monastery till some one chose to buy the office from
him. The king alone grew rich, whilst his vassals were impoverished.

5. =Archbishop Anselm.=--In =1089= Lanfranc died, and the
archbishopric of Canterbury was then left vacant for nearly four
years. The Archbishop of Canterbury was more than the first of English
bishops. He was not only the maintainer of ecclesiastical discipline,
but also the mouthpiece of the English people when they had complaints
to make to the king. Men turned their thoughts to Anselm, the Abbot of
Bec. Anselm was a stranger from Aosta, on the Italian side of the
Alps. He was the most learned man of the age, and had striven to
justify the theology of the day by rational arguments. He was as
righteous as he was learned, and as gentle as he was righteous. Tender
to man and woman, he had what was in those days a rare tenderness to
animals, and had caused astonishment by saving a hunted hare from its
pursuers. In =1092= the king's vassals assembled in the Great Council
urged William to choose a successor to Lanfranc, and asked him to
allow prayers to be offered in the churches that God might move his
heart to select a worthy chief pastor. "Pray as you will," said the
king, scornfully. "I shall do as I think good; no man's prayers will
do anything to shake my will!" In the spring of =1093= William fell
sick. Believing himself to be a dying man, he promised to amend his
life, and named Anselm archbishop. On his refusal to accept the
nomination, Anselm was dragged to the king's bedside, and the pastoral
staff, the symbol of the pastoral office of a bishop, was forced into
his hands by the bystanders.

6. =The Council of Rockingham. 1095.=--To this well-meant violence
Anselm submitted unwillingly. He was, he said, a weak old sheep to be
yoked with an untamed bull to draw the plough of the English Church.
Yet, gentle as he was, he was possessed of indomitable courage in
resistance to evil. William recovered, and returned to his blasphemy
and his tyranny. In vain Anselm warned him against his sins. A fresh
object of dispute soon arose between the king and the new archbishop.
Two Popes claimed the obedience of Christendom. Urban II. was the Pope
acknowledged by the greater part of the Church. Clement III. was the
Pope supported by the Emperor. Anselm declared that Urban was the true
Pope, and that he would obey none other. William asserted that his
father had laid down a rule that no Pope should be acknow