e to summon the fyrd
whenever he needed support, without having cause to fear that it would
turn against him.

7. =Ecclesiastical Organisation.=--Before the Conquest the English
Church had been altogether national. Its bishops had sat side by side
with the ealdormen or earls in the shire-moots, and in the Witenagemot
itself. They had been named, like the ealdormen or earls, by the king
with the consent of the Witenagemot. Ecclesiastical questions had been
decided and ecclesiastical offences punished not by any special
ecclesiastical court, but by the shire-moot or Witenagemot, in which
the laity and the clergy were both to be found. William resolved to
change all this. The bishops and abbots whom he found were Englishmen,
and he replaced most of them by Normans. The new Norman bishops and
abbots were dependent on the king. They looked on the English as
barbarians, and would certainly not support them in any revolt, as
their English predecessors might have done. Thurstan, indeed, the
Norman Abbot of Glastonbury, was so angry with his English monks
because they refused to change their style of music that he called in
Norman archers to shoot them down on the steps of the altar. Such
brutality, however, was exceptional, and, as a rule, even Norman
bishops and abbots were well disposed towards their English
neighbours, all the more because they were not very friendly with the
Norman nobles, who often attempted to encroach on the lands of the
Church. Many a king in William's position would have been content to
fill the sees with creatures of his own, who would have done what they
were bidden and have thought of no one's interest but his. William
knew, as he had already shown in Normandy, that he would be far better
served if the clergy were not only dependent on himself but deserving
the respect of others. He made his old friend Lanfranc (see p. 88)
Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc had, like William, the mind of a
ruler, and under him bishops and abbots were appointed who enforced
discipline. The monks were compelled to keep the rules of their
order, the canons of cathedrals were forced to send away their wives,
and though the married clergy in the country were allowed to keep
theirs, orders were given that in future no priest should marry.
Everywhere the Church gave signs of new vigour. The monasteries became
again the seats of study and learning. The sees of bishops were
transferred from villages to populous towns, as wh