5 334 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

!

? C h a P. knights or military tenants ; proportioned to theiv. extent of property possessed fov each fee or abbey;

lorn. and they were liable, in cafe of failure, to the

fame penalties which were exacted from the laity 'LThe pope and the ecclesiastics exclaimed againstthis tyranny, as they called it; but the king’sauthority was so well established over the army,who held every thing from his bounty , thatsuperstition itself, even in that age, when it wasmost prevalent , was constrained to bend underhis superior influence.

But as the great body of the clergy were stillnatives, the king had much reason to dread theeffects of their resentment : He therefore usedthe precaution of expelling the English from aflthe considerable dignities , and of advancingforeigners in their place. The partiality of theConfessor towards the Normans had been ib great,that, aided by their superior learning , it hadpromoted them to many of the sees in England;and even before the period of the conquest,scarcely more than six or seven of the prelateswere natives of the country. But among thesewas Stigand j archbishop os Canterbury; a man,who , by his address and vigor , by the great-ness of his family and alliances, by the extent ofhis possessions, as well as by the dignity of hisoffice, and his authority among the English , gavejealousy to the king !i . Though William had,on his accession , affronted this prelate , by

M. Paris, p. 5. Anglia Sacra, vol. 1. p. 248.

" Parker , p. 161.