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the state; and it could no more be otherwise in those days, than it is possible it should be so in ours.

William the Conqueror made it one principal point of his politics to reduce the clergy; but all the steps he took in it were not equally well calculated to answer this intention. When he subjected church lands to military service, the clergy complained bitterly, as it lessened their revenue; but I imagine it did not lessen their power in proportion; for by this regulation they came, like other great lords, to have their military vassals, who owed them homage and fealty; and this rather increased their consideration amongst so martial a people. The kings, who succeeded him, though they also aimed at reducing the ecclesiastical power, never pursued their scheme on a great or legislative principle. They seemed rather desirous of enriching themselves by the abuses in the church, than earnest to correct them. One day they plundered, and the next day they founded monasteries, as their rapaciousness or their scruples chanced to predominate; so that every attempt of that kind, having rather the air of tyranny than reformation, could never be heartily approved, or seconded by the body of the people.

The bishops must always be considered in the double capacity of clerks and barons. Their courts, therefore, had a double jurisdiction ; over the clergy and laity of their diocese, for the cognizance of crimes against ecclesiastical law, and over the vassals of their barony, as lords paramount. But these two departments, so different in their nature, they frequently confounded by making use of the spiritual weapon of excommunication to enforce the judgments of both; and this sentence, cutting off the party from the common society of mankind, lay equally heavy on all ranks; for, as it deprived the lower sort of the fellowship of their equals, and the protection of their lord, so it deprived the lord of the services of his vassals, whether he or they lay under the sentence. This was one of the grievances which the king proposed to redress.

As some sanction of religion is mixed with almost every concern of civil life, and as the ecclesiastical court took cognizance of all religious matters, it drew to itself not only all questions relative to tithes and advowsons, but whatever related to marriages, wills, the estate of intestates; the breaches of oaths and contracts; in a word, everything, which did not touch life, or feudal property.

The ignorance of the bailiffs in lay-courts, who were only possessed of some feudal maxims and the traditions of an uncertain custom, made this recourse to the spiritual courts the more necessary, where they could judge with a little more exactness by the lights of the canon and civil laws.

This jurisdiction extended itself by connivance, by necessity, by custom, by abuse, over lay persons and affairs. But the immunity of the clergy from lay cognizances was deemed not only as a privilege essential to the dignity of their order, supported by the canons, and countenanced by the Roman law, but as a right confirmed by all the ancient laws of England.

Christianity, coming into England out of the bosom of the Roman empire, brought along with it all those ideas of immunity. The first trace we can find of this exemption from lay jurisdiction in England, is in the laws of Etheldred; it is more fully established in those of Canute; but in the code of Henry the First it is twice distinctly affirmed. This immunity from the secular jurisdiction, whilst it seemed to encourage acts of violence in the clergy towards others, encouraged also the violence of others against them. The murder of a clerk could not be punished at this time with death; it was against a spiritual person; an offence wholly spiritual, of which the secular courts took no sort of cognizance. In the Saxon times two circumstances made such an exemption less a cause of jealousy; the sheriff sat with the bishop, and the spiritual jurisdiction was, if not under the control, at least

under the inspection of the lay officer; and then, as neither laity nor clergy were capitally punished for any offence, this privilege did not create so invidious and glaring a distinction between them. Such was the power of the clergy, and such the immunities, which the king proposed to diminish.

68. PENANCE OF HENRY II.

THIERRY.

