The Normans in European historyHaskins, Charles Homer
History
The Normans in European history
Haskins, Charles Homer
Europe -- History; Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485; Normans -- Europe
five years till William on his death-bed, against his better judgment,
released him for ten years more of rule in Normandy. Yet, though Odo’s
eulogists admit that he was given overmuch to worldly ambition, the
lusts of the flesh and the pride of life, they tell us of his vigorous
defence of his clergy by arms as well as by eloquence, of the young
men of promise whom he supported in the schools of Lorraine and other
centres of foreign learning, of the journey to Jerusalem on which he
met his death, of the great cathedral which he built in honor of the
Mother of God and adorned with gold and silver and probably with the
very Bayeux Tapestry which is the chief surviving monument of his
magnificence.
With the twelfth century the type changes. To the monastic historian
a bishop like Philip d’Harcourt, likewise of the see of Bayeux, may
appear wise in the wisdom of this world which is foolishness with
God,[53] but his wisdom shows itself in frequent journeys to Rome
and persistent litigation in the duke’s courts, not in battles and
sieges, and he owes his appointment to his influence as Stephen’s
chancellor and not to blood relationship. Arnulf of Lisieux is another
royal officer, versatile, insinuating, shifty, anything but truthful
if we may believe his fellow-bishops, but proud of his Latin style
and his knowledge of law and prodigal of letters to the Pope. Their
contemporaries continue to owe their promotion to service as chaplains
or chancellors to the king, but they also have an eye toward Rome and
must be canonists as well as secular officials. The contrast between
Becket the king’s chancellor and Becket the archbishop of Canterbury
is symptomatic of the new age, although the conflict to which it led
affected Normandy but indirectly. Relations with the lay power which
once rested on local Norman custom come to be formulated in the sharper
terms of the canon law of the universal church; appeals to Rome and
instructions from Rome increase rapidly in volume and importance; the
Norman clergy attend assemblies of the clergy of neighboring lands; and
by the end of the Plantagenet period the Norman church is ready to be
absorbed into the church of France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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