In haste came Stephen, younger brother of Theobald, count of Blois, an active and resolute man, and though he had sworn an act of fealty to king Henry’s daughter, yet, relying on swift and bold measures, he tempted God by seizing the crown of the realm. William, archbishop of Canterbury, the first to take the oath to the king’s daughter, to his shame, blessed him as king, wherefore God decreed against him the same judgment which he had decreed against the priest who smote Jeremiah, to wit, that he should die within a year. Roger too, the great bishop of Salisbury, the second to take the aforesaid oath, and dictator of the oath to all the rest, added his weighty support to Stephen’s claims; wherefore afterward by the just judgment of God he was seized and tortured by the king whom he had made, and suffered a miserable end. But why linger? All who had sworn the oath, prelates and earls and barons alike, offered their allegiance to Stephen and did him homage. It was an evil omen that the whole of England, without hesitation, without a struggle, in the twinkling of an eye, so suddenly submitted to him. THE CORONATION OATH OF KING STEPHEN (1136). =Source.=--William of Malmesbury, _De gestis regum Anglorum_, ed. Stubbs, vol. ii., p. 541. (Rolls Series.) “I, Stephen, by the grace of God, by assent of the clergy and people, elected king of England, and consecrated by the lord William, archbishop of Canterbury and legate of the holy Roman Church, and afterwards confirmed by Innocent, Pope of the holy see of Rome, out of reverence and love for God, grant that Holy Church be free, and confirm to it due reverence. I promise that I will not do or permit any simony in the church or in matters ecclesiastical. I admit that justice and power over ecclesiastical persons and all clerks and over their goods, and the distribution of ecclesiastical goods is in the hands of the bishops, and I confirm the same. I decree that the immunities of churches confirmed by their charters, and their customs observed by ancient use, remain inviolate, and I confirm the same. I grant that all possessions and holdings of churches, which they had on the day on which king William my grandfather was alive and dead, be theirs freely and absolutely, quit of all recovery by any claimants. But as touching anything held or possessed before the death of the king, whereof the church is now deprived, and for which the church shall sue hereafter, I reserve the same to my indulgence and dispensation for discussion or restitution. Moreover I confirm all grants made after the death of the king by the generosity of kings, the benefaction of princes, or the offering or sale or exchange of the faithful. I promise to make peace and to do justice in all things, and to preserve the same so far as in me lies. I reserve to myself the forests which king William my grandfather, and William the Second my uncle made and held; the rest, which king Henry added thereto, I give back and grant quit