[Much of the latter portion of Henry's life and reign presents an involved and deplorable scene of family discord and contention; sons against their father, wife against husband, brother against brother. His eldest son Henry had not only been invested with the earldoms of Maine and Anjou, but, being then sixteen years of age, had, after the custom which prevailed in the French monarchy, been, as heir apparent, solemnly crowned in Westminster Abbey on Sunday, 15th of June, 1170. On this account that prince is in old writings sometimes styled Henry III., and his common title during his life was from this date the junior or younger king; that of the senior or elder king being given to his father. In 1172 the ceremony of his coronation was repeated, his wife Margaret of France being this time crowned along with him. Soon after this, at the instigation, it is said, of his father-in-law king Louis, the prince advanced the extraordinary pretension that he had become entitled actually to share the royal power with his father, and he demanded that Henry should resign to him either England or Normandy. His refusal was speedily followed (in March 1173) by the flight first of the prince, then of his younger brothers Richard and Geoffrey, to the French court. Richard professed to consider himself entitled to Aquitaine in virtue of the homage he had performed to Louis for that duchy after the peace of Montmirail, and Geoffrey founded on his marriage and his investiture some years before with the principality of Brittany a similar claim to the immediate possession of that territory. About the same time Eleanor also left her husband to associate herself openly with the rebellion of her sons, of which she had in fact been the prime mover, for Henry's infidelities and neglect had long changed this woman's love into bitter hatred and thirst of revenge. She was also making her way for the French court, nothing perplexed, it would seem, by the awkwardness of seeking the protection of her former husband, when she was caught dressed in man's clothes and brought back to Henry, during the rest of whose life she remained in confinement. Her capture however did not break up the unnatural confederacy of her sons. The cause of young Henry was supported not only by Louis, but also by William of Scotland, and by some of the most powerful both of the Norman and the English barons. With his characteristic energy and activity however the English king made ready to meet his various enemies at every point. Hostilities commenced both on the Continent, whither Henry proceeded in person, and on the Scottish borders, the summer of this same year. Occasionally suspended, and again renewed, the war continued for about two years.]

King Henry's natural sons had all along supported the cause of their father, and one of them, Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln, carried on the war with great spirit, besieging the castles and fortresses of the barons of the opposite party. Meanwhile Richard fortified the towns and castles of Poictou and Angoumois in his own cause, and it was against him that the king first marched with his faithful Brabanions, leaving Normandy, in which he had the greatest number of friends, to defend itself against the king of France. He laid siege to the town of Saintes, which was then defended by two castles, one of which bore the name of the Capitol, a relic of the memory of ancient Rome, which was preserved in many of the cities of southern Gaul. After having

taken the strongholds of Saintes, Henry II. attacked with his engines of war the two large towers of the cathedral, in which Richard's partisans had taken up their quarters. He took this as well as the fort of Taillebury and several other castles, and, on his way back to Anjou, he devastated all the frontiers of the country of the Poitevins, burning the towns, and uprooting the vines and fruit-trees. He had scarcely arrived in Normandy when he learnt that his eldest son and the Earl of Flanders, having collected a great naval armament, were preparing to make a descent on England. This news determined him to embark for that country; he carried with him, as prisoners, his wife Eleanor, and his son's wife, Margaret, daughter of the French king.

From Southampton, where he disembarked, the king proceeded towards Canterbury, and as soon as he came in sight of the metropolitan church, that is to say, at three miles distance from the town, he descended from his horse, laid aside his silk apparel, took off his boots, and set off walking barefoot along the flinty and muddy road. When he arrived in the church which contained the tomb of Thomas à Becket, he prostrated himself, with his face to the earth, crying and weeping, in presence of all the people of the town, who had been assembled by the sound of the bells. The Bishop of London, that same Gilbert Foliot, who had persecuted Thomas throughout his whole life, and who, after his death, had wished that his corpse might be thrown into a ditch, mounted the pulpit, and addressing himself to the congregation, said: "All you here present, know that Henry, King of England, calling on God and the holy martyr for the salvation of his soul, protests before you, that he neither commanded, nor willed, nor willingly caused, nor desired in his heart the death of the martyr. But as it is possible that the murderers may have taken advantage of some words imprudently uttered by him, he declares that he implores his penance from the bishops here assembled, and consents to submit his naked flesh to the discipline of rods."

