upation of a captain of banditti." This appears rather a
harsh judgment from a philosophical writer. Bearing in mind that the
principle of election prevailed in the choice of a king, whatever was
the hereditary claim, and seeing how welcome was the advent of Stephen
when he came, in 1135, to avert the dangers of the kingdom, he merits
the title of "a captain of banditti" no more than Harold or William the
Conqueror. After the contests of six years--the victories, the defeats,
the hostility of the Church, his capture and imprisonment--the
attachment of the people of the great towns to his person and government
appears to have been unshaken. When he was defeated at Lincoln, and led
captive through the city, "the surrounding multitude were moved with
pity, shedding tears and uttering cries of grief." Ordericus says: "The
King's disaster filled with grief the clergy and monks and the common
people; because he was condescending and courteous to those who were
good and quiet, and if his treacherous nobles had allowed it, he would
have put an end to their rapacious enterprises, and been a generous
protector and benevolent friend of the country." The fourth and not
least remarkable personage of this history is Henry, the Bishop of
Winchester, and the Pope's legate. At that period, when the functions of
churchman and statesman were united, we find this man the chief
instrument for securing the crown for his brother. He subsequently
becomes the vicegerent of the papal see. Stephen, with more justice than
discretion, is of opinion that bishops are not doing their duty when
they build castles, ride about in armor, with crowds of retainers, and
are not at all scrupulous in appropriating some of the booty of a
lawless time. From the day when he exhibited his hostility to fighting
bishops, the Pope's legate was his brother's deadly enemy. But he found
that the rival whom he had set up was by no means a pliant tool in his
hands, and he then turned against Matilda. When Stephen had shaken off
the chains with which he was loaded in Bristol Castle, the Bishop
summoned a council at Westminster, on his legatine authority; and there
"by great powers of eloquence, endeavored to extenuate the odium of his
own conduct"; affirming that he had supported the Empress, "not from
inclination, but necessity." He then "commanded on the part of God and
of the Pope, that they should strenuously assist the King, appointed by
the will of the people, and by t