cclesiastical law, the brethren of the chapter were the electors.
The King went to their meeting and addressed them in person. Nothing
was farther from him, he said, than to wish to interfere with their
proper rights. Each must do as his conscience dictated, unhindered.
And with that he laid on the table _four_ books with blank leaves
and bade them write down their names in them, each for his own
choice, to get the matter right on the record. The brethren thanked
him kindly and all voted "nicely together" for Absalon. So three of
the books were wasted. But presently Saxo found good use for them.

For now had come the bishop's chance of putting in practice the
great abbot's precepts. "Pray and fight" was the motto he had
written into the Knights Templars' rule, and Absalon had made it his
own. Of what use was it to build up the church at home, when any day
might see it raided by its enemies who were always watching their
chance outside? The Danish waters swarmed with pirates, the very
pagans against whom Abbot Bernard had preached his crusade. Of them
all the Wends were the worst, as they were the most powerful of the
Slav tribes that still resisted the efforts of their neighbors, the
Christian Germans, to dislodge them from their old home on the
Baltic. They lived in the island of Ruegen, fairly in sight of the
Danish shores. Every favoring wind blew them across the sea in
shoals to burn and ravage. The Danes, once the terror of the seas,
had given over roving when they accepted the White Christ in
exchange for Thor and his hammer, and now, when they would be at
peace, they were in turn beset by this relentless enemy, who burned
their homes and their crops and dragged the peaceful husbandman away
to make him a thrall or offer him up as a sacrifice to heathen
idols. More than a third of all Denmark lay waste under their
ferocious assault. Here was the blow to be struck if the country was
to have peace and the church prosperity.

The chance to strike came speedily. Absalon had been bishop only a
few months when, on the evening before Palm Sunday, word was brought
that the enemy had landed, twenty-four ship-crews strong, and were
burning and murdering as usual. Absalon marshalled his eighteen
house-carles and such of the country-folk as he could, and fell
upon the Wends, routing them utterly. A bare handful escaped, the
rest were killed, while the bishop lost but a single man. He said
mass next morning, red-handed it is