[1121] This is Anselm’s own comparison in his letter to the monks of Bec, Ep. iii. 1; “Quando me episcopi et abbates aliique primates ad ecclesiam trahentes reclamantem et contradicentem rapuerunt, ita ut dubium videri posset utrum sanum insani, an insanum traherent sani; nisi quia illi canebant et ego magis mortuo quam viventi colore similis stupore et dolore pallebam.” Presently he says; “Huic autem de me electioni, imo violentiæ, hactenus quantum potui, servata veritate, reluctatus sum.” The last word may be taken in its original physical sense.
[1122] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 18. “Gestis vero quæ in tali causa geri in ecclesia mos est, revertitur Anselmus ad regem.”
[1123] “Dico tibi, domine rex, quia ex hac tua infirmitate non morieris, ac pro hoc volo noveris quam bene corrigere poteris quod de me nunc actum est, quia nec concessi nec concedo ut ratum sit.”
[1124] The change of place is clearly marked in Eadmer. “Deducentibus eum episcopis, cum tota regni nobilitate, cubiculo excessit, conversusque ad eos, in hæc verba sciscitatus est.” The parable which follows is placed earlier by William of Malmesbury; but this is surely the right place.
[1125] 1 Cor. iii. 9.
[1126] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 18. “Hoc aratrum in Anglia duo boves cæteris precellentes regendo trahunt et trahendo regunt. Rex videlicet, et archiepiscopus Cantuariensis. Iste seculari justitia et imperio, ille divina doctrina et magisterio.” This must mean during the late reign.
[1127] “Horum boum unus, scilicet Lanfrancus archiepiscopus, mortuus est; et alius ferocitatem indomabilis tauri obtinens jam juvenis aratro prælatus, et vos loco mortui bovis, me vetulam ac debilem ovem cum indomito tauro conjungere vultis.”
[1128] “Indomabilis utique feritas tauri sic ovem lanæ et lactis et agnorum fertilem per spinas et tribulos hac et illac raptam, si jugo se non excusserit, dilacerabit.” So a little after; “Me, de quo lanam et lac verbi Dei, et agnos in servitium ejus, nonnulli possent habere.” The metaphor becomes passing strange when it is thus worked out in detail.
[1129] “Ad hospitium suum, dimissa curia, vadit.”
[1130] “Præcepit itaque rex, ut, sine dilatione ac diminutione, investiretur de omnibus ad archiepiscopatum pertinentibus intus et extra.” Eadmer goes on to speak about the city of Canterbury, the abbey of Saint Alban’s, and other things of which we shall have to speak again. But he can only mean that orders were given which were not immediately carried out; for the actual investiture was, as we shall see, delayed for some months.