CHAP. IV. A.D. 1119. O. Vit. xii. King Louis returned to Paris, humbled. But the rhetorical, inflated, speech of Amaury de Montfort, who had not been present at Brémoule, encouraged him once more. And truly, in a grand cause, the exhorta- 19. tion is sonorous enough. "Let the bishops and counts and all other lords of the realm rally round you, their king: and let the priests with the whole body of their parishioners march under your standard, that an army of the commons may avenge our common wrongs on the common enemy.' The idea, essentially French in expression, captivated the imagination of one worthy of the French crown. And Louis bade the ban. Under ecclesiastical censure, Burgundy and Berri, Auvergne, Champagne, The Isle (Paris), Orleans, Vermandois, the Beauvoises, Laon, the Gatinois, rose to arms; and, every one leaving his home for the rendezvous, a populace pillaged France throughout. Each man did what he would. Royal authority fainted: episcopal malediction gat benumbed. And the levy en masse became, as it had been in Charles the Simple's time, unavailabledestructive of the interests in hand. Louis, therefore, still nobly intent on restoring Eustace to his patrimony and on reinstating those Normans who had been banished for the Clito's sake, assembled at Bréteuil the Sept. 17. people of the nearer districts, Péronne, Nesle, Noyon, Lille, Tournai, Arras, Gournay, Clermont, borderers of France and Flanders. Here, however, Ralf de Guader (lord of Bréteuil) opening the three gates, defied entry; and, charging out, now from one, now from another, opposed advance. Very spirited skirmishing took place there, and Henry's son, doughty Richard, arriving with 200 knights at a crisis, the French gave way. An incident, romantic rather than veracious, is told: Ralf the Red, changing his armour CHAP. A.D. 1119. O. Vit. xi.. 20. many times, careered from gate to gate, bearing down distinguished warriors and bestowing their horses on his unhorsed friends; till, met by a Fleming, notable in mien, he fell to ground. By the same lance Luke de la Barre and other warlike knights had bitten dust. But the Breton hero, rising, though on foot, assailed hand to hand and mortally wounded the strenuous Fleming, who, in the dungeon of Bréteuil, expired within fifteen days. Daring deeds are quickly followed and surpassed but the recorder who admits gallantry in a foe is apt to claim more than human heroism for a friend. King Henry followed his champion's march, hoping an easy victory: but the enemy had fled; and by God's just judgment,' the priests (who had made. personal return to the ban) went home ingloriously, overwhelmed with fears, losses, sorrow, confusion, because they had suffered consecrated places to be defiled. France in full retreat, William de Chaumont and 200 others raided in the neighbourhood of Tilliers; but, from an ambush, Gilbert the constable captured their leader, Louis' son-in-law, whom he ransomed at 200 silver marks, and dispersed the rest. Richer de l'Aigle, however, carried off one Odo and much cattle from Cisai, and being followed by the peasants charged them angrily. Yet when he saw those whom he had spoiled prostrate at a wayside cross, he spared them, and gat recompense for the pious act in restoration to King Henry's favour and to his father's lands in Normandy and in England. The little trait of Christian feeling, even the jejune allusion to attendant honours, is refreshing in the arid waste of warfare; pleasant in the moral solitude. As Henry marched threatening through Ouche, Roger Fitz William and Arnold du Bois, castellans of Glos and IV. A.D. 1119. Lire, apprehending that Eustace and Amaury had CHAP. failed in making head against the king, surrendered their charges, and these, also feofs of Bréteuil, passed to Ralf de Guader. Ralf-himself a Breton-as his title denotes-suspecting Normans generally, and the Sieur de Conches in especial, through whose lands he had need pass from Bréteuil into Bretagne, in primitive feudal fashion enfeoffed the lord of Conches in Pont S. Pierre and the valley of Pitres, which lay on the left bank of Seine, near its juncture with Andelle. So the Sieur de Conches became the vassal of the stranger lord of Bréteuil in these parts; bound to protect his marches and to give free passage to his chief. And Ralf de Guader-son of the Conqueror's 0. Vit. xii. Earl of Norwich and rebel-gave his daughter in marriage to King Henry's base-born son Richard the brave and hopeful; and, with her, conceded as dowry Bréteuil, Glos and Lire, and the whole of that noble Norman feof. 25. As the Sabbath