof you appeal him, and afterward, if he refuse
to answer to us, cause him to be judged touching his answer; if not,
do thereon what your barons advise you.” The bishop rejoined, “I have
just said, and I say again, that I reject altogether the judgment
of laymen, and anything that contravenes the canons. I accept no
accusation, unless I be first invested with my bishopric, or unless
it be awarded by a canonical judgment that I must be charged and make
answer and be judged before such investiture.” Then Hugh de Beaumont
rose by the king’s command and said to the bishop, “The king appeals
you of this, that when he learned that his enemies were rising against
him, and his men, to wit, the bishop of Bayeux and earl Roger and many
others, were attempting to deprive him of his realm and crown, and he,
by your advice, rode against them, he summoned you, in my presence, to
ride with him, and you answered that you would willingly go with the
seven knights whom you had there, and would send to your castle for
more with all speed; and afterwards you fled from his court without
his licence, taking with you some men of his household, and so failed
him in his necessity. And now it is his will that you do thereon to
him what his court shall award, and if need be, he will appeal you
afterwards of more offences.” The bishop, however, replied to him,
“Hugh, say what you like, but you I will not answer today....” Hugh de
Beaumont rejoined, “If I today fail to judge you and your order, you
or your order shall never judge me again....” The bishop went out with
his men, and on his return, Thomas, archbishop of York, said to him,
“My lord bishop, our lord archbishop and the king’s court awards that
you do right to the king before he reinvest you with your fee....” The
bishop said, “The judgment here given I reject, because it contravenes
the canons and our law ... and since I am conscious that through the
king’s hatred you are all against me, I appeal to the apostolic see,
the holy church of Rome, to St. Peter and his vicar....” Thereupon
archbishop Lanfranc replied, “We are not judging you touching your
bishopric, but touching your fee, and in the same way we judged the
bishop of Bayeux before this king’s father, touching his fee; in that
suit the king did not summon him as a bishop, but as his brother and as
an earl.” The bishop answered, “My lord archbishop, I have not said a
word today about a fee, nor have I said that I had a fee; I complained,
and I complain still, of the disseisin of my bishopric.” The archbishop
rejoined, “I may not have heard you speak of a fee, but I know you had
a great fee, and we have judged you thereon.” The bishop replied, “My
lord archbishop, I gather now that you have ignored all that I have
said, and judge me out of your own knowledge; but though by God’s grace
you are exceeding wise and of great reputation, I perceive that in
this your wisdom is so high that my humble intelligence cannot grasp
it; but I wish to go to the apostolic see, to which of necessity I
have appealed, by licence of the king and you.” “Leave us,” said the
archbishop, “and the king, after taking counsel, will announce to you
his will.” When the bishop had left the room and had been summoned
back, Hugh de Beaumont rose and said to him, “My lord bishop, the
king’s court and these barons adjudge as just, that since you refuse
to answer touching the charge whereon the king through me has appealed
you, but cite him on his plea to Rome, you thereby forfeit your fee.”
THE ILLNESS OF WILLIAM RUFUS, AND THE APPOINTMENT OF ANSELM AS
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (1093).
=Source.=--Eadmer, _Historia Novorum in Anglia_, ed. Rule, p. 30.
(Rolls Series.)
One day one of the chief men of the realm, a favourite of the
king, happened to say to him among other things in the course of
conversation: “We have never known a man of holiness so great, we
honestly believe, as Anselm abbot of Bec; he loves nothing beside
God, and, as the whole of his work makes manifest, he covets nothing
transitory.” The king rejoined with a sneer, “No, not even the
archbishopric of Canterbury.” The other replied, “No, not even that
has a very great attraction for him, in the opinion of myself and many
others.” Whereupon the king swore that the abbot would rush to accept
it with open arms, if he had the slightest hope of attaining to it,
and added, “But, by the Holy Cross of Lucca,” as he was accustomed
to swear, “neither he nor any other shall be archbishop at present,
except myself.” He had scarcely spoken when he was seized by illness
and took to his bed, growing daily worse until he was at the point
of death. Why continue? All the chief men of the whole realm came
together, bishops, abbots and all the nobles, looking for nothing but
his death. The sick man was urged to take thought for the salvation of
his soul, to open the prisons, to set free the prisoners, to unloose
the bound, to pardon debts, to restore to liberty the churches still
in bondage under his lordship, by setting pastors over them, and above
all the church of Canterbury, “the oppression whereof,” they said,
“lays a hateful burden upon the whole church of Christ in England.”
