Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

COUNCIL AT WESTMINSTER.
153
tion of both was the price required at his hands in
order that he might obtain the peace of the Church.
But one more arrow from the royal
"
bow. The
game was so desperate that Henry had been forced
to give up the principal points at issue, lest excommunication
should overtake him. His subsequent
conduct proves that he yielded only to dire necessity,
for, instead of bidding Anselm return with all speed
to his widowed see, the King, under pretence of
settling points with the Pope, temporised, and it was
not till the spring of 1106 that Henry j formally in-
vited the Primate to come back.
The three bishops who had distinguished themselves
as the King's men-the Archbishop of York,
the Bishops of Chester and Norwich-as spokesmen
of the whole hierarchy, entreated the Archbishop to
return, for the days were evil. " The ways 8 ion
iiiourn because the uncirct/mcised trample them ,,
Just before his departure from England, Anselm had
presided at an important council held in Westminster
Abbey, 1102. Its articles reflected the times, the
conduct of priests in particular, and the abuse which
their want of chastity had introduced.2 Beauclerc,
scholarly and refined as he was compared to the Red
King, made capital of certain enactments, by imposing
a fine on those priests who did not observe
1 Historia Novorum, p. 174.
-This is expressed in the VIL Decree: " 171 filii pivsby-
teroium mm sint heredea eedesiarnni patrnm suorum " Miinsi
Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio, xx. 1151.