For this post he selected Anselm of Aosta, Abbot of Bec. This man was a Piedmontese, who had been attracted to Normandy by the fame of Lanfranc, and had entered the Abbey of Bec under him. Upon Lanfranc’s removal to Caen he was made Prior, and afterwards Abbot. Both his character and attainments commanded the veneration of the age; and at the present time he had been invited by Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester, to come over and assist him in establishing a Benedictine abbey at Chester. For this purpose, and charged with a mission from his monastery, he was induced much against his will to come to England. In the first access of the King’s repentance--after issuing a royal proclamation promising afresh the freedom of captives, the good laws of King Edward, and the punishment of evil-doers--he proceeded so far to action as to appoint Anselm Archbishop. It was not without something like actual violence that Anselm was forced to accept the Episcopal staff. The great importance of the primacy and Anselm’s view of the King’s character are well shown by some words that are attributed to him: “England’s plough is drawn by two supereminent oxen, the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury.... Of these oxen one is dead, and the other, fierce as a savage bull, is yoked young to the plough, and in place of the dead ox you would yoke me a poor feeble old sheep with the wild bull.” The feeble old sheep, however, was a very decided ecclesiastic. He insisted at once upon the restoration of the whole of the lands of the See of Canterbury, more even than Lanfranc had held. He declared that he would publicly acknowledge Pope Urban. And when, after his consecration, on his presenting the King with £500 of silver, the King demanded £1000, he withdrew his intended present and distributed all to the poor. Nor was it as a defender of ecclesiastical rights that he was pre-eminent. He set himself to check as far as it was possible the shameless and abominable vice that was rampant in England. Among other signs of the degraded licentiousness of the times was the effeminate foppery of the courtiers. Against their long hair and sharp-peaked shoes the Archbishop was never weary of inveighing. The King’s absence from England put an end for a time to the disputes between the Archbishop and the King, but upon his return Anselm demanded leave to obtain his pall from Pope Urban. This open acknowledgment of the Pope William wished to avoid, and at a council, summoned to consider the matter, the deposition of Anselm appears to have been suggested. The bishops, creatures of the King, basely deserted their chief; and the wisdom of the Baronage of England, under the guidance of Robert, Count of Mellent, who throughout this and the preceding reign appears as the good adviser to the sons of the Conqueror, alone saved him from that disgrace. Unable to refuse Anselm’s wish absolutely, the King contrived to persuade the Pope to send _him_ the pall, but Anselm stoutly refused to receive