=Source.=--Eadmer, _Historia Novorum in Anglia_, ed. Rule, pp. 119,
128, 131, 134. (Rolls Series.)
A few days after his return, Anselm came to the king at Salisbury and
was welcomed by him; he accepted the king’s excuse for having assumed
the royal dignity without waiting for the benediction of him whose
right he knew it to be, and was thereupon required to do homage to
the king according to the custom of his ancestors, and to receive
the archbishopric from the king’s hand. He answered that in no wise
either would he or could he consent so to do, and when asked why, he
immediately set forth in plain words what he had agreed to on these and
certain other matters in the council at Rome, saying in conclusion,
“If the lord the king will accept these terms, and accepting, observe
them, there shall surely be a firm peace between us; but if not, I do
not see that my remaining in England will be either useful or honest;
especially as, if he has granted any bishoprics or abbacies, I must
altogether reject communion both with him and with those who have
accepted them. I have not returned to England to dwell there, unless
the king will obey the Pope of Rome. Therefore I beg that the king will
make what order he will, that I may know which way to turn.” The king,
on hearing this, was gravely disturbed. It seemed to him a serious
matter to lose the investitures of churches and the homage of prelates,
but not less serious to suffer Anselm to leave the realm before he
himself was fully established on the throne. On the one hand he thought
he would be losing as it were half the realm, and on the other he
feared that Anselm would go to his brother Robert, who had by that time
returned to Normandy from Jerusalem, and persuading him to submit to
the apostolic see, which he knew to be a most easy thing to do, would
make him king of England. A truce, therefore, from controversy on
either side was asked for until Easter.... To this Anselm consented....
Not long after ... a friendly letter was sent by the king to him....
asking him to come to the king, who wished the matter to be settled
and had another plan. Hoping to hear that God of his grace had touched
the king’s heart, he went, as he was ordered, to Winchester. There
the bishops and chief men of the realm were gathered together, and
by their common assent Anselm agreed that ... envoys should be sent
by both parties to Rome to explain to the Roman pontiff face to face
that either he must abandon his original decision, or submit to the
expulsion of Anselm and his party from England and lose the submission
of the whole realm and the profits which he was accustomed to derive
yearly from the same. Two monks therefore were sent by Anselm, to wit,
Baldwin of Bec and Alexander of Canterbury, not indeed to urge the
Roman pontiff in any way to abate the rigour of justice on Anselm’s
behalf, but partly to bear testimony of the threats of the court which
the Pope must straightway believe, and partly to bring back to Anselm a
final decision from the apostolic see. To accomplish the same purpose
the king sent three bishops, Gerard of Hereford, lately made archbishop
of York, Herbert of Thetford and Robert of Chester....
The journey at length accomplished, the envoys reached Rome together,
and announced the cause of their coming to the apostolic ears, each
party presenting its own case, and humbly asked for the Pope’s counsel
to put an end to the quarrel. He heard their story and found no words
in which to express his amazement. But when he was urgently pressed by
the bishops to consult his own interests and mitigate the strictness of
his predecessor’s rigid decision, that peace might everywhere abound,
he declared that he would not do it even to ransom his person. “Shall
one man’s threats,” he asked with indignation, “drive me to annul the
decrees and institutes of the holy fathers?” That was the end of the
matter. Hereupon he sent letters to the king and Anselm, one to each
... which we set out before our readers’ eyes, the better to reveal
their contents:
“Paschal the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his
dear son Henry, king of the English, greeting and apostolic
benediction.
“We give thanks to the Lord, the King of kings, who by the
grace of His goodwill has raised you to the throne, and by the
grace of His goodwill and of His ineffable mercy has watched
over you as a Christian king. We ask, therefore, that He may
make the good beginnings of your reign grow to better things,
and to the end watch over His gifts bestowed upon you. For you
have repudiated the impiety of the king your brother, which,
as you see, has been terribly avenged by the divine judgment;
you have restored the churches to freedom, you have begun to
honour the clergy and to reverence their heads, the bishops,
and in them Christ the Lord. We are therefore confident that
you will be equally wise to the end and persevere in the same
excellence; except that there are men of perverse spirit who
strive to prepare your royal heart for divine wrath through
the investiture of bishops and abbots. Their counsels in this
behalf should be shunned by you like poison, that you offend
not Him by whom kings reign and the mighty decree justice. If
you propitiate Him, of a truth your reign will be blessed,
and you will win undisputed power and riches. But if, which
God forbid, you offend Him, neither the counsels of barons,
nor the aid of knights, nor arms nor riches will avail to
help you when He shall begin to overthrow you. In the honour
of God, in the liberty of the church, you shall have in us a
friend and helper. Be sure that no man shall wrest you from our
friendship, if you abstain from investitures, if you yield to
the church due honour and preserve its freedom ordained by God.
Indeed, by the judgment of the Holy Ghost, we prohibit kings
and princes and all laymen alike from investitures of churches.
It is not fit that a mother should be sold into slavery by a
son, receiving a spouse whom she has not chosen. For her Spouse
she has our King and Lord, and may He keep you of His mercy in
power and piety, and lead you from an earthly to a heavenly
kingdom. Amen.”
