moned a general
council at Rheims, in Champaigne, instead of allowing the church of
England, as had been usual, to elect its own deputies, nominated five
English bishops to represent that church, and required their
attendance in the council. Stephen, who, notwithstanding his present
difficulties, was jealous of the rights of his crown, refused them
permission to attend [i]; and the pope, sensible of his advantage in
contending with a prince who reigned by a disputed title, took revenge
by laying all Stephen's party under an interdict [k]. [MN 1147.] The
discontents of the royalists, at being thrown into this situation,
were augmented by a comparison with Matilda's party, who enjoyed all
the benefits of the sacred ordinances; and Stephen was at last
obliged, by making proper submissions to the see of Rome, to remove
the reproach from his party [l].
[FN [i] Epist. St. Thom. p. 225. [k] Chron. W. Thorn. p. 1807. [l]
Epist St. Thom. p. 226.]

[MN 1148.] The weakness of both sides, rather than any decrease of
mutual animosity, having produced a tacit cessation of arms in
England, many of the nobility, Roger de Moubray, William de Warenne,
and others, finding no opportunity to exert their military ardour at
home, enlisted themselves in a new crusade, which, with surprising
success, after former disappointments and misfortunes, was now
preached by St. Bernard [m]. But an event soon after happened which
threatened a revival of hostilities in England. Prince Henry, who had
reached his sixteenth year, was desirous of receiving the honour of
knighthood; a ceremony which every gentleman in that age passed
through before he was admitted to the use of arms, and which was even
deemed requisite for the greatest princes. He intended to receive his
admission from his great-uncle, David, King of Scotland; and for that
purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was
attended by the most considerable of his partisans. He remained some
time with the King of Scotland; made incursions into England; and by
his dexterity and vigour in all manly exercises, by his valour in war,
and his prudent conduct in every occurrence, he roused the hopes of
his party, and gave symptoms of those great qualities which he
afterwards displayed when he mounted the throne of England. [MN
1150.] Soon after his return to Normandy, he was, by Matilda's
consent, invested in that duchy; and upon the death of his father,
Geoffrey, which happ