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20 - Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson · Normans in Europe

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of the Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen William's English Policy ten seventy to ten eighty seven,
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  Speaker 1: Part three. Let us, keeping these two points in view,
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  Speaker 1: try and trace the different results of feudalism in England
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  Speaker 1: and France. In France, the independence of the feudatories from
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  Speaker 1: the crown was practically all but complete. The nation resembled,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, rather a confederacy of independent princes than a
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  Speaker 1: united nation under one king. These feudal princes enjoyed all
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  Speaker 1: or nearly all royal rights, and proud of their independence.
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  Speaker 1: Affected to despise their weak overlorded Paris. Trusting to their
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  Speaker 1: own great power, they refused to unite except in a
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  Speaker 1: fitful way with one another, and, caring nothing for the
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  Speaker 1: glasses below them, divided their lands among a host of
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  Speaker 1: inferior barons who might assist them against their king, and
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  Speaker 1: who joined with them in grinding down the lower classes.
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  Speaker 1: Hence arose isolation in every form, isolation of one part
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  Speaker 1: of France from another, which checked the growth of national unity.
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  Speaker 1: Isolation amongst the nobles, which eventually contributed to their fall,
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  Speaker 1: isolation between classes military and non military, which prevented any union.
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  Speaker 1: Law too never four years attained to the position of
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  Speaker 1: any real system. One half of France was called lapay
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  Speaker 1: yee du dois Coutumier, clearly showing the absence of any
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  Speaker 1: definite system, and in the rest of France leapeye du
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  Speaker 1: dui tries the law was continually being evaded, altered, and
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  Speaker 1: destroyed by the anarchy which existed. Hence, in France we
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  Speaker 1: see an utters absence of cohesion, an utter want of
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  Speaker 1: community of interests between all classes and all parts of
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  Speaker 1: the country. On this and out of this rose the
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  Speaker 1: power of the crown itself, the only organized power. It
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  Speaker 1: slowly but surely broke in upon the anarchy. The independent feudatories,
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  Speaker 1: prevented by their jealousy from uniting against the common foe,
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  Speaker 1: were either subdued or absorbed. In detail, the people, seeking
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  Speaker 1: in the growth of the kingly power a defense from
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  Speaker 1: their hated overlords, joined the king, and while they contributed
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  Speaker 1: materially to the consolidation of his power, omitted in their
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  Speaker 1: hot haste to secure themselves against future extravagances of prerogative,
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  Speaker 1: when then under Louis the fourteenth the crown had absorbed
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  Speaker 1: all the independent principalities, and the political influence of the
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  Speaker 1: nobles was gone. Nothing remained to stay its despotism except
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  Speaker 1: the social privileges of the nobles, which rendered them hated,
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  Speaker 1: while they were not feared, and led to their eventual overthrow.
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  Speaker 1: From this, England was saved by the wise policy of William.
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  Speaker 1: The nobles, deprived of their independence at the time of
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  Speaker 1: the conquest, struggled hard against their masters, rebelled continually, though
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  Speaker 1: without success, under William the First, Rufus and Henry the First,
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  Speaker 1: who were thus forced in some measure to unite with
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  Speaker 1: the nation against them, overthrowing the central authority. They triumphed
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  Speaker 1: for a short time under Stephen, but absolutely defeated under
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  Speaker 1: Henry the Second. Were obliged to change their tactics. They
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  Speaker 1: now sought alliance with the classes below them, made common
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  Speaker 1: cause with them, and at their head marched forth under
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  Speaker 1: John and Henry the Third, to rest constitutional and national
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  Speaker 1: privileges from an over grown prerogative, and to lay the
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  Speaker 1: basis of a free and limited government in which the
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  Speaker 1: interests of the whole nation were considered. Hence, in England
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  Speaker 1: no great gulf existed between classes between the military or
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  Speaker 1: noble and the non military or ignoble. There was no
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  Speaker 1: difference in the eyes of the law between noble and commoner.
