Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/517

 *



than the other. The disorders of his courtiers and of his own private life he could not defend on any showing; but the demand that the abbeys should be filled touched what he looked on as one of his royal rights. Rufus burst forth in wrath. "Are not the abbeys mine? Tush, you do as you choose with your manors; shall not I do as I choose with my abbeys?" The answer of Anselm drew a distinction which was a very practical one in those days, and which affects our legal language still. To this day the King, the Bishop, the Chapter, all speak of any episcopal see as "our cathedral church," and all speak, from their several points of view, with equal truth. Such a church is the king's church by virtue of the fundatorial rights which he claims, in some cases by real historic succession, in all cases by a legal theory. By virtue of those fundatorial rights, he claims to be informed of every vacancy, and to give his consent to a new election. In this sense Anselm did not deny that the abbeys were the King's abbeys; he did deny that they were the King's in the further sense in which Rufus claimed them. "The abbeys are yours," he said, "to defend and guard as an advocate; they are not yours to spoil and lay waste. They are God's; they are given that his servants may live of them, not that you may make campaigns and battles at their cost. You have manors and revenues of many kinds, out of which you may carry on all that belongs to you. Leave, may it please you, the churches to have their own." "Truly," says the King, "you know that what you say is most unpleasing to me. Your predecessor would never have dared to speak so to my father. I will do nothing on your account." When