HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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c Ik a p. that endless mint of superstition, and magnifiedI. by lying miracles, invented in convents, operatedon the astonished minds of the multitude. Andevery prince has attained the eulogies of themonks, the only historians of those ages, not inproportion to his civil and military virtues, butto his devoted attachment towards their order,and his superstitious reverence for Rome.

The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by thisblindness and submissive disposition of the people,advanced every day in his encroachments on theindependence of the English churches. Wilfrid,bishop of Lindisferne , the sole prelate of theNorthumbrian kingdom, increased this subjectionin the eighth century, by his making an appealto Rome against the decisions of an English synod,which had abridged his diocese by the erection ofsome new bishoprics Agatho, the pope,

readily embraced this precedent of an appeal tohis court; and Wilfrid, though the haughtiestand most luxurious prelate of his age I4 \ havingobtained with the people the character of sanctity,was thus able to lay the foundation of this papalpretension. \

The great topic , by which Wilfrid confound-ed the imaginations of men, was, that St. Peter,to whose custody the keys of heaven were entrust-ed , would certainly refuse admittance to everyone who should be wanting in respect to hissuccessor. This conceit, well suited to vulgar

1,1 See Appendix to Bede, numb. I§. Higden, lib. §.Eddius vita Yilfr. § 24. 60.