Parish priests and their people in the Middle Ages in England . eged class under * Bishop of Oxfords Select Charters, p. jt,- THE GORMAN CONQUEST. 87 a law and judges of their own, and this privilegethe Church maintained successfully against the en-deavour of Henry II. to bring the clergy under thejurisdiction of the Kings Courts, and continued downto the submission of the clergy in the reign ofHenry VIII. With this brief general review of theconstitutional changes effected at the time of theNorman Conquest weproceed to our morehumble task of notingthe history of theparochial clergy andof thei
Parish priests and their people in the Middle Ages in England . eged class under * Bishop of Oxfords Select Charters, p. jt,- THE GORMAN CONQUEST. 87 a law and judges of their own, and this privilegethe Church maintained successfully against the en-deavour of Henry II. to bring the clergy under thejurisdiction of the Kings Courts, and continued downto the submission of the clergy in the reign ofHenry VIII. With this brief general review of theconstitutional changes effected at the time of theNorman Conquest weproceed to our morehumble task of notingthe history of theparochial clergy andof their flocks. The new men, mili-tary adventurersthey were,theNorman conquerorhad divided the landsof England, did not,like the Anglo-Saxonconquerors, trampleout Christianity undertheir feet; nor, likethe Danes in theirturn, plunder themonasteries andchurches; on the contrary, the Normans behavedlike Christian men who, having come into power ina country which was in a backward religious condition,set themselves to effect religious improvements in though among whom. Durham Cathedral. 88 PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE. their newly acquired possessions. Every bishop set towork to rebuild his cathedral church, or to build anew one in the place to which his see had been re-moved. This leads to the inference that the old Saxoncathedrals were comparatively small, in an inferiorstyle of architecture, and perhaps out of repair. Manyof the lords of manors seem to have rebuilt the parishchurches, and to have built new churches in remoteparts of their estates.* The bishops also madeprovision for the spiritual wants of the people moreespecially dependent upon them ; Lanfranc, forexample, built two churches and two hospitals inCanterbury, and erected several churches in themanors belonging to the archbishopric. If we consider the way in which the landed propertyof the kingdom was resettled after the Conquest,each great tenant of the Crown subdividing hisvast estates among the lesser lords who ha
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