Before Anselm's consecration the king recovered, and turned back to his evil ways. He tried to make Anselm promise that he would not reclaim the lands of the see which he had granted out as knights' fees. To this Anselm could not agree, for he would not lessen the property of his church. Nevertheless he was consecrated, and did homage to the king, as the custom was. Before long Rufus wanted money for an expedition against Normandy. The archbishop offered L500. Rufus was advised to demand a larger sum, and sent the money back. His demand was evidently based on the idea that Anselm owed him much for making him archbishop; and Anselm, though willing to contribute to the king's need, rejoiced that now no one could assert that he had made a simoniacal payment, and gave the money to the poor. When Rufus was about to sail, Anselm asked to be allowed to hold a synod, and the wrathful king answered him with jeers: "What will you talk about in your council?" Anselm fearlessly replied that he would speak of the foul vices that infected the land, and named the special vice of the king and his court. "What good will that do you?" asked the king. "If it does me no good," was the answer, "I hope it will do something for God and for you." He prayed him to fill the vacant abbacies. "Tush!" said the king, "you do as you will with your manors, and may I not do what I will with my abbeys?" In his eyes the rights of a patron were merely the rights of a lord over his lands. He left England in wrath with the archbishop. Anselm had not yet received the pall, and when the king came back he asked leave to go and fetch it. "From which Pope?" demanded the king; and Anselm answered, "From Urban." Now, though Rufus had no objection to acknowledge Urban, he did not choose that any one should decide the matter save himself. He took his stand upon his father's rule, and the rule was a good one, for the acknowledgment of a Pope was a matter of national policy. His fault lay in refusing to make his choice out of a sheer love of tyranny. A meeting of the great council was held at Rockingham to decide whether Anselm could maintain "his obedience to the Holy See without violating his allegiance to his earthly king." The king most unfairly treated him as though the question had been decided against him and he was contumacious. The bishops took part against him, and their conduct shows how deeply the feudal idea had sunk: they were the "king's bishops," and their counsel was due to him and not to their metropolitan. William of Saint-Calais, now in favour again, even advised the king to take away the archbishop's staff and ring, and at the king's bidding the bishops renounced their obedience to him. The nobles, however, would not become instruments of a tyranny that might strike next at themselves. "He is our archbishop," they said, "and the rule of Christianity in this land is his; and therefore we as Christians cannot, as long as we live, renounce his authority." The matter