Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/496

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eight days only after his consecration. He then set forth for the Christmas Assembly of the realm, to be held at Gloucester. The prayer which he had drawn up at the assembly held there twelve months before had indeed been answered. The King's heart had been stirred; the Archbishop had been appointed. Unhappily also the King's heart had been stirred back again. William was again the king who had mockingly bidden his bishops to pray as they thought good, not the king who had passionately called on Anselm to step in between him and eternal death. The breach between King and Primate had begun before Anselm was fully Primate, when Flambard had insolently summoned him in his own church on the day of his enthronement. Whatever the matter of the summons was, Anselm was now ready in the King's court to answer it. But of that dispute we hear no more. The Archbishop came to Gloucester, and was courteously and cheerfully received, not only by the assembled nobles, but by the King himself. But the Witan were not to depart from the place of meeting till new grounds of quarrel had arisen between the two unequal yokefellows who were at last fully coupled together.

§ 3. ''The Assembly at Hastings and the Second Norman Campaign.'' 1094.

The events of the year on which we have now entered consist partly of warlike movements in Normandy and Scotland, partly of matters directly touching ecclesiastical questions, above all touching Anselm. Of these,