with the
appearances of religion, they proved, in one respect, an obstruction
to the settlement of the kingdom, and to the regular execution of the
laws. The policy of the Conqueror was in this particular liable to
some exception. He augmented the superstitious veneration for Rome,
to which that age was so much inclined; and he broke those bands of
connexion, which, in the Saxon times, had preserved an union between
the lay and the clerical orders. He prohibited the bishops from
sitting in the county courts; he allowed ecclesiastical causes to be
tried in spiritual courts only [b]; and he so much exalted the power
of the clergy, that of sixty thousand two hundred and fifteen knights'
fees, into which he divided England, he placed no less than twenty-
eight thousand and fifteen under the church [c].
[FN [b] Char. Will. apud Wilkins, p. 230. Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p.
14. [c] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. MANUS MORTUA. We are not to imagine,
as some have done, that the church possessed lands in this proportion,
but only that they and their vassals enjoyed such a proportionable
part of the landed property.]

[MN Civil laws.]
The right of primogeniture was introduced with the feudal law: an
institution which is hurtful, by producing and maintaining an unequal
division of private property; but is advantageous, in another respect,
by accustoming the people to a preference in favour of the eldest son,
and thereby preventing a partition or disputed succession in the
monarchy. The Normans introduced the use of surnames, which tend to
preserve the knowledge of families and pedigrees. They abolished none
of the old absurd methods of trial by the cross or ordeal; and they
added a new absurdity, the trial by single combat [d], which became a
regular part of jurisprudence, and was conducted with all the order,
method, devotion, and solemnity imaginable [e]. The ideas of chivalry
also seem to have been imported by the Normans: no traces of those
fantastic notions are to be found among the plain and rustic Saxons.
[FN [d] LL. Will. cap. 68. [e] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. CAMPUS. The
last instance of these duels was in the 15th of Eliz. So long did
that absurdity remain.]

[MN Manners.]
The feudal institutions, by raising the military tenants to a kind of
sovereign dignity, by rendering personal strength and valour
requisite, and by making every knight and baron his own protector and
avenger, begat that martial pride and sense of