ge. Robert of Belleme was
thrown into prison, and the cruel oppressor thus shared the fate of
the weak ruler whose remissness had made his oppressions possible.

[Illustration: Seal of Milo of Gloucester, showing mounted armed
figure in the reign of Henry I.]

5. =Henry and Anselm. 1100--1107.=--Though Anselm had done everything
in his power to support Henry against Robert of Belleme, he was
himself engaged in a dispute with the king which lasted for some
years. A bishop in Anselm's time was not only a great Church officer,
whose duty it was to maintain a high standard of religion and morality
amongst the clergy. He was also one of the king's barons, because he
was possessed of large estates, and was therefore bound like any other
baron to send knights to the king when they were needed. Consequently,
when Anselm became archbishop he had not only received investiture
from William II. by accepting from him the ring and the staff which
were the signs of ecclesiastical authority, but also did homage, thus
acknowledging himself to be the king's man, and obliging himself, not
indeed to fight for him in person, but to send knights to fight under
his orders. When, however, Henry came to the throne, and asked Anselm
to repeat the homage which he had done to William, Anselm not only
refused himself to comply with the king's request, but also refused to
consecrate newly-chosen bishops who had received investiture from
Henry. During the time of his exile Anselm had taken part in a council
of the Church, in which bishops and abbots had been forbidden by the
Pope and the council either to receive investiture from laymen or to
do homage to them. These decrees had not been issued merely to serve
the purpose of papal ambition. At that time all zealous ecclesiastics
thought that the only way to stop the violence of kings in their
dealings with the Church was to make the Church entirely independent.
Anselm's experience of the Red King's wickedness must have made him
ready to concur with this new view, and there can be no doubt that it
was from the most conscientious motives that he refused to do homage
to Henry. On the other hand, Henry, wishing to rule justly, thought it
very hard that the archbishop should insist upon the independence of
the bishops, especially as in consequence of their large estates they
had so many knights to send into the field. Though the dispute was a
hot one, it was carried on without any of the violence which h