ETHEL W O L F.

95

civil war, joined to all tlie ctlier calamities under cwhich the Knglish laboured , appeared inevitable ;when,Ethelwoif had the facility to yield to the great-er part of his son’s pretensions. He made with hima partition of the kingdom ; and taking to him-self the eastern part, which was always at thattime esteemed the least considerable, as well asthe most exposed 14 , he delivered over to Ethel-bald the sovereignty of the western. Immediatelyafter , he summoned the states of the wholekingdom, and with the same facility conferreda perpetual and important donation on the church.

The ecclesiastics, in those days of ignorance,made rapid advances in the acquisition of powerand grandeur; and inculcating the most absurd andmost interested doctrines, though they sometimesmet, from the contrary interests of the laity, withan opposition which it required time and address toovercome , they found no obstacle m their reason orunderstanding. Not content with the donations ofland made them by the Saxon princes and nobles,and with temporary oblations from the devotionof the people , they had cast a wishful eye ona vast revenue, which they claimed as belong-ing to them , by a sacred and indefeasibletitle. However little versed in the scriptures ,they had been able to discover, that , underthe Jewish law, a tenth of all the produce of land

" Asserius, p. 3. W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 2. Matth. jMl'est.p. I. 8-

11 k K11.