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 It is scarcely necessary to go into a comparison between the condition of the papal power in England and in other countries during the period with which we are now dealing. In its main features it was much the same in most countries; i.e. the Papacy was, in spiritual matters, always in theory, and mostly in fact, the supreme authority. In matters temporal the reverse—again as a rule only—was the case; while in those numerous affairs which could not be classed exclusively as temporal or spiritual, there was a constant liability to dispute, and their actual position varied from time to time with the circumstances and the capacities of the contending parties. In France, certainly, taken as a whole, the papal power was less, and that of the kings was greater, than was the case in England from Louis IX., the contemporary of Henry III., down to Francis I., the contemporary of Henry VIII., when the two countries took new departures in this particular, almost in diametrically opposite directions, and Francis I. sacrificed all that remained of the so-called Gallican liberties to the Pope in order to obtain the surrender of the rest to himself, while Henry VIII. absorbed into his own person the authority of pope and king at once.

The further subject of the social and moral influence of the clergy during this period also need not detain us long in this place. It will be necessary to discuss it at greater length in the body of the work; and there is no reason, so far as I can learn, for supposing that it underwent any sudden or marked alteration at any particular epoch. The condition in which it was found when the great dispute with Rome commenced was but the gradually developed result of the slow growth of centuries. It will be sufficient if I adduce