As regards the Church, two important changes were made. As the champion of orthodoxy, William, by means of his Archbishop, Lanfranc, restored the Roman discipline to the Church, and connected it closely with the See of Rome. And, secondly, he separated the ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the secular. The bishops withdrew from the county court (perhaps finding their position there useless now that those courts had sunk in importance), and established courts of their own. During William’s reign no inconvenience arose from this, but the inherent defects of the step became obvious when Henry II. attempted to reorganize the kingdom after the disorder of Stephen’s reign. The Conqueror’s police was unusually strict. It became the common saying that a man laden with gold could pass unharmed through the country. He abolished the penalty of death (which was, however, speedily resumed), and substituted mutilations of various kinds. He also repressed the right which the Saxon laws had allowed of killing the murderer or the thief when taken red-handed. It has been suggested that the great forests he created, and the care with which they were maintained, is to be attributed as much to the king’s desire to maintain an efficient staff of police always ready as to his great love of hunting. WILLIAM I. 1066-1087. Born 1027 = Matilda of Flanders. | +---------------+-----+------+----------+ | | | | Robert, Duke William II. Henry I. Adela = Stephen, Earl of Normandy. | of Blois. d. 1134. | +-----------+-----------+ | | | Theobold Stephen Henry, Bishop of Winchester. CONTEMPORARY PRINCES. _Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._ | | | Malcolm III., | Philip I., | Henry IV., | Sancho II., 1065. 1057. | 1060. | 1056. | Alphonso VI., 1072. POPES.--Alexander II., 1061. Gregory VII., 1073. Vacancy one year. Victor III., 1086.