on the royal head, and he refused to proceed with the service until it was removed, and he had replaced it on the king's head with his own hands.

successor

dies, 1122.

Archbishop Ralph died in 1122. The election of his is another curious example of a compromise between the claims of rival powers. A council Abp. Ralph called by Henry I. five months after the death of Ralph to settle the appointment of his successor was attended by bishops and lay lords, together with the Prior and some of the monks of Christchurch, Canterbury. The latter said that they were determined to elect one of their own body, and asked the king to nominate one whom he might prefer. The bishops, on the other hand, urged the appointment of a secular clerk, while the lay magnates supported the contention of the monks. The episcopal party, led by Roger, Bishop of Sarum, had most influence with the king, and in the end it was settled that the names of four secular clerks should be submitted to the monks of Christchurch, and that the one whom they selected should be appointed primate. Their choice fell on William Corbeil, of Corbeil. Having been originally a clerk to Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, he had abandoned this calling to become a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine, which had been recently introduced into England, and he had been made prior of a house founded for Austin canons at Chich in Essex, by Richard of Belmeis, Bishop of London.

William of

Abp. of Canterbury.

Thurstan, Archbishop of York, now made another attempt to assert his independence. He offered to consecrate the new primate, and the offer was accepted, provided Abp. Thurston again he would acknowledge him as primate of all claims England, but to this condition Thurstan would not independence. assent. William, therefore, was consecrated by his own suffragans, the Bishops of London and Winchester, with others. The rivalry between the archbishops was continued at Rome. William hastened there to obtain his pall, but Thurstan had arrived there before him, and prejudiced the mind of Pope Calixtus against him.

At last, however, in the words of the Chronicle, King Henry and the new primate "overcame Rome by that which

VII

A PAPAL LEGATE

141

Cardinal John

of Crema,

legate.

overcomes all the world-gold and silver," and the pope
bestowed the pall on Archbishop William. He postponed,
however, his judgment on the claims of the rival sees, and
made this question, with others, a pretext for send-
ing a legate, Cardinal John of Crema, into England.
Calixtus died before the legate had started, but his
commission was renewed by the succeeding pope, Honorius
II., who addressed letters to the clergy and people of England,
and to David, King of Scotland, commanding them to receive
the legate as the vicar of St. Peter, armed with plenary
authority to correct all abuses and promote religion in every
possible way. The legate met the King of Scotland to settle
a controversy as to the Archbishop of York's jurisdiction over
the Scotch bishops, and he then went southwards.
He was
received with great honour by the two archbishops, but the
Church and nation generally were indignant at his taking
precedence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. That he
should usurp the place of the primate by celebrating mass in
the mother Church on Easter Day was a scandal, says
Gervase, that convulsed the public mind with anger.

resented.

In September, 1125, he presided at a great council at Westminster, attended by the two archbishops, twenty bishops, forty abbots and a great crowd of clergy and laity. The legate's The summons was issued by the primate and with assumptions his consent (nostrâ conniventiâ) on behalf of the legate, but the people generally regarded the position assumed by the legate as an insult and encroachment on the rights of the national Church. "It was a thing," says Gervase, "hitherto unheard of, that a clerk who was only of the rank of presbyter should occupy a throne above archbishops, bishops, abbots, and all the nobility of the realm." Various canons were passed in this council, simony was forbidden, and fees for chrism, baptism, penance, visitation of the sick, unction, administration of the viaticum, and burial were absolutely prohibited. Clerks holding benefices, who evaded ordination of the priesthood in order to live more freely, were to lose their benefices. No one was to be ordained deacon or priest except to a clear title. Priests, deacons, subdeacons, and canons were forbidden to have wives or concubines or any woman living in the same house with them,

1125

The legate disgrace.

The

except a mother or some near relation above suspicion. legate himself was detected in a breach of this last decree during his sojourn in England, and he was subdeparts in jected in consequence to so much scorn and ridicule that he was glad to sneak quietly and speedily out of the kingdom. Thus the rival claims of the two metropolitan sees were still left unsettled. The two archbishops again repaired to Rome, where Archbishop William Abp. William obtained a commission for himself as legate with made legate. jurisdiction over all Britain. This was a most important event, for it set a precedent for bestowing the office of legatus natus on future archbishops of Canterbury. Of course this custom strengthened in one sense the hold of Rome on the English Church. It was an acknowledgment of the supreme authority of the pope. The primate shone with a reflected glory, his pre-eminence was not inherent but derivative; but, on the other hand, it prevented the frequent intrusion of foreigners as legates a latere, which was always resented by the nation, and generally by the sovereign, unless he wished to use papal authority in order to uphold the arbitrary exercise of his own power.

