Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

CHAPTEB
I.
THE NORMAN' KINGS AND THE CHURCH (1066-1154).
THE crown, which lay in the dust of Battle as the
14th of October, 1066, drew in, was picked up by no
weak hand. Pope Alexander II. encouraged William
to set out on the conquest of England, for rumours
of Saxon vices had reached his ears.1 Before all
things he wished to preserve intact the inheritance
of St. Gregory the Great, his predecessor, and the
Norman prince stood before his mind's eye as an
embodiment of chivaky, piety, strength, and purity.
in his private life. The Church had not lived
eighteen centuries then and possibly did not appreciate
the difficulties.of a strong monarchy. It was to
be the peculiar experience of the Norman and Plan-
tagenet kings after them ; they lusted for the things
of God as well as the things of Caesar. William
inaugurated the spirit which Dr. Stubbs has described
as "germinating Gallicanism ". If he built
religious houses, he also aspired to found, and did
found, unchristian customs-consuetudines as they
are called-and if, to a certain extent, he discovered
1 i4 Optimates, .^ukr et veneri dediti, ecclesiani more Christiano
inane non adibant, sed in cubiculo," etc., says a chronicler.
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