ignorant that doubts were entertained concerning it, that William himself had not been crowned by him, and that even Harold and several English bishops, including his own predecessor, Wulfwig, had avoided consecration at his hands. As William, however, did not raise objection to the consecration of Remigius by the primate, we may conclude that it took place with his permission, perhaps by his direction. If so we have here a proof of his caution. He did not wish to betray his intention towards Stigand until he could make sure of his action being supported by the weight of papal authority. The point of immediate practical importance for William was that the vacant see of Dorchester should be filled with a Norman.

Wells.

After the reduction of the West country, which was completed by the fall of Exeter in 1068, the Church in Normandy was enriched by grants out of the Bishop Leofric of Exeter conquered territory, more especially the metroand Gisa of politan see of Rouen, and the monastic houses founded by William and Matilda at Caen, while one lordship in Somerset was bestowed upon the church of St. Peter's at Rome. The churches of St. Germans and Bodmin in Cornwall were deprived of many of their lands to swell the vast possessions of the king's brother, Robert, Earl of Mortain. Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, and Gisa, Bishop of Wells, were not disturbed in their sees. But Gisa was a Lotharingian by birth, and Leofric was a Lotharingian by education and training. Both of them had re-modelled their chapters of secular canons on the Lotharingian pattern by introducing the rule of Chrodegang of Metz, which imposed a kind of monastic discipline on the canons, requiring the use of a common refectory and a common dormitory. Such a reform would find favour with William and Lanfranc, who regarded monasticism as the highest type of religious life.

Archbishop

Gloucestershire and Worcestershire seem to have been subdued about the same time. They were placed under the rule of a most oppressive sheriff, Urse of Abetot, Ealdred and who laid violent hands with impartial rapacity on the sheriff. the property of laymen and clerics. He built a castle at Worcester close to the monastery of St. Mary's, and grievously annoyed the monks by his depredations. They

I

ARCHBISHOP EALDRED

II

complained to Ealdred, Archbishop of York, who investigated their grievances on the spot, and rebuked the sheriff to his face, invoking a malediction upon him in a vigorous bit of English verse:—

"Hightest thou Urse,

Have thou God's curse."

William of Malmesbury relates that the bishop added, "and my own curse and that of all hallowed heads unless thou takest thy cattle from hence, and know of a surety that thy offspring shall not long enjoy their heritage of St. Mary's land;"

-a prediction which, the Chronicler says, was fulfilled in his son, Roger, who was banished by King Henry I., because he had dared, in a fit of passion, to have one of the royal officials put to death. Whatever truth there may be in the details of this story it illustrates the sufferings to which the people were liable at the hands of insolent Norman officials, and the way in which a courageous English prelate could stand between the oppressor and the oppressed. The part which native clergy in high position had to play must have been extremely difficult. Many of them probably recognised in the success of William, and the sanction of his enterprise by the pope, the verdict of heaven in his favour, and were prepared to submit to him as their lawful sovereign. Many more must have perceived the hopelessness of resistance, and must have desired for the sake of peace that the people would quietly bow to a yoke which they could not shake off. On the other hand, it must have been impossible not to sympathise, and difficult to refrain from joining, with the people when they were goaded to revolt by the rapacity or cruelty of the Conqueror's agents.

Bishop of

Durham.

When the great insurrection broke out in Northumbria in 1068 the clergy and monks offered daily prayers for its success. The primate Ealdred endeavoured, but Æthelwine, in vain, to restrain the movement. When William paid his first visit to York on his way to quell the revolt, Æthelwine, Bishop of Durham, came and made submission, and arranged terms of peace between the Conqueror and Malcolm, King of Scots. But Durham itself had not submitted, and the inhabitants were presently provoked to outrage by the folly and violence of Robert of Comines,

whom William made Earl of Northumberland. When the earl marched northwards to take possession of his territory the bishop, knowing the temper of the people, met him near Durham, and entreated him not to attempt to enter the city. Robert, however, persisted, and was lodged without opposition in the bishop's house, where he was treated with all due respect. But his followers took upon themselves to treat the city like a place captured by storm; the citizens were pillaged and some of them slain. Next morning, aided by a force from outside, the people turned furiously upon their oppressors, and a general massacre of the Normans took place. The earl and his retinue offered a stubborn resistance at the bishop's house, but at last the insurgents set fire to it. The house was burned, and the earl and all his companions, save one, perished either in the fire or by the sword. The flames nearly caught the western towers of the Minster, but were diverted by a change of wind, in answer, as it was believed, to the prayers of the people.