Accordingly the king, accompanied by a great number of Norman bishops and abbots, and by all the Norman and Saxon monks of the chapter of Canterbury, descended to the crypt, where, two years before, they had been obliged to shut up the corpse of the archbishop as in a fort, to defend it from the insults of the royal officers and soldiers. There, kneeling on the stone of the tomb, and divesting himself of all his clothing, he placed himself, with his back bare, in the same attitude in which his justiciaries had on a former occasion caused those Englishmen to be placed, who had been publicly flogged for having welcomed Thomas on his return from exile, or for having honoured him as a saint. Each of the bishops, whose part in the ceremony had been arranged beforehand, took one of the whips with several lashes which were used in monasteries to inflict ecclesiastical corrections, and which were therefore called disciplines: each one gave three or four stripes with this upon the shoulders of the prostrate king, saying: "As the Redeemer was scourged for the sins of men, so be thou for thy own sins." From the hands of the bishops the discipline passed into that of the monks, who were very numerous, and for the most part of the English race. These sons of those who had been made serfs by the Conquest, imprinted the stripes of a whip upon the flesh of the Conqueror's grandson, and this was not without a secret joy, as is betrayed by some bitter pleasantries which we meet with in the recitals of that time.

But the momentary joy and triumph could not be productive of any good to the English population; on the contrary, this people was made the dupe of this ignoble scene of hypocrisy which was performed before them by the Angevin king. Henry II., finding almost all his continental subjects opposed to him, had felt his need of the support of the Anglo-Saxons; he thought that a few stripes of discipline would be a trifling thing if it would render him the same service with this people, whom

he had despised in his fortunate days, as promises and false vows had formerly rendered his grandfather Henry I. Ever since the murder of Thomas à Becket, love for this pretended martyr had become the passion, or rather, the madness of the English people. The adoration of the memory of the archbishop had replaced that of the old laws, hitherto so much regretted! all recollections of ancient liberty were effaced by the more recent impression of the nine years during which a primate of the Saxon race had been the object of the hopes, the vows, and the conversation of every Saxon. A striking testimony of sympathy with this popular sentiment was then the best bait that the king could at that time hold out to the men of the English race, to attract them to his cause, and to render them, in the words of an old historian, manageable with curb and harness. Such was the true motive of Henry II.'s pilgrimage to the tomb of him whom he had first loved as his boon companion, and then mortally hated as his political enemy.

"After having been thus scourged by his own free-will," says the contemporary historian, "he continued his orisons before the holy martyr all the day and all night, took no nourishment, and did not leave the spot for any occasion whatever! but as he came so he remained, and did not allow any carpet, or anything of the kind, to be placed beneath his knees. After matins he made the circuit of the higher church, prayed before all the altars and all the relics, then returned to the vault of the saint. On Saturday, when the sun was risen, he asked for and heard mass, then having drunk holy water of the martyr and having filled a flask with it, he departed joyfully from Canterbury."

This comedy was entirely successful; and there was great enthusiasm among the Anglo-Saxon serfs of the town and the neighbouring country, on the day when it was announced in the churches that the king had made his reconciliation with the blessed martyr by penitence and tears. It chanced, at this time, that William, King of Scotland, who had made a hostile incursion upon the English territory, was vanquished and made prisoner near Alnwick, in Northumberland. The Saxon population, enthusiastic for the honour of St. Thomas, believed that they saw in this victory an evident sign of the martyr's good-will and protection, and from this day they inclined to the cause of the king whom the new saint seemed to favour. In consequence of this superstitious impulse, the English enrolled themselves in crowds under the royal banner, and fought with ardour against the abettors of the revolt of Henry the younger and his two brothers. Poor and despised though they were, they formed the great mass of the inhabitants, and nothing can resist such a force when organised. The Norman malcontents were defeated in every county, their castles taken by assault, and a great number of earls and barons made prisoners. "So many were taken," says a contemporary, "that there was difficulty in finding cords sufficient to bind them, and prisons to contain them." This rapid train of successes put an end to the project of a descent upon England, formed by Henry the younger and the Earl of Flanders.

