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Papal claims.

about measures for the reform of abuses in the Church, and the advancement of religion. But it turned out that the principal object of the meeting was to receive a letter from the pope at the hands of his messenger, Abbot Anselm, addressed to the king and the bishops. It declared that the pope, as the vicar of the Apostle St. Peter, to whom the charge was delivered, "feed my sheep," and of St. Paul, who gave the charge to Timothy, "lay hands suddenly on no man," was responsible for the appointment of fit persons to the episcopal office. It was, therefore, his duty to test the learning and character of the candidates, but the English Church defeated the discharge of this duty by appointing and translating bishops without his cognisance. He therefore warned the king and bishops that unless they recognised in future the rights of the apostolic see in these matters he should cast them off as schismatics, and surrender them to the just judgment of God.

offended.

The pope's letter betrayed great displeasure and irritation; but the king on his part was equally offended by the papal claim, which he declared to be incompatible with the rights enjoyed by his father and brother. The king The council decided that an envoy should be sent to Rome to confer with the pope on the questions at issue, and William of Warelwast, Bishop of Exeter, so often employed during the strife with Anselm, although he was now aged and blind, was selected for the purpose.

repulsed.

The result of Bishop William's mission is not recorded, but the firm resistance offered during Henry's reign to the attempts of successive popes to overrule the Church by the agency of their legates, proves that the A papal legate spirit of national independence was not subdued. In 1116 Abbot Anselm, who had brought the pall, was appointed legate by Pope Paschal for the special purpose of collecting Peterpence in England. He was armed with one letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and another to the bishops and abbots, requiring them to receive him as the vicar of the pope. Meanwhile, however, a council had been convened in London, under the presidency of Queen Matilda, in the absence of the king, who was in Normandy; and Archbishop Ralph was deputed to cross the channel and

inform the king, that in the opinion of the bishops and nobles who had composed the council, the visit of a legate without invitation was contrary to the ancient custom of the English realm. Henry, nothing loth, detained the legate at his court in Normandy, and although he treated him with great honour, he would not permit him to proceed to England.

ate dismissed.

The next attempt, which was made by Pope Calixtus, met with an equally firm resistance from the king and the primate. Peter, a monk of Cluny, was invested with a Another leg legatine commission extending over Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and the Orkneys. The king permitted him to land in England, but issued strict orders that he was not ⚫ to be allowed to accept the hospitality of any ecclesiastical body. He was merely the king's private guest, who received him politely, but informed him that, owing to the pressure of the Welsh war, he had no time to consider such an important affair as the reception of a legate, inasmuch as his authority could not be exercised without the consent of the bishops, abbots, lords, and in fact the whole council of the nation. Moreover, he would by no means willingly surrender any of the customs that had been conceded to him by the apostolic see, one of the most important of which was, that during his lifetime the country should be free from all legatine authority. Possibly this promise had been obtained by the mission of William of Warelwast, referred to above. Peter the Legate, therefore, had to return by the way by which he came. He was conducted back to Dover with great pomp through Canterbury, where, at the request of the king and primate, the monks of Christchurch entertained him for three days. They took the opportunity of getting a promise from him to plead the cause of Canterbury at the papal court in the struggle which was then going on between Archbishop Thurstan of York and the primate. Then the legate departed, politely bowed out of the country, without having exercised any kind of legatine function.

Another question upon which the king and the primate resisted the interference of the pope, was that of the relations between the sees of Canterbury and York. On the death of Thomas, Archbishop of York, in 1114, Henry nominated

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CANTERBURY AND YORK

137

his secretary, Thurstan, to fill the vacant see. He was elected with the approval of the primate at a royal court held in Winchester, and was ordained deacon there by the Thurstan, bishop, William Giffard. After having been en- Archbishop

of York.

throned at York, he was summoned by the primate to Canterbury to be ordained priest and consecrated bishop. He knew that a profession of obedience would be demanded of him, and after consultation with his chapter, he determined to go to Rome and submit the question to the judgment of the pope. On his way, about Christmas, he had an interview with the king at Rouen, who refused to let him proceed on his journey. So he tarried for the winter in Normandy, and having been ordained priest at Bayeux, by Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, he returned to England early in the summer of 1115. At a council held by the king about Michaelmas, Thurstan complained of the delay in his consecration. Archbishop Ralph said he would willingly consecrate him if he would make profession of obedience. however, Thurstan refused to do, for he and the chapter of York had sent envoys to Pope Paschal II., praying him to relieve Thurstan from making the profession. Their appeal was seconded by a letter from Ivo, the learned Bishop of Chartres, and in January 1116 Paschal wrote to the York chapter, forbidding the profession to be made, and directing that the rite of consecration should be performed by the suffragan bishops of the York province, if Archbishop Ralph refused.

