Their per-
sonal im-
portance.
Their corpo-
rate feeling.
Their spi-
ritual influ-
ence.
Jealousy
with which
their wealth
was viewed.
540 Constitutional History. [chap.
and ordinarily the keeper of the privy seal, who was the chief
minister of the council ; frequently the treasurer also was a
clergyman. Although they may, from their numbers and cha-
racter, present to modern thought the idea of a class of educated,
rather than ordained, ministers, it is certain that they were
thoroughly pervaded with class sentiment. Not that they were
tempted to assume a position which sectarian jealousy forced
upon their successors, for until the close of the fourteenth cen-
tury their monopoly of spiritual teaching was not imperilled by
any serious competition ; they had had their struggle with the
friars, but the friars had soon become as much a part of the
ecclesiastical phalanx as were the endowed clergy themselves.
The absence of such rivalry had not had the effect of diminish-
ing the consciousness of corporate unity. However lightly the
obligations of holy orders lay on the medieval minister of state
or official of the chancery, when it came to a question of class
privilege or immunity, he knew where and how to take a
side with his brethren. Rich, wide-spread, accumulating for
centuries a right to national gratitude, working in every class
of society, the clergy were strong in corporate feeling and in
the possession of complete machinery for public action. To
this was added the enormous weight of spiritual influence ; if
the sense of loyalty to the king was quickened by the argu-
ments of religion, by the obligations of obedience, of fealty,
homage, and allegiance, much more strongly and much more
directly was the spiritual influence that applied those argu-
ments effective in respect to the church. Nor was the tempta-
tion to use this influence to sustain the political and social
position of the clergy altogether wanting ; for however safe
their spiritual pre-eminence might seem, their wealth very
early gave occasion for a jealousy which must have proved a
strong stimulus to watchfulness. The Lollard attack on the
temporalities, which no doubt suggested and prepared the way
for the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, was
itself the growth of a long period during which kings and
barons had looked with a covetous eye on the territorial
wealth of the religious orders.
XXi.] Weakness of the Churcli,. 541
It would not have been surprising to find that, considering The national
the strength and self-consciousness of the spiritual estate of only ∞ca-
1~∙11 . . . 11∙11 η ∙ n _ . η slonally
bnglanα, considering the high place and great influence which clerical,
it had held for so many centuries, the government of the
country had become distinctly hierarchical, and that the legisla-
tion had shown those marks which are regarded as inseparable
signs of clerical domination. There are moreover proofs enough
that, when and where there was adequate occasion, the right
of the strong will could be asserted even against the right of
the strong hand. The legislation against heresy is one great
illustration of this ; the part taken by archbishops Courtenay
and Arundel in the days of Richard II is another ; the grasp
of political and official power in the hands of cardinals Beaufort
and Bourchier is less significant, because in both cases their
position was affected by their connexion with the conflicting
dynastic parties ; and in the last Lancastrian reign the king
was a more enthusiastic supporter of church privilege than
were his prelates. But on the whole it must be allowed that Ecdesiasti-
the ecclesiastical power in parliament was not used for selfish not selfishly
purposes ; possibly the clergy regarded themselves as too safe
to need the weapons of political priestcraft, possibly they saw
that they must not provoke greater jealousy by aiming at more
conspicuous power. If we may judge of the class by the
character and conduct of the foremost men, they ought to have
the full benefit of the admission which their bitterest critics
cannot withhold. They worked hard for the good of the nation ;
they did not forget the good of the church ; but they rarely if
ever sacrificed the one to the other, whether their guiding-line
was drawn by confidence or by caution.
We have discussed in an earlier chapter the drawbacks Mischief
which must be taken into account in estimating the real weight t'iee⅛k-'un
of the clergy in the country ; especially the ever-spreading and ∞urt⅛ ɪ
rankling sore produced by the inquisitorial, mercenary, and
generally disreputable character of the courts of spiritual
discipline : an evil which had no slight share in making the
Reformation inevitable, and which yet outlived the Reforma-
tion and did its worst in alienating the people from the church