Archbishop of Canterbury, from what he had seen at Rome, in A. D. 742; though they were not universal until long after, when many legends were invented to show the sanctity of burial in them, nor were they originally inclosed.

In A. D. 1061, Aldred, Archbishop of York, made a great alteration in the habits of his clergy, which before did not differ from that of the laity.

There has been considerable discussion concerning the time when parishes were formed; but the Parochia of the seventh century signified a diocess, and not those small districts at present called parishes, which were formed at various periods. From the extent of the ancient districts, chapels were erected in the hamlets; and before the Norman Invasion the King's manors were furnished with churches and chapels in the hamlets, as were also some other manors, the greater landlords preferring private chapels. This custom prevailed in the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, when even common lawyers are said to have had their chaplains.

CHAPTER III.

ROMISH CHURCH IN ENGLAND FROM A. D. 1066 TO A. D. 1485.

IMPLICIT devotion to the Papal decrees being as much the principal of the Norman monks, as it had been of the Anglo-Saxons, little alteration was made in the English Church by the invasion of William in 1066. The high-minded strangers, however, who replaced the monks dispossessed by the King, soon quarrelled between themselves for precedence; and it was not without great difficulty that Thomas, Archbishop of York, was induced to submit to Lanfranc of Canterbury. The former ecclesiastic maintained, that York, having been founded by Scotish Bishops, was independent of Canterbury, quoting venerable Bede as an authority; but the latter pleaded custom, and so established his claim, when the cause was disputed before the King in Council. But some change the clergy did experience from William, since he made church-lands liable to military services, which the Anglo-Saxon priests had been exempted from; and he often seized upon the vessels and treasures of the monasteries. It may be remarked, however, in mentioning this subject, that the clergy do not always appear to have remained free from military duties even in their

own persons, since writs have been occasionally issued by the English Sovereigns for calling out all those between the ages of 16 and 60.

The dispute concerning clerical celibacy still continued between the Pope and the Priesthood, though the ordinance was at length permanently established, and the pontifical influence extensively increased. At the same time, however, Paschal II. admitted, that the best and most considerable part of the English clergy were sons of priests, and commanded that ordination should not be withheld from them on that account.

This

liberty seems to have been altered by a Council held in 1175, when it was ordered that no priests' sons should succeed to the livings of their fathers, and that none of the superior clergy should presume to marry. Ecclesiastical marriage had also been condemned by a severe code of laws published in 1108; and about 1166 John di Crema proceded rigorously against the married priests. This ecclesiastic was the first Papal legate ever admitted in England; but by his own incautious profligacy he soon lost his importance, and quitted the nation in secrecy and disgrace.

The Norman feudal custom of the lord of an estate taking homage of his kneeling tenant, with his hands enclosed in his own, became also a matter of dispute with the Pope; since Urban II. by a canon issued at Bari in 1098, denounced excommunication against the laymen who gave investiture to, and took homage of priests, and all ecclesiastics who yielded to either claim. “ What," exclaimed the pontiff, according to Eadmer's report of this circumstance, "shall those hands which can create the Divinity," alluding to the transub

"be

stantiation of the Host in performing mass, pressed between hands stained with blood, and polluted with obscenity?" and upon the conclusion of his speech, the conclave assented by a loud and repeated Amen. Henry I., however, strongly contested this privilege, since it secured to the ecclesiastics an entire independence of the laity; upon which Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, went again to Rome, and William Wadwast was sent to oppose him. The latter so irritated the Pope by his powerful reasoning, that he swore aloud "before God," he would not allow laymen the privilege of investiture. A reconciliation took place only by the interposition of Adela, the sister of King Henry, from her fear of his eternal condemnation; when the right of investiture-giving the pastoral staff and ring—was yielded to the Church, and that of homage retained for the temporal lord.

At the close of the eleventh century, the clergy of England appear to have been in high esteem since the choice of a Bishop of St David's was submitted to Henry I, and Bernard, a chaplain of the Queen, was nominated to the See. In 1120, also, Alexander King of Scotland, asked the English Sovereign for Eadmer the historian to be Bishop of St Andrews; but though the King consented, the conscientious monk declined it, because he could not be consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In the baronial tumults of Stephen's reign, the Court of Rome artfully seized upon several privileges, especially the very important power of deciding on ecclesiastical causes: one of which lastYOL. I.

F

ed five years before the Pope, at an enormous expense. Nothing, however, appears to have been more pleasing to Rome, than any appeal from the temporal to the spiritual jurisdiction, and no acknowledgments were withheld to encourage them. "Blessed be thy heart and thy senses, said Urban II. to Archbishop Anselm, when he visited .Rome in 1098 to complain of William II., " Blessed be thy lips and the words that issue out of them;" to which he also added an honourable station in his council. The desire of Papal supremacy had probably first appeared in A.D. 1013, when the Emperor Henry II. was crowned at Rome, and Benedict VIII. demanded if he would always be faithful to him and his successors. When Henry I. of England accepted the sovereignty of Ireland from Adrian IV., he tacitly acknowledged the same power; since the grant declared that every island in which Christianity had gained the ascendant, belonged of right to St Peter and the holy Roman Church. King John, however, allowed this claim in a still more extended form, when he resigned his kingdoms to the legate Pandulphus in 1213; to hold them as the Pontiff's tributary, by paying for them annually 1000 marks, 6667. 13s. 4d.

The ecclesiastics of England were not without their own ambitious disputes during this period; for at the commencement of the reign of Henry II. the more wealthy and powerful dignitaries of the church endeavoured to withdraw their benefices from Episcopal jurisdiction. Some of them forged characters of exemption, which were detected; and others applied to the Pope for a license to be independent of all but himself, and