This,

His dispute with the primate.

of the pope.

The king was highly displeased at the interference of the pope, and in a council held at Salisbury, March 1116, he ordered Thurstan to make his profession or resign the archbishopric. Thurstan chose the latter alter- Interference native, but soon repented of his choice, and having accompanied the king after Easter to Normandy, he again asked leave to go to Rome, but again it was refused. Archbishop Ralph, meanwhile, had started to plead his own cause at Rome, but when he arrived there, having been delayed by illness on the way, he found that the city was in the hands of the emperor's partisans, and that the pope had withdrawn to Benevento, whither he was not disposed to follow him. Paschal, however, sent him a letter addressed to the king

and bishop, expressing in vague terms his intention of upholding all the legitimate rights of Canterbury. The archbishop and every one must have known that such a letter meant nothing. William of Malmesbury shrewdly observes, that if the pope had expressly defined what the legitimate rights of Canterbury were, and had confirmed them, he might have moderated if not ended the strife; as it was, his language left the question undetermined. "Thus skilled,' he continues, "is the cunning of the Roman pontiff in employing the artifices of the rhetorician, and keeping things in suspense by means of vain verbiage, not sparing others trouble, provided his own interests are furthered." In the following year, 1117, urged by another letter from the chapter of York, the pope wrote again to the king, requesting him to restore Thurstan to his see, and promising to adjudicate on the dispute; and in another letter to Archbishop Ralph he ordered him to consecrate Thurstan without requiring profession of obedience. Ralph, however, being detained in Normandy by illness, did not receive the letter, and although the king restored Thurstan to his see he remained unconsecrated.

Thurstan con

In January 1118 pope Paschal died. His successor, Gelasius II., died in January of the following year. Calixtus II., who succeeded him, favoured the cause of Thurstan and enlisted the support of the king's enemies, Louis, King of France, and Fulk, Count of Anjou. Henry was anxious to get Thurstan out of the range of their influence, but could not induce him to return to England. He was summoned by the pope to a council at Reims, and Henry permitted him to go, after exacting a promise from him that he would not receive consecration from the pope. Archbishop secrated by Ralph was too unwell to attend the council, but he the pope, 1119. sent his brother Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester, with a warning to the pope from the king not to consecrate Thurstan. Nevertheless, on October 19, 1119, the day before the council, Calixtus did consecrate him in the face of a vehement protest from John, the Archdeacon of Canterbury. He was assisted by several French bishops, but the Archbishop of Lyons refused to take part in the ceremony, holding that a wrong was done to the see of Canterbury, while the English and Norman bishops who arrived the next

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METROPOLITAN RIGHTS

139

day severely reproached both the pope and Thurstan for their deceitful conduct. Calixtus bestowed the pall upon him on November 1, but Henry declared that until he had made his profession to Canterbury he should never set foot in England.

Received into

the king.

On

Thurstan, however, was a skilful diplomatist, and gradually made himself so useful in negotiating terms with France, that Henry at last relented and permitted him to return to his see without making profession. favour by Moreover, the pope had threatened to lay the country under an interdict if he was not restored. January 30, 1121, he crossed to England, and after a friendly reception by the king and queen, he proceeded to York, where he was welcomed with great demonstrations of joy and honour. He was never compelled to make profession of obedience, but at the council of Windsor in 1126 he was not permitted to have his cross carried before him erect, or to take part in the solemn ceremony of placing the crown on the king's head.

*

On two occasions Archbishop Ralph maintained his metropolitan rights against the crown. When Bernard, one . of the queen's chaplains, was elected Bishop of Archbishop St. David's, it was proposed by the Count of Ralph asserts his rights. Meulan that he should be consecrated in the king's chapel; but the archbishop refused to consecrate him anywhere but at Canterbury or Lambeth. He afterwards consented, in order to enable the queen to be present, to consecrate Bernard in Westminster Abbey, having first received his profession of obedience. The other occasion was at the marriage of the king to his second wife, Adeliza of Louvain in 1121. The ceremony was to take place at Windsor, and the speech of the archbishop being affected by a recent stroke of paralysis, it was proposed that the Bishop of Salisbury should officiate as Bishop of the Diocese. Ralph, however, would not consent, and was supported in his resistance by his suffragans. The Bishop of Winchester, therefore, was deputed to act as his representative. At the coronation of the queen on the following day, the primate having observed that the king was wearing his crown, thought that some one had usurped his right as archbishop to place it