Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

IN CONFLICT. 131 >
Wickedness in its most repulsive form was rife
in the land ; the example set in high places being
followed. ''In a short time," Anselm urged, " all the
country would be lost to morality." These things
did not lie on the mind of the prince,1 and it was in
vain that Anselm urged his third point, the multitude
of vacant abbeys, which told disastrously on the
life and death of monks, secularising those who had
devoted themselves to God. The King could 110
longer contain his wrath. " What does it matter to
you Are not the abbeys my abbeys" A few
more angry words from his sovereign convinced
Anselm that he might as well talk to the wind, and,
rising up, he departed.
Impossible as it seemed to come to terms, Anselm
felt the extreme urgency for England of the king's
co-operation with himself. His very first acts as
primate had raised a storm. How, then, should he
bear the thick of the battle He besought his episcopal
brethren to interpose, but their answer was a
new perplexity. The only suggestion they had to
make was that the Primate should offer the king a
handsome gift in money. They knew and practised
no better way of regaining what they were pleased
to call his "friendship"."2 This advice was a fearful
revelation, and a further proof to Anselm that he
would have to fight his battle single-handed.
At the lapse of the twelvemonth which succeeded
1 Non seJ' rimt Acv aitimo ///v'//r/y//x, 41).
- Rule, ii. p. 30.