[1473] Ib. “Rogatis me ut fratres nostros Cantuariensis ecclesiæ quiete ac pacifice possidere dimittam res suas.”
[1474] Ib. “Nullus magis desiderat quietem ac pacem illorum quam ego, nec magis sollicitus est pro utilitate ejusdem ecclesiæ; et idcirco voluntas mea est ut res ejus, Deo annuente, disponam ad utilitatem præsentem et futuram, prout melius sciam et potero.”
[1475] This question is argued by Eadmer in the Life, ii. 1. 9.
[1476] Ib. “Si Cantuariam assidue incoleret, homines sui ex advectione victualium oppido gravarentur; et insuper a præpositis, ut sæpe contingebat, multis ex causis oppressi, si quem interpellarent, nunquam præsentem haberent, magis ac magis oppressi in destructionem funditus irent.” Of the doings of reeves of all kinds we have often heard. See specially N. C. vol. iv. p. 616.
[1477] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 34.
[1478] This would seem to be the time when Anselm’s practice of various virtues is so fully described by Eadmer in the first and second chapters of the second book of the Life.
[1479] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 340. He appears in the Gesta Pontificum, 289, as “Samson, canonicus Baiocensis, non parvæ literaturæ vir nec contemnendæ facundiæ. Antiquorum homo morum, ipse liberaliter vesci, et aliis dapsiliter largiri.” But this last description is substituted for an amazing account of his appetite, specially in the way of fowls and swine’s flesh (cf. the account of King Æthelred in N. C. vol. i. p. 658), and how he died of fat. He fed however three hundred poor men daily.
[1480] His kindred to the elder and the younger Thomas appears in the suppressed passage of William of Malmesbury. Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 35) says of the two bishops-elect, “Qui cum in summum promovendi sacerdotium ad Anselmum pro more venissent, necdum omnes inferiores ordines habuissent, ordinavit eos pro instanti necessitate, ad diaconatum et presbyteratum unum, et alium ad presbyteratum.” The canon of Bayeux would be more likely than the King’s clerk to have the higher degree.
[1481] Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 290. But the first and second versions are worth comparing. It has a curiously modern sound when we read, “Quotiens Lundonia rediret, aliquid pretiosum afferret, quod esset ornamento ecclesiæ.” But it is a witness to the growing importance of London.
[1482] William of Malmesbury has a first and a second edition (Gest. Pont. 259) in the case of Gerard also. According to rumour, “multorum criminum et maxime libidini obnoxius erat.” He was suspected of magic, from his constant study of Julius Firmicus. According to Hugh of Flavigny (Pertz, viii. 496), he sacrificed a pig to the devil, while of his brother more wonderful things still were told. See Pertz, viii. 496, and Appendix G.