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  Speaker 1: A few privileges the nobles had, but none in any
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  Speaker 1: way honorous to the rest of the community, such as
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  Speaker 1: exemption from taxes, as in France. They had to seek
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  Speaker 1: for this power by showing themselves worthy leaders of a
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  Speaker 1: great constitutional cause, by becoming the leading statesmen of the day,
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  Speaker 1: and winning the respect, if not always the love, of
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  Speaker 1: the classes below them, who for a long time looked
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  Speaker 1: to them as their natural leaders against the king. While
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  Speaker 1: thus England was ruled by an aristocracy, it was an
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  Speaker 1: aristocracy which claimed no irksome privileges, and which in some
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  Speaker 1: measure represented the interests of the nation. Again, of all aristocracies,
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  Speaker 1: ours is the least exclusive and the most democratic. It
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  Speaker 1: is constantly receiving new members from the commonalty, whilst its
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  Speaker 1: younger branches are continually sinking into the ranks of the Commonalty. Abroad,
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  Speaker 1: all sons of a noble belong to the nobility in England,
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  Speaker 1: only the eldest son succeeds to the political privileges of
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  Speaker 1: his father, and the rest, with some slight social privileges,
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  Speaker 1: are counted as members of the commons. Thus the nobility
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  Speaker 1: and commonalty are welded together, and there is no broad
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  Speaker 1: line of division between the two, as is the case abroad.
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  Speaker 1: The whole nation, presenting a common resistance to arbitrary power,
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  Speaker 1: gradually encroached upon the irresponsible prerogative of its kings and
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  Speaker 1: vindicated for itself national privileges. And England, and having early
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  Speaker 1: passed her schooling days, started forth into vigorous manhood, receiving
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  Speaker 1: one valuable legacy, at least from the hand of her
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  Speaker 1: stern schoolmaster, a thoroughly organized and fully developed system of law,
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  Speaker 1: which might form the principle round which to rally and
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  Speaker 1: save her from the ills of anarchy and disunion. This
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  Speaker 1: is the course of English history, in many of its
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  Speaker 1: peculiarities may be derived from the fact that feudalism was
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  Speaker 1: introduced in so modified a form by William the Conqueror.
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  Speaker 1: To sum up what has been said, in France, the
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  Speaker 1: crown began in weakness and ended in despotism. In England
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  Speaker 1: it began in strength and ended in a limited monarchy.
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  Speaker 1: The importance of ecclesiastical history in early times is very great.
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  Speaker 1: The ecclesiastics were not only the spiritual teachers of the people,
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  Speaker 1: the moral, social, and educational organizers of society. They were
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  Speaker 1: the statesmen, the lawyers, diplomatists, the writers, architects, and even
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the warriors of the times. The Church was the
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  Speaker 1: real avenue to power and influence in every department of
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  Speaker 1: intellectual life, the only avenue for poor but able men.
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  Speaker 1: Elsewhere the path was hedged up by the privileges of
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  Speaker 1: an aristocracy. Here they found scope for their genius and ambition,
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  Speaker 1: and rose with rapid strides by mere force of mind,
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  Speaker 1: to the highest positions of the state. When to this
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  Speaker 1: is added the influence of the monasteries, which has already
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  Speaker 1: been mentioned, it will be clear that there was absolutely
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  Speaker 1: no department of active life which the Church did not interpenetrate,
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  Speaker 1: and in which churchmen did not take the lead. The
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  Speaker 1: Church was an all pervading and animating energy, quickening the
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  Speaker 1: whole social and political system, and formed the intellectual starting
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  Speaker 1: point of the age. It was therefore or most necessary
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  Speaker 1: that William should turn his attention to the improvement of
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  Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxon Church, much moreover was needed. At the
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  Speaker 1: time of the Norman conquest, the Anglo Saxon Church, after
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  Speaker 1: having contributed not a little to the growth of national
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  Speaker 1: unity and given its aid in the local organization of
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  Speaker 1: the country, had fallen somewhat behind the standard of the time.
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  Speaker 1: The discipline, the morals and the intelligence of the secular
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  Speaker 1: clergy had been relaxed. Most of them were married, contrary
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  Speaker 1: to the opinions of those days, and there was even
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  Speaker 1: danger of their becoming a close hereditary caste, holding their
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  Speaker 1: possessions as so much family property descending from father to son,
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  Speaker 1: and thereby forgetting the trust character of the church revenues.