In the winter of 1069-1070, when William took a terrible vengeance for a second revolt of the Northumbrians, by laying waste the country, Bishop Æthelwine and the canons sought safety for themselves and the relics of their patron, Saint Cuthbert, in flight to his holy isle of Lindisfarne; and on his arrival at Durham the king found the city deserted, except by the aged, infirm, and sick, who had sought shelter in the Minster, where many perished miserably of cold, hunger, and disease. It was the depth of winter and the cold was intense, but the king did not desist from the work of devastation until he had subdued the whole of Northumbria by turning it into a wilderness. Then he moved southwards. The last place which made a stand was Chester, and the country round was ravaged with merciless severity before the city yielded. The fugitive inhabitants made their way in crowds to the Abbey of Evesham where Ethelwig, the abbot, supplied them with food and shelter, but the abbey buildings could not contain them all. Many lay in the streets and churchyard, many were too weak and ill to take the food offered to them; many died day after day, and were buried by the pious care of the Prior Elfric.

With the fall of Chester the subjugation of all England

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SETTLEMENT OF THE CHURCH

subjugated.

13

was complete. The work had been done with such thoroughness that no further attempts at resistance on a large scale were possible. The merciless destruc-England tion of life and property is indeed a sickening story, yet one great crushing blow perhaps inflicts less misery than the protracted and wearing struggles of a half-conquered people. And although William was a hard man, callous to human suffering and unscrupulous in the sacrifice of human life when it seemed necessary for securing his ends, he was not wantonly cruel. He was a stern, but on the whole, a just master; robbery, wrong, and violence did not easily escape punishment in his reign; he endeavoured to rule not as a foreign despot but as an English king, in accordance with the ancient laws of the realm. And although for the reduction

of rebellion, or even for the creation of a hunting-ground he did not hesitate to destroy churches, yet he was not unmindful of his coronation oath "that he would defend the churches of God, and the rulers thereof, that he would govern with righteousness and prudence, that he would ordain and keep right law, and utterly prohibit plunder and unjust judgments."

As soon as the country had been thoroughly subdued, he turned his attention to the establishment of good order in Church as well as State.

1070.

It was his custom to keep the three great festivals of the Church in three different places-Christmas at Gloucester, Easter at Winchester, and Whitsuntide at Westminster. On these occasions he wore his crown in solemn state and took counsel with the great men, the "witan" of the realm,—archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, thegns, and knights. The first of these great councils after the reduction of Council at the country was held at the Easter Festival at Winchester, Winchester in 1070. At this council three papal legates appeared,-Ermenfrid, Bishop of Sitten, with the cardinal priests, John and Peter. They placed the crown on William's head, thus publicly confirming his position with the seal of papal approbation. They were honoured, it is said, by him as if they had been angels of God, and aided him in many places and many affairs with their authority and advice. Their arrival is significant of the closer relation which was to exist henceforth between the papacy and the English Church,

and it marks the beginning of the process by which native bishops and abbots were systematically supplanted by foreigners, for the most part, of course, Normans.

The metropolitan see of York was already vacant by the death of Ealdred; the see of Canterbury was now to be made void by the deposition of Stigand. Up to Deposition of Archbishop this time William had dissembled his intention Stigand. towards the primate; for although Stigand had not been selected to pour the consecrating oil on the Conqueror's head at his coronation, yet he had been permitted to take some part in the ceremony, and to consecrate Remigius of Dorchester, the only bishop whom William had appointed since his accession; and when the king took Stigand to Normandy he had treated him with marked honour and respect. But he was now formally tried before the legates and condemned on three grounds. (i.) He held the see of Winchester together with the archbishopric; (ii.) he had seized the archbishopric during the lifetime of Robert of Jumièges, and in celebrating mass had used the pall which Archbishop Robert had left behind him; (iii.) he had obtained his own pall from the usurping Pope Benedict X. Stigand's defence, whatever it may have been, of which we have no record, was deemed insufficient. He was deprived of both his bishoprics and kept under some kind of restraint at Winchester for the remainder of his life. The most probable out of many stories appears to be that he was confined to the precincts of the royal castle, with full permission to procure such food and clothing as became his station. He persisted, however, in leading a very ascetic life, and when his friends, more especially the "old lady," Lady Eadgith, the widow of King Eadward, entreated him to indulge himself in more comforts, he was wont to declare on oath that he had not a penny to spend. After his death, however, a large hoard was found buried in the ground, and a key which was suspended from the bishop's neck opened a writing case which contained an exact description of the quality and weight of the coin. Whatever truth there may be in these stories, William of Malmesbury, and all the Chroniclers who follow him, agree in stating that he had been an avaricious man, who had bought his own preferment, and had enriched himself by the sale of