The History of England From the Norman Conquest to the Death of John

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Do celu tam się wysiada. Lec Stanisław Jerzy (pierw. de Tusch-Letz, 1909-1966)
A bogowie grają w kości i nie pytają wcale czy chcesz przyłączyć się do gry (. . . ) Bogowie kpią sobie z twojego poukładanego życia (. . . ) nie przejmują się zbytnio ani naszymi planami na przyszłość ani oczekiwaniami. Gdzieś we wszechświecie rzucają kości i przypadkiem wypada twoja kolej. I odtąd zwyciężyć lub przegrać - to tylko kwestia szczęścia. Borys Pasternak
Idąc po kurzych jajach nie podskakuj. Przysłowie szkockie
I Herkules nie poradzi przeciwko wielu.
Dialog półinteligentów równa się monologowi ćwierćinteligenta. Stanisław Jerzy Lec (pierw. de Tusch - Letz, 1909-1966)

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.reformation had been incomplete and half-hearted, and noteven the beginning of a papal party had shown itself ineither country.This exceptional position is to be accountedfor by the great strength of the crown, and also by the factthat the sovereign in his dealings with the Church was follow-ing in both states the policy marked out by a long tradition.Something must also be attributed, and probably in Nor-mandy as well as in England, to the clearness with whichLanfranc perceived the double position of the bishop in thefeudal state.The Church was an important part of themachinery of government, and as such its officers wereappointed by the king, and held accountable to him for alarge part at least of their official action.This was thetheory of the Norman state, and this theory had been up tothis time unquestioned.It is hardly too much to call theNorman and English churches, from the coronation ofWilliam I on to this time, practically independent nationalchurches, with some relationship to the pope, but with oneexternal in its character that no serious inconveniencewould have been experienced in their own government hadsome sudden catastrophe swept the papacy out of existence.It was, however, in truth impossible for England to keepitself free from the issue which had been raised by the warupon lay investiture.The real question involved in this con-troversy was one far deeper than the question of the appoint-ment of bishops by the sovereign of the state.That was apoint of detail, a means to the end; very important andessential as a means, but not the end itself.Slowly throughcenturies time the Church had become conscious of itself.Accumulated precedents of the successful exercise of power,observation of the might of organization, and equally instruc-tive experience of the weakness of disorganization and of thedanger of self-seeking, personal or political, in the head of theChristian world, had brought the thinking party in the Churchto understand the dominant position which it might hold inthe world if it could be controlled as a single organizationand animated by a single purpose.It was the vision of theimperial Church, free from all distracting influence of familyor of state, closely bound together into one organic whole,STRUGGLE FOR POWER1100CHAP.an independent, world-embracing power more than this even,VIa power above all other powers, the representative of God,on earth, to which all temporal sovereigns should be heldaccountable.That the Church failed to gain the whole of that for whichit strove was not the fault of its leaders.A large part of thehistory of the world in the eleventh and twelfth centuries isfilled with the struggle to create, in ideal completeness, thisimperial Church.The reformation of had this for itsultimate object.From the beginning made by that move-ment, the political genius of Hildebrand sketched the finishedstructure and pointed out the means to be employed in itscompletion.That the emperor was first and most fiercelyattacked was not due to the fact that he was a sinner above allothers in the matter of lay investiture or simony.It was themost urgent necessity of the case that the papacy shouldmake itself independent of that power which in the past hadexercised the most direct sovereignty over the popes, andbefore the conflict should end be able to take its seat besidethe empire as an equal, or even a superior, world power.But if the empire must be first overcome, no state could beleft out of this plan, and in England as elsewhere the issuemust sooner or later be joined.It must not be understood that mere ambition was at thebottom of this effort of the Church.Of ambition in the ordi-nary sense it is more than probable that no leader of thismovement was conscious.The cause of the Church was thecause of God and of righteousness.The spiritual powerought justly to be superior to the temporal, because theinterests of men so far outweigh their temporal,Ifthe spiritual power is supreme, and holds check the tem-poral, and calls the sovereign to account for his wrong-doing,the way of salvation will be easier for all men, and the causeof righteousness promoted.If this kind of a Church is to beorganized, and this power established in the world, it isessential that so important an officer in the system as thebishop should be chosen by the Church alone, and with refer-ence alone to the spiritual interests which he is to guard, andthe spiritual duties he must perform.Selection by the state,accountability to the state, would make too serious a flaw inTHE CASE FOR STATE1100the practical operation of this system to be permitted.Theargument of the Church against the practice of lay investiturewas entirely sound.On the other hand, the argument of the feudal state wasnot less sound.It is difficult for us to get a clear mentalpicture of the organization of the feudal state, because theinstitutions of that state have left few traces in modern formsof government.The complete transformation of the feudalbaronage into a modern nobility, and the rise on the ruins ofthe feudal state of clearly defined, legislative, judicial, and ad-ministrative systems have obscured the line of direct descent.But the feudal baron very different from a modern noble,and there was no bureaucracy and no civil service in the feudaistate beyond their beginnings in the personal servants ofthe king.No function of government was the professionalbusiness of any one, but legislative, judicial, administrative,financial, and military operations were all incidental to some-thing else.This may not seem true of the sheriff; but thathe had escaped transformation, after the ofEngland, into something more than an administrative officermakes the Norman state somewhat exceptional at that time,and the history of this office, even under the most powerfulofkings, shows the strength of the tendency toward develop-ment in the direction of a private possession.Even whileremaining administrative, the office was known to themans by a name which to some extent in their own home, andgenerally elsewhere, had come to be an hereditary feudal title,-the viscount.In this system of government, the baronwas the most essential feature.Every kind of governmentbusiness performed in the main through him, and asincidental to his position as a baron.The assembly of thebarons, the whether the great assembly of all thebarons of the kingdom, meeting on occasions by special sum-mons, or the smaller assembly in constant attendance on theking, was the primitive and undifferentiated machine bywhich government was carried on.If the baronage wasfaithful to the crown, or if the crown held the baronage undera strong control, the realm enjoyed good government and thenation bore with comparatively little suffering the burdenswhich were always heavy.If the baronage was out ofCHAP.government fell to pieces, and anarchy and oppressionVItook its place.In this feudal state, however, a bishop was a baron.Thelands which formed the endowment of his office-and inthose days endowment could take no other form -consti-The necessity of a large income and thetuted a barony.generosity of the faithful made of his endowment a greatIt is important to realize how impossible any otherfief.conception than this was to the political half of the world [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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