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[-1
 THE
CHURCH OF ENGLAND
A HISTORY FOR THE PEOPLE

BY THE

VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE-JONES, D.D.

DEAN OF GLOUCESTER

VOL. II.

THE MEDLEVAL CHURCH

SPECIAL EDITION

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND
MELBOURNE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 109162
JUN 1 i 198 i
 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
XXI.
THE DANISH SUPREMACY 1

CHAPTER XXII.
THE NORMANS
2?

CHAPTER XXIII.
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR
40

CHAPTER XXIV.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY 71

CHAPTER XXV.
ROME

CHAPTER XXVI.
LANFRANC, WILLIAM, AND THE NORMAN CONQUEST . .- .-. .. . .108

CHAPTER XXVII.
ANSELM. GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER ici

CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CRUSADERS AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE CHURCH .... 172

CHAPTER XXIX.
HENRY II. AND THOMAS A BECKET 185

CHAPTER XXX.
THE RENAISSANCE OF MONASTICISM 216

CHAPTER XXXI.
THE CHURCH UNDER CCEUR-DE-LION, JOHN. AND HENRY III 22 q
vi CONTENTS.

I AGR
CHAPTER XXXII.

THE COMING OF THE FRIARS 254

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 280

CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. THE BLACK DEATH. WYCLIF 397

CHAPTER XXXV.
THE THREE LANCASTRIAN KINGS. THE SHADOW OF ROME 336

CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE AGE BETWEEN MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY ..... .
362

CHAPTER XXXVII.
ENGLISH MONASTICISM AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . . .
384

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE CHURCH AT THE DAWN OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . 412

CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE NEW LEARNING. DEAN COLET AND SIR THOMAS MORE . . . . . . 430

CHAPTER XL.
ERASMUS, AND THE RECOVERY OF THE SCRIPTURES . ... . . . .
449

EXCURSUS C.

ST. DOMINIC AND THE INQUISITION .... ...... 472

 LIST OF PLATES.

ELY CATHEDRAL ,... Frontis.

ILLUMINATION FROM AN EIGHTH CENTURY PSALTER OF ST. AUGUSTINE

IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM . . To face page 21

WORCESTER CATHEDRAL f<

. .
56

CHICHESTER : THE CATHEDRAL, MARKET CROSS, AND TOWER . . ,, 133

CANTERBURY CATHEDRA L ,, 206

NORWICH CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST ;

271

NUNS IN CHOIR (FROM A FIFTEENTH CENTURY PSALTER MADE FOR

-
HENRY VI.) J .
338

GLASTONBURY ABBEY .
. 400
 CHAPTER XXI.

THE DANISH SUPREMACY.

Connection of Secular and Ecclesiastical Story Renewal of the Danish Invasion Changes in Eng
land which favoured It Ethelred the Unready Marries Emma the Norman, and thus Intro
duces Norman Influence into England Swein s Great Invasion Wessex Accepts Swein as
King His Death and Recall of Ethelred Edmund Ironside Divides the Kingdom with
Canute Death of the Ironside, and Accession of Canute to the Kingdom of all England His
Character His Reign a Victory for Christianity End of the Conflict with Paganism Earl
Godwin and His Sons Canute s Sons Harold and Harthacanute Canute s Earnest Religious
Character His Ecclesiastical Cabinet of State
"

Letter to the People

" "

Memorial to "

Edmund Ironside Canute s Influence upon the Church.

reader of this History may perhaps what these Vikings were, and what a stern

THEand sometimes feel surprised that

again the purely ecclesiastical

now spirit of hatred to Christ and His religion

inspired their fierce war-bands, would have

story should be apparently interrupted by given but a maimed and distorted narrative
what may seem to him only secular matters. at best, and have presented a totally in
But we are travelling during this period over adequate view of the work of noble and
a comparatively little known district of religious Alfred. So here, to have written
history, when names and bishops
of kings about Canute and his times, and the
suggest but little to the reader, and in them powerful influence which English Christi
selves possess little or no meaning. To anity had upon the great northern mon
have passed from Alfred and his archbishop arch who so strangely came to sit upon
Plegmund to the work of Dunstan, without the throne of Alfred, and so ably took up
a short sketch of the great kings who his work among us, would have been
intervened between these two periods, a hopeless confusing task, without
and
would have been at once confusing and gathering up the threads of the history

misleading. At an earlier stage, to have which tell us how it came to pass that
painted the which the great
desolation the northern Viking entered into the in
Viking raids brought upon the church and heritance he ruled so well. Later in our
state of England, without
telling who and story, again, to introduce the
last Saxon
2 E
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 1000.

monarch, known in history as the

"

Con busied himself exclusively in ecclesiastical

fessor,"
Norman in spirit rather than matters, dying in 988, and leaving behind
English, and relate the great change in him a name and fame perhaps unequalled
church and state begun by him and carried in the long and honoured line of the

out by his kinsman the Norman William, primates of the English Church.
But on
whom men call the Conqueror, without the day when his strong, wise hand was

dwelling a little upon the origin and removed from the helm of English govern

character of these wonderful Normans, ment, may be said to have begun that
who exercised such a wide-spread in terribleand long-drawn-out fresh drama
fluence on the continent of Europe, and of Danish raids and wars, which ended in
who England changed the theology
in the submission of all England to a Danish
and the practice, though not interfering king.
with the unbroken continuity of our In the north of Europe various events
church, would be both misleading and had been taking place, which led to the
not a little confusing. gradual consolidation of the Danish power.
Such are the reasons which determine A great northern monarchy had in the
u breaks
the days of Ethelred taken the place of the
"

any seeming in purely

ecclesiastical story, and render it
necessary many petty jarls and Vikings, whose war
in these far-back periods to introduce a ships had been the terror of England in
thin thread for it is little more of the days of Alfred. It was towards the
the secular history of that time into the close of the ninth century that a mighty
narrative.They will necessarily become Viking chief, Gorm the Old, had welded
more rare, as we advance into periods into one a number of Danish families or
more generally known, in which names tribes, and in a half mythical city called
of and great ministers of state
kings set up his new kingdom.
Lethra in Zeeland,
become to most readers something more For many years the famous chieftain met
than shadows. From the eleventh century with varying success and failure, till in
downwards there are also no more 934 the emperor of Germany, Henry the
of Fowler, routed his invading army of pirates,
" "

startling comings strange peoples

among change by their advent the
us, to and shortly after his defeat we hear of
whole current of our history, sacred as well Gorm s death. Two great mounds, mark
as civil n as was the case in the earlier days ing the place of sepulture of the dreaded
of the story of England and her church. Viking and his wife,queen Thyra, preserve
still the memory of his exploits near the

King Ethelred the second, son of Edgar, town of Weile. His son Harold Blaatand,
after the short reign of his brother, or Blue Tooth, succeeded to the authority
Edmund the Martyr (murdered at Corfe), of Gorm, and the chroniclers of that age

began to reign in 978. As we have related, of confusion and bloody wars again and
Dunstan, finding no favour in the eyes of again tell us of his deeds and valour. For
the young king and his advisers, quietly a long period this Harold was the principal
retired to his arch-see t and for ten years figure in the north.
circa 1000.] THE DANES.
The deadly conflict between Paganism giving place to the man who did suit
and Christianity still occupied the foremost and service to a master, to whom he
place in the disputes and endless fighting looked for protection and guidance. No
which occupied these Northmen even at doubt this change in the position of the
home, when their fleets and armies were was largely
old free cultivators of the soil
not engaged in foreign invasion. Harold owing to the state of perpetual unrest
Blue Tooth in later life was persuaded of and danger to home and hdarth brought
the truth of Christianity, forsook the old about by the long-continued wars and
heathen sanctuary of Lethra, and earnestly raids of the Vikings.Every man needed
busied himself in turning his people from some powerful protector in those rough
their old northern gods to the faith of and stormy days.
Jesus. Not so his son, the subsequently But there was another cause which only
famous Swein, who all his life was a too helped forward the Danish
largely
fanatical supporter of Woden andThor. The invaders. For the long period of thirty-
pagan son rebelled against the Christian eight years England was ruled by the only
father and in the end the forces of
; incompetent sovereign of the house of
heathendom triumphed, and Harold Blue Alfred. Ethelred, the second of the name,
Tooth died of his wounds at Jomsborg, a surnamed "

the Unready
"

or rather the
great Viking city at the mouth of the river
king (for that is the
"counsel-lacking"
Oder. Swein succeeded Harold as king, real meaning of the well-known epithet),
but was soon, in the varying fortunes of was a bad man and a bad king. He was
the endless wars and jealousies of the not "

unready
"

or shiftless by any means,

north, driven from the throne. He then as the modern signification of the term
became a wandering Viking chief the would suggest, but restless and even ener
terror of the seas. Wealthy England, getic only with an energy irregulated and
;

especially during the reign of Ethelred, misapplied an energy which, as it has

was the scene of his perpetually recurring been well began enterprises and rarely
said,
raids ;
and for many years he led the ended them. He
never seems to have had
life In the year
of a successful sea-pirate. the good fortune in his long reign of meet
1000 the fortunes of the Viking changed. ing with any man of commanding genius,
Swein was recalled to Denmark, and for or with any true patriot. His advisers
the next years, with short in
fourteen" were unworthy favourites, who too often
tervals, continued his wars with England played him and their country false. In
no longer, however, as a mere sea-rover, that age much depended on the ability
but as king of the great Danish nation. and character of the ruler of a country ;

A considerable change had gradually one great king like Alfred was often
been coming upon English life since able to raise it to great prosperity,
the days Alfred, of and in no small while an incompetent and weak sovereign
degree assisted the designs of the Danish like Ethelred could bring it to ruin and
invaders in the days of Ethelred (978- degradation.
1016). The old free-man was disappearing, During the earlier years of Ethelred s
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 1000.

unhappy reign, the Danish attacks took Swein remained ever a deadly foe to the

the form of mere piratical raids, re religion of Jesus. In the year 995 both

sembling closely the old Viking method the great sea rovers had recovered or won
of harassing a land, and bringing in their their crowns, but for a time the deadly
train untold misery and ruin but being; enmity which had succeeded to the old
local and temporary, making no great friendship of king Olaf and king Swein,
impression upon the nation generally. gave harassed England some respite for

Gradually, as the reign of Ethelred a season.

advanced, however, the invaders grew The wild life of one of these mighty
more in earnest ;
the raid often ended Vikings Olaf came to a fitting close in
in a permanent settlement, until the 1000. The two old friends met together
Viking hero, who for so many years had in deadly conflict. The scene of the fatal
harassed the land and plundered the battle was their own loved Northern ocean,
people, again determined to make of and the fight was long famous in the

England an enduring conquest.* North. The words of the old saga are
For many of these earlier years, another worth quoting, as they give us a vivid

figure appears by the side of Swein, and picture of the man who so long was a
one equally terrible to the hapless English terror to our English forefathers King :
"

folk, the hero of many of the famous Olaf stood on the Serpents quarter-deck
Northern sagas Olaf Tryggvasson. In high above the rest. He had a gilded
the somewhat and
confused chronicles shield, and a helm inlaid with gold over ;

sagas which tell the story of this un his armour he wore a short red coat, and
happy age, these two mighty Vikings was easy to be distinguished from other
both sons of kings, both claimants to the men He asked, Who is the
chief thrones of the north (Swein to that chief of the coming upon us.
many ships
of Denmark, Olaf to that of Norway), answered it was king Swein with the
They
both exiles from their country, and in the Danish host." The fight was long and
end both kings again of their respective stubborn the great ships of Swein pressed
;

peoples are found associated in their closer and closer. So thick," says the
"

piratical work, now engaged together in saga,

"

flew spears and arrows into the

the now again Serpent, king Olaf s ship, that the men
s
plundering expeditions ;

fighting alone on their own account ;

shields could scarce contain them." Olafs
but for a long period they were the two men fell fast. His fleet was far out
most conspicuous figures among the dreaded numbered. At last the little group of
northern Vikings. Then, in the many- fighting men about the king were all slain.

coloured story of their lives, comes in Then king Olaf, tossing his shield over his
the strange deadly combat between the head, leaped into the sea, and so perished.
two religions. Olaf became a Christian ;
The disastrous reign of Ethelred wore
on. Though for some eight or nine years
*
See generally for this period, Green Con "

king Swein, occupied with home affairs,

:

quest of England," chapters viii., ix., and Freeman s

"Norman Conquest," chapters v., vi.
ceased to harass England, other Viking
circa 1000.] ETHELRED AND THE NORMANS. 5

chiefs at short intervals kept coming, and Emma as his second wife. From his first

with fire and sword desolating various marriage his brave but ill-fated son and
districts in England. It was in the year successor, Edmund Ironside, sprang ;
from

SWEIN DEMANDING RANSOM.

1002 that Ethelred entered into that his second, with the Norman princess, the
solemn alliance with the Norman settlers saint-king Edward the Confessor.
in Gaul, which was fraught with such
momentous consequences to our land in This second marriage of Ethelred the
after days. The duke of the Normans, Unready with the beautiful Norman princess
Richard the Good, gave him his sister was one of the momentous marriages of
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1002.

the world, and has affected the entire reign of Ethelred and Emma, and that
history of western Christendom. Queen of Canute the Dane and Emma, and
Emma inherited the well-known beauty of during the rule of queen Emma s two sons,
the princesses of her house, while the great Harold Harefoot and Harthacanute. It

talents, the surpassing ambition, the in became stronger than ever in the course

domitable will of the more prominent of of the long life of Harthacanute s successor,
the children of Rollo were also character Emma s son, Edward the Confessor,
istic features of this famous u Lady of the who had been trained and brought up
English." With her arrival in England, in Norman Rouen, who passed away
and influence over her husband, Ethel- but nine short months before the fatal

red the Unready, began the settlement field of Hastings, A.D. 1066. Thus the
of Normans in England, their gradual shadow of Norman influence passed over
admission to English offices, their posses Anglo-Saxon England in the year 1002 ;

sion of English estates, and that friendship and the shadow ever deepened, until her
and close connection between Normandy great-nephew William the Conqueror
and England which, a little more than made the Norman and Anglo-Saxon one
half a century after the landing of Emma people.
as queen on the English shores, rendered The same year in which he brought
possible the Norman
Conquest. year The home his Norman bride, king Ethelred
1 002 thus witnessed the dawn of the new planned and carried out the hideous
state of things in England. From that massacre known by the name of the mass-
year onward Anglo-Saxon England was no day on which the deed was carried out
longer the great solitary power which stood St. Brice. Allowing for considerable
and acted alone in all important questions, exaggeration on the part of later writers,
ecclesiastical and civil, which agitated west enough is
certainly known of that fatal
ern Christendom. Slowly and gradually day to stamp the memory of Ethelred
at first, but surely, Norman thought and and his advisers for ever with undying
Continental ways of working were intro shame. It was, of course, no general
duced into the hitherto lonely island. massacre of the Danes in England, for
How ceaselessly queen Emma worked that would have included a large propor
for this end, is shown b,y her strange tion of the dwellers in the north and
second marriage with the bitter and east of the island. The slain on St.

triumphant foe of her

English hus first Brice s day were probably the Danes of
band. Her second alliance with Canute, the more recent invasions who had settled
the Danish king, enabled her, after the in different parts of England, and v/hose
death of Ethelred, still to exercise the safety a hostile people had been
among
same, or even an extended influence, over guaranteed on the faith of some recently
English affairs. Indeed, from the day of concluded treaty of peace. Among the
her marriage with Ethelred in 1002, the slainwas Gunhild, a sister of king Swein.
Norman never loosed his hold on England. That the Danes were ruthless enemies in
The grip was never relaxed through the war-times, and treacherous guests in peace,
 1002 IOI4-] THE DANES AND ETHELRED.
7
is but the massacre
certain ;
deliberately silver and amber, which adorned the
great
planned by Ethelred and his ministers, war-ships of king Swein. The ravages
and carried out, with a certain measure committed by his host after
they landed
of success, on St. Brice s
day, was at once are painted in lurid colours. "

He
cruel and senseless, and
immediate its
says the chronicler, the most
"

wrought,"
eifect was to inflame the Danish evil that
people Farms and
any host might do."
with a new spirit of hatred, and to fieldswere ravaged, towns were burned,
inspire
them with a determination to avenge the churches were plundered, men were
bloody and shameful deed. slaughtered with a cruel slaughter. The
The story of the next ten years of south as well as the north of the island
Ethelred s reign, 1002 to 1012-13, is a was ruthlessly At Bath, after this
harried.
dreary recital of Danish wars and raids, destructive campaign,theWitan of Wessex
some of the more formidable invasions formally acknowledged Swein as king, de
being under the command of king Swein posing Ethelred, who fled to his wife s

himself. The defenders of England, on relations in Normandy ;

and Swein was
sea and were by no means supine,
land, generally acknowledged king of England.
and many a stubborn battle was fought ;
In one short month after the flight of
but treacbeiy and want of national union Ethelred, a sudden change came over the
seem again and again to have crippled strange scene of conquest and ruin. At
and marred the many gallant attempts the beginning of 1014 all England lay
on the part of the English to drive out at the feet of Swein, who, in the south
their formidable antagonists. read, We as in the north, was recognised as king
too, of constant efforts on the part of in place of the fugitive Ethelred ;
in the
Ethelred to buy off the invaders with February of the same year, about the

large sums of money each ransom, how

;
feast Candlemas, the mighty pagan
of

ever, so paid, only served to purchase a conqueror lay dead in his tent at Gains
short peace, and really encouraged the borough, in the midst of his victorious
pirates to make fresh efforts against so army. Our Latin chronicler, Florence
wealthy a nation. of Worcester, usually discreet and seem
The last invasion of king Swein in ingly truthful, preserves the legend of his
1013, which resulted in his permanent strange and terrible death. Swein, the
conquest of well-nigh the whole land, was pagan champion, had a special hatred for
conducted on a larger scale than any of the of St. Edmund, the East
memory
the The chroniclers Anglian king, martyred by the Danish
preceding attacks.
dwell on the splendour of the Danish Vikings Ivar and Hubbo in 870. He de

fleet, which brought, it is said, the

whole manded a great ransom from the famous
in whose
force of Denmark to the shores of the monastery of St. Edmundsbury,
doomed island. We
read of the magnifi famous minster rested the revered body
cence of the stately Viking craft, of the of the threatening (a threat he
saint-king,
birds and dragons floating on the tops of was only too likely to carry out), if the
to burn
the masts, of the carved work in gold and huge ransom was not forthcoming,
6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1014.

the church and religious house, and the comrades cried the awe-stricken
"

!
Viking
town which clustered round the sanctuary, warrior ;
"

I see St. Edmund coming with

and to torture to death the hapless dwel a spear to slay And, falling from
me."

lers in the sacred walls. The story goes his horse, he died that same night in
great agony. The framework of
this strange legend is evidently
based on authentic history. Swein
clearly did die as he was about to
plunder and to destroy the shrine
of St. Edmund and the great reli

gious house which had arisen

around the sanctuary and the ;

special reverence which his son

Canute afterwards showed to St.

Edmund, suggests that the Danes

did, in some way, connect the
death of the Danish conqueror
with the vengeance of the out
raged English saint.

The consequences of the death

of Swein were memorable. The
sudden removal
mighty of the

conqueror from the scene, seems

to have fired the hearts of the

English people with new hope.

The disheartened Witan, which
had so lately dethroned Ethelred
and recognised the Dane as king,

at once recalled its own discredited

sovereign. The words of the in

vitation recorded in the Chronicle
are evidently copied from the

original document. They are

[Photo: F. R. Turntr, Teviketbury.
SAXON WORK IN DEERHURST CHURCH. singular, and throw a strong light

upon the feeling of England

on to tell how king
Swein, riding from towards Ethelred sorrow and indignation
;

his Gainsborough camp at the head of his at his past misrule alternating with loyalty

army a march which had the minster of and devotion to the descendant of Cerdic
St. Edmund as its goal saw of a sudden and the head of the beloved house of
a vision of king Edmund, in full war Alfred. "No
lord,"
ran the document
panoply, coming against him. "

Help, inviting him back to his kingdom,

"

could
 EDMUND IRONSIDE.
be dearer to them than their lord rapidly gaining ground in various parts of
by birth, only he rule them more
ir
England, when the news of Ethelred s
righteously than he did before." death, in 1016, in some respects changed
Ethelred quickly returned, and at once the position of affairs.
marched against the dispirited Danish It was during the last years of Ethelred
host, still encamped at Gainsborough, that we hear of London taking its
first

where had died under

their king, Swein, position as the leading city of England.
such strange circumstances. Canute his From its unrivalled position it had gradu
son was elected at once king in his father s ally become the centre of the rapidly-
room but the Danes evidently offered
; growing English commerce, and its steady
but a half-hearted resistance to Ethelred s loyalty to the Saxon king during the
force, for very soon we read of the for Danish wars had given it a new and com
midable army of the once dreaded Swein manding position in the kingdom. In
re-embarking in the stately fleet, and sail London, then, in the year 1016, Edmund
ing away to Denmark. This happened in Ironside was chosen king by the Witan

1014, and for a brief season England was there assembled, and received the crown
free from the Danish in
vaders ;
but the end of

the long and terrible drama

was at hand. Ethelred was
now sickening with the

malady which put an end

to his unhappy reign, which
had lasted so many years.
By his side was Edmund,
surnamed Ironside, his

eldest son, a worthy repre

sentative of the great line
of Alfred. The relations,

however, between the father

and his gallant son were evi
dently strained, and when Photo : F. R. Turner,

Canute, Swein s son and SAXON WINDOW IN DEERHURST CHURCH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

successor, returned in the

following year, 1015, the resistance to the of Alfred. It was but a sad inheritance.
great invading army of the young Danish Almost at the same moment his formidable

king was fitful and uncertain. The splendid rival Canute the Dane was elected king by
gallantry and military skill of Edmund Iron another Witan assembled at Southampton :

sidewere sorely hampered by the indecision, and in the power of this doughty descend
perhaps by the jealousy, of Ethelred and ant of the Vikings lay, alas ! most of
his ministers. Canute and his host were England. During the next seven months
10 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1016.

a most astonishing spectacle was presented. and his hero race, with the exception of
With an energy and skill which have been Ethelred, were but short-lived and the ;

fairly termed almost superhuman, Edmund excitement and ceaseless labours and fight

by appealing to the patriotism of

Ironside, ing of the past months had worn out what
England, so long and so cruelly harried, was probably a feeble constitution. The
gathered together in succession five con ancient minster of Glastonbury received
siderable armies, and fought with the con the remains of Edmund Ironside, which

quering Dane five pitched battles with ;

were brought from his faithful city of

varying success, but, on the whole, the London and laid beside the grave of his
balance of victory remaining with the grandfather, Dunstan s friend, Edgar the
In the sixth, how Peaceful. In later times, through all
"

noble English king.

ever, of these deadly encounters, at Assan- the rebuilding of that wonderful pile, the

dun, probably in Essex (Ashington), the memory of the hero still lived. Behind
most hotly disputed of all, there is no the high altar, in his own chapel as a
doubt but that the Ironside was defeated. canonised saint, rested the body of Edgar
Assandun was the grave of most of his the Peaceful. Before the altar lay the
devoted patriot friends. supposed remains of the legendary Arthur
Though, however, victory the was and his yet more legendary queen. North
Canute s, it was evidently no decisive and south slept two champions of England,
success ;
for soon after the battle the alike in name and glory. On the north
Englishman and the Dane met together side layEdmund the Magnificent, one of
on the Isle of Olney in the Severn, hard by the brother heroes of Brunanburgh, the
the ancient church and religious house of conqueror of Scot and Cumbrian and
Deerhurst. Part of the Saxon church, in Northman, the deliverer of English cities
which no doubt the Ironside worshipped, from the heathen yoke. To the south lay
and not unlikely his great rival Canute his namesake and descendant, as glorious

also, after the celebrated Olney pact, is in defeat as in victory, the more than
with us still. Then and thus was England equal rival of the mighty Canute, the man

again divided between its native Cerdic- who raised England from the lowest depth
descended prince and a Dane nor was the ;
of degradation, the guardian whose arm
division very unlike that made between and heart never failed her Edmund the
*
Alfred and Guthrun. Edmund Ironside Ironside."

kept England south of the Thames, with

East Anglia, Essex, and London Canute ; The death of king Ethelred, followed
taking the rest of the island. Apparently to the grave a few months later by his
it was arranged that each prince was to hero-son Edmund Ironside, left England
succeed to the dominion of the other at the mercy of Canute and his Danes.
certainly if he died childless. But no period of terror or oppression, as
But the pact of Olney, after all, proved might have been expected, succeeded. The
useless. Before that fateful year closed, Danish conqueror was no ordinary man.
the gallant English king was dead. Alfred * Freeman :
"

The Norman Conquest." ch. v. 6.

 KING CANUTE. ii

Although the son of a long line of pirate part in the story of England. The
chiefs, the Viking king Canute
spirit in other possible claimants to the Eng
scarcely outlived his youth. His father, lish crown were also children Alfred
king Swein, was a pagan of the old type, and Edward, the sons of Ethelred the
who hated Christianity, who evidently re Unready. They were in safe exile at the
garded the extirpation of the Christian reli court of their kinsman, the Duke of the

gion as the great mission of the Northern Normans, at Rouen.

Edward, afterwards
peoples, and, indeed, died in endeavouring famous as Edward the Confessor, became
to carry out what he looked on as his in later days king of England. Canute
destined work for it will be remembered
;
further strengthened his claim to the
that he met his death as he was on his throne, and secured the friendship of

way to destroy one of the principal sanc his powerful Norman neighbours, by
tuaries of Christian England, the abbey marrying the widow of king Ethelred,
and religious house of St. Edmundsbury. Emma, the daughter of the Norman duke
Canute, on the other hand, when once Richard Sans Peur.
firmly seated on the English throne, was At an early period of his great reign,
distinguished as an earnest and devoted king Canute who had been formally
Christian sovereign. crowned king of England in London at
master of England,
Although absolute a Witan heldat Oxford, renewed and

the Danish king was determined to base ratifiedthe laws of Edgar, the well-loved
his rule upon the formal acceptation of English king. This act marked his firm
the English people, and at a great Witan resolve to rule his kingdom exclusively
assembled in London he was acknowledged after the English fashion. The mighty
as the lawful sovereign of the island. A Danish and army he had brought
fleet

few severities, evidently necessary for the with him to combat Edmund Ironside,
peace of the country, marked the begin he sent back to Denmark, only retaining
ning of the Danish conqueror s reign. forty ships, as a nucleus for an English
Certain men whose fidelity he had reason fleet, and a small force of some 3,000
to suspect, were put to death or outlawed. Danish warriors, known as his house-carls,

The natural heirs of the house of Alfred for a permanent body-guard, who served
the two children of Edmund Ironside as the nucleus of a standing English army.
he despatched to his half-brother Olaf, Throughout his reign of nineteen years,
king of Sweden, intending, apparently, Canute s conduct and policy were that of a
that Olaf should quietly kill them ;
but wise and patriotic Englishman rather than
Olaf, though dreading Canute s power, ab of a Danish conqueror. He took up and
horred the suggested crime, and sent them developed the work of the great kings
to the far distantkingdom of Hungary, of the house of Alfred, and the country
where they grew up under the care of the under his wise rule made enormous strides
saint-king Stephen. One of the children, in wealth and power. The student of
under the name of Edgar Atheling, played his reign is surprised to find how little
in later a somewhat distinguished trace of a conquest is discoverable in the
years
12 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1016.

Danish conqueror s English kingdom. Christianity in the north, the triumph

After the death of his native rival Edward of Canute really strengthened it, as we

Ironside, the true nobility

of Canute s shall see, in lands where hitherto pagan
character appeared. The Danish king ism still prevailed. Had the Dane won
elected to live in England, to make England a century before, when Alfred
his home, the seat of his wide was waging his life and death struggle
England
with the Viking Guthrun, English
Christianity would indeed have been in
some danger of extermination ;
but what
was possible a hundred years before, was
impossible when Canute became sole king
in England.The long-drawn-out Danish
wars, the wise government of the kings
of the house of Alfred, had awakened a
national feeling which nothing could undo.
Still more, the work of the Church of

England had succeeded in welding into

one great nation the various kingdoms
and peoples whose jealousies and divisions
had once so materially assisted the Viking
raids and settlements. Under the rule
of ministers like archbishop Dunstan,
the Jute of Kent, the West Saxon on the
Severn and the Avon, the East Saxon of
London and Bury, the Engle of Lichfield
and York, were closely knit together
they had the same interests, the same
DANISH STIRRUP FOUND IN THE THAMES NEAR
BATTERSEA. (British Museum.) hopes, the same training. All this was
clearly seen by the wise Danish king
dominions, and at the same time deter Canute, and he quickly became an English
mined to become an Englishman to all man among Englishmen, a Christian
intents and
purposes. He
would have among a Christian people.
men forget here that he was a Dane. Then, too, in his broad Danish dominions
It would seem, at first, that the un the old period of wandering was over for

disputed accession of a great Danish king the Scandinavian peoples themselves.

to the throne of England marked the Their own revolutions had transformed
complete success of the long struggle of the petty realms of the north also into
the pagan Northman to win the country, great monarchies. The result of their
and to stamp out, least here, the
at long and destructive raids upon the
religion of the Crucified, so hated by the Prankish peoples, had been the establish
Viking spirit. But instead of destroying ment of a powerful and settled dominion
 ioi6 1035.] KING CANUTE.
in the north of France, under the name the north of Europe. Thus the apparent
of the Norman duchy. Thus the result victors in the long and bloody strife were
of the Danish conquest of England was The Danish king
really the vanquished.
not to establish a Scandinavian kingdom dom of Canute in England, and the mighty
in the island, but rather to Danish realm in Normandy, became the
strengthen
the Anglo-Saxon Christian power, and to most prominent and successful Christian
make it paramount in the north; not to nations of Europe.

CHARTER OF CNUT (CANUTE) A.D. 1031.

Witnessed by Aethelnoth, Archbishop of York; Mlfgifu (Emma), the Queen; Earl God-wine, and many Bishops,
Abbots, Earls, and Thanes. (British Museum.)

destroy Christianity in England, but The nineteen years of Canute s reign

rather to destroy paganism in the whole were years of an almost unbroken quiet.
of the northern or Viking kingdoms. Within the English border no record has
Under Canute we find English bishops reached us of any disturbance. One
and English missionaries active and Scottish invasion, and one English in
successfulin spreading Christianity over vasion of Wales, make up all the story of
the length and breadth of the northern wars within the limits of the island. The
realm. His victory and complete success result of the border warfare was,
however,
finished the long and terrible
pagan important. Malcolm, the Scottish king,
efforts to root out the religion of Jesus in agreed to recognise the supremacy of the
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1035-

English sovereign, and as part of the during the nineteen years of the reign of
political arrangement with Canute, the the great Dane, the universal respect and
northern half of the old realm of consideration which England, as the central

Northumbria, including Lothian, became and most important division of the wide
henceforth part of the Scottish realm, empire of Canute, enjoyed, gave an extra
and Edinburgh was chosen as the usual ordinary and rapid development to English
royal Scottish residence. In the north, commerce. For the first time for more
in the kingdoms claimed by Canute, we than a hundred years, the Viking raiders
hear of. several short wars and insurrec were no longer dreaded. We hear of the
tions but during most of his reign the
; growing importance and increasing wealth
English king was the acknowledged of many of the older cities, such as Chester
master of Denmark and Norway, and for and Gloucester, York and Lincoln ;
while
the later years of his life absolute peace the needs of this rapidly-expanding com

reigned in those turbulent countries. merce were the occasion of the foundation
The administration of England was little or at least of the extension of comparatively
altered from the arrangements sanctioned new centres, such as Oxford and Bristol.

by thekings of the house of Alfred. The greatness and wealth of London, al

Four great governments divided the realm. ready alluded to, become more noticeable
These answered to the four most power as the reign advanced. The riches and
ful and permanent among the ancient importance of London in the early part of
kingdoms Northumberland, Mercia, East the eleventh century can partly be gauged
Anglia, and Wessex. Their governors from the proportion which the city paid
were known as earls, a title which now of a Danegelt levied in the first year of
supplanted the more
ancient name of Canute s
reign. The amount imposed
aldermen. But these great officials were upon the whole of England was seventy-
evidently more really subject to Canute two thousand pounds, and of this sum
than to any of his Anglo-Saxon prede London paid ten thousand five hundred
cessors. Before the times of the Danish pounds, about one-seventh of the entire
king, Wessex and the south had been more amount.
immediately under the direct government The name of Godwin has been men
of the kings themselves than the other tioned as the favourite minister and adviser
three great divisions. Alfred and his of the Danish reign. A thane of West
children belonged to the old royal house Saxon blood, tradition ascribes his rise
of Wessex hence the retention of Wessex
;
entirely royal favour, and represents
to
under the more direct rule of the princes him as springing originally from a humble
of their ancient house. After he had This remarkable man, who after
origin.
become the
acknowledged king of all the sovereign occupied the most prominent
England, Canute conferred the earldom of position in England during the reigns of
Wessex on his best beloved minister and Canute and his sons and of Edward the
adviser, the famous Godwin. Confessor, has been well styled as one who,
The long and almost unbroken peace never a king himself, was the maker, the
1035] HARTHACANUTE.
kinsman, the father of kings. Very early a time retained Wessex. Swein, the
in Canute s reign we find this Godwin brother of Harold Harefoot, succeeded to
occupying high office. His valour in war, the crown of Norway.
prudence in counsel, diligence in business, Harthacanute s affections seem to have
his commanding eloquence and winning been altogether given to his northern
manner, won him the friendship and con realm of Denmark, and no persuasion on
fidence of the far-seeing Danish conqueror, the part of earl Godwin and his Wessex
who advanced him rapidly from post to subjects could persuade him to show him
post till he became the chief minister of self inEngland. Popular feeling at last
the reign and earl of Wessex, the wealthiest brought about a bloodless revolution, and
and most influential division of the king aftersome two years we read the following
dom. Through the favour of the monarch, entry in the Abingdon and "Wor
" "

earl Godwin obtained the hand of Gytha, which

"

cester Chronicles, tell the story

the sister of the Danish earl Ulf, the of the quiet revolt :
"

They chose Harold

husband oftanute s sister Estrith. Gytha (Harefoot) to be king over all (England),
was descended from one of the more and forsook Harthacanute, for that he was
famous heroes of the north, Thorgils, whom too long in Denmark."

tradition speaks of as the grandson of a The election of Harold Harefoot was

bear. The children of Godwin and Gytha "the formal act of the Witan of Wessex ;

played the most distinguished parts in the but he seems to have attracted neither
story of England before the Norman Con love nor devotion, and some of the

quest, and Harold, the most celebrated of accounts of his short, uneventful reign
this band of Godwin s heroic sons, will represent him as a careless, godless king.
be ever memorable in the annals of our One dark story certainly disfigures his
country as the last of the Anglo-Saxon reign. Alfred, the son of Ethelred and
kings. Emma, made an attempt to invade
England. He was taken prisoner, and
When Canute died in A.D. 1035, the great barbarously tortured and put to death.
northern empire he had built up at once Godwin was accused of instigating this
fell to pieces. Sweden and Norway were cruel act, was formally
but after-wards
divided again, and England once more acquitted of any share in the deed by
ceased for a time to be one nation. the Witan of England. Harold Harefoot
Neither of Canute s sons inherited their died at Oxford after a short reign, in

father s conspicuous ability. The elder 1040.

one, Harold Harefoot, so named from his His brother Harthacanute, king of
remarkable swiftness in running the son Denmark, who was far from acquiescing

of Canute and his first wife, to whom he was in his deposition from the Wessex throne,
never legitimately married became king when the news of his brother Harold s

of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia. death reached him, was busy preparing
Harthacanute succeeded to Denmark, and, for an invasion of England in order to

through the influence of earl Godwin, for secure his rights. On his half-brother s
i6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042.

death he was chosen at once to succeed tersely relate the tragic scene thus :

him. But his short reign was absolutely This year (A.D. 1042) died Harthacanute
"

eventless ;
it has been well described as as he at his drink stood." He was buried
that of one worthless youth following in the old minster in the royal city of

another equally worthless. His first act Winchester. The Chronicles tell of the
was an act of senseless brutality towards immediate succession of his half-brother

the dead body of his half-brother Harold. Edward thus :

"

Before the king was

The body was exhumed, decapitated, and buried, all folk chose Edward as king in
then tossed into the Thames. The remains London."

were subsequently brought up by a fisher Thus within seven years the four children

man, and re-interred, tradition says, by
some of the Danish inhabitants of London,
in their cemetery, situated outside
surrounding the site of the present
Clement Dane s church. The few events
recorded in Harthacanute s reign represent
of Canute had passed away Harold Hare-
foot, Swein (who had died shortly before),
London, Harthacanute, and Gunhild, their sister.
St. All died childless save Gunhild, the wife
of the German Henry III., whose only
child became a nun and thus once more;

him as a cruel, revengeful, self-indulgent the crown of England rested on the brows

tyrant. His failing health and the fact of an heir of the West Saxon house of
of his being childless induced him to send "Cerdic,
a direct descendant of Alfred ;

for his half-brother Edward from Rouen, for Edward, the new king of England,
with a view to the future succession to known in history as the "

Confessor,"

the crown. We hear of Edward living, was the son of the Saxon king Ethelred
during the short period which remained and Emma, the Norman princess. With
of Harthacanute s reign, in great honour Edward the Confessor (A.D. 1042)
at his brother s court. commences a new era in the story of
The end came more quickly than was England.
expected. The young Danish king died
in a way as has been quaintly described During the twenty-six years of the rule
most prince whose chief
befitting a of the Danish line in England in the
recorded merit was that he provided his reigns of Canute and his two sons no
courtiers with four meals a day. The great churchman arose in England.
king was at
Lambeth, in the house Neither Lyfing, who crowned Canute,
of Osgod Clapa, one of the most influential nor his successor in the arch-see of
men of the day, on the occasion of Osgod s Canterbury, Ethelnoth the Good, were
daughter Githa s marriage to Tofig, the in any sense distinguished for great
proud and powerful Danish thane who ability or originality. Plain, honest,
was standard-bearer to the king. In the God-fearing men especially the latter
course of the state banquet, as Hartha- Ethelnoth they did their duty quietly
canute rose to propose the bride s health, and unostentatiously, carrying on the
he fell to the ground in a fit, accompanied great traditions of the school of Dunstan.
with frightful struggles. The Chronicles Their chief title to honour was the quiet
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i8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10161035

influence for they undoubtedly Danish king of England. No student of

good
exercised over the great Danish conqueror his life can for one moment doubt that

Canute. he became an earnest Christian from

The character of Canute is one of the conviction.

most interesting in early English history. Nor can we hesitate to assert that it

The descendant of a line of pirate kings was the spirit of the Church of England
and we find him in the early which so powerfully influenced the heart
chieftains,
at the head of Canute, and brought about the great
years of his eventful career
of a great fleet and army of Vikings, carry change in his character. The church of
ing out the dread traditions of his race Dunstan, Canute found, was a real and
only too faithfully, plundering, burning, living power in the land he came quickly

Then, no sooner to love so well,and his acute genius was

destroying ruthlessly.
had he obtained all and more than all not slow to perceive what was its work
his ambition could ever have allowed him and influence among the people of Eng
to dream of, when seated firmly on the land. The king of Denmark compared it

throne of England, backed up with all with the paganism of the north, and, re
the mighty power of the north, the cognising its power and influence for good,
once into the it as his own and for
Viking warrior changed at adopted religion,

wise and patriotic prince, second to none ever swept away the long-cherished Viking

of those great men of the house of Alfred idea of destroying Christianity and sub

who had succeeded in making a united stituting paganism in its place.

and prosperous England.

And what was perhaps strangest of all, The relations between the Church of
we find the Viking chief quietly putting England and the state, in the days of the
aside the pagan traditions of his race, and great kings of the house of Alfred, of
during the nineteen years of his beneficent Canute, and of Edward the Confessor,
reign adopting the maxims of the Christian who may be looked upon as Canute s

faith, and living up to them in the reality immediate successor, were close and inti

of his private life, as well as in the open mate. The period in question to which
publicity of his state life. That wise we allude extends from the middle of

statesmanship which induced Canute to be the ninth century to the middle of the
come an Englishman in all the best sense eleventh century some 200 )r ears. We
of the word
among Englishmen, might have already had several occasions to men
perhaps have led him to adopt the re tion the constant presence in the Witan r

ligion as well as the manners and customs or great council of the nation, of th,e
and laws of the people over whom he archbishops, bishops, and certain abbots of
found himself called to rule but no mere
; important houses. The archbishop, and
statecraft would have evoked the writings in not a few cases the bishop, was the

we possess from his hand, or supplied the chosen adviser of the king and in the ;

motives of the intensely religious acts case of archbishop Dunstan, he was the
which illustrate the career of the great minister of a great reign like that of
ioi6 1035.]
CANUTE AND THE CHURCH.
Edgar, stretching over many years.
In marked political character of the English
deed, that most able prelate (Dunstan) had episcopate, and its close connection with
identified with the office of the sovereign. This peculiar state of
positively
of standing counsellor things went on from Canute s days to
primate the position
of the realm, in other words, of the king s the Reformation.
chief minister. The power of the sovereign in the
This extraordinary position of power in appointment of bishops is clear. In
the state, after Dunstan s disappearance earlier times these appointments were
from public affairs, seems to have been spoken of somewhat vaguely : now as the

much modified ;
and we do not find, as result of the choice of the clergy and the
a rule, the primate again occupying the people, now as proceeding from the abso

position
of chief minister. Under Canute lute will of the sovereign. Under Canute
he did not occupy the position filled by and his successors, however, the will of

Dunstan, but the more natural one of a the king was notified in a more imperious
royal counsellor whenever the privileges manner ;
and by them the practice of in
of the Church or the relation of the Church vestiture by the ring and crozier seems to
to the liberties of the people were in ques have been introduced. No mention ever
tion. But same time (in the days
at the appears of any interference on the part
of Canute) a new and close connection be of the Pope. His part in these episcopal
tween the church and state grew up in the
appointments was strictly confined to the
of the king himself, and which bestowal of a pall upon the archbishops,
"

cabinet
"

had great ultimate consequences conse and this dignity was of course bestowed
quences stretching, in fact, over centuries. after the appointment had been definitely
A staff of secretaries was formed for carry made.

ing outthe details of government,

all When a prelate of commanding intellect

arranged, in the first instance, by the king and vigour lived, his influence was para
and his lay-advisers. These secretaries mount in the church ;
but in times when
were Their number has been
ecclesiastics. such a great personality was not at its

given and among them were

as twelve, head, the king exercised the chief influ
to be found certain foreigners, no doubt ence ;
and when the monarch was, as we
trusted with foreign affairs ;
but usually find usually to have been the case in the
men of house of Alfred, at once able and
the majority were Englishmen, religious,

marked ability, whose reward,

in most his willand mind were stamped upon the
cases, in the long run, was an episcopal laws and regulations and general adminis
see. We notice this in the tration of the church. These command
especially
ing influences of the bishop and
and Edward the Con the king
reigns of Canute
fessor. Under the Conqueror the clerks seem to have alternated. In early days, the
of the king chapel or chancery are even
s mind and will of Theodore of Canterbury,
more prominent in the administration of Aldhelm of Sherborne, Wilfrid and

public affairs, and we find these more Egbert in York, and in the later days
Hence the of Dunstan of Canterbury, was stamped
frequently becoming bishops.
20 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1016 10.35.

upon the church of their times ;

and Church of England." Something more
the effect of their influence was felt was required in a king before he could
long after they had passed away. Sove exercise this strange spiritual power, so
reigns, like Alfred and Canute, in their potent in its on our great
after-effects

day, however, towered high above any church, than merely acute and far-seeing
ecclesiastic, and their influence in the statesmanship, which saw in the church a
contemporary Church of England was great and matchless power of usefulness.
absolutely paramount in its turn.* To exercise such spiritual power, he must

INVESTITURE OF A SAXON BISHOP.

It seems incredible that a child of the have been an intense believer in the
pagan Vikings Canute, himself in
like religion of which the church was the
early life a Viking chief, should ever have earthly exponent. Such an one was
come to rank among the more prominent Alfred, and, in a degree, perhaps, such an
religious Anglo-Saxon kings, who helped one was Canute also. No one who has
and work to u
by their life make the studied contemporary documents, such as
* See generally Bishop Stubbs :
"

Constitutional the Encomium of Emma," or the strik

"

vi. and chap, xix., etc. Freeman

History," chap.
ing letter of king Canute to his people
:

"

Norman Conquest," chap. viii. and appendix i.

etc. Green:
and the church after his Roman pilgrim
(vol. ii.), "Conquest of England,"
chap. vii. and chap. ix. age, or has pondered over Canute s quiet
ILLUMINATION FROM AN STH CENTURY PSALTER OF ST AUGUSTINE
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
ioi6 1035.] CANUTE AND THE CHURCH. 21

church work at St.

Edmundsbury, on the walked humbly, fixing his eyes upon the
bloody hill of Assandun, or at
Canterbury, ground with wonderful reverence, and
Ely, and Romsey, or in his native Den pouring out if I may say so rivers of
mark, can for a moment
doubt the intense reality of
the Christianity of our
Viking-descended king. A
few details will be specially 1 p 1
-
fl . Jfi

interesting not only as >u>Fin

ui,wfc&fc~
i
throwing light upon that
hcmmituf k<mru/t<urU3ia{-

inner life of one of our 1 .

. f x
T T
_ ]
^
noblest Christian princes,
who must be ever regarded
^f^f^lf
J*^\ *L
-C ? 7
a
T
_
t
;

cmuiscai^dCt; IWIWIUIHIL ttntov

<

l.[
7

as one of the makers jtTwtj^t 7 iV^-^

" "
]
of i
J
jagemet cxdnpcg nun** L^.tu^^tmiT . r- :

our church, but as picturing

T
1
!
I.IV^I? *
tttYnatfnUoir
-

-f
,-<
/ 1
eaJr tv*rmu5 urrtum
?
.
futfilVens
U -

vividly something of public

church life, with its errors
"

M * 5 i^Jk^i^M
,
"J
- t
1
I *M 7V *
.

and its earnestness, in the 4 n- f r J /

onfaf
early years of the eleventh .

jrv^ftr frtna^utm*
i-lT.v TV
J\
^U
lauamf^^ee:- ---
fl
t. >
J
-^ -r
century.
"

The Encomium
Emma,"

England
twice
as successively the
queen
of
of
., etbet* fefpttiif (H* antm
w
1 ^.
ttfiMMHwi* 4q;

WORKS \j uMlwtmui IV
t f 1 I
^T \<K&

j 1 . 1
mncnt tuA^4f^ 4t>**v*t*m
wife of Ethelred and of y
<ir-U^n^MM*<

Canute, and mother of two ;*

fw^f Umtf- f tW"-wm
Harthacanute and }..K. j..;,-;,,,, 5;
kings,
Edward the Confessor, as a
contemporary writing is of

great importance, although

the writer was often preju
diced in his statements. In cu*tvp<utr

this curious and interesting

composition the writer thus
describes Canute s conduct PAGE FROM A BOOK OF LATIN HYMNS IN MUSICAL NOTATION
at St. Omer in the course WITHOUT LINES, TENTH CENTURY. (British Museum.)
of his Roman
pilgrimage. It
gives a
good idea of the great king s tears, he implored the aid of the saints.
inner life when he was at the height of But when the moment had arrived when
his power. he was to present his gifts upon the altar,
Entering the monasteries, where he was
"

how often did he impress the pavement

received with great honour, he (Canute) with his kisses, how often did he strike
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10161035.

his venerable breast ! What sighs, what I have lately taken a journey to Rome to

prayers, that he might not be found un pray for the forgiveness of my sins, and for

worthy of the mercy of the Supreme ! the welfare of my dominions ... now I
At length his attendants stretched forth return most humble thanks to my God
his munificent oblation, which the king Almighty for suffering me in my lifetime
himself placed on the altar. But why do to visit the sanctuary of the apostles St.
I say the altar, when I remember that I Peter and St. Paul, and all others that I
myself saw him go round every part of could find either within or without the
the monasteries, and pass no altar, how city of Rome, and these in person I rever
ever small, on which he did not leave a entially worshipped according to my
present, and which he did not salute ? desire. This I have performed chiefly
Then came the poor, and they were all because I learnt from wise men that St.
separately relieved. These and other Peter the apostle has received from God
bounties of the Lord Canute, O St. Omer great power in binding and in loosing, and
and St. Berlin, I myself beheld in your that he carries the keys of the kingdom of
monasteries ;
for which do you pray that Heaven, and therefore I esteemed it
very
such a king the heavenly
may live in profitable to seek his special patronage
habitations, as your servants the canons with the Lord."
1

and the monks are daily petitioning. It is clear from this passage that in the
About the year 1027 Canute went on Anglo-Saxon church were taught some of
*
this pilgrimage to Rome. Subsequently the unscriptural doctrines especially con
he addressed a letter to the metropolitan demned by the Reformation teachers of the

Ethelnoth, and others whom he named, sixteenth century :

notably the invocation
and to the whole nation of the English. of saints such as St. Peter, whose special
Such pilgrimage was an ordinary and
a patronage a curious way of putting it

favourite piece of devotion in those days,
but evidently with Canute it was some
thing more. His whole soul was stirred
within him at the sight of the sacred
shrines and their deathless memories. He
pours out his whole heart in this celebrated
letter to the nation, which has been well
compared to that of
Canute desired with the Lord. After
dwelling at some length upon his reception
by the chiefs of continental Christendom,
the Pope and the emperor, and after de
scribing the honours and presents with
which he was loaded by these potentates,
and how he had obtained from them privi
an absent father leges and exemption from dues for future

writing to his children, whose love he felt

English pilgrims as well as for traders and
he possessed and deserved. The letter merchants, the king goes on to speak for
begins thus Canute, King of all England
:
"

himself in the following striking words

and of Denmark, Norway, etc., to Ethel peculiarly striking when
remembered it is

noth metropolitan, and Alfric, archbishop who was the writer, had been what
of York, and to all the bishops and pre his early training and the immemorial
lates and to the whole nation of the traditions of his wild, fierce race ;
how
English greeting. I notify to you that enormous, too, was his present power as
ioi6 1035.] CANUTE AND THE CHURCH.
the undisputed king of England and the payable to every one s parish church."
north : Canute s
"

Letter to the English Nation "

"

I have vowed," wrote Canute, "

to was a writing in some respects worthy of

amend my life in all respects, and to rule being ascribed to Alfred, or in later

the kingdoms and the people subject to me days to a sovereign like St. Louis of
with justice and clemency and ;
. . . France.*
if,through the intemperance of youth or Thelaws of king Canute repeat in re

negligence, I have hitherto exceeded the ligious matters much of the legislation of
bounds of justice in any of my acts, I the kings of the house of Alfred; and the
intend by God s aid to make an entire same devout spirit which lived in every

change for the better. I therefore adjure line of the remarkable "

Letter to the
and command my counsellors to whom I Nation "

we have just been dwelling on,

have entrusted the affairs of my kingdom, inspired much of the laws, and even seems
that they suffer no injustice to prevail, to have dictated some of the very language
either through fear of me or from favour in which they are written down. They
to any powerful person."
He then pro open with the precept charging men to
ceeded to charge and magistrates fear God and honour the king. First
"

all sheriffs

on their allegiance to treat high and low, above all things are men ever to love
rich and poor, with absolute impartiality, and worship one God, and with one mind
and that regard to royal
neither for to hold one Christendom, and with right

favour, or for respect of the great, or for truthfulness to love king Canute." The
the sake of money, was this rigid im laws themselves, as we have said, repeat

partiality ever to be departed from. much of the legislation of Canute s great

A long passage follows, promising the predecessors, and deal with the reformation
blessings of peace with all surrounding of manners, the administration of justice,

nations, so that England in the future the strict discharge of all ecclesiastical
would have nothing to fear from war or duties on the side of the priests, and the
hostilities from any quarter. What a pro strict payment of all ecclesiastical dues on
mise from the great descendant of the the part of the laymen. Again the ob
Vikings But the promise was faithfully
! servance of the Lord s day is earnestly
kept, and England long enjoyed the pressed. On that day no popular assembly
blessings of the profound peace Canute is to be held ;
there is to be no market, no

spoke of, to which for so many long years hunting. Heathen superstitions are all to
the land had been a stranger. The be given up a strange insertion in the
the Letter to the law-code of one who was in his youth a
"

last part ot Eng

lish Nation "

was occupied with a strict pirate chief, and the descendant of a long
injunction to the bishops and governors line of pagan Vikings The traffic in !

of the kingdom to take care that all slaves is also denounced. All English
church dues were punctually paid all
"

and customs are in

rights rigidly preserved
dues belonging to God, tithes, the pence * See Hook Lives of the Archbishops," vol. i.,
:
"

due to St. Peter at Rome, the first-fruits chap. vii. Freeman "Norman Conquest," chap. vi.
:
24 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10161035.

the code of the Danish king. We find in memory of his great victory over the

bishop and alderman associated as before gallant Edmund Ironside.

"

It was reared
a* presidents of the shire-assemblies ;
the as the hallowing of his victory, as the
u alderman "

in the later clauses, atonement for his earlier crimes."* It

however,
becomes the "

earl." The bishop and was, perhaps, the first of the many churches
earl are to be joint expounders of all laws, of "expiation," which only a few years
ecclesiastical and civil. The feasts of the later began to be built and endowed in

two new national saints are specially men sorrowful memory of

great a s nation

tioned, and men are enjoined to keep holy wrong ;

the dark shadow of which, very
the day of the boy-martyr Edward and the soon after king Canute passed away, be

day of the statesman-archbishop Dunstan. gan to creep over Canute s prosperous

But not only have the laws and some of England. The "priest" of the new church
the public utterances of this great king, of Assandun was the friend and chaplain
who was also a great churchman, come of Canute, and in after-years this priest

down to us the stories of not a few quiet

;
rose to great eminence in the church and
unostentatious acts, done for the love of state. The memory of Stigand of Assan

God, serve also to make the memory of dun will be ever cherished and reverenced
Canute a loved one in our church annals. as that of the last of the
by Englishmen,
Anglo-Saxons who was to occupy
the seat of Augustine in the
proud minster of Canterbury.
The stone church of Assandun,
consecrated in 1020, was only
the first of a long list of eccle
siastical foundations of the
Danish Canute. A restoration
on a very large scale was under
taken and carried out, of all
churches, monasteries, and
abbeys which had suffered

during his own or his father

Swein s wars. Among these
SCANDINAVIAN BROOCHES. (British Museum.) numerous works was the re-

founding as well as the rebuild

In the fifth year of his reign, when all was of the famous religious house and
ing
quiet at home, and no serious claimant or
abbey of St. Edmundsbury, erected and
discontented subject threatened his thrones, endowed in of the East Anglian
memory
either in England or in his northern realm
king who had suffered martyrdom at
of Denmark, with solemn rites was con the hands of the Danes in the invasion
secrated the stone church king Canute of Ivar and Hubbo before the days of
had built on the hill of Essex (Assandun), * Freeman.
 ioi6 1035 .] CANUTE AND THE CHURCH.
Alfred. This house of St. Edmund had
been especially the object of king Swein s
destructive hatred and the mysterious
;

story, alluded to already, of Swein s death

in the Viking camp at Gainsborough,
is
closely connected with the supposed
anger of the offended saint. Canute was
especially anxious to make every possible
amends to this well-loved Anglo-Saxon
hero. The minster was rebuilt ;
but the
foundation being changed accordance in

with the views of the Church of England

at the beginning of the eleventh century,

an abbot and monks replaced the secular

canons of the older house. In the im
portant monasteries of the Fen districts in
the east of England, the generosity and

religious zeal of Canute were peculiarly

marked. Ely and Ramsey both owed him
much.
Nor was Canute s earnestness on behalf
of the" Christian faith confined to his

English dominions. In Denmark he also

showed himself a zealous supporter of
Christianity. Several new bishops were
appointed for the struggling church in
still

this last home of a dying paganism. Some

of these were Englishmen. We hear of
bishops in Funen, Zealand, and Scania, for CNUT (CANUTE) AND ^LFGYFU (EMMA) MAKING
A DONATION TO NEW MINSTER.
instance in Roeskilde, near Lethra, the old
;
From an Early Eleventh Century MS. (British Museum. )
royal seat of the Danish kings, an English
bishop consecrated by an English primate which distinguished the great dames of
carriedon the work of the once hated re her illustrious house. Her devotion to
ligion of Jesus, among the time-honoured the two monasteries of the royal city of
sanctuaries of the old paganism of the Winchester is well known. Nor was the
north.
splendid bounty of king Canute and his
The ardent zeal of Canute for Christian Norman queen confined to England and
ity was shared by queen Emma his wife Denmark. Among many generous gifts of
the daughter of the Norman house of the mighty Danish king to churches on
Rollo who evidently had inherited that the continent of Europe, his donations
intense love for the Christian religion to the famous church of Chartres deserve
26 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10161035.

special notice, while his queen Emma
a very considerable share in rebuilding the
minster of St. Hilary of Poictiers, where
much of her work still remains.
The state visit of Canute to Glastonbury,
bore king once his bitterest foe
with a gor
geous robe, bright with the many-coloured
embroidery of skilful English workwomen,
forwhich the island was then, and for long
after that day, especially celebrated.

in company with archbishop Ethelnoth, One more of these acts of piety and

who, in common with so many of the devotion, which formed so prominent a

archbishops and distinguished ecclesias feature in Canute s life and work in Eng

tics, was connected with the school and land, must be recorded. The body of the

religious house of that time - honoured martyred Alphege (Elf heah), who had been
sanctuary, is historical. Canute formally so cruelly murdered by the Danes at
confirmed every gift and privilege which Greenwich in the wars of Ethelred, was
his English predecessors on the throne had solemnly translated from St. Paul s cathe
granted to the famous Celtic sanctuary. dral in London where the remains, it will
The object of this state visit of the Danish be remembered, had in the first instance
conqueror to Glastonbury, was to do been interred to his metropolitan church
honour to the tomb in which slept his of Canterbury. In this solemn work of

great rival, king Edmund Ironside. There, expiation king Canute personally assisted,
in front of the
high altar of Dunstan s and with him on that memorable day,
minster of stone, which had replaced the when paganism, in the person of the
yet older wooden basilica, the scene of so greatest Danish sovereign who ever lived,
many immemorial traditions of
England made sorrowful reparation for one of the
and the yet older Britain, Canute knelt memorable Viking crimes, were his queen
and prayed ;
and the story tells us how he and their boy Harthacanute, afterwards
covered the new tomb of the noble hero- king of England.

COMB-CASE OF SCANDINAVIAN (British Museum.)

 CHAPTER XXII.
THE NORMANS.

England Normanised by Edward The Viking Rollo, Founder of the Norman Realm Rouen Extent
of His Dominions Normandy a Christian State Guillaume of the Long Sword Richard the
Fearless Richard the Good The Normans in Italy Robert le Diable William the Conqueror
His Marriage with Matilda Friendship with Lanfranc Strength of the Normans Vestiges of
Paganism in their Character.

king Harthacanute, the son Edward the Confessor was certainly not

WHEN of Canute, fell stricken with

a mortal sickness "

as he at his
one of the few exceptions, but most dis
tinctly an able man, and as we have said
drink stood "

atthe marriage feast of from his point of view, a successful

Osgod Clapa, and thus made room for sovereign.
his young kinsman Edward, surnamed He was who prepared the way for a
it

the Confessor, a new spirit came over great and momentous change in England.
England. The new monarch was in From the day of his accession, Anglo-
tensely religious, and history istoo ready to Saxon England became gradually Norman
smile at the "

monk-king," as he is not in England. The Anglo-Saxon Church of

aptly often called too ready to deride his
; England became, for good or for evil,
influence ;
too ready to look on him as a the Norman Church of England. It is not
monkish visionary, occupied with thoughts the historian province to discuss whether
s

and aspirations belonging rather to a this change in the church from the spirit
cloistered monk than to the occupant of of Dunstan and Elfric to that of Lanfranc
a mighty throne. But Edward the Con and Anselm was, in truth, for good or evil

fessorwas certainly more than a mere as regards the English church : we have
monkish visionary he had a settled ; simply and truthfully to tell the story of
purpose in his mind all through his gener how the momentous change came about.
ally quiet reign. He determined, with a But in telling that story we must first very
dogged determination, to "

Normanise "

briefly set forth who these Normans were^

his England and from his point of view
;
and what had been their history, who in
his reign was on the whole successful, for the eleventh and twelfth centuries exer
he so far changed his country as to render cised so vast an influence in Europe ;

possible the Norman Conquest, which whose conquest of England worked so

followed hard upon his death. It must great a change in the manners, customs,
be remembered that with rare exceptions views and doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon
the kings of the house of Alfred were peoples and whose history, from the year
;

most able men and successful sovereigns. of the accession of Edward the Confessor,
28 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

becomes inseparably interwoven with that and plundering and slaying, would seem
of our own country. a curious preparation for one who was
to organisethe government of a new
It was early in the last quarter of the settlement, and to lay the strong ground

ninth century, when Alfred was king, that work of a realm destined in a few short

we first hear of Rollo, the founder of the years mightily to influence the history
famous Norman realm. The son of a of the world. Yet, strange to say, this
is what Rollo the northern pirate did in
Norwegian petty king or chieftain, Rollo,
driven by some bloody family feud from Rouen and on the Seine banks, between
his northern home, sought his fortune the years 911 and 927. Although still
abroad, and, as a Viking commander, for vigorous, he must have been more than
some thirty or forty years roamed the sixty years old when he began the strange
northern seas. With varying fortunes, at work of organising his Norman settlement
the head of a wild band of sea-pirates in France.

sometimes large, sometimes comparatively The country originally ceded to him by

few in number he harried with his black the Frankish king Charles the Simple, and

ships many a fair and prosperous district, which was only slightly increased in after-
now in England, but more often in France. years, may be said roughly to have
While still in the prime of life, the great included that portion of France we now
sea-rover dreamed of founding a perma know as Normandy, and parts of Brittany.

nent settlement. He chose for his home Maine was a later annexation. Rollo had
the banks of the Seine, and the rich six successors in Rouen before the great
country which the Seine waters, and he Conquest ofEngland in A.D. 1066, four
made the seat of his government the once of whom were certainly men of unusual
flourishing city of Rouen. It was a country genius and skill. What Rollo began, the

impoverished by many cruel raids ;

it famous dukes of Normandy, as they were
was a city half in ruins, of which Rollo usually called, went on with treading in ;

the Viking took possession, and to which their great ancestor s footsteps, and de
he acquired a sort of legal right by the veloping the strong, firm government, the
terms of a somewhat vague treaty which respect, and even devotion to the Christian
he made with the king of the Franks, faith,the love for order and law, which
Charles the Simple. were evidently the characteristics of Rollo
After Rollo and his Vikings had taken after he ceased to be a sea-rover, and had
possession of his new home, follows the settled down into the life of a ruler of an
romantic and marvellous story of the industrious colony. We
watch with some
sea-king s life at Rouen. A quarter of a surprise the gradual but rapid development
century spent in sailing the wild northern of the work of Rollo and his successors,
seas as a pirate, living a life disfigured which went on chiefly whilst the kings
by innumerable deeds of cruelty and wrong of the house of Alfred were reigning in
done to helpless monasteries and quiet England. Rollo and his descendants were
villages and farms, and filled with burning ruling in Rouen and Bayeux when Alfred,
 i
io66.] THE NORMAN DUCHY. 29

Athelstan, and Edgar were kings in more felt we watch the gradual welding
;

England and Canute s beneficent reign

; together of the Danish conquerors and
was contemporary with the most splendid the old dwellers in the land, which
era of the government of Rollo s children in produced the Norman ;
till in the time

THE STONE CORN-CHEST AT FECAMP.

Normandy. Gradually along the Seine of Edward the Confessor Normandy had
banks, in the Rouen and Bayeux districts, become famous throughout western
even in more distant Brittany, we see the Christendom. It was famous as much for
old ruined religious houses rising from the reckless gallantry of its soldier nobles,
their ashes we see a powerful Christian
;
as for the exalted devotion of its eccle

church making its influence more and siastics ; famous, too, for its new school
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

of architecture, for its lordly minsters, these children of the Vikings ;

but for
its vast monasteries, its schools, and even more than a hundred years there was
for its literature. ever a strong party among these Normans
Rollo and his son, his grandson, and great- who clung to the old pagan rites, and
grandson Guillaume Longue Epee (Long perhaps secretly still worshipped Woden and
Sword), Richard Sans Peur (The Fearless), Thor and the fierce Scandinavian gods.
and Richard the Good, whose long lives and In the old city of Bayeux, the centre of the

reigns extended over some hundred and old Danish or heathen party, paganism and

twenty years, were more than nominal its bloody rites lingered long after the rest
Christians. Each of them did much to of Normandy had become Christian.
restore the ruined churches and monasteries The Trouveur poet sang the praises of
of their adopted country. Many singular this duke Guillaume, and tells us of his

recitals ofthe intensely religious impulses mighty prowess in war, and of his rare
which ever and anon affected these chief personal beauty and winning charm of
tains of a people still half pagan, have come manner ;
but in spite of all his earthly
down to us. When Rollo lay dying, it successand grandeur, he longed, we read,
is said, terrible memories of his acts in to throw off his armour and his ducal

bygone years, when as a pagan Viking ornaments, and to exchange them for the
he had been the terror of the Frankish monk s cowl and robe. The abbot of

coasts, alternated with Christian hopes Jumieges, one of the restored Seine
and onlooks. In the intervals of these monasteries, with difficulty persuaded
disturbing memories, he showed himself duke Guillaume to retain his royal dignity,
the steadfast friend of the church he had telling him, with a true Christian insight
once hated and persecuted ;
and he died, only too rare in those days, how he could
his poet biographer tells us, a devout serve God and his people better on the
Christian. throne than in the monk s cell. When
Guillaume Longue Epee (L6ng Sword), the Norman chief at last fell, stricken by
Rollo s son. and successor, inherited his an assassin, a silver key to a much prized
father s love for justice and right and coffer his person, and when
was found on
order. He adopted the customs and the coffer was opened, the monk s cowl
state of the kings of France at his court, and robe were found they were his most
:

encouraging the Romance tongue, identify prized treasure. Secretly he had become
ing himself and his adventure-loving people a monk, but had consented to lay the
as much as possible with Frankish interests monk s dress by, on the prayer of the
and feeling ;
and though
still, with good abbot of Jumieges, and to continue to rule
reason,proud of their Norman ancestry over his turbulent subjects.
and name, his subjects were content to His son, still a child when Guillaume
call themselves Franks and Frenchmen, was murdered, grew up to manhood amidst
"though Frenchmen on a far nobler and many perils, and then, under the honoured
grander scale than other Frenchmen." name of Richard Sans Peur (The Fear
Christianity made rapid progress among less) during a long reign of fifty years,
911 1066.] STORY OF THE NORMAN DUKES.
continuing his fatherand grandfather s
s The poor of Fecamp were allowed each
work, raised his Normandy to the first rank week to fill from this chest a little measure

among the Christian powers of Europe. of grain, to which was added a small dole
It was this Richard s beautiful daughter of money. When the end came, duke
Emma, known as the "Gem of Normandy," Richard was found to have left some
who married the Anglo-Saxon Ethelred curious directions as to his burial. The
the Unready, and became the mother of well-known stone chest, which had held
Edward the Confessor. In later years, for so long the wheat for the poor, was
when Ethelred was dead, she married, as to be his coffin. The coffin was not to be
we have seen, king Canute; and Hartha- interred in the walls of the great Fecamp
canute, afterwards king of England, was abbey Richard said he was not
:
worthy
the offspring of this second marriage. to lie within those sacred walls. The
Fifty years of restless, brilliant, busy stone chest containing his remains was to

life, prematurely aged the

grandson of be interred just beneath the abbey wall,
Rollo. When scarcely past middle age where, through an overhanging spout or
his health declined, and, worn out before gargoyle, the rain of heaven, dropping
he had reached his sixtieth year, he went from the lofty roof of God s house, might
to his loved palace and monastery of ever and anon water the earth which
Fecamp, by the sea, and quietly prepared covered his last resting place.

to die. He gathered his Norman nobles
round him, and received their homage
his son, named after himself Richard.
had many other sons these he commended
;
to the love and care of his eldest born,
and very generously did the elder brother
carry out his father s wishes. This noble
group of boys Richard Sans Peur s sons
became the founders of great and
historic Norman houses, destined in a no
distant future to play a great part in our
Such memories as these help to show,
for perhaps more vividly than the dry record
He of restored monasteries,and of the building
or reconstruction of minsters and abbeys,
what a powerful influence the religion of
Jesus exercised upon these children of the
Vikings, the most determined, and certainly
the most dangerous foes Christianity has
ever met with. When, however, once
these Northmen saw the beauty of the
Christian teaching, and were convinced of

English story ;
houses
well-known names of Tankervill, Gournay,
Gifford, Warren, and Mortimer names
written large, in days to come, on many
a stirring page of English history.
Outside the transept of the great abbey
church of Fecamp, which
loved so well, and which he had rebuilt
which bore the the truth of the Redeemer s words, they
became the most ardent supporters and
defenders of the faith which once they
hated and despised. We have seen what
a friend to the church was Canute, the son
of the pagan Swein, another of these child
Richard had ren of the dreaded Vikings, and how he
also equalled, if he did not surpass, the

with much lavish care, stood a huge stone greatest kings of the house of Alfred in
chest. Every Lord s day this stone chest his devotion to, and in his work for, the
was filled with the finest wheat corn. church of Christ.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

The Sans Peur (The

son of Richard by the sovereign of Normandy himself,
Fearless) was perhaps a more devoted son wielding the whole force of the land which
to the church than even his father and gave birth to men For what
like them ?
"

grandfather had been. His ordinary epithet

was the story of the conquest of Apulia
in history is
"

le bon,"
but some of the and its historic towns ? "A few private
older chroniclers, instead of giving him Norman adventurers pilgrims returning
this surname of "the Good," style him from the Holy Land, .... gentle
"Richard, the monks friend" (1
ami des men of small estate whom the paternal

moines), in memory of his devotion to acres couldno longer maintain, gradually

monasticism. deprived the Roman empire of the East
It was during this second Richard s long of the remnant of its western possessions.
rule of thirty years that the Norman ex The sons of Tancred of Hauteville began

peditions to Southbegan Italy first to as Vikings who had changed their element
attract the attention of Europe. This [had exchanged the sea for the land] ;

was another of those strange episodes in they gradually grew into counts, dukes,
Norman development which so mightily kings, and when the first horrors
etc. ;

influenced the early mediaeval history of of conquest were over, no conquerors

church and state in the West. It was ever deserved better of the conquered.
some ten years before the death of duke The rule of these Norman freebooters
Richard II. (the date is 1016) that the old was the one example of really equal

spirit of adventure peculiarly belonging and tolerant government which the world
to the Vikings of the north, seems again could then show."* Under their rule
to have been awakened among the Norman- South Italy was at once prosperous and
Frenchmen. Invited, in the first instance, secure. In an incredibly short space of
by a prince of Salerno in South Italy to time these Norman adventurers, by their
assist him in repelling a raid of the splendid bravery, their skill in negotiation,
Saracens, the first little band of Norman their, marvellous aptitude for government,

adventurers free-lances, as they would be won for themselves countships, dukedoms,

termed in later mediaeval history was principalities, and kingdoms. The whole
recruited
by and ever fresh companies
fresh of the beautiful south of Italy, and
of Norman wanderers attracted by the eventually Sicily, with its fair cities,
wealth and defenceless condition of South its boundless wealth, gradually became
Italy. It has been well suggested that the Norman. The strange story of these
wonderful successes of these Normans in Norman settlements in the eleventh and
South Italy, may have put into the minds twelfth centuries in South Italy and Sicily,
of their countrymen who stayed at home reads like a romance.
the idea of a yet more important conquest One illustrious family from the district

of a country almost visible from their own in Normandy known as "the

Cotentin,"

shores. When
private adventurers like
"

were distinguished beyond all others of

the sons of Tancred of Hauteville grew these adventurers from the north worthy
into sovereigns, what might not be done * Freeman: "

Norman Conquest."
 i io66.] THE NORMANS IN ITALY. 33

descendants indeed of their Viking fore-
fathers The castle of Hauteville near
!
Coutances, whose beautiful cathedral, built
who for some two hundred years power-
fully influenced the fortunes of southern
Europe, including most of the historic

DEPARTURE OF DUKR ROBERT FOR THE HOLY LAND.

somewhat later by the generous gifts of lands lying around the Mediterranean Sea.
the Hauteville house, still ranks among In southern Italy there was but a little
the noblest of Norman minsters, furnished stretch of sea which separated the Norman
in the persons of the sons of Tancred, the adventurers from Sicily, the fairest island
seigneur of Hauteville, a marvellous group in the world. Sicily then, as now, was
of Norman counts, dukes, and even kings, the garden of the Mediterranean, with its
34 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

fair cities of Palermo and Messina. The of Sicily was added to the long roll ot

pennons of the Hautevilles of Coutaifces Norman triumphs southern Europe.

in

were not long before they passed over the In the hour of their proudest triumphs
little silver streak of sea. But in Sicily the greatest of the Norman Hautevilles
the Norman Viking for the Hauteville even dreamed of winning and wearing the
warrior, whether known as Guiscard, Roger, diadem of the empire of the East, and for
or Bohemond, strangely resembled his a brief season even that superb prize seemed
to be within the reach of these daring
wanderers. This was not to be, and after
a century and a half of brilliant rule the
Sicilian Hautevilles, as a family, became
extinct, and their kingdom passed into the
hands of another race ;
but the marvellous
story of these pirate Normans in the south
will never be forgotten.
To return to proper. On the
Normandy
death of duke Richard the extraordinary
II.

prosperity of the Norman settlers in the

north of France experienced a temporary
check. Dissensions and jealousies divided
the sons of Richard II. We read of a short

war, then of a reconciliation, then of the

sudden death of the young duke Richard III.
men said owing to poison administered
by his brother Robert at a great feasting
in Rouen. The true story will perhaps
never be known, but the dark shadow of a
crime seemed ever to brood over and cloud
WINDOW OF FALAISE CASTLE the younger brother s life. Without op
NORMANDY position thisyounger brother Robert be
came duke of the Normans in a little more
pirate found a doughtier foe
ancestors than a year after Richard II.,
"

the friend
than the effeminate Lombard or the de of the monks," was laid to sleep in the
generate Greek who in central or southern royal abbey of Fecamp.
Italy had so quickly submitted to his arms. Duke Robert, whom some of the older
Across the narrow strait the Norman found chroniclers surname the Magnificent, while
the Saracen in possession of, and deter others style him u le Diable," reigned some
mined to do battle for, his charmed Sicilian six years in Rouen, when he determined
land. Here the fighting was a reality, and to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
lasted many years, but in the end Norman It would seem as though remorse for some
skill and valour prevailed, and the crown awful crime perhaps the remembrance of
 i io66.] DUKE WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. 35

his brother s murder embittered his life honourable years for Normandy. They
and thus induced him thus to leave his include three signal victories. The first, at

duchy and his child-heir for this danger Val-es-Dunes, we have already referred
ous Eastern expedition, from which duke to ;
it
signified the end of internal dis
Robert never returned. His heir was sension ;
after the day of Val-es-Dunes,.
William, still a child when the news of Duke William had no foes at home to-

his father s death at Nica;a reached Nor contend with. The second of his great

mandy. This child-duke was that famous battles was fought at Mortemer in 1054,

William, surnamed the Conqueror, whom There he defeated a great invading army
we shall meet with again in the recital of of Frenchmen, and so complete was the
the reign of Edward the Confessor, and rout that we read how in all Normandy
who eventually became king of England. there was not a prison that was not full of
Duke Robert died in 1035, the same Frenchmen. The third battle, at Varaville,
year which the great Canute passed
in in 1058, was fought again with the
away. The son of Robert by Arietta was French, and the victory of William was
only eight years old his was a joyless
;
so decisive that it partook rather of the
childhood. grave Norman
The stern, nature of a massacre than a battle. This
barons separated him at once from his was the last act of the long wars between
mother Arietta, whom the chiefs of that William and his suzerain, the king of

proud race regarded with some contempt France, and the great battle won at Vara-
as the daughter of a despised tanner. At ville in the year 1058, left William perhaps
an age when young men have seldom to the most powerful and dreaded ruler on

cope with the stern realities of life, the continent of Europe. Five years later
William had to fight for his ducal coronet. the Norman dominion was increased by
A dangerous rebellion of the barons had the great and rich province of Maine, and
to be grappled with. On the field of the of its noble capital, Le Mans, which hence

Val-es-Dunes, near Caen, in 1047, the forth was as much a Norman city as
young duke first showed his great skill as Rouen or Bayeux.
a military commander and his influence In this necessarily very brief sketch of
as a leader of men, and from the day of William Normandy, two singular
s life in
that great victory he reigned as absolute pieces good fortune
of which befel the
master in his Norman duchy. Edward great duke whose fortunes later became
the Confessor, William
near kinsman, s bound up with England, must not be for
during the greater part of William s rule gotten. He was singularly happy in his>

in Normandy, was reigning in England. choice of a wife. His marriage with

Thirty years passed from the accession Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin, Count of
of the boy-duke, to the year of the inva Flanders, was no doubt a love marriage,,
sion of England, and although the years but it was a fortunate connection for the
were largely filled with wars, with invasions duke of Normandy. The alliance with
undertaken and invasions repelled, they the powerful and wealthy house of Flanders

were, on the whole, prosperous and Strengthened Normandy in Northern

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

Europe. But it was the woman, rather
than the princess, who helped William so
markedly during his stormy, prosperous
reign. Here and there the patient
student of history detects in the beautiful
story of Matilda s career the faults and
errors of a woman. But
are only spots on a very noble and pure
life. Her court was, with its brilliancy
the monk-archbishop Lanfranc possesses a
history so pure, a record so white, that to
impute to him, in the matter of the Nor
man claim to and subsequent invasion of
England, any but the highest motives,
would be impossible. Alone among the
these, after all,
Normans in the age of the Conquest, does
Lanfranc appear to have won the love of
the Anglo-Saxon people. It was indeed

and splendour, a very model of an early the crowning gift of fortune which gave
mediaeval court, as a centre of knightly to the Conqueror a queen such as Matilda,

virtues and true chivalry. Her patient and a minister like Lanfranc.

love for her great husband, her unwearied This little digression on the story of the
devotion to the many hard state questions Normans was necessary to the understand
which so constantly harassed her life after ing of the story of the reign of Edward
William became king of England when the Confessor because on the failure
;

she was often alone as regent of Nor

left of the Danish line of kings, and with the

mandy her constant care for the poor and accession of Edward the Confessor, Norman

suffering, make up many a varied title to influencebecame gradually and increas

honour in Matilda s eventful story. After ingly felt till it became
in England, para
the Conqueror lost Matilda in the year mount when the Norman duke William
1083, men say that he never had another defeated and slew the Saxon Harold,
hour of brightness. Edward s successor, at Hastings.
By William s side also stood, from about It has not been by any means in the
the year 1059 until the day, twenty-eight
language of exaggeration that we have
years later, when the wearied Conqueror painted this brief sketch of the career of
closed his eyes at St. Gervais on the hill the descendants of Rollo and his handful
above Rouen, the greatest scholar and of Vikings. They became in an
incredibly
divine in England ;
but Lanfranc, the mighty short space of time, as their historian*
Duke s friend and constant adviser, was loves to the foremost"

paint them,
more than a great student and churchman ; apostles alike of French chivalry and of
he was one of the wisest and most far- Latin Christianity among the nations of
seeing of statesmen. He will come before Europe. In the tenth and two following
us again, for next to William he
played centuries the Normans of France, England,
the most prominent part among the and were
Italy the foremost among
Normans after the conquest of England. in devotion the most ardent
peoples ;

Although he was the chief and the most religious reformers, the most fervent wor
trusted of the advisers of the Norman shippers, the
most lavish givers to churches
duke both before and after the and monasteries in war they were in the
year 1066, ;

and the minister to whose counsels the front rank, as crusaders and conquerors ;

invasion of England was * Prof. Freeman.

principally due,
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [911 1066.

in the arts of peace, the children of Rollo hold the old worship of the Scandinavian

learned, improved, adapted everything." gods exercised upon the Viking peoples of
Itworth while to bestow a little further
is the north.. There seems so little that

thought on the character and ideas of the would be likely to attract men who had
men whom we know under the name of made any progress in culture and the arts
dukes of Normandy, who were the chief of civilisation, and above all in the teach
instruments in raising the Normans from ings of Christianity, in the religion which
a state of semi-barbarism to the proud, taught men to worship Thor and Woden
even unique position they held among the and the cruel battle-loving gods of Scan
nations of Europe at the period of the dinavia. It seems to have appealed in

Conquest of England. From the latter a special way to their national feeling.

days of their famous ancestor Rollo, each They probably believed that their pagan
of the six Norman dukes [Richard III., ism and its bitter hostility to Christianity,

who scarcely reigned one year, is not would alone keep them distinct as a
reckoned here] were evidently firmly per nation. They feared, and withgood
suaded of the truth of Christianity, and no distant period they, the
reason, that at
were at times even passionately "religious," conquerors, would blend with the con
but there is no doubt that the
paganism of quered, whom they despised, and that
their forefathers ever coloured their Christ with the adoption of the religion of the

ianity. The old cult of Scandinavia and vanquished peoples, in England the Danes
its associations was never entirely forgotten, would become Englishmen, and that in
not even after the dukes of Normandy had France they would become Frenchmen.
become kings of England. This lingering One singular feature of this lingering
shadow of another faith and its ideals, spirit of the paganism of the north, is

which so long brooded over the Normans, specially noticeable in the story of these
helps us to understand better certain mighty Norman dukes, whose work so
phases of the character of some of the permanently influenced our England and
Norman, and even of the early Plantagenet its church. In spite of their love for

kings of England. and real belief in Christianity, in their

The real but somewhat fitful zeal for marriage relations, with rare exceptions,
the religion of Jesus of Rollo and his suc the Norman dukes persistently followed
cessors at Rouen, we know was always re pagan and pagan customs. Nor were
rites

solutelycombated by a strong and capable, the Christian ecclesiastics, whose influence

though time went on gradually diminish
as and teaching in other respects generally
ing party in the great Danish settlement guided and moulded their lives and policy,
generally known as Normandy. For more able to persuade the Norman dukes to
than a century after the coming of
"

adopt the practice of Christians in this

Rollo the ancient city of Bayeux was For
"

important particular. state reasons,

the headquarters of this pagan party, who these powerful chieftains were usually in
were sternly opposed to all Christianising duced to go through the Christian form of
influences. It is singular what a powerful a marriage with some Prankish princess,
 i
io66.] THE NORMAN DUKES AND MARRIAGE. 39

for the sake of the strength and prestige ofNormandy by no Christian bond or rite.
which such an alliance would naturally give The sad title which history gives to
them and their people but they chose ;
William the Conqueror, too truly tells
almost invariably as the mother of their the story of his father s unhappy alliance.

children some unknown woman, usually No doubt this open disregard of the
of Danish extraction, to whom they were sacredness of the marriage rite on the
united by some heathen tie usual among part of the successive Norman dukes
their Northern ancestors. For instance, contributed not a little to the bitter
duke Rollo married with Christian rites feeling of scorn and hatred with which
Gisella,daughter of the Prankish king these powerful and brilliant princes were
Charles the Simple but his real wife, ;
viewed by their Prankish neighbours.
More Danico," according to the ancient
<l

community
"No of language or religion,

usages of the Popa, the North, was no sentiment of friendship or feeling could
mother of his heir and successor, Guillaume conceal from the Carlovingian eye the

longue Epee. So this same Guillaume stain of the black Danish blood. Living
longue Epee publicly married Liutgarda, or dead, the Dane (though he called him
the daughter of the proud, long-descended self Norman) stunk in their nostrils."
"

house of Vermandois, though the real wife, Writing of the death of the mighty Richard
the mother of his children, was the un Sans Peur, who passed away in his palace
known Espriota. Her son was the famous monastery of Fecamp in the year 996, the
duke Richard Sans Peur (The Fearless).
I. monk chronicler Richerius thus describes
Richard Sans Peur for state reasons allied the dead Norman duke :
"

Richard the Duke

himself, but only in name, with the of the Pirates died of the lesser
"

Emma, apoplexy
daughter of Hugh le Grand, duke of thus scornfully writing of a man whose
France but the mother of his successor to
; power was greater than that of any
the dukedom of Normandy Richard II. sovereign prince of his time in France,
Bon, the friend of the monks was whose splendid and magnificent court was
" "

le

Guenora, famed far and wide for her beauty the most aristocratic, to use the modern
and grace. Emma of England, the queen term, in Europe. He would have none,"
"

successively of Ethelredand Canute, the writes the Romance poet, but gentlemen
"

mother of Edward the Confessor, was the about him," using, as it would seem, for the
daughter of Richard Sans Peur and this first time the word so familiar to our ears.
same Guenora. It will be remembered Such were the people, and such their
also that William, the last and greatest of rulers, who, descending from the same
the six famous Norman dukes, the con original Scandinavian stock, were
now for
queror of England, the son and heir of the third and last time to affect from the
duke Robert the Magnificent, for a mother outside the destinies of England and her
had no princess of ancient lineage, but only church.
Arietta, the daughter of the Falaise * and chap,
Palgrave :
"Normandy England,"

tanner, who was joined to duke Robert iv., part ii.

 THE CASTLE OF FALAISE.

CHAPTER XXIII.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

Norman Youth and Training of King Edward His Coronation His Reign never Challenged The
Three Great Earldoms and their Rulers Peaceful Character of his Reign Influence of Godwin
and Harold Universal Regard and Reverence for the King His Laws His Character Personal
Appearance His Norman Preferences and Consequent Mistakes Robert the Archbishop
Bishops appointed by the King and Witan Archbishop Stigand Doubts of his Ecclesiastical
Status Bishops Lyfing and Leofric The Rule" of Chrodegang
"

Archbishop Aldred of York

Harold s Foundation and College at Waltham State of the Church of England at this Period.

period from A.D. 10421065, concerned, and in consequence consider

THE although a very memorable period

for England and her church, con
able prosperity was enjoyed at

great change was gradually passing over

home. A

tains but little history properly so called. the land, but it was a bloodless change,
It was an age of almost unbroken peace, unaccompanied with suffering. In the
as far as countries beyond the sea were picture of it the story of the church
1042 1066.]
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
fills up mostof the canvas and yet in; Englishmen by descent, he was so by
England, save in the person of the king nothing else. His mother, the once
himself, no great churchman came to the beautiful Emma, the "

Gem of Normandy,"
front. Before telling the story of the was the daughter of duke Richard the
church during this period of change it Fearless (Sans Peur), the great-grand
will be well, as heretofore, briefly to sketch daughter of the mighty Viking Rollo.

the principal events which happened be Edward himself had been brought up, not
tween 1042, the year of the accession of in English Winchester, Norman but in

king Edward, usually called the Confessor, Rouen, an exile from his child- days. The
and 1066, the year of his death and of Norman tongue was what he loved he ;

many other notable events. only knew Norman manners and customs ;

King Harthacanute, the Dane, the son everything English was strange to him ;

of Canute and Emma, had before his his friends and associates were Norman.
death formally adopted as his heir his half- It was in the Norman church that he had

SEAL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. (.British MuseutH.)

brother Edward, the son of his mother learned the story of the religion to which
Emma and her first husband, the long- he was so passionately attached. To him
dead Ethelred the Unready. The new king
England was a strange and foreign country,
Edward belonged to the glorious house of and it was only in the last fourteen years
Alfred ;
he could trace his lineage in a direct of his reign, under the influence of a great
house back to the West Saxon Cerdic. The Englishman, that he really became an
Dane had come and gone, and once more English king.
a prince of the old Saxon line sat on the But Edward belonged to the old royal
throne of Alfred. But though Edward race of Cerdic, descendant of Woden. He
the Confessor was an Englishman of was the chosen representative of the famous
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

Saxon kings of the house of Alfred, to
which England was with good reason
attached, and as such he was welcomed
in England by the people and while he
;
challenged. In the north, where any such
danger might most probably be looked for,
Magnus, the son of the Christian king
St. Olaf, was the most powerful chief, and

lived, such was the love borne to

that royal
house, no other man was even dreamt of
as a possible king. In spite of the wise and
beneficent rule of king Canute, the thought
of another Danish king was hateful to the
nation. Throughout England detestation
of the Danes was deeply ingrained, and
the misrule of Canute s two sons, who
ruled successively as Harold Harefoot and
king already of Norway. During Hartha-
canute s life Magnus and Harthacanute had
agreed that whichever of them outlived
the other should succeed to his dominions.
Harthacanute had died, and Magnus, by
was acknow
virtue of this old agreement,
ledged king of Denmark ;
but he never
seems to have made any serious claim to
the crown of England. Never during the

Harthacanute, served completely to efface twenty-three years of Edward the Con

the memory of the prosperous and gener was England really in any
fessor s reign,

from the north. There were more

allyhappy reign of Canute himself. danger
Prominent in the election of Edward as than once threatenings of invasion, but

king, appear the citizens of the now wealthy they died away.
and powerful London. The leaders of A rapid glance over the north, so dreaded
the English party, who brought about the by England ever since the first Viking
national choice of the son of Ethelred raids at the close of the eighth century,

the Unready and Emma, were Godwin, shows us two great figures who, after the

the earl of the West Saxons, and Lyfrig, death of king Magnus in 1047, played a pro

bishop of Worcester, Devon and Cornwall. minent part in the history of the eleventh

The close and intimate union of church century. One of these, Swein Estrithson,
and state inEngland was at this period was the son of earl Ulf and Canute s sister

completely cemented, and the power and Estrith, through whomsomewhat

his

influence of the church continued to grow shadowy claim on the English crown was __
during the long and generally quiet reign derived. He had acted as commander of
of Edward the Confessor. The adoption of Harthacanute s army in Denmark, and suc
Edward by Harthacanute, and the latter s ceeded Magnus as king of that country in
ardent desire to acknowledge him as his 1047. During a long reign of some thirty
successor, of course materially aided the years he deservedly acquired the reputation
peaceful succession of the son of the Saxon of a great and wise prince, but his claims
Ethelred. on England were never seriously pressed.
Edward was formally crowned king at The other, Harold Hardrada, half-brother
Winchester, on Easter Day of the year of St. Olaf, king of Norway, after the
1043, by Eadsige, archbishop of Canter terrible battle in which Olaf lost his life,
bury ;
Elfric of York and most of the became a wanderer, and obtained a great
English prelates assisting at the august cere reputation for his romantic deeds of arms
mony. Nor was his crown ever seriously in the south of Europe. We find him, on
10421066.] ENGLAND S ROYAL LINE. 43
Front
death, sovereign of Norway, and WODEN, or ODIN,
Magnus
famous suc descended
for years the policy of this
From . . CEKDIC (Founder of West Saxon Dynasty).
cessor of the was a King of Wessex.
pirate sea-kings descended
From ALFRED THE GREAT, King of England.
perpetual menace
England. But his
to
. .

descended
designs on the English throne were not ETHELRED THE UNREADY, King of England.

carried into effect until after king Edward s

EDMUND IRONSIDE, EDWARD THB CONFESSOR,
death, when, taking advantage of the dis King of England (part). King of England.
turbed state of the kingdom and the EDWARD THE ATHELING.

disputes arising respecting the succession,

EDGAR CHRISTINA, MARGARET = MALCOLM,
he invaded England with a great fleet and ATHELING. a Nun. | King of Scotland.
j

army, and was defeated by king Harold, EDITH (Matilda) = HENRY I.,
King of England.
with the loss of his life, at the battle of I |

Stamford Bridge, in the year of Edward s

MAUD THE EMPRESS = GEOFFREY OF ANJOU.

death (A.D. 1066). From HENRY II. (Plantagenet),

The only possible serious competitor for King of England,

descended
the crown when the Witan chose Edward EDWARD, KING OF ENGLAND.

thus giving effect to the voice of England

in electing a king of the old West Saxon There is, besides, to be remembered that
line was an exile in Hungary. A quarter every descendant of William the Conqueror
of acentury before, the infant sons of and Matilda, his queen, was also by her a
Edmund Ironside, the elder brother of descendant of Alfred, whose daughter Elf-
Edward the Confessor, when their lives thryth married Baldwin II. of Flanders,
were threatened by Canute, had found a the ancestor of Matilda.
shelter at the distant court of king Stephen During the reign of Edward the
in Hungary. Their very existence was, Confessor England was divided, roughly
however, forgotten in England. Of these speaking, into three great governments
two exiled princes Edmund was, in fact, or earldoms namely, Wessex, to which
dead ;
the other, Edward, was still living, was added Kent
Anglia and East ;

and, far on in the Confessor s reign, was Mercta, including the Midlands, ex all

recalled to his native land with a view of tending generally from South Yorkshire
being adopted by the childless king. to Wessex, from East Anglia to the Welsh
We mention this exiled prince, whose borders ;
and Northumbria, including the
legitimate claims were never a source of entire North of England, from the
danger to the Confessor, because through Humber to the Scotch border. The
him the members of the present royal powerful nobles to whom these earldoms
house of England derive their claim to be. were entrusted were as follows :

the direct successors of the imperial house Earl Godwin (of uncertain lineage) was
of Wessex heirs of Cerdic, of Egbert, of first raised to high office by king Canute.
Alfred. This will appear from the follow He became in time earl of Wessex, and
ing summary of the earlier links in our at the accession of Edward the Confessor
sovereign s genealogy: was by far the most influential man in the
44 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

realm. During his lifetime, his son Harold a great part in the latter years of Edward

(afterwards king) was earl of East Anglia. the Confessor, in the short reign of
After Godwin s death, in 1053, Harold Harold, and in the times of William the
became earl of Wessex, and virtually acted Conqueror. His eldest-born, Edwin, fol
as sub-king to Edward the Confessor. lowed his father, Alfgar, in Mercia, Alfgar

Gyrth, a brother of Harold, succeeded him dying in 1062. Morkar, Edwin s,

brother,

fhoto : noltyer.
THE DEATH OK SIWARU.
(By permission, from the picture by Val Prinsep, R.A.)

as earl of East Anglia. In the year 1055 became Northumbria when Tostig,
earl of

another brother of Harold, Tostig, was the son of Godwin, was banished in the

appointed earl of Northumbria. year 1065. Aldgyth, sister of Edwin and

Earl Leofrt c, son of Leofwin, earl of Morcar, married first Griffyth, the Welsh
Mercia, had, when Edward the Confessor king, and subsequently Harold the earl,
became king, already succeeded his father king of England.
in the great Midland government. He Earl Siward filled the great office of
was the husband of the famous Lady earl of Northumbria. He was a warrior
Godiva of legendary story. Leofric died of the old Danish type. It is related of
in 1057, and his son Alfgar followed him him that when he felt death approaching,
as Mercian earl. Alfgar s children played he said "

it was a shame for him to die,

1042 1066.] SUBJUGATION OF WALES. 45

not on the field of battle, but of sickness even a formidable foe to England, hating
like a cow "

;
and calling for his armour, Dane and Saxon alike and in history ;

had himself all harnessed as if for battle, he will ever be as

conspicuous being
and so breathed his last. His
elder son had fallen in the war
with the famous Macbeth of
Scotland. His younger son,
Waltheof, was, when earl Siward
died, still a child. He became
earl of Northampton, and sub
sequently was the hero of one
of the saddest tragedies of the

Conqueror s
reign.

Edward the Confessor s

reign
was, generally speaking, a period
of peace in the church as in
the state. The story of the
church, and how its peace was
occasionally broken, must re
ceive separate treatment. In
the state, no foreign wars have
to be recorded, no
foreign in
vasion harried the land. Within
the island there were some race
troubles, and for a time war was
carried on with Wales and Scot

land; but, except in some border

forays, England proper was
never seriously affected by these,
and out of both these home
wars she emerged the victor.
The Welsh troubles were
DRAWING REPRESENTING CHRIST BEFORE PILATE.
spread over many years. The (From a Psalter of the time of Edward the Confessor. ufA Century.)

year before Edward s accession,

prince Griffyth became king of Gwynedd, the last native prince under whom the
or North Wales. He was a chieftain Welsh the ancient British remnant
of great and of conspicuous
distinction played a really important part in the

ability, and from Gwynedd his dominion history of England. Griffyth had, how
gradually extended over the whole of ever, the misfortune of finding an adversary
Wales. He was a bitter and at times greatly his superior in the art
of war.
46 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

Harold, earl Godwin s son, was an able year 1054, and after a long-drawn-out war,
strategist and a valiant soldier, and had was finally defeated and slain four years
behind him the almost boundless resources later,when Malcolm was solemnly crowned
of wealthy England during a period of an king of Scotland at Scone in 1058.
almost unbroken peace at home. read We The banishment and subsequent return
of two important campaigns of Harold in of earl Godwin and his sons in the year
Wales. The first was successful, but it 1052, which must presently be recounted
left still powerful, still able
king Griffyth in more detail, were attended with little
to the peace and prosperity of
threaten bloodshed, and only slightly affected the
the borderlands of England and Wales. prosperity of the country. Even the
The date of this first campaign was 1056. revolt of Northumbria against earl Tostig,
The second was by the complete
closed Harold s brother, although dangerous
subjugation of
Wales, and the gallant and threatening for a time, was put an
native king, after his final defeat, was end to without involving the country in a
murdered by his own subjects. The fall civil war. It was owing to earl Harold s

of Griffyth at the close of the second wisdom and moderation that this formid
Welsh war was in the year 1063. able rising was put down. It happened
The Scotch war was really a war between in this wise When Siward died in 1055,
:

the great Northumbrian, earl Siward, and his heir, Waltheof, was still a child his ;

the Scottish usurping king Macbeth, the eldest son had fallen in the war with
hero of Shakespeare s well-known tragedy. Macbeth in Scotland. Tostig, Harold s

Macbeth, under-king of Moray, had in

as brother, in consequence, was appointed to
sober truth obtained the Scottish crown the great government ; Tostig was king
at the price of a great crime the murder Edward personal friend.
s He proved
of the over-king of Scotland, Duncan. himself, however, a severe if not a merci
But the reign of Macbeth 1040-1058 less ruler, and
eventually the whole
was a time of unusual quiet and prosperity province rose
up against him. In a formal
for Scotland, and he and his well-known Northumbrian Gemot, or assembly of the
wife Gruach were specially famous for chief men, Tostig was deposed from his
their generous
bounty to churches in earldom, and outlawed. The same North
Scotland. Malcolm Canmore, the son and umbrian Gemot elected Morkar, the
heir of the murdered Duncan, was an
younger son of earl Alfgar of Mercia, to
infant when his father s life and be their earl. This was a high-handed,
reign
were suddenly cut short. Being, as he indeed a rebellious act on the part of the I

was, a near kinsman of Earl Siward, it turbulent Northumbrians, and a civil war
was no doubt a desire to restore Malcolm seemed imminent. A strong force from
to his lost inheritance which the north, under the newly-elected earl
brought
about the Scotch war. With the consent Morkar, marched into the midland coun
of his English sovereign, Siward invaded of
ties
Northampton and Huntingdon,
Scotland with a powerful force. Macbeth
behaving as though in an enemy s country.
was defeated in a pitched battle in the King Edward, as the friend of Tostig,
10421066.] STRANGE INFLUENCE OF EDWARD. 47

wished for war to be carried into North- treasured by the English people for cen
umbria to avenge the insult and injury by men alike
turies with a changeless love,

done to his friend but the wiser counsels ;

of Saxon and Norman lineage was held ;

of Harold, Tostig s brother, prevailed, and sacred by each successive dynasty which
at a great national Witan held at Oxford has occupied his throne, alike by the kings
in 1055 the cause of the Northumbrians of the Conqueror s house, as by sovereigns
was considered, and the reasons which led of the Plantagenet and Tudor lines. It is

to the revolt were examined, and the only incomparatively recent times, since
result was the banishment of Tostig and mediaeval thoughts and aspirations have
the confirmation of earl Morkar in his given place to modern, that the reverence
room. forEdward the Confessor has become rather
These are the only wars in which an antiquarian than a national feeling.

England was involved in king Edward s But it was not always so, and the power
reign none of them seriously affected the
;
and influence which the saint-king, so
prosperity of the land. other events, Its closely identified with the church during
being so closely interwoven with ecclesi his lifetime, and still more after his death,

astic matters many of them closely con exercised for so long a period over the
nected with Normandy and its mighty English nation, is a strong evidence of
duke so loved of Edward will be better the hold which the Church of England the
told in our history of the church and its church of which Edward was so devoted
fortunes. a servant, and whose interests he had so
deeply at heart possessed over the hearts
What was the peculiar charm, the of the English. It is also a weighty testi
especial merit of that strange man whose mony to the close union between the
somewhat uneventful reign we are trying church and the state in the Saxon era,
to picture, but whose influence over the which with the year of Edward s
closes

church in England was so great ? He was death, as well as in the Norman time,

no hero-king, no great lawgiver*, no writer, which commenced with the reign of

like the great Alfred whose works, written Edward s friend and kinsman, William the
in that toil-filled life of bis, raised and Conqueror, who followed him so soon on
instructed his people.He was not even a the throne of England.
no new It is not by any means an impossible
conqueror province or country
;

was added by him to England. No group task to discover at least some of the causes

of stately sons or fair daughters gathered at work, which led to this enduring
round the death-bed of the childless national reverence and love for the great

Edward, who might carry on the tradition churchman king. The Normans would
of his work, and keep fresh the reverence especially honour
him as the near kinsman
for his memory. without any And yet, of their own mighty duke, as one who
of these titles to honour, the memory of ever loved Norman customs, and who had
the saint-king, Edward the Confessor, was successfully introduced
them into England.

* claimed him, too though this was

On the "

Laws "

of the Confessor, see page 50. They

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

a much-disputed claim as the Saxon fidential posts. Bishop and abbot and

king who named Norman duke as his

the royal chaplain were again and again
successor as having done much to pre selected out of his Norman friends, often,
;

pare the way for the great Conquest.

To indeed, to the deep displeasure of his

Normans he would, among the great Saxon subjects.

Saxons of that age, ever stand out But these causes, though in after-
all

prominently as the friend of Normandy. days they might have 1been sufficiently
The Saxons, on the other hand, would love powerful to have procured for him the
his as being the last of the old curious honour of canonisation, to have
memory
secured his formal recognition by a grateful
royal race of Cerdic the Woden-descended,
who bore rule in England as the last kingly church as a member of the illustrious

heir of Alfred and his loved house. In the company of the saints, would never of
sad days of oppression and wrong that themselves have sufficed to win him that

followed, the quiet beneficent rule

of the unique position in the hearts of the English
last Saxon king would be sadly remem people which for centuries was occupied by
bered. Thus, by conqueror and con Edward, the holy king. Later historians
quered, would the memory of Edward and painstaking writers, in relating the
the Confessor be alike honoured and events of his reign, and in estimating the
reverenced. character and work of the Confessor, have
the church, Norman or Saxon, the
By rarely taken into account the strange
good deeds of Edward would ever be charm and enormous personal influence
unforgotten. The Saxon would be mind of Edward, which long remained a tradition

ful of his princely liberality, of his boundless among the English people ;
while his

generosity, of his love for and devotion to

mediaeval biographers, thinking to do him
monk and prelate, of his fervid piety. No honour, have so enveloped his memory
king before him had been such a friend with a wrapping of miracles, visions, super
to the church, her institutions, her founda natural gifts, that it became difficult to

tions, her churches and abbeys while the ; distinguish the false from the true in his
It has thus become the fashion
lordly abbey of the West-minster the history.
work of many years consecrated while in modern times to belittle his work, to
f.he saint-king lay dying beneath the speak scornfully of his character, to de
shadow of its walls, remained as the scribe his life as one better fitted for

enduring memorial of his great love for
religion, the proudest minster in
England,
one of the noblest churches north of the
Alps. The Norman ecclesiastics
equally ready to reverence the monk-king,
as many chose to style him, when they
remembered how Edward loved their race,
and even by preference chose Normans to
fill the highest positions, the most con
an abbot of a Norman religious house,
than for a crowned king of England. Had
such been really the case, the Confessor,
would be while winning his position as one of the
English saints, would never have gone
down to generation after generation as the
darling of the English peoples. No king
of England, not even the great Alfred
himself, has ever succeeded in finding the
 1 042 1066.] THE "LAWS" OF EDWARD. 49

key to English hearts so successfully as some length to the curious fact of the
did Edward. people of England crying, in the reign of
This general and enduring devotion to William the Conqueror, king Stephen,
the memory of the saint-king, certainly Henry I.,and the empress Maud, for the
was not merely a romantic affection for "

laws of the good king Edward," and

for none other. This
favourite popular peti

tion, demanding the

laws of Edward the
Confessor, was even
re-echoed by the
Anglo Normans
-

themselves, as the
two nations of the
conquerors and con
quered began to be
fused into one people.
A very remarkable

CHAPEL OF THE PYX, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Showing Early Norman Work of the time of
Edward the Confessor.

one who was popularly credited with instance of this national feeling occurred
miraculous powers of healing, and of seeing during one of the intervals when
into the hidden things of
futurity. Our most the empress Maud, Henry Beauclerc s
serious and scholarly historians* refer at daughter and heiress, was in power. The
*
men of the great and wealthy city of
Freeman :
"

Norman Conquest." Hallam :

"

Middle See also Bishop Stubbs "

Con
London prayed her that she would observe
Ages." :

stitutional History of England.

1

the laws of King Edward," not the laws

"
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 io66

of her father, Henry I. (Beauclerc), because friend of Edith (Eadgyth), Edward the
they were too heavy to be borne. This was Confessor queen, down to the song-
s

some seventy-five years after the saint-king man of Alianore (Eleanor) the queen of
had been laid to rest in his abbey of West Henry III., unite in describing the simple

minster. And this universal cry of the piety, the ceaseless devotion, the loathing

English people was listened to, we know,
even by the haughty Norman kings for
the charter of Henry I. we find declaring
that the king gives his subjects the laws of
Edward the Confessor, with the emenda
tionsmade by his father (the Conqueror),
with consent of his barons. The charter
of king Stephen not only confirms this
of all sin and evil, the lofty standard of
; purity of the saint-king. To these features
of a singularly guileless character, was
added, in Edward s case, the exquisite grace
and courtesy of the Norman character.
The Anglo-Saxon king had been trained
in that chivalrous court of Rouen, where the
name and bearing of "

a gentleman had "

charter of Henry I. but adds, even in fuller been first introduced. So the poet of king
terms than Henry Beauclerc had used, an Henry III., about A.D. 1245, writes :

express concession of all laws and customs 895

"

Each one who sees king Edward

Edward the Is more courteous when he leaves him.

*****
of Confessor. Henry II. (the
Each one receives there, each one learns
Plantagenet) repeats the confirmation of Moderation, sense and good manners.
his grandfather s charter. And
yet it is
906
"

His court was of courtesy

doubtful if any great code of laws was
The school, and of accomplishments,
ever compiled by the saint-king. It was Nor was there since the time of Arthur
rather the way in which he interpreted A king who had such honour." *
and administered the wise Anglo-Saxon In a generally rough and dissolute age,
laws of the house of Alfred, supplemented the standard of morality and purity aimed
by the great Canute, which left so enduring at in the court of Edward was
evidently
and happy a memory in the hearts of the a high one. The king s life is
usually
people. The conduct of Edward the Con painted as painfully austere. He is com
fessor generally towards the freemen a crowned
poorer monly represented as monk,
of England, seems to have won for him a with tastes and only befitting a habits
vast and enduring popularity.
grave churchman, far removed from the
The Anglo-Saxons were an eminently ordinary tastes and pleasures of ordinary
devout race. We have had often to mortals he was, however, an ardent
;

remark this in the course of the

story of hunter, delighting in the pleasures of the
the English church, when
dwelling on chase,and sharing constantly in the manly
the lives of the more prominent men and and popular pursuits so loved by all sorts
women who were its
distinguished orna and conditions of men. He would spend
ments ;
and the saint-king who closed the hours in church, says a well-known writer
illustrious Anglo-Saxon
dynasty of Cerdic of our days, and then, as soon as he was
"

and Alfred, was a marked type of the Saxon would be off to the woods for
free, days
love of religion. All the biographers of *
From the poem on St. Edward, addressed to
Edward, from the contemporary writer the Queen Eleanor.
1 042 io66.] EDWARD S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
together, flying his hawks and cheering wavy, white hair the crown usually worn
on his hounds."
by the Saxon kings at all state banquets
That he was especially the friend of the and public occasions must have been at
people is undoubted ;
it is clear that he once a singular and imposing presence.
was zealous for their welfare, anxious ever The king in his peaceful reign rarely if
to remove the burden of excessive taxation, ever appeared as the warrior, the man-
watchful in all things for the lower and at-arms.
less prosperous of his subjects. His well- The church exercised in this age vast
known benevolence and kindness towards power and enormous influence. Edward the
the poor and suffering led these then, Confessor was ever its steady, consistent
as in all times, the great majority of the friend but he was, too, its acknowledged
;

people to look upon him as their natural master, and while paying all due respect
protector. and honour to the bishop of the Roman
"

As time went
on, the national feeling see, Edward acknowledged no superior
*
transfigured him, says the above-quoted in his Church of England. The marvellous

writer, almost into a Saxon Arthur. *

"

setting which surrounds the legend of

"

Much he resembles King Solomon, bishop Wulfstan refusing to surrender his

Of great fame, of great renown. crozier to the Norman king, as will be pre
French, Germans, Lombards, sently related, is
probably the addition of
Desire to see King Edward,
a later age but the story is based upon the
To hear his laws and his judgments, ;

His sense and courtesy." * fact of the holiest of the Saxon bishops

receiving originally his see of Worcester

His personal appearance seems to have from the king s favour alone. He was
somewhat separated this last Anglo-Saxon supreme in the church he loved so well,,
king from other men. His portraiture has and which he helped with so splendid a
been preserved to us. Edward seems to munificence and supported with so change
have possessed a curious and somewhat less a devotion.

unearthly beauty. He was almost an For the great love with which king
albino. His full, flushed, rose-red cheeks Edward the Confessor was loved by the
contrasted with the milky whiteness of his people of his own time, and which has
waving hair and beard. There was a kind survived him till it passed into a precious
of magical charm in his thin white hand national tradition, it is evident there was
and his long transparent fingers, which not solidground. He represented to the Anglo-
unnaturally led to the belief that there Saxons their ideal king intensely reli
resided in them a healing power of stroking gious on the one hand, and on the other,
away the diseases of his subjects. His not disdaining to share in the favourite
stately figure, with the large crown or and popular pursuits of his people. His
golden diadem ornamented with the innocent his artless piety, his
"

triple faith, sym

trefoil or fleur-de-lis, crowning his long, pathy with the people," says one who has
* well grasped the secret of Edward s strange
From the "

Life of St. Edward," addressed to

Queen Eleanor. charm,
"

were humble graces within the

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

reach of every man, woman, and child of "

Edward the noble, chaste and mild,

Guarded the realm law and people
every time." All felt that the king lived Until suddenly came
nearer God than perhaps any of his con Death the bitter,
temporaries, layman or ecclesiastic. Prob And seized the so dear one.
Angels carried
ably not a few believed that he possessed This noble steadfast soul
powers rarely granted to mere mortals ;
but From earth into heaven s light."
*

we leave further reference to this belief till

we come to recount his last hours. In summing up the character of king
The highest tribute that was paid to Edward the Confessor, it would be unfair
him is perhaps found in the words of the not to allude to the grave errors in some of
unknown scribe in the Worcester and the high appointments, especially ecclesias

Abingdon redactions of the famous English tical, which this devoted friend of the

Chronicle, probably written very soon after church was led to make. Even in this par

the king s death.

"

Far more precious," says ticular, however, wherein emphatically the

perhaps the most learned and trustworthy beloved king was ill-advised, considerable
of our modern historians, than the vulgar exaggeration seems to have coloured the
"

praises of Norman
legend-makers, far more accounts of some of our historians. Edward,

precious than even the wrought-up pane it must constantly be remembered, had
gyric of the courtly chaplain of his widow, been brought up in Normandy, and in the

is the song in Edward s honour handed court of Rouen had spent not only his
down in our national Chronicles from the youth, but a good many years of his early
hands of a gleeman of his own time and manhood. To him naturally the language,
of his own The English poet sang
people. habits, customs, and churchmanship of the
of Edwards early troubles how he had to Normans were peculiarly dear, and to pre
seek a foreign land when Canute overcame fer some of his Norman friends to places of
the race of Ethelred, and when Danes high dignity in the English church, where
wielded the dear realm of England for his power was evidently paramount, can
eight-and-twenty winters. He sang of not be regarded as extraordinary. It was,
Edward s personal virtues how he was of course, a grave error one calculated to
;

holy, clear, and mild ;

how the baleless excite national jealousy, and even to injure

king was ever blithe of mood. He sang of the Church of England, to which Edward
the glories of his reign how he guarded was devotedly attached. These appoint
his land and people, how renowned warriors ments do not seem to have been numerous ;

stood around his throne, how the son of but some of those men whom he so pre
Ethelred ruled over Angles and Saxons, ferred wrought him the greatest possible
how Welsh and Scots and Britons all injury. And
the king s actions in this
obeyed the mighty sway of the noble particular will ever be the chief blots on
Edward Bitter death snatched his blameless life and reign.
the noble king from earth. Angels bore The most prominent of the foreigners
his trustful soul to heaven."
*
* From the Saxon A.D. 1065
Chronicle, (Abing
* Freeman :
"

Norman Conquest," chap, xi., i. don and Worcester Redactions).

1042 io66.] THE KING S UNWISE APPOINTMENTS. 53

thus preferred was indubitably Robert, a England, has left behind him a very magnifi
Roman monk who had first been prior cent memorial of his energy in the stately
of Saint Ouen at Rouen, and afterwards minster of Jumieges, on the Seine banks^
abbot of the great house of Jumieges, on which still survives in ruins, and challenges

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR IN CHURCH.

the Seine, not many miles to the north of the admiration of the antiquarian and the
the beautiful Norman capital. No doubt architect of our own days. Within two
this Robert had been Edward s intimate years of his coronation Edward appointed
friend, probably tutor and spiritual him to the bishopric of London, and on
adviser. He was evidently an ecclesiastic the death of Eadsige, the archbishop of
of considerable ability, and, apart from Canterbury, promoted him to the metropoli
the disastrous memories of his career in tan see. Robert is said to have possessed.
54 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

enormous influence with Edward, and a 702. Although the decision was in the

saying was long current that if Robert case of Robert, in his favour, the papal
said a black crow was white, the king command was put aside, and Stigand,
would at once believe him. bishop of Winchester, was installed at

To Robert is ascribed the principal Canterbury. Robert retired to Jumieges,

share in those events which led to the and, dying there, was interred in the
temporary banishment of earl Godwin and stately minster he had erected. King
his son from England. Godwin returned Edward made no opposition to what was
to power after a short year s absence", and evidently the will of the people, ex
in the reaction which followed, Robert of pressed in the decision of the Witan, and
Jumieges fled the country. He never acquiesced in the deposition of Robert
returned to England. He had only held and Ulf. It is remarkable that the grave
the arch-see of Canterbury during por mistakes of the king in the matter of the
tions of the years 1051-1052, when the preferment of these Norman ecclesiastics
unanimous wish of the English nation in the first half of his reign, do not seem
recalled the house of Godwin to power. in any way to have affected his popularity
Alarmed at the evident bitterness of with the people of England. Probably
popular feeling which had been aroused his ready acquiescence with the expression

by his policy, the Chronicle tells us how of popular feeling quickly effaced the

archbishop Robert and another prelate memory of the error.

of Norman birth, Ulf of Dorchester, ob Another Norman, William, one of the
noxious to the people, fled for their lives, king s chaplains, was appointed by Edward
and how, mounted and sword in hand, bishop of London, but no popular clamour
they cut their way through the streets of seems to have been raised against him.
London, wounding and slaying as they He went for a while into banishment at

went, and so with difficulty escaped to the time of the return of ,Godwin, but was
the sea-coast, when, finding an old crazy soon recalled, remaining bishop of London
ship, they at once made their escape to for many years, honoured by Norman
the Continent. At a formal Gemot or and Saxon alike. He
died in 107 5, leaving

public assembly held in London the behind him a memory long cherished by
same year, among other decrees passed the citizens of London.
was one declaring Robert and Ulf out It may be well urged on behalf of
laws. Edward s action in thus appointing Nor
Robert appealed to Rome for reinstate mans to high preferment, that it was by
ment. During the whole of the Anglo- no means an unusual thing to appoint
Saxon period, there had only been one foreign ecclesiastics to high posts in the
instance of a former appeal to Rome for Anglo-Saxon church. King Canute gave
reinstatement in a forfeited see by a Duduco, a Lotharingian, the bishopric of

dispossessed prelate, in the well-known Somerset. Lotharingia signified roughly

instance of Wilfrid of York, the great the southern Netherlands, the border
Northumbrian bishop, in 678 and again in lands of Germany and France. On the
io4 2-io66.] THE ROYAL ECCLESIASTICAL PREROGATIVE. 55

other hand, Canute appointed several Eng all served the king politically as chaplains
lishmen to Danish sees. Other Lothar- and secretaries. Stigand of Elmham, then
ingian prelates, viz. Gisa
Walter, and of Winchester and subsequently the arch
were respectively appointed to the sees bishop, had been closely connected with
of Wells and Hereford in the latter years Emma, the queen-mother.
of Edward s reign, when earl Harold The king
s position in the
appointment
was the all-powerful minister and this ;
of these bishops and abbots of the Anglo-
same Harold, whom no one would suspect Saxon church we have already touched
of un-English tendencies, sent to Liege for upon. It is a question of great moment ;

Adelhard as the head of the educational and, besides importance its

measuring in

department of his magnificent foundation the claims of the Roman see so soon to
of Waltham Abbey. This last foreign be advanced and pressed, it is also closely
ecclesiasticwas the great English earl s mixed up with the relations between the
chief counsellor in his famous Waltham church and the state in the times of the
work. Anglo-Saxon kings. In the Anglo-Saxon
All this shows us that the best men and church the English church and the
the greatest scholars that could be found English nation were one. It was by the
were often searched for, even across the king s writ that the bishopric was formally
seas, for these great posts. King Edward s bestowed ;
and what the king and his
conduct, therefore, in preferring men to Witan gave, the king and his Witan
high positions in the church from his assumed that they could take away. And
favourite Normandy, although, under the they acted upon this assumption for, as we ;

circumstances of his peculiar relations with have related, these two great state powers
Rouen, imprudent and calculated to excite dealt with the sees of the outlawed arch

jealousy among his English subjects, was bishop and bishop Robert and Ulf as they
by no means an unusual practice. In the would have dealt with counties under the
instance of Robert of Jumieges and Ulf government of outlawed earls.

he was unfortunate in his choice. Robert, It is noticeable that (i) The appoint
the archbishop of Canterbury, was evi ment to bishoprics and abbacies practically

dently a most unwise adviser and Ulf was,

;
and legally seems to have rested with the
from his utter lack of learning and from king and the Witan. But when the king
various other reasons, quite unfit for a chose, as he often did, to exercise his

bishopric. The majority of the prelates power, the appointment really rested with
were at this period chosen from among the him. Frequently the Witan did little
king s some cases from the queen s
or in more than register the king s edicts in
chaplains. Robert of Jumieges, the arch these matters. (2) Occasionally the monks
bishop, had been, of course, well-known or canons of an abbey or a cathedral
to Edward in Normandy ;
William of church made an election in a canonical
London, Leofric of Exeter, Hermann of form, and then petitioned the king and
Wiltshire, Ulf of Dorchester, Wulfwig of Witan to ratify their choice. That the
Dorchester (who had been chancellor), had king claimed and exercised the power to
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

refuse such an election, we know from the the next vacancy.* Thus the Anglo-Saxon
circumstances which attended the election king recognised a quasi-right on the part
a right, however, which
of ^Elric by the monks of Canterbury of the chapter ;

to the archbishopric vacant by the death he claimed the power to override when
of Eadsige. ^Elric was a monk of Canter he saw fit.

bury, an able man, of blameless life, and The instance of the choice of the saintly

well loved by his community : he was a Wulfstan to the bishopric of Worcester is

kinsman of earl Godwin. But the king a particularly interesting one. There the

CRYPT OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL, BUILT BY BISHOP WULFSTAN.

refused the prayer of the canonical election, king expressly allowed the clergy and
and gave, as we have seen, the archbishop people to elect freely ;
this popular
ric tothe then bishop of London, Robert election was approved and confirmed by
of Jumieges. In the same year king the king and Witan in 1062 and in this! ;

Edward, against the wishes of the monkish election the legates of the Pope, who
chapter, gave the important abbey of happened to be in England at that time,-
Abingdon to an aged Norwegian bishop seem to have exercised some considerable
one Rudolf. Rudolf was a kinsman of influence. This memorable election
ofj
Edward the Confessor, and was weary of the famous Wulfstan to the bishopric of
his northern see. On this occasion the Worcester is referred to by .^Ired (or
king pacified the monks of Abingdon by *
Compare Stubbs : "Constitutional History,
promising them that a free election of
chaps, vi. and xix.; also Green and Freeman, above
their abbot should be allowed them on referred to.
1 042 io66.] TESTIMONY OF WULFSTAN. 57

Ethelred), abbot of Rivaulx, who wrote clear that the Anglo-Saxon kings claimed
in the first half of the twelfth century, in and absolute power in these
exercised
the course of his narrative of the famous episcopal and other great church appoint
refusal of Wulfstan to gjve up his bishop s ments.* Roger of Wendover, prior of
staff, at the command of William the a cell of St. Albans, who died A.D. 1237,

Conqueror and the archbishop Lanfranc. puts these words in Wulfstan s mouth,
Wulfstan laid the staff instead upon the speaking to the dead king Edward,
"

me
tomb of Edward the Confessor, and ^Elred pontificem fecisti"

puts these memorable words into his

mouth :
"

I will give back to thee (king It is singular that in the reign of Edward
Edward) the charge which thou didst give tire Confessor, one of the most devoted

to me. Thou knowest, most holy king, kingly friends the Church of England ever

HAROLD SEATED IN STATE. (BAYEUX TAPESTRY.)

how unwillingly I took this burden upon possessed, no very distinguished ecclesiastic
me, and how it was thou didst constrain came to the front no great soul possessed
;

me thereto. The choice of the monks with an intense conviction of the high
was not wanting, nor the consent of the sacerdotal privileges of his order, like

bishops and nobles but it was thy will ;

Wilfrid no mighty church organiser
;
like

which stood forth chief above all. Lo !