Abp. William.

The primate, William of Corbeil, was not a man of such a strong character as his predecessor. Henry of Huntingdon, indeed, says that his glories could not be described Character of because they were non-existent; but other Chroniclers represent him as a man of modest life, unaffected piety, and good education. He built the keep of the castle at Rochester, and completed the building of Canterbury Cathedral, which had been begun by Lanfranc. It was dedicated with great magnificence on May 4, 1130, the Kings of England and Scotland being present. On one occasion, owing to his weakness and complaisance, he was outwitted by the king. In 1129, when Henry had returned to England after subduing all his opponents in France, Normandy, Brittany, and Anjou, he presided at a council in London on August 1, to take measures to inforce celibacy of the clergy. The two archbishops and most of the bishops of the southern province were present. A decree was passed that all married clergy should put away their wives before St. Andrew's Day, November 30, or be deprived of their

VII

THE CHURCH IN WALES

143

benefices. The execution, however, of the decree was unwarily surrendered to the king, with the result that a large number of the clergy were permitted to redeem their wives by paying heavy fines. Thus the royal treasury was enriched, the clergy were impoverished, and the bishops, especially the primate, were discredited.

The metropolitan authority of Canterbury over the Welsh bishops was definitely established in the reign of Henry I. Urban, Archdeacon of Llandaff, was nominated to the bishopric in 1107, consecrated by Anselm at Canterbury, and made profession of canonical obedience to him. Bernard, whose consecration to the see of St. David's in 1115 has been recorded above, was the first Norman appointed to a Welsh bishopric. Hervé, made Bishop of Bangor in 1092, was a Breton. David, the successor of Hervé in 1120, was a Welshman, elected from Scotland by Griffith, Prince of Cwynedd, together with the clergy and people, but he wa consecrated at Westminster and made profession of obedience to Canterbury. Hervé, who had been thrust into the see of Bangor against the will of the clergy, was not a wise or conciliatory man. His harsh rule provoked violent resistance, and at last he fled for his life to the court of Henry. In 1108 it was decided in a council at London that the vast diocese of Lincoln should be relieved by the creation of a new diocese, to include Cambridgeshire. The see was fixed at Ely, and Hervé was appointed the first bishop. Henry also formed Carlisle into a see with a chapter of Augustinian canons regular in 1133. The great Benedictine Abbey of Reading was founded by him; Cirencester Abbey, Dunstaple, and Southwyke priories, all for Augustinian canons, were also his foundations.

AUTHORITIES.-Henry of Huntingdon, Will. of Malmesb., Gesta Pont. and Gesta Reg., Annals of Waverly, Wykes and Oseney, Symeon of Durham and Gervase of Canterbury (all in Rolls series). Flor. of Worcester (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Dugdale's Monasticon; Freeman's Norm. Conq. vol. v. pp. 148-243; Hook's Lives of Archbisops of Canterbury, vol. ii.

CHAPTER VIII

king, 1135.

EVIL TIMES

HENRY I. endeavoured to secure the succession for his daughter Matilda and her offspring by exacting oaths of fealty to her on three occasions from the leading men of Stephen of Blois elected his dominions, both in England and Normandy. Nevertheless, from the moment of Henry's death, the succession was treated as an open question. Stephen of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror, by his daughter Adela, and nephew of the late king, promptly seized the opportunity. He landed in Kent with a few followers. Dover and Canterbury, which were fortresses of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, half-brother of Matilda, refused him admission, but he pressed on to London, where he was elected by the citizens. There was, indeed, no one at hand who seemed so likely to prove a capable ruler. He was handsome in person and affable in manner; he had exhibited military skill as well as courage. His wife also came of a good stock, for her mother was sister to the wife of Henry I., "the Good Queen Mold."

Stephen presently hastened, like Henry I. and William Rufus, to secure the royal city of Winchester, where the inhabitants came out to greet him, headed by his Stephen at brother, Bishop Henry of Blois. The support of Winchester. Henry was of great value to Stephen. The bishop

made himself a kind of surety for the good treatment of the Church by his brother, and induced William de Pont de l'Arche, who was joint-treasurer with Bishop Roger of Salisbury, to surrender the royal hoard to him.