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  Speaker 1: It had been mainly with the view of reforming the
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  Speaker 1: English Church and drawing it closer to Rome that the
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  Speaker 1: Pope had sanctioned the expedition of William. Uestion was how
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  Speaker 1: far would William comply to understand clearly the meaning of
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  Speaker 1: William's reforms. In this respect, it is necessary to say
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  Speaker 1: a few words on the great ecclesiastical system of Gregory
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  Speaker 1: the Seventh, who at this time sat on the papal throne. Feudalism,
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  Speaker 1: the first definite scheme after the fall of the Empire
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  Speaker 1: of Charlemagne for organizing political society had hopelessly failed. The
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  Speaker 1: only possible means by which it could have succeeded was
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  Speaker 1: by maintaining intact the mutual duties of overlord, underlord, vassal
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  Speaker 1: and villain. These, once destroyed, feudalism became a mere excuse
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  Speaker 1: for perpetual quarrels between the barons and for intolerable oppressions
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  Speaker 1: of the despised non military classes. All cohesion in the
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  Speaker 1: European state system was destroyed, and society and government, except
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  Speaker 1: under the temporary rule of some great man, were little
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  Speaker 1: more than legalized anarchy. Europe, cursed by this system, was
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  Speaker 1: losing all knowledge of its own unity, all strength, and
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  Speaker 1: rapidly drifting into meaningless, pitiless antagonism of nations, classes and individuals.
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  Speaker 1: It was from the clergy, or rather from the monasteries,
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  Speaker 1: that the opposition to this state of things arose. From
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  Speaker 1: the monasteries, the impulse was communicated to the bishops, and
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  Speaker 1: from the bishops to the popes, who take up the
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  Speaker 1: work and try to give it principle an organization. During
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  Speaker 1: the ninth century, the papacy had fallen a victim to
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  Speaker 1: the evils abroad, and sank in degradation and contempt. Raised
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  Speaker 1: in the tenth century. From this degradation by Otto the
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  Speaker 1: First and his successors, she rapidly regained lost ground under
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  Speaker 1: the German popes and rose daily to higher aspirations, to
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  Speaker 1: culminate in the accession of Gregory the Seventh in ten
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  Speaker 1: seventy three. This man, under the name of Hildebrand, had
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  Speaker 1: long held an important position in Europe. Son of a
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  Speaker 1: Tuscan carpenter, he had early embraced monasticism, and, as the
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  Speaker 1: monk of Cloony and Burgundy, had subjected himself to the
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  Speaker 1: discipline of the Benedictine rule. Returning to Rome, he became
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  Speaker 1: the great pope maker of his day, contributed to the
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  Speaker 1: election of five of his predecessors, and directed the papal policy.
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  Speaker 1: On the death of Alexander the Second in ten seventy three,
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  Speaker 1: the papal tiara, to which he had never aspired was
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  Speaker 1: laid at his feet, and, abandoning the seclusion of monastic life,
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  Speaker 1: he ascended the papal throne, prepared to subdue the world
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  Speaker 1: in the same spirit in which he had hitherto striven
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  Speaker 1: to conquer himself. Under Gregory the Seventh the schemes which
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  Speaker 1: had steadily been growing were perfected, and monasticism, in his election,
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  Speaker 1: rose to her highest fortune. Gregory seven, seeing the conflicting
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  Speaker 1: principles at work in Europe, the chaotic confusion, the triumph
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  Speaker 1: of cruelty and disorder, conceived the magnificent idea of a
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  Speaker 1: great spiritual autocracy, which should serve as a principle of
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  Speaker 1: unity round which Europe might gather, and a force which
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  Speaker 1: should join together rival classes and interests. The Pope was
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  Speaker 1: to be the supreme head of Christendom and ultimate arbiter
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  Speaker 1: of her affairs. To him should all appeals be made
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  Speaker 1: on international questions, on questions of peace and war, while
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  Speaker 1: within the states, his authority should watch over the inferior
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  Speaker 1: courts and see justice done. Elsewhere, violence and fraud might
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  Speaker 1: run wild, but here at Rome at least, all questions
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  Speaker 1: should be decided on the highest grounds of equity and morality.
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  Speaker 1: Their tribunals might be open only to the rich and powerful.
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  Speaker 1: Here all should gain a hearing. Elsewhere, wickedness and high
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  Speaker 1: places might escape punishment, but here morality should be enforced
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  Speaker 1: on kings as well as on subjects, and the proudest
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  Speaker 1: criminal reduced to submission. Thus might the truce of God
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  Speaker 1: and Time extend all over Europe, and wars be made
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  Speaker 1: to cease. Thus might the weak find aid against the strong,
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  Speaker 1: and right maintain itself against might. While Europe, united in
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  Speaker 1: the confession of one faith, might here see reflected the
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  Speaker 1: image of its unity and its majesty. This magnificent ideal,
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  Speaker 1: it has been well said, was crossed by human frailty
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  Speaker 1: even in Gregory's days. Subsequently, it was fatally degraded and
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  Speaker 1: discredited by the selfish and faithless, temporizing the shameless greediness
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  Speaker 1: which grew into proverbs. Wherever the name of Rome was mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: It was maintained by shameful means and shameless forgeries, which
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  Speaker 1: escaped detection from the uncritical eye of Europe. At that time,
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  Speaker 1: the power grew to be abused to usurp the powers
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  Speaker 1: to which it was to have served as a counterpoise.
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  Speaker 1: It went through the usual course of successful power in
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  Speaker 1: human hands, and in every succeeding century these things grew worse.
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  Speaker 1: The ideal became more and more a shadow the reality,
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  Speaker 1: a more corrupt and intolerable mockery. But it still remains
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  Speaker 1: the most magnificent failure in human history. Such was the
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  Speaker 1: ideal conceived and partly realized by Gregory the seventh. Let
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  Speaker 1: us consider what was necessary to its realization. First, the
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  Speaker 1: sovereigns of Europe must be induced, if possible, to do
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  Speaker 1: homage to the pope. For naturally the scheme took the
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  Speaker 1: feudal shape which then pre dominated, and without such subordination
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  Speaker 1: the scheme could not work. Then the celibacy of the
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  Speaker 1: clergy must be enforced, whereby they might become a separate order,
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  Speaker 1: freed from secular interests and connected closely with the Pope.
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  Speaker 1: The ecclesiastical courts in each separate state must be made
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  Speaker 1: independent of the secular and secured in their jurisdiction over
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  Speaker 1: all clerks and in all causes affecting morality and religion.
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  Speaker 1: Lay investiture investing the bishop with the ring and the
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  Speaker 1: crozier must be condemned, lest the clergy should become dependent
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  Speaker 1: upon the secular arm and simony and servility enervate them. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: the clergy, bound to the Pope by the ties of
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  Speaker 1: interest and devotion, would be a ready instrument in his
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  Speaker 1: hand for carrying out his schemes. These were the principles
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  Speaker 1: of Gregory's plan, which he was vigorously pressing upon Europe,
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  Speaker 1: and which he now hoped to see carrying doubt in England.
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  Speaker 1: William was not unwilling in most respects to satisfy his wishes.
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  Speaker 1: His policy may, for clearness be classed under two heads,
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  Speaker 1: one the relation of the Church to the State, and
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  Speaker 1: two the relation of Church and State to Rome. One.
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  Speaker 1: In Anglo Saxon times, the church and state had been
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  Speaker 1: closely connected. The bishops had sat side by side with
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  Speaker 1: the secular officers in the shire court. The Weetangamote had
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  Speaker 1: been as much an ecclesiastical as a secular assembly. Its
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  Speaker 1: laws indeed had been rather ecclesiastical canons than secular laws.
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  Speaker 1: This William altered. Fully aware of the importance of the
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  Speaker 1: church as a department of state, as a principle of order,
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  Speaker 1: he conceived the idea of using it as a counterbalance
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  Speaker 1: to the feudal barons, ever ready to overthrow the central
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  Speaker 1: authority of the crown and establish their own selfish independence. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: his first care was to reform the church and increase
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  Speaker 1: its power. Steigand the Archbishop of Canterbury, convicted of illegally
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  Speaker 1: holding the see of Winchester, with his own archbishopric, and
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  Speaker 1: of having received the pallium, the symbol of his metropolitan power,
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  Speaker 1: from the false Pope Benedict. The tenth was removed, and
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  Speaker 1: most of the Anglo Saxon bishops shared his fate. In
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  Speaker 1: their place, Williams sought Europe over four worthy substitutes. Lanfranc
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  Speaker 1: called from Normandy, where he had been made abbot of
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  Speaker 1: William's monastery of Saint Stephen at Connes, was appointed archbishop,
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  Speaker 1: and under him the reform was continued. The supremacy of
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  Speaker 1: Canterbury over York was asserted. Marriage of the clergy was discouraged.
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  Speaker 1: The already married clergy were tolerated, but future marriages were
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  Speaker 1: strictly prohibited. In the chapters, monks were substituted for the
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  Speaker 1: secular canons. The monasteries were reformed according to the stricter
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  Speaker 1: rules of the Norman monasteries to which Longfrock had been accustomed.
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  Speaker 1: Having thus reformed the worst abuses of the church, William
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  Speaker 1: proceeded to increase its power. Two of the bishops, Durham
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  Speaker 1: and Kent, were entrusted with counties palatine. Many of the
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  Speaker 1: village bishops were removed into fortified towns that they might
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  Speaker 1: be better able to resist the feudal nobles. The see
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  Speaker 1: of Lichfield was removed to Chester Sherborne, to Salisbury, Selsey,
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  Speaker 1: to Chichester, Dorchester in Oxfordshire to Lincoln. The leading clergy
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  Speaker 1: were called to William's councils and frequently appointed to the
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  Speaker 1: office of Justiciary and others, while the chancellor was invariably
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  Speaker 1: an ecclesiastic. Lastly, William removed the bishop from the county
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  Speaker 1: court and erected ecclesiastical courts in each diocese. To these,
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  Speaker 1: the bishop alone presided over all cases which affected the
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  Speaker 1: spiritual or church. In US two so far, William fell
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  Speaker 1: in with Gregory's scheme and reorganized the English Church. But
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  Speaker 1: this was not all that Gregory claimed. He demanded the
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  Speaker 1: homage of the King. This William would not grant. Friendly
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  Speaker 1: relations with Rome he was anxious to maintain, and the
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  Speaker 1: tax of Peter's pence he would gladly pay. He would
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  Speaker 1: even acknowledge the general supremacy of the pope. But the
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  Speaker 1: oath of homage he would not take. For neither said
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  Speaker 1: he had he ever promised so to do, nor had
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  Speaker 1: his predecessors done so. And Gregory anxious to secure his friendship,
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  Speaker 1: dared not press the question of investiture. The general character
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  Speaker 1: of his policy is summed up in the so called customs.
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  Speaker 1: By these, he ordered that the King's leave must be
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  Speaker 1: obtained before any pope were acknowledged in England, before any
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  Speaker 1: papal synod were held, any letter of the popes received,
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  Speaker 1: before any bishop appealed to Rome, or any tenant in Copytae,
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  Speaker 1: those who held their lands immediately of the king were excommunicated.
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  Speaker 1: Thus William clearly showed himself determined to rule the Church
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  Speaker 1: of England, and against the great scheme of Gregory the seventh,
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  Speaker 1: asserted a contrary one, that of a national church, owing
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  Speaker 1: indeed a nominal allegiance to Rome, closely assimilated to her
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  Speaker 1: in doctrine, ritual and organization, but still absolutely under the
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  Speaker 1: power of the Crown. In all this William was heartily
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  Speaker 1: supported by the vigorous common sense of Langfronc, and Gregory
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  Speaker 1: had his hands too full in pressing his claims on
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor Henry the Fourth to quarrel with William on
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  Speaker 1: the subject. Thus, during William's time the system was firmly established,
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  Speaker 1: and no quarrel arose till the reigns of his success
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  Speaker 1: The policy of William, it can hardly be doubted, was
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  Speaker 1: on the whole beneficial. The abuses of the Anglo Saxon
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  Speaker 1: Church were removed, Norman bishops were certainly better educated, and
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  Speaker 1: it was well that the church should be brought into
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  Speaker 1: closer connection with Rome, which, with all its faults, was
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  Speaker 1: the real source of vigor at that date. Under their influence,
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  Speaker 1: the activity of the Church revived, while her discipline was improved.
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  Speaker 1: In the increased power of the church, a valuable balance
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  Speaker 1: was found to that of the feudal baronage, while the
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  Speaker 1: Church itself was kept in check by the unqualified authority
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  Speaker 1: of the king. In all these ways, William's changes were
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  Speaker 1: for the good, but in two ways they did harm. One,
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  Speaker 1: the right of royal patronage, though fairly administered by William,
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  Speaker 1: was under his immediate successor shamefully abused. And two, in
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  Speaker 1: William's ordinance erecting the spiritual courts lay the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: men many a serious quarrel, and aftertimes his error here
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  Speaker 1: is to be found not so much in erecting the
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  Speaker 1: courts as in not more clearly defining the limits of
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  Speaker 1: their jurisdiction. During his own reign. This caused no difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: but very soon the ecclesiastical courts began to encroach upon
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  Speaker 1: the temporal. In these encroachments, the churchmen were not indeed
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  Speaker 1: actuated entirely by selfish motives or by narrow professional motives.
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  Speaker 1: Owing to the more perfect system of procedure established in
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  Speaker 1: their courts, they became exceedingly popular, and people flocked of
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  Speaker 1: their own accord to the bishop's court. But the result
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  Speaker 1: was most pernicious. The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts grew
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  Speaker 1: apace and infringed on that of the temporal. The clergy's
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: privilege of being tried by these courts alone threatened to
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: render them absolutely independent of the secular arm and, finally,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: under Henry the Second, the abuses were so flaked that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Henry interfered and fought his fatal quarrel with Beckett on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: this very point. End of Section twenty