Theodore no scholar like Bede
;
or

there is now a new king, a new law, a Aldhelm ;

no pure and lofty-minded eccle
new primate, who puts forth new decrees. siastical statesman like Dunstan, whose

They charge thee with error who didst make grand dream to make the church and state
me a bishop" This singular assertion of * As most important instance of the
this is a
the supreme power of an Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical of the Anglo-Saxon kings, it
power
is well to give the exact words of Ethelred or
sovereign, even in the case of a popular ^Elred, abbot of Rivaulx, in his account of the
election of a bishop, was made by a writer election of Wulfstan to the Worcester bishopric :

who lived after archbishop Lanfranc and "Licet non deesset fratrum electio, plebis petitio,
voluntas episcoporum, et gratia procerum, his
Anselm had to a great extent recognised
tame.n omnibus tua praeponderavit auctoritas, tua
the authority of Rome. It is thus perfectly magis urgebat voluntas."
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

one, was partially realised in his own career, then archbishop of Canterbury. Of the
and the effect of whose work was stamped saint-king he never was the intimate friend

for ever on the church of his native land ;

or trusted adviser ;
at best, Edward seems
no fervid missionary spirits like Columba, rather to have tolerated his presence than

Columban, or arose in king

Boniface, to have given him his confidence. During
Edward s
days. Besides the king himself, his long tenure of his great office, he never
the only really master-minds in that was able to command the real affection or

quiet, peaceful reign were the two great even the confidence of churchmen ;
neither
Saxon earls, Godwin and his son Harold, as a scholar or a saint, nor even as a suc
afterwards the king. But among eccle cessful statesman, does he occupy a niche
persons, although several notawe
siastic in the many-hued annals of our church.
church leaders deserve notice, no one It is difficult for us now, when more

flourished to whom the title

"

great
"

can than eight centuries have passed since

with any justice be applied. Stigand closed his brilliant, stormy life,
In Canterbury, king Edward found thoroughly to understand the mixed

Eadsige reigning as archbishop. At his feelings with which this illustrious man
coronation the address of the metropolitan was regarded by his
contemporaries.
was of so able and stirring a nature that That Edward should have disliked him,
the writers of the National Chronicle and perhaps mistrusted him (although
thought it worthy of special mention. But he acknowledged his high official position),
Eadsige soon sickened with a mortal isnatural enough. Edward was a devoted
disease which affected his mental powers, churchman, and it is clear that some grave
and we hear little more of him. The flaw existed in Stigand s right to be con
Norman Robert of Jumieges, neither as sidered primate. The dislike and distrust
bishop of London nor during his short was mutual, as we shall see when we
tenure of the primacy, gave any sign of come to relate Stigand s behaviour as he

superior intelligence, and his friendship stood at Edward s bedside, during the long
with the king was the most disastrous agony which preceded the death of the
episode of the reign. Confessor.
The Saxon
Stigand, succeeded who What is more perplexing
the bearing is

Robert in the chair of Augustine, was a of Harold as earl and king, towards Stigand,

complex character. In the course of a who was ever Harold s loyal friend and
long and stirring life, he filled a number of supporter. In the consecration of his abbey
important positions. We first hear of him of Waltham, the centre of his great educa

as priest of Assandun, the little minster of tional foundation, earlHarold passed over
"Expiation"
erected by king Canute, in Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, and
1 020. He became the chaplain and adviser called upon Cynesige, the undistinguished
of queen Emma, the widow of Ethelred archbishop of York, to officiate at the
and Canute then the friend of Godwin
;
formal consecration of his great creation.
and Harold ; successively bishop of Elm- Again, at the most solemn moment of his
ham (East Anglia) and Winchester, and life, at his coronation in Westminster
1042 io66.] ARCHBISHOP STIGAND.
abbey, it was Aldred of York, not Stigand do not seem to have acknowledged him.
of Canterbury, who placed the crown of His reign was brief, only lasting one year ;

England upon the brow of Saxon Harold. for he was driven from the papal chair,
William the Norman, following Harold s and had to give place to Gerard, bishop of
example a few months later, declined to Florence, known as Nicholas II. Bene
avail himself of Stigand s services, and dict X., who gave Stigand his pall, by the
Aldred again officiated at the Norman Catholic church is reckoned as an anti-
coronation in the same West-minster. Of pope and schismatic. Thus Stigand never
all the bishops who were consecrated in received the legal recognition of Rome.
the days of Edward the Confessor, Stigand We have dwelt upon this circumstance,
only officiated in the cases of Ethelric, as it marks a distinct step in the gradual

bishop of Selsey, and Sivvard of Rochester. acknowledgment of a serious, though per

All the other prelates sought consecration
at other hands. An uneasy feeling as to
Stigand s ecclesiastical position as primate,
was evidently general in England. The
anxious doubts that were current were
shared in by serious laymen, as well as
haps as yet an undefined claim on the
part of the Roman bishop to interfere in
the case of the primacy of England. The
conduct of a man like Harold, intensely
English in heart, shows how deeply the
claim of Rome to confirm the appointment

by responsible ecclesiastics. of an archbishop of Canterbury had sunk

Reasons for these widely-spread scruples into the hearts even of the most sturdy
may have existed, which have not drifted and patriotic Englishmen, and this at a
down the stream of ages to us, but the time when the respect and regard of

following details are, as far as we know, foreign peoples for Rome had been weak
all that was ever alleged against the ened by the spectacle of well-nigh a century
legality of his position as archbishop, (i) and a half of anarchy and confusion at
His predecessor, Robert of Jumieges, fled Rome, and of a long succession of weak
to Rome, loudly complaining of his cause and even of infamous Popes. Yet none
less deposition. was en
His protest can deny archbishop Stigand s integrity
dorsed by the Pope though no heed,
;
of purpose, or his unswerving patriotism,

apparently, was paid in England to or his quiet unobtrusive loyalty while the ;

Rome s remonstrance. (2) For six years melancholy and painful circumstances
Stigand continued archbishop without a hereafter to be related under which his
pall from Rome. Indeed, one of the long and brilliant career was closed, must
charges subsequently urged against him ever induce the biographer of Stigand to
was that he used the old pall be speak gently of the faults and errors of
stowed upon his predecessor, Robert of the last of the Anglo-Saxon archbishops

Jumieges. Eventually he received the of Canterbury.

desired insignia of his great office from It was in the fourth year of king Edward
Rome ; but, unfortunately for Stigand, the that bishop Lyfing died. Lyfing the
"

donor was Pope Benedict X. The election eloquent," as the Worcester chronicler
of this pope was irregular ;
the cardinals styles him, had long played a distinguished
6o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

part in the church and state. Originally formed a chapter of secular canons upon
a monk of Winchester, he was appointed the strict rule of Chrodegang of Metz.
abbot of the western abbey of Tavistock, Chrodegang, archbishop of Metz, who
one of the many houses burned by the had lived some three centuries before the
Danes in the unhappy days of Ethelred reign of Edward the Confessor (742-7*66),
the Unready. He became a favourite of endeavoured to establish a modified form
Canute, and accompanied the great Dane of the Benedictine rule in cathedral
on his pilgrimage to Rome, and was the chapters. The canons were to live under
bearer of that king s famous letter to the the ruleof the bishop. They had a
English people. Canute made him bishop common refectory and a common dormi
of Crediton in Devon, and with that see tory their life was carefully mapped out
; ;

he held the bishopric of Cornwall and ;

certain times were appointed for manual

subsequently he added to these the im labour, others for study ;

certain services

portant Midland see of Worcester. During were to be daily attended. Pastoral duties,
the Danish reigns of Harold Harefoot and such as baptism and preaching, were en
Harthacanute he was the loyal and devoted joined upon them. They were to be
friend of earl Godwin, and we find him celibates, but they might different from
associated with the mighty earl in the monks enjoy individual property. They
national work of establishing Edward on did not wear the peculiar dress of the
the throne. He was a example of one
fair monastic order, and their dietary was on
of those statesmen-prelates who had a large a far more liberal scale than that pre
share in the government of the country. scribed by the Benedictine rule. The rule
But Lyfing was ever a statesman rather of Chrodegang was soon adopted by as
than an ecclesiastic or a scholar, and his many as eighty-six chapters. Charlemagne
consenting to hold three vast dioceses is a especially favoured this famous reform
sure indication of his ambitious character. movement, and many colleges of canons
His memory was, however, long cherished under the rule of Chrodegang were formed,
in the west country, not merely as an in addition to the cathedral bodies for
able and patriotic minister of state, but whom it had originally been devised.
as a generous friend. Louis Debonnaire, Charlemagne son and
le s

When Lyfing died in 1046, his western successor, presided over a great council at
dioceses were formally united into one, and Aix-la-Chapelle in 816. This council gave
u
Leofric, the king s chaplain, who acted as its formal sanction to the rule,"
which
the royal chancellor,became bishop of was generally adopted in most of the
Devon and Cornwall. He removed his French, German, and Italian cathedrals.
bishop s chair to the city which was ranked Not a little of the wealth of these cathedral
as the capital of the west Exeter, and in chapters was owing to the general favour!
the church of St. Peter, now raised to the with which this strict system was viewed.!

rank of a cathedral, Leofric was solemnly In England, however, itwas never regarded
enthroned by king Edward. Bishop Leo with favour, and all the earlier and later!
fricwas an ardent church reformer, and attempts to introduce it into cathedral life
 1042 1066.] ALDRED OF WORCESTER AND YORK. 61

generally proved failures. Bishop Leofric s of Tavistock. It was in the year 1046
efforts at Exeter to establish the rule of that he
was appointed to the bishopric of
"

Chrodegang
"

in his cathedral, seem only Worcester. A favourite of the king s, he

to have been fairly successful during his was soon employed in political affairs, and
tenure of the see, which lasted until 1072. in the year 1049 we find him associated

Traces, but only traces, of this severe dis with bishop Hermann of Ramsbury, the
cipline were visible at Exeter in the next king s chaplain, as ambassador to Rome to
century. procure Edward s absolution from his vow

/ v vi
ITU)
Jmce^okincjrnaaone in^nntfe^pi-CDiIlrfYimo twin- Sc? uuirpjinfBpr Iftxltfif

n- cjuaij: mnf4T A.irfaimfmcAm. <jnja<rru>tifu>cna(ur

nomine KOJL*TUM- cfuadam m) TTjiniftro ^uinunorpacur
V-umomn^iif .idfocc
yntienrituf- Canjpif urfpfe?Mt4B
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fw utuar-
Apcf! uixam roam aJqtifcopalcm feJCTn-fineomriaJtcrKJre- rrftiTWAtur Orrlirr
.

- r -~txrfycrmf Sinfii? reitauraaoneri

-^^ <vu>mmuni
rxpeaiuone necnon dfjcurlrtijrfacf cenfuf.
>+) V w \ \ % \
__Jk/ j- ij-
-citrm^Jii^l^oe^an.!, ^-i-^f [nonSru r V CBW 5 tJ f na^rV i, V

rp,.j
^a^unr.
J,amm|ie j-anon ongejvtlar

ga J^J,
m^ iai"

gs
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mto-
j-ac tjp fcywlrrnic t^p j"tan

CHARTER OF ALDRED, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, CONFIRMED BY KING EDWARD A.D. 1058. (British Museum.)

The other of bishop Lyfing s sees, pilgrimage. ,./ The result of the Roman
<of

ill
Worcester, was filled by a more remark- mission is well known. The king obtained
11 able man than Leofric. For twenty-three absolution, on condition of his founding
I years the monk Aldred filled a prominent an abbey -church and religious house. The
land distinguished position in the Church condition was fulfilled in the re-foundation
of England as a statesman and ecclesiastic. and rebuilding the stately abbey of St.

iHis early career closely resembled that of Peters, Westminster,

the most enduring
his predecessor, Lyfing. He, too, had and the most magnificent of Edward the
been a monk of Winchester a famous Confessor s works.

training school in those days of Bene- we hear of bishop Aldred again

In 1054
iictine monks who were destined to fill as Edward s ambassador this time to
office. From Winchester, too, like the court of the emperor Henry III., at

.yfing, he was called to the post of abbot Cologne. The object of this embassage

figh
62 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066.

was to induce the emperor to send to a church reformer, but as a church builder.

England Edward the Atheling, the exile, York and Southwell both received substan
the son of Edmund Ironside, whom at tial proofs of his vigour and liberality, but

this time the childless Edward intended to to Beverley he seems to have devoted

make his heir. Edward the Atheling had his principal care. read of his great We
married Agatha, a near connection prob building work in the noble minster, and
ably the niece of the German emperor. of his efforts in decorating the roof of
The exiled prince Edward, as the result his church, which he adorned with glow
of Aldred s mission, came to England with ing colours till
"

it looked like another

his family. Edward died soon after his heaven." The splendid pulpit of Beverley,
arrival, but left a son, Edgar, who as Edgar the work of Aldred, obtained especial

Atheling subsequently played no incon notoriety ;

it was marvellously constructed, f

siderable part in the reign of William the and rich in costly metals. He also liber

Conqueror. In the year 1058 Aldred ally endowed the famous and beautiful
again crossed the seas, this time as a church, to which he evidently had a
pilgrim to Jerusalem. In the same year special attachment.
he officiated at the dedication of the abbey After Edward the Confessor s death,.*
church of Gloucester, which he rebuilt. Aldred officiated at the coronation cere- 1
It was in A.D. 1060 that Aldred, now one mony of Harold in the new abbey of
of the most famous of the English states Westminster. He was king Harold s
men-prelates, was raised to the arch-see of trusted friend, and after the crushing
York, retaining, however, his old bishop defeat of Harold Hardrada at Stamford
ric of Worcester. This practice among Bridge in 1066, king Harold left the vast*,
the greater prelates of holding two or spoils of the Northmen piratical invaders inP
more important sees at th same time, was the archbishop s care, while he hurried
a common abuse at this period. Again to the south to meet the Norman duke
j

this unwearied traveller crossed the seas William and his mighty host. The astute. I

to seek the pall at the hands of the Pope. and statesmanlike prelate contrived to

The circumstances of his visit to Rome keep on terms with Harold s conqueror,
are somewhat confused. At first the pall and was asked by duke William to crown
was refused, the fact of his holding two him in the room of the dead Harold. For |

important bishoprics being the alleged the second time in the same year, he per-,
reason of the refusal. The pall was, formed the solemn coronation rite in the
however, eventually granted, it is said Confessors
abbey of Westminster this

through the influence of earl Tostig, time for the Norman William.
Harold s brother, who was also at Rome. During the three terrible years which
On Aldred s return he resigned the see followed, Aldred continued archbishop of
of Worcester. The next six years were York, and, as far as he could, played the
memorable in his ecclesiastical career. part of mediator between the Conqueror
The archbishop devoted himself to his and the hapless conquered English. In

diocese, and was distinguished not only as the year 1069, worn out with sorrow and
1042 io66.] HAROLD AND WALTHAM.
dismay at the treatment of the English, a to a Benedictine monasticism. To men of

spectator of the ruthless work of William, this school the via media of Chrodegang s

powerless to avert the ruin and desolation rule seemed best fitted to train good pastors
which he saw coming over his most sorely and teachers while earl Harold, power
;

harried diocese, Aldred died. He had ful throughout the last thirteen
years of
prayed, men said, to be taken from the Edward s life, preferred as the model form
evil to come ;
and the eventual burning for training, as well as for pastoral work,
of York, with itsstoried minster and its an even less monkish, less severely ascetic

priceless treasures, Aldred was happily not rule than that of Chrodegang s. What
spared to see. Harold wished to establish in England, will
During the reign of Edward, although be best seen in a description of his own
in the church the influence of the Bene great creation at Waltham.
dictine order was very great, and the
powerful friendship of the saint-king The story of the foundation of Waltham,
much conduced to the spread of its at once minster and college, is an interest
power, his regard was especially shown in ing one. Tofig the Proud was a great
his
perpetual lavish gifts to Benedictine Danish thane who held the office of
monastic houses, and more particularly standard-bearer to king Harthacanute (it

in the case of the mighty house he was, as we have

related, at his marriage
u
was building for the Benedictine order feast that Harthacanute died, while he
under the shadow of his lordly West at his drink stood Tofig the Dane held
").

minster. The flourishing condition of broad lands in Somerset and Essex. In

great Benedictine houses like Tavistock, one of his Somersetshire lordships, on the
Winchester, Peterborough, Evesham, and top of the peaked hill afterwards called,

others, show, too, that Benedictine mo- from form, Montacute, and which gave
its

nasticism was a real power in the land the title to the proud Norman house of
in the days of king Edward. Still there Montague (de monte acuto) was found a
were other agencies at work not friendly miraculous crucifix or rood. Tofig built
to monasticism. Statesmen-prelates, like a church on his Essex estate as a sanc

tuary for this precious relic, and created

a
Lyfing, whose rule extended over three
broad dioceses in the west, and Stigand foundation there for two mass-priests.
the archbishop, and Aldred of Worcester Round the little church of Tofig, attracted
and York, even though some of them had by the sanctity of the wonder-working
been trained as monks, were not likely to crucifix, which rapidly became
an object
have been ardent admirers of an ascetic of popular and pilgrimage veneration, grew
monasticism. like Leofric of the little township of Waltham. This
Bishops
Exeter, who considered that the purity was in the days of Canute. Eventually
of the church would be best guarded by the son of Tofig fell into disgrace, his lands
the establishment of chapters of canons were confiscated, and Edward the Confessor
formed after the rule of Chrodegang, above gave the lordship of Waltham to Harold,
described, were probably no warm friends then the earl of East Anglia, with whom
64 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

it became a favourite residence. Harold foundation was richly endowed with lands.
rebuilt the small church of Tofig on a This "foundation of a great secular college,

larger and more splendid scale, and en in days when all the world seemed mad

riched it with many gifts and precious after monks, when king Edward and earl

relics most precious possession still

its Leofric (of Mercia) vied with each other

being the miraculous rood of Montacute. in lavish gifts to religious houses at home
The great ecclesiastical foundation of and abroad, was in itself an act which
Harold was not a monastic abbey ;
it was displayed no small vigour and indepen
rather a vast edu dence of mind.
cational establish The details, too,
ment, with the of the foundation

abbey as its were such as

centre ;
he placed showed that the
in it a dean and creation of Wal
twelve secular tham was not the
canons, each act of a moment
priest living on of superstitious
his own prebend, dread or of reck
and some of these, less bounty, but
it has been sug the deliberate

gested, were even deed of a man

married men ;
a who felt the re
number of inferior sponsibilities of
officers supple lofty rank and
mented the house. boundless wealth,
The dominant and who earnestly
idea,however, of sought the welfare
MOULD FOR BADGE WORN BY PILGRIMS TO THE
Harold s work at of his church and
SHRINE OF THE HOLY CROSS AT WALTHAM.
Waltham was not (Guildhall Museum.} nation in all

prayer and wor

:

things."

even pastoral work and preaching,

ship, or The church was finished and solemnly
though these were by no means to be consecrated in the year 1060. The chief
neglected in the lordly abbey of the Holy part of the ceremony was performed by
Rood, but education. The chancellor or Cynesige, archbishop of York, in presence
chief teacher held a most important of king Edward, the queen Edith, and of

position in Harold s
fraternity, and to fill most of the chief ecclesiastical and civil

Harold brought from over the

this office,
magnates of the land. Waltham, the abbey
seas an eminent scholar and teacher named of the Holy Rood, and the college attached

Adelhard, a native of Liege (Liittich) in to it, has been peculiarly identified with its

Lotharingia, who superintended the eminent founder. To Waltham, we read,

teaching department of the house. The * Freeman: "Norman Conquest."
10421066.] WALTHAM ABBEY.
Harold loved to retire and pray in the was the guerdon of the last of the Anglo-
great crises of his life. It was beneath Saxon kings of England.
the shadow of its massive pillars that his But the work of Harold at Waltham
mutilated remains were laid after the field was, after all, of short duration. The
of Hastings. At the east end of the educational establishment was put an end
choir a stone was long shown, bearing to after an existence of little more than a
the touching words,
"

Harold infelix." The hundred years, by the Plantagenet king

NAVE OF WALTHAM ABBEY, SHOWING HAROLD S NORMAN PILLARS AND ARCHES.

famous rood, in honour of which the noble Henry II., who expelled the dean and

abbey was originally built, was the especial secular canons, and put an abbot and

object of Harold s devotion. It became, Austin canons in their place. In our days
not unnaturally in that religious age, the a scarred and mutilated fragment of

badge and rallying-point of the fighting- Harold s splendid abbey alone remains, but
men of England. was the battle-cry in
It it is nevertheless a fragment of no small
the glorious victory of Stamford Bridge grandeur, and of matchless interest.
when the Vikings, so long the curse of the
island, met their final and crushing over
Onlooking back over the reign of
throw. It was the war-cry on the bloody Edward the Confessor (1042 to 1066), the
of the
field of Hastings, when a glorious death thoughtful student of the history
66 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1042 1066

church during that last period of Anglo- who much if not most of what
feels that

Saxon rule will see that the church, all is great and strong and enduring in the
through the reign of Edward, was far from character of the English people, comes

being mainly composed of sluggish, in from the Anglo-Saxon rather than from
active members, though such has been the Norman ancestors, must necessarily
the conclusion drawn by many writers on acknowledge that the church in the days

this period. of the Confessor was far from being an ideal

Yet this idea was, it must be conceded, by church. In all times we see how, after the
no means baseless. As
already remarked, time of a great revival in its spiritual life and
it is undeniable that the reign of the in its activities educational, missionary,
Confessor, like the reign of his immediate church building, and the like gradually
predecessors, produced no really eminent the spiritual flames which blazed for a time
churchman. A
fair number of men of the so brightly always died down, and the fire

second rank flourished, such as Aldred, needed to be renewed again. As it was in

Stigand, William of London, Wulfstan, those far-back days, so has it been in our
Leofric, Gisa, and others, but none of day and time. We saw it when the great
these were men of conspicuous ability and ;
Alfred looked over his reconquered land
the most famous of them Aldred, Stigand, and its feeble church the church of Bede,
and Wulfstan are remembered rather for Alcuin and Aldhelm, and mourned over
what they suffered at the hands of the the grievous lack of even the most rudi
Norman conquerors, than for what they did mentary learning among the ecclesiastics
or wrote or taught in the quiet, peaceful of his loved England.We saw it again
days of the Confessor. This dearth of after another lapse of time, when the
prominent men would, when the history fervour of the new by the
life inspired
of the time came to be written, to a certain burning words and stirring example of
extent influence and depress the estimate Alfred and his ministers had at length
of writers describing the period in question. died away, when the great Dunstan and
It is also to be expected that Norman his disciples again inspired the Anglo-
writers and chroniclers who lived after Saxon church with vigour and spiritual
the Conquest, would write in depreciatory power and it seems to have been the case
;
j

terms of the church as it existed under that in the days of Edward the Confessor
the old state of things in England, a Theodore or an Hadrian, an Aldhelm or
before their people came, and changed the a Dunstan, was sorely needed to rekindle
whole framework of government in church the zeal and the energy of the church j

and and uprooted the entire Anglo-

state, in our island. That carelessness and want
Saxon society, civil and ecclesiastical. No of fervour, and in some cases positive sloth j

Norman writer could be expected to de and selfishness existed among ecclesiastics, j

scribe fairly that old English life which the is evident from the words of the writer of
Normans had so ruthlessly destroyed. the contemporary life of Edward, composed
Even an historian who has the deepest for hisqueen Edith in the first year of her

sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon people, sad widowhood. The author of that
"

Life
"
1042 io66.] THE CHURCH IN EDWARD S REIGN.
was evidently an Anglo-Saxon, and yet he and his school woke them up into new
speaks in terms of grave severity of the life and a more active energy. In
wickedness of his country, of the care England, church life, although perhaps
lessness of the clergy, and the consequent lacking in some of the nobler character
probability of God s vengeance. The king s istics of Christianity, could by no means
own dying words, as given in the next be counted as sunk in torpor, or as alto

chapter, are also of peculiar weight. gether sluggish and selfish. This would
In equally striking language, in the be impossible in England with a king like
"Estoire de Seint ^Edward le Roi,"
written Edward the Confessor, pious and devoted
in Latin and translated into Norman- and even recklessly
generous in good
French queen Alianore (Eleanor) about
for works, whose splendid example as a
1245 a writing based on much earlier churchman and a pure and devoted
materials the author speaks of the want Christian lived long after he had passed
of virtue and of the increase of sin in away ;
with a
queen like Edith, the
England, as the cause of the mighty ven saintly and devoted daughter of Godwin ;

geance of God, exemplified in the Norman with great nobles like Harold, who could
Conquest : devise and at his own cost establish the
"

Bishops, prelates and priests noble educational foundation of Waltham r

No longer seek to be good pastors ;
and erect the stately minster of the
seek not to feed the sheepfold
Holy
They ;

But to sell them is each one s business,* Rood as the centre of his great Waltham
To rescue them from the wolf none cares, work. Nor did Harold, the mighty earl
(They care) only for the milk and the wool."
of Wessex and East Anglia, stand alone
The writer is
equally severe upon the among the great men of the land in these

leading laymen, forhe goes on to say : true works of piety and devotion. The
ruler under king Edward of the broad
"

Princes, counts and barons

Go seeking only vain glory, Midlands, Earl Leofric, and his renowned
Nor do they live but to swallow money ;
countess, the lady Godiva of the legends
The poor they strip and ill-treat."

Leofric, the grandfather of the brothers

Granting, however, that the Anglo- earls Edwin and Morkar, so famous in the
Saxon church between 1042 and 1066 records of king Harold, and later of Nor
sorely needed reformation, and the pre man William, were celebrated throughout
sence of a new and nobler spirit amongst the length and breadth of England for
them, it was still by no means a dead or their boundless liberality to ecclesiastical
even a dying church and, indeed, it seems ; foundations, and their ceaseless care for
to have compared very favourably with the church. We read how, thanks to
the churches of Normandy before Lanfranc their care and generosity, Worcester,.
* Allusion is here made to the sin of " Leominster, Evesham, Chester, Wenlock,
simony."
In various degrees it was one of the curses of that Stow-in-Lindesey where traces of their
age, though apparently this sin was less prevalent work still remains and Coventry, were
in England than on the Continent, but there is no
doubt but that its practice seriously marred al
adorned and enriched with churches and
church work in England. religious houses, by restorations and new
68 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

buildings dedicated to religious uses. It less austere and burdensome than the stern
is recorded of these zealous and earnest practice of the Benedictine order.
servants of God that they were by no Aldred was a bishop also famed for his

means content with merely lavish and boundless liberality. The York historian

generous grants of land and endowments, loves to dwell on these features of an ever
but that they took a special interest in the indefatigable toiler for the church. He
building and ornamentation of the many was, too, a great builder : the minsters of
churches and religious houses they watched Southwell, York, and Beverley famous
over or founded anew, in the broad lands church-centres in his archdiocese were
of their great Mercian government. all built or enriched by his costly works.

Nor was it only among the ranks of the He loved also to beautify his build
more prominent laymen that we find con ings with all manner of artistic devices,
spicuous instances of a lifelong zeal in with painting and sculpture, and
the service of the church. Many of the curious and elaborate metal work.

prelates of the reign of Edward, even if not Honoured and loved by the saintly Anglo-
men specially distinguished for their pro Saxon king, when Edward died he filled
found scholarship, or for brilliant powers of the same place as friend and adviser to
organisation, or for their winning eloquence, king Harold ;
and after Harold s fate,
were nevertheless earnest and devoted William the Conqueror
strange to say, king
servants of God. Such a man was Aldred, seems to have loved and reverenced him.
archbishop of York, somewhile bishop of He is reckoned among the very few of the
Worcester. We
find him playing the part
Anglo-Saxon race admitted to the friend
of a statesman and diplomatist, often en ship of the great Norman. Aldred even
trusted with difficult and important foreign dared to oppose king William in his cruel
missions but none the less a busy and
; and high-handed conduct and men say ;

anxious chief pastor of the vast dioceses how the end the archbishop died of
in
entrusted to his charge. Archbishop a broken heart, shocked and grieved at
Aldred was well acquainted with the the misery among his flock which resulted
and errors of the church of his day,
faults from the great Conquest.
and thoroughly conscious of what his Leofric and Gisa, respectively bishops
work and mission among the people ought of the sees of Exeter and of Wells, were
to be ;
he was a most zealous reformer also distinguished for their work as
of the abuses which had crept into the reformers. Both these with no
prelates,
Anglo-Saxon church. In the chapters of small pains, remodelled the chapters of
York and Southwell, where laxity of life Exeter and of
Wells, introducing the
and marred their usefulness, he
discipline graver discipline of the rule of Chrodegang
introduced a new rule of life probably into their dioceses.
that known as the rule of Chrodegang Wulfstan, who was charged by his
which we have already described as a rule detractors as being devoid of scholarship,
far more severe than that practised by the
enjoyed an enormous popularity, and was
secular canons of a cathedral church, revered as a saint by all sorts and conditions
though
 1
N

I
3

^
Q C
O .,
C S

Q ^
^ v
<: I

X ^x
fa
o
31
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I
w I
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10421066.

of men, and was literally compelled to Evesham and Bury St. Edmunds ;
while

accept the episcopate by the unanimous queen Edith s nunnery and church of
call of clergy and laity. So great was his Wilton, Harold s famous foundation and
reputation for sanctity, that the Norman minster of Waltham, and above king all

conquerors found themselves obliged to Edward s monastery and

magnificent
recognise his holy influence among the stately abbey of Westminster, were en
people. William, the Norman king, and during memorials of splendid church work
Lanfranc, the Norman archbishop, in the undertaken and carried out in the closing
day of their power, permitted this sturdy years of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. All
Anglo-Saxon patriot still to exercise his this shows us that the Anglo-Saxon church,

great functions as bishop of Worcester even at the moment when the great change
in Norman England. came over it, was indeed no dying or even
In the scanty records of that time we fading church, but that with all its faults

catch sight of not a few great religious and shortcomings, which we have made no
houses filled with earnest monks, playing attempt to gloss over or even to minimise,
an influential part in the life of Edward it was yet a church full of vitality and
the Confessor s
people. Such were Peter power, and capable of exercising a great
borough and Thorney, Crowland and Ely, and blessed influence among the people
the Fen abbeys such were the renowned
; of the land

THE SEAL OF THE ABBEY OF WILTON (A.D. 1372).

(The Matrix is of the \\th Century, British Museum.)
 CHAPTER XXIV.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Historical Importance of the Abbey Its Origin in Edward s Vow Traditions of the Old Church of St
Peter s Building of the New Abbey and Palace Description of the Abbey Destruction and
Restoration by Henry III. Death of Edward the Confessor His Death-bed
Prophecy Its
Strange Fulfilment Commits the Kingdom to Harold His Hurried Funeral, as Depicted in the
Bayeux Tapestry Growth of Edward s Fame Canonisation Magnificent Shrine Built by
Henry III. The Centre of the Chapel of the Kings Subsequent History of the Shrine.

a little to the north of Lon in those of the historian it possesses even

WHILE don the stately minster and a far higher value.

college of the Holy Rood was The abbey of the Confessor, which we
being built by Norman architects on earl are about to describe with some detail, was
Harold s East Saxon lordship of Waltham, unquestionably a great work. In size and
a yet vaster and far more enduring work magnificence it far transcended any build
was slowly approaching completion only ing which existed in that day in England.
some two or three miles to the west Nay, more it took high rank among the
of the great city, on the banks of the grandest and most lordly piles that had
Thames. There, too, Norman architects hitherto been built in any of the countries
and builders were employed under the north of the Alps. Its founder, too, was
personal supervision of king Edward him no ordinary man. In his lifetime, or at
"

self, who watched with anxious care the most within a few years after his death,
progress of the huge pile known under the Edward was already deemed to be a worker
well-known title of the West-Minster. of miracles. For his dreams, visions, and
The position which the great abbey, prophecies he was renowned to his last
*
erected by Edward the Confessor with so moment." Around his great church, as

much pains and cost, has ever since his was natural to expect, grew rapidly many
it is not difficult
days occupied in the story of England the ;
a legendary story, but

singular and intimate connection between to separate what was no doubt true from
this mighty church and the state a con these strange traditions. The true story
nection which has endured for centuries, of the foundation of Westminster is as

and of which the abbey and its depend follows.

encies are so symbolical gives to West During the days of his long
latter

minster an importance far beyond its mere Norman things looked very dark
exile

beauty and matchless magnificence. In and unpromising for the young prince,
the eyes of the architect and the archaeo and there is no reason to doubt the truth
logist it ranks first among the many great of the account of the vow given at
*
and renowned churches of the land, but Prof. Freeman.
72 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1051 1066.

some length in the Estoire de Saint "

Edward s thanes, however, felt that the

^Edward le Roi." There, amongst other peace and prosperity then enjoyed by
untoward circumstances, the sad death England depended largely upon the per
of his brother Alfred is alluded to as de sonal presence and influence among them

the exiled and at this of their saintly but childless king, and
pressing prince,
urgently dissuaded him from the
juncture Edward vowed a solemn vow that
risk.

if St. Peter would protect him, he would So strongly was this felt, that the matter of
the royal pilgrimage was laid before the
go on a pilgrimage to Rome. After he
became king the memory of this vow Witan. The king was induced eventually
to send a special to the Pope to
weighed heavily upon him, and the poem embassy
represents him saying to his thanes obtain a dispensation from his vow. Two
bishops were charged with this
"

*****
When I was sojourning in Normandy. mission Aldred, whom we
of as bishop of Worcester, and subsequently
weighty
have heard

*****
News came to me often
Which made me very sorrowful.

Besides God and his Mother

as archbishop of York

the Lotharingian bishop

afterwards of Salisbury.
and Herman,
;

of
The
Ramsbury,
date of
And my Lord St. Peter, I had no comfort.
. . Then I went one day
.
very sad this mission to Rome was A.D. 1050. It
Into a church and prayed, vow
was successful, and Edward s of pil
And I made a vow
To go to Rome and pray."
grimage was cancelled by Pope Leo IX.
on the condition that the king wouk
Such pilgrimages, as we have already found or restore a monastery of St. Peter.

seen, were very usual among the Anglo- Now, some two or three miles from the
Saxons of high degree. Not a few of their western gate of the city of London, whicl

kings, deeming such an act meritorious, in Edward s time had already acquired

had betaken themselves to the sacred sites pre-eminence in wealth and importanc
of Rome, and prayed and offered gifts to among the English cities, in what w<

the various traditional sanctuaries of the then known as Thorney Island (the
historic city. Canute the Dane, also, not Thames flowing round it), opposite tc
long before had made a memorable pil what is now known as Lambeth Palac
grimage Romewards ;
and a little later we a small and undistinguished religious
read of earl Harold, of Tostig, his brother, house had grown up round a little churcl
and of others as pilgrims to the same great dedicated to St. Peter. The origin of tl

centre of Christianity. The journey in church we have in our first volume carri<

those days was a tedious affair, and was back to the earliest days of Englisl
not without danger. These pilgrimages to Christianity. Here Sseberht, the firs

Rome, and even to the Holy Land, and Christian king of the East Saxons, hz
the extraordinary merit which was attached built for Mellitus, the East Saxon mission
to them, were among the characteristic ary bishop, one of the original companior
of, and
features of religious fervour among the eventually a successor to, St
Anglo-Saxons. Augustine, a small church or oratory,
 1051 io66.] WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 73

balance (says one of the chroniclers) the honour of St. Peter. The writer tells us

larger minster of St. Paul within the city the place where the West-Minster after
walls. wards stood was in the immediate vicinity

KING EDWARD WATCHING THE ERECTION OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

The contemporary life of king Edward, of the famous and wealthy city (London),
I written for his widowed queen Edith soon in the midst of grassy meadows, and on
I after the
king s death, gives us some simple the banks of a flowing river (the Thames),
id probable reasons for the choice of which brought the merchandise and wares
Cdward falling upon this comparatively of all the world to the city a curious and
iknown spot for his restoration of a early testimony to the matchless situation
lonastery and church originally raised in of London. He gives as another reason
74 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1051 1066.

for the choice, the king s special love and foundation, in the days of Mellitus, the
devotion to the chief of the apostles but ;
friend and companion of Augustine.*
he does not tell us the story already Besides the contemporary life of the saint-
narrated in its place, how St. Peter was king written for the widowed queen Edith,
connected with .
Thorney Island. This we possess several lives of Edward of a
most valuable piece of current literature somewhat later date. Of them the princi
was written, as we have said, for queen pal are (i) the biography of Osbern ol

Edith, and nearly three times as much Clare, prior of Westminster, composed
space is devoted in it to Edith s restoration about A.D. 1158 ; (2) the yet better-known

of the nunnery of Wilton, a compara lifewritten by ^Elred or Ethelred, com

tively unknown religious house, as is given posed a few years later, circa A.D. 1163
to the king s vast work in connection with ^Elred was prior of Rivaulx and (3) the ;

Westminster. lengthy poem in Latin with a Norman-

But there were other reasons which led French translation containing 4685 lines,

to the choice of Thorney Island for the addressed to queen Alianore (Eleanor),
foundation of Westminster, the greatest of consort of Henry III., circa A.D. 1245,
our English abbeys, round which so much In these lives of the saint-king much that
of our English history, civil and ecclesi is marvellous and improbable is interwoven

astical, has clustered during the past eight with the history ;
but these wonders also

centuries. In spite of the general notion doubtless represent not a little of the
of the undistinguished nature of the legendary lore which king PIdward found
church and religious house of St. Peter associated with the ancient, but probably
before king Edward began to build, yet decayed holy house of St. Peter s ol

St. Peter s of Thorney Island must have Thorney, and which no doubt weighed
been a place of some importance ;
for the with him when he selected the spot for
English Chronicle relateshow the body of his famous foundation.
king Harold Harefoot, who died at Oxford,
was brought from Oxford and buried there. The rebuilding of the great abbey ol
This royal corpse was subsequently dug up Westminster went on during the last
and thrown ignominiously into the Thames fourteen or fifteen years of the Confessor s

by his infamous brother Harthacanute. reign. The cost, which must have been
But this does not affect the fact that St. enormous, was borne entirely by the
Peter s of Thorney Island had been judged Crown. In the foundation and endow
a worthy sepulchre for a king of England. ment of the monastery which grew up
Again, the death of one of its abbots, under the shadow of the abbey, much
Wulfnoth, had been judged worthy of a help was given to the king by pious
mention in the English Chronicle.
special Englishmen, but the cost of the building
Round the spot, in fact, there is no doubt of the famous abbey itself seems to have

hung some tradition dim and faint, per been defrayed entirely out of Edward s
haps, and half forgotten of some mar own resources. The monastic foundation
vellous event in connection with its first * This related in vol.
legend is i., p. 101.
1051 io66.] WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 75

of St. Peter, which was erected on a large adjoining Holyrood Palace and later in;

scale, contained great domitories, refectory, Spain in that vast pile of royal and monastic
cloisters, separate dwellings for the abbot buildings known as the Escurial, at once
and chief officers, barns, treasury, in palace, monastery, and tomb.
firmary, chapter-house,and other buildings, The size of the new abbey of West
the usual adjuncts of an important Bene minster was remarkable ;
it
positively
dictine house. occupied almost the whole area of the
Adjoining the abbey was also erected present building. Nothing resembling it
a royal palace, evidently of considerable had ever been erected before in England.
dimensions. This idea, of placing palace It set the example of the vast scale upon
and monastery and abbey in close contiguity, which in the next generation the churches
was no doubt derived from the immediate and abbeys which arose in such numbers
ancestors of Edward s Norman mother, in our Island were built. All the older

Emma, whose favourite abode was rather and more renowned English churches,
Fecamp than Rouen. At Fecamp, too, erected by Dunstan and the kings of the
a huge minster threw its broad shadow over house of Alfred, as well as the minsters
a famous monastery and a royal palace. of a yet older period, were small and

Many a time, during his long exile in mean in comparison with this new marvel
Normandy, must Edward have visited of ecclesiastical architecture, which arose at

Fecamp, and to reproduce Fecamp on a the bidding of the Anglo-Saxon Edward

grander or more lordly scale was evidently on the banks of the broad silvery Thames,
enough in his mind when he planned just outside wealthy and prosperous
the elaborate and stately building hard London.
by his new abbey of Westminster the It was a cruciform church the first of
restored abbey of St. Peter of Thorney. that peculiar shape, it is said, seen in
As several of the Norman dukes, his England and it became the model from
ancestors, arranged that their last sleeping- which all churches were now designed an :

places should be in Fecamp abbey, so expression, it has been well said, of the
Edward planned his tomb in Westminster, increasing which the idea of the
hold
and almost his last words directed that he Crucifixion had laid on the imagination of
should rest there. The wish to unite in Europe in the tenth century. It was built
one group of buildings the church, the upon strong foundations of large square
ideal home of prayer, and the ideal tomb ;
blocks of grey stone. At the east end, which
the monastery, which displayed the ideal was comparatively short, was an apse con
life of men on earth and the king s palace, Over the choir
; taining the high altar.
the seat of government, was by no means rose a central tower, crowned with a cupola-
peculiar to the saint-king or his Norman of wood and lead. The transepts stood out
fathers. We find it
reproduced often not ;
north and south. The stones were richly
where Dunfermline palace
ably in Scotland, sculptured, and the windows, not of any
and Dunfermline abbey grew up alongside great size, were filled with stained glass. To
each other and in the abbey of Holyrood,
;
the west stretched the long nave, with its
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1065.

two ranges of vast arches resting seemingly May hold their secret chapter ;

on huge columnar piers like those which Refectory and dormitory

And the offices in the tower."
still remain with us in the abbeys of
Gloucester and of Tewkesbury. Two Of all this huge and splendid first

smaller towers for the reception of the structure but little now remains ;
it has
bells apparently crowned the west end. almost entirely vanished, having given
Something of this kind we still see at place to another and yet more splendid
Gloucester these smaller minster. Possibly one vast dark arch
"

Tewkesbury : at

towers, they ever existed, have, long

if in the southern transept, certainly the

disappeared. The roof was covered with sub-structures of the dormitory with their
lead. huge pillars, the massive low-browed
The following description of the West passage, leading from, the great cloister
minster abbey of Edward the Confessor, to Little Yard, and some portions
Dean s

penned by the author of the

"

Estoire de of the refectory and of the infirmary

Saint ^Edward," dedicated to Alianore, chapel, remain as specimens of the work
queen of Henry III., is no doubt strictly which astonished the last age of the Anglo-
accurate. The writer was evidently one Saxon and the age of the Norman first
*
who knew and loved the abbey well, and monarchy."
be well in this place
It will

had seen it and studied its details before it to describe briefly how the great work of
was destroyed to make room for Henry the Edward the Confessor came to disappear.
Third s new and even statelier church. He The destruction of the glorious abbey
was not improbably a monk of the West of the saint-king, and the consequent loss
minster monastery. of all its undying memories of Edward,
of Harold, and the Conqueror, happened
Now he (Edward) laid the foundations of the in this wise. King Henry III., on the
church
death of his father, John Lackland, in 1216,
With large square blocks of grey stone.
Its foundations are deep ;
had been crowned somewhat hurriedly in
The front towards the east he makes round, the Norman abbey of Gloucester crowned,
The stones are very strong and hard.
the story of the reign tells us, with a chaplet
In the centre rises a tower,
And two at the western front. or garland in lieu of the crown, probably
And fine and large bells he hangs there, because the crown had been lately lost
The pillars and entablature
Are and within
rich without ;
by his father John, in the waters of the
At the bases and capitals Wash. Four years later it was thought
The work rises grand and royal ;
well to repeat the solemn ceremony in
Sculptured are the stones
And storied the windows the national sanctuary of St. Peter s
;

All are made with skill abbey of Westminster. The day before
Of a good and loyal workmanship
his second coronation, the young king
And when he finished the work,
With lead the church completely he laid the foundation of a Lady Chapel at
covers,
He makes there a cloister, a chapter-house in the east end of the Confessor s pile. This
front,
Towards the and round, *
east, vaulted Dean Stanley :
"

Memorials of Westminster
Where his ordained ministers
Abbey."
1245- ]
DEMOLITION BY HENRY III. 77

new and strange development of Christian his second son was called Edmund, after

ity ;
this homage to, and which, alas ! soon the other royal Anglo-Saxon saint. In

passed into the adoration of the Virgin memory of the Confessor he finally deter
Mother of our Lord, was a characteristic mined new and splendid church,
to erect a
feature of the teaching of the early years on the the abbey which contained
site of

of the thirteenth century. As years passed the sacred remains of the object of his

on, king Henry watched the progress of veneration. The new minster should

THE DARK CLOISTER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, SHOWING EARLY NORMAN WORK.

his new work the Lady Chapel. The possess as its hallowed centre Edward
palace of Westminster was his favourite the Confessor s shrine.
residence. He loved to think he was the It was in the year 1245, not quite two
direct descendant of the great Alfred, and centuries after the consecration of the
his ancestor Edward the Confessor was the first mighty abbey, that the strange work
favourite object of his imitation. He was of demolition began, Edward s own original
the first of the Norman-descended kings abbey being literally torn down, as a
who called his sons by the ancient Anglo- building of no worth at all. The central
Saxon names. His firstborn he named tower, the transepts, the cloisters, the
Edward, after the adored Confessor, while chapter-house, all disappeared ;
and in
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1065.

place of the great Norman church, many church, the crowning work of the saint-
of the features of which we can reproduce king s life. King Edward s strength was fast
when we look on the nave of Gloucester failing strange dreams and awful por
;

and its partly veiled choir, arose the present tents, say the stories which grew up after
Westminster Abbey, "

the most lovely and his death, had warned him that the end

lovable thing in But it

Christendom." was near. Weak and ailing though he
was a new minster altogether, of which was, he made a last effort to preside over

St. Edward the Confessor became really the the solemn assembly of the nation, and on

patron saint : St. Peter himself was almost Christmas Day, and the following 26th and

forgotten, and since that day of demolition 2yth of December, the king was seen
and of reconstructions few have cared to among his thanes and prelates, in his royal
remember in connection with the abbey magnificence, and wearing his golden
the name of the chief of the Apostles, crown. The ceremony of consecration
in whose honour it was built. The reign was fixed for the day following, December
of Henry III. dragged out its long, slow 28th, but when the morning of the
length, but although much was done, and- consecration dawned, the king was unable
before the king s death a glorious pile to rise from his bed. The excitement and
again occupied the site of the old abbey, exertion of the three previous days had
the long reign closed before Westminster exhausted his little remaining strength,
Abbey was completed. Indeed, it has never and the solemn rites were performed only in
been completed. What we see now at the the presence of the queen, the lady Edith,
west end of the mighty church, the last five who represented in the abbey the dying
bays of the long nave, was the work of Edward. When the rite was over, the
Henry s son, king Edward I.
king, lying in the adjacent palace, heard
the account of the august ceremony in
But in this story of the building and silence ;
and then, so says one of his
rebuilding of the glorious abbey so loved chroniclers, laid his wearied head on the
of Englishmen, we have run on long years consummatum
pillow, as to say, "

if esf"

beyond the period we are engaged with, (it is finished).

and must return again to the days of The sickness in intensity
grew during
Edward the Confessor. There is a strange the next five days speech failed him, and
;

pathos in the scene which presented itself the anxious bystanders thought the end
in the palace of king
Edward, when the was close at hand. It was a moment of
great minster which had engaged his intense anxiety for England. London was
thoughts and hopes for so long, was at thronged just then by all the leading men
lastready to be consecrated. It was the and their followers, who had come up
Christmas feast of the year 1065, when all to attend the Witan, and at their king s
the work of the West-Minster was
ready request to witness the hallowing of the
for dedication. The Witanof England great abbey. They had met, and had held
was summoned to London, to be present
together brief counsel, and had witnessed
at the solemn
hallowing of the mighty the solemn rites which dedicated the abbey
 io66.] EDWARD S DYING VISION. 79

to God ;
but alas ! their master had him man he sat up in his bed, the support
;

selfbeen absent from the ceremony, and ing arms of his faithful friend Robert the
they now waited hour after hour for Staller around him. The moment was
the news of his death.
awful Every indeed a solemn one. Words were about
moment was precious, for England was to be uttered
by a dying king deeply loved
threatened with two formidable invasions and venerated by his subjects, who was
by Harold Hardrada, the last Viking regarded by those about him, and by
chief,from the north, and by William, the people at large, as one who lived
duke of the Normans, the most brilliant nearer God and the unseen world than
and the ablest chief in Christendom, from did ordinary mortals. Hastily a few more
the south. of the chosen friends and counsellors from
Within the palace, in the royal bed the ante-chamber were summoned to the

chamber, we read of three great men watch royal bed-chamber. Their names, unfor
ing by the bedside of the dying Edward, tunately, have not been preserved it ;

and with them the queen Edith. They would have been of strange interest to
were Harold, earl of Wessex, Edith s know which of the Anglo-Saxon thanes
brother ; Robert, a Norman who filled the and prelates were bidden to that solemn
high office of Staller, or master of the horse ;
communication about to be made. These
and Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury. gathered round the bed, and with the
Of a sudden the king, who had been lying renewed strength which had been given
fortwo days speechless, was heard to pray. him, in a voice audible to the group of
The little group of watchers caught the bystanders, king Edward told his dream.
purport of the prayer it was that strength Many said the Confessor,
"

; years ago,"
u
might come to him to enable him to repeat when I was a boy in Normandy, I knew
an awful vision, which in his long slumber two monks most holy men they were,
:

he had seen. If the vision were from

"

very dear friends to me. long time has A

heaven," murmured the king, "grant me passed since these two dear friends have

strength to utter it if the dream were passed from In

;
all earthly cares. my late
but the phantom of a sick man s brain, let deep slumber, I have seen them once more.
*
me be mute." God sent them again to me, to speak to
Strength seemed to come to the dying me in His most holy name. Know, said

they to me, that they who hold the

* This vivid and
startling story of the last highest place in thy realm of England, the
moments of Edward does not stand, it must be
earls, the bishops, and the abbots, the men
remembered, on the same level with the other
legendary stories in connection with the Confessor
in holy orders of every rank, are not
which have obtained so wide a currency ; we shall what they seem to be in the eyes of men.
come speak of them presently.
to The authority
for the death-bed scene rests
In the eyes of God they are but ministers
on the almost con
temporary prose life written for queen Edith very of the Evil One. Therefore hath God
soon after the event took place, and the details and
put a curse upon the land, hath
came to him, the writer unobtrusively tells us, from
tye-witnesses of the scene in the palace of West given thy land over into the hand of the
minsterprobably from Edith the queen herself. enemy. Within a year and a day from
8o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

thy departure, shall fiends wander through

its trunk ;
when be carried away
it shall

the whole country and shall waste it from for the space of three furlongs from its

one end to the other with fire and sword and root when of itself, without human aid,
;

Then them as follows: shall join itself again to its trunk, and
robbery. I spoke to it

1
1 would wish to tell of these things, which shall blossom and bear fruit once more.

by God s permission will befall my people Then, and not till then, shall a cessation
*
repentance will follow, and of these great woes come to pass/ "

perhaps

DEATH OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

God have mercy on them. He had

will The king said no more Harold, Robert,;

compassion on the men of Nineveh, when and the queen, with the others who had
they repented after hearing the divine been summoned to his bedside, stood awe
message which spoke of coming judgment. struck and mute. Only the archbishop
No, they said, never repent
they will ; Stigand remained undismayed at the
neither shall God s pity fall upon them. dread prophecy, and at the wholesale
Then, said I, what shall be the time or denunciation of the chief men, the earls,
the manner in which we may look for and prelates, and clergy. He bent over
an end to this threatened punishment? and whispered to Harold not to heed, for

They replied, In that day when a green * Prof. Freeman s free

rendering has been
tree shall be cut away from the midst of
generally followed in the above.
io66.] THE CONFESSOR S DEATH. 81

the words were only the utterances of did in the early years which followed the
an old man worn with age and weakened slaughter of Hastings, when the miseries
by sickness (submurmurat m
aiiran Ducts which ensued upon the Norman Conquest

^I tlCIVJHT
,-, it
lk.HtM.OS
r ,
fci
/
-1 "

CIWWlCTi-f T&f IfUUs. pOHVHT.

JL -^ *"{

TM- PITIT n?w ili*xrnr Lw i^tcritj

MCC tntcitnccm .

PAGE FROM THE "

PSYCHOMACHIA "

OF AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS, DESCRIBING

THE SUBJECTION OF THE VICES BY THE VIRTUES.
(From an English MS. of the iith century?)

scnio confectum et morbo, quid diceret were crushing England adds a few words
nescire). But the writer who so graphic- descriptive of queen Edith s feelings, and
describes the scenes, the details the thoughts of some
ally of among the bystanders
which, it has been suggested, were supplied who had listened to the terrible denuncia-
hirn by queen Edith from the sceptical
herself writing as he tion. They, different
82 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

worldly-minded Stigand, were only too

selfish thought was to secure for his soul

well aware of the sins of England, and at the moment of its departure the prayers
Let my death be at once
"

the carelessness of some among the chief of the faithful.

published everywhere," he said, that all

"

shepherds.
Theprophecy of the dying king was
" "

the faithful may at once call on the mercy

undeniably a remarkable one, and was of Almighty God for me, a sinner." Of
most strangely and accurately fulfilled. It his queen Edith, who stood weeping at
must not be forgotten that the biographer the foot of the bed, he spoke with the
of Edward, who tells the story, wrote in utmost tenderness and love. God," he
"

the early days of the Conqueror. Writing told them, would reward her for her
"

good deeds in this world and in the next."

"

as he did a very few years after "Hastings

and the Conquest, he can well be imagined Harold and Stigand, the archbishop, are
as representing the saint-king to have represented by the writer as asking Edward
uttered prophetic words respecting that to name his successor on the throne.* In
fatal Conquest, and the subsequent woes reply to their question the king stretched
which came upon the Anglo-Saxon people. out his hand towards Harold with the
But he could not himself thus have fore words "To Harold, my brother,
thee,
told events which did not take place for I commit my Before receiving
kingdom."

more than sixty years after this Life of the last communion at the hands of
Edward was composed. For the fulfilment Stigand, he murmured in accents all could

of the curious prophetic utterance is

hear,
"

Fear not ;
I shall not die, but by

usuallyexplained as follows The tree : the grace of God I shall quickly rise
removed from the root for the space of again well and strong." (Ne timeas, non
three furlongs signifies the crown trans mortar modo, sect bene convalescam, pro-
ferred from the regular line of Cerdic pitiante Deo). And when shortly afterwards
and Alfred during the three reigns of the saint-king had breathed his last, men
Harold, the Conqueror, and Rufus. The saw as it were stamped on the face of the
tree returned to the root when Henry dead man the glory of a soul which had
Beauclerc married Edith (Matilda), the passed at once into the presence of God,
grand-daughter of Edgar Atheling, the and was satisfied.

descendant of Edmund Ironside ;

it

blossomed at the birth of Henry s daughter, Edward the Confessor died on the eve
the empress Maud ;
and bore fruit when of the Epiphany, January 5th, 1066. That
Henry II. (Plantagenet) was born in 1133. same night the body was prepared for
The king still lived, and during the little burial on the morrow, in his newly con

span of life yet left to him on that Thurs secrated abbey of St. Peter s. It seems
day, the 5th of January, 1066, his speech
continued clear, and his intellectual powers * This is a
point which bears upon the trust-

active. Death had no terrors for him. %vorthiness of the author of the "

Life," for when

he wrote Harold was dead, and Harold s bitterest
He gave some directions as to his burial
foe and slayer, king William the Conqueror, was
in his abbey of Westminster, and his
only all-powerful in England.
io66.]
THE CONFESSOR S BURIAL.
though the haste was unseemly.
at first as stretched-out fingers more transparent
But the danger to the country was urgent: than ever.
there was not one moment to lose. The Wehave a contemporary representation
morrow the Epiphany must see the of some of these scenes in the Bayeux
burial of Edward and the coronation of tapestry. This wonderful tapestry, which
Harold Tostig and Harold Hardrada
;
for so many travellers in Normandy have
were threatening England on the north, seen and admired in the public library at
and the mighty duke of Normandy on Bayeux, where it is stretched out round
the south. Never did the land so urgently the room under glass, is generally accepted
need a strong wearer of the crown. Gloomy now by the more scholarly critics as a
indeed was the cloud which hung over piece of contemporary work, and is used
the doomed island, on that eve of the by writers on the period of Edward
Epiphany in 1066, when king Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror

expired. With haste, but with all

all as one of the highest authorities. The
reverence, the body of the royal saint favourite tradition is repeated by Sir
was prepared for his tomb arrayed in ;
Francis Palgrave.* The tapestry which
"

his kingly robes, the crown upon his bears record of her husband s (William the

head, a golden crucifix suspended by a Conqueror s) achievements, is a unique

chain of gold about his neck, the pilgrim s memorial both of- his prowess and her

THE NORMANS BUILDING THEIR CAMP AT HASTINGS.

(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)

"ing
on his hand, the king lay ready for (Matilda s) industry ;
and the needles plied
lis last home. Edward looked, says his by herself and her damsels have assisted

Chronicler, in death as he had looked in as much as the historian s pen in com

ife he seemed even to smile, his long
:
memorating his victories."

vhite beard seemed whiter, and the thin, *"

Normandy and England."
84 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

It was, no doubt, worked in England. the period when the scenes it depicts were
The word embroidered on one of its being acted, and that the designer of the
divisions, Hasting-ccastra, is decisive, as tapestry had been an eye-witness of some
the peculiar form is nowhere of the scenes himself, and had received his
"

ceastra
"

<

to be found out of England, and in Eng information of others from persons who
land we know that a famous school for had taken part in them. Every anti
these beautiful embroideries had long quarian detail relating to the costumes,
existed. It seems, from various local the armour of the fighting men, and of

peculiarities, that it is now, as then, in the horses, is correct. The soldiers of

itsown home,aycux; having been worked both armies are men-at-arms of the eleventh
for bishop Odo of Bayeux, the Conqueror s century, and nothing else. Every man,
half-brother, who out of the spoils of too, is
represented bearded, moustached,
England received the earldom of Kent. or close-shaven, according to his age and
It was probably a gift from the great nation. The very standard of Harold
warrior-bishop as an ornament to his own the famous Wessex dragon is depicted.
newly-built cathedral of Bayeux. There The utter absence of horses in the English
is no reason to doubt the
accuracy of the army, except as a means for reaching or
ancient tradition which assigns the
tapestry leaving the field, is evidently the thought
to queen Matilda.
Indeed, so vast and of an artist of the day.
important a work could only be carried It is therefore of great interest to find
out in such a school of needlework as that the four eminent personages described
no doubt existed in the contem-
under her care memoir
porary
and superin of Edward the I
tendence.
Confessor, writ
It has been ten for the
suggested that widowed queen, i
the tapestry is
are depicted in I
unfinished,and the tapestry in I
was designed to
the picture of 1
go on to the the king s death I
coronation of
viz. Harold, 1
William the
Stigand, Robert 3
Conqueror, and the Staller, and I
that its imper
queen Edith. I
fect state is
In that which I
owing to Ma- DEATH OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
represents the I
tilda s death in (From the Bayeux Tapestrv.)
large and ela- j
1083. There
borately orna-
is, however, no doubt but that this great mented hcuhts or coffin
piece of beautiful embroidery belongs to the Confessor in the bunaf scene, a"nd
io66.] THE CONFESSOR AFTER DEATH.
the rough but no doubt accurate sketch Confessor. Disaster upon disaster ruin,
of the original abbey of St. Peter s, confiscation, calamity, exile followed in

fARD THE CONFESSOR BORNE TO WEST]

(Front the Bayerix Tapestry.)

Westminster, we possess, doubtless, the the wake of the Norman Conquest, but
exact representation of the royal coffin in spite of all, the reputation of the dead
of the saint-king, and the abbey he Edward the last of the Anglo-Saxon
built and which he loved so well, just monarchs became more and more pre
as they appeared to the artist who designed cious among the conquered people. The
the tapestry. The historical and anti tradition of his extraordinary sanctity was
quarian value of such pictures cannot be prized also among the Norman
conquerors,
estimated too highly. The whole story, as well as the Anglo-Saxon race.
among
accurate though it be, is evidently told The reputed miracles at his tomb belong
by a Norman artist, and that Norman to the very first years of William s reign.
artist evidently closely connected with Quickly the legendary stories belonging
Bayeux and its semi-royal bishop Odo.* to his on earth began to be told. So
life

popular were these stories, that they soon

With wonderful rapidity, considering passed into the literature of the time.
the tremendous change which passed over The earliest collected edition of these
England within a few months of the king s legends of the Confessor that we possess
passing away, and which, it might have was made by Osbern, prior of Westminster.
been expected, would have thrown a veil These were somewhat developed by yElred
of forgetfulness over the memory of Anglo- (or Ethelred), a monk and afterwards abbot
Saxon Edward, grew the fame of the of Rivaulx. yElred was born at Hexham
* in 1109, forty-three years after king
Compare Freeman :
"

Norman Conquest," vol.

iii., Appendix, notes A and B on the Bayeux Tapestry. Edward s death, and spent his youth with
86 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

the in his was so

Henry, son of king David of Scotland. saint-king thoughts
Both these works were put out in the first constantly in the habit of dwelling upon
in the midst
half of the twelfth century, in less than religious matters, that even
a century after the saint-king s death. of a royal banquet he would forget the
^Elred s "Life of the Confessor" must present and dwell upon the themes
which
have been a very popular work, for there had so special an attraction for him. The
are numerous manuscripts of it existing latter part of the story belongs to the

in various libraries. Two, perhaps, of its realm of fiction. It tells how a special
best-known stories are remarkable for embassy was sent to Asia to verify the
their singularity and the circumstantial the royal vision. This was most
facts of

nature of their details, and were probably probably a subsequent addition to the
based originally on some events which original narrative.
actually took place. They deserve to The second of these legendary stories
be related, firstly, because they throw is an illustration of Edward s sympathy
light upon the character of Edward, with the poor of the people, and has for
and, secondly, on account of the popular its scene the church of St. John atClavering,

testimony they bear to the way in which where, on the occasion of the dedication
the king was remembered by the people of
ceremony, the king wishing to relieve a
England. They evidently thought of Ed beggar-man who asked an alms, and having
ward as one who, while in entire
sympathy no gold or silver available, gives the
with the common folk, was yet in closer suppliant a costly ring he was wearing.
communion with the spirit world than how subsequently
The story goes on to say
ordinary men. the ring was brought back to Edward by
The first of these belongs to some period an English pilgrim from the Holy Land,
in the last years of his The king with a message from St. John, who in the
reign.
was present at a state Easter
banquet at form of a beggar had asked the alms at
Winchester. The great thanes and pre
Clavering and to whom Edward had given
lates were sitting round the festal board. the ring. The purport of the message
Regardless of his guests, buried in his own from the saint in glory to king Edward
thoughts, Edward was noticed to smile. was, that as a reward for his generous,
Later in the day, in his private chaste life, he should within six months
chamber,
earl Harold and two ecclesiastics admitted be with him in Paradise. As time went
to his confidence, ventured to ask their on the stories of the supernatural connected
lord the reason why he smiled to himself with this Anglo-Saxon monarch multiplied.
at the banquet. He told them he had In the long poem dedicated to queen
seen, as though in a vision, the seven Alianore about 1245, they form the most
sleepers of Ephesus, and, as he was look important part of the narrative.
ing, they turned in their slumber from the The first
monument erected was probably
right hand to the left. So far, the story was very plain, for the months which followed
probably a true memory of something that the death were indeed troublous ones. We
had actually happened. It shows us how read of the Conqueror, after the battle of
11631245] THE CONFESSOR AFTER DEATH.
Hastings and the occupation of London, coveted honour could not be obtained
presenting two palls to be hung over the from Rome, where famous members of the
grave of his sainted kinsman. William, Anglo-Saxon church were not regarded
however, soon erected a more stately with peculiar favour. In the year 1161,
monument, which he decorated with however, the claims of Edward the Con
precious metals. Very soon reports of fessor to be recognised as a glorified saint

miracles worked at Edward s tomb were by western Christendom were at length

noised abroad. Blind men were said there acknowledged by Pope Alexander III. The
to receive their sight, the sick were healed, English advocates, both in church and
the sorrowing received comfort. state, of the merits of the holy Anglo-

Six-and-thirty years after the first inter Saxon sovereign, were too powerful this
ment the rest of the holy dead was dis time to be ignored. The archbishop-elect
turbed : men wished to look once more of Canterbury was Thomas a Becket, whose
upon the face of thewonder-working praise as a zealous and mighty ecclesiastic

saint. The coffin was exposed and opened was already in all the churches ;
and the
in the presence of abbot Crispin of West king of England was Henry II., the most

minster, and the bishop of

of Gundulf, powerful sovereign of his time, whose vast
Rochester. The story of the opening of dominions stretched from Scotland to the
the coffin relates how a sweet savour filled Pyrenees.
the great minster church, and how as the In the year 1 163 another and yet grander
garments of the grave were unwrapped, shrine for St. Edward was prepared by
the body lay as in sleep, the skin was Henry II., the Plantagenet king.Henry II.
still white and rosy as in life, the limbs and the archbishop assisted in lifting the

were still flexible. Bishop Gundulf tried wonder-working body into its new and
in vain to pluck a hair from the dead stately resting-place. The royal robes

king s snowy beard, to keep as a precious which lay around the corpse were removed,
relic. After gazing a while, the bishop and became precious vestments for the
and abbot once more reverently covered holiest of the sanctuary.
rites The
the body, and the tomb was closed. This anniversary of that solemn translation is

was in the year 1102. still

preserved in the calendar of the
Time passed on thirty-eight years
; Church of England.
elapsed the fame of the Confessor grew.
;
Yet further honours, however, awaited
Osbern, prior of Westminster, the well- the memory of Edward the Confessor.
known writer of Edward s life, and the The rebuilding of Westminster abbey by
chronicler of the many legendary stories Henry III. has already been described. In
which had grown up round his memory, the centre of that matchless pile the king
endeavoured to procure from Pope Inno resolved that a shrine of hitherto un
cent II., in A.D. 1140, the decree which dreamed-of magnificence should be hence
should formally canonise the saintly English forth the receptacle of the remains of the

king, and thus enrol him in the golden founder of the great church. No pains
book of western Catholicism. But the or cost were spared to render the new
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11631245.

sanctuary a fitting resting-place
whose honour
saint in
great Anglo-Saxon
the new abbey of Westminster was built
and adorned. The most skilful craftsmen
were brought from Italy, and the most
for the new and splendid home. The most illus
trious men in church and state among
them two kings and two kings sons
helped to lift the coffin of Edward into
the stately shrine which was reared in the

precious materials were used for the gor centre of the royal English abbey. Suc
geous shrine though the materials used
; ceeding kings notably Edward I. and
Edward II. still further enriched with
costly gifts this marvellous shrine of the
Confessor.
But the highest honour was yet to
come. To
be laid near the holy body
was deemed the highest privilege by
successive sovereigns of the house of

England. To this feeling is

owing that
unique group of kings and queens, who to
this day keep watch and ward around the

sepulchre of the last Anglo-Saxon sovereign

of Cerdic s house. Close to him lie the
remains of Edith his queen, king Harold s
sister, and a yet more famous Edith, usually
known as Matilda, queen of Henry Beauclerc,
the lineal descendant ofAlfred. In the circle
of royal tombs around the shrine sleep
Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III.,
Richard II. and Henry V. the queens ;

Eleanor, Philippa, and Katherine, Anne,

the wife of Richard II., and Anne, the
THE DARK CLOISTER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY,
SHOWING NORMAN ARCH.
queen of Richard III. and yet another ;

queen of the same name, Anne of Cleves ;

were costly and exceeding precious, we and besides these a number of royal and
read that the workmanship exceeded even distinguished personages more or less

the materials used. The basement of the famous in English history. Never had
shrine was of marble and mosaic work, the an earthly sovereign such a court as the
superstructure was of wood overlaid by dead Confessor has gathered round him
cunning goldsmith s work. The images in his stately abbey.

which filled the niches of this marvellous When in the royal abbey of West

piece of work were encrusted with gems, minster a stranger for the first time enters
many of them exceedingly precious. It what is termed the "

Chapel of the Kings,"

was finished in the year 1209, and once he is time awe-stricken at standing
for a

more the sacred body was translated to its in the presence-chamber of the
mighty
 1269.]
dead for around him, beneath those
;
pon
derous monuments, sleep the kings and
queens of England whose names have
been with him since his child-days as
household words." There lies Edward
"
SHRINE OF THE CONFESSOR.
89
memorials of her own greatest sons and
The feeling of sorrow and
daughters.
regret deepens, at the sight of the pathetic
wreck of the shrine raised high above the

tombs of the sovereigns of England the ;

the First, perhaps the greatest of English shrine which was the centre of all this
monarchs, and by his side the creator of faded regal splendour, which still
in
the glorious abbey, Henry III. There reposes the coffin of the holy king by
sleeps the conqueror of Cressy, and at a whom the mighty abbey was built, the

SHRINE OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

little distance from him the conqueror once adored saint of the English people,
of Agincourt :
by the side of one of the Edward the Confessor.
warrior-kings is the hapless murdered The story of the ruined shrine is as
Richard II. In the charmed circle, hard follows. From the year 1269, when
by the kings, rest eight of the English Henry III. replaced the body in the
queens, each in her day and time the new completed shrine, for some 269-270
centre of the most brilliant court of years the remains of the saint-king were
Christendom. As the eye wanders over untouched. Succeeding kings, however,
this storied chapel of the great dead, with kept on beautifying and enriching with
the scarred and broken tombs, huge and costly gifts the stately and superb tomb r

grey in the dim light, the sad thought the object of so much veneration. But in
comes up unbidden, how poorly, after all, the storm which accompanied the dissolu
has our England cared for these stately tion and plundering of the monasteries.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1538, 1685.

the rich environment of Edward s sanc choir of the abbey, having heard of the
fracture in the lid of the coffin, went and
tuary naturally excited the cupidity of king
secretly put his hand through the aper
Henry VIII. and his ministers. Every
of value was plundered the ture, and, turning the bones which he
thing ;

outer of the work of felt there, drew out a crucifix, richly

part Henry III.,

which held the coffin of the saint, was adorned and enamelled, and a gold chain
torn down the coffin itself of very ancient workmanship. This he
ruthlessly ;

was re-interred another part of the

in presented to king James II. The precious

abbey; the lower part of the shrine, of relicwas apparently stolen from the king
marble and mosaic, sadly mutilated and in his hurried flight from England. The
defaced, was allowed to remain. This act same Charles Taylor relates how at the
of sacrilege seems to have been carried time when he took the cross and chain out
out in the year 1538. Queen Mary drew the head of the king
of the coffin, he

determined to restore the body of to the hole and viewed it. It was, he

Edward to its old place. The ruined said, very sound and firm, with something
shrine was repaired, so far as the taste of in the nature of a gold coronet sur
the age would allow, and in the words of rounding the temples there was also
;

Feckenham, Mary newly-appointed abbot

s in the coffin white linen and gold-
of Westminster, "the body of the most flowered silk, but the least stress put
holy king Edward
though the heretics thereto showed that it was
well-nigh
had power on that wherein the body was perished. Patrick, prebendary of West
enclosed, yet on that sacred body they had minster, in his autobiography (quoted by
no power was found and restored to its dean Stanley) apparently refers to the
ancient sepulture" on March 2oth, 1557. same when he
fracture in the coffin-lid,
The marks of this hasty restoration are still writes how some workmen employed in
visible in the broken mosaic and displaced the abbey "

chanced to have a look at the

cornice of the base. All the upper part tomb of Edward the Confessor, that they
had been broken when the gold and gems could see the shroud in which his body
were plundered and the coffin removed. A was wrapped, which was mixed coloured
new wooden canopy was placed over it ; silk, very frail."
Taylor also relates
"

how
this
canopy has never been finished. his Majesty (James II.) was pleased, soon
Probably Feckenham intended it to be after the discovery (above related), to send
overlaid with gold, and enriched with to the abbey and order the old coffin to be
gems ;
but Mary s death stopped the work, enclosed in a new one, of an extraordinary
and just as Feckenham left it, it remains strength, each plank being two inches thick
to this day. and clamped together with large iron

Shortly after the coronation of James II. wedges."

in 1685, a rafter through the open ordered
fell It is apparently this outer coffin,
woodwork, and broke the coffin. One to be made by James, that is now visible
Charles Taylor, who belonged to the in the shrine.
 CHAPTER XXV.
ROME.

Vague Character of the Papal Supremacy in Anglo-Saxon Times Terrible Corruption of the Papacy
Deposition of Benedict IX. by the Sutri Council Election of Leo IX. Influence of Hildebrand
on the new Pope Purification of the Papacy Accession of Hildebrand as Gregory VII. His
Idea of a Ruling Papacy His seeming Failure, but real Success His Warfare with Simony in
the Church Suppression of Marriage among the Clergy Cruelty of the Edict Its Political
Success.

the Anglo-Saxon period, as now and again presents of money were

we have seen, the influence of the Roman
DURING
Roman
sent to the see ;
but these gifts
pontiff on the internal affairs were rather destined for the assistance of
of the Church of England had been very English pilgrims to the apostolic city, than
slight. ^ Bishop Wilfrid of York in 678 and intended for the Pope in person. Indeed,
again in 704 formally appealed to Rome, in the connection between England and Italy
order to bring about his reinstatement in was mainly kept up by the constant flow
a diocese from which he had been expelled. of pilgrims, often of the highest rank, from
But in the case of the first appeal the decision our island to the sacred shrines of Rome.
of the Roman bishop was contemptuously This popular habit of pilgrimage was ever
ignored and in the second the partial re
;
a marked feature, in all times, of the
instatement of Wilfrid was due rather to Anglo-Saxon race.
the policy and kindly feeling of archbishop But anything like an acknowledgment
Theodore, than to any formal recognition of the right of the Pope to interfere in
of the right of Rome to interfere in the the affairs of the church, was absolutely
government of the church in England. unknown in Anglo-Saxon England. The
We certainly hear of no more of such rare apparent exceptions themselves bring

appeals. this out with conspicuous clearness.

A vague recognition of the dignity Only twice have we any mention of
of Rome as the
"

apostolic
"

see no doubt legates, with an official mandate from

existed, principally manifested by the Rome, appearing on English shores. The
first and really solitary formal appearance
customary reception on the part of the
Anglo-Saxon archbishops of a pall from of Roman legates among the English,
the hands of the Roman prelate. This was king Offa of Mercia,
in the days of

recognition of a vague supremacy seems when the high-handed Mercian king ad

to have been rarely, if ever, refused. mitted these foreign delegates to the
There was also on the part of the council of Cealchythe in 786-787, and
Anglo - Saxon monarchs, a deferential accepted this legatine interference to
friendship with the bishop of Rome, and enable him to found the archbishopric of
92 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [8881046.

Lichfield in his own kingdom of Mercia, centuries by kings and prelates and re
and thus to maim and partly
to destroy ligious houses in England. Meantime a
the power and influence of Jaenbert, arch brief sketch of Rome and its bishops will

bishop of Canterbury an arrangement help us to understand something of the

The position of Rome as regards England,
in
which only lasted a very few years.
second appearance of legates was at the the period which followed the death of

election of Wulfstan to the see of Wor Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1066. What
cester in 1062, when Edward the Confessor had been happening in Rome during the

CAMALDOU

was king. But their presence on this tenth century and the first half of the
occasion was accidental, and their influence eleventh, gives us a clue to understanding
and authority were scarcely acknowledged. why she made no advance in her ever
The time, however, was at hand when the growing claims for universal obedience,
interference of Rome with the Church of in distant countries like England, during
England became an important factor in that long period, and tells us the reason
its story; and with the Norman Conquest, of the strange silence of her pontiffs.
and under the Norman kings, there will
be much to state concerning the claims of The expiration of the dynasty of
Rome to interfere in ecclesiastical matters Charlemagne and the breaking up of
final

claims which were acknowledged for his empire, may be roughly dated from the
 81046.] CORRUPTION OF THE PAPACY. 93

year 888, when king Alfred was reigning self-appointed. A well-filled purse pur
in England. A period of anarchy, both chased one papal abdication ;
the promise
in the empire and in the papacy, then set of a fair bride another. One of these holy
in. The
following striking words sum up fathers pillaged the
treasury, fled with the
the degradation of the popes during the returned to
spoil, Rome, ejected his sub
century and a half which followed the stitute, and mutilated him in a manner too

VALLOMBROSA.

extinction of the Carlovingian dynasty. revolting for description. In one page of

The writer is
speaking of the popes who, this dismal history we read of the dis
during the age which then darkened upon interred corpse of a former pope brought
Rome and Italy, ascended the apostolic before his successor to receive a retrospec
throne. "

Two were murdered ;

five were tive sentence of deposition and in the
;

driven into exile ;

four were deposed ;
and next we find the judge himself under
three resigned their hazardous dignity. going the same posthumous condemna
Some of these vicars of Christ were raised tion, though without the same filthy
to that awful pre-eminence by arms, and ceremonial. Of these heirs of St. Peter,
some by money. Two received it from one entered on his infallibility before his
the hands of princely courtesans. One was eighteenth year, and one before he had
94 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [999 1046.

seen his twelfth summer. One again took popes of the tenth century lived rather
to himself a coadjutor, that he might like monsters or like wild beasts than like
*
command in person such legions as Rome bishops."

then sent into the field. Another, Judas- And in this long and shadowy line of
like, agreed for certain pieces of silver to Roman pontiffs, of whom one after the
recognise the patriarch of Constantinople other unnoticed into his dignity
"

steals

as universal bishop. All sacred things and departs from it unregarded, or rather
had become venal. Crime and debauchery is suddenly thrust into the throne
by some
held revel at the Vatican ;
while the act of violence, and as suddenly dispossessed
afflicted church, wedded at once to three by means as violent," only a very rare
husbands (such was the language of the instance of a good and great man here and
times, there being three popes, each claim there occurs. Such was Gregory V., who
ing the title, reigning at the same time in during his short pontificate of three years,
Rome), witnessed the celebration of as 996-999, was reputed to be a man of
many rival masses in the metropolis of "

holiness, wisdom, and virtue," but who

*
Christendom." was cut the flower of his age, it
off in

In the language of another writer on is believed

by poison or his successor, ;

this melancholy century and a half,

"

At Gerbert, Silvester II., 999-1003, the most

Rome the centre of Christendom,

itself, eminent prelate of his age, u in learning
the vilest vices of the times of Tiberius or peerless, in piety unimpeachable," who

Caligula fiercely reappeared. It is almost died all too soon, also probably poisoned.
incredible, the extent to which a frightful From this terrible, almost incredible
corruption there prevailed. The annalists degradation, which lasted, it must be
of the Roman church stand remembered, a century and a
aghast before half, from
The Pornocracy or reign of harlots,
fie times of Edward
it. the days of Alfred to
is the terrible name by which a portion the Confessor, at last Rome emerged, and
of it is described most accurately. Dean a very different class of men in succession
Milman s explanation of that terrible "began occupy the papal chair. Bene
to

development is
temperate and brief This dict IX., who closed the
:
seemingly endless
anarchy of Italy led to the degradation of succession of wicked popes distinguished
the papacy the the of for their weakness and
degradation incapacity, and
;

papacy increased the anarchy of Italy. . .

many of them for their infamy, was cited
Europe was resolutely ignorant what to appear before a solemn council of the
strange accidents, caprices, crimes, in church, summoned by
the emperor Henry
trigues, even assassinations, determined the III. end to the awful scandal.
to put an
rise and fall of the supreme pontiff. No The council met at Sutri in 1046, thirty
Protestant colour miles north of
prepossessions this Rome, and was attended by
picture. Even the
learned and scrupulous many prelates. Benedict and two anti-
Mabillon had to confess that most of the
popes were forced to retire. The infamy
* Sir of Benedict IX. was even
James Stephen-. "Essays in Ecclesiastical conspicuous in
Biography. Hildebrand." * Dr. Storrs
Lectures: "Bernard o/Clairvatix."
1046.] RELIGIOUS REVIVAL. 95

the record of infamous bishops of Rome. Gradually the state of anarchy into which
Raised to the lofty but shamefully prosti Europe was plunged after the break-up of
tuted dignity at the age of twelve years, Charlemagne s empire, gave place to a
twice expelled from Rome by the outraged quieter and more settled state of things.
citizens, and driven into exile before the In the south, the Saracenic invaders
fierceloathing and hate of clergy and laity, ceased to terrorise the Mediterranean sea
he at last sold the papacy, and then re board of Spain, France, and Italy. In the
appeared again on the papal throne. It north, the yet more Vikings had
terrible
was to judge and condemn this Benedict spent their strength, and gradually sub
IX. that the Sutri council was summoned mitted to the influence of a civilisation
by the emperor Henry III. Later Italian they had so long harassed, and even
legends describe the shade of the pope threatened to destroy. In Germany and
as afterwards appearing in the form of a in the centre of Europe, the
empire was
bear with the ears of an ass, and as grimly partially re-established, and from the close

replying, when asked why he showed of the tenth century was ruled by em
himself in this horrible form, Because I "

perors of ability and power. In the centre

lived without law or reason, God and of France, the rise of the house of Capet

Peter, whose see I contaminated by my promised more settled and peaceful times ;

vices, decree that I shall bear this image while Normandy and the adjacent terri
of a brute, not of a man." tories on the west and east, under its

Two strangers, Suidger, bishop of Bam- mighty dukes, was growing rapidly into a
berg, and Poppo, bishop of Brixen, under rich and prosperous dominion. The story
the names of Clement II. and Damasus II., of Anglo-Saxon England has been already
filled the papal chair in succession, after related. In many respects, under the
the council of Sutri. They were men of strong kings of the house of Alfred, and
austere life, blameless and holy, but they later under Canute and Edward the Con
both rapidly succumbed to fever induced fessor,England had enjoyed a comparative
by the climate of Rome. Their successor freedom from the universal anarchy and
was the famous Bruno, bishop of Toul, confusion which more or less prevailed on
who, under the title of Leo IX., inau the continent.
gurated a new state of things at Rome. The great religious revival on the con
He was elected to the papacy in the year tinent of Europe began in the monastic

1048, when Edward the Confessor was orders, as before related, in a small re

reigning in England. ligious community founded as early as

This is not the place to discuss at length 912 by Berno, abbot of Beaune, at Cluny
the various causes which seem to have led near Macon in Burgundy, in which a
to the gradual "

Renaissance "

in religion specially austere form of the rule of St.

manifest before the middle of the eleventh Benedict was practised. By the end of
century, one of its most striking effects the twelfth century the congregation of
being, of course, this great change in Cluny, which had started into existence in
the character of the Popes of Rome. 912 with twelve poor monks, at a period
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1048.

when the wildest misrule prevailed and met the monk Hildebrand, at that time

religious influence seemed dying, had de prior of the famous house. This extra

veloped into a mighty confraternity with ordinary man, of whom we must speak
no less than two thousand houses, spread presently with more detail, powerfully
over England and France, Germany, Italy, influenced the Pope-elect. Acting under
and Spain, all closely united to the mother the advice of Hildebrand, Bruno laid aside

monastery in Burgundy. And these were the insignia of the bishop of Rome, and

by no means alone. In the middle of in thehumble garb of a pilgrim, with bare

the eleventh century monasteries may be feetand lowly aspect, entered the Eternal
said again to have become an enormous City and submitted to a re-election on
power in Europe, and from these re the part of the Roman clergy and people.
formed and re-invigorated religious houses From this time forward Hildebrand was
emanated the spirit which inspired the the adviser and minister of Pope Leo IX.
long-degraded papacy with sanctity and and of his successors, till the time came
power, and supplied the men who were when, by universal acclaim, he took his
the instruments of its reformation. own seat on the chair of the chief pontiff,
When Bruno, bishop of Toul, was elected under the world-renowned name of Pope
to the papacy in 1048, he at once inaugu Gregory VII.
rated a new and nobler rule at Rome. The new Pope, Leo IX.,
influence of the
The circumstances under which he took was at once not only in Rome, but all
felt

his seat in the papal chair are remarkable, through western Christendom. For the
and deserve to be related as showing the first time for about a
century and a half,
new spirit which was now to inspire the power of Rome again became a reality.
Romish church government. At the Leo IX. was at once a saint and a wise
nomination of the emperor Henry III., and ruler. He devoted himself with an un
in a German synod, Bruno had been elected.
tiring industry to reform the many abuses
Closely alliedby family ties to the imperial which disgraced and weakened the church.
dynasty, the bishop of Toul was famous far Nor were his ceaseless and successful en
and wide for his holiness of life, his gentle deavours by any means confined to Rome,
ness, and his boundless
charity. He was or even to Italy. Leo IX. "

came forth
no mean scholar, and was especially re to Europe not only with the
power and
nowned as a preacher. On his way from dignity, but with the austere holiness, the
Toul, whose graceful little cathedral travel indefatigable religious activity, the majestic
lers from Paris to Strasburg have often virtue which became the head of Christen
noticed without connecting it with the dom. Wherever he went (and
. . . his
famous prelate Leo IX., the first of the travelsextended over large portions of
great mediaeval popes, Bruno stopped for northern and central Europe), he visited
rest and refreshment at Cluny,
spiritual the most severe of the
clergy or of the
already celebrated as the centre of the monastic orders. Men
already sainted by
fast-growing religious fervour which was popular devotion, at such centres at Clugni
influencing the western world. There he and Vallombrosa, ... all recognised
1048.] REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY. 97

a kindred spirit, and hailed the genuine Leo IX. His immediate successors carried
pontiff."
"

He held a council at Pavia. on faithfully his aims and his work.

He crossed the Alps to Germany, and Victor II., who followed him, was an
held an important council for church equally zealous reformer. Stephen IX.
reform at Rheims in France, and then and Nicholas II., the next occupants of the
presided over a German council of yet Roman see still under the guidance of
greater magnitude at Mainz. With the that Hildebrand of whom we have already

TOMBS OF THE POPES, IN A CRYPT OF ST. PETER S AT ROME.

renovation of the papacy, a new spirit spoken carried on the great task begun
had indeed come over and was inspiring by Leo IX. Alexander II., whom we shall
the western church. hear of as the faithful ally and steady sup
We are not in this history concerned porter of William the Conqueror, was the
with the lives and troubles, with the last of the famous group of papal disciples
various episodes of success and failure, of Hildebrand ; who, when Alexander II.
of the occupants of the so-called chair of died, at last assumed himself the position
St. Peter. It must suffice us simply to of Pope, under the title of Gregory VII.,
chronicle thefact, of the great revival and in 1073. He raised the great office to
enlargement of the papal tradition under and authority hitherto
a pinnacle of glory
* Milman Latin book
"

i. undreamed of even by the most ambitious

:
Christianity." vi., chap.
 98 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1073-

and far-seeing of the long line of occupants of Europe might bow down in shame and
of the Roman see. sorrow at the inscrutable decrees of Heaven
in allowing its vicegerent thus to depart

The idea that something of a supreme from his original brightness, yet they
authority over all other churches some would veil their faces in awe, and wait in
thing of a superior sanctity beyond all trembling patience the solution of that
other sees belonged to the see of Rome, Indeed, that profound scholar
mystery."*

must have been for a long period deeply and copious writer, Cardinal Baronius,
founds a striking argument for the Divine

authority of the Papal church, on the fact

that it continued and still extended, in

spite of such monstrous iniquities, abhorred

of all
men, for generations were en
as
throned at the head of it, staining it, he
admits, with ineffaceable defilements.
But while the fact is conceded that all

this real, though possibly somewhat un

defined general reverence and attachment
to the see of Rome and its pontiffs had
existed for ages, it remains true that the
present position of the papacy (whose real
splendour and power and awful grandeur
only began at this juncture, in the middle
POPE LEO IX.
of the eleventh century) owes a vast debt
(From an Old Print.) to one man of supereminent genius, whose
magnificent conception of the work and
ingrained in the mind of Christendom, office of the holders of the so-called see
and could alone account for the fact of of St. Peter raised the bishops of Rome to
the survival of such veneration for Rome that lofty position in the church and the
and its bishops during the
century and world to which they attained in his ponti
a half of awful degradation and misrule
ficate, and which even after eight centuries

through which it had passed. Immemorial and a half, with certain modifications, they
tradition, carefully by succes
enlarged still
occupy in Roman Catholic countries.
sive generations of Roman bishops and In the earlier part of the eleventh cen
their ministers, connected this
great see tury, Hildebrand, the son of a Tuscan
directly with St. Peter
and his companions; carpenter, was brought in a monastic
up
and no temporary hiding of its Rome
power and house in Mary on the Aventine.
St.
had
surpassing influence, any permanent In the year 1048 we find him occupying
effect on the estimation in which the the important position of prior of the
mother see of western Christendom was
great and rising monastery of Cluny in
generally held.
"

However the churches * Dean Milman.

10481085.} HILDEBRAND (GREGORY VII.). 99

Burgundy. Already thoughtful churchmen care of interests and the dispensation of

saw in the young Cluniac monk the pro blessings and curses, which, by comparison,
mise of future greatness, for he was reputed reduced to inappreciable vanities all the
to have made himself master of all the good and evil of this transitory world . .

knowledge of the times. Over Bruno of . . Before his prophetic eye arose a vast

Toul, known as Pope Leo IX., the restorer theocratic state in which political and re

of papal sanctity and influence, Hildebrand ligious society were to be harmonised, or

obtained, as we have already seen, an rather to be absorbed into each other. At
enormous influence. He accompanied Leo the head of this all-embracing polity the
to Rome, and became his chief minister bishop of Rome was to exert his legitimate

and confidential adviser ;

a position he authority over the kings and rulers of
all

maintained with ever - increasing power the earth."

*
The vastest empires of the
and renown under Leo s successors in the earth might, as had been seen in past ages,

papacy, directing their policy and guiding entirely pass away but the church was as ;

their action, until, at the death of Alex permanent as it was all-embracing. And
ander II. in the year 1073, when William of the church the bishop or Pope of Rome
the Conqueror was firmly established on was the chief minister ;
to the fulfilment of

the English throne, he was called by uni this awful and incomparable office he had
versal acclamation to seat himself in the been called.

papal chair. Any detailed history of his

eventful career does not belong to our pre
sent work ;
but so great was the influence
which he and his successors exercised upon
the Church of England after the Norman
Conquest, that it is necessary to form some
conception of the nature of the spiritual
domination which Hildebrand claimed to
possess, and eventually succeeded to a

large extent in exercising, over all the

western churches, among which England
was reckoned.
The mind of this greatest of the Popes,
the real founder of the rule which they
exercised in the Middle Ages, is, well
POPE GREGORY VII. (HILDEBRAND).
summarised in the following words "He
{From an Old Print.)

[Hildebrand] had, as Pope Gregory VII.,

become the supreme of Christ on
vicar The promulgated by Hilde
"
"

Dictates
earth, the mortal head of an immortal brand at the council of Rome in 1076 as

dynasty, the depositary of a power de

legated yet divine, the viceroy to whom * Sir
James Stephen :
"

Essays in Ecclesiastical

had been entrusted by God Himself the

"

History : Hildebrand.
100 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1073-1085.

presenting fundamental maxims of the (1073-1085), definitely set forth before

church, express and illustrate his whole the church and the world. He claimed

theory. Some of the more important of for papacy the greatest conceivable
the
these are as follows :
authority on earth and this was the ;

"

The Roman Church is founded by authority claimed, and often exercised,

God alone. as we shall see, in the Church of

"The Roman pontiff is

justly called England after the Norman Conquest.
universal. All priests, all monks, were to be his
"

His legate takes precedence of all obedient servants, while special legates

bishops in a council, though he be of nominated by him were to act as his

inferior rank, and he has power to pro ministers in the court and in every council.

nounce against them the sentence of This extraordinary man, who succeeded
to a great extent in establishing this
deposition.
"

The Pope may depose those absent tremendous and enduring power in western
from such a council. Christendom, has been variously judged.
"

All princes shall kiss the feet of the His burning earnestness to reform and
Pope. change much in the church of his day and
"

It is lawful for him to depose kings time that he felt to be wrong and base,
and emperors. awoke an intensity of hatred on the part
"No council may be called a General of many whose lives he attacked, rarely
Council without the Pope s order. aroused even in this world, ever jealous
"

No capitulary, no book can be esteemed and prompt to act when its interests are
canonical without his authority. threatened. He was accused of arrogance
His sentence can be revoked by no one,
"

and of unbridled ambition, and even of

and he alone can revoke the sentences of want of truth and reality. The strangest
all others. of the many bitter things that have been
He
can be judged by none. said of Hildebrand, were uttered by his
"

No
one may dare to pronounce con dear friend Peter Damiani, the austere
demnation on one who appeals to the ascetic, at once affectionate and ironical,

apostolic see. when he called him St. Satan." On the

"

u
The Roman Church has never erred, other hand, to writers of the school of
nor for ever more will it err, the Scripture Montalembert, the ardent Romanist, the
remaining, however. character of the great Pope is simply
"

Without convening a synod, he (the sublime. This school dwells on the noble
bishop of Rome) may depose or reconcile ness and purity of his soul, and eloquently
bishops. describes the utterances of Hildebrand as
"

No one is to be esteemed a Catholic "

memorable
and blessed words, truly
who does not wholly accord with the worthy the pen of a Pope and the heart
Roman Church." of a saint, and which fill up the measure
Such was the outline of the scheme of that ineffable joy which rushes over
which Hildebrand, as Pope Gregory VII. Catholic soul at the of a
every sight
THE EMPEROR HENRY IV. DOING PENANCE AT POPE HILDEBRAND S GATE.
102 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10731085.

courage so heroic, crowned by charity so view, not as a permanent, eternal, im

invincible." mutable law of Christianity, but as one
Without endorsing the rapturous en of the temporary phases through which
comiums of Montalembert, or the fervid Christianity was to pass the hierarchical,
laudations of the Romanist, who sees in the papal power of the Middle Ages has
"

the maintenance of the Papacy, with its been of immense benefit to mankind, "

by
tremendous claims, the only hope of the itsconservative fidelity as guardian of the
salvation of mankind, and who gratefully most valuable relics of antiquity, of her
acknowledges Hildebrand as the foremost arts, her laws, her language ; by its asser

champion of his creed, the fair-minded tion of the superiority of moral and re
historian must recognise in this great man ligious motives over the brute force of
intense earnestness, splendid devotion, man by the safe guardianship of the
;

and matchless self-sacrifice. He renounced great primitive and fundamental truths of

pleasure, ease, safety, and made his whole religion, which -were ever lurking under
lifean offering to elevate and to sanctify exuberant mythology and ceremonial ;

the church he loved and served. The above all, by wonderful and stirring ex
words of the great English historian of amples of mortification and self-sacrifice
the Latin church, with their conspicuous and self-discipline, by splendid ...
fairness and moderation, joined with a charities, munificent public works, cultiva
chivalrous appreciation of the mighty work tion of letters, the strong trust infused
really accomplished by the lofty conception into the mind of man, that there was some
of Hildebrand, admirably express the feel being, even on earth, whose special duty
ing which at present inspires the more it was to defend the
defenceless, to suc
generous sons of the Church of England cour the succourless. . . . All these
towards the Papacy and its wondrous story things, with all the poetry of the Middle
a story which by no means only belongs Ages in its various forms of legend, of
to the past. verse, of building, of music, of art, may
The writer sums up his estimate of the justify or rather command mankind to look

papal power as created by Hildebrand back upon these fallen idols with rever
(Gregory VII.) by conceding this idea to ence, with admiration, and with gratitude.
have been magnificent; but he asks u how The hierarchy of the Middle Ages counter
itwas reconcilable with the genuine sub balances its vast ambition, rapacity, cruelty,

limity of Christianity, that an order of men, by the most essential benefits to human
that one single man, should thrust him civilisation. The Papacy itself is not
self between man and God should array merely an awful but a wonderful institu
"

himself, in fact, in secondary divinity ? tion. Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) himself

He paints the awful incongruity between is not contemplated merely with awe, but
the churchman and the Christian; between in some respects, and with great drawbacks,
the alleged representative of the Prince as a benefactor to mankind." *
of Peace and the Prince of Peace Himself ;
It has been well said that "

effort is

and then he goes on to say,

"

Yet in a lower * Milman :

"

Latin Christianity."
10731085.] HILDEBRAND S WORK. 103

more valuable than achievement," and can see, shows no sign of cessation, but little

that u the real value of a man s work is mark of decay. The spiritual kingdom,
not to be tested by the immediate visible the foundations of which he laid more
results and further, that it is not what
"

;
"

than eight centuries ago, has been, all

a man does that exalts him, but what a through the changes of that long and
man would do." This was conspicuously eventful period, a most important factor in
the case with Hildebrand ;
for after a all
history, civil as well as ecclesiastical.
life spent in ceaseless toil and en For good or for evil, this mighty influence
deavour, after being elevated to the loftiest still broods over all lands, and has to be

dignity in Christendom, after seeing the reckoned with even by peoples who utterly
reforms which he judged absolutely neces decline thecommunion of Rome. Hilde
sary for the maintenance of the life of the brand the Restorer we should say more
church largely carried out, truly the Creator of the
"

after witnessing Papacy is cele

the strange spectacle of the emperor, the brated as the reformer of the impure and

greatest potentate in the western world, as profane abuses of the age he is more ;

a suppliant clad in a thin penitential gar justly entitled to the praise of having left

ment, with bare feet, waiting during three the impress of his own gigantic character
cold winter days at his gates for a word of on the history of all the ages which have
*

pardon and reconciliation from his lips succeeded him."

we see the strange spectacle of this Pope, Of theimpure and profane abuses
" "

an old man worn out with never-ending above referred to, which dishonoured the
toil and care, dying an exile from Rome, church and most gravely marred her use
a fugitive from his enemies, seemingly a fulness, and against which Hildebrand and
broken and defeated man, and murmuring the men of his school warred an implacable
with his last breath to a group of devoted warfare a warfare attended by consider
friends standing round his death-bed,
"

I able success, the first and principal and

have loved righteousness and hated ini most dangerous abuse was the fatal and

widely-extended sin, termed

"

quity, therefore I die in exile." simony."

The failure was, however, only a seeming This age has little conception of its preva
failure. The man, weak and sickly, of lence and of consequences to
its frightful

slight frame and small stature, it is true the church in the eleventh century the
died an exile and a fugitive, watched over age of Hildebrand. The evil had grown
by strangers and a few devoted friends ; up during that long period, lasting more
justifying to the last the righteousness of than a century and a half, during which
his works and days, but lamenting bitterly anarchy and confusion had existed in all
with his breath the sad guerdon of
last the countries of Europe. Episcopal sees
desertion and exile which the world had were bought and sold. They were often
bestowed upon him as a return for all his conferred on the children of princes

life-long labours and sacrifice. But as for and powerful men at a tender age, when
thework to which he gave his life, it has they were utterly unfit to perform even
endured it endures still, and, as far
;
as we * Sir
James Stephen s Essays :
"

Hildebrand."
IO4 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10731085.

the humblest duties of the priesthood. of such crying iniquities. Peter Damiani,
Too often the prelate who had purchased the austere friend of Hildebrand, does not
at a great price his see from the sovereign, scruple to call such simonical prelates
endeavoured to recoup himself for the "heretical brigands,"
and tells us it was
outlay by selling in his turn the inferior even easier to convert a Jew than to bring
prebends or cures. Councils of the church such sinners to repentance. But after the
and popes of Rome had perpetually de middle of the eleventh century a very
nounced this terrible abuse but pope and ;
different state of things was introduced
council for a long time had been too into the church, under the new rule and
weak, perhaps too tainted themselves, to example of the better popes, and the stern
enforce the anathemas they judged it ex and self-denying teaching of the reformed
pedient to launch against the sharers in religious houses in every country of Europe.
this shameful traffic. Thus the evil grew That the wave of this degrading and
instead of diminishing. When the Popes almost inconceivable sin of simony, which
under the influence of Hildebrand, and later, in its worst and most exaggerated form
Hildebrand himself, aided by the ever- corrupted the church on the Continent
increasing power of the reformed monastic in the tenth and first half of the eleventh

orders, with hands strengthened by their centuries, also passed over the Church
own austere lives and holy example, took of England, is Indeed,
indisputable.
the matter in hand in good earnest, they it is
scarcely thinkable that so general a
found the whole church literally honey degradation could have existed in the
combed by this strange and fatal practice. continental churches, without more or less
The highest bishops confessed their guilt. affecting England. There is no doubt
In the dark days of the tenth century, the but that in the short reigns of Harold and
very bishopric of Rome had been notori Harthacanute, the evil sons of the religious
ously bought and sold. Canute, simony to some extent
existed ;
To give one striking instance. The for we read of Stigand, afterwards arch
bishop of Florence, in the year 1060, was bishop, at that time the priest of Canute s
accused of having notoriously bought his church of Assandun, being appointed to a
important bishopric for a great sum bishopric in the reign of Harold Harefoot,
through the intervention of his father. but deposed, seemingly before consecration,
The father, when questioned as to the because another competitor for the see
transaction, replied,
"

There is not so was prepared with a larger sum. In the

much as a mill to be had from the days of his brother Harthacanute, when
king without paying money so for the ; that king was keeping the midwinter festival
bishopric of Florence I had to pay 3,000 at Gloucester, of
Edmund, bishop Durham,
livres" an enormous sum in those days. died at the court. Harthacanute sold the
This almost universal simony was now see of Durham to a priest of the name
generally acknowledged to be a crime ;
of Edred. One of the chroniclers relates
but it was no light task which Hilde how this Edred at the time appointed for
brand set himself, to purge the church his installation fell ill and died.
suddenly
1073-1085.] CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 105

Even in the days of Edward the Confessor

against which Hildebrand warred was
sin,"

the practice so justly abhorred in all times of a very different complexion. One of
by true servants of the church of pur the distinguishing characteristics of Latin
chasing preferment was not unknown but ; Christianity ever since the closing years of
no shadow of suspicion of countenancing the fourth century, when Jerome largely
thisshameful procedure rests upon king guided the counsels of Rome, was an en
Edward or his chief minister, earl Harold. forced celibacy the men
among set apart

BYZANTINE CLOISTERS IN BASILICA OF ST. PAUL, ROME.

(Rebuilt by Gregory VII. in the Eleventh Century.)

They appear to have been absolutely op for the service of the altar. Based originally
posed to
simony any form. The way
in upon St.words, which dwell upon
Paul s

however, in which these acts are noticed the greater usefulness, the more entire
by chroniclers, clearly shows that simony, devotion of men so set apart to Christian
while it was not unknown to a certain society, they were entirely unfettered by
if

extent among the less noble and con the cares and duties and grave responsibili
scientious clergy and
laity England, in ties ofdomestic and family life, celibacy by
never existed in the Anglo-Saxon church degrees assumed the position of a virtue,
to the fearful extent to which it prevailed and seemed to justify those who practised
in Italy and on the continent of Europe. it assuming a dignity and authority
in

The other great "

abuse "

or "

prevalent superior to the rest of mankind. In

3
L
io6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10731085.

the Latin church, in Rome, and
foreign churches in communion with Rome,
the policy of the men who guided the
church was in every possible way to dis
in the But mere reformation of the moral tone
of the clergy was not what Hildebrand
aimed at. He waged war with equal
bitterness and determination against the

courage and even to forbid marriage among lawfully married priests, as with the multi
the clergy. This policy had gone on for tude of their brethren in holy orders who
several centuries. It had been stoutly lived inopen concubinage. To Hildebrand
opposed by the majority of the clergy in itappeared as absolutely necessary for the
all lands and, indeed, everywhere the
;
work of that church of the future of which
married clergy formed the majority. We he dreamed, that her officers should be
have seen how bitterly the attempt to trained to renounce the world and its
force celibacy on the priests of England affections and ties even legitimate and
had been resented in the days of Dunstan. holy ties and, possessing neither home or
It became certainly a law of the church, but country, to devote themselves wholly to
a law which was defied, infringed, eluded the service of the church, and the pro
in every conceivable way, and which had motion of her interests and power. Nor
never obtained anything approaching to was this in Hildebrand s case the policy

general observance in any of the countries of a mere selfish and ambitious priest. It

belonging to Latin Christianity. The was alone through the existence and work
existence of the law against the marriage of the church of which he dreamed, as
of the clergy, and the prejudice which he believed, that the earthly weal and
centuries of teaching on this subject had the eternal salvation of mankind could
naturally created, led to a vast number of be secured.
connections on the part of the priests.
illicit With this in his mind, only a few weeks
Marriage for them was condemned by the after he had become Pope Gregory VII.,
church. It would probably, if entered upon, Hildebrand summoned a council to meet
be a bar to their advancement in their at the Lateran, and promulgated a law,
own order, if not a hindrance to their not merely simply forbidding the marriage
usefulness; hence the alarming preva of priests, but commanding every priest to
lence of unblessed unions among the put away his wife bidding the faithful
;

secular clergy. The anarchy and confusion laity besides, to shun all sacred offices at
in the church and among the nations which any married priest dared to cele
during the past hundred and fifty years had brate. And the enormous influence which
tended vastly to increase this state of the commanding genius of Hildebrand
doubtful morality among the vowed ser had won throughout western Christendom
vants of God. And it is certain that when actually succeeded in carrying into effect
Hildebrand lived and worked, the moral which was promulgated
this stern decree,
condition of many of the clergy in the far and wide. Innumerable pure and happy

churches of the west was deplorable, and priestly homes were broken up for moral ;

indeed sorely required a stern and upright and immoral clergy were equally denounced
reformer. by the large majority of church rulers,
 1073-1085.] CELIBACY AND ROMISH POWER. 107

fascinated or persuaded against their will Bee Bee, the home afterwards of Lanfranc
by the great Pope. The task was not and Anselm first betook himself to the
accomplished without difficulty. Arch monastic life, in the year 1037, an un

bishops were even stoned in their pulpits married priest or bishop was hardly to be
when they read the decree of Rome. found in Normandy. Eloquence against
Abbots were dragged from their assemblies carrying out the cruel decree of Hildebrand
and scarcely rescued alive. A hatred un "

was never more pathetic, more just, or

precedented was roused against the great
author of the stern and unbending law ;
and no doubt the eventual fall and death
of Hildebrand in a lonely exile, was the
more unavailing. Prelate after prelate
silenced these remonstrances by austere
rebukes. Legate after legate arrived with
papal menaces to the remonstrants. . . .

earthly guerdon he received for enforcing It was a struggle not to be

prolonged.
this tremendous sacrifice from the church Broken hearts pined, and died away in
whose devoted minister he was. silence. Expostulation subsided into mur
But, though Hildebrand was allowed to murs, and murmurs were drowned in the
die in exile disregarded and unhonoured, general shout of victory. Eight hundred
his work was done successfully done. years have since passed away. Amidst the
"

Never was legislative foresight so verified wreck of laws, opinions, and institutions,
by the result." What former councils of this decree of Hildebrand this day s at
world-wide notoriety, what mighty states rules the Latin church in every land where
men-archbishops, what scholars and teachers sacrifices are still offered on her altars.
whom the Christian world has never ceased Among us but not of us, valuing their
to honour and to applaud had attempted, rights as citizens chiefly as instrumental
but attempted in vain, Hildebrand suc to their powers as churchmen, . . . the
ceeded in accomplishing at once, effec sacerdotal yet flourishes in every
caste

tually, and for ever. There was a terrible Christian the imperishable and
land,
struggle, as may well be conceived, against gloomy monument both of that far-sighted
carrying out the decree of Rome how ; genius which thus devised the means of
terrible can be conceived when the number papal despotism, and of that short-sighted
of married clergy at this time is taken into wisdom which proposed to itself that des
account. To give one instance when :
potism as a legitimate and laudable end."

* Sir
Herlwin, the founder of the monastery of
"

Hildebrand."
James Stephens :
 CHAPTER XXVI.

LANFRANC, WILLIAM, AND THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

Brief Reign of Harold Brilliant Victory over the Danes Duke William of Normandy Relations of
Harold and William The Invasion a "

Holy Lanfranc His Early

War "Norman Conquest
Life Influence regarding the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Becomes Primate of England
His Stainless Character and Popularity Changes the Character of the Church of England-
Ecclesiastical Courts Greater Subjection to Rome Celibacy Enforced Changes in Bishoprics
Outburst of Church-building Probably Churches of Expiation Norman Architecture-
Establishment of Uniform Ritual The Domesday Book Death of William Death of Lanfranc.

the son of Godwin, the earl ranks, when brought face to face with the

of Wessex, the faithful adviser and second were simply too few in number.
HAROLD,
brother-in-law of Edward the Con
"

It
foe,
was the fate of in this memor
England
fessor, was chosen king by the unanimous able year to be exposed to two invasions
voice of the Witan of England, and was at the same moment and against two in
;

solemnly crowned the in new abbey of vasions," writes the great panegyrist of the
Westminster on the very day (January last Saxon king, "the heart and arm of

6th, 1066) which had witnessed the inter Harold himself could not prevail."
Neither
ment of Edward in thesame new abbey. skill nor bravery was lacking to Harold and
His reign lasted only nine months, and it hisarmy at Hastings. It was simply that
witnessed two formidable invasions, the fate the foes were too numerous. After that
of each being decided by a long-contested and long day s fighting scarcely any real warrior
bloody battle. The story of England we of the English army survived They had !

may wel I say the story of the world has been fought to the last and to the bitter end.
coloured by the events of that short sad reign.
As a king, a statesman, and a military During the early months of his reign
commander, Harold must always be classed king Harold was busy preparing for the
in the first rank. He
appears in the testi dreaded invasions. He knew that he had
mony of contemporary English records deadly foes in the north ;
he knew, too,
as an almost perfect monarch that duke William was busy preparing in
patriot ; wise,
far-seeing,devoted to his country s good, a the south to seize the coveted English
strong defender of law and order, a firm crown. But in the midst of his war pre
friend to the church. His melancholy fate parations, he by no means neglected the
was simply owing to the fact, that the interests of the Church of England. His
almost simultaneous double invasion famous educational foundation of Waltham
by
such mighty foes, was more than Harold s he further endowed and carefully watched
forces were able to cope with. The over. One of his favourite advisers was
and decisive victory
brilliant in the north Ethelwig, the wise abbot of the important
had cost him dearly, and thinned
his monastery of Evesham, at the foot of the
io66.] ACCESSION OF HAROLD. 109

x>tswold hills ;
but his dearest friend and disloyalty. It will be remembered that in
;ounsellor was the saintly bishop Wulfstan the late reign Tostig, Harold s
brother, a
}f Worcester. favourite and friend of Edward the Con
Wulfstan had been his intimate asso- fessor, had ruled over Northumbria; but

THE PORTENT OF Io66.

ciate for years, and in company with had contrived to win the hate instead of
him, during the few short months of the love of the people of the broad northern
comparative peace, he journeyed into earldom, and in consequence had been de
the north, and with great skill pacified posed from his government in the later
the turbulent inhabitants of Northumber years of king Edward s life. It would seem
land, who showed signs of disaffection and probable that some feeling against Tostig s
no THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

brother largely influenced the Northum to fly by the northern earls Edwin and
brian people. The biographer of Wulfstan Morkar.
and sudden But this raid was only the precursor
especially attributes the quiet
revulsion of feeling in Harold s favour, the of a far more formidable invasion. Tostig
result of his presence among them, to the had already persuaded Harold Hardrada,
reverence which was universally felt for the king of Norway, to invade England.
Harold Hardrada s early and romantic
the king s companion and adviser, the
career has been already briefly sketched.
holy Wulfstan.
Harold came to London from the north, His fame as a warrior and a Viking chief,
to keep at Westminster his first and, alas ! and and prudent king, ex
later as a wise

only Easter feast as king of England. Just

tended far beyond his own Norway. His
after that great church festival there ap invasion of England, which Harold had
what men looked to repel in that sad and short reign of
peared in the skies
upon as a terrible portent, a singularly nine months, was no mere Viking raid of
brilliant comet. The chroniclers relate it was intended to be a formal
plunder ;

how for thirty nights (others say only for subjugation of England, of which the re
seven),from sunset to dawn, this bright star nowned Viking chief entertained no doubt
blazed like a sun in the darkened heavens, he would soon be master. His mighty
with a vast train of light streaming behind fleet numbered as
many as three, or even,

it. In the England of Harold, men s minds according to five hundred

many accounts,
were already strangely excited by events vessels indeed,
;
some of the recitals of

just past, and by the calamities said to have Hardrada s expedition tell us that his ships
been foreseen in the near future. The numbered a thousand vessels of war. His
end of the ancient race of Cerdic in the wife and his son Olaf accompanied him,

person of the sainted Edward the election

;
of a great hero of another race the threat
;
ened invasion of the dreaded Scandinavian
hero from the north, and of the mighty
duke of the Normans from the south
these things led men to look on the sudden
appearance of the great star as a dread
portent of evil.
The troublous times predicted by the
dead king were indeed at hand. Very soon
after the Easter feast and Gemot held at
Westminster, Tostig, the late earl of North
umberland, and a hostile fleet had appeared
in the Channel, and was ravaging the
southern shores. With little trouble Tostig
was driven away, and sailed for the north.
There, too, he was met and soon compelled
with other members of his family. In fact,
so certain was the northern hero of success,
that his expedition bore the character of
a domestic emigration, as it has been well
; termed, and very careful arrangements had
been made for the government of Norway
by an under-king, one of his sons, while
he reigned in England as Canute had done
before him. Vast treasures, which he had
gathered in the course of his long wander
ing life of war, formed part of the precious
cargo of this great Viking fleet. One of
these treasures, which from its enormous
value became historical, was a solid ingot
of pure gold, so large that twelve strong
men could scarce carry it. This mighty
golden ingot appears again as part of the
io66.] VICTORY AT STAMFORD BRIDGE. in
boundless wealth of William the Conqueror, of his men before the decisive battle, will

acquired after the Conquest. ever stamp Harold of England as a great

Rapid was the progress of the northern strategistand general. The Norwegian
invaders, swollen by reinforcements of saga which tells the story of the awful
ships and fighting men from all parts battle between the two Harolds, describes

of the north-west of Europe. The fleet the dread surprise of the Vikings at the
of Hardrada entered the Tyne, where one appearance of the Saxon army. At first,
army landed and marched south, meeting the cloud of dust which heralded their
with but little resistance, while the fleet approach was mistaken for a friendly force,

sailed to the Humber. Harold Hardrada possibly a division of the Northumbrian

penetrated with his host to York, which men-at-arms belonging to the cowed and
at once submitted to him, and then, after defeated Northumbrian earls. But soon

receiving the submission of the northern the vast numbers and threatening appear

capital, the Viking pitched his camp at ance of the oncoming Saxons, told the
Stamford Bridge, some eight miles north Vikings that that great array of shields
east of the city, never dreaming of the and armour, glistening like the ice of their

stern resistance he was so soon to meet
with, so strangely had he miscalculated
the resources and undervalued the military
skill and daring of the Saxon king.
Harold was then suffering from severe
own northern country, belonged to foe-
men ready to fight to the death for their
native land.*
We have, unfortunately, no authentic
record of the battle that followed. It seems,

sickness, but he never gave himself an however, that Hardrada was certainly more
instant repose from the moment he heard
s or less taken by surprise. The Northmen
of the approach of the Viking fleet. Far had never dreamed of that splendid march
from being unprepared, his ceaseless energy of Harold and his army. The fight of Stam

had been from the very day of his corona ford Bridge was fought on September 25th
tion at Westminster preparing to resist one of that eventful, fatal year, and ended with
or other of those dangerous foes whom he the utter rout of the invading host of
knew he would soon have to meet in deadly Hardrada. On that stricken field fell the

combat. With extraordinary rapidity he famous Viking, -with nearly all of his most
marched from London to York. As he trusted chieftains and among the dead
;

moved northward great bodies of armed
men joined him. The whole strength of
southern and central England were with
him when he reached the northern capital,
and before Hardrada had any idea that an
was Tostig, somewhile earl of North-
umbria, to whose intrigues the invasion by
Hardrada of Norway was mainly due. The
famous raven banner of Norway, called the
and the vast treasures of
"land-waster,"

army was at hand, he was confronted with the Vikings, fell into the hands of the
the host of Harold. English king, and the poor remnant of the
His rapid march, that extraordinary and mighty northern host, with the body of

rapid mustering of the armed forces of the *

Compare Freeman : "Norman Conquest,"
south and midlands, the skilful disposition ch. xiv., i, 2, 3.
 112 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

their king, were suffered to retreat to their behind him so truly an abiding possession
when they at once sadly sailed for for all time, as duke William, generally
ships,

Norway, which they had left only a few known as the Conqueror and the policy ;

weeks before with such high and con of the Norman duke and his chief adviser

fidenthope of an easy conquest. may be said to have had more permanent

But the terrible victory was dearly bought. upon the Church of England, than
influence
The flower of the English troops had been even upon the civil affairs of our country.
brought together by Harold of England The work was of exceeding im
of Alfred

to meet the northern invaders, and it was portance ;

raised England to a
Henry II.

but a thin remnant of that splendid army position of undreamed-of power; Edward I.
which, after the decisive battle, re-entered was perhaps the greatest and most far-
the neighbouring York in triumph. Far, seeing of the illustrious princes who have
indeed, was the English host from coming satupon this island throne ;
the work of
scatheless writes the historian from that Henry VIII. has had a measureless influence
awful struggle. Many of the faithful upon the fortunes of the English people and
"

house-carls, the flower of Harold of Eng of our church. Apart from any of these
land army, lay dead on the stricken field
s great ones, however, it is possible still to
of Stamford Bridge. Many a noble thane think of England growing into its present
had given his life for his country; for, in unique position in the world. But William
truth, the vanquished invaders had sold the Conqueror s personality positively can
their lives dearly. But the victory was a not be so withdrawn without him, the rise
;

victory as decisive as any to be found in of the Anglo-Norman empire is an unthink

the whole history of English warfare." able thought. Other great men rank, and
There was a great banquet held at York will ever hold their proud position, among
to celebrate it, and the story tells us how, the makers of England. But duke William
while the king in all his pomp was seated the Conqueror alone can be styled the
at it, a messenger hot with haste arrived maker of England. On the continent of
to tell him how William, duke of the Europe, again, have many other men
Normans, had just landed with a vast array arisen, who in their day and time have
on the shores of Sussex, and was ravaging exercised an enormous influence in the
the land far and near. world ;
but the life-work of none of these,
not even that of the great Charlemagne,
The leading events of the previous life of has had anything like the enduring in
this William, duke of the Normans, were fluence of the life-work of the Norman
briefly set forth in
Chapter XXII., from Conqueror. The England so largely his
his accession in 1035 to the throne of work and creation still the
endures,
his father, duke Robert the most influential of the world -
Magnificent, powers.
until the year of the accession of Harold Only one influence can be compared to
in 1066. No mere man in the whole it: that of Hildebrand, William s contem
Christian era has so powerfully influenced
porary and ally, who as Gregory VII. was
the world s destinies, has left his life-work the maker of that vast spiritual domination
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

we the Papacy, which endures, too,

call faithful friend, and an affectionate
*
though shorn of much of its old power, brother."

to this day. One of the bravest soldiers of the time,

William the Conqueror s character was he excelled in all martial exercises. In

a complex one good strangely alternates
;
the decisive battle of Hastings his personal
with evil. One feature of it has been prowess was long the subject of the lilts of
always dwelt upon by the king s more trouveur and troubadour. A great strate
serious biographers : his fixed purpose, his gist and a consummate leader of men, his

unbending will. In his marvellous life- war-filled life is illustrated by a succession

story we see, that whatever the will of of remarkable and notable victories. As a
William decreed, he found means to bring statesman he was unequalled in Europe.
it about. "

Utterly unscrupulous, though Nor was he less notorious for his skill in
far from unprincipled, taking no pleasure administration than for his generalship in
in wrong or oppression for its own sake, the field. In his own great Norman prin
always keeping back his hands from needless cipality he found a state torn with internal

bloodshed, he yet never shrank from force or dissensions and rent with anarchy : under
fraud, from wrong or bloodshed or oppres his firm, strong rule Normandy and its

sion when they seemed to him the straightest

,
broad dependencies became a loyal and
paths to carry out his purpose. His crimes peaceful land, a model to all the kingdoms
admit of no denial, but with one single and states of the Continent. "Had he
exception they never were mere wanton never stretched out his hand to grasp the
crimes. His personal virtues were
. . . diadem which was another s, his fame
throughout many and great.
life hear We would not have filled the world as it now
much of his piety, and we see reason to does, but he would have gone down to his
believe that his piety was something more grave as one of the best as well as one of
than the mere conventional piety of lavish the greatest rulers of his time." t
gifts to monasteries. Punctual in every And in conquered England, in spite of
exercise of devotion,paying respect and the untold misery which the great Con
honour of every kind to religion and its quest brought on unnumbered homes and
ministers, William showed in two ways hearths; in spite of the awful crime which
most unusual among the princes of that made a desert and a waste of a vast part
age, that his zeal for holy things was of Northumbria when once the Conquest
;

neither hypocrisy nor fanaticism nor super was over and done, England was the most
stition ;
...
he appeared as a real united and the most powerful and re
ecclesiastical reformer, and he allowed the spected realm in western Christendom ;

precepts of his religion to have a distinct while within its own borders life and pro
influence on his private life. He was one perty were safer than they had ever been
of the few princes of that age whose hands under the strongest of the Anglo-Saxon
were wholly clean from the guilt of simony The national Chronicler, one who
;
kings.
in a profligate age he was a model of loved not the Norman rule, but who is
conjugal fidelity. He was a good and * Professor
Freeman. t Ibid.
io66.]
THE DUKE OF NORMANDY.
scrupulously just and fair, after dilating nought of them. . . . Alas ! that any

upon the disastrous, rueful years of the man should so exalt himself and carry him
stern conquest, after bitterly condemning self in his pride over all May Almighty
!

the hard avarice of William and his chiefs, God show mercy to his soul and grant him
loving as they did to amass gold and silver, the forgiveness of his sins."

not caring how sinfully it was gotten, so

that it came into their hands, thus speaks We left king Harold, it will be remem
of the Conqueror King William was a bered, in the last days of the September of
"

very wise and a great man, more honoured that fatal autumn of the year 1066, sitting
and powerful than any of his predecessors. amidst his thanes at the York banquet,
He was mild to those good men who loved held to celebrate the crushing defeat

HAROLD RIDING TO BOSHAM CHURCH TO RECEIVE THE SACRAMENT BEFORE STARTING FOR NORMANDY.
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)

God, but severe beyond measure to those which the English king had inflicted on
who withstood his will. . . . The good king Harold Hardrada, the last of the long
order which he established in the land is line of Viking warriors who had harassed
not to be forgotten it was such that any
; England. As he feasted there came, all
man who was himself aught might travel dusty and worn with hard and rapid travel,
over the kingdom with a bosom full of gold a messenger who brought him the dread

unmolested, and no man durst kill another, though not unlooked-for news that William
however great the injury he might have the duke of the Normans had landed with
received from him but he was of great
;
a vast army in the south of the island, and
sternness, and he took from his subjects with all solemnity and earnestness had
many marks of gold and many hundred asserted his claim to the crown of England.
pounds of silver, and this either with or The claim, after all though William con
without right, and with little need . . . trived to make it good was based on
The rich complained and the poor mur somewhat unreal foundations. As far back
*
mured, but he was so strong that he recked Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough), A.D. 1087.
116 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1062.

as the year 1051, on the occasion of a visit minister, famous alike as a great English
of duke William to Edward the Confessor, thane, as a successful general, as a wise

some kind of a promise was made by the and competent statesman. Long before

childless king to his Norman the king s fatal illness, earl Harold was the
English
kinsman that he would adopt him as his most powerful and the wealthiest, as well

HAROLD SETTING SAIL FOR NORMANDY.

(From the Bayeiix Tapestry.)

successor. It would seem, too that then, as the most popular Englishman. There
during that visit, William had done homage is no doubt that duke William feared him
to Edward, probably owing to this promise. as hismost formidable rival for the English
Whatever may have been the promise, crown. In the latter years of the Confessor s
there is no doubt but that at a later period reign, when all men s eyes were fixed on
of his reign the promise was cancelled; for Harold as the probable successor to the
king Edward changed his mind completely childless Edward, Harold visited Normandy.

concerning the succession, as he subse During that visit there is no doubt that
quently sent to Hungary for his nephew Harold did something, entered into some
Edward, with the view of adopting the exile
compact with William, which enabled
as his heir. Edward the exile, soon after William to charge him with perjury and
his arrival in England, we know, died, and breach of the duty of a vassal. It is incon
"

his son, known afterwards as Edgar Athel- the

ceivable," writes learned panegyrist of
ing, was little more than a child when the Harold, and unlike the formal scrupulous
"

Confessor died. But William of Normandy ness of William s character, to fancy that
never forgot the promise and the homage, on the death of king Edward the Con
and seems ever to have cherished the idea fessor he made his formal appeal to
that he was the Confessor s acknowledged Christendom without any ground at all "

heir.
equally inconceivable that such a generally
During the king Edward s
latter years of received story should have grown up so
"

earl Harold, the son of near the alleged time without some kernel
life, Godwin, the
king s brother-in-law, rose in of truth in This generally received
gradually it."

power and in public estimation. He be story was that Harold, on his way to the
came king Edward s trusted friend and * Professor Freeman.
I062.J
WILLIAM S CLAIM TO ENGLAND. 117

court of Rouen, probably on some friendly which veiled the chest was withdrawn, and
mission from Edward to William, was there from abbey and from church, it was.
"

thrown by a storm on the coast of Pon- seen, had been collected all the relics of
thieu. Guy, the count of the province, human nothingness in
superstition, which
seized and imprisoned the English earl, adored the mementoes of saints divine ;
who was liberated through the friendly there lay, pell-mell and huddled, skeleton)
mediation of duke William, who brought and mummy, the dry, dark skin, the white-
him to Rouen, but rather as a ransomed gleaming bones of the dead, mockingly cased
in gold and decked with rubies, their grim
captive than as an English thane charged
with an embassage. Before releasing him fingers protruded through the hideous,
the Norman duke compelled him to take chaos, and pointed towards the living man
an oath of allegiance, promising him in thus ensnared ;
there the skulls grinned
return for his oath of homage the hand of under the holy At that sight,,
"

mitre."

his young daughter and other privileges in say the Norman chronicles, the earl Harold
the future. The popular story goes on to shuddered and trembled, for in that chest v
say that Harold s oath was pledged under as he swore his oath, on which he had laid
circumstances of extraordinary solemnity. his hand, lay all the relics which religion
Before it was taken so runs the story deemed the holiest in the land.
duke William sent out messengers, un Such is the story, and there is little
known to Harold, to all the famous abbeys doubt but that some such oath was taken ;

and churches in Normandy, and holy and when the time came and king Edward
and awful was the spoil with which these slept with his fathers, though the great
messengers returned. The spoil in question Witan of England elected Harold king
consisted of mouldering relics of the saints Edward, duke
in succession to the childless
which formed the sacred treasure of the William claimed the splendid heritage of

HAROLD TAKING THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO WILLIAM.

