Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/515

 was not any mere breach of ecclesiastical rule—such breaches he had to speak of, but he would not speak of them first; the burthen on his soul was the hideous moral corruption, a new thing on English ground, which had become rife throughout the land. Unless King and Primate, each in his own sphere, each with his own weapons, worked together to root out this plague, the kingdom of England might share the fate of the cities which it had come to resemble. A strict law was needed, the very hearing of which would make the guilty tremble. The words of Anselm were general; there was no personal charge against William; the Archbishop simply appealed to him as King to stop the sins of others. But all this makes us feel more strongly the wonderful character of such a scene, where two such men could be sitting side by side and exchanging their thoughts freely. But the heart of Rufus was hardened; he answered only by a sneer. "And what may come of this matter for you?" "For me nothing," said Anselm; "for you and for God I hope much."