the long-contested point relative to the celibacy of the clergy; and it was ordered that no priests of any kind fhould be allowed to marry: nay, fuch as were already married, were prohibited from living with their wives. There were likewife many contentions about inveftitures, legates, the pall, and other things which we only mention to fhew the ambition and infolence of the Roman pontiffs, and the low ftate of knowledge to which the nation in general was reduced. Indeed feveral of our princes, while they quietly. admitted the doctrines, ftruggled hard against the temporal encroachments of the popes: but our princes ftruggled in vain; for methods were generally found to make them, in the end, fubmit.

From the Conqueft to the death of Stephen, the kingdom was not deftitute of writers, who had a great reputation in their day, though their works would be read with little regard in the prefent enlightened age. If we look into the authors of those times, we shall perceive them to be chiefly of two kinds, the divines and the hiftorians. The treatifes of the former either abound with the fubtleties of a quirkifh logic, or the overflowings of a weak and superftitious-devotion. As to the latter, they are extremely defective in matter, order, judgment and ftyle; but yet they are very useful, as being the only fources from which we can draw our accounts of paft tranfactions.

Among the divines of the Norman period, Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, bears no inconfiderable rank. In learning he was confeffedly equal to any of his contemporaries, and his writings were long held in repute. It was unhappy that the talents of fo able a man, and whofe character was, in many respects, exceedingly valuable, fhould be employed in vindicating the doctrine of tranfubftan

tiation.

Anfelm is, at prefent, more known by his bigoted zeal for the authority and pretenfions of the church of Rome, than by his works, though they are pretty voluminous; and father Gerberon has published a handfome edition of them. According to the teftimony of Du Pin, many metaphyfical queftions are ftarted in them, and argued with

a 2.

muh

much feeming acuteness. Anfelm first introduced the fashion, fo long in vogue, of compofing prayers in the form of me

ditations.

The literature of Gilbert, bishop of London, obtained him the appellation of the Univerfalift but very little regard is due to this pompous title, which the admiration of an ignorant age was ready to bestow on any perfon, whofe knowledge was above the common ftandard.

Arnulph, Godfrid, and Ofmund, were alfo celebrated divines, and wrote in the ftrain of their contemporaries. The laft of them is only diftinguished by correcting the Sarum Liturgy, which was afterwards received by all the diocefes of the kingdom.

The hiftorians that flourished at this period, are more deferving of our notice. During the reign of William the Conqueror, Marianus, a Scotchman, who lived at Fulda, compofed a general hiftory of Europe, from the creation to the year 1082. As to the authors who have given a relation of the events of our own country, the first, in order of time, is Ingulph; who, in his account of Croyland, has occafionally inferted the actions of our kings, during the fpace of four centuries. William of Poitiers, though a foreigner, has described the Norman Revolution with a fairness that has intitled him to good credit.

Florence of Worcester, and Vitalis, have no diftinguished merit, and, though their compofitions are ufeful, are much inferior to Eadmer, Alredus, and William of lmbury, who were the principal hiftorians of their day.

Eadmer compofed a relation of the reigns of the Conqueror and his two fons, from 1c66 to 1122; and the work is allowed to be a piece of great value. It is thought to excel both in the choice and difpofition of its matter; and its style has been applauded by the moft judicious authors.

Alredus, who was very little known till his Annals were published by Mr. Hearne, in 1716, wrote an abridgment of our biftory, from Brutus, to Henry the First, and it is one of the best performances that has efcaped the depredations of time. His concifenefs, perfpicuity, and elegance, together with the nature of his plan, have gained him the

appel

appellation of the English Florus; and he is obferved to pay a more than ordinary attention to dates and authorities.

William of Malmbury, in his book de Geftis Regum Anglorum, and in his Hiftoriæ Nouvellæ, has collected all that he found upon record, from the introduction of the Saxons, to the year 1144. The highest commendations have been bestowed upon him; and it must be confeffed, that his writings are peculiarly valuable, fince to him we are indebted for the knowledge of many tranfactions previous to the Conqueft, with which we should not otherwife have been acquainted.