(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)

great religious houses of Normandy. These Canute, basing upon the

his claim
were gathered together and placed in a promise of him years,
Edward made to

and oath of Harold

great chest; upon this chest Harold laid his before, upon the awful
hand when he swore his oath. When the taken subsequently in Normandy.
*
English earl removed his hand, the cloth Lytton Bulwer : "Harold."
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1066.

By William s side stood the wisest and all writers are now agreed. The victory of
most astute statesman in Europe the Stamford Bridge over the formidable host
saintly scholar Lanfranc. The claim of of the Viking Harold Hardrada, and the
Norman William to the English crown disposition of the Anglo-Saxon
army at
took a religious shape. William, under Hastings, bear ample testimony to his
Lanfranc s direction, appealed to the powers as a strategist and a general. But
princes and leading men in every Christian his best men-at-arms lay dead on the

land but, above all, he appealed to the

; bloody field near York, where he van
head of Christendom the bishop of Rome. quished with no small difficulty and with
And be it
remembered, that when duke
William made his strange appeal the
bishops of Rome, as we have related, had
risen from their long period of degradation
and impotence, and were regarded with
extraordinary veneration and respect. The
reigning Pope of Rome was Alexander II.,
Rome was wielded
but the real influence at
by the wise Hildebrand, afterwards known
as Gregory VII. This mighty ecclesiastical
statesman saw at once what a powerful
engine might this appeal to Rome prove
in after days, when Rome should claim to

be the arbiter of nations.

The appeal of William and Lanfranc
was strangely successful. Not a few among tnmagna pniltaftn? ailtxo t $& faf Cj>
J

the Continental ab ommfo ttr .lerlnnamf f rfm

powers were convinced apnif. >

<r tianmtatrf Ac a& alwtfcj

of the justice of the Norman claim to "

diflfrm-*

England and in the army which William

;
CORONATION OF WILLIAM I. BY ALDRED,
led against Harold were
many men of ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
foreign nations. (From the Original MS. of Matthew Paris
But, above all, duke in Manchester Cathedral.)
Chronicle

William brought with him as an outward

sign of the favour and approbation of the tremendous the Northmen s invading
loss
acknowledged head of Christendom, a host. The Anglo-Saxon forces at Hastings
consecrated banner from Rome. The war were in consequence sadly inferior to the
became a holy war. William was the mighty army of the Normans. This is
champion of right and justice, and Harold clear from the sequel to the
story of the
a rebel against
Holy Church. These were battle ;
for we learn from the many accounts
terrible odds in favour of the invader, and of that the picked men of Harold s
it
army,
largely contributed to the successful issue in spite of their
splendid gallantry, and their
of the Norman invasion. leader s military skill, were slain to a man
That Harold was a consummate on that bloody field, and that south-eastern
general
IO66 1070.] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 119

England was left absolutely defenceless ;

fell into the invader s hands. The merci
while on the other hand the Norman army, less harrying of the north, which held out
whose numbers evidently far exceeded the the longest, closed the story of the Conquest,
forces of Harold, after the losses of the and early in the year 1070 William, duke
battle, which must have been very severe, of the Normans, was king over the whole
was able at once, with the aid of some land. He at once began to carry out
reinforcements from Normandy, to proceed the settlement of the England he had
with the conquest of England. won by his arms, and set himself now in
The conquest took, roughly, some three good earnest to do what he and his chief

years and a half afterthe battle of Hastings adviser and minister, Lanfranc, felt was
before it was completed. The battle was their duty towards the noble realm, won
fought in the autumn of the year 1066, at the cost of so much crime and sorrow.
and the last fearful act of the Norman At first the forfeited demesnes and
Conqueror, the harrying of the northern jurisdictions of the family of Harold, by
shires, an act which left its mark upon these far the wealthiest of the noble houses

hapless lands for long years, was carried out of England, were sufficient for the de
in the last days of 1069. The accounts of mands of his faithful soldiers and allies;
that last awful ravaging are well preserved in but as the Conquest proceeded, gradually
the passionless pages of the great "Domes a very large portion of the estates of the

day where seventeen years later

Survey," native thanes and landowners suffered
as we turn over the pages of the York "

forfeiture, and Normans were substituted

shire Survey
"

we come again and again for the original landowners. England was,
to the grim entry, "Waste," "waste" in comparison with most countries on the
the only description possible of many a continent of Europe, enormously rich.
once flourishing farm or village, after the Cities and wealthy men made bountiful
destroyer had done his work. The history of offerings to the new king. Churches and
these three years and a half of almost con monasteries, willingly and unwillingly,
stantwar is noteworthy, because it always were equally liberal. The widespread
marked the slow but sure progress of the commerce of England had brought, in

Conqueror. Many a gallant stand was the comparatively peaceful times of the
made against the invader, many a deter Confessor and his immediate predecessors,
mined resistance to his arms. But it was untold wealth to the island. Words, we
all useless. The Normans and their foreign are told, would fail to describe the wealth
allies were led with consummate skill, as which flowed into the coffers of the
well as inspired with splendid bravery. Conqueror, who became the richest as
The English were brave too, but had no well as the greatest of earthly kings.
leader worth the name, and they were Liberally did William pour
out upon
never united ;
one part of England did the churches of those foreign lands which

nothing to help the other. The Anglo- had helped him in the great conquest,
Saxon race was ruined by lack of concert. the treasures of conquered England.
One division of the realm after the other The smallest monastery in those favoured
 120 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1060 1070.

districts became the recipient of his bounty. jurisdictions ;

the national assemblies and
We read of unnumbered gifts to foreign Anglo-Saxon Gemots dealt freely with
crosses studded with ecclesiastical, as with temporal matters.
churches, of golden
gems, of chalices of gold, of gorgeous Bishop and earl, abbot and thane, sat

embroidery, for which the religious houses together in the local gemots, and, what was
of England were famous. The women of singularly hateful to Norman churchmen,
England were especially renowned for trained in the sterner and more ascetic
their extraordinary skill in this beautiful school which had lately arisen under the
art. These precious things were scattered shadow of the revived and reinvigorated
broadcast through the churches of France, Papacy, a strange laxity of discipline pre
Burgundy, and even of distant Aquitaine vailed inEngland on the great question of
and Auvergne. Very wealthy was the the marriage of the clergy. Bishops even,
Church of England in the days when priests, members of capitular bodies, were
the Confessor died. Men on the Continent in the Anglo-Saxon church of the Con

gazed with wonder on these rich spoils fessor s days often married. All this the
of the Norman conqueror, these cunning Norman felt must be changed. The
works of the sculptor and of the goldsmith general result of the reforms of William
and the woman embroiderer a striking and Lanfranc was to make the Church of
testimony not only to the wealth, but to England more like the other churches
the early development of the ornamental of the west, in doctrine as in practipe ;

arts in England under the Anglo-Saxon and enormously, as we shall see, to in

kings, largely, if not wholly, cultivated crease the power of the Roman bishop.
under the protecting shadow of the Anglo-
Saxon church. Perhaps William s wisest act, and the one
was the government and constitution
It which had the greatest influence on his
of this church, that William and his
reign and administration, was his selection
minister Lanfranc devoted themselves with of the monk Lanfranc as his chief minister
peculiar earnestness to reorganise and re and counsellor. No one in that age of
model. Strong and powerful as was the change has left his mark upon the Church
Anglo-Saxon church in the Confessor s of England like this great statesman-,
days, had sadly fallen away from the
it
scholar, whom
the Conqueror s unerring
discipline and reforms instituted by Dunstan eye chose as his adviser, and whom he
and his school. The Anglo-Saxon church subsequently placed to rule over the
was an intensely national church in
also
English church.
and intimately bound up with the
spirit, The century and a half of anarchy, of
Anglo-Saxon state, and hence peculiarly shameless traffic in benefices, from the
hostile to the Norman policy of William
highest grade to the lowest, of general
and Lanfranc. Papal authority was weaker and even of
carelessness, profligacy, in the
in England than elsewhere. In England Christian church of western
Europe, has
was no strong line of demarcation drawn been already touched upon. The first half
between spiritual and temporal things and of the eleventh century
witnessed, it will
10551069.] THE NEW NORMAN CHURCH SCHOOL 121

be remembered, a general awakening, Italy. Maurilius, archbishop of Rouen,

closely connected with the foundation of had an. interesting record. Originally a
many new monasteries and the reforma- native of Italy, he had successively been
tion of the old religious communities, the teacher of Halberstadt, a famous Saxon
In Normandythe same period the middle (German) cathedral abbot of St. at
; Mary
of the eleventh century was especially Florence then a ;
monk of the highest

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I ES^SS^&s
CHARTER OF WILLIAM II. GRANTING TO THE CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTHR THE MANOR
w ton nu?tnl.Si SH -f vnw6n
J -
.

OF HEDREHAN (BUCKS) AND THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY, LAMBETH.

Witnessed by Lanfrnnc, Archbishop nf Canterbury ; Thomas, Archbishop of York ; Remigius, Bishofi of Lincoln;
Walcelin, Bishop of Winchester ; Maurice, Bishop of London ; Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury ; Robert, Bishop of
Hereford; Baldwin, Abbot of St. Edmunds ; Henry, brother oj the king- (afterwards Henry /.), etc. A.D. 1088.
(British Museum.)

fruitful in the foundation of monasteries repute for learning and sanctity at the
and a revival of and vigour in the life Norman monastery of Fecamp. He was
church. Avranches, Bee, and other one of the foremost instruments in the
centres had become the resort of learned regeneration of the Norman church, and
and devout men, and were attracting under him the great cathedral of Rouen
their crowds of pupils some of them was completed.
from distant countries, especially from By far the most famous and able, how-
122 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1039 1060.

ever, of the men of the new Norman And, thirdly, Lanfranc comes before us
church school was a scholar of the Italian as the great reorganiser and remodeller of

city of Pavia, England whom in later days the Norman Church of England. We have
knew and honoured under the name of commented on the singular dearth of emi
Lanfranc the archbishop. Lanfranc s name nent men of the first rank in the English

will ever rank among the foremost of the Church during the reign of Canute and
illustrious men connected with the Church his sons, and of Edward the Confessor. In
of England. He comes before us in three Lanfranc we have one of those true great
distinct characters. ones, who, like Theodore and Wilfrid,
Firstly, he was the minister of that king Alfred and Dunstan, through their
portion of the reign of duke William of own individuality infused a nobler spirit
Normandy which was principally occupied into the church of which they were
with making preparations for the invasion members, and gave it new life and power
of England. He was the duke s chief ad and long enduring influence.
viser at that time. It was Lanfranc, strange His story is of singular interest. He was
to say, who before all others encouraged his born in the first year of the eleventh
master to make the daring attempt, and who century, his father being an eminent Lom
carefully formulated the Norman claim to bard lawyer, of the northern Italian city of
the English crown. It was Lanfranc whose Pavia, and his years of early manhood were
rare skill in diplomacy and statecraft con spent in following with distinction the
verted what really was a reckless, daring same calling. Rarely gifted, with tireless

invasion of a peaceful country an invasion perseverance, eloquence, and a strangely

in no respects more justifiable than that of winning personality, a singularly prosper
the Scandinavian Harold Hardrada, which ous,though perhaps an uneventful career
ended so disastrously near the walls of seemed to lie before the young scholar
York into a religious war, carried on lawyer. In the year 1039, however, when
under the direct sanction of the highest about thirty-five years old, he left Pavia and
authority in Christendom, under the sacred took up his abode in Norman Avranches.
shadow of the gonfanon of the saintly Various reasons have been alleged for this
Pope of Rome. migration from the country of his birth ;

Secondly, Lanfranc comes before us as possibly his prospects were marred owing
the foremost champion of that strange to some change in the political circum
doctrine of transiibstantiation, which all stances of his native city, and he deter

through the Middle Ages exercised so mined to seek his fortune in that Norman
mighty an influence over the fortunes of realm, then becoming famous in Europe.
the church of that doctrine which is still
; After his migration into Normandy, very
exercising its strange and marvellous fas rapidlygrew the reputation of the brilliant
cination over a great section of the Catholic and eloquent scholar. He was acknow
church, the concluding chapter of its ledged to be one of the profoundest Greek
eventful story still
belonging to the history scholars north of the Alps, and his school
of the future. at Avranches by the sea was soon thronged
1039
- io6o.] EARLY LIFE OF LANFRANC. 123

with pupils. But the mere fame
teacher and scholar soon palled upon Lan-
franc. He longed after nobler aims, and
for a more spiritual and higher life than
the position of a mere teacher, however
of a Anselm, two of our greatest English arch
bishops, who take rank among the greatest
of the sons of our proud Church of England.
These are the sad remains of Bec-Hellouin,
a monastery which for some seven hundred

sought after, enabled him to lead. So of a years was reckoned as one of the richest
sudden we find him forsaking Avranches and most illustrious of the religious houses
and the famous school which he had founded of Europe. Modern France has ruthlessly
there, and determining to join the ranks destroyed the mighty church round which
of one of those many monastic commu the monastery was built a church one ;

nities at that time rising into repute in of the noblest in France. The great re
Normandy. He chose for his novitiate a ligious house has become a vast depot for
house comparatively undistinguished in the cavalry horses but its undying memories
;

great world, but which, among earnest no people, no government, however care
and devout men, was known for the simple less of its great traditions, will ever be
austerity of its inmates. able to
wipe out. Herlwin (Hellouin),
Some thirty miles from Rouen, a little the founder of the once famous house of
to the east of the ruins of the old donjon prayer and study, was a Norman noble,
of Brionne, so rich in memories of the world-weary, who, in the days of duke
Normandy of the dukes and their turbulent William the Conqueror, built the first

vassals, rises a long wood -covered the banks of the

hill. little
monastery by
The traveller from Rouen to Caen passes flowing Bee. In its early days it was but
it often without observation, but the scholar a small, unknown society of religious men,
who would visit the scene of the most very poor, and very austere and simple
richly storied shrine in the north of France in its life. Thither came the famous
will do well to rest awhile at the little Pavian scholar Lanfranc, seeking some
Brionne town. After wandering for about thing higher than the applause of his
an hour through the wood of Brionne he many scholars in his Avranches school.
will come suddenly upon a quiet secluded
"

Manual labour was the principal em

valley, in the midst of which runs a clear ployment of the holy house of Bee. Hard
winding brook or bee. A lofty graceful and fast Herlwin its abbot worked, aiding
tower at once will catch his eye ;
then he with his own hands the building of his
will noticethe ruins of a long wall, which rapidly growing house, except
when chant
has evidently once enclosed a vast group ing in the choir, or partaking of the one
of buildings the remains of these build
;
coarse meal he grudged himself.
which
ings, now sadly disfigured, and curiously You would always find Abbot Herlwin dig
the
and sadly adapted into modern covered ging and delving, or his hand grasping
as Lanfranc
sheds and stables, to the eye resembling a spade, or with hod on shoulder,
vast farm, occupy the centre of the little found him, all begrimed with mortar, en
Bee or Brook. This Bec- at vaulting an oven." Lanfranc so
valley of the is gaged
Hellouin, once the home of Lanfranc and runs the story humbly made his obeisance
I2 4 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10391060.

Herlwin asked him what he lable of docere, thus. Lanfranc obeyed at

to the abbot.
wanted. Lanfranc replied that he sought once. Very soon, however, it was noised
the cowl.
"

Herlwin, trowel in hand, desired abroad that Lanfranc of Pavia, the famous

a monk to bring the volume containing teacher of Avranches, had become a monk

the rigid rules of the society, and the at Bee. Then flocked to that hitherto un
to the com known and humble house of God, numbers
stranger was duly admitted
* of students from all parts eager to learn from
munity/

RECEPTION OF LANFRANC BY HERLWIN.

Strange stories are told about the great the greatest scholar in France. Lanfranc
scholar s life at first at Bee. It was a poor was eventually induced to become prior of
unlearned community., and they guessed the house, under Herlwin, the abbot and
not that a mighty man of letters had taken founder. Bee became soon the resort of

refuge from the world and the flesh within clerks and men of noble birth, of even
their holy walls. One day, when reading sons of princes. The poor abbey was
in his turn to his brother monks in the quickly enriched with gifts, thanks to the

refectory, the prior corrected his reading, presence of the renowned brother who had
and bade the late teacher of the famous in all
humility joined their community.
Avranches school shorten the second syl- His fame reached the ears of duke
*
Normandy and William, who, struck with his great learning,
"

Palgrave :
England."
1064.] LANFRANC AND WILLIAM. 125

and perhaps still more with his evident ban of the church for several years. The
capacity, made him his trusted friend and two stately abbeys of Caen, which William
counsellor. The friendship between the and Matilda built, are still in existence, and
duke and the monk was, however, soon serve as an enduring memorial of Lan-
interrupted. William had married Matildaj franc s influence at Rome. More than
the daughter of count Baldwin of Flanders. 800 years have passed, but these famous
There is no doubt that
was a love this churches of expiation have outlived all the
marriage, upon which William had set his changes of these many years, and in their
heart but there was a bar which could
;
severe and perfect beauty tell us of the
not be got over.
What that bar was
is uncertain ;
most
probably some rela
tionship existed be
tween William and
Matilda, distant cer
tainly, but still suffi

cient to afford ca
nonical objection to
the marriage. Mal-
ger, the arch-
bishop of Rouen,
who was subse
it
quently deposed,
is believed, though
not quite certain,
excommunicated ABBAYE AUX DAMES, CAEN.
William in conse {This was Matilda s Church of Expiation.]

quence ;
even Lan-
franc the scholar gravely censured the duke, skill^nd taste of the Norman architects
and for a season there was enmity between of William s day.
the friends. Lanfranc, however, consented Lanfranc, who became the first abbot of
to plead the duke s cause at Rome, and pro St. Stephen of Caen, William s abbey, rose

mised to win Pope Nicholas II. s forgive higher than ever in the counsels of the
ness of William and Matilda s sin against great duke, and in the momentous period
church ordinances. The embassy was suc which immediately preceded the conquest
cessful, and the chief pontiff s blessing on of England, was the minister and adviser
the uncanonical marriage was eventually who guided and directed the whole Nor
obtained, upon the condition of the duke man policy. As we have said, it was Lan-
and duchess each founding a monastery of franc s skill and wise statecraft which gave
expiation they were, however, under the
: to the invasion of England the character
126 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1045.

of a holy war, waged under the direct ap of the tenth century in the churches of the

probation and blessing of the chief pontiff continent of Europe. In England, however,
of western Christendom at Rome. We shall as we have seen from the autnoritative

meet with the scholar and statesman-monk works of Elfric, it was not received by the
next, as the first Norman archbishop of Anglo-Saxon church. What was, however,
Canterbury. ^floating doctrine, largely accepted, though
not as yet authoritatively acknowledged,
It is, however, the position which Lan- became crystallised in the middle of the
franc, before he came to England as eleventh century, very largely through the

archbishop, took up with reference to a influence of the learned and powerful

church doctrine involving questions of the Lanfranc, the favourite minister of duke
highest importance, which especially in William of Normandy.
terests us in our story of the Church of The year 1000 witnessed the birth of
England. He became the leading advocate Berengar. This celebrated man we hear
and teacher of the new view which church of as a teacher at Tours in 1035, a d m
men were taking of the holy Eucharist, the year 1045 he had already acquired
and which had, when it was generally some considerable notoriety as an op
accepted as a- Catholic doctrine, so momen ponent of the new Eucharistic doctrine
tous an influence upon the church and her which was rapidly gaining ground in the
power over the souls of men. And his teaching of the church. His celebrated
subsequent elevation to the primacy letter Lanfranc, then master of the
to
of the English church, gave him the school of Bee, seems to have brought

amplest opportunities of stamping his the question to a crisis, and from this
views respecting the sacrament of the time Lanfranc stands out as the prominent
Eucharist permanently upon the teaching defender of the new view. I have been
"

of the great Anglo-Norman church over runs

the letter of Berengar
"

told so
which he was called to preside. of Tours Brother Lanfranc, that you
"

We have already treated of the genesis have actually pronounced as heretical the
of this doctrine, which still is so strangely opinions of John Scotus (Erigena), in

influencing the opinions and claims of so
many of the ministers of the Catholic church.
As early as 826, Paschasius
monastery of Corbey, had boldly formulated
the doctrine, afterwards so widely received
under the well-known name of Transub-
which he differs from Paschasius Radbert.
Now, if this be the case, you have pro
Radbertus of the nounced a judgment rash and unworthy
of the powers of mind with which God
has endowed you. You have not as yet
"

grounded yourself in Holy Scripture, or

stantiation ;
"

and Radbertus new views conferred much with

had been earnestly opposed by such eminent
men as Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of
Mainz, Johannes Scotus Erigena, Ratramn,
and others. The doctrine, notwithstanding,
gradually gained an ascendency in the course
who have those
been more diligent in Scriptural studies
than yourself. If you reckon John (Eri
gena) a heretic, whose opinions on the
Eucharist I (Berengar) maintain, you
must be supposed to count as heretics
1050 1070.] LANFRANC AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 127

Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, not to upon the doctrine, to remember that

mention others." Hildebrand, in spite of the almost uni
This public challenge threw the gauntlet church of his day in
versal feeling of the
down. Lanfranc took it up, and a series the matter, never could be brought to
of church synods and councils discussed brand Berengar as a heretic. Indeed,
the question, now made a vital point of the reproach has been thrown at the

orthodoxy. At Rome in the year 1050, head of this foremost son of the Church
and again at Vercelli, at Brionne in of Rome the chief maker of her awful

Normandy, near Bee, in 1051, at Tours and far-reaching power that he himself
in 1054, again at Rome in 1059, and later doubted the real bodily presence of the
at Poitiers in 1075, at Rome in 1078-9, body and blood of the Redeemer in the
were the views of Berengar condemned sacrament,
"

infidelis est"

with more or less severity, and the Lanfranc of Bee, of St. Stephen s, of
doctrine of transubstantiation, of which Caen, of Canterbury, triumphed; and the
Lanfranc was the ardent advocate, affirmed. doctrine of transubstantiation, first forged
Lanfranc s celebrated treatise on The "

in the workshops of the abbey of Corbey

Body and Blood Lord was written
of the
"

by an unknown brother, known in history

and put out between 1063 and 1070. In as Paschasius Radbert the doctrine which
it he reproves Berengar for spreading his teaches men "

that the priest has the

*
errors, and boldly asserts his own recep making God
1 1

power of passed into the

tion of the doctrine as formulated by doctrinal treasure-house of the Catholic
Paschasius Radbertus. It is maintained church of the West ;
and with it a new
that it was this treatise which for the first and mighty source of sacerdotal authority,
time established transubstantiation and all sacerdotal wealth, sacerdotal dominion.
its consequences in the church. It was not long before it reached our
must, however, not be assumed that
It shores. The ink of the first draft of

Berengar s views were by any means Lanfranc s famous treatise on "

The Body
universally rejected. He seems on more and Blood of the Lord "

was scarcely dry,

than one occasion to have temporised, when Lanfranc s master crossed the narrow
but it is clear that he held fast to his silver streak which parted his Normandy
opposition to Lanfranc to the last, dying from Harold s England, with that great
in the year 1088. His memory was long host sheltered by the sacred gonfanon of
reverenced in the Tours, and
district of the Pope of Rome. Where William went,
down to late times there was a yearly Lanfranc was sure to follow. In the year

solemnity at his tomb. Moreover, on this 1070, less than four years after the fight

great question the opinions of Hildebrand at Hastings, Stigand, the Anglo-Saxon

(Gregory VII.) are doubtful. Holding, as archbishop, was

deposed, as formally
he did, the greatest position of power and might have been expected, by the action
influence in the church all through this of a council, with the sanction of the

period, it is of the deepest interest to Norman king of England and the Pope
in all the later burning discussions * Dean Milman "

Latin
us, :
Christianity."
128 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1070.

of Rome, and Lanfranc was placed in the legates sat with the English king to guide
vacant chair of the primacy of England. and assist this work.
With the great Norman archbishop the He began with the bishoprics. The
doctrine of transubstantiation, of course, primate throne of York was just vacant.
s

became part of the formal teaching of Aldred, the Saxon archbishop, was dead.
the Church of England. But when, in In his room William appointed Thomas,
the sixteenth century, another teaching a canon of his brother Odo s see of
on the Eucharistic Presence took its Bayeux, a man of high and stainless

place, this was no new thing to Eng character. From this time onward, all

land. The teaching of the reformers in through William s reign, as English

SEAL OF WILLIAM" THE CONQUEROR.

this matter was, as we have shown, simply bishops died, or were from various reasons
a return to the old paths in which the deposed, Normans-
strangers generally
fathers of the
Anglo-Saxon church had took their place. At the time of the king s

walked, and which Elfric in the last years death, in 1087, only one of the English
of the tenth century had so
clearly and bishops remained, the saintly Wulfstan,
unmistakably marked out. of Worcester.
In the same year, 1070 some say at
It was Lent of the year 1070
in the a council held at Windsor archbishop
when the Conquest was virtually com Stigand was formally deposed, the three
pleted that William in a solemn assembly Roman legates acquiescing. Charges of
at Winchester commenced the work of accusation the old Anglo-Saxon
against
remodelling the government and discipline arch-prelate were easily framed. Sti-
of the English church. For the first time gand s ecclesiastical position, as we have
in the history of England, three Papal seen, even when Edward and Harold
I07o.] FALL OF ARCHBISHOP STIGAND. 129

reigned, was ever a doubtful matter. No to pursue those studies he loved so well,
acknowledged Pope had ever granted him and to which he had consecrated the best
the cherished insignia of the pall. But years of his life, to occupying the uneasy
his real crime in William s eyes was that throne of an archbishop, with all its

he was too deeply attached to

Anglo-Saxon usages ever to
submit to the new state of

things. His throne, too, was

sorely wanted for Lanfranc.
It was a sorrowful ending for

the old man, who for so many

years had filled the chief

place in his beloved church.

Condemned to perpetual cap

tivity in the strong castle of

Winchester he was, some think,
done to death by hard and
cruel usage.* Stigand was re
proached with parsimony, with
refusing to betray the secret
of vast treasures he still pos
sessed. When literally starved
to death, men say that on
his shrunken person was
found the key of a cellar
where his hoard was deposited
a secret which he had in life

refused to betray. His place

was filled by Lanfranc, who
was now arbiter of the fortunes
of the Church of England.
Lanfranc was a great scholar
and theologian, a wise and Photo : Neitrdin.

astute a devoted THE NAVE, ST. STEPHEN S, CAEN.

statesman,
friend and admirer of William
of Normandy. But he evidently preferred accompanying cares and ceaseless troubles.
to play the part of minister, of the trusted Already had he refused to be archbishop
adviser of his sovereign, with some leisure of Rouen, and at first he steadily declined
the vacant chair at Canterbury. But
* Some writers, however, describe his imprison
ment as wanting these harsher features embodied
William was determined that his friend

in our text. and chief adviser should take in hand

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1070 1089.

the work of remodelling the powerful the early days of the Conquest. No truer

church of conquered England. At this friend to the vanquished Anglo-Saxon race

time Lanfranc was abbot of the ne\ abbey lived in those stormy days, than the wise
of St. Stephen at Caen, and it was indeed and generous scholar-statesman Lanfranc.
with great reluctance that he left that His entire devotion to the country he had

quiet home, where he was loved and reluctantly adopted as his own, in spite of
honoured, for Canterbury, where his life the momentous changes in the church of
must in future be spent in the midst of a which he was the chief pastor, and for
sullen people, and surrounded by stranger which changes he was mainly responsible,
ecclesiastics, who would view all his acts was amply recognised even in his own
with suspicion, if not with dislike. It lifetime. The memory of Lanfranc s career
needed all the strong pressure of his as archbishop one of the brightest of
is

master, king William, all the influence the many noble and true traditions of the
of queen Matilda, the expressed wishes, Church of England.
if not the actual command, of Pope One of his first cares was the rebuilding
Alexander II., to induce the scholar- of his own
metropolitan church. Only
statesman to accept the hard and difficult seven years were spent in the work. Lan

charge vacated by Stigand. franc took as his model his own loved
It was a gloomy beginning, too, for church of St. Stephen of Caen. The
Lanfranc in Canterbury for the cathedral
; church, when finished, was in all respects
had been lately destroyed by fire, and his a minster of the Norman type. The
consecration was performed in a rough building thus raised was carefully enriched
and temporary church. Only nine of his with every ornament known in that age,
suffragans were present. Before him, in and the skill of the goldsmith and the
deed, lay a difficult and thankless task. painter were lavishly bestowed on this, the
But the choice of William, and his per firstgreat Norman church built after the
sistency in forcing Lanfranc to accept this Conquest. But little, however, of Lan
nomination, was justified. For nineteen franc s work remains in the present superb
years the Italian monk-scholar filled what and stately cathedral of Canterbury, which
was perhaps the most difficult and arduous was almost entirely reconstructed on a far
post in the church of the west. During grander and more imposing scale in the
his English career he remodelled the days of his great successor, Anselm. In
church of the conquered island, and yet his own city he largely increased the
contrived to win an almost universal love numbers of the monks at Christ Church,
and admiration among the conquered and gradually introduced a severer dis
people. He became in England a true cipline in the community. He built

Englishman, and that without forfeiting
the friendship and confidence of William.
As his trusted adviser, in a hundred ways
he was enabled to soften, if not to change,
the harsh measures too often adopted in
hospitals for the sick and the poor, rebuilt
the archiepiscopal palace, and carefully set
in order the temporal affairs of the see.
But the work of Lanfranc extended over
a far wider area. He was something more
1070 1089.] RE-ORGANISATION OF THE CHURCH.
than a wise and prudent bishop. Under measure of the reign of William the
him the whole government and policy of Conqueror, and the one that had
the
the Church of England underwent a great most far-reaching influence, was the sepa
and momentous change. The old English ration of the church jurisdiction from

church, under the Anglo-Saxon kings, the secular business of the courts- of law.
was most distinctly national. The reforms The bishop and the archdeacon no longer
of Lanfranc weakened the insular inde held ecclesiastical pleas in the hundred

pendence of England, and made her court, but held courts of their own. Causes
church less national, but more like the connected with spiritual matters were hence
continental churches of the west in forth triedby canonical, not by customary
Gaul and Italy, and enormously con law ;
no spiritual question came before lay
tributed towards the growth of Papal men, as judges. The bishop no longer, as
claims. Losing much of its insular in the days of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs,
and character, the Anglo- sat with the aldermen in the assembly of
independent
Norman Church was started on a new the shire as joint president. He presided
career. The moment was singularly pro in his own court, where ecclesiastical causes

pitious for bringing about this

change. were alone tried. When he sat in the

Independently of all special circumstances popular assemblies it was as a baron rather

attendant upon the great Conquest, and than as a bishop. The
archbishop hence
the consequent change of government, the forth held his synod distinct from the great

Church of England at the time of the Gemot, or assembly of the realm. The
coming of the Normans was no doubt effect was to separate in a great
of this

wanting in vigour and energy. The re degree the life of the church from the
vival of life and energy under Dunstan and national life. It created new aspirations,

his school had worn itself out. The time new thoughts on the part of ecclesiastics ;

was come for a new and vigorous revival ; making them members rather of a great
but Lanfranc did more than merely raise foreign empire, whose chief and ruler re
the standard of the Church of England sided in Rome, than members of a national

intellectually and morally he changed its :

church, whose interests were closely bound
entire position as regards the state, and up with those of their own country.
altered completely its ancient relations with (2) The Church of England under
the Roman see. The Church of England Lanfranc, was brought into much closer

for more than four centuries and a half dependence on the see of Rome. In

virtually ceased to be a national church, Anglo-Saxon times the only acknowledg

and, on her ecclesiastical side, became a ment of dependence on the part of the
English church was the of a
province of a foreign empire. payment
The principal changes introduced by the tribute ot a penny on every hearth, a tax
Normans were as follows *
: which was collected and sent to Rome
(i) The most important ecclesiastical from the beginning of the tenth century,
* and
under the general name of Peter s pence.
Compare Stubbs "Const. Hist.," ch. ix.,
Freeman s "Norman Conquest," ch. xix. The origin and purpose of this singular
$32 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1070 1089.

payment is somewhat doubtful. It seems at the hands of the Roman bishop. The
have originated with Offa, king interference of legates from Rome, which,
really to
of Mercia, who instituted the payment after the Norman conquest, perpetually
exercised so great and baleful an influence
on the government and policy of the
English church, was virtually unknown in
Anglo-Saxon days. There was no Roman
legation before the days of Offa, in 787, and
there are only scanty vestiges of such inter
ference for the next three centuries. Few
traces indeed of Roman influence can be
noted in Anglo-Saxon history and where- ;

ever interference on the part of Rome was

attempted it was resisted. Dunstan, for

instance, even refused to obey a papal

sentence.
But directly after the coming of the
Normans all this was changed. Legates
from Rome, possessing a great though per
haps at first an undefined authority, now
make their appearance in England. Three
of these foreign officials were present at the
council held after the completion of the

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. Conquest, in A.D. 1070, when archbishop

(Front an Old Relief in Chichester Cathedral, late nth or Stigand was deposed, and other grave
early iztJt Century.)
ecclesiastical changes were made and gave ;

when, with the assistance of the Roman to the proceedings of this important as

bishop, he founded the arch-see of Lich- sembly, the weight of the approval and
field which, however, soon ceased to exist sanction of the Roman see.
as a rival to the arch-see of
Canterbury. (3) "A sterner and more ascetic way of

Probably payment was in some way,

this
livingwas gradually introduced into the
too, connected with the maintenance of Church of England by Lanfranc and his
the English school in Rome, and the Norman The
suffragans. long-disputed
frequent presence of English pilgrims to question of the marriage of the clergy was
the hallowed sanctuaries of the Eternal
again prominently brought to the front by
City. the Normanarchbishop. The reforms of
The only other acknowledgment on the Dunstan and the men of his school had in
part of the Anglo-Saxon church of the England largely fallen into abeyance, and
supremacy of Rome, was the reception of marriage among the clergy in the later
the sacred emblem of the pall by the days of the Anglo-Saxon rule was very
English archbishops after their appointment, customary. It will be remembered, in our
Photo ; Charles H. Barden, Chi chester.

CHICHESTER : THE CATHEDRAL, MARKET CROSS, AND TOWER

15
1070 1089.] ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES. 133

sketch of the reforms attempted and largely London were already in the hands of
carried out in foreign churches in this the foreigners. After the year 1070 only two
eleventh century, how rigidly this question sees retained native bishops henceforth ;

of celibacy was pressed and enforced. the bishops and most of the abbots were
Lanfranc was intensely convinced of the Norman. The Conqueror s bishops were,
advantage and even of the solemn duty of however, generally good and able men,
this rigorous abstinence on the part of though un-English in character and the ;

ecclesiastics of all degrees ;

but was too wise, various changes were brought about in
perhaps too kindly natured, to press his the church without harshness or oppres
views here with all severity. He passion sion. Lanfranc s wise and holy influence
ately desired it as a rule of ecclesiastical over his suffragans cannot be over
life, but he set to work cautiously. He estimated.

began with the canons of cathedral and Nine years after the Conquest began a
qther capitular churches. To the capitular long series of changes in the sites of epis
clergy under the Norman rule marriage copal sees, which were gradually completed
was absolutely forbidden, without reserve
or exemption even those already married
;

were called on to separate from their

wives ;
but a milder discipline was at
first enforced on the parochial clergy,
and some relaxation of the stern edicts
of Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) was
allowed by the legislation of Lanfranc.
But this relaxation of a rule intended to
be enforced was only temporary, and the
future was carefully provided for. Those
priests who were
not already married were
strictly enjoined not to marry, and the

bishops were strictly warned against ordain

ing married men.
(4) has been already mentioned that
It

among the changes in the English church

after the coming of the Normans, the

Anglo-Saxon prelates were speedily re

moved to make way for foreigners. Stigand
of Canterbury was deposed, York and Lich-
CHRIST VISITING MARTHA AND MARY.
field were vacant by death, Dorchester had (From a late nth or early utA Century Relief in Ch chesttr
Cathedral.)
been filled up since the battle of Hastings by
Remigius, the monk of Fecamp. The bishop during the reigns of the first two Norman
of Durham was removed as guilty of treason. kings. In a council held at St. Paul s in
Hereford, Wells, Ramsbury, Exeter, and London, it was directed that the site of
134 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10701089.

sees, hitherto often placed in villages or were stationed in Britain before the coming
small towns, should be removed to cities. of the North-folk.*

In most cases these changes have endured

in the Church of England all through the
eight hundred years which have elapsed
since the days of the Norman William.
The seat of the united sees of Sherborne
and Ramsbury was moved to Old Salis
bury. (The present New Salisbury was
only adopted as the bishop s home in
1 22 1.)
Selsey, the old seat of the South
All these changes which the coming
of the Norman brought upon England, as
years went on, were in a way forgotten.
The new sees, the new ways of govern
ment, the separation of the intimate and
peculiar connection which in Anglo-Saxon
times had existed between the state and the
church: all this eventually settled down,

Saxon bishopric, was now changed for and men forgot that there had ever been
Chichester. Chester was substituted for a time when these things were not. The
Lichfield, but Chester was soon deserted greatest change of all, that which formally
for Coventry,and Coventry and Lichfield acknowledged the right of the bishop of
were acknowledged as joint seats of the Rome to interfere and to act as judge in
north-western Mercian see. Remigius, the grave matters pertaining to the church,
monk of Fecamp, who as a reward for his and which effectually placed the Church of
energy at the time of the Conquest re England beneath the yoke of Rome, after
ceived the see of Dorchester, the old seat some four centuries and a half, was again
of the famous missionary Birinus, near swept away by a series of unlooked-for

Oxford, and whose vast diocese stretched events, and once more the Church of
far to the north, reaching from the Thames
England became a purely national church.
to the Humber, chose as his new home One feature which the coming of the "

the hill of Lincoln, on the summit of Normans bestowed on the Church of

"

which he built the first proud cathedral, England has remained, however, all through
dying only a few hours before the con the eventful centuries through the suc ;

secration of his new and lordly minster- cessive Norman, Plantagenet, and Tudor
church. Elmham, long the episcopal seat through the desolation of the
dynasties,
of the East Anglian prelates, gave Wars of the Roses, and the yet greater
place to
Thetford, but before the close of the cen misery of the wars of the great Rebellion.
tury Thetford was exchanged by the great That is, the number of mighty Norman
building bishop Herbert of Losinga for the churches. They are with us still,
in all
eastern rival of Exeter and Winchester, the their changeless solemn beauty, bearing
populous and wealthy Norwich. Lastly, their voiceless testimony to the long and
the little city of Wells ceased for a season
splendid story of the Church of England,
to give a home and name to the Norman so indissolubly bound up with the life and
prelate of Somerset, who more
naturally well-being of the nation. we speak When
chose as his episcopal seat the time- of the
"

coming of the and of

Normans,"
honoured city of Bath, the famous Aquas the momentous changes which the one
Solis of the
days when Roman legionaries
* See Stubbs :
"

Const. Hist." ch. ix.

1070 1 089-] NORMAN CHURCH-BUILDING. 135

great battle and the conquest which fol especially to that age ;
for in England,
lowed brought upon the English people with comparatively
%
few
exceptions, all
and their church, few realise how far- those vast piles dedicated to the service of

reaching in their effects many of these God, which for well-nigh eight hundred
changes really were but ;
when we
point to years have been the pride and glory of the
our great cathedrals, to our lordly abbeys, Church of England, arose in the time of
all of them due to the new spirit infused William the Conqueror and his archbishop
into the hearts of churchmen by that Lanfranc, or in the years immediately
wonderful race of conquerors, the appeal following. In not a few of these stupendous
at once goes home, and the greatness of houses of prayer and teaching, the taste or
the Norman and his work is
recognised by want of taste of succeeding generations has
the mass of our people, who have scant changed, improved or spoiled, the grand
leisure to study and to grasp the teachings work and simple decoration of the first
of the many-hued pages of the civil or master builders. But the plan and the
religious history of our country. design, and in some notable instances the

Very soon after the settlement of Eng bulk of the original work of the majority of

land, which began directly the Conquest our noblest minster churches, remain as in
was fairly complete, in the year 1070, the the great building days of Lanfranc and his

great work of building began. Almost the school.

firstthing taken in hand by the Norman As men gaze on these vast piles, some of
prelate after he had taken possession of his them beautiful and strong as in those far-
see, was to commence the building of a back days when William the Conqueror
new and stately cathedral. Nor was it and Matilda his queen took counsel with
only the bishops in not a few instances
: their wise friend Lanfranc, they naturally
the Norman abbot of an important English and wonderingly ask, Whence came the gold
monastery would show a like zeal in con needful for all these stupendous and enduring

verting the old church of his house into a works ? acknowledged to have been
It is

lordly abbey-church. Such churches had an age of rare and exceptional genius, an age
never been seen in England before while ;
which produced architects and builders of
even in Europe, north of the Alps, only in singular device and exceptional power but;

a few instances, in famous centres, in cities still the question presses, Whence came the

such as Rheims or Toulouse centres round vast resources requisite for so many and

which clustered the story of many cen forsuch enormous and superb works ? We
turies were houses of God to be seen of may reply with very little hesitation, that
a magnitude and magnificence to be com the and the abbots to whose
prelates

pared with -those minster-churches which, loving care far-seeing genius we

and
at the bidding of the Norman adventurers, owe these glorious abbey-churches,
were

arose on the hill of Lincoln, on the cliff of assisted by a deep feeling of remorse which

Durham, in the fen lands of Ely, or in the took possession of the Conqueror and his
of his knightly
Severn-watered meadows of Gloucester. queen, and many another
These mighty prayer -houses belonged comrades remorse for the deeds of blood
;
 136 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1070 1089.

and violence which, alas accompanied the

! famous West-Minster abbey, monastery
:

Norman conquest ;
remorse for the wide and palace, then gleaming in all its white

spread misery which their greed of gain and beauty by the broad silvery Thames, hard
lust of power had brought upon hapless by the great city, with its triple towers,

England. its long nave with its massy columns, its

To this feeling, more deep-seated than gold and gem-encrusted shrines, its wealth
has been usually supposed, was owing of colour and shining gold on roof
no doubt a considerable portion of the and pillar, radiant with allthe beauty
enormous sums of money given to the which cunning sculptor and skilful artist
bishops and the abbots by the king and from foreign lands, in the service of a king
his Norman barons, in the years which like the Confessor, at once wealthy and

immediately followed the days of the devout, could

Conquest. These Norman cathedrals and devise.

abbeys were cathedrals and abbeys of ex Lanfranc,

piation. Nor was the undreamed-of wealth who found the
and treasure given by these mighty and cathedral in
successful Norman men-at-arms, alone ruins, set the
devoted to those grand cathedrals and example at
lordly abbey-churches which are the chief Canterbury,
outward ecclesiastical glories of our land. and in the too
The gold thus given was far more than short space of
was needed even for these stupendous works, seven years
on which we gaze with mingled wonder
still raised his
and admiration. Vast wealth was given metropolitan
by the Norman chiefs to the Benedictines church from
"

NORMAN MOULDING, DURHAM

and to the other monastic orders and the ;
CATHEDRAL. its very foun
result was that more religious foundations dations, and
were established in England in the days rendered it nearly perfect, after the new
of the kings of the Anglo-Norman House, Norman manner," we are told. But
than during the whole preceding or sub his work was
necessarily hurried, and evi
sequent period of English history. For dently wanting in that stately beauty so
instance, during the nineteen years of the loved of the Normans and in his suc
;

reign of the Conqueror s nephew Stephen, cessor Anselm s days the "glorious
choir
one hundred and fifteen monasteries were of Prior Conrad" replaced the eastern
built, and one hundred and thirteen more limb of the building of William the
religious houses were founded in the reign Conqueror s minister-archbishop. Other
of his successor Henry II. cathedrals and rose in quick
abbeys
Perhaps the church of Edward the Con succession. Notable among these is the
fessor suggested this new
strange work, matchless pile erected on the bold and
supplying at once an example to be fol lofty cliff which overhangs the Wear at
lowed and a model to be copied in the Durham begun by William of Saint
10901128.] GREAT NORMAN CHURCHES. 137

Carilef in 1093, and well-nigh completed In East Anglia, in Norwich cathedral

by Ralph Flambard, the minister-bishop largely the work of bishop Herbert de
of Rufus, in A.D. 1128. It stands before Losinga, which was commenced in the

THE NAVE, NORWICH CATHEDRAL, COMMENCED A.D. 1096.

us now, much as the old Norman builders year 1096 we have the second longest
left it, simply peerless in its awful beauty : nave in England : a triumph of skilful
within and without
peihaps the finest architecture, with massive nave piers
its

church in England, some think in the rising up seventy feet, presenting to the
world. eye a marvellous vista of two tiers of
138 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10931128.

dream is the cathedral

of St. Hugh, yet some
of us who love well
the unequalled work
left to us, would be
better content if the
noble conception of

Remigius of Fecamp,
the Conqueror s friend,
still crowned the hill

of Lincoln with its

church ot simple
grandeur. On the
Wear cliff over Dur
ham, men still gaze
Photo : Frith & Co., Reigate. and wonder at the
DURHAM CATHEDRAL, FROM THE WEAR.
perfect design of the
round-headed arches, resting on Norman Norman and Flambard, and re
Carilef

shafts, with the well-known cushion and joice that no later hand, however skilful,
voluted capitals the whole scarcely has interfered with the original inspired

changed, though the colour and gold of design.

the Norman builders has vanished in all
the long centuries of wear and tear.
The grand conception of bishop
Remigius, the monk of Fecamp, who
chose with unerring eye the hill of

Lincoln, looking over the wide world,

for his is alas almost wholly
lordly seat, !

vanished, and only in the vast and

splendid wall which
forms the strong
west front of the superb pile of St. Hugh,
find we any traces of the
great house of
prayer which Remigius built, but never
prayed in, for he died strange fate only
a few hours before its solemn consecration.

There, in that gorgeously decorated lofty

wall, above which soar the graceful western
towers of the mighty
cathedral, set deep
are three rude cavernous
recesses, the only
Norman fragment left us of the eleventh
century work of Remigius. Beautiful as a THE NAVE, ELY CATHEDRAL.
10931128.] GREAT NORMAN CHURCHES. 139
In the Fen lands the hands of the great But if
Ely in its
very confusion of
Norman builders were busy
especially :
beauty has somewhat lost its original
not a little of their work remains with us. Norman character, there is another of the
In the wondrous pile of St. Etheldreda great churches of theFen country which
at Ely, not inappropriately styled the "

remains an almost perfect monument of

monarch of the Fen lands," the massive Norman industry and marvellous taste and

THE CHOIR, PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL.

and stately transepts of abbot Simeon, skill. Save in its gorgeous west front, and
brother of one of the Conqueror s first in a few less conspicuous additions of a

bishops Walkelen, of Winchester to later and more fantastic age, the great
gether with he Norman nave of a Mercian abbey of Peterborough, within
slightly later date, remind us who first and without, presents to the Englishman
designed and built that exquisite ca of the nineteenth century the most perfect

thedral, which in its

variety of style example of a mighty Norman home of
perhaps surpasses all the churches of prayer, and has been well described as
completely expressing the aims and ideals
"

England.
 140 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10931178.

of the Norman race at the apogee of its some particulars. Nowhere in Europe are
power." Nothing can be conceived more such mighty columns to be seen. Though
impressive than the long vista of huge in exquisite grace and perfect proportions
round arches, resting upon the plain Nor they fall short of Durham, or even of Peter

man pillars of the nave, rising tier upon borough and Norwich, yet in grandeur and
tierfrom the floor to the lofty roof. The majesty these vast churches stand abso
solemn repose of this Norman nave of lutely unrivalled. speak alone of the We
Peterborough almost unbroken by orna
is both these stately Norman
"naves,"
for in

ments, and yet the triple row of arches churches the east ends the choirs have

gives an appearance of richness beyond been altered to suit a later fashion.

compare. Somewhat
painful, perhaps, is In the choir of the larger and grander
the monotony of the stony whiteness ot Gloucester, the
" "

perpendicular archi
this great interior at Peterborough. But tect in the fourteenth century has left
it must be remembered, when this death comparatively untouched the massive
like hue in a measure dismays and appals, Romanesque, but has tossed, so to speak,
that the master Norman builder of the a great white veil of delicate stone
early years of the twelfth century who tracery over the low-browed arches and
raised the glorious house in the first in the round and massive pillars of the
stance, veiled much of the white stone of Norman builder ;
but only on one side of
massive arch and pillar with a wealth of the masonry. So within the choir we gaze
colour and of gold, which, alas ! has dis upon a Gothic interior of extraordinary

appeared long ago. richness, and beautiful as a dream out ;

In the south-west of the midlands, in side, and round the choir, we walk through
that country known as the Severn lands, an ambulatory where the sternest, gravest
the Norman builder was especially busy, Norman composition of round arch and
and very remarkable specimens of his massive shaft, with the well-known Norman
handiwork yet remain in the noble abbeys capitals and mouldings, tells the wondering
of Gloucester and student of architecture that, after all, in
Tewkesbury. Singularly
little interfered with
by the vast lapse of spite of the marvels of the later Gothic
time eight hundred years the imposing choir, with its walls of -cunning lace- work,
Norman naves of Gloucester and its twin with its vast
transparent tapestry of glass
sister at with
Tewkesbury, their lofty closing the eastern end, the great pale grey
arcades of gigantic columns, crowned
abbey of the Severn lands was really the
with huge round arches of the well-known work of the s builders.
Conqueror
Romanesque type, bear their everlasting We have lingered long and lovingly over
witness to the daring and these great churches built by William and
splendid con
ceptions of the great Norman building his archbishop Lanfranc and his school,
abbots of the end of the eleventh because we could point to these matchless
century.
Gloucester, and its sister
abbey of Tewkes creations in stone still with us, after so
bury, on a slightly smaller scale, stand long a lapse of time, preserving their
alone among great Norman churches in inimitable beaut}1 their matchless grace,
,
10701089] GREAT NORMAN CHURCHES.
and, above all, their religiousness as part was emphatically not the teaching of the
of the work of the Norman reviser and Anglo-Saxon theologians. The Normans
remodeller of the Anglo-Saxon church, also enforced a rigorous rule of celibacy

Well-nigh all else has disappeared. They among the clergy. All this passed away
found here a powerful Christian church, again in the upheaval of the sixteenth
purely national, absolutely independent, century. Once more the church became

THE NAVE, GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.

closely bound up with the civil life of an English church exclusively, not a mere
the people ;they remodelled it after the province of Rome. Celibacy was pressed
pattern of the other churches on the no longer. The great Eucharistic doc
continent of Europe, till it became like trine of the corporal or material presence

them, ranking as one of a great spiritual was expunged from her authoritative
federation which looked to Rome as its manuals of teaching, and in its place was
absolute chief. The great Eucharistic substituted, almost word for word, the
doctrine of the
corporal or material teaching of the authoritative manuals of
"

presence of the blessed Lord," formulated the Anglo-Saxons of the tenth century.
about the middle of the ninth century, Thus the Norman work in the English
Lanfranc introduced into England. It church, after lasting more than four
142 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10701089

centuries, wasmostly undone, and

at last which designed and built Durham and
and partly in practice,
largely in doctrine Peterborough, Norwich and St. Albans,
our church returned to the doctrine and Gloucester and Tewkesbury, and many
practice of the pre-Conquest church. another stately minster and abbey-church,
Butthe Norman abbeys and cathe enduring as it was beautiful ?
drals remained, to bear their solemn The
history is simply as follows In :

witness to Lanfranc s foresight and to Rome we are speaking now of the times
William s zeal, to their high aims and which preceded the Christian era before
ceaseless purpose in the matter of spread the days of the perpetual dictators and
ing and increasing the church s influence the great emperors, the "round arch"
among the people. Even in the majority architecture seems, certainly in large and
of those great churches, where an archi important buildings, to have been in
tecture of a more ornate and later date common As time went on, the Roman
use.
seems to point to another race of builders, people borrowed much from the Greek,
we may still trace the spirit of Lan- and amongst other things the architecture
franc and the Norman school ;
as in the of Greece so that in what is generally
;

case of such abbeys as Westminster and of and roughly termed the classical Roman
cathedrals like Lincoln, which belong ap styb of building, the old "round-arched"

parently to another school of architecture construction is more or less disguised

by
altogether. The size, the plan, and original features borrowed from Greek architecture.
design of some great Norman builder will Then came a period in Roman building
be found to have been rigidly followed, when the Greek features were cast away,
with perhaps a lew modifications, or with, and when the round-arched construction
comparatively speaking, slight additions. stood out again without any attempt at
The historian of ecclesiastical architecture disguise. A
conspicuous example of this
in England can point to very few of the round-arched *
" "

renaissance of the old "

great churches of the land which are not building is to be found in the splendid
the outcome of Norman skill and power, palace of the emperor Diocletian at
awakened by the fervid enthusiasm of Spalatro, erected with all the skill and
Lanfranc and his disciples in the eleventh taste and boundless resources of the Roman
and first half of the twelfth centuries.
empire, in the early years of the fourth
The cathedral with its From that
changeless beauty, century of the Christian era.
the great minster-church, the time onward, with various developments
stately abbey,
those noblest and fairest productions of and peculiarities of detail, the "round-
Christian art, not the least of the arched "

the as has
precious style, Romanesque, it

possessions handed down by our fathers to been generally termed, became the archi
the immemorial Church of
England, come tecture of the western world.
to us from the Normans.
When, on the gradual dismemberment
of the Roman
empire, the northern tribes
Whence did these Normans learn the overran a large portion of Europe, and
wondrous art, acquire that strange skill, gradually settled themselves in the countries
1070 1089.]
UNIFORMITY IN LITURGY. 143

had so successfully invaded, they when apparently almost limitless resources

found the round-arched"

building style
"

were placed in their hands, largely as ex

almost universally the favourite architec piatory offerings, then Norman Romanesque
ture in the various countries they appro attained its full development, in those

priated. They developed it with different magnificent and lordly churches erected in
features in their several adopted countries. England during the later years of the Con
New forms, independent de
fresh and queror, and in the course of the reigns of

velopments of the common round-arched his immediate successors so many of which,

"
"

idea, sprang up. For instance, in the

lands in part or in whole, have survived the wear
south of the Loire, forms of singular novelty and tear, the changes of art and fashion
were struck out we trace them still in the ;
for eight centuries, and which still remain

great churches of Aquitaine and Provence. the delight and wonder of our own time.

In the north of Gaul a people of rare

power, equally distinguished for their love Two important legislative measures
of daring adventure as for their ability which belong to the primacy of Lanfranc
in organisation and peaceful settlement and the reign of William the Conqueror,
in the countries they conquered, under must not be forgotten. The first of

the name of Normans, somewhat later these pieces of work exclusively concerned
established a powerful realm. These the church. There does not appear to
Normans, too, found the "

round-arched "

have been any fixed use or service " "

style the current architecture of their ever-

in the English church. A considerable

spreading dominions. Between Italy and variety in the manner of performing divine

Normandy a close connection existed. The service existed in the several dioceses.

Norman had gradually establishedalso Nor was the "use" of the cathedral or

himself as master over a large portion of mother church of the diocese always taken
southern Italy. There was a constant pas as the pattern by all the churches and
sing and repassing on the part of the soldier monasteries even in its own diocese.

and scholar between the two countries, and Varieties in the mode of chanting, arrange

apparently out of this connection between ments of certain portions of the service,

Italy and Normandy, grew the peculiar introduction or omission of collects, con
"

Romanesque
"

called Norman.* stituted a distinct use." hear of "

We
But it was not until after the conquest the "

uses of York, Hereford, Exeter, and

"

of England that this style attained its full others. The coming of the Normans,
perfection. The churches, even the most and the subsequent appointment of many
notable,built by this great people in their own Norman prelates, abbots, and priors over
Normandy were comparatively small, and the English sees and religious houses, no

usually simple in arrangement and ornament. doubt greatly contributed to this diver
But when the great Norman ecclesiastics gence in use,"
each being more or less
"

obtained sees in conquered England, and wishful to introduce into his own diocese

* and religious houses the "

use
"

to which
For further details see Freeman: "Norman

Conquest," chapters xix and xxvi. he had been accustomed.

144 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10851087.

A bitter quarrel which in the year 1083 Dorset, and subsequently this Osmund held
took place in the abbey and monastery of officeunder him as chancellor. He became

Glastonbury, attracted public attention to bishop of Sarum A.D. 1078.

the grave inconveniences occasioned by

such divergences. In the case of Glaston The second of these great measures was
embodied This
bury. the abbot Thurstan endeavoured
"

in Domesday Book."

to force upon his monks, proud of their great record is simply unique in its own
ancient house and itstime-honoured use," "

kind. It has been well said to rank as

a peculiar style of chanting invented by a national possession, side by side with
William of Fecamp. The innovation was the contemporary English Chronicle. No

stoutly resisted by the Glastonbury monks, other nation possesses such materials to
and a tumult and even bloodshed ensued, draw upon for its history. At the Witan
for the abbot called in to his assistance held at the midwinter feast at Gloucester,
armed men. In this lamentable disturbance in the year 1085, king William presided,

many of the inmates of the monastery were wearing his crowned helm, and held deep
"

wounded, and some were even killed. speech"

with his barons and chieftains.
The u "

This terrible scandal apparently suggested deep speech was the

result of this

the investigation into ritual and practice commission of inquiry which resulted in
set on foot by Osmund, bishop of Salis the great survey of England, afterwards

bury (Sarum). methodised and abstracted in the volumes

A number of clergy and persons learned of "

Domesday," which were deposited in

in ritual were gathered together, and the the royal treasury of Winchester. It still

result of their deliberations was the famous exists, as fresh and perfect as when the
"

custom book or use of Sarum," which

" "

scribe wrote it, and it is the oldest survey

was drawn up under the direction of of a kingdom now existing in the world.
bishop Osmund, under the sanction of the It bears the date A.D. 1086.

archbishop and his suffragans. This use "

Thedeep speech of William with the

" "

of Sarum was wholly or partially adopted

"

Witan, which resulted in the compilation

in various parts of the kingdom, more of Domesday Book, was held in the plain

particularly in the south of England. It vast chapter-house of Gloucester cathedral;

was generally regarded as the model ritual which, save that the apsidal east end was
of the Church of England all through the transformed and beautified in the fifteenth
Middle Ages. In the reign of king century, still remains to us scarcely changed
Edward VI. and in that of queen Elizabeth from that far-back day, when the mighty
it became the basis of our
present Book Norman Conqueror sat in all his state,
of Common The use of Sarum
Prayer.
" "

wearing his crown, with his barons and

was put out by bishop Osmund in the year
10*85. Osmund was one of the most dis
tinguished of Lanfranc
was one of the most devoted servants of
the Conqueror, who
ministers of state sitting round him, in the
Christmas feast of the year 1085. Remigius
s suffragans. He of Fecamp, bishop of Lincoln, the builder of
the Norman cathedral we have spoken of,
created him earl of was one of the four principal commissioners
r

A PAGE OF DOMESDAY BOOK. (Record Office.)

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1085.

who conducted the survey. The cali- period the Norman rule. Some sixteen

graphy of the precious volumes which years had passed since the frightful punish
we still possess betrays an Italian hand, ment had been inflicted by the Conqueror
and leads to the supposition that it was on the unhappy northern country, and in
under the inspection and direction of page after page of the Yorkshire lordships
the learned Lanfranc that the work was we read the monotonous and saddening

compiled.*
entries of
"

waste,"
"

waste." To take a

The little extract, translated page as an example, after a long string of

following
from the original Latin in which the book places, we read the following "

Omnia
was written, will give a fair idea of the wasta prceter Engelbi"* pages 305-3053.
thoroughness and completeness of this The entry of wasta " "

occurs also in
most precious document. The entry is many other places in the page which
from the Domesday survey of the county we have chosen as an instance!
of Dorset :

"XLVI. Lands of Mathew de More- Two years after the

completion of
tania. Mathew de Moretania holds Mel- the Domesday Book survey, came the end
burn of the king, Johannes held it in king of William stormy life. His
s brilliant,
Edward s time, and it was taxed for five minister and archbishop Lanfranc scarcely

hydes there is land for four ploughs, in

;
survived his loved master two years.
the demesne are two ploughs, with one The closing scenes of William s life were
villane and nine cottagers pays
;
a mill strangely interesting, and some account of

thirty-two pence ;
there are five acres of the death-scene of the Norman remodeller
meadows and six acres of coppice wood ;
of the Church of England, must find a
it was. and is, worth a hundred shillings." place in this story of ours.
(The
"

hyde
"

was variable, but consisted In our brief sketch of the fortunes of

generally of a hundred acres.) William the Norman we have, of course,

From the Domesday survey we gather mainly confined ourselves to his work and
that the number of tenants-in-chief at this influence on the church of the country he

period of the Norman rule amounted to had conquered and literally made his own
nearly seven hundred. Very few Saxon possession. After the Conquest was com
names are found in the list. The eccle pleted William was the richest and most
tenants are about two hundred and
powerful prince in Christendom. He was
siastical

fifty of the entire number. More than one- master of a large portion of France ab ;

third of the whole land of the kingdom, at solute even of

lord, possessor wealthy
the close of the Conqueror s reign was in England in a way no king before him
the hands of tlie church. had ever been, and after a fashion no king
The "

passionless record
"

of the great since has ever dreamed of being. His

Domesday survey bears also terrible witness
wealth, largely, of course, derived from
to the cruel harrying of Yorkshire and the England, was simply boundless. One who
north, which resisted for a lengthened * See asterisk in the
* photographed page given
Normandy and
"

Palgrave :
England." on p. 145.
 WILLIAM S LAST DAYS.
was privileged to look at the mighty king his horse stumbled. Fainting and sick,
in the days of his highest
prosperity and the Conqueror was borne from the ruins
grandeur, when presiding over his national of Mantes to the not distant city- of
council at one of the royal feasts, wearing Rouen. Then came on a lingering in
his royal crown, dwells upon his majestic flammation.*
and kingly presence. Nor does he, in the The old palace of the dukes of Nor
full tide of his success, in the midst of his mandy was in the heart of the great city

anxious, prosperous life, seem to have been near the river. Comparatively few travel
affected with any remorse for the untold lers now penetrate within the vast half-
misery he had wrought. This hideous ruined building of the ancient ducal palace

aspect of the Conquest was only unveiled ofRouen, which is now used as a customs
to him at the end. warehouse for stores of wine and oil ;
but
It was in the year 1083 that Matilda, his the long rows of massive Romanesque
loved queen, was taken from him. After columns which support the stonework of
that he never smiled, and his own end the vast halls are still eloquent with
was but four
years later. The petty memories of the mighty dukes. The noise
frontier war in the year 1087, in which of the busy city, the heated atmosphere
William received his lingering death- of Rouen it was summer-time were in
wound, was an unworthy and melancholy tolerable to the fevered, dying sufferer.
end to such a career as his. Some gross He was removed to the priory of St. Ger-
and insulting words spoken by the king of v vais, on a hill just outside the city, and
France concerning his increasing corpulence, there the great Conqueror went through
determined the Conqueror to execute a the long agony which preceded death.
cruel vengeance on the little frontier city Some forty days of suffering were lived
of Mantes and the smiling country which through, and never during that long-
lay around it. Mantes had previously ex drawn-out period of sore sickness did
cited his wrath owing to some border William lose his consciousness or even
forays. With a powerful array of armed his power of speech.
men he swept over the doomed district. Chroniclers and trouveurs who, on the
The trouveur and troubadour dwell with whole, were friends and admirers of the
peculiar picturesqueness on the events of great king, unite in depicting the awful
this brief invasion, so memorable in its agony of mind of William during these
consequences. They relate how the ripen lastsad days. Many bishops and abbots

ing corn and the fast-growing vintage were kept him company during that long watch.
destroyed by the Norman soldiery, how .
Curiously enough, his oldest friend and
the king ruthlessly burned the little of adviser, Lanfranc, was absent weighty :

fending city, and how in his wrath, as cares of church and state no doubt kept
he galloped through the burning ruins of him in England. Two ecclesiastics famed
Mantes, he received the fatal internal for their skill .
in surgery are specially
bruise from the tall iron pommel of his * See and
Palgrave: "Normandy England,"

saddle, upon which he was jerked as book ii., chap. xiv.

148 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1087.

mentioned among those who were with counties, the waste

"
"

entries in his too-

the king at the priory of St. Gervais by true Domesday record, the many thousands
Rouen Gilbert, bishop of Lisieux, the of the noble English nation who had
favourite court physician, and Gunthard, perished by sword or famine or in bitter
abbot of Jumieges. exile alas at his bidding
! we are almost :

quoting the chroniclers words. To

England, to that grand inheritance
jr tnm^t.^? ttgrf pmfcmoa o so won, the Conqueror dared not
flak*
appoint a successor he could only ;

leave the disposal of that crown to

MIKO q fuacamr
utatttmrf <ai&bf|}mifwi<
; the Almighty Ruler of the world. As
wfth* q$ &B ftttratn for Robert, his eldest born, Robert
as his heir had already received the
homage of the Norman barons. To
Robert certainly would fall the great

heritage of Normandy and Maine,

virtually the north and north-west
of France. But to Robert, whose
wild and wayward life, faithless and
disloyal, gave promise of a career of
disasterand shame, he would surely
never entrust England. In William
Rufus, his second son, who had been
ever loyal to him, he discerned the

signs of that future great ability

HS which distinguished the Red King
C Jfiummtr au see
in future years, but failed to

in his favourite the beginnings of

that cruelty and greedy rapacity
which surely must have disfigured
CORONATION OF WILLIAM II.

(From the Chronicle of Matthew Paris in Manchester Cathedral.) even the early years of that evil
though brilliant man.
The momentous state question which At last, however, he was induced to
principally harassed the dying man was write to Lanfranc at Canterbury, a letter
the succession to the crown of England. commending Rufus. Lanfranc the arch
For a long time he shrank from formally bishop, whom conquerors and conquered
bequeathing the splendid inheritance which alike loved and might crown
trusted,
he had won he felt now at the cost of Rufus king of England he pleased. The if

so much unspeakable woe to others. He young prince hurried with this letter to
remembered the awful slaughter of Hast Canterbury, and in due course, when the
ings, the terrible harrying of the northern Conqueror at last slept in Lanfranc s abbey
io8 7 .] THE CONQUEROR S DEATH. 149

of St. Stephen at Caen, the loved arch city, the mighty and successful king took
bishop, assisted by Thomas of York, placed careful thought as to the disposition of
on his head the blood-stained diadem of some large part at least of his vast treasure
England. hoard. Much was left to be distributed
A few more restless days followed at among the poor. Yet larger donations were

THE CONQUEROR S LAST DAYS.

St. Gervais. At the last, many noble host to be given to the many churches of his

ages and prisoners of high degree were broad realms. All the churches of England
freed from captivity. In those long, weary were to receive a rich gift ofmoney, be
summer days, while he lay slowly dying on sides sacred vessels and ornaments. One
that hill looking down on the old ducal special bequest tells of the earnestness
of
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1089.

his repentance, and how vividly the memory future greatness of England ;
and well
of special sins came up before him in his had he made amends for his share in

long-protracted agony. All the churches the counsels of preparation which went
of the hapless little city of Mantes, where before Hastings. Perhaps alone among
his horse stumbled over the burning re the Normans of the generation of the
first

mains and gave him his death-blow, were Conquest, his name would be mentioned
to be rebuilt at his cost. in his adopted country accompanied with
The final summons came to the Con a blessing. His enormous influence for

queror on the 9th of September of that good is shown by the behaviour of the
fatal year. The night, as usual, had been new king, who, as long as Lanfranc lived,
restless. At last he fell into a fitful slum showed no signs of the unrighteous rule
The king was awakened by the sound of later days, but who
ber. eventually was
of the great cathedral bell pealing over the execrated throughout the land over which
To a question as to what it rung for,
he was called to rule.
city.
he was told it was only the usual summons But the death of Lanfranc took place in
to the service of prime in the metropolitan less than two years after the death of his

church of Our Lady. William, it is said, famous master. The immediate cause of
looked up, and stretching out his hands, it was singular. He was spending a few
was heard to murmur, To my Lady Mary, "

days in retirement at Canterbury, where,

holy Mother of God, I commend myself, archbishop though he was, he exercised

that by her sainted prayers she recon the office of abbot a duty possibly more
may
cile me to her dear son, our Lord Jesus congenial to him than the manifold cares
Christ
"

;
and so he died. In the contem which must have perplexed and harassed
porary English Chronicle the writer, after the head of the English church and the

impartially summing up the good and evil trusted minister of the king. While enjoy
of that wonderful life, closes his record ing this brief interval of repose and study, the
with a pious prayer which all true English old man sickened with fever. The monk-
men will surely re-echo :
"

May Almighty infirmier at once

prescribed a remedy.
God show mercy to his soul and grant But the archbishop refused all medicine :

him forgiveness of his sins !

"

he was going to receive the holy Eucharist,

and must not break his fast. The physi
Lanfranc was now an old man, and his cianwarned him of the danger of delay,
race, too, was nearly run. Only a short but Lanfranc was determined. Then it
space of time remained for him, and he, was too late. The fever rapidly sapped
too, would be summoned to join his master, the old man s failing strength, and the end
and Matilda, and the mighty men of valour followed all too soon. To whatever school
and counsel who had shared in the Con of theology the student of our church s

quest. But his record was the whitest eventful story may belong, he will not

possessed by any of those great ones who, honour the memory of Lanfranc the less,
amidst all the terrible scenes of the inva that he closed a noble life in doing what

sion, had yet laid the foundations of the he felt was honour to his Lord.
 CHAPTER XXVII.

ANSELM. GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER.

Pagan Character of William Rufus His systematic Simony Anselm A Royal Sick-Bed Repentance
makes him Archbishop Long Battle with the King Appeals to Rome Years of Exile Death
of Rufus and Accession of the Beauclerc Character of the new King His Marriage Royal
Claims to Investiture Anselm again Appeals to Rome Settlement in Favour of the Church
Anselm s Influence and Work His Last Days and Death.

long as Lanfranc lived, Rufus had of this inner circle of royal clerks, and on

SO church
in all public affairs,

matters, been
especially
substantially
in Lanfranc
friendship
s death honoured him with his
and confidence. He appears
guided by his counsel. When the influ through the reign, now as chancellor, now
ence of the wise and good Lanfranc was as treasurer, but always as the favourite
withdrawn, another guided the
spirit and powerful minister. "

Priests,"
Rufus
dealings of the new king with the Church is
reported to have said,
"

hold half my
of England. William Rufus was beyond kingdom." Flambard appointed work
s

doubt a most able

sovereign, brilliant was to get as much as possible out of these

alike in the field and in the cabinet ; but churchmen, whom the king hated with all
in him the old ungovernable wildness of the old Viking hate.
the northern sea-pirates seemed to have The principal device adopted by the un
revived again, and with it the Viking principled minister of this great pagan for
hatred and scorn of the Christian religion. this was what Rufus really was consisted

By his side stood a clever and unscrupulous in a disgraceful traffic carried on for all

minister, nominally a Christian priest, but bishoprics and abbeys. It was the old

ready and willing to carry out his fierce curse of simony, which in the tenth cen
master s will. tury had so wounded all the western
The famous Ralph Flambard, the chief church life and work, revived an espe in
minister of William Rufus, was a native of cially shameless form. Under William
Bayeux, where the old Danish families Rufus and and adviser Flambard,
his friend
and traditions lingered longer than in any the old sin was enhanced by a prolonged
other Norman centre. When compara confiscation ofany rich piece of preferment
tively young he entered the royal service, on the occasion of a vacancy. Canterbury
and by degrees rose from the superintend was thus confiscated for nearly four years

ence of the king s kitchen to the chief atter Lanfranc s death. The stern, grave
place in the king s cabinet. Rufus on his entry in the contemporary English
accession found him a prominent member Chronicle under the date of the year iioo
 152 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10331063.

tells the story of Rufus and Flambard s share in the conventual life. This first

evil dealings with the church tersely but love, however, passed away, and the young

effectively.
"

In his (Rufus ) days all justice Anselm in early manhood threw himself
sank, and all unrighteousness arose in the with ardour into the pleasures and
all

sight of God and of the world. He trampled dissipations which too often make ship
on the church of God, and as to the bishoprics wreck of the young and untried. Still

and abbacies, the incumbents of which young, apparently driven away by home
died in his reign, he either sold them out troubles after his mother s death, he drifted

right, or kept them in his own hands, and in search of fortune into Normandy, and
let them out to renters, for he desired to there had the good fortune to fall under
be the heir of everyone, churchman or lay the influence of Lanfranc, then a public
man so that on the day on which he was
;
and much sought-after teacher at Av-
killed he had in his own hands the arch ranches. The great scholar obtained a

bishopric of Canterbury, the bishoprics of lasting influence over the plastic nature of
Winchester and Salisbury, and eleven Anselm, awakening in that young soul the
abbacies, all let out to farm."
great powers which were lying sleeping
To stem the torrent of all this high there.
handed iniquity on the part of this Lanfranc betook himself to the simple
"

pagan
"

sovereign, in the
providence of austere community of Bee : the pupil
God one of those rare great ones was followed the master. For a time Anselm,
raised up in the Church of England, who though he loved Lanfranc with a great and
in the dark days of the Red king kept passionate love and admiration, was jealous
alight the torch of goodness and earnest of his master, and felt that where Lanfranc
ness. When
the Conqueror lay on his was there was no room for him. But
forlorn death-bed at St. Gervais nobler thoughts gained the mastery, and
by Rouen,
we read how he
longed for the presence he put himself body and soul into the
and the comfort of the holy abbot of Bee, hands of the great teacher. Under Lan-
Anselm but his dying wish was never
; franc s direction he became a monk of Bee.
gratified, for Anselm was just then pros This was in the year 1060.. From pupil
trated by sore sickness. he became teacher a teacher of extra
The story of this remarkable man an
is
ordinary power and sympathy. "Whole
interesting one. In the little north Italian his biographer and devoted friend,
days,"

city of Aosta at the foot of the great Alps, Eadmer, afterwards tells us,
"

he would
in the year 1033, Anselm was born. His spend in giving advice and help to the
family were small, insignificant nobles, younger pupils of the holy house of Bee,
vassals of the count of Maurienne. and then would spend the night in cor
Nothing
remarkable is told of his childhood and recting books for the Bee monastery, then
boyhood. His father was a thriftless and growing into vast repute as a seminary ;

violent man, who showed, apparently, he was as ready, too, and unwearied in
little sympathy with the studious, religious doing the work of a nurse in the infirmary
boy ; indeed, he opposed his early desire to or at the death-bed, as he was to teach and
10331063.] EARLY LIFE OF ANSELM. 153

to discuss in the cloister. Behaving so excited. A strong party against him was
that all men loved him as their dear father, formed in the monastery. Among the
he bore the ways and weaknesses of each, angry monks was a young man of talent

supplying to each what he saw they and ability named Osbern, whose hatred
wanted." It was to this deep, true sym of Anselm was singularly bitter. Anselm
pathy with others that Anselm owed the determined to win him, and treated his
boundless influence he afterwards obtained enemy with every possible kindness. Time
over the souls of men. No man in his own went on ;
Osbern was completely softened,

THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK.

From the MS. Gospels, written A.D. 1138 by the
Monk Maelbrigte at Armagh. (British Museum.)

day and time possessed the key to men s and grew to love Anselm with a love
hearts like him. When Lanfranc left Bee greater than the old hatred.
Then Anselm
in the year 1063 for another and a higher proceeded to train the young brother in
was the severities and austere living of a true
post, Anselm, then thirty years of age,
chosen prior of his house. monk. Osbern sickened so runs the story
In the biography of Eadmer the following with a fatal sickness. Then Anselm
episode in Anselm s work at Bee occurs, watched and waited on him like a mother ;

day and night was he

at his bedside,
and throws light upon his ways of working.
When at a comparatively early age, and ministering to all his wants, doing every
after only three years profession as monk, thing that might ease his body
and comfort
much his soul but in of care and tenderness
he was made prior, jealousy was ; spite
B o
154 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
the end came, and as Osbern was dying, principal title to honour in his own days
Anselm bade him, as a friend speaking to was his
widespread reputation of being
a dear friend, to make known to him a rarely just and holy man, the friend of
after his death what had become of him. the loving and
"

every living creature,

Osbern promised, and so passed away. sympathising Christian brother, full of

During the funeral service, as Anselm sat sweetness, full of affection, full of goodness,
alone in the church weeping for his dear full of all allowances and patience for

departed friend and pupil, and praying, others, whom men of all conditions liked
he fell asleep, and as he slept he dreamed. to converse with, and whom neither high
He saw in his dream certain very reverend nor low ever found cold in his friendship."*

persons enter the room where Osbern had When Lanfranc died, "there was no
died, and sit round for judgment and as he ;
count in England," his faithful biographer
wondered what the doom of his dead friend tells us, or countess, or powerful person,
"

would be, Osbern entered, pale as a man who did not think that they had lost
just from grievous sickness.
recovering merit in the sight of God if it had not
Three times, he said, had the old Serpent chanced to them at that time to have done
risen up against him, but three times he some Anselm, the abbot of Bee
service to ";

backwards, and the bear-ward of the

fell and there no doubt that when the
is

Lord had delivered him. Then Anselm trusted friend and minister of the Con

awoke, and believed that Osbern s sins queror, full of years and honour, passed to
were pardoned, and that God s angels had his rest, the eyes of most serious church
kept off his foes as the bear-wards keep off men in England looked to Anselm as the
bears. "

Wherever Osbern is,"

he after only fit successor to Lanfranc at Canter
wards wrote to Gundulf, the bishop of bury. But the Red king had other views
Anselm regarding the church, as we have seen, and
"

Rochester, his soul is as my soul."

prays his friends to offer for Osbern the felt no desire to place the saintly Anselm

prayers and masses which they would offer in a position where his great influence
for himself. I pray and I he writes
"

would be surely used to protect a church

pray,"

to Gundulf ;
"

remember me and forget marked out by him for plunder and de

not the soul of Osbern beloved So for several years Lanfranc
my ;
if I gradation.
seem to burden you too much, then had no successor, and the great revenues
forget
me and remember him." of the arch-see, with many another smaller
In the year 1078, when
Herlwin, the ecclesiastical spoil, found their way into
abbot and founder of Bee, died, Anselm the royal treasury.
became abbot. During the fifteen years of In the year 1093, however, when the
his rule over the now illustrious house of scandal of the vacant archbishopric had
Herlwin, he became known in England, lasted well-nigh four years, William Rufus
and indeed throughout the western found himself at Gloucester grievously sick
church,
as one of the
profoundest theologians sick, as he and many others deemed,
and deepest thinkers of the But unto death. Anselm was then in England.
age.
singular as were his gifts of intellect, his * Dean Church :
"

Life of Anselm."
1093] HOW ANSELM BECAME ARCHBISHOP. 155

Some months before he had come over, on scene in the royal sick-chamber. The very
the urgent and repeated prayer of Hugh room is perhaps still with us the room
Lupus, the powerful earl of Chester, to adjoining the old solar in the abbot s

consult and advise on church matters in apartment, with quaint and beautiful
its

his earldom. Rufus, for some reason now Norman ornaments of the end of the
unknown, had refused to allow the abbot eleventh century, adjoining the vast
of Bee to leave the kingdom, and during abbey of Serlo at Gloucester, now part
the king s grave illness Anselm was in the of the Gloucester deanery. Prelates,
immediate neighbourhood of Gloucester. priests, clerks, monks, flung themselves
Things grew worse with king Rufus, and at Anselm s feet, but the abbot would
those round him hoped or feared that the not yield.
"

Bring a pastoral staff,"

end of the wicked sovereign was close someone cried ;
and surrounding the
at hand. For the first time it seemed as struggling Anselm, they pushed him
though the old pagan spirit of the ancestors close up to the king s bedside, and the
of the Red king failed him, and he turned, sick king offered him the staff. Anselm
dying as he fancied himself to be, to the clenched his fist. The bishops and the
consolations of the religion he had so long bystanders forced the fingers open, and
flouted. In all haste the holy Anselm, the pastoral staff was pressed into Anselm s
who had the greatest reputation of all unwilling hand. The old man, it is said,
in his time for that higher knowledge cried out with pain, exclaiming,
"

Nolo,
of soul-healing, was sent for. The king nolo, non consentio "

;
but in spite of his
confessed his many sins, and promised to resistance he was hurried, as it would
do by way of reparation that Anselm
all
seem, into the abbey-church,
adjoining
required, pledging himself if his life were while the "

Te Deum "

was hastily sung

spared, in the words of the English over him, and thus Anselm became arch
Chronicle,
"

to .correct his life, to sell no bishop.

more churches, nor to let them out to The king recovered, contrary to expecta

farm, but to defend them by his kingly tion, and then began a long and obstinate
power, to take away unrighteous laws, contest for the rights of the church be
and to establish righteous ones." tween Rufus and Anselm. For no sooner
But the great question still remained to had the Red king regained his health and
be settled, who was to be archbishop of strength than, forgetful of all his promises,
the long-vacant see of Canterbury ? The he recommenced his work of oppression

bystanders looked for some court favourite and misrule. But now the church pos
some royal clerk like the all-powerful sessed a chief able and willing to confront
Flambard to be chosen by the sick man. its powerful and remorseless royal enemy.
At last the name was pronounced by the Anselm might well shrink from the

splendid burden of the archbishopric forced

"

king. I choose," said Rufus,

"

the holy
man Anselm." In an agony of fear and upon him by the sick king at Gloucester in
repulsion, the abbot of Bee refused the the Lent of 1093. He had lived at Bee for

proffered dignity. Then followed a strange thirty-three years as a simple monk, prior,
 56 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1093.

and abbot, and for one like Anselm the Kufus was reigning, would not only destroy
Norman monastery had been a very happy all his earthly happiness,
but, what was far
and congenial home. Loved and honoured more important in his eyes, would probably
not only in his own famous house of prayer mar his future usefulness as a teacher,
and teaching, but beyond the com
far thinker, and writer.
paratively narrow circleof Bee, he felt Some such thoughts as these were in
that both as a teacher and student he was his mind when he bitterly exclaimed to the
bishops and nobles, after the hurried service
of his election to the archbishopric, "

They
knew not what they were doing they had ;

yoked together to the plough the untame-

able bull and the old and feeble
sheep,
and no good could come of the union."
By the image of
the plough the pew
archbishop pictured the Church of Eng
land. This plough was drawn by the king
and the primate. To the fierce king, who
he would speedily recover from his
felt

sickness, they had joined a poor weak man

who would only be the victim of a violence
which he would be powerless to prevent.
However, Anselm felt it was now the will
of God, and he nerved himself to the
long
and bitter conflict. Never again for four
teen long years did he enjoy rest or quiet,
and when peace came to him he was an
old and dying man.

SEAL OF ANSELM.
The Anselm and the
contest between
(British Museum. )

crown had indeed a momentous influence

playing his part well and faithfully in the upon the fortunes of the English church.
world. A
profound thinker and theologian, The king, as Anselm had foreseen, rapidly
he possessed ample leisure in the still recovered with health came forgetfulness
;

cloisters ofBee to pursue those studies in of all his promises of amendment. Eadmer,
which he had attained a world-wide dis Anselm s
biographer, who saw it all with
tinction, and he was conscious that the his own eyes, writes with terrible clearness
exchange from the retirement of the quiet of the misery and suffering through the
monastery to the ceaseless distractions, to whole realm. Nothing," he says,
"

was "

the never-ending cares, to the bitter hostil ever seen like it before in "

Be
England."
ities, which would of necessity belong to said Rufus, speaking of
assured, bishop,"
the high office of primate of the
English his late grave illness, one day to Gundulf
Church when such a king as William of Rochester, "that
by the holy face of
1093 1096.] ANSELM S STRUGGLE WITH RUFUS. 157

Lucca (the Red king s favourite oath), God
never have me good for the ill that
shall
He has brought on me." In these evil
days the unhappy church was a principal
no small importance and weight. The
most bitter hatred was excited by Anselm s
championship of law against the king s
unlaw hence the beginning of the long
;

sufferer. The buying and selling of church bitter quarrel between the king and the
preferment went on as shamelessly as ever ; archbishop. causes alleged by Rums
The
unbridled licence of manners everywhere and his advisers were, after all, fictitious

ST. GABRIEL S CHAPEL, THE CRYPT, CANTERBURY.

(Built in the time of Anselm.)

prevailed ; Christianity had well-nigh per and mostly vexatious the real reason of
;

ished in many men, and the influence of its the long enmity was Anselm s determined
teachers was rapidly waning under the evil opposition to wrong.
cloud of disgraceful simony. Archbishop The pretext for the fierce quarrel
first

Anselm gravely remonstrated, and worked was the question of acknowledging Urban II.
with hand and brain against this corrupt as lawful Pope. Once more in Rome there
state of things ;
and his great office, and was a dispute as to the succession, and the
the deep love and veneration with which Urban s election was disputed.
legality of
he was generally regarded, made him an Anselm would have his archbishop s pall
opponent to the king and his ministers of from Urban, whom, in common with other
158 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1096.

high ecclesiastics in Normandy, he had Normandy was to be purchased. The

already recognised as the lawful bishop of lands were sacked ;
the churches were de
Rome. Rufus maintained that until he, spoiled of their hallowed treasures, such
the king of England, had acknowledged as their gold and silver reliquaries, their
Urban as Pope, no pall for Canterbury priceless volumes of the Gospels bound in
could be received. That this was only a precious metals encrusted with costly gems.
pretext for quarrelling with Anselm was Anselm was called upo*n for a contingent
soon apparent, for Rufus sent an embassy of soldiers and for money. The king scorn
to Rome which quickly acknowledged the fully rejected the archbishop s offering, and
justice of Urban s claims and then the;
as his feudal lord summoned him to his

pall, at Rufus s own request, was sent court as a defaulter. Anselm felt that he
to England by the hands of Walter of would obtain neither justice nor mercy at
Albano, the Pope s legate. The king the king s hands, and, utterly wearied with
then claimed the right of giving it himself the hopeless contention and persecution,
to the archbishop, but this dispute was at determined to seek counsel and strength
length settled by the legate placing the and direction from the head of the church
pall upon the high altar of Canterbury at Rome.
cathedral, and Anselm taking it himself On twomemorable occasions already
from its silver box and laying it on his had a great subject presumed to appeal
own shoulders. The stern conflict between to Rome from the decision of the king and
the king and the champion of right and his council once in the far-back times of
justice went on, however, as bitterly as Wilfrid in the seventh century, and again
ever. in the days of Edward the Confessor, when
The next pretext for humbling the archbishop Robert of Jumieges (A.D. 1052),
archbishop was more skilfully chosen by deposed by king and Witan, had appealed
William Rufus and his ministers. In the to the reigning Pope. In both these
new Norman constitution the archbishop instances the papal rescript had been
was a great temporal baron, and for his disregarded. Anselm referred his case to
vast estates owed the king feudal service, Rome, but not without strenuous and pro
and was liable for an important contribu longed opposition from the king, and not
tion towards the state expenses, especially without successive meetings of the Witan
in war time. It was in the year 1096
"

Yet
ofEngland refusing his request.
that a great opportunity presented itself who can dare blame Anselm," writes
of extorting money. Duke Robert pawned our scholarly historian,* for appealing
"

or sold his Norman duchy to his brother from mere force and fraud to the only
William for a great sum, to enable him to shadow of right that was left on. earth?
equip a force for the famous Crusade war In appealing to Rome in the person of
which then was agitating the western Urban, he at least appealed to something
world. It was a hard time for England,
higher than the personal will of a profligate
which had to find for its king this sum and capricious tyrant." In England, it
of money, for which the ducal coronet of * Professor Freeman.
 ANSELM APPEALS TO ROME. 159

must be remembered, Anselm had stood "

world and its pleasures and ambitions too

out only for right and liberty he, the chief ; well, they were men who stood altogether
witness for religion and righteousness, saw on a lower platform than their saintly and
allaround him vice rampant, men spoiled brave archbishop, and gave him but scant
of what was their own, justice, decency, support. Again, in estimating this act of
honour trampled under foot. Law was Anselm, which bore such disastrous fruits
unknown except to snare
oppress. and in after-years, it must not be forgotten that

Against energetic reign of misrule

this another and one more powerful by far than
and injustice a resistance
as energetic the holy Anselm had already set the example
was wanted. Anselm resisted lawlessness, of referring great causes to the arbitra

wickedness, oppression, corruption. When ment of the supposed apostolic see. Never
others acquiesced in the evil state, he re had the mighty father of Rufus won the fair
fused, appealing from force and arbitrary heritage of England for the Norman, had he
will to law. It was idle to talk of appeal not invoked the same awful spiritual power
ing to law in England its time had not ;
for hisown ends, and under the banner of
yet come. But there was a very real and Urban s predecessor, Alexander II., fought
living law in Christendom on it Anselm the fatal field of Hastings. It was the

cast himself it was the only appeal prac Conqueror who had placed the Pope first

then from arbitrary rule to upon a supreme throne of appeal, and

"

ticable law."

Pope Urban II.

That the cry of Anselm to rendered the subsequent appeal of Anselm
against the lawless tyranny of kingWil possible.
liam Rufus gave an enormous impetus to At last, the scornful permission of the
the ever-growing claims of Rome, is in king was given to Anselm to leave the
did these claims, pleased him but the per
"

disputable. They grew, kingdom if it ;

as we be shamefully abused
shall see, to ;
mission was rather granted to a voluntary

they had in their turn to be resisted, re exile forsaking his citizenship and its duties,

strained, and at last, in England, to be than to one going forth on a solemn and
expelled. But there is no reason why at momentous mission. The instant the arch
the time when Anselm laid his righteous bishop the shores of England, the vast
left

cause and the cause of his church before property and lands of the arch-see were
the court of Rome it should not have been seized as the rightful heritage of the
the best, perhaps the only defence of the royal treasury. But the parting scene
greatest interests of mankind against the between king and archbishop was a
of
immediate pressure of the tyrannies and strange one, and tells us something
selfishness of the time." t the commanding personality of Anselm,
Yes ;
who can blame Anselm ? He stood and of the marvellous influence his
a king
quite alone in his conflict with the world- presence exerted even over such
rulers. The English bishops of his time as Rufus. He went says the story to
see

men, but they were his master for the last time before he
were, it is true, able
more or less creatures of Rufus loving the ;
started.
"

My he said to his king,

lord,"

* t Dean Church :
"

Life of St. Anselm."

"

I go ;
would it had been with your good
i6o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1098 uoo.

will. Now, not knowing when I shall see .

of his journeyings, must have been sadly

you again, I commend you to God, and as marred by the consciousness of the awful
a spiritual father to his beloved son, as the responsibilities which were still his !

archbishop to the king of England, I would During this absence of three years, how
fain before I go, if
you refuse it not, give ever, wherever Anselm went he was re
God s blessing and my own."
"

I refuse ceived as a most honoured guest. At

not thy blessing,"
the king answered. He Rome, Pope Urban entertained him with
bowed his head, and Anselm lifted his every mark of sympathy and respect even ;

right hand and made the sign of the cross spoke of him as his equal, as the patriarch

tnetettcm .quitninnunatncilxiMxim

. VtnwnS

CHARTER OF ANSELM TO THE MONASTERY OF CANTERBURY. (British Museum.)

on him and so they parted. Rufus never

;
or pope of a second world. But though
looked on the face of Anselm again. The Urban addressed grave remonstrances to

tragedy of the New Forest happened the English king on the subject of the
before the exile returned. intolerable grievances with which the
For the next three years Anselm dwelt English church was oppressed, he feared
abroad. It was a comparatively peaceful by any strong pronouncement in favour of
time, but that the thought continually Anselm to excite the enmity of so power
must have haunted him what of the great fuland unscrupulous a sovereign. During
charge he had thrown up ? It was not in Anselm s stay in Italy he was invited to
his power, surely, to lay it down at his be present at the council of Bari in 1098.
pleasure. The
delight he experienced in most famous living theologian,
There, as the
those deep studies he pursued with so the English archbishop was called on to
much success at that time, in the intervals defend the language of the western creed
1 100.] DEATH OF WILLIAM RUFUS. 161

against the charges which the Orientals time with the great scholar, when the
and Greeks brought against it a task immediate attendants of Anselm heard
which Anselm performed with consummate from the student s cell the sound of bitter
skill.After a lengthened stay in Rome, weeping. The exile had just learned from
the Pope still temporising in the matter of his visitors the news of the mysterious
the dispute between the archbishop and sudden death of Rufus, the king of Eng
Rufus, Anselm went to Lyons, where for land, his relentless enemy, in the New
a time he assisted the prelate of that Forest glades.

great see. Never, perhaps, had so hated a monarch

During all this
lengthened period of passed away. The halo which ever sur
Anselm absence, William Rufus spent on
s rounds a king, invested with a kind of
his wars and wicked pleasures the vast sacredness even the poor, disfigured corpse
revenues of Canterbury and of many other of Rufus so a grave was hastily prepared
;

of the vacant sees and abbacies, continuing

to extort money and gifts on all sides and itmf . tat

on all pretexts from the church. In the cntta Voquam *ttua$ ,

cj
nt 6; ai ofA
course of the year of his reign the
last

terrible Red king reached the height of

his power. He was absolute lord from the
Scottish border to the centre of western
France in the Maine country. Abroad,
there was no enemy to threaten his vast
power. At home he was able to work his
wicked will unhindered, unreproved. The
church was
entirely submissive to his
wishes, agreeing to his ever-growing exac
tions, not without murmur, at least
if

without strong remonstrance. The one

man who had the will and power to resist
his imperious and impious will was abroad,
apparently enduring a hopeless exile.
.

But the end of that wicked prosperous

frtttr.ttottitf atftttfouftmt quo d[xnTt
life was at hand. It was in the year noo
that Anselm determined to give himself
CORONATION OF HENRY I. BY MAURICE, BISHOP
altogether to those sacred studies in which OF LONDON (IN THE ABSENCE OF ANSELM),
he won so world-wide a reputation. He AND THOMAS, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
(From tlu original MS. of Matthew Paris Chronicle in
had retired to the abbey of Chaise-Dieu in Manchester Cathedral.)

Auvergne, when in his seclusion he was

surprised by the visit of two well-known for him in the newly-erected cathedral at
friends the one from Bee, the other from Winchester, and William was laid to rest
Canterbury. They were closeted for a with his royal predecessors, the old West
162 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1 100.

Saxon- kings. Winchester and its minster, censure. Cold, crafty, politic, often cruel,
with many royal memories, was not far
its with self-interest as his guiding rule through
from the scene of the sudden death of the his whole brilliant career, he seems to have
dreaded sovereign. Cut off in a moment, excited enthusiasm among his subjects
little

without shrift, without repentance, the and contemporaries, and to have won but
unanimous voice of priest and people pro little love even from his intimates ;
but on
nounced the dread sentence which Pope the other hand, in many respects, for that
Urban had feared to utter upon the mighty, rough, lawless time he was the model of a
reckless lord of so many lands. At the great ruler, and is so painted by men who
lonely funeral of
Rums, England king of were no flatterers.
"

He was agood man,"

though he was, no bells were tolled no ;
writes the impartial Peterborough scribe
mass was even said for the soul of the in the national English Chronicle, and "

wicked prince. No cross, no sacred symbol, great was the awe of him ;
no man durst
no word of praise or hope, was engraved ill-treat another in his time ;
he made
on the tomb of William Rufus. Men felt peace for men and deer." The last curious
that for him prayers were hopeless. reference applies, of course, in the first place
to that excessive love for hunting which

Immediately on the king s death the was a peculiar feature of the king s family,

exiled archbishop was summoned back to but it also refers to his studious tastes, for

England in hot haste. The monks of as a naturalist he brought together a col

Canterbury, the great lords, and, lastly, lection of strange animals in his park at
the new sovereign, Henry Beauclerc, all Woodstock for the purposes of study.
wrote or sent urging his immediate return. These literary tastes and acquirements
The archbishop landed in England in were especially remarkable in that rough,

September of the year noo, and rude age. His well-known title of "

Beau
very
shortly after we find him with king Henry clerc
"

is the title to honour, perhaps,

at Salisbury.
by which he is best known. Very dis
Then began the second series, so to similar to Rufus, in whom seemed to live

speak, of Anselm s famous disputes with again the pagan spirit of the old Vikings
the crown, the results of which had a most from whom he sprang, he ever treated
important bearing on the subsequent rela religion and ministers with respect and
its

tions of theChurch of England with the consideration, and was known both as a
sovereign and with the Pope. But al liberal founder and benefactor of religious
though the contest between Anselm and houses. On his accession, Henry Beauclerc
Henry lasted well-nigh seven it to redress the cruel
years, solemnly promised
must be remembered that their mutual inflicted on the nation, especially
wrongs
relations were very different from those
emphasising his intentions towards the
which existed between Rufus and Anselm. church in the matter of the most con
Henry Beauclerc was a -very different man spicuous grievances endured in the late
from his brother Rufus. His private moral "

The holy church of God I make

reign.
life was doubtless open to the gravest free, so that I will neither sell it, nor let it
IIOI.]
THE GOOD QUEEN MAUDE. 163

to farm nor on the death of archbishop

; great devotion to work and duty. The
or bishop or abbot will 1 take anything queen s especial love for the poor was said
from the domain of the church or from its to be boundless she is related to have
:

men till the successor comes into posses been discovered by her husband washing
sion." So ran the first article of the royal the feet of lepers; while on the other hand
undertaking. To England, then, full of she was a good Latin scholar, and skilled
hope for a happier future, Anselm returned, in all the accomplishments of that age.
zealous to infuse a new and nobler spirit Sacred music, it is said, was her favourite
into the church so secularised by the evil recreation. "

Good Queen Maude "

became
work of the late king, and not a little de the object of the most earnest affection in
moralised by the worldly spirit of most of England.
the prelates, friends and ministers of the But Matilda s posthumous fame, after all,
crown, who had been lately appointed. rests principally on her direct descent from
The first important transaction in the Alfred and the kings of the West Saxon
new reign in which Anselm was intimately house of Cerdic for from this marriage
:

concerned, was the pronouncing legal of all the sovereigns of England trace their
a marriage king Henry eagerly desired descent, not only from the Conqueror, but
largely perhaps with
for state reasons from king Alfred. The following table
Edith, the daughter of Margaret, queen of shows the descent of some of the principal
Scotland, and king Malcolm, the child of personages of the old West Saxon line of
the old royal Saxon house of Cerdic and kings, united to the Norman house of
Alfred. Edith had been generally known the Conqueror on the occasion of this
in England as a cloistered nun of Romsey marriage of Edith with Henry I.

abbey, but the young princess stoutly WODEN. (From whom descend.)
denied that she had ever taken the vows;
Cerdic, the first West Saxon king.
and Anselm, after a careful investiga | (From whom descend.)

tion of the Egbert. (From whom descend.)

facts, with the approbation
of an important council summoned at Ethelwolf.

Lambeth, declared that she was perfectly Alfred. (From whom descend.)

free tomarry king Henry. The marriage Ethelred the Unready.

ceremony was at once performed by An
Edmund Ironside.
selm in noi, with great pomp, and
Edward the the Atheling.
Edith, under the new name of Matilda, was
exile,

solemnly crowned queen in the abbey of Margaret, queen of Scotland.

Westminster. This Edith (Matilda) won
Edith (Matilda) Henry I. (Beauclerc).
extraordinary popularity among her new
subjects. To her wise influence were, with Matilda = Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou.
more or less truth, ascribed the "good (Empress Maud.)
laws which Henry Beauclerc made. Her
"

beautiful character united piety with a Henry II. (Plantagenet)

164 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1103.

But Beauclerc demanded of it would have involved, if conceded, an

Henry
Anselm, though he was, a new and
friend acknowledgment on the part of the primate
somewhat strange thing. Anselm, who of the English church that on the death

Photo: A. F. Colbournc, Canterbury.

ST. ANSELM S CHAPEL, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

had Leen archbishop now for some seven of the sovereign the archbishop s commis
years, king Henry insisted, must receive sion expired that his office was, after all,
;

the great office afresh by a new act of subordinate, and that the dignity therefore
investiture at his hands ! A small matter reverted to the crown on the death of the
this would seem, on first thoughts. Yet king who had bestowed the office. There
lies.] RESISTANCE TO ROYAL INVESTITURE. 165

is no trace of such a claim on the part of policy of the son. The see of St. Peter
a sovereign of England ever having been was the acknowledged constitutional centre
made before. Anselm absolutely refused of spiritual law in the west
the judgment-
to comply with Henry demand, not only s seat towhich an appeal was open to all,
declining any re-investiture, but asserting and which gave sentence on wrong and
besides that the king had no right even to vice without fear or favour. The hopeless
invest bishop or abbot with pastoral staff ness of all justice at home drove him on
or ring. what offered itself, and was looked on by
This was a new departure on the
last all, as a refuge for the injured and helpless.
part of Anselm. Seven years before it The Popes attempted at this period of the
will be remembered, that in the royal Middle Ages to create an independent
sick-chamber at Gloucester he had felt no throne of truth and justice, above the
scruple about receiving the pastoral staff passions and the force which reigned in the
from Rufus s hands, or at a subsequent world around. It is the grandest and most

period about consecrating other bishops magnificent failure in human history ;

but
who had received their staff of office in the it had not then proved to be a failure."
*

same way. But during those seven years Thus the question in dispute between
things had changed. The customs which the king and the archbishop was referred
involved this formal investiture of the by Anselm to Rome, but this time with
the hands of a king, had
spiritual office at the full consent of Beauclerc. It was in
been condemned in one of those Italian the year 1103 that Anselm again left

councils at which Anselm himself had been England for He was absent for
Rome.
Rome had spoken, and Anselm nearly three years. He left England, how
"

present.
determined The ever, not a banished man, but as one who
"

to obey." question
then between Henry and Anselm was
* Dean Church :
"

Life of Anselm." The whole

in no sense a question of eternal right of this fine passage is too long for quotation, but
and wrong it was a question between the his words on the result of this view of their
;

office the great popes

by which Anselm in
law and custom of England and the in
his are remarkable when read in
day adopted
novations of Rome." To Anselm this the light of events which have happened since
was no mere struggle "

forms, but for righteousness
for privileges or for Church passed away. "The idea was imper
fectlyrealised, it was marred by the extrava
only in his
gance of assertion, the imperiousness of temper,
;

view it was part of righteousness to yield the violence of means with which these claims
were urged; was by the inextricable
power that he had
it spoiled
implicit obedience to a and noble
mixture of by-ends with grand
learned to look on as higher than his own and crafty
* purposes, of unscrupulous cunning
or that of his sovereign." To him a "

policy with intense and self-sacrificing

conviction :
it was more fatally degraded and discredited by
Red king was a lesson
reign like that of the shame
the selfish and faithless temporising and the
not to be soon forgotten. Customs which which grew into proverbs wherever
less greediness
under his father, the Conqueror, had the name of Rome was mentioned. And every
these things grew worse the
seemed natural and endurable, received a succeeding century ;

ideal became more and more a shadow, the reality

new meaning and a new sting under the became more and more a corrupt and intolerable
* Professor Freeman. mockery."
166 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11031109.

went with the king s full licence. The It may be asked, what induced so power

king, too, sent ambassadors to Pope ful and determined a monarch as was
Paschal, who in the sequel, as might have Henry Beauclerc thus to yield ?
Probably
been expected, quietly but determinedly weariness of the long conflict weighed

supported the views of Anselm. The with the king, while the great importance

pleadings and negotiations went on for of the concession to Roman views did not
some three years. The words of Eadmer strike Henry I., who could not see what a
"

wishes of so great a man as the king

The handle such a concession of the crown
of England were on no account to be over would afford to future usurpations on the
looked expressed the views of many of
"

part of same great and undefined

the
the Pope s advisers, and explain the reason spiritual power. Then, too, it must be
of the lengthy deliberation, although it remembered that the policy of the Norman
was known that Paschal himself felt that kings, inaugurated by Henry s mighty
from Rome s point of view Anselm was father, the Conqueror, had ever been to

absolutely right. Indeed, a recent council recognise the supreme authority of the
of Lateran had already pronounced on the bishop of Rome. No son of the Conqueror
question authoritatively. could ever forget the famous reference to
The dispute between the crown and the the see of St. Peter which preceded the
archbishop at length was settled, through Norman invasion of England, which was
Beauclerc s
virtually yielding. Concessions fought and won under the shadow of the
were made to him by Rome and Anselm sacred gonfanon or banner of the Pope.
to enable the king to yield with better Nor must the personal influence of Anselm
grace, but the victory really remained with be forgotten. No living churchman in
Anselm. The settlement of the great that day was comparable to the English
question was as follows :
King Henry I. archbishop, who was loved and reverenced
granted and decreed that from that time alike inCanterbury as in Rome. Henry
no one should be invested in England Beauclerc was too far-seeing a statesman
with bishopric or abbey by staff and ring, not to perceive that in Anselm he had at "

either by the king or by

any lay hand ; Canterbury the greatest Christian bishop of
Anselm on his side
conceding that homage his age ;
"

as it has been well said, the wise

for the temporalities of the see or the "

was unable to resist the

English king
abbey might be done to the king. Thus, spell and charm of his nobleness, his force
by the surrender by the sovereign of the of soul, his unselfish truthfulness."

ceremony of delivering the bishopric or On the life of the Church of England

abbey by means of the symbols, the staff the presence of such a man as was Anselm
"

and ring,"
was openly declared that
it was not lost. The Norman prelates and
spiritual powers were not the sovereign s abbots of the Conqueror, more conspicu
to give ; or, as Eadmer
tersely expresses ously perhaps those chosen by Rufus, were
the deliberate views of his for the most part able and distinguished
master, "An
selm would not give his advice that mortal men, but statesmen rather than chief
man should be made the door of the church." had been
pastors; trained as they in the
 nog.] DEATH OF ANSELM. 167

cabinet of the sovereign, instead of in the married priest was not to be heard," writes
learned solitude of the cloister. Their Eadmer.
souls, too, were not a
little soiled by the But the end of the great and saintly
evil atmosphere which they had long
in life was now at hand. Anselm only sur
lived they were
; sadly accustomed to the vived the solemn pact, result of the
daily sight of the royal traffic in benefices. mutual concession, two short years. He
Nor in many cases were their own hands was an old man, worn out with care and
undefiled by the universal practice of open trouble, and a long life of ceaseless, restless

simony practised in the days of Rufus. study ;

and his last two
years, although he
Some of them, however, devoted them had won much of that for which he had
selves in good earnest to the raising and so long and patiently contended, although

adorning of their cathedrals. Magni he was surrounded with all the love and
ficent builders certainly were these early admiration which his beautiful life had so
Norman bishops and abbots, but they well earned, were years of suffering and
could scarcely any of them pretend to the weakness. But even in these pain-filled
character of saints. It has been remarked hours he never permitted himself to rest.

with great justice, that towards the close Frequent and wearing attacks of sickness,
of Anselm s career the life of the Norman ever increasing in severity, continually
prelates and abbots was becoming more him during his last two years.
prostrated
self-denying and spiritual, and that a loftier But he worked on unweariedly. In the
conception of the work and office of a intervals of the labours attendant upon his

bishop began to prevail in Norman England. great office he still used the pen which had
"

Such a life as Anselm s was not lived produced so many learned and exhaustive
in vain."
treatises, on the deeper questions which
One
point we find especially urged by exercise theologians, though the hand was
the beloved English primate. The decrees growing more feeble every day and several ;

of Lanfranc respecting the marriage of
the clergy were made vastly more strict, and
every effort was made
them. Members of chapters were not only
sternly forbidden to marry, but those who
were already married were directed at once
to part with their wives.
in the future was ever to be ordained.
masterly works were the fruit of his dying
efforts. Soon every kind of food became
rigidly to enforce loathsome to the worn-out old man. His
devoted friend Eadmer lovingly records
his closing days. Mentally he continued as
strong as ever, though very feeble in the
No married man flesh. After he no longer could walk, he
was carried every day to the cathedral in a

Marriage was utterly forbidden to all chair. "We who attended him tried to
churchmen of the rank of sub-deacon and prevail on him to desist, because it fatigued

upwards. To this stern legislation there him so much, but we

succeeded, and that
was naturally much opposition, but from with difficulty, only four days before he
Anselm s days onward the rule of celibacy died."

became the universal law of the English On the Palm Sunday of the year 1 109,
mediaeval church. "

The mass of the the daily visit to the cathedral now being
i68 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1109.

with with ashes. And thus, the whole family

given up, Anselm was conversing
some friends standing round his bed. One of his children being gathered round him,

of them, speaking of the attendance of the he slept in peace."

then close at In reading the above touching account

great at the Easter festival,
of the last hours of one of the profoundest
hand, at the king s court, said to the dying
Lord father, we understand
"
mediasval thinkers and theologians, who
archbishop,
that you are going to leave the world for also was one of the most saintly of the long

your Lord s Easter court." He answered we

line of archbishops of Canterbury, feel

simply and quietly, seems so, and I "It we are reading the words of an eye-witness

shall gladly obey the summons ; yet I of the quiet, solemn scene. There is little

should be glad if my Lord would leave me to add fo Eadmer s

graphic picture. A
a little longer with you all,
for I wish to few, but very few marvels are related in
solve a question now working in my mind connection with the remains of the holy
about the origin of the soul, and I do not Anselm. We hear of the balsam with
know if
anyone will finish my work on which body was embalmed seeming
his

this subject when I am gone. I feel no inexhaustible, and how the stone coffin,

pain ;
I am
only so weak. If I could but which seemed too small, wonderfully en

eat, I think I might get better again." larged itself ;

but of the miracles which we
This was on Palm Sunday. The weakness should expect to have read of as being
and Tuesday evening his words
increased, performed round the sacred spot where
had become confused. Ralph, bishop of
"

Anselm slept, there is no record. Anselm,

Rochester, asked him to give his blessing with all his greatness, was never a popular
and absolution on writes Eadmer, us,"
saint like Dunstan, who preceded him, or
"and on the king and queen with
also Thomas A Becket, who followed him after
their children, and on the people of the not many His body was first laid
years.
land. He raised his right hand as if he by his friend and master Lanfranc, before
were suffering nothing, and made the sign the mighty rood which rose in front of
of the holy cross, then dropped his head, the Canterbury cathedral choir but sub ;

and sank down. The congregation of the sequently was translated to the chapel
brethren were already chanting matins beneath the "

Tower of Anselm." Even

in the great church. One of those who Rome, which owed him so great a debt,
watched our father took the book of the for a long time hesitated to enrol him in
Gospel, and read aloud the history of the the calendar of saints. The distinction was
Passion which was to be read that day at asked but asked in vain, by Thomas
for,
the mass. When he came to the Lord s A Becket. In the end Roderic Borgia,
the evil Pope known as Alexander VI.,
(

words, appoint unto you a kingdom, as

I

my Father hath appointed unto me, that formally canonised him.

ye may eat and drink at my table, he But the honour which the populace
began to breathe more slowly, and we saw cared not to give him, and which Rome
that he was passing so he was lifted from ; and the church he loved so well, with a
his bed and laid upon sackcloth sprinkled strange neglect, was so tardy in according to
nog.] ANSELM S DEATH. 169

him, has been in later times freely and amply pany of the strong and meek, who have
bestowed by the unanimous voice of not been afraid of the mightiest, and have
Christendom. That voice has been well not disdained to work for and with the
and truly expressed by the great singer of lowliest capable of the highest things,
;

Christian Europe. Dante has placed him "

content as living before Him with whom

in his vision of Paradise among the spirits

of light and power the special ministers
of God s gifts of reason as one in those

circling garlands of glorified spirits which

he describes answering to another as the
double rainbow in their movements of
love and joy."
The great poet has joined
Photos : W. S. Wyles, Reading.
English Anselm with the Hebrew Nathan,
RUINS OF READING ABBEY.
David s fearless seer, who dared rebuke
his master ;
with John Chrysostom, who
spoke his fiery words undismayed before there is neither high nor low, to minister
earth s greatest ones and with Donatus, ;
in the humblest."

the famous grammarian :

Henry Beauclerc survived Anselm
"

Nathan the seer, the metropolitan twenty-six years, dying, as said the gossip
John Chrysostom, Anselm, and he whose hands of the day, from the effects of a feast of
Donatus deigned the primer s help to plan."

place in the noble com-

"

It is his right * Dean Church :

"

Life of St. Anselm."

2p
170 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ["35-

lampreys, a favourite dish with the famous the wise statesman-king was conscious that
u he had for his primate the greatest living
king, at his hunting-seat in the Forest of

Lions,"
near Rouen. His biographer tells Christian bishop, and he loved that such
us that his last words were a solemn charge a man should be his real friend and
to all his great ones who were gathered adviser. In the church, too, Beauclerc
round him, to keep the peace and to was conscious that he possessed the most
protect the poor. He was laid, alone stable element of national life ;
he felt that

kings, in the stately abbey in those rude, disturbed times the English
among English
he had foundedat Reading, built probably people looked on the clergy as their truest
with some of the mighty stones which friendsand champions. With them, there
once had formed part of the temples and fore,during the greatest part of his reign,
colonnades of the neighbouring Roman even during the period of the dispute, he
provincial city of Silchester. Only a few maintained the closest alliance. His love "

ivy-covered fragments of huge walls re of order led him to admit the canonical
main to mark the site of the once proud rights of the chapters of the churches,
abbey of Reading, and we possess no the synodical powers of the clergy, and

vestige of the tomb which covered the (as we have seen in the case of the gf eat

body of one of the most renowned of our investiture question) even the occasional

sovereigns. The contemporary words of exercise by the Popes of a supreme

the Peterborough scribe in the English appellate and legative jurisdiction."
Chronicle, which no doubt embody faith But this conspicuous friendliness of Henry
fully the estimate of the men of his time, with Anselm and his general amity with
telling of the peace and security which the church, must not blind us to the great

prevailed in England during his long reign, importance of Anselm s victory, and to the
are his best and most fitting epitaph : momentous consequences which resulted
"

He
(Henry Beauclerc) was a good man,
and great was the awe of him no man
durst ill-treat another in his time
from the concession of his claims by the
; powerful king of England. It is true that
;
he made the king continued generally to exercise

peace for men and deer ;

whoso bare his the power, possessed by the crown, of
still

burden of gold and silver, no man durst choosing bishops and the higher eccle
say to him aught but good." siastics but by giving up the right of
;

One of the many titles to honour of making bishops and abbots by the delivery
Henry Beauclerc, is his behaviour to An- of the the sovereign con
pastoral staff,
selm after the final settlement in the year fessed the meaning and sanctity of these
1
107 of the protracted dispute about in offices, and acknowledged their paramount
vestitures. The victory had remained with spiritual and religious character. The king
the archbishop, but Beauclerc never al might still select the man for the office ;

lowed the memory of his great concession but another and a different power must
to affect the cordiality of his after-relations confer the right of exercising the office in
with either Anselm himself, or the church
after the archbishop s death. In Anselm *
Stubbs: "Constitutional History," chap. x.
JI35-] DEATH OF HENRY I.
171

question. So far, the victory of Anselm jurisdiction of Rome ;

an acknowledgment
conferred a lasting benefit on the Church which Rome was not slow to avail itself

of England, and secured to it a spiritual of, which laid the foundation of Roman
privilege which rightly belonged to it. pretensions to supreme authority, and
But the victory of the saintly archbishop which grew, as we shall see, with years,
unfortunately involved, besides, an acknow tillthe yoke grew to be intolerable, and

ledgment on the part of the church and eventually became one of the chief causes
sovereign of England of the supreme of the u Reformation "

upheaval.

ST. JOHN S CHAPEL, TOWER OF LONDON (IITH CENTURY).

 CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE CRUSADES, AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE CHURCH.

Original Tolerance of Pilgrims by Mohammedans

Dates of the Crusades Outburst of Fanatical
Persecution in 1010 Indignation in Europe Peter the Hermit Urban II. and the Council of
Clermont War for the First Time Preached as a Christian Duty Miserable Result of the First
Crusade Jerusalem Stormed in 1099 Check of Mohammedanism Spirit of Mohammed Enters
into the Church Further of Papal Authority And of Papal Taxation
Development Redistribution
of Property and Aggrandisement of the Church Development of Mariolatry Its Connection
with the Growth of Chivalry.

