HENRY,

ARCHDEACON OF HUNTINGDON,

ON

CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD;

OR ON

THE BISHOPS AND OTHER ILLUSTRIOUS MEN OF HIS AGE.

IN A LETTER TO WALTER.

FORMING ORIGINALLY THE EIGHTH BOOK OF HIS HISTORY.

son, his own father-in-law1 and other powerful nobles, assembled to raise the siege. The same day the earl, boldly crossing a marsh which was almost impassable, drew up his troops, and offered the king battle. He himself led the first line, composed of his own retainers; the second was headed by the nobles exiled by King Stephen; Robert, the powerful earl [of Gloucester], commanded the third. The Welsh, ill armed, but full of spirits, were disposed on the wings of the army. And now the Earl of Chester, a man of great prowess, in bright armour, thus addressed Earl Robert and the other barons: "Receive my hearty thanks, most puissant earl, and you, my noble fellow-soldiers, for that you are prepared to risk your lives in testimony of your devotion to me. But since it is through me you are called to encounter this peril, it is fitting that I should myself bear the brunt of it, and be foremost in the attack on this faithless king, who has broken the peace to which he is pledged. While I, therefore, animated by my own valour, and the remembrance of the king's perfidy, throw myself on the king's troops, and hew a road through the centre of his army, it will be your part, brave soldiers, to follow up my success. I have a strong presage that we shall put the king's troops to the rout, trample under foot his nobles, and strike himself with the sword." When he had spoken, Earl Robert thus replied to the young earl, while, standing on an eminence, he spoke to this effect: "It is fitting that you should have the honour of striking the first blow, both on account of your high rank and your exceeding valour. If, indeed, it were a question of rank only, no one has higher pretensions than myself, the son and nephew of mighty kings; and for valour, there are many here who stand among the most renowned, to whom no man living can be preferred. But I am actuated by considerations of a very different kind. The king has inhumanly usurped the crown, faithless to the fealty which he swore to my sister, and by the disorder he has occasioned has caused the slaughter of many thousands; and

1 Arundel MS. " socerum;" the text of Savile reads "generum," sonin-law, incorrectly.

by the example he has set of an illegal distribution of lands, has destroyed the rights of property. The first onset ought, therefore, to be made by those he has disinherited, with whom the God of justice will co-operate, and make them the ministers of his just punishment. He who judgeth the people with equity will look down from his habitation in the heavens above, and will not desert those who are seeking for justice, in this their hour of need. There is one thing, however, brave nobles and soldiers all, which I wish to impress on your minds. There is no possibility of retreat over the marshes which you have just crossed with difficulty. Here, therefore, you must either conquer or die; for there is no hope of safety in flight. The only course that remains is, to open a way to the city with your swords. If my mind conjectures truly, as flee you cannot, by God's help you will this day triumph. Those must rely wholly on their valour who have no other refuge. You, victorious, will see the citizens of Lincoln, who stand in array nearest their walls, give way before the impetuosity of your attack and, with faint hearts, seek the shelter of their houses. Listen, while I tell you with whom you have to do. There is Alan, earl of Brittany, in arms against us, nay against God himself; a man so execrable, so polluted with every sort of wickedness, that his equal in crime cannot be found; who never lost an opportunity of doing evil, and who would think it his deepest disgrace, if any one else could be put in comparison with him for cruelty. Then, we have opposed to us the Earl of Mellent, crafty, perfidious; whose heart is naturally imbued with dishonesty, his tongue with fraud, his bearing with cowardice. Vain-glorious in temper and boastful in words, he is pusillanimous in deeds; slow in advance, quick in retreat, the last in fight, the first in flight. Next, we have against us Earl Hugh', who not only makes light of his breach of fealty against the empress, but has perjured himself most patently a second time; affirming that King Henry conferred the crown on Stephen, and that the king's daughter abdicated in his favour; and this man considers fraud to be a virtue, and perjury to be admired. Then we have the Earl of Albemarle, a man

1 Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk.

written something on the contempt of the world, for your use and my own, which may occupy your hours of languor, and to which I myself may recur with profit. I do not intend a rhetorical or philosophical dissertation; the pages of holy writ speak throughout of this one thing in a voice of authority, and the philosophers have made it their earnest study; but I shall treat the subject in the simplest manner, so as to make it plain to the multitude, that is, the unlearned, and to draw from what has passed under our own observation, reasons for contemning, now that we are old men, what is really contemptible. I will not, therefore, have recourse to former Histories; I shall relate nothing that has been told before, but only what is within my own knowledge, the only evidence which can be deemed authentic. But if the great names of our times should appear uncouth to posterity, or my treatise should seem indigested and wandering, and be considered wearisome, because so many such names are introduced, at least it may be profitable to you and myself.

The first chapter shall have reference to matters concerning our Church. As, then, in youth the seeds of all manner of vices bud luxuriantly, that which rears itself most vigorously, and overtops the rest, is the love of this present world. But from the simplicity natural to the age, youth is free from many errors, such as scepticism, fickleness, and the like, while the tendency I have spoken of, being more seductive than the rest, abides and gains strength. As age advances, things which once charmed lose their relish, and the sweet becomes bitter. Evil habits fasten on the mind, as with a hook which cannot be extricated; and men are led captive by the love of wealth and of fleeting pleasures. This I have learnt by my own experience. For when I was a mere child, in my growing up, and while I was a young man, I had opportunities of closely observing the splendour in which our Bishop Robert lived'.

Robert de Bloet, bishop of Lincoln, in whose household Henry was brought up from his earliest years. We have here a lively picture of the sumptuous mode of living of the great ecclesiastics of those times. Bishop Robert was also justiciary of all England, and much employed by Henry I. in secular affairs. See the preceding History, p. 250.

I saw his retinue of gallant knights and noble youths; his horses of price, his vessels of gold or of silver-gilt; the splendid array of his plate, the gorgeousness of his servitors; the fine linen and purple robes, and I thought within myself that nothing could be more blissful. When, moreover, all the world, even those who had learnt in the schools the emptiness of such things, were obsequious to him, and he was looked up to as the father and lord of all, it was no wonder that he valued highly his worldly advantages. If at that time any one had told me that this splendour which we all admired ought to be held in contempt, with what face, in what temper, should I have heard it? I should have thought him more insensate than Orestes, more querulous than Thersites. It appeared to me that nothing could exceed happiness so exalted. But when I became a man, and heard the scurrilous language which was addressed to him, I felt that I should have fainted if it had been used to me, who had nothing, in such a presence. Then I began to value less what I had before so highly esteemed. It is very common for worldly men to experience the most painful reverses before the end of their career. I will relate what happened to Bishop Robert before his death. He, who had been Justiciary of all England, and universally feared, was in the last year of his life twice impleaded by the king before an ignoble judge, and both times condemned with disgrace in heavy penalties. His anguish of mind in consequence was such, that I saw him shed tears during dinner, while I, then his archdeacon, was sitting near him. On the cause being asked, he replied, "Formerly my own attendants were sumptuously apparelled; but now the fines extorted from me by the king, whose favour I have always cultivated, serve to clothe a base crew." After this, he so entirely despaired of the royal favour, that when some one repeated to him the high commendations which the king had made of him in his absence, he exclaimed, "The king praises no one whom he has not resolved utterly to ruin." For King Henry, if I may venture to say so, practised consummate duplicity, and his designs were inscrutable. A few days afterwards the bishop was at Woodstock, where the king had appointed a great