y, and, as he lay sick at Rouen in the summer of 1087, the
French army harried his territories with impunity. When he had
recovered sufficiently to take the field, he invaded Vexin and burned
the town of Mantes. But his horse, plunging in the burning cinders,
inflicted on him an internal injury, which proved his death-wound He
was carried to St. Gervais, where, on September 9, 1087, he died. His
body was conveyed to Caen and buried in the great minster which he had
built.

The career of William as a warrior and conqueror occupies of necessity
the largest space in his life; but his fame as a statesman and
administrator is not less than that which he won on the battle-field.
This is not the place to discuss the results of the Conquest, but the
policy of the Conqueror in regard to Church and State cannot be
overlooked. An orthodox churchman, a supporter of union under the
successor of Peter against the schismatic tendencies of the English
Church, he nevertheless repelled any claim on the part of Rome to
interference with his political sovereignty. He allowed Peter's pence
to be collected, but refused to pay tribute to the Pope. While
recognizing him as head of the Church, he declined to hold his kingdom
as his vassal, nor would he permit papal bulls to enter England or
excommunications to be issued against any of his subjects without his
leave. He controlled all appointments to important ecclesiastical
dignities; he made laws for the Church; he dealt justice to
ecclesiastics, high and low, in his own courts. At the same time he
had no desire to humiliate the Church; on the contrary, he sought to
elevate it to a higher position in the State, to make it a more potent
agent of civilization. A weaker statesman might have seen his own
advantage in encouraging the rivalry between Canterbury and York;
William strengthened the Church by forcing the younger to give way to
the elder see. With the same object, that of increasing the efficiency
of ecclesiastical organization, he severed the temporal and spiritual
jurisdictions and furthered the enforcement of clerical celibacy.
Finally, the trust which he reposed in Lanfranc from the time of his
appointment to the see of Canterbury in 1070 shows not only his
insight into character but his respect for the head of the English
Church.

In regard to temporal affairs William was rather an administrator than
a lawgiver. His reign is not marked by a series of legislative acts
like those o