498 Elucidations of Portions of English Hhlorif. [Julj I, 



men by birth, and that the naturalized down the silver ornaments that had de- 

 foreigners preserved their functions, corated the cliurcii.* This same Robert 

 Among these were Hermann and of Limoges published a decree, [ by 

 Guis,* both natives of Lorraine, wliich the monks were forl)idderi the 

 bishops of Wells and Sherborne. use of nourishing food and instructive 

 From that tiuie the bishoprics and books ; for fear, says the historian, that 

 abbeys of England were employed as abundant rations and, liberal reading 

 the wealth of the rich, the liberties of would make their bodies loo strong, 



the poor, and the beauty of the wo- 

 men, had been, — to pay off the debts 

 of the Conquest. One Remi, of Fes- 

 camp,t for sixty boats which he had 

 furnished to the Conqueror, received 

 tlie bishopric of Dorchester, and after- 

 wards that of Lincoln. This man and 

 the other pontifis, vvlio had crossed the 

 seas as a sort of corps of reserve, to 

 put the finishing stroke to the invasion, 

 and accomplish what the soldiers had 

 not been able, or had not dared, to 

 perform, drove away the whole body 

 of tlie monks who, according to a cus- 

 tom peculiar to England, lived on the 

 lands of the episcopal churches :t for 

 this they were thanked by King Wil- 



and their minds too^ daring,'_ against 

 their new bishop.f 



Nearly all the Norman bishops, dis- 

 daining to live in tiie ancient capitals 

 of the dioceses, — which were mostly 

 small towns,J^ — removed to places 

 where there w ere either good lands to 

 be taken, or a large population to be 

 plundered. Thus it was that Coven- 

 try, Lincoln, Chichester, Sherborne, 

 and Thetford, Lecame episcopal 

 towns. § In general, the thirst of gain 

 was seen to rage yet more fiercely in 

 tlic priests than in the soldiers of the 

 invasion. The English benofices be- 

 came the pay of flatterers and 

 cowards, II who, intruded5[ into them 



liam, who thought that the monks of in contempt of religion and even of the 



English origin could not but bear him laws of the Roniiin church, (careless 



ill-will. § A crowd of adventurers from about self-contradiction,) exercised a 



Gaul came to pounce upon the prcla- base and ignoble tyranny, more dis- 



cies, the abbeys, the archdeaconries, gusting than the brutality of the armed 



and deaneries, of England, like birds force. The Norman abbots wielded 



of prey attracted to a field of battle also the weapons of violence ; but it 



by the smell of blood. Most of these was agaiust unarmed monks. More 



men exhibited in their new vocation 

 the most shameless immorality. Wil- 

 liam bishop of Hereford was killed by 

 the hand of a woman to whom he 

 offered violence.ll Others niadethem- 



tlian one convent was the scene of 

 military executions. In that governed 

 by one Turauld or Torauld, of Fes- 

 camp, it was the abbot's custom to cry 

 out, " A moi, mes hommes d'armes. 



selves famous by their extraordinary (Come hither, my men at arms,)" 



gluttony .51 Robert of Limoges,** 

 bishop of Lichfield, plundered the mo- 

 nastery of Coventry ; he took the 

 horses and furniture belonging to the 

 monks who inhabited it, entered the 

 dormitory by force, and broke open 

 their coffers ;tt pulled down their 

 buildings, and used the materials in 

 erecting a house for himself, the furni- 

 ture of which was paid for by melting 



• Giso. 



t Remigitis Fiscannensis est. (Ead- 

 mer, 7.) 



X Monachos eliminare moliti sunt. 

 (Eadmer, 10.) 



§ Sibi semper mala injprecantium. (In- 

 gulf. 913.) 



II HeBricns Knighton, 2348.) 



% Laiititiarura appetentissimns, non- 

 nuUlinfamia respersus. (Will. Malras.377.) 



•• Robertus de Liinozi. 



tt Dormitorium per vim intravisti, areas 

 eornni fre»isti, eqiios cepisti, domos de- 

 »trulsti. (Lanfranci Opera, 3i.) 



whenever the monks resisted him in 

 any point of ecclesiastical discipline.** ' 

 His warlike exploits made him so fa- 

 mous, that the Conqueror himself felt 

 obliged to punish him ; and, as a sort 

 of wiiimsical chastisement, sent him to 

 govern the convent of Peterborough, 

 in the county of Nortiiamptou, a post 

 rendered dangerous by its vicinity to 



the 



• De uno trabe crevit 500 marcos ar- 

 genti. (Auglia Sacra, 455.) 



t Non nisi triviali lillcrntu & permisit 

 informari, ne delicia aut littera redderent 

 monachos contra episcopura elatos. (H. 

 Knighton, 235'J.) 



t Ne inmodica civitatenomen Episcopi 

 vilesoeret. (Notes to F.admer, 25.) 



§ Wilkins' Concilia, i. 73. 



II Curiales nimis et aulici. (Matt, P- 

 ris, 47.) 



11 Intrudebantur. 



*• Turaldns qiiidem Fiscanniensi* mo- 

 uacbus. (Will. Malms. 372.) 



