[1071] Hist. Nov. 15. “Mandatum est illi a Beccensibus ne, si peccato inobedientiæ notari nollet, ultra monasterium repeteret, donec transito mari, suis in Anglia rebus subveniret.”
[1072] “Citato gressu, ad comitem venit,” says Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 15), where he leaves out the interview with the King which he describes in the Life.
[1073] Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 79. “Hugo … quanquam in supremis positus, omnium in confessione supercilium recusans, Anselmum expetebat; veteris amicitiæ pignus apud eum depositurus si moreretur.”
[1074] Vit. Ans. ii. 1. 1. “Cum quasi ex præsagio futurorum multi et monachi et laici conclamarent illum archiepiscopum fore, summo mane a loco decessit, nec ullo pacto acquiescere petentibus, ut ibi festum celebraret, voluit.”
[1075] Vit. Ans. ii. 1. 1. “Rex ipse solio exsilit, et ad ostium domus viro gaudens occurrit, ac in oscula ruens per dexteram eum ad sedem suam perducit.”
[1076] Ib. “Regem de his quæ fama de eo ferebat Anselmus arguere cœpit, nec quidquam eorum quæ illi dicenda esse sciebat, silentio pressit. Pene etenim totius regni homines omnes talia quotidie nunc clam nunc palam de eo dicebant, qualia regiam dignitatem nequaquam decebant.”
[1077] The language of Eadmer quoted in the last note is quite vague. In William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont. 79) we get one of those remarkable cases in which he first wrote something strong, and then altered it. He seems (see his editor’s note) to have first written, “Data secreti copia, flagitiorum obscœnitatem quibus regem accusabat fama incunctanter aperuit.” He then struck out the strong words in Italics and changed them to the vague “cuncta.”
[1078] Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 79. “Famæ licentiæ non se posse obviare dictitans; ceterum sanctum virum non debere illa credere. Neque enim procaciore responso exsufflare hominem tunc volebat, sciens quanti eum pater et mater pendere soliti essent dum adviverent.”
[1079] Eadmer, in the passage quoted above, distinctly implies that nothing was said about the affairs of Bec, and adds, “Finito colloquio divisi ab invicem sunt, et de ecclesiæ suæ negotiis ea vice ab Anselmo nihil actum est.” William of Malmesbury, on the other hand, describes Anselm as speaking of them at this interview (“necessitates quoque suas modeste allegans”), and William as settling them as Anselm wished (“ille omnia negotia Beccensis ecclesiæ ad arbitrium rectoris componens”). I should infer from this, and from the words “ea vice” in Eadmer, that things were settled in the end as the monks of Bec wished, but not at this interview. William of Malmesbury is never very strict as to chronological order.
[1080] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 15. “Post hæc in Normanniam regredi volens, negata a rege licentia, copiam id agendi habere non potuit.” It is not easy, as Dean Church remarks (Anselm, 175), to see why the King’s leave was needed for the subject of another prince to go back to his own country.