Anselm at this time, in ignorance of this event, was staying in a town
not far from Gloucester, where the king lay sick. He was commanded,
therefore, to come to the king with all speed and by his presence
to comfort and strengthen him on his deathbed. Hearing such news he
made haste to come, and on his arrival came to the king, who asked
him what he deemed the most wholesome counsel for a dying man; the
abbot asked to be first informed what counsel had been given to the
sick prince by those around him before his own coming. He heard and
approved, adding: “It is written, ‘Begin by confession to the Lord’;
wherefore it seems to me that he should first make a good confession
of all that he knows himself to have done against God, and should
promise without insincerity to amend all if he recover, and then should
order to be performed without delay what you have advised him.” This
precise counsel was approved, and the task of hearing the confession
enjoined upon the abbot. The king was informed what Anselm had urged
as the best means for the saving of his soul, and straightway he
acquiesced and with a contrite heart promised to do everything which
the abbot’s judgment decided, and to conduct the whole of his life in
gentleness and justice. To this he pledged his faith, and made his
bishops sureties between him and God, sending one of them in his stead
to make this his vow to God upon the altar. The order was written and
confirmed by the royal seal, that all prisoners in the whole of his
dominion should be released, all debts irrevocably cancelled, and all
offences committed hitherto consigned to everlasting oblivion. Moreover
righteous and holy laws were promised to all people, the inviolable
observance of justice, and a weighty and deterrent trial of abuses.
All men rejoiced and God was blessed herein, and urgent prayers were
offered for the salvation of so good and great a king.
Thereupon all good men entreated the king to release from her long
widowhood the common mother of the whole realm by instituting a pastor
thereto. He willingly consented and admitted that he had changed his
mind. The question, therefore, was asked, who was most worthy to
enjoy this honour, and while all were hanging on the king’s decision,
he himself announced, amid the unanimous acclamation of all, that
abbot Anselm was worthiest thereof. Anselm was alarmed at his words
and grew pale; and when he was forced to approach the king to receive
investiture of the archbishopric from his hand by the pastoral staff,
he resisted with the whole of his strength, and declared that for many
reasons it was altogether impossible.... He said: “I am the abbot
of a monastery of another realm, having an archbishop to whom I owe
obedience, an earthly prince to whom I owe submission, and monks to
whom I owe the ministrations of counsel and assistance. To all these I
am so bound that I can neither abandon the monks without their consent,
nor loose myself from my prince’s lordship without his permission,
nor disown obedience to my bishop without peril to my soul unless he
absolve me.” The bishops rejoined, “That is a light matter, all will
readily consent.” He replied, “Not so; what you purpose can never
be.” Thereupon they dragged him to the sick king and set forth his
obstinacy. The king was distressed almost to tears ... but recognising
that the labour of all of them was in vain, he ordered them all to
fall on their knees at his feet, to see if by that means he could be
induced to consent. To what end? When they knelt, he knelt too before
them and would not alter his first decision. They were angry with
him, and blaming their own stupidity for the delay they had suffered
by listening to his objections, they cried out “The pastoral staff,
bring the pastoral staff hither.” Then, seizing his right hand, some
dragged, others pushed the struggling abbot, and gradually they
reached the sick man’s bedside. The king proffered him the staff,
but he closed his hand against it and wholly refused to take it. The
bishops struggled to unclasp his tightly clenched fingers, that the
staff might be thrust into his hand. But after they had wasted their
efforts for some time, and he groaned with the pain inflicted upon him,
at last his forefinger was raised but bent backwards, the staff was
laid against his closed hand and squeezed and held in it by the hands
of the bishops. The whole throng cried out, “Long live the bishop,”
the bishops and clergy lifted up their voices and began to sing “_Te
deum laudamus_,” and carried rather than led the bishop elect to
the nearest church, he resisting the while as well as he could, and
saying: “It is all void, it is all void.” After they had performed the
customary ritual in the church, Anselm was brought back to the king
and said to him, “I tell you, my lord king, that you will not die of
your illness, and I wish you to know this that you will be able to set
right what has now been done with me, for I have not consented and do
not consent to its ratification....” The king however ordered him to
be invested without delay and diminution with all things belonging
to the archbishopric within and without, and further that the city
of Canterbury, which Lanfranc in his time held of the king as a fee,
and the abbey of St. Albans, which not only Lanfranc but also his
predecessors are known to have held, should pass as an alodiary[25]
possession for ever to Christ Church, Canterbury, for the redemption
of his soul.... The king recovered, as Anselm had foretold, and soon
undid all the good that he had decreed in his illness, and ordered it
to be annulled. The prisoners who had not yet been released he ordered
to be kept more straitly than usual, those who had been released to
be retaken if possible, old debts now pardoned to be exacted in full,
pleas and offences to be recalled to their original standing, and to
be tried and decided by the judgment of men who were concerned rather
to subvert justice than to maintain and defend it, and interested
rather in oppressing the wretched and in spoiling men of their wealth
than in correcting any crime. Wherefore there grew throughout the
realm so vast a woe and so woeful a waste that he who remembers it, I
judge, remembers to have never seen the like in England. Indeed every
evil that the king had done before his illness seemed a good thing in
comparison with the evils he did after his return to health. And if
any man will know the source from which they flowed, they can judge
by his answer to the bishop of Rochester, when the latter in friendly
conversation warned him after his recovery that he should in all things
behave more circumspectly towards God: “Be sure, bishop,” he said, “by
the Holy Cross of Lucca, that God shall never have me good because of
the evil He has brought upon me.”