Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-05-20


the legitimate possessors of the country;
they had elfaced from their minds all remem-
brance of their anterior condition and their
violent usurpation, imagining that their now
robe families had never exercised any 9th
err occupation than that of ruling men. But
the memories OF the Saxons were more re-
tentiye; and in the complaints forced from
them by the hard hearts oftheir conquerors,
they said of more than one arrogant earl or
prelate, -" He tormented us he goads us as
his grandfather used to goad the oxen at the
other side of the water"
The priesthood suffered less from the
Conquest than the people. Their lands had
not all been seized their sanctuares had
not all been violated but their doom was
only postponed. When time permitted, in
QUESTION was made into all the converts
For this the pretext was, that some of them
had harboured the insurgents. But more
powerful motive was found in the fact, that
there the rich English had deposited their
treasures for safety These were all seized
by royal authority, as were most of the pre-
cious vessels, shrnes, and ornaments. The
charters, also, containing fallacious promis-
es OF justice and protection, granted when
the invader was not sure of final victory,
were recalled in the Lent of 1910. At the
same time arrived in England three legates
from the conqueror's faithful ally, the Pope
They were sent to carry into effect grand
scheme of state policy which the king had
formed. This was nothing less than Nor
manizing the Church. So long as this re-
NAMED Saxon, it was feared the Conquest
would be insecure, and the royal power de-
prived of its most efficient agents. as well as
Of the ample ecclesiastical funds which it
coverted.
William kept the legates near him whole
year, " honouring them," says the annalist,
"as if the equals of God" In the midst of
the famine which was then wasting the Sax
on Catholics by thousands, brilliant festivals
were held in the fortified palace of Win
chester. There the Roman cardinals placed
the crown afresh on the head of the con-
queror, and effaced the maledictions which
patriotic bishops had uttered against him.
This holy league between the crown and
the tiara, for the purpose of spoiation, was,
as usual, disguised under religious mask.
Accordingly great assembly of the Nor
mans, laymen and priests, who had been in
ordinately enriched by confiscation, was
convened at Winchester. There the Saxon
bishops were summoned to appear, and were
haughtly informed by the legates that they
had been sent to inspect their morals and
way of life, and "to plant things profitable
for the body aud the soul" This was the
game which Rome formerly played with the
British Bishops, and which she played CEN
fury later with the Irish. For, in every land
Catholicity has walked hand in hand with
been stained with the blood of saints and
patriots 1t has floated over the plundering
and ruthless armies of invasion, heralding
famine and pestilence, and sanctifying, for
gold, every crime which the cupidity and
cruelty of man can prompt him to commit
against his fellow. Strange to say, civiliza-
ton has made no change in this respect
Guizot maintains that France is the most
civilized nation upon earth and yet this
France, under the ministry ofthe same Gui-
got, is cutting down the bread-fruit trees OF
Tahiti, desolating the villages which civili-
cation has painfully reared, and uprooting
the Christian morality which missionaries
have planted in the hearts of savages. All
this she is doing for her own glory and the
good of the Catholic faith BY the way, we
ask, what worse ever occurred in the Middle
Ages than the razaias in Africa? Had
these enormities been perpetratcd by bar
barous nation 500 years ago, with what hor-
ror should we read the recital
Under the auspices of Rome, William eff
fected a church reform sufficiently radical,
of which Lanfranc, the new primate, was
the all-poweriul instrument. He rooted out
of the Church almost every man of Eng
lish birth, to make way for foreigners of ev-
cry nation. Crowds of Continental adven-
turers filled the monasteries and churches.
Some of these were able men, but many
were infamous for their debaucheries and
gluttony. Nearly all the Norman bishops
disdained to live in the ancient capitals OF
the dioceses, which were mostly small towns.
Then it was that Coventry, Lincoln, Ches-
ter, and Salisbury became Episcopal cities.
In general, the thirst of gain ragged more
fiercely among the priests than even in the
soldiers of the Conquest. The tyranny OF
the former, mixed with open cowardice, was
more disgusting than the brutality of the lat
ter. The new abbots welded the sword,
but it was against unarmed monks. More
than one convent was the scene of military
executions. A moi, mes hOmmeS darmes-
hither, my men-at-arms P'-was the fire.
quent cry of one of them when his monks
proved refractory.
Complaints of the degradation of the
Saxon bishops and abbots reached Rome
and were re-echoed on the Continent. A
deputation from England, loaded with rich
presents, soon enabled Gregory to see and
decide, that the Norman Church system was
perfectly canonical. Not SO thought Gui.
mond, an honest monk from Normandy
Homiles in French, delivered before Saxon
slaves by men who were evidently strangers
to the fear of God, had so little effect, that
even William thought it desirable to procure
his subjects some more suitable instruction
Accordingly, Guimond was summoned over
to England, and was offered high ecclesl-
astical office, with view to the lulhlment
of this object. But he boldly answered the
king thus -" Various motives induce me
to decline ecclesiastical dignity and power
| will not declare them all. will only say
that cannot see how it is possible for me
worthiy to become the religious superior Of
men whose language and whose manners are
alike unknown to me, whose fathers, broth
ers, and friends, have been slain by your
sword, or stripped of their inheritance, ban
ished imprisoned, or reduced by you tC