128 The Norman Conquest
and that his predecessors in England had never enterec
into any such relation with former popes.
William's specific policy with respect to the church ir
England is stated in the well-known rules that have
generally been ascribed to him. He would allow no one
in his kingdom to acknowledge a pope as true pope excepl
upon his authority;1 no letters were to be received frorr
the pope that he had not first seen; the national synod o]
the church was neither to enact nor prohibit anything
which was not in accord with his will; no bishop coulc
excommunicate or bring to trial any of the king's barons
or ministers except at his command. Whether these
rules were formulated by William or the chronicler whc
recorded them,2 there is reason to believe that they rep-
resent William's purpose and practice, not only in Eng-
land, but earlier in Normandy. Their enforcement meant
royal oversight of the relations between England and
Rome and a strict royal control of internal church polity.
This clear-cut, masterful attitude of the Conqueroi
undoubtