Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

MATILDA ATHELING. 147
they depended on the will of the sovereign, who was
muster even of the conduct "dines, though a Norman
King did not easily consent to own his predecessors
in the wrong. When the Red King died, Anselm
might well trust the fair words of his successor, who
promised to put an end to the iniquitous traffic in
holy things of the preceding reign. It was not so
with the question of investiture-that is, of the
sovereign conferring the insignia of spiritual dignity.
Anselm had returned to Canterbury, when a suspicion
entered his heart that his struggle might be
only beginning. He had become the Ked King's
man for the temporalities of the archiepiscopate;
but Peter had now spoken, and the act could not be
repeated for his successor.
Henry's marriage was part of his successful policy.
Matilda Atheling was a daughter of Malcolm, King
of Scotland, and of Margaret, a grand-daughter of
Edmund Ironside. She had lived from her earliest
yeai ^ at Wilton, where fear of the Normans had induced
her to put on the black veil.1 When Henry's
choice fell on this royal maiden, who was seemingly
consecrated to God, " the tongues of many were set
1 This was no idle fear. " Quand -
terrain priuio devicit," are St. Anselm's words, " multi suoruiu
sibi pro tanta victoria applaudcntes, omniaque suis voluntatibus
Attjue luxuriis obedire ac subdi debere autumantes, non sol urn
in possessiones victor am, sed et in ipsas matronas ac virgines,
ubi fucultas eis aspirabat, nefanda Ubidine cceperunt insanire.
Quod nonnnlltt praevidentes, et suo pudori metuentes, monasteria
virginum petivere, acceptoque velo sese inter ipsas a tanta in-
uuia protexere."-Historia Novorum, p. 124.