Stephen's part to promise largely and to perform nothing.' But the bishops expected of him more than he had promised; and, in the bitterness of their dis- A.D. 1139. appointment, maligned him beyond measure. These W. Malm. were fond to say "By the Church he reigned and for i. the Church alone should he reign." Hist. Nov. G. Neubrig, i. 22. CHAP. G. Neubrig, i. 6. R. v. A.D. CHAPTER III. ON a time, in Rufus' days, Prince Henry, passing some church nigh Caen, besought a mass; and the priest celebrating with speed, suggested to the attendants "None more fit than this for our sort." Whereupon Henry saying, "Follow me," Roger rose as did Peter at like word; and, as the fisherman left his vessel to walk with the King of Kings, so did this chanter quit his place and adhere to the prince; chaplain to his W. Malm. troops-a blind guide to the blind.' Having experiDe Gestis. enced his clerk's talent as regulator in a straight household, Henry, on becoming king, appointed Roger Chancellor of State and subsequently Bishop of Sarum; 1103-7. who, expert in office, eventually administered the realm-the last not without reluctance, it would seem, since successive primates, Anselm, Ralf, William, and even Pope Innocent, enjoined him to the task. Diligence and integrity his characteristics-perhaps some decent respect of persons also,-Roger kindled no spark of envy;' and when, after long absence, the king would return from Normandy, he found little or nothing to distress him, 'so discreet had been his chancellor, so faithful to perform all things for his advantage.' With the present in our view, however, it is impossible to refer to those times without cynical thought that Roger attached himself to Henry's interests as a means of advancing his own interests: that III. Henry esteemed him most who with least cavil did his CHAP. bidding. Rightly to set a value on the minister, we must take cognisance of the master. There rise to memory those mutilated moneyers not legally arraigned, that summary assize on which certain not guilty' perished by the gallows, long rolls of unlawful taxes, sovereign extortions, sovereign neglects. 6 The bishop transacted his religion in the morning; devoted thereafter to public affairs. A prelate he of great mind, who spared no cost to complete his designs: of a notable faculty in architecture. He rebuilt the cathedral of Sarum-old Sarum on the rings-which some thought inferior in beauty to no other church in England; and, having custody of the royal castle there, surrounded the same with a wall; thus, on the ancient British, Saxon, Roman, entrenchment, rearing cross and battlement after the use of Normans. Possessed of increasing wealth and of this means of investing it, accustomed to secular authority and the reverence attaching to power, Roger adopted, if he did not institute in England, that private or unlicensed building of castles which illustrated the spirit of the time. 'He would have the courses of stone so correctly laid as to deceive the eye: no joint should declare that the whole wall were not of one block.' Thus he erected Sherborne in Dorset, Devizes in Wilts, and founded Malmesbury. W. Malm. Whatever he thought proper to ask, that King Henry gave him estates, churches, prebends, abbeys. Without associate or inspector, Roger decided causes as chief justiciar, regulated the exchequer, took charge of the treasury. Crown ministers and crown debtors yielded to his appetite. He would extort by entreaty, by purchase, by force, so that he might enlarge his borders. Wilful, he would fain annex the monasteries Hist. Nov. ii. СНАР. J. Wig. of Malmesbury and of Abbotsbury (Amesbury) to his see, change Sherborne priory into an abbey, dissolve Horton, supplement Sarum So, also, King Stephen had gratified his greed: "He shall tire of asking ere I W. Malm. tire of giving." Such an one, relieved from office, Hist. Nov. would emulate lay magnates-no other ambition possible to him in those times-and the bishop, with forecast, had prepared to raise a baronial house! From his son Roger de paupere censu' ('The Poor'),— at this moment King Stephen's chancellor-dates the noble family, Le Poer, first in descent from a clerk, still foremost to cherish and defend the Church. Nor base-born this bishop's son. For, as a secular, no priest vowed celibacy, whose conscience, as his man's nature, remained free to marry or not to marry. Shepherds of Christ's flock, from S. Peter's example and under S. Paul's exhortation, needed no other rule. But since, in the Roman Church, opinion had been expressed against marriage in every order of ecclesiastics, the religious rite which should consecrate sexual union generally denied itself to priests in that communion; and, in result, contempt marked the connection between priest and women. The altar removed, the act informal, sin was imputed to the violator of a canon; and, as a matter of course, the sectarian prejudices of those who record it supplement such enormity. Notwithstanding, the papal doctrine in this case reversed not the common law in England. In the various assaults on our Anglican Church's freedom, this sword, dividing soul and spirit, had failed to kill, albeit had grievously scathed. It will be remembered that King Henry, under continuous pressure, still reserved to the crown power to license and dispense the III. married clergy. The fact, then, that Maude of Rams- CHAP. bury-no mean creature, by the way-lived with Roger of Sarum as his wife from youth up even unto death, if not equitable evidence of dispensation duly had, is sufficient proof of honest, natural, union to repel the uncharitable stigma, to hush the coarse epithet which monks jaculate, zealous to reduce a brother to their voluntary bondage. Hist. Nov. Hist. Nov. R. Hoved. G. Neu Bishop Roger had, moreover, two nephews, sons of W. Malm. his brother, whom, not unmeritously on their part, ii. though out of affection for their uncle,' King Henry had advanced to the episcopate. Alexander in the see A.D. 1123. of Lincoln, which he ruled with love and power- H. Hunt. who gathered to give:' Nigel, greatest financier of A.D. 1125. the middle age, prime organiser of the exchequer, in the responsible see of Ely. And Bishop Alexander A.D. 1133. had built Newark, for protection and dignity of his bishopric,' and Sleaford. And among prelates none W. Malm. were richer or more powerful than these three. Few among lay magnates could vie with their retinues or their state. But jealousy, which King Henry's chan- brig, i. 6. cellor had carefully eluded, now attached to Bishop Roger and his kin. Haut Barons, grudging their ostent of grandeur, their flourishing territories, suggested Stephen that these bishops, regardless of their order, mad for building castles,' assuredly designed his overthrow that, on advent of Matilda, they, remembering her father's favours, would resign their forts into her hand; and that it behoved him, in the interim, seize the same. Stephen hesitated. He may not have believed the evil report: he had respect to the hierarchy.' Being now at Oxford, Magnates,' Primores' sum- July 22–4. moned to council, the king awaited events. "By my Hist. Nov. lady, S. Mary," the recorder heard Bishop Roger say, ii. 6 T 6 A.D. 1139. W. Malm, |