prudence and
moderation of his temper, threw out menaces against such as should
pretend to oppose him in exerting the ancient prerogatives of his
crown; and Anselm, sensible of his own dangerous situation, desired
leave to make a journey to Rome, in order to lay the case before the
sovereign pontiff. Henry, well pleased to rid himself, without
violence, of so inflexible an antagonist, readily granted him
permission. The prelate was attended to the shore by infinite
multitudes, not only of monks and clergymen, but people of all ranks,
who scrupled not in this manner to declare for their primate against
their sovereign, and who regarded his departure as the final abolition
of religion and true piety in the kingdom [g]. The king, however,
seized all the revenues of his see; and sent William de Warelwast to
negotiate with Pascal, and to find some means of accommodation in this
delicate affair.
[FN [e] Ibid. p. 65. W. Malm. p. 225. [f] Eadmer, p. 66. W. Malm.
p. 225. Hoveden, p. 469. Sim. Dunelm. p. 228. [f] Eadmer, p. 71.]

The English minister told Pascal, that his master would rather lose
his crown than part with the right of granting investitures. "And I,"
replied Pascal, "would rather lose my head than allow him to retain it
[h]." Henry secretly prohibited Anselm from returning, unless he
resolved to conform himself to the laws and usages of the kingdom; and
the primate took up his residence at Lyons, in expectation that the
king would at last be obliged to yield the point which was the present
object of controversy between them. Soon after he was permitted to
return to his monastery at Bec in Normandy; and Henry, besides
restoring to him the revenues of his see, treated him with the
greatest respect, and held several conferences with him, in order to
soften his opposition, and bend him to submission [i]. The people of
England, who thought all differences now accommodated, were inclined
to blame their primate for absenting himself so long from his charge;
and he daily received letters from his partizans, representing the
necessity of his speedy return. The total extinction, they told him,
of religion and Christianity were likely to ensue from the want of his
fatherly care: the most shocking customs prevail in England; and the
dread of his severity being now removed, sodomy, and the practice of
wearing long hair, gain ground among all ranks of men, and these
enormities openly appear every where without sen