Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

ROCKINGHAM.
141
Had Anselm lent himself to the Ked King's de-
mauds, and consented, like his episcopal brethren,
to buy a fleeting peace, it is easy to see what would
have been the consequences. England would have
been given over body and soul to a coarse despot,
with neither fear of God nor love of man, and its
political annihilation would have been consummated.
So the instinct of the lords temporal told them, as
one of them fell on his knees before the deserted
Primate in Eockingham Church, and bade him not
to be disquieted, for that the true heart of England
was with him.
I
In the annals of the Norman as well as the Plan-
tagenet kings, fear of the barons often supplied the
ace of a higher sentiment. If courtier-bishops
would consent to any degradation in order to please
'
'
the king, account had to be taken of those whose
liberty was grounded on the free and independent
action of the Church. If "William agreed to what
was in truth a flimsy truce with Anselm, it was
because his barons showed uncomfortable signs of
being unruly. He was meditating other devices with
which to circumvent the archbishop, and to make
him yield to bribery. In the spring of 1095, a Papal
Legate arrived in England, bearing, at William's
secret instigation, Anselm's pallium. As he had
received the archbishopric of Canterbury gratis, he
would, at least, be willing to pay for this new favour
a truly delicate attention on the king's part. So,
at least, argued Anselm's suffragans, as they openly