27. To Pope Pascal

To his respected lord and beloved father Pascal the supreme pontiff, Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, presents his due obedience and faithful prayers.

Since the aims and resolutions of the Church's sons depend on the authority of the apostolic see, therefore I have recourse to the direction and advice of your paternity; why notwithstanding I so long put off writing any thing to your highness after my return from England, you may if you like learn from the bearer of this. King William, through whose violence I was three years an exile, being dead, I was most eagerly recalled by my lord King Henry, and by his nobles, and by the Church, and by all received with great joy. When afterwards they understood the regulation which I had heard made in the Roman Council by your predecessor Pope To Pope Pascal 165 Urban of venerable memory, namely, that no one should receive a Church investiture at the hand of a layman, nor should a bishop or abbot become his man, I perceived and heard that the king and his nobles would on no account agree to it. Wherefore I am waiting for necessary advice from your highness on this point. When I was at Rome, I plainly showed the aforesaid pope about the legation from Rome to the realm of England, how the men of that kingdom asserted it to have been held from ancient times up to our own by the Church of Canterbury; how necessary it must therefore be to have it so, and that it could not be otherwise except to the injury of both Roman and Anglican churches. The lord pope did not take away from me that legation which up to our time, according to the aforesaid testimony, the Church had retained. But while I was in exile for fidelity to the apostolic see, I heard that your authority had committed that legation to the Archbishop of Vienne. Now, what a great difficulty, nay even total impossibility, it would be, those comprehend who have had experience of the long and perilous extent of seas and kingdoms, — to wit, France and Burgundy — between England and Vienne; what an impossibility, I say, it would be for the Arch bishop of Vienne to resort to England, or the English to go to Vienne, for the settlement of business. Where fore I humbly beg of your paternity, as a servant and son, that a Church which suffered with me many calamities while I was in poverty and exile for fidelity to the Roman Church, may not in my days be deprived of that dignity which it openly asserts itself to have possessed before my time in my predecessors. When I left England there was one, a priest by profession, but a collector of rents, and not only that but a rent collector of the worst possible reputation, by name Ranulph, surnamed also Flambard, from his cruelty which con sumed like flame; what the light of his torch is is known far and wide not only in England but in foreign realms. Him the king lately deceased, against the will of all the better sort, against all right and justice, pre sumed to raise to the episcopate without any amendment on his part, while I was in exile. How also he exceeded, both before his episcopate and after, both in simony and other crimes, the bearer of this parchment will be able to make known. But such a bishop, having been irregularly consecrated where he should not have been, did not hesitate to contaminate churches and persons outside his own diocese. When I returned to England, I found this man had been taken by the king on account of money which as a rent-collector he owed and had wrongfully retained, as was fully proved in the king's court, the people rejoicing as though a lion which had ravaged all around were caught in the toils. Of whom his archbishop, since dead, avowed in the hearing of the king's court when he was in custody, that he did not consider him as a brother or bishop, and that he had broken every promise he had made when consecrated. When he heard of my return, as a bishop he claimed my assistance. So I sent to him four bishops with the bearer of this, saying that if he would show that he had so attained to the episcopate as that he ought to be treated as a bishop, I would procure him liberty therefor; but I feared, I said, to be overwhelmed with curses and reproaches by the people, should I set at liberty his cruelty which was then restrained. But the bishops reported that he had failed to satisfy them on the points which I had asked about through them. He afterwards fled secretly by a trick into Normandy, and joining the enemies of the king his lord, it is reported as a fact that he made himself the leader of pirates, whom he commands at sea. About this, since the Church committed to him, exposed to many perils among barbarians, cannot be left long without a pastor, and as to the churches and persons whom he consecrated, I request the command of your wisdom. The Archbishop of York having died since I returned, in his place has been elected the bishop of Rochester, a very learned man and skilled in ecclesiastical government. In this election we bishops assented to the desire of the clergy and people of that church. This bishop, though he much wished to show himself in your presence that he might be honoured by your benignity with the pall according to custom, the king for some reason or other has retained among the nobles of his council; and he now desires with entreaties to induce your highness to send him the pall. Whose petition we humbly beseech your bounty to grant, if it shall please you to receive our prayers.