69. THE CONQUEST OF IRELAND.

BURKE.

Between the death of Becket and the king's absolution, he resolved on the execution of a design, by which he reduced under his dominion a country, not more separated from the rest of Europe by its situation, than by the laws, customs, and way of life of the inhabitants; for the people of Ireland, with no difference but that of religion, still retained the native manners of the original Celta. The king had meditated this design from the very beginning of his reign, and had obtained a Bull from the then Pope, Adrian the Fourth, an Englishman, to authorize the at

tempt. He well knew, from the internal weakness, and advantageous situation of this noble island, the easiness and importance of such a conquest. But at this particular time he was strongly urged to his engaging personally in the enterprise by two other powerful motives. For, first, the murder of Becket had bred very ill humour in his subjects, the chief of whom, always impatient of a long peace, were glad of any pretence for rebellion; it was therefore expedient, and serviceable to the crown, to find an employment abroad for this spirit, which could not exert itself without being destructive at home. And, next, as he had obtained the grant of Ireland from the Pope, upon condition of subjecting it to Peterpence, he knew that the speedy performance of this condition would greatly facilitate his recovering the good graces of the court of Rome. Before we give a short narrative of the reduction of Ireland, I propose to lay open to the reader the state of that kingdom, that we may see what grounds Henry had to hope for success in this expedition.

Ireland is about half as large as England. In the temperature of the climate there is little difference, other than that more rain falls; as the country is more mountainous and exposed full to the westerly wind, which blowing from the Atlantic Ocean prevails during the greater part of the year. This moisture, as it has enriched the country with large and frequent rivers, and spread out a number of fair and magnificent lakes, beyond the proportion of other places, has on the other hand encumbered the island with an uncommon multitude of bogs and morasses; so that in general, it is less praised for corn than pasturage, in which no soil is more rich and luxuriant. Whilst it possesses these internal means of wealth, it opens on all sides a great number of ports, spacious and secure, and by their advantageous situation inviting to universal commerce. But on these ports, better known than those of Britain in the time of the Romans, at this time there were few towns, scarce any fortifications, and no trade, that deserves to be mentioned.

The people of Ireland lay claim to a very extravagant antiquity, through a vanity common to all nations. The accounts which are given by their ancient chronicles, of their first settlements, are generally tales confuted by their own absurdity. The settlement of the greatest consequence, the best authenticated, and from which the Irish deduce the pedigree of the best families, is derived from Spain; it was called Clan Milea, or the descendants of Milesius, and Kin Scuit, or the race of Scyths, afterwards known by the name of Scots. The Irish historians suppose this race descended from a person called Gathel, a Scythian by birth, an Ægyptian by education, the contemporary and friend of the prophet Moses. But these histories, seeming clear-sighted in the obscure affairs of so blind an antiquity, instead of passing for treasuries of ancient facts, are regarded by the judicious as modern fictions. In cases of this sort rational conjectures are more to be relied on than improbable relations. It is more probable that Ireland was first peopled from Britain. The coasts of these countries are in some places in sight of each other. The language, the manners, and religion of the most ancient inhabitants of both are nearly the same. The Milesian colony, whenever it arrived in Ireland, could have made no great change in the manners or language, as the ancient Spaniards were a branch of the Celta, as well as the old inhabitants of Ireland. The Irish language is not different from that of all other nations, as Temple and Rapin, from ignorance of it, have asserted. On the contrary, many of its words bear a remarkable resemblance not only to those of the Welsh and Armorick, but also to the Greek and Latin. Neither is the figure of the letters very different from the vulgar character, though their order is not the same with that of other nations, nor the names, which are taken from the Irish proper names of several species of trees; a circumstance, which, notwithstanding their similitude to the Roman letters, argues a different original and great antiquity. The Druid discipline anciently flourished

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