iment. He treated with the utmost rigour all Langton's
adherents, and every one that showed any disposition to obey the
commands of Rome; and in order to distress the clergy in the tenderest
point, and at the same time expose them to reproach and ridicule, he
threw into prison all their concubines, and required high fines as the
price of their liberty [r].
[FN [q] Ann. Waverl. p. 170. [r] M. Paris, p. 158. Ann. Waverl. p.
170.]

After the canons which established the celibacy of the clergy were, by
the zealous endeavours of Archbishop Anselm, more rigorously executed
in England, the ecclesiastics gave, almost universally, and avowedly,
in to the use of concubinage; and the court of Rome, which had no
interest in prohibiting this practice, made very slight opposition to
it. The custom was become so prevalent, that, in some cantons of
Switzerland, before the reformation, the laws not only permitted, but,
to avoid scandal, enjoined the use of concubines to the younger clergy
[s]; and it was usual every where for priests to apply to the
ordinary, and obtain from him a formal liberty for this indulgence.
The bishop commonly took care to prevent the practice from
degenerating into licentiousness: he confined the priest to the use of
one woman, required him to be constant to her bed, obliged him to
provide for her subsistence and that of her children; and though the
offspring was, in the eye of the law, deemed illegitimate, this
commerce was really a kind of inferior marriage, such as is still
practised in Germany among the nobles; and may be regarded by the
candid as an appeal from the tyranny of civil and ecclesiastical
institutions, to the more virtuous and more unerring laws of nature.
[FN [s] Padre Paolo, Hist. Conc. Trid. lib. I.]

The quarrel between the king and the see of Rome continued for some
years; and though many of the clergy, from the fear of punishment,
obeyed the orders of John, and celebrated divine service, they
complied with the utmost reluctance, and were regarded, both by
themselves and the people, as men who betrayed their principles, and
sacrificed their conscience to temporal regards and interests. During
this violent situation, the king, in order to give a lustre to his
government, attempted military expeditions against Scotland, against
Ireland, against the Welsh [t]; and he commonly prevailed, more from
the weakness of his enemies, than from his own vigour or abilities.
Meanwhile, the dange