Municipal
Corporations
Act, 1835.

provided that the Town Council, all the members of which must be householders and ratepayers in the borough, should consist of a Mayor, chosen annually by the Council, of Aldermen, elected by the Councillors from their own body to hold office for six years, and of Councillors, elected by the Burgesses; special trading privileges were taken away from the Corporations, the borough jurisdiction was regulated, and ample provisions made for the effectual administration of local self-government. The Corporation of London alone was exempted from the provisions of this Act.

Parliamentary Boroughs. See Borough Franchise (pp. 132-4); Burgesses (p. 135); Bribery (p. 137); Reform (pp. 140—1).

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHURCH.

History to the Norman Conquest,

History to the
Norman

627.

verted, 635.

The marriage of Ethelbert of Kent with Bertha, Conquest. the Christian daughter of Charibert of Paris, afforded Pope Gregory an opportunity for the conversion of the south-east portion of England; an opportunity which was made the most of by the despatch of a mission with Augustine at its head. Ethelbert was converted 597, and Kent soon adopted the new religion, the archiepiscopal see being esIntroduction of Christianity tablished at Canterbury. The marriage of Edwin of into Kent, 597. Northumbria with a Kentish princess, Ethelburga, Northumbria, led to the conversion of the northern kingdom, over which the already converted Picts and Scots exercised some influence. In 635, Birinus commenced the Wessex conevangelisation of Wessex, and in spite of the antagonism of such champions of heathenism as Penda of Mercia, Christianity was, by the end of the seventh century, firmly established as the religion of the country, and that, too, in the Roman, as opposed to the Celtic form. The contest at the Synod of Whitby, 664, between the Celtic and Synod of Roman priests, is of vast importance, and, had it been decided otherwise, might well have altered much in the country's history; the nominal questions at issue-the shape of the tonsure and the date of observing Easter-were decided in favour of Rome by Oswi of Northumbria, the result being, that saved from the ecclesiastical disorganisation of the Irish Church, England remained connected with Rome, and with Europe generally. In 668, Formation of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury,

Whitby, 664.

Dioceses.

Parishes.

commenced the organisation of a thoroughly National Church by dividing the country into dioceses, formed on the lines of the old tribal divisions; and to him is also ascribed the creation of parishes, which, as a rule, corresponded to the townships (p. 212), and were presided over by the parish priest. This ecclesiastical organisation preceded, and formed a model for, the later secular organisation. In Early Union of Anglo-Saxon times the close union of Church and

Church and

State.

State is very marked; Church Councils, attended
by the King and Ealdormen, existed from a very
early period, but as the Witenagemot, which was
composed of almost the same members as the
Councils, grew into more importance, these Councils
gradually became exclusively ecclesiastical synods,
whilst most of the Witenagemots legislated on eccles-
iastical subjects. The Bishops sat with the Ealdor-
men in the Shire Courts,1 and the Clergy were tried in
the Local Courts, there being no separate ecclesias-
tical jurisdiction in criminal cases. The Bishops,
as ministers of the King (e.g., Dunstan, and Arch-
bishop Sigeric, the inventor of the Danegeld, p. 180),
or even as soldiers (e.g., Bishop Elstan of Sherborne,
who defeated the Danes), obtained an immense
amount of secular power.
From this early con-
nection between Church and State sprang that
character of nationality, which has always so
strongly marked the English Church.

There appear but few cases of Roman legations before the Conquest; the services of the Church were principally conducted in the Anglo-Saxon language, and the introduction of foreign Bishops, by Edward the Confessor, was by no means viewed with favour by the nation. Dunstan openly defied the Pope, and although it became the custom for Canute, cap. 18.

1 Sel. Charters, 73.

Archbishops to fetch their pallium from Rome, and although the collection of Peter's Pence, (a contribu- Peter's Pence. tion of id. from every hearth), dates from the beginning of the tenth century, Roman influence in England was small before the Norman Conquest.

position of the

Clergy.

The Clergy during the Anglo-Saxon period, Honourable occupied, as the only educated class, a highly Anglo-Saxon honourable position; the oath of a Priest was equal to those of twenty ceorls, the wergild of an Archbishop equalled that of an atheling, a Bishop was on a par with an ealdorman1; whilst the laws of Edward give rank and power to any "scholar who through learning throve so that he had holy orders.""'

Relations to the State, from the Norman Con- Relations to the quest to the Reformatiom.

State from the
Norman

Separation of

and Spiritual Courts by

William I., in deference to the Pope (Gregory Conquest. VII.), who had materially aided him in his Con- the Temporal quest, separated the Ecclesiastical and Secular Courts by an undated Charter3, providing that no William I. Bishop should try cases in the Local Courts, that no layman should try ecclesiastical cases, and that contempt of the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts should be punished, if need be, by the secular arm; and the policy of Archbishop Lanfranc tended to form a bond of union between the Churches of England and Rome, a bond which, so far, had had no existence. At the same time, however, William's William showed himself determined to maintain Church Policy. the supremacy of the King; in 1076 he refused

to do homage to the Pope for the Crown of England,

and about the same time declared

1 Sel. Charters, 65.

2 The laws of Edgar, Sel. Charters, 71, ordain "that God's Churches be entitled to every right."

8 Ib. 85.

William II. and
Anselm, 1094.

Henry I.

Question of
Investitures.

Compromise, 1106.

Stephen.

1. That no Legate, or Papal Bull, should be received in England, and no Pope recognised, without the royal sanction.

2. That no enactment of an Ecclesiastical Council should become law until confirmed by the King. 3. That no tenant in capite should be excommunicated without the King's leave.1

William II., in 1094, quarrelled with Anselm on the question of the temporalities of the See, which he refused to give up.

Henry I., in his Charter of Liberties, declares that, when a See is vacant, he will not sell, nor let to farm, nor take anything from the demesne of the Church, nor from its tenants, until a successor is appointed.

In Henry's reign occurred the famous "Contest of Investitures" between the King and Archbishop Anselm, as to whether the prelates were to receive their investiture from the Pope or the King; the question was of importance, as if the King did not receive homage and fealty from a Bishop, he had no claim on his military services as his feudal lord. The matter ended in a compromise (Aug. 1106), by which the Pope was to invest with the ring and crozier, às emblems of spiritual jurisdiction, whilst the King was to receive the homage and fealty, in exchange for the temporalities."

Henry subsequently acknowledged the appellate power of the Pope in ecclesiastical matters, though he would not permit a Legate to visit England without the royal license.

Stephen, finding it necessary to conciliate the Clergy, to whom he principally owed his election, granted them considerable liberties and concessions in his second Charter (Appendix A.), but his sub