England and in the

in was the contemptuous treatment of the
Continental dominions of the sacred in Jerusalem by the semi-
WHILST
sons the Conqueror, partly
of
sites

barbarous and fanatical Turkish conquerors

from the policy of the Norman sove of the Holy Land. This same people per
as the outcome of maltreated and persecuted the
reigns, and partly sistently
Anselm s ideas, a vast impetus was being crowds of pilgrims ever journeying from

given to the claims of the bishop of western lands to Jerusalem, to worship at

Rome to a universal spiritual empire in the scenes hallowed by the Saviour s suffer

the western world, a mighty movement ings. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the
was taking place among the nations of historic scenes of the Saviour s life and

western Christendom, which contributed death and resurrection, although not be

to the same result. In the year 1095 longing to the days of very early Christ
Pope Urban held his famous council of ianity, had grown up from a comparatively
Clermont in Auvergne, which decided early period, as a practice dear to the

upon the first Crusade.

year In the hearts of men. There is no doubt but
1099 the allied army of Crusaders took that the Holy Land was visited by Christian
Jerusalem by storm. The second Cru pilgrims long before the time of Helena
sade, mainly excited by the preaching and her son Constantine in the early years
of St. Bernard, was in 1147. The third of the fourth century, when it is stated

Crusade, in which Richard Coeur-de-Lion that the wonderful relic of the true cross
was the prominent figure, was in 1191. was disinterred. The "

invention "

ot the
There were several other Crusades between true cross, and the erection of the stately

1191 and 1275, of more or less importance ;

church built over the traditional site of the
but with Pope Gregory X., who died in Holy Sepulchre, tell us that the
holy sites
" "

1276, these strange and terrible wars came were already precious to devout Christian
to an end. For nearly two centuries they souls. Nor was the habit of pilgrimage
had played an important part in the to Jerusalem from the lands of western
history of the church and the world. Christendom seriously interfered with by
The immediate cause of the Crusades the Mohammedan conquerors of Palestine
logs- ] ORIGIN OF THE CRUSADES. 173

in the seventh century. Christians were victims of every imaginable insult. The
still allowed to worship at the sacred sites, pilgrim bands were looked on as intruders,
with only occasional interruption, until the hateful to the followers of Mohammed. We
early years of the eleventh cen
tury, and to maintain buildings
and an ecclesiastical establishment

at Jerusalem.
In the year 1010, however, we
hear of a fierce persecution of the
Christians of Syria by Hakim, the
fanatical Mohammedan sultan of

Egypt. At this period the church

of the Holy Sepulchre and other
sacred Christian buildings were
razed to the ground. But things
again settled down and
in Syria,

once more, during the earlier half

of the eleventh century Christian

pilgrims from all parts of the world

were permitted to perform their
devotions in what was to them
the most sacred spot on earth.
A return even of the quiet, peace
ful days of the great caliphs was

hoped for. For a long period

the caliphs had treated the bands
of western pilgrims with courtesy
and respect, and we even read
of one of the most eminent of
these Mohammedan rulers, the
famous Haroun al
Raschid, pre
senting to his brother emperor 01
the west, Charlemagne, the keys
of the Holy Sepulchre. This in VISION OF ST. HKLKNA: THE INVENTION OF
CROSS.
terlude of quiet in the distracted (From the picture by Paul Veronese in the National Gallery. )

East was, however, of short dura

tion. The fierce race of Turks became hear, for instance, of the patriarch of Jerusa
masters in Jerusalem, and from that time lem dragged along the pavement by his hair;
the Christian population in Palestine occu while, wounded and mutilated, plundered
pied the position of despised and hated and ill-treated, the few survivors of the
slaves. The resident clergy became the pilgrim companies from the west came
174 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1095-

back to Italy and France, Germany and wide-spread a popular movement would
England, with lamentable stories of their win for the Papacy. Urban, once a monk
wrongs, with bitter memories of the of Cluny, had been the friend and con
shameful insults done to sanctuaries so fidant of the great Hildebrand (Gre
dear to every Christian soul. gory VII.), and had by him been named
As the eleventh century drew to a close, as fit for the succession to the chair of
the story of the wrong-doing of the infidel St. Peter. As
back as 1074 Hilde
far

had excited the bitterest indignation brand had dreamed of uniting western

throughout Christian
Europe. It only Christendom in one mighty effort for the
needed a match to be applied to the rescue of the Holy Land and the sacred

slumbering fires, to kindle a terrible con sites, but the time then had not come for

flagration. This match was applied by a the supreme effort now, mindful of the
;

wandering pilgrim-monk, who had seen far-seeing plan of his wise master, Urban,
himself the scenes he so eloquently and witness of the wide-spread general excite

pathetically painted. Peter the Hermit, ment aroused by the preaching of Peter
for that is the name by which he is known the Hermit on the sufferings of the
in history, passed through Italy, crossed Christian pilgrims and the insults offered
the Alps, and then in western Europe told to the holy sites, saw that the moment was
his tale. He preached now in the pulpit at hand the realisation of the great
for

in great churches, now on the roadside, design of a universal western Crusade which
now in market-places his moving elo
;
Hildebrand had first conceived.
quence stirred the multitude wherever he It was at Clermont in the Auvergne,

appeared. His influence was marvellous ;

where met the famous council summoned
all ranks and orders were excited
by the by Pope Urban to consider the question
news he brought them of the shame done of a general Crusade. It was a vast and
by the unbeliever to the sacred places, of mixed assembly that gathered together at
the cruel sufferings inflicted on the crowds the bidding of the bishop of Rome, in
of devout pilgrims to the Holy Land. the year 1095. It included thirteen arch
Amongst those so moved, the principal bishops, two hundred
and twenty-five
person was the Pope Urban II., who with bishops, eighty crosiered abbots, and many
heart and soul put himself at the head of other ecclesiastics, some of distinguished
the universal movement. It was indeed a rank and reputation, besides an almost
splendid stroke of policy for Rome. Still, countless assemblage of laymen, many of
it would be unfair in the them of the highest rank. Never, perhaps,
highest degree
to ascribe Pope Urban s action man work
entirely or did a single speech of such
even mainly to mere policy. Urban was extraordinary and lasting results as did
an intensely religious man, and to him the the words of Pope Urban II. at Clermont.
Crusade he inaugurated was indeed the We have several reports of that famous
cause of God. But still he could not have and inspiring speech of the Pope. He
been blind to the enormous power which dwelt on the sanctity of the Land of
his act of putting himself at the head of so God
Promise, the land chosen of ;
of the
1095] THE FIRST CRUSADE. 175

Holy City, hallowed by the life and death But the decrees of Clermont sent forth
of the Saviour. In the chosen Land of at the same time another and very dif
Promise and in the Holy City the foul ferently equipped army, under the leader
infidelsnow were lords. Then Urban ship of some of the most notable chiefs of
painted the present state of ruin and de Europe men like Godfrey de Bouillon,
solation of the Temple and the Holy Bohemund, bishop Odo (the Conqueror s
Sepulchre, and told them how shamefully brother), duke Robert of Normandy (the
were Christian men and women, who as Conqueror s eldest son) with many other
pilgrims went to worship in those sacred counts and princes innumerable, bearing
spots, treated in the holy precincts. And the noblest names in Europe, men of the

finally, perhaps for the first time in Christian highest rank. This host, after hard fight
story, appealing to the passion of the ing and tremendous losses, were completely
soldier at the same time with the fervour successful. Finally, in the last year of
of the devotee, he proclaimed the solemn the century they stormed Jerusalem, and

duty of undertaking this deadly war, after one of the most fearful massacres

promising that, in the fierce strife to which history relates, entered the Holy
which he urged them, the Saviour Himself, Sepulchre as victors, drunken with fury,
the God of battles, would be their leader theirgarments dyed with the blood of
and commander ;
while to the man who the hideous slaughter, and there wept,
would take up this sacred cause the Pope knelt, prayed.Over the conquered Holy
in his burning address offered instant Realm, conquered for only a compara
absolution, even from the most deadly sins. tivelyspeaking brief season, one of the
The happy soldier who might fall in this most popular and most distinguished of
glorious war, the chief bishop in western the chiefs of the allied bands of Crusaders,
Christendom dared to assert, would pass Godfrey de Bouillon, was elected king but ;

at once into Paradise and eternal bliss. strange combination of hideous cruelty
At the close of Pope Urban s speech with a real humility Godfrey refused to
one loud cry broke forth from the vast as wear a golden crown in Jerusalem, where
sembly,
"

It is the will of God ;

it is the his Redeemer had worn a crown of thorns.
will of God !
"

The result of the Clermont Looking, however, down the ghastly per
council is well known. A war of Christen spective of the Crusades, a period stretching
dom with Mohammedanism pro was over nearly two centuries, we have in this
claimed. A vast undisciplined multitude history of ours only to glance over the
was gathered together from all European effect of these strange and awful wars,
in

countries, under Peter the Hermit and a which such enormous numbers of human
knight called Walter the Pennyless. These liveswere thrown away, upon the Christian
marched towards the east by way of Hun church generally, and especially upon the
gary, and perished most of them miserably church of our own England.
by myriads. Scarcely one of the divisions The first effect was to roll back for ever

of this great host ever reached even the the advancing tide of Mohammedan in

frontiers of the Holy Land. vasion, which for a long period had spread
i
76
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10951275.

a deep panic through Christendom, espe the military spirit with Christianity, the

cially the
in southern parts of Europe. direct outcome of the Crusades, was in
That wave was first broken by Charles all respects similar to the teaching of
Martel, Charlemagne s grandfather, at the Mohammed a teaching thoroughly ap
battle of Tours in the eighth century. preciated and carried out by his wild
But the danger was very real again in the and fanatic followers, and to which in

eleventh century, and the fairest provinces largemeasure they owed their rapid and
of southern Europe were again seriously enormous successes.
threatened. The Crusades for ever warded Another effect of the Crusades, and one
off this danger from Christendom. that largely affected the future of the
But with the defeat of Mohammedanism church in England, as on the Continent
by the Crusaders, the spirit of Moham of Europe, was the position they gave

medanism, alas largely entered into

! to the bishops of Rome. The splendid
Christianity. It would be impossible to
"

dream of Hildebrand, of the universal

conceive any more complete transformation spiritual dominion of Rome, was in part
than Christianity underwent during the realised, owing to the attitude taken up by
period of Crusades, a transformation that Hildebrand s friend, pupil, and successor,
left, even long period, an enduring
after that Urban II., and the Popes who immediately
impress upon the religion of the Crucified. followed him. It is singular that this
Its divine founder had taught his disciples enormous upward bound of the Papacy in
that they must encounter the spirit of position and influence took place at the
violence and war with the spirit of gentle very time when England, largely through
ness and peace and with rare exceptions
;
the work of the saintly Anselm, was en
this had been the general teaching and tangling herself ever more and more in
practice of Christian preachers and pro the meshes of this same Papal power.
fessors. But from the end of the eleventh We
speak of the Crusades, those great
century, for nearly two hundred years, expeditions which appeared and re-appeared,
every pulpit in Christendom proclaimed casting the broad shadows of their influence
the duty of war with the
unbeliever, and over Europe for nigh two hundred years ;

represented the battle-field as the sure but their various influences for good or
path to heaven. The religious orders evil began with the very first of these
which arose out of the Crusades, such as "

holy wars, which ended in the storming

"

the Templars and the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the election of Godfrey
of Jerusalem, united strange spectacle de Bouillon as king of Jerusalem, and were
the character of the priest with that of the decisive as regards the Pope of Rome.
warrior, and when at the hour of sunset That great spiritual potentate, through
the soldier knelt down to pray before his the agency of the first Crusade, with one
cross, that cross was the handle of his great and sudden leap rose in general
sword."* This strange and sad fusion of estimation to a position greater and
*
Compare generally, Lecky :
"

History of grander than that occupied by any tem

European Morals," chap. iv.
poral sovereign, to a position so high that
I 78 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1095-1275.

men refrained from questioning his title the end of these strange wars. The
or limiting his power. The Pope, in the Roman bishop thus obtained a supremacy
last years of the eleventh century, in fact, absolutely unprecedented in the history of
became the liege lord of the western the world.

world, bequeathing this great legacy to We have before spoken of Papal legates,
his successors in the so-called Apostolic and have shown how they were with
see. The Crusades that followed the first, rare and exceptional instances absolutely
at intervals, served to consolidate his unknown in the Anglo-Saxon church,
tremendous and well-nigh limitless powers. first making their appearance in England
These powers were, in fact, awful. The with the Norman followers of the Con
sovereign prince who, the bidding or at queror.
"

The Crusades gave a new and

instigation of Pope Urban and his suc vast impulse in all
European countries to

cessors, took the Cross, left his dominions this form of developing Roman influence
under the protection of the bishop of and authority. The popular movement of
Rome. "

The noble who became a the Crusades supplied the opportunity of

Crusader was free from most feudal claims. sending legates into every country in
He could not be summoned to the banner western Christendom, to preach and to
of his lord. Even the yoke of the down urge the inescapable duty of helping on
trodden peasant and the serf was broken. with men and treasure the holy war waged
They were free if
they became soldiers of by the believer against the infidel for the
the Crusading force. The very creditor protection and custody of Jerusalem and
could not arrest the debtor." The Pope, the Holy Land. Thus every court in
in theory, was the liege lord of all Europe, every religious house, every
Crusaders. It is true that in numberless church, became familiarised with the pres
cases this supreme power could not be ence of the authorised representative of
enforced; but it was often claimed and not the Pope, who superseded in the person
resisted ;
and in theory, probably, no one of his legate all regular and ordinary
*
seriously denied it. Almost incredible authority."

were the promises which this

spiritual The free-will offerings and contributions
preacher of deadly war, who claimed to be of the clergy and monks to Rome for this

St. Peter s successor, dared

authoritatively purpose gradually became a regular tax ;

to make. He offered absolution for all and thus, imperceptibly, the principle
sins there was no crime which might not crept in of Roman exactions from foreign
be redeemed by this act of obedience churches for objects very different from
absolution without penance to all who the one originally contemplated the holy
would take up arms in this sacred cause. wars. The vast additions which the
The Crusader became the soldier of the Crusades brought to the coffers of the
u
Church the Pope was general-in-chief 01
;
churches and religious houses, at first made
the armies of the faith." He assumed this such contributions to the Papal coffers an
lofty position in the preaching of the first * Milman "

Latin Christ
Compare generally :

Crusade ;
he maintained it in theory to ianity," book vii., chap. vi.
I095-I275-] EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES. 179

easy matter ;
indeed they were generally the common name used for the nations of

cheerfully made, and even regarded, per the west. And among these crusading
haps, in the light of thank-offerings to a Franks the Normans of England and the
cause which so largely enriched them. But Continent held a foremost place.
the time came when the thank-offerings The results, also, of these Crusades,
became a hateful tax. especially the wonderfulgrowth of the
In the history of the Crusades England Papal power we have been detailing, in
holds no mean place. But it must be a peculiar and especial degree affected
confessed that it was largely owing to the life of the Church of England. In
the spirit of adventure introduced by the England, as on the Continent, the result
Normans, that England became so deeply of a Crusade was considerably to redis
involved in the wars of the Crusaders. tribute property. Money was scarce, and
From Normandy the contingent of warriors the needs of the barons and knights start
who took the Cross was conspicuously ing on a distant and costly expedition
large. Its duke, Robert, and its most were great. Horses and armour and
prominent bishop, Odo of Bayeux, belonged means of transit had to be purchased for
to the first band of Crusaders. Among themselves and their followers at a short
the more notable sacrifices made by the notice. At such times not a few com
men of this first Crusade was the pawning munes or associations of towns and villages
of the duchy of Normandy by its duke, bought privileges and liberties from their
Robert, the Conqueror s son, to his brother, feudal lords, privileges and liberties which
the king of England, for a great sum, to were enlarged in future years.*
enable him to equip himself and his But the great gainers at this juncture
followers for the holy war in a manner were ecclesiastics. No church lands could
befitting his high rank and position. No be alienated ;
but in these feverish moments
one among the allied Crusaders, except, of great excitement the church, by gift or
won still more by purchase, gained large ad
perhaps, Godfrey de Bouillon himself,
so great a reputation for valour and skill ditions to its landed property. Many
as did this duke Robert of Normandy, excellent bargains were made by religious
whose conduct during the terrible war houses and churchmen in the years of last

went far, in men s eyes, to redeem a the eleventh century. "At the sight of
wasted and disgraceful career. The largest the red cross, when the purchaser entered
and most important share, indeed, in these the stone -vaulted store chamber, the
monk-treasurer was to make
campaigns, which in their after-effects so prepared
largely affected and so powerfully in the smallest bidding."
Lands in every
while
fluenced for ages all life, both in the country were comparatively cheap,
and was all articles needful for the equipment of
church state, taken by the
Franks using this term as generally sig the Crusaders rose to enormous rates.

nifying the inhabitants of old Gaul. This The pawning of the duchy of Normandy
we may see to this very day as the ;
was not the only instance of an important
* Bernard of Clairvaux."
"

"Frank"
still, in Oriental countries, is See Dr. Storrs :
i8o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10951275.

sold for crusading equip communes, too, trading upon the sudden
principality being
and pressing needs of their feudal superiors,
ment. The duchy of Bouillon was parted
with at the same time to the prince-bishop laid the foundations of their future liberties
and subsequent pros
perity, it was the church
generally, and especially
the great monastic foun
dations, which were
chiefly enriched by the
strange fever of religious
adventure which infected
England and much of

western Christendom.
Everywhere on the

spot to avail herself of

the pressing needs of her

neighbours, the all-absorb

ing church, for the two
centuries during which
the crusade-fever lasted,
silently gathered in more
and ever more wealth ;

accumulating and still

accumulating land, peace

ably but at the same
time surely despoiling the
world of its wealth, feel
ing all the while it was
her bounden duty to
increase what was deemed

Photo : Frith &* Co., Reigaie. the property of "God.

LADY CHAPEL, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL (EARLY I3TH CENTURY). Thus in England a large
portion of the land of the
of Liege for a great sum of ready money.* realm gradually passed into hands which
But while some sovereign princes, like claimed though the claim was not always
Rufus, made great and permanent ac made good exemption from many of the
quisitions, and not a few merchants laid ordinary burdens of the kingdom. The
up large stores of wealth which in time result of this sudden and vast increase ot

became diffused about Europe while many

;
wealth by the church, and especially by
* See the monastic houses, was naturally to ex
Palgrave :
"Normandy and England."
book iv., chap. xi. cite, as time went on, jealousy and cupidity.
logs 1275] THE CRUSADES AND MARIOLATRY. 181

The day came when, in her turn, the there is no feature more remarkable than
church was despoiled by a process less that usually important and often carefully

gentle and lawful than that by which she decorated portion of the vast building
v
had despoiled the world. "

The structure known as the "

Mary
"

or the "

Lady
fell sooner because of its inordinate height :
chapel. Take one well-known example
the riches would have been safer if less of this limb of our churches, the stately

rapidly acquired, and less disproportionate and storied cathedral of Gloucester, one of
*
to the wealth of society." the noblest of the great churches erected

by the Benedictine order. There, at the

In the great Norman and mediaeval east end of the vast cathedral, stands

abbeys and cathedrals, erected, some in a magnificent and complete church for
the latter years of the eleventh, and others this, in fact, is what it is still strikingly
in the course of the twelfth century, and beautiful in its scarred and mutilated

amplified and beautified in the course of loveliness, dedicated by its skilful builders
the two centuries following the period in to the especial honour and worship of

Pkto : H. W. Watson, Gloucester.

LADY CHAPEL, GLOUCESTKR CATHEDRAL (LATK 15 1 H CENTURY).

"

the blessed Virgin Mary.* Nor in this

history generally termed the mediaeval
"

*
* See Dr. Storrs : Bernard of Clairvaux, The present Lady chapel replaces one built in
viii. the thirteenth century.
chap.
182 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10951275.

Mary chapel does But the doctrinal teaching on the subject

possession of a gorgeous
Gloucester stand alone.
"

Every mediaeval of the Virgin developed as time went on,

cathedral indeed, almost every spacious especially in the east, until the worship

church had, and, in many cases, still of Mary appeared as an integral part of

preserves its chapel of Our Lady. M Christianity. Among the emperor Jus
At what extraordinary this tinian s splendid foundations in the sixth
period
reverence for the holy virgin mother first century arose many churches dedicated to
made its appearance in Christian teaching, the Mother of God." The feast of the
"

is uncertain. All signs of it are absent in Annunciation was already celebrated under
the New Testament. It certainly was Justin and Justinian. Heraclius, we read,
unknown in apostolic and sub-apostolic had images of the Virgin on the masts of
times; and when it first appears, it was his war-ships, and before long we find

of a nature strangely different from the Mary the tutelar deity of Constantinople.*

mediaeval estimate of Mary on which we In the western church the development

are now dwelling. To take an example : of Mariolatry was slower but it steadily ;

In the ancient liturgy of St. John Chry- grew, even in the less imaginative coun
sostom, still in common use in the Greek tries of Christendom. From the era of
church, the Virgin Mary is prayed for. In Gregory, the great Bishop of Rome, in the
this liturgy we read "We offer unto Thee : firstyears of the seventh century, the
(God the Father) this reasonable service worship of the Virgin became more and
for the faithful dead, our forefathers, fathers, more a part of Christian belief. Already,
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, . . .
martyrs, in the last half of the "eleventh century,
confessors, but especially for our most
. . . Peter Damiani, bishop and cardinal, a

holy, immaculate, most blessed Lady the teacher of vast influence, speaks of Mary
Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary." as deified, as exalted to the throne of God

This most venerable liturgical compilation, the Father, and placed in the very seat
no doubt, has been considerably altered of the Trinity. To thee," he says, is
" "

and added to since the days of Chrysostom given the power in heaven and in earth ;

in the fourth century but emphatically ; nothing impossible to thee, to whom it

is

not in the direction of lowering the position is

possible even to raise again the desperate
of the blessed Virgin, a position which, in to the life of bliss for thou approachest ;

the theology of the eastern church, has the golden throne of man s reconciliation,
been estimated, as the ages passed, higher not only asking but commanding, as a
and ever higher, till such a place of mistress, not as a handmaid."
eminence has been assigned to her, that In western Christendom, strange as it
no loftier a one is conceivable. Similar testi may seem, it was the new teaching which
mony is given in the ancient liturgies of St. arose out of the wars of the Crusades
Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Cyril. t which popularised, so to speak, Mariolatry ;

for we can scarcely speak of the attitude of

* Milman.
t Compare
"

The Divine Liturgies of Chrysostom * See

Milman: Latin Christianity." book
"

iii.,

and Basil." etc., edited by Robertson, 1894. chapter vii., and book xiv., chap. ii.
1075 1275-] THE CRUSADES AND CHIVALRY. 183

mediaeval Christianity towards the Blessed infidel. The Christianknight was in

Virgin by any other term. have We spired by many noble sentiments by self-

already noticed the preaching andhow sacrifice, by self-devotion for others, espe

teaching which led to the first Crusade, cially by compassion for the oppressed and
and for nearly two centuries kept alive the the weak. Now, a great respect for the
enthusiasm which continually renewed female sex had always been a remarkable
these costly and terrible wars, ever in characteristic of the northern nations and ;

spiring fresh hosts to take up the Cross, courtesy towards, and protection of the
pressed upon men that these religious weaker sex, became the especial duty and
wars were not only just, but were posi privilege of knighthood. Next, therefore,
tively holy and Christian. The result of or even equal to devotion, stood gallantry
this strange fusion of religion and war was among the principles of knighthood. The
the production of a new character on the love of God and the ladies was enjoined as

stage of the western world, the ideal "

a peculiar duty in the teaching of chivalry.

knight of the Crusades and of chivalry, In the strange confusion of ideas, this

uniting all the force and fire of the ancient devotion to the female sex took a religious
warrior with all the tenderness and tone. There was one lady of whom, high
humility of the Christian saint. This new above and beyond all, every knight was

character sprang from the conjunction 01 the special servant the Virgin mother of
:

the two streams of religious and military the Saviour, the rescue of whose sepulchre

feeling ;
and although this ideal was a was the primary object of the Crusades.
creature of the imagination, although it Thus the adoration of the Virgin, long
was rarely or never perfectly realised in taught by theologians, became strangely
life, yet it remained the type and model or popularised among the Western nations at
warlike excellence to which many genera this epoch a popularity which showed no
;

tions aspired."* signs of diminution for a very long period,

Chivalry,
"

at least the religious tone and which largely continued through all
which chivalry assumed in all its acts, the Middle Ages to influence and to colour

language, and ceremonies," t may be said Christian worship throughout the whole
to have been the result of the Crusades ;
of western Christendom.
Crusades chivalry, if it may
for before the Religious chivalry, that product of the
be deemed to have existed at all, appears Crusades, those so-called holy wars, seemed
have had no particular reference to array the Christian world as the
to
"

to

religion. But war was now hallowed by church militant of the Virgin. Every
religion, and men were persuaded by their knight was the sworn servant of Our Lady ;

teachers that the noblest end to which to her he looked especially for success in
they could dedicate their lives was the battle." And from the soldier this deep
rescue of Christ s from the sentiment of adoration passed to the
sepulchre
* people. Rapidly this worship became the
Lecky :
"

History of European Morals,"

worship of western Christendom. Soon,
chap. iv.

f Dean Milman. as we have remarked, every cathedral

1 84 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10751275.

and abbey, every spacious church, had by the Crusades, showed the mighty hold
its Chapel of Our Lady. Hymns were ithad obtained over the popular mind in

composed and universally sung in her England, as on the continent of Europe,

honour. Liturgies in which her name was by the erection and lavish adornment of
the principal fea
such splendid
ture were intro
and costly shrines
Manuals as the great Lady
duced.
of private or of Chapel, already

public devotion mentioned, of the

were copied and famous Benedic
tine abbey of
recopied a thou
sand times in Gloucester.
every monastic Among the many
A and sweeping
scriptorium.
new and changes which
startling
addi passed over the
theological
tion was thus Church of Eng
added land at this
generally
to popular Christ period of the
ian teaching. Reformation, the
"

The incommu theologian must

nicable attributes give unstinting
of the Godhead praise to at least
were assigned to one great change,
to the
Mary. She was owing
as stern severity
represented
between which, with a
sitting
cherubim and pitiless hand, cut
seraphim, as com out from her
CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN MARY AS QUEEN OF
manding by her HEAVEN. liturgies and
*
maternal influ (From a Book of Bible Miniatures written it the \ith Century ) her formularies

ence, not by
if
every trace of
authority, her Eternal Son."* The idea this strange, unnatural cult of one
of a of Heaven became among women
"

a familiar blessed
"

Queen who, though

one in popular theology ;
and before the she be, possesses no title to worship,
fifteenth century had run its course, the no claim to the adoration of Christian
new devotion, largely called into existence people.
*
This illustration with another are probably
* Milman Latin book by an Italian hand, and were inserted in the book
"

:
Christianity," xiv.,
chap. ii. at a later date.
 CHAPTER XXIX.
HENRY II. AND THOMAS A BECKET.7

Anarchy of Stephen s Reign The First of the Plantagenets Character of Henry II. His Moral
Defects The Chancellor Becket Questions between Church and State Becket made Archbishop
of Canterbury Sides with the Church The Constitutions of Clarendon Becket signs them,
then recants, and flees into Exile His Intrigues and Austerities Apparent Reconciliation
Undone by Becket s Intolerance Henry s Wrath and Unhappy Exclamation Murder of the
Archbishop Indignation in the Church and throughout Europe Henry s Bitter Regret His
Humiliating Penance Yet the King s Policy Prevails Learning in this Reign The King s
Death His Abiding Influence on English Law Canon Law.

reign, lasting nineteen years, "

All became forsworn, and broke their

THE which succeeded

Beauclerc, was a period of law
that of Henry allegiance every rich man built his
;
for

castles and defended them against the

lessness, anarchy, and confusion. Stephen king, and they filled the land with castles.
claimed the crown through his mother They greatly oppressed the wretched
Adela, the Conqueror s daughter, but he people by making them work at these
was stoutly opposed by Matilda, Beau- castles, and when the castles were finished,
clerc s daughter, somewhiles empress of they filled them with devils and evil men.
Germany, and then wife of Geoffrey of Then they took those whom the>
sus

Anjou. She had been designated as the pected to have any goods, by night and
queen before his death by king Henry by day, seizing both men and women, and
himself. A
desolating civil war harassed they put them in prison for their gold
England for some fourteen years. During and silver, and tortured them with pains
this time
king Stephen, alternately a unspeakable. Many thousands they ex
prisoner and a conqueror, was utterly hausted with hunger. I cannot and I may
powerless to enforce law and order in not tell of all the wounds and of all the
the land. Men in England in his days tortures that they inflicted upon the
did what was right in their own eyes the
;
wretched men of this land, . . . and
poor and weak were grievously oppressed ;
this state of things ever grew worse and
and terrible and almost universal suffering worse. . . .
They plundered and burnt
prevailed. Though the civil war only allthe towns, so that thou mightest walk
lasted during some fourteen years, the a whole day s journey without finding a
whole nineteen years of this disastrous man seated in a town, or its lands tilled.

reign was a period of misery and confusion. Then was corn dear, and there was no
The words of the Peterborough Chronicler flesh and cheese and butter for the people
give us the impressions of a contemporary in the land. Wretched men starved with
on the state of things which prevailed in hunger some;
lived on alms who had been

unhappy England in king Stephen s days. once rich. Some fled the country. Never
2
Q
i86 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ["54-

was there more misery. The land was all and sanctuary for the poor and the op
ruined by these deeds, and it was said pressed of all classes and orders. An
openly that Christ and the saints slept." enormous number of new religious houses
During this period of civil war and were built indeed, no period was so
;

misery, although Stephen had the reputa prolific in the establishment of com
tion of caring little for the church, no munities of monks and nuns in England
special acts of oppression of churchmen as the nineteen war-filled years of king
are recorded indeed, as might have been
; Stephen. The power of Rome had kept
expected in such times of bitter suffering, continually advancing. We hear of Roman
ecclesiastical power and influence made legates in England, and we come across
considerable strides. As an instance of the constant notices appeals to Rome.
of
influence of the church even in warfare at Even the king himself did not disdain
this time, the circumstances under which making appeals of this kind in his own
the famous Battle of the Standard was person. Increased submission to the Roman
"
"

fought, A.D. 1138, are worth recording. see is certainly one of the noticeable features
The king of Scotland (David), taking ad of these nineteen years. There was none
vantage of the disturbed state of England, to notice, much less to resist, these foreign
distracted aswas with the long it civil war encroachments.
between Stephen and Matilda, for the
second time invaded England with a savage The year 1 1 54 witnessed the beginning
Celtic following, and harried cruelly all new era. The sudden death of Stephen,
of a
the northern counties. The aged arch leaving no direct heir, left the throne open
bishop of York gathered a strong army to the son of Stephen s life-long adversary,
of northern barons and freemen to resist the empress Matilda Henry Plantagenet
the plundering foe. At Northallerton, in of Anjou, who was crowned at Winchester
Yorkshire, they met the invaders from king of England. The long period of civil
Scotland, who were completely routed. dissension and confusion came to an end
In the midst of the English army during with his accession. The historian, with
the fierce struggle was a cart bearing a gcfod reason, dwells upon the long and
great standard, at the top of which the eventful reign of this young son of the
sacred banners of the three great churches
empress Matilda (Maud), the Conqueror s

of St. Peter s of York, St. John of who for

Beverley, great-grandson, thirty-five years
and Wilfrid of Ripon* waved round the
St.
(1154 to guided the fortunes of
JI ^9)
consecrated Host. The spirit of the under the well-known name of
age England,
attributed the signal victory to the It was by his power
presence Henry II., Plantagenet.
of these consecrated and sacred ensigns. that the foundations of the United King
In fact, when all was in confusion, and dom of Great Britain and Ireland were laid ,

there was a universal disregard of all some vague acknowldgement of Henry as

law, the church remained the only home the superior lord being made even by
* Some accounts add to these the banner of those parts of the u United Kingdom "

St. Cuthbert of Durham which were never under his sway.

really
"54-3
ACCESSION OF HENRY II. 187

It was this first Plantagenet king who But the stirring political history of this
defined the relations between church and wonderful reign is not our present work ;

state, and decreed that churchmen were we have to do alone with his relations
to be subject to the common laws of the to the church. And no king who ever
realm. It was through his constitution reigned amongst us exercised a more
and assizes that it came to pass, that, all powerful and abiding influence over the
over the world, English-speaking races are church than did Henry Plantagenet, the
governed by English, not by Roman law. sovereign lord of so many lands.
He moulded the government of England Contemporary chroniclers give us a vivid
into the form which more or less has ever picture of this king, who occupies so con
continued, and established the judicial spicuous a niche in the gallery of our
system whose main outlines have been English sovereigns, as he appeared to
preserved to our own times.* those who lived in familiar intercourse
with him. The
picture they present is
Fortune strangely favoured the young very differentfrom the ordinary conception
prince who was destined to work so mighty of a mediaeval monarch, such as somewhat
a work among us. At the age of eighteen later appears in the illuminated manuscript
his great career began, when he was in of a Froissart, in all the bravery of gilded
vested with his mother s
hereditary duchy and painted mail ;
or on tombs, like the
of Normandy. A year later his father s graceful figure which lies in the beautiful
death put him in possession of Anjou and shrine of Edward II. at Gloucester, with
the broad Angevin dominions. The year flowing, embroidered robes, wearing a
following, his strange marriage with gemmed crown, with the hands clasping
Eleanor, the greatest heiress in Europe, a jewelled staff or sceptre. We see a

gave him the sovereignty of the vast somewhat rough -looking man, wearing a
provinces of the south, including Aquitaine short Angevin cape, plainly dressed, with
and Gascony, and many a lordship in the out gloves, slightly above middle height ;

centre and south of France Eleanor, who ;

reddish hair, which soon became sprinkled
was some seven years his senior, divorcing with white, as the cares and troubles of
her husband, the king of France, for love that work-filled, anxious life thickened
of the young Henry Plantagenet. Two round him hair that he kept ever very
years later, on the sudden death of Stephen, short, as a precaution against baldness ;

he was crowned undisputed king of Eng piercing grey eyes, a freckled face, a short
land at Winchester. His courtiers told neck, a broad, square chest, legs bowed
him, with pride and with truth, some from incessant riding never sitting, save
;

that his empire stretched from the Arctic at meal-times, which were ever brief, for
little for
Ocean to the Pyrenees. There was no Henry Plantagenet cared eating

sovereign in Europe not even the or drinking. Yet on that unlovely face
emperor of Germany who ruled so men saw something lion-like. The grey
eyes were at times clear and but not
powerful and wealthy a group of states. soft,
*
Cf. Mrs. J. R. Green :
Henry II. unfrequently bloodshot through passion.
i88 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ["54-

His ordinary home was a camp his com ; mystery and awful reverence. His looks,

panions were mostly soldiers or huntsmen. his presence, his jokes, his very oaths, his

His chief relaxation was the chase his ; kindness, his wrath, became familiar to all.
overpowering energy found an outlet in A new sense of law and justice grew up in
violent physical exertion. After a long the poor, harassed land under a king who

day spent in hunting, he was never seen was ever present with his people hearing :

to sit down save for supper.* complaints, seeing that his judges were
Many and bitter were the complaints of doing their work, beholding with his own
his courtiers and ministers that there was eye the misrule and oppression of the
never a moment of rest for himself or his great and powerful. No one in England,
servants, one
day following another in at least could be sure that the terrible
ceaseless journeys from place to place king was not close at hand, about to re
now for a long day s hunting, now for a quire an account of his doings, good or bad.
visit of inspection and business. He was Only the possession- of vast and unusual
never at rest. He never spared himself. physical strength enabled this strange man
By arduous labour, by readiness of access to get through this enormous labour of
to all men, by ceaseless travel, by un hand and brain.
wearied patience, he would see for himself His intellectual
gifts were very great, fai
how the laws he was at such pains to beyond those possessed by ordinary men.
formulate and to set in motion in his In learning he was ahead of most of his
disturbed and unsettled kingdom, actually contemporaries. He is said to have been
worked. "

O
Lord God Almighty," writes a scholar in many tongues, though he only
one of the sorely-tried confidential attend spoke familiarly in French or Latin. He
ants of the great Plantagenet, turn and "

chose his friends well and wisely his ;

convert the heart of the king from this intimates were, for the most part, men of
pestilent habit [of incessant moving from deep learning or of saintly life. When
place to place], that he may know himself ever he could get a breathing-time from
to be but man, and that he may show a his many business cares, he occupied him

royal mercy and compassion to those who self in private reading, or in learning
are driven after him, not by ambition, but
something from his scholarly secretaries.
by necessity." In these hurried, ceaseless, The Plantagenet king was not without
journeys we catch sight of the
restless
elegant tastes. He loved the reading of
busy royal secretaries scribbling, at each history, and delighted in the conversation
brief halt, letters, charters, grants, direc of acute and learned men and he was;

tions, treaties, keeping pace with the happy in the possession of a wonderful
enormous mass of business that came to memory.
this ever-toiling king of a vast realm. In his public capacity he was the most
He became thus known to all his people. able and successful politician of his time ;

He was no mere king hedged round by and while a great soldier and skilful

* See
Chronicle of Benedict of Peterborough general, he was no lover of war ; being
(Rolls Series). Preface by Bishop Stubbs. moved, men said, by a strange pity for lives
190 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1154 1162.

sacrificed, and for sufferings which naturally and in morning would forget his
the

accompanied the battlefield. The result passionate prayers and fervid resolutions.*
of his work, his journeys, his restless No one can say how much reality there
curiosity, his enormous experience, ap was in his bitter abasement and voluntary
peared in his wise and beneficial laws. humiliation after the murder of Becket,

Henry Plantagenet was one of the most the like to which on the part of a power
sagacious administrators and wisest legis ful crowned monarch had never been seen
lators that ever guided England ;
and it before !

has been well said, that when he finally Was this great sovereign insane ?

drew up his system of reform in church Even in his lifetime men whispered the
and state, there was not a single point of well-known legend of the diabolical origin
principle in it from which his successors of the Angevin house, whence Henry
found it
necessary afterwards to draw back. sprang. Was it not most probable that
Yet in spite of all this amazing activity that awful sickness of mind which not
and zeal for right, and constant endeavour unfrequently is the sad heritage of an
to substitute law and order in place of absolute, irresponsible monarch, at times
lawlessness and misrule in that disturbed peculiarly affected the great Plantagenet ?
and turbulent age, which we see and admire One who has made a wonderful study of
with no grudging admiration in the great the man and his times thus powerfully
Plantagenet king, Henry II. was not a sums him up :
"

Neither angel nor devil r

good man. Though most of his work was Henry Plantagenet was a powerful, un

splendid and beneficial and far-reaching in scrupulous man, a man of vast energy and
its after-consequences, he can never be industry, of great determination eminently ;

ranked with kings like Oswald and Alfred, wise and brave, eminently cruel, lascivious,
Edward I. and St. Louis. His moral greedy, and false and eminently un ;

lifeand example were evil ;

his passions fortunate also, if the ruin of all the selfish
were unchecked. Feared rather than aims of his sagacious plans, the disappoint
loved, dreaded by his contemporaries ment of his affections, and the sense of
rather than un
respected, a prey to an lost his soul for nothing can be
having
governable temper, no one, ecclesiastic or called misfortune." t
layman, trusted him or believed him.
What his "

religion
"

consisted in re By the side of the mighty Angevin king,

mained, and will ever remain, a riddle during the first eight years of his reign ,
to which no solution can be stood his favourite and minister, the
attempted.
Daily he attended mass but those with ; chancellor Becket. This famous man,
him saw how in the most solemn moments who subsequently played so great a part
of the sacred service he would be writing, in the story of our church, had been
or even drawing pictures, and introduced to the notice of the young king
occasionally
whispering to his courtiers thoughts which
* Mrs. R. Green.
occurred to him on state matters. He J.
t Bishop Stubbs Preface to
:
"

Chronicles of
would spend a night fasting and praying, Henry II."
by Benedict of Peterborough.
 1162.] HENRY II. AND BECKET. 191

on his first arrival in England by Theobald, we read, were employed in the

chancery
once a monk of Bee, the archbishop of under Becket. The
archbishop of Canter
Canterbury. Henry took an extraordinary bury dying in the year 1161, Henry de
fancy to the young and brilliant ecclesi termined that his favourite and minister,
astic, made him his chancellor, and soon Becket, although only in deacon s orders,
entrusted him with the principal direction should succeed Theobald in the primacy.
of state affairs in England. Against the advice of his chief friends,
Becket, who was the son ol the port the king forced on the appointment the ;

reeve of London, the predecessor of the chancellor-deacon was consecrated priest,

present lord mayor, at the age of twenty- and in 1162 was enthroned at Canterbury,
four had entered the household of arch the Pope sending him his pall.
bishop Theobald, and had soon acquired Between the Church of England and
his confidence and friendship. We have a the state some grave causes of difference

description of him at this period of his existed at this time, towhich the king
career, which describes him as slight and had determined to put an end. The
pale, with dark hair, and long nose and Conqueror, among other constitutional

straightly-featured face, blithe of counten changes, had separated the courts in

ance, keen of thought, winning and lov which secular business was carried on
able in conversation, frank in speech, but from the purely ecclesiastical courts.

slightly stuttering in his talk, and, above The extensive and general study of

all, possessing a singular gift of winning Roman or canon law had of late largely

affection. increased the pretensions and claims of

The affection ofHenry for his chancellor these ecclesiastical courts, which exercised
was singular. The king and his minister wide powers over the laity, as well as over
became inseparable in hall, in church, in
;
the clergy. They alone enforced spiritual

council-chamber, on horseback, the friends penalties they dealt with cases of oath
:

were ever together. Becket, too, like the and promises they decided as to the
;

king, in the intervals of work loved hunt property of intestates, and pronounced in
ing and hawking. The magnificence of every case of inheritance whether or no
the minister seems far to have exceeded the heir was legitimate they declared the
;

the state kept by the king, who was ever law as to wills and
marriages. Many
a rough, plain man. Becket, on the other vestiges of these ancient rights have sur

hand, loved to array himself in scarlet and vived even to our own times. It was said

precious furs, with clothes woven with that in the archdeacons courts, in the

gold. His table, too, was sumptuous, and days of Henry II., more money was levied
glittered with gold and silver plate. Henry by fines than the whole revenue of the
lavished gifts and rich preferments on his crown. Young archdeacons were now
favourite,who seems to have thoroughly constantly sent abroad to study the
Roman
deserved his affection, and ably to have and canon law. Bologna was the favourite
seconded the king s efforts in the direction school for the pursuit of these studies in
of righteous government. Fifty-two clerks. a law which was to be administered in
192 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1162.

these courts, in which the volume of Rome from the Church of England were
business was ever on the increase. So also rapidly on the increase. Freed prac
great, indeed, was it, and so varied was tically from the common law of the realm,
the business which came before them, that the clergy looked more and more to the
those archdeacons who were to act as Pope as the supreme judge and arbiter
judges were often kept orders, in deacon s in all their causes. This grave and ever-
lest the priesthood should be defiled by so increasing danger to the state from the
much contact with legal and varied secular interference of a foreign power was viewed
affairs. Religious men, in view of all by Henry II. with growing uneasiness, and
the secular business and secular interests it was with the hope of finding an efficient

with which these important church officials and loyal coadjutor in the archbishop of
were entrusted, even began to propound Canterbury, in the important reforms he
the well-known question, which has ex proposed to effect in church matters, that
cited some interest and curiosity, whether he procured the elevation of his friend and
in the case of an archdeacon "

salvation confidant, Becket, to that great office.

were possible"
"

an possit archidiaconus Never was anyone so disappointed in

*
salvus esse." an instrument which he had forged to
What, however, came specially home to carry out his will. Very soon after his
men was the comparative
at this juncture consecration to his new office, Becket
immunity which clerks enjoyed from the resigned the chancellorship, left the
penalties due to crimes and misdemeanours. king s court, withdrew from all state
We hear, for instance, in the first eight matters, and devoted himself solely to

years of Henry s reign, of one hundred spiritual things. Never was so rapid a
murders committed by clerks, who had change. The old splendour of living was
escaped all punishment save the compara abandoned, the gay and costly scarlet and
tively light sentence of fine and imprison gold and rich furs were exchanged for
ment inflicted by ecclesiastical courts. penitential sackcloth and the monk s black
But the real cause of Henry s own un cloak. His Canterbury was now
hall at
easiness at the present state of things was
thronged with the poor and needy, who
the rapid drifting of the Church of England were fed from the archbishop s table. Daily
Rome-ward. The monasteries, owing to was Becket seen in the infirmary, tending
various causes, some of which, notably the and visiting the sick, and even washing
Crusades, have been already alluded to, had the feet of poor travellers, as part of his
enormously increased in numbers, in wealth, daily penance. He would spend hours in
and in
power. These religious houses the cold cloister studying like a monk.
were, for the most part, exempt from all Zealou? in services and in constant prayers,
episcopal control, and acknowledged only hiswhole life and appearance underwent a
the Pope as their superior. sudden and startling change. No sooner
Appeals to
* was he made archbishop than Henry found
See Bishop Stubbs : Oxford Lectures (VII.).
"TheCourt of Henry and (XIII.) "Canon
II.."
the subservient and resourceful minister
Law." of state merged into the ecclesiastic.
1162.] BECKET AS ARCHBISHOP. 193

utterly devoted to what he looked upon has close relations with the great eccle
as the interests of his order, and of siasticalcentre at Rome and there is,;

the church over which he had been so thirdly, the man who, not less patriotic

unexpectedly called to preside. Hence the than the first, and not less ecclesiastical

bitter, irreconcilable enmity between the than the second, acts on and lives up
two once friends Henry II. and Becket. to higher principles of action, and seeks
The clergy of the Norman reigns have first and last what seems to him to be

BECKET WASHING THE FEET OF BEGGARS.

*
been well described as capable of being the glory of God." In the first class

arranged under three classes. There is may be placed such men as Flam-
"

the man of the thoroughly secular type, a bard of Durham, Herbert Losinga of
minister of the. king and a statesman, who Norwich, and William Carileph of Durham,
has received high preferment in the church thoroughly secular churchmen, but at the
as a reward for official services ;
there is same time able and devoted statesmen.
the professional ecclesiastic who looks to Of the second class, Lanfranc, the great
the interests of the church primarily, whose archbishop-minister of the Conqueror, is

course is dictated to an admirable instance. In the third stand

public by regard
clerical objects, who aims at a mediatorial *
Bishop Stubbs : Constitutional History of
position in the conflicts of the state, and England," chap. xiii.
194 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1164.

Anselm and, somewhat later in point of royal residence three or four miles from

time, Hugh of Lincoln. There is a greater Salisbury, to ratify these important con

difficulty in placing Becket. Until he be cessions of the church. The two arch
came archbishop, beyond doubt he belonged bishops, eleven bishops, between thirty and
to the first, to the secular class of eccle forty of the highest nobles, and numbers
siastics chancellor, lawyer, adviser of the of inferior barons were present, and the

crown, unquestionably able and painstaking famous Constitutions of Clarendon were

in each of these capacities. Then he then agreed to ; Becket, after some pas
changed, and as archbishop he became sionate resistance, giving his consent and
the champion of the clergy, the devoted approval, thus establishing an English con
servant of the Pope, the ascetic monk. stitution in church and state. By these
His admirers, further, rank him as a saint constitutions the exorbitant powers of the
of God, as the equal in his struggles after ecclesiastical courts were taken away ;
the
the nobler life with Anselm and Hugh of immunity of the clergy from the jurisdic
Lincoln others doubt his sincerity, and
;
tion of the king s courts existed no longer ;

consider him rather as the consummate and the power of appeals to Rome was
actor than the true saint. But there is no limited.
doubt that, with all his faults and errors, Becket, however, deeply repented his
Becket in the end laid down his life to concession. He returned to Canterbury,
further the policy to which he devoted the submitted himself to the severest penances,
second and more interesting period of his and applied to the Pope for absolution
wonderful career. from his oath to support the decision of
With or without, however, the assistance the Clarendon council. He at once re
of his former dear friend and chancellor ceived it. Then and thus commenced the
Becket, Henry Plantagenet was determined bitter contestbetween the powerful king
to carry out his purpose ; persuaded as he and the archbishop. There was no longer
was that it was for the weal of England, any hope of a reconciliation between the
firstly, that the perpetual appeals to Rome, two. No trust could henceforth be placed
a foreign and strange power, should be in any promise of Becket, no reliance
limited and secondly, that the powerful
; on any solemn oath (which he might take ;

ecclesiastical orders should be subjected to he would probably soon regret it, and
the ordinary civil law of the realm. The appeal at once to Rome to be absolved
king determined to bring these vital from it. A few months later the quarrel
questions to an issue. So he summoned came to a head. At
a great state council
a Parliament at Westminster, and among
.
at Northampton, the archbishop was re
other matters insisted on these important ceived by the king with studied insult.
points being decided. Becket refused at From Northampton Becket fled as though
first to yield to the king s
will, but sub for his life to France, and thence, in
sequently, with extreme reluctance, gave exile for the next six years (1164 to
way Early in the year 1164 a council 1170), he conducted, partly by intrigue,
was summoned to meet at of a
Clarendon, a partly by invoking the assistance
11641170] BECKET IN EXILE. 195

sympathetic but reluctant Pope, a struggle mortifications, and wild and terrible dreams
which filled the chronicles of much haunted his broken slumbers. He studied,
of the history of Europe during this too, did this strange man, with passionate
period. ardour, and his studies mainly consisted
For two years at a monastery at Pon- in those records of Roman canon law
tigny, and then for four years in the which supported his views of church
French archiepiscopal city of Sens, Becket legislation, and uncontrolled ecclesiastical
lived the life of an austere Cistercian power.
monk. The oncemagnificent and luxu Nor was he forgetful during these years
rious chancellor; and powerful minister of of the arts of intrigue and statecraft, of

the mighty Plantagenet king, amazed and which he was so consummate a master.
edified religious Europe with his awful He found an ample field for these in
austerities. On him, perhaps, more than trigues ;
for his former friend the Plan
on any man in the western world at this tagenet king, from his position as lord of
juncture, were men s eyes fixed. The so many and such different
nationalities,
conversion of so famous and powerful a had many and deadly enemies. Not the
statesman attracted universal attention. leastformidable of these was the king of
He posed as the suffering champion of France, whose divorced wife Eleanor wa&
the church s rights and privileges and ;
now the wife of
Henry Plantagenet, to
Henry II., king of England, duke of Nor whom she had brought the great inherit

mandy, and lord of Guienne and Anjou, ance of the south of France. From his
as the church s Something of
oppressor. place of exile in France Becket now
his ancient magnificence and pomp still thundered out the sentence of excom
surrounded the exiled archbishop, whose munication against the English prelates
retinue of horses and servants and costly who loyally supported Henry Plantagenet.
table attracted notice ;
but Becket person And now, in the name of the Pope, from
ally shared in none of these things. The whom he obtained legatine powers, he
rich dishes were ostentatiously distributed threatened England with the stern menace
to the poor, while the archbishop partook of an interdict.

only of the pulse and gruel of that stern The wrath of Henry against the great
and ascetic monastic order to which he and powerful ecclesiastical rebel who
had affiliated himself. Far and wide were worked him so much mischief, almost
his austerities talked of, his long and drove him to madness. For a time no
secret devotions. Men told of his tears one dared to mention the name of Becket
and his groans for his past sins, and how in his presence. But, in spite of all his

at night he would ever and again rise from troubles and vexations, king Henry pursued
his bed and submit himself to a cruel his of legislating well and wisely for
work
flagellation. At times he would even tear England. It was in this period of anxiety
his flesh with his nails, and lie long on the and trouble that the memorable Assize of
cold floor in the solitary agony of prayer. Clarendon (in 1166) was drawn up; and
His health naturally suffered from these the whole provincial administration of
 196 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ["70.

justice in England was by it remodelled.* Henry Plantagenet they were work-filled

Thus the six years wore away. For years, years busy with maintaining his
authority over his many states, busy with
much wise and enduring legislation for
England ;
on the whole, prosperous years
for the mighty Angevin monarch. But
the quarrel with Becket and its effects,
must sorely have embittered king Henry s
life during this period. Nor was his
conduct towards his enemy wise and con
ciliatory.Becket was warring for what he
deemed a great principle, and Henry seems
to have ever treated him as one who was
fighting rather for his own hand than for

the church which he professed to love so

ardently, and apparently did love, as he

proved in the end.

As the six years drew to an end,

Becket sposition was stronger than ever;
for the power of the Pope had been

greatly strengthened in the meantime,

and there was less reason for Rome
temporising and for conciliating Henry
than in the earlier years of Becket s exile.
It was in the year 1170 that Henry
Plantagenet determined upon the corona
tion of his son Henry, a boy of fifteen.

Now the duty of performing the ceremony,

the rite of coronation, was claimed by the

archbishop of Canterbury as a duty abso

lutely belonging to the primacy. King
Henry, however, insisted upon the cere
mony being performed by the archbishop
of York. This fresh and galling affront
seems to have afflicted Becket and his
Photo: Paul Robert, Paris. friends even more than the sequestration
EPISCOPAL VESTMENTS OF THOMAS A BRCKET, of the estates of the arch-see more than ;

PRESERVED AT SENS, FRANCE.

>
any of the many injuries inflicted upon
the exiled champion of church privileges.
* Freeman s
"

Norman Con
Compare generally The same year, however, witnessed the
quest," chapter xxvii., and Mrs. J. R. Green s
"

startling spectacle of the formal recon-

Henry II."
H70.J APPARENT RECONCILIATION. 197
ciliation between the two enemies. Europe be less dangerous to his
peace within his
was astonished. When things looked dominions than without would be easier
;

darker than ever, at a moment when the to deal with, and

perhaps to influence,
intense hatred which existed between as
archbishop of Canterbury, than as an
Becket and Henry appeared more bitter
archbishop in exile.
than before, the two The meeting between
seemingly irreconcil the two once dear
able foes met, and the. "kiss of
peace" friends, but for years now the bitterest

CDttiu t&mm omticm Terotm $cattr

wf tsnaft tict a fitni m

QL ARKEL HKTWEEN KING HENRY AND BECKKT, WHO HAD ENTERED HIS PRESENCE SURROUNDED BY
ARMED MEN.
(From a nth Century MS. in the British Museum.)

was exchanged. The exact reasons for enemies, must have been a striking scene.
this sudden change can, perhaps, never be It was at Fretteville, between Chartres and

exactly known. Political motives, no doubt, Tours, that the Plantagenet king and the
quickened Henry s desire for a reconcilia famous churchman met. As soon as they
tion. The dangers which perpetually drew near each other, the king uncovered
menaced his wide and divided realm were his head and courteously saluted the

probably more threatening than ever and ; prelate. The two old friends then withdrew
intense weariness of the long-drawn-out apart ; long and earnest was the conference
quarrel not unlikely weighed with the between them. The attendants, we hear,
king also. Henry Plantagenet may have grew weary. The two, indeed, met as
come to see that archbishop Becket would though the old friendship had never been
198 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1170.

interrupted. Becket seems to have been king held a hurried council with the

very gentle, and the king most conciliatory. prelates ;

one of them in his anger is

The Constitutions of Clarendon were not reported to have incautiously said to

mentioned these important decrees were

:
Henry, So long as Thomas lives you will
"

left for a future settlement. Becket dwelt, neither have good days, nor a peaceful

though, on the late infringement of his kingdom, nor a quiet life"; after which
rights in the coronation of the boy Henry, the king fell into one of those wild
and received a promise that the ceremony paroxysms of fury to which he and all the
should be repeated. Before they parted, earlier Plantagenet princes were subject.

Becket leaped from his horse and threw This sudden passion is described in Henry s

himself at the king s feet. Henry would son (afterwards king John) as something
not suffer the homage, but holding the beyond anger. He was so changed in
"

archbishop s stirrup, made him mount his his whole body that a man would hardly
horse again. The reconciliation seemed have known him his forehead was drawn
;

complete. up intodeep furrows, his flaming eyes

Treachery and hatred, though, were in glistened, a livid hue took the place of
the air. Becket s friends urged him to colour."
Henry in his fury became like a
delay his return to England ; they knew wild beast, and uttered the fatal words:
his life was in danger. But Becket made "

What cowards have I brought up in my

light of all warnings. He returned, and court, who care nothing for their allegiance
was welcomed at Canterbury by a vast to their master ! Not one will deliver me
procession of clergy, who looked upon him from low-born priest
this And with !
"

as the champion of their order. Strewing these words it is said the king rushed from
their garments in his way, the devoted the chamber of audience.
u
crowd chanted, Blessed is he that cometh
Among the courtiers who heard Henry s
in the name of the But, alas he
Lord." ! fatal words were four knights, whose names
came not in peace. Before he landed he will ever live in the memory of men
sent on letters which he had procured from Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Moreville,
Rome, excommunicating the king s friends, Richard le Breton, and William de Tracy.
the bishops of London and Salisbury, and They stood in close relation to the king,
suspending the bishop of Durham and the filling the offices of gentlemen of the bed
archbishop of York for having joined in chamber. They lost not a minute, but
the coronation of the boy-king the same evening it was Sunday, the
Henry.
There was evidently as little as ever to be 2yth December, 1170 they left Bar by
hoped from the moderation of the restored Bayeux, and the following day crossed the
archbishop. sea and went at once to Saltwood Castle,
The two excommunicated prelates at whose beautiful ruins, partially restored in
once hurried across the sea to Normandy, our own days, stand near the sea on the
and met Henry Plantagenet at his hillof Hythe. At Saltwood lived a bitter
castle near Bayeux, imploring his pro foe of Becket, one Randolph of Broc.
tection against the common foe. The They took council with him, and, accom-
1 1 70.]
BECKET AND HIS MURDERERS. 199

panied by a small troop of armed men, the vigour of his strength ;

he was in his

galloped at once to Canterbury, the home fifty-third year, his appearance was striking
of the doomed archbishop. They took up and majestic, his eyes large and piercing,
their quarters at St.Augustine abbey, s his figure tall. His robes concealed his
without the walls of Canterbury. The thin and probably much emaciated body.
abbot of St. Augustine s, Clarembald, was On their entrance Becket for a time con

known as a foe of Becket. From St. tinued his conversation with his friends ;

Augustine s they proceeded at once on at length, turning towards them, saluted

their mission of blood to the archbishop s Tracy by name. God
Fitzurse exclaimed, "

palace, adjoining the cathedral.* help you !

"

The archbishop crimsoned at

Four days before, on Christmas day, the rudeness. Fitzurse continued, "

We
Becket had preached before high mass in have a message from the king. Will you
the chapter-house, and had alluded to the hear it in private ?
"

The monks with

Anglo-Saxon martyr, Alphege, whose tomb drew, but only for a moment the thought ;

was on the north side of the high altar of that their beloved master was in real
the cathedral. It was possible, said Becket danger from
rough men-at-arms these
on this occasion, that Canterbury would flashed upon them, and they hurriedly
soon have another martyr. At his words came back.
the congregation wept and groaned, and Then followed an angry colloquy be
some are said to have murmured audibly, tween the archbishop and Fitzurse, who
"

Father, why do you desert us so soon ? "

was the spokesman during the fierce war

There no doubt but that Becket was
is of words which followed. In the end the
well aware of the danger in which he stood, knights left the room in fierce anger, to seek

and of the deadly enemies by whom he for their arms, which they had left with
was surrounded but death evidently was
;
their attendants. The archbishop s last

to him no thought of terror. words, spoken under strong excitement,

The knights penetrated without
four rang in their ears You threaten me in :
"

difficulty into the presence of the arch vain were all the swords in England hang
;

bishop, who had just dined and had retired ing over my head, you could not terrify me
to a private chamber in the palace, where, from my obedience to God and my lord

sittingon his bed, he was conversing with the Pope foot to foot you shall find me
;

a group of friends. His grim visitors an in the battle of the Lord. I marvel that

nounced that they had a message to him you dare to threaten the archbishop in

from the king. Three of them had known his own house."
him well in former years, in the days of his As the knights rushed from the chamber,
greatness, when he was the chief minister they cri^d, To arms, to arms and
"

!
"

of the king. Becket at this time was in their company of soldiers

hastily joined
outside. They threw off their cloaks and
*
appeared in full armour, and at once girt
For the detailed circumstance of the martyrdom
see generally Dean Milman s Latin Christianity,"
"

on their swords for the fray. All was now

book v., chap, viii., and Dean Stanley s Memorials "

of Canterbury (The Murder of Beckett

"

confusion and dismay in the approaches to

2OO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ["70.

the palace and the cathedral. Only Becket the steps leading from the transept into
himself was calm he seated himself again
;
the choir.
on his bed. His faithful friends, however, They hurried towards .them. Fitzurse,
ever the called
perceiving the imminence of the danger, speaker, roughly out,

besought him at once to take refuge in

"

Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the

the sanctuary of the cathedral, believing king ?
"

and again, "

Where is the arch

that his life would at least be safe there. Instantly came the answer,
"

?
bishop
Reginald, here I am no traitor, but the
"

Partly by force, partly by persuasion, they ;

hurried him down to the cloisters leading

. archbishop and priest of God." With his

to the great church, barring as they went white rochet, a cloak and hood thrown
the gates of access.
Becket, however, over his shoulders, the tall figure of Becket
insistedon proceeding with some dignity, suddenly confronted the angry men-at-
and with his cross borne before him moved arms. A few bitter words passed. The
through the solemn cloister walk towards knights seized the archbishop, and endea
the cathedral ;
outside the cloister the din voured to drag him from the church.
of armed men breaking through the doors Clinging to a pillar, he bitterly reproached
was plainly heard. Fitzurse. There was a momentary struggle,
was just five o clock of a winter even
It and Fitzurse was thrown to the ground.
ing, and the monks were beginning the The murderers then fell on the archbishop.
vesper service, when the archbishop en One of the three who remained with
tered. The noise of the armed men forcing Becket, Edward Grim, a Saxon monk of
their way in terrified the monks who were Cambridge, who was staying with Him as

singing ;
the service stopped, and the a visitor for a few days, received a severe
monks fled in every direction. An at wound as he tried to ward off the deadly
tempt was made to close and bar the blows aimed at the dauntless prelate.
The archbishop, however,
cathedral doors. When Becket felt himself wounded, wiping
commanded them to desist. No "

one,"
the blood from his face, he murmured,
he u
should be hindered from entering Into thy Hands, Lord, I commend my
"

said,
God s house."
Only three of his com spirit."
At the third blow he sank on his
panions remained by him as he calmly knees, with his face turned towards the
waited. The four knights then burst in ;
altar of St. Benedict. Edward Grim, who
they had learnt that Becket was in the was close by him all the while, in after
church. was very dark, and the vast
It
days recalled the words of the dying arch
cathedral was only illuminated here and For the name of Jesus and the
"

bishop
there by lamps burning before the defence of the church I am
solitary willing to die."

many altars. The archbishop disdained to Without moving hand or foot, he fell on
fly, and remained with the three faithful his face as he spoke, and with such dignity
friends standing in the north transept, that the long cloak which he wore was not
still known by the name of the Martyr
"

disarranged.
dom." In the dim light the knights While thus lying, probably already
could see the little group at the foot of Richard le Breton
losing consciousness,
1 1
70.] BECKET S MARTYRDOM. 201

struck a tremendous blow at the arch "

Let us go ;
let us go. The traitor is

bishop as he lay on the pavement, and the dead. He no more

will rise This was !
"

scalp or crown of the head was severed the end. Only one of the four knights
from the skull, and the sword snapped in had struck no blow. Hugh de Moreville

WATCHING THE OF BECKET AFTER THE MURDER.

two on the marble pavement. Another had contented himself with keeping back
murderer his name has been preserved at the entrance to the transept the crowds

Hugh de Horsea, planted his foot on the who were pouring in through the nave.
neck of the corpse, thrust his sword into The murderers at once rushed out of the
the ghastly wound, and scattered the church through the cloisters.

brains over the pavement; then exclaimed, Two very different stories have been
2O2 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1170.

preserved of their conduct after the dread murdered corpse of their victim lay before
deed had been accomplished. story The them, all bloody, in the solemn twilight
of the monks
of Canterbury relates how, of his great church ;
and that, appalled at
with a savage burst of triumph, they burst their awful wickedness, they slunk away
into the palace, ransacking the arch dismayed and awestruck, while their savage
bishop s chamber, opening his coffers, and soldiers, taking advantage of the confusion,
carrying off many of his private papers forced their way into the archbishop s
and some of his valuables, his gold and house and plundered it. It is scarcely

silver plate, and beautiful church vest- likely that men of the rank of the four
would care for the
vulgar plunder of the
gold and silver, and
the broidered vest
ments.
The darkened cathe
dral was gradually
cleared of the people
who had rushed in

singly as curious spec

tators, and for a brief
season all was still,
and the body of the
murdered archbishop
for a short time lay
deserted on the blood
Photo : Casselt & Co., Ltd.
PLACE OF BECKET
stained marble pave
S MARTYRDOM, CANTERBURY.
ment of the transept of
ments. Such plundering work, if it took "

the But soon the terrified

Martyrdom."
place at all, was most probably the deed monks crept back. Osbert, the chamberlain
of the men-at-arms who accompanied the of the archbishop, entering with a light, found
four conspirators. But Tracy, one of the the corpse still
bleeding on the spot where
four, told a very different story the A
after
long last savage blow had been dealt.
wards in a confession made to the
bishop sorrowing group followed, and stood round
of Exeter. When the fell deed was done, the spot. The poor body was tenderly
he said, their spirits failed them, and
they lifted, and turned with the face upwards.
retired at once with trembling steps,
Strange to say, no mark of violence dis
expecting the earth to open and swallow figured the well-known features. smile A
them up. Both stories may be accurate. seemed to play on the lips, and the eyes
It is probable that Tracy told the truth, were closed as though in sleep. Only one
and that a sudden revulsion of faint streak of blood crossed the face of
feeling
seized the four when the the dead.
guilty knights Carefully covering the gaping
"70.]
AFTER THE MURDER. 203

wound in the the choir, as it was called, of Conrad, the

head, the watchers saw the right arm of the dead

monks car man slowly raised to the sign of the Cross,
ried the body as if to bless his faithful followers.
from the Early in the morning the preciousness
transept to of the blood of the sainted Becket occurred
the choir, and to the monks. Every vestige of the blood

there, in and brains was carefully collected from

front of the the floor of the transept which had been

high altar, the scene of the bloody deed. The "

with vessels blood was mixed with water, which, end

PILGRIM BADGE IN THE FORM
S
placed round lessly diluted, was kept in innumerable
OF A SCALLOP SHELL. it to catch vials to be distributed to the pilgrims who
(Guildhall Museum.}
the drops of soon began to flock to the scene of the
blood oozing from the gash, weeping, they martyrdom and, in the same manner as a
;

watched by it through that sad winter palm was a sign of a pilgrimage to Jeru
night. salem, and a scallop shell of the pilgrimage
As the slow hours on, the to Compostella, so a leaden vial or bottle
passed
watchers forgot the many faults, the with the diluted blood became for ages

passionate temper, the vengeful, unforgiv

the mark of a pilgrimage to Canterbury." *

The But we anticipate the course of events.

ing nature of their dead master.
heroic death of the great priest in his own There were many fierce enemies still of
the murdered man. So was determined
lordly cathedral had for ever drawn a veil
it

over these things and when one of the to bury the corpse at all events for a
;

faithful three who stood by him in the last

awful moments, the aged Robert, canon of

Merton, who had in old days been a tutor

of Becket, lifting up the priestly garments,
which still clothed the corpse, showed
beneath the rough monk s robe and the
haircloth shirtworn next to the skin, the
weeping monks fell on their knees, and v

kissing the hands and feet of the corpse,

saluted him as Saint Thomas. Nor, in
the state of exaltation of the monk-

watchers, is the first of the many marvels LEADEN VIALS IN THE FORM OF CANTERBURY
which tradition has preserved to us as CATHEDRAL, WORN BY PILGRIMS. (Guildhall
Museum. )
accompanying the martyrdom of the arch
bishop, difficult to account for. As the season in the privacy of the dark and
firststreaks of the grey winter morning solemn crypt beneath the vast church.
broke through the jewelled windows of * Dean Stanley "

Memorials of
:
Canterbury."
204 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1170.

habitual The whole was so

Tenderly his friends removed the clothing practices.

of the dead man. The garments which he fitted be easily taken off, for daily
as to

wore were many and various. He seems Becket seems to have submitted to a cruel
scourging. When all the stern austerity
of this strange man had been disclosed to
the amazed and awe-stricken bystanders,
it was seen that the haircloth, which
touched the body, all marked with the-
stripes of a recent scourging, was literally
covered with vermin. The monks burst
into tears at the dreadful sight, exclaiming,
"

See ! see what a true monk he was, and

we knew it not !
"

Reverently they re
BADGES WORN BY PILGRIMS TO THE SHRINE OF
THOMAS A BECKET, KNOWN AS "CAPITA placed these insignia of what the fashion
(Guildhall Museum.) of the times regarded as belonging to a
true of God, and over them they
saint

ever to have suffered from chilliness. A placed the elaborate and beautiful vest

large brown cloak with white wool fringes ments belonging to his archiepiscopal
covered all. Below this he wore a surplice dignity, including altar stole and maniple,
over a white fur garment of lambswool ; tunic, dalmatic, chasuble, gloves, rings, and
next were two short woollen pelisses, and sandals. They laid in his hand his
under this mass of clothing was the black pastoral staff, and hung over his shoulders
cowled robe of the Benedictines. Next the sacred pall he had received from
his skin the archbishop wore a haircloth Rome, a new marble sarcophagus which
of peculiar roughness ;
this haircloth, stood in the crypt being used for his
coffin.

For nearly a year in the cathedral

no bell was rung, the many crucifixes

veiled, the altars were stripped, and the

services, without chanting, were said in
the adjoining chapter-house. The cere
mony of re-consecration of the desecrated
church was eventually performed by the
bishops of Exeter and Chester. Within
three years of the martyrdom the highest
honours were authorised by the Pope, and
"

CAPITA THOM^E."
the martyr Becket was henceforth formally
(Guilithall Museum.}
invoked as a saint by the Catholic church,
which encased his whole body, and the 29th of December was regularly
being
covered with linen, that no one Thomas of
might set apart as the Feast of St.
suspect the extreme austerity of his Canterbury.
i i7o.] EFFECTS OF THE MARTYRDOM. 205

The assassination of Becket was indeed our island. No churches on the continent
appalling. He was, without doubt, in his of Europe are called after Cuthbert of

day the most distinguished churchman in Durham, or Edward, the martyr-king

after

Christendom, the acknowledged champion of East Anglia. But there is no country

of the powerful sacerdotal order, the years- in Europe where traces of the cult of
long implacable adversary of the greatest Becket cannot be found. We may in

king in Europe ;
and in the moment stance in very different nationalities where

PENANCE OF HENRY II. AT BECKET S TOMB.

of his triumph over his opponent, this his memory has been honoured :
Rome,
famous ecclesiastic, a man of the highest Verona, Florence, Lisbon, and Palermo.
rank, of most saintly holiness, was foully In France memorials are numerous in
and cruelly murdered in his own cathedral. all parts in the north at Douai, Lille,
The horror of the murder ran throughout and St. Omer ;
in the south we find them
Christendom. For centuries he was the in Lyons. the gorgeous windows of
In
most popular saint in England ;
but far Chartres are seen the story of his life over

beyond England was his memory cherished. the seas. Even in distant Sicily, in the

Other English saints, however great their stately church of Monreale, the figure of
local fame, for the most part have been the great Englishman found a place.

scarcely known beyond the seas which girdle But the centre of all this posthumous
 2O6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1170.

tame \vas naturally at Canterbury. For burning indignation. Indeed, on the Con
three centuries the long succession of tinent generally the disposition at first was

pilgrimages placed the cathedral church to regard Henry Plantagenet as the real
of Canterbury among the chief resorts of author of the crime. Excommunication
Christendom. Thither wandered to pray and interdict would have certainly followed
and to meditate all sorts and conditions of had not. king Henry, in the most solemn
men of every country of Europe, from the terms, purged himself of all
complicity in
crowned head down to the humblest child the dread act ;
had he not expressed his
of the people, all longing to pour out the deepest grief at what had happened, and

desires of their hearts, their sorrows and offered the fullest reparation possible to
their joys, or to gain relief from their the church for the deed. He undertook

bodily sufferings, at the shrine of the in person, should the Pope require to
it,

English martyr ; hoping to gain some

all lead a crusade of expiation to the
Holy
relief from sickness or from sorrow through Land ;
and what was of more practical
the powerful intercession at the throne of importance, he abrogated the Statutes of
grace of him who on that sad December Clarendon, the original source of his
night in 1 1 70, in his own proud cathedral quarrel with the martyred Becket.
church of Canterbury, after a noble witness, As a reward for his genuine penitence
had fallen asleep. and practical acts of reparation and ex
Quickly the news of the archbishop s piation, the king of England eventually
murder was carried across the sea to Henry was formally reconciled to the church in
Plantagenet. When the king heard it he Avranches cathedral, by legates of the
shut himself up for three days, highest rank specially commissioned for
refusing all
food except milk and almonds, clad himself the purpose by the holy see. But the
in sackcloth, and called God to witness king was not yet done with the results
that he was in no of this terrible
way responsible for the Canterbury murder. In
archbishop s death. Henry was heard a more than three years after the
little

again and again to exclaim Alas

"

: ! alas !
bloody deed, Henry Plantagenet, as the
that it ever So poignant, humblest of penitents, knelt at his old
happened."

indeed, was his grief, that his attendants friends tomb. The fame of Becket was
began to fear for his life. Nor is there the now in all the lands of
Christendom, and
least reason to suspect that this bitter pilgrims from far and near had begun
sorrow and remorse was in any way already to visit the place of his sepulture
feigned. Mingled with dread as to the and the scene of his martyrdom, and even
consequences of the terrible act were, no to ask for his prayers. But a dark shadow
doubt, many memories of his old and had fallen upon the king of England s
intimate association with the man
great fortunes. Disaster and calamity threatened
who had just been so cruelly done to him, and, worse than all, home troubles
death at
Canterbury. poisoned his whole life. His -wife was his
In Rome the news of the famous church
enemy, and the sons whom he loved too
man s murder was received with horror and well were in open rebellion. Men believed
u
>

o: x
UJ K
H E
2 ^
 1 174 1176.] PENANCE OF THE KING. 207

and probably the king himself partly praying, in the cold crypt by Becket s

shared in the popular belief that a curse tomb.

rested on him for his bitter persecution, This deep humiliation of the mighty
if not for the actual murder of the saint king at the tomb of Becket, ranks in
whose holy body lay in the dark crypt at history with the great submissions of the
Canterbury. He would win his pardon Christian world with the humiliation of
;

by a great public act of reparation and the emperor Theodosius before Ambrose,

expiation at his old friend s tomb, and and of the emperor Henry IV. at the
^o remove the curse which lay heavy feet of Pope Gregory VII. at Canossa. The
oon his royal house. result was naturally a grave attack of
So the king determined upon the illness ;
but while the king lay sick,

rangest pilgrimage which perhaps history came to him the news

of the triumph of
^cords. It was in the month of July of his army, and the captivity of his enemy

e year 1174 that the great Plantagenet the rebel king of the Scots. This was
me to Canterbury. As soon as he came assumed to signify that the great sin was
blotted out, and the outraged and
:
n sight of the cathedral towers the king, that

smounting from his horse, with bare and murdered saint had forgiven his old friend
eeding feet walked along the rough and and master.
ony road to the great church where
ecket rested. He threw himself in an Becket was murdered in the year 1 1 70.
gony of prayer before the saint s tomb, In the reaction which followed the great
hile Gilbert Foliot, bishop of London, tragedy,we have noticed that king Henry
once the archbishop sdetermined enemy, had renounced the Constitutions of Claren
preached to the wondering crowd, and don. But six years later, in the assize of
in his passionate sermon explaining the Northampton (1176), with the consent,
motives of the royal pilgrim, assured the singularly enough, of the Papal legate (the
listeners that Henry on his solemn oath constant presence of a great Roman official
was guiltless of the murder ;
but as his in England, unchallenged and indeed ap

hasty words had been the cause of the parently welcomed, marks the gradual but
awful crime, he desired to submit himself enormous strides which
taking Rome was
to the penance of the church. Then pro towards universal supremacy), the judicial
ceeded that savage act of punishment legislation of the assize of Clarendon was
submitted to by the most Thinking more of the king
"

voluntarily perfected.
powerful sovereign in Europe. As Henry than of his chief, the legate admitted king
knelt before Becket
tomb, each of the
s Henry s right to bring the clergy before

monks, then eighty in number, with a secular courts for various crimes,"
and
rod in his hand thrice struck the naked religious churchmen looked on with helpless
shoulders of the king. At last, when the irritation at the king s first formal victory

punishment was over, Henry Plan- over the principles of Thomas. In the "

cruel
.

tagenet resumed his robes, and tarried view of his own day he had renewed the
all night with bare feet, fasting and assize of Clarendon, and ordered to be
208 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11541189.

observed the execrable decrees for which the by their preference of the immunities of
blessed martyr Thomas had borne exile for their class to the common safeguard of
seven years, and had been crowned with justice. But here the verdict of posterity,
the crown of martyrdom." And thus including the unanimous voice of fair-
the wise legislation of Henry II. suc minded churchmen, will unhesitatingly be

ceeded in the end in effecting those given on the side of Henry. Still, it can
never be said that Becket died in vain
salutary changes in ecclesiastical procedure ;

and custom, which in the first half of his the spectacle of such a death crowning his
had been so resolutely, and for a life of struggle, noble if mistaken, in a way
reign
time so successfully, opposed. His later perhaps no other recorded death of a
laws prevented the church from interfering mortal had ever done, went home to the

in secular matters, save in the case of hearts of an entire people, and raised
marriages and wills. in an extraordinary degree the public
An
impartial historian, however, cannot estimation of the order to which Becket

charge Henry with ill-will to the church. belonged, and for which Becket had died.
He never desired to quarrel with the Nor was this new and loftier estimate of
ecclesiastical authority, or to deprive the the ecclesiastical order, which could pro

priesthood in England of its deservedly duce so popular a hero, confined to the

powerful influence. He was too great generation which witnessed the martyr
and too far-seeing a sovereign to wish to dom. The tradition was handed on from
lessen the real and legitimate power of the father to son, and a long period in the
clergy, which he knew to be the best safe story of England had to run out before the
guard against general lawlessness, and the memory of the death of Becket can be said

high-handed and often cruel misrule of the to have been effaced from the hearts of
great barons. He was also fully conscious the English people.
of the general and efficient support they
had given him in the many and dangerous The reign of Henry Plantagenet marked
attempts which had been made to subvert a great revival of literature in England a
his rule. To the last he looked on the revival in which, as usual, the Church of
clergy as his best advisers and supporters, England bore the chief part. The troubles
and he steadily preserved them
for his part and confusion which followed the Norman
from unjust burdens and public exactions. Conquest were, of course, fatal for a time
In the king s private life, evil and re to any serious cultivation of learning. But
prehensible though it often was, many and when Henry II. became undisputed king,
frequent were his acts of devotion ;
fitful a century had well-nigh elapsed since
it
true, but still by their conspicuous
is the day of Hastings the troubles and
;

nature demonstrating his respect for the heart-burnings of the first days of the

church and its ordinances. Norman occupation were partly at least

Thechief complaints of the clergy forgotten, and things had become quieter
against the great Plantagenet were caused under his strong and wise rule.
* Mrs.
J. R. Green :
"

Henry II." The church and churchmen, naturally,

J r
1 154 1189.] HENRY II. AND LITERATURE. 2OQ

took the lead in the work, under the ful patron ;

and through his long reign
patronage and direct protection of the his residence was a centre and a resort for
king. Henry II. had been himself well scholars and writers. But the more solid

BOOK-COVER OF THE LIBER HUGONIS KP1SCOPI, A MAGNIFICENT BIBLE GIVKN BY BISHO1 HUGH PUDSEY,
NEPHEW OF KING STEPHEN, TO THE MONASTERY AT DURHAM, NOW IN THE LIBRARY
OF THE CATHEDRAL (I2TH CENTURY).

taught in his youth, and, as far as his busy work in literature was done in the great
lifepermitted, cultivated letters, and de cathedral schools, and in the scriptoria, or

lighted in the society of scholars and men writing cells and rooms of the more im
of erudition. His court was ever open portant monasteries. Among the cathe
to such men, who, finding there a ready dralswhose schools were prominent were
welcome, naturally flocked to such a power- Canterbury, York, and Lincoln, while in
2IO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1154 1

this reign, to use the words of one of our corporate in his chronicle all that he can
greatest historical scholars,
"

we see a gather touching the geography and history

great development of university life, if not of strange lands. ...
If the visitor

the very origin of university life itself, at can be prevailed on to go so far north as
Oxford." Before the death of Henry II. Hexham, he may even reach Melrose, and
there was certainly a university at Oxford, there watch the process of annal making,
with doctors and masters and even public and come home by Durham. There he
lectures. will find a magnificent court under bishop

Speaking of this reign, the historian Hugh, the great prince - prelate of the
who has made this period peculiarly his period, and in his train poets, preachers,

own, says :
"

Nothing is more curious than and writers of histories, who are one after
the lively historic activity going on in the another continuing the work which had
monasteries. MSS. are copied, luxurious been begun by Bede, and continued after
editions are re-copied and illuminated ; long breaks by Simeon and the Hexham
there is no lack of generosity in lending, writers. And so, after
having completely
or of boldness in borrowing ;
there is a traversed the literary world (of Henry II.),
brisk competition and liberal, open he may come south, through either the
rivalry.
St. Albans is especially rich in the collected eastern or the western counties, sure to
materials that lie at the foundation of her find at every monastery or cathedral he
great code of Chronicles. At Peterborough, may visit some one employed in keeping
abbot Benedict is
equally busy, directing up the record of public as well as of local
transcriptions, and compiling or editing his history, or otherwise attempting to keep
own recollections of St. Thomas (Becket) ;
alive the fire of literary zeal."
*

but every little

monastery has record.
its
Latin, the language of learning and of
Crowland thinking of hiring Peter of
is
public worship, seems to have been a
Blois, to fabricate for her an apocryphal favourite tongue among these scholarly
chronicle ;
at Ramsey there is an invaluable and often accomplished monks and clerks ;

chronicle kept, going back into the old but a demand was springing up in England
Egbert times, and there is the same at in the last half of the twelfth
century for a
Ely, conducted by a succession of learned popular literature, which could be under
and patriotic monks. to stood by the unlearned baron or citizen.
Coming Lincoln,
there is Walter Map, with his poems and Virgil,Statius, and Ovid were translated
stories about the courtiers,
acting as arch intoNorman-French. Wace, the canon of
deacon or precentor the wise St.
Hugh ;
Bayeux, one of the favourite scholars of king
himself, the bishop, has stories to tell at Henry s court, dedicated to s
Henry queen
the high table in the
hall, and admiring Eleanor his translation of the history of
disciples anxious to gather up every word Geoffrey of Monmouth, which was one of
that falls from his
lips. Roger of Hoyeden, the sources of the first English important
rector of Howden in Yorkshire, is
quite poem, Layamon s
"

Brut." Somewhat
Herodotean, both in the faithfulness of his
*
Bishop Stubbs Oxford The
"

:
Lectures," vii.
personal relations, and in the wish to in Court of Henry II.
 LAST YEARS OF HENRY II. 211

later,the same ecclesiastic, Wace, in Henry was preparing for a Crusade on a

honour of Henry, told in Norman-French grand In the eyes of the world, at
scale.

his famous Roman de Rou," the story of

"

this period, the Plantagenet was the most

the Plantagenet s Norman ancestors. Other renowned of the kings of the earth. For
Norman-French poems were written, such forty years, on the whole, his reign had
as on the life of the martyred Thomas been one long triumph. He was at peace
Becket; and thus an Anglo-Norman litera with the church, and no open enemy
ture of song and of theology grew up in seriously menaced his broad, far-reaching
our England in the days when Henry II. dominions. But the eyes of the world
was king. were deceived. The king at this juncture
But as yet English, the speech of the stood solitary and friendless. His wife was
common folk, still lived on as a tongue away, guarded as a prisoner. Two of his

apart, far removed from courtiers and men well-loved sons, for whom he had sacrificed
of letters ;
a vernacular literature was still much, had died traitors to their father. A
a thing of the future. There were English third son, Richard, afterwards known as

songs in those days sung by homely min Co3ur-de-Lion, was in open rebellion
strels in fair and market-place ;
but these, against his authority. One
John, child,
alas ! are lost irrevocably they have left remained with him, his best-beloved and ;

no echo behind them. antiquary and The he too, though Henry knew it not, was a
the historian searches for these national traitor also.

lilts, but searches in vain. The king was only fifty-six, but forty
years of ceaseless cares and anxieties had
The story of the remaining years of prematurely aged him, and completely
Henry II., with its brilliant successes, its sapped his great strength. number ofA
bitter disappointments, its ceaseless wars vexations at this juncture contributed to
and intrigues, interesting though it be, is harass him. Philip Augustus of France,
outside our work. The unbridled passions, who had succeeded his life-long foe Louis
the wild excesses, the evil private example VII., and his rebel son Richard, took up
of the great king, received their punish arms against him. The king s own forces
ment on earth. Nowhere in the whole with him at that, moment in Anjou, were
course of history was the truth of those quite insufficient to cope with his enemies.
solemn words, the wages of sin is death, Hastily he sent to England for reinforce
more piteously exemplified than in the last ments, but they were too late. Henry,
days of this man, one of the greatest of our excited, and in considerable personal danger
English kings. The far-seeing and bene from his enemies pressing round him, fell
ficent legislator for church and state, the sick of a fever. He wished for peace but ;

illustrious soldier, the wise administrator, the French king s terms were heavy and
but whose heart was not right before God, exacting. We catch sight of the sick man,
closed his brilliant career in clouds and with clouded brain, suffering and weak,
thick darkness. The end came with hastily concluding a peace ignominious
startling suddenness in the year 1189. in the highest degree to so great and
212 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1189.

s vengeance on his faith

powerful a sovereign a peace
he would invoking Heaven
never have dreamed of agreeing to in the less sons. Only one of these stood by him

and we hear to the end the illegitimate

days of his health and strength ; lovingly
the sick monarch s fierce whisper to his Geoffrey, and he soothed as best he could
son Richard, who, with the French
faithless the dying hours of the great Plantagenet.
It was a sad close to a reign of almost
king, met Henry to settle the terms
of this

unhappy peace May God not let

: me die
"

unparalleled glory and success, the fame of

till I have avenged myself on thee." which had filled the world for so many
in a years, all to end in the cruel desertion,
"

They carried Henry Plantagenet

litter to the castle of Chinon. There he the baffled rage, the futile curses of the

Photo : Davenii, Raven.

EFFIGY OF HENRY II. AT FONTEVRAUD.

grew rapidly worse. While tortured with chained leopard in the castle of Chinon.
suffering and weak with the burning fever, The lawful sons the offspring, the victims,
the list of those who had been concerned and the avengers of a heartless policy the
in the late disastrous intrigues was brought loveless children of a loveless mother, had
him. In the fatal catalogue of names he left the an affection they did
last duties of

read the name of his best beloved son, not feel, to the hands of a bastard, the

prince John. This was the last blow ;

child of an early, obscure, misplaced,
from it he never rallied.
"

John !
"

he degrading, but not a mercenary love."*

was heard to say, my very heart has
"

He was laid with all reverence in the

forsaken me !
"

And then he became abbey of Fontevraud, where the original

delirious. In the intervals of his wild effigy of the great Plantagenet, though the
ravings, the men who stood by the bed of tomb has been destroyed and the effigy
the dying king heard him cursing the day *
Bishop Stubbs : Preface to Chronicle of
on which he was born ;
and at intervals Benedict of Peterborough."
 1 1 890 BASIS OF CANON LAW. 213

somewhat defaced, still remains. The face of the law and the customs which have
of Henry is clean-shaven. The body is guided the clergy in their dealings with
vested in two tunics and crimson dalmatic, their own order, as well as with the laity.
with a mantle of chocolate colour. The Canon law, as it existed in the reign of
feet are encased in rich bus
kins of green, with spurs of

gold. The original crown

is broken, but the right .Jim&m CSmi.W!s;t.v(tu>pfisouHl>o^fcr,-

hand ;
duluiujiynnn. nu cfiftmmt* fii t^mmf ijcm tr.Mbfot uaiaa memnf
grasps the sceptre
still

of his many realms. -

.
jp tfontjUCfiaaiftK-
rau fmc qriuj n pljgair. raipftnr
will ever fen*? Jlif nihtuu c.*f fr.Btt
England recog lfcnw;ineitoMJ: (
fi n < nutnaKir nK qtitw n ajnto a
|>!t(

tnoM )fi*n nfiaf *Wml<* 1HB fttr f,i A&1OT M MW

nise him, with all his faults trf

and sins, as one of her great

legislators ;
as one of the
foremost on the splendid
roll of the makers of her
tim^ftr.1

greatness. It was thanks

rmariha.dfciAtKmojketwtdi
to his foresightand perse jp finafliittwifjjmuIgTOennuUi
ftftwfiip iSncifii rumSaignf ajjrfu fspm R pffit fenkjilMf. fenii* *.Se
crcViBDntfwT-^AnDfrs xit ^liH 1^ ~nc
JuufiaptuiindiiKfejt aunoua
verance, that the Church <unliufctnr ftiitr .crtptwf -ifitnoi jfinor-|j;uixfim iAl).m\unaciafft^r

of England never passed

under the rule of Roman
canon law. From the
BtJ* rep
twelfthcentury the to
. . . .-tn8fitii ttatl
present day, the ground fijwmobj 7.^ Tvtjmro! UK-. btpnro* feipn in

work of our law in church

.

tm!o into cj.mAlif? .7tf- ai4|Rut<* tfntnatu fbmir

and state has been English,

not Roman. The legislative
work of Henry II. in church oanr^tiwnj.itwnciffiipm^ ato^mf>aoiw1ic(uwrftihita{nil

and state has been enduring.

Several references have

been made in the course
PAGE FROM AN ABRIDGMENT OF GRATIAN S CONCORDANTIA "

of the above narrative to DISCORDANTIUM CANONUM A MANUAL OF CANON LAW ABOUT

"

this "canon law" and A.D. 1200. (British. Museum. )

"

Roman law." Without

attempting anything even of the nature Henry II. and his sons (1154-1216), was,,
of a formal sketch of the
history of canon roughly speaking, based upon
law, a few notes on this difficult and i . A compilation of penitentials.
abstruse subject may be serviceable to 2.* A collection of canons of councils.
the student of English church history, 3. The great body of Roman civil law of
who must constantly come upon mentions the emperor Justinian.
 214 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11541216.

Of- these, the Penitentials were code, and certain of the "

Capitularies of

private compilations of scholars and divines the Emperors," bearing on church dis

of different ages, the authority of which cipline and customs. A century later Ivo

depended on the estimation or dignity of of Chartres, a contemporary of Henry I.,

but these compilations were produced the Pannormia," a similar col
"

their authors ;

of the highest importance. They were lection improved on that of Burchard by

"rules of penance," specifying usually the use of the digest and code of Justinian.

special sins and their penances and they ; Bologna and Pavia were the great schools
may be said generally to incorporate the where all this elaborate system of canon
rules on which early episcopal jurisdiction law was studied a system which was ever
proceeded. The canons of councils were becoming more complicated, as the ac
the authorised church law. Of these, there cumulation of materials was always going
was a series of important collections ;
and on and to these Italian universities pro
;

as councils were continually held, this ceeded from different countries those
collection gradually increased. The great ecclesiastics who desired to become pro
body of Roman civil law had been arranged ficients in this great and important study.
by the emperor Justinian in the sixth It will thus be seen that a Roman colour
century of course, largely based on the ing was spread over all this great system
ancient laws and customs of the Roman of ecclesiastical or church law, and that

empire. These three bases of canon law naturally men would come to look to
overlapped each other everywhere, and Rome, its bishop and his courts, as the
contained much common matter. central and supreme court of appeal.
In the sixth century, Dionysius Exiguus,
Largely based as was the whole system on
a Roman abbot, first compiled a collection Roman law, it carried the Roman pro
of "

Canons," which became the germ and cedure as a part of church administration.
model of all later collections.
Nearly at In England, before the Norman Con
the same time John the Faster made quest, a different system from that adopted
a compilation of "Penitentials" in the on the continent of Europe prevailed.
Eastern Church ;
and in the West, under There are very few traces under the Anglo-
the Irish and Celtic Saxon kings of Roman and foreign in
missionaries, a similar
compilation of Penitentials began. Pass
"
"

fluences. Kings such as Alfred, Egbert,

ing on to the el venth century the great Ethelred, and Canute, with the advice and
era when the reformation of the close co-operation of the bishops of the
Papacy
and the great revival of monasticism
realm, made ecclesiastical laws, which
took place Burchard of Worms clothed the spiritual enactments with co
got
together and arranged systematically all ercive authority. "

such as
Penitentials,"
the materials he could the famous one put out by archbishop
find, borrowing
authoritative determinations from the
"
Theodore, were no doubt largely used in
Penitentials," the "

Canons of Councils," the administration of justice in the Anglo-

"Articles of the Roman Civil Law," as Saxon courts. But these courts, which
known to him by the Theodosian dealt with
(Roman) all offences touching the clergy
 CANON LAW. 215

except those of a purely spiritual character, Henry Plantagenet had with him, it is plain,
were the ordinary gemots or assemblies the heart of England, and that not only
of the hundred or the shire ;
there the of the lay folk. In the deadly quarrel with

bishops and their assessors, archdeacons Becket, it is clear that many of the leading
and deans, sat with the sheriffs and other ecclesiasticswere on Henry s side, and
public officers of high rank. never gave but a half-hearted support to
After the Norman Conquest, as we have Becket s views. These men were English
seen, king William separated the church and patriots first, and misliked the growing
judicature from its association with the subjection to Rome.
popular judicature, substituting for Anglo- Thus it came to pass that after Becket s

Saxon bishops foreign prelates learned in death, partly in the

"

Northampton assize
"

the Roman procedure. This was the first in 1176, partly in Constitutions of which
step, and a very important one, towards we do not possess any record, Henry
the attempted introduction into England of Plantagenet succeeded in restraining the
mediaeval canon law. Time went on ;
ecclesiastical judicature from interfering in

some eighty years after the Norman Con secular matters, except in the two points

quest, Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, of matrimony and of testamentary business.

the first patron of Becket (1139 to 1161), As we shall further see, from the days oi

made another important advance in the

Henry II. onward the opposition to
any
same direction. It was Theobald who introduction of Roman canon law remained

brought from Lombardy, and settled at deeply rooted in our country, while dis
Oxford as a teacher, Vacarius, a famous like,and even hatred of foreign interference
learned canonist, and encouraged a stream served as a partial bulwark against the
of young archdeacons to leave England for ever - advancing pretensions of Rome.
a season for the purpose of studying in the The Middle Ages ad
dislike grew as the

Italian canon-law schools of Pavia and
Bologna, with a view to their equipment
for their judicial duties in the English
ecclesiastical courts.
Then may be said to
great increase of appeals to Rome, which
seriously disturbed the English advisers of
vanced, and in the end was perhaps the
most powerful agent in bringing about
the Reformation under Henry VIII.
On the continent of Europe, the material
have begun that out of which Roman canon law was com
posed, since the days of Henry II. and
his sons was largely increased by the

Henry II. ; then, too, the new doctrines accretion of authoritative sentences of suc
and claims to ecclesiastical
independence cessive Popes of Rome. The well-known
of canon lawyers became more and more "

Extravagants
"

are made up of these

disturbing to the old and intimate English authoritative Papal sentences which were
relations between church and state. In not yet codified.*
putting out the Constitutions of Claren * See
"

generally, Bishop Stubbs Oxford Lectures

which so largely limited the powers on Mediaeval and Modern History XIII. and
"
"

don,"

of ecclesiastical lawyers in criminal matters XIV., and Stubbs "Select Charters" Part IV.
(Henry II.) on which the above little study is
;

and in all points touching secular interests, largely based.

 CHAPTER XXX.
THE RENAISSANCE OF MONASTICISM.

Monastic Revival at Cluny Its Influence on the

Degradation of the Church in the Tenth Century
of the Carthusian Order Various Lesser
Popes Camaldoli and Vallombrosa Foundation
Orders The great Cistercian Order Its Characteristics Introduction into England Bernard of
Clairvaux Intimate Connection with the Knight Templars Doctrinal Teaching of St. Bernard
His Hymns still Sung in the Churches His Personality Growth of the Cistercian Order in
England Vast Increase of Monasteries Generally Their great Influence as Teachers of Labour
and Promoters of Trade Classified Summary of the Religious Orders of the Thirteenth Century.

the later years of the extinguished during the tenth century.

Conqueror, the reigns of Rufus The story of the two hundred years which
DURING
and and the long an followed the death of Charlemagne, is
Beauclerc,
archy of Stephen, and alsoduring the the saddest portion of all the annals
more settled but still disturbed period of the Christian era. The Saracens in

of Henry II., a troubled and anxious the southern districts of Europe, the

period, stretching over about a hundred Northmen in the northern, western, and
years, much of the inner life of the Church even central countries, the Hungarians in
of England, and much of its influence the east, had desolated the fairest portion

among the people, must be sought for in of the western world ;

and as the terrible

the religious houses. Of

these, an enor invasion gradually came to an end, and
mous number were founded in this period, these savage invaders subsided by slow

mostly belonging to the Benedictine and degrees into stationary life, it seemed
Cistercian orders. It will be well first, as though Europe was passing back
however, to give a very brief sketch of the into barbarism. Even population was
sudden and vast increase of these houses alarmingly diminished. Michelet s words
on the Continent, whence it was that descriptive of his own country were too
they spread over England with such ex true of other lands Herds of deer
"

traordinary rapidity, largely influencing seemed to have taken possession of

all the religious work of the Church of France." "In that dreary age," writes
England for several centuries. another historian, no one thought of
"

Nothing in the history of Christianity is common defence or wide organisation.

perhaps so remarkable as the renaissance
" "

The strong built castles the weak became

;

of religious life in the middle of the their bondsmen, or took shelter under the
eleventh century. From various causes, cowl."*

some of which we have dwelt upon in the As the second of these two awful
foregoing chapters, on the continent of centuries drew to an end, and the terrible

Europe all true and noble religious life, pagan invasion gradually ceased, the
save in a few rare centres, was well-nigh *
Bryce : "The Holy Roman Empire."
ioi8 1119] RENAISSANCE OF MONASTICISM. 217

Christian church on the continent of practical influence. The sad picture of

Europe seemed powerless to effect any the most prominent of the Christian

Photo : Braun, Pans

. BRUNO CONFERRING THE CARTHUSIAN HABIT.
(From the picture by Eitstache Le Sueur in the Louvre.)

reformation of morals. The example it

churches, the one which claimed a pre-
was itself setting, prevented it effectually eminence and asserted its right to direct
from exercising any really beneficial or Rome has been already painted ;
but no
2
s
218 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1018 1119.

picture can adequately represent

the awful deplored in the council of Trosley. But
of Rome in the centuries the first real sign of longing after a
degradation
which followed Charlemagne s death. And better and a nobler life appeared in the

the example of Rome was too faithfully monastic life, so sadly desecrated. The
followed in other great centres of western subsequently world-famed monastery of

Christendom. Very many of the monas Cluny, of which some account has already
teries were degraded they were houses of
: been given, will ever possess this title to
sloth, and too often of drunkenness and honour in the church, that it was within
profligacy. The great churches utterly its walls that apparently the genuine first

failed in their duties, either as instructors, efforts after a were made,

reformation

monitors, or comforters. What, indeed, and that to it largely belongs the honour
could be expected from the lesser and of having trained and inspired the great

poorer houses of prayer, when important Popes who rescued the bishopric of Rome
bishoprics were bestowed by such men as from its long and fatal degeneration.
Hugh of Provence, famous for his crimes, Through the tenth century, amidst all

upon bastard sons ;

when worldly barons its corruptions and degradations, the
conferred abbeys and bishoprics on their example set by Cluny slowly made its
infant children ? For instance, a child way, and early in the following century
only five years old was made archbishop of (the eleventh) an extraordinary zeal for
the once great see of Rheims. read We true monasticism sprang up in various
of another boy of ten for whom the countries on the continent of Europe. In
bishopric of Narbonne was purchased. Italy, a nobleman named Romuald in the
Churches and their lands were bequeathed year 1018 founded the society of Camaldoli
to daughters as their dowries. Simony in in the Apennines, with a rule of stern
its most
degraded form was a general severity. In 1039 Gualbert, a noble Floren
curse in western Christendom. The foul tine, established a new order, with a system
disorder was general when
Hildebrand, of great rigour, at Vallombrosa. A
afterwards the great Pope Gregory VII. ,
marked reform was also carried out in this
was made director of the illustrious
century in the numerous Benedictine
monastery of St. Paul at Rome. He houses ;
while regeneration of the
the
found cattle stabled in the noble basilica
Papacy, under a succession of saintly and
over which he was placed, and the monks
vigorous Popes, after the year 1048 gave
of the house were waited on in the a general impetus to this extraordinary
refectory by abandoned women !
movement throughout the church.
In the eleventh Several new societies, which in the
century, however, a
great and reformation in the
startling coming years played a prominent part in
church set in, and very soon its blessed the Christianity of the west, came into
influence was in the disorganised
and being in the latter years of this same
felt

wretched society of that most eleventh and in the earlier years of the
unhappy
age. As early as the year 909 the general twelfth century. The earliest of these
corruption in the church and society was received the Papal sanction in 1074, and
ioi8 nip-] RISE OF NEW MONASTIC ORDERS. 219

was founded by Stephen, son of a count order increased rapidly, and it soon num
of Thiers, in Auvergne ;
it derived its bered, besides its monks, as many as four
name from "

Grammont "

(grandis mons to five thousand nuns. It possessed houses

grande Montague], near Limoges, whither in Spain and England as well as in France.

the brethren removed directly after the The Prcemonstratensians, who derived
founder s The terrible austerity of
death. their name from the mother -house of
the Grandimontan monks prevented it, Premontre in the diocese of Laon, were
however, from obtaining a wide popularity. founded in 1119. The rigid life of the

The year 1084 witnessed the establish monk in this order was combined with the
ment of the Grande Chartreuse, near Gren practical work
of the priest. This com
oble an order which, under the name of munity spread widely in many countries,
Carthusian, obtained a world-wide celebrity, and even possessed houses in Syria and
and played eventually no small part in the Palestine during the period of the Crusades.
monastic life in England. In the drama They long preserved the severity of their
of the Reformation in England in the six rule, and eventually became a very wealthy
teenth century, the stern resistance of the order.

Carthusians to the harsh measures of Henry In this necessarily short sketch of the
VIII. was one of the notable features of new orders which came into existence in

that age of indiscriminate destruction. The the course of the great and sudden revival

Carthusian, with the stern, austere life by of religious life in Europe, we have deferred

which he witnessed against the corruption to thelast, mention

of that famous order
of the eleventh century, is with us still. which spread so rapidly and so widely in
The founder of this famous community our own country the Cistercian. Its

was Bruno of Cologne, master of the genesis was as follows. In the last years
cathedral school of Rheims, and one of of the eleventh century, when Rufus was
the most illustrious of the great saints who king in England and Anselm was in exile,
under God restored the waning influence two brothers of the noble house of Molesme
of Christianity in the last years of the in the diocese of Langres, on their way to
eleventh century. a tournament, were both tormented with
The
order of Fontevratid, named after the same evil suggestion :
"

What if I

the mother-house in the diocese of Poitiers, should murder my brother, and so secure

dates from 1106. It included in its rigid the whole of our inheritance ?
"

The
rule both sexes. Singularly enough, by fratricidal thought occupied their minds
the arrangement of its founder Robert, for some time. The brothers eventually
famous for his preaching, the superin what was in their hearts,
told each other of
tendence of the whole community was and mutually resolved to abandon a world
entrusted to a female superior the prece ;
which abounded in such appalling sug
dent he alleged for this strange regulation gestions and then they founded together
;

was the charge of the Saviour on the Cross, the religious house of Molesme, which
when he commended St. John to the care soon acquired a reputation for sanctity
of the blessed Virgin as His mother. The and extreme severity of life and practice.
220 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1098.

Thither in search of a haven of peace Different from the monks of Cluny and the
came Harding, an Englishman, trained in old Benedictine houses, the Cistercians

the monastery of Sherborne in Dorset. were to aim atextreme simplicity of ritual.

He assumed as a monk the name of By them architecture was to be dis

Stephen. regarded, as well as the kindred arts of

In 1098 Stephen Harding and a few of painting, sculpture, and music the very ;

the monks of Molesme left their monastery, vestments used in their most solemn ser
and in the desolate and unattractive solitude vices were to be plain and unadorned,
of Citeaux (whence the name Cistercian), without gold and delicate embroidery.
near Chalons, some twelve miles from the This Cistercian spirit, which aimed at

Burgundian capital of Dijon, founded a perfect simplicity in their buildings, and

new house. Of this plain and undis which deprecated all
special ornamentation,

tinguishedcommunity Stephen Harding is well exemplified in a letter of their

the Englishman became the third abbot greatest and most famous abbot, St.

in 1109. This Stephen put out a code, Bernard of Clairvaux, who writes in the
entitled the Charter of Love," formally following terms to William of St. Thiery
"

sanctioned by Pope Calixtus, to be ob

"

What do you imagine sought by these

is

served by the brethren of Citeaux, who things ? The contrition of the penitent or
were already attracting the attention of the wonder of beholders ? O, vanity of
the religious world. The next two or vanities, and not more vain than foolish !

three years saw the foundation of several The church .

glistens on all its walls, but
daughter houses by monks sent out from the poor are not there. It clothes its
Citeaux. stones with gold, but leaves the children
There was something strangely attractive to nakedness. At
expense of the the
to religious minds in the charter or rule of needy it eyes of the rich. The
feasts the

Stephen Harding, the real founder of the curious find what pleases them, but the
great order of Citeaux, whose monks were wretched find nothing to give them
known as Cistercians. They were to be succour."

Benedictines but nobler, more spiritual,

;
Very early in the history of the famous
more austere Benedictines. Their dress order the Cistercian made his appearance
was to be white, not black. This white in England. The first settlement was at
habit was shown to them in a vision by Waverly Surrey.in Among the more
the blessed Virgin Mary, who had con celebrated of the early-founded houses was
stituted herself the special patroness of on the Wye, and Neath, even
Tiritern,
their order. This belief in the special further west. In the north and midlands,
protection of Mary not a little contributed however, the new order was most popular,
to their marvellous and the exquisite ruins of Fountains and
popularity. Every
monastery and Cistercian church was to Rievaulx are still with us, to remind us of
be dedicated to her. Cities were to be the coming of the disciples of Stephen
avoided were alone
; desolate, lonely sites Harding to raise and influence the spiritual
to be chosen by the new brotherhood. life of in the twelfth century.
England
 THE CISTERCIAN ORDER. 221

."A new feature was thus added to the Tintern or Fountains]. Only a few of
religious life of England. The older Bene theirmany houses rose to any great wealth
dictine houses had either been planted in or to historic fame. But it is the Cister
cities [as in the case of the great Bene- cian houses whose names live on the lips

THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD.

(From the picture by Fro. Filippo Lippi in the National Gallery.)

abbey of Gloucester] or else a town

dictine ,
of men. The ruined abbey is more often
had grown up around the monastic pre a house of the Cistercian order than of
cincts [as we see at Evesham or Bury any other. The Benedictine houses have
St. Edmunds]. The Cistercians of set commonly (as in the case of Evesham)
purpose lived in the wilderness, and for either been wholly swept away, or else left
the most part pitched their dwellings in in a more or less perfect state as cathedrals

solitary spots of striking beauty [such as or parochial churches. The Cistercian

222 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10911153.

who became the abbot of the new house.

church, plain and stern in its architecture,
often more beautiful in its decay than it For nearly forty years he remained con
could ever have been in its day of perfec nected with this society, from which he
more living witness derived the name by which he will be ever
tion, remains as a far

of a state of things which has passed away, remembered in the annals of monasticism

than those buildings which still survive to Bernard of Clairvaux.

be applied to the uses of our own times."
*
Never would he accept further eccle

siastical dignity. Bishoprics of influential

But what gave the Cistercian order its sees were continually offered him, but in

great impulse, and perhaps more than any variably declined. Langres, Chalons-sur-
cause was the occasion of its rapid growth Marne, Genoa, Pisa, desired him in vain
and marvellous popularity, was its posses for bishop; Milan, the most important see
sion of Bernard of Clairvaux, without doubt in Italy after Rome ; Rheims, the first of
the greatest monk in that age of monastic the French sees, were offered to him but ;

power and influence. Bernard was a youth the abbot of Clairvaux was inflexible in his
of high birth, beautiful person, winning refusal to accept any ecclesiastical prefer
manners, irresistible influence over the ment. Not only was he acknowledged to
hearts of all with whom he came in con be the foremost preacher of his age, but he
tact. While still in the flower of his was the most influential as an adviser and
youth, he resolved, like so many other counsellor of all sorts and conditions of
distinguished men
of that twelfth century, men, from the most powerful prince to
to devote himself to religion. He inquired the humblest of mankind. His wondering
for the most austere and spiritual of the followers, we are told, saw miracles in all
"

many monasteries which in that age were his acts, and prophecies in his words. He
competing for the crown of life, and chose was atonce the joy and the honour and
Citeaux. With him thirty world-weary glory of the whole Catholic Church," said
men, some of them distinguished, became the "

in a later age the great Baronius,

professed monks of the Burgundian house, Church leading and governing head, and
s

the name which was so soon to ring

of
through Europe. Partly from its growing
fame for sanctity, partly from the presence
of Bernard, the resistless magic of whose
eloquence attracted crowds of votaries,
Citeaux soon became too small to contain
itsmonks, and colonies or daughter houses
were quickly sent forth. One of these
colonies, which chose the secluded
pagne valley of Clairvaux (Clara vallis) as the
site of a new
Citeaux, was headed by Bernard,
* Freeman: "The Norman
all the while the humility of his heart
surpassed the majesty of his fame."
During these forty years of ceaseless
work he was a constant sufferer from ill-
health, his early austerities having utterly
sapped his strength. His usual meal was a
bit of bread moistened with warm water.
He had almost entirely lost the power of
Cham distinguishing the taste and flavour of
food,and drink, and relished nothing but
water, which cooled his throat. The very
Conquest," chap. thought of food for that frail, dying body
was commonly repulsive to him. But
 i
1153.] BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 223

with all his bodily sufferings he never that the feeblest might in safety walk
relaxed his self-denying labours ;
and with The solemn vow of their order
therein."

advancing years and ever-growing weak bound them never to fly, if singly attacked,
ness his reputation among men increased, before three infidels ;
to observe perpetual
as did the reverential love by which he was chastity ;
to assist in every way religious

constantly surrounded. His generation persons, and especially the Cistercians, as

looked on him as inspired. No wonder, their brothers and their friends. For not
with Bernard as abbot of Clairvaux, that a few years they kept their oath. Bernard s
Citeaux and Clairvaux kept sending out vast influence contributed largely to lift
their colonies and before the singular
;
this famous order to the splendid supre

and blessed career of the great monk macy of a century and three-quarters.
was closed (1153), the Cistercian order he
loved so well had spread over France and We have spoken of the great Cistercian
Italy, Spain and Germany, and our own monk as the first preacher of that age of

England. an undreamed-of revival of religion but ;

Bernard was something more than a

"

Le Temple, comme tons les ordres preacher he was a great theologian. Two
militaires derivait de Citeaux" writes the important points in his teaching are speci
famous French historian, Michelet. Not ally dwelt upon by his latest eloquent

among the least of the works of the great biographer. They will help us to grasp
order of Cistercians, was their powerful something of the teaching in vogue in
"

support of, and close alliance with v the the mother houses of the great Cistercian
"

Knight Templars. It was Bernard of order an order which played a great

Clairvaux who played the part of cham part in England and follow
in the twelfth

pion of the famous order, who first lifted it ing centuries concerning certain grave
out of weakness and obscurity and gave it questions of theology, which gradually
that mighty impulse out of which, in that obtained a strange prominence in the
age and in the following, came its astonish history of the Church of England.
ing development and mighty influence, In the matter of the Holy Eucharist,
both on the Continent of Europe and in differing from
archbishop Lanfranc,
our own country. Bernard Clairvaux
of evidently con
Bernard had a peculiar sympathy for sidered that spiritually not corporeally
orders of chivalry, for the ideal knight of the Lord was received in the Eucharist,
the Crusades such as was the Templar in
;
and that only he who partakes of the
the earlier years of his wonderful career. wafer with responsive faith and love in the
The Templars were his special proteges. heart, has the essence of the
Sacrament.

They were warrior-monks. As monks, was not a presence to be bruised by

"

It

they belonged to the order of St. Augus the teeth, or to operate any magical trans
tine ;
as warriors, their peculiar work on formation, but a presence to be appre
earth was "

to fence with lances the path to hended by the heart. One can . . .

the places which the Saviour had trodden, hardly conceive of any questions more
224 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10911153.

the whole sphere 01 amid the darkness and anguish of

utterly remote from
life."

Bernard of Clairvaux thoughts about the

s But yet even here, in this curious develop
Sacrament of the Supper than the questions ment of Christian teaching, the great
which engaged and perplexed many minds Cistercian claimed far less for the
"

Mother
after the doctrine of Transubstantiation had of Sorrows" than the late teachings of
been formulated."* Rome struggle after. When, in the year

As which was proposed at Lyons to institute

it
regards other grave questions
1
140,
the a festival in honour of the Immaculate "

eventually assumed prominence at

of the Virgin, Bernard of
"

period of the Reformation, Bernard s posi Conception

with regard to Clairvaux wrote against it in no measured
tion, unlike his attitude
Eucharistic teaching, was certainly not terms, declaring that the proposed rite was
that taken up by the Reformation teachers. one of which the Church was ignorant,
He believed, for instance,
"

that there which reason did not approve, or ancient

remained beyond the grave a place of tradition commend. The Royal Virgin, he

expiation in which God would deal with said,

"

needs no fictitious honours."

souls who had been imperfectly purified But it was as a preacher first of all that

not in anger, but in mercy not for their ;

Bernard of Clairvaux won his unrivalled
destruction, but for their illumination and influence in Christendom. Luther de
purification, that they might be completely clared him the best of all the doctors in his

prepared for the heavenly kingdom." sermons, better than in his disputations ;

He the saints in light,

taught, again, that
"

though even as a theologian Luther

in their superior nearness to God and their ranked him after only Augustine and
perfected holiness, would intercede for Ambrose. possess We
nearly 350 still

those still
tarrying on earth on lower reports of these discourses, which so largely
levels."! affected the Christian world of the twelfth
In his exaggerated estimate of the century, and which left on his great order
blessed Virgin, also, Bernard of Clairvaux so lasting an imprint. For the most part,
must be reckoned as one of those teachers certainly, these sermons seem to have been
who were influenced by that strange spirit delivered in Latin, and many of them were
of chivalry to which we have already preached in his own Clairvaux. Of course,
alluded as a special outcome of the the most popular of his sermons were in
Crusades. He certainly taught men to French for instance, the sermon at Vezelai
;

render to the
Virgin Mother, not the must have been in French. It was there

supreme adoration due only to God, but that he preached the second Crusade be
the modified homage, the hyperdulia,"
"

fore the king and queen, nobles and

which placed her as sovereign the
among prelates, and a vast multitude but of ;

saints in light. said these great ones of the earth no one took
Bernard,
"Men,"
"

might always look to her with joy, with any account. All eyes and thoughts were
confident assurance of help and rescue on Bernard, and as the winged words flew
* Dr. Storrs "

Bernard of Clairvaux." from his lips the passion of the assembly be

(New York) :

t Ibid. came uncontrollable. The cry of "

Crosses !
226 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [10911153.

crosses !
"

swelled to a roar. The vast monk, this noblest type of a monasticism

number of crosses provided being utterly which had effected so blessed a change in
insufficient, clothes had to be torn up to the religion of Europe, which was playing

supply them and when he preached

on ;
so large a part in Christian teaching and
the same all-absorbing topic at other practice in our own England after the

great centres Bale, Frankfort, Cologne, Conquest.

"

Bernard was fair and saintly

Freiburg the same strange scene was in face and person, and possessed a singular
repeated, and it was thus that the second beauty and charm of utterance, so that to
Crusade was launched on its way, that listen to him was a constant delight. As
Crusade which resulted in so grievous a men gazed on his frail attenuated figure
failure and awful loss of life. Wherever his whole body roost delicate and without
the beloved Cistercian went, crowds flocked flesh (corpus omne tenuissimum, et sine

to see him and to hear him, with a carmbus erat), worn at last almost to

passionate reverence. The ornaments of transparency by vigils and fastings, by

gold and silver were taken from the constant prayer, by his care of all the
churches and put away, as being under churches they came hardly to associate
stood to be displeasing to him. Men and him with earth. The pallid and command
women of all ranks arrayed themselves in ing face, full of human affection and
mean garments, because they knew he heavenly hope, with his thin fair hair,
disapproved of richness of dress. Crowds with eyes which are spoken of as dove-like,
thronged him, eager to kiss his feet ; yet which glowed at times as if lit up with
fragments of his robe were treasured as divine fires ;
the modulated voice, which
precious relics. The age appeared, as it quivered like a harp string or rang like

really was, better and brighter in his a trumpet in his changing emotions all

presence. these affected and impressed his hearers.

But upon all those tomes containing the He seemed speak as to one who had
sermons which once moved Christendom communion with heaven. >M

with so mighty a passion, the dust now lies He has never been forgotten. A century
thick few eyes have looked upon them,
;
and a half after his death, Dante in his
fewer still have read their contents. But great poem sees him amidst the blessed
tens of thousands in England have sung or spiritsin the tenth sphere, in the midst
listened to the beautiful translation of his of the snow-white rose which opened its
hymn concentric leaves faces of flame and wings
"

O Sacred Head, now wounded, of gold beneath the influence of the

With grief and shame weighed down "

!
Eternal Son sees in him the exemplar of
;

or to the yet more popular one :

contemplation, the surpassing model of a
Thee devout charity, the guide of those who
Jesus, the very thought of
"

With sweetness fills my breast ;

with disciplined sight would mount along
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
the rays of heaven. Such had he been
And in Thy presence rest."

when working on earth, with a force so

Let us picture to ourselves this ideal * Dr.
Storrs.
10911153] EFFECT OF THE MONASTIC REVIVAL. 227

tireless in a body so feeble. So the records orders in the good work which was being
of history set him before us. carried on in our island. One hundred
and fifteen monasteries were built during
"

I thought should see Beatrice, and saw

I
even the nineteen disturbed years of
An old man, habited like the glorious people ,

Overflowing was he in his eyes and cheeks Stephen s

reign. During the period of
With joy divine, in attitude of pity.
Henry (Plantagenet) one hundred and
II.

thirteen more of these monasteries were

. . . . The man who in this world
* of them marvels of grace
By contemplation tasted of that peace." erected, many
and beauty in the case of the Benedictine
;

Twoyears before Bernard of Clairvaux s and Cluniac houses, often richly adorned
death, at the general chapter in 1151, the within and without. Some of their abbey-
Cistercian order numbered 500 houses. churches were of vast size and exquisite
In the following century there were as proportions.
many as 1,800 monasteries which followed When we think of these two hundred
the rule of Citeaux ; eventually even this and twenty-eight religious houses, mostly
number was much increased. In England, at owing to Benedictine and Cistercian in

the period of the dissolution of the religious dustry and devotion, we must take into
houses, after an existence of some four consideration what were the probable

centuries, there were about a hundred numbers of the population for whose ser
Cistercian abbeys, in addition to many vice thiscrowd of homes of prayer and
smaller dependencies or cells.
teaching were intended. At most, the
whole population of England and Wales,
The effect of the great monastic revival when Henry II. was king, did not amount
in England has been scarcely ever fairly to four millions considerably less than
taken into account by historians. The the present number of the inhabitants of

great wave, which .gave so powerful an London Probably this estimate is too
!

impetus to church life on the continent of great, for about a century and a half later,
Europe, reached England only a few years after the fatal year of the mortality of the
later than the events which we have been great pestilence of A.D. 1349, the whole
sketching. While the desolating civil war population of England and Wales does
attendant on the quarrel between Stephen not appear much to have exceeded two
and Beauclerc s daughter, the empress millions. Thus the estimate of four mil

Matilda, was at its height, monks of the lions at the close of the twelfth century,
Benedictine and Cluniac orders were while conceding that nearly half the popu
quietly busied in all parts of England in lation perished in the Black Death, makes

building those vast piles which make up no allowance for any increase in the
a religious house cloisters, dormitories, numbers of the people during the inter
chapels, hospitals, granaries, barns, store vening century and a half. Four millions,
houses. Soon the newly-founded Cister then, at the close of the twelfth century
cians joined their brethren of the older is a very ample, perhaps too ample an
* "

Paradise," xxxi., 57-94. estimate. The numbers above given of

 228 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1091-1153.

the increase of monasteries in the twelfth acknowledged. Its work in agriculture,

century, for such a population,

will give however, and development of com
in the

some power and influence of

idea of the merce, is
certainly less known and less
the Benedictine and Cistercian in England, commonly acknowledged. The thought
after the great church revival in the twelfth that
"

laborare cst orarc "

(labour is
prayer)
and thirteenth centuries. was emphatically the outcome of the teach
We have styled them rightly homes of
"

ing of the revived monasticism, at least in

prayer,"
but they were something more. the earlier phases of its development in

They were preachers of religion, these our island.

disciples of Cluny, Citeaux, and Clairvaux ;

but they were also great and successful The mediaeval church, from the thir

preachers of labour. To their patient in teenth century onwards, generally re

dustry was owing in England the reclama cognised tour principal monastic rules,
tion of many a desolate moorland, of many under which almost all the religious orders
an unhealthy and useless swamp. Mea might be classed :

was their skill and patient labour

sureless (1) In the East, that of St. Basil. This
in changing worthless lands into corn lands rule is retained by well-nigh all Oriental
and pastures. So eager, indeed, were the monks.
Cistercians in their beneficent work, that (2) Rule of St. Augustine, adopted by
it is said that in their industrious zeal the regular canons. The order of Prae-
they even desecrated churchyards, and monstratensians, the Dominicans, and the.
encroached on the borders of royal hunting great military orders, such as the Templars
forests and chases. These tireless monks and the Knights Hospitallers, belonged to
grew famous for the breeding of horses, this rule.
and were learned in the various species of Rule of St.
(3) Benedict^ generally
palfreys and sumpter-horses and knights adopted by all the monks of the West.
chargers. They thanked heaven for the The order of Camaldules of Vallombrosa,
and
"

blessings of fatness fleeces,"

as foreign the Carthusians, and the Cistercians re
weavers from Italy and Flanders sought
cognise this rule as the basis of their
their wool in fact, these monks, before and peculiar constitutions.
;
special
the thirteenth century had run its course, Rule of St. Francis, adopted by
(4)
had made England the great the Mendicant orders of the thirteenth
wool-growing
country of Europe. The church s work in century.
England in the department of letters and The denomination monks is not generally
literature in the early Middle Ages, has
given to the religious who follow the rule
often been dwelt upon, and its enormous of St. Augustine, or to the Mendicant
service to literature has been orders.
generally
 DOCUMENT WRITTEN AT KING JOHN S COMMAND
(Directing that he should be buried in. Worcetter Cathtdral. See page 245. )

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE CHURCH UNDER CCEUR-DE-LION, JOHN, AND HENRY III.

Character of Richard I. His Religion The Church and her Archbishops in this Reign Clerical
Celibacy still a Difficulty in England Transition from Communion in both Kinds to one Kind
only Canons of the Synods Churchmen the Defenders of Popular Liberties Death of Richard
and Accession of John The Worst Sovereign of England John loses his French Territories
Quarrel with the Pope over the Archbishopric of Canterbury Stephen Langton England under
an Interdict John Excommunicated Makes Abject Submission, and acknowledges the Pope as
Suzerain Papal Exactions Langton Resists them Barons join in the Struggle MagnaCarta
Langton s Leading Part in the Great Charter John s Perfidy His Death, and Accession of
Henry III. Transubstantiation and Confession Decreed by the Fourth Lateran Council Weak
Character of Henry III. Struggle of the English Church with renewed Papal Exactions Papal
Tyranny the Ultimate Cause of the Reformation Edmund Rich of Canterbury Grosseteste of
Lincoln His Resistance to Roman Usurpation Influence over Simon de Montfort.

Cceur-de-Lion stood before Peterborough chronicler, tells us blood

WHEN his
been
father s

arrayed in
body after

all his
it had
kingly
flowed
of
from the corpse as in presence
a parricide.* He turned away ap
golden crown on the brow, sceptre
>mp, palled from the corpse of his mighty
the hand, and the sword he had used * "

Ac si indignaretur spiritus ejus de adventu

so well girt on his side, Benedict, the illius." Chron. Benedict, page 71.
230 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1189-

father in the castle of Chinon, to com was emphatically a bad man and a selfish
mence ten years of his reign
those king. His standard of morality was so
which will ever be encompassed with a low that even his admirers and they were
halo of romance. He was not a good many are either silent or sorrowful when
man or a wise sovereign, but his very they speak of that life, which set so ill an
faults struck the imagination of men ;
and example to his court and people. With
Englishmen of his own day and time, as all this, Richard Cceur-de-Lion was also

well as succeeding generations, have ever conscious of his own vileness and cor
been proud of the mighty soldier who won ruption. Instances are given by his bio
forEnglish arms such glory and renown. graphers of his occasional agony of re
Most writers, while conscious that the morse ;
and on his death-bed he openly
great and glorious king, the first soldier and sorrowfully confessed his life of sin.
of that age of war, was a bad son, a bad Upon this brilliant, selfish life, religion
husband, and a selfish ruler, yet plead for exercised considerable control, and largely
him and defend him. They picture him contributed to diminish its evil influence
as a knight-errant, a lover of war for the on the world generally. The
leading
mere delight of battle and the charm of feature in Richard s character was the love
victory; they love to dwell on his mar of war ;
but the wars in which he was
vellous valour, his skill as a commander ; perpetually engaged were for no mere
they rehearse his many acts of magnanimity acquisition of territory, or for the increase
and nobleness, and try to make men forget of his already great power, but were
the awful misery and wretchedness which undertaken mainly for the sake of rescuing
such a career as his occasioned, alike to his the Holy Land from the grasp of the* un
own people and to his rivals and enemies. believer. The strange passion for these
It is
strange that no character in Crusades which for so long a period affected
mediaeval history, with its brilliant colour the history of the Christian world, cer
ing and yet darker shadows, stands out tainly among the nobler spirits who took
like that of Richard of the Lion Heart. part ,in these wonderful campaigns, was
His mighty position as sovereign of so unconnected with mere
totally political
many lands The Crusades were
;
his reckless bravery, and objects. almost wholly
the religious aspect of his life-work in movements and among
purely religious ;

warring for the sacred scenes hallowed by Richard s chosen crusading companions
the Saviour s footsteps his eloquence, his
; and friends we find some of the leading
love for poetry and for men
song, his wonderful of the Church of England, notably
power of winning the love of men better Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, and
and wiser than himself; his generous readi Hubert Walter, bishop of Salisbury, who
ness in forgiving personal injuries ;
his after a briefinterregnum succeeded Bald
wisdom in the choice of able and
patriotic win as primate.
ministers all these things succeeded in The active part which these two eminent
winning him an abiding place in the hearts prelates of the Church of England took in
and homes of England. And yet Richard the great Crusade in which Coeur-de-Lion
1 1 89 1 199-1 REIGN OF OEUR-DE-LION. -231

won shows us something of the

his fame, cured this Hubert Walter s election to the

strange power and fascination which the vacant primacy in 1193. For some five
wars of the Cross exercised at this period years, in addition to the archbishopric,
over the hearts of even the noblest church Hubert acted as justiciar of England, and
men. Baldwin, the archbishop of Canter till almost the close of Richard s reign
bury, was an old man when, in helmet played the chief part in all civil as well as
and cuirass, with the sacred banner of St. ecclesiastical matters. Ever a loyal and
Thomas Becket borne before him, he took
the field in the Holy Land. The bishop
of Salisbury, afterwards his successor, fought

by his side ;
other foreign prelates accom

panied him, and their division of the

crusading army was under the command
of the Grand Master of the Temple.
But Baldwin, after showing conspicuous
valour, died in the Holy Land, men said
of a broken heart. Besides his duties as a

soldier, the famous English churchman

was distinguished for his assiduous min
istries among the sick and wounded. The
sad episodes of suffering, alternating with the
wild and dissolute scenes of the crusaders

camp, preyed upon the old man s mind,

and he sickened and died at the sight of
these sad spectacles both the awful suffer

ing and the nameless sins. His companion,

Hubert Walter of Salisbury, distinguished
himself after the archbishop s death not
less as a soldier than as a minister of
SEAL OF ARCHBISHOP HUBERT WALTER.
religion in the bloody scenes of Richard s
{British Museum.}
crusade. He was ever Richard s counsellor
and chosen friend, and, during Cceur-de- devoted servant of the king in the many
Lion s unfortunate captivity in Germany, offices he had filled, as royal chaplain, as

visited the great crusader in his prison, a captain in the crusading host, as the
and was foremost in England, both in king s treasurer, as his ambassador, then as
counteracting prince John s intrigues justiciar of England, this crusading arch

during his kingly brother s captivity, bishop has left behind him a high character
and in raising the large sum demanded as a patriot statesman, though perhaps
from England for king Richard s release. not of the first rank.
It was no doubt in gratitude for his In king Richard s days the church made
loyal friendship that Coeur-de-Lion pro no great strides either in learning or in
232 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11751195.

influence. it held its own. Every in one kind had become a general practice
Still,

thing was, however, subordinated

to the already in the Church of England ;
but

one great passion for the Crusades. The this practice was evidently distasteful to

the king permeated all classes and many of the clergy, for this synod forbids
spirit of
orders of his subjects, and immense sums the common practice of
"

sopping the
were diverted from all the more practical Eucharist, as if the communion were by
objects to the furtherance
of these costly this means more entirely administered."

holy wars. getWe

some idea, though, of The Cistercians were opposed to this

the inner life and discipline of the Church practice of administering the communion
of England at this time, from the canons in one kind ; they were in the habit of
of certain important synods. receiving the wine through a quill or pipe,
The synod of Westminster was held a which was to be only of silver gilt.
few years previously (in A.D. 1175). We In the synod of York, held under the

mark, from the canons passed in this crusading archbishop, Hubert Walter, in
church assembly, the extreme difficulty 1195, again the dress of clerics is dwelt
which still existed in England of enforcing upon, and certain of the canons of this
the celibacy of the clergy, that rule so assembly ordain that lay apparel be avoided,
insisted upon by all the most influential directing that priests go not in capes with
church leaders and teachers of the eleventh sleeves, but in apparel suitable to their
and twelfth centuries, as absolutely neces order ;
that priests also should preserve

sary the
for work and progress of the their crown and tonsure, avoiding long
church. These canons of the year 1175 hair.
ordered that any priest or clerk in holy The synod of Westminster in 1200, also
orders who declined, upon a third admoni under the presidency of the same arch
tion, to put away his wife styled here a bishop, Hubert Walter, issued strict direc
concubine was to be summarily deprived tions for decorum in reading the service,
of his benefice while no one was to be
;
enjoining a careful pronunciation of the
beneficed who lived with a wife. Another words of the prayers, avoiding all affecta
canon of this synod sternly prohibited
any tion, and aiming alone at a plain and
clerk in holy orders from eating and drink distinct enunciation of the words of the
ing in taverns. Another referred to the divineoffice. Careful rules were also put
habit of dressing as lay persons, then out for the guidance of archdeacons at
evidently too prevalent among the clergy. their visitation s. These officials were lo
They were to avoid wearing long hair, and exact nothing from the inferior clergy.
only to use such clothes and shoes as were They were to see that every church
decent they were not to bear arms.
;
possessed a silver chalice. In the words of
Simony was evidently not unknown, for a one of the canons charge that the
:
"

We
canon rigidly forbade any money or coven Eucharist be not consecrated in any chalice
anted gain being given for the presentation not made of gold or silver, and that no
to a benefice. The
bishop bless a chalice of tin." last
In ritual matters we see that communion part of this injunction seems to have been
^
234 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11891199.

relaxed in some cases. Also a sufficiency with a portion of the true Cross, a girdle
of decent vestments for the priest, ne and comb of ivory, six mitres, three pairs

cessary books and utensils, and what of gloves, all beautifully adorned with gold
ever was necessary for the honour and and gems, candlesticks and cruets of silver,

dignity of the sacrament, were to be a censer of silver, basons of silver, cups of

provided. The vicars of the churches gold, golden rings encrusted with gems,
were to receive a decent competency out and many other precious vessels for the
of the goods of the church. These and service of the sanctuary.
other canons show us that in the church To pass from the inner life ot the
in the latter days of Henry II. and of Church of England to its work and in
Richard I. considerable attention was given fluence in the higher regions of statesman
to the due administration of the sacred ship. The churchmen of the last
great
rites in outlying villages, as well as in the age of the Angevin monarchs were worthy
great centres of population, and that a of the lofty and patriotic traditions of the
careful supervision was exercised over the great church to which they belonged. It
life and habits of the clergy, and even is true they contended for the privileges of
over their dress and general appearance. their church ;
but in contending for their
It is interesting how, even in
to see own rights they ever fought at the same
these days of continual wars at home and time the battle of the people. hear We
abroad, and when the crusading fever was their voices raised in remonstrance against
the one absorbing passion among men, the wrong, when the voice of the barons was
inner life of the church in its
poorest and silent. For instance, when Cceur-de-Lion
most remote churches was carefully watched demanded English money to pay a military
over in such matters as the provision for force to be employed in the king s foreign
decent vestments for the clergy, and wars, St. Hugh of Lincoln, the Carthusian
chalices of precious metals for the cele friend of Henry II. a foreigner, but who
bration of the Holy Eucharist. in his English see had learned the truest
Whilst a reverent provision, at least, was traditions of his adopted country refused
made for the due performance of services the king s demands, nobly replying that
in the smaller and more remote churches, it the church was bound to do faithful service
is clear that in the
abbeys and cathedrals to the crown -within the island realm, but
an extraordinary magnificence of ritual was was not bound to contribute men or gold for
maintained. The catalogue of bequests to service beyond the sea. In his bold assertion
the church of Canterbury by Richard s of the rights of Englishmen, St. Hugh was
favourite archbishop, Hubert Walter, gives stoutly backed by bishop Herbert of Salis
us some insight into the vestments and bury. The opposition of the church in
ornaments possessed by the chief pastors this important question was successful, and
in these times. thus
Among the objects he left a great principle of English right
to the church were was established.*
palls embroidered with
gold, a golden chalice, cruets of crystal, a * See Freeman s
"

Norman Conquest," chapter

portable altar of chalcedony, a cross inlaid
1189 "99-3
DEATH OF THE LION-HEART. 235

On the whole, the relations of the ministered to him extreme unction ;

closed
church with king Richard I. were friendly. his eyes and mouth when the Lion- "

Some of her leading prelates, as we have hearted expired, and with his own hands
"

seen, were among his chosen friends. bathed the royal head with the liquor of
with his crusading balsam. It was in this mortal sickness
They were inspired
passion, and we find them entrusted by that, with his characteristic generosity,
him with the highest administrative posts king Richard forgave the archer, Bertrand
u
in the kingdom. Cceur-de-Lion shared de Gourdon, whose arrow caused his death-
in common with many other great warriors wound, and who dared to speak before the
in that sincere yet formal attachment to dying monarch words of bold defiance.
ceremonial religion, which, considering the The dying king ordered his slayer to be
circumstances of a soldier s life, must be set at liberty with the present of a sum
accepted by the moralist, in default of any of money.
higher development, as the expression of
a mind which willingly and humbly re The worst sovereign that ever sat on

cognises the source of all power and the throne of England followed the
*
He heard mass every day, and
might." brilliant, unprincipled soldier, Coeur de-
was zealous in collecting relics of the saints, Lion. "

Edward III. may have been as

and was generally very popular with the unprincipled, gracefulbut he is a more
clergy. In their Chronicles and memoirs sinner William Rufus as savage, but he
;

we find the best and most eloquent apol is a more magnificent and stronger-willed

ogies for his faults, mingled with many villain ;

Ethelred the Unready as weak,
words of praise for his valiant and doughty false, and worthless, but he sins for and
deeds. The ecclesiastical Chronicler loves suffers with his people. John has neither
to term him the sword and shield of
"

grace nor splendour, strength nor patriot

Christians, the adored of his men-at-arms, ism history stamps him as a worse man
;

the honoured alike by clergy and people, than many who have done much more
*
the protector of the church, the unwearied harm." The deeds of John his un
listener to divine offices." bridled immorality, his many acts of

Richard s most attached friend was a cruelty and mockery, the lingering deaths
Cistercian abbot of the monastery of St. to which he loved to condemn his victims,

Mary du Pin in Aquitaine, who, with the his cowardice, his utter faithlessness make
special permission of the Citeaux chapter, up a dreary story which can be told of no
was constantly in his court, about his other mediaeval king. He followed his
person, that he might with all solicitude
"

brother, to whom he ever played the

undertake the care of the king s alms and traitor, on the throne of England in 1199.
of the poor."
He was with the king in Within three years of his accession, king
his last illness, dutifully admonishing his Philip of France pronounced sentence of
loved master to confess his sins he ad- ;
forfeiture of his French dominions, pro-
* * Memoriale Waited
Itinerarium Regis Ricardi Bishop Stubbs Preface to
" "
"

(Rolls Series) :

Preface by Bishop Stubbs de Coventria (Rolls Series). "

236 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1207.

claiming JLohn a contumacious vassal.

