Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/573

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The common spokesman was found in him whose counsel was held to be as the oracle of God. Count Robert of Meulan spoke, and his speech was certainly a contrast to that of Bishop William, though both alike, these two special counsellors, confessed that Anselm had been too much for them. "All day long were we putting together counsels with all our might, and consulting how our counsels might hang together, and meanwhile he, thinking no evil back again, sleeps, and, when our devices are brought out, with one touch of his lips he breaks them like a spider's web."
 * demn him according to my will, I will condemn you."

When the temporal lords, the subtlest of counsellors among them, thus failed him, the King again turned to his lords spiritual. "And you, my bishops, what do you say?" They answered, but their spokesman this time is not mentioned; Bishop William, it would seem, had tried and had failed. They were grieved that they could not satisfy the pleasure of their lord. Anselm was Primate, not only of the kingdom of England, but of Scotland, Ireland, and the neighbouring islands—lands to which William's power most certainly did not reach at that moment. They were his suffragans; they could not