WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 335

employing the archbishop of York to officiate at c h a r,his consecration , he was careful, on other oc- iv.ca lions , to load him with honours and caresses ,and to avoid giving him farther offence till theopportunity should osier of effecting his finaldestruction The suppression of the late re-bellions, and the total subjection of the English,made him hope, that an attempt against Stigand,however violent, would be covered by his greatsuccelfes , and be overlooked amidst the otherimportant revolutions , which affected so deeplythe property and liberty of the kingdom. Yet,notwithstanding these great advantages , he didnot think it safe to violate the reverence usuallypaid to the primate , but under cover of a newsuperstition , which he was the great instrumentof introducing into England.

The doctrine, which exalted the papacy above innovationall human power, had gradually diffused itself in ecclesl '* r "srom the city and court of Rome; and was, ^ ti S ° v * rn ”during that age, much more prevalent in thesouthern than in the northern kingdoms of Europe.

Pope Alexander , who had assisted William inhis conquests , naturally expected, that the Frenchand Normans would import into England , thelame reverence for his sacred character, with whichthey were impressed in their own country ; andwould break the spiritual, as well as civil inde-pendency of the Saxons, who had hitherto con-ducted their ecclesiastical government, with anacknowledgment indeed of primacy iii the see of

P kadi er, p. 164.