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STATE OF CHURCH UNDER NORMAN RULE.
I17
and the appointments which he made to bishoprics
were for the most part good. The Norman ecclesiastics
were, no doubt, far superior in learning and
culture to the native clergy. Ordericus Vitalis says
that the English were, at the conquest, rude and
almost illiterate, which he ascribes to the Danish
invasion. When the great Norman became ruler
" England at once becomes the resort of the most
learned men of the age, with the two mighty ones
from Bee at their head."i
But eminent as William's bishops might be in
character and learning, they laboured under one great
and serious disadvantage. However earnest they
might be in promoting the spiritual welfare of the
people, according to the mode which they deemed
most conducive to that end, however energetic in
enforcing discipline and in bringing the ministrations
of religion to bear upon their flocks, one great link
was wanting to unite them together. The new prelates
were all foreigners, and, with probably few
exceptions, the ecclesiastics whom they promoted to
the most responsible positions in the Church were
also of Norman blood. No zeal on the part of the
pastor, no personal holiness and piety could altogether
bridge over the chasm by which he and his
flock were thus separated. And it lasted long. For
a hundred years or more was William's policy acted
upon. Becket is said to have been the first Englishman
who was raised to any great position. Eadmer
says that Henry I. would not place any Englishman
at the head of a monastery.
'
Freeman's "Norman Conquest," v. p. 577.