C H A

V.

1057.

42s HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

P. to him 4: ' But the council declared it execrable,that pure hands, which could create God, andcould offer him up as a sacrifice for the salvationof mankind, should be put, after this humiliatingmanner, between profane hands, which, besidesbeing inured to rapine and bloodshed , wereemployed day and night in impure purposes and jobscene contacts Such were the reasoningsprevalent in that age ; reasonings , which , though :they cannot be passed over in silence, withoutomitting the most curious and , perhaps , not theleast instructive part of history, can scarcely bedelivered with the requisite decency and gravity.

The cession of Normandy and IVlaine by dukeRobert increased the king’s territories ; butbrought him no great increase of power, becauseof the unsettled state of those countries , themutinous disposition of the barons, and the vicinityof the French king, who supported them in alltheir insurrections. Even Helie, lord of la Fleche,a small town in Atiiou , was able to give himinquietude ; and this great monarch was obligedto make several expeditions abroad , withoutbeing able to prevail over so petty a baron ,who had acquired the confidence and affectionsof the inhabitants of Maine. He was, however,so fortunate , as at last to take him prisoner ina rencounter; but having released him, at the

Spellman , Du Cange , in verb. Hominiitm.

4! W. Heming, p. 467. Flor. -Wigorn. p. 649. Sim.Dunelin , p. 224. Brompton, p. 994.

intercession