peace the mercy of God often cherishes the bad and the good together, so, equally, does His severity sometimes include them both in captivity. [Sidenote: A description of the Normans] The Normans--that I may speak of them also--were at that time, and are even now, exceedingly particular in their dress and delicate in their food, but not so to excess. They are a race accustomed to war, and can hardly live without it; fierce in rushing against the enemy, and, where force fails to succeed, ready to use stratagem or to corrupt by bribery. As I have said, they live in spacious houses with economy, envy their superiors, wish to excel their equals, and plunder their subjects, though they defend them from others; they are faithful to their lords, though a slight offense alienates them. They weigh treachery by its chance of success, and change their sentiments for money. The most hospitable, however, of all nations, they esteem strangers worthy of equal honor with themselves; they also intermarry with their vassals. They revived, by their arrival, the rule of religion which had everywhere grown lifeless in England.[346] You might see churches rise in every village, and monasteries in the towns and cities, built after a style unknown before; you might behold the country flourishing with renewed rites; so that each wealthy man accounted that day lost to him which he had neglected to signalize by some beneficent act. 41. William the Conqueror as Man and as King In the following passage, taken from the Saxon Chronicle, we have an interesting summary of the character of the Conqueror and of his conduct as king of England. Both the good and bad sides of the picture are clearly brought out and perhaps it is not quite easy to say which is given the greater prominence. On the one hand there is William's devotion to the Church, his establishment of peace and order, his mildness in dealing with all but those who had antagonized him, and the virtue of his personal life; on the other is his severity, rapacity, and pride, his heavy taxes and his harsh forest laws. As one writer says, "the Conquest was bad as well as good for England; but the harm was only temporary, the good permanent." It is greatly to the credit of the English chronicler that he was able to deal so fairly with the character of one whom he had not a few patriotic reasons for maligning. Source--_The Saxon Chronicle._ Translated by J. A. Giles (London, 1847), pp. 461-462. [Sidenote: William's religious zeal]