Thus far the course of Henry’s reign had been one of unbroken prosperity. He had settled and increased his dominions both in England and on the Continent, had on the whole gained in his opposition to his suzerain the King of France, and had strengthened himself by prudent marriages for his children. He was henceforward, except for a very few years, to be plunged in disputes and difficulties. It has been mentioned that the Church in England had reached a position of great pre-eminence during the troubled period of Stephen’s reign. The policy of the Norman kings had been always to support the Church to the utmost, to keep on good terms with Rome, but at the same time to make good the supremacy of the power of the king in his own dominions. William the Conqueror, it will be remembered, had entirely separated the spiritual from the temporal jurisdiction. Before the arrival of the Normans, all offences not strictly ecclesiastical had been tried and punished in the County and Hundred courts, where both bishop and aldermen presided side by side. In withdrawing the bishop from the secular courts, William had desired to raise the character of the clergy by confining them more completely to spiritual matters. But an abuse had easily grown up, which produced a directly opposite effect. As the pretensions of the Church rose, not only were spiritual questions to be tried in the spiritual courts, but spiritual men were also withdrawn from the secular jurisdiction, and the doctrine became prevalent that the cleric could be only tried by his ecclesiastical superior.[23] Now ecclesiastical courts could not inflict corporal punishments. Censures, excommunications, and penances were their weapons. Consequently clerks might and did commit every sort of crime without suffering any punishment. To Henry’s love of justice and order this was most repugnant. But at the same time that he wished to curtail the license of the clergy, and to establish the superiority of the royal jurisdiction, he distinctly upheld the policy of his predecessors in supporting the Roman See. It was a critical time for that power. The great Frederick Barbarossa was upon the throne of Germany and attempting to establish with regard to himself and the Pope on a larger scale what Henry was anxious to do in England. With a comprehensive view of the struggle, he had invited the Kings of England and France to join him in united action for the establishment of the supremacy of the secular power. His overtures had not been received; and when, upon the death of Hadrian, in 1159, after a stormy conclave, the Italian party elected Rolando Bandinelli, under the title of Alexander III., and the imperial party Cardinal Octavian, as Victor IV., the two Western kings gave in their adhesion to Alexander. When expelled from Italy, they received him with extreme honour at Chateauroux, where they acted as his grooms, leading his horse between them. He finally found shelter in the French town of Sens.