Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

HENRY'S CONSUETUDINES. 151
to make a show of deference, but to countenance
much underhand dealing as suited his aims. Compromises,
episcopal servility and deceit, the interception
of letters to and from Rome-these were the
means to which lie stooped, and which he encou-
raged. Pope Paschal's words had denounced in -
vestiture. " Wipe off the shame of such an aloof-
ment from yourself and from your royalty," wa>
his vigorous expression ^ in
a letter to Henry dated
November 23, 1103.
After this decision Anselm resumed his way of
sorrows, taking up his temporary abode with the
Archbishop of Lyons. In his loyalty to Rome and
to the king he, pressed down by his seventy years,
* had accomplished that toilsome journey. He believed
he was fighting with wan f knowledge when tl
real obstacle was a moral one and lay " in the king's c
will. The full truth burst upon him when he was
requested to become Henry's man, and to adopt all
the Norman consuetudines , or else to keep out of the
kingdom. In urin him to o to Rome, Beauclerc
had in fact imposed exile. Nor w^as Anselm allowed
to enjoy the relative peace which would have been
produced by absence from archiepiscopal cares. The
king seized his revenues, and the Archbishop's tenants
were playing fast and loose with such privileges
on his lands as had escaped the royal despoiler.
Anselm was in the position of an absent Irish landlord,
whose moneys are plundered, while he himself
can get no rent. Kven the Prior of Christchurch