Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/574

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with any reason judge or condemn him, even if any crime could be shown against him, and now no crime could be shown. "What then," asks William, "can be done?" The question was answered by a suggestion of his own, one which sounds as if it really were his own, and not the device of Bishop William or Count Robert. If the bishops could not judge him, could they not withdraw from him all obedience and brotherly friendship? This, they said, if he commanded it, they could do. It is not clear by what right they could withdraw their obedience from a superior whom they could not judge; but both king and bishops were satisfied. The bishops were to go and do the business at once; when Anselm saw that he was left alone, he would be ashamed, and would groan that he had ever forsaken his lord to follow Urban. And, that they might do this the more safely, the King added that he now withdrew from Anselm all protection throughout his Empire, that he would not listen to or acknowledge him in any cause, that he would no longer hold him for his archbishop or ghostly father. Though the King's commandment was urgent, the bishops still stayed to devise other devices against Anselm; yet found they none. At last the bishops, now taking with them the abbots, a class of whom we have not hitherto heard in the story, went out and announced to Anselm at once their own withdrawal of obedience and friendship and the King's withdrawal of protection. The Archbishop's answer was a mild one. They did wrong to withdraw their obedience and friendship where it was due, merely because