* * * * *
“Paschal the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his
venerable brother and fellow-bishop, Anselm, greeting and
apostolic benediction.
“You are not ignorant that it is by the counsel of the divine
will that your piety presides over the realm of England.
For when, to avoid the hatred of a perverse king, you chose
to withdraw and to dwell by yourself far from the turmoil
of England, living unto God, Almighty God wrought an awful
judgment upon the perverse king. But by the vehement demand of
the whole people and by the wonderful devoutness of the new
king, you have been recalled to the primacy which for God’s
sake you abandoned. Thanks be to God that episcopal authority
ever abides in you, and that though you are set among a
barbarous folk, you cease not to proclaim truth in spite of the
violence of tyrants and the favour of the mighty, in spite of
the kindled fire and the outstretched hand. We ask therefore
that what you are doing, you continue to do, that what you
proclaim, you proclaim to the end. For the inspiration of
Him, Who in the beginning was the Word, shall not be wanting
to our words and works. Nor will we be wanting to Him Who is
the power of God and the wisdom of God. For we believe that
we have the same inspiration as our fathers, wherefore also
we now speak.... In the truth thereof we will guard against
the lies of men. Wherefore in the late Lateran council we
re-enacted the famous decrees of our fathers, proclaiming
and prohibiting that no clerk whatsoever accept churches or
ecclesiastical gifts from the hand of a layman; for this is
the root of the vice of simony, when fools strive to win the
favour of secular persons in order to receive the honours of
the church. Therefore the reverend majesty of holy councils
has decreed that ecclesiastical elections shall be guarded
from the power of secular princes, in order that, as through
Christ only is the door of the church first opened to eternal
life in baptism and at the last in death, so through Christ
only shall be appointed the door-keeper of Christ’s fold, by
whom Christ’s sheep, not for hire but for Christ, shall be led
in and out to life eternal. These things, dear brother, might
be treated at greater length both in speech and argument, but
it is enough to have set forth a few considerations to your
wisdom, which abounds in divine utterances and is familiar
with ecclesiastical arguments. Teach these things, as you know
befits your primacy, which, moreover, we confirm to you as
fully and entirely as it was ever held by your predecessors,
adding for ourselves that so long as the divine mercy shall
preserve your piety in the realm of England, you shall not be
subject to the judgment of any legate, but only of ourself.”
... On the return of the bishops and others who, as we have said, were
sent to Rome, the king, summoning the chief men of the realm to London,
called on Anselm by messenger according to wont, either no longer to
oppose him and the customs of his predecessors, or to give up his
primacy of the realm. He replied, “Let the king be pleased to permit
examination of the letters which have been brought, and, saving my
honour and my obedience to the apostolic see, I will do all in my power
to submit to his will.” The king replied, “Let his own be examined,
if he chooses, but mine shall certainly not be shown at present.” He
answered, “When it shall please the king to show it at another time, he
shall find me ready to meet his present demands.” The king rejoined, “I
have no concern with letters, nor will I; let him say in plain speech
whether he will obey my will in all things.” On hearing this many were
filled with a great wonder, arguing that if the letter had coincided
with the king’s wishes, he would have made the contents public of his
own will, without any reference to Anselm. At that time they were not
known to us, yet the more anxiously their secrecy was then preserved,
the more openly were their contents known a few days later. When the
letter to Anselm had been read and read again before all who would hear
it, the bishops who had come from Rome asserted that they had received
from the Pope at Rome a verbal assurance quite contrary to the tenour
of that letter and even to the letter which they had brought to the
king. Asked what it was, they declared on their word as bishops that
the Pope himself had sent a message for the king’s private ears, that
as long as he lived the life of a good prince in other ways, he would
willingly bear with him on the matter of investitures of churches, and
would refrain from imposing the ban of excommunication if he should
invest religious persons by the gift of the pastoral staff. He had
refused to entrust to writing the honour of a concession so great
in case it should be brought to the knowledge of other princes, who
might usurp the same privilege and despise the authority of the Roman
pontiff....
On the first of August (1107) a council of the bishops, abbots and
chief men of the realm was held at London in the king’s palace, and
for three whole days the question of the investitures of churches
was discussed by the king and the bishops in Anselm’s absence, some
urging upon him to maintain the practice of his father and brother in
defiance of the apostolic command. For the Pope, taking a firm stand
upon the decree which had been published thereon, had conceded the
homage which Pope Urban had prohibited equally with investitures, and
thereby secured the king’s consent to his view of the investitures....
Afterwards, in the presence of Anselm, and the whole council standing,
the king agreed and ordained that from that time forward no man should
be invested in any bishopric or abbey by the king or the hand of any
layman in England by the giving of the pastoral staff or ring, Anselm
on his side granting that no man elected to be a prelate should be
deprived of consecration to the dignity he had received, by reason of
the homage which he should do to the king. Upon this settlement of the
dispute, institutions were made by the king, without investiture of
the pastoral staff or ring, by the counsel of Anselm and the chief men
of the realm, to almost all the churches of England, so long bereft of
their pastors.