The History of England, Volume I: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England, Volume I: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688
David Hume · en
Nothing remained to complete William's satisfaction but the punishment
of Ralph de Guader; and he hastened over to Normandy in order to
gratify his vengeance on that criminal. But though the contest seemed
very unequal between a private nobleman and the King of England, Ralph
was so well supported both by the Earl of Britany and the King of
France, that William, after besieging him for some time in Dol, was
obliged to abandon the enterprise, and make with those powerful
princes a peace, in which Ralph himself was included. England, during
his absence, remained in tranquillity, and nothing remarkable
occurred, except two ecclesiastical synods which were summoned, one at
London, another at Winchester. In the former the precedency among the
episcopal sees was settled, and the seat of some of them was removed
from small villages to the most considerable town within the diocese.
In the second was transacted a business of more importance.
[MN 1076. Dispute about investitures]
The industry and perseverance are surprising, with which the popes had
been treasuring up powers and pretensions during so many ages of
ignorance; while each pontiff employed every fraud for advancing
purposes of imaginary piety, and cherished all claims which might turn
to the advantage of his successors, though he himself could not expect
ever to reap any benefit from them. All this immense store of
spiritual and civil authority was now devolved on Gregory VII. of the
name of Hildebrand, the most enterprising pontiff that had ever filled
that chair, and the least restrained by fear, decency, or moderation.
Not content with shaking off the yoke of the emperors, who had
hitherto exercised the power of appointing the pope on every vacancy,
or at least of ratifying his election; he undertook the arduous task
of entirely disjoining the ecclesiastical from the civil power, and of
excluding profane laymen from the right which they had assumed of
filling the vacancies of bishoprics, abbeys, and other spiritual
dignities [a]. The sovereigns who had long exercised this power, and
who had acquired it not by encroachments on the church, but on the
people, to whom it originally belonged [b], made great opposition to
this claim of the court of Rome; and Henry IV., the reigning emperor,
defended this prerogative of his crown with a vigour and resolution
suitable to its importance. The few offices, either civil or
military, which the feudal institutions left the sovereign the power
of bestowing, made the prerogative of conferring the pastoral ring and
staff the most valuable jewel of the royal diadem; especially as the
general ignorance of the age bestowed a consequence on the
ecclesiastical offices, even beyond the great extent of power and
property which belonged to them. Superstition, the child of
ignorance, invested the clergy with an authority almost sacred; and as
they engrossed the little learning of the age, their interposition