man ap

Lotharin

gian ap

CHAP. VII. we might have simply looked on it as the result of Eadward's connexion with King Henry. Or we might even have looked on it in a worse light, as a sign that Eadward preferred foreigners of any sort to his own countrymen. But several considerations may lead us to The Ger- look on the matter in another way. These German pointments appointments are clearly part of a system; the system probably is continued after the death of Henry the Third, when favoured by Godwine. the close connexion between Germany and England ceases; Harold himself, in the height of his power, appears as a special promoter of German churchmen. We can therefore hardly fail to see in these appointments, as I have already hinted, an attempt of Godwine and the patriotic party to counterbalance the merely French Policy of tendencies of Eadward himself. We must observe that most of these Prelates were natives of Lotharingia, a term which, in the geography of that age, includesand indeed most commonly means-the Southern Netherlands. That is to say, they came from the border-land of Germany and France, where the languages of both kingdoms were already familiar to every educated man. We can well understand that, in those cases in which the patriots found it impossible to procure the King's consent to the appointment of an Englishman, they might well be content to accept the appointment of a German of Lotharingia as a compromise. One whose blood, speech, and manners had not wholly lost the traces of ancient brotherhood would be more acceptable to Godwine and to England than a mere Frenchman. And one to whom the beloved speech of Gaul was as familiar as his mothertongue would be more acceptable to the denationalized Eadward than one of his own subjects. This policy was probably as sound as any that could be hit upon in such

pointments.

1 See vol. i. p. 178.

THE LOTHARINGIAN PRELATES.

81

a wretched state of things. But its results were not CHAP. VII. wholly satisfactory. I know of no reason to believe that any of these Lotharingian Prelates actually proved traitors to England; but they certainly did not, as a class, offer the same steady resistance to French influences as the men who had been born in the land. And, if they were not Normannizers, they were at least Romanizers. They brought with them habits of constant reference to the Papal See, and a variety of scruples on points of small canonical regularity, to which Englishmen had hitherto been strangers. Still something was gained, if Godwine, on the death of Brihtwold, could procure the appointment of a Lotharingian, instead of a French, successor.1 A slight counterpoise was thus gained to the influence of the Norman Bishop of London. But, at the next great ecclesiastical vacancy, the patriotic party were more successful. the course of the next year England lost one of truest worthies; the great Earl lost one who had his right hand man in so many crises of his life, in so many labours for the welfare of his country. Lyfing, His career the patriot Bishop of Worcester, died in March in the racter. following year. Originally a monk of Winchester, he was first raised to the Abbacy of Tavistock. While still holding that office, he had been the companion of Cnut in his 1027. Roman pilgrimage, and had been the bearer of the great King's famous letter to his English subjects. The consummate prudence which he had displayed in that and in other commissions,3 had procured his appointment to the

In Death of
Bishop

her Lyfing.
March 23

been 1046.

1 Chron. Ab. 1045. "Eadward cyng geaf Heramanne his preoste þæt bisceoprice." Chron. Wig. 1046. "Man sette Hereman on his setle," an expression implying the consent of the Witan. Florence says, "Regis capellanus Herimannus, de Lotharingiâ oriundus."

3 "Vir prudentissimus Livingus," says Florence (1031); "Omnibus quæ injuncta fuerant, sapienter et mirificè ante adventum Regis consummatis," says William.

and cha

CHAP. VII. Bishoprick of Crediton or Devonshire.

1038.

1

2

With that see

the Bishoprick of Cornwall had been finally united during his episcopate. With that double see he had held, according to a vicious use not uncommon at the time, the Bishoprick of Worcester in plurality. In that office, he had steadily adhered to the cause of the great Earl through all the storms of the days of Harold and Harthacnut, and he had had a share second only to that of Godwine himself in the work of placing Eadward upon the throne.3 Either his plurality of benefices had given, as it reasonably might, offence to strict assertors of ecclesiastical rule, or, what is at least as likely, the patriotic career of Lyfing had made him, like Godwine himself, a mark for Norman slander, whether alive or dead. His death, we are told, was accompanied by strange portents, which were however quite as capable of a favourable as of an unfavourable interpretation. But his memory was loved and cherished in the places where he was best known. Long after the Norman Conquest, the name of the Prelate whose body rested in their minster still lived in the hearts and on the mouths of the monks of Tavistock. And the simple entry of a Chronicler who had doubtless heard him with his own ears bears witness to that power of speech in the exercise of which he had so often stood side by side with his illustrious friend. The other Chronicles merely record

1 Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 145 b. Cf. Gest. Regg. iii. 300.

2 See vol. i. p. 563.

3 See above, p. 7. Will. Malms. u. s. "Ambitiosus et protervus ecclesiasticarum legum tyrannus, ut fertur, invictus, qui nihil pensi haberet, quominùs omni voluntati suæ assisteret."

5 Will. Malms. u. s. "A majoribus accepimus, quum ille spiritum efflaret, tum horrisonum crepitum per totam Angliam auditum, ut ruina et finis totius putaretur orbis." The loss of men like Lyfing is indeed the ruin of nations.

• Will. Malms. (u. s.), who speaks of his gifts to the monastery, and of the services still said for him, "ut hodieque xv. graduum psalmos continuatâ per successores consuetudine pro ejus decantent quiete."