The Norman fcholars, who were introduced by William the First into England, were not wholly inattentive to polite learning. Godfrey, prior of St, Swithin's, at Winchester, wrote Latin epigrams with a confiderable degree of elegance and fmartnefs. Geoffrey, who had been invited from France to fuperintend the fchool of the abbey of Dunstable, compofed a play, called the play of St. Catherine, which was acted by his scholars, and is thought to have been the firft inftance of theatrical reprefentation in this country. John, commonly called Joannes Grammaticus, who was employed in educating the fons of the principal nobility, wrote an explanation of Ovid's Metamorphofis, and a Treatife on the Art of Verification. Laurence, prior of the church of Durham, was the author of nine books of Latin elegies, and of a work concerning the method of writing epiftles, which was then a favourite fubject. He employed hunfelf, likewife, in compofing declamations and orations in the manner of the ancients; with more fpirit, indeed, than elegance; but yet the defign was laudable. Robert of Dunstable fhone as an elegiac poet, and difplayed great attention to the harmony of his Latin verification. It must not be forgotten, that Herman, a Norman, bifhop of Salifbury, promoted the caufe of literature, by founding a noble library in the ancient cathedral of that fee.

In the course of our work we have had occafion to be. hold, how much the doctrines and pretenfions of the Roman fee were built upon the ruins of rational piety, good fenfe, and real learning. In the period we are now treat

ing of, the popes advanced to the highest pitch of info lence; fuch an infolence, as could only be affumed when the human understanding was reduced extremely low, and true knowledge almoft totally banished from the earth. Not content with having erected an empire over the mind, and fubjected it to the moft wretched flavery, the pontiffs, taking advantage of the fuperftition they had cultivated, and of other favourable circumftances, claimed a mighty temporal power, and even afferted, that to themfelves belonged the difpofal of kingdoms. So weak were the princes of the time, that feveral of them acknowledged this abfurd principle, when it feemed to agree with their prefent intereft; by which means they forged chains for their own necks, and encouraged an authority that, in the end, they severely felt and regretted; as was the cafe with regard to Henry the Second.

By one of thofe revolutions, not very uncommon in places where the higheft preferments are open to persons of the meaneft birth, if poffeffed of abilities, merit, and an opportunity of difplaying their talents, Adrian the Fourth, an Englishman, had afcended the papal throne. According to the beft accounts of him, his parentage and education were of the loweft kind, and he had been rejected with contempt by the abbot, when he folicited an admiffion into the monaftery of St. Albans. Not difcouraged, by this disappointment, from endeavouring to make his way into the church, he betook him elf to the Univerfity of Paris, and having received inftruction there, became as learned as most of his contemporaries. Entering into the order of the Auftin friars, he fucceffively mounted from one ftep of promotion to another, till, at length, he was elected fovereign pontiff, 1 When he had arrived to this dignity, he affumed as much power as any of his predeceffors, and gave out the famous bull, by which liberty was granted to Henry the Second to undertake the conqueft of Ireland. One principal reafon affigned for this extraordinary commiffion, was the propagation of Chriftianity; as if the Gospel had never hitherto been known or embraced by the Irish: whereas, in fact, they had received it in the moft early ages, and had been diftin

6

guished

guished for their religion and literature, when other nations were over-run with ignorance and barbarity. Even at the time we are speaking of, though learning had declined among them, they retained fomething of the purity and liberty of the evangelical inftitution. They had a fucceffion of married bishops; they admitted no palls from Rome; and they did not fubimit to the authority of the popes. This was their crime; hence they were treated as infidels; and hence proceeded the pretended zeal of Adrian for the cause of knowledge, piety, and virtue.

Henry the Second, to gratify his ambition, had given fanction to the bold claims of the Roman fee; and therefore he is the lefs to be pitied in fuffering afterwards fo much from the infolence of the clergy. Senfible that their power had arifen to an enormous height, he would gladly have restrained it; but in vain did he attempt to effect it by the Conftitutions of Clarendon. The prelates of the nation, fupported by the pontiffs, vigorously oppofed the defigns of their monarch; and Becket, in particular, excited troubles that embittered the reign of his prince and his benefactor. The arrogance of Becket was aftonishing, and his conduct fhews him to have been no better than a daring rebel; and yet, fuch was the fuperftition of the age, fuch the abject bondage in which the minds of men were held, that Henry was obliged to feek a reconciliation with him in the humbleft manner, and to procure it by the moft mortifying conceffions. Nay, after the death of this proud priest, the king was forced to acknowledge him for a faint, to vifit his tomb, and fubmit to be fcourged by the monks. When we fee one of the most powerful, fpirited, and accomplished fovereigns of his time, yielding to fo much ignominy, we need not afk what was the character of the period in which he lived; we need not ask whether it was an era of the groffeft ignorance and weakness. The application of a few men in retirement to the ftudy of literature, and who were themselves bigoted adherents of the popes of Rome, will not redeem the age from this difgraceful character.

John, the fon of Henry the Second, exhibited a ftill more surprising scene. We behold him folemnly furrender