In immediately recommended John de Gray,
the following year (1203) he issued a second bishop of Norwich. Both these claimants
sentence of forfeiture, this time proclaiming submitted their cause to Rome. The
John as the murderer of his nephew reigning pontiff, Innocent III., one of the
Arthur ;
and then with startling rapidity greatest and most astute of the long line
all John s continental dominions Nor of Roman bishops, saw his opportunity in
this reference on the part of the king and
mandy, Maine, Anjou, Brittany, and Tou-
raine slipped for ever out of his hands, the monks of Canterbury to his supreme

only the southern province of Aquitaine authority, and, setting aside the claims of
being left crown of England. The
to the both Reginald and John de Gray, pro
loss was enormous. From being one of nounced that the election had been in
the mostpowerful of the continental formal, and suggested that a Roman
sovereigns, henceforth John and his suc cardinal of English birth, Stephen Lang-
cessors were simply kings of England for ; ton, should be archbishop. It was to no
the distant and remote possession of Aqui purpose that John protested against the
taine gave them little weight beyond the choice. Innocent III. insisted on his ap
seas. This rending away of the fairest pointment, and in the year 1207, with
portion of his continental dominions, great the reluctant consent of the monks of

though the loss seemed, was however in Canterbury, who had gone to plead the cause
the long run productive of untold ad of their nominee at Rome, consecrated
vantage to England. Langton as primate of the English church.

The death of archbishop Hubert Walter, This famous patriot, statesman, and
the crusader statesman, the faithful friend churchman was an Englishman by birth,
of the dead Richard, which took place in and had received his training at the
1205, two years after the loss of Normandy University of Paris, which at the close of
and its dependencies, deprived John of his the twelfth century ranked as the foremost
and immediately led to
wisest counsellor, of the theological schools of Europe. He
that breach between the king and the soon became distinguished as a renowned
church which had such momentous con biblical scholar and canonist, and received
sequences for England. Briefly, the events lucrative preferment at Notre Dame,
which led to the great quarrel are as and also, singularly enough, from the
follows. Immediately after the death or cathedral of York. At Paris he made a
the archbishop, the monks of Canterbury, friend who influenced his whole career
before the funeral of
Walter, Hubert Lothaire, who at a comparatively early age
without any communication with the king, became Pope, under the world-renowned
elected to the primacy Reginald, their sub- name of Innocent III. Summoned by the
prior, a comparatively unknown man. latter to Rome, Stephen Langton in 1206
Their act was and a minority of was
illegal ; preferred to the dignity of
high
the Canterbury clergy, disagreeing with cardinal, Innocent conscious
III. of
being
the choice of their brethren, applied to the vast learning and the brilliant abilities
king John for a conge d elirc. The king of the English scholar.
 BULI, OF POPE INNOCENT III.

The Bull ratifies the offering and grant made by Attested by the "sentence" of the Pope,"Fac mecum
John of his kingdoms to the Holy Roman church, in domine signum in bonum" his name and monogram
return for which he takes the kingdom* under the Bene Valete" /allowed by the autograph signatures
"

protection of St. Peter and himself, and grants the of twelve cardinals and three bishops. Dated at
"

kingdoms to John on condition of public recognition the Lateran 4 November, 1213, with leadtn bulla"

and oath of fealty by each successive king on his attached.

coronation. (British Museum.)
 238 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [11991216.

A cardinal of Innocent III. did not, symbol of their office until A.D. 1245, in the
indeed, occupy the commanding position papacy of Innocent IV. Their assumption
in the Roman hierarchy which subse of a position of equality with princes of

quently was associated with the dignity ; royal birth belonged also to a later age.
but it was even at that early period a Still, the dignity to which Stephen Lang-

high and influential office. The cardinals ton was raised through the favour of his
formed the college of counsellors of the old friend, Innocent III., was so highly

prized, that John himself had thrice con

gratulated the great English scholar on
his. elevation at Rome to the cardinalate.

There is no doubt but that Innocent

III., in nominating his friend and coun

sellor to the primacy of the English
Church, honestly believed that, besides

placing a trusted friend and confidant in

the most important see in western Europe,
he was making the wisest possible appoint
ment in the interests of the Church of
England. His foresight was amply verified,
though not in the way Pope Innocent III.
expected.
King John, however, incensed at the
rejection of his own nominee, bishop John
de Gray of Norwich, refused the royal
assent to the Pope s choice. In spite of
Innocent repeated, urgent, and finally
s

threatening requests, John persisted in his

refusal to
acknowledge Stephen Langton
SEAL OF STEPHEN LANGTON. (British Museum.} as archbishop after his consecration at
Rome. In the year 1208, in consequence
sovereign pontiff no small of his refusal, the
responsibility kingdom was placed
when it is remembered to what a under
lofty interdict. The Pope attempted from
eminence the bishop of Rome had been time to time to renew
negotiations, but each
raised in the times of Hildebrand
(Gregory attempt failed. The king, after the inter
VII.). The
cardinals, too, were alone dict had been
proclaimed, made large
eligible to
the papacy, and
by cardinals confiscations of the estates of the
English
was the Pope elected. The red hat with
clergy, and many of the bishops who
itstassels, signifying that its wearer was
obeyed the Pope fled from the kingdom.
prepared to shed his life-blood in resist This state of things lasted in the Church
ance against wrong done to the Christian of England for some six years.
faith, was not assigned to them as the The interdict under which England was
1199 I2i6.] KING JOHN SUBMITS TO THE POPE. 239

placed was a very grave matter, and signi time paid little heed to the
John for a

fied an almost total cessation of public
church services. The
and churches were virtually shut up for
six years. Prayers were to be said and
sermons preached, but only on Sundays
and in churchyards. Baptisms were to be
performed, but in private houses only.
Burials were forbidden in churchyards, but
abbeys, cathedrals,
general or to the special curse of Pope
Innocent. But at length the superstitious
and suspicious heart of the king was
touched. His fears were worked upon by his
dread of the French king, Philip, abroad,
and by his apprehension of treason at home,
for he was conscious of the deadly hatred
his evil government had excited. The long

might be performed anywhere else. Priests
might not attend the funerals of the laity,
but were allowed to say the offices for the
dead in private houses.
service ceased altogether. Marriages were
solemnised, but only in the porches of the
continuance of the interdict, no doubt, had
its effect upon the king and his counsellors,
but the burning words of a Yorkshire
The Eucharistic enthusiast, an ascetic named Peter of
Wakefield, are said to have especially
affected the superstitious monarch, and to

churches and to the dying the viaticum

;
have brought about his submission. This
was still administered. The church bells Peter went about asserting that John
were silenced.* Among the privileged would not be a king on the next Ascension
monastic orders mass was still celebrated ; day, and that the crown of England by
but it must be remembered that this that time would be transferred to another.
sacred office, in the vast majority of cases, The king sent for the prophet, who per
was performed in the monks portion of sisted in his words of doom, adding that
the monastery church or abbey, the choir, prophecy proved to be a lie, John
his
"

if

and that even if the people were admitted, might do with him what he would."
only a comparatively small number could In the sequel John hanged the unfor
possibly be accommodated in this portion tunate prophet, but in the meantime his
of the sacred building. The Papal in mood of defiance and indifference now
terdict in England, then, really meant an suddenly changed ;
and in abject fear, he
almost total cessation of religious rites for gave way on every one of the hotly
the vast majority of Englishmen. It disputed questions. He made his com
seems, however, that in certain dioceses plete submission to the Pope and accept ;

Winchester, Durham, and Norwich where ing Stephen Langton as archbishop, he

the bishops remained, on the whole, faith promised to repay the money he had
ful king John during the period of
to exacted from the churches which had
the great quarrel, the interdict was only obeyed the interdict ; and, as a crowning
partially observed. The interdict was fol humiliation, positively surrendered his

lowed in 12 1 2 by a special excommunication kingdom to Innocent III., agreeing to

of John, and with it the sentence of receive back again as a Papal vassal
it !

deposition. This shameful surrender on the part of an

* Memoriale Walteri de Coventria Preface : of English king took place in the year 1213.
Bishop Stubbs Forma Interdict! xlv.
"
"

The act, so far as England was concerned,

 240 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1214.

was the culminating point of Romish the Church of England, sorely impoverished

claims to universal supremacy. Never, by the years of interdict and the exactions
dreamed of so and confiscations of John, supplying the
probably, had Hildebrand
needful for the of his
strange a submission as that of John ; money support
and when Lanfranc and the Conqueror princely retinue and luxurious lodging;

accepted the Pope as the patron

of the and thus excited an intense dread and

expedition which conquered Anglo-Saxon

dislike of Roman interference in the

England, they certainly never foresaw Church ofEngland. Nicholas visited

such a development of their acknowledg many parts of the island, behaving himself
ment of the supreme power of Rome, as with curious haughtiness, degrading abbots
the year 1213-1214 witnessed. Nothing and sequestrating benefices at his pleasure,

could be more precise than the terms of and filling up vacant posts in the church,

the humiliating submission of the king of utterly regardless of their proper patrons,
England, contained in the oath of supre and all this with the full connivance of

macy, sealed with a golden seal, by which John. A great sum of money, by way of
John acknowledged himself the vassal of tribute, was also demanded by this Roman
the bishop of Rome. The oath ran thus : official as the price of removing the inter

John, by the grace of God, king of

"

I, dict and thus began the long series of

;

England and lord of Ireland, will from this usurpations and money exactions on the
time .- . . be faithful ... to my Rome, which ended by making the
part of
liege lord, Pope Innocent, and his Catholic very name and thought ot the so-called
successors. !. -. I will assist in holding apostolic see infamous in England.
and defending the inheritance of St. Peter, In the meantime, archbishop Langton
and particularly the kingdoms of England returned from his long exile and was
and Ireland, against all men to the utmost formally reconciled with John ;
and almost
of my power. So may God and the holy directly we find this "friend of Innocent"

Gospel help rising to the true position of primate of

me."

The strange submission was received by the English Church, and taking the lead
the legate of Pope Innocent, whose name in the patriotic resistance of the
church, in
Pandulph as connected with this Papal which he held the principal office, to the
triumph, will never be in
forgotten unrighteous demands of Rome. Innocent
England. Pandulph was a skilled diplo III., in selecting Langton years before for
matist rather than an ecclesiastic, and at the great had indeed, as far as
office,
the time of the negotiation with John
England was concerned, made a wise and
occupied no position in the church; in noble choice.
fact, was only in sub-deacon s orders. He We must here take a general but very
was succeeded in the legation
by an Italian brief view of the action of the Church
bishop, Nicholas
of Tusculum, an un of England in the great contest of the
fortunate appointment from the Roman English people for their liberties and rights;
point of view. For Nicholas, being a threatened first by the Norman barons,
lover of pomp and
dignity, insisted upon later by the crown, aided by the Pope.
 242 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 11213.

The Norman and the Angevin kings, king. But in John s days it was different,
from the days of the Conqueror onwards, and "

he stood face to face with his people

were ever in active opposition to the great an unmitigated tyrant "

of the worst kind.

and powerful barons, and during that long Thus, in the early years of the thirteenth

struggle the clergy of England as a whole century the balance of power had com
had ranged themselves on the king s side. and the danger of oppression
pletely shifted,
The church felt that in that stormy period now came from the crown, not from the
the strength of the king was the salvation
"

feudal barons. The king, not the baron

of the people for the victory of the
"

; age, now threatened the rights and liberties

barons, all true-hearted churchmen saw, of the people ;

and the church, always the
would have meant the woe of the mass people s friend, no longer ranged itself on
of the population. So we find, especially the side of the king, but rather stood in

during the reigns of the great Norman open opposition to him, and, as we shall
sovereigns, from William I. to Henry II., see, joining with the enfeebled nobles, ex
ecclesiastical ministers universally occupy torted from the crown, grown too powerful,

ing the high offices in the state. The the Great Charter of liberties and freedom.
reason of this was that these sovereigns The man who was raised up to carry out
felt that churchmen "had so many interests this powerful combination, which accom
in common with themselves that they were plished so great a work in the making of
the safest men to Even the long-
trust."
England, was Stephen Langton, the former
drawn-out quarrels with Anselm and Becket friend of Pope Innocent III., the patriot
did not interrupt these intimate relations archbishop of Canterbury.*
between the king and the ecclesiastics of Events for ever memorable in the history
the Church of England for, as a rule, the ;
of England are at this period crowded into
majority of the bishops and leading church a short space of time. The same
year (1213)
men did not sympathise with Anselm and witnessed the shameful oath of allegiance
Becket. The support of the rank and file to the Pope taken by John an oath re
of the clergy was also given to the crown, peated more than once the return of
;

for these men, deeply sympathising with

archbishop Langton from exile ;
and the
their trodden-down flocks, looked on the rising indignation of England with their
oppression and exactions of the feudal king. Before the year had run its course,
barons with dread and intense dislike. the meeting at St. Albans, attended
by
Time passed on. The strong arm and bishops and barons and a body of repre
wise policy of Henry II. broke the sentatives from the townships, had been
power
of the Norman barons, and in the latter held. This was followed by another
years ofHenry s reign the power of the council at St. Paul s, where the laws of
crown had grown enormously. The cru were produced and expounded
Henry I.

sading wars, the perpetual absences, and by archbishop Langton. By the side of
still more,
perhaps, the wise ministers of the patriot archbishop at these famous
Coeur-de-Lion, had veiled for a season this * See
generally Memoriale Waited de Coven-
"

new and vastly developed power of the tria":

Bishop Stubbs Introduction.
 ARCHBISHOP LANGTON AND MAGNA CARTA 243

councils of the nation sat the justiciar, backed by the large majority of the

Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, earl of Essex, a great English bishops. Only one, Peter des
minister appointed by Coeur-de-Lion, and Roches, the justiciar, a foreigner, heartily
hated by John. Here the assembled Eng supported John. very few, such as A
lishmen swore that they would maintain Walter de Gray of Norwich who had
the liberties contained in that famous been put forward by the king as his
charter of Beauclerc even unto death. candidate for the primacy when Inno
This charter of king Henry I. here pro cent III. made choice of Langton for the
duced by Langton, embodied the old Saxon high office and Benedict of Rochester,
laws, known as the laws of Edward the took up an undecided position at this
Confessor ;
and it was on this memorable juncture.
occasion that the confederation was formed The Great Charter itself was largely
which, in the following year, met at St. based on- that of Henry I., and, while
Edmundsbury, and the year after at decreeing nothing new, gave new securities
Runnymede. Immediately after the coun for the betterobservance of the old rights.
cil at St. Paul s the justiciar, Geoffrey It threw its shield over the rights of every

Fitz-Peter, after laying before the king the Englishman, from the noble to the villein.
claims of the council, died. When John Itcontained a crowd of provisions against
heard of the death of this great represent various feudal abuses, and for the redress
ative of the indignant barons, he exclaimed, of the yet worse abuses of the forest
"

When Fitz-Peter arrives in hell he may oppressive novelties which had been
go and salute Hubert Walter (the arch England by the Norman
"

brought into

bishop friend of his dead brother, Cceur- conquerors. It secured the boon of free

de-Lion), "for, by the feet of God, now and unbought justice for all. The poor
for the first time am I king and lord of were especially provided for those who
England." John enjoyed that lordship stood outside feudal relations, and even
but a short time, for in a little more than those who might have seemed to stand
a year after his impious words he was outside of the pale of the law itself.* The
dead, and in those few months he had first clause of Magna Carta, as in the
affixed his royal seal to Magna Carta. charter of Henry I., secures the rights
The prominent part taken by the Church of the church, repeats and confirms the
of England in the events which led up to charter for the free election of bishops, and
the granting of Magna Carta will ever be the great principle so often appealed to
one of her titles to honour. The leader of earlier and later that the Church of "

the patriot party which compelled John to England was free"

(" Angh cana eccle-

give his consent and affix his seal to the sia libera sit"}.
Little is it to be won
English people Great Charter, was the
s dered at that the charter excited the
head of the church Stephen Langton. indignation of Innocent III., who never
It was the archbishop who organised the forgave his old friend, archbishop Langton,
party and suggested the entire framework * See Freeman :
"

Norman Conquest," chap

of the Charter itself ;
and he was loyally xxvii.
244 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1216.

for the share he had taken in its being chronicler gives us

a terrible picture of

formally accepted and promulgated.

the months which followed the sealing of
We
can still see a copy of the
"

Great Magna Carta.

"

The whole surface of

Charter,"
in which archbishop Langton the earth was covered with these limbs of
had so large a share, in the British Museum, the devil, like locusts. . . .
They sacked
and dusky through age,
tire towns, cemeteries, and churches, sparing
"

injured by
with the royal seal of John hanging from neither women nor children. Even the
and as we gaze on the sacred monu
it"; priests, while standing at the very altars with
ment of English freedom in church and the cross of their Lord in their hands, clad

state, to which from age to age serious in their sacred robes, were seized, tortured,
men have looked back as the foundation robbed. . . . The persecution was
of English liberty, a churchman must feel general throughout England.
a thrill of pride as he remembers how large Markets and traffic ceased, and goods were
a share in the stirring transactions which only exposed to sale in churchyards. . . .

resulted in the framing and passing of that Agri/ulture was at a standstill, and no
glorious summary of English rights, was one dared to go beyond the limits of the
borne by the church he loves so well. churches." In blank despair the barons

Directly after
passing the
Magna of sent for Louis of France to deliver them
Carta the traitor John asked Innocent III., from the cruel tyrant John, and to assume
as his liege lord, to annul it. At once the the crown of England in his stead.

Pope consented, suspending from his high It was a moment of awful confusion, no
office, as might have been expected, the one could foresee the end, when the knot
patriot archbishop Langton. Langton, was suddenly cut by the death of John,
who as a cardinal had received a summons who, at the head of his army of foreign
to Rome to take part in the subsequently mercenaries, in his march northward, was
famous Fourth Lateran Council, left by the tide in the Wash near
surprised
England, thinking he might influence his Lynn, and his baggage, with the royal
old friend Innocent in his the rising waters.
policy towards treasure, engulfed in

England but Innocent held very different

; Rage and vexation at the curious disaster
views from Langton s as to the brought on fever, which was inflamed by
policy
to be observed towards and the
England and her a gluttonous debauch, evil life of

church, and Langton was received at king John was suddenly cut short. A
Rome with exceeding coldness and distrust. singular and abiding testimony to the
For some months a cloud of utter black influence which the Christian religion,
ness and even despair settled over
England. although under curious and superstitious
Langton was far
away. John, with a great forms, exercised over the ungovernable
host of foreign mercenaries, proceeded to
Plantagenet prince, is the stately tomb
devastate the whole land, of John in the cathedral of Worcester.
storming castle
after castle
belonging to those barons who There the images of the famous Worcester
had just wrested from him the Charter
saints, bishops Oswald and Wulfstan, lie
of English freedom. A contemporary on either side of the gilded of the effigy
 DEATH OF KING JOHN. 245

king of England. It was John s wish, left guiltless of his father s crimes ;
and the
in writing (still possession of the
in the barons of England, quickly repenting of
Dean and Chapter of Worcester) that his the sudden impulse of self-defence which

body should be buried between the re- had prompted them to invite into England

Photn Bennett & Co.,

: Worcester.

TOMB OF KING JOHN, WORCESTER CATHEDRAL.

mains of the two dim notion being

saints, a a foreign prince, rallied round John s child-
in his mind
that their holy dust would in heir, who, under the title of Henry III.,

some way guard him from any evil which was hastily crowned in the stately
abbey
he felt might be his lot after death. of Gloucester. The foreign invader was
John s son, still a child in years, was deserted, and soon retraced his steps, and
246 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1216.

a new and happier reign began. The sacrifice ;

Whose body and blood in the
disaster of the Wash and the sudden death sacrament of the altar are truly contained
of John, followed by the hasty coronation under the species of bread and wine,
at Gloucester of the boy Henry III., took which through the Divine power are
place in the year 1216, the year which transubstantiated, the bread into the body
followed the signing of Magna Carta. and the wine into the blood ;
that for
the fulfilment of the mystery of unity we
The special reason for which archbishop may receive of His that which He received
Langton was summoned of ours de suo quod
"

to
Rome, shortly (ut accipiamus ipsi
after the historic gathering at Runnymede, accepit de nostro).-
was to assist as a cardinal at the Fourth Another canon of considerable import
Lateran Council, under the presidency of ance was the outcome of the Fourth
Innocent III. This council, which met in Lateran Council. It was the first which
Rome near the close of the year 1215, and enjoined generally sacramental confession.
sat for nineteen days in the church of the The opening words of this canon were :

Saviour, will be for ever memorable in the Let every believer, of both
"

sexes, after
doctrinal history of the Roman Catholic he has come to years of discretion,
church ;
for in its canons appears the first faithfully make solitary confession of all his
synodical authorisation of the doctrine of sins at least once in the year to his own
transubstantiation. priest, and study to the utmost of his
We have already at some length traced power the penance enjoined him,
to fulfil

the story of the growth of this doctrine reverently receiving the sacrament of the
from the period of its first appearance, Eucharist at least at Easter. . . .

soon after 844, in the famous treatise of Otherwise let him while living be denied
Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of New Cor- entrance into the church, and at death be
bey, in the days of the emperor Charles le deprived of Christian burial."

Chauve. We have seen how, in spite of

much opposition, the new Eucharistic The thirteenth century in many respects
teaching had rapidly gained ground in the was a remarkable and brilliant age. It
churches of the west, and in the case of was illustrated the of
by lives many
England was expressly adopted by arch eminent men kings, ecclesiastics, scholars,
bishop Lanfranc in the time of the Con statesmen. From a churchman s point of
queror. But no formal synodical author view, the great event was the rise of a new
isation of the novel doctrine had appeared, power in the church, which not only
until Innocent III. drew up the canon to
largely influenced the age which witnessed
which we are now referring in the Fourth its rise and extraordinarily rapid develop
Lateran Council, A.D. 1215. The words of ment, but which deeply coloured all church
the canon are as follows "

There one
is life in
succeeding centuries. This coming
:

universal church of the faithful, out of of the "

Mendicant however, claims

orders,"
which no one at all is
saved, in which a separate chapter, in which its work will
Jesus Christ Himself is at once priest and be presented with some detail.
12161240.] PAPAL ENCROACHMENT. 247

King John died in the year 1216. The notable occasions pressed these monstrous

half-century which followed the sudden claims. For instance: in the year 1226 a
death of the king has been well
evil special legate, Otho, demanded that in
described as a long time of struggle agai nst every cathedral and collegiate church one
foreign dominion and foreign influence in prebend should be assigned for Papal uses,
various shapes. During the young king s an equal revenue from the episcopal estates,
long minority, Rome stoutly asserted its and a proportionate sum from each of the
right to interfere a right based upon the monasteries and this extravagant demand
;

infamous submission of John. Indeed, was only evaded on the plea that England
Rome s legates, Gualo and Pandulf, en was freed from such an exaction by her
deavoured to treat England as a vassal tribute, paid annually under the terms of
land ;
as regards the church, its inde John s submission. Before this strange
pendence was repeatedly asserted by the demand Honorius III. had dared, in the
great primate Langton, who ever stood year 1223, to declare the youth, Henry
forth as the champion of her absolute III., although not yet of age, competent to
freedom from foreign interference. govern, and had issued letters to the
In the same year which witnessed the barons of England, charging them to obey.
death of John, the great Pope Innocent In A.D. 1229 Pope Gregory IX. demanded
III. died, in the full vigour of his manhood. a tenth of all property. The clergy of the
He of all the Popes had advanced the land, under threat of an interdict, gave a
most startling pretensions, and England reluctant assent, and the preposterous tax
was especially the scene of these exorbitant was rigidly collected. On the sudden
claims. Yet it is strange that this, in death of th e undistinguished primate Richard
some respects, the greatest of the bishops le Grand, who for two years had filled the
of Rome, certainly the one who raised the seat of Langton, the Pope appointed to
throne of the pontiffs to its highest pinnacle the archbishopric of Canterbury Edmund
of power, never obtained the honour of Rich, chancellor of Salisbury, by an
canonisation. There were even popular assumption of power as arbitrary as that
rumours that the soul of Innocent, by which Innocent III. had insisted on
escaping from the fires of purgatory, the election of Langton. This was in the

appeared on earth, scourged by pursuing year 1234. In 1240 a Papal brief arrived
devils,taking refuge at the foot of the in England, addressed to the archbishop
Cross, and imploring the prayers of the of Canterbury and the bishops of Lincoln
faithful. and Salisbury, in which they were required
His immediate successors at Rome to provide for three hundred Roman clergy
Honorius III. (1216-1227) and Gregory out of the first vacant benefices !

IX. (1227-1241) although wanting in the These were notorious instances of special
great talents of Innocent, in no whit abated Roman claims and exactions. But during
theirpretensions to sovereign rule over allthese years of Henry III. s reign the
the Church of England and, after the ;
Church of England was perpetually harassed
death of archbishop Langton, on several by Rome in various ways. A legate from
248 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [12161240.

the court of the Pope was constantly for money filled up the measure of the sins

present, ever pressing fresh and startling of Rome the

English church.
against
assumptions of power, resting on the new
"

The firstthe great Charter

article of
relation created by John s submission, as declared that the Church of England should
well as on the older spiritual claims of the be free. And to the minds of the men of

"apostolic
see." These
assumptions of the thirteenth century the freedom of the
an irresponsible power included not only Church of England, if it meant freedom
constant claims to subsidies of money, but fromillegal acts on the part of the king at
also asserted the right of Rome to the home, meant no freedom from theless

patronage of churches, to the detriment of endless meddlings and extortions of the

clerical and lay patrons. A steady flow of enemy beyond the sea. When the men
appeals to Rome, too, constantly irritated of the century prayed for de
sixteenth
and disturbed all church government, pro liverance from the tyranny of the bishop

ducing a feeling of universal unrest, and of Rome

and all his detestable enormities,
perpetually suggesting insubordination and they did but echo the voice of England in
disorder. A spirit of bitter opposition was the thirteenth century and earlier still."*
excited, and we find such noble prelates The spirit of indignant resistance which
as Grosseteste of Lincoln, in public and such true saintly
in appears in the actions of
private, in his writings and by his acts, men as archbishops Langton and Edmund
continually resisting this oppressive and Rich, and Grosseteste of Lincoln, and
disastrous Papal tyranny.
eventually in successive acts of Parliament
Indeed, one of the notable features of directed against these iniquitous usurpa
this thirteenth
century was this strange tions, went on gathering strength until
and sad feature of Roman tyranny over the storm burst in the sixteenth
great
the Church of England. It was no mere
century. As far as England is concerned,
indefinite claim of
over-lordship, of some the ill-advised and wanton pressure of
ill-defined rightof a universal
supremacy Roman claims from and after the times of
in great and momentous matters, such as Innocent III. must be considered as one of
Hildebrand dreamed of, and the more considerable of the causes which
largely suc
ceeded in establishing but Innocent III
; led to the reaction of the Reformation.
and his successors in the thirteenth
century Looking back from the vantage-ground
asserted and exercised a so-called of the end of the nineteenth
right to century,
interfere and to decide in all church affairs, the student is
tempted to wonder how
great and small. The meddlesome hand great popes like Innocent III., men of
of Rome,in the persons of its
legates, was commanding genius and stainless life,
feltnot only in important councils and could have ever dreamed of permanently
synods, but in every meeting of the chapter
exercising such an unchecked domination
of the monastic houses.
Appeals against over a church like that of the English
episcopal and abbatial authority to Rome people a church with a great history
were listened to, and even
encouraged ;
reaching over many centuries, a church
and a constant and
ever-increasing demand * Professor
Freeman.
1234-1240.] EDMUND RICH, OF CANTERBURY. 249

loved and honoured by the nation alike who admired his fervent piety and won
in Norman and Angevin days, as in the dered at his
great learning. As arch
more remote Anglo-Saxon period. bishop he ranged himself on the side of
the national party, hating and steadily
During the long reign of Henry III., the
most prominent personages specially mixed
up in public affairs connected especially
with church and state, are the king himself,

archbishops Langton and Edmund Rich,

and Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. The
king himself has been well described as
utterly devoid of all elements of greatness
as even vain and mean and false ;
and
yet he was a prince undoubtedly accom
plished and refined, a patron of art, and
especially a benefactor of foreigners. On
the whole, he showed himself a friend of
ecclesiastics, decidedly pious, and, in an

ordinary sense, virtuous. His great church-

building work, the reconstruction well-
nigh the entire rebuilding of Westminster
Abbey in the form we know so well, has
been already told.* Of the
patriotic Lang-
ton, who, of course, exercised enormous
influence
during his minority (Langton
we have already spoken.
died in 1228),
Edmund Rich, archbishop of Canter
bury from 1234 to 1240, by his guileless,

devout, ascetic character, profoundly im

pressed the men of his generation. Trained
in the new learning promoted by the AN ARCHBISHOP OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
(From a contemporary Psalter in the British Museum.)
Franciscan colony at Oxford, and subse

quently at the University of Paris, he opposing, but with studiedly gentle resist
became a well-known and popular teacher ance, the policy of ever-increasing en
in his time at Oxford, and subsequently croachment on the part of Rome upon
was appointed treasurer of Salisbury. the liberties and rights of the Church
Among the stories of him, it is said that of England.
whole night spent in prayer,
often after a His ascetic practices seem rather to have
he would fall asleep as he was lecturing, increased than diminished after his eleva
amid the respectful silence of his pupils, tion to the primacy ;
for instance, he
*
See Chapter xxiv would only break his fast once in the
2 u
250 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1235-

twenty-four hours, and on many days Henry III. regarding the burning question
would only allow himself bread and water. of the assumption of supreme authority
From the frequency of his prayers, men claimed by the Pope over the Church of

said his knees became, like those of St. England. St. Edmund of Pontigny and of
a camel. Edmund felt
James, callous as the knees of Canterbury (archbishop Rich)
He declined even the use of a bath and ;
as deeply as did Grosseteste the irreparable

at however worn and tired, he injury worked to the cause of true religion
night,
would not rest on a bed, but on a hard in England by these unhappy and disas
trous claims but Edmund was ever rather
bench, or on the ground and in later life ;
;

would not even lie down, but would snatch the gentle, uncomplaining saint than the
a brief sleep as he sat on his chair. With fiery and militant church leader, who was
shattered health, and wearied out by the necessary in those times to resist the fatal

perpetual struggles with Rome and the spirit of Rome. Such a vigorous church
leader was found in Grosseteste but un
foreign influences in the state favoured by ;

the king, in the year 1240 the archbishop fortunately he was only bishop of Lincoln,
withdrew to the monastery of Pontigny, not primate.*
in France ;
and a little later he sought the Of this great man s early life we know
purer air of the monastery of Soisy, near nothing. He comes before us first pro
Provins ;
but in a short time after his minently as rector of the fast-increasing

departure from England, worn out, he society of Franciscan friars at Oxford, over
breathed his last. When dying, he still whose early work and rapid development
refused the luxury of a bed, and expired in England Grosseteste exercised a very
" "

stretched on the cold ground.* Such a remarkable influence. Several important

life his great scholarship, his terrible ecclesiastical offices were held by him in
austerities, his gentle, sweet nature deeply succession in the Church of England before
moved his contemporaries. Within six his preferment to the important see of
years of his death the Pope, sorely Lincoln such as the archdeaconries of
;

against his will, was compelled by public Wilts, Northampton, and Leicester. He
opinion to admit the good archbishop to became bishop of Lincoln in the year 1235.
the honours of canonisation and devout ;
The see of Lincoln was then the most
pilgrims from England loved for a long extensive the country, and extended
in

period to kneel at the shrine of St. from Lincoln as far south as Oxford and
Edmund of Pontigny and of Canterbury. Bedford. In diocesan affairs he was a
A churchman of a very different type most unwearied and even a severe overseer.
existed in the person of Grosseteste, bishop Among his more notable works may be
of Lincoln, from 1235 to 1253. This enumerated his care to ensure that ade
scholar prelate very nobly represents the quate provision was made for resident

feeling which prevailed among the leading priests in outlying parishes, where the
English ecclesiastics during the reign of *
Compare generally
"

Episcopi quondam Lin-

* See Dean Hook :
"

Lives of the Archbishops," colniensis Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae

"

with Mr.
vol. iii. Edmund Rich Lenard s preface (Rolls Series.)
1251.]
GROSSETESTE S INFLUENCE. 251

church property was already vested in the Grosseteste had a calculation made of the

monasteries and in other comparatively revenues of the foreigners in the English

wealthy bodies. These monasteries he church. It was found that Innocent IV.,

continually visited with great vigour, in the reigning Pope, had done more to

specting everything, and demolishing with increase this immoral course of procedure
a rigid and austere hand any marks of than all his predecessors, and the income
luxury that were contrary to the rule of the foreign clerks appointed by him in
under which these communities were England, whom the Church of Rome had
living. With the nunneries he was equally enriched, was found to amount to the
severe. Over parish priests and their life sum enormous, when we remember the
and work among their flocks, he maintained value of money in those days of seventy
a constant and careful investigation. thousand marks and more.
But Grosseteste s especial work, which In last illness Grosseteste, in the
his

must ever be his title to honour, was his course of a conversation with his physician

unbending spirit of resistance in the matter and his clergy, dwelt in bitter language
of Romanusurpation, which he felt was on the rapacity of the Pope, and on the
sapping the very life of the Church of cruel exactions and oppression to which

England. It was not merely the dangerous the church was subject. No light crimes,

multiplication of appeals to Rome in all indeed, were those of which the dying
manner of cases important and unimportant, prelate accused
the Papacy. He spoke
and that thus all discipline and order in the especially of the abuse of mass being sent
church at home was undermined ;
but the to the dying, and in such moments ex
constant system of exactions on the part tracting a bequest of their property under
of Rome seriously impoverished the English pretence of its being applied for their

clergy of all grades. On one notable occa benefit and for the succour of the Holy
sion the Pope threatened to lay the whole Land. He alluded also to ignorant
kingdom under an interdict, and thus to foreigners being forced by Papal influence
suspend divine service and public re
all into English bishoprics and benefices, and
ligious rites, unless an extortionate and bitterly referred to various instances of

arbitrary demand was promptly satisfied. shameless avarice on the part of Rome.
In spite of Grosseteste s strong remon The enormous influence which this true-
strances, in this case the money was all hearted English churchman exerted in his
paid, and in the words of the English time, cannot be overstated. Persons of all

Chronicler, the "

gapings
"

(hiatus) of ranks naturally resorted to Grosseteste as

Roman avarice satisfied. the one best fitted to advise them. If a
The enormous number of Italian and noble was anxious about his spiritual state,
foreign papal nominees to benefices and it was to the bishop of Lincoln that he

dignities in the Church of England, has naturally went if the king wanted advice
;

been already alluded to. Very many of or assistance, it was to Grosseteste that he
these foreigners were absentees from their turned ;
if in a critical juncture the church
various posts. In the year 1251 bishop needed a strong and wise counsellor, it
252
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [ 251.

special friend of Grosseteste,

chus
was to Lincoln that the primate at once warmly
resorted. Men like Simon de Montfort sums up his sunny, bright influence, his
him to advise in the training of ceaseless industry, his noble self-denying
applied to

Photo : Frith. Reigatr.

THE CHOIR, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL.

their children. Indeed, the great earl was work, his true English feeling: "Grosse
especially intimate with him, and no doubt teste was an open confuter (redargutor) of
much of his policy in after-days was de the Pope and the king, the reprover of
rived from conversations he had held with
prelates, the corrector of monks, the sup
the patriot churchman, long his intimate
port of scholars, the preacher to the people,
and trusted friend. Matthew Paris, the the persecutor of the immoral, the un-
J25I ]
SIMON DE MONTFORT. 253

wearied student of the Scriptures, the other persons of great influence, the honour
harasser and despiser of Rome. At the of canonisation was never conferred upon

spiritual table he was devout, tearful, con him by Rome. We can, however, scarcely
trite. In his episcopal office he was in be surprised that Grosseteste has never been
dustrious, admirable, unwearied." enrolled among the company of Roman
He has left behind him, besides numerous saints.

works some on Aristotle, some bearing The last years of Henry III. s long reign
-on theology a considerable body of letters, are memorable the great revolt of
for

which give us a clear insight into his mind the barons and the people against the
and show us something of his lofty con oppression of the king and the Pope,
ceptions. But in literature his wonderful known in history as the rebellion of earl

knowledge of Holy Scripture, perhaps Simon de Montfort. The details of this

greater than that possessed by any other famous rising, which, although it ended in

scholar of his day, especially won for him apparent disaster, yet worked momentous
the respect and admiration of the church. changes in the constitution of England, do
Of his private life we possess many interest not belong to our own story of the church.
ing and curious details. He loved as a Itmust, however, be noted that the work
teacher to encourage diligent students, im and character of the popular hero, Simon
pressing on them the need of the study of de Montfort, were very largely influenced
Holy Scriptures, that they might not be by the close intimacy, stretching over
like some monks who walked in the dark years,, between the earl and Grosseteste,
ness of ignorance. Some of his kindly, and Grosseteste s successor at Oxford and

playful sayings are preserved, such as his dearest friend the learned Adam de Ma-
words to a preaching friar Three things :
"

risco. To his attitude as leader of the

were necessary for temporal health food, people s party, who in church and
sleep,and good humour "

(cibus, somnus, state resisted the Romish and foreign

focus}. His horror at anything of the aggression, earl Simon de Montfort owed
nature of bribes or simony was excessive. his strength in later years, when he suc

Although after his death the distinction cessfully resisted the power and tyranny
was earnestly sought by his king and by of the crown.

ARMS OF SIMON D2 MONTFORT.

{From a Sculpture in the North Aisle Arcadt, Westminster Abbey.)
 CHAPTER XXXII.

THE COMING OF THE FRIARS.

Development of City Life Consequent Misery

and Disease Francis of Assisi His Brotherhood of
Mendicants Wonderful Growth of the Franciscan Order Their Appearance in England Their
in the Order Its Influence at Oxford Its View of
Principle of Poverty Growth of Learning
Asceticism Special Devotion to the Virgin Mary St. Francis Himself The Stigmata His Death
and Canonisation Dominic His Order of Preachers The Preaching Friars also Profess Poverty
Growth of the Order The Tertiaries or Lay Communities Death of Dominic Influence of the
Dominicans Their Connection with the Inquisition List and Statistics of Mendicant Orders
in England.

period in the story of the devastating invasions and settlements of

THEwhich English Church

we have
and
now
state,

roughly
of the North-folk, had been favourable to
the growth of commerce. Numerous
sketched in the outlines the last years and important cities had grown up, had
of the twelfth, and the first half of been rebuilt, or had been marvellously
the thirteenth century, when Cceur-de- increased. On the Continent we may
Lion, John, and his son, Henry III., were instance such great centres as Venice,
kings in England was an important epoch Paris, Cologne, Lyons, Bruges, and many
in the history of Europe and no country,;
others ;
in England :
London, Bristol,

perhaps, was so much affected by what Oxford, Norwich, Cambridge.

was taking place as our own. Great and This last great change is
especially
momentous changes, the magnitude of noticeable, for it
brought in its wake the
which was unguessed by the living actors, new and potent element in church life

were passing over the western peoples. we are now to speak of. The change in
A new and hitherto undreamed-of power question was the growth of city life.
had arisen, which dominated and tyrannised Hitherto the great monasteries, the abbeys,
over the church, strengthened and re- and cathedral establishments, had fairly
invigorated by the great reforms of the sufficed for the spiritual welfare, for the
eleventh century the Papacy, as we now
:
teaching and influencing, of the little
know it. Those strange Eastern wars called populations dwelling in the comparatively
the Crusades, conducted on a scale hitherto few and small cities, or scattered in farms
unknown in the western world, under the and small hamlets over the country, in
influence of the bishops of Rome, had in these older and simpler conditions of
troduced into the western nations Oriental as we have in the
society. But, said,
habits, tastes and sciences, Oriental modes latter part of the twelfth and first half of
of thought. Along with them, alas were ! the thirteenth century a new description
also introduced the moral and physical of new
life at least early mediaeval
in
diseases of the East. The comparative times gradually appeared in the west.
quiet which succeeded the long and City life, and the rapid growth of popu-
I2I5-]
MISERIES OF CITY LIFE. 255

lation in numberless great centres, called increasing in numbers, of whom little was
for a new influence, new teachers, new known, and about whom little inquiry was
preachers, new heralds of the religion of made. If they behaved with decent quiet,
Jesus. they might live or die, no one very much
Things were, indeed, very evil in the heeding. This class of a town population
town life of the early Middle Ages. A in the first half of the thirteenth century

city then was made up of two classes the : was a dense slough of stagnant misery,
class of comparatively wealthy traders, squalor, and famine, such as the worst
growing daily richer and more powerful, slums even of our modern cities are

protected by guilds, free, living in some happily ignorant of. And into the midst

luxury, possessing teachers of religion, of this seething mass of suffering, sad-eyed

whom they often paid and maintained men and women, often came a terrible
themselves, owning schools and even visitant in the form of a deadly disease,
churches and side by side with these
; such as the plague, or even worse leprosy.
lived another and far more numerous class, The latter, imported from the East, is one
for whom no one cared, answering in some of the most terrible scourges which have
respects to what we now term the
"

from time to time afflicted men.*

masses" ; increasing daily in numbers, but, For numerous class no one cared
this ;

alas ! not in health and wealth :

verily their souls and bodies were equally
hewers of wood and drawers of water. neglected by Christian men and women,
These were ever augmented by fresh re clerical and The
great monasteries
lay.
from the country, from the numerous
cruits had already provided for the country
armies of Crusaders and other royal and generally the cathedrals and minster
;

noble adventurers, which were hastily churches for their immediate neighbours
gathered together, and often as hastily dwelling round them. The wealthier

disbanded, from all sorts and conditions citizens, too, had their churches. But
of men, who had failed in the various ways there was no spiritual provision for
of life. These mostly drifted into the new this large and
ever-growing class they ;

and rapidly growing towns, and swelled belonged to no one. When the need was
the populations growing up in and about at its sorest, God raised up a saint, who
the centres of commerce and industry and brought deliverance
message and a of

learning. The municipal buildings of a comfort to these unhappy ones.

city, erected at an early date in these
Middle Ages, and the ward immediately Far away from England, where soon his
surrounding them, formed a striking con name was to become especially known and
trast to the outer circle of a mediaeval honoured, a young Italian merchant of
town, which consisted of dwellings, little Assisi, an Umbrian city, recovering from a
more than wooden sheds, rudely plastered grave illness, determined to consecrate his
or whitewashed, huddled together, often life, hardly won from death, to the service
close to river-bank or the side of the town *
Cf. "The Coming of the Friars," by Dr.
ditch. Here dwelt a motley race, ever Jessop.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1215-

of the saddest of his neighbours, especially work his work under the approval of

to the lepers. These, all through that Rome.

wonderful long life of Francis of Assisi, Mensoon began to talk of this new
ever claimed the first-fruits of his love ;
but preacher of righteousness. His own city
his early mission work among these sorely- now welcomed him as a saint. Disciples
tried sufferers, opened his eyes to the awful gathered round him rapidly. Francis and

neglect in which most of the poorer his friends, as beggars, preached to beggars.
dwellers of the cities of the western world In the low and miserable dwellings of the
were then living. Francis of Assisi and great cities to the suffering, the outcast,
;

the strange army of devoted ones who the leper, for whom none cared and whom
were fired by his
burning enthusiasm, most shunned, Francis preached the story
became the especial apostles of the help of the Cross in language such outcasts
less, wretched, neglected masses of the could understand. He would tell that
towns. dreadful, hopeless crowd that he was come
Was Francis of Assisi a madman a to live among them, to wash the lepers

dreamy enthusiast ? The question has repulsive sores, to watch by the side of the
often been asked, and variously answered. sick and dying, with no hope of recom
One thing is certain : no one in the long pense or reward, only just because Christ
Christian story has exercised a greater, few loved them. He and his disciples would
so great an influence on the fortunes of imitate the homeless Man of Sorrows whose
the Catholic church. After his conversion wonderful story he was telling. With
he went out from his home and native city extraordinary rapidity the strange brother
friendless, homeless, penniless, with a hood grew in numbers, and city after city

burning, passionate desire to help the witnessed their advent, their work always
most destitute and helpless and suffering lying in those poor, wretched quarters
of his brother men. Absolutely confident where the miserable masses dwelt.*
in the ultimate success of his work, he It was a new spirit which Francis intro
threw himself at the feet of the mighty duced into the church. Hitherto the
Pontiff, Innocent III. The story tells us Benedictines and the many ramifications
how he suddenly presented himself before and offshoots of the Benedictine order,
Pope Innocent as he was walking in the such as the Cluniac, the Cistercian, the
stately gardens of the Lateran, bareheaded, Carthusian, had exercised everywhere al
with bare feet, half clad,
unkempt, and most supreme control in religious matters ;

dishevelled a beggar who would take no and on the whole their influence had been
denial. The great bishop of Rome must wonderfully blessed in its work. But the
bless him and his work he would take : Benedictine and the kindred orders gener
no refusal. Innocent hesitated, and for a
ally by birth, always by education and
while thought over the strange apparition ; sympathy, belonged to the upper classes.
but after a few hours, won by the One of the articles of the famous Constitu-
strange
charm and the intense earnestness of the
*
Cf. Sir James Stephen s Essays in Ecclesiastical
suppliant, he blessed him, and bade him Biography :
"

Francis of Assisi."
 I2IS-] FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 257

tions of Clarendon, in the time of king half-crazed Francis of Assisi founded, and
Henry II. (the Plantagenet), bears a curious which soon covered England and the
u
undesigned testimony to this fact. The Continent with its network of colonies of

INNOCENT III. AND FRANCIS OF ASSISI.

preachers and teachers, belonged to and

"

king so runs the Clarendon article

"

forbids the monks of England to receive worked amongst the lowest and most
into their save under specially
societies, despised class. It was the new state of

stringent conditions, anyone as monk or things which came into being at this
canon who belonged to the lower orders." period the marvellous and sudden growth
But the new order which the seemingly of city life which evoked the new spirit
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
that inspired Francis and his associates to the ancient seat of Roman Christianity in
undertake, their noble work. Britain, the scene of so many memorable
As early as 1216, when John was yet events in the chronicle of the English

reigning, the new brotherhood held the church. But Canterbury, in all its long
first general chapter ;
and so great had and eventful history, had never welcomed
their numbers already become, that it was guests who were destined to play so great
found necessary to arrange for a special a part in the religious life of our island, as

organisation in
France, Germany, and were those ragged disciples of the Italian

Spain. Four years later scarcely ten Francis. The poor company split into two
years after Francis had knelt at the feet of divisions, one remaining in the ancient
Innocent III., and extorted from the great church city, the other seeking a home in

prelate a reluctant blessingthe disciples the not distant London.

of Francis met for their second general The Canterbury friars were kindly but
chapter, held in the fields round his native somewhat contemptuously housed by the
city of Assisi, in 1219. They numbered monks of the priory of the Holy Trinity,
at great meeting no less than five
this the home allotted to them being a school
thousand. Homeless beggars they were ; room, which they had to vacate by day
but Ugolino, who had been
cardinal while the boys of the school were being
nominated by the reigning Pope, Honorius taught. The pleasant, gossipy memoir on
III., as their protector, when he gazed at "

The Coming of the Friars Minor," written

the great assembly of these poor ragged
by a simple-minded and pious Franciscan
preachers to the poor, and heard the story who had shared in the early struggles and
of their wondrous successes in
many lands, trials of the order in England, gives us a
and marked their fiery zeal, their serene unvarnished account of these devoted
plain,
confidence in their work, their devoted men in their when they were
poverty,
simple piety, tossing aside the insignia of beginning their noble work, before the
his lofty rank, exclaimed Behold the :
"

Franciscans had risen to power, before their

camp of God !
"

Men were beginning to order had become illustrious through the

see that Francis and his followers were work of the eminent theologians and dis
indeed taking the world by storm.
tinguished scholars who, curiously enough,
Five years after the general at no distant date sprang from their ragged
assembly at
Assisi, or in the year 1224; they came to and illiterate company. Eccleston, in his
England. How could these foreigners, small but picturesque memoir,* makes his
however, hope to work here ? The tongue poor again and we seem to see
friars live ;

of the English poor was

strange to them. them, after their hard day s work among
But they came just a tiny :
%

the dregs of the people, sitting round their

band, only
numbering nine, of whom but three were fire in their bare and squalid
refectory,
English. They arrived amongst us in
the humblest guise, * Monumenta Franciscana
quite friendless, ab Cf.
"

Thomas de "

This
Eccleston : De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in
"

solutely penniless. little

party of Angliam." Edited by Mr. Brewer in the Rolls
friars made their first halt at
Canterbury, Series.
I224-]
THE FRANCISCANS COME TO ENGLAND. 259

warming their thick sour beer, and trying often the prints of their bleeding feet upon
to make it more palatable with water, and the ground, clad in gowns of the coarsest

munching their coarse barley bread, as they cloth, often ragged and torn.
told to one another their stories of the Verily this was the Gospel preached to
weary day s sorrows or successes. the poor by the poor The sick, the fever-
!

They always chose for their homes those stricken, those afflicted by that most loath

low, swampy, and badly-drained quarters some of diseases leprosy, were especially
in cities, where the poorest and most the objects of the Franciscan s patient
neglected of the people congregated. In quest. The memorable scene of the be

London, for instance, they built themselves loved master, Francis, eating by choice out
little night cells or huts, first in Cornhill. of the same dish with a leper so covered

Nothing but sheep-cotes were these cells with ulcers that as the sufferer dipped his
mere wattles, with mouldy hay or straw fingers in the dish and carried the morsels
between them. Near Newgate, on a spot to his mouth, his blood dripped into the
well called "

Stinking subsequently
Lane," dish, was acted again and again in the
rose the chief house of the order in lives of his disciples, who thus literally

England. Similar untempting settlements stormed the hearts of these forlorn and
quickly followed in such centres as Oxford, unhappy outcasts of society, for whom
Cambridge, and Norwich, but in all cases living or dying no man else seemed to
the poverty of the buildings corresponded care.

with the dreary misery of the surround At first despised, if not ridiculed, the
ing district. Decorations and ornaments patient heroism of the Franciscans gradu
of all kinds were zealously excluded even ally made its way among the homes of
from their chapels and churches. men, and of men often very different
With the Franciscans of the early days, from those amongst whom they worked
in the first half of the thirteenth century, and preached and toiled. In no country
this deliberate choice of the most rigid were the labours of these mendicant friars

form of poverty was a religion. At Glou more than in England.

successful The
cester a friar was deprived of his hood for little band of nine poor brothers rapidly
painting his pulpit ;
and the warden of the increased. Some jealousy was naturally
Gloucester house suffered a similar punish excited
among the monastic orders and
ment for tolerating pictures in the com among the regular priests of the church,

munity over which he presided. They especially owing to the attention they
were permitted to receive nothing in the excited by their preaching, to which
way of gifts beyond the barest necessities they gave especial care. They multiplied
of life meal, salt, figs and apples, wood for with extraordinary rapidity. Within thirty
firing, stale beer, or milk. In all weathers years after their arrival at Canterbury,
the disciples of the enthusiast of Assisi the English Franciscans numbered 1,242*

might be seen in the muddy streets and they possessed as many as forty-nine
unpaved ways of the poor quarter of the houses or convents, in cities widely sepa

city, barefooted and bareheaded, and leaving rated like London, Oxford, Cambridge,,
260 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1224.

their beloved founder seems to have hated

York, Hereford, Lynn, Norwich, Bridge-
water, and Bristol. They passed into books, and proscribed learning of all kinds
Ireland and everywhere
Scotland, and among his early disciples. He would have
were received with favour and not un- his followers like the poor, whose apostle
frequently with enthusiasm an instance, he loved to consider himself, not in dress
it has been well said, of religious organi only, but in heart and understanding.
sation and propagandism unexampled in Total poverty would ensure this it would ;

the annals of the world. forbid the possession of books or any of

the necessary materials of study.
"

Father," on one occasion said a

novice to Francis, "

it would be
a great comfort to me to have
a psalter ;
the minister-general
permits it ; still, I should not like
to use it without your leave."

The father evaded the request ;

a
few days after, the novice asked
him again. Then Francis with
some heat replied :
"

When you
have got a psalter, you will want
a breviary. I am your breviary.
tant fctmffctt cornta fc . . . How much happier he who
has made himself barren for the
nejjole
love of God !
"

Again after some

days, perhaps wearied with the
<fiDOtft
fcetofcpb cnuotc tftrc novice s importunities, he bade
fed amifc tftUfc
pattns tCes him use the psalter as the minister-
A MENDICANT FRIAR PREACHING FROM A PORTABLE PULPIT. general had given him leave. Then
(F,-om The Romance of St.
"

nth Century. British Museum.) him

G>aal,"
calling back, kneeling before
hisyoung disciple, he exclaimed :

Nothing more remarkable, however,

is Mea culpa, mca culpa I whoever will be
in the story of the work and influence of a friar minor must possess nothing besides
the Franciscan order, than the marvellous *
his habit, or shoes if
necessary."
and rapid change which passed over the And yet, in spite of this early repug
the matter of learning.
friars in nance to books, even of the simplest, most
Absolutely
forbidden at first to use books, and even ink
every-day character, very soon the English
and parchment, in a few years we find the Franciscans became the most learned body
Franciscans famous among the learned in Europe, and preserved their reputation
men of the English Franciscans
Europe ; for letters until the
day came when Henry
especially distinguished among these friar
teachers and thinkers. *
Curiously enough, Cf.
"

Monumenta Franciscana.
"
I224-]
THE FRANCISCANS IN ENGLAND. 261

VIII. swept them out of the land. In the destitution of the crowded and neglected
course of the very reign which witnessed populations of the fast-growing cities of
their coming to England, we find Robert the thirteenth century. He saw, and his

Kilwarby, a Franciscan friar, on the arch soul grieved over, the ever-recurring deadly

bishop s throne at Canterbury. We

note sicknesses, the plague in its varied and

Bonaventura, the general of the order, terrible forms, feverand ague, and the
refusing the archbishopric of York, and awful scourge of leprosy. These he marked

Jerome of Ascoli, general after Bonaven were ever making fearful havoc amidst the
tura, elected Pope under the name of uncared-for, unloved masses who dwelt in

Nicholas IV. In thenow famous and most the poor quarters of every important city^
learned order we come upon such names To these death came as a friend, while life
as Alexander Hales and Roger Bacon and under such dreary conditions was scarcely
Duns Scotus, who will ever rank among a boon. Alone in his generation, the eyes
the most erudite and distinguished scholars of the Italian enthusiast were opened to
of the Middle Ages. All of them were seeand to pity with an immense pity the
Franciscan friars !
misery and agony of so many men and
The truth was, the work which the women and helpless children. Looking
Franciscan had set himself to do compelled over the misery which existed in his day,
him, at first perhaps against his will, to Francis resolved to care for the health of
become a student. For something more the body equally as for the care of the
had moved Francis of Assisi at the outset soul. Hence, probably, the enormous
of his career, than the mere spiritual influence of the friar, hence no doubt the-
262 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1224.

marvellous rapidity with which his famous of the body, the Franciscan soon found a

order sprang into fame and power. knowledge of medicine was absolutely
Strict and stern were the injunctions necessary, and he set himself in good

which Father Francis gave his pupils and earnest to acquire this knowledge to be ;

followers to qualify themselves for an in really successful as a physician of the soul,

attendance he an early stage discovered that
also at
telligent as well as for a loving
on the plague-stricken, the fever-smitten, something more than a fervid enthusiasm
and the leper and well did his first dis
;
was wanted. So the friar became a student,
ciples in all countries follow out their and the early injunctions of the founder
beloved master s charge as to the care of were gradually forgotten or ignored.
the sick. They studied the course of the To
give a notable instance of this quick
many sicknesses, they watched and listened. recognition of a need, we read in the story
Their whole life, devoted as it was to the above quoted of the Franciscan Eccleston,
relief ofmisery and poverty, constituted a how Agnellus, the first provincial of the
perpetual object-lesson. They were ever order in England, persuaded master Robert
learning, ever becoming more skilful be ;
Grosseteste of holy memory (afterwards the
fore the close of the century, which they world -famed bishop of Lincoln, of whom
so splendidly illustrated by their loving some account has been given, but then a
labours, the practice of medicine was well-known teacher in the schools of

literally engrossed by the friar. Was his Oxford) to read lectures to the brethren or
popularity to be wondered at ? Never in* who were located in the poor quarters
friars

the annals of Christendom was the people s of the fast-growing city of Oxford. Under
love more quickly won, morefairly earned. Grosseteste the Oxford friars made unac
For they were not only physicians of the countable progress in sermons, and in

body they were patient and unwearied

; subtle moralities suitable for preaching.
teachers, fervid and impassioned preachers. The reputation of the English friars for
At first they were
perfectly simple, possess learning, indeed, increased so rapidly, and
ing little theological knowledge besides an their proficiency in study became so
intimate knowledge of every
phase and notorious in other lands, that the minister-
word of the Gospel narrative but
very ; general of the Franciscans positively sent
early in their marvellous career their noble for two of the English friar-community to
work among the dregs of the population read lectures in distant Lyons. Readers
brought them often into contact with the (teachers), says Eccleston who, be it re
wealthier members of the was an of the
city community, membered, eye-witness
with men more or less trained to events he so and
think, picturesquely simply
with men in whose hearts the more subtle describes were appointed by the heads of
heresies, so current in the Middle the order at Hereford, Leicester, Bristol,
early
Ages, had found a lodgment. The popular Cambridge, and Oxford, and the gift "

friar found that he had to meet in his

of wisdom," to use his own words,
"

so
sermon these doubters, and overflowed in the province of England,"
inquirers,
sceptics. To be successful as a physician that soon there were as many as thirty
I224-] THE FRANCISCANS IN ENGLAND. 263

Franciscan England, and a

lecturers in Scarborough, he says with some irony,
all that the king can expect to get is the
regular succession of these was provided
"

in the university. By the middle of the lead off the roof and some poor chalices."
thirteenth century, strange to say, the pre The only exceptions were two or three of
dominance of the Franciscans over Oxford the greatest foundations at London and
was notorious ;
at
perhaps, Cambridge, York, where some magnificence in the
their influence apparent, not was less buildings and appointments had been
because they were less numerous or less introduced through the munificence of

busy than at the sister university, but on benefactors.*

account of there being no one of com We

possess a remarkable testimony to
manding genius and power at Cambridge the work and influence of the mendicant
like Robert Grosseteste, who guided the the disciples of Francis, on England
friars,

counsels of the Oxford Franciscans. and her church during the early years of
"

For three hundred years, side by side their settlement among us, in the Letters
with their brother mendicants of the order already referred to of Grosseteste, bishop
of St. Dominic, the friars were the evan- of Lincoln. This eminent and saintly

gelisers of the towns. When the spoliation man was an actual eye-witness of their
of the religious, houses was decided upon doings in the first age of their fervour and
by king Henry VIII., the friars were the zeal. Grosseteste himself was no ordinary
first upon whom the blow fell. But when man ; during his lifetime he was the most
their property came
be looked into, to honoured and revered among English
there was nothing to rob but the churches churchmen, and for centuries after his
in which they worshipped, the libraries in death his fame lived as a great scholar and
which they studied, and the houses in church administrator. On English thought
which they passed their lives." Richard and literature no one can be cited, in the

Ingworth, suffragan of Dover, who was reign of Henry III., who has exercised a
much employed in the king s work of greater influence than the famous bishop
suppressing the religious houses in the of Lincoln. His genius was universal. His
sixteenth century, bears repeated testimony own age acknowledged powers his great

to the deep poverty of the mendicant and profound scholarship and learning, and
friars some three centuries after their great his age, be it remembered, was fertile in
founder s death. Writing to lord Crom eminent men ;
it boasted such names as

well,he speaks thus of his experience in Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus
the north of England u He had received
: and Roger Bacon. Grosseteste was, more
a scholar and
for the king twenty-six houses of friars over, something more than
the very poorest houses that ever he went thinker. He was the friend and adviser,
we have of the
to." The same story is told by the royal as already described him,
commissioner of the friars establishments great and powerful as of the poorest and
in other parts of as at Dunstable, humblest. His estimate of the friars
England,
Ware, and Walsingham. Writing of * Dr. Gasquet: "Henry VIII. and the Eng
Cf.
* Dr. "

The Coming of the Friars." lish Monasteries," chap. vii.

Jessop :
264 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1215.

may be gathered from the following extract corruptions crept in, discipline was often
from one of his letters written to Pope weakened, enthusiasm waned, the old
Your Holiness may be burning love grew cold. It was the old
Gregory IX.
"

assured that in England inestimable benefits story, told and retold so often of all human
have been produced by the friars, for they work. But the severest critic must grant,
illuminate the whole country with the as he turns over the pages of the Franciscan
light of their preaching and their learning. story in England, that the effect of the
Their holy conversation excites vehemently self-denying labours of the disciples of
to contempt of the world and to voluntary Francis of Assisi on England and her

poverty, to the practice of humility in the church has been really great, and on the
highest ranks, to obedience to prelates and whole very beneficial. Their lives touched
heads of the church, to patience in tribula with love and pity the lives of thousands,
tion, to abstinence in plenty in a word, who but for them would have died without
to the practice of all virtues. If your Holi knowledge of the Redeemer, or experience
ness could see with what devotion and of the sympathy of their brother-men.

humility the people run to hear the word There were verily thousands and tens of
of life from them, for confession and in thousands for whom no man cared save
struction in daily life, and how much im the Franciscan the mendicant friar. And
provement the clergy and the regulars when the crash of the Reformation came
have obtained by imitating them, you in the sixteenth century, the heartless
would indeed say that they that dwell in policy of a general confiscation of the
the land of the shadow of death, upon churches, the lands, and houses of the
them hath the light shined.
"

Grosseteste English religious, disclosed the deep

writes hi similar terms or the friars to poverty of the famous order. It was then
Cardinal Raynald, afterwards Pope Alex seen how, during three hundred years
ander IV.* of varying popularity in the wealthiest
This may be taken as a
country of the western world, these men
fair estimate, by
a great contemporary, of the work done in had "

forgotten
"

to enrich themselves.
England by the mendicant friars, especially Thus far, at least, they had been true to
of the order of St. Francis,
during the the old poverty "-enjoining precepts of
"

first
century which
half followed their the loving enthusiast,- whose memory they
establishment among us. cherished as their father and founder.
The asceticism of the Franciscans was
The ideal friar, as dreamed of by Francis of a peculiar kind. While other religious
of Assisi, was an unspeakably noble con orders multiplied the rules of abstinence,
ception ;
but not a few of his fervid and seemed to consider that peculiar
disciples, in the earlier
especially years sanctity could only be obtained at the
which followed his death, fairly reached it.
price of bitter mortification, the Franciscan
As time went on the ideal became lowered retained only the ordinary vigils and fasts
;

*
Cf.
"

Epistolae Robert! Grossetesti," published

of the church. On other days the
in the Rolls Series friar might eat flesh, and partake of any
I2IS ]
FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 26.5

food or drink indifferently. His fasting, sleep, and drink, so that the body should
certainly in the earlier days, mainly con- have no occasion of complaining that it
sisted in his frequent difficulty to procure could not, through weakness or weariness,,

ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS.

(From the picture by H. Stacy Marks, R.A., by permission of Angus Holden, Esq., M.P.)

any food or drink save of the coarsest and stand erect or pay attention 19 prayer,
most repulsive kind. St. Francis taught He was a constant advocate for cheerful-
that the body was created for the soul ; ness, saying that it was the sign of a clean
and that the servant of God ought to eat, heart, and a great defence against the
266 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1215

devil. "Why,"
said he once to one of people of England, where the Franciscan
his disciples, do you wear that sad and
"

exercised a peculiar and surpassing in

fluence.
gloomy countenance because of your
offences ? It is enough that your sorrow
should be known between you and your Men ask, what was this St. Francis who
God." devised this mighty network of influences ;

The strange and regrettable innovation who inspired his fellows with such a

and development of the cult of the blessed passion of self-devotion who built up ;

Virgin that special and saddest character that great order which has done such

istic feature of mediaeval Christianity, which noble work in past ages in our own
we have already dwelt upon received a England an order which has survived
still further impetus, owing to the enormous denunciations, scoffs, taunts, scorn, even
influence exercised over the masses of the the follies of its own degenerate sons, and

people by the friars after the first quarter of which, after six hundred years, still lives
the thirteenth century. The Virgin Mary and is a powerful influence in our own day
occupied a peculiar and lofty position in and time ? It is difficult, of course, in the
Franciscan theology. The friars were case of one so venerated, even worshipped,
essentially popular teachers. Bound (as as St. Francis, to disentangle the true from
were all the religious) to celibacy, they yet the false in the many histories and
felt it their solemn and inescapable duty to memoirs of his life and work which have
exalt the pure family life of the world in come down the stream of ages to our
which they moved, and which they hoped times. Round such beloved and venerated
to purify and raise. So they warmly en men, of course, legend and romance has
couraged and promoted marriage among thickly gathered still, some of the real
;

the people, believing, and rightly, that the features of that strange character are
hallowed tie was a true safeguard of purity. preserved.
So in his preaching the friar insisted on St. Bonaventura, a general of the Fran
the humanity of the Son of God, dwelling ciscan order, whose deep piety and un
on His poverty and sufferings as man ;
rivalled learning compel attention to any
while at the same time he exalted the statement issuing from his pen, possessed
position of woman by glorifying the Virgin rare facilities for estimating his character.

Mary. He dwelt ever on her spotless Bonaventura, who must have often con
on her maternal men who knew
purity, authority and versed with Francis of
dignity. The Franciscan teaching loved Assisi intimately, thus writes of the great
ever to give greater prominence to the founder of the order :
"

Who can form a

childhood than to the manhood of Christ
; conception of the fervour and the love of
to lay greater stress on the You would
parent, and, Francis, the friend of Christ ?
alas too often to exalt the mother at the
!
have said he was burnt up by divine love,
expense of the Son. This teaching, pressed like charcoal in the flames. As often as
home by the teachers they loved and his thoughts were directed to the Divine
honoured, sank deep into the hearts of the love, he was excited as if the chords of his
I2I5-]
FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 267

soul had been touched by the plectrum of to have exercised such an overwhelming,

an inward voice." irresistible attraction upon his fellows as

Birds and insects to Francis were did Francis. He was a poet and an orator,

friends. He would caress and talk to and, in addition to these rare gifts, pos
them, and they would come to him all sessed thepower of a great organiser. He
fearless, half forgiving him that he was a was ever haunted with the fear that his
man and not one of themselves. Wild followers, whom he had inspired with
falcons fluttered round him. Timid ani something of his intense fervour and
mals would seek to attract rather than passion for self-sacrifice, would rapidly
escape his notice. Half-frozen bees crawled degenerate and this dread made his
;

to him in the winter time to be fed. He whole nature intensely sorrowful. His
would talk to them as friend talks with marvellous successes appalled him, and
friends.
"

My dear sisters,"
he was heard often he would weep so long and so
exclaiming to some starlings who fluttered bitterly, that before his end his eyesight
u
and chattered round him, you have almost failed him.
talked long enough it is
my turn now. ;
Much of his life was passed in a kind of
Listen to the word of your Creator, and trance, in which celestial visitants appeared
be quiet."
At another time, speaking as ever to hover round him; now in visible

he was wont to such a feathered audience, form, now he only heard the heavenly
he said My little brothers, you should
:
"

voices. Indeed, that life of his, which has

love and praise the author of your being, exercised so enormous an influence on
who has clothed you with plumage and mankind, was a strange mixture. Though
given you wings to fly where you will. loving solitude, though realising perhaps
You were the first created of all animals. more intensely than any other mortal ever
He has given you the pure air for your did the beauty of the famous monkish

dwelling-place. You sow not, neither do motto,

"

O beata solitudo, O sola beati-

you reap, but all the time He watches tudo!" ("O

blissful solitude, O solitary
over you. So give praise to your loving bliss ! he lived most of his busy exist
"),

Creator." So great, indeed, was his devo ence amid squalid crowds in cities. The
tion to the animal creation, that he would greatest, perhaps, of the mystics,
he was
guard the very worms from injury.* one of the most practical of men, and has
But his intense love and pity for the left behind him the most elaborate codes

sad, the sick,and stricken, was his great and canons government of his
for the

absorbing passion. His strange love for beloved order, drawn up with all the
his temper he
the poor and miserable lepers, arose from precision of a notary. In
his persuasion that these unhappy beings was to-day a playful child, on the next
were the most wretched of all the children a gloomy and sorrowful anchoret. He
of men. These believed in him and in his would pass rapidly from a state of the
power to help them. No man ever seems darkest forebodings into a condition of

* more than human ecstasy. There appears

Cf. Sir James Stephen s Essays :
"

Francis of
Assisi." to have been but little attraction in his
268 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1224,

personal appearance. There "

was no. beauty" in that

winning personality "that

we should desire him."

Francis was of short stature,

his figure gaunt and wasted,
his garments sombre and
ragged, his face deeply fur
rowed with lines of care
and thought, altogether a
cheerless and unalluring
image. Only his voice was
ever sweet .and singularly

persuasive.
One remarkable feature
in that wasted form must be
noticed in thislittle picture

of the great founder of the

Franciscan order. There is
an unwavering tradition
that on that poor unlovely

body were imprinted before

he died the sacred marks of
the Passion of the Saviour
on both hands and on the
feet the dark marks deeply

indented, of the nails by

which our Crucified Lord
was fastened to the Cross ;

and in the side the print of

a -
spear thrust. Eye-wit
nesses not a few in number,
have left their record that

they saw in life, and again

after death, these wonderful
Passion marks. The vision
in the course of which these
sacred symbols were said to
have been imprinted on the
Photo Braun, Paris.
body of Francis appears to
.

ST. FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA.

(From the picture by Giotto in the Louvre.) have differed but slightly
1224] ST. FRANCIS AND THE STIGMATA. 269

from others which this enthusiast seems to the eyes of the solitary watcher appeared a
have been often privileged to enjoy. Some nailed to a
bright winged form, seemingly
two years before his death Francis had with cross. For a brief season Francis was
drawn himself for a brief season into the sensible of a feeling of ecstatic joy, but the

Photo A linari.:

CHURCH OF ST. MARY OF THE ANGELS, NEAR ASSISI, BUILT AROUND THE ORIGINAL CHURCH IN WHICH
ST. FRANCIS WORSHIPPED, WHICH HAS BEEN PRESERVED AND DECORATED AS SHOWN

solitudes of Mount Alvernus, a wild tract joy was mingled with the sharpest suffer
of land on the summit of the Tuscan ing. As the glorious vision faded, he
Apennines, where a little church had been perceived upon his body the Passion
erected. One night, at a short distance marks upon his hands, his feet, his side
;

from the church, he chose to spend alone the prints of the nails and the scar of
in prayer. As the sun was rising, before the spear These marks (stigmatct) were
!
270 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1226.

indelible he bore them the rest of his and to lay him on the ground, and thence,
life. His friends tell us that they gazed stretching out his hand, he blessed his
on them with adoring reverence, as they loved town of Assisi lying before him. A
laid their master in his coffin.* few more days of pain and suffering passed
No speciallegend attempts to glorify the before the quiet, peaceful end came. In
last scenes of that life which has had so these closing hours he dictated his last

large an influence on succeeding genera wishes to his order, enjoining the brethren
tions. The two years during which Francis to receive neither churches nor lands, nor
survived the trance of Mount Alvernus, any gift which should infringe the original
in which so runs the strange story the vow of the order to maintain for ever a holy
were imprinted on Men, he wrote, might entertain
"
"

stigmata his body, poverty.

were a time of bodily suffering. He was them, but only as strangers and pilgrims.
comparatively young. But his life of in When very near the end, surrounded by
cessant anxiety, of feverish solicitude for a group of his dearest friends, he said he
his suffering neighbours and who was not would eat a solemn repast with his
last

neighbour to St. Francis of Assisi ? his brothers. There, in that poor hut under

long and continued fasts, his sleepless the shadow of the humble Portiuncula
nights, had prematurely worn out that chapel, he broke his bread and distributed
frailbody. During the last months every it, and thus, without an altar and without
care and attention that he would submit a priest, celebrated the Lord s Supper.*
to was lavished upon him, for men had His last words breathed that divine love

come to learn that in Francis, the half- which had coloured his whole life that
crazy enthusiast, as some persisted in deem intense love to men in which we must
ing him, the world possessed a true saint seek and find the secret of his vast power
and a great leader of men. over the human heart. See,"
he said, "

When death was very near he asked to "God is calling me. I forgive all my
be removed from the bishop s palace at brethren their sins and errors, and as far
Assisi, where he had been long lying pros as lies in me, I absolve them. Tell them
trated by weakness and mortal sickness, and them in
this, bless my name."

to the humble settlement of brothers which The ashes of St. Francis rest at Assisi
clustered round the little chapel of the in a rough stone coffin, which lies in a
Portiuncula (St. Mary of the chamber hewn out of the solid travertine
Angels), where
in former he was in the habit of rock. Over his grave, with extraordinary
days
praying, where he dreamed many of his rapidity, his followers within a few years
earlier dreams, and where he had seen erected that stately basilica which, adorned
some of his earlier visions a spot which hands of Cimabue and Giotto,
by the
the dying Francis loved more than still the admiration of the
any challenges
sanctuary in the world. On his thither way Christian world. For more than six
he begged the bearers of his litter to hundred years it has been visited
stop by
*
Cf. Sabatier : Vie de St. Fran ois d Assisi
"
thousands of pious pilgrims, longing to
? ";

and Milman :
"

Latin Christianity," bk. ix., ch. x. * Sabatier :

"

Vie de St. Fra^ois d Assisi."

Photo: R. W. Thomas, Cheapside, E.C.

NORWICH CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

11
121 J 1221.] ST. DOMINIC AND THE DOMINICANS. 271

gaze on the tomb of the great master, in Old Castille. Dominic, the founder of
wishful to look on the scenes once loved the world-famed order of friar preachers,
Within two years of his almost with
by Francis. appeared simultaneously
death Rome inscribed him in her golden Francis of Assisi, in the early years of
book of saints, and from that day, the thirteenth century. Before Dominic s
A.D. 1228, innumerable painters, many death in the year 1221, western Christen

nameless, some bearing historic names dom was covered with a host of zealous
like Fra Angelico, have ever surrounded and devoted men, whose special function
the head of Francis with an aureole was popular instruction. The Domini
of divine glory. But the splendid and cans were gathered from all lands, and

lordly church which marks his grave, were thus at home with every language
the bright coronet of heavenly light and dialect, especially haunting the chief
which surrounds his head in a thousand seats of learning such as Bologna, Paris,

pictures, the saintly title whichwith Oxford, Cambridge where these new and
men in all lands choose to honour his fervid teachers, constituting themselves

memory, are sadly at variance, with the the champions of a rigid, unswerving
ideal aimed at by the man, holy and orthodoxy, soon obtained a vast influence.
humble of heart, whose only ambition Out of the mist of legend and unfortunate
was to be known as the comforter of the adulation, which in subsequent ages has
leper and the outcast, as the friend of the surrounded the person of Dominic, we are
friendless, as the nameless founder of an able to catch sight of some of the influences
order of poor and homeless men, who which helped to mould the character of
should tell the story of the Christ, minister one of the greatest of mediaeval reformers.
ing all the while to the wants of the The dominant thought in Dominic s mind
sufferer, the oppressed, and the unhappy, in early and middle life was the restoration

whose hoarse cry of misery was going up of a purer faith in the southern lands,
in Provence and Languedoc.
day and night from the poor and neglected especially

quarters of many a world-famed city, alike Strange Oriental heresies, brought into
from London, Oxford
Paris and and Europe by the constant passing and re-
Bologna, Norwich and Lyons. passing of the Crusading host, had seriously
affected the Christian faith and teaching,
Side by side, and at the same time, with especially in these southern countries.

the Franciscans well-nigh as numerous, There was, especially, a curious and

with of the same aims, with much revival of an ancient Eastern
many general
of the same methods of working arose heresy, known as Manichaeism, the chief

another order of mendicant friars profess characteristic features of which were belief

ing the same utter poverty, and powerfully in two co-equal conflicting principles of
of
influencing by their preaching and teach good and evil, the implacable hostility
matter to spirit, an aversion to the Old
ing all church and religious life in England.
These were the followers of Dominic the Testament as the work of a spirit hostile

to God. To these false doctrines was

Spaniard, an Augustinian canon of Osma,
272 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1217 1221.

added one of yet greater danger to the desolating heresies growing up thickly
Christian faith: these heretics denied the around him. Later panegyrists have en

reality of the suffering Christ,

thus reviving deavoured to connect his name closely
an old and frequently condemned teaching. with the dark atrocities of the Albigensian
The result of the popularity of this revival war, so called from the fact of the chief
of old heresies in the cultured lands of the seat of the heretics being in the city of

south of France, was that through France Albi a war in which politics and greed,
and, indeed, through all Christendom alas ! were inextricably mixed up with the
unbelief was spreading with alarming defence of the Catholic faith. In these

rapidity. In addition to these wild beliefs, terrible wars Dominic, as the champion of
a widely-spread antagonism to sacerdotal Catholic truth, is represented by many as
claims existed. This antagonism had marching in the van of the armies op
largely increased with the revival, power, posing the heretic Raymond of Toulouse,
and influence of the Papacy ;
hatred to with the cross in his hands, a cross which
the ever-growing pretensions of Rome had was afterwards shown riddled with deadly
much to do with this hostility to hierarchical arrows and missiles, only the form of the
authority. There is no doubt that at the Saviour hanging on it remaining un
beginning of the thirteenth century there injured. But later historians are silent on
was much disorder in faith and practice, this point, and indeed there is nothing in
especially among the
highly cultured contemporary history which connects the
provinces of southern France. Raymond great preacher with the dark acts of the
VI., count of Toulouse, a powerful and Albigensian wars.*
influential prince, but whose character was In fact, Dominic s fame and reputation
dissolute and pleasure-loving, had consti grew very slowly during many years. Even
tuted himself the patron and upholder of Pope Innocent III. seems to have given to
these dissenters from the ancient faith of the fervid preacher but scant encourage
Christendom. ment, save that he, shortly before his death,
For years Dominic s mission in life was to gave his sanction to a
"

house,"
which
combat these false beliefs, these rebellions was virtually the mother house of the

against obedience to the hierarchy of the Dominican order St. Ronain at Toulouse.
Catholic Church. He promoted the estab This famous Pope failed to perceive in
lishment of seminaries for the better educa the Augustinian canon the mighty powers
tion of the youth of both sexes, and he which eventually showed themselves so
founded one or more religious teaching
conspicuously in his work. It was not
houses under the obedience of the Augus- until the year 1217 that Dominic became a
tinian order to which he himself belonged. conspicuous figure in the history of the
Pressing on the church the necessity of a church. Years of preparation and quiet
more careful attention to preaching, he persevering enthusiasm had qualified him
carried on with unremitting perseverance famous pulpit work
for the at Rome, where
what he considered his life-work of witness * Milman : Latin Christianity,
"

book ix ,

for Catholic truth, in opposition to the ix. Also Excursus C at end of volume.
chap.
274 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1217 1221.

he now took up his residence. There, guished a part in the great struggle for
where Honorius III. had succeeded In freedom in king John s days Stephen
nocent III., Dominic rapidly gained a vast Langton. The archbishop was struck with
His surpassing eloquence, his the fervour and eloquence of the strangers,
reputation.
great learning, his burning enthusiasm,
at and gave them
full licence to preach

once attracted the attention of the Pope, throughout the land. Monasteries of the

and the preaching friar became rapidly a new order of preaching friars rose at once
great power at Rome. It seems about this at Canterbury, London, and Oxford. Two
time that the little order founded by or three years later we hear of them re

the great orator took a new departure. ceiving hospitably and aiding their brother

Probably the growing success of the mendicants of St. Francis s order, but, so
Franciscans suggested it At all events, far as England is concerned, we possess no
Dominic henceforth made
the disciples of more details as to the Dominican work
a formal profession of poverty; and the among us for many years. All we know
complete renunciation of all means of of the Dominican in England in the first

support, save such as might be offered day days is, that wherever the Franciscan

by day, became a part of the Dominican settled, usually the same place was a
in

rule. Dominican house, whose friars rather

Both these men, Dominic and Francis, addressed themselves to the cultured
had in their patient enthusiasm laid their classes, while the Franciscan laboured j

hands on a real need an actual want among the poorest of the people; but after j

in the church. Francis discovered the a comparatively brief season the two orders j

masses the equally shared in the possession of the

"

in
"

neglected growing
medieval towns and cities, the uncared-for, most learned and cultured men in Europe, j

unshepherded town populations. Dominic In England the Dominicans, though 1

found out that preaching earnest, instruc never attaining the same great popularity I

tive,passionate preaching was lacking in or anything like the same influence and
mediaeval Christendom. These men were hold upon the people s affection as their

sorely wanted hence their marvellous brethren the Franciscan friars, were nume
success. In less than seven years after he rically not far behind them, and very soon
had begun to preach at Rome, Dominic s after their arrival no considerable
first

little preaching order

" "

had spread over town in England was without a Franciscan

well-nigh the whole of Europe. Domini and Dominican settlement. The rivalry
can houses began to spring up with between the two orders only began at a

amazing rapidity in all lands. later period. Doctrinally, at least at first,

It was not until the year of his death, there was a striking likeness in the teach
in 1 22 1, that the new order arrived in ing of Dominic and Francis. They were
England, just three years before the. coming both devoted adherents of the Roman
of the Franciscans. Prior Gilbert landed supremacy. It is strange that both Dominic
with fourteen friars, and preached before and Francis, in the first instance, were
the aged primate who played so distin coldly received by the reigning Pope, the
1217 1221.] THE DOMINICANS IN ENGLAND. 275

great Innocent III., and it was only after or authoritative pronouncements of the
carefulthought that Papal encouragement Roman see.

was finally given to their mighty con One great source of strength of the two
ception. It is true that before his death great mendicant orders, Dominican and
Innocent III., and to a still greater degree Franciscan, was the establishment of a
his successor, Honorius III., began to be third, a wider and more secular com
conscious of the strength and irresistible munity, known as the "

Tertiaries,"

influence of the mendicant orders ; consisting of men and women bound by

but neither of these eminent Popes no vows. These were well-wishers of the
guessed what these two great standing famous orders, and were taught to observe
armies in every country of Europe would, all holy days, fasts, and vigils were ;

in time to come, be to the Papacy. The trained to constant prayer and attendance
Dominican and Franciscan are said, and at divine worship, especially in churches

with truth, to have perpetuated, or at least served by the Franciscans and Dominicans.
to have immeasurably strengthened the By this means the orders secured every
enormous pretensions of Rome, for more where a vast host of devoted followers
than two centuries after their foundation. of both sexes, wedded to their interests.
This reflection true on the continent of These Tertiaries, Brethren of Penitence, as
Europe is
peculiarly applicable Eng in they were called among the Franciscans,
land, where the influence of the mendicant or soldiers of Jesus Christ, as they were
friars endured until the Reformation. called among the Dominicans, by no means
Like their Franciscan brothers, the secluded from the world, its cares and
Dominicans professed the deepest reverence interests, influenced widely and powerfully
for the blessed Virgin, who was regarded all sorts and conditions of men. This
as the special protectress of the order. secular order of Tertiaries received even
Their raptures of spiritual adulation seem tually the formal sanction of Rome.
to our truer and more scriptural estimation Under the fourth general of the order,
of her, who was indeed "

blessed among John of Wildeshausen, in Westphalia, a

women," as bordering on wild profanation. chapter -general was held at Bordeaux.
To Dominic, who considered himself as the The Dominicans that great meeting
at

adopted son of Mary, is ascribed the com reckoned their monasteries or communities
position of the famous "Rosary" that to number 470. They were thus divided :

strange litany with the refrain

"

Ave Maria "

in Spain, 35 ;
in France, 52
Germany, ;
in

(Hail Mary) repeated again and again 52 ;

in Lombardy, 46 in
Tuscany, 32 ;
in ;

a form of prayer which has maintained in Hungary, 30 in Poland, 36 in Denmark,

; ;

Roman Catholic countries its wonderful 28 in England, 40

;
besides many in ;

popularity to our own days and times, and eastern lands. The popularity and in
which has done more to perpetuate the fluence of these mendicantfriars, although
cult of the so-called Queen of Heaven enjoyed by the Franciscans,
inferior to that

among the people than all the rhapsodies was perhaps greater in England than in
of mystics, or learned treatises of doctors, any other country.
276 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [12171221.

Like his yet greater companion in the sculpture by the most illustrious artists of
work of devising and founding the mendi the thirteenth century and later, guards
cant orders, who were destined to play so the vault where the mouldering bones

great a part henceforth in the Church of of the founder of the famous Dominican
England and on the Continent, Dominic order repose. They have not been seen
died comparatively early. He was only since the year 1383.

fifty-two years old when he was attacked Art has, of course, idealised St. Dominic.

by the fever and dysentery to which he He possessed a wonderful charm, which

quickly succumbed his emaciated and enabled him to influence so many of his.
worn-out body offering little resistance to contemporaries of all ranks and orders,
the fatal malady. His end was a quiet from the magnificent prelate who reigned
and holy one. "

Weep not,"
said the from the Vatican over the churches of
dying Dominic to his sorrowing friends ;
the west, down to the humble and un
"

Ibe able to help you better in

shall
the place whither I am going, than I could
hope to do were I to remain with you."
Without pomp or state, with no attempt
to embalm his body, they laid him in a
grave in the old church of
Bologna, raising no monument, but allow
ing the feet of the brethren of his order to
press the gravestone of their great founder.
known scholar of English Oxford or Italian
Bologna a charm which has endured,
though centuries have passed since he
talked and worked with men. This charm
painters have again and again tried to
St. Nicholas at represent with glory aureoles and features
ofsuperhuman beauty. The real Dominic
seems to have had a person of about the
middle height, with fair hair and beard ;

This was one of his last requests. his form was attenuated. His wonderful
But the humble sepulture was soon powers as an orator were aided by an
exchanged for one more suitable, men impressive and ringing voice. Very dif
thought, to so eminent a saint. Twelve ferent from St. Francis, Dominic in the

years after his death, in the presence of latter part of his wonderful career made
a vast crowd of distinguished ecclesiastics, himself acceptable to the Papal court, and
the coffin of Dominic was exhumed and was invested with an office at Rome which
opened. No special miracle of the preser has been ever held by his successors in
vation of the sacred body was recorded the order that of master of the sacred
"

the bones only of Dominic were found a The most eloquent preacher of
; palace."
sweet smell which the bystanders noticed this century, Henri Dominique Lacordaire,
was the only outward sign of the was a Dominican and the fact that the
sanctity ;

of the remains. The coffin has been great pulpits of Roman Catholic Christen
since twice unsealed, the last time in the dom are still so often filled with brothers
year 1383, when the skull was taken out of the famous order, tells that the work
and deposited in a silver urn, which was of St. Dominic, the founder of the preach
placed in a separate chapel for the venera ing friars, has been an enduring one.
tion of the countless
pilgrims to his shrine. Later tradition has ever associated him
A great monument, richly adorned with with the dread tribunal of the Inquisition,
 , Florence.
THE CHAPEL OF ST. DOMINIC, BOLOGNA.
278 ;THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1221.

with all its tremendous and terrible used to pray. It is hard to believe that
but it is more than doubtful such a loving and devoted man ever
agencies
the work
if that unhappy title to honour really approved, much less shared in,
of that awful tribunal of the
belongs to him. The tribunal
of the In- Inquisi-

with its far-reaching powers, was tion, with which, after his death, the
quisition,
not placed in
members of
his order were
the hands of
so intimately
the Dominican
associated.*
friars, until
some years
after the death The mendi
of St. Dominic,
cant friars, who

founder of the for the three

order.* Indeed, hundred years

his character, preceding the
as painted by
R e fo r m a tion
his friend and occupied so

prominent a
companion, St.
de place in the
Jourdain
Saxe, is far Church of
from according England as

with the stern teachers,

and ruthless preachers, and
Inquisitor of con fessors,
the later bio comprised ulti
graphers. St. mately several
Jourdain de orders; of these
scribes him as the Francis
a loving and cans and Do
devoted man, ST. DOMINIC. minicans, cer
as one who (From the picture by Giovanni Bellini in the National Gallerv.) tain chapters
through love whose story in
had discovered the secret of the key we have just been dwelling upon, were
of hearts. His days he devoted to his by far the most influential and the most
neighbours, his nights he gave to God. , numerous.
Rest at night was with him a rare thing. The Franciscans need not be further
The hours generally devoted to repose described. They were also known amonj
he usually passed in a church when ;
us as "

grey friars,"
from the colour of

spent with fatigue, he would sleep for a their habit minores or

" " "

; minorites,"

brief space before the altar where he * Vie de

Cf. generally Lacordaire : St.
* See Excursus C at end oi volume. minique."
 1536-1540.] THE FOUR MENDICANT ORDERS. 279

as the youngest and, in the eyes of their Dominicans and Franciscans. They attained
saintly founder, the humblest of the re to a certain popularity in this country, and

ligious foundations.
"

Our Francis "

says : are usually reckoned as the fourth of the

"

minores minimis sumus." orders of mendicant friars. But, as com

The Dominicans, or "

black friars,"
were pared with the followers of Dominic and
usually known as friars preachers. This Francis, they were insignificant in numbers
title, which well summarises their especial as in weight. The Carmelites, like the
work, is generally referred to an expression two greater orders, were distinguished for
used by the Pope, who on some occasion, their special devotion to the Virgin
Mary,
writing to Dominic, gave this instruction whom they considered the protectress of
to his notary Write to Dominic, the
:
"

their community. Pope Honorius III.

preaching brother." directed they should be styled the family "

The Augustinians, or
"

Austin friars,"
of the most blessed Virgin Mary." Hence,
s
were made up of many small communities, in all the convents of the order the
Virgin,
who lived under no recognised rule, but under her title of Madonna del Carmine,
were brought under one obedience by holds a conspicuous place.

Pope Alexander IV. These mendicant The numbers of the mendicant orders
friars took root in England some in England at the epoch of the Refor
years
later than the Franciscans, but never mation A.D. 1536-1540, when they were
obtained the power and influence won suppressed, after three hundred years of
by the two great orders founded by existence were, roughly, about 1,800 to
Dominic and Francis. 1,900 in all, and they were thus divided:
The Carmelites, called in England the FRANCISCAN. DOMINICAN. AUSTIN. CARMELITE.
"

white No. of houses 60 42

traditionally belonged to a 53
... ...
friars,"
... 36
No. of friars 660 ... 472 ...
378 ... 288
community of hermits, settled on Mount
Carmel, who professed to date back to When these numbers a,re considered by
the times of Elijah the prophet. Sir A the reader, the small numbers of the whole
John de Vesci, on his return from the population of England, as remarked upon
holy wars, introduced a little company another occasion, must always be carefully
of these mendicant friars into England, taken into account.*
where they soon took root during the early *
Cf. Dr. Gasquet :
"

Henry VIII. and the

days of the teaching and influence of the English Monasteries," chap. vii.
 CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

s Power and Influence Elements of this Influence Encroachments of

Apparent Increase of the Church
Rome in the Reigns of John and Henry III. Consequent Irritation and Resistance in England-
Edward I. Confiscates Half the Church s Revenue His Anti-Ecclesiastical Legislation against
Mortmain and Immunity of the Clergy His Parliament Growing Jealousy of the Friars Great
Churchmen of this Period Inner Life of the Church Notes of Synods and Councils.

the earlier years of the thirteenth professors of the civil law. They were
would have seemed to any almost the only historians and poets less
IN century it

thoughtful onlooker that the church distinguished in medicine and in physical

science. It was the glory of the Franciscan
during the two preceding centuries had
made continuous and stately progress. .order in the thirteenth century that they
The character of the Papacy had been applied themselves to this special study,
restored, and its power and influence their work among the poor and neglected
enormously augmented. It acted as a of the people especially suggesting the
centre to the whole western church. A necessity of some proficiency in the
succession of distinguished and most able healing art.

Popes in the course of these two centuries The wealth of the Church of England at
had sat on the throne of St. Peter. The this period of its history was enormous.
monastic system had been revived, puri We have already noticed how powerful an
fied, and vastly augmented by the founda influence the Crusading wars had been ii
tion of innumerable communities. In this augmenting the possessions of ecclesiastics,
general church revival England had borne and more or less these possessions had
a distinguished part. The Church of been free, or partially free, from con
England during the reigns of the Norman tributing to the burdens of the state.

and Plantagenet kings had occupied a Large portions of this wealth were yearly
peculiarly influential position. The min spent with generous prodigality upon the
isters and advisers of the sovereigns from stately cathedrals, the abbey-churches,
the days of Edward the Confessor to the and the monastic buildings which arose in
time of Henry III. had been, in the great such numbers and often with such stately
majority of cases, chosen from the ranks magnificence during this period. Indeed,
of churchmen. the vast possessions of the Church of
In learning, the church reigned abso England, ever on the increase, became
lutely supreme. The universities and the now, in the opinion of statesmen, a source
schools belonged to her. The ecclesiastics of positive danger to the realm. To limit
were the canon lawyers and, as far as it this rapidly growing wealth, statutes such
was known or in use, the teachers and as "

mortmain were passed and became

"
 I2IS-J THE XIIlTH CENTURY. 281

law, as a national protest against the which had little or nothing to do with

perpetual encroachment of the church on the head of

western Christendom, the
the landed property of the kingdom. bishop of Rome, or indeed with any of the
The power of the church in England Continental churches of the west. There
had vastly increased in the twelfth and was in this mediaeval church a wonderful
thirteenth centuries. It was no longer an solidarity, which gave a strange power to

THE NAVE, WESTMINSTER (LOOKING EAST), BUILT IN THE I3TH AND I4TH CENTURIES.

insular communion, with its interests and each separate national church like the
life mainly confined to the island. Since Church of England. "

The clergy, includ

the coming of William the Conqueror, ing the monks and friars, were one
it was not
merely intimately bound up throughout Latin Christendom. What
with the state in its own country, ever antagonism, feud, hatred, estrange
but it now formed
part of the great ment might rise between rival prelates
widespread Latin communion. This was and rival orders, whatever irreconcilable
a comparatively novel feature, and herein jealousy might arise between the seculars
the mediaeval Church of England in the (the parish priests) and the regulars
times of the Norman and Angevin kings (members the monastic orders), yet the
01

differed from the Anglo-Saxon church, caste seldom betrayed the interests of the
w
282 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1215.

caste. The high-minded patriot-church human ties and hopes and

affections, his

man who regarded his country more than and allegiance belonged
fears, his loyalty

the church was not common. The clergy alone to the church and the church
;

in general (there were noble exceptions) meant, not the Church of England, but the
were first the subjects of the Pope, then great Latin communion, whose centre was

the but only in the second place sub not Canterbury, but Rome. Human nature
The again and again protested against this stern
jects of the temporal sovereign.
of the hierarchy to the church and unnatural regulation. But we find the
allegiance
was atonce compulsory and voluntary. greatest among the Popes, the most famous

The Pope s awful powers held in check of their legates, the foremost among church
the constant inevitable tendency to re men of every land, again and again insist

bellionand contumacy. The Papal legate, ing upon the observance of this iron rule.
"

It has been well termed the

"

the pro-consul of the Pope, the co-ruler palladium

with the king, when he came to Eng of the church s power. Latin (Roman)

land, was not dependent on the recep Christianity has again and again resolutely
tion of a cold or a hostile court. He refused to change or to modify the rule.
could almost command, rarely did not Nor will it ever do so.

receive, the unlimited homage of the Among the various causes which in

clergy. To him was due their first England led to the Reformation of the
obedience."* sixteenth century, this existence of a king
This great Latin church, which extended dom within a kingdom, this permanent
from Scotland to the Spanish frontier of settlement in our midst of a powerful

Christendom, from the Atlantic Ocean caste, bound by the most solemn obliga
which washed the long western shores of tions to a foreign,and not unfrequently a
France to the eastern boundary of Ger hostile power, must be reckoned among

many, had one common language. In the more far-reaching. If a question arose
their intercourse with, each other the respecting conflicting claims to obedience,,
clergy needed no interpreter. Their the English ecclesiastic in the vast majority
Latin tongue was not only the language of of instances would obey the orders ot

their solemn ritual, but it was the one Rome, and not the will of the king and
language current throughout Europe, the Parliament of
England. No patriotic
language of treaties and of negotiations English statesman, were he ever so re
between kingdom and kingdom. It was ligious and God-fearing, could brook such
the one language, too, of European law. a state of things, which constituted an
This mediaeval church, in theory at ever-present and grave danger to the
least, was moreover subject to one uni country he loved so well.
versal custom, the "

rule of The While the mediaeval Latin church of the

celibacy."

mediaeval churchman had no home-life, thirteenth century, of which, be it remem

no family, no country. Independent of all bered, the Church of England was a devoted
* Milman: "Latin book and obedient member, recognised in its
Christianity," xiv.,
chap. i.
powerful outward framework one supreme
I2IS-]
THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL. 283

head on earth the Pope one sacred capital

;
be a certainty ;
and before the fourteenth
Rome one universal language for its
; century had run half of its course, the
ritual and intercourse the Latin tongue ;
fataldoctrine of indulgences had roused
one caste the clergy, including monk and the indignation of many thinking men,
and ignoring and prepared the way for the Reforma
friar, parish priest and prelate;
all class distinction, enforcing one stern tion with its momentous and drastic
law celibacy; it claimed besides a claim, changes.*
too, generally recognised and acknowledged Very tremendous were the powers long
an awful secret power. In its hands, so claimed, but only formally asserted in the
taught this great Latin church, were
the keys which irrevocably opened
or closed to men the gates of the
kingdom of heaven. The eternal

destiny of every man depended on

the will of the priest. He could bind
or loose. He could acquit, absolve,
free the soul from any contracted
guilt, however deep. He could send
the soul of the man who in his eyes

remained unrepentant, to a hopeless

doom.
The power of the priest ot the
mediaeval Church of England, besides
this somewhat vague though tre
mendous authority reaching into a
timeless eternity, became more de

finite, and hence more striking, as

EARLY ENGLISH TRIFORIUM ARCH, WESTMINSTER ABBEY,
the doctrine of a porgatory for the BUILT IN THE REIGN OF HENRY III.
departed soul was gradually deve
loped. The priest, by his prayers and fourth Lateran council, held by Pope Inno
masses, claimed to be able to assist the cent III. in 1215, at which council Stephen
departed soul in that place of proba Langton, the patriot archbishop of Canter
tion, perhaps of punishment, whither at bury, was present. Transubstantiation, in
first all men after death were rele all its dread mystery and consequences,
gated. The life there might be sweet was authoritatively proclaimed to be a
ened ;
the duration of the purgatorial doctrine of the Catholic Church. For
probation might assuredly be shortened, every ministering at the high altar of
priest,
by the prayers which were said and the a lordly cathedral or at the humble altar of a
masses which were celebrated at the altars village church, was claimed the power one
of the church. What probably at first was * Milman: Latin book xiv.,
Cf. Christianity,"
a pious hope, was gradually taught to chap. i.
284 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1216.

trembles at the statement of makingGod* abbeys and churches, monasteries and

Confession also, which by a decree of the schools, all through those centuries of con
same Lateran Council under Innocent III. fusion, conquest, rapine, greed, and selfish

was made an universal, obligatory, indispens stood out, upon the whole, as the great

able duty, laid bare to the priest of the bulwark of the oppressed against high
Latin church the heart of everyone, from handed tyranny acted as the one monitor
;

the sovereign on the throne to the peasant to whom the great and powerful chose to
in the field. We
have already seen the listen, and often to obey. In spite of all,

desolating effect upon a whole people

of the Latin (Roman) church was the salt
those formidable anathemas which the which preserved society during this iron

Pope, who claimed power over this awful age from hopeless corruption and irretriev

the nation as over the individual, ever kept able decay.

in readiness to launch against a people or
a prince presuming to act in opposition King Edward I. died in 1307. The
to his sovereign will. The interdict, which whole of the preceding century had been
might and sometimes did continue for the taken up with the three reigns of John,
space of several years, virtually suspended of his son and grandson, Henry III. and
the performance of all religious rites, even Edward I. For the first sixteen disastrous
of the most solemn, thus placing an entire
years in English story, John Lackland
people outside the pale of Christendom. was king. The granting of Magna Carta
The excommunication, even more desolat was the great constitutional event of the
ing in its effects, separated the hapless reign and the large share in that trans
;

individual thus placed under the ban of action borne by archbishop Langton,
the Catholic Church, from all the offices of supported by the Church of England, has
religion. Should the offender happen to been already dwelt upon. The event,
die while under this sweeping curse, for however, in that sinister life of John s
his soul even the most pitiful of men was which most closely affected the church, was
forbidden to hope or even to pray ! the infamous submission of the king to
Yet, in spite of defilements which kept the Pope, and the acknowledgment that
ever creeping into it, but which all felt to he held his kingdom as a vassal of the
be alien to in spite of doctrinal errors Rome. This gave an enormous
it; bishop of
which ever kept distorting its higher teach impulse to the ever-growing Papal en
ing errors which, as its noblest spirits croachments and the work of the Church
;

were conscious, issued from the poor human of England during the thirteenth and two
heart seeking an easier path to heaven than
following centuries was gravely impeded
the rugged road pointed out by Christ
by the perpetual interference and measure
the mediaeval church, the church of Latin less claims and exactions of Rome.
Christianity, with its unnumbered army The reign of Henry III. (A.D. 1216-1272),
of "

religious, with its vast machinery of which witnessed the coming among us of
*
Cf. Milman s "

Latin Christianity," book vii.,

the mendicant friar, was a period especially
chap, ii.; book viii., chap. iii. and book xiv.. i. notable for a steady advance of encroach-
;
chap.
i2i 6-i2 7 2.] ROMISH CLAIMS IN THE XIIlTH CENTURY. 285

ments on the part of Rome on the rights ambassadors. The right of appointing
and liberties of the English church. There to bishoprics, even to the arch-see of

was ever a succession of haughty Papal Canterbury in several notable instances,

A MEDIEVAL BISHOP.
(By permission from the picture by Sir John Gilbert, R.A., P.R-W.S., in the Guildhall Art Gallery.)

legates coming and going, claiming rank was claimed and exercised by the Italian
and authority superior to that possessed Pontiff. The richest and most desirable
by the English primate and his suffragans. benefices were filled up by the same foreign
Great sums of money were being constantly intruder, and frequently the scandal was
demanded, and usually paid by the Church perpetrated of forcing a foreigner, who
of England,
through these imperious Roman might or might not reside on his cure or
286 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [12161278

in his cathedral city, into these livings or making upon the wealthy Church of Eng
prebends. Foreign abbots and priors were land. At the council of Lyons, held under
often chosen for the English religious Innocent IV. in 1245, Roger Bigod and
houses. The Pope claimed and often others representing the realm of England

exercised, during this period, a constant made a direct demand for some relaxation

right of interference with all the affairs of of this oppressive Roman

tyranny, and
the Church of England. A steady flow of even endeavoured to repudiate the dis
appeals to Rome also kept on increasing. graceful submission of king John, but their
All this produced a feeling of intense righteous demand was rejected.
"

This
irritation, among ecclesiastics as well as period of the history of the Church of
among laymen; and the name of Rome England (when the oppression of Rome
grew more and more hateful to Englishmen was at its height) was dismal indeed, but
as the thirteenth century advanced. Of the sum of grievances was mounting so
course, the extraordinary act of submission high that they must compel their own
of king John to Pope Innocent III., the remedy, and men were growing up with a
formal admission of vassalage on the part sense of injury that must sooner or later
of a king of England to a Pope, gave provide its vindication."*

to these Papal exactions and assump

all As examples of the imperious behaviour
tions of supreme authority, an enormous of the Pope, in A.D. 1274, on a vacancy
impetus. The court of Rome persisted in occurring, the Pope nominated Robert
regarding England during the long reign Kilwardby, a Dominican friar, to the
of Henry III. as positively a subject state. archbishopric of Canterbury ;
and in the
Men like Grosseteste of Lincoln,
although year 1278, when Kilwardby accepted the
very loyal adherents of Rome, indignantly offer of cardinal, and left England to take
protested against these unheard-of and his place among the Papal counsellors,
monstrous claims of the Pope and his thus vacating the
the Pope,primacy,
legates, and frequently resisted (though without opposition, procured the election

EFFIGY OF HENRY III.

(From his Tomb in Wettminster
Abbey.)

generally the resistance was of John Peckham, a Franciscan in

overcome), friar,

complying with the perpetual and excessive his room.

demands for money which Rome was ever * stubbs -
Constitutional xix.
:
History." chap.
I279-]
EDWARD I. AND THE CHURCH. 287

Henry III. has been well described as without separating himself from the out
"accomplished, refined, liberal, magnifi ward communion of the Church Catholic.
cent, rash rather than brave, impulsive A far-seeing organiser, a wise and thought
and ambitious, pious, -and inan ordinary ful distinguished equally in
legislator,
sense virtuous, but at the same time the field the cabinet, his military
as in

utterly devoid of all elements of great
ness." His foolish and impolitic prefer
ence for foreigners was one of the chief
grievances which led to the rebellion of
the barons under Simon de Montfort.
His nomination of his wife
face, son of the count of Savoy, to the
archbishopric of Canterbury was a notable
instance of Henry III. s usual policy. It
was a disastrous
appointment
Church of England. Boniface held the
primacy for some twenty-five years (1245
to 1270). During much of this period the-
successes in Scotland and Wales laid the
foundation of the future unity, and con
sequently of the after-greatness, of the
country he loved so well, while his laws
were the basis of all subsequent English
s uncle, Boni legislation. His idea of a parliament a
real national assembly which he partly
carried out, still remains the model of
representative institutions at the present
for the day, although nigh six centuries have
passed since his remains were laid in that
solemn, sacred chapel of the kings in the
storied abbey loved of Englishmen, in

archbishop was out of England one of that plain tomb, stately and massive, upon
his absences, for instance, lasted four years. which so many generations of his country
The great revenues of the see were men have gazed with admiration mingled
squandered abroad, Boniface caring no with awe.
thing for the duties and responsibilities Early in his reign, in A.D. 1279, king
of his great office. Edward I. determined that the Church
of England as a national church should
The third of the kings of England of join in bearing the national burdens. As
the thirteenth century, Edward L, in
"

a result of this legislature on church

herited to the full the Plantagenet love of responsibilities, on several occasions during
power, and he possessed the highestin the twenty years of Edward s reign,
first

degree the great qualities and manifold the clergy with more or less willingness
*
accomplishments of his race." In an age granted the king towards his many varied
when to oppose Rome was a difficult and expenses, mostly connected with his con
a dangerous task, he steadily resisted her stant military expeditions, large subsidies
exorbitant and ruinous pretensions, pro of different amounts. These royal de
tecting the Church of England from the mands, however, in the year 1294 reached
grave dangers to which these pretensions their culminating point the king
;
when
exposed her. And in a great measure he peremptorily demanded from the clergy,
succeeded in loosing the fatal bonds in towards the cost of his war with France,
which the evil conduct of his grand the largest exaction, perhaps, ever pressed
father, John, had involved her, and all this for under the shadow of the law by an
* Stubbs: "Constit. Hist, of England." imperious monarch. On this occasion,
288 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [12791294.

after some delay on the part of the church the land should come into mortmain."
"

in complying with the ever-growing de The king and other lords were daily losing
mands of the sovereign, Ed ward impatiently the services due to them by the granting
seized all the coined money and treasure of estates to persons or institutions in
in the sacristies of the monasteries and capable of fulfilling legal obligations. Such
cathedrals, and then, dissatisfied with the endowments, bestowed by will or otherwise
amount subsequently by the clergy offered upon monasteries and ecclesiastical bodies
as their share of the national expenses, were, indeed, becoming a great and cry

harshly informed them that they must be ing abuse, and greatly impoverished the
prepared to pay him half their entire nation.!
revenue or be outlawed. The clergy were Fair and useful legislation on the ever-

dismayed and terrified ;

the dean of St. disputed question of the jurisdiction of the
Paul s is said to have died of fright in ecclesiastical courts was also placed on the
the king s presence representatives of the
;
statute books by the same Edward I. No
church endeavoured to temporise; but just churchman can plead for the immunity
the arbitrary sovereign insisted, and even of his order from the civil courts and from
u
tually the harassed church was compelled the royal jurisdiction. The anointed of
to submit.* the Lord" has no right to claim exemption
There does not appear to have been any from the penalties which in every civilised

special hostility to thechurch in the policy community are wisely attached to treason,
of king Edward I. ;
but in that iron age a murder, or other felonies or civil offences.
great king was naturally a despot, and the An ordinance, really only confirming the
Plantagenet ruler, looking round in his legislation of king Henry II., which had
needs, which were many, saw the wealth been allowed, in too many cases to fall

of the church, and considered (with some into abeyance, was passed, restricting the
justice) that the powerful and rich eccle spiritual jurisdiction to matrimonial and
siastical estate was not bearing its due testamentary cases. The ordinance in

share of state burdens. But, taking every question recognised the right of the clergy
thing into consideration, Edward s admirers to hold pleas on matters merely spiritual,
and apologists can scarcely plead with any such as offences for which penance was
fairness that the exorbitant demand on the due, tithes, mortuaries, churches and
church for half her revenue in the year churchyards, injuries done to clerks,
1294 was either just or upright. perjury and defamation.
More equitable and patriotic, however, Parliamentary representation, somewhat
was the famous statute of Edward I., which as we now understand the term, first
became part of the law of the land in appears towards the close of the long reign
1279, usually quoted religivsis"
as "

De of Henry III., and is commonly referred

which forbids the acquisition of land by to Simon de Montfort, who successfully
the religious or others, in such wise that rebelled with his brother lords against the
*
Stubbs :
"

Constitutional History of abuses and tyranny of the foreign favourites

England,"
chap. xiv. + Ibid. of king Henry. Edward I. enlarged and
290 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1299.

and St Dominic, and

orders of St. Francis and
developed this popular representation ;

a great and model parliament, in which the less

important mendicant orders of

the representation of the Commons was the Austin and Carmelite friars, gave a

formally established, met in the year 1295.

new lifeand infused a new energy into
the mediaevalchurch. All classes and
"

In this
"

model popular assembly the

clergy of various ranks were fairly repre orders, from the lowest to the highest,
sented. The archbishops and bishops were more or less influenced by their

brought the heads of their chapters, their splendid earnestness and devoted work.
archdeacons, one proctor for the clergy But very soon the boundaries of

of each cathedral, and two for the clergy of their mission, especially as laid down by
each diocese. Later, however, we find the Francis of Assisi, were overleaped. The
clergy contented with their great spiritual mendicant friar, at first the humble
position, and withdrawing themselves from preacher to the forlorn masses, and the

parliament. This withdrawal, however, loving comforter of the poorest and saddest
does not appear to have applied to the of mankind, rapidly claimed to be an

hierarchy, properly so called, such as equal sharer in the influence and power
bishops and archbishops, abbots, priors, possessed by the older monastic orders and
and others. by the secular clergy. Their undreamed-of
The tyrannical and oppressive assump success changed the spirit of the friars.

tions ofRome, under the strong,

less felt Very soon after the death of the saintly
high-handed rule of Edward I. than in the founders, Francis and Dominic, we find
times of his father Henry III., were, how the mendicant preacher not only in the
ever, only in abeyance. In the year 1299, hovels of the poor quarters of the cities of
in a bull dated at Anagni, the Pope Christendom, but in the castles of the rich
definitely claimed Scotland as a fief of and mighty, and even in the palaces of
Rome, and forbade Edward to molest the kings. St. Louis of France is said to have
Scots. At a parliament held at Lincoln held the mendicants in such high honour
this insolent claim was considered, and a as to have exclaimed, that if he could
"

letter from the barons to the Pope, written have divided his body, he would have
early in 1301, absolutely swept aside the given one half to either saint, Dominic or
Papal pretensions to interfere, and added Francis." The Popes also, with that high
that they, the barons of England, bound wisdom which has so often distinguished
to maintain the rights of the crown, the holders of the lordly Papal dignity, saw
would not suffer the king to comply with at once the power of the silent untraceable
"

M
any such Papal mandate, even were he agency of that marvellous network of
to wish it. influences stretching over the whole of!
western Christendom, and adopted th
The most remarkable ecclesiastical event, communities as especially their servants,
however, of the thirteenth century was binding very closely to themselves the
the coming of the friar
among us. Un mighty and ever-increasing army of men
questionably the rise of the mendicant dicant friars.
12501300.] THE FRIARS IN THE XIIlTH CENTURY. 291

Wehave already alluded to the rapid monastic orders and the secular clergy, on

change which passed over the once illiterate whose ancient and established privileges
and book-hating friar in regard to learning. they encroached ever more and more. As
Very soon we find the Franciscan and preachers, as confessors, they drew away
Dominican not only occupying the pulpits the people from their own parochial clergy ;

ofEngland and the continent of Europe, they became, instead of the clergy and the
but aspiring to fill the chairs of the public older monasteries, not unfrequently lega
teachers in the universities and in the; tees, in spite of their ancient vow
and that
last half of the thirteenth and in the of poverty. Loud and vehement were the
course of the fourteenth century, the complaints of the clergy but moved, no ;

most distinguished professors of western doubt, by the evident good-will which was
Christendom wore the humble habit of felt for these intruders at headquarters in

St. Francis or St. Dominic. Of the five Rome, and also, no doubt, powerfully in

greatest doctors of the famous schoolmen, fluenced by the really good work which
two Aquinas, surnamed the angelic doctor, the friar was doing in the deadly warfare
and Albertus Magnus, the universal doctor ever waged by the church against vice and
were Dominicans while three Bona-
; ignorance and irreligion, the more prom
ventura, the seraphic doctor; Duns Scotus, inent leaders of the church generally
the most subtle doctor and the most influ
; supported the mendicants. At Cologne,
entialperhaps of all, William of Ockham, Conrad of Zahringen, general of the
the demagogue, the inspirer of Wyclif, a Cistercian order, the Papal legate, when
precursor of the English reformers of the the priest of a great city parish complained
sixteenth century were Franciscans. To to him of the Dominicans interfering in
this short but distinguished list might be his cure, is said to have asked the indignant
added many others whose names for cen priest how many parishioners were under
turies have been household words in the his charge: "Nine thousand," was the
homes of learning, such as Alexander reply. Miserable man," then answered
"

Hales and Roger Bacon, some them the legate of presumest thou to
"

of Rome,
scarcely inferior to the great five. These complain, charged with the care of so
great scholars and thinkers all wore the many souls, that these holy men are

habit, and belonged to the obedience of relieving you from part of your too heavy
Dominic or of Francis. Roughly, it may burden ? "

be said that on the Continent and at Rome The spirit of the two great orders, after
the Dominican exercised a supreme in they had risen to a position of commanding
fluence ;
while at Oxford and in England influence in the church, largely corre
a similar power was possessed by the sponded with the character of their
Franciscan. respective founders. The Dominican was
But as rose in numbers and in stern, grave, and jealously or
severe,
they
influence might as have thodox. hands was eventually en
To his
they became,
been expected, the objects of the fiercest trusted by the church that terrible engine
of the members of the of the Inquisition. The
jealousy to many persecution
292 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [12501300.

Franciscan, on the other hand, whose not resist the temptation of accepting
influence in England was enormous, was the riches which the devotion of men
passionate, even hysterical, and his vast and women pressed upon them ; and, as a
power became considerably limited, owing silent protest against the spiritualists,"

to the fatal schism which soon rent his the magnificent church in Assisi rose over
order asunder. The Franciscans divided the coffin of the adored founder.

FRENCH IVORY TRIPTYCH, 13 CENTURY. (South Kensington Museum.)

into two parties : the one too willing to The schism between the two Franciscan
tamper with the original vow of holy schools grew, and no doubt prevented
poverty, and to admit the possibility of the mendicant from
attaining the great
the order becoming the other
wealthy ;
power which his unexampled success at
rigidly adhering to the saintly founder s first seemed to
promise him. In the end
first which forbade sternly the
intention, the " "

school the Fraticelli

spiritualist
possession of worldly goods to died out but there doubt but that
every ;
is little
brother of the order. These were the vigorous protest of so
desig many of the
nated by the title The
"spiritualists." noblest of the Franciscans in favour of an
majority, however, of the order could absolute poverty largely influenced the
1250 1300] INNER LIFE OF THE CHURCH. 203

policy of the English mendicants, for at

the general suppression of the religious
houses under Henry VIII., in the sixteenth

century, although the poverty of the

order was doubted by the royal commis
sioners, there was comparatively little
found either in their possession, houses, or
churches, worth plundering. Towards the
close of the thirteenth century and during
the fourteenth, although the power and
influence of the Franciscans was still

enormous, the order had begun sadly to

degenerate, and loud and deep had become
the complaints of all classes against these
begging friars, long before the time of
Wyclif, who openly denounced them in
the middle of the fourteenth century.

One of our most accurate and profound

historians, whose words we have frequently
quoted, speaks of this thirteenth century
as the golden age of English churchman-
"

ship."
It produced the majority of those

wise statesmen and churchmen who, re

sisting the crimes and terrible mistakes of

John, and the headstrong follies of Henry
III., guided safely the ship of the state

through that long period of trouble and

danger. Archbishop Langton, more than
any man, was the author of the Great
Charter. Grosseteste of Lincoln- was the
friend and adviser of the patriots who

successfully opposed the unpatriotic minis

ters of Henry III. Edmund of Canter
bury, the gentle, uncomplaining saint
whose heart, men said, was at last broken

by the weary troubles and restless cares

of his high position, was the adviser
who compelled the first banishment of
the foreigners brought over by Henry EMBROIDERED REREUOS OF I4TH CENTURY.
III. St. Thomas of Cantilupe was the (Steeple Ashton Church.}
I ,4 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [12791292.

chancellor of the baronial regency. Grosse- In the council of Lambeth, under the

testc was perhaps the most distinguished same arch-prelate, held in 1281, the too
of these great ecclesiastical statesmen, the common irreverence of priests towards
trusted friend and confidant of princes and
"

the "

sacrament of the altar is sharply

soldiers, the comrade first and later the commented upon. were required Priests

patron of those famous scholars who made to consecrate the elements at least once

Oxford the first school of learning in the a week ;

to keep the sacrament in a
world of the west. But he was also, as tabernacle, and to cause the bells to toll
we have already seen, the most learned when the consecration took place, that
and holy churchman of his time, devoted those who were in the houses or in the
to his great spiritual work. He was the fields might bow the knee. The
people
example of a saintly mediaeval bishop. still partook of the cup, but they were
The inner life of what we may venture
to call the official church, in contradistinc
tion to the great mendicant societies of
friars, was carefully watched, and anything
of the nature of abuses, either in doctrine
or practice, was severely commented upon
and, as far as possible, eradicated by the
great office-holders among the hierarchy
of the English church. Councils and
synods were held from time to time. We
will allude very
shortly to the decrees and CHALICE AND PATEN, SILVER GILT ENRICHED WITH
acts of one or two of these. ENAMELS, ABOUT A.D. 1300. (South Kcnsing-
ton Museum.)
In the provincial synod of Reading,
held under the presidency of the Fran instructed that the wine was given them
ciscan, Peckham, who was archbishop of not part assacrament, but to
of the
Canterbury from 1279 to 1292, we find enable them to swallow the sacrament,
allusion to the constant
disregard of the which was taken whole under the species
celibacy enactment by many of the English of bread. Confirmation seems to have
clergy. Regulations as to infant baptism been very much neglected, and it was
were made at this synod. Children born enjoined that the Eucharist should not be
within eight days of Pentecost or Easter administered to any who had not received
were reserved to be baptised at these confirmation. said this council,
"Nuns,"

times. Children born at other times were were too much in the habit of wander
"

to be baptised at
once, for fear of sudden ing, and this practice caused scandal to the
death. The curious later Baptist tenet, of the clergy deserved
church."
Many
which defers the sacrament for rebuke
many for their assumption of the rich
years, seems to have been unheard dress of laymen,wearing coifs and hair-
"

of,
or at least the
unnoticed, in mediaeval laces."
Disputes were constantly arising
church. between rectors of parishes and their
1322.]
CHURCH SYNOD AND COUNCILS. 295

parishioners touching the ornaments of production of letters dimissory or com

the church. This council directed that mendatory from their diocesans. An order
each parish should provide, amongst other was also made at this council for the
things, the chalice, the principal mass publication of banns of marriage. Such
vestments, a chasuble, a clean alb, a cross publication was to be made three times, on
for processions, a lesser cross for the dead, the Lord day or on some great festival.
s

a bier, a cense-pot, bells, manuals, a vessel The clergy were forbidden to receive con
for holy water, fonts with lock and key, fession from women in private. Allusion

reparations for the body of the church was again made to the prevalent neglect
within and without, as well as altars and of confirmation, and further arrangements

images, glass windows, and the inclosure sanctioned respecting this holy rite. An
of the churchyard. The chancel and its interesting canon was also passed con
reparation was left to the rectors and cerning some evident want of rever
vicars.* ence, which was noticeable in the solemn
i4
In the Welsh dioceses, archbishop Peck- act of celebration. Let the linen cloths,
ham in 1284 issued stringent directions corporals, palls, and other altar cloths be
respecting the clergy of the cathedral of white and clean, and often washed by
St. David s, many of whom were married ; persons assigned by canon for this purpose,
such priests were ordered to be deprived out of regard to the presence of our
of their canonries. Saviour and of the whole court of heaven,
It will be convenient here to go beyond which is undoubtedly present at the sacra
the strict limits of our present period, ment of the altar while it is consecrating,
and to add a few details of subsequent and after it is consecrated. Let the words
synods and councils, which have their of the canon be fully and exactly pro

bearing on the practices of the mediaeval nounced, and with the greatest devotion of
Church of England. About forty years mind, with especial regard to those (words)
after the council of Lambeth, in the year which concern the Holy Sacrament."
1322, when Edward II. was king and At an important synod held at St. Paul s
Walter Reynolds archbishop of Canter under archbishop Mepeham, primate during
bury, a synod of considerable importance, the first years of Edward III/s reign,* cer
known as the "second of Oxford," was tain constitutions were passed, interesting
held. were issued by this
Strict directions as throwing further light upon important
council on the subject of the examination points connected with the doctrinal teach
of candidates for holy orders, and a list ing of the mediaeval Church of England.
was prepared of certain classes of persons The second constitution of this synod
utterly ineligible on account of their ordains anew festival in honour of the
previous lives. Clergy ordained in Ireland, Virgin Mary, which runs as follows :

Scotland, or Wales were prohibited from That the memory of the Blessed Virgin
"

in England, except upon the Mother of our Lord, may be

officiating Man,-, the
* oftener and more solemnly celebrated in
Compare Dean Hook Lives of the Arch
"

*
bishops." vol. iii., chap. vL, and vol. iv Ibid. vol. iii.. chap. ix.
296 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 11340.

proportion to the greater favour which she, much the same as are now appointed by
among all the saints, hath found with God. the Church of England to be kept holy.
. . . We
ordain and firmly command Only a very few additional days are men
that the feast of her conception be solemnly tioned in this catalogue of the mediaeval
celebrated for the future." The mode church, such as the Exaltation of the Holy
ration in tone of this constitution is Cross, St. Nicholas, the Invention of the
in striking contrast with some of the Holy Cross, etc. On
these holy days the "

more turgid and exaggerated statements of people were reverently to go to their

Rome. Another constitution of this great parish churches and await the complement
synod insists upon the strict observance of of masses and other divine offices for the
Good Friday, which it curiously reckons safety of themselves and the rest of the

among the festivals relating to the Saviour. faithful, the saints both living and dead."
Three years after this, at a council held The special object of keeping these saints
at Mayfield in Sussex by the same arch days was set forth to be that they and
"

bishop Mepeham, the question of keeping other Catholics may deserve to have the
religiously certain holy days is
carefully saints, whose feasts they may have cele
dealt with. The days in question are very brated, for assiduous intercessors with God."

CENSER tNCH CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL, IJTH CENTURY.

 i"
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w f h* erpcnlirtf/ (vi ItKcn OM I

flat ftfiuTc hrtiit JIM n-frage/f

fts auhim w

WYCLIF S ENGLISH VERSION OF ST. MATTHEW AND THE ACTS PAGES CONTAINING : ST. MATTHEW
XXI. 33 46, THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.
( This copy -was presented to Sir John Oldcastle, afterwards Lord Cobham, and is now in the Baptist College, Bristol.)

CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. THE BLACK DEATH. WYCLIF.

Papal Encroachments under Edward II. Suppression of the Knight Templars Horrible Cruelty
of the Proceedings Reign of Edward III., and Startling Contrast between its Commencement
and its Close His Statute of Provisors The Statute of Praemunire These made Possible
by the Degradation of the Papacy The Avignon Popes The Great Plague of 1349 Its Terrible
Results Special Effects upon the Church Causes of Popular Feeling against the Church
in the Fourteenth Century Ecclesiastical Abuses Wyclif Mixture of Truth and Error in
his Teaching Stages in his Career Early Life Attempts at Practical Reform in the Church,
and their Failure Appointed to Represent the English Monarchy against Papal Claims Becomes
Rector of Lutterworth Attacks Romish Errors His Views of the Eucharist Condemned
Personal Character Eucharistic Teaching Translation of the Bible Death and Condemnation
as a Heretic The Lollards Their Excesses and Suppression Wyclif s Wide and Insensible
Influence on Parliament and Politics.

reign of the unhappy Edward II. kingly pride or sense of duty,

no industry,

THE (A.D. 1307-1327) was uneventful

far as regards church matters. He
as or shame, or piety. ... He makes amuse
ment the employment of his life. . . .

has been graphically described as not with lavish

Vulgar pomp, heartless extravagance,
"

out some share* of the chivalrous qualities improvidence, selfish indolence, make him
that are impersonated in his son (Edward a centre of an intriguing
fit Yet court."
1

III.). He has the instinctive courage of his even the learned writer of the above stern
house, although he is neither an accom estimate of his character considers that
plished knight nor a great commander, but his terrible doom was unjust, that
"

his

he has no high aims, no policy, no . .

* Stubbs : "Constitutional History."

2
x
298
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13071327.

if we compare him with though he possessed not the temperament

punishment was,
out or the talents which were necessary for
the general run of kings, altogether
a fourteenth-century king.
of proportion to his offence."

In such a reign, as might have been

looked for, the pretensions
of Rome to

sovereign power over the English Church,

so largely ignored during the strong rule
of the great firstEdward, were vigorously
pressed again. The papal power was in
the days of Edward II., as we shall see,

sorely weakened and discredited, but never

theless its arbitrary decrees were acknow
ledged without dispute in England. Indeed
the Pope s authority was again and again
invoked by king and primate, and under
its baleful shadow the administration of
ecclesiastical affairs was largely carried on
during Edward II. s reign.
We mark, among the notable instances
of this exercise of papal power in England
in the reign of Edward II. which deserve

especial mention, the king s application to

the court of Rome to set aside the election
HEAD OF KING EDWARD II.
of the chapter of Canterbury, who, on the
(From the Effigy in Gloucester Cathedral.)

vacancy caused by the death of Robert

The pitiful student of our own times,
when he gazes upon the marvellous ala
baster effigy in Edward Plantagenet s stately
Gloucester shrine, with its
face modelled, tradition says, on a death-
mask cannot help wondering if the poor
deserted king so cruelly murdered, with
his weakness and his many faults, was not
more sinned against than sinning. Cer
tainly the strange cult of a whole people,
from the mighty king, his son, down to
the humble peasant a cult which
; began
almost immediately after his death, and was
offered at that stately tomb for
would seem to tell us that Edward
had some qualities winning and
Winchelsey, chose one Thomas Cobham, a
person of illustrious birth and great attain
ments. He had been previously chancellor
beautiful sad of Cambridge. The king, it is noticeable,
did not claim the right himself to appoint,
but applied to Rome to provide for the
all arch-see of Canterbury his
by nominating
old tutor, the bishop of Worcester, Walter
Reynolds. Pope Clement V. complied
with king Edward s request, and Walter
Reynolds became archbishop.
A yet more wide-reaching instance of
Roman power acknowledged in the Church
many years, of England during this reign, occurred in
II. the request of archbishop Walter Reynolds
to the Pope to grant him certain bulls,
lovable,
 STORY OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 299

through which he could exercise over though England only had a subordi
his great province extraordinary powers. nate share in it. We have already
Eight bulls were thus obtained, upon which briefly touched upon the beginnings of
the primate acted, and these were renewed the famous order of the Temple of
"

by Pope John XXII., who succeeded Jerusalem." As early as the year 1118, in
Clement V. Two of these high-handed the first years of the strange passion of
edicts of Rome, positively applied for by the Crusades, nine French knights de
an archbishop of Canterbury, gave the voted themselves to the protection of
primate extraordinary powers of visitation. Christian pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre.
Another of them gave him authority to Their ranks were speedily increased, and
dispense with the canons against pluralities. all nationalities pressed into their com
Another placed in his hands any single pany. They formed a half military, half
ecclesiasticalpreferment belonging
to a cathedral or collegiate church
visitedby him. But the eighth
was perhaps the most startling in
its provisions. By it the archbishop
was privileged to give an indulg
ence forall crimes committed with

in hundred days past to any

a

persons who should show them

selves penitent and confess to him
in his visitation.
On one occasion, in the year
1319, a dispute arose between the
king and the chapter of Win
chester respecting the filling of the
vacant see. The dispute was re
ferred to Rome, and the Pope
decided it
by providing for his
own nuncio in England, Reginald
Asser, who was eventually conse
crated bishop of the important
see of Winchester.

The decay of the Crusading

fervour was marked his reignin SHRINE OF EDWARD II. (Gloucester Cathedral.)

by a terrible episode, ghastly in its

iniquity, which cannot be passed over in monastic community. Their solemn vows
silence, since it is of considerable interest included chastity, implicit obedience to
in the history of the western church, their superiors, and a renunciation of all
300 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1307.

Perfect discipline, the

"

Temple
"

at Paris, with its vast and

personal possessions.
reckless bravery, a real enthusiasm for the stately buildings, was looked upon as the

cause to which they were devoted, ren central home of the mighty order, where
dered them the most conspicuous as well the general chapters were, as a rule, held,

as the most effective of the Crusaders. and whence proceeded the directions issued
In their ranks were found some of the to the various Grand Masters of the many
in
noblest by birth, as well as not a few of provinces England, Spain, Portugal,

the most adventurous spirits of the age ; Italy, and Germany.

and on the part of
a reverential admiration At the beginning of the fourteenth
the nations of western Christendom by century the work for which they had
been originally constituted, and in which
degrees enormously enriched the growing
order, till, at the expiration of an they had borne so distinguished a part,
existence of about two hundred years, the was done. The Crusades, after the enor
mous expenditure of lives and
Templars possessed enormous wealth, con treasure,

sisting of broad lands, strong castles, had accomplished nothing their early ;

money, treasure of all descriptions, the conquests had been lost. Jerusalem had
result of the lavish of their fallen, and the various fortresses in the
generosity
admirers. Matthew Paris records that east were taken or .
abandoned. There
was no longer any serious intention in the
they possessed in Christian countries as
many as nine thousand manors another ;
west of prosecuting the interminable and
chronicler increases the computation to desolating eastern wars. But the Templars,
ten thousand five hundred. At one period though their rat son cfetre no longer
the Dominican friars were their fervid an order were more numerous,
existed, as

allies, and made a point of requesting from
every dying penitent whom they attended
a legacy to the Templars. One king (of
Arragon) even bequeathed to them his
kingdom ;
but this almost incredible be
quest was not sanctioned by his subjects.
At the commencement of the fourteenth
century the original number of nine knights
more powerful, more wealthy than ever.
Very changed was also the spirit which
animated the mighty community. Their
apologists even those who most bitterly
condemn their persecution, and regard
with an unfeigned pity the circumstances
which accompanied their fall confess this.
Their overweening pride the grave sus ;

had grown into 15,000, all splendidly picion of lax morality in the case of
accoutred and admirably horsed, perfect certain of the knights ;
their complete
soldiers, and each knight accompanied by independence of all ecclesiastical discipline
a squire, a page, and a man-at-arms, and and authority the danger to the various
;

followed by a number of armed and de governments of Europe which the presence

voted slaves brought from the east.* The of such a powerful military order in their
French knights were largely in the midst would constantly present ;
made the
majority in the ranks of this strange Templars obnoxious alike to every sovereign
army, made up of many nations. And and to the church. They were virtually
* Michelet.
independent of the king, and they refused
302
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1307-

The knights of the

any right of the church
to resistance. mighty
to acknowledge
interfere with them. No bishop or arch order in France, thus in a moment dis

as their spiritual armed and rigorously imprisoned from

bishop was recognised
a acknowledgment of the Grand Master down to the youngest
superior; shadowy
the was their only real link with the
Pope knight were accused of awful charges,
Christendom. which may be thus summarised (i) That
powerful hierarchy of western
:

The king of France in the year 1307, at the secret initiation of each knight

memorable as being fatal to the Templars, Templar the novice was compelled to
was Philippe le Bel a needy and greedy deny Christ and to spit upon the cross.
He determined to destroy the (2) That
a hideous idol was the object of
sovereign.
That
mighty and somewhat dreaded order, and their secret adoration. (3) a terrible

to enrich his empty treasury with their licencewas allowed to each Templar to
enormous Utterly
possessions.
unsus commit unknown crimes. (4) That they
picious proudly conscious
of his design, were in league with the Mahommedan
of their position and power, the Templars powers, and that on more than one notable
never dreamed of a serious attack upon occasion in the course of the Crusading
their privileges and wealth. But king wars they had shamefully betrayed the

Philippe Bel had well calculated his power

le Christian cause.
and had skilfully prepared his measures. The greater part of these charges, ex
Grave rumours affecting the life led and amined by the cooler light of reason, are

designs entertained by the Templars had simply absurd. No sane man could for
for some time been floating about one moment suspect, or at the present
rumours largely owing to the malevolent day does suspect, that they were true.

and sinister designs of the king of France. The case against the Templars rests,

These evil rumours gradually crystallised however, on the confessions made

" "

into definite accusations. The proud by themselves before their judges. But
Templars, conscious of the wildness of these confessions were extorted by the

many of the charges, and their general cruellest and most fiendish tortures and ;

innocence of the graver matters alleged the fact of such inhuman and revolting
against them, persuaded, too, of their own tortures having been generally applied,
far-reaching power, paid little heed to of course minimises, if it does not rather
But u
completely do away with all the evidence
"

these. suddenly Christian Europe

was startled to hear that, as far as France provided by such means for who can ;

was concerned and it must be borne in accept a "

confession
"

thus shamefully
mind that the flower of the order was wrung out ? Not only in Paris, the head
located in France all the knights Templars quarters of the famous order, were these
were arrested by the king s command, their infamous proceedings on the part of the
goods inventoried and sealed, their mag king of France carried out, but with no
nificent houses occupied by the royal lessawful despatch proceeded also the in
soldiery. And all this was done with a terrogatories in other parts of France.

foresight and celerity that admitted of no Everywhere torture was prodigally used ;
 FALL OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 3<>3

everywhere with the same result, some "

sanction of the pontiff who claimed to be

few confessions, some retractations of con the head of Christendom. Helplessly tied

fessions, some bold and inflexible denials and bound by the power of Philippe,
of the whole, some equivocations, some conscious that he held his high office
submissions manifestly racked out of almost at the pleasure of the French king,

unwilling witnesses by imprisonment, with no high aims or noble purpose of his

exhaustion, and agony." own, little more than a creature of the
But what the Pope to this tre
said ambitious and greedy monarch to whose
mendous and arbitrary outrage of the king influence he largely owed his election, the
of France upon the persons and property, Pope joined Philippe le Bel in this policy
the existence, of a
mighty of relentless persecution.*
upon very
religious order directly owning submission Then followed the burning of the
to him ? At first unfeigned astonishment Templars, an act which, even in that
seems to have been his feeling. But over wild and stormy age, when human life was
the Papacy at this juncture brooded a held comparatively cheap, stands out with

strange dark cloud. Rent with internal ghastly prominence. In Paris one hun
divisions and jealousies, the electoral body dred and thirteen Templars were publicly
of had recently raised to the
cardinals committed to the flames, with (as Milman
Papal throne, as Clement V., Bernard de sternly adds)
"

not one apostate."

In the
Goth, archbishop of Bordeaux, with whose provinces of France, on a smaller scale,
tenure of office began the line of so-called similar atrocities were recorded. At
French pontiffs, the bishops of Rome Senlis nine of the knights of the order

usually known in history as the "Avig perished in the flames in Carcassonne ;

non "

Popes, all in succession more or less many more. The lives of the Grand
entirely dependent on the will of, and Master, Du
Molay, and the three other
generally subservient to, the policy of the great dignitaries of the order were spared
kings of France. We have already dwelt for the present but these too, before the
;

on this strange phase of the Papacy at curtain fell on the tremendous tragedy,
some length. Secret negotiations between were condemned to perish likewise in the
the king of France and Clement V. re fires of king Philippe. Two of the four,
sulted in the Pope s giving way. Under their spirit weakened by long and cruel
the pretext that the revelations extorted imprisonment and agonising torture,
from the hapless Templars by torture had begged for mercy, and were led back
convinced him of the guilt of the order, he again to a life-long captivity. But Du
threw in his lot with king Philippe le Bel, Molay, the Grand Master, and another of
and henceforth the shameless proceedings the four chiefs died nobly, protesting the
were carried out in France and in other innocence of their loved order to the end,
European kingdoms under the awful * Michelet thus
vividly summarises the infamous
bargain :
"

Le Pape lui (Philippe) abandonne les

*
Dean Milman :
"

Latin Christianity," book xii., Templiers, il livrait les vivants pour sauver un
chap, i., relates these tortures, with awful and mort, mais ce mort etait le papaute elle meme."
alood-curdling details. Histoire de Fran.ce," livre v., chap, iii.)
("
304
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1307-

and averring with their latest breath the however, a Pope Clement V.
bull of

Catholic faith of the Templars. arrived, peremptorily commanding the

As is so often the case, public opinion English king to arrest all Templars, and
at the sight of such great to sequestrate their domains and posses
veered round
in The sions. The iniquitous Papal had its bull
constancy enduring suffering.
and orders went forth to imprison
apathy or dislike with which
the Templars effect,

were regarded, changed into admiration. all the members of the order throughout

The heretic and crime-accused became England ;

but the arrested were, very
the martyr; and the very friars, so long differently from the French procedure,
the jealous enemies of the members of the treated with some kindness and con
famous order, are said to have busied sideration.

themselves, after the death of the Grand The English trials were conducted with
Master and his brave companion in suffer considerable care and attention to legal
and carefully interring in and largely resulted in
"

a full and
ing, in collecting details,

consecrated ground the ashes of the last absolute acquittal of the order." The
of the Templars. points of accusation held to be proven were
We have seen how it was the ruthless the right of absolution, held to be in the

greed of the king, and the cowardly and province of the Grand Master and of

inhuman acquiescence of the Pope, which certain lay knights in high office. This

brought about the Temple tragedy in

"
"

would naturally constitute a grave offence

France, the headquarters of the order."
"

in the eyes of the church. The secrecy

We must now consider what was the fate of the "

reception
"

rites was also con

of the knights in England and in other demned, as was also the Templar oath
lands of western Christendom, where, al probably misunderstood to increase the

though numerous than in France, the

less wealth of the order by right and wrong.
Templars were still an important power But of the graver charges none were
which had to be reckoned with. It may held to have been established. Some
well be conceived that both the king and of the evidence brought against the un
Pope were intensely anxious to justify happy order was of a most curious charac
their cruel action in France, by involving ter. It was rarely
direct, being grounded
other peoples in their inhuman proceed generally upon report and mere hearsay
ings against the famous and doomed order. evidence, more or less vague. Some of the
Very early in the dread business Philippe charges were simply ridiculous for in ;

pressed upon Edward II., king of England stance, a certain Templar had a brazen
"

who, be remembered, was his son-

it will head which answered all questions."
"

At
in-law, the husband of the French princess a great banquet, given by the preceptor at
Isabella of later terrible brethren met in solemn
notoriety to take York, many festival
similar severe measures against the Tem to worship a calf." "

A Templar was heard

plars. The tremendous accusation was at to say, as he walked along a meadow,
first received in England with an almost Alas, alas ! that ever I was born ! I must
scornful incredulity. Shortly afterwards, deny Christ and worship the Devil.
" "

A
 FALL OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 305

Franciscan had heard that a Templar had Master of the order, I would not have you
a son, who, looking through a hole in the enter it. We have three vows, known
wall, saw the knights compelling a pro- only to God, the Devil, and the brethren.

THE TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON.

fessing knight to deny Christ ;

on his re- What those vows were, the knight would
*
fusing, they killed him."
"

One who had not Such, writes Milman, was

reveal."

desired to enter the order deposed that a "

the mass of strange, loose, hearsay,

knight warned him against it, saying, If you . Several
pages of this curious stuff are given in
were my father and might become Grand Milman s "Latin Christianity," book xii., chap. iii.
306 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1307-

antiquated evidence, much of which had yet on the instant that they struggled
passed through many mouths. This was again into the light of day, on the first
all which as yet appeared against an order impulse of freedom and hope, all ...
arrested and imprisoned by the king, acting these confessions are for the most part
under the Pope s bull. . .
Against the
. retracted fully and unequivocally."*
order we are speaking of the English pro Contemporary historians for the most
cedure in the case of the
Temple knights part ascribed the wicked act of the de
torture was, not generally and commonly
if struction of the Templars to the avarice of
applied, authorised at least by the distinct Philippe le Bel, to whom, to serve his own
injunctions of the king and the Pope." selfish purposes, the Pope, as we have
u
Irreverent and heretical sayings uttered stated, abandoned the order. If,"
said

by Templars were quoted. The grave the unrighteous Clement V.,

"

it
(the
charges of immorality seem to have been order) cannot be destroyed by the way of
few and ill-supported. justice, let it be destroyed by the way of
But their doom was decided. The expediency, lest we offend our dear son
general sentence against the English the king of France." The final result, as

Templars was perpetual imprisonment might naturally have been expected, was
They seem to have that the dissolution of the Templars order
"

in monasteries.
been followed by general respect." In was universally decided upon. The vast
Italy, where the power and influence 01 treasures accumulated by the knights in
the Pope was naturally great, confessions their various houses and preceptories, in
were obtained, but by no means univer their castles and houses, fell into the hands

sally ;
and no doubt, as in France, under of kings and their courtiers, king Philippe
torture. In Germany, as the result of a le Bel of France being, of course, the chief

formal investigation held by archbishops of beneficiary; Pope Clement V., too, enor
the more important sees, such as Cologne, mously enriched himself. No account of
Treves, and Magdeburg, the order was these mighty Templar hoards was ever
acquitted. In Spain, in each of the king given. In England and France the lands
doms of Castille, Leon, and Arragon, and were handed over to the knights hospitallers
also in Portugal, the acquittal was absolute of St. John, a much
poorer and less power
and positive, the order being pronounced ful community than the Templars. But
guiltless. Only in France and in parts or chronicler Villani tells us that these
Italy were confessions of anything serious broad domains were so burthened with
obtained, but these sad confessions were royal demands, dilapidation claims, and
"

invariably, without exception, crushed out various exactions, that the recipients of
of men imprisoned, starved, and disgraced, the seemingly great gift, the knights
and generally under the most relentless hospitallers of St. John, were poorer
tortures, or under well-grounded apprehen rather than richer after they had entered
sions of torture, degradation, and into the inheritance of the fallen Templars.
misery,
with, on the other hand, promises of ab * Milman :
"

Latin Christianity," book xii.,

solution, pardon, freedom, royal favour ; chap. ii.

1307] FALL OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 307

There is
absolutely no doubt now in the ifnot approval, on the part of the people
minds of serious students, of the general generally in the cruel persecution to which
innocence of this great order as to any of the order was subjected.
the grave and terrible sins which formed The utter failure of the Crusades in their
the principal matter of the accusations object, after two centuries of tremendous
levelled against them by the king of and sustained effort, and the crushing

France, Pope Clement V., the pitiful in disasters in the East, closing the
Crusading
strument of Philippe le Bel, and their wars, towhich we have already alluded,
creatures. On
the orthodoxy of their faith no doubt also alienated the sympathy
no real breath of suspicion rests on the ;
of men in general from an order which
question of their moral character equally had been foremost and conspicuous through
nothing definite was proved to show that out the long wars. The continued presence
any special depravity existed in the famous of the Templars, their power, pride, and

military community. Individual instances wealth among the peoples of western

of sin in the case of individual knights, no Christendom, when the reason of their
doubt existed, as would be too surely the very foundation had ceased to exist, was
case in a widespread community in such without doubt a subject of offence in the
an age, possessing, as did the Templars, eyes of churchmen and laymen alike. The
great wealth and power and ample freedom Templars were a perpetual reminder of a
from restraint but no shadow of proof
;
lost and discredited cause. Men asked,,
exists that, as a whole, the order was what was their future work to be ? They
stained with special or general guilt. The were regarded as useless, even dangerous ;

singular charge, so generally made, and so that when the

suppression of the order
which in the many extorted confessions was finally decided upon, even in such
appears and reappears, of the denial of countries as England, which formally
Christ with peculiar gestures of emphasis acquitted them more monstrous
of the
on the occasion of the ceremony of the charges brought against them, no voice
initiation of a Templar, apparently had seems to have been raised on their behalf.
some foundation. It was probably a part But of their general innocence, the
of an ancient symbolic rite, based upon the words which decreed their suppression
terrible denial by St. Peter with oaths and words, be it remembered, solemnly spoken
curses a denial afterwards forgiven and
; by their bitter and relentless foe, Pope
.nobly expiated by a life of self-devotion Clement V. are the most irrefragable
and renunciation, crowned with a martyr s proof. After the abortive meeting of the
death. But in the popular mind the act, earlier sessions of the Council of Vienne,
divested of its symbolical signification, was A.D. 1311, partly called together to decide
one of awful blasphemy, and seems, upon the fate of the Templars, the Pope
especially in the earlier phases of the determining to suppress the order, in a
persecution, to have contributed more secret consistory composed of cardinals
than any other cause to the popular and prelates devoted to his
person,
detestation, and to the quiet acquiescence, formally pronounced the suppression but ;
308 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13271377.

the words which declared that the great the English church to a condition of blind
order was extinct are remarkable. Milman obedience to, and slavish dependence upon
thus paraphrases the somewhat enigmatical the will of the reigning Pope. It is memor
phraseology of the papal decree He,"
:
"

able also because, when the third Edward

the Pope,
"

had determined by way of was reigning, arose that illustrious and

prudent provision, not of condemnation, to bold reformer, Wyclif, who, with some
abolish the order of Templars." Michelet truth, has been styled the precursor of
thus summarises: "Que
les informations the Reformation.
ne sont pas assez sures, qu il n a pas le Edward III. has been compared to
droit de juger, mais que 1 ordre est Richard I. In some outward aspects of

suspect."
But in spite of this tardy his life and influence upon his country
acknowledgment of all failure of proof, the comparison is just. The famous and
Clement decreed the suppression. The magnificent Plantagenet was undeniably
bull of abolition, however, did not appear a warrior of the highest order, and a
in print before 1606, some three centuries most distinguished and successful military
after this unjust and high-handed pro commander and his long and brilliant
;

ceeding.* wars placed England in the forefront

of Christian nations, giving her an im
The long and outwardly glorious reign portant place among the nations of the
of hapless Edward II. s son and successor, west. But although a great warrior,
Edward III. (A.D. 1327-1377), is memorable he was ambitious and unscrupulous, ex
"

in the story of the Church of England, travagant and ostentatious. Like Cceur
because in it were
passed the great anti- de-Lion, he valued England primarily as
Papal statutes which largely restrained the a source of supplies for his foreign wars.
ever-growing attempts of Rome to reduce . The glory and growth of this nation
.

were dearly bought by blood, treasure,

* The words are as follows
original Quod :
"

and agony of many sorts." The popular

ipsae confessiones ordinem valde suspectum red-
notions of the "

gentle, gay, and splendid

debant. non per modum definitivae sen-
. .

tentiae, cum tarn

super hoc, secundum inquisitiones ideal king of chivalry,"
the founder of the
et processus prasdictos, non possumus ferre de famous order of the Garter, still the first
jure, sed per viam provisionis et ordinationis
and most illustrious of the knightly orders
apostolicae." Quoted by Michelet. The student
who may be curious to obtain further details of Christendom, are largely derived from
respecting this interesting and singular tragedy, the bright pages of the chronicler Froissart,
which closed the career of the most famous order
of mediaeval who loves to paint him as the successful
chivalry, is referred to Michelet
Histoire de
(" France," livre v., chaps, in., iv.), conqueror, the pattern knight, the centre
who tellsthe story of the fall of the Templars
with
of the gayest and most brilliant court in
his usual brilliancy and picturesqueness
of detail,
accompanied, however, with that some
the western world. There is, however,
what offensive realism which another side of Edward and work.
disfigures too often s life
his vivid descriptions. And to Milman Latin ("
His foolish, selfish policy resulted, in the
Christianity," book xii., chaps, i., ii., Hi.),
where,
at great length and with conspicuous fairness are *
Bishop Stubbs Constitutional History of
"

related the various steps of the

great process. England," chap. xvi.
i3*7-i377.] ENGLISH HATRED OF PAPAL USURPATION. 309

ful with the once magnificent sovereign,

long run, in a series of terrible troubles
and barren wars, which exhausted and the mirror of chivalry.
The system of papal provisions had long
crippled the country which
is so
long
of the conqueror of Crec.i, whose been viewed with distrust and dislike by
proud
with the true patriots among the English laymen,
splendid court was adorned
all

of France as well as by the nobler spirits among the

presence of the captive kings

Photo : Neurdin, Paris.

THE CASTLE OF THE POPES, AVIGNON.

and Scotland. There is another picture of ecclesiastics. Under this technical term of
the famous warrior-king less familiar to provisions," the Pope
"

claimed the right

the ordinary student of English history, of providing for the entire patronage of all
which shows us Edward III. in his old age, the higher preferments in the church a
overwhelmed with debt, worn out and right which, as we have seen, he not
partly imbecile, entirely under the sway of unfrequently exercised. The sovereign on
court factions, and especially influenced by several occasions took advantage of this
his evil genius, Alice Perrers, wha, after claim on the part of the Pope, and thus
the death of queen Philippa, was all-power- availing himself of Rome s good offices,
310 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13271377.

without much difficulty procured the from a simple benefice to the arch-see

election of his nominee to the primacy. of Canterbury. The Statute of Pro-

The Roman claims grew more and more visors, first passed in the year 1351, was
obnoxious England, and the terms in
in formally re-enacted on several subsequent
which they were exercised became, as time occasions, notably twice in the reign of
went on, more haughty and imperious. Edward III., and again in the reigns of
When John Stratford was appointed to Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V.
the archbishopric of Canterbury in the Two years after the passing of the
year 1333, we read how Pope John, statute of "Provisors,"
in the year 1353,

formally ignoring any English rights, a yet more direct blow was aimed at papal

simply appointed the primate of the Eng usurpations in the well-known statute of
lish Church, not because of any election Prcemunire, by which all
appeals to the
of the Canterbury chapter, but simply of Pope and his courts were virtually for
his own will,* "non virtute postulationis bidden and made penal. This all-important
capituli cantuariensis set proprio suo motu." statute derives its name from the first

The Edward III.

feeling, as the reign of words of the writ, which runs thus :

advanced, grew more and more intense.

"

Prcemunire facias prcefatum, A.B., etc."

At length the king, now a great power in ,

Praemunire, a word fairly common in

Europe, with his nobles,

in conjunction mediaeval use, signifies
"

to forewarn."

addressed a strong remonstrance to the The statute was very definite, and enacted
Pope, who, however, replied haughtily and that the people of the king of England s
all

contemptuously. This unavailing remon allegiance who should draw out of the
strance was shortly followed by parlia realm, any plea whereof of the cognisance
mentary action on the part of England. pertaineth to the king s court, should
All the estates of the realm were agreed as appear before the king s justices to answer
to the intolerable nature of the abuse, and to the king for the contempt done in this
in the year 1351 the first famous Statute behalf. If they failed to do this, their

of Provtsors was passed, ih which it was lands, goods and chattels were forfeit to
enacted that any person accepting a pro "

the king, and they were, in addition, to

"

vision of the Pope, and disturbing the be imprisoned.*

right of a patron
by such provision, was to The Statute of "

Praemunire "

was re-
be imprisoned, and not be released until enacted in A.D. 1365, and in the following
he had paid a fine, and had given security year (1366) the parliament the bishops
that he would not transgress again or sue and commons re
lords, unanimously
for redress in This
any foreign court. pudiated the burden of papal superiority
great and important statute swept away which had been undertaken by king John,
the right of Rome to present to and refused to pay the tribute of 1,000
any
preferment in the Church of England, marks, which had been long in arrear,
and which now ceased altogether. Even
Bishop Stubbs: "Constitutional History,"
chap, xvi., and Dean Hook Lives of the Arch * Dean Hook
"

:
:
"

Lives of the Archbishops,"

bishops," vol. iv. vol. iv., xii.
chap.
13051376.]
Peter s pence, the ancient Romescot, which
dated from the far-back Saxon times of
Offa and Ethelwulf, was withheld for a
time. Thus the first great blow was form
the long-continued Roman
ally struck at
THE AVIGNON POPES.
longer was environed with the traditional
majesty and immemorial sanctity of the
Eternal City. He had abandoned the holy
bodies of the apostles and the churches of
the apostles." *

England could afford to

supremacy over the Church of England. disregard any threat of excommunication
which issued from the Popes of "Avignon,"
Never had these bold and drastic mea and later from the Popes of the schism." "

sures been passed and carried into effect, This epoch in papal history is termed
even by a nation which stood so high among by the Italian writers "

the Babylonish
European nations as did England after the captivity."
It lasted more than seventy
campaigns which followed the victory of years from 1305 to 1376 during which
Creci, had not the papal power previously long period the Popes resided at Avignon,
sunk into a state of degradation and com not at Rome. The "Babylonish captivity"
parative impotence, in which state it con was succeeded by thirty-eight years of a
tinued for more than a hundred years. terrible schism in the Papacy ;
for these
When the great Pope Boniface VIII. thirty -eight years, generally two rival

died, in the year 1303, divisions and in popes, the one reigning in Italy, the

trigues divided the electoral college of other holding his court in France, claimed
cardinals. Boniface s death has been, not the allegiance of the faithful. The fatal
without reason, to poison attributed ;
schism was not healed until the year 1415
grave suspicion also hung round the swift witnessed the formal deposition of the
and sudden carrying away of his successor, Popes at the council of Constance,
rival
Benedict XI. The year 1305 witnessed and the election of Martin V. by that
the election of a Gascon, Bernard de council, when once more the papal power
Goth, archbishop of Bordeaux, to the resumed something of its ancient pre
Papacy, under the title of Clement V. eminence and dignity.
The was mainly due to the in
election During their seventy years residence in

trigues and power of the king of France ;

France the Popes abated none of their
and the cardinals were summoned to insolent claims to universal power, but the
attend the coronation of the new Pope, prestige of a Pope issuing his bulls and
not at Rome, but at Lyons. Cardinal commands from the comparatively un
Orsini is said to have uttered the sad known and insignificant Avignon was
will be long before we The glamour which
prophecy "It
sadly diminished.
:

shallbehold the face of another Pope." ever belonged to the bishop of Rome, was
He was right ;
for seventy years the seat not inherited by the Avignon Pope, who
of the successor of St. Peter was fixed at was rightly looked upon by Christendom
Avignon. A satellite of the kings of as little else than a subservient vassal of
France, with his permanent home at the French king. In this country the effect

Avignon,
"

the successor of St. Peter * book

Milman :
"

Latin Christianity," xii.,

little more than a French prelatCj no chap. i.
 312 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. LI 349-

we have noted. In no European realm the dioceses of her church, seriously im

was the tyranny of the Roman bishop so peding all work and spiritual progress,
to and fostering a of insubordination,
oppressive as it was in England, owing spirit

the unpatriotic conduct of king John and ;

alike injurious to church and state ;
alike

the growing unpopularity of Rome among hateful to the patriotic layman as to the

the Englisn people, received, no doubt, earnest, God-fearing ecclesiastic.

an enormous impetus, when the fact of the

Popes Avignon being really vassals of the

of On January ist, 1349, king Edward III.
French king became manifest to all men. wrote to the bishop of Winchester that
The hereditary jealousy between England the parliament which had been summoned
and France, the comparatively recent to meet on the igth of that month was
seizure Normandy, and the French
of prorogued until the 2jth of April, because
wars and victories of king Edward III., a sudden visitation of deadly pestilence
all combined to augment the English had broken out in Westminster and the
feeling against Popes who were French neighbourhood, which was increasing" daily.
prelates in everything save in name. The The parliament in question did not meet
resultwas the unanimous passing of the in April, nor that year,
all
nor, indeed,
famous anti-papal act sof provisors and "
"

until the February of 1350. England had

"

praemunire." The enfeebled papal court something of more pressing moment to

found itself utterly powerless. Its threats, occupy it during the year of grace 1349
once so dreaded, were absolutely disre than the discussion of the king s taxes or
garded in the England of Edward III., and the question of war and peace a more ;

thus the great anti-papal laws were placed deadly enemy than the Frenchman was
on the statute-book. The Reformation of in the land.
the sixteenth century had already begun. The year 1348 was a season of surpass
When the councils of Pisa in 1409 ing glory and pride in England. The
and the far more important council of great victory of had been won,
Crec.i
Constance in 1415 had succeeded in re and the warrior-king Edward was at the
storing the Papacy, so long weakened by height of his fame. England had, through
exile and discredited by a disgraceful his successful wars, won the first place
schism, to something of its old grandeur among the nations of the west, and the
and ancient influence, although some of pages of Froissart and the chroniclers are
the causes of papal unpopularity were brilliant with their pictures of the suc
removed, it was too late, as far as cessful monarch and his
England splendid court.
was concerned, to bring back the old state Later historians have followed and
suit,
of things.
Happily for herself and her comparatively little has been told us of the
church, aided by the strange combination awful pestilence and its results. It is onl)
of circumstances above
sketched, England by a careful search among the by-paths
had broken the fatal spell, and at last of history, that we learn what took place in
materially lightened the oppressive and England in that terrible year of 1349.
cruel yoke which Rome had imposed on The frightful pestilence for the term
I349-] THE BLACK DEATH. 313
"

black death
"

is a word of later usage are said to have perished on the continent

came in the first instance from the east, ofEurope in the fatal year 1348. In the

along the track of the great trade routes more important cities we read of such
from Asia to Europe. first hear of We numbers as 100,000 dying in Venice,
it in the Italian ports on the Black Sea. 60,000 in Florence, 70,000 in Sienna.

During the year 1347 there were notable These multitudes of people may have been
atmospheric disturbances, extending over exaggerated by writers and chroniclers,

ENTRY OF THE SECOND STATUTE OF PR^MUNIRE, A.D. 1393, IN THE STATUTE ROLL OF RICHARD II.

(Record Office.}

a large area of southern Europe, resulting but there is no shadow ol doubt that
in extensive failure of the harvest, and the mortality was frightful. Early in the
consequent distress and famine. In the following year (1349), as we have seen, the
January of 1348 we hear of a violent black death for we shall use the term by
earthquake, which wrought immense which the great pestilence is now gener
damage in Italy and on the Mediterranean ally known made its appearance in
seaboard. And same year the
early in the England. t

pestilence made its appearance in Avignon What was this awful disease ? Many
and other cities, and a dreadful mortality have suggested, but without reason, that
was reported, especially in the towns of it was scarlatina, as was, very probably,

Italy and France. . Enormous numbers the disease known as the "great plague"
3 4
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
at Athens of which we read in Thucy- and Albans, were visited with extreme
St.

If any part of the country is

dides. It was not smallpox or cholera. severity.

It seems to have been in many respects to be singled out, perhaps the vast and

like the awful scourge which still ever important district known
Anglia as East

and anon makes its appearance in the might be cited as the section of England
crowded and filthy quarters of eastern most cruelly ravaged by the scourge. Its
and in our own day has visited effect on England is best gauged by a
cities,
China and India. Villani, the Florentine simple quotation of the probable numbers
historian, himself subsequently a victim who perished of the deadly visitation.
to the fatal scourge, has left us some The entire population of England and
curious notes respecting the malady.
"

It Wales previously to the mortality of

took men generally," writes Villani, "in
1349, apparently consisted of from four

the head or stomach, appearing first in to five millions, half of whom seem
*
the groin or under the armpits in the to have perished ! The general result
form of swellings. Burning fever rapidly on the life of the country was most

ensued, accompanied with vomiting of striking. Rents fell to half their value.

blood. .The end came swiftly in some Thousands of acres of land lay untilled
cases in half a day, or within a day or and valueless. Cottages, mills, and houses
two at most." Boccaccio describes it, as were left without tenants. Ordinary
does the great emperor John Cantacuzene. commodities increased 50, 100, and even
The great surgeon Guido de Chauliac, 200 per cent, in value. Wages every
who spent sixmonths in the midst of it at where rose to double the previous rate
Avignon, where its ravages seem to have and more.
been singularly severe, dwells upon the This sketch of the awful calamity has
violent inflammation of the lungs which been given, because its effect upon church
was a symptom of this fatal malady. life and work in England was very great,
It was the year following its desolating and has only very lately, and by certain
progress on the continent, that the black historians, been attempted to be gauged.
death raged in England. Its havoc among The monasteries and religious houses
us seems to have been so widespread that spread over the whole of the kingdom
it is difficult to specify any special area were simply depopulated. For instance, ii

where its ravages weremarked with the year 1235 we know that the abbey of
peculiar intensity. All more im
the St. Albans counted some hundred monks
portant cities and towns seem alike to within This, of course, does not
its walls.

have suffered terribly. Of London, include various servants and lay

the
Gloucester, Worcester, Bristol, Oxford, brothers, perhaps amounting to 300 or
Norwich, Ely, Leicester, York, we possess more besides. Of these hundred, the
interesting and mournful details. The
* On
these numbers, see Dr. Gasquet
country districts were afflicted equally
"The :

Great and the various and copious

Pestilence,"
with the towns. The great monastic
references there quoted; also Dr. Jessop: "The
centres, such as Westminster, Glastonbury, Black Death in East Anglia."
1349] THE BLACK DEATH IN ENGLAND. 315

abbot and forty-seven of his monks died record of the number of Franciscans or

at one time. Glastonbury is cited as a Friars Minor who perished of the malady
very similar instance. in England, but in the general chapter,
"

It is
impossible
to estimate the effect of the plague upon held in 1351 at Lyons, it was reckoned
the religious houses. . . . The mon that the order had lost through the
asteries suffered very greatly indeed from sickness as many as 13,883 members in

the terrible visitation. A violent dis Europe. Wadding,* the Franciscan annalist,
turbance of the old traditions and the attributes to the frightful mortality of
utter breakdown the old observances,
in thisplague the decay of fervour evident
throughout his own order. This evil "

as disastrously upon these institu

"

acted
stroke of paralysis does (the black death) wrought great destruc
"

tions as the first

upon men who have prime passed their : tion to the holy houses of religion, carrying

they never were again what they had off the masters of regular discipline and

been."* Indeed, after the pestilence of the seniors of experience. . . . Our

1349 the religious houses in existence illustrious members being carried off, the

greatly more than sufficed for the number by these

rigours of discipline, being relaxed
of vocations in the reduced population. calamities, could not be renewed by the
u is no
There need to have recourse to youths received without the necessary
a supposition as to the wane in popularity training rather to fill the empty houses
of the religious orders, and the prevalent than to restore the lost discipline."

sense that theirwork was over, to explain The necessity which everywhere obliged
the diminution in their numbers and the the bishops to institute young and inex
absence of new monastic foundations."! perienced, if not positively uneducated
We possess a certain number of statistics clerics the vacant livings, must have
to
of some dioceses, cities, and religious caused grave injury to the work and the
houses, which, with their dry and prosaic prestige of the Church of England. So
figures and unadorned statements, tell us pressing was the need of ministers in the
something of what happened in that awful various churches where the priests had

year of death. In the county of Norfolk perished, that special faculties were sought
alone, out of 799 priests, 527 died of the and obtained for ordaining persons scarcely

fatal pestilence. In the West Riding of qualified. So the archbishop of York

Yorkshire, then a comparatively thinly received from Rome the power of ordain

populated district, 96 priests died out of ing at any time, and of dispensing with
141. In the East Riding, out of 95, the usual interval between the sacred
only 35 survived. It has been computed orders. The bishop of Norwich was
that above two-thirds of the clergy of allowed by Pope Clement VI. to dispense
England were carried off by the sickness with sixty clerks, who were but twenty-
we term the black death. There is no one years of age though only shave
"

lings"
and to allow them to hold
Dr. Jessop : "The Black Death in East
rectories, as otherwise the divine offices
Anglia."

The Great * Dr. "

The Great Pestilence."

f Dr. Gasquet Gasquet
"

: Pestilence." :
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [ 349-

of the church would cease altogether in ground lost during the year of the black

many places of his diocese.

"At that death, by the time of the Reformation.*
another writer, "there was
time," says
that
About the middle of the fourteenth
everywhere such a dearth of priests
without the century many circumstances contributed
many churches were left
to the state of things in the Church of
divine offices :
mass, matins, vespers,
sacraments."
England, which was so unsparingly criti
much which cisedand so bitterly attacked by the great
There is little doubt that
reformer Wyclif, who was by far the most
Wyclif, of whom we are about to speak,
saw and deplored in the church, was owing powerful adversary of the general hierar
chical system of western Christendom that
had yet appeared, and who has been
termed, with some justice, the first apostle
of Teutonic Christianity. Without sub
scribing to the sweeping and exaggerated
opinion, perhaps too largely accepted, that
the attack of Wyclif began precisely at
the moment when the church of the
middle ages had sunk to lowest point its

of spiritual decay,! it is clear that a

growing feeling of distrust of and dis
content with the church existed in

England from that period and onwards.

The papal tyranny and its disastrous
effects had justly excited a widespread
feeling of dissatisfaction among all classes
JOHN WYCLIF.
(From the portrait at King s College, Cambridge.)
of men, clerical as well as lay. The
system of papal "provision" for the filling
to this awful
calamity, which in one short up so many of the higher and more
year swept out of life so vast a proportion influential of the church s offices, had
of the clergy two-thirds of the whole worked a widespread mischief. At one
number ; including without doubt many time the important deaneries of York,
of the noblest and most who Lincoln, Lichfield, and Salisbury, the
devoted,
naturally, in the performance of their archdeaconry of Canterbury, which was
pastoral duties, fell in the - forefront of the reputed the wealthiest English benefice,
awful battle with sickness. It the archdeaconries of Durham, Suffolk,
deadly
seems that the church, in fact, never and York, together with a host of pre-
really
wiped away the effects of the great bends and preferments, were held by
it *
calamity, being absolutely certain that Compare Dr. Gasquet : "The Great Pasti- .

in tone, as well as in and

lence,"
Henry VIII.
"

and the English!

numbers, the various
Monasteries," chap. i.
religious bodies had not recovered the t Green: "

History of the English People."

13661384.] ABUSES IN THE CHURCH.
Italian cardinals and priests : these even Rome, fell on the church which submitted
obtained bulls from Rome which enabled to and apparently countenanced such pro
them to hold as twenty livings at
many as ceedings, carried on under the direct sanc
once. The abuse of plurality, which often tion of its acknowledged chief and head.
left the spiritual care of the people to Then, too, the practice, which had

hirelings or to the volunteer agency of the become an open scandal, of selling pardons
friars, was a crying evil ;
and
though it is probable that
statements of this unhappy and

self-seeking custom have been

considerably exaggerated, it is
indisputable that it existed,
and that not a few districts and
cities of England at this period

suffered gravely from this shame

ful though, alas !
recognised
practice. The enormous sums
drawn every year out of Eng
land by the Pope s various col

lectors, legates and officials,

created the most serious and
well-founded discontent, and
these exactions were ever on
the increase. Before the end
of the century, it was asserted
in Parliament that the taxes
levied by the Pope amounted
to five times the amount of

those levied by the king Taxes !

on property belonging to the

THE WYCLIF PULPIT, I.UTTERWORTH CHURCH, I4TH CENTURY.
church were, no doubt, specially
referred to in such a statement. But, and indulgences another device for re
allowing for all
exaggerations, there is plenishing the papal treasury and enrich
no shadow of doubt but that the treasury ing the papal emissaries was beginning
of the Pope was enormously benefited deeply to wound and afflict thinking men.
by the various taxes imposed by Rome, Chaucer, reflecting the public opinion
and by the iniquitous and utterly in-> current in the last half of the century (he
excusable system of papal provision for wrote between A.D. 1382 and 1391), good-
valuable and important benefices and pre humouredly, but still with considerable
ferments. Much of the indignation ex irony, speaks of the wallet of
"

pardons
cited by this wrong-doing on the part of hot from Rome."
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13661391.

Within the church many things

itself, spirituality largely faded away. They had
lessened its influence among the people, done noble and splendid work, many of
and stirred up hostile criticism from friends them were still doing it but sad abuses ;

and foes alike. Her enormous wealth had crept in among them. They had in
excited wide jealousy, especially as this vaded every stronghold of the clergy, the
wealth was very unequally divided, and the universities, the cities, the county parishes.
deepest poverty often existed among the Terrible jealousies existed between them
ranks of her ministers, side by side with and the parish ministers, who complained
vast possessions and luxurious living of with some reason that these intruders,
some of the members of the hierarchy. subject to no church law or ecclesiastical

Nearly all the important offices of the discipline, intercepted the lawful offerings

state, too, at this time were held by and estranged the affections of their flocks.

ecclesiastics who left their spiritual duties When Wyclif preached and wrote, there is
to be performed by paid deputies. That a no doubt that a crowd of impudent mendi
growing taste for luxury and magnificence cants too often dishonoured and brought

among many of the wealthier clergy was discredit upon the cause they professed
on the increase, is manifest from the grave to serve.

warnings which we find issued in the And, above all, there was that other
church synods of the period against ex cause, which modern historians have almost
travagance in dress and foppishness, too entirely left out of their reckoning, the
common, apparently, among clerics. The awful plague of 1349. The Black Death,
costly furs, the hanging sleeves, the curled whose ravages we have described at some
hair, the general imitation of the knights length, had thinned the church by sud
and nobles, were again and again com
denly sweeping out of its ranks two-thirds
mented upon by the more severe and of members, including many of its most
its

spiritually-minded of the bishops and devoted and earnest servants. Those who
church leaders. Chaucer s picture of the supplied their places were largely young,
hunting monk, and of the courtly prioress untried, ill-trained men. The church not
with the love motto on her brooch, is well
only suffered in its numbers, but in the
known. character of its ministers.
The friar, too, had lost his first love for Yet we must be heedful of allowing a
poverty his splendid and unselfish en too low estimate ot the
;
life and influence
thusiasm to devote himself to the of the English church at this period
poorest an
and most afflicted among the population, estimate easily arrived at by reading the
had sadly waned. A
century of popular burning words of Wyclif s writings. The
favour and of
ever-increasing fame had not church was not dead, by any means. It
a little sapped his zeal. The mendicants was still,
in spite of
many weaknesses, many
in England, now divided into four
orders, errors and misfortunes, a great and living
as everywhere had enormously in
else, power for good, a
mighty influence in the
creased innumbers but as their numbers land.
; It still possessed, even in its thinned
and their fame their original and plague-shattered ranks,
augmented, in its Rome-
13821391-] CHAUCER S TESTIMONY, 319

ridden cathedral chapters, in its desolated of his days quietly preaching and working
and partly emptied monasteries, among its at Lutterworth. It is said that when his

simple village pastors, many a great scholar, last illness seized him, his enemies were
many a devoted and ascetic church leader, preparing for his arrest and condemnation ;

many a man
holy and humble of heart. but this is uncertain. Considering his
Chaucer, the popular story-teller, the poet colossal greatness for in learning, in

of the people, truthful, earnest, and bright ; energy, in the amount of good work he

charming us still, as he charmed his own left behind him, he towered over all his

contemporaries, with his life-like portraits contemporaries scant

justice has been
of the men and women he met with daily, done him. He has never been a favourite
lashing with his kindly good-humoured hero in the English church, and much
irony all sorts and conditions of men ;
of what is known of him is derived from

among his fourteenth- century portraits men who disliked and dreaded him. He
thus draws one of a humble and devoted leftno successor he stands quite alone.
;

parish priest : His memory was execrated, and his teach

ing condemned after his death. But some
"

A good man there was of religioun

That was a poor person (parson) of a toun, of the more important doctrines of the
But rich he was of holy thought and werk. reformers of the sixteenth century were
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Christ s Gospel trewely wolde preche, anticipated by Wyclif, and clearly taught
His parishens devoutly wolde he teche." by him. Justly has he been termed the
precursor of the Reformation.
It was this beautiful and true picture There is no doubt that, mingled with
of a parish priest, of a type the popular his just views of the absolute independence
writer must have known well and met of the Church of England of all Roman
with often, that Dry den so accurately para interference with his intense desire that
;

phrases in his well-known lines in English, the Holy Scriptures should be read by all
more familiar to us than the old form sorts and conditions of men with his true, ;

of speech of the great fourteenth-century clear-cut conceptions of certain important

poet doctrinal truths, notably that of the

A Presence in the Holy Eucharist

parish priest was of the pilgrim train, spiritual
"

An awful, reverend, and religious man. there are points in his teaching which
His eyes diffused a venerable grace,
no serious statesman or churchman could
And charity itself was in his face.
Rich was his soul, though his attire was poor, have accepted. His views on church
(As God had clothed his own ambassador) are are based on
property impossible,
For such on earth his blessed Redeemer bore."
error and misapprehension, and would
lead only to immoral confiscation. His
The story of Wyclif is not an easy one teaching on church order is often faulty,
to unravel. It will ever be a difficult and must practically lead to anarchy and
matter to explain, for instance, how one disorganisation. In many respects Wyclif
so hated and dreaded as was the great re would answer to what in modern times is
former, was permitted to spend the evening sometimes termed a Christian Socialist."
"
320 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1366-1384.

But the apologist of this great man His teaching was too much mixed with

may fairly urge in his defence, that the errors, too much disfigured with sketches
state of the church in Wyclif s days urged of unreal and impossible schemes. His
him to exaggerate his teaching, drove him still to be written
real life has and when ;

to propose crude remedies and destructive that can be done calmly, dispassionately,

reforms, which in a happier and purer age apart from the din of controversy, it will
he would never have dreamt of suggesting. be seen that, with all his many faults and
No fair historian of his stormy career can mistakes, it was a really great and true
consider without regret and sorrow the man who arose in that confused and
record of much of his teaching but he ;
troubled period.

may fairly find a reasonable excuse for Wyclif s remarkable career may be
these grave errors, when he considers the divided into three periods ;
the first ex
age and its awful corruption, in the midst tending to about the year 1366, when he
of which Wyclif lived and worked. appears prominently put forward as the
Butat the same time the just historian opponent of Rome. During this first

must, with unstinting praise, give all period, the time of study and quiet Oxford
honour to that true and fearless scholar, teaching, we hear little of him. But it
who, out of the maze of false teaching was in this long, still time, extending over
which had grown up around the doctrine many years, that he laid the solid ground-
of the Eucharist, was able to disentangle stones of his vast learning.
once more the true conception of the great In the second period, the age of the
Sacrament, and to hand it on, a precious decline of king Edward III., he plays the
and part of the recognised opponent of Roman
legacy, to great English thinkers
teachers. Wyclif s thoughts on this subject claims and errors and oppressions. He is
have never died. Some century and a half the reformer, but rather of the life of the
later we shall meet with them again in the church than of her doctrines. During
period of the great struggle. They helped this period of some twelve or more years
in no small degree to form the
theology Wyclif was not content with putting out
of the mighty mere theories respecting church reform.
English reformers. Then,
again, it was Wyclif who was bold enough He own
organised a kind of order of his
to make the first stand against that vast
poor priests," as they were
"

Wyclil s
network of errors which Roman called. To be poor without mendicancy
teaching
had curiously woven round doctrine and was his ideal for these "poor priests."

practice, and which was working so disas Barefoot and wearing long russet gowns,
trously in the Church
of England in these disciples of Wyclif mingled among
the fourteenth century. But perhaps the the poor and their earnestness and their
;

greatest and most enduring work of that

boldness, and the novelty of the reforms
strange, wonderful life, was his
giving to they urged, with their deep sympathy for
England the first
English Bible. Wyclif the poor, obtained for the " "

poor priests
will never take his proper place
probably a wide popularity.
Many of them were
among the popular heroes of our who had
country. priests joined Wyclif out of
 -
W
2 8

H
^
!>
<*

<>

&
322
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13661384.

admiration for his views and piety and came to an end. A good deal of the
Some probably were not old reverence for the head of the church
eloquence.
ordained at all, but were scholars and naturally returned, when the head of the

others whom his teaching had drawn church ceased to be a French prelate

round him from Oxford and elsewhere- devoted to the interests of the -bitter foe to

as we should term them.

lay preachers,
It England and Wyclif, when the Pope once
;

iserroneous to suppose that Wyclif, as more to a great degree regained his power
some have suggested, took upon himself among the English people, gave up all

to ordain. This order of his, in its earlier serious hope any practical reform
of seeing

before he fell under the in the church. From this time till the
years certainly,
ban of the church, was even employed end came six years later, he devoted him
under episcopal sanction ; certainly in the self exclusively totheology. In 1380 his
vast diocese of Lincoln, probably in other English translation of the Bible a work
dioceses also.
"

It is idle, perhaps, to con he had no doubt been long preparing was

jecture what might have

been but if ; put out and in the following year his
;

Wyclif had died before his denial of tran- famous paper, containing twelve proposi
substantiation (for which more than any tions, in which he denied the doctrine of

thing else he was condemned by the church) transubstantiation, was issued. It was on
strange dream as it seems, it is less strange these propositions that his prosecution by
than the real life of Francis of Assisi his archbishop Courtenay was framed, and his
name might have come down to us in subsequent condemnation as a heretic was
another form, and miracles might have principally founded.
been wrought at the tomb of their founder Of his early, and indeed of his middle
by the brother preachers of St. John life, we know very little. Of humble
*
Wyclif." birth, he was one of the many poor but
The third period of Wyclif s life must ardent scholars who found their way, still

be reckoned from the date of the death young, to the great teaching centre of
of Pope Gregory XI., the last of the Oxford. Tradition speaks of him as a
Avignon Popes, the year of the real com scholar, first of the loved queen Philippa s
mencement of the papal schism, but when (wife of Edward III.) new foundation of
once more a Pope issued his mandates Queen s College, and subsequently as a
from Italy and Rome. This period of the student perhaps a teacher in the older
reformer s career lasted from 1378 till his and more famous foundation of Merton.
death at Lutterworth in 1384. A curious Years must have passed over Wyclifs
reaction in favour of the Papacy set in head before we find him illustrious, during
during these last years of Wyclif s
six which long studious period he laid the
career. When the Popes ceased to be foundation of his future greatness. In
French Popes living at Avignon, their un 1356 the famous treatise entitled the
popularity in England in a great measure Last of the Church was put out.
" "

Age
* Introduction to
Fasciculi
usual to assign that wild but striking
It is
Rolls
"

Zizaniorum,"
Series. work to Wyclif, but no real or substantial
1366-1384.] LIFE OF WYCLIF. 323

evidence connects him with this writing. the Reformer we hear nothing of any
The Last Age of the Church was, no
" "

attacks by him upon the doctrinal system

doubt, inspired by the awful plague, the current in the Middle Ages. All his efforts
Black Death which had so desolated were directed to a reform of the practice,
England a few years before, and the effects rather than of the teaching of the church.
of which, in the emptied religious houses, It was only in the later years of his career
in the thinned ranks of the clergy, in the that he appears as one who impugned
distress and confusion which were the the accuracy of the church s teaching in
results of the fearful visitation, had stirred certain important points. All his earlier
the minds of many devout men, who in efforts were directed against what every
the crushing calamity thought they dis earnest and thoughtful churchman felt
cerned the woes which were to usher in were terrible abuses, though Wyclif and a
v
the "

last things." The Last Age of the few of his disciples were alone bold enough
Church" contained stern .denunciations publicly to denounce them. The evils
against the clergy, especially the holders which pretensions of Rome had
the
of the more valuable preferments, as well brought upon the church, above described,
as an interpretation of the recent miseries the vast sums which were yearly drained
as heralding the approaching termination from English ecclesiastics to support the
of the world and although Wyclif was ;
extravagance and intrigues of the papal
not the author of the famous writing in court of Avignon, the scandal which the
question, it was amidst the scenes which vast crowds of begging friars brought on
inspired it that his student life was passed. religion, the luxury and state which
It was not until the year 1361 that we characterised too many of the office

find Wyclif holding high office in his bearers in the church these were the
Between the years 1361 and
university. points which especially engaged Wyclifs
1366 he seems to have been master or attention until, roughly speaking, he had
warden of Balliol College, and especially entered into the last decade of his life.
distinguished for his bold denunciation of Out of heart at the failure of his efforts
the mendicant friars, whom he branded as to bring about a reformation of the inner

hypocrites, as professing mendicancy while and outer life of the church he loved so
all the while possessing stately houses, well, he then turned his thoughts to
riding on noble horses, enjoying all the faith rather than practice ;
and by boldly
pride and luxury of wealth with the questioning the teaching of
doctrinal
ostentation of poverty. The humbler of the day, he drew upon his head the bitter
these friars, numbering a great host, he condemnation of Rome, and Rome s agents
denounced with rough, eloquent indigna and faithful adherents everywhere. Con
tion as nothing more than able-bodied demned and viewed with suspicion and
beggars, who were working positive evil dislike, often shading into hatred, while
and mischief in the church and state he lived, after his death he was branded
they professed to serve. as a heretic.

During all the early and middle life of The last fourteen or fifteen years of
324
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1366-1384.

Edward III. s that is to say, from the feeble reigns of John, Henry III., and
reign
about 1363 to 1377 was a period of rapid Edward II., but had been sternly refused
decline in the prosperity of the country. by Edward I. and his warrior-grandson
Between the years 1350 and 1363 England Edward III. Such a demand, pressed by
had stood on a lofty pinnacle of greatness the Avignon Pope, intensified the hatred

the nations after the victory of with which Rome was regarded by states
among
Cre$i and the French wars. In these men, and indeed generally by the English
fifteen sad years all the conquests made church and people. The attitude of the

during the early brilliant career of Edward Pope towards England, however, was
III., save Calais, were lost. England saw signallychanged from the times of John
her navies annihilated and her shores and Henry III., when he trampled upon
insulted by hostile ships ;
while at home every national right and privilege. Now
her people, already enormously diminished he consented to temporise, instead of

by the plague, were still further exhausted launching interdicts and excommunica
The glory and brilliancy of the tions against the country, so long sub
by wars.
earlier days was utterly forgotten, in the missive, which had presumed to question

shame and disasters of these last fifteen his so-called rights. Ten
years later a
unhappy years, and the most kindly conference between England and the papal

apologist is dismayed when he has to tell legate, to be held at Bruges, was agreed
the story of a court where, after the death upon, and the famous anti-papal scholar
of the noble queen Philippa, one of the Wyclif was named by king Edward as his

ladies of her bed-chamber, the beautiful second commissioner. The formal appoint
Alice Ferrers, as the royal mistress reigned ment of Wyclif to such a weighty mission

supreme, and exercised almost absolute shows his importance to the realm,
powers, interfering disastrously not only and also in what
esteem the great
in home and foreign politics, but openly scholar who had boldly proclaimed the
making in the courts of justice a shameful necessity of urgent reforms in the church
traffic of the favours of the crown. was held in the England of 1376, the last
During this gloomy period of our year of Edward III. s reign. Wyclif was,
national history, Wyclif was brought into during this part of his career, strongly
prominent contact with the general supported by John of/ Gaunt, king
politics of the country. In the year 1366 Edward s son, who in the declining years
Pope Urban, no doubt taking advantage of his father, when the Black Prince was
of the declining fortunes of England and
sinking into his premature grave, exer
her king, put fonvard a demand for the cised enormous influence. The reigning
long arrears of the tribute due to Rome Pope was Gregory XI., known as the last
under the shameful convention of king of the Avignon Popes, an ecclesiastic o*
John. This payment of 1,000 marks high character and great energy.
annually a very large sum, considering Nothing was definitely or permanently
the value of money in those days had settledby the Bruges conference. Both
been made with fair regularity during the Pope and the English government
 326 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13661384.

made concessions, out it was rather a at Rome as a dangerous heresiarch ;

and
truce for a season than a definite agree Pope Gregory XI. sent bulls to Englan d,
ment. certainly waived many
The Pope to the archbishop of Canterbury, Simon

of his haughty pretensions, but he form of Sudbury, the University of

Oxford,
none of the papal claims, and king Richard II., commanding that
ally surrendered
and we find Rome still continuing to inquiry should at once be made into
nominate to archbishoprics, bishoprics, and the erroneous doctrines of the . bold
rich abbeys. On the other hand, on the reformer. Wyclif, in consequence, ap
part of England the anti-papal statutes
of peared before an ecclesiastical court held
Provisors and Praemunire remained un- at Lambeth, and there openly declared

repealed. As
to the Bruges
a sequel in a public reply to the accusation, that

conference, Wyclif was rewarded by the the property of the church was not in

prebend of Aust, on the Severn, the alienable, but was subject to forfeiture by
traditional meeting-place of Augustine and the temporal power. He also asserted that
the British bishops, and with the rectory spiritualpowers of condemnation, such as
of Lutterworth, which he held till the excommunication, and even the right of
end of his life.* absolution, were not absolute and uncon
The year 1377 witnessed the death of ditional, but were valid only if uttered in
Edward III., who, alas had long outlived !
conformity with the willHisof God.
his fame, and the accession of his ill-fated condemnation was only stayed by the
grandson Richard II., the dead Black death of Gregory XI. and the subsequent
Prince s heir. One of the first acts of the schism in the Papacy. Gregory XL died
new king s ministers and Parliament was in the year 1378.
to claim a large amount of treasure col It was in the year 1382 that the pro
lected for the Pope by his English agents. vincial council at the London
Black Friars in
Desirous legally to establish the national met under archbishop Courtenay. At this
right to this papal collection, Wyclif was council Wyclif was naturally condemned.
selected to frame the legal plea for this His view of the Holy Eucharist was pro
confiscation. He declared with extreme nounced to be heresy, along with other
hardihood that the necessities of the conclusions drawn from his writings. He
nation had the first and paramount claim was banished from Oxford, but allowed to
to all
moneys raised within the realm retire
; and, unmolested, at least for a time, to
quoting the honoured Bernard, name of St. his living at -Lutterworth. The grandeur
publicly proclaimed besides that the Pope of the position of
Wyclif in England, and
could pretend to no secular dominion as the vast influence he had won over the
the successor of St. Peter. But now the hearts of the people, is strikingly shown
time was arrived when
Wyclif was regarded by the evident reluctance of archbishop
*
Compare generally Milman Latin Christi :
"

Courtenay and his powerful enemies to

anity," book xiii., chap. vi.. and Fasciculi Zizani-
orum Johannis Wyclif cum Tritico," ascribed to proceed to extremities with him after this
Thomas Netter of Walden, Confessor to
King public condemnation. For nearly two
Henry V. and Provincial of English Carmelites. years he was allowed to remain in his
 1366-1384.] WYCLIF S CHARACTER. 327

quiet retreat at Lutterworth, where he life. Austere even to asceticism, he lived

preached and wrote unweariedly until ;
himself the stern, hard life he preached
the fatal stroke of paralysis on the 29th to others with the irresistible earnestness
of December, 1384 which occurred while of conviction.
he was in the act of hearing or celebrating His influence over all sorts and condi
mass put an end to the wonderful life and tions of men was boundless. It reached
labours of the profound scholar, the elo from the ambitious prince John ot

quent and winning preacher, the unwearied Gaunt, to the illiterate, down-trodden
writer, and earnest reformer. It was per peasant. Grave church dignitaries, men
haps well that kindly death then took him immersed in commerce, statesmen, scholars,
thus gently home, for his restless enemies soldiers, all
acknowledged the winning
were busy preparing a fresh trial for the charm, the holy eloquence, the irre
worn-out and exhausted man. Had he sistible power, of this strange and gifted
lived, it is more than probable that Wyclif, man. It would be hard among English
"

like so many of earth s great ones, would worthies to find one who possessed
only have passed through pain and agony the key "of human hearts like Wyclif.
to his well-won rest."
"

To the memory of one of the greatest

Too scanty are the materials ready to of Englishmen his country has been
our hand, when we endeavour to give singularly and painfully ungrateful. On
any fair idea of the man who exercised most of us the dim image looks down
so marvellous an influence over his own like the portrait of the first of a long line

generation who by his works and words

;
of kings, without personality or expression.
sowed the seeds of that Rerormation which He is the first of the reformers. . . .

inspired the Church of England with such If considered only as the father of English
marvellous life and divine power, which its prose, he might claim more reverential
very enemies grudgingly acknowledge still treatment than he has received at our
lives and works in it, after centuries, with hands. It is not by his translation of the
undiminished vitality.
"

No friendly hand Bible, remarkable as that work is, that

has us any, even the slightest, memorial
left
Wyclif can be judged as a writer. It is in
of the great reformer." None speak of a his original tracts, only one or two of
commanding person, or even of a winning which have been printed, that the ex
face. We can only picture to ourselves a quisite pathos, the keen, delicate irony,
Wyclif with a spare, emaciated frame but ;
the manly passion of his short, nervous
in that frail, worn
body must have lived a sentences, fairly overmasters the weakness
tireless spirit which knew no fear, a con of the unformed language, and gives us
viction (which never faltered) that he was English which cannot be read without a
guiding men along the path which alone feeling of its beauty to this hour."*
leads to the City of God.
Persevering and Among scholars he was absolutely the
unwearied, he never allowed himself rest ;
first of his day. In letters he ranks as the
unselfishand self-denying, his bitterest foes *
Zizaniorum (Introduction), Rolls
"

"Fasciculi
could find no flaw in his pure and spotless Series.
328
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13661384.

lastof the great schoolmen. His industry Of

his doctrines, his teaching respecting

the sacrament of the altar was by far the

even in those laborious days was simply
books most and far-reaching in its
important
amazing. The number of his

as we said, final results. It has been well said that

mostly, of course, tracts, but,
if there was one doctrine upon which the
tracts lit up with wonderful learning and
"

powerful reasoning baffles calculation. supremacy of the mediaeval church rested,

have been it was the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Two hundred are said to

burned in the course of the religious

It was by his exclusive right to the
How much of the of the miracle which was
troubles in Bohemia. performance
"

wrought in the mass, that the lowliest

priest was raised high
above princes."*
The grosser theory of transubstantiation
Wyclif emphatically denied in his teaching
in the
respecting the spiritual presence
Holy Eucharist. He followed more or less

closely the primitive doctrine taught

by
the Anglo - Saxon church, before the
coming of Lanfranc and the Norman
school. With him the Eucharist is
"

Christ s body spiritually, sacramentally ;

but the bread and wine are not annihi

lated by transmutation. They co-exist,

though to the mind of the believer the

elements are virtually the veritable body
and blood of the Redeemer." t In other
FONT FROM LUTTERWORTH CHURCH.
terms, the material substance of bread and
(Traditionally of the time oj Wyclif. Leicester Museum.)
wine remain after consecration in the
translation of the Scriptures he executed sacrament of the altar. In Wyclii s own
himself is not precisely known ;
but even words,
"

We are not to suppose that the

if in parts only superintended, it was a body of Christ comes down from heaven
prodigious achievement for one man, to the host consecrated in every church ;

deeply involved as he was in polemic no, it remains ever fast and secure in
warfare with the hierarchy, the monks, heaven. Therefore it has a spiritual
and the mendicant orders. He was presence in the host, not such as can be
acknowledged to be a consummate master measured by length or breadth."
in the dialectics of the schools. He was His translation of the Bible was not
the pride, as well as the terror, of Oxford. made from the Hebrew and
original
He was second to none in
philosophy," Greek, but from the Latin (Vulgate)
so writes a monk ;
"

in the discipline of version ;

and he tells us in his preface
the schools incomparable."* * Green History of the English
"

:
People."
*
Milman: "

Latin Christianity," bk. xiii.. ch. vi. Dean Milman.

t
13611384-] WYCLIF S BIBLE. 329

that he was assisted in this work by some But, in spite of its great cost, it was soon
of his friends. The price of this Bible in great request, and copies multiplied
was very great, owing to the vast labour with strange rapidity. Wyclif in his

toicrb u ftt) | f b
of oli>/iftc pc iflwdje istofidMi

pc"u>Btdff
-
-- WHO
Of dir tfflft tuau op so wiirn
t onaacOriu fdf ainnf w
afttr l/i94Hflioun. UMMAIIP nr of faun* aur ccs tr-am OimUiijtr
umetia OJ jwcurtigi* ftnirni IH>
"

npugttoguttt m \uejin-wr
icit mm umnf ytmfi>trofit \

Of JK muar of oofl-.l u
at Oftr ron uwoifl? to ijaii (rat
(HmlOfii not fro irni(klf< Oil of li.-ci fitin fnccflftuftiif par
fryer

inert- nn yiuX i|itU!Df Iliaiqi

-bnt tec (Hmlii OelirttJ

ip ooofl-.- uof flfirr uu )<<

/i |ir ui ut>r nuii)

v

.-j g;|)>twt
of ijve

ft to ijnn.l t is HOT- HW ft. ro (tctiofpcitunofUHt&ouefftttut y^

1
iiuu !;wj!i |ic ti inc* o. uttnuf1
4 ivs
pM Btlf l J ci/o:ln? Wtt CtlKit RblM
feiftf iKudwattoBUttt
ictiddtttt- to y&t pr

of toitdoe-ffoifopt
if w wittf m
Of |tfftl/t.^uO IBI/OHtf f/f 1/flWf
ooii of Itvut oc mtWi Witt-atifl
i?as uftup aiifl nrioudc itttjnwl

W tipbcrUiAi iji iu (oi iic m to

ot(p t/m
I m
iium* ctoj pf wrflWttinrf i

ttfu ortrrt)f in ^ M ciitr our a

-
us upm

tyfnttu mis (iniair

conic as xtntofbv gfpugc t

MS. PAGE OF WYCUF S BIBLE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, CONTAINING THE BEGINNING OF THE
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES." (Late \$th Century.)
"

required in the transcription. The cost of teaching especially urged the study of the
a copy of the Holy Scriptures in Wyclif s Bible, particularly of the New Testament,
version in his own time, would represent
"

Christian men and women should study

about ^"30
or ^40 of our
present money, fast all the New Testament should cleave
2 ~,
330 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [13611384.

to the study of it. No simple man of of a church the possessor of wealth

wit,"
he said, "no man of small know and dignity, he proclaimed that it was
should be afraid to study im the duty of the state, the king, or the
ledge,
measurably in the text of Holy Writ." emperor, to confiscate the whole of these
An attempt to suppress this first English misused, and hence forfeited possessions.
translation of the Bible directly after the He failed to see with what an
power evil

reformer death, was quashed by John

s he was investing fallible and interested
of Gaunt. This righteous act, and his men what an awful incentive he was
;

general support Wyclif of

life, in his supplying to human
and greed.
avarice

will ever be remembered by the English The deplorable waste, the cruel injustice,

people as one of the titles to honour of the fatal destruction and irreparable ruin,
this ambitious and too often self-seeking which accompanied and disfigured the
prince. Wyclifs Bible was, however, by Reformation in England, is a sad com

archbishop Arundel s influence, formally mentary upon such theories.

condemned in 1408, by a resolution of The day was to dawn in England when
Convocation ;
but this condemnation was not a little of the teaching of Wyclif
never, as some have supposed, confirmed would be
actually incorporated in the
by act of Parliament. formularies of her church ;
when the great
Well -
nigh all the errors which had doctrine of the sacrament of the altar,

gradually crept in and were sapping the much he interpreted it,* would be re
as

life of mediaeval Christianity, and which ceived and preached by the great divines

subsequently were swept away by the of her world-wide communion ;

when the
Teutonic peoples, who generally adopted abuses and errors which he abhorred,
the principles of the Reformation, were would be swept for ever out of her ritual
attacked and condemned by Wyclif such : and practice. But that day was far distant.
as pardons, indulgences, excommunica For long years after the reformer s death
tions, pilgrimages, and the slavish, un his name was execrated by the church he

reasoning submission to the Popes of so passionately desired to purify, and his

Rome, the source of so much fatal mis memory was held up to shame and reproach.
chief. Images, the Persons of
at least of In the year 1408 archbishop Arundel,
the Trinity, he condemned. But whilst presiding at a synod at Oxford, condemned
inWyclifs teaching there was much that all Wyclifs writings, and made it heresy
was admirable and true, it cannot be to possess any version of the Bible not
denied that many of his views authorised by the church. The effect of
would,
if
pressed, have assuredly led to anarchy this sy nodical decision was virtually to\
and confusion. He was a Won
destroyer rather proscribe all English versions of the
than a constructor. He even confessed of God, as no English translation had
that his theory of the Divine dominion received such sanction.
was put forth as an ideal, but that it was, *
Compare the words of
"

of the "

Confessio
he felt, incompatible with the
existing state in the "

Fasciculi Rolls
Wyclif Zizaniorum."
of society. In his sweeping condemnation Series, pp. 115132.
1361-1384.] WYCLIF S INFLUENCE. 33*

Two years later, in 1410, the books ot work stamped out, for a considerable
the reformer were burned publicly in that number of years after Wyclif s death his
Oxford of which he had been so long opinions maintained their sway over a vast
the pride and ornament. The same arch- number of persons of all ranks and orders.
prelate, with an animosity unrelenting as Especially in towns London was a con
it was ill-judged, applied to Rome for spicuous example were Wyclif s reformed
permission to burn his bones but the ;
doctrines strangely popular. Under the
Pope, wiser than archbishop Arundel, re uncertain term "

Lollards," his disciples

fused the savage request. However, a few were everywhere. We find them even
years later the General Council of Constance, among the clergy. Anne of Bohemia,
in 1415, made the fierce decree which the Good Queen Anne
"

Richard II. s wife,

"

English archbishop had thought fit to beg was attached to Wyclif s

teaching, and
for, and in 1428 Pope Martin V. sent an greatly prized his version of the Scriptures.
order into England for its execution. To Barons, burghers, peasants, were reckoned
Fleming, bishop of Lincoln, belongs the these Lollards. Every second
"

among
doubtful honour of having carried out the person you meet is a Lollard," was a saying
papal command. The mouldering remains of the day. The term "

Lollard," in its
of the great master were exhumed and derivation and exact meaning, is a doubtful

burnt, and the sacred ashes of the dead one. All we can say of the word with any
were heedlessly tossed into the waters of certainty is, it was a term of opprobrium
the little river Swift, a tributary of the coined by those whom we must call the
Avon, which flows by Wyclif s Lutter- church party, and that it
generally signified
worth. a garrulous, loquacious person.
But from the day of the death of the
Wyclif as a teacher and reformer stood master at Lutterworth, the Lollard party in
absolutely alone he had, of course, a few
; England, as a party, were doomed to partial
dear friends and intimate associates, but extinction. Various causes, some political
more than their names have come
little
especially mixed up with the hatred of
down to us. As a master and leader he the Avignon (French) Popes were at
had no successor. He had founded no work, as we have seen, at first to exaggerate
sect nor did he ever dream of such a
;
and afterwards to diminish the influence of
thing. He had simply wished to reform Wyclif. In considering the story of the
the life and practice of the church and in ; Lollards, however, and the reasons for
his later years, despairing of effecting this, their, comparatively speaking, speedy
ex
he specially turned his attention to some tinction after his death, we must remember
of the doctrines taught by the church. that under the common name of Lollards
His true words bore fruit, as we shall see ;
were gathered every species of religious
but not for many, many years. Although, malcontents, and with them not a few of
however, the generation which had known the discontented which never dies
class

him lived to see the memory of the out in a civilised community, a class which
reformer defamed and disgraced, and his is ever ready for disturbance, revolt, and
332
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1400.

revolution. All these availed themselves first of our religious martyrs. He was con
demned as a heretic for the denial of
popular name
of the of the so-called

followers of the reformer

"

Lollard "and transubstantiation. He recanted, then with

discredit drew his recantation, and eventually as a
eventually brought the gravest
and the profoundest distrust upon the relapsed heretic was doomed to the flames.

earnest men whose name they adopted, Nine years later a layman John Badby
but whose principles they ignored. Crazy was also condemned for the same offence
Socialist preachers like John Ball, stormy against the sacrament of the altar. The

demagogues like Wat Tyler, men who dread sentence in his case was carried out
shrank from no excesses which might in in the presence of the Prince of Wales,

their opinion help on their wild schemes, afterwards the hero-king Henry V. The

and a little later the political and religious groans of the sufferer in his great agony
malcontents of the reigns of Henry IV. and were taken by the shuddering prince for a

Henry were roughly lumped together

V., recantation, and Henry ordered the fire to
as Lollards, till the very name and all be plucked away but the proffer of life,
;

associated with it came to be regarded as and even of a pension, failed to move the
a positive danger to the state. martyr spirit of the brave Lollard ;
the

King Henry IV., John of Gaunt s son, cruel flames were again lighted^ and so
who succeeded to the throne of the de Badby perished.
throned Richard II. in 1399, largely in All through the reigns of Richard II.
fluenced by archbishop Arundel, his great and Henry IV. Lollardry lived on. It never
supporter in the state troubles which had assumed the character of an organised
really
ended by placing the crown on his head, movement, but it had penetrated into every
at thecommencement of his reign declared class of society. Women as well as men
himself the supporter of the church against became its preachers. Lollardry had its
her dangerous and heretical Lollard foes ; schools, its books, its tracts and pamphlets.
and second year of his reign king
in the The opinions of Wyclif, the resolve to
and Parliament, affrighted by the wild and substitute personal religion for the old
revolutionary views ascribed to all Lollards mediaeval system which locked up salva
indifferently, and openly avowed by some, tion in the hands of the priests, the monks,
passed the well-known terrible statute, and the friars, with their absolutions, their
For the burning of heretics
"

(De
"

hceretico pardons, their indulgences, and their

comburendo). At
once, armed with the anathemas, seemed to be gaining ground
law, the archbishop and his suffragans everywhere but mingled with the re
;

determined to make examples. The statute movement were Socialistic dreams,

ligious
had not many victims in the age which
popular outbreaks, revolutionary risings,
passed it but it is memorable as being the
;
peasant wars, general discontent. Both the
first legal enactment of religious bloodshed. Parliament and the king were thoroughly
It was a terrible precedent, and bore in we have were de
alarmed, and, as seen,
time sad and grievous fruit. William termined to stamp out the party, and to
Sautre, a parish priest at Lynn, was the crush all who sympathised with it.
14131422] THE LOLLARDS AFTER WYCLIF. 333

It was in the reign of

Henry V. (1413- and excommunications of the archbishop
1422) that the Lollard movement was with contempt. Lord Cobham was sub
finally crushed. The story of the last act sequently arrested by the king s order,
of the tragedy a confused one, and much
is tried before an ecclesiastical tribunal pre
in it remains uncertain and obscure. A sided over by archbishop Arundel, and by it
gallant and successful soldier, a Sir John condemned. He made his escape, strangely

Photo : J. T. Sandell, Thornton Heath.

THE LOLLARDS PRISON, LAMBETH PALACE.

Oldcastle, who had

served with great dis enough, from the Tower, and immediately
tinction in the French wars, through a afterwards we hear of a great Lollard plot.

marriage with a noble and wealthy widow There was no rising, no rebellion, but the
had become Lord Cobham. As is often so-called plot was followed by the execution
the case with soldiers, the man-at-arms of some thirty-nine prominent Lollards,
became a devoted and earnest religious and the law against heretics was made yet
man. He put himself at the head of the more severe. Cobham was lost sight of
religious Lollards, sheltered their proscribed for some time three or four years but
preachers in his strong castle of Cowling, in the year 1418 was again arrested and
near Rochester, and treated the citations dealt with as a traitor and heretic. He was
334 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1422.

Giles s Lollardism and the influence of Wyclif

hanged on a gallows erected in St.
the outskirts of London, was effectually stamped out, through the
fields, then on

and slowly burnt. Refusing the aid of a measures of archbishops Courtenay and
he would confess to God Arundel and their party in the church.
priest, he said
"

only, now as ever present, and of Him During the century (the fifteenth) which
alone entreat pardon." words, His last followed, the decay of Oxford as a university
heard amidst the crackling of the flames, was complete. Religious freedom was
were praise of God. His conduct was "

killed in the home where the great school

throughout that of a noble religious man." men and their last distinguished repre
Thus was Lollardism, as a political sentative Wyclif had taught and written;
movement, effectively stamped out. That but the agents of Rome and her so-called

it lingered, however, long afterwards orthodoxy had killed something more

among the English people, and helped to than religious freedom. A death-like

prepare men s minds for the events of the torpor settled for a long and dreary period
following century, is indisputable. The over Oxford and her famous school.
teaching of Wyclif was never forgotten. In another direction the far-reaching
The Lollard persecution of the reign of influence of Wyclif had made itself felt.

Henry V., which virtually ended with the We have briefly related how, during the
death of Lord Cobham, was, so far as the reigns of Henry IV. and his son, the
confused and contradictory statements can Parliament and the sovereign had shown
be unravelled, the work of Arundel and their bitter hostility to the Lollard party,
his successor in the primacy, largely regarding it as a political as well as a

prompted by the hatred of Rome and the religious movement. But while the
hierarchy to the principles of Wyclif. It Lollard was an object of distrust and
is the charge of treason
very doubtful if dislike to Parliament, we find even there
and of
attempted rebellion, in the case unmistakable traces of the work of Wyclif.
of Cobham and his friends, was based sunk
Deep indeed had his teaching into-
on fact.* the hearts of the men who composed the
One striking result of the suppression of great national assembly. The same Parlia
Lollardism by the strong arm of the law ment which showed itself hostile to the
deserves to be especially recorded. Oxford disliked and even hated the
Lollards,
for a century and a half had been one of church. Jealousy and hatred of Rome
the greatest centres of literature and of and all foreign influences, and an intense
intellectual life, and during the last half of mistrust of the Rome-ridden Church of
the fourteenth century, when the
reputa England, showed itself plainly in their
tion of Paris as a
great seat of learning acts, still more in their temper and openly
faded, during the period of the Avignon expressed wishes. In the fourth year of
Popes, had become first
amongst all the king Henry TV. (A.D. 1403) petitions were
European homes of letters. In Oxford presented that all monks of French origin
* should be expelled from the country, and
Compare Milman Latin
"

:
Christianity," book
vii.
xiii., chap. that all priories held by foreigners should
1 407-] GROWING HOSTILITY TO THE CHURCH. 335

be seized. In the year 1407 the Commons his earnestly pressed reforms, was treated
even suggested a general confiscation of as though it existed not. Pope Boniface
church property, presenting a carefully IX., who reigned as head of the church
prepared schedule showing what a vast A.D. 1389-1404, in his unholy acts went
lay-provision could be made out of the further than any of his predecessors. It

temporal possessions of the bishops, abbots, was this Boniface who, to fill his treasure

and priors, now

idly wasted. The king coffers, supply the needs of his ex
to

peremptorily forbade a discussion of such chequer, to furnish funds for the perpetual

"high
matters." But this ominous fore intrigues of the Papacy, dared to establish
shadowing of what actually took place a the precedent of an indiscriminate sale of
little more than a century later, shows us plenary indulgences. A jubilee festival

at least what was in the minds of not a was announced at Rome. Special privi
few of the personages of the
leading leges of pardon and remission of sins were
Parliament of Henry IV. in the first years offered to all those who would make a
of the fifteenth century. pilgrimage to Rome while in England ;

Can we marvel the deep-rooted dis

at the Pope s accredited agents appeared, and
trust of the church at this period, or be actually offered for money the same privi
surprised that the words of the dead and leges which a pilgrim to Rome might win.
anathematised Wyclif were treasured in Confession and penance even were not
"

many English hearts ? For Rome had asked for a money payment was all that
learned nothing. The lesson of the re was required. By the side of the altar in

peated enactment of the great anti-papal allthe chief churches a table was spread
Acts of Parliament, of Provisors and " "

covered with scarlet cloth, where this

u
Prsemunire," was, if not forgotten, at unholy traffic was carried on."*

least ignored by the Pope and his advisers. * Dean Hook :

"

Lives of the Archbishops of

The marvellous popularity of Wyclif and Canterbury."

LUTTERWORTH CHURCH. Photo : Taunt & Co., Oxford.

 CHAPTER XXXV.
THE THREE LANCASTRIAN KINGS. THE SHADOW OF ROME.

The Two Great Lancastrians Decay of the Crusades Long Minority of Henry VI. Absence of Great
Characters in either Church or State- Cardinal Beaufort The Wars of the Roses Extinction
of the English Baronage The Church and the Crown Apparent Power and Wealth of the
Church Real Weakness from various Causes Abuses and Superstitions Bishop Pecock His
Fall His Defence of Mediaeval and Roman Customs and Superstitions In reality an Unimpeach
able Exposure of them Growing Incubus of the Roman Supremacy Culmination in the System
of Legates Papal Appeals Fees and Exactions Selling of Pardons.

three successive monarchs,

Henry period of nearly three centuries and a hall

THE Henry V., and Henry VI., were,

IV.,
in their way, each of them religious
had not exhausted itself, and was one
of the influences at work in the lives of

men. The last, we know, has even left Henry IV. and of his son. Both father and
behind him the reputation of a saint, son hoped to die as Crusaders. Henry IV.,
and, although one of the most unfortu who in his latter days evidently looked

nate and unhappy of our kings, is ever back upon the deposition of Richard II.,
tenderly treated in the usually chilly and and upon all that followed that act, with
unemotional verdict of posterity. Henry bitter remorse, made considerable prepara
IV. was, during his reign, in the closest tions for the Crusade which he intended
alliance with the clergy, and maintained as an atonement for his great sin. The
until his death a high reputation as a galleys which were to convey the English
brave knight and strictly moral man. king and part at least of his army, were, it
During the Lollard fever he was faithful is said, in readiness, when his fatal illness
to the church, lending no ear to the seized while in
him, actually praying
charges some based on truth, others Westminster Abbey for the success of his

grossly exaggerated which the Lollard Crusading venture. Henry V. too, dying
reformers were
never weary of making in his hour of triumph, the greatest king
against the established order of ecclesi in Christendom, almost with his last breath
astical IV. As
government. Indeed, Henry professed himself a Crusader.
"

surely
and his more famous son and successor as I expect to were amongst his last
die,"

viewed Lollardism rather as a disturbing words, I intended, after I had established

influence affecting civil
government, than peace in France, to go and conquer
as a serious scheme of
religious reform. Jerusalem, if it had been the good pleasure
Even so late as the first half of the of my Creator to have let me live my due
fifteenth century, the was only with these two power
Crusading fever, time." It
which had more or less disturbed the fulsovereigns that there passed away in
minds of earnest and religious men since
England the strange Crusading passion
the days of William the which had fired the hearts of so many
Conqueror a
 Photo : Neiirdin, Paris.
JOAN OF ARC AT THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII.
(.From the mural painting by J. E. Lenepyeu* in the Panthftin^ Paris.)
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1422.

old machinery was left to the old

royal and distinguished persons
all through itself,

the Middle Ages, which were now fast abuses were uncorrected, and no efforts
were made to improve an organisation
closing.
With the death of Henry V., in A.D. which had been effectual and efficient in
1422, commenced a disastrous and
con past times to control and to guide. The
fused period for England, both in church new the invention of printing,
learning,
and state. The premature removal *by the great awakening of the people under
death of the victor of Agincourt was a Wyclif and his disciples all these things
grave misfortune for the Church of England were ignored by the men to whom the
as then constituted ;
for after he became charge of the church was entrusted. The
king he had shown himself an example of century (the fifteenth) which followed the
an austere piety such as few of his prede death of Henry V. was, in fact, a continual
cessorshad displayed, and he was, besides, preparation for the great upheaval in the
the most bitter enemy in Europe of the reign of Henry VIII.
followers of Wyclif and the Lollards. Had one really great churchman ap
After his premature death, however, all peared inEngland during that age of
was changed and the new views
;
in decay, he would have seen the danger
religious matters were no longer sternly looming in the future, and would assuredly
repressed, but gradually continued to gain have taken some steps to ward it off
ground among the people. During the would have devised some means by which
long reign of Henry VI. and his three the people s hearts might have been re
successors, no really distinguished church gained. But one and all of the leaders
man arose far-sighted enough to see the of the hierarchy during this period were
weakness, and, indeed, the decaying state serenely unconscious of the real state of
of that church which seemed outwardly things, so that the awakening in the days
so powerful and magnificent who could ;
of Henry VIII. was indeed a rude one.
discern that the hearts of the English
people were being gradually alienated A few paragraphs will be sufficient to
from the orthodox religious teachers. indicate the changes which followed upon
The ecclesiastics were, for the the death of The
leading Henry V. in England.
most statesmen rather than theo
part, conquests of the warrior king had placed
logians. A
long minority, the selfish France literally at the feet of the English
disputes of the princes and the Lords of nation. It was, however, an unnatural
the Council, followed by a long and ruth state of things and when the great soldier
;

less was a disastrous time for the

war, and statesman had passed away, the dream
mediaeval Church of England and the ; of Henry V. to unite the two nations was
kings who followed Edward
Richard IV., soon seen to have been merely a dream.
III., and Henry VII. were not in earnest The heir to the double crown of England
in matters of church reform. Thus the and France was a and
Henry VI. child,
old errors in
teaching remained unchecked, the government at once really passed into
becoming every year more apparent. The the hands of the two brothers of the dead
 NUNS IN CHOIR.
(From a 15th-century Psalter made for the use of Henry VI. as a boy, and now in the British Museum.)

12
14221453] HENRY V. AND THE FRENCH WARS. 339

king, the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. left to England of her French possessions
Bedford remained
generally in France, save the town and harbour of Calais.
and Gloucester, with a restraining council Even the great southern provinces of
of nobles, attempted to rule in England. Aquitaine and Guienne, which had been
The two dukes have been well described : in the hands of the English ever since the

Bedford as the high quali marriage of the duchess Eleanor to Henry

"

all
possessing
ties of his dead brother Henry, without II., passed for ever from England into the

his brilliance and Gloucester as the heir

; possession of the French sovereign.
of all Henry s popular characteristics, with At home, during thethirty years which
out any of his greatness." witnessed the gradual extinction of English
The romantic story of the warrior king hopes for the permanent subjugation of
is without parallel in English annals. At France, the government was weak and
once religious in temperament, pure in divided. During the long minority of
life, a valiant and successful soldier, a wise Henry VI. the royal authority was vested
and cautious ruler of men, when he died in a council made up of powerful barons

comparatively young he had virtually and ecclesiastics, at the head of whom

conquered France had his life been pro ;

stood Henry Beaufort, bishop of Win
longed, he might have consolidated his vast chester, a legitimated son of John of

conquests. But he left no successor ;

and Gaunt, and consequently a great-uncle
the story of the years which followed his of the child-king. The principal person
death is simply the chronicle of successive in England, the duke of Gloucester,,
defeats, which gradually weakened the through his
ambitious, selfish schemes
prestige of the English nation abroad, and and perpetual intrigues, his utter lack of
in the end determined the English govern principle, and his profligate life, was a
ment toabandon all their pretensions and continual menace to the realm. This
claims in French territory. The account of long minority of Henry VI. was an un
the English wars in France between 1422 fortunate period. No prominent and wise
and 1453, and the romantic episode of statesman appeared to guide and direct
the career of Joan of Arc the one pure "

home affairs. The nobles were lawless

figure,"
as she has been truly termed, and dissolute, and the Parliaments of this
"which rises out of the greed, the lust, time have been described as mere assem
the selfishness and unbelief of the age "

blies of the retainers and partisans of these

does not belong to this History of the self-seeking nobles. The church, of which
Church. It is sufficient to say that before we must treat in more detail presently,,

the year 1453 had run its course the English lacked enthusiasm and spirituality. Eng
had been finally expelled from the soil was just then at its lowest
lish literature

of France. The French wars, which, with ebb. There were no historians worth the
little intermission, had lasted a hundred name, no poets, no kindly satirists.
years, were ended ; and, in spite of the The story of the young king, heir to so-

splendid victories of Edward III., the many hopes, as he grew up towards man
Black Prince, and Henry V., nothing was hood, is a sad one. Weak in health from.
34<>
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1422 1461.

his earliest days, ever unfit to take part in was for long revered as as saint, and

the military matters which formed so large narrowly missed being canonised. Prayers
a part of a young prince s or noble s life were offered in his honour, hymns were
in thatage of war and perpetual fighting, sung in his praise ;
and the common folk

he took a lively interest in all scholarly long loved the memory of the saintly,

pursuits. His over-zealous guardians evi generous, scholarly who survived

king
and he and dignity, who saw all
dently pressed him imprudently, power, wealth,
and a somewhat his friends perish round him, and last of
grew up weak and sickly,

precocious scholar. We hear of letters all his bright, chivalrous son, prince Ed
written under his direction while still a ward of Wales. A more
king than unfit

of could not well be

boy, petitioning for the canonisation Henry VI., however,
king Alfred. At an age when hawking or imagined for that unhappy period which
tilting should have made up the chief culminated in the terrible dynastic War
interests of a youthful life, the young king of the Roses.

was meditating upon the grave ecclesi One by one the prominent figures of
astical discussions of the Council of Basle. the age of the minority of Henry passed
At the age of eighteen his educational away. Bedford, by far the noblest and
foundations at Eton and Cambridge first the best of those who guided the fortunes
took shape, and were ever, all through of England when the strong hand of the
his long reign, carefully watched and de conqueror of Agincourt was removed, went
veloped. From a very early date in that first. Thwarted by the intrigues of his
sad life, questions of statecraft were dis brother of Gloucester at home, confronted
cussed in his presence It was remem in France by the splendid spirit of patriot
bered that he was the king, and the ism and national defence evoked by Joan
gravest important and most decisions of Arc, theduke of Bedford, prematurely
affecting weal of England and of
the worn out and dispirited, died in 1435.
France were submitted to the boy-sove Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester,
reign, though perhaps not decided by him. when Bedford had passed away, became
The of
divided council, of
spectacle a
indisputably the most influential man in
jealous princes, of ministers pressing the England. His policy was to make peace
adoption of contradictory policies, was with victorious France. He would have
ever before him. Was it to be wondered England renounce what had now become
at that an incurable insanity was de he would close a
hopeless pretensions ;

veloped at a war which was draining the country of

comparatively early period
of his her best men and treasures. But again the
unhappy reign ?

The
pathetic misfortunes, quite unde duke of Gloucester was the determined
served, of Henry VI., his mysterious death, opponent of the peace party in England.
after years of
sorrow, in the Tower a So the French war dragged on, every year
death probably the cruel act of his more disastrous in The
great its consequences.
enemy and successful rival made a lasting sudden death of Gloucester in 1447 startled
impression on the English people. He the country; and grave, though most
1422 1461
REIGN OF HENRY VI.

probably unfounded suspicions that the bishop expired calmly and with dignity in
death of the turbulent and ill -advised prince his Wolvesey palace at Winchester; and
was the work of Beaufort, were current; but king Henry VI. s kindly words when he

CARDINAL BEAUFORT S CHANTRY, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

the suspicions were hushed by the death heard of the minister s death were Beaufort s

of Beaufort himself only a few weeks after well-deserved epitaph My uncle was very
:
"

the disappearance of his turbulent and dear to me, and did much kindness to me
selfish rival from the scene. The cardinal while he lived. The Lord reward him."
 342 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1460.

Cardinal Beaufort was a good example Lancaster, the ancestor of Henry VI.), and
of the statesman-ecclesiastic of the Middle on the father s side from another son of
an ambitious, secular prelate, osten Edward III., Edmond Langley, duke of
Ages ;

somewhat unscrupulous, jealous of York. Richard of York, taking advantage

tatious,
the privileges of his order, but certainly of the continued and indeed hopeless ill

on the whole, like so many ness of king Henry VI. and the hatred
unspiritual ;

other leading churchmen of his time, a with which the government of the queen
better statesman than ecclesiastic. He was was regarded by the nation, caused himself
to be appointed protector of the realm in
by no means one who would be likely to
lift his church out of the many perils by 1454. Then commenced the long-drawn-
which it was surrounded ; indeed, men of out "War of the Roses" between the
houses of York and Lancaster. From 1455
his stamp were utterly unconscious that
their church was fast losing its hold on to 1471 England was harassed by this

the affections of the people. But, consider bloody war between the rival dynasties.
It was a period of ruthless battles, cruel
ing the difficulties of his position, Beaufort
had been, on the whole, a wise and loyal executions, and wholesale confiscations but ;

statesman. From the moment of his death one remarkable feature deserves especial
everything in England went worse and comment. The ruin and bloodshed were
worse for the poor king. mainly confined to the great lords and
The chief power now fell into the hands their families and their feudal retainers.

.
of the advisers of Henry s foreign queen, Generally speaking, the trading and agri
the beautiful but unfortunate Margaret of cultural classes stood apart from the deadly

Anjou. The war with France went on struggle, and the towns suffered but little.

until, as we have seen, England was In the fifth year of the war (in 1460) the
driven completely out of the country she cruel reprisalswhich followed the victory
had claimed to reign over, and where of Wakefield, won by the Lancastrian
for a brief season she seemed supreme. partisans of Henry VI. and his queen, gave
The unfortunate close of the long French the keynote to the conduct of the fierce
war exasperated popular feeling against the struggle. Richard, duke of York, was slain,
government of Margaret of Anjou, who in and his head, crowned in mockery with a
the name of the king (whose mental powers
paper diadem, was impaled on the walls of
were ever and anon completely clouded the city of York. A
series of bloody exe

over) carried on the government.These cutions followed this victory of the house
terrible French disasters prominently of Lancaster. The fortune of war, how
brought to the front a formidable claimant ever, changed in the following year, when
to the crown in the person of a crushing victory gained
Richard, by the Yorkists
duke of York, who boasted a double at Towton gave the crown of England to
descent from Edward III., being descended
Edward, the son and heir of duke Richard
on the mother s side from Lionel, duke of of York, whose head had been fixed in
Clarence, son of Edward III. (this Lionel derision on the walls of the northern
was older than John of Gaunt, duke of and a vast bill of attainder
capital ;
 147 1 ] EFFECT OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 343

confiscated the estates of the leaders of the offering any resistance to the overpower
party of the Lancastrian king. But the ing influence of
sovereign. And the

struggle was not yet over for ten more ;

the church, imposing from its vast and

years the record of plots, invasions, trea varied possessions, its immemorial tradi

cheries, executions, confiscations, disfigure tions, its learning, and its spiritual claims,
the annals of English history. was really weak from its lack of spiritual
The year 1471, however, witnessed the earnestness, from its want of eminent and
end of the awful and bitter civil war. devoted men who could guide its counsels.
Two decisive victories of Edward of York, Above all, the church from various causes
known as Edward IV, the one near had lost much of its hold upon the hearts
London, at Barnet ;
the other under the of the people.*
shadow of the famous Norman abbey of

Tewkesbury in the Severn vale for ever In this rapid bird s-eye view of the civil

crushed the Lancastrian party. These history of England during the three Lan
were immediately followed by the
victories castrian reigns of the descendants of John
murder of Henry s brave son and heir, the of Gaunt, the famous son of Edward III.,

prince of Wales and shortly after the

;
we have spoken briefly of the kings and
death of Henry VI. in the Tower removed princes of the fifteenth century, of their
the last hope of the house of Lancaster. wars abroad and at home. The brilliant

More executions, confiscations, and banish figure of one of our national heroes, and
ments completed the dreary record of the the pathetic figure of one of the royal
Roses war, and henceforth Edward IV.
" "

saints, have passed before us. have seen We

of York reigned as undisputed king. how France was conquered by English
The result of the deadly struggle which arms, and almost as quickly lost through
had lasted for so many years was now the splendid heroism of a peasant girl."
"

apparent. The baronage of England was We have shortly told the strange and
almost wiped out. The power of the blood-stained romance of the wiping-out
crown was thus enormously augmented. of the historic baronage of England, and

The vast confiscations of the estates of the the consequent elevation of the wearer of

partisans of the crushed Lancastrians had the crown to a position of almost undis
enriched the king, and rendered him com puted and absolute authority. What now
paratively independent of Parliamentary of the Church of England during this
grants. The powerful nobles, who for so exciting, war-filled period ? Let us proceed
many centuries had resisted the arbitrary to consider the position which it held
power of the sovereign, existed no longer.
towards the lay-world outside, and strive
The order was virtually extinguished. The to paint something of its inner life in
class made up of the smaller landowners the days when Henry IV., Henry V.,
and the and Henry VI. were kings, and when
growing into
traders, gradually
* See for above
the Commons, was as yet politically im general historical sketch Bishop
Stubbs Constitutional History of England."
"

potent. The church alone remained as a

:

chaps, xviii.-xix. and Green: History of English

"

power to be reckoned with, as capable of People," chap, v., sect, vi.,

and chap, vi., sect. i.
344
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14141454.

Edward IV
7
the White Rose chieftain, the difficult and complicated duties con
.,

entered into and enjoyed without a rival nected with them. This constant presence

his splendid heritage. of clergy at the royal council board was, no

In these years of the century which im doubt, a considerable source of strength to

the ecclesiastical order for
mediately preceded the momentous
events ; although it is

true that the obligations of holy orders in

of its Reformation, the church was, out
wardly at least, powerful it was certainly
; many instances lay lightly on the church
an imposing and wealthy community. The man who the position of minister of
filled

state or official of the chancery, when "

m
Him |^ turn foemr gGfiffltenrmlttDHr it came to a question of class privilege
or immunity, he knew when and how
ifiuc yLiniitrmnaiitntff faliwttn
to take a side with his brethren . . .

The clergy were strong in corporate

*
feeling."

To take a few conspicuous examples

of distinguished clergy filling the

highest offices in the state. Henry

Chichele, Canterbury
archbishop of

(1414-1443), was an eminent lawyer and

statesman, and acted as prime minister
to king Henry V. His predecessor at
Canterbury, while bishop of Ely, had
held the great seal. John Stafford,
archbishop of Canterbury (1443-1452),
had filled the offices of high treasurer
and chancellor. John Kemp, archbishop
PORTION OF A PAGE FROM THE "CHICHELE BREVIARY of Canterbury (1452-1454), was an emi
The miniature in the initial represents the Consecration
nent lawyer and a distinguished states
of a Church. (Lambeth Palace Library.)
man ; he, too, was chancellor. There
ecclesiastical order with
furnished, rare is,however, no doubt but that the fact
exceptions, the great ministers of state, of proficiency in legal studies and ability
such as the chancellor, the privy seal, and in statecraft being invariably a stepping-
treasurer ;
churchmen were very fre stone to the highest preferments gravely
quently employed, too, in important militated against the spirituality of the
foreign missions. Their training, their wide It was the lawyer and the
hierarchy.
learning, and more especially their great
statesman, rather than the theologian or
knowledge of law, in an age when learn the pastor, who was advanced to the high
ing and literary knowledge were, compara places in the government and administra
tively speaking, rare, naturally pointed tion of the church.
to ecclesiastics as the fittest persons for The numbers of the clergy, taking into
holding such offices, and for
discharging
* Stubbs :
"

Constitutional History," chap. xix.

 I4I4-I4S4-] THE CLERGY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 345

account the comparative smallness of the being not much over 8,000 ? Some, of
numbers of the whole population of Eng course, were monks in the many religious

land at this period, were enormous ;

but houses. Very many were ordained on the
these very numbers, paradoxi
calthough it may seem, were
an element of weakness rather
than of strength to the
church. The population of
England had been largely
diminished by the great
plague of 1349 and by subse
quent visitations of the same
fatal sickness. We have lists

of persons ordained in the

fourteenth and fifteenth cen
turies still extant in the
bishops registers. Ordina
tions were held at least four
times a year, and the number
admitted on each occasion
was rarely below a hundred jjfii
ftni Dtim ofoiieomra.pflfifr. ea
;

and this number was often

greatly exceeded. For in
ml (rqiuiaHijfirfmuau uiinuia
stance, we find in 1370 bishop
wrgattamijiietmij mar.raiwiu
Courtenay, acting for the liomv frflie ferny oT:pafrir.i d at .

bishop of Exeter, ordained at a tuto djmo tifbcttaiiO)

ftmji Cub
Tiverton as many as 374 per ^niuedimt totatia fir
sons. We read of such num
bers as 463 ordained at Ciren-
cester on one occasion in 1314;
at Worcester in the same year,
310 at Tewkesburyin 1338
;

ltflfll.1 filing rnni I m

(on June 6th), the enormous
PORTION OF A PAGE FROM THE "

CHICHELE BREVIARY" AT
number of 6 1 3. These crowds LAMBETH PALACE. (ENGLISH EARLY I5TH CENTURY.)*
included acolytes, sub-dea (These pages have been reproduced by special permission of the Archbishop of
Canterbury.)
cons, deacons, and priests.*
The question confronts us What occupa title oi chaplains t on the proof that they
tion was found for all these ordained
clergy,
*
the whole number of the parish churches The miniature represents a bishop catechising
or expounding to his priests. The coat of arms in
* See for further
details, Stubbs s
"

Constitu the left hand bottom corner is that of Archbishop

tional History," chaps, xix.-xxi. Chichele.
346 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14141454.

were entitled to pensions from private nearly every parish, and the tithes and

persons for saying masses

for the dead. voluntary offerings which maintained the
beneficed clergy were even a larger source
Apparently the majority of persons or
dained had neither cure of souls nor duty of of revenue than the lands. This wealth

preaching their spiritual work seems to

; constantly excited feelings of jealousy.
have been simply to say masses for the The violent attack by Parliament on the
dead. They were not drawn on by the possessions of the church in the time of
"

necessities of self-culture either to deeper Henry IV., already noticed, is an extreme

study of divine truth, or to the lessons instance of this jealousy, and is an index
which are derived from the obligation to to the feelings with which this ecclesiastical

instruct others, and they lay under no wealth was regarded by many among the

responsibility as bound to sympathise with laymen. The bitter Lollard denunciations

and guide the weak. . . .

By the of the temporalities of the church, which

necessity of celibacy they were cut off from found favour with many in all classes and
the interests of domestic life, relieved from and exaggerated though
orders, ill-judged
the obligation to labour for wives and such denunciations often were, shows us
families of their own, and thus left at how deeply this feeling had been excited
leisure for mischief of various sorts.
Every by the accumulation of riches on the
town contained thus a number of idle men. part of one privileged order in the state.
whose religious duties filled but a small Yet these abuses, many and grave
portion of their time, and whose standard though they were, must by no means
of moral conduct was formed upon a very blind us to the noble work done and
*
low There is no doubt but that
ideal."
healthy influence exercised by the medi
this crowd of unemployed, and in many aeval church. With rare exceptions, the
instances disreputable priests, which men
higher classes of the clergy were composed
like More in the sixteenth
century viewed ofmen of high and stainless character.
with unveiled dislike and contempt, was The learning possessed by the nation was
one of the grave sources of the weakness
largely in the hands of the ecclesiastical
of the church in the era of the Reforma and not a
order, little pains was directed
tion,owing to the discredit which this to secure educated men even among the
numerous class brought upon the whole minor orders of the A careful
clergy.
order of the clergy. examination was exacted from every can
In the fifteenth
century the church didate for ordination. The bishop who
possessed vast wealth. The clergy, as a wittingly ordained an ignorant person was .

body, were very rich, the proportion of guilty of deadly sin. The humanising
direct taxation borne by them amounting influence of the monastic and secular
to nearly a third of the whole direct
clergy in that rough age of perpetual war.
taxation of the nation. The landed estates and struggle was incalculable and the ;

of the
bishops, of the cathedrals, and or steady friendship of such able and master
the monastic communities extended into ful kings as.
Henry IV. and Henry V. to
*
Bishop Stubbs. the church^ shows us how deeply conscious
I4M 1454-] INNER LIFE OF THE CHURCH. 347

the rulers England were of the vast

01 married clerk, according to the fifteenth-
benefits derivedby the nation as a whole century enactment, might exercise any
from the work and influence of the ecclesi whatever, and any
spiritual jurisdiction
astical order. These powerful and far- thing which should be done by a married
seeing monarchs were well aware that, on clerk was pronounced to be null and void.
the whole, the power and influence of the Stern laws were also passed in the Con
church were not selfishly used. Henry IV. vocations of 1415 and 1416 against heresy,
was the constant protector of the church, the Lollards being specially referred to.
alike from the violent and drastic reforms Men good repute in every deanery or
of
insisted upon by the Lollards, as from the parish were sworn to denounce all sus
covetous anddemands pressed
jealous pected persons that is to say, all who
upon him by the barons and Commons in held private conventicles, or who differed
Parliament assembled. He saw through in their lives and manners from the
the exaggerated complaints of the re generality of the faithful. Books written
formers and, popular though these re
;
in the vulgar that is, the English tongue
formers were among men of all sorts and were to be regarded as suspicious, and
conditions, he declined to listen to their were therefore to be seized.

clamours, and even threw the protective Among minor matters, some interesting
shadow of his great authority over the regulations archbishop Chichele are
of
established religion of England, branding extant, fixing the fees to be received by

the enemies of the church as heretics. bishops, archdeacons, and their officers,

Henry and statesman, one of

V., the hero from clerks, for institution and induction
the wisest and best of our kings, was ever into benefices ;
the amount of these fees,
the friend of the clergy, and was a faithful however, translated into money of our
and devout churchman. In the midst of day, was considerable. It was especially

his work-filled life we read of him as provided that no gratuity or demand

confessing every week, as accustomed to whatever was to be made for ordination.

frequent the daily service of the church, Great care was evidently taken in the
making it a rule to come before the examination of the vast numbers who
service began, and never leaving before sought for holy orders. Every step that
the office was concluded. was taken from the lower to the higher
As regards what may be termed the grades of the ministry was guarded by a
inner life of the church, under archbishop careful test of the candidate s proficiency

Chichele, fresh and stringent regulations in grammar (which covered a broad field)
were passed by Convocation against and in ritual. Even a bishop-elect might
marriage among the clergy. The per be rejected by the archbishop for literary
petual series of enactment^ framed by the deficiency. Various instances occurred of
mediaeval Church of England on this even a bishop being rejected on these
question of celibacy, shows us stoutly how grounds but, on the whole, in the
;

the rule was resisted and evaded among mediaeval Church of England the cases of
the rank and file of ordained persons. No proved incompetence in the higher grades
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14141450.

are few. In 1432 Chichele issued a although they had ceased to be a political
constitution rendering it
imperative for power, seem to have permeated England
with their reforming views. Of these
persons in high ecclesiastical positions
heretics for they ranked as such with
to be graduates at one or other of the
universities. the hierarchy of the Church of England

Among the superstitions which were Pecock was the determined adversary, and

swept away at the Reformation, the cult his most famous works are largely taken
of and foolish reverence for saints was very up with refuting their opinions and con
marked in the fifteenth century. After clusions.

Agincourt, Henry V., on his return to Pecock became, comparatively early in

England, paid a state visit to Canterbury, life, acquainted
with the powerful and
and worshipped at the shrine of St. intriguing uncle of the king, Humphry,
Thomas Becket. The famous warrior duke of Gloucester, who, as we have seen,
king, believing that St. George, the during the long minority of Henry VI.
patron saint of England, had fought at exercised great power as one of the

Agincourt for his army, desired that new council of state, and subsequently as pro
honours should be conferred on this saint. tector of the kingdom. Through his-
The Yorkshiremen who fought in the influence, Pecock was elevated to the
battle averred solemnly that they had seen bishopric of St. Asaph. As an able and
their Yorkshire saint, John of Beverley, learned controversialist and defender of

fighting by their side ;

while other York the establishedorder of things in the
shiremen who had stayed at home swore church, the bishop of St. Asaph acquired
that at the very time the bloody fight a great fame. As a vehement advocate of
took place holy oil flowed by drops, like the Roman supremacy, he no doubt stirred
sweat, out of his tomb. Special services up much enmity, the pretensions of Rome
were therefore decreed in honour of this much dis
being at this period already
ancient English saint, John of Beverley. credited in As most of our
England.
A yet more curious and interesting accounts of this great man have proceeded
insight into the inner life and opinions of from hostile writers, there is considerable
the church between 1425 and
1459, when difficulty in tracing the sources of the
Henry VI. was king, is obtained from the deep-seated hostility which
eventually
writings which have come down to us of ruined his life. While, on the one hand,
one Reginald Pecock, a fellow of Oriel he was the vehement supporter of Rome
College, Oxford, and successively bishop and the ardent defender of his order, and
of St. Asaph and of Chichester. Pecock the skilful apologist, as we shall see, of
was a Welshman by birth. He became a
many of the abuses and superstitions which
most industrious and successful student at had excited the indignation of the Lollards
Oxford, whence he proceeded to London, and reformers of his time; on the other, he
and obtained at an
early age good pre bitterly offended the powerful mendicant
ferment. His London work him orders by exposing the grave faults and
brought
into contact with the Lollards, who, errors which disfigured their system.
I450-] BISHOP PECOCK. 349

But his ruin and fall seem, in great Chichester. But Suffolk was eventually
measure, to have been owing to political assassinated ;
and Pecock was then left
reasons. When the duke of Gloucester without any eminent patron. We now
died, bishop Pecock still preserved the find him charged with advancing heretical

PREACHING AT ST. PAUL S CROSS (EARLY I7TH CENTURY).

(From a print in the British Museum.)

friendship of powerful patrons in the opinions a charge apparently altogether

church and state and the duke of Suffolk
;
without real foundation. His writings
who, after the death of the duke of had stirred up many enemies ;
and prob
Gloucester, became, through queen Mar ably, as the friend of Gloucester, and
garet of Anjou s favour, chief minister later of Suffolk and of the queen, he had
advanced Pecock to the bishopric of been mixed up in many of the state
35
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1447-

intrigues that accompanied the disputes prelate by one who devoted his great
which culminated in the Wars of the powers especially to its defence. From
Roses. The Pope intervened in his the curious side-lights thrown by bishop

favour, but fruitlessly. As bishop of Pecock s defence on some of the ways

Chichester, he was formally cited before and tenets of the church of which he
a council under archbishop Bourchier, and was so distinguished a member, we
passages in his writings were adduced as shall see how
sorely needed were the

proofs of his being a heretic. It was in purifying fires of the Reformation of

vain that he defended himself : his enemies the next century. The very ability of the
were too powerful and the archbishop
; apology throws a darker shadow upon
offered him the choice between making a the doctrinal errors and superstitious
public abjuration of his errors, or being customs which he so earnestly pleaded.
for

delivered, after degradation, to the secular In the year 1447 bishop Pecock preached
arm "

as the food of fire and fuel for the a celebrated sermon at St. Paul s Cross, in
burning." Pecock, the brilliant scholar which he took upon himself the task of
and controversialist, but apparently rather defending certainabuses in the church
the political prelate than the earnest which had attracted considerable public
bishop, was not of the stuff of which attention. Of latepreaching had been
martyrs are made. He became terri much neglected. The bishops were espe
fied, and elected to abjure heresies he ciallycharged with looking upon the duty
-had never advocated, or probably even of preaching as something beneath their
dreamed of, and publicly burned the three dignity as an occupation fit only for the
folios and eleven quartos of his own inferior clergy.Archbishop Arundel, in
composition. But his somewhat pusil the reign of Henry V., had further dis
lanimous surrender availed him but little. couraged preaching altogether, owing, it
He was deprived of his bishopric, and is said, to the
spread of Lollard opinions
relegated to a kind of state imprisonment among the clergy. Pecock in his Paul s
in the abbey of Thorney in Cross sermon defended the bishops, assert
Cambridge
shire, where he died some time after, in ing that their order ought to be considered
the year 1459. free from the burden of preaching, as having
No portrait of this scholar and writer, by more important duties to perform in the
far the most eminent and learned of general supervision. In the same
bishop way
of the Church of England of his time, now discourse he attempted to vindicate the
exists, but he is have been a man
said to non-residence of many of the bishops in
of stately figure and handsome features. their dioceses, a then only too
practice
We have dwelt thus upon his singular common (and against which exception
fortunes, because from his writings we had been taken by the reforming
lately
obtain an interesting and on the ground that there were
contemporary party),
picture of the church of the fifteenth causes which would justify such non-
many
century, with its errors and shortcomings ;
residence in the sight of God, alluding no
a picture drawn
by its most learned doubt to the verv general employment of
I449-] PECOCK S "

REPRESSOR."

prelates in state matters at home, and in ranks of the hierarchy, which the Lollard
the royal service abroad as ambassadors. reformers alleged were not in accordance

Bishop Pecock also touched upon the with primitive tradition. But some of the
vexed question of papal bulls of provision, questions treated of in the "

Represser
"

by which a clergyman might be appointed referred to the grave errors in doctrine

by the Pope to a piece of preferment before and which had gradually crept
in practice

it was actually vacant, and forwhich papal into the theology and teaching of the

provision a considerable fee was generally mediaeval Church of England, and which

paid by the candidate thus provided for to were for the most part swept away even
the papal court. Pecock pleaded that the tually at the time of the Reformation
Pope, as lord paramount of the universal notably the improper use of images, and
church and of things thereto appertain
all the going on pilgrimages to notable shrines

ing, had a right, if he chose to claim it, where miracles were reported to have been
to the entire proceeds of all benefices, and wrought.
u
that those whom he placed therein were TheRepresser was a very able work,
"

perfectly right in giving to the supreme and, from the standpoint of the defenders

bishop a portion of that which was his of the system which Pecock laboured to

own, thus justifying one of the most un uphold, was no doubt a masterly perform
popular abuses in the church of his day. ance. It is looked upon, and justly, as the

These views he repeated in several of his earliest piece of good philosophical argu
writings, which excited much attention, ment which our English prose literature
and were vehemently controverted. possesses. the student of English
It is to

Two years after the famous sermon at mediaeval church history especially valu
Paul Cross in the city of London, in
s
able, for and unmistakably sets
it
clearly
1449, Pecock put out the work by which forth some of the doctrines and authorita
he is best known, entitled "The
Represser tive teachings of the church just before the
of overmuch Blaming of the Clergy," * in era of the Reformation, which were most
which he formally took upon himself the seriously controverted by the reformers ;

task of categorically setting out and reply and it gives, too, in the case of the parti
ing to some of the principal articles of the cular doctrines and practices dwelt on by
Lollard grievances, in the matter of the Pecock, the best argument which could be
doctrines- and practices of the English
alleged in their defence by a learned and
Church. Some of these grievances were trained theologian. Especially valuable
no doubt much exaggerated, and others is his defence of the use and even of the
might have been safely disregarded, such adoration of images, and of the widely-
as the holding of
landed possessions by the spread pilgrimages in the
practice of
clergy, and the retention of the various English church
the days roughly
in

speaking, about the middle of the fifteenth

*
of bishop Pecock was when he was public teacher
"The
Represser"
century a
published in the Series of the Master of the Rolls
in 2 vols.
of authority.
edited by Churchill Babington, 1860.
This is the edition referred to in this work. It will ever remain a curious and un-
352
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1449-

solved problem how it came to pass that arguments, however, he lets in a flood of
such a fearless and uncompromising light upon the general and prevalent use
state of things, such in the last days of the mediaeval Church of
apologist of the existing
a vigorous defender of the grossly abused England of these strange novelties, telling
his readers that it was reasonable
"
"

of the the unspiritual

of full
power Pope,
of the bishops, of the many
and "

full worthy
"

that where the body or

occupation
which weakened bones or any relic of a saint might be had,
unscriptural superstitions
the teaching and disfigured the practice of that such a relic be set up in a public
the church, could have fallen eventually place to which the people might have
under the ban of that mediaeval church of access ;
and then he went on to say that
which he was only the too faithful servant. since we
possessed neither bones nor
The fall of Reginald Pecock, bishop of body of Christ crucified, or of His mother
Chichester, his condemnation, his deposi Mary, it were well that images of these
tion from his high office, will probably ever should be made and set up. Yet the
remain a mystery. Political reasons, the eminent teacher contradicts himself a
constant changes in the unhappy govern little further on, when he quotes from
ment of the times of Henry VI., the relent the hymns sung in church on the feasts of

less enmity of the friars, whose errors and the "

Invention "

and "

Exaltation of the
mistakes he lashed with unsparing severity, Cross." The "

Hymn to the Crucifix

"

no doubt largely contributed to the fate an anthem sung on the Feast of the In
of this really great though mistaken man. vention of the Cross, May 3 showed
They are not, however, sufficient in them that the crucifix evidently had a deeper
selves to account for the ruin and disgrace signification than merely as a reminding
with which the career of bishop Pecock sign. The hymn in question ran thus :

was closed. "

O
crux splendidior cunctis astris . . .

A curious testimony to some of the dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens
ritual and teaching of the church of his pondera salva praesentem catervam in
!

day given in his "Represser."

is The tuis hodie laudibus congregatam the
"

Lollard reformers seem to have taken latter clauses of which Pecock translates :

special exception, and justly, to the teach O

sweete stok, bering sweete nailis and
"

ing of the church on the question of the sweete birthens, save thou this present cum-
of prayers offered not now
efficacy only to panie, gaderid togidere this dai into
saints, but to images of saints, and thi And that
espe preisingis" (thy praises).
cially to crucifixes.
Bishop Pecock pleads there should be no mistake as to his
that these images and crucifixes are useful estimation of crucifixes, he images and
for the devotions of the u
people as re- on the perfect reasonableness of
argues
memorative or and
reminding signs," believing that some of them were wonder
argues for their use in divine worship from working. God, he urged, had made special
the Old Testament
history of the cherubim choice of certain images and crucifixes by
of the tabernacle, and the of the which He was
symbols pleased to work miracles,
temple of Solomon. In the course of his
alluding to such marvels as sweating
 449-j PECOCK S "

REPRESSOR." 353

images of images that moved or that saints, so bitterly inveighed against by the
turned their eyes, or even spoke ex Lollard reformers, Pecock warmly defends,
plaining these marvels thus that specke :
"

and pleads as Scriptural authority for

^t ftwptc tniT diB /*r ^

fifaafc- njBrw abr

criiigr futccte nm^

liB* ftyaftc
^v^cnO ^faft t
_

gTfl movpc be ^otnT fO feo

PAGE FROM BISHOP PECOCK S "REPRESSOR" (iSTH CENTURY), CONTAINING THE WORDS
"O SWEETE STOK," ETC. ( ambriage University Library.}

and soun (sound) be mad in the ymage these religious exercises on the part of the
bi an aungel of God, as it was doon in people, so highly approved and recom
the asse of Balaam." mended by the church in which he was an
Pilgrimage to notable shrines, to wonder eminent teacher, the example of the holy
working images and crucifixes, images or devout women, which wenten in pilgrim
"

Christ crucified, and of Mary and of other age to Cristis sepulchre, and to his deed
354 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1449-

to be the more remembrid of feet, for the place in which thou stondist
bodi, for
that holi
Christ, he adds, prophesied
him." is lond."

Mary Magdalen should do so, and he ap

proved and justified her deed. That the
Besides the grave doctrinal errors which
church in the days of Henry VI. believed gradually had crept into the Church of
in the special sacredness of certain shrines England, obscuring the light and weaken
and in certain miraculous powers resident ing the influence of the cardinal truths of
therein, in its popular teaching en
and Christianity besides the lack of earnest
;

couraged the people to visit these holy spiritual rulers and markedly able men
places as pilgrims, is emphasised by bishop in the hierarchy during the first three
Pecock in his quarters of the fifteenth century besides
"

Represser." ;

One
of the arguments pressed by the the lamentable superstitions which were
Lollard reformers against the blind super disfiguring the church s life and practice,
stition of these pilgrimages, which had and notably this undisguised reverence,
become so prominent a feature in the passing too often into adoration, of image
religious life of England, was that God is and crucifix, to which frequently supernat
ural powers were strangely attributed, and
present everywhere alike, and that no
place or image is holier than another, and the tendency to imagine, perhaps to invent
that therefore pilgrimages to Walsingham miracles to support the pretended claims
and other famous shrines were idle and to sanctity of certain shrines chosen as
vain. Pecock in the name of the church fitting objects for popular pilgrimages be ;

stoutly combats such an assertion, main sides all these grave defects in the doctrine,

taining that God chooses one place rather teaching, and practice of religion, over the
than another in which to work miracles, whole Church of England, penetrating into
and this divine choice makes one place and thereby affecting allwork, private
its

holier than another, and by like reasoning as well as public, brooded the dark shadow
one image holier than another, and con of theRoman supremacy.
sequently that a pilgrimage to such a place This claim to universal supremacy had
or image would be especially profitable and
gradually grown as the age advanced.
helpful to the devout pilgrim. In support For four hundred years since the epoch of
of this assertion he refers to the Old Testa the Norman Conquest, when its spiritual
ment, how God chose Jacob s
resting-place claims were first virtually admitted, Rome
at Bethel, quoting the well-known words had been ruling over the Church of

England. When an evil or weak monarch,

of the ancestor of the twelve tribes
"Sotheli the Lord is in this place, and such as king John or king Henry III., was
y knewe not ! . . . Hou gastful is this on the throne, the interference of the
Here noon other thing no but
is Italian bishop was not
place
by any means
!

the hous of God, and the gate of heuen !

"

confined to ecclesiastical matters, but he

Again he cites the instance of the burning openly meddled even with questions con
bush in Horeb, quoting the words of the nected with the civil government of the
angel to Moses "undo .the scho of thi realm. When a strong such as
ruler,
1400 1460.] THE DEEPENING SHADOW OF ROME. 355

Henry II. or Edward I., wore the crown, government of the country was weak and
such interference with state matters apart divided the hierarchy of the church
;

from the church was not brooked, or was possessed no really eminent spiritual

only sanctioned when that interference was advisers, its leading bishops being
mostly
exercised in a direction which pleased the statesmen of no specially marked ability
sovereign and contributed to help forward rather than theologians the church s
;

his plans and wishes. Rome s power to teaching was becoming more and more
enforce obedience to her ever-growing, honeycombed with grave doctrinal errors
haughty claims, even in spiritual matters, and baseless superstitions, and was every
received a sudden check, as we have seen, year losing more and more of its hold
during the long-protracted absence of the upon the hearts of the people. Such a
Popes from Italy and their residence at prelate as Martin V.,when, after the long
Avignon, and then during the fatal schism exile and schism, he found himself once
in the Papacy which immediately followed more restored to Italy and Rome, and
the years of the Avignon exile. It is true seated firmly on the awful throne of the
that the exiled bishops of Rome during great Popes, would not be likely to
that long period still maintained the same abate the pretensions of his predecessors

haughty attitude, and claimed the same to supreme rule in the Catholic church ;

obedience, but the assumption of authority and in no country in western Christendom

was uttered in a feeble voice. That voice had these pretensions been recognised and
was not unfrequently disregarded when it exercised as in England. Let us briefly
came from Avignon on the Rhone, instead review what these Roman claims in the
of from Rome on the Tiber. Church of England were ; claims, too, so
The middle of the fifteenth century, generally acknowledged, that nothing but
however, witnessed a renaissance of the a mighty revolution like the Reforma

papal power. The period of exile from tion of the sixteenth century could have
Italy and Rome was over at last ;
the deadly effectively put an end to them.
schism was at length healed ;
and once We may dismiss with a word or two
more a Pope, without a rival or com Rome s claim to exercise a civil supremacy.
petitor in the sacred office, issued his It is true we
read of such in the days of
bulls and mandates from the city whose William the Conqueror, of his son William
grandeur and splendid traditions had con Rufus, and in the reign of the Angevin
tributed so largely to the gradual growth monarch Henry II., the Plantagenet but ;

of the power and assumptions of its bishop. these powerful sovereigns utterly rejected
The time, indeed, seemed ripe for Rome, them. John Lackland s surrender and
with newly recovered spiritual author
its subsequent homage, and the weak acqui
ity, to assert and make good the claims escence of his son Henry III., gave some
put forward by a Hildebrand or an Inno colour to these pretensions, which were,
cent III. to rule over the English church. however, finally and decisively repudiated
In England, too, much seemed at this Edward I. and Edward III.
by kings like ;

juncture to favour her pretensions. The and the formal and decisive repudiation
356 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14001460.

of the kings was sanctioned by their the battle Hastings we note the
of

Parliaments. presence of legates from Rome in England,

But Rome to general
the claim of assisting the Conqueror to remove Anglo-
over the Church of Saxon bishops from their sees. It was in
spiritual supremacy
thing, and vain that the masterful Norman king, who
England was a very different
was never successfully repudiated until the soon had cause to dread this foreign
Reformation rudely broke off all relations interference, formally ruled that no Roman
between them. Before the Norman Con legate,with his great though undefined

quest, in the eleventh century, this claim power, should be admitted into England
of the Popes supremacy over the
to unless he had been previously appointed
Church England was shadowy and
of legate at the request of the king and the
unreal, and was mainly confined to the church. The mischief was done. The
bestowal on the metropolitan of the sacred presence of the papal legate had been
symbol, the pall a simple collar, which sanctioned, and his powers formally recog
we have already described, of white wool nised by the crown and from the end of
;

with pendant stripes before and behind, the eleventh century onwards, with scarcely
embroidered with four white crosses. It a year s intermission for some four cen
was first bestowed on the newly-appointed turies and a half, in one form or another,
metropolitan as acompliment by-and-by ;
a legate, armed with vast though perhaps
itbegan to be accepted as the vehicle by indefinite powers from the Pope, was ever
which metropolitan power was conveyed. present in England, guiding and con
With this gift of the pall, however at trolling the church under the authority of
most a shadowy and ill-defined privilege his Italian master.
the connection between the Pope and the This custom, absolutely fatal to the
Anglo-Saxon church began and ended. independence of the church, was only dis
No direct or unsolicited interference of continued when the Reformation severed
Rome with the affairs of the church before all connection between the churches of
the time of the Conqueror, is recorded. Rome and England. We
read of Anselm,
But with the Norman Conquest a new the too faithful servant of the apostolic
relation was at once established between who followed the first
see, Lanfranc,
Rome and England. The enormous Norman archbishop, positively remon
as
sistance given by the bishop of Rome to strating with Pope Paschal II. for giving
the pretensions of the Norman William to the archbishop of Vienne legatine power
the English crown, and over England.
gratefully accepted In 1125 the presence of
by the Norman duke, placed the Roman John of Crema, who held a legatine
bishop in quite a different as
position council London, was viewed as an
at
regards the church of the conquered land. insultby archbishop William of Corbeuil,
Gregory VII. (Wldebrand), who then the English primate and deeming the
;

occupied the chair of St Peter, was not intrusion of a foreigner armed with these
slow to avail himself of these new
and powers a matter of such grave importance
changed relations. Within four years of for the future of the
English church, the
1400 1460.] GROWTH OF ROMAN AUTHORITY. 357

archbishop of Canterbury undertook the of Rome and England for several cen-
long and difficult journey to Rome, on turies. For while removing the ever-re-
purpose to discuss the question with the curring presence of a foreign prelate
Pope. The result of his visit was the in England, exercising vast and ever

A PAPAL LEGATE S COURT.

commission of himself (the English arch- undefined powers over its national church,
bishop) as legate, with jurisdiction over which would have been a constant affront
the whole island. and mortification to the* national pride;
The precedent here established was of by placing the legatine authority in the
immense importance, and had a moment- hands ot the archbishop of Canterbury,,
ous influence upon the spiritual relations it forced the sovereign and the church
358
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1452.

defend all men. The

supreme jurisdiction of the
. . .

to admit the against

the chief prelate of rights, honours, privileges,
and authorities
Pope, thus vested in
the English church, who was also, from his of the Church of Rome, and of the Pope
one of the chief coun and of his successors, I shall cause to be
official position,

sellors of the crown. From henceforth conserved, defended, augmented, and pro
the arch moted. I shall not be in council, treaty,
every important act done by
had the appearance, or any act in which anything shall be
bishop of Canterbury
at all events, of being sanctioned by the imagined against him or the Church of
authority of Rome. With the exception Rome, their rights, seats, honours, or
of a very few short intervals, when some powers. And if I know any such to be
other very influential English prelate took moved or compassed, I shall resist it to

the of the archbishop as papal

place my power, and, soon as I can, I shall

from the days of archbishop William advertise him or such as may give him
legate,
de Corbeuil, in the first quarter of the knowledge. The rules of the holy fathers,

twelfth century, until the Reformation, the the decrees, ordinances, sentences, dis

and
archbishops of Canterbury were legates positions, reservations, provisions,
of the Roman see.* .....
commandments apostolic, to my power I

The oath taken by cardinal John Kemp, shallkeep and cause to be kept of others.
archbishop of York, to the Pope when he Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to my
was translated from York to Canterbury, holy Father and his successors I shall

in 1452, will give some conception of the and prosecute to I shall

resist my power.
relations of the English primate to the come to the synod when I am called,

Pope in the middle of the fifteenth except I be letted by a canonical impedi

century. Six bulls were then issued from ment. The thresholds of the apostles I
Rome with mandates to different persons shall visit yearly personally or by deputy.
and corporations, including the chapter I shall not alienate or sell my possessions
4
appointing the cardinal - archbishop of without the Pope s counsel."
York to the vacant primacy. The oath This oath was formally taken by the
of cardinal Kemp ran as follows :
"

I, principal subject of the realm, after

the
John, archbishop of Canterbury, from this various great anti-papal acts of Provisors
hour forward shall be faithful and obedient and Prsemunire had been enacted and re-
to St. Peter and the holy church of Rome, enacted, and formally placed among the
and to my lord the Pope and his suc statutes of the realm. There is no doubt
cessors. . ... Their counsel to me that these acts were again and again
credited by them, their messengers or evaded.
letters, I shall not willingly discover to Occasionally special legates, besides the
any person. The Papacy of Rome, the perpetual resident legate, were sent to
rules of the
holy fathers, and the regality England from Rome, as in the case of
of St. Peter, I shall help and maintain and
* in Dean Hook s
"

Lives of the
* See
Quoted
Bishop Stubbs
"

:
Constitutional History Archbishops of Canterbury," vol. v. , chap, xx.,
of England," chaps, viii., xix.
Archbishop Kemp.
I452-]
TYRANNY OF THE PAPACY. 359

Gualo and Pandulph in the reign of John,
and Otho and Othobon and Guy Foulquois
in the thirteenth century
extraordinary missions were only of rare
occurrence. As a rule, for four hundred
pointment, no doubt enormously multiplied
such disputes. These disputed elections
;
but these were by no means confined to the suffragan
bishops of Canterbury, but in several cases
affected the metropolitan see itself, and

years the archbishop of Canterbury repre several archbishopswere appointed in con

sented the Pope of Rome in England as sequence by the Roman see. To give a
his legate. The full significance of this notable example of the boundless influence
enormous concession on the part of the exercised in a weak reign by Rome in the

mediaeval Church of England to the Italian appointment of bishops, in the thirteenth

bishop is often lost sight of.

good A century, between 1215 and. 1264, thirty dis
instance of the position which an im puted episcopal elections were referred to
perious Pope deemed his English legate, the Pope for settlement. Even under the
the archbishop of Canterbury, to hold strong rule of Edward I. as many as twelve

towards himself, occurs in the directions cases of this kind were decided at Rome.
given by Pope Martin V., as late as in the As time went
on, the arbitrary assump
fifteenth century, to archbishop Chichele. tion of various other powers over the
He insisted that Chichele, his legate, English Church on the part of Rome
should procure the repeal of the anti- enormously increased. In the thirteenth
papal statute of Provisors, the effect of century the Pope began to claim rights in
which was so justly dreaded at Rome. the bestowal even of the lower patronage
When Chichele declined to comply with of the church. As early as 1226 the special
his imperious master s will, alleging that Otho, demanded that two prebends
legate,
he possessed no power which would en in each cathedral church should be set

able him to carry out such instructions, aside for the use of the Pope. These de
Pope Martin V. suspended him from his mands were rapidly multiplied, and we
legatine office. have already noticed how in 1240 the
In the case of the appointment of the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury were posi
English bishops, all through the Middle tively directed to provide livings in Eng
Ages the influence of Rome was very land for no less than three hundred foreign
great, though varying with the character ecclesiastics ! This terrible tyranny grew
of the monarch who was at the moment of in time absolutely insupportable the ;

the vacancy occupying the throne. In the Pope claim to the right of reservation of
s

case of the numerous disputed elections to patronage affected the tenure of every
the episcopate, and disputes between the benefice in the country, and the outcry

clergy, the chapters of the cathedrals, and against such a shameful abuse of power at
the crown, which each claimed an elective last found expression in that famous series
voice, the decision was usually referred to of anti-papal Acts of Parliament quoted
Rome. The knowledge that Rome pos before, passed between 1351 and 1390,
sessed the power to decide such a vexed and generally referred to as the Acts of
question, and virtually to settle the ap Provisors and Praemunire.
360 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [ 473-

Another and oppressive instrument of only when important matters were at

well-nigh measureless influence possessed issue, grew more and more frequent. The
was the widely-spread system of statutes of
"

which forbade
by Rome, Praemunire,"

These appeals the prosecution of suits cognisable by the

appeals to the papal courts.
in their wide range were, although perhaps laws of England in foreign courts, although
often evaded, largely diminished the num
principally, by no means confined exclu
and questions connected ber and importance of cases referred to
sively to causes
with ecclesiastical persons. As late as the Rome, till in the course of the fifteenth

second half of the fifteenth century, in a century, while papal jurisdiction in great
letterdated 1473, in the interesting cor matters was seldom heard of, in minor

respondence of the Paston family, we find matters, such as the case Paston
in the

an instance of one of these appeals to it continued to be a

correspondence, prac
Rome on the part of the laity, and a tice of every-day occurrence.*
singular comment added by the writer On the whole, how ill the anti-papal
alluding to the frequency of such appeals.* statutes of Provisors and Praemunire were
To us, living under an elaborate and ever- kept is notorious. In our sketch of bishop

improving system of English law, adminis Pecock of Chichester s life and famous
tered by English judges of various degrees, writings we have dwelt, it will be remem
such a procedure is incredible, and seems bered, on that eminent scholar and theo
to belong to a country semi-barbarous like logians earnest and eloquent pleading for

Hindostan, whence appeals, though by no the righteousness of the Pope s claim to

means frequent, and only in grave and provide for whom he pleased out of the
important cases, are made to the supreme revenues and benefices of the Church of
courts in England ;
but the relation in England, without regard to either the
which Hindostan stands to England affords nationality or even the fitness of the
no parallel to those existing between
.
person so "

provided for." This was in

mediaeval England and mediaeval Rome. direct opposition to the solemn statutes
These appeals, save in the very early and laws of the realm, which had in several
days of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, when acts of*Parliament declared such provisions
Wilfrid of York appealed to the
bishop of absolutely illegal. It is notorious that
Rome against the judgments of the king large sums of money were drawn annually
and Witan of Northumbria, were out of England for the benefit of the Pope
absolutely
unheard of until after the Norman Con and his court. The Roman exactions
quest. The Conqueror himself, before he during the earlier Middle Ages have al
became master of England, had set the
ready been slightly sketched. From the
evil example, and had referred the vexed nation at large, however, no claim for
question connected with his marriage with money was formally made after the reign
Matilda of Flanders to Rome for decision. of Henry III., save on one occasion in 1306.
From the days of the Conqueror onward But the amount continually forwarded to
the custom of appeal to the
Pope, at first * See
generally Bishop Stubbs Constitutional
"

Seepage 371. History of England," chap. xix.

1490] PAPAL RAPACITY. 361

Rome for bulls and dispensations must Crusader ;

this was as late as the year 1422.
have been very large. The instance already Such exactions as these mainly fell on the
cited from the Paston letters, of the heavy clergy. A regular official papal collector
fee paid for dispensation from a marriage of such moneys was appointed for England ;

engagement, was an example of these an official who maintained great state and
common and every-day exactions. Besides acted in the position of papal agent, to

large sums of money in fees for dispensa watch for vacancies in preferments, and to
tions, indulgences, and the like, paid by give timely information of opportunities
laymen to the Roman court, other contribu for papal exactions;

tions were collected by the Pope s agents in In the years of the century, in the
last

the form of voluntary gifts, ostensibly for reign of Henry VII., when cardinal-arch
such objects as defence against the Turks, bishop Morton, a man of stainless character,
or more commonly for a Crusade. These was chief minister of the crown, one John
Crusading dreams were still in men s de Gigliis was furnished with a bull from
minds even in the fifteenth century. We the Pope, conferring on him powers to
remember how Henry V., as he was sell pardons for grave offences, such as

dying, spoke of his intense longing to be a usury, simony, and even theft.

CARDINAL MORTON S TOMB IN THE CRYPT OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

 CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE AGE BETWEEN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY.
Bosworth-Picture of this
of the Middle Ages at the Battle of
Edward IV and Richard IllClose
Paston Letters-Their Character-Evidences of Roman Domination
Homely Fidelity in
Period in the
and Devotion Increase of Literary Knowledge
and Medieval Superstitions-Also of true Piety
Results-Secular Character of the Hierarchy-
The Introduction of Printing, and its Momentous
of Pluralism in the Church-Cardinal Morton.
Prevalence

he has behind him the most evil of

unhappy life and reign of
left
long,
the ill-fated Henry VI. came to a
His character has been
THE sudden close in the Tower of Lon
reputations.
severely but not unjustly summarised as
after the fatal battle of that of
"

a man vicious far beyond any

don, directly
Tewkesbury, had put an end to
in 1471, king that England had seen since .lie days
the hopes of the Lancastrian party, and of John,and more cruel and bloodthirsty
closed the Wars of the Roses. The than any king she had ever known." No

April and May of that fatal year had great churchman, no eminent statesman
witnessed two bloody battles, in each of appeared to break the prosperous but evil
which the Lancastrians were utterly monotony of his short twelve years reign,
routed the death in the field or by the for Edward IV. died comparatively young.
;

executioner s sword of Henry VI. s gallant The judicial murder of his brother, the
son, prince Edward of Wales, and most of duke of Clarence, in the traditional cask
the captivity of
the leaders of the party ;
of wine, was the most notorious of his

Henry queen Margaret and lastly, the

s ; many stern acts of high-handed cruelty.
sudden end of king Henry himself (men The nemesis which hurried the brilliant
said, and probably with reason, that he and successful Edward IV. into a prema
had been murdered). Only a few years ture grave pursued his family. The story
more have to be accounted for, and of the boy-king Edward V., who was only
the long period known in the story of the thirteen years old when his father died,
vorld as the Middle Ages, is generally and his young brother, is too well known
understood to end. to need repetition. All writers who have
After the events which happened in touched the subject unite in condemning
1471, Edward IV. of York reigned without with no unstinted condemnation the con
a competitor. His was a disappointing duct of the young king s uncle Richard,
career. Gifted with no ordinary gifts ;
duke of Gloucester, who became, on the
tall in and of singular beauty
stature ;
death of his brother, Edward IV., pro
possessing withal winning manners an ;
tector of the realm. Events now succeeded
able but, alas ! a pitiless soldier ;
a states each other rapidly. We
read of more
man of no common ability and foresight, bloody executions of the chief advisers and
1483-]
CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 363

relatives of the late king then the setting

; mighty western Republic, wanders through
aside by the duke of Gloucester of his that royal abbey at Westminster, and

nephews as illegitimate a step which was reverently gazes at the scarred and time-
quickly followed by their secret murder ;
worn tombs where rest the dust of so many
then the seizure of the throne by Gloucester of thecrowned chiefs of the great Anglo-
under the title of Richard- III. All Saxon race when he passes eastward,
;

these changes took place in 1483, in a few from the sacred chapel of the kings who
short months. Only two restless years of lie in solemn state round the august shrine
treason, plots, counterplots, executions, of the saintly Confessor, he is sensible, as

banishments, confiscation, followed. In he enters the gorgeous chapel of Henry

the fatal field of Bosworth, near Leicester J
VII., canopied with its fantastic traceried

TOMB OF HENRY VII. AND HIS QUEEN IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

the unprincipled but conspicuously able root, of a peculiar change. He needs no

Richard III. lost his crown and life ; guide to tell him that he is in a building
and Henry of Richmond, on a somewhat of another and later age, when he looks
shadowy title, which he strengthened^ on the matchless monument which guards
however, by marriage with Elizabeth,
his the dust of Henry Tudor. Everything is
daughter of Edward IV. and sister of the different. It is certainly not less striking,

murdered boy-king Edward V., ascended scarcely less awe-inspiring, than the grey
the throne as king Henry VII. With the chapel which contains those defaced but
battle of Bosworth, the death of Richard hallowed monuments of the Confessor and
III., and the accession of Henry VII., his girdle of Plantagenets, which he has just
historians consider the mediaeval period been gazing at but there is a change,
;

in English history to close. which can be felt rather than described.

The ornaments are still Gothic, but it is a
When a stranger from the Greater different Gothic ;
more elaborate, perhaps
Britain beyond the seas, or from the some might say even more beautiful ;
364
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1483-

the What crowd upon the

associations
but the tomb, the heraldic shields,
roof pilgrim as he hears these historic names,
the gorgeous
tracery of the chapel,
from another and a and looks upon this newer group of royal
overhead, all spring
The stranger hears graves The graceful and stately tombs,
!

different inspiration.
without surprise that round the
vast tomb ofHenry VII. and Edward VI., of Mary
Tudor and Elizabeth, of the ill-fated Mary
which covers the narrow sleeping-chamber
of the first Tudor king,
are grouped the queen of Scots, suggest memories not
less interesting than did the scarred and
the monuments, the chapels, where
graves,
battered monuments over the coffins of
rest another line of English sovereigns
Edward I. and Edward III., of Richard II.
and Henry V. But while the Plantagenets-
are the heroes of media; val, the Tudors.
and the Stuarts are the central figures,

of modern history.
The royal English abbey is t^rue here to-

the historic spirit, and marks with its own

peculiar mark the division,
ineffaceable
between the two epochs. Our definition,,
which takes the field of Bosworth (A.D. 1485)
as marking the close of the Middle Ages,
is no fancied one. Among the pictured
symbols in that gorgeous jewelled glass r
which lights up the Tudor chapel and its
splendid tombs at the east end of the
royal abbey, occurs and recurs the quaint
image of a crown hanging upon a haw
thorn bush, telling the old story of how
DOORWAY OF HENRY VII. SCHAPEL, WESTMINSTER the kingly coronet, falling from the helm
ABBEY, IN SOME OF THE PANELS OF WHICH
MAY BE SEEN THE EMBLEM OF THE CROWN of Richard III. when he was wounded to-

HANGING ON THE BUSH. and thence plucked

death, was thus caught,
out and laid upon the brows of the con
Tudors, Stuarts, Guelphs. Hard by sleeps queror in that stricken field, Henry Tudor.
Edward VI. to the left lie the sister-
; The stained glass in another form tells

queens, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth ;

to the same story as the traceried roof and
the right repose the mutilated remains of the cunning ornaments of window and of
Mary, queen of Scots. The first Stuart wall of Henry VII. s chapel ;
the same
sovereign of England has found a home in story as do the comparatively new and
the little vault of Henry Tudor himself. Tudor tombs.
splendid
Other kings and queens, who in their days was the old crown of the kings of the
It
have worn the crown of England, rest
Anglo-Saxon race. But the circumstances
close beside him. of its transfer from Richard Plantagenet to-
1483.] CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 365

his kinsman, Henry Tudor, were strange. old feudal relations were disappearing, and
The throne was surrounded now with new the old and mighty baronage of England
men. New ideas took the place of the was well-nigh extinct. Few had survived

The crusading
old conceptions of things. the long and bloody civil wars. A new
ardour which had endured for centuries, and mighty war engine had been discovered
began to present itself tomen s minds in gunpowder, which was fast changing all
rather as a feverish unreal dream than as a the old conditions of mediaeval fighting.
reality which might be accomplished. The There was a wonderful progress in all
366 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1483-

directions. From this period modern was now confronted. It was a new and
music may counterpoint was
be dated ; changing order of habits and customs, of
now invented, and the new advance in practice and of thought, that the church
music received great encouragement in had to deal with, and if possible to lead

England. But chiefest of all, the printing

and to guide. We have already seen
press had begun its
work in the homes and how terribly unfitted, how sadly unpre
hearts of men its work of spreading the pared she was, owing to various chances and

HYMN IN LATIN AND ENGLISH, "

BLESSED MOTE THOU BE, SWETE JHESUS."

(From a Collection of Latin and English Hymns and Songs in Parts in the British Museum. Add. MSS. 5665.
Late isth Century.)

knowledge of good and evil among the mischances, to undertake with any hope
nations of the west a far-reaching, all-
; of success the difficult and dangerous task.
penetrating work such as neither church
Much, very much in her teaching, in her
man nor statesman, scholar nor soldier, had
government, in her uses and practices, re
ever dared to conceive or even to dream
of, quired to be changed, altered, reformed,
much less to provide for. before she was fit to assume her right
It was with this new state of society ful place as the guide and teacher of the
that the Church of new
England, in the last England which arose under Henry VII.
years of the century we have been picturing, and the Tudor kings.
1422 ISO9-]
THE PASTON LETTERS. 367

A most interesting literary discovery, With the not inconsiderable contributions

and one that throws much light on the which some of the letters supply to our
domestic history, on the home life of this knowledge of the political history of the
fifteenth century, was the unearthing of time, we have not here to occupy our
the so-called
"

Paston Letters." Here, selves. Nor are we specially concerned

from chance allusionsin their correspond with the strong light which this volu

ence, catch we
some glimpses of the in minous family correspondence throws upon
fluence of the Church of England of this domestic life in England, in the period
period upon the life of a middle-class preceding and succeeding the Wars of

family of the eastern counties, and of the the Roses. What really interests us in
curious power of Rome to interfere in these unique and precious relics of a long
the most private domestic concerns. The past age, are the scattered notices of the

story of these letters is briefly as follows :

religious life led by a respectable middle-
The family papers of the second and last class household. We
look curiously to see
earl of Yarmouth, the head of the Fastens, ifthe peculiar doctrinal errors, the correc
were sold by that impecunious nobleman ;
tion of which was the great work of the

and, after passing through two or three Reformation, which followed hard upon
hands, a large collection of letters found the close of the Paston correspondence,

among these papers were published by a and which we have noticed in our own
local Norfolk antiquary towards the end narrative of the church of the time, were
of the last century, attracting at the time colouring and affecting to any marked
great attention, as they were undeniably degree the individual life of the more
genuine. The letters comprised the cor cultured middle class.

respondence of a respectable family occupy In passing, and as enormously enhancing

ing the position of middle-class county the value of any such passing allusions to

gentry during the reigns of Henry VI., the Church of England, its teaching and
Edward III., and Henry VII.
IV., RicKard , influence, in this old family correspond

a period stretching over some ninety years. ence, we may dwell for a moment on the
of the bulk of the
"

More of this curious collection of letters perfect

"

naturalness
have since been found, and we possess letters. They were
written evidently for
now four hundred of these old-world no eye to on, save that of the person to
fall

documents.* whom the letter was addressed. The wife

The letters which have so strangely come writes her thoughts and wishes to her
to light are the family correspondence of a husband, and the husband to the wife ;

judge, a soldier, a country gentleman, and the servant or the bailiff to the master ;

of a few ladies closely connected with the the parent to the child. The very colour
Pastons, with here and there a letter from of the dresses she wants, the lady in the

country describes to her husband

a great ecclesiastic or statesman of the age. in the

great city while he, with equal care,

;
* The Paston Letters
"

(A.D. 1422-1509), edited

"

dwells upon his house, his farms, his rents.

by James Gairdner, of the Public Record Office.
3 vols. 1896. Agnes Paston tells her husband about her
368 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14221509.

little various household wants, and John fine reading, nothing was to be said for
Paston, in return, amidst the business But it is just
them." this which makes
details, breaks in with notices of certain them valuable to us : their perfect sim

syrups and medicines he has found effi plicity and evident truthfulness. Till

cacious. The terrible visitations of the they were disinterred from the yellow,
deadly sicknesses which, under various time-worn bundle into which they had
names, were so frequent in the Middle been wrapped together, no critical eye had
Ages, are not unfrequently alluded to. All looked on them to correct or to improve,
the cares and troubles, the joys and to select or to reject. We have them
sorrows, the hopes and fears of an orderly save that the ink has faded and the paper
become discoloured just as the long-
forgotten members of the Paston family
first wrote them.
The family from whose remarkably
preserved letters we are about to form
some little picture of religious life among

the middle classes in the fifteenth century,

do not appear by any means to have been
a specially devout or church-loving family.

Commonplace ordinary believers nothing

more were these Fastens. We read in
their letters of no sublime spirit of self-
sacrifice ; nothing about any Crusading
passion ;
no ardent desire after the

EXTERIOR OF A PASTON LVTTER.

monastic life, either on the part of the
men women.
or the Only in one case is
middle-class household, are just told and any intention shown of becoming a priest ;

retold simply, naturally, and in that case the

unaffectedly. prudent
solitary
Horace Walpole, who was living when the mother of the would-be clergyman evi
first instalment of these curious letters was
dently has her doubts as to her son s
published, thus writes :
"

The letters or fitness forthe work of the ministry. "I

Henry VI. s reign are come out, and, to will love him better," she wrote to her

me, make all other letters not worth friend and adviser, the parish priest, to
"

reading. I have
gone through one be a good secular man than a bad priest."
volume, and cannot bear to be writing A singularly unemotional family they
when I am so eager to be reading." seem indeed to have been. Their very
Hannah More, on the other hand, was love affairs were
evidently managed gener
disappointed the Paston letters she de
;
ally in a calm, business-like fashion, fitting
scribed as quite barbarous in "

style. They alliances being sought and a fair after, pro

might, perhaps," she thought, "be of some vision for the married life
being usually
use to correct history but as letters and
;
carefully arranged for. The love-letters,
14221509.] THE PASTON LETTERS. 369

few in number, are decidedly prosaic, and constantly the son asks his father s or his
the expressions of the lovers most re mother s blessing the wife ever addresses
;

strained. One thing is

especially notice her husband as u right worshipful." In
able, however, throughout the long series well-nigh all of them the protection of

~iz-H>r{l**+**ii
&# *yv.^r
2^ ~ *
&*] vJt&t^er** 4
V
A*. **<-
&tf*3$*/yy
*$*##.
i
*f>

"t
^r *!*&$ ^f
jaiuJpsF. **&* &r *.l* f

A PASTON LETTER. (British Musettm.)

of these curious old-world compositions :

a vein of marked courtesy runs through
them all. Was it the lingering remains of
the old spirit of romantic chivalry, which
was fast dying out in the age when these
Pastons lived and wrote to each other
In the most familiar letters
Almighty God, the blessing of Our Lady,
or some honoured saint, is carefully in
voked by the writer on the head of the
person to whom the letter was ad
dressed.
? What, then, do we learn of the doctrines
we notice how and practices of the Church of England, of
37
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14221509.

which these Fastens were loyal though memorandum, was

"

an easy cure to keep,

members? for there were not more than twenty
perhaps not enthusiastic
Again and again the parish priest is persons to be yearly houselled" that is

alluded to. He was clearly an influential to receive the sacrament.

in the family life of that period. In many of the letters is the question
person
Men of markJohn Fastolf, the
like Sir discussed of the generous bequest of Sir

cousin of the Pastons, would write to the John Fastolf to the church a bequest ;

his and which provided for the establishment of a

parson of Castlecombe as trusty
well-beloved friend, putting into his hands college or religious endowment, in which
the management of his household at were to be maintained seven priests and
Caister and the improvement of his lands. seven poor folk, at Caister a foundation

Margaret Paston entrusts to her parish which seems subsequently to have been
priest the future of her son, and
takes transferred to Magdalen College, Oxford,
his advice in all her affairs. Great care is with the consent of the Pope. Such
evidently taken to secure good and effi acknowledgment of the supreme power of
cient men for the benefices of which the the Pope appears several times in these

family possessed the presentation. Some letters, notably in this Roman dispensation
curious, business-like details of one of enabling Sir John Paston to apply the
these benefices appear as memoranda endowments of the intended religious
among these letters, and give us some house the support of Magda
at Caister to
idea of one of these family livings in the len College, Oxford.
time of Edward IV. Oxnead Parsonage This supreme dispensing power of Rome,
was within six miles of the city of Nor however, was by no means confined to
wich. The church
" "

so runs the Paston matters of public interest, such as ques

memorandum "was but little, and is tions of the removal of the college of
reasonably pleasant and in good repair, priests from Caister to Oxford, but was
and the dwelling-place of the is exercised in private and delicate family
parson
adjoining, and is also in good repair, matters. Sir John Paston was formally
with a and
hall, chambers, barn, engaged to a mistress Anne Haute, a
other offices." It possessed fruit distantkinswoman of Elizabeth Wydville,
large
gardens, with arable land, pasture and of Edward IV: From this marriage
queen
meadow. It stood by a fresh much
riverside, contract, after correspondence, Sir
and was only two miles distant from the
John Paston was released by the Pope, who
good market-town of Aylsham. The formally annulled it. Some curious details
various emoluments are
given, but they respecting this delicate family negotiation
do not appear to have amounted to a are given, and they show us to what an
very
large sum, for a special note, written in extent Rome and Rome s agents were able
William Paston s own He
hand, adds
"

: to interfere in the most private matters

that hath this if he be a poor
benefice, in England, as well as in important state
man, might have license to perform other affairs and in business of a
public interest.
for
services"
Oxnead, according to the
;
The question in the Roman courts of the
1422 1509-] THE PASTON LETTERS. 37i

annulling the marriage contract evidently of Sir John Fastolf, dated 1459, are direc
turned on the amount of fees which should tions to his executors, John Paston and
be paid for the dispensation, rather than on another, to distribute certain sums among
u
any moral question of right or wrong. Sir poor and needy persons, for the more
John Paston writes to his brother thus on hasty deliverance of my soul from the
the matter I have an answer again painful flames of the of
"

: fire purgatory."

from Rome that there is the will of grace In the same will we find, too, a direction
and salve sufficient for such a sore, and that "

one of the priests or monks in the

that I may be dispensed with. Neverthe college to be founded at Caister should
less, my proctor there asketh a thousand sing specially in perpetuity for the soul of
ducats. But Master Lacy, another Roman my mother and all her ancestors and good
runner here which knoweth my said doers." In the will of Agnes Paston, the
proctor there, saith that he meaneth wife of the judge, dated 1466, we meet
but one hundred ducats, or two hundred with the following direction :
"

A sum of
ducats at the most. He wrote to me also money be paid daily for ever to the monk
that the Pope does this nowadays very that for that day singeth the mass of

frequently." the Holy Ghost in our Lady Chapel in

These Paston letters and papers supply Norwich, where he (her husband) pur
us with many and ample proofs how posed to lay his body to sing and pray
;

deeply the superstitions and doctrinal for his soul and mine, and all the souls

corruptions, which were dealt with so that he and I have had any good etc. of,"

unsparingly in the Reformation, had And, Agnes Paston bequeathed to

again,
affected religious life in England.
all the altar in the house of the White Friars
Margaret Paston writes to her husband in at Norwich, where her husband and she
the Inner Temple in London, after he had had a perpetual mass, a vestment of red
recovered from some grave malady, telling satin for the priest. Sir John Paston s
him that his mother had vowed to give will, dated 1477, bequeathed his soul to
an image of wax the weight of himself to God, Mary, St. John the Baptist, St.
Our Lady at Walsingham, and that she Christopher and St. Barbara, and directed
(Margaret) was bound on a pilgrimage that a brother of the priory of Bromholm
thither, and also to the shrine of St. should "

sing for his soul."

Margaret
Leonard s at Norwich. Prayer to
"

Our Paston, in her will,dated 1488, likewise

Lady,"
the blessed Virgin Mary, was commended her soul to God, His blessed
evidently most usual in private as in mother, St. Michael, St. John the Baptist,
public. References to it occur and recur and all saints. She directed, among other
in these tetters. things, that a taper of wax should burn
Several copies of wills are among the upon her grave in the church of Manteby
Paston papers. Some important refer each Sunday and holy day during all

ences to doctrines and teaching common divine services in that church, and daily
to the church of the fifteenth at the mass of the priest who should
"

century sing
appear in these documents. In the will there for her soul." In the bills and
372 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1422 1509.

documents relating to the expenses of the and then he would dine, and forthwith he
Paston (1466) occurs and so died. Very touch
fell a-fainting,"
costly funeral of John
the following strange entry : To the
"

ing is the message of the last blessing of

vicar of Dallying, for bringing home of his father, which the same Agnes Paston
a pardon from Rome, to pray for all our sent to John Paston, her well-beloved son
"

that blessing which, as she phrased

"

friends souls." it,

prayed your father to give you the last

"

In of all this strange I

spite, however,

outgrowth of mediaeval superstition, which day that ever he spoke the blessing of
increased as time went on, and which all saints under heaven." The mother
threatened eventually to crush out all the wrote on :
"

By my counsel, dispose your

real life and marvellous power of the self as much as ye may, to have less to do
church for good over men s souls, there in the world. Your father said, In little

was still in England much earnestness and business lieth much rest. The world is

real piety and devotion. In the packets of but a thoroughfare, and full of woe, and
the letters written by the Paston family in when we depart therefrom we bear away
the disturbed and anxious years of Henry nought but our good deeds and no man ;

VI. and Edward IV. letters faded and knoweth how soon God will call him,
discoloured with age it is pleasant to therefore it is good for every creature to
see traces of the holy influence which the be ready. Whom God visiteth, him He
church, with all its errors and super loveth. . . . Our Lord have you in
stitions, still exercised over the hearts of a His blessed keeping, body and soul.
*
middle-class family like the Pastons of the Written at Norwich, by your mother."

eastern counties, who may be taken as an Margaret Paston, writing to John Paston
example of countless other homes of the in 1475, asks him to speak to the bishop
same class, whose very names have been of Norwich about a licence which she
long forgotten would their names and
;
as desiresmay be granted her, to have the
story have been, had it not been for the sacrament in her own private chapel, for it
fortunate accident which has kept their was far for her to go to church, and she
letters safe and unharmed for us to read was There seemed some
sickly. difficulty
and muse over some four centuries. after in procuring this licence, for she wrote
To take one or two instances from the again, suggesting that application should
correspondence, what a picture of a quiet be made for it to the bishop (the arch
religious man s practice and custom is bishop) of Canterbury.
painted in Agnes Paston s letter to her John Paston, in 1472, writing to his
"

well-beloved son John, written in 14:13,

"

brother, Sir John, describes the earl of

telling him of the peaceful death of Sir John whom he admired In his
Arran, greatly.
Henynham. "On
Monday last," wrote portrait of his hero he says, "He is the
Agnes Paston,
"

he went to his church and devoutest, most and truest to his

perfect,
heard three masses, and came home again lady of all the knights that ever I was
never more. He said to his wife he would * The quaint old English of Agnes Paston is, of
go and say a little devotion in his garden, course, here modernised.
374
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [14221509.

Would God my father charges his little son always to

acquainted with. lady
liked me as well as I do his person and love and worship his mother, to obey her

most knightly condition." wishes, and to believe in her counsel and

the
"

Paston advice. The duke then went on to urge

Among correspondence
was found a copy of a letter addressed to hisboy company and counsel of
to flee the

his boy by the famous statesman

little proud men, covetous men, and flattering
the duke of Suffolk, for a time the chief men and to draw to him the company
;

minister of king Henry VI. He was ofgood and virtuous men, and such are of
and treacherously murdered at sea.
cruelly good conversation and of truth. Never to
How the copy of the duke s letter came follow his own wisdom, but to seek the

among the Paston papers is not known ;

advice of such good true counsellors as

but it is specially interesting to us, as he had been telling him of Doing ...
showing how the influence of the church these things, with the mercy of God, he
and its teaching was working in the hearts would live in much worship and in much
of all sorts and conditions of men, not only heart s rest and ease. Last of wrote
"

all,"

among individuals of the middle class such the duke, as heartily and lovingly as ever
"

as the Paston family, but among men of father blessed his child on earth, I leave
the most exalted rank like the all-powerful you the blessing of our Lord and of me,
duke of Suffolk. The chance discovery of which shall increase you in all virtues and
such a letter is of invaluable importance in good living."
The beautiful letter is closed
any sketch of the religion of the age. A with a prayer that, after departing this
few extracts will show the deep unaffected wretched world, the boy and his posterity
piety of the writer. may glorify God eternally among His
My dear and only well-beloved son, I Heaven.
"

angels in
beseech our Lord in Heaven, the Maker of "

Written of mine hand, your true and

all the world, to bless you, and to send you loving father,
ver grace to love Him and to dread Him. SUFFOLK.
I charge you and pray you ... to The introduction of printing and the
know His holy laws and commandments, consequent rapid spread of literary know
by the which you shall, with His great ledge at this juncture, requires a few words
mercy, pass all the tempests and troubles of reference before we return to our special
of this wretched world, and that also subject. Literature during the reign of
wittingly ye do no thing for love or dread Henry VI. and the civil Wars of the
of any earthly creature that should dis- moment seemed
Roses, for the to languish.
pjease Him." . . . Then the duke Chaucer had no successor ; original thinkers
enjoins his boy to be atrue liegeman in and writers
"

failed to appear for many

and deed to the king (Henry
heart, will, years; the literature of the Middle Ages
VI.), to whom both you and I have been was dying out with the Middle Ages them
so much bound His son must live to."
selves. There were various writers, but
and die in defence of his most none who rose above mediocrity
royal poet
:

person. After loyalty to the king, the of Chaucer, confused

asters, copyists
1422 1509-] THE PRINTING PRESS. 375

compilers, translators of French romance, instance, was not only a lover of but a

re-writers of old mediaeval legends. In the writer of books ;

the cruel, relentless lord
same period the universities of Oxford and Worcester was even more distinguished
Cambridge declined grievously in numbers in the new world of letters.
of students, and in the learning of the All seemed ready for the new and mar
teachers. It is said that at Oxford only a vellous invention which was to work so
fifth of the scholars who had attended the far-reaching a revolution among men.
lectures a century before, resorted to her Indeed, some attribute the invention of the
class-rooms. The monasteries, too, were
losing gradually their reputation as seats
of learning. Yet, in spite of this strange
dearth of original writers and thinkers, of
skilful teachers, and of scholars eager for
training, there was a new and ever-growing
interest among the upper and middle
classes of the people in literary knowledge.
Once more we may refer to the Paston
correspondence as a proof of this. An
amount of literary knowledge and facility
appears in this large and varied collection
of letters, which a few years earlier would
have been impossible. Books and libraries
find a place in the letters of this middle-

class undistinguished family. Henry VI.,

to speak of the habits of more exalted
personages, had a valuable collection of
books. Duke Humphrey of Gloucester,
A PRINTING PRESS OF 1498.
during the transient successes of the English Book printed in that Year by
(From the Frontispiece to a.

in France which followed Agincourt, seized lodocus Badius Ascensianus, figured in Charles Knight s
Life of Caxion.
"

the Louvre library as a great prize, which ")

he presented to the university of Oxford. simple yet wondrous art of printing to the
Sir John Fastolf, the famous soldier of curious increase, about the middle of the
whom we hear so much in the Paston fifteenth century, of the demand for books
Letters, was a known book-lover. Only a and pamphlets, especially (though by no
very few years later than the times of means confined to) writings of a religious
when a
Henry VI., his rival and successor, character. Originating at Mainz with the
Edward IV., was on the throne, we find three famous printers, Gutenberg, Faust,

many of the chief of the nobility taking a and Schceffer, the new process travelled
prominent part in the love growing so fast southward to Strasburg, crossed the Alps
among the people for books and letters. to Venice, where it lent itself to the Aldi
Lord Rivers, the queen s brother, for for the spread of Greek literature in
376
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14761491.

down the Rhine In the thirty years of the fifteenth

last
Europe, and then floated
to the towns of Flanders. It was probably century a vast number of editions of books
at the press of Colard Mansion, in a little
and pamphlets are said to have been
room over the porch of St. Donat s published throughout Europe, the most
at Bruges, that Caxton learnt the art important of them in Italy and be ;

which he was the first to introduce into fore the sands of the century had run
*
out, all the Latin authors were generally
England."

This celebrated man, originally a mercer, accessible to students. Greek literature

became engaged as a copyist in the service became common property only a little

of Edward IV. s sister, duchess Margaret later, the capture of Constantinople by

of Burgundy. He learned the new art of the Turks in the middle of the century

printing at Bruges, and brought it over to driving a crowd of Greek scholars to the
England in 1476, when Edward IV. was neighbouring havens of Italy and the ;

reigning ;
and for fifteen years, from his publication of the text of the New Testa

press established in the Almonry at West ment in its original language precipi

minster, he worked indefatigably not only tated, if it did not absolutely bring about,
as a printer but as a translator. Out of the mighty convulsion which men call

this first printing-press, between the years the Reformation. For the "

first time
1476 and 1491, issued an incredible num men opened their eyes and saw."*

ber of volumes for that age. We read of

his supplying priests with service-books One of the sources of the weakness
and preachers with sermons, knights and of theChurch of England at this
nobles with "joyous
and pleasant histories
juncture, and one that has received in
of chivalry."
He printed all the English popular histories less attention than it

poetry of any consequence which was avail deserves, was the composition of its

able at that time. In history he gave his which was strangely unfit to
hierarchy,
readers the Chronicle of Brut and Higden s
cope with the newly-awakened spirit of

Polychronicon. Of classic or post-clas the age. To spirit was, of

resist this
sical literature, too, from the first press of course, impossible and undesirable but ;

Caxton among other works, a ver

issued, the church might have guided it, directed
sion of the yneid from the French, and was utterly
it, only that for this task it

one or two of Cicero s writings. incompetent. modern A writer, from

Many other influences were at work whom we should scarcely have expected
to change the established order of things. such a terrible picture, in a powerful
The of America, for
discover^ instance, passage, tersely and without concealment
opened out a new world to the enterprise or apology, sets this out. The words are
and industry of Europe the composition ; those of a modern Romish scholar of very
of gunpowder changed the methods of
high authority.! He is writing of England
war. But the invention of the
printing-
* M. Taine.
press transcended them all in importance.
t Dr. Gasquet Henry VIII. and the English
"

* Green "

:
History of the English People." Monasteries." (1889.)
378
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14901510.

fifteenth and early The higher spiritual and pastoral duties

during the end of the
centuries. were often forgotten when a bishopric was
years of the sixteenth
"

The bishops were, with some honourable sought or retained by one having no
higher ideal than that of temporal
exceptions, mere
court officials pensioned

out of ecclesiastical revenues, holding their advantage. Only when

declining years
favour rather than made the struggle for position less possible,
high offices by royal
on account of special aptitude to look after or when failure to please made absence

the welfare of their dioceses. from court advisable, did the bishop too
spiritual
to often come to spend his remaining years
They appear, perhaps not unnaturally,
have had little heart in their work. Too in his diocese, and devote his expiring

of a see was energies to his flock. The worship of

frequently, also, the holding
and as wealth and influence, the struggle after
regarded as a temporary position,
an earnest of appointment to another power and position, in which too many
more advantageous. churchmen joined, and the employment of
pecuniarily or socially
Thus, looking to obtain future favours, a energy which should have been Devoted
to purposes ecclesiastical, upon the secular
bishop energies were often directed to
s

business of state, were constantly at work

obtaining promised or expected preferment
rather than to the management of his at this period, sapping the very life of the

present district. This place-seeking kept

church."

the lords spiritual much at court, that We may quote another similar testi

they might gain or maintain sufficient mony : "I

declare," says cardinal Bellar-
influence to support their claims to further mine with a preacher s exaggeration, but
promotion. They looked to the king, with a foundation of truth, "that false
not to the church and regarded the; teaching, heresy, the falling
away of so
temporal adjuncts of prosperity and power many peoples and kingdoms from the true
rather than the spiritual duties and obliga faith in fine, all the calamities, wars,
tions of the episcopal office. Too often, tumults of these distressing times, take
the bishop of an important see would
also, their source from no other cause than
be occupied in the management of the because pastors and the other priests of
secular affairs of the state. Perhaps, even, the Lord sought Christ, not for Christ s
he was paid for these services by the sake, but that they might eat His bread.
emoluments of his ecclesiastical office. The renowned glory of the clergy and
To the king all looked for hope of reward. sacred orders had perished ; priests were
The church had few favours to give except despised, laughed atby the people, and
at the wishand by the hands of the king. lay under grave and constant infamy.
Even cardinals hats were bestowed only And whence came all this? Was it not
on royal recommendation. The episcopal because the pastors did not seek above all
see was, moreover, not
unfrequently looked else the glory of Christ and the salvation
upon as a property conferred for political of His sheep, but the loaves and fishes
and out of which the most, in a
services, that is, in their ecclesiastical ministrations
temporal point of view, was to be made. they regarded chiefly the income and
1500-1532.] SECULAR CHARACTER OF THE HIERARCHY. 379

payments? This was the origin, this the Roman see, as a matter of course, and
fount of all these evils." hence bound to support the oppressive
It is perfectly clear from the testimony usurpations of the Pope and the first ;

and conclusions both of Romanist and three, who sat in the chair of Augustine
Protestant writers, that apart from many for well-nigh fifty years, were cardinals as

grievous doctrinal errors and the growing well. Among other high offices of state,

love for superstitious practices, the church the first three were chancellors of the
of the age which preceded the Reformation realm, and the fourth (Dean) occupied the
was fatally injured and depressed from the same high office, under the title of lord
fact of so many of its leaders being states keeper. His successor, Warham, arch
men rather than churchmen. All through bishop from 1503 to 1532, was also a
the Middle Ages, a sure road to high lawyer and subsequently chancellor. This
preferment in the church had been through brings us far into the reign of Henry VIII.
a career in which the successful practice These are merely conspicuous instances
of law, finance, or diplomacy had been the of the position and work of the church
main features. Yet still, eminent and leaders at this period. The dioceses of
devoted spiritual leaders had rarely been these statesmen-bishops were too often

wanting in the English hierarchy a :

sorely neglected, and were placed for all
succession of men of the type of Lanfranc, administrative purposes under the charge

Anselm, Becket, Stephen Langton, Grosse- of suffragans comparatively unknown

teste, and Rich, had arisen from time men, often of little influence and weight ;

to time, and had guided the inner coun the real bishops of the sees too often
sels of the church. But in the fifteenth forgetting that they were anything but
century none of such saintly and eminent ministers of state. It was this condition
churchmen appeared. Chancellors, finan of things that bishop Pecock, in his famous

ciers, diplomatists, ministers, more or less work already alluded to,

"

The Represser,"

able, of the type of cardinal Beaufort, set himself to defend. Indeed, Pecock, in
bishop of Winchester, and Chichele, his sermons and various writings, gives us

archbishop of Canterbury, appeared during an admirable and vivid picture of the state
the first half of the century honourable of things in the church in the last years
and painstaking statesmen, but little more. of medievalism. He makes no effort to
In the second half, Kemp (1452-1454), explain away its errors either in doctrine,
Bourchier (1454-1486), Morton (1486- practice, or administration, but calmly
1500),and Dean (1500-1503) were success and with considerable ability gives us his
ively primates. These prelates, who opinion that it was absolutely right in its
occupied the chief seat in the councils of teaching, practices, and ways of working ;

the Church of England during that critical that its errors were not errors at all and ;

period when men s eyes were opening to that practice generally was in accord
its

the many corruptions and fatal errors ance with the best ecclesiastical traditions,
which were disfiguring religion (1452- itsadministration generally commendable,
1503), were all statesmen ; legates of the and positively needing no change or reform.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1487.

what Pecock, bishop minister of high and stainless character ;

No doubt exists that

of Chichester, from his point of view, so

and in the hands of Morton the king
and so vehemently left almost entirely the administration of
ably and clearly states
conviction of ecclesiastical affairs.
defends, was the deliberate
the leading churchmen of his day. No Morton, like the other minister-prelates

in the of his type, was first of all a statesman. It

one, alas of any weight or position
!

out the is as the wise and prudent administrator,

English hierarchy arose to point
better way. And so the great ship of the the cautious adviser, the skilful financier,

church floundered along, seemingly, as we that he will ever appear in the long gallery

have said, powerful and stately and full of of historical portraits of the great servants of

life and vigour, until a few years later the England. But this minister of Henry VII.
storm arose, and then its weakness
terrible was something more than a statesman he ;

and utter inability to ride the storm be loved well the church in which he filled
came sadly manifest.
the foremost part, and saw not a few of
her shortcomings, and longed to set on
Of the group of statesmen-archbishops foot a reformation of many of these. If

who ruled at Canterbury between 1452 only the church had been his first love I
and 1 503, to whom we have been alluding, In his pastoral, for instance, put out in

by far the most eminent, and at the same 1487, addressed to the bishop of London,
time the most earnest, was cardinal he lashes with no tender hand some of the
Morton, who must be considered as the more glaring of the follies and faults of the
minister and chief adviser of the crown in clergy. For a long period, as we have
the reign of Henry VII. Henry Tudor, seen in former letters and pastorals of the
not a popular hero either in his own day metropolitans, many of the clergy had
or in the eyes of posterity, in many affected the dress and had adopted the

respects was a great king.

"

He found ornaments of the gentry such as swords

England weak and poor and divided and daggers and gold-adorned belts all ;

against herself, and isolated ;n Europe, these weapons and ornaments Morton
drenched in blood, and impotent in in sternly forbade. Great stress had been for

ternal government and he left her rich

;
some time upon the necessity of a
laid
and at peace with herself, and growing in degree, conferred by one of the universities,
contentment and well administered, having being acquired by ordained priests. The
a place in the councils of Europe second to no doubt, pressed
desirability of this was,
none, and courted on every side. The the large number of men
in order to limit
-

king himself was, too, a virtuous man, desirous of ordination for various causes,
sober, temperate, and chaste. His house and to secure for the church the services
*
hold was kept frugally and severely."
of educated scholars. "

No presbyter,"
so
And by his side
during the first fifteen runs the pastoral of Morton, to whom "

of his useful reign stood Morton it is not competent

years by reason of a degree
the archbishop, an able and industrious taken in a university, was to wear any
* Stubbs
hood, furred or without doubled
"

: Constitutional History." fur, either

I 48 7 .] EXTENT OF PLURALITIES.
with silk, or simply with a horn or short this pastoral : the constant evil of non-
tail, or with camlet about the neck, pub- residence on the part of the beneficed

lickly." Presbyters and clergy of the clergy. In such cases, and they were

province of Canterbury were to be properly very numerous, proper curates were to be

tonsured they were to walk out with appointed in places where dispensation for
"

RICHARD FOX, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

(From the portrait by Jan Rave.)

proper tonsures, showing the ears plainly, non-residence had been obtained, and the
according to the canonical sanction." ordinaries were to see that this was care
Severe penalties such as sequestration fully carried out. This system of one
of their benefices and suspension were priest holding two or more livings was no
threatened, in the event of these orders and new grievance but, like many of the
;

reminders not being strictly complied with. mediaeval church abuses, the scandal of
Another evil was specially noticed in pluralities grew more painfully evident
382
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1494.

as time advanced. Men

Morton like church. To give one conspicuous example
of an episcopal conscience Richard Fox
felt that it was one of the serious weak
:

nesses in church administration, and one holds an honourable and distinguished

which gravely affected church spiritual position among the prelates of the last
life. As early as the end of the thirteenth years of the century we have been speak
and beginning of the fourteenth century, ing of ;
and this Fox was consecrated
according to archbishop Winchelsea regis
s bishop of Exeter in A.D. 1487, translated
we find some famous priests holding as to Bath and Wells in 1491, and then to
ter,

many as fifteen, others thirteen, while one Durham in 1494, and yet is said never
held no fewer than twenty-three benefices. to have seen his cathedral at Exeter, or

The clergymen mentioned in the arch ever to have set foot in his diocese of

bishop held an average of eight livings

s list Bath and Wells.* He also obtained the

each. In the sixteenth century, the epoch abbey of St. Albans in commendam.
of the Reformation, this terrible abuse Curious special provisions were even
had increased. We find priests having as made to legalise this unhappy abuse. Every
many ten and twelve benefices, and
as spiritual man of the king s council was
very possibly resident in none while there ;
allowed to keep three livings every chap ;

were plenty of learned men in the uni lain of the queen or of the royal family

versities for whom no preferment could be two each. Archbishops and dukes might
found. In high quarters cardinal Wolsey keep each marquis and earl
six chaplains ;

affords a striking instance of this shameful five and every chaplain was allowed to hold
;

scandal, holding, as he did, a plurality of two benefices. Every doctor of divinity had
livings,being bishop of more than one see, the same privilege, livings in the church
whilst he farmed others. This neglect of being regarded as legitimate sources of
duty on the part of so many of the higher income. No wonder that a man of the

clergy had a disastrous effect all through high character of cardinal Morton, who
the parochial system. had stern views of duty and responsibility,
Carelessness and incompetence were too adverted in his "

pastoral,"
addressed to
common among the parish priests of the the bishop of London, to the grave harm
period we are describing indeed, Wolsey s
; likely to result to the unfortunate parish
successor in the arch-diocese of
York, Dr. and these parishes were, alas numerous !

Edward Lee, reported that in all his whose pastor was one of these non
vast diocese he only knew of twelve of residents ;
no wonder that he insisted
his parochial clergy able and willing to upon an investigation into the character
preach to their people. In fact, when the and powers of the curate placed in charge
spiritual lords and other prominent eccle of such a deserted cure of souls.
siastics took so low a view of their duties In curious and unexpected ways this evil
and were scarcely to be
responsibilities, it
system of pluralities and non-residence de
expected that a high standard of life and veloped itself ;
for instance, in the sixteenth
work could prevail among the ranks of the *
Compare Dr. Gasquet Henry VIII. and the
"

lower and less distinguished priests of the Monasteries."

English
1494] THE CARDINAL-ARCHBISHOP MORTON. 383

century we find a young man, a possessor adviser, bishop Oldham, on this occasion
of high interest Reginald Pole, the future are memorable, and, indeed, prophetic :

cardinal-archbishop when only seventeen What, my lord, we build houses

"

shall

years old, receiving a prebendal stall, and and provide livelihoods for housing monks
even a second two years later, both in the whose end and fate we may live to see ?
Salisbury diocese. At eighteen this young No, no it is more meet that we should
;

favoured ecclesiastic was nominated to the have care to provide for the increase of
deanery of Wimborne minster. learning, and for such as shall do good to
In the case of the monasteries, which the church and commonwealth."
claimed a certain exemption from episcopal In his early life Sir Thomas More, whom
control, archbishop Morton applied for we shall find in the next century the
permission from the Pope, as his legate, chancellor and minister of king Henry VIII.,
to visit these houses. In certain of the and ranking among the noblest and purest
religious communities much laxity and of the statesmen of that strange age, was
carelessness were said to prevail, though among the intimate associates of Morton.
probably this complaint has been greatly From More we learn how devoted a friend
exaggerated. Pope Innocent VII., in his was the eminent minister of Henry VII.
bull granting the permission to visit, dated to young men, and how the archbishop s

1489, speaks of the "religious

in the household was a home and a school to

province of Canterbury as having gradually not a few who received there their training
relaxed their rule of living growing weary for subsequent work in the church and
of pleasant meditation." Armed with this state. Sir Thomas More in after life never

papal authority, the primate visited the forgot the kindness and friendship \vhich
dioceses of
Rochester, Worcester, and the primate had shown him when young ;

Salisbury twice, and the dioceses of Lich- and he loved to refer to conversations
field and Coventry, Bath and Wells, he had listened to in his palace, and has
Winchester, Lincoln, and Exeter once. left us his estimate of his character.
In the visitation of 1491 he was attended Morton, he was full of energy, and
says,
by commissioners appointed by the king, of polished manners a man of great grasp
at the head of whom was Richard of mind, and blessed with a prodigious
Fox,
bishop of Exeter, who was one of the memory and king Henry;
VII. depended
most energetic of the statesmen-prelates much upon his judgment. He was ever
of the reign. This Fox was an ardent serious and grave in his deportment, but

educationist, and established grammar nevertheless easy of access. More s testi

schools at Taunton and Grantham ;

and mony to Morton, indeed, must never be
to him the noble foundation of Corpus forgotten in our estimate of the arch
Christi College at Oxford owes its existence. s which estimate will be
bishop character,
He even wished to found a new monastery, an important factor in some of our con
but was persuaded to turn his attention clusions. "He was a man," wrote More,

exclusively to the promotion of educa not more to be venerated for his high
"

tion. The words of his friend and rank than for his wisdom and virtue."
 CHAPTER XXXVII.
ENGLISH MOXASTICISM AT THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Numbers of the Monastic Orders at this Period Their Income Recapitulation of their History-
Evident Decline in Popularity even before the Reformation Its Causes Past Services of the Orders
as Teachers of Organisation of Agriculture of Arts and Sciences Life of a Monastery The Rites
"

of Durham "Glimpses of Art Treasures The Monk s a Social Life Organisation and Officers of
a Monastery Its Daily Life Order of the Services Austerity and Hardship Recreation Defects
in Sanitary Regimen -Inherent Selfishness of the Monastic Ideal.

our sketch of the state of the church over the souls of men. But in the re

the accession and during the earlier formed and nobler church, although largely
IN at
years of the Tudor dynasty, we
have remodelled after the ancient pattern, there
left to the last the picture of the monk and was no place found for the monks and
the friar of the men who for so many friars. These disappeared altogether, and
centuries had played an all-important part the thoughtful student of the past, while
in the church s work. A somewhat melan acquiescing in this disappearance, and re
choly interest attaches to this division of cognising that the work of the monastic
our picture, for in the storm of the English orders was done, still sorrows over the
Reformation the familiar and once well- unjust and even cruel treatment meted
loved figures of monk and friar disappeared out to many a man holy and humble of
for ever from the Church of England. heart, who was living and working accord
Her teaching, with its graver
doctrinal ing to the traditions in which he had been
errors, was revised and remodelled after trained, though after a pattern which, in
an older and a purer standard. Her arch the new and changed condition of things,
bishops and bishops ceased to be statesmen, had ancient signification.
lost its
and generally gave their life-work to things At the periodof the dissolution (1538-
spiritual, to teaching and watching over 1540) the strength of the army of monks,
the flocks of which they were the chief and nuns in
friars, England is computed
The fatal evils of non-residence
pastors. at 8, 08 1, besides
probably more than ten
and of pluralities, where benefices were times that number of people who were their
regarded rather in the light of wages than dependents, and who obtained subsistence
as solemn cures of souls, were corrected. in their service. In these
considering
The balefulshadow of the Roman domina numbers, again we remind the reader that
tion, which for so long had brooded alike some idea must be kept in mind of the
over the lordly cathedral and the
stately population of England at that time. The
abbey, as over the humbler village number of this population has been vari
church, was swept away, and the old ously estimated by different experts. It
church of Aidan, Cuthbert, and
Alfred, certainly did not exceed altogether four
purified and restored, resumed its millions was probably considerably
sway ;
it less.
386 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

com The English black monks

At all events, assuming the largest (Benedictines)
did and the Benedictine offshoot from Citeaux,
putation possible, the whole population
not amount to the numbers of the present the Cistercians or white monks, differed in

inhabitants of London. The 8,000 to 9,000, their character, work, and ways. Both
were great landowners, but it may be said
including monks, canons, friars, and nuns,
were thus divided 1,800 were friars
: ;
that the Cistercians were essentially farmers,

the Austin and Prsemonstratensian canons and farmed their own lands themselves.
numbered 932 there were 1,560 nuns
;
;
In proportion to their income the Cistercian

thus leaving some 3,789 monks. communities were, at least until the later
These regular clergy, in all some 6,000 in years of their existence, larger than the
round numbers regular in contradistinc
Benedictine. But the size, importance,
tion to the secular clergy, who included the and wealth of the Benedictine houses gave
parochial and other ecclesiastics not bound
the black monks a singular prominence

by monastic vows consisted of two classes: in England. For instance, the important
the more ancient orders, and those which houses and abbeys of Westminster, Dur
sprang up in the thirteenth century, com ham, Gloucester, Worcester, Tewkesbury,
monly known as the mendicant orders Evesham, St. Alban s, Reading, Bury
or friars. The latter, the friars, were essen St. Edmund s, Winchester to take con

tiallytownspeople. The scene of their spicuous examples all belonged to the

work, which lay almost entirely in cities, Benedictine order.*

consisted mainly in preaching, hearing In the early part of the sixteenth cen
confessions, and any such-like directly tury, just before the dissolution, the total
spiritual ministrations. number of nuns is computed at 1,560 a
The canons mostly Austin (black) or small number in comparison with the six

Praemonstratensian (white), the black Austin thousand monks, friars, and canons of the
canons being by far the greater number, regular clergy. These nuns owned about
the order of Premontre never becoming one hundred and forty convents. Most of
really popular in England occupied a them were small houses, and the great

position somewhat midway between the majority of these convents, at the time of
monks and the secular clergy. Some of the suppression by king Henry VIII. were
these canons, though still on the roll of not possessed of a yearly income sufficient
their houses, were busied in parochial to exempt them from the operation of the
duties, but the bulk of them still main act by which the lesser houses passed
" "

tained a community life like the monks into the king s hands.
themselves. The term "

monks," strictly The income enjoyed by all these monks,

speaking, belonged only to the Benedictine canons, friars, and nuns, according to the
Valor Ecclesiasticus
"

order, including its

important offshoots of
"

of Henry VIII.,
the Cluniacs and Cistercians, and to the
Carthusians. Even among those * For many of these details the
profess respecting
monastic orders at the epoch of the Reformation,
ing the rule of St. Benedict, writes Dr.
the writer is indebted to Dr. Gasquet. The
Gasquet, there is a broad line of distinction. numbers given from different causes slightly vary.
 STATE OF ENGLISH MONASTICISM. 387

seems to have amounted roughly to about three hundred, with one hundred and
per annum, but from this sum
^"160,000 twenty convents of nuns, and some two
must be deducted the yearly income of the hundred friaries. Outside the two hundred
benefices held by the monasteries, which and twenty greater houses, monasteries
are included in the
"

Valor "

of Henry VIII. and convents, the communities were very

a very important item. Indeed, one very small and very poorly endowed.
careful computation returns the income Most of them were of Norman founda
of the estates of the monasteries only at a tion. Far back in our eventful story, at
little more than ^"50,000 per annum.* To the end of the seventh and during the
estimate these amounts in modern cur eighth and ninth centuries, the monastic
rency, it is fairly safe if we multiply them system occupied a great place in the
by twelve. Some finance experts would, Christianity of our Anglo-Saxon fore
however, suggest a larger figure by which fathers. This, the golden age of English
to multiply the original sum. All these monasticism, came to an end when the
figures, however, must be accepted with Danish Vikings swept the land with fire
great reservation for while, on the one
;
and sword from the Forth and Humber
well-nigh every religious house was
hand> to the Thames. Few, if
any, of the
sadly in debt, and its lands were crippled early Saxon, world-famed monasteries,
with mortgages more or less heavy a survived the awful shock of the Danish
state of things brought about largely by triumph. Alfred and the kings of his
exorbitant royal taxation on the other great house, and their ministers, usually
hand, the amount received annually through if not always ecclesiastics, endeavoured,
fees and offerings is quite uncertain, and as part of their church policy, to re
largely varied in different houses, shrines, build, to re-endow, to wake up again the
and abbeys ;
but the total amount of perished spirit of monasticism, but only
such offerings must have been very con with partial success. We
hear again of
siderable. monasteries and nunneries in the England
The number of monasteries or religious of Alfred and Edward, of Edgar and
houses in which these 8,081 monks, nuns, Canute, and they come before us even

friars, and canons dwelt, at first sight seems more prominently at the close of the
very large. The general numbers of these Anglo-Saxon period, when the Confessor
houses were in all about seven hundred and wore the crown. Still, it is clear that

fifty ;
this is
slightly under the number monasticism never flourished in the second
which probably existed. Eight hundred, period of Anglo-Saxon history, as it did
however, would probably cover every before Ivar and Hubbo and their savage

thing. Of these the greater and more im Vikings destroyed the ancient monasteries
portant houses numbered two hundred and which the early North-folk loved so well.
two, and about eighteen or twenty convents It is said that three hundred monasteries

of women. The lesser houses, roughly of various degrees of importance existed in

* the day when the Norman William the
Compare Canon Dixon History of the Church
"

of England from A.D. 1529." Conqueror slew Harold the axon on the
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
foundation of forty-four and when his
Hastings, but this computation
is
field of ;

brother, John Lackland, was king, of sixty-

probably exaggerated.
Under the Norman kings, however, two. In the long reign of Henry III.,

monasticism in England received a sudden stretching over more than half a century,
and vast impulse. It is no baseless some seventy-four more monasteries we,re
added to the long list.
theory which sees in the countless stately
the Normans of the In the days of Henry III. the friar came
religious buildings of
generations which immediately followed among us and for the mendicant Fran
;

the new settlement after the Conquest, ciscans and Dominicans, and their less

churches and abbeys and monasteries of known imitators, eighty-three poor com
44
expiation."
It was under the Norman munities or friaries, with their landless

sovereigns and the early Plantagenet kings and generally unendowed establishments,
that the greater number of monasteries were added to the long roll of English
were built and endowed. The dry catalogue religious houses. Under Edward I. s rule

of numbers will best tell the strange story. the growing influence of the mendicant
There were founded under William the diverted the flow of gifts of
friars largely

Conqueror forty-five monasteries. The pious individuals from the monasteries of

pious work, of course, only began many the Benedictine or Carthusian orders, for

years after Hastings, when the conquest of we only read of sixteen new monasteries,
the wealthy island was virtually completed. but of the establishment of sixty-one new
Under Rufus twenty-five more were friaries.

built. Under the long and comparatively The foundation of new monasteries now
quiet and prosperous reign of Henry almost ceased, and even the friars were
Beauclerc, the Conqueror s younger son losing their first popularity, for in the
when the Norman baron could quietly look reign of Edward II. the number of new
round new home and broad lands, not
his
religious houses fell to five monasteries

many years back the home and lands of and twenty friaries. Edward III. s long
the Saxon thanes he had dispossessed, and reign saw but seven new monasteries and
understand what he and his father who twenty-four new friaries. In Richard II. s
fought at Hastings and in a hundred other time only four additional monasteries and
bloody battles and frays had done no less four friaries were established
among us.
than 150 new monasteries appeared in During the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V.,
conquered England. But the passion of Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V.,
expiation had not yet run its course. Richard III., Henry VII., only eight new
Under the Conqueror s
grandson, Stephen, religious houses appeared but during the
;

122 of these monastic houses in which monasticism declined,

appeared. period
During the long reign of the mighty some sixty colleges, hospitals, and schools
Angevin, Henry II, 124 more were built were established by royal and other pious
and endowed then the passion of ex
; donors in England, some of them of con
spicuous magnificence and richly endowed.
piation began to relax, for the days
in
of Cceur - de - Lion we only read of the A glance over this dry catalogue will
 DECLINE OF MONASTICISM. 389
show how
the popularity of these
clearly, munities which were cells or dependencies-
monastic foundations had declined long of Continental abbeys after a precarious
before the hour of their destruction existence during a prolonged period, were
arrived.
"

From the time of Henry IV. finally suppressed, to the number of about
the stream of benefaction was diverted a hundred, by king Henry V., on the
from them and while colleges and public
; ground of their occasionally affording
schools were planted in numbers and assistance to the French and other enemies

SCENE AT THE GATE OF A MONASTERY : TRAVELLERS SEEKING REFRESHMENT.

(By permission, from the drawing by G. Cattermole in South Kensington Museum.)

magnificence, the scanty sum of six or of the realm. The dissolution of the
seven foundations of monks and friars in Templars in the reign of Edward II. re

the course of one hundred and thirty moved some more from the roll ;
these

years, bore witness to the change of the were about twenty -three in number.
*
inclinations of the nation." Others disappeared owing to various
Roughly speaking, possess records of we causes, such as gradual falling away of
nearly 1,200 religious houses. Of these their property, and confiscation. In the
the "

alien
"

priories that is, those com- sixteenth century, out of the eleven or

* Canon Dixon twelve hundred religious houses and

History of the Church of
"

England." foundations, only about seven hundred

 390 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

* doubt but that they would in

really remained and of these but two there is little

hundred or two hundred and twenty great measure have filled up their numbers
alone were reckoned among the larger or again during the century and a half which
more important foundations. had elapsed since the havoc of the plague.
And not only had the monasteries of The truth, however, was that these ori
England a very considerable period
for ginal impulses had spent themselves. Very
ceased, or practically ceased to multiply ; changed were the conditions of life since
the many houses that existed were sadly the days of the golden age of monasticism ;

empty. It is computed that on the eve and the invention of printing may be said
of their dissolution the numbers of re
"

to have been the last and final blow to the

ligious
"

of all the various orders had old system. The monk no

longer possessed
diminished by at least a third in the the monopoly of knowledge, and the print
course of the last century and a half. ing-press took away at once from the
This great falling away in numbers, it is cloister much of its occupation. The
true, has been explained as being due in education of the world was no longer in

large measure to the desolating sicknesses the hands of the famous "

orders."
Bishop
of the second half of the fourteenth century. Stubbs speaks of the "incurable useless-
The Black Death of 1349-1361 had carried ness of the monastic orders on the eve
"

off, it is
generally believed, well-nigh half of the Reformation and although perhaps
;

the "

religious
"

in the country. No this expression may convey some exaggera

monastery in England could be said to tion, it cannot be
fairly denied, even by the
have ever recovered from this calamity ;
most ardent apologists of the fading system,
and in the era of the Reformation no that very considerable truth underlies the
monastic house, large or small, possessed great scholar s assertion. reformation, A
anything like its full
complement of pro or rather a complete recasting of the
fessed monks. This sudden removal by monasteries and their inhabitants, if they
pestilence of so many of the best and most were to continue to exist, was imperatively
devoted must, as it has been needed and the clear-sighted ministers of
already said, ;

have broken also the

continuity of the Henry VII. and his imperious son arch
best traditions of ecclesiastical and
usage bishop Morton and cardinal Wolsey
teaching. Still, making every allowance plainly saw this, though they were unable,
for the awful ravages of the Black Death, for various reasons, in their day of power
had the monastic orders preserved the to effect
key it.

to the people s hearts, a

key they certainly One cause of their growing unpopularity
possessed in the early Middle Ages had the ; with the people must, no doubt, be sought
noble impulses which
originally called one and found in the fact of their being
order after another into still being existed, especially the strongholds of papal in

*
The
fluence. During much of the later period
exact number of
religious houses is diffi
cult to obtain, as the cells or offshoots of
of the Middle Ages, the Pope at Avignon,
the more
important foundations are sometimes added to the as we have seen, was little else than a
totals.
powerful French bishop, and hence the
 INFLUENCE OF THE MONK.
hereditary enemy of England. The close to religion, to literature, and to education,
and intimate connection of the English but well-nigh to everything which makes
monasteries with this naturally hostile life beautiful and desirable, have been by
spiritual power, no doubt seriously affected many men, not completely ignored, at
if

the relations of the monks and friars with least slurred over as a work of little moment,

the sovereign and people. The Bene of merely transient importance. Yet no
dictine and Carthusian houses, bound by one who dispassionately reviews the history
a devoted and an interested loyalty to a of the monastic orders can fail to see their

foreign bishop, closely connected with the great and beneficent influence upon the
vast foreign network and organisation of rough and often ruthless society in the
their own orders, too often forgot or ignored midst of which they lived, in the days of
their nationality. A true Benedictine or the Norman and Plantagenet kings or to ;

Carthusian monk, a Franciscan or Domini recognise the splendid work done by the
can friar, acknowledged no country as his mendicant Dominicans and Franciscans
own, was no earthly king,
really loyal to among the hopeless and neglected poor of
save to the general or chief of his own the fast growing mediaeval towns.
great order, and to him who sat in the A
great scholar, no passionate admirer
chair of St. Peter at Rome or, it might of monasticism, writing of a Benedictine

chance, at Avignon. community, thus dwells upon the pattern

In the later Middle
"

Ages,"
writes a well-ordered religious house afforded

bishop Stubbs,*
"

scarcely any abbot takes for the organisation of home and public
any conspicuous part in English politics ;
lifegenerally Administrative complete
:
"

the registers of the abbeys are no longer ness such as reigned within the convent
records of national history, but of petty walls was not to be found elsewhere in ;

lawsuits the monastic life separates itself

;
no other place do we find so exact a
more widely than ever from the growing subdivision of labour, so placid a sequence
life of the nation
the temporalities of the ;
of routine. Even the king s court in
monasteries are offered to the king by the comparison was but slightly organised ;

religious reformers as a ready source of the feudal lord, who was in some ways the
revenue, by the confiscation of which no nearest parallel, lived careless and profuse,
one can lose. When the great shock of and his castle was a scene of rough, ill-
the Reformation comes at last, the whole ordered plenty, secured by no very scrupulous
system falls at one blow, and vast as the means. The civic communities had as yet
ruin is at the time,
forgotten before it is but little of the common life, and adminis
the generation that witnessed it has passed tered few estates. On the other hand, the
away." strong organisation of the religious houses,
But it was not always so and in the ;
the subdivision of responsibility, the custom
awful ruin and storm of obloquy, amidst of demanding and
carefully auditing the
which the monasteries of England were yearly accounts of the officers, combined
swept away, their vast services, not only to make monasteries patterns after which
* "

Constitutional History." a better order slowly came into being.

392
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

to take part in the and spicery and wine from the monks
They had no need In the early years of the fourteenth
which absorbed and destroyed the
stalls.
fighting
there were no
world within their century we ascertain that
well-being of the lay ;

from their stately fewer than 1 80 religious houses in England

walls peace reigned,
rose the sound of prayer which supplied the Flemish and Florentine
churches ever
were open to the markets with wool
and praise, their gates
and traveller; hospitality and
In art in itsdepartments, all
various
pilgrim
softened in many ways through the Middle Ages the Benedictine
brotherly kindness *
and imitating the Benedictine
the harsh incidence of feudal custom." especially,
the prominent orders too, were dis
less

tinguished as the chief fosterers

and patrons
of architecture, painting, sculpture, em-;
broidery, and music; and probably the,

large majority of English artists came from

their ranks.The lordly abbeys, the stately
churches, and the scarcely less beautiful
and exquisite buildings clustering round
them, which even now, scarred and defaced, ,

are the joy and delight of all whose eyes!

are opened to see in them the fairest build- .

ings the world possesses, perhaps

ever will

possess,were mostly built for the monks,]

and were probably largely designed by
gifted members of their
order they were ;

THE CHAl EL OF KING S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. certainly commenced and completed under!
their immediate direction. Works ex-l
In the earlier Middle Ages it was the quisite in taste and elaborate with richness*
monks who were the teachers of agri of detail, such as the chapel of King s at
culture. To the end of their existence Cambridge, the matchless tower of Glou-l
cester, a very marvel of strength crowned
in England they were ever among the
best and most indulgent landlords. And with beauty, the Bell Tower of EveshamJ
is no
it
exaggeration to speak of the the Lady Chapel at Gloucester, scarcely
monastic societies as being in a
way the completed when the great crash came, all
pioneers of modern commerce. From show us that up to the end, neither tha
such documents as the charter of Edward hand nor brain of the monk-artist had lost
III. for the St. Giles fair at
Winchester, its cunning.
we learn that many strangers from different But all this was forgotten in the excited
parts of England resorted to this renowned age which witnessed the ruin of the Eng
fair, and purchased silver lishmonasteries ignored by the genera
objects, gems, ;

"

Obedientary Rolls of Swithun," Win

St.
tionswhich have come and gone since that
chester. Edited by Dr. Kitchin. dean of Durham. memorable age. The monk too often has
151.] FALL OF THE MONASTIC SYSTEM. 393

been a byword on the lips of English an awful act of ingratitude committed al

men and women a something to scoff at the beginning of that Reformation which,
and to scorn. No whisper of pity for the as a whole, has done so much towards the
victim, no word of condemnation for the making of the mighty England of to-day.

high-handed spoiler of his goods, and the In spite of this humiliating confession,

GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.

greedy, ruthless instruments of king Henry however, even the most ardent apologist
VIII. s policy, appears among the usual for the monk must allow that when the
teaching manuals, which for centuries have sixteenth century, that great age of change
been placed in the hands of the children and reconstruction, dawned, the monastic

of our people. Yet the story is a saddening orders had done their work ; that there

one, and men are beginning only now to was no place for them in the new order
be sensible that a great wrong was done, of things arising in England. This is

3 D
394 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

evident from the acquiescence destruction ,we shall have so soon to

spiritless
with which the people of all ranks al chronicle. The picture of the life of
anj
lowed the king and his servants to carry important religious house such as we are]
out the great spoliation. Vox populi vox about to paint, is simply an example of

Det\ runs the old saying, so true in the the many. The life of a large Benedictine

abstract, so fallacious in the particular. monastery, whether at Durham or Bury

This popular voice would have been heard, St. Edmunds, at Peterborough or at!

loud and angry, had the country at large Gloucester, differed in but very few]
really cared for the objects of the royal particulars.
confiscation. Angry murmurs, it is true, That the life led by the dwellers inl

rose from certain classes of Englishmen such a house was very different from thai
and in certain districts of the island, common conception a conception, alas II
when the length and breadth and depth fostered by the conspicuous unfairness andl
of thegreat spoliation became manifest want of candour of some of our mosn
murmurs which resulted in such out popular and admired historians we learn
breaks the famous u from the lips of the great spoiler himself!
as Pilgrimage of
Grace and king Henry VIII., who, in the preamble tcl
"

the formidable Yorkshire

rising. But these murmurs and sporadic the famous Act of 1536, which runs in his
u
revolts were far from being the voice of august name, speaks of divers great and
England as a nation, and soon died down. solemn monasteries of this realm (of Eng-l
The monk, the nun, the friar, had dis land), wherein, thanks be to God, religion
appeared, had dropped out of the busy is right well kept and observed." This
ranks of the English people and
only a ;
formal state acknowledgment availed thJ
few cared very much. It is an indisputable objects of the acknowledgment nothing I
fact and even those who not only mourn and the king in whose name it was made!
with a true mourning over the cruel within four or five years of its publication!
wrong
done to a crowd of God-fearing men who swept all these monasteries, where re- "

were many of them striving to live was right well kept and observed, ! 1

up ligion
to the light vouchsafed to them, but into the common net of confiscation. It

bitterly resent the graver wrong done the picture of one of these great and
"

still is

to the memory of most of solemn monasteries we are about to

them, cannot
"

help acknowledging that England as a paint, and the colours we shall use are
nation, if it did not applaud, at least calmly no fancy ones, but simply reproduced
acquiesced in the tremendous monastic from a picture a very quiet, truthful

painted by one who had seen the

confiscation. one
interior of such a house.
Before we let the curtain fall on the last The Rites of Durham," published by
"

days of the medieval Church of England, the Surtees Society in 1842, from a MS.
it
may be well to devote a few paragraphs written in 1620 from an original bearing
to a picture of the life led in one of
those the date of A.D. 1593, is a document which
great monasteries, whose utter ruin and stands alone as a connected account of life
 ART IN THE MONASTERIES. 395

in a great monastic community at the and surrounding buildings, must have con
very moment of its destruction. It is tained. We read not only of the costly

certainly the work originally of a man who worked vestments worn on the many festal

had personal experience, and had actually* days so curiously multiplied in mediaeval
seen what he describes. It is no animated Christianity, but of curtains or hangings of
story, no apologia for a vanished life ;
it velvet and silk or various colours, constantly
is a quiet prosaic description, partaking, changed, which were hung on certain days
indeed, rather of the character of a before the many shrines and altars some of ;

guide-book or of the catalogue of a these were embroidered, we read, with great

museum, than of an apology, or a defence, flowers of gold, often enriched with pearls
or a piece of accusation. and precious stones. The embroidery used
The famous Benedictine house of Durham in the mediaeval monasteries must have
is the subject of the little memoir. Now been extraordinarily rich and costly. The
in Durham we possess the great advantage many shrines are described as literally
of being able to verify much of the writer s ablaze with cunning work in gold and
Had our picture been drawn
description. silver, and in the less costly brass and iron
Edmunds or of Whitby, or of
of Bury St. work. In all times the goldsmith s art

Reading or of Evesham for instance, a was cultivated by the "orders." Special

ruined wall, the remains of .a traceried mention is made of solid gold and gilded
window or solitary tower, would have been and silver crosses, crucifixes, censers, candle
all the materiel at our disposal when we sticks, basons, fonts for holy water, cruets
sought to check the accuracy of the writer. and patens for the Eucharist, made of the
But in a few rare instances, such as at precious metals ;
of priestly vestments of
Durham in the north, and at Worcester in alldescriptions magnificently adorned with
the southern midlands, and at Gloucester gold, and various other ornaments used in
in the south-west, the spoiler happily did the gorgeous ritual of the later mediaeval
not complete his work of ruin. Scarred church. The treasury of the Durham
and disfigured, sorely mutilated and plun monastery was also filled with costly and
dered of most of wondrous treasures of
its precious plate ;
and while the greatest
art, still, with the little book of the Rites " "

simplicity was strictly followed in the

in hand, we can make
out a fairly accurate dormitory and apartments of the monks
mental picture of what Durham was in the the guest-chamber of the house was
days of its ancient glory while with a stilJ
;
furnished with rich and beautiful furniture.
greater certainty we can acquaint ourselves We come, too, upon many mentions of
with the life led by the citizens of one of pictures, for painting was among the arts
these vast cities of prayer and teaching specially cultivated in a great house like
and learning just before it ceased to exist. that of Durham ; pictures of our Lord and
The firstthing that strikes the student the Blessed Virgin, pictures, too, of all the
of the "Rites," will be the numberless kings and queens of England and Scotland
allusions to the art treasures which such who had been devout and godly founders
a monastery, with its stately abbey-church and benefactors of the famous church. Nor
396
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

was the great artist as well as the chief

was sculpture neglected but all the many ;

of alabaster and art-lover in England.

images of stone and marble,
so vividly, have Their way of living is described with
of precious metal, described
some detail. First of any idea ot a
places the carved
In all,
disappeared. many
re solitary life, lived for the
base of the image
the wall
most part in separate
mains, and is

cells, like the Carthusian

still shadowed by a dim
outline of the ideal now carried out at
figure,
been long the Grande Chartreuse,
which has
near Grenoble in Savoy,
thrown down and broken
Some few of the and in other houses of
up.
with their still famous order,
beautiful tombs,
must be dismissed. In a
fragments of their carved
and delicate Benedictine (the principal
work, still
but most have and by far the most in
remain,
been destroyed. fluential of the orders)

We are told of several monastery, the life was

from to end
organs for the mainten beginning
ance of God s service, social. The brothers

and in one instance worshipped together in

mention is made of the the choir of the church
fine wood and workman or abbey to which the
ship of the pipes
"

very community was attached ;

faire, partly gilded upon they took counsel together

the outside- and inside, daily in the chapter-house;
with branches and flowers they studied together in
finely gilded." the stately cloister or
Again and again in this library ; they ate together
curious document, the in the refectory ; they
wealth of colour and gold, slept in one vast dormi
the curious and costly tory. The size of these
marbles and alabaster THE HUNTSMAN SALT-CELLAR refectories and dormi
used, the elaborate tracery (I5TH CENTURY). tories is manifest from
and carving which adorned (Presented ty Archtishop Chichele to
the remains, still clearly
All Seuli College, Oxford, whose
the mighty abbey, the property it now it.)
traceable, of such build
cloister, the guest-cham ings in Durham, Glouces
bers,and other parts of the huge pile built ter, and in other sites of large Benedictine
round the shrine of the loved saint Cuthbert monasteries.
on the rock which overhangs the river Under the lord prior at Durham or
Wear, are dwelt upon. It is indisputable Winchester, or the lord abbot at Glou
that during the Middle Ages the monk cester and Bury St. Edmunds (the titles
 1 5 io.] SOCIAL LIFE OF THE MONKS. 397
vary), were gathered a group of inferior was rarely if ever the case in the last
officers or obedientaries in strict subordina century of their existence, amounted to
tion one to the other, by whom the monks, four hundred, or even more. The actual

THE WESTMINSTER CHASUBLE (LATE I5TH CENTURY), CRIMSON VELVET EMBROIDERED WITH GOLD.
(In the possession of Lord Arundel of Wardour.)

their dependents, and tenants were ruled. number of professed monks, exclusive of
The whole number, including all depend lay brothers and dependents, in an im
ents, in a large house when filled, which portant monastery, rarely seemed to have
398 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

exceeded a hundred. By the abbot s or desk, hard by the monks entrance to the

the prior s side, as the case might be, stood choir, is still to be seen near the north

the first, second, and third priors, lieu
tenants of the head of the house, ready at
once to step into his place, should he at
any time be incapacitated from exercising
a general supervision over the whole
gate of the choir of Gloucester. There in
the night hours, at matins, or in the deep
dawn of the early morning, he would stand
and carefully note who was absent from
the company as they passed in from the

community. dormitory to prayers on the following day

;

After these dignified officers, who with to the full chapterhe would report any
a few other of the chiefs of departments absentee monk. The same officer would also,
had separate lodgings of their own, being when all were assembled in the choir in
exempted from much of the ordinary social these night services, go his quiet round with

existence, came agroup of officials specially his little lamp gleaming in the dimly-lighted

attached to the great church or abbey. church, watching carefully to see if any
The had charge generally of the
sacrist weary brother had fallen asleep in his seat
innumerable services which were performed or stall, when he would at once rouse him

by night as by day ;
these services will be up again to take his share in the perpetual
presently enumerated. The sacrist, an nightly round of prayer and praise.
important official, often had the charge of The custos operum, or master of the!
the library, and acted as chancellor or works, ranked also high among the chief

secretary of the society, and wrote the obedientaries. His was no light duty, the!
letters which had to be sent out on legal watching over the constant repairs needed
and other business. After him came the in the abbey-church and in the vast hive

precentor,who arranged the elaborate of buildings which clustered round the!

music and singing which formed so large house of God. Even in the far-back
a part of the many services, and which Plantagenet days, we read in Jocelyn del
served to break the awful monotony which Brakelonde s charming gossipy chroniclej
must have accompanied a life, so many of the ruined state into which many of the
hours of which were spent in worship in abbey buildings had fallen as early as
in|
the sanctuary. In some of the smaller the reign of king John, in the monastery
houses the offices of sacrist and precentor of Bury St. Edmunds. Then, too, as wel
were combined. The precentor in a large have said, the monk was ever a restless
house like Durham, Gloucester, Evesham, artist, ever an indefatigable architect, who
Bury St. Edmunds, and many others of loved to be always adding to, adorning
like rank, presided over the singers, with fresh ornamentation, with new tracery!
arranged the processions, and exercised with beautiful, often with strange, fantastic
under the abbot or prior the chief work, his loved home. Our cathedrals and
authority in the church. abbeys, in the exquisite confusion of styles
The circa was an official charged in a of architecture which they present, tell
great community with watching over the us how successive generations of monks
discipline of the services. His little stone planned, designed, and carried out new
 ORGANISATION OF A MONASTERY. 399

works. Never was the monk weary of barbarous title from his peculiar duties.
striving to make his beautiful church, his He was set over the "

hoard,"
or the
cloister, his conventual buildings,
many supplies of food required for the refectory
more beautiful, more richly adorned. Over and infirmary.
all these works, the the other notable obedientaries
delight nowadays ot Among
the antiquarian, the architect, the historian, in a monastery of the larger class, the
and of many others who lay no claim to mfirmarian occupied a prominent and im
these titles, the master of the works was portant position. Tender and loving care
supreme. We, who afterlong centuries for the the ailing, and the infirm
sick,
are content simply to admire and now and especially distinguished the Benedictines.
again to copy what the vanished monk has Their infirmaries were usually spacious,
done in those abbeys and cathedral build and not unfrequently were richly orna^
ings, which their defaced and sadly
in mented. The graceful arches, still graceful
spoiled condition are still among the glories after a somewhat clumsy attempt at restora
of our land, owe a large debt to many an tion, of the infirmary of the vast Benedictine
unknown, unrecorded master of the works. house of Gloucester, testified to the former
The next group of monastic officials is a existence of stately buildings erected for the
more homely one. The first in order was sick and aged monk.This hospital, which
the receiver or treasurer. He had the duty adjoined the cloister walls, the sick shared
of receiving and accounting for the rents with the aged brothers, whose waning
of the abbey farms. His office in later strength was insufficient to enable them to
days, when from various causes the religious take part in the austere life and perpetual
houses grew poorer, must often have been services of the house. In this building, or
an onerous if not a painful one. The per in the little sunny garden adjoining it, the
petual strain to make ends meet, the find monk spent his last days, without cares
ing resources to meet the often exorbitant and without fears, till he was carried out
claims of the sovereign, the calls of the to burial in the cemetery, God s acre
state to contribute to some foreign war, hard by, to lie among the brethren gone
the difficulty of paying the large interest before. The infirmarian usually possessed
due on sums borrowed to meet such claims, a knowledge of medicine and surgery.
was too often the lot of this official. These acquirements were not uncommon
An obedientary with the quaint mediae- among the Benedictines.
val title of hordarian shared with the The guest-master had the charge of

cellarer and refectorarion the labour no entertaining all visitors, all travellers, rich
small one in an important house of pro and poor, who claimed the hospitality of
viding for the bodily needs of the numerous the house. Lavish hospitality to travellers,

company who made up the community. whether as pilgrims pilgrimage, as we

Certain estates belonging to the monastery have seen, was a common feature in

were usually set aside exclusively for this mediaeval religious life or as merchants,

purpose. These were administered by distinguished all monastic establishments.

the hordarian, who derived his somewhat The splendid and noble remains of the
400 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
guest-halls of many of the more important vast day-room, and the varied arrange
religious houses, that are with us to this ments for study in the cloisters. The
day, tell us how carefully and even gener duties of such an officer, when the size and

ously this duty was provided for. En "

complex arrangements of a large Bene

tertainment," says the Rites of Durham," "

dictine establishment are borne in mind,

"

was given to all staits, both noble, gentle, were no light ones, and required constant
and what degree soever that came thither skilland forethought to preserve the neces
as strangers, ther interteynment not being sary decency and cleanliness and customary

REFERENCE.
A. St.Josefh sChaftl.
A* St.Josefh s ll tll.
H. A nit Chafel-
C. The Nave of the Chunk.
/). Columns on "which thf Tower stood,
r. The Choir.
F. l.aJy s Chafel.
The Worth Transtfl.
<;.

It.The South Transtfl.

I.K.L .!/. Chantry Chafels.
N. The Cloister.
The Chafttr Jfonse.
(>.

/ The Cloisters ami Area.

.

The Rejectory.
(.).

K. The Gnest-h,ill
.V. I art of the AUvl s Lodgings.
T. The Abbot ! Kitchen.
I . I art of the Almonry.

PLAN OF GLASTONBURY, A TYPICAL MEDIAEVAL MONASTERY.

inferior to any place in Ingland, both stateliness, without exceeding the sum of
for the goodness of their diets, the sweete money set apart for this purpose, an amount
and daintie furniture of their lodgings, which gradually decreased as time went on
and generally all things necessarie for and the religious communities grew poorer.
traveillers." There were, besides these important
Another well-known obedientary in a officers, in a Benedictine house of large
large monastery, the camerarius or cham size a number of subordinate officials, such
berlain, must not be forgotten. He had as cooks, doorkeepers, gardeners, and the
the charge of all the furniture of the dormi like, who need
not be specially described.
tory and refectory and guest-chambers, and The policy of the monastic orders was
of the various lodgings and halls of the rather to multiply offices, with a view of
monastery, including the separate apart providing the brethren with occupations
ments of the higher officials, the monks which would give them an interest in the
GLASTONBURY ABBEY.
 THE ABBEY CHURCH. 401
well-being of their and in the
order, spent in goldsmith s work, in embroidery
prosperity and discipline of their own for the gorgeous hangings and the still
particular house. more costly priestly vestments, and in a

THE ABBOT S KITCHEN, GLASTONBURY.

But the centre, of course, of a monastery lesserdegree upon the multitude of candles
was its church or abbey. To its adorn almost perpetually burning, many of these
ment the monk devoted century after costly lights being absolutely necessary for
century all his care and skill in architecture, the various night services.
painting, sculpture. Upon the services of
his loved sanctuary untold sums were The following sketch of the ordinary
402 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

daily and nightly services in a Benedictine or lay brethren, often anumerous body
house will give a fairly accurate picture or in a large community, and the monks who

the way in which a day was spent. The had in their turn served the others at

details, of course, slightly varied in the dinner, sat down to their meal. Then
different houses, but in the main our sketch came a short time set apart, if
desired, for

represents what took place in the majority
of instances with fair accuracy.
In all seasons the monks rose from their
beds at midnight, and went into a cold
church we should remember how terribly
cold it must have been through the long
winter season, for we have no reason to
suppose that the monastic churches of the
sleep, which was followed by active em
ployment of various kinds, by study, or by
recreation. Vespers were sung at 3 p.m.
Then went on again study, recreation, or
some other work in which the monk was
specially engaged and interested. Supper
was usually at 6. At 7.30 came the last
service of the day, compline, and then at 8

Middle Ages were ever artificially warmed the brethren retired to the dormitory, to
and there went through a service, or rather sleep until they were roused for the mid
two services of matins and lauds, which night matins.
were mostly sung, and lasted about an hour Up to the period of the dissolution of
and a half. These services on certain the monasteries in 1536-1541, with little
saints days were considerably prolonged. change in the hours, this had been the
They then returned to bed again. At unvarying use of the large majority of the
7 a.m. they once more assembled in their religious houses of England. Prayer to
church prime, and at its close there was
for and praise of Almighty God in their
a short meeting in the chapter-house for church or abbey, interspersed with hours
the transaction of the ordinary business of of study, had been the principal object of
the house, and especially of matters con their lives, roughly speaking, for well-nigh
nected with its discipline. This chapter five hundred years. In the Durham Rites
house meeting of all the monks, in some we read how before the high altar were
communities took place at about 1 1 o clock, "

three marveilous faire silver basons hung

in others at an earlier hour. A short meal in chaines of silver these contained great
;

in most houses preceded the gathering in wax candles, which, did burne continually
the chapter-house but the morning ar
;
both day and night, in token that the
rangements seemed to have somewhat house was always watchinge to God."
varied in the different houses. Many and various are the estimates which
At 9 .came tierce, which was followed by men make as to the efficacy of prayer, with
high mass and scxt. Dinner, the principal a view to change and modify God s pur
meal of the day in the fourteenth century poses towards men but few will be found
;

and after, was served in the refectory about to deny the moral beauty of this con
11.30 a.m., and during the meal some ception, which was the common heritage
lessonwould be read aloud. After dinner of all the monastic orders. The life-aim
came nones, and whilst most of the monks of every monastery was the ideal typified
were engaged in that service, the conversi by the Durham ever-burning The
"

lights :
1 5 10.] THE LIFE OF A MONK. 4>3

hmise was always watchinge to God 1 1

In a climate often damp and chilly like-
alas ! too often it was only a beautiful that of England, the monk must in winter
but unrealised ideal ! have suffered acutely from cold. There
were few kept up in any monastery.
fires

After all, the life of a monk was a hard For the monks, save in the common room
and austere one. The scoffer has too often or in the refectory at "

snow time,"
as it

chosen the butt of his thoughtless

it as was termed, there was no fire. The
pleasantries, but the shafts he aims with common room is described in the "

Rites
so much zest are generally the weapons of of Durham as having a fyre
" "

keapt in yt
ignorance and prejudice. Of course, in all all winter, for the mounckes to cume and
ages there were bad monks, and monas warm them being allowed no fyre but
at,
teries where misrule and disorder reigned ;
that only."
The same account expressly
but quiet, scholarly research goes far to dis they were allowed no fyre in
"

repeats
prove the assertion that this class of false the dormitory." meet with constant We
monks was to be often met with in England notices respecting warm clothing, furs, etc.,
in the last age of the existence of monas- so chillwas the atmosphere of the un-
ticism. The daily life we have sketched. warmed great church, the refectory and
That life was sweetened and beautified the dormitory, and above all the cloister
with few of those luxuries men are ever walks, where so many hours of a monk s
accustomed to associate with even modest life was spent. Anyone who has had ex
comfort and happiness. The diet varied perience of the cold damp "

carrells
"

or
in different religious houses, and although study-cells of the once famous Benedictine
one of the latest students of monastic life,*
house of Gloucester, where they are still

after careful examination of many

"

diet
"

perfect ason the day of the dissolution in

does not consider that the 1540, and where the cloister was evidently
"

rolls, religious,"

on the whole, fared amiss, there is no mostly glazed as now, cannot help it is

doubt but in many it may be said in the wondering how patient study and writing,
majority of houses there was a wearying or illuminating books, could have been

sameness in the food provided, which was, carried on under such circumstances. In

though plentiful, often rough and coarse. many cloisters, as for example at West

It must be borne in mind, too, that most minster, there seems to have been no
of the brethren were drawn not from the glazing there the monks, as they sat and
;

poor labouring folk, but rather from the read or walked, were exposed to the chill

upper middle class. An examination of winds and damp.

the diet rolls shows that condiments, such Few and monotonous were the recrea
as mustard, were freely used, especially on tions of the monks. The chief of them
the many fast-days. It would appear that was perhaps the pacing up and down the
the tasteless and somewhat indigestible cloisters and the little walks of the cloister

fish diet became often repugnant. garden, the somewhat larger garden or
* Dr.
Kitchin, late dean of Winchester, now orchard, or the gloomy cemetery, where
they were one day to lie. This recreation
"
"

dean of Durham.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

was allowed during certain hours of unlawful recreations of these more youth
the day, but in a well-ordered house fuland thoughtless dwellers in a monastery,
gossipy talk, as Jocelyn de Brakelonde tells such as cutting and carving the stones with
us in his quaint memoirs of the community letters and other devices, are occasionally

of St. Edmund Bury, in the days of king

at found. Half-way up the winding stairs of

Henry II. and John, was sternly checked the great tower of Gloucester, there is a

by some such obedientary as the circa," rough little figure in the perfect dress of a
"

as he moved silently among the brethren burgher of the city in the time of the Wars
during the hours of recreation. There was of the Roses, evidently the secret work of

THE REFECTORY OF A MONASTERY.

(By permission, from the drawing by G. Cattermale in the Corporation Art Galleries, Glasgow.)

a bowling-green for the novices, which the a youthful amateur in stone-carving. A

professed monks seem to have used at times. beautifully-carved game-board has been
These novices and the other school-boys, recently found in another flight of turret-
pupils in the house, have left the traces of stairs of the cathedral. Other such curious
their games on the stone benches of our relics will no doubt be discovered, now that
Gloucester cloisters, and in other parts many are found who care for such voices
of the great building. In these cloisters, from a vanished past. In some monasteries
where the boys and novices were taught, the monk was allowed to possess and
are some play-boards not obscurely marked amuse himself with strange pet animals,
in the stones. These game-boards for such as apes, peacocks, falcons, and even
"

fox and geese,"

"

nine men s morris," and tame bears, and the consuetudinary of

other games, are found in similar conven St. Swithun s at Winchester tells us that
tual buildings at Westminster, the cellarer had the special care of these
Norwich,
Salisbury, Durham, etc. Other vestiges of strange pets of the brotherhood.
 MONASTIC LIBRARIES. 405
We have alluded to the "

carrells," those mediaeval physicians belonged to some

little cells or recesses in the cloister, where monastic order. The Durham "

Rites
"

speak
the monks who gave themselves to study of its
"

lybrarie," and carefully specify the

or to writing and
illuminating used to sit. situation of this storehouse of learning,
Besides these, there was in most of the which the "Rites"tells us was "well re

larger communities a public scriptorium or plenished with ould written docters and,

THE CLOISTERS, GLOUCESTER.

writing chamber, where those marvels in other histories and ecclesiastical writers.
illumination were executed, where many The same records mention, also, how after
of the books which are now prized so the monks had dined, when they had

highly, were copied and preserved for us. done their prayers, that they did returne"

Most monasteries possessed a library, to the cloyster, and there did studie their

large or small. In the greater houses the bookes until three of the clocke, when
library contained many books, some of they went to evensong. This was their
which treated of medical subjects. Not dutie, exercise, and studie every day after

a few among the more famous early they had dyned."

406 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1510.

monks, went on the perishable and dying body as acceptable to

"

The said
"

Rites to
"

were the onlie writers of all the actes God. The other was of far less moment,
say,
and deedes of the bishopps and priors of and appears to have been connected with
the abbey church of Durham, and of all the notion that dirt was a preservative
the cronacles and stories and that, also, ; against cold. There is a passage in arch
did write and sett furththings that was all bishop Lanfranc s decrees (end of the
thought worthie to be noted, and what eleventh century) which directs the cham
miracles was done every year, and in what berlain of the house to change the hay in
month. . . . They were alwaies most the monks pallets at least once a year, and
virtuouslie occupied, never idle, but ever once a year to clean out the dormitory.

writing of good and goddly wourkes or This injunction of Lanfranc, a great friend

studying the Holie Scriptures, to the to the monks, gives us some idea of the
setting furth of the honour and glorie of state of a monastery in the days of the

God, and for the edifieinge of the people, early Norman kings. What must have
as well in example of good life and con- been the condition of a large chamber in
versacion as by preaching the worde of which thirty or forty or even more
God. Thus yow may and perceave se monks on the same hay ?
slept for a year
how the mounks and religious men were Another decree of this same Lanfranc
occupied in most godly writing and other prescribes one bath a year for the dwellers
exercissis in auncient tyme." But most in a religious house, just before the
of all this work of copying, writing, Christmas feast. The scene which fol

illuminating, and preserving books and lowed the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket *
treatises profane as well as religious, and illustrates only too well the above remarks.

which, but for the monastic houses, would But as the Middle Ages advanced, a
have been lost came to an end with the very different state of things was by de
invention of the printing-press at the end grees introduced. We
find from entries in
of the fifteenth century. monastic records such notes as the one in
Much has been said and written con the "

Consuetudines in Refectorio
"

of St.

cerning the
example evil
by set the Swithun at Winchester, which charges the
monastic orders in matters of health and prior of that important Benedictine com
cleanliness ;
and there is no doubt that in munity with the duty of strewing the re
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, if not fectory with new rush mats seven times
later, an ostentatious
neglect of these in the year. These rush mats formed a
matters was too manifest in the teaching considerable item in the furniture of a
given and pattern set by the religious mediaeval monastery. They were often
communities. This curious neglect of the woven by the monks themselves, who slept
body seems to have been based upon two under them or on them, prayed on them,
"

considerations. The one, and by far the and lay on them when dying. They were
weightier, as it was connected with what harder than the straw litter, and more
the monks deemed the true end of ex wholesome. The same consuetudinary of
istence, looked upon all disregard of the * See p. 204.
 1510.] MONASTIC DISCIPLINE. 407
St. Swithun s tells us, too, that one of the a Benedictine monastery ot the eleventh
chamberlain s duties was to renew the and twelfth centuries.
canvas cloths on the refectory table from The discipline of Durham, as pictured in
time to time, and to provide napkins to the "

Rites and early part

"

in the fifteenth

wipe out and cleanse the cups of silver and of the sixteenth century, must have been
wood used in the ordinary meals. Pro very rigid. No woman was allowed to
vision also appears in the same record come into the body of the church or into
for cleaning out the refectory by the any of the precincts of the monastery.
porter. The Lady Chapel was first erected, it
In the Durham "

Rites
"

we read of a appears, in1 1

54 for women to worship in,
"

almerie (close to the refectory door)

faire but subsequently, the Lady Chapel being
joyned in the wall. All the forepart of the considered too near the shrine of St. Cuth-
almerie was carved work, for to give ayre to bert, a new and exquisite piece of work at
the towels, and every mouncke had a key to the west end of abbey built, the was
the said almerie, wherein did hinge clean wherunto yt was lawfull for women to
"

towels for the mounckes to drye their hands enter, having no holie place before where
on when they washed and went to dinner." they might have lawful accesse unto for
Such an almerie, hard by the refectory door, there cumforthe and consolation."
with the iron hinge of the vanished gate, In the "

dorter
"

or dormitory every
to which each monk had a key, and the monk had chamber of wainscot to
a little

beautiful carved open tracery above to let himself. Every little chamber was parti
in the air to dry the towels, is still to be tioned off, and the novices had also little
seen in the cloister of the Benedictine chambers, each separate, and in the dormi
house of Gloucester, opposite the lavatory, tory every night there was a search by the
with its exquisitely carved roof only slightly sub-prior, who called over every name in
injured by time, and not much defaced by each little chamber, to guard against all
a troop of Cromwell s horse which, tradi disorder. This roll-call was made both
tion says, were once stabled there. The before and after midnight. The sub-prior s
Durham "

dwelling on
Rites,"
this advance chamber was the first in the dorter for
"

in the principles of cleanliness, describe seeing of good order keapt." The doors
minutely the faire laver or conduit for
"

of the house, too, were rigorously locked

the monks to wash their hands and faces at 6 o clock every evening, and were kept
at, covered with lead and of marble,
all in the sub-prior s care until 7 o clock the

having many little conditts or spouts of following morning.

brasse, with xxiiii lockes of brass."
They If a monk were found guilty of any

also of a bell hung near the conditt grave moral offence, the punishment was
"

tell

door to give warning at a leaven (eleven) exceedingly severe. At Durham, under

of the clock for the mouncks to cumme and neath the master of the infirmary s cham
wash and dyne, having their closets or ber, was a strong prison called the lyng-
almeries kept always with swete and clene house, which was ordained for all such as
"

towels a great advance on the habits of

"

were greate offenders." The guilty monk

408 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
was to be immured in this underground of Spoleto, in the beginning of the
dungeon
"

for the space of one hole year in sixth century, which we have been
cheynes."
No one was to have access to sketching, led by the monks in England
this dungeon save the master of the in in that vast network of religious com
"

who did let downe there meate munities which covered our country from
firmary,
thorough a trap-door on a corde, being a 1070 to 1541. In many ways it was a
distance from them." It would be noble as well as an enduring conception,
great

REFECTORY DOOR AND WASHING PLACE, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

interesting to know if such offenders often and in a rough, stern age, did an incal
emerged alive from this living death. culable service. It was a life with a
lofty
ideal, and the
ideal was not often reached ;

ToLanfranc, the friend and minister of but was something in that age of selfish
it

William the Conqueror, the first Norman violence and high-handed tyranny men
archbishop, the great monastic reformer of call the Middle Ages, that there should be
the eleventh century, the kindler of light an ideal of life which men who earnestly
and earnestness among the Norman desired to serve God with all their heart
clergy,
and to Anselm, his greater successor at It did its work, on the
strive after.
might
Canterbury, are owing, in a large degree, whole but the work, as far as England was
;

the plan of life, devised

originally by concerned, was done when the sands of the
Benedict of Nurscia, in the province fifteenth century were running out.
 1 5 lo.] MONASTIC EXCLUSIVENESS.
409
While the present writer, for
themselves havens of refuge, hi which
however,
is
intensely convinced that this mon- they would be sheltered from its wild
astic on the whole, tumults and stormy passions. This teach-
life, powerfully in-
fluenced our
country for good, and the
ing ignored solemn prayer of the
trained up not a few earnest and God- Founder of Christianity, "not that Thou
fearing souls, who in their turn served shouldest take them out of the world, but
well the generation in which their lot that Thou shouldest keep them from the

Photo : Han-ey Barton, Bristol.

THE BELL TOWER, EVESHAM, THE TWO PARISH CHURCHES IN THE BACKGROUND.

was cast, such a study as this would evil." The ultimate result of it was to
be incomplete, and indeed unfair, did it beget a spirit of stern exclusiveness among
not call attention to one cardinal error the Their own salvation, their
"religious."

which is
inseparable from the monastic own safety, with little reference to that
ideal. Men of the austere, uncompromising of the world outside, was really what the
school to which Lanfranc and Anselm true monk aimed at.
having "Self-centred,

and Bernard of Clairvaux belonged, taught few interests outside those cloister walls
that religious men could best fulfil God s where they proposed to pass their lives,
purpose by abandoning the world, leaving under the shadow of which they hoped to
it to follow its own way, and by securing die, they regarded themselves as a chosen
410 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
band, they believed themselves to be Evesham, to take a well-known example,
moving heavenwards as a company and there were two of these churches. Thus,
alltogether. The whole notion underlying when the day of destruction arrived, the
their existence was that of each helping mass of the people cared little or nothing
the others within the narrow limits of the about the ruin of a building, however

community. On the other hand, their and venerable and sacred, from
beautiful

religion had hardly any outward tendency

which they had been shut out. At Eves-
they had no vocation to save the outer ham, save for one solitary tower, the
world. The monks hardly realised that glorious abbey has disappeared ;
while the
those outside were their brethren, hungry two people s churches are still standing,
and naked, full of needs and sufferings ;
and still used by devout congregations
the provision for their stately church, their from the little town built originally under

community, their administration, made the shadow of the vanished abbey.

them hard and unfeeling towards others, There is no doubt but that the apathy
and this was fostered and aggravated by with which the people of England viewed
their own firm belief that they were, in the downfall of monasticism, was largely
a sense, especially God s elect, the heirs due to this narrow spirit, the natural oat-
*
of safety here and of salvation hereafter." come of the monastic life. The monk,
This
spirit of exclusive selfishness con notwithstanding his splendid record of

spicuously manifested itself in the archi service to religion, to art, to letters, and
tecture of the noblest and fairest of those indeed well-nigh everything that made
matchless homes of prayer, which the spirit life beautiful and desirable in a nation,
of devotion and enthusiasm for religion had failed to establish any claim to the
guided them to build and adorn. In every people s hearts, and when he fell at the
great minster and abbey, the choir was bidding of a tyrannical and unscrupu
looked upon as the most sacred part of lous king, his fate at the time was almost
the church. This was beautified and cared unpitied and unnoticed.
for with an especial care, but was rigidly Monastic Christianity finds its most
reserved for the use of the monks, and the complete expression in that small and ex
servants and lay brothers of the house. quisite manual of devotion put out in the
In some few of the monastic churches fifteenth century, known as the "Imitation

such as in the lordly abbey of Evesham of Christ." No book outside the Holy
the nave as well as the choir was
generally Scriptures has been so often reprinted or
closed to the outer world and another so frequently translated.
; (There are, it is
and less important church was erected said, sixty translations into French alone.)
close worshippers who belonged
by, for It was written, as is well known, in
not to the charmed inner circle of the Latin tongue. Its boundless popu
"

professed
monks and their servants. In the imme larity reminds us that it supplies some

diate precincts of the mighty abbey of want in the of

imperious Christianity
* Dean Kitchin :
"

Notes on the Obedientiary

mankind ; but, like monasticism, it is

Rolls of St. Swithun."

absolutely and entirely selfish in its aims
 MONASTIC EXCLUSIVENESS. 411

as in its acts. Its sole, single, exclusive of the Dominican and Franciscan friar was
object the purification, the elevation of
is to spread abroad the glad message of sal
the individual soul of the man, absolutely vation, which the monk chose mainly to
isolated from his kind. With no fears, confine within the precincts of his own
no hopes, no sympathies of our common loved monastery. The work of the men
nature, he has absolutely withdrawn him dicant friar was not the salvation of the
self not only from the cares, the sins, the individual monk, but that of others through

trials, but from the duties, the moral and him. The
rapid growth and wonderful
*
religious fate of the world." popularity of the friars, tells us with no
Dominic and Francis of Assisi were uncertain voice that, in some ways at least,
conscious of this want in the work of they had won the affections of the people
the great orders. The Benedictines and among whom they lived. It is hardly too

Carthusians of their day and time were much to say, that the coming of the friar
never missionaries ; they touched not, nor put off the downfall of monasticism in

did they make any real effort to touch, the England for some two centuries.*
mass of uncared-for souls living, dying, *
The above account of the life of a great monastery
at their gates. Hence the idea common isbased on the Rites of Durham," published by
"

the Surtees Society, and upon various other con

to both of these great men, of founding
temporary monastic records. I have also ventured
mendicant orders. The acknowledged aim to borrow from a paper of my own, The Passing
"

of the Monk," published in 1895 in the Quarterly

* Dean Milman :
"

Latin Review.
Christianity."

FOR THE
THE BEDE ROLL (DURHAM CATHEDRAL) ASKING THE PRAYERS OF THE VARIOUS MONASTERIES
SOULS OF PRIOR EBCHESTER, WHO DIED 1456, AND PRIOR BURNABY, WHO
DIED 1468.
(By permission of C. P. MacCarthy, Esq.)
 CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE CHURCH AT THE DAWN OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Value of Erasmus as a Witness His Character His Picture of the Weakness of the Church Religion
Confounded with Ritual Cautious Moderation of the Witness Testimony to Corruption in
Doctrine and Practice Bad Character of the Mass-PriestsErasmus Mourns nevertheless over
the Excesses of the German Reformers Letter of Wicelius Testimony of Dean Colet to
Ecclesiastical Abuses in England Pilgrimage of Erasmus and Colet to Canterbury Evidence of
Sir Thomas More to the Excesses of Mariolatry.

most fair,and perhaps the most These later letters, then, out of which

THE reliable

of
picture which we possess
the church of the west (in
we shall draw the materials of our
contained the thoughts of the profoundest
picture,

cluding England) in the early part of the scholar and theologian of the day of a ;

sixteenth century, is painted in the later man, too, who

was, if not in sympathy
letters of Erasmus letters in which the with the leaders of the church in England

great scholar poured out his whole heart and on the Continent, certainly not at

to correspondents of various ranks and enmity with them. Many of these ad

nationalities, to statesmen and his private mired him with an ungrudging admiration,
friends, to ecclesiastics of high degree, some even loved him with a real love.
including bishops, cardinals, royal per He might have worn a mitre had he
sonages, and even the Pope himself. The pleased, even selecting the see which
special work of Erasmus for his day would have best suited his
precarious
and generation will come before us in health and given him all opportunities to
another chapter here we only cite
:
pursue his favourite studies ;
and though
him as a witness. These letters, very he declined the honour, he did so with a
different from his epistles penned in early kindly grace, as conscious of the friendship
and middle life, are rarely bitter ;
sorrowful and consideration in the highest quarters
often, now and again almost despairing.* which prompted the offer. In the last

Many were written under the shadow of years of this busy life we find him even
death, which Erasmus felt could not be far wavering whether or no he should accept
distant. They were composed, too, at a the lofty dignity of a cardinal of the
period when the scholar evidently re Roman church his hesitation apparently
;

gretted the bitterness and acrimony of his being based upon the consciousness, not
earlier and now and again even
days, of any unfitness for the distinguished
mourned over results to which he felt position, but of his inability through want
he had largely contributed. With Luther of private fortune to fulfil its requirements.
and the German reforms he had little Indeed, the student of Erasmus s career, as :

sympathy, and he evidently viewed the he lays down the many-coloured record of
acts of the more advanced Protestants with his eventful life, feels that had that life

dislike and dread. been prolonged even a little, the red hat
Circa 1528.] ERASMUS S PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 413
would probably have been worn Roman
by the apologists of errors, Erasmus in
scholar whose praise, with good his
reason, is later days, in intimate communion
still in all the churches. with the old church, the friend of
Pope
Words, then, which crystallise the ripe and cardinal and bishop, gives us in his
thoughts of such a man must have for us a letters a picture of the church which must

v~

^ ^

C>

END OF A LETTER FROM ERASMUS TO NICHOLAS EVERARD ON THE SUBJECT OF LUTHER S MARRIAGE.
(British Museum.}

deep meaning. As we Tead them, we feel convince any unbiassed student of the past,
that much of the they describe is truly
life that a reformation at once of doctrine and

pictured. Far removed from the violence of practice was absolutely needed.
and impetuosity of a Luther, whom, while The picture drawn by the old man,
admiring him for his honesty and bravery, educated by long experience and years of
he gently condemned, declining altogether patient study in his old age a gentle,
to share in his passion for destruction ; friendly, loving critic indeed was the
equally removed from the unbending picture verily of a dying church. Let us
414 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. {Circa 1528.

paint it from his own words. In quoting necessary, if the church was stillto pre

the following extracts,* it must not be serve commanding

its and beneficent

supposed for an instant that we mean to influence among men.

indicate entire sympathy with the policy See how calmly and beautifully he
of conciliation or with the via media writes to Louis Marlianus, Bishop of
suggested in them. Had the writer s Juy, in Gallicia :
"

Christ I know ; Luther

wishes been carried out, although the I know not. The Roman church I know,
church, purified of many glaring abuses, and death will not part me from it till

purged of much false doctrinal teaching, the church departs from Christ. I ap

would have been generally strengthened prove of those who stand by the Pope,
and invigorated yet such a partial re
;
but I could wish them wiser than they
formation as he evidently longed for are. ... I would have the church
would have left her still burdened with purified of evil, lest the good in it

many ancient perhaps, but cer

practices, suffer by connection with what is in

tainly not traceable to primitive Chris defensible ... I have sought to save
tianity, and pledged to doctrines many of the dignity of the Roman pontiff, the
them utterly unknown to the inspired honour of Catholic theology, and the
teachers of the New
Testament, and even welfare of Christendom. . . .
Every
to writers and theologians of the first wise man knows that doctrines and usages
three centuries. Besides all this, the have been introduced into the church
dead hand of Rome would still have which have no real sanction, partly by
pressed with much of its old chilling custom, partly through obsequious canon
weight upon all the reformed churches
" "

ists, partly by scholastic definitions, partly

of the west in communion with it. But by the tricks and arts of secular sovereigns.
Erasmus is chosen as the best con Such excrescences must be removed,
temporary witness of the state of the though the medicine must be administered
sixteenth century church, not only on cautiously, lest it make the disorder worse,
account of his rare ability, but because, and the patient die."

from his manifest leanings to the old form Erasmus felt, and felt truly, that many
of mediaeval Christianity, his description of of the disorders of Christendom had arisen
the errors of the church he loved and from the dogmas which the church and
wished to preserve, with certain purifying the priests had forced upon the people.
changes, is certain not to be exaggerated. Piety was too often held to be the
And yet the picture he draws will surely acceptance of these dogmas, impiety to be
satisfyany fair-minded critic that a great doubt or disagreement. Hence religion
and drastic reformation was imperatively was inextricably mixed up with a humanly
* The extracts from invented ritual, and morals were forgotten.
Erasmus, both in this chapter
and the two following, are, by the kind permission Writing to duke George of Saxony, he
of Messrs. Longmans and Co., mainly taken from
the translations by Mr. Froude, first given in the
says : "I will speak my mind freely.

Oxford Lectures (1893-4), and published in The "

Christendom is being asphyxiated with
Life and Letters of Erasmus," 1895. formulas and human inventions. Nothing
 Circa 1528.1 ERASMUS S PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 415
isheard of but dispensations, indulgences, conservative lines would have been
and the powers of the Pope." In another possible.
letter to the same duke George he says : Such a letter as Erasmus wrote in 1528
"

The world was besotted with ritual, to the elector

Herman, archbishop of
.

scandalous monks were ensnaring and Cologne, who afterwards joined the Luther
strangling consciences, theology had be ans and was deposed for it, was
simply
come sophistry, dogmatism had grown to maddening to one like Luther. The "

madness, and, besides, there were un mass,"

so runs this celebrated
epistle to
speakable priests and bishops and Roman has been made
"

Herman, a trade for

officials." And yet, in spite of these illiterate and sordid priests, and a contriv
strong expressions, Erasmus in the same ance to quiet the consciences of reprobates.
letter considered it was a case for com So the cry is raised, Abolish the mass,
promise and agreement. If you put out
away, make an end of it
"

put it Is there !

the fire by force," he wrote, it will

"

no middle course ? Cannot the mass be

burst up again." purified ?
Saint-worship has been carried
In the midst of all
deep indignation his so far that Christ has been forgotten.
at the corruptions which were sapping all Therefore respect for the saints is idolatry,
the life of the church, we see the famous and orders founded in their names must
scholar again and again striving rather be dissolved. Why so violent a remedy ?

to mend than to end the existing state Too much has been made of rituals and
of things now grieving over the dogged
; vestments but we might save, if we
;

obstinacy of the hierarchy, refusing to see would, the useful part of such things.
the awful corruption of religion and the Confession has been abused, but it could
idolatrous degradation into which so many be regulated more strictly. We might
of the most solemn services had fallen ;
have fewer priests and fewer monks, and
now vexed and dismayed at the ruthless those we keep might be better of their
destruction and wholesale condemnation kind. If the bishops will only be moderate,

by Luther and his school of much that things might end well after all but we ;

was venerable and beautiful. Against this must not hurt the corn in clearing out
longing of Erasmus to reform rather than the tares." But his heart was very heavy,
to destroy, Luther was very bitter, and in spite of his kindly hope of some via
he did not hesitate to accuse the scholar media being generally and by universal
of half-heartedness. "

Erasmus," he once consent adopted. This comes out often

u
wrote, should leave theology alone, and in such expressions as his words to the
give his mind to other subjects. Theology bishop of Augsburg in 1528: "The state
demands seriousness and sincerity of heart of the church distracts me."
Things were
and love for God s word." The German very evil, and the kindly scholar knew
reformer in his zeal and earnestness forgot it too well.
that had it not been for Erasmus, and his Notwithstanding Luther s fierce denun
rescuing the true text of the New Testa ciation of Erasmus, saintly reformers like

ment from oblivion, no Reformation on Melancthon loved the dying scholar, and
416
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, [Circa 1528.

prayed that his views might

be adopted. expect from protectors who care nothing
In 1530 Melancthon, for instance, writes for Catholic piety, and care only to recover

to him thus I hope your words will

:
"
their old power and enjoyments ? We
(the emperor Charles V.).
were drunk or asleep, and God has sent
weigh with him
.

Continue your good works, and deserve these stern schoolmasters to wake us up.
the thanks of posterity. You cannot use The rope has been overstrained : it might
your influence to
better purpose. We have stood if
they had slackened it a little,

have given but they

in our views would ra
without ther have it

break than
condemning
others. We save it by
are told that concession.
our conces The Pope is

sions are too the head of

late. . . .
the church,

Great and as such

deserves to
changes are
imminent. be h o n-
God grant oured ;
he
that our stretched his

rulers may authority

be so guided too far, and
that the so the first

church is strand of the

not wrecked rope parted.

in the pro Pardons and
cess." MAR UN LU1 HER. indulgences
In a letter (from the portrait by Louis Cranach.) were toler

written from able within

Freiburg in 1529, Erasmus draws a terrible limits ;

picture of the state of religion in that period
when, thanks largely to his own labours,
men were awakening to the knowledge of
what true Christianity meant. Alas he
monks and commissaries filled the
world with them to line their own pockets.
In every church were the red boxes and
the crosses and the papal arms, and the
"

!
"

people were forced to buy. So the

wrote,
"

Christianity has sunk so low that second strand went. Then there was the
scarce a man knows now what calling on invocation of saints. The images in
the Lord means. One looks to cardinals churches at first served for ornaments
and bishops, another to kings, another to and examples. By-and-by the walls
the black battalions of monks and divines. were covered with scandalous pictures.
What do they want ? What do they The cult ran to idolatry. So parted a
Circa 1528.] ERASMUS S PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 417
third strand. The singing of hymns was there were too many holy days. Allud-
an ancient and a pious custom but when to the
;
ing necessity for" reform of the
music was introduced fitter for weddings and
religious communities among the mendi-
banquets than God s service, and the sacred cants, Erasmus, in the same letter to the
words were lost in the affected unnamed
intonation, English bishop, says :
"

The
so that no word in the
liturgy was spoken most respectable, if not the largest
part
plainly, away went another. What is of these communities desire it themselves.
more solemn than the mass ? But when To abolish them a rude remedy.
is It has
stupid vagabond
priests learn up
two or three
masses, and re
peat them over
and over as a
cobbler makes
shoes ;
when
notorious profli

gates officiate at
the Lord s table,
and the sacred-
est of mysteries
is sold for money
tQ: -tcfffv**** t^TT
well, this
strand-is almost

gone too. Secret

confession may
be useful, but PAGE FROM A COLLECTION OF MASSES FOR EACH DAY OF THE WEEK, FOR FOUR
when it is em VOICES, PROBABLY USED IN THE ROYAL CHAPEL, EARLY SIXTEENTH
CENTURY. (British Museum.)
ployed to extort
money out of the terrors of fools, . . . been done in some places (i.e. in Germany),
this part of the cord will not last much but they ought to be brought back to
longer either." their original purpose as schools of piety ;

Writing an English bishop (about

to and it will be a good day for the monks
1528), he especially dwells upon con when they are reformed. They must
which he says were notoriously
fessions, not be allowed to live longer in idleness.

betrayed such confessions were enjoined,

;
Their exemptions must be cancelled, and
not to benefit men s souls, but to gather they must be placed under the bishops ;

harvests out of their purses, to learn and as to their images, the people must be

their secrets, and to rule in their houses. taught that they are no more than signs.
He complains also of the extravagant It were better if there were none at all,

importance attached to fasting, and says and if

prayer was only addressed to Christ."
418 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [Circa 1530.

Erasmus was very severe upon the despise the ineffable mystery." But he
evil character and lives of too many of by no means includes all the clergy in
the priests of the church of that time. this evil catagory. In another letter, also

Speaking of the over-zeal of German re bearing the date of 1530, we come upon
formers, in a letter which Froude considers this passage :
"

Some are saints, like the

was meant for the eye of the emperor archbishop of Canterbury (Warham) and-
Charles V., he says :
"

They (the reformers) the bishops of London and Rochester."

will have no more priests. It would be Yet, with all his early memories and de
better to have priests of learning and piety, testation of the monastic life, which had

and to provide that orders are not hastily been forced upon him ;
with all his riper

entered into. There would be fewer of experience of what he justly deemed

them, but better three good than three false interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures,
hundred bad. Debauched priests, who do of false teaching, of purely man-invented

nothing but mumble masses, are generally doctrines, which marred all the work and
hated. Do away with these hirelings, influence of the church ;
in spite of his

and allow but one celebration a day in the wide knowledge of evil living in the case
churches. Indulgences, with which the of many very many ol the church s

monks so long fooled the world, with the accredited ministers; in spite, too, of his

connivance of the theologians, are now accurate acquaintance with the corrupt

exploded." ways and fatal policy of the see of Rome,

In 1530, writing to the bishop of Hil- which he condemned with a terrible con
desheim, he again with extreme anger demnation, even though the lordly prelate
complains of the lives and conversation who ruled at the Vatican was his sincere
of these mass-priests.
"

In earlier times friend and admirer ;

in spite of all these

there was but one celebration in a day; melancholy Erasmus feared the great
facts,

now, partly from superstition, partly from reformer Luther, and even while he loved

avarice, the saying of masses has become the man for his honest outspoken words
a trade like shoemaking or bricklaying a and his fearless passionate acts, dreaded
mere means of making a livelihood. And their effects.

again, some attention should be paid to This is what the prince of scholars
the priest s character dress and office are ;
feared and dreaded. In Germany, before
not enough : the life must answer to the 1530 well-nigh two-thirds of the German
function. Nowadays, when the celebration nation had accepted the scheme of refor
is over, the man who has offered the mation too hastily sketched out by Luther
sacrificeadjourns to drinking parties and and his disciples. Then a Communion
loose talk, or to cards or dice, or goes Service something like our own was sub

hunting, or lounges in idleness. While he stituted for the mass so far good. But the
:

is at the altar angels wait on him when ;

German reformation did not stop there ;

he leaves it he seeks the refuse of man bishops episcopal ordination were

and
kind. It is not decent. Priests should dispensed with as occasions of superstition.
not by their loose living teach heretics to German Christianity has rued the day
Circa 1524.] ERASMUS S PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 419

when it thus tore

up Catholic traditions, personal experience of in 1529, when
which can be traced up to aspostolic and the ecclesiastical revolution reached Basle,
sub-apostolic times. Erasmus mourned where he was then residing, and where he,
over much of this, in such words as not many years after, closed his brilliant life
these :
"

Can these gospellers have no with its many lights and shades. This is
patience with men who cling to doctrines how he describes the acts, not violent, but
sanctioned by ages, and taught by Popes calmly and deliberately carried out with
and councils and saints, and cannot gulp the consent of the majority of the govern
down the new wine ? "

ing body of the renowned and wealthy

"

There is much," wrote Erasmus, as city Smiths and carpenters were sent
:
"

early as 1524, to Melancthon, in Luther s remove the images from the churches
"

to ;

teaching that I dislike he runs every ; the, roods and unfortunate saints were

thing which he touches into extravagance. cruelly handled. . . . Not a statue was
It is true Christendom is corrupt, and left inchurch, niche, or monastery. The
needs the rod. . . . Luther sees certain paintings on the walls were whitewashed.
things to be wrong, and in flying blindly Everything combustible was burnt ;
what
at them causes more harm than he cures. would not burn was broken to pieces.
. .
great a thing to have
. . Is it so
Nothing was spared, however precious or
removed images and changed the canon of beautiful." And in another letter of the
the mass ? What good is done by telling same date he thus describes the strange
foolish lads that the Pope is antichrist, fury As it was, no blood was shed, but
:
"

that confession carries the plague, that there was a cruel assault on altars, images,

they cannot do right if

they try, that good and pictures."
After this the great scholar-
works and merits are a vain imagination, theologian refused to remain in Basle ;

that free-will is an illusion, that all things he was sorry, he said,

"

to leave it, but

hold together by necessity, and that man if I stayed I should seem to approve of

can do nothing of himself ? Such things what had been done."

are said. You will tell me that Luther We were able to describe with some
does not say them, that only idiots say detail the church and its life in England

them yes, but Luther encourages men

; during the second half of the fifteenth

who say them . . . Would that Luther century. Our knowledge of this time
had tried as hard to improve Popes and was singularly assisted by bishop Pecock s
princes as to expose their faults." vivid and picturesque writings, which told
"

In some German states,"

he writes in us how the teaching and practices of the
another letter,
"

the Pope is antichrist, the Church of England appeared to one seated

bishops are hobgoblins, the priests swine, in its high places, and by the interesting
the princes tyrants, the monasteries Satan s Paston correspondence, which showed us
conventicles, and the power is in the hands how the church influenced the quiet family
of Gospel mobs, who are readier to fight life of the middle classes. Certain acts of
than to reason." How these mobs, thus contemporary synods and con
ecclesiastical

fatally taught, acted, our scholar had vocations of the clergy made up our picture,
420 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. \Cina 1533.

which pretty full of detail.

is But for the what he writes with his tear-dimmed eyes

early part of the century which witnessed of the churches of the continent of Europe,
the Reformation we have with us fewer is absolutely true of the Church of England
English materials. It would seem emin in Indeed England,
the same sad age.

ently desirable that some picture of the which Erasmus knew thoroughly and loved
church, its life and influence, its short well, supplied not a few of the materials of

comings, and its grievous errors, which his melancholy but too true picture.
so excited our One more quo
tation from the
people during
the quarter of a Erasmus corre

century which spondence. One

immediately of the latest bio
mo
preceded the graphers of the
mentous struggle, famous scholar
should be painted. (Mr. Froude) con
"

I believe,"
said siders that the
the picturesque thoughts of the

historian, to letter of George

whose edition of Wicelius to his

many of the great friend perhaps

scholar s letters expressed the
we are here so thoughts of mil
largely indebted,* lions. It bears
"that
you will date 1533, only
best see what it some three years
really was, if
you before the end of
will look at it that brilliant busy

through the eyes I can think

"

life.
PAUL S.
of Erasmus." We (From tJte Drawing by Holbein.)
of nothing but
have taken
"

his the council (a

advice, and told our little story of those general council of the church to take in
thirty years almost all in the very words hand the burning questions which were
of that marvellous man who was the then agitating men). Our miseries will
"

principal hero of the period in question, never end till the cause of them is re

pointing out reasons why his view was moved. War will settle nothing, and will

probably the true one. great scholar The leave an incurable ulcer. Germany is

and u
theologian was a laudator temporis rent in two. Christianity itself is in peril.
acti
"

was one who could see, dimly per O ears of Rome ! Oheart of Rome deaf !

haps, but with no imperfect vision, the

still and dead to the one thing needful, and
beauty and the holiness of the past. And buried in the pleasures of the world !

*
Mr. Froude. Have not Catholics waited long enough ?
Circa 1533.] LETTER OF WICELIUS. 421
Will you do nothing for the poor flock of was hushed some nine years before that
Christ ? Will not our cries move you at memorable assembly met.] * You plead "

last ? Our hope is that the emperor will age and illness. Were I emperor, I would
lay demands before the court of Rome take no excuses from you. You
. . .

which it will be ashamed to refuse, and can prove can answer

you you can*
persuade or weary it into
compliance. as no other man can
explain living do..
What Luther s party will do I know not. You can silence the rival fanatics. We,

OLD ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL.

. . . Luther himself will be less will hot listen to Luther. We will not
violent when he hears how often learned listen to the sophists of the schools. We
men think of him. His haughty crest will will listen to Erasmus and to those who
droop and his horns drop off when he think like Erasmus to those who love
is no
longer on his own dunghill, and has Christianity better than they love a faction."

to defend his theories of yesterday against

the sages of Christendom. But you, Eras Among those who thought like Erasmus
mus, of all men must be there." [Alas for was Colet, the dean of St. Paul s, whose
that council and its unhappy results The ! life and vast influence in the Church of

voice of the great master, which might

* Erasmus died A.D. 1536,and the first session
have charmed the fathers of Trent into of the Council of Trent was held in December..
paths of true reform and wise conciliation, 1545-
422 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1512.

England during the first two decades of and deformed. . . .

Nothing has so
the sixteenth century will be presently disfigured the face of the church as the
dealt with. He died in 1519. Colet was secular and worldly way of living on the

the most famous preacher of his time, and part of the clergy." (His text was taken
a few extracts from his noble sermon from Romans xii. 2.)

preached before the convocation of bishops

He began by speaking of the English
and clergy, especially summoned in 1512 bishops. What eagerness and hunger
"

for the extirpation of heresy, will show us after honour and dignity are found in

how grave and serious some of the more these days among ecclesiastical persons !

glaring abuses which disfigured the

life of What a breathless race from benefice to
the Church of England in the early years benefice, from a lower to a higher !
"

He
of the reign of king Henry VIII. appeared was here specially alluding to the way
to earnest and devout men like him. bishoprics were attained and exchanged.
These abuse* Colet and his school of A bishopric, when Colet preached, was a

thought were burningly anxious to see thing to be sued for or purchased by

corrected from within, rather than from money or influence. It mattered little

without. The sermon was a memorable what was the age of the candidate,
one in many respects, and is
distinguished whether he lived abroad or in England,
not only for lofty tone and winning
its whether he was illiterate or educated.

eloquence, but, considering the audience The very general custom among bishops
to whom it was addressed, for its exceeding was to use their sees as stepping-stones to
boldness. Though gentle and persuasive yet higher ones. For instance, in Colet s
in its language, it was outspoken and time the bishop of Bath and Wells had
fearless, even daring. It veiled nothing been bishop of Hereford the bishop of ;

went to the root of the matter, lashing Chichester had been translated from the
with terrible earnestness the glaring faults see of St. David s ;
the bishop of Lincoln
and fatal shortcomings of the most im had been bishop of Lichfield Audley of ;

portant and influential of the English Salisbury had filled in succession the sees
hierarchy, many of whom were doubt of Rochester and Hereford ; Fitzjames of
lessspellbound as they listened to the London had been bishop of Rochester,
first

winning voice of the preacher pouring then of Chichester the famous Fox of ;

forth scathing denunciations of the life Winchester had

occupied successively
they were leading, and the fatal example the sees of Exeter, Bath and Wells, and
they were setting. Durham. And these numerous and rapid
"Fathers,"
he said, "you
are come promotions were not a reward for any
together to-day to hold a council. I wish special diligence or success in pastoral
that at length you would consider the duties, or for profound studies in theo
reformation of ecclesiastical affairs, for logical lore, but were too often the guerdon
never was it more necessary. Never did of success in purely secular and political
the state of the church more need your affairs, such as in foreign embassies.
endeavours, for the church is become foul Some were foreigners, and rarely, if ever.
1512.] DEAN COLET S PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 423
even visited the sees over which they were on this memorable occasion,
addressing
placed. The bishop of Bath and Wells, the prelates present, must needs begin "

for instance, was a foreigner, and lived with you, our fathers, and then afterwards
altogether abroad. The bishop of Wor descend upon us, your priests, and the
cester owed his mitre to a papal provision, whole clergy. To you we look as way-
and lived and died at Rome. His pre marks for our direction."

decessor and successor also both were He pressed, also, that greater care
foreigners. should be taken in admitting persons to
He then spoke of the lives led by holy orders, "for here is the source
the u most part of priests." They give
"

whence other evils flow. Hence proceed

themselves up to feasting and banqueting, and emanate those hosts of both un
spend themselves in vain babbling, take learned and wicked priests which are in

part in sports and plays, devote themselves the church. For it is not enough, in my
to hunting and hawking, are drowned in judgment, that a priest can construe a
the delights of this world, patronise those collect, propound a proposition, or reply
who cater for their pleasure."
He spoke to a sophism, but much more needful are

bitterly, too, of the universal seeking a good and pure and holy life, approved
after rich benefices.
"

We rush after them morals, moderate knowledge of the Scrip

with such eagerness that we care not how tures, some knowledge of the sacraments

many and what duties, or how great above all, fear of God and love of the
benefices we take, if
only they have great heavenly life."

revenues." It was
bold thing before such an
a

The incessant worldly occupations in assembly, composed of the leading ecclesi

which many priests and bishops entangled astics of England, to say, Let the laws "

themselves are sharply commented upon. be recited which direct that ecclesiastical
The benefices should be conferred on the
clergy and priests, neglecting spiritual
things, involve themselves in earthly worthy, and promotions in the church
business ;
from this neglect, he said, many made with just regard to merit, not by
evils follow.
"

We are troubled in these carnal affection, whereby it comes to pass

in these days that boys instead of old

days with heretics, but this heresy is not men,
so pestilential to us and the people as the fools instead of wise men, wicked instead

vicious and depraved lives of the clergy ;

of good men, reign and rule. Let the
laws be recited against the of
for asBernard, that holy father of so great guilt simony,
and- ardent spirit, told his people that which plague, which contagion, which
there were two kinds of heretical pravity, dire pestilence now creeps like a cancer
one or
perverse doctrine, the other of through the minds of priests, so that

the mos t "

this was a tremendous assertion

perverse living, of which the latter
is

and most Such "

are not ashamed in these days to get for

greater pernicious.
wicked so much worse than themselves great dignities by petitions and
priests are by
as actions are stronger than suits at court, by rewards and promises."
heretics,
Colet He attacked also, in unvarnished
words. . . .
Reformation," said plain,
424 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1512.

language, the crying evil of non-residence. great audience to pardon the preacher if
For many evils," he assured his audience,
"

he should seem to have gone too far, he

spring from the custom in these days
"

concluded with the weighty words :

"

For
of performing all clerical duties by help of give it me, and pardon a speaking man
vicars and substitutes, men, too, without out of zeal, a man sorrowing for the ruin

judgment, and often wicked, who

unfit of the church. Consider, fathers,
. . .

will seek nothing from the people but the miserable state and condition of the
sordid gain whence spring scandals, church, and bend your whole minds to its
heresies, and bad Christianity amongst the reformation. Suffer not this so illustrious

people. Let the laws and the holy rules an assembly to break up without result.

handed down from our ancestors," he went Go now in the Spirit whom ye have
on to say, be recited, "which prohibit invoked, that ye may be able with his
any churchman from being a merchant, assistance to devise, to ordain, and to

usurer, or hunter, or common player, or decree those things which may be useful
from bearing arms the laws which pro;
to the church."

hibit the clergy from frequenting taverns, This tremendous and public piece of
which command morality, sobriety and accusation was printed and distributed in

modesty, and temperance in dress." Latin, and most probably in English.

Among many other grave recommend But Colet was henceforth a marked man.
ations in this stern sermon of rebuke, The words raised up a storm of enmity
which tells us so much of the sad falling against the speaker, a storm which, as far
away in life and practice among the as Colet was concerned, was never lulled.

bishops and
clergy of the church, he
urged also that the laws be recited which A curious and telling commentary on
command that the goods of the church be the gross superstition of these times, and
spent, not insumptuous buildings, not in how perverted was the authoritative
magnificence and pomp, not in feasts, not teaching of the church, and what disciples
in luxury and lust, not in enriching of the new school of learning, devout and

kinsfolk, nor in keeping hounds, but in saintly men like dean Colet, and profound
things useful and needful to the church. scholars like Erasmus, were beginning to
Provincial councils, he considered, should think of these unhappy perversions of
be held more frequently. Then, turning truth, is contained in one of Erasmus s
to the prelates, with great force he urged vivid and picturesque colloquies.
that these reforms in life and practice Pilgrimages, in the
age immediately
should begin with them, so that preceding the Reformation, were much
"

by your
living example you may teach us priests to in vogue in England among all sorts and
imitate you. And we, seeing our
. . . conditions of men. Soldiers and sailors of
fathers keep the laws, will gladly follow in the highest distinction would promise gifts
the footsteps of our fathers." to famous shrines like that of our Lady "

In the peroration of this remarkable at Walsingham

"

or of "

St. Thomas at

sermon before Convocation, in praying his Canterbury," and when the war and peril
 COLET PREACHING.
8 F
426 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1514.

was over, would go on pilgrimage to the below, the martyr s skull covered with
shrines in question to fulfil the vows they silver is shown, also the hair shirt and
had made. A royal and illustrious per girdle of the saint. Other relics of saints

sonage like queen Katherine of Arragon bones, skulls, teeth, etc., are shown, which
would go as a pilgrim to such a shrine to the pilgrims were also expected to kiss.
s aid upon her husband
invoke the Virgin Colet, so says the account, soon showed

king Henry French campaign, and at the

s signs of impatience, upon which the verger
same shrine would return thanks for the in attendance shuts up the strange collec
English victory over the Scots. Erasmus tion of prized remains. The pilgrims were
tells us how, during his Cambridge then shown the high altar with its many

residence, he paid a
visit to Walsingham costly ornaments then they were con ;

(A.D. 1513), somewhat in a satirical and ducted into the vestry, where was preserved

sceptical mood, and how when there he the staff of St. Thomas amidst many costly

hung up Greek ode

a as a votive offering, silken and broidered vestments and pre
doubting all the while the genuineness cious golden candlesticks. Thence they
of the much-prized relics displayed there, were taken into a chapel behind the high
and offered to the veneration of the altar, and the face of St. Thomas was

many pilgrims. Erasmus gives us also a shown them set in gold and gems. Here
detailed account of a pilgrimage to the Colet asked whether St. Thomas, when he

yet more famous Canterbury shrine of lived, was not very kind to the poor. The
St. Thomas which he made in 1514, verger replying in the affirmative,
"

in Surely,"

company with his friend dean Colet. He said Colet, he cannot have changed his
"

relateswith his customary brilliance and mind. Would he not," he asks, be "

vivid picturing the impression left upon pleased, now that he is dead, that these
Colet on this occasion. riches of his should be disposed of to
The journey to Canterbury is made on lighten the poor men s burden of poverty,
horseback the two friends, with a letter
;
than that they should be hoarded up
from archbishop Warham to the authorities here ? The cathedral attendant looks
"

of the cathedral to assist them in their astonished at these bold criticisms, but is

pilgrimage, enter the great nave of the appeased by a few kind words and some
metropolitan cathedral. There they espe small coins from Erasmus, remembering
cially take note of the Gospel of Nico- too that these eccentric pilgrims had
"

demus,"
a curious, early legendary history come with letters of introduction from
of little historical value, affixed among the archbishop.
other books to the columns. On the north The pilgrims circuit goes on. At length
side of the church, on a plain ancient a chest is opened containing the holy rags
wooden altar of the Virgin, is exhibited on which the saint of Canterbury was
the point of the dagger which pierced the accustomed when in life to wipe the sweat
brain of St. Thomas at the time of the from off his brow. Here the prior, who
murder, and whose sacred rust pilgrims are had joined the little company, aware of the
expected devoutly to kiss. In the vault position and dignity of Colet, the famous
 COLET AND MORE ON PILGRIMAGES. 427

preacher and dean of St. Paul s, offers him image of the Virgin of Walsingham would
as a costly present one of the little precious be dragged to Chelsea by royal order, there
rags. Colet takes up the rag, looks at it to be publicly burned that in five-and- ;

with a somewhat disdainful chuckle, and twenty years St. Thomas s bones would
then lays it down again in evident disgust. share the fiery fate of the image of our "

The prior will not notice the strange pro
fanity of the distinguished
abruptly closes his relic-chest,
them to partake of some refreshment.
Then the two friends mount their horses
and prepare to ride back to London. As
they journeyed, near Canterbury, an old
mendicant monk comes out of a house,
Lady of Walsingham," and that the gold
pilgrim, but and jewellery of St. Thomas s Canterbury
and invites shrine would be carried off in chests upon
the shoulders of eight stout men, and cast
without remorse into the royal exchequer." *
The early reformers, indeed, little guessed
the terrible and destructive storm which
was so shortly to arise in peaceful, quiet

and, sprinkling with holy water,

Colet England.
offers him the upper leather of an old shoe Besides the disastrous influence upon
to kiss. Colet asks what he wants. The popular religion of the old traditional
old mendicant replies that the relic thus shrines, and the undefined importance
offeredhim for veneration was a piece of attached to pilgrimage to and veneration
St. Thomas s shoe on which, passionately
;
of the special image or relic which con

turning to Erasmus, he exclaims, Do "

stituted the glory of the shrine, there was

these fools wish us to kiss the shoes of a grievous and ever-increasing amount

every good man

pick out the
? They of false teaching throughout England, in
filthiest things they can find, and ask us to these early years of the Reformation cen
kiss them Erasmus, to pacify the old Mariolatry, for instance, quite un
"

!
tury.
mendicant, gives him a coin, and the known in the early ages of Christianity,
pilgrims pass on. Then they proceed to threatened positively to supersede all de
discuss what they had seen and heard, and finite Christianteaching. How deeply
how such abuses carried on in the name of this strange and saddest of human errors

religion were to be remedied. Colet was affected such a mind as Sir Thomas More s,

most indignant, but Erasmus argues that a will be seen from the following extract

rough and sudden remedy might have a from one of his letters, written about 1517
worse upon men s mind than even
effect the exact date is uncertain. More, it will

the disease. These gross superstitions be remembered, with all his splendid
must be an opportunity
tolerated until accomplishments, his profound learning,
arises of correcting them without disorder. and fervid earnestness, was, though the
"Little did the two friends dream," dear friend of men like Colet and Erasmus,
writes the biographer of Colet, as they
"

in a manner different from them, one who

rode back to town debating these questions, revered the past, and opposed, as we know,
how soon they would find a final solution. to death, any destructive reformation,
. . .
they dream that in
Little did * Seebohm :
"

The Oxford Reformers Colet,

More, and Erasmus.
"

another five-and-twenty years the far-famed

428 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1517-

any rough sweeping away the old land- when we remember the circumstances ot
marks of mediaeval faith and practice. His his death.

words, therefore, of stern condemnation on Coventry at this time was a celebrated

wit

crfjumurfifmo Bmcrcuu mpwrnvio riuuit

-Hitr ctiifixi i i-"^> MM ro ni6?ff 1 1 1 n t^

utTil
pfci
r rt . "SV MMn t> tea o r ."

IXV
:<JHI
noir i
H? nwHHtTcct
ttx rti(
uratr cr z^rfrar jfTH^ (TU(
uiM^ciut (xiHtt .

Ct l ^Cnt\\ H 1C- a Htt 5^1 1 H

1 1 U f ^CP. f ^foC< I

i
wiutiuTtutTa f /cira .^
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< u ; o \i 111 ct fir c r iW t

PAGE OF A MS. OF OFFICES OF THE VIRGIN, WRITTEN LATE

IN THE I5TH CENTURY. (British Museum.)

such a point of sixteenth-century popular home of religious establishments. It pos-

theological teaching have a special weight, sessed a famous Benedictine monastery

and stand out with a special impressiveness and a noble church attached to it. The
Circa, 1517.] MORE ON MARIOLATRY. 429

Franciscans and the Carmelites had each had recited, and this, he added, might well
their separate houses and churches. The be, and a mans faith in Christ be firm
stern and ascetic rule of the Carthusians had notwithstanding. And even, More con
alsochosen Coventry as one of their English ceded, these were mostly true, they
if

centres. Just at this juncture a Franciscan proved nothing of any moment, for, though
monk at Coventry put out the strange you might easily find a prince who would
doctrine from his pulpit, that whoever "

concede something to his enemies at the

should daily pray through the psalter of the entreaty of his mother, yet never was there
Blessed Virgin could never be damned. The one so foolish as to publish a law which

teaching was readily accepted, and became should provoke daring against him by the

popular. Not a few, trusting in the friar s
doctrine, were sedulous in their devotion to
the Virgin s psalter, but at the same time
grew more lax in their way
secular pastor of the city, when he advised
the people not to be led astray by this
promise of impunity to all traitors who
should perform certain offices to his mother.
Eventually More found the friar was lauded
of life. The to the skies, while he was laughed at as
a fool.
In good truth, things were going badly

strange preposterous teaching, was publicly in the ecclesiastical world badly in practice
hissed, and denounced as an enemy of the as in matters of faith. Novel or com
Virgin. paratively novel doctrines were being piled
"When this curious frenzy was at its upon the old truths, and were successfully
height," says More, chanced to visit
"I
obscuring them idle superstitions were
;

a sister of mine resident in Coventry. taking the place of holy faith. The usurpa
Scarcely had I alighted from my horse, tions and ever-growing claims of Rome
when the question was put to me, Was were crushing all real life out of the
the friar s teaching true? I laughed at churches of England and France, Germany
the question as positively absurd. I was and Spain and, worse perhaps than all, a
;

told my attitude was a dangerous one." sad deterioration in life and conversation
Very soon More met the friar who was was too visible among many of the vowed
preaching this monstrous doctrine he at ;
servants of the church. might But all this

once began to dispute the question with have gone on this state of things might
;

me. I spoke what I thought, but in few

"

have been indefinitely prolonged the ;

words." The friar replied at great length, church might have grown better or grown
drawing all his arguments from miracles, worse, had it not been for the sudden
which he took from the Marial and " "

and momentous changes already indicated

other like books. More then replied. In which passed over the world, as the
all the long discourse the friar had said din and confusion of the terrible Wars
nothing to convince those who perchance of the Roses in England began to be
did not admit the truth of the miracles he forgotten.
 CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE NEW LEARNING. DEAN COLET AND SIR THOMAS MORE.

Renaissance of Greek Literature due to the Fall of Constantinople Grocyn of Oxford John Colet
His Lectures on St. Paul Sketch and Biography by Erasmus Colet s Testimony against Current
Errors Supported by the King Work as an Expositor and Preacher As an Educational
Reformer His Foundation of St. Paul s His Death Early Life of Sir Thomas More Sketch
by Erasmus Their Intimacy Close Connection with Henry VIII. The "Utopia" More
becomes Chancellor Recoils from the King s Reformation Measures His Resignation Charge
of Treason Refuses to acknowledge Henry as Head of the Church Trial and Condemnation of
More Scenes at his Execution.

both vast and various The cities of Italy were the natural cities

were indeed over the of refuge for these homeless exiles of the
CHANGES
whole civilised
passing
world during the fallenGreek empire. Not only were they
dawn of modern history. All of a sudden, nearest at hand, but their repute as im
the limits of the world known to the memorial centres of learning would attract
ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece and the wandering scholar and student. Among
Rome, known to Saracen and Northman, these famous homes of literature and of
known to the mediaeval kingdoms, were art, Florence in the fifteenth century was

enormously enlarged. Columbus, in his pre-eminent, and the beautiful city by the
marvellous voyage across the pathless Arno became quickly the resort of foreign
ocean no mariner had ever sailed before, scholars, eager to share in the revival of
discovered the New World, with all its the long-buried language and literature of
undreamed-of possibilities. It was a reve Greece. Among the students from distant
lation which at once bore fruit, open countries who came to Florence in search
ing as it did almost limitless fields to of the new learning, was one Grocyn, a
human industry and hope while the fall of ;
fellow of New College, Oxford. This
Constantinople and the arrival of a crowd Grocyn, when his studies in Florence were
of homeless Greek-speaking exiles with completed, returned to Oxford, and became
their rolls of yellow and discoloured manu the teacher of Greek to the many English

provided a rich material for the

scripts, youths who sought their training in the
new invention of the printing-press to famous English university. These lectures
work at.* Thus to western Europe was of Grocyn, which inaugurated a new era
restored, in an incredibly short space of among English scholars, are usually dated
time, the matchless literature of a forgotten from 1491, when Henry VII. was at the
world. height of his power, and Cardinal Morton,
*
The dates of these events are
the archbishop of Canterbury, was his
roughly as
follow : the effects of them, of course, must chancellor and chief minister. It is notice
be placed some years later. Fall of Constantinople,
that while in Florence and other
able,
1453 Caxton set up his printing press at West
;

Columbus discovered the continent

towns in Italy, in this revival or Renais
minster, 1471 ;

of America, 1497. sance of Greek literature the Pagan classics

I49I-] LECTURES OF DEAN COLET.
attracted the deepest interest, in Oxford, read Cicero and Plato, and made himself
and a little later in Cambridge, the Greek a first-rate mathematician. He went abroad,
Testament and its newly-recovered original travelled in France and Italy, kept up his
text became the object of absorbing in Scotus and Aquinas, but worked besides
terest to English scholars. at the early Christian fathers, while Dante

Among these English scholars, who and Petrarch polished his language. Re
studied Greek in Italy and then at Oxford, turning to England, he London, left settled

John Colet, known afterwards as the at Oxford, and lectured on St. Paul. It

famous dean of St. Paul s, stands pre was then my (Erasmus ) acquaintance with
eminent. His Oxford lectures, delivered at him began, he being then thirty (this was
the close of the fifteenth century lectures about 1496) I two or three months his
especially devoted to the exposition of the iunion He had no theological degree, but
Pauline Epistles came as if it were a the university doctors went to hear him.
all

revelation to the theology. students of Henry VII. took note of him, and made
Clinging fast to the plain grammatical him dean of St. Paul s. His first step was
sense of the text, the eloquent and fervid to restore discipline in the chapter, which
scholar swept away the strange and curious had all gone to wreck. He preached every
explanations, partly mystical, partly alle saint sday to great crowds. He cut down
gorical, with which generations of school the household expenses (of the chapter)
men had obscured the plain and obvious and abolished suppers and evening parties.
u In At dinner a boy reads a chapter from
meaning of so many of the passages.
the life and sayings of its Founder he found Scripture. Colet takes a passage from it,

a simple and rational Christianity whose and discourses to the universal delight.
finest expression was the Apostles Creed. Conversation is his chief pleasure, and he
About the rest he said with characteristic will keep it up till midnight finds if he

impatience, Let divines dispute as they a companion. Me he has often taken

will.
" * with him in his walks, and talks all the

Of this remarkable pioneer-reformer, time of Christ. He

hates coarse language ;

u Erasmus has left us a words books are all clean

portrait in furniture, dress, food,

as exquisite as Holbein s drawing of him. and tidy, but scrupulously plain, and he

He stands out before us as fresh in Eras wears grey woollen when priests generally
mus we saw and heard him go purple. in With the large fortune
story as if

London which he inherited from his father, he

ourselves." t
"

Colet was born in

His father was twice lord founded and endowed a school at St.
A.D. 1466.
Paul entirely at his own masters
mayor. He was the eldest of twenty-two
s cost,

children, of whom he was the only survivor, houses, salaries, everything.

and In He was a man of genuine piety.
"
He
tall in stature well-looking in face.
then was not born with naturally
it. He was
youth he studied scholastic theology,
indolent, fond of
hot, impetuous, resentful,
*Green History of the English People." of women s society, disposed
"

pleasure and
t Mr. Froude, whose version of Erasmus pictures
of Colet and More we have here slightly abbreviated. to make a joke of everything. He told me
432 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1491.

that he had fought against his faults with his preposterous philosophy if he had not

study, fasting, and prayer

and thus his ;
been a worldling at heart. He did not

whole life was, in fact, unpolluted with the make light of impurity, but he thought it
world s defilements. His money he gave less criminal than spite and malice, and
to pious uses, he worked incessantly, envy, and vanity and ignorance.
talked always on serious subjects to con
"

He had a peculiar dislike of bishops.

quer his disposition to levity not but what He said they were more like wolves than

you could see traces of the old Adam when shepherds. They sold the sacraments
wit was flying at feast or festival. He sold their ceremonies and absolutions.

avoided large parties for this reason. He They were slaves of vanity and avarice.

dined on a single dish, with a draught or He disapproved of the great educational

two of light ale. He liked good wine, but institutions in England. He thought they
abstained on principle. I never knew a encouraged idleness. As little did he like
man of sunnier nature. No one ever more the public schools. Education was spoilt,

enjoyed cultivated society ;

but here, too, he said, when the lessons learnt were
he denied himself, and was always thinking turned worldly account, and made
to

of the life to come. the means of getting on. Such laborious

His opinions were peculiar, and he was wisdom, he said, was fatal to sound know
"

reserved in expressing them, for fear of ledge and right feeling. He approved of a
exciting suspicion. He knew how unfairly fine ritual at church, but he saw no reason
men judge each other,how credulous they why priests should be always muttering
are of evil, how much easier it is for a prayers at home or on their walks. He
lying tongue to stain a reputation than for admitted privately that many things were
a friend to clear it. But among his friends generally taught which he did not believe,
he spoke his mind freely. He thought the but he would not create scandal by blurting
Scotists [a well-known party among the out his objections."

schoolmen], who are considered so clever, Erasmus went on to say that this bishop-
were stupid blockheads. He regarded hating dean was not unnaturally disliked
their word-splitting, their minute subdivid- by Fitzjames, the aged bishop of London
ings, as signs of a starved intellect. He he was past eighty who did his best to
hated Thomas Aquinas [one of the greatest discredit Colet with the young king Henry
of the schoolmen] even more than Scotus. VIII., then only about twenty-one, but
I once praised the Catena Aurea to who was already famous among the Euro
him. He was silent. I repeated my words. pean sovereigns.
"

I will speak no harm

He glanced at me to see if I was serious, of the bishop of London, except that he
and when he saw that I meant it, he be was a superstitious and malignant school
came really angry. Aquinas, he said, would man. I have known other bishops like
not have laid down the law so boldly on him. I must not call them wicked, but I

all things in heaven and earth if he had would not call them Christians either."

not been an arrogant fool, and he would The accusations urged against dean Colet
not have contaminated Christianity with were curious. Besides introducing a
 14961519-] COLET, DEAN OF ST. PAUL S. 433
severer and simpler rule into the chapter this honoured work
by Erasmus, Luther,
life at St. Paul among the greater and
s and a number of other less known scholars.
lesser officials, he had, among other things, In his own day he was perhaps best known
said in a sermon it was wrong to worship for his great pulpit As dean of St.
powers.
images ;
he had denied that the command Paul s he became the great preacher of
in the Gospel to feed the was
.

sheep England. But the real life-work of Colet,

specially addressed to Peter. But it was in which he stands
pre-eminent, was his
of no avail ;
the king liked Colet, and work of educational reform. His own

OLD ST. PAUL S SCHOOL.

(From an old print.)

admired his learning and brilliance, while foundation of St. Paul s school, built and
he respected his grave simple life, telling maintained out of the ample fortune he
him that he approved heartily of his words inherited from his father, though the old
and works. u Let every man," the king siteunder the shadow of the metropolitan
was reported to have said, "choose his cathedral has been exchanged for a quieter
own doctor ;
dean Colet shall be mine." and more reposeful habitation, is still with
Colet ranks among the three or four us,one of the great schools of England.
who prepared theway for the Reformation Colet s school of St. Paul s was far more
in England. He was the first of the new than a solitary educational foundation. It
school of expositors of the New Testament, gave the impulse to the many noble
the school which, as has been said, began a grammar-schools founded in different parts
new era in theology. He was followed in of England by Edward VI. and Elizabeth.
434 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1514-

To the great dean may be ascribed that his sorrow for and anger with the corrup
system of middle-class education, which tions of doctrine and practice, which he
before the close of Elizabeth s reign had felt acutely were poisoning all real religious
accomplished such far-reaching results for life in Trying to make study
England.
our country. Colet s important foundation easy to the boys of his school, he wrote
the example, which was quickly fol thus of the divisions of his "

set grammar : I

lowed in the many schools that sprang have made them a little more easy to

up and the new study of Greek and its

; young wits than methinks they were
splendid literature became a regular part before, judging that nothing may be too
of middle-class education. Fresh grammars, soft nor too familiar for little children,

composed by Erasmus and other scholars, especially learning a tongue unto them all

were introduced into the school of St. strange, in which little book I have left

Paul s, and Lilly, an Oxford scholar who many things out of purpose, considering
had studied Greek in the East, became the the tenderness and small capacity of little
head-master. The deep religiousness 01 minds. I pray God all
may be to His
Colet came out in the scanty efforts to honour, and to the erudition and profit of
adorn the schoolroom of his foundation, children, my countrymen, Londoners espe
where an image of the child Jesus over the cially, whom I had always before my eyes.
master s chair, with the words Hear ye "

. . . Wherefore I pray you all, little

him" carved beneath it, reminded the children, learn gladly this little treatise,
teachers and scholars of the Redeemer, trusting of this beginning that you shall
whose pure worship their founder and his proceed and grow to perfect literature, and
friends longed to restore to England. come at last to be great clerks. And lift
The tender love of this great precursor up your little white hands for me, which
of the Reformation for children, was the prayeth to God for you."

characteristic feature of his character. When Colet in early life studied in Italy,
Erasmus tells us he would often remind it is certain that he came under the in
his guests and inner circle of friends, how fluence, if not of Savonarola himself,
that Christ had made children the example certainly under that of the great Florentine
for men, and ever and again he would reformer s disciples, and that the fire of
compare the little ones to the angels above. religious zeal, kindled by the saintly and
In his preface to the Latin grammar which fervid prior of San Marco, touched the
he wrote for his school of St. Paul s, there heart of the young English scholar. Not
are some touching sentences, which bring a little of the work and words of Colet in
out this absorbing passion of the stern after-days were evidently a memory of
reformer. The impassioned preacher, the what he had heard in Italy, from the lips
vehement and indignant rebuker of the of the men who had caught something of
vices and soul-degrading superstitions of the inspiration of that truest saint and
his day, when he thought of his dear martyr, the illustrious Savonarola.
children, would forget for a season his As life went on, this quiet toiler for God,
message of stern censure, would put aside who in his day, amidst many foes, did so-
 14981535-] DEATH OF COLET. 435
much awaken men s minds to the sad
to of so rare an
example 01 Christian piety,
position into which religion, faith as well so remarkable a preacher of Christian
as practice, had
unhappily sunk, seemed to truth."

draw nearer and ever nearer the mind of In another of Erasmus s letters written
Jesus.
"

O Erasmus," he wrote to his life at this time he thus speaks of his dead
long friend some two years before his death, friend O true theologian O wonder
:
"

"of books and of knowledge there is no fulpreacher of evangelical doctrine With !

end. There is
nothing better for us in what earnest zeal did he drink in the
this short life than to live holily and How eagerly did he
philosophy of Christ !

purely, and to make it our daily care to be imbibe the spirit and feelings of St. Paul !

purified and enlightened, but in . . .

How did the purity of his whole life corre
my opinion there is no other way for us
spond to his heavenly doctrine ! How
to attain this than by the earnest love and many years, following the
example of St.
imitation of Jesus. Wherefore, leaving Paul, did he teach the people without
these wandering paths, us go the short
let reward !
"

way to work. I long to the best of

my "For
generations," wrote Sir Thomas
ability to do so. Farewell. From London, have not had amongst us any
More, "we

A.D. 1517." one man more learned and holy."

The dean died in 1519. Erasmus was Colet was laid in his cathedral of St.
working hard at Louvain in Belgium, Paul s in a tomb
prepared by himself, and
when the news reached him that Colet on a leaden plate fixed on his coffin was an
was dead. When the great scholar and inscription which spoke of the grief of the
unwearied worker heard of it, he could whole people, by whom, for his integrity
not refrain from weeping. For thirty "

of life and divine gift of preaching, he was

years,"
he wrote to a mutual friend, I
"

the most beloved of all his time.

have not felt a death so deeply," Writing
to another correspondent, he said, seem
"I There was another of the little group of
as me were alive, Colet
though only half of pre-Reformation giants with whom Eras
being dead. What a man has England, mus, whose sketch of Colet we have just
and what a friend have I lost To !
"

quoted, was on terms of the most intimate

another Englishman he wrote What :
"

friendship ;
one far greater and more re

avail these sobs and lamentations ?

They nowned even than Colet, one whose praise
cannot bring him back again. In a little is and ever will be in all the churches.

while we shall follow him. In the mean The stern Protestant, who could see no
time we should rejoice for Colet. He now beauty in anything, however venerable and
is
safely enjoying Christ, whom he always revered, which the corrupt church of his
had upon his lips and in his heart." To fathers had loved and cherished ;
the

bishop Fisher, Erasmus wrote : "I have bigoted Romanist, whose eyes were blinded
written this, weeping for Colet s death. I and ears dulled to all the sights and sounds
know it right with him.
is all I cannot with which a fatal soul-destroying super

help mourning in the public name the loss stition had overlaid Catholic doctrine and
436 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14981535.

practice the gay pleasure-loving courtier

;
of the religious tendency of the new
*

of Henry VIII. the ascetic scholar ;

such ; learning in England."

different personalities as the emperor and No one among the thought-leaders of

the Pope, Erasmus and Thomas Cromwell more convinced than More
that period was
all loved and admired Sir Thomas More, and fearful corruption of
of the worldliness

and grieved with a true mourning when the church, and that unless a complete

that honoured head, in the first wild blast and thorough alteration took place soon, a
of the Reformation, fell on Tower Hill. terrible catastrophe was at hand. For the
The future chancellor and somewhiles superstitions of the day, which so disfigured
<:hief minister Henry VIII., the
of king Catholicism, he had an utter contempt.
scholar and philosopher, the brilliant writer In his "

Utopia,"
the most important of
and the eloquent statesman, was first heard his works, there breaks out a spirit which
of in the household of cardinal Morton, condemned the sacerdotal assumptions of

the well-known minister of Henry VII. the pre-Reformation age in terms so

Morton predicted his future greatness. It scathing, that he appeared to have anti
was at Oxford that he became associated cipated the more advanced thoughts of
with Colet and Erasmus. Nor is it too the foreign reformers. Christianity had
"

much to assume that to the life-long friend reached his ideal realm of Utopia, but it had

ship with More, Erasmus owed that new few priests religion found its centre rather
;

spirit which gradually passed over his in the family than in the congregation,
character, which changed the wayward, and each household confessed its errors

impulsive, vagrant student into the first and sins to its own natural head." And
of European scholars, the friend and trusted yet with all this freedom of thought. More
counsellor of well-nigh every great one in was an intense believer in the cardinal
Europe. Christian verities so firm a believer, for
u
Young he was, More no sooner
as instance, in the future life, as to surprise

quitted the university than he was known his dearest friend, Erasmus. It was with
throughout Europe as one of the foremost memories drawn from the New Testament
figures in the new movement. The keen that he accepted the condemnation of his
irregular face, the grey restless eyes, the judges in the concluding scene in the
thin mobile lips, the tumbled brown hair, court-house it was with the cross in his
;

the careless gait and dress, as they remain hands that he knelt calmly down on the
stamped upon the canvas of Holbein, scaffold, and devoutly repeated the beauti
picture the inner soul of the man his : ful and touching miserere psalm. His
vivacity, his restless, all-devouring intellect, austerities were severe, but were carefully
his keen and ever reckless wit, the concealed for God s eyes, not for man s
kindly,
half-sad humour that drew its strange veil and his last gifts to his best loved child
of laughter and tears over the deep tender were the rough hair shirt he used to wear,
reverence of the soul within. In a higher and the scourge he was wont to use. He
because in a sweeter and more lovable sent these strange memorials of his inner
form than Colet, More is the representative * Green :
"

History of the English People."

 1498-1535] SIR THOMAS MORE. 437
life to Margaret Roper, when, as he that we reproduce
said, it in the great scholar s
he had no more use for these things.* own words. It occurs in a
long letter written
Erasmus has left us a beautiful picture to Ulrich von who wished
Hutten, to

SIR THOMAS MORE.

(From the painting by Holbein.)

of his friend, to whom he owed so much know something personal concerning this
a kind of companion sketch to the one we Englishman, More, whose name was on all
have already given by the same hand of lips. Von Hutten was another, but one
Colet, dean of St. Paul s. It is so lifelike, less generally known, of that brilliant band
so natural, so free from all exaggeration, of men of genius and of learning whom we
* Froude "

Hist, of have termed pioneers of the Reformation

:
England," chap. ix. ;
438 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14981535-

but, alas ! Ulrich von Hutten, with all his courtesies unworthy of a man of sense, and
for that reason has hitherto kept clear of
sparkling wit and profound learning, has
left behind him a name and a moral re the court. All courts are full of intrigue ;

putation sadly inferior to that of Colet,

there is less of it in England than else
More, and Erasmus. where, for there are no affectations in the

The task of describing this English king, but More loves freedom and likes to
"

man,"
wrote Erasmus to Von Hutten, "

is have his time to himself. He is a true

hard ;
for not everyone understands More, friend. When he finds a man to be of the

who is as difficult a subject as Alexander wrong sort, he lets him drop, but he enjoys
or Achilles. He is of middle height, well nothing so much as the society of those

shaped, complexion pale without a touch that suit (The friendship of More
him."

of colour in it, save when the skin flushes. and Erasmus only ended with the death
The hair is black, shot with yellow, or of More.) Gambling of all kinds, balls,
"

yellow shot with black beard scanty, eyes ; dice, and such like, he detests. None ol
grey with dark spots, an eye supposed in that sort are to be found about him. In
England to indicate genius, and is never short, he the best type of companion.
is

found save in remarkable men. The ex "

His talk is charming, full of fun, but

pression is pleasant and cordial, easily pass never scurrilous or malicious. He used to
ing into a smile, for he has the quickest act plays when young wit delights him ;

sense of the ridiculous of any man I ever though at his own expense. He set me on
met the only sign of rusticity is in the
; my Encomium Moriae. The praise of "

["

hands, which are slightly coarse. From the title is a play on More s name.
folly"

childhood he has been careless of appear This brilliant satire was one of Erasmus s

ance, but he has still the charm which I comparatively early works, and had an
remember when I first knew him. His enormous circulation all over Europe.]
health good, though not robust, and he
is
"

He iswise with the wise, and jests with

is likely to be long-lived." [O the pity of fools, with women especially, and his wife
it, Erasmus was no prophet here !] He "

among them. He is fond of animals of all

is careless in what he eats ;

I never saw a sorts, and loves to watch their habits. All
man more so. Like his father,who, though the birds of Chelsea come to him to be fed.
in extreme old age, is still
vigorous, he is a He has a menagerie of tame beasts a
water-drinker. His food is beef, fresh or monkey, a fox, a ferret, a weasel. He buys
salt, bread with fruit, and especially eggs. any singular thing which is brought him.
His voice low and unmusical, though he
is His house is a magazine of curiosities which

loves music, but it is clear and penetrating. he delights in showing off.

He articulates slowly and distinctly, and He had his love affairs when young,
"

never hesitates. but none that compromised him. He

"

He
dresses plainly no silks, velvets, or was entertained by the .girls running after

gold chains. He has no concern for cere him. He studied hard at that time at
mony, expects none from others, and Greek and at philosophy. His father
shows little himself. He holds forms and wanted him to work at English law, but
1498 IS3S-] SIR THOMAS MORE. 439
he did not like it. The law in England is he spends or gives away. It is large, and
the high road to fame and fortune, and arises from his profession as an advocate,
many peerages have risen out of that pro but he always advises his clients for the
fession. But they say it requires years of best, and recommends them to settle their
labour. More had no taste that way, disputes out of court. For a time he was
Nature having designed him for better a judge in civil cases. The work was not
things. Nevertheless, after drinking deep severe, but the position was honourable.
in literature, he did make himself a lawyer No judge finished off more causes, or was
and an excellent one. No opinion is more upright, and he often remitted the
sought more eagerly than his, or more fees. He was exceedingly liked in the
highly paid for.
city. He was satisfied, and had no higher
He worked at divinity besides, and
"

ambition.
lectured to large audiences on Augustine s a
Eventually he was forced upon a foreign
City of God. Priests and old men were mission, and conducted himself so well that
not ashamed at learning from him. His the king would not afterwards part with

original wish was to be a priest himself. him, and dragged him into the circle of
He prepared for it with fast and prayer the court. Dragged is the word, for no
and vigil, unlike most who rush into one ever struggled harder to gain admission
ordination without preparation of any kind. there than More
struggled to escape. But
He gave it up because he fell in love. the king was bent on surrounding himself
The wife that he chose was a very young with the most capable men in his realm.
lady, well connected but wholly unedu He insisted that More should make one of
cated, who had been brought up in the them, and now he values him so highly, both
country with her parents. Thus he was as a companion and as a privy councillor,

able to shape her character after his own that he will scarcely let him out of his

pattern. He taught her books, he taught sight. [Only a few years later this same
her music, and formed her into a com king cut off his head. More at the time of
panion for his life. They had several his death was considered the most gifted
children Margaret [his favourite, to whom man in Europe.]
he the hair shirt and scourge], Cecilia,
left More has been never known to accept
"

and Louisa, who are still with him, and a present. Happy the commonwealth
one son, John. Unhappily his wife was when the magistrates are of such material !

taken from him before her time. He Elevation has not elated him, or made him
controls his family with an easy hand no forget his humble friends, and he returns
tragedies, no quarrels. He has never made whenever he can to his beloved books. He
always kind, always generous. Some
an or become an enemy. His is he
enemy
whole house breathes happiness, and no helps with money, some with influence.

one enters it who is not better for the visit. When he can give nothing, he gives advice.
"

He is indifferent to money. He sets He is patron-general to all poor devils.

apart so much of his income as will make "

The history of his connection

with me
In his early he
[Erasmus] was thus
life
a future provision for his family ;
the rest :
440 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14981535.

was a versifier, and he came to me to im garden leading down to the river.

"

The
prove his style. Since that time he has life there, Erasmus tells us, was like the

written a good deal. [Here Erasmus life Academy, and Erasmus was
in Plato s

enumerates his principal works, dwelling a permanent guest whenever he was in

especially on the
"

Utopia."]
London. No two men ever suited each
u
He has a fine intellect and an excellent other better, their intellectual differences

memory, information all arranged and only serving to give interest to their con
pigeon-holed to be ready for use. He is versations as they strolled together and
so ready in argument that he can puzzle talked of things human and divine by the
the best divines on their own subjects. silver river."

good judge on such points, says

Colet, a
More has more genius than any man in We will briefly trace More s career to

England. its tragic close, of course thus anticipating

He is
"

religious,but without supersti much that has to be told in more detail.

tion. He has his hours for prayer, but he His close friendship with king Henry VIII.
uses no forms, and prays out of his heart. lasted nearly twenty years. It commenced

He will talk with his friends about a life to early in the reign, when Henry was only
come, and you can see that he means it on the threshold of manhood, and it only
and has real hopes. Such is More, and cooled when the sinister and perplexed
More is an English courtier, and people issues of the divorce began to influence

fancy that no Christians are to be found and to cloud the hitherto clear and states
outside monasteries ! manlike policy of the English king. Very
The king not only admits such men
"

unwillingly, the scholar and lawyer was

into his court, but he invites them forces persuaded to enter into political life again ;

them that they may be in a position to his experience of it, when still compara
watch all that he does and share his duties tively ayoung man, in Henry VII. s reign,
and his pleasures. He prefers the com had been unfortunate, and he thoroughly
panionship of men like More to that of disliked it. But Henry VIII. desired so
silly youths or girls [this was written earnestly his friendship and counsel, that
before the days of Anne Boleyn], or the More yielded. The story is told how the
rich or the dishonest, who might tempt two friends, the king and the scholar,
him to foolish indulgences or injurious were wont to pace the palace leads at
courses. If you were here in England, my night, and discourse together of the
dear Hutten, you would leave off abusing high and holy things, of which Mor
courts. A
galaxy of distinguished men could speak with a charm peculiarly his
now surrounds the English throne." own. His lifeyears was a bus}
for many
The subject of this beautiful picture, one his friendship with the king cost him
;

says the latest biographer of its writer much time and thought, as he was the
(Erasmus), had built himself a house at trusted counsellor in many a weighty state
Chelsea on the Thames. It was of moder affair. He had little time to spare for
ate and unpretentious dimensions, with a * Mr. Froude.
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442 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14981535.

that beautiful and ever absorbing home he wandered about over the vast unknown
well, of which we have
life he loved so continent till he chanced upon the king
such fair and attractive records. His work, dom of
u
Nowhere," or "

Utopia."
A
too, was unremitting
with and among the picture of this strange unknown country in
scholars of the new learning and the new the heart of that charmed land, which was
who were preparing the way, as then exciting, and with good reason, the
teaching,
More and his fellow-toilers hoped and heart of every adventurous youth or man

believed, for a quiet but thorough

reforma in Europe, gave More an opportunity to
tion in the church for a reformation that paint an ideal society.
should weed out the many tares without The book was the most remarkable out

injuring the great corn harvest,

which in come produced by the new learning for

the eyes of men like More, in spite of the many a year, and was far in advance of the

tares, promised so much. age and, in fact, of a much later age in

All this, these varied duties and occupa the way it handled social problems. The

tions, this great position in the state, in picture he drew of the state of society of
the worlds of religion and letters, did not Utopia, was a painful contrast in the mind
hinder More from writing. It was in 1516 of the sixteenth century, to the life in the

(seven years after Henry VIII. s accession) midst of which More lived. It was a great
that he put out the most celebrated of cry of pity for the poor, whom as a class

his works known and read amongst us More looked upon as sadly neglected and
still the "

Utopia."
down -trodden. The questions of labour,
He picturesquely describes the genesis of dwellings for the humbler classes, of
of this winning and original writing. It treatment of crime, the problems of educa
was on one of his diplomatic missions in tion, are all handled by the famous writer

king Henry s service that he was in in his marvellous book. What he said of

Antwerp. After hearing mass in the gor religion and Christianity was a gentle but
geous church of
"

Our Lady,"
he was re unmistakable protest against the sacer
turning to his lodgings in the city, when dotalism of the age. But some of the
he chanced to espy his friend, Peter Gilles, opinions put forward in the Utopia
" "

talking to a stranger with a black, sun seem to have been considerably modified,
burnt face, whom he judged to be a ifnot changed, when More at a later period
mariner. The sailor turned out to have was shocked by the destructive policy of
been a companion of Amerigo Vespucci the Reformation in Germany under its

in those voyages to the New World that great teacher, Luther.

be now in print and abroad in every man s Time passed on. On the fall of Wolsey,
hand." More took this mariner to his More was induced by Henry VIII. to
house, "and there in my garden, upon a accept the highest office in the state that
bench covered with green turves, we sate of chancellor. It seems as though his
down talking together." The sailor told reason for accepting the enormous respon
him his tale of marvellous adventure, how sibility which belonged to the chief minister
he was abandoned by Amerigo, and how and adviser of the king, at such a moment,
14981535-] MORE RESIGNS THE CHANCELLORSHIP. 443
when the world was changing its old trusted, even for a real fault. More s
opinions, was his hope ofbeing enabled to retirement was by his own wish. The
carry out the religious revolution in Eng chancellorship is a great office, next to the
land on the lines laid down by men like crown. The chancellor the king s right is

Colet and Erasmus. These, and More was eye and the king s right hand. More was
with them, longed to see the wild and appointed because the king loved and
baseless superstitions with which true respected him. The cardinal of York
religion was well-nigh hidden, swept away ; [Wolsey], when he found he could not re
in the new state of things he hoped to see, turn himself to office, admitted that More
the clergy must be better educated and was the fittest man to succeed him. All
trained to lead nobler and more self-deny were pleased when he accepted the great
the mendicant orders especially
ing lives ;
seal and he lays it down to the universal
;

must be reformed. But the ark of the regret. . . . More detests the seditious
church was not to be touched lightly by doctrines with which the world is now
profane and heedless hands, nor was its convulsed. He makes no secret of it. He
splendour to be one whit diminished. is
profoundly religious, and if he inclines
More and Erasmus saw in it a noble instru either way it is towards superstition."

ment of human training, a link between Erasmus s astonishment, mingled with

earth and heaven. loving admiration at More s intense faith,
But More found the storm which was has been already noticed.

rising too violent for the course on which Directly after his resignation of the
he hoped to pilot the ship of the state. chancellorship, More wrote to Erasmus :

He saw that the Reformation in England, By the grace of God and the king, I am
"

as it had done in Germany, would lead at last free, but I am not as well as I could

to changes in doctrine, in ritual, and in wish. Some disease, I know not what,
government, of which he could not ap hangs heavily about my heart. It is not
prove. Measures were brought forward in pain, it is distress and alarm at what lies
Parliament, and were sanctioned by the before us. ... You allow frankly that

king, which he intensely misliked. The if

you could have foreseen these pestilent
chancellor was powerless he could neither ; heresies, you would have been less out

stop them or even guide their inevitable spoken on certain points. Doubtless the
tendencies so after two years and a half s
; fathers, had they expected such times as
tenure of the supreme office he resigned ours, would have been more cautious in
the seals. This was in A.D. 1533. Eras their utterances. They had their own dis
mus, in one of his later letters, refers to his orders to attend to, and did not think of
friend resignation in the following terms
s : the future. The bishops and the
. . .

king try to check these new doctrines, but

Report says that More has been dismissed
"

from office. . . . The story has flashed they spread wonderfully. The people read
over Europe like lightning. I was sure it them partly in thoughtlessness; they . . .

know how enjoy them, not because they think

them
was false. unwillingly the
I

with a servant whom he has true, but because they

wish them to be true."
king parts
 444 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. toss-

After his resignation More lived in strict his willingness as far as the
"

succession "

retirement in his house at Chelsea. In 1 534, was concerned, but to some parcels of the
the following year, he was unfortunately oath as it was framed he could not subscribe
mixed up with the treasonable impostures from fear of jeopardising his soul.

of the Nun of Kent, hereafter referred to,* The end now rapidly drew on. More
and at one time believed her utterances was committed under the charge of treason
to be genuine, afterwards, however, freely to the Tower, where he lay for many

expressing his regret. Cromwell, who was months subject to ever-increasing rigour.
then in power, and who admired and It is one of the saddest stories connected
respected More, interceded with the king with the Reformation drama. That More
that the matter might be passed over. was absolutely innocent of all treason by
Henry consented, but expressed his sorrow thought, word, or deed, is acknowledged
that Sir Thomas More should have acted even by the warmest apologist of Henry
so unwisely.The matter ended, as far as VIII. But he was one of the leading per
More was concerned, but it doubtless was sonages in England, and undoubtedly had
not forgotten when, a few months later, the highest reputation of any living man ;
More ventured for conscience sake re he had made himself conspicuous by his
solutely to oppose the king s will in the open disapproval of the ecclesiastical meas
matter of the oath of allegiance. ures of Henry and his parliament and if ;

Events succeeded each other at this these measures were to be carried into
juncture with startling rapidity, as will be effect, then the life of the great statesman
detailed in the history but we are simply ;
must be forfeited. There was no middle
here completing the sketch of More s life course possible, and of this More was con
and career. The breach between Henry scious. Other circumstances, too, were
and the Pope had come to a head, and him
against notably his late unfortunate
Convocation had declared that the Pope s connection with the affair of the Nun of
authority in England was abolished. Parlia Kent, and his close and intimate friendship
ment passed the Act of Succession en
" "

with Fisher, bishop of Rochester, who was

the crown on the children of Anne
tailing accused, and not apparently without some
Boleyn. But this Act was not confined to ground, of treason. It was during those sad
the question of the succession only, but months in the Tower that he wrote his
"

embraced other particulars of a doubtful and most beautiful

last religious treatises
and painful dealing especially with
nature,"
"

The Comfort against

of
Dialogue
the king s former marriage with Katherine and the unfinished Medita "

Tribulation,"
of Arragon. An
oath was to be taken by tion upon the Passion of Christ."

every one of the king s subjects to observe Among the points objected to by More
the whole contents of the Act. More was was the acknowledgment of Henry VIIL
specially cited by the Royal Commission under the title of Supreme Head on earth
"

appointed to administer the oath, and was of the Church of England under Christ."
required to subscribe to it. He expressed He was frequently visited by members of
*
See Excursus D. Vol. III. the king s council, who endeavoured, but in
H
H
X -
O n;
Q w
a
K S

3*
<
i
-5.
446 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [ 535-

vain, to persuadehim to submit himself to never be forgotten :

"

My lords, I have
the king. Once the all-powerful minister, only to say that, like as the blessed Paul
Cromwell, came alone, and, by the memory was present when the martyr Stephen
of his old friendship with Henry, urged died, and kept the clothes of them who
him to relent from his resolution. But stoned Stephen, and yet both Paul and
memories of old friendship suggested by Stephen now be both saints in heaven, and
Cromwell, or the terrors of a public death, therefore shall continue friends for ever,

equally failed to move him. More was and pray that though your lord
so I trust
fearless in the presence of death ;
it meant ships have been on earth my judges, yet
little to him",
so intense was his faith in we may hereafter meet in heaven together
the future and serener life ;
and from the to our everlasting salvation. May God
day of his arrest he had looked forward preserve you all, especially my sovereign
to the scaffold as a certain and not far- lord the king, and grant him faithful

removed goal. counsellors."

About the middle of 1535 he was He was to return to the Tower by water.
tried for treason in Westminster Hall On the stairs of the Tower wharf was
"

the most illustrious prisoner who ever waiting his best beloved daughter, Mar
listened to his sentence there," as he is garet Roper. The story here is told by
termed by a famous historian, who had More s grandson. When she espied her
little More s
love for views. He walked father, she broke through the armed guard
from the Tower but feebly, being weak surrounding the notable prisoner, fearing
from long confinement. The state trial she might never see or touch him again in

ended, as such those days almost

trials in then kissing him, able to
this world, and,

invariably did, by the condemnation of say nothing but Oh my father, my

"

the prisoner. The frightful punishment father He blessed her, and told her that
!
"

for treason was commuted to death on whatsoever he should suffer, though he

the scaffold and the
presiding judge,
;
were innocent, yet it was not without the
lord chancellor Audley, mentioned this will of God, urging her to accommodate
last favour as an instance of the royal her will to God s blessed pleasure, and to
clemency. "God forbid," replied More, be patient for his loss. The touching
with a solitary touch of bitter wit, that
"

on to say
story goes She was no sooner :
"

the king should use any more such mercy parted from him, and had gone scarce
unto any of my friends, and God keep ten steps, when she, not satisfied with the
my posterity from all such pardons."
all former farewell, like one who had forgot
When all was over and the condemnation herself, having neither respect to herself
had been pronounced, for the last time the nor to the press of people about him,
judges adjured him to have pity on him suddenly turned back and ran hastily to
and offered to reopen the court
self, if he him, and took him by the neck and divers
would reconsider his determination. The times together kissed him whereat he ;

condemned man smiled, and with his old spoke not a word, but, carrying still his

winning charm replied in words which will gravity, tears fell also from his eyes yea. ;
 1535-] EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 447
there were very few in all the troop who of the
profit headsman, who was to do
could refrain thereat from weeping, no, him so great service," he said. Sir William
not the guards themselves. Yet at the last, Kingston, the lieutenant of the Tower,
with a full heart, she was severed from him, begged him on a plainer suit. He
to put
at which time another of our women em at once complied, and sent the executioner
braced him, and my aunt s (Margaret instead a gold angel, as a token that he
Roper s) maid, Dorothy Collis, did the loved him extremely. About nine of the
like, of whom he said after it was homely clock he came out with the lieutenant of
but very lovingly done." the Tower, pale, and often
looking up to
He never saw this dear daughter, who heaven he carried in his hand a red
;

was, perhaps, the only person he very cross.

deeply loved on earth, again. Four days The had been somewhat clumsily
scaffold

yet remained to him. These he spent in put together, and as he put his foot on
prayer and thought. At daybreak on the the ladder, it shook. See me safe "

up,"

day he was appointed to suffer, Sir Thomas he said to Sir William Kingston for my ;
"

Pope awoke him out of sleep and told him coming down I can shift for myself." He
it pleasure he should die at
was the king s
began to speak to the crowd standing
nine o clock that morning. I am much The begged him not
"

near. sheriff to say

bounden to the king,"
he said,
"

for the anything, so he just asked for their prayers,

benefits and honours he has bestowed on and that they should remember that he
me ;
and so help me God, most of all am I died in the faith of the holy Catholic
bounden to him that it hath pleased his
church, and a faithful servant of God and
majesty to rid me so shortly out of the the king. Then he repeated a psalm, and
miseries of this present
world."
Pope told kissing the headsman, bound a cloth over
him that the king desired he would not his eyes, and kneeling down, laid his neck
use many words on the scaffold." More
"

on the block. Immediately he made a

replied that it should be as his grace signwith his hand, as if to stay for a
wished ;
he had intended to have spoken, moment the fatal stroke, then he moved
but no matter wherewith the king would aside his Pity that
"

beard, murmuring,
have been offended. Then he talked of should be cut, that has not committed
his funeral, and begged that his family treason." With "

which strange words

might be present. the strangest, perhaps, ever uttered at

Pope, who was an old friend, rose to such a time the life most famous in

leave ;
he took More s hand and burst into Europe for eloquence and wisdom closed
Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," said for
"

tears. ever."

the man who was just about to die, and "

writes his grandson and biographer,

"

So,"

be not discomfited, for I trust we shall with alacrity and spiritual joy, he re
"

once see each other full merrily, when we ceived the fatal axe, which no sooner had
shall live and love together in eternal bliss." severed his head from his body, but his
He then proceeded to dress himself in soul was carried by the angels into eternal
It was for the * Froude.
most costly attire.
"

his
448 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1535-

glory ;
. . . and then he found those emphatically true, though perhaps scarcely
words true which he had often spoken, in the sense in which the writer intended.

that a man may lose his head and have The cutting off of More was surely in
no harm." evitable and necessary, if the Reformation
u This was the execution of Sir Thomas were to be proceeded with on the lines
More, an act which was sounded into the chalked out by the king and his advisers.
far corners of the earth, and was the world s More intensely disapproved of these lines
wonder, as well for the circumstances thus chalked out and the marked dis
;

under which was perpetrated as it for the approval of so splendid a genius, of so pure
preternatural calmness with which it was and devout a soul as s, More
might
borne. Something of his calmness may probably would have wrecked the work
have been due to his natural temperament, of Henry. Here for the present we must
leave this episode of our story,
terrible

having anticipated much, for the sake of

presenting a fairly complete picture of
this great and beautiful figure.
A horror ran through Europe
thrill of

when the news of the execution became

generally known. The general grief and

indignation was common to Rome, to the

emperor, to the king of France, and even

to some of the Protestant princes of

Germany. So general was the grief and

SIR THOMAS MORE S HOUSE AT CHELSEA. amazement abroad, that Henry, through
his foreign ambassadors, deigned to give a
something to an unaffected weariness of a formal vindication of the act. To brand
world which in his eyes was plunging into him as a traitor, no indignity was spared
the ruin of the latter days. But those, fair to the lifeless remains of the scholar, the
hues of sunny cheerfulness caught their writer, the statesmen, so long the ornament
colour from the simplicity of his faith and ;
of his country. The head was boiled, and
never was there a Christian s victory over the disfigured features of him whom the
death more grandly evidenced than in world so loved and admired looked down
the last scene, lighted with its lambent from the traitors spikes on the stream of
*
humour."
heeding or of unheeding traffic passing and
The comment of the eloquent and able repassing over London Bridge. The state
apologist of Henry on this close of
VIII. papers circulated at Rome and Paris and
the fair life of Henry s victim is remarkable. among the courts of Europe spoke of him
"

It was at once," he wrote, "

most piteous as a traitor, but upon evidence never

and most inevitable." The last words are produced at the trial, and of which no
* Froude :
"

History of England." chap. ix. trace has ever since been seen or heard.
 * x
I .

CHAPTER XL.

ERASMUS, AND THE RECOVERY OF THE SCRIPTURES.

English Inspiration of the Work of Erasmus His Early Life Removal to England Acquaintance
with Colet and More Their Profound Influence upon his Character Greek
Professorship at
Cambridge Undertakes a Version of the Greek New Testament Text Recovery of this Text
by Europe on the Fall of Constantinople Its Immeasurable Importance to the Church Enthu
siasticReception of it Its Preface Its Transforming Power Groundwork of our present
Version Elevates Erasmus to a Position of European Fame Letter from the
Emperor
Charles V. Later Years and Death of the Scholar The Complutensian Polyglott of Cardinal
Ximenes Place of Erasmus in the Reformation of the Church.

rI AHERE was a third pioneer of the though briefly, his own life and work.
Reformation in
England, greater We in
England are not wrong in claim
than Colet, or even More, whose ing Erasmus as specially the chiefest 01
influence was ^more far-reaching, more our pioneer reformers. He was, it is

lasting, first two, whose

than either of the true, a native of Holland ;
his early un
lives and works we have been painting. happy was mostly spent in the Low
life

We have already mentioned and quoted Countries and in Paris and the works
;

from Erasmus as the contemporary and by which he will always be known were
intimate friend of Colet and More but ; printed and published at Basle in Switzer
we must now recount more definitely, land, where he closed his eventful, honoured
45 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14671497.

career. But England was

in spite of this, with the consent of the prior of the
the country he loved best his chosen ; religious house, allowed him to leave the
friends and associates were Englishmen. community, and for a time he resided at
It was their love and friendship which, Cambrai with the bishop. But the young

speaking from a human standpoint, really

Erasmus s one master-passion was study,
ordered his life and inspired the noblest and after a time he went to study at the
efforts of his surpassing genius. It was in university of Paris.
England that most of his best work was Dates and times are very uncertain
done, although his actual sojourning among during the early manhood of the young

us did not exceed eight or ten years al scholar. It was not a happy, and save

together. He
ever speaks and writes of for the somewhat fitful friendship and
England with the tenderest affection, and kindness of the bishop of Cambrai, was a
far on in life styles it his "adopted country" lonely and desolate season for Erasmus.
and the "

chosen home of his old age."

The period of his Paris studies was
In the wide world which loved and hated, evidently darkened by excesses and ex
admired and feared him, Erasmus possessed travagances, possibly even with something
no friends like Colet and More ;
no akin to riotous living and all this time, ;

generous helper and patron like archbishop be it remembered, the young student was
Warham no sovereign who was ever
;
bound by the stern vows of the Augustinian
ready to welcome and back him up like order to which he belonged. Still, he
Henry VIII. worked as few men of his day and time
Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotter worked, and laid the foundation of his subse

dam in A.D. 1467, when Edward IV. was quent marvellous proficiency in languages,
reigning in England. His parents, who philosophy, and theology. Among his
were in fairly prosperous circumstances, fellow-students at Paris he obtained a great
died when the subject of our memoir repute, and was reckoned among the most
was still quite young. His was a desolate, promising scholars of his time. Poverty,
unloved youth, with the old story of care however, dogged his footsteps. His slender
less guardians and an orphan boy, and a patrimony had disappeared ;
the little

little heritage melted away. The friendless allowance made him by his patron the
orphan Erasmus, still quite young, was bishop of Cambrai was utterly insufficient

partly forced, partly cajoled, to take the for the life he was leading at Paris. He
irrevocable vows in a house of Augustinian eked out his resources by taking pupils,

canons. He was a brilliant and sickly and soon obtained a high reputation as a
youth, always passionately devoted to teacher. But we know little of these
books and learning, but utterly without Paris in after life he said little
" "

days ;

any vocation for the monastic life and in ;

about them. They were at best but a
the house in which he made his profession blurred, disfigured page of memories, con
he found little sympathy. He despised taining little that Erasmus cared to dwell
his companions, and hated the life. The on when he became the first man of letters

bishop of Cambrai took notice of him., and, the world-famed scholar of his generation.
 14671497-] EARLY LIFE OF ERASMUS.
We have mentioned his sickly, delicate He made at this time some influential
constitution. In the midst of his Paris and wealthy friends, and for a time he was
student life he was seized by a severe absent from Paris but he soon returned,
;

illness. This was not surprising, for the and was again surrounded with pupils.
wild and somewhat irregular life he was At elsewhere men began to
Paris and
leading was ill-fitted for the strain of speak of the young sickly scholar-priest,
mental effort required for the studies to with his great learning, his sparkling wit,
which he in real earnest devoted many his ceaseless railings against his hard
long hours each day and night. Then, destiny, poverty, ill-health, and longings
too, his purse was unequal to the expenses he was unable to realise ever the most ;

of the gay and often

costly recreations charming of companions, of men of the
with which he enlivened his study hours ;
world and scholars alike. In his letters he
and; no doubt, often the young student shows how wretched he was tossed to
was ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-warmed. The and fro longing for higher things, yet
;

illness well-nigh swept him into the grave. always dragged down to the things of the
He shuddered at the thought of dying, flesh ever carrying about a dying body ;
;

and higher thoughts seem to have in with a soul capable of the highest things,
spired him as he slowly mended and yet without any vital religion or sure
regained his strength. One of his many ground of Christian hope. How near was
letters which we possess, written about the scholar whose name was soon to be in
this time, foreshadows something of his all the churches, over and over again, to
nobler after-life. We
find this sentence in utter shipwreck of body and soul !
"

I am
it :
"

All I ask for is leisure to live in utter wretchedness," he wrote to a dear

wholly
to God, to repent of the sins of my foolish friend, worn out with sorrow, persecuted
"

youth, to study Holy Scripture, and to by enemies, deserted by my friends, and

read or write something of real value." made Fortune s football ; yet I have com
He dreaded being recalled, or being obliged mitted no fault I am a sad

through ill-health or utter want of means afflicted being who hates himself, who
to pursue his studies, to return to his hates to live, and yet is not allowed to

cloister,which he evidently hated. I

"

die May God change my state

could do nothing of this," he went on to for the better or make an end of me."

say, in a convent
"

never was a tenderer ; Happily, at this moment one of his Paris

plant. I could not bear fasts and vigils pupils, a son of lord Mountjoy, a dis

when I was at my best ;

even here, where tinguished English nobleman, invited him
I am well cared for, I fall sick." He was to England, and a new chapter in his life
evidently forgetting the wild, careless life began. Here we have a certain date
:

he had been leading at Paris. Just then the wandering scholar came to London at
he longed to go to Italy and study the close of 1497. In London, under the

theology, and he lamented sorely that Mountjoy protection, he was received with
he had neither health for the journey or great kindness, and was introduced to two
money for the necessary expenses. of the most promising of English scholars
452 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [14981514.

More, who then only twenty years of age, Book of Life to which work may be
and Colet, who was the same age as ascribed much of what was truest and
Erasmus, about thirty. most enduring in the Reformation years
With his new friends, in the spring of after.

1498, we find him at Oxford, where Between 1498 and 1514 much of Eras
his fame as a rare and striking scholar mus s time was spent in England between

and genius had preceded him. Richard London, Oxford, and Cambridge. He
Charnock, prior of St. Mary s college, played the part alternately of a student
became his friend, and the life-long friend and teacher at each of these places. At
ship with Colet and More became fast Cambridge during several years he was

cemented in that first Oxford residence. the recognised teacher or professor of

Colet, who was then delivering some of Greek. The materials for his master-
his famous lectures on St. Paul s Epistles, work he gradually collected, and the
became the object of Erasmus s fervid ad scholarship necessary for its execution
miration. Atthe poor erring genius
last he slowly and painfully acquired, for he
had found an ideal which he felt he could was ever sickly and often laid by with
worthily strive after. The burning words illness. A
somewhat detailed account of
of the eloquent lecturer, fervid preacher, this his chiefestand most enduring work
generous, loving, self-denying student, who will be interesting and useful, considering

lived the life he preached, touched the how enormous an influence its publication
wayward, passionate heart of Erasmus and ;
and subsequent wide popularity exercised
the new life of the greatest scholar of the upon the Reformation, on the Continent
be dated from that Oxford as in England.
century may
visit, where he had the rare fortune of be
coming Colet s dearest friend and More s The Renaissance of Greek literature,
intimate associate.The friendship of these and the publication of the original Greek
three men, who did so much to bring about text of the New Testament, helped for

the great change in England which was ward the Reformation in a way scarcely
now impending, remained unbroken until yet grasped by the great majority of men,
death and it is not too much to say that
;
who have little time for study. The
the master-work of Erasmus s life, which (Latin) Vulgate translation, then in

we shall presently describe, may be looked universal use, was faulty and inaccurate ;

upon as the outcome of Colet s influence was in many places a bad rendering of the

upon him. It is singularly interesting to original Greek. Not a few of the current
read the letters of the gay and frivolous interpretations of the text were seen to

wandering scholar before his saintly friend be impossible, when brought into con
had inspired him with nobler views of tact with the original language in which

duty, and to compare them with what we the Gospels and Epistles had been written.
know of the subsequent life of the great A mass of scholastic subtleties overlaid the
biblical scholar, who consecrated most of New Testament writings. Men like Colet
his remaining years to a work on the felt that the urgent necessity of the age
454 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [,4981514.

was to give to the church the original so in theology, the teaching of the

simple text of the New Testament scrip apostles was largely put aside, and the
tures, with all the later mediaeval errors Greek philosophy of the newly-recovered
stripped off ;
then men would see for ancient writers substituted in their room.
themselves what was the mind of Christ, Colet, when as a student he visited Italy,

what was the real teaching of Paul found the general tendencies of the Italian
and his inspired companions. At this schools sadly sceptical. The atmosphere
juncture a great scholar and original of the papal court was more semi -pagan

thinker, Erasmus, came forward, and, than Christian. The famous school of
largely under the influence of men Padua had even become positively a focus
like Colet, devoted the best years of his of atheism.
life to the production of an edition of the But among the precious manuscripts
New Testament the original Greek,
in brought by the exiled Greeks, were other
with a new and free Latin translation of writings besides those of Plato and Aris
his own, which men might compare with totle, and the Greek dramatists and
the original Greek printed in the same historians. yellow and time-
Many of those
volume. This work was especially an discoloured parchments contained books and

English one. The Renaissance of Greek treatises also written in the long-forgotten

Theology is one of the glories of England. Greek characters, more precious far, in the
Itsprang from Oxford and Cambridge, not eyes of some scholarsand thinkers, than the
from Rome and Florence. choicest works of Plato and Aristotle, 01
In the last half of the fifteenth century, than the most brilliant of the tragedies of

when, as we have
already shown, owing to -^Eschylus and Sophocles. These were the
the fall of Constantinople and the presence gospels of the holy four, and the epistles
of the Greek exiles, the western world of the chosen servants of Christ and in a ;

found itself face to face with an ancient lesserdegree precious, but still of priceless
literature with which it was absolutely value, the scanty remains of writers who
unacquainted, Italy at once recognised lived in the age immediately succeeding
that this ancient Greek literature was the death of John and Paul. In estimating
finer than any which was already familiar. the importance of the Renaissance of the
With intense ardour its scholars devoted Greek language, it should never be for
themselves to its study. The newly- gotten that the early church was almost
discovered printing-press came to their exclusively a Greek-speaking commnnitv .

assistance, and a curious classical revival Not only was Greek the language of the

passed over all the Italian schools. Plato whole New Testament, but well-nigh all
and Aristotle, at Rome
and Florence, were the important early treatises, apologies,
preferred to Paul and John. As in archi etc., of the Christian fathers that we

tecture, where we see the medieval church possess, are written in Greek. In Rome,
of St. Peter at Rome giving place to the strange as it
may seem, very many among
huge classical temple which still throws the poorer population were Greek either
its vast shadow over the apostle s tomb ; in descent or in speech. Out of the
 THE NEW TESTAMENT OF ERASMUS. 455
names of the fifteen bishops of Rome
up superstitions which disfigured the practices
to the close of the second century, four and once simple ritual of the church when ;

only are Latin. Even in the far west, in they saw these words without the glosses
Gaul, the churches of Vienne and Lyons with which the schoolmen and others had
used Greek in the well-known story of hidden and obscured the true text, would
their persecutions, A.D. 177 and the great
; surely do away with all those soul-destroying
work of Irenaeus of Lyons against heresies customs and practices so utterly foreign to
is written in the same language. It the mind of Christ such as relic-worship,
:

has been conjectured, with good reason, image-adoration, indulgences, Mariolatry.

that Greek was at first the liturgical lan Colet s wonderful exposition of St. Paul s

guage of Rome.* epistles at Oxford, and then his burning

This was the literature, which included and eloquent sermons in London after he
the New Testament and the writings of became dean of St. Paul s, began this
men, some of whom had known the grave scholarly work ;
which was taken
apostles writings few in number, but up, developed, and published abroad far

measureless in their importance to Chris and wide by Erasmus s edition of the

which the knowledge of Greek
tianity, to Greek Testament, with his own Latin
was the indispensable key; and it was for translation and his weighty preface.
this high end that Colet and his Oxford It was in A.D. 1 5 1 6 some twenty years
school valued the new learning. To men after that first meeting at Oxford not
like Colet, and the yet greater Erasmus, very long before his death, that Colet thus
whom Colet inspired with a large portion wrote to his old friend, whom he had
of his own devout and fervid spirit, classical turned from the way of death to the

antiquity had comparatively little signifi way Reading these old letters,
of life.

cance compared with ancient Christianity. we seem to hear the voice of the true
These men, this English school, different teacher of righteousness feeling that hi$
from the scholars of Italy, studied Greek own life was drawing to a close rejoicing

mainly that they might better know the in his successful work, as he praises with
mind of Paul and the Evangelists. no unstinting praise his old pupil and
The idea of Colet and of Erasmus, in imitator. The letter is written after
the matter of reforming a church which reading the edition of the New Testament

they felt with good reason was, indeed, fast just produced by him.

losing its influence over the people, was You cannot easily believe, my dear
"

a quiet though earnest reformation frpm Erasmus, how much joy your letter gave
within. This they hoped to bring about me, ... for I learned from it that you

are likely to return to which would

through the good sense of the nobler spirits us,

among the hierarchy of the church; who, be very delightful to me, and to your
when they quietly compared the very other friends, of whom you have a great
words of Christ and His apostles with the many here. What you say about
. . .

* See the Canon of the

the New Testament I can understand.
Bishop Westcott : "On

New Testament."
The volumes of your new edition are
 456 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
here both eagerly bought and everywhere on your name ;
and toiling on in the name
read. By many your labours are received of Jesus, you will become a partaker of His
with approval and admiration. For . . . eternal life. . . . That you should call me
myself, I so love your work, and so clasp happy, I marvel. I should think myself
to my heart this new edition of yours, happy if, even in the extremest poverty,
that it excites mingled feelings. For at I had a thousandth part of that learning
one time I am seized with sorrow that and wisdom which you have got without
I have not that knowledge of Greek, wealth. If you will let me, I will become

without which one is good for nothing ; your disciple even in learning Greek, not
at another time I rejoice in that light withstanding my advanced years, recol
which you have shed forth from the sun lecting that Cato learned Greek in his old
of your genius. Indeed, Erasmus, I age, and that you yourself, of equal age
marvel at the fruitfulness of your mind with me, are studying Hebrew. Love me
in the conception, production, and daily as ever. Farewell."

completion of so much during a life so The New Testament in Greek of Eras

unsettled, and without the assistance of mus, with its faithful Latin translation and
any large and regular income. . . . its noble
preface, was not only the first
"

As to the peaceful resting-place which Greek New Testament printed and pub
you say you long for, I also wish for one lished, but it was the first New Testament
for you, both peaceful and happy ;
both in its originallanguage ever given to the
your age and your studies require it. I churches of the west. With its impressive
wish, too, that this your final resting-place preface, it may be taken as the expression
may be with us, if you think us worthy of of the views held by the little band of
so great a man ;
. . .
you have here some Oxford reformers, of whom Colet was the
who love you exceedingly. Our friend head, and Erasmus the great exponent.
the archbishop of Canterbury (Warham) It was published in 1516, and its success
a few days ago spoke much of you, and was amazing, considering how unaccus
desires your presence here very much. tomed as yet were the public to printed
: . Go on, Erasmus, as you have given
. books. It is said that one hundred thousand
us the New Testament in Latin [this was "

copies were sold in France alone. The

a new by Erasmus appended
translation interest in the work was unabated ;
five
to the famous Greek text], "illustrated it successive editions, each containing various
by your exposition, and given us your emendations from MSS. and other sources,
commentary most at length on the Gospels were published during the lifetime of
. . .
you will confer a great boon on Erasmus. The fifth edition appeared in
those who delight to read your writings, A.D. 1535, the year before his death, and
will the meaning of the
if
you explain although it contained many severe and
Gospels ;
and
you will make in so doing, even bittercomments upon the state
your name immortal. Immortal, did I of things which then prevailed, it was
say ? The name of Erasmus can never published with the leave and approbation
perish, but you will confer eternal glory of the reigning Pope, Leo. X.
 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS PREFACE.
457
The preface, or as was
paraclesis, it
simpler, better adapted for all.
"

No age,
termed, contained much weighty matter. no sex,no condition of life but could
grasp
In it Erasmus
appeals to the two great its
teaching and its promises, while other
^schools into which, roughly, the western philosophies were removed out of the

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS.
(from the portrait by Holbein.)

church was then divided. He alluded, or range of most minds for the Christian, no
;

rather appealed to the free-thinking phil anxious preparatory learning was needful.

osophic school of the Italian Renaissance, Its viaticum was simple, and at hand for

comparing Christ with the great philoso all.

Only bring a pious and open heart,

phers so much admired and studied in imbued, above all things, with a pure and
Italy. Christ s teaching, he urged, was simple faith. For Christ," he went on to
3
H
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1516.

say, wrote his mysteries to be published

"

books present us with a living image of

as openly as possible. I wish that even His most holy mind. Were we to have
the weakest woman should read the Gospel seen Him with our own eyes, we should
should read the epistles of Paul ;
I would not have had so intimate a knowledge as
that these were translated into all lan they give of Christ speaking, healing,
guages. ... I long that the husband dying, rising again, as it were, in our own
man should sing portions of them to actual presence."
himself as he follows the plough, that the We have quoted some little length
at
weaver should hum them to the tune of from Erasmus to his
this noble preface of
his shuttle, that the traveller should edition of the Greek New Testament (A.D.

beguile with their stories the tedium of 1516), because in it,

in a few words, we
his journey." have the mind of the
English early
Then, turning from the free-thinking Reformation school, as well as of Erasmus,
classical Renaissance to the conservative whom we fairly claim as an English
school, which clung with an unreasoning reformer, seeing that he drew his inspira
persistence to the schoolmen, to the old tion mainly from English scholars and
mediaeval corruptions of Christianity, to thinkers seeing that during the eight or
;

the errors of the Vulgate, to the false ten years he spent in England he pre

interpretation of texts, to the mass of pared the really great and enduring work
legendary lore and superstitious additions, of his life, his edition of the Greek New
and bringing into contrast with all these Testament, at the instance of his English .

the Gospel message, he asked,

simple friends, who induced him to devote his

Why greater portion of our lives magnificent talents and splendid industry
"

is a

given to the study of the schoolmen than to the noble work they deemed of such
of the Gospels ? What are Alex. . .
paramount importance.
ander, Albertus, Thomas [Aquinas], Occam, The peaceful, quiet reformation of the
in comparison with Christ what in com ;
church by the church, hoped for, prayed
parison with Peter, or Paul, or John ? If for, worked for, by Colet and More and
the footprints of Christ be anywhere shown their brilliant disciple Erasmus, never
to us, we kneel down and adore. Why do came to pass. The great change, in the
we not rather venerate and adore the divine Providence, was destined to pass

living and breathing picture of Him in over the church in another and more fiery
these books ? If the vesture of Christ be form. But their work, nevertheless, was
exhibited, where will we not go to kiss it ? to endure ;
and through
the period of
all

Yet if the whole wardrobe of Christ were stress and storm, while the reformers in

shown, nothing could represent Christ England, as on the Continent, were tossed
more vividly and truly than these evan hither and thither, were swayed backwards
gelical writings. Statues of wood and and forwards by the wild storm-winds
stone we decorate with gold and gems for which had arisen, the great principles laid
the love of Christ. They only profess to down by Erasmus and his friends remained
give us the form of the body. These the groundwork of all reformation teaching.
I5I60 FIRST EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 459
The Book of God, the New Testament, was necessary at Basle, where the New
purified of all human additions and mis- Testament was being brought out at the
ccJhceptions, which Erasmus first restored famous printing establishment of Froben.
to western Christendom, was ever looked More than thirty years had passed since
to as the one source of all true faith. the Basle printing-press had been first
With these pioneers of the Reformation, set up by Johann Amerbach, and it had
as we have loved tostyle them, the acquired already a European reputation,
Christian religion consisted not in the and had won for the city of Basle, on
blind, unreasoning reception of a creed the green rushing waters of the Rhine,

upon any human authority, however the proud position of one of the principal
venerable, but in loving and loyal devotion centres of reviving learning.Once more,
to the person of Christ and where ;
"

therefore, Erasmus found himself on the

should they go for a knowledge of Christ, Continent. He had bade farewell to
if not to the authentic writings of those England, and was now nearly fifty years of
who were nearest in their relations to age ;
still sickly, often laid by with painful
Him ? . . .
They would go to the and weary but confessedly the first
illness,
books themselves which contained these man of letters in Europe. His witty and

writings, and read them entertaining books, such as the

"

in their original Adagia,"

if possible, in the earliest his graver treatises, such as the

"

Enchiri
language, and,
copies, and so catch the spirit of Him dion of a Christian Soldier,"
had been
whom they were striving to know for read and admired by tens of thousands in
themselves."
*
all countries, by all ranks and orders. His
"It was finished at last text and Greek teaching work at Cambridge, as the

translation Froude in his writes foremost of the teachers of the new

printed,"

vivid biography of Erasmus, and the "

learning the high estimation in which

;

of he was held by famous scholars, such as

living facts of Christianity, the persons
Christ and the Apostles, their history, Colet and More, had given him a name

their lives and their teaching, were re

and a place among the known wits and
vealed to an astonished world. For the scholars of the western world. He was
first time the laity were able to see side by admired, petted, and feared as a brilliant,

side the Christianity which converted the wandering man of letters ;

was looked

world, and the Christianity of the church upon by the old conservative medievalist
a somewhat erratic
with a Pope, cardinal princes, ecclesiastical party in the church as
and a mythology of lies. The effect and dangerous writer, thinker, talker but ;

courts,
was to be a spiritual earthquake. was hardly as yet regarded as a serious
friend orenemy.
Erasmus finally left England a little But the publication of the New Testa

ment in Greek, with its translation and

more than a year before the publication of
with its profound and
the great work of his life. His presence scathing notes,
forth the mean
* See Oxford powerful preiace, setting
Seebohm: "The Reformers,"

ing and object of the

work in language
chapter xi.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. {1516.

which breathes intense conviction, liter scholar, whose life-story we have been
ally took the world by storm.
For many trying to paint.
years he had been patiently labouring at

it ;
and when it appeared, with Pope The change in Erasmus s fortunes, after
Leo X. s approval stamped upon its mar the day when Froben, the Basle printer,
vellous pages, its editor received a general forwarded the bulky packages containing
ovation, in some respects commensurate the first edition of the "Greek Testament"
with its weight and acknowledged im into every European centre of culture and

portance. It is not too much to say that commerce, was very striking. He found
during the long roll of Christian centuries himself no more the poor vagrant scholar,
from the date of the death of
St. John ever impecunious, ever obliged to play the
no book had appeared which has so mendicant, if not for daily bread, at least for

largely influenced humanity and the ; ways and means to pursue his deep and
still the printing
novel introduction of successful studies ;
now dancing attendance

press out rapidly over the whole

sent it on some great lord or wealthy ecclesiastic,
western world. now wearing out his slender thread of
It is with us still. The history of the health and energy, by teaching and lectur

English Bible, as far as the New Testa ing at Cambridge or elsewhere. After
ment concerned,is Our is as follows. 1516 he had but to select a luxurious
translators chose as their Greek text home. Learned and famous universities,
from which they mainly worked the wealthy populous cities, stately royal
edition of Stephens
1
Greek Testament put courts, literally begged for the honour of
out in A.D. 1550. But Stephens in that his presence, offering him position, wealth,
famous edition chiefly adopted save only dignity, he would but take up his abode
if

in the Apocalypse, where he largely fol among them. In universities like Basle
lowed the Greek text printed in the in the south, and Louvain in the north, he

Complutensian Polyglott the text he found was more than a welcome, honoured guest.
in Erasmus s fifth edition, published the In such homes of learning, where naturally
year before his death, in 1535. This has he best loved to dwell, he found it difficult
been taken as the standard or u received to preserve the hours of solitude necessary
text England, and, until the noble
"

in for his perpetual studies, so great was the

efforts in our own day to further revise court paid to him by the scholar world
the Greek text, has been universally used of Europe. King Henry VIII. and his
and read. It is still styled the "received minister Wolsey placed at his disposal a
Text."The uncounted multitudes in suitable London house and a handsome

England who have found and are finding income, if only he would come back to
still in the Book of Life, in the words of England. The magnificent Francis L, so
the Redeemer and His immediate dis soon as he had become king, asked him
ciples, their joy, their comfort and hope, to make France his home. At Brussels
owe their priceless treasure mainly to the the young archduke Charles afterwards
labours of the strange man and matchless known as the emperor Charles V. and
1516.] WIDESPREAD FAME OF ERASMUS. 461
his brother welcomed him
Ferdinand, her
among trusted adherents ;
and if

with the greatest warmth. From these Erasmus had chosen accept her over to
imperial potentates, he had but to say tures, he might have worn the mitre of

cntrroAH TO* Ariot EPISTOLABEATI APO

AflOlTOAor ! Armor STOLI lACOBt

A rn B or 9tt> xol xf .

1 Acobus dei ac domiai Icfd

OVrX&/ Chrifti fetu 9
1

I
IHTOlJn>trTO J , duodcam tri
bubus, q Cunt i difpcrfioe,
falute.
I Profummogaudio
dudce fratres mci , queues in tttarionrt
inddcn tis uarias.illud facntes.q d cxplo
ratio fidci ucftra^parit pmttiLcxtcy f>&

&i. i x
Viro/ioiil if tictia
opus pfi-iflu habcat.ut fltis pfcdli,
<ft

TiXao/i &X Tt?

"

J TtXeoi xj 0X0 & intcgn .S: nulla in partcdiminuri.Qd

flcui uedru deed
fapicnria poftulct
ab ,

co cj dat.nepc deo,g dat incp oibus flm/

Tot S .oJ *ri/i avXCt,^ ju.il ca/i Jofl plidter,K no impropcrat.ac dabi^ei.fed
poftulct fide,nihil
hzficans.Na qui hxfi
tac.is fimilis eft flultui mans.qui ucnris
J &impctu rapi^. Ncucro cxiftimet
agid
US homo illc fc cjccp aocepturu a dno . Vi r
,

am mo duplia , incoftas eft in oibus urjS

fuis . Glorictur auce fratcr qui eft hu mi/
fua . Co ntra qui diues
(is in fu b 1 im i tare

>|
iiT.l ) vXvmos vvTi eft.in hu m iliadoe fui.quonia uelud flos

herbx pceribic . Exoitus eft enim fol cu

i 73 xav- zftu K exaruic hcrba,8i flos illi dcddir,

K decor afpeclus perrjcic K

10 oaf (cvf l| jrtrt.iy Wjtv<a
? Tijd
illius diucs
in abudan da fua marcefcct-Bcatus uir g
*
Tout iff tl ai\ aT /uotf a 8
(rtij./tax<x5
a n
f fuffert tentationem , quooiacu ,pbatua
cs Jif M W HfoWMo ,?Ti J*O WM riKf^t OS, trit.aca pict corona u itar quart promifi t
dns a
rp quibus fucri t diloftus. quis Ne
xu;*7ors dTanwrti Stur.Mn JVn trtfe&Vl / Cu tencatur dicat fe a dco tcnrari. Na dc
"

d^M<u- ? "O
usutatnalis tentarinonpoteft.itanec

ipfe quccp tcnrat,

Imo unufquifq? tznta
i xasss A o cur.dum

PAGE FROM THE FIRST EDITION (kASLE, 1516) OF ERASMUS NEW TESTAMENT, CONTAINING THE
BEGINNING OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. (British Museum.)

what honour he some distinguished see in the papal gift,

position, place, or desired.

Perhaps stranger than all, Rome, to whose or even aspired to the yet higher dignity
exorbitant although a loyal
pretensions, of the red hat of a cardinal and a prince
servant of the church, he had dealt the of the church.
severest blows, was eager to receive him But none of these things moved him.
462 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [15161536.

Laden with presents, which, con

costly of Luther s friends men like Melancthon
stantly repeated from various quarters, en still sought and scholarly
his advice
abled him to live in affluence without care, counsels. With the emperor Charles V.
Erasmus preferred his perfect independ his relations partook almost of an affection

ence of pope or emperor or king, and ate intimacy. His loving wrote
"

letters,"

lived out his next twenty honoured years Erasmus to a friend in 1530, "are more
as an untitled, unbeneficed, wandering precious than his gifts." Only con
scholar. The only dignity he deigned to siderations of a tortuous policy, which ever
accept was the great though indefinite mainly influenced this mighty potentate,
position of imperial councillor, which kept Erasmus from being the trusted
was conferred on him by the emperor counsellor in religious matters of the
Charles V. directly after his election to sovereign whose dominions stretched from
the imperial throne. This was a rank the Spanish shores washed by the Atlantic
in some respects corresponding to the and Mediterranean to the countries watered
present position of an English privy by the Danube in central Europe. At
councillor, involving no special duties. Rome, during the pontificate of the mag
The appellation, however, well expressed nificent Leo X., and of his successors,

the general status of Erasmus in the Adrian VI., Clement VII., and Paul III.,
western world during the last eighteen with brief intervals of coldness and mis
or twenty years of his career. trust, Erasmus was ever honoured, and
He was the counsellor whose advice was even courted. His advice was constantly
eagerly sought on all sides, and by most sought, and his powerful support desired.
parties, in the burning theological dis No honour in the gift of Rome, however
putes which were then so largely occu great, was too great for Erasmus, had he
pying the attention of the western nations. only deigned to accept it.
In England his many friends continu On the educated classes of Europe
ally corresponded with the distinguished generally, his influence, after the publica
divine who was so closely and intimately tion of his Greek New Testament, was
associated with the party of religious re enormous. His voluminous and varied
form, and who was regarded as the brightest correspondence tells us how many of these
ornament of the devoted English
company, constantly wrote to him for advice and
whose undying title to honour it will ever counsel during this momentous period.
be, that it had consecrated the new learn Everything he wrote was multiplied by
ing to the cause of true religion. The the printing-presses into thousands of
German reformers were eager that Eras copies, and was eagerly devoured in all
mus, with his
all-powerful reputation, countries by thinking men of very different
should put himself at their head and ; degrees and parties. A
few lines of his in
later, when he doubted the wisdom of a letter addressed to an
anonymous person
Luther s action, and openly avowed his age of the highest importance perhaps
disapproval of many of his words and the elector of Saxony, before the Diet of
works, the more thoughtful and moderate Worms in 1521, when his assistance was
 15161536.] VAST INFLUENCE OF ERASMUS.
463
earnestly asked for, both by the Lutheran great reformer, the emperor goes on, in
and the Catholic will show the
parties, language of remarkable assurance, to ex
attitude adopted by Erasmus in the
great press his sure confidence respecting the
dispute, and the special work he considered issue of such an inquisitorial examination
God had called him to do. into and works which he, in
writings
You tell me that a few words
"

of mine common with the majority of

thoughtful,
will carry more weight than papal thunder earnest men, admired with an
ungrudging
bolts. You could urge nothing more admiration It is true we have allowed
:
"

calculated to keep me silent. Who am I, your works to be examined, but in this

that I should contradict the Catholic have no reason for alarm. Human
you
church ? If I was sure the holy see was errors be discovered in them, but the
may
wrong, I would say so on a proper worst that can befal you will be an
occasion ;
but it is no duty of mine to affectionate admonition. You will then
decide. My work has been to restore a be able to correct or explain, and Christ s
buried literature, and recall divines from little ones will not be offended. You will
their hair-splitting to a knowledge of the establish your immortal reputation, and
New Testament" shut the mouths of your detractors. Take
What that work had been, and how it courage, therefore be assured that I shall ;

was regarded by all whose opinion carried never cease to respect and esteem you.
real weight, is admirably shown in a letter Remember me in
.
your prayers."
addressed to him by the greatest in dignity
and power in the world of his day the Erasmus produced much
work-filled life

emperor Charles V. The letter is dated magmim, which we have

besides his opus

December, A.D. 1527 : been dwelling on with so much loving

Dear and honoured
"

sir, Two things admiration but with the exception of his

;

maite your letter welcome to me. The great edition of the works of St. Jerome,
receipt of any communication from a per his other writings are chiefly interesting
son whom much affection
I regard with so owing to the strong light they throw on
is itself a
pleasure. The whole . . . the history of public opinion of the time.
church of Christ is your debtor as much and "

Many of his letters his

"

colloquies
as I am. You have done for it what are of inestimable value to the student of

emperors, popes, princes, and academies the Reformation era. Vivid, picturesque,
have tried in vain to do. I congratulate and lucid, possessing a peculiar charm of
you from my heart. You must now com their own, they will ever preserve a high
value the of historic
plete the work which you have begun so among treasures

and may on all literature. His other writings, such as his

successfully, you rely
"
"

Praise of (Encomium
possible support from Then, alluding me." Folly Moriae),

apologetically to a promise he had given Religiosi et

"

Monachi," etc., great though

to the Inquisition to examine the writings their influence was at the time, contain
of Erasmus, in reference to a clamorous much that is regrettable and exaggerated ;

witty, and amusing, may be

request on the part of the enemies of the
it
brilliant,
4^4 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1535-1536.

questioned whether the harm they worked of his mind as he felt the end approaching.
among the many thoughtless and irre Would we had more ;
for the thoughts of

ligious readers who eagerly perused them, Erasmus, at such a time, possess for us an
did not more than counterbalance the absorbing interest.
good they no doubt effected by calling What a retrospect was his as he sat
and mused on the past during these last
months The gay, thoughtless, pleasure-
!

loving, careless scholar the wandering,

homeless, penniless tutor, writer, satirist

of so many years, had become the famous
and universally admired chief of the

literary men of Europe. highest The

dignities in the church waited his accept
ance. Among his friends he counted the
foremost and most powerful personages in
Christendom. He was conscious he had
,ve -

accomplished a work the result of which

would endure till time should be no "

more." Some ten months before his death,

attention to the crying abuses and errors he wrote in one of his letters the following

of the religious practice of the day. beautiful words :

"

My life has been long if

The end of the great life came in A.D. measured by years (nearly seventy). Take
1536. Nearly seventy years of toil arid from it the time lost in struggling against
struggle, darkened by much painful sick gout and stone, ithas not been very much
ness, were to end at last. Parts of the after all. You talk of the great name I

years 1535-6 were quietly spent at Basle, shall leave behind me, and which posterity
where this world-famed scholar had many is never to let die. I care nothing for
friends: this city, he fancied, suited his fame, and nothing for posterity. / desire

failing health. We have some of his only to go home, and to find favour with
letters, written in that concluding stage Christ^
of his life-journey, which tells us something Erasmus had had the rare fortune to
1535-1536.] LAST YEARS OF ERASMUS. 465
meet in the course of
his life s journey the bishop of Rochester (Fisher). They
two really great and good men, who had were the wisest and most men that
saintly
taught him the true secret of life, and how.
to use the vast and precious talents en
trusted to him. Colet and More had
shown him how beautiful a thing it was

to be a Christian. These two friends

had inspired him to work at his Greek
New Testament, the publication of which

"

THE PALMER S EXPERIENCE."

(From a sketch by Holbein in Erasmus "Encomium Moritt."\

England had. In the death of More I

feelas if I had died myself. We . . .

had but one soul between us."

With all his honours and undreamed-of

success, a sense of failure must have op
old man at the end.
pressed the sick and weary
The quiet but
thorough refor
mation he had
RALPH ROISTER DOISTER.
Erasmus "

Encomium Morite.")
worked for, he
{From a sketch by Holbein in
must have seen
revolutionised religious thought. Of these would never be
friends to whom
he owed so much, Colet seriously taken
had died years before, and Erasmus had in hand. The
indeed mourned his irreparable loss. And hierarchy in
More was just gone. Now Erasmus, as different lands

he sat in his quiet study-chamber at Basle, were blind. The

must often have thought of that sunny, papal court was
his dearest friend for years indifferent. His
loving man,
scholar, saint, and statesman
whose dis friend the em
figured head just then was the ghastly orna peror too often
ment on the gate of London Bridge. Thus allowed policy,

he wrote of him a few months before his not righteous-

THE SCRIVEN,
own death: "You will learn, from a letter ness, to guide
(From a sketch by Holbein in

I enclose, the fate of Thomas More and him; he was Erasmus 1

"Encomium Moria.")
466 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1536.

what men would nowadays term a skilful of the Romans I can desire nothing beyond

opportunist little more. Henry VIII., what his goodness already supplies. I am
king of England, from whom he hoped fit for nothing but study. High office
so much, must have grievously dis would be a fresh burden on the back of a

appointed him, as he watched him of broken-down old horse. Wealth at the

whom quite recently he had written, "I end of life is but fresh luggage, when the
love the king, who
has always been good journey is over. Neither Pope nor em
to me," becoming entangled in the meshes peror can delay the advance of years, or
of an illicit passion, and shaping his policy, make bad health into good. Would they
civil and religious, with a view to its grati could This was written in 1532.
!
"

fication. Germany was almost aflame with In 1535 he writes to similar purpose on
civilwar, so intensely in earnest were its hearing that the Pope desired to raise him
bold reformers. The general council to the cardinalate His Holiness spoke
"

of :

the church he had so longed for, seemed of me in high terms, and mentioned me
farther off than ever. Wherever he cast his for a cardinalate. Alas
can scarce put! I

tired eyes, clouds and thick darkness met my head out of room, or draw a
my
his anxious gaze. to go home." He longed "

breath of air which has not been warmed

He wrote playfully with a dash of
still artificially. And am I to be thinking of

his old winning humour, but the fun was red hats ? However, I am glad that the
sad at best. The year before he died we Pope wishes me well." *

come upon this passage in one of his A

few months later, in 1536, Erasmus
letters The cardinal of
:
"

Angelo (the St. breathed his last, without fear, and was
ambassador in Germany from Pope Paul buried in state in the cathedral of Basle.
III.) has given me a magnificent gold cup
as a sign of his goodwill. I produced it One more important work of the same
for my friends, G and R who were
,
nature as the Greek Testament of Erasmus
dining with me. R insisted that I must be noticed. Some six years after
should take my medicine as well as my the bringing out of the latter, was pub
wine out of To the exalted personages
it." lished at Alcala (Complutum), in the
who wished even to the end to confer Spanish province of New Castile, the
some high dignity upon him, he thus book known as the Complutensian Poly-

replied, writing to the cardinal of Trent, glott. This noble work, in six folio
who was deputed by the king of the volumes, contained the New and Old
Romans to tell Erasmus to ask what he Testaments and the Apocrypha. In the
would of him I am much gratified, and Old Testament the Latin Vulgate holds
"

I regret that I am not able to thank the the chief place in the middle of the three
prince in person. You bid me ask some columns, the Hebrew and the Septuagint
favour of him, which you undertake that Greek being printed on either side. The
he will grant. Would that king Christ New Testament contained the Greek text
had sent me such a message : of Him I and that modification of the Vulgate then
should have much to ask. From the king current, in parallel columns.
15211522.] THE COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOT. 467
In any age this folio edition of the Holy later editions of the Greek Testament
Scriptures in various languages would which he published.
have been reckoned as a most important When the archbishop of Toledo was
and valuable work but, considering how
;
shown the Greek Testament of Erasmus,
short a time had elapsed since the first which thus appeared before his grander
introduction of the art of printing, it was edition was quite ready for publication,
indeed a marvellous production. It was his principal editor, Stunica, tried to de
designed and carried out by the perse preciate it. The old man very nobly
verance and splendid munificence of replied :
"

Would to God all the Lord s

cardinal Ximenes, _archbishop of Toledo people were prophets Produce better, !

and primate of Spain. Nearly twenty if thou canst but condemn not the ;

years passed from the date of Ximenes industry of others."

first conception of the mighty work, before

it was published and given to the world. Without the work of Erasmus and
It is said to have cost an enormous sum. Tyndale, the English translator, the Re
From the first this edition of the Scriptures formation would never have been possible.
must have been scarce and dear, for A new light burst upon men when they
only six hundred copies were printed. read the New Testament. Primitive
Various Greek manuscripts of the New Christianity was, as Erasmus wrote to Colet,

Testament were procured by the cardinal

"

overgrown with thorns and briars." The

and his agents, and were used in the Christian religion, as taught and practised
construction of the text. It is not, how in the later mediaeval ages, largely .con

ever, probable that any of those

docu sisted in the mass and in confessions; in

ments, which are now considered of elaborate ceremonials, rituals, processions,

high antiquity or of first-rate import pilgrimages prayers to the Virgin and the
;

the saints an exaggerated and unhealthy

in
ance, were employed by editors. ;

The text it exhibits does not widely reverence for shrines, relics, and images.
differ from that of most Greek manu It seemed as though the Christian world

from the tenth century was sunk in a long deep Out of

scripts written
sleep.

downwards. this deathlike torpor it was awaked by

Its rarity and costliness, of course, pre Erasmus, who put the New Testament
once more in the hands of scholars and
vented any wide or general circulation, ;

and its influence upon public opinion was by Luther in Germany and Tyndale in

and England, who made it in their German

incomparably less than the handier
more Greek Testament put out
accessible and English translations accessible to all
had the start of sorts and conditions of men. Erasmus s
by Erasmus, who, besides,
edition work, to use his own nervous words,
was
Ximenes Complutensian by nearly
"

to restore a buried literature to recall

six years. This great Spanish Polyglot ;

divines from hair-splitting to a knowledge

was seen and examined by Erasmus in A.D.

himself of its aid in of the New Testament." The view which

1522, and he availed
own text in the English scholars took
of him is expressed
the improvement of his
468 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1516 1526.

by Colet, who wrote to him, in the letter the spirit which the labours of Erasmus
already quoted, how he so "

loved his had diffused, and set himself to the study

friend s work that he clasped it to his of Greek and Hebrew, with a result the
heart." He tells him how he admires his western world was soon conscious of.
eloquence his very length he felt was
;
Before Erasmus brought out and gave

brevity.
"

Go on, Erasmus," he wrote in the to the world his first edition of the New
passage already cited, and then proceeds : Testament in Greek and Latin in 1516,
4
.In making known the Scriptures
. . and Luther his German translation in

your fortune cannot fail you. Only put 1522, and Tyndale his English translation

your trust in God, who will be the first to in 1525-26, so much only of the Gospels
help you, and will stir up others to aid you and Epistles of the New Testament was
in your sacred labours." known to the laity, as was read in church
Dean Colet was not alone in his admira services. Of the rest of the Bible little,

tion of Erasmus s work on the New Testa comparatively speaking, was practically
ment. Other scholars at once joined in the known Copies of the Scriptures
at all.

chorus of praise of the noble student of the were rare, shut up in monastic libraries,
"

Word." For instance, William Latimer and studied only by professional theo
of Oxford, one of the earliest great scholars logians. Conventional interpretations, too,
in England, expressed his ardent approval were given to the text, which too often
of the new Latin translation archbishop ; corrupted or distorted its meaning. Much
Warham, the pious and learned archbishop even of what was read in the public
of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. the services, was so read or intoned as to
link, so to speak, between the old and convey little meaning to the ordinary
new learning recommended the Greek listener. Erasmus bitterly remarks how
version and new Latin translation to "

St. Paul said he would rather speak five

his brother bishops and to divines. words with a reasonable meaning in them
*
he wrote to Erasmus,
All," acknow "

than ten thousand in an unknown tongue.

ledge that the work was worthy of the They chant nowadays in our churches in
labour bestowed upon Fox, bishop it." what is an unknown tongue, and nothing
of Winchester, in a great assembly of else. Modern church music is so
. , .

magnates, declared that

"

Erasmus s new constructed that the congregation cannot

Latin version threw so much light on the hear one distinct word. The choristers
New Testament that it was worth to him themselves do not understand what they
more than ten commentaries." The dean are saying. Why will they not . . .

of Salisbury, another famous scholar, used listen to St. Paul ? In college or monastery

well-nigh the same words. More s praise it is still the same music, nothing but
is well known. On the continent of music. There was no music in St. Paul s

Europe, to take two conspicuous examples : time. Words were then pronounced
Melancthon, that deep, profound, and plainly. Words nowadays mean nothing :

tender theologian, was amongst the fore they are mere sounds striking upon the
most of his admirers ; and Luther caught ear. . . .
Boys are kept in the English
470 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [15161526.

Benedictine and simply so the Gospel of Christ faded out in a

colleges solely ;

wrote the scholar reformer,

to singmorning hymns to the Virgin. If little while,"

music, let them sing psalms, would the spark of Christianity have
"

want last
they
like rational beings."
. . .
"They bray been extinguished, and we should have
out psalms,"
he says in another writing, been enslaved in a worse than Jewish
41
in the churches like so many jackasses. ceremonial and there were good men even
;

They do not understand a word of them, among theologians who see these things

but they fancy the sound is soothing to and deplore them. The sacred . . .

the ears of the saints." This picture is writings are set aside as antiquated. No
but there word of Christ is heard in the pulpits."
probably somewhat exaggerated,
is no doubt that the way in which the The awakening of men s minds was

Scriptures were read or said or intoned sudden, the effect tremendous. When
or sung, was too often utterly unintelligible scholars read, as many of them did in
to the masses. all the lands of western Christendom, the

In his "

paraclesis
"

or preface to his words of Christ and His Apostles in the

New Testament, Erasmus inveighs bitterly Greek New Testament published by Eras
against the mediaeval spirit, which
was evi mus, and in his faithful Latin translation ;

dently unwilling that the sacred Scriptures when the people read and listened to the
should be read by the unlearned and trans same divine sayings in the beautiful true
renderings of Tyndale in English and of
"

lated into the vulgar tongue, as though

Christ had taught such subtleties that they Luther German, then was, indeed, a
in

can be scarcely understood even by a few new, strong light thrown upon religion.
theologians, or as though the strength
of In these divers writings there was much
the Christian religion consisted in men s about Christ and His loving work, much
ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings," about the ever-blessed eternal sacrifice, the
he added, be safer to conceal; but
"

it may precious blood which cleanseth from all

Christ wished His mysteries to be published sin but nothing about the images which
;

as openly as possible. The weakest should men had come to look on with such awful
read the Gospel,"
went on our scholar reverence, or about the roods they had
reformer,
"

should read the Epistles of Paul. been taught to visit and to pray before ;

I wish these were translated into all

nothing bearing upon the intercession of
languages."
"

Why,"
he asks,
"

are the saints or the wondrous virtue of relics ;

schoolmen studied rather than the Gospels ? nothing about pilgrimages to holy sites, to
What are Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, and tombs, and places hallowed by holy martyr
Occam comparison with Christ ? The
in doms and saintly lives. Above all, in that

New Testament the evangelical writings New Testament, so long a sealed book, as
these are the food of the soul. They must they turned over its charmed pages they
permeate the very depth of the heart and sought, but sought in vain, for any hint as
mind." Too often was Christ utterly
"

to the power of the Blessed Virgin with

Erasmus. Doctrines of her divine Son. Blessed, indeed, was she
"

forgotten,"
said

human invention were too often preached ;

mirrored there among women, but for the
The Church of Englan
mm
am