Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/680

 tyranny, might seize his temporalities and might keep him out of the land; but in the eye of the Church he remained none the less the Archbishop of the English kingdom, with his power of binding and loosing as strong as ever. Anselm was not only not to give up his office; he was to make a point of always appearing with the full badges of his office. Even now Anselm seems to have been in some difficulties how to reconcile his two duties to God and to Cæsar, difficulties which he would doubtless have got rid of altogether by resigning the archbishopric. But he submits to the Pontiff's will, and he is bidden to meet him again at Bari, where judgement will be given in the matter of the King of the English and of all others who interfere with the liberties of the Church.

Then came the meeting at Bari, the disputation against the Greeks, the excommunication of Rufus stopped by Anselm's intercession. That Anselm was playing an arranged part we cannot believe for a moment; but we may believe, without breach of charity, that Urban threatened the excommunication of Rufus in the full belief that Anselm would intercede for him. Urban and Anselm then went back to Rome; and thither presently came the messenger from Normandy, who had to tell of the King's frightful threats to-*