artook of
both species) was so restrained by subordination under the foreigners,
that the Norman dominion seemed now to be fixed on the most durable
basis, and to defy all the efforts of its enemies.
[FN [b] Order. Vital. p. 523. Secretum Abbatis, apud Selden, Titles
of Honour, p. 573. Spellm. Gloss. in verbo FEODUM. Sir Robert
Cotton. [c] M. West. p. 225. M. Paris, p. 4. Bracton, lib. 1. cap.
II. num. 1. Fleta, lib i. cap. 8. n. 2.]

The better to unite the parts of the government, and to bind them into
one system, which might serve both for defence against foreigners, and
for the support of domestic tranquillity, William reduced the
ecclesiastical revenues under the same feudal law; and though he had
courted the church on his invasion and accession, he now subjected it
to services which the clergy regarded as a grievous slavery, and as
totally unbefitting their profession. The bishops and abbots were
obliged, when required, to furnish to the king, during war, a number
of knights, or military tenants, proportioned to the extent of
property possessed by each see or abbey; and they were liable, in case
of failure, to the same penalties which were exacted from the laity
[d] The pope and the ecclesiastics exclaimed against this tyranny, as
they called it; but the king's authority was so well established over
the army, who held every thing from his bounty, that superstition
itself, even in that age, when it was most prevalent, was constrained
to bend under his superior influence.
[FN [d] M. Paris, p. 5. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 248.]

But as the great body of the clergy were still natives, the king had
much reason to dread the effects of their resentment; he therefore
used the precaution of expelling the English from all the considerable
dignities, and of advancing foreigners in their place. The partiality
of the Confessor towards the Normans had been so great, that, aided by
their superior learning, it had promoted them to many of the sees in
England; and even before the period of the Conquest, scarcely more
than six or seven of the prelates were natives of the country. But
among these was Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury; a man who, by his
address and vigour, by the greatness of his family and alliances, by
the extent of his possessions, as well as by the dignity of his
office, and his authority among the English, gave jealousy to the king
[e]. Though William had, on his accession, affronted this prelate b