登陆注册
5152500000044

第44章 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND--DECEMBER 1066-MARCH 1070(

William would be king of a kingdom, head of a commonwealth, personal lord of every man in his realm, not merely, like a King of the French, external lord of princes whose subjects owed him no allegiance.This greatest monument of the Conqueror's statesmanship was carried into effect in a special assembly of the English nation gathered on the first day of August 1086 on the great plain of Salisbury.Now, perhaps for the first time, we get a distinct foreshadowing of Lords and Commons.The Witan, the great men of the realm, and "the landsitting men," the whole body of landowners, are now distinguished.The point is that William required the personal presence of every man whose personal allegiance he thought worth having.Every man in the mixed assembly, mixed indeed in race and speech, the King's own men and the men of other lords, took the oath and became the man of King William.On that day England became for ever a kingdom one and indivisible, which since that day no man has dreamed of parting asunder.

The great assembly of 1086 will come again among the events of William's later reign; it comes here as the last act of that general settlement which began in 1070.That settlement, besides its secular side, has also an ecclesiastical side of a somewhat different character.In both William's coming brought the island kingdom into a closer connexion with the continent; and brought a large displacement of Englishmen and a large promotion of strangers.

But on the ecclesiastical side, though the changes were less violent, there was a more marked beginning of a new state of things.

The religious missionary was more inclined to innovate than the military conqueror.Here William not only added but changed; on one point he even proclaimed that the existing law of England was bad.

Certainly the religious state of England was likely to displease churchmen from the mainland.The English Church, so directly the child of the Roman, was, for that very reason, less dependent on her parent.She was a free colony, not a conquered province.The English Church too was most distinctly national; no land came so near to that ideal state of things in which the Church is the nation on its religious side.Papal authority therefore was weaker in England than elsewhere, and a less careful line was drawn between spiritual and temporal things and jurisdictions.Two friendly powers could take liberties with each other.The national assemblies dealt with ecclesiastical as well as with temporal matters; one indeed among our ancient laws blames any assembly that did otherwise.Bishop and earl sat together in the local GEMOT, to deal with many matters which, according to continental ideas, should have been dealt with in separate courts.And, by what in continental eyes seemed a strange laxity of discipline, priests, bishops, members of capitular bodies, were often married.The English diocesan arrangements were unlike continental models.In Gaul, by a tradition of Roman date, the bishop was bishop of the city.His diocese was marked by the extent of the civil jurisdiction of the city.His home, his head church, his BISHOPSTOOL in the head church, were all in the city.In Teutonic England the bishop was commonly bishop, not of a city but of a tribe or district; his style was that of a tribe; his home, his head church, his bishopstool, might be anywhere within the territory of that tribe.Still, on the greatest point of all, matters in England were thoroughly to William's liking; nowhere did the King stand forth more distinctly as the Supreme Governor of the Church.In England, as in Normandy, the right of the sovereign to the investiture of ecclesiastical benefices was ancient and undisputed.

What Edward had freely done, William went on freely doing, and Hildebrand himself never ventured on a word of remonstrance against a power which he deemed so wrongful in the hands of his own sovereign.William had but to stand on the rights of his predecessors.When Gregory asked for homage for the crown which he had in some sort given, William answered indeed as an English king.

What the kings before him had done for or paid to the Roman see, that would he do and pay; but this no king before him had ever done, nor would he be the first to do it.But while William thus maintained the rights of his crown, he was willing and eager to do all that seemed needful for ecclesiastical reform.And the general result of his reform was to weaken the insular independence of England, to make her Church more like the other Churches of the West, and to increase the power of the Roman Bishop.

William had now a fellow-worker in his taste.The subtle spirit which had helped to win his kingdom was now at his side to help him to rule it.Within a few months after the taking of Chester Lanfranc sat on the throne of Augustine.As soon as the actual Conquest was over, William began to give his mind to ecclesiastical matters.It might look like sacrilege when he caused all the monasteries of England to be harried.But no harm was done to the monks or to their possessions.The holy houses were searched for the hoards which the rich men of England, fearing the new king, had laid up in the monastic treasuries.William looked on these hoards as part of the forfeited goods of rebels, and carried them off during the Lent of 1070.This done, he sat steadily down to the reform of the English Church.

同类推荐
  • 佛说谤佛经

    佛说谤佛经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说称赞如来功德神咒经

    佛说称赞如来功德神咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清回耀飞光日月精华上经

    上清回耀飞光日月精华上经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 杨子法言

    杨子法言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 摩诃止观辅行助览

    摩诃止观辅行助览

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 绝色宫女是王妃

    绝色宫女是王妃

    安国,风调雨顺,君臣一心,天下太平,百姓夜不闭户。正因如此,安国皇帝闲来无事,欲赐婚四十尚未取亲的皇弟——辰王爷。王爷笑傲江湖,逍遥自在,岂愿被婚姻束缚。某天,大街上,辰王爷巧欲一女子,突上前,手摇纸扇,面露微笑:“姑娘,愿意嫁给我吗?”一句戏言,一段巧合,成就美满姻缘。当晚,上官珑月独守空房,心情却颇好。隔天,侍女回禀:“王妃,王爷逍遥江湖去了。”上官珑月笑而不语,心中突生一计。皇宫招收宫女,一貌美女子揭下皇榜,在众人中脱颖而出。“你叫什么名字?”“回姑姑,奴婢秋儿。”“看你还算乖巧,去东宫吧。”秋儿的好运气羡煞旁人,服侍太子殿下、未来的安国储君,是每个新进宫女的愿望。她们认为,这是飞上枝头变凤凰的最佳途径。对秋儿而言,一切尽在掌握之中。一段宫廷,一段江湖,宫廷的勾心斗角,江湖的血雨腥风。从天而降的“冷寒宫”,威慑江湖,不出几日便在江湖中名声大振。家喻户晓的“冷寒宫”,却从未有人见过她们的宫主。只是听说由一群女人组建而成的“冷寒宫”,有个非常了不起的宫主。武功出神入化,能与仙法并存。江湖上,对宫主的印象则是一袭白衣纱裙,白色面纱遮住容貌,外露一双令人毛骨悚然的双眼,名为冷秋月的年轻女子。半路相识,被弃洞房之夜的王妃——上官珑月;目的不寻常,貌美如花的宫女——秋儿;江湖新人,神秘宫主——冷秋月。原本不可能有交集的三个人,竟是同一个人……王妃与王爷的戏话婚姻,秋儿与太子殿下的情不自禁。看她游走不同男人之间的本事,看她的真实目的,看她如何让皇叔侄对立,看她最终情落谁家……尽在《绝色宫女是王妃》。“三个女人”一台戏,一个女人演绎旷世情仇。看她乱世皇室、混迹江湖。江湖里的皇室女子,不一样的风情,不一样的江湖儿女,《绝色宫女是王妃》给你不一样的精彩。
  • 二十几岁男人应该具有的7张底牌

    二十几岁男人应该具有的7张底牌

    做男人很难。难就难在男人要同时挑起家庭与事业的重担,不能有所偏废;难就难在男人管了琐事有人说你干不成大事、不管了有人说你是大男子主义;难就难在男人要控制好自己的情绪,忍气吞声有人说你懦弱,脾气暴躁又有人说你没风度……二十几岁的男人要想做个完美的男人,就要打好自己的七张人生“底牌”
  • 虐心两分半

    虐心两分半

    后悔的事有太多,可世间又没有后悔药……是命运的捉弄,还是彼此的脆弱
  • 壶史

    壶史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 有凤来仪

    有凤来仪

    一朝穿越,竟到了女尊国。好吧,女人能娶几个男人这事她慢慢接受了,可是为什么突然之间又冒出个男尊的离国来?男尊也就罢了,可是为什么那该死的皇帝想逼她做他的妃子?门都没有!你厉害你国力强大是吧?可是她也不是好欺负的!哼,让你免费观赏一下“火烧赤壁”的壮烈吧!
  • 忘川(下)

    忘川(下)

    君子之泽,五世而斩。人中龙凤去世三十年后,听雪楼三易其主,兴盛衰败,起起伏伏,到了第五代,局面已经变得尤其艰难。七大帮派秘密结盟,以“天道盟”为名,开始与听雪楼分庭抗礼,江湖格局岌岌可危。何以挽救危局?唯有夕影血薇,重现江湖。她从风陵渡的月夜驾舟而来,携剑回到洛阳。然而却没有料到,在血薇来到夕影身边之前,听雪楼里,早已有了另一个女子,已在他身边陪伴了十几年。昔年人中龙凤的传说,终究一梦。而她孤身远去天涯,绝望之中,再遇新的机缘。
  • 半壶闲梦

    半壶闲梦

    要分四张:第1章散落记忆;第2章诗情画意;第3章随遇而安;第4章闲来说道。
  • 天下第二美

    天下第二美

    多年以后,有人问大燕第一位平民皇后,她的传奇一生该如何总结。美娘:发家致富!闵柏:……幸好,朕只是靠祖传的美貌继承的皇位,不是刷脸娶到的媳妇。美娘:不,你是。
  • 坚瓠集

    坚瓠集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 亲爱的请别黑化

    亲爱的请别黑化

    国际变态苏锦重生了,重生在了一个女扮男装的娱乐圈小透明身上,从此走上了一条妖孽巨星的不归路顺带认识了某个国际大影帝以及国际心理犯罪学家。路亦斯没有想到有一天自己会被人吸引,在此之前他一直坚定的认为自己是直男,直到某个变态妖孽对他说:“真不好意思,斯先生,我可能一直没有告诉过你,我是女人,为了表达我的失误,我决定将我最珍爱的艺术品——食人花苏锦标本送给你!”路亦斯:“……”接着夙七又道:“所以你要接受我的求欢么?”