y unwarily engaged too far to be able
to recede with honour, they counterbalanced this disadvantage, by
acquiring more solid establishments, by gaining the confidence of
kings and princes, and by exercising the jurisdiction assigned them,
of ultimate judges and punishers of heresy. Thus, the several orders
of monks became a kind of regular troops or garrisons of the Romish
church; and though the temporal interests of society, still more the
cause of true piety, were hurt, by their various devices to captivate
the populace, they proved the chief supports of that mighty fabric of
superstition, and till the revival of true learning, secured it from
any dangerous invasion.

The trial by ordeal was abolished in this reign by order of council: a
faint mark of improvement in the age [p].
[FN [p] Rymer, vol. i. p. 228. Spellman, p. 326.]

Henry granted a charter to the town of Newcastle, in which he gave the
inhabitants a licence to dig coal. This is the first mention of coal
in England.

We learn from Madox [q], that this king gave, at one time, one hundred
shillings to master Henry, his poet: also the same year he orders this
poet ten pounds.
[FN [q] Page 268.]

It appears from Selden, that, in the forty-seventh of his reign, a
hundred and fifty temporal, and fifty spiritual barons were summoned
to perform the service due by their tenures [r]. In the thirty-fifth
of the subsequent reign, eighty-six temporal barons, twenty bishops,
and forty-eight abbots, were summoned to a Parliament convened at
Carlisle [s].
[FN [r] Titles of Honour, part ii. Chap. 3. [s] Parl. Hist. vol. i.
p. 151.]

NOTES.

NOTE [A]

This question has been disputed with as great zeal and even acrimony,
between the Scotch and Irish antiquaries, as if the honour of their
respective countries were the most deeply concerned in the decision.
We shall not enter into any detail on so uninteresting a subject, but
shall propose our opinion in a few words. It appears more than
probable, from the similitude of language and manners, that Britain
either was originally peopled, or was subdued, by the migration of
inhabitants from Gaul, and Ireland from Britain: the position of the
several countries is an additional reason that favours this
conclusion. It appears also probable, that the migration of that
colony of Gauls or Celts, who peopled or subdued Ireland, was
originally made from the north-west parts of Britain; and this
conjecture (if