was made for man ;' so, a return of our thoughts to ecclesiastical affairs rests us. The clang of arms, the gaunt heroisms, the smoky or bloody outrages of this working world, pall on us by times: nay, the very sobriquets of feudal lords, their pedigrees, and the jarring interests of seigneurs related and hostile, are apt to strain the imagination, if not to overtask the mind; and we hearken with a sense of peace to convent bells, take solace in church pomp, get charmed with some recluse's worth, and gently nod to tales of prelatic virtue. Upon the death of Pascal, John, a monk of Jan. 19, Gaieta, who had been chancellor to three successive Pontiffs, viz., Desiderius, Urban, and Pascal, was J. Cont. Wig. elected Pope as Gelasius. And he dying next year, Guy, Archbishop of Vienne, who in Anselm's time had 1118. CHAP. visited England, succeeded as Calixtus II. In meantime, however, the Emperor Henry V. had raised one Bourdin A.S.Chron. to the supreme hierarchy; the antipope Gregory. A.D. 1119. Hoved. O. Vit. xii. 21. OctoberNov. 21. J. Cont. Wig. Pope Calixtus now came to Rheims, the ecclesiastical capitol of France proper, and presided at a catholic council. Some passages being of historic import, others of antiquarian interest, I abstract the minutes. Thurstan, elect of York, pledging his word (sufficient in a priest) that he would on no account accept consecration from the Pope, gat licence to attend the council. Primate Ralf absented through illness, but the Bishops of Durham, Exeter, S. David's, and Llandaff, then in Normandy, being sent by the king, had not arrived at Rheims Ib. Hoved. ere Thurstan, 'gaining over the Romans by bribes,' procured consecration at his holiness' own hands; many O. Vit. xii. French Bishops assisting: procured, likewise, the desirable privilege of independence of the see of Canterbury. Oct. 19. 21. Oct. 21. Sixteen archbishops had now assembled, and Thurstan, as metropolitan of York, took rank according to ancient decree, next after the prelates of Rheims and Bourges.' More than 200 bishops, very many abbotsin all 424 pastoral staffs-were present, and an innumerable 'bevy' of monks and clergy, 'prefiguring the last judgment and fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, "the Lord will come with the elders of His people and the princes thereof." › The apostolic throne being placed on a dais at east end of the church of S. Mary, Virgin, and mass sung, the holy Father took his seat, having immediately next him the four cardinals whose learning and address fitted them to reply on all occasions. The deacon, Chrysogonus, in dalmatic, standing by the Pope's side with an open volume of canons and authentic decrees in hand; ready to quote. Six other deacons, tuniced, СНАР. IV. A.D. 1119. 48 s 3 sq. dalmaticed, prompt to enforce silence and to quiet perturbed disputants. After Litany, and that prayer for all estates of men which remains to the Christian church as internal evidence of inspiration, Calixtus S. Mark vi. preached on the gospel, shewing Christ's power to calm men's souls. And truly, the time offered a parallel. It needed One able to walk the sea, if any would now still the troubled waves and lay the tempest of human passions. But the representatives of Peter, bold as Peter, are apt to sink with Peter. Clerical ingenuity, rife when on a dais, often, in very excellence of art, mars the text; and dark sayings and hard lines take form and colour from rhetoric, pedantry, sacerdotalism. Cardinal Conon, exhorting the clergy to be careful of their flocks, presently quoted Jacob's tricks on Laban as an example of diligence to be commended. Mundane politics however, now, as ever in the Church of Rome, disturbed the suave and unctuous flow of ecclesiastical affairs. King Henry, for once animated by his father's spirit, peremptorily had forbidden the English bishops to lay any grievance before the sacred congress. "I will freely render full justice in my own land: and, since I discharge, yearly, all payments due, I maintain my privileges. Go, salute our lord the Pope in my behalf; but beware that no superflous novelties be foisted into my realm!" Such passages, however rare, explain the popularity of Beauclerk. But King Louis, in person, attended by the chief lords of France, entered the council on another ground; and, ascending the platformin right of a king-complained. Tall and corpulent, pallid, fluent of speech-I doubt not we have the words of a very witness-he said, "I come, with my barons, to demand inquiry and advice. And I pray you, my lord Pope, and you, my reverend fathers, to |