and its erection was carried forward so
rapidly that in seven years there were sixty monks here located.
Winchester is one of the earliest of these noble cathedrals; but its
Norman feature of the round arch is not the general characteristic of
the edifice, the original piers having been recased in the pointed
style, in the reign of Edward III. The dates of these buildings, so
grand in their conception, so solid in their execution, would be
sufficient of themselves to show the wealth and activity of the Church
during the reigns of the Conqueror and his sons. But, during this period
of seventy years, and in part of the reign of Stephen, the erection of
monastic buildings was universal in England, as in Continental Europe.
The crusades gave a most powerful impulse to the religious fervor. In
the enthusiasm of chivalry, which covered many of its enormities with
outward acts of piety, vows were frequently made by wealthy nobles that
they would depart for the Holy Wars. But sometimes the vow was
inconvenient. The lady of the castle wept at the almost certain perils
of her lord, and his projects of ambition often kept the lord at home to
look after his own especial interests. Then the vow to wear the cross
might be commuted by the foundation of a religious house. Death-bed
repentance for crimes of violence and a licentious life increased the
number of these endowments. It has been computed that three hundred
monastic establishments were founded in England during the reigns of
Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II.

We have briefly stated these few general facts regarding the outward
manifestation of the power and the wealth of the Church at this period,
to show how important an influence it must have exercised upon all
questions of government. But its organization was of far greater
importance than the aggregate wealth of the sees and abbeys. The English
Church, during the troubled reign of Stephen, had become more completely
under the papal dominion than at any previous period of its history. The
King attempted, rashly perhaps, but honestly, to interpose some check to
the ecclesiastical desire for supremacy; but from the hour when he
entered into a contest with bishops and synods, his reign became one of
kingly trouble and national misery.

The Norman bishops not only combined in their own persons the functions
of the priest and of the lawyer, but were often military leaders. As
barons they had knight-service to perform; and this