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The Saxon law and the machinery of the local courts did survive the Conquest with little change, but no effort was made to reduce the customs of the land to systematic and written form until a later time, until a time indeed when the old law was beginning to give place to the new. Boehmer, Kirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie, pp. 103-106. Eadmer, Historia Novorum, p. 9.
Eadmer also gives some description of the church raised by Lanfranc. The new archbishop, "filled with consternation" when he found that "the church of the Saviour which he undertakes to rule was reduced to almost nothing by fire and ruin," proceeded to "set about to destroy it utterly, and erect a more noble one.
Such and so licentious were the times, as announced by the public declaration of the assembled clergy, recorded by Eadmer; and we need add nothing more to vindicate the probability of the scenes which we have detailed, and are about to detail, upon the more apocryphal authority of the Wardour MS. I'll woo her as the lion woos his bride. Douglas
According to the archbishop's devoted friend and biographer, Eadmer, who was in attendance on him at this meeting at Salisbury, Anselm virtually admitted that this was a new position for him to take.
Robertus de Vallibus debet quinque optimos palafredos, ut rex taceret de uxore Henrici Pinel. The wife of Hugh do Nevil fined in two hundred hens, that she might lie with, her husband for one night; another, that he might rise from, his infirmity; a third, that he might eat. For some particulars of the condition of the English of this time, vide Eadmer, p. 110.
Eadmer, Hist. Nov., p. 41. In the hunting party which William Rufus led out on August 2, 1100, to his mysterious death in the New Forest, was the king's younger brother, Henry. When the cry rang through the Forest that the king was dead, Henry seized the instant with the quick insight and strong decision which were marked elements of his genius. He rode at once for Winchester.
It is uncertain whether the influence of Robert had anything to do with this demand, as Eadmer supposed, but the recent victory which the king had gained, and the greater security which he must have felt, doubtless affected its peremptory character. Anselm again based his refusal of homage on his former position, on the doctrine which he had learned at Rome.
The little church which Lanfranc destroyed and which had seen so many vicissitudes, was probably a work of the end of the fourth century, at any rate in its foundations. Eadmer indeed who tells us all we know of it says that it was built on the plan of St Peter's in Rome.
His work, less pretentious than William's, is simpler and more straightforward. Eadmer was of Saxon birth and was brought up from childhood in Christ Church, Canterbury.
But others were true writers of literature, who told their tales in vivid, stirring words, so that they make these times live again for us. The names of some of the best of these chroniclers are Eadmer, Orderic Vitalis, and William of Malmesbury. By degrees these Norman and Anglo-Norman monks became filled with the spirit of England.
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