tertained of the English; and nothing can be a stronger proof
of the miserable ignorance in which that people were then plunged,
than that a man who sat on the papal throne, and who subsisted by
absurdities and nonsense, should think himself entitled to treat them
as barbarians.
[FN [s] Eadmer p. 87. [t] Ibid. p. 91.]

During the course of these controversies, a synod was held at
Westminster, where the king, intent only on the main dispute, allowed
some canons of less importance to be enacted, which tended to promote
the usurpations of the clergy. The celibacy of priests was enjoined,
a point which it was still found very difficult to carry into
execution; and even laymen were not allowed to marry within the
seventh degree of affinity [u]. By this contrivance the pope
augmented the profits which he reaped from granting dispensations, and
likewise those from divorces. For as the art of writing was then
rare, and parish registers were not regularly kept, it was not easy to
ascertain the degrees of affinity even among people of rank; and any
man who had money sufficient to pay for it, might obtain a divorce, on
pretence that his wife was more nearly related to him than was
permitted by the canons. The synod also passed a vote, prohibiting
the laity from wearing long hair [w]. The aversion of the clergy to
this mode was not confined to England. When the king went to
Normandy, before he had conquered that province, the Bishop of Seez,
in a formal harangue, earnestly exhorted him to redress the manifold
disorders under which the government laboured, and to oblige the
people to poll their hair in a decent form. Henry, though he would
not resign his prerogatives to the church, willingly parted with his
hair: he cut it in the form which they required of him, and obliged
all the courtiers to imitate his example [x].
[FN [u] Eadmer, p. 67, 68. Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 22. [w] Eadmer,
p. 68. [x] Order. Vital. p. 816.]

[MN Wars abroad.]
The acquisition of Normandy was a great point of Henry's ambition;
being the ancient patrimony of his family, and the only territory,
which, while in his possession, gave him any weight or consideration
on the continent: but the injustice of his usurpation was the source
of great inquietude, involved him in frequent wars, and obliged him to
impose on his English subjects those many heavy and arbitrary taxes,
of which all the historians of that age unanimously complain [y].
His nephe