There are also abundant proofs of a general laxity of morals among the clergy of the dark ages. It is difficult to convey a correct impression on this subject. A style of sweeping declamation upon the vices of the clergy, through the space of about eight or nine centuries, is very often adopted: but it cannot be justly supposed that licentiousness prevailed equally in all places, and at all times, during that period. Here the clouds of moral gloom are of a deeper--there, of a lighter, shade: while it must be acknowledged, as will be shown more particularly hereafter, that some gleams of virtue occasionally relieve the darkness. Immediately after the barbaric invasion, the morals of the clergy in Europe seem to have been very low. Charlemagne certainly endeavoured to raise them throughout his wide dominions, and, perhaps, with some success. But, in the ninth century, some facts of a most revolting nature are disclosed. In the canons of a council held A.D. 888, the bishops complain of the numerous instances of vice among the clergy, which had come to their knowledge, and go on to state that they had heard of certain priests who were guilty of incest.[3] A bishop of Italy, in the tenth century, after complaining in the strongest terms of the vices of the age, laments that the clergy were deeply tainted with them.[4] In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, efforts were made, by zealous churchmen, to reform the moral habits of their brethren, but they seem to have been attended with little success. Of the manners of the clergy during the _twelfth_ century some most lively sketches are supplied in the letters of Peter of Blois, an English ecclesiastic, who was by no means tolerant of the vices of his fellow clerks. "I was dean of the church of Wolverhampton," says this honest writer, "which is in the diocese of Chester, but not under the jurisdiction of any one, except the archbishop of Canterbury, and the king. For by very ancient custom, which with many is reckoned as a right, the kings of England have always presented to that deanery. The dean gave the prebends, and instituted to them. As the clergy belonging to this church were wholly undisciplined, like the Welsh and Scots, (qu. Irish?) such a dissoluteness of life had crept in on them, that their vices tended to produce contempt for God, destruction of souls, infamy to the clergy, and derision and mockery in the people. In Scripture language, their base deeds were sung in the highways of Gath, and 'in the streets of Ascalon.' I frequently reminded them of the words of Hesca, 'Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend.' But they fornicated openly and publicly, proclaimed their sin like Sodom, and regardless of popular infamy, married the one the other's daughter or niece; and so close was the tie of relationship among them, that no one could dissolve their bonds of iniquity. They were like the scales of Behemoth, one of which joins