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.The Conqueror's dying bequest would have had no weight, and Lanfranc wasimportant only in a restricted circle.If however Rufus belonged to the Old Religion his position becomesclear.Lanfranc gained from him a promise to respect the Church during his (Lanfranc's) lifetime; and it hasalways been remarked that Rufus not only kept this promise but throughout his life he never interfered withany benefactions which his father had made to Christian foundations.On Lanfranc's death Rufus was nolonger bound by his promise; and, as Freeman puts it, "one aspect of the reign of William Rufus sets himbefore us as the enemy, almost the persecutor, of the Church in his realm".William Rufus[1] 61 THE GOD OF THE WITCHESThe stories told of Rufus bear all the marks of truth and show him as definitely a Pagan.He jeered openly atChristianity, delighting to set Jews and Christians to discuss the merits of their respective religions; heplundered churches and religious establishments, "have ye not chests full of bones of dead men, but wroughtabout with gold and silver", said one of his ministers to the monks who protested that they had no money forthe king.Rufus openly declared that neither St.Peter nor any other saint had any influence with God, and hewould ask none of them for help.One of the accusations against Rufus was that he had the temerity todisbelieve in the ordeal.When fifty deer-stealers had cleared themselves by this means, Rufus said that Godeither did not know the deeds of men or else he weighed them in an unfair balance.He was also wroth ifanyone ventured to add the usual reserve of God's will to anything that he (Rufus) undertook or ordered to beundertaken.He had that belief in himself that he would have everything referred to his wisdom and poweronly.This is quite consistent if Rufus believed himself to be God Incarnate.Our knowledge of Rufus is obtained chiefly from Christian chroniclers, at whose hands the character of aheathen king would receive scant justice.How far such chronicles may be trusted can be seen by comparingthe portrait of Randolf Flambard as drawn by the priestly writers of southern England with that shown by themonks of Durham.In the hands of the southerners he is a monster of wickedness, without a redeemingfeature, while the northerners represent him as a meek and holy saint.In England Rufus has been recordedonly by those men who also vilified Flambard, but in Normandy his deeds were acclaimed by poets who werenot ecclesiastics and who might not even have been Christians.The whole story of Rufus has been presentedto the modern reader from the records of his bitter enemies.The accounts of his death are varied though all agree that he was killed by an arrow shot by one of his ownpeople while he was hunting in the New Forest.It is clear that his death was expected, and the account of hislast hours indicates that he knew his time had come.He could not sleep during the previous night, and heordered lights to be brought into his bed-chamber and made his chamberlains enter and talk with him.All theforenoon of that fatal day he occupied himself with serious business, and how well he did this is shown bythe fact that there was no confusion or loss of time in the appointment and crowning of his successor.Hisbusiness being ended, he went to his dinner, when he ate and drank more than usual.He then began to arrayhimself for his last ride, and while his boots were being laced a smith brought him six new arrows for usewith the cross-bow.The king took them joyfully and gave two to Walter Tyrrel, saying significantly, "It isright that the sharpest arrows should be given to him who knows how to deal deadly strokes with them".There came at this moment a letter from Abbot Serlo urging the king not to go hunting as one of the monkshad had a warning dream that such an expedition meant death.Rufus merely laughed and made a sarcasticremark about "snoring monks", but with his usual lavish generosity sent the dreamer a handsome present inmoney.He then turned to Tyrrel with another significant remark, "Walter, do thou do justice according tothose things which thou hast heard".Tyrrel answered with equal significance, "So I will, my lord".In the Forest the king dismounted and stood with Tyrrel waiting for the deer to pass.The usual story is thatthe king shot and missed, then Tyrrel loosed his arrow which glanced off the stag's antlers or off the branchof a tree and pierced the king's heart.The most vivid account is from William of Malmesbury, who says thatit was late in the afternoon, "the sun was now declining, when the king, drawing his bow and letting fly anarrow, slightly wounded a stag; and keenly gazing followed it, still running, a long time with his eyes,holding up his hand to keep off the power of the sun's rays".Walter then shot at another stag and bymischance the arrow pierced the king."On receiving the wound the king uttered not a word; but breaking offthe shaft of the weapon where it projected from his body, fell upon the wound by which he accelerated hisdeath".Knighton's version is also dramatic; and if the words attributed to Rufus are true they convey the ideathat the killing was premeditated and that Rufus was aware that his end was at hand.He was shooting at astag and his bowstring broke; he called to Tyrrel to shoot, but Tyrrel hesitated.Then Rufus burst out, "Draw,draw your bow for the Devil's sake and let fly your arrow, or it will be the worse for you" (Trahe, trahearcum ex Parte diaboli, et extende sagittam, alias te poenitebit).William Rufus[1] 62 THE GOD OF THE WITCHESThe body, according to the ecclesiastical account, was found by a charcoal burner.It was placed on a roughcart, covered with a poor ragged cloak and conveyed for burial to Winchester.William of Malmesbury makesa great point of the blood dripping to the earth during the whole journey; though this is an actualimpossibility the record is consistent with the belief that the blood of the Divine Victim must fall on theground to fertilise it.Malmesbury notes that Rufus was mourned by few of the nobles and ecclesiastics whoattended his funeral, but Ordericus records that the poor, the widows, the mendicants, went out to meet thefuneral procession and followed the dead king to his grave.This fact alone shows that to the common peoplehe had been a just ruler and that they knew they had lost a friend, it also suggests that the peasantry were stillPagan and mourned their dead god.The Norman accounts of the finding and burial of the body were written by poets, not priests.Thelamentations of the nobles, who wept and tore their hair, are first described; then follows the making of thebier, which was strewn with flowers and slung between two richly harnessed palfreys.A baron's mantle wasspread on the bier, and on this the king's body was laid, and another rich mantle was laid over him.Withmourning and grief the procession went to Winchester, where they were received by nobles, clergy, bishopsand abbots [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]