marks) and so levied a most oppressive tax. He taxed everybody and everything. The "Bishops and Abbots in great numbers went to court to complain of the injury, observing that they could not raise so great an impost, and beseeching him to change his mind and remit the tax." Rufus, however, was inexorable and implacable. He was determined to have the money and so declined their pleas, and compelled them to raise it, and to do so they took the gold from the shrines of their saints, robbed "their crucifixes, melted their chalices," and so obtained the money. "These acts, together with his severity, were the cause of many conspiracies among the nobles against him.”2 The whole nation, nobles, clergy, and people, seemed to have been disgusted with him. Indiscriminate taxation and oppression, without one mitigating circumstance or need, or without offering to those unduly oppressed any consideration or greater liberties in other 1 Malmsbury, 339; Florence of Worcester, 202. was. ways, caused him to be hated and disliked. He was not feared to the extent his father The Conqueror's power and strength of character were respected; but Rufus was despised and loathed by every one. Since the early part of his reign he granted no reforms, yet, on the other hand, he did not interfere with them in the possession of their lands without reason. It is this, in all likelihood, that prevented more open and powerful rebellion against him, such as would surely have driven him from his throne. He never took land from his subjects unless they had rebelled against him, or had committed other acts of hostility. He never took lands from the religious houses, excepting that which he had previously given them during his illness. He seems to have simply taxed and taxed, and in other ways oppressed the people. He did retain in his own possession, unfilled at the time of his death, three bishoprics and twelve abbeys,' but he held them only for revenue. He did not take them 'Malmsbury, 346; Florence of Worcester, 207. He from their incumbent, but merely neglected to fill them when they became vacant. did in some instances dispose of them outright for a rental. But the nobles and people were not disturbed in their lands. They held them without fear of molestation. Rufus, in this respect, must have been, beyond doubt, wise and tactful, and used this as a basis for preventing the discord among his people and nobles which would surely have meant his downfall. To the clergy he was very different. As a class they were powerful and strong, but could do absolutely nothing without the aid of the nobles. The nobles, having nothing to gain and much to lose, preferred to submit to taxation rather than risk the loss of their lands. The clergy bore most of the taxation, therefore grumbled most and wailed loud. The following extract, which forms part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written by one who was connected with the church, depicts Rufus undoubtedly as he was known to them; but in just what opinion he was held by the nobles and the people we do not know, as there were no chroniclers among them. Rufus's acts of oppression being felt particularly by the clergy, it is hardly to be expected that they would write of him in an unbiased man ner. "He was powerful and stern over his lands and subjects, and toward his neighbors, and much to be dreaded; and through the concerts of evil men, which were always pleasing to him, and through his own avarice, he was ever vexing the people with armies and cruel taxes-for in his days all justice sank and all unrighteousness arose in the sight of God and the world." "He trampled on the church of God, and as to the Bishoprics and Abbacies, the incumbents. of which died in his reign, he either sold them outright or kept them in his own hands and set them out to renters; so that on the day on which he was killed he had in his own hands the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and the Bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury and eleven Ab |