Perplexity of the King.
Another adjournment. such a time as God might be pleased to put an end to the present distress.[1] The King was much troubled and perplexed. He wished of all things for Anselm to leave the kingdom; but he feared the greater scandal which would arise if he left the kingdom while still in possession of the archbishopric, while he saw no way of depriving him of it.[2] He again took counsel; but this time he did not trouble the bishops for their advice. Of them he had had enough; it was their counsel which had brought him into his present strait.[3] He once more turned to the lay lords. They advised yet another adjournment. The Archbishop should go back to his own quarters in the King's full peace,[4] and should come again in the morning to hear the King's answer to his petition. Many of the King's immediate courtiers were troubled; they groaned at the thought of Anselm's leaving the land.[5] But he himself went gladly and cheerfully to his lodgings, hoping to cross the sea and to cast off all his troubles and all the burthens of the world.[6]
Wednesday, March 14, 1095.
Anselm summoned to the
The fourth day of the meeting came, and the way
in which its business opened marks how the tide was
turning in Anselm's favour. A body of the nobles came
straight from the King, asking the Primate to come
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 31. "Donec Deus tantæ perturbationi modum dignanter imponeret."
- ↑ "Licet discessum ejus summopere desideraret, nolebat tamen eum pontificatus dignitate saisitum discedere, ne novissimum scandalum quod inde poterat oriri pejus fieret priore. Ut vero pontificatu illum dissaisiret, impossibile sibi videbatur." The feudal language creeps in at all corners.
- ↑ "Episcoporum consilio per quod in has angustias se devolutum querebatur omisso, cum principibus consilium iniit."
- ↑ "Quatenus vir cum summa pace moneatur ad hospitium suum redire."
- ↑ "Perturbatis etiam curialibus plurimis . . . rati sunt quippe hominem a terra discedere, et ingemuerunt."
- ↑ "Lætus et alacer sperabat se perturbationes et onera sæculi, quod semper optabat, transito mari, evadere."
