blished in Normandy a truly Christian order; that every
village, town, and castle enjoyed its own privileges; and that, while
other princes either forbade the erection of churches or seized their
endowments, he left his subjects free to make pious gifts. In his reign
and by his conduct the word "bigot" ceased to be a term of reproach, and
came to signify what we now should call "ultramontane." He was the
foremost of those Normans who were called by the Holy See to reclaim
what was degenerate, and to renovate the declining States of the North.

Where the Church addressed herself to the conversion of races of purely
Teutonic origin, as in Scandinavia, her missionaries achieved the work.
In other countries, as in Poland and Hungary, political dependence on
the Empire was the channel and safeguard of her influence. The Norman
conquest of England and of Ireland differs from all of these. In both
islands the faith had been freely preached, adopted, and preserved. The
rulers and the people were Catholic. The last Saxon king who died
before the Conquest was a saint. The last archbishop of Dublin appointed
before the invasion was a saint. Neither of the invasions can be
explained simply by the demoralisation of the clergy, or by the
spiritual destitution of the people.

Catholicism spreads among the nations, not only as a doctrine, but as an
institution. "The Church," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, "is not a disembodied
spirit, but a spirit embodied in human society." Her teaching is
directed to the inner man, and is confined to the social order; but her
discipline touches on the political. She cannot permanently ignore the
acts and character of the State, or escape its notice. Whilst she
preaches submission to authorities ordained by God, her nature, not her
interest, compels her to exert an involuntary influence upon them. The
jealousy so often exhibited by governments is not without reason, for
the free action of the Church is the test of the free constitution of
the State; and without such free constitution there must necessarily
ensue either persecution or revolution. Between the settled organisation
of Catholicism and every form of arbitrary power, there is an
incompatibility which must terminate in conflict. In a State which
possesses no security for authority or freedom, the Church must either
fight or succumb. Now, as authority and freedom, the conditions of her
existence, can only be obtained through the instrumentality of ce