Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/425

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showed more strongly than anything else that, as far as this world was concerned, it rested wholly with the King whether England should ever again have another primate or not. Through the whole time, the nation suffers, but it suffers in silence. We have already had to deal with a king on whose nod all things human and divine were held to hang; we are now dealing with a king who would have no petition made, no act ascribed, within his realm, to any God or man except himself.

The state of things during the time when William Rufus held firm to his purpose that no man should be archbishop but himself, and when the revenues of the archbishopric were paid into the hands of Randolf Flambard, was one of general corruption. It is immediately after recording the King's way of dealing with bishoprics and abbeys that one of our chief guides breaks forth into his most vehement protest against the vices of the time, and specially against the corruption and degradation of the clergy. That they took to secular callings, that they became pleaders of causes and farmers of revenues, was not wonderful. Under the rule of Flambard therenec ipse hoc tempore nec alius quis archiepiscopus erit, me excepto."]