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WALTER DE GRAY. 141
king. The clergy generally, with Stephen Langton
at their head, were all on the side of English freedom,
and the first article of the Great Charter announced
their will that the Church of England should enjoy
her ancient liberty. It was a protest, no doubt,
against illegal interference on the part of the sovereign,
but it was a protest also against the interference
and the exactions of the Court of Rome.
After the death of John, Archbishop Gray became
one of the most trusted advisers of his son, Henry III.,
and was engaged in almost all the affairs of state, both
at home and abroad, during many years of that
sovereign's reign. But he was not unmindful of his
own peculiar responsibilities as the ecclesiastical ruler
of a great diocese. It is in that light that we have
especially here to regard him. For this there is
abundance of material in his great Archiepiscopal
Register, one of the most ancient records of the kind
in existence in this country. The systematic registration
of the various acts relating to the diocese was
probably a following out by Gray of the mode adopted
for recording the patent and close rolls of the kingdom
; the idea of which was taken in the first instance
from the papal registry, the method and arrangement
of which were ere long imitated throughout Europe.
When Gray came to the diocese he found that it
had been neglected in many ways. Jealousies and
contentions abounded on all sides, but his energy
was great, and his administrative capacity was equally
conspicuous. One of the most fertile sources of dissatisfaction
existing at this time in the English Church
was the growing evil of a claim on the part of the