loyalty on the other; but it was capable of being dreadfully abused, from the power which the lord possessed, especially when his vassal was under age. He had then the custody of the minor's lands and person, and had the power even of disposing of his vassal in marriage.

This reign was unfavourable to the independence of the English Church, William indeed was himself little inclined to part with any of his power to pope Gregory VII. (or Hildebrand), who was then putting forward the most extravagant claims of supremacy; and his answer to the Pope's demand that he would take an oath of fealty to him and his successors was, Homage to thee I have not chosen -I do not choose-to do. I owe it not on my own account; nor do I find that it has been performed by those before me." But with all this, having invaded England under the pretended sanction of a papal grant, and relying so much as he did on the clergy for support, he doubtless in the main increased the influence of Rome; and the Norman bishops whom he brought in were considerably more infected with Romish errors than the Saxon clergy.

One point William certainly conceded to Rome on Gregory's importunity-the continuance of the payment called Peter-pence. But this was in its origin a voluntary payment or offering made by Ina, king of Wessex, being in pilgrimage to Rome, in the year of our Lord, 720; it was a penny for every house. The like was given by Offa, king of Mercia, A.D. 794; not as a tribute to the Pope, but to sustain the English school or college at Rome; and it derived its name from being collected on the day of St. Peter ad Vincula. From these local payments for a particular object and from private feelings, the payment had become general. William could probably scarce trace its origin, and acquiesced in it. The practice was first prohibited by Edward III., and abrogated by Henry VIII. After being revived by Queen. Mary, it was at length wholly abrogated by Queen Elizabeth.

Church architecture began to be more studied in William's reign than it had been before. Either to his encouragement, or to the piety of individuals, we owe the commencement of the crypt or under-church of Canterbury cathedral; part of St. Alban's abbey, and of the cathedrals of Winchester and Rochester, are attributable to his era. [H. s. 1.]

C

Among the learned men of William's court were Ingulphus, abbot of Croyland, his secretary, who wrote a history of that monastery, interspersed with records of the English kings; and William of Poitiers, his chaplain, who has left an account of the Norman revolution.

There is a work of the Conqueror, which has lasted to our times, and is a proof of his wisdom and ability. This is a book called Doomsday Book; in which is contained an account of all the landed property throughout a great part of the kingdom, given after an accurate survey.

The

The latter years of his life were embittered by the quarrels and undutiful behaviour of his sons, and also by the death of his queen, Matilda, a lady of remarkable piety and sweetness of character. His younger sons, William and Henry, on one occasion, threw some dirty water over Robert, their eldest brother, who drew his sword, and would have struck his brothers in his fury. Not obtaining the satisfaction he expected for this boyish folly, which he took as a studied affront, he withdrew from the court, and afterwards revolted against his father, demanding to be at once invested with the duchies of Normandy and Maine. Conqueror replied to this demand, that it was not his custom to strip till he went to bed. In one of the encounters in this unnatural contest, it is said that the father and son, unknown to each other, were engaged in deadly combat; and Robert was on the point of dispatching his own father, when William raised his vizor, and Robert was surprised and shocked to see his father's face. He thanked God for saving him from so great a crime; and begging his father to forgive him, he mounted him on his own horse, as the king's had been killed in the fight. The king died in Normandy, from a hurt received from the pommel of his saddle, and was buried at Caen, between the towers of the noble cathedral which he had founded. His funeral was disturbed by one who declared that that very spot had been unrighteously taken from his father, and summoned the departed king before the tribunal of God to answer for that act of oppression. How many a similar appeal might have been made by his English subjects! His mere passion for the chase had been indulged to such excess, that he had turned out the miserable peasants from a wide tract of country in Hants, still called the New Forest, in order to

convert it into a royal domain; and by his laws, a man who killed a stag or a hare was punished with the most relentless cruelty. By his will his Norman dominions were left to Robert; and William, (called Rufus or the Red, from the colour of his hair,) his second son, ascended the throne of England, A.D. 1087.

CHAPTER VII.

WILLIAM (RUFUS).

Cathedral.

Born in Normandy. Buried in Winchester
Reigned from A.D. 1087 to A.D. 1100, thirteen years.

Archbishops of Canterbury.

Lanfranc, A.D. 1070-1089.

(Vacancy five years.)

Anselm, A.D. 1093-1107.

THE accession of William Rufus was unwelcome to the Norman barons. They would rather have had Robert for their king, who was a prince of an indolent and easy character, and at the same time brave, generous, and sincere; whereas William was known to be as keen and shrewd as he was violent, grasping, and unbridled by any fear of God, or feeling for man. He had the cunning to court his Saxon subjects, in order to win their aid in quelling the revolt which was raised by the nobles in favour of his brother; and when he had gained his point, he forgot his promises, and oppressed the English with a lawlessness more unbearable than his father's rigour. After the death of Lanfranc, who alone held him in any check, he seized the revenues of his see, and kept them for five years, together with those of many other abbeys and bishoprics; nor was it till his conscience was alarmed by a dangerous illness that he appointed Anselm to the primacy, who had been closely connected with Lanfranc, and who accepted the office most unwillingly. When William was recovered of his illness, he continued to set God and man at defiance, and met the remonstrances of Anselm with such fury, that that prelate (who has gained the title of saint from his holiness and zeal in withstanding the unrighteous