In our own tongue the life of Anselm has been treated by a living and a dead friend of my own, holding the same rank in the English Church. Dean Hook, I must say with regret, utterly failed to do justice to Anselm. This is the more striking, as he did thorough justice to Thomas. From Dr. Hook’s point of view it needed an effort to do justice to either, a smaller effort in the case of Anselm, a greater in the case of Thomas. As sometimes happens, he made the greater effort, but not the smaller. I am however able to say that he came to know Anselm better before he died. Dean Church, on the other hand, has given us an almost perfect example of a short sketch of such a subject. The accuracy of the tale is as remarkable as the beauty of the telling. It lacks only the light which is thrown on the story of Anselm by the earlier story of William of Saint-Calais. It is most important to remember that Anselm was not the first to appeal to the Pope.
[904] See N. C. vol. v. p. 131.
[905] Ib. p. 135.
[906] Ib. vol. iv. p. 521, and see Appendix S.
[907] See the extract from Orderic (678 C) in Appendix S.
[908] See Appendix S.
[909] So Liebermann truly remarks (Einleitung in den Dialogus de Scaccario, 40). He adds; “Diese pflegten die Priesterweihe möglichst spät zu empfangen; desto eifriger erjagten sie fette Pfründen.”
[910] Florence (1100) notices emphatically that the doings of Flambard were done “contra jus ecclesiasticum, et sui gradus ordinem, presbyter enim erat.” So he is marked by Anselm (Epp. iv. 2) as “sacerdos.”
[911] See Appendix S. The story about Flambard’s mother, which Sir Francis Palgrave suggests may have come from a ballad, is told by Orderic in another place (787 A); “Mater, quæ sortilega erat et cum dæmone crebro locuta, ex cujus nefaria familiaritate unum oculum amiserat,” One thinks of a later dabbler in mischief; “Our minnie’s sair mis-set, after her ordinar, sir—she’ll hae had some quarrel wi’ her auld gudeman—that’s Satan, ye ken, sirs.” William of Malmesbury (Gesta Regum, iv. 314) calls him “fomes cupiditatum, Ranulfus clericus, ex infimo genere hominum lingua et calliditate provectus ad summum.” In the Gesta Pontificum, 274, he is more guarded, and says only “ex quo ambiguum genere.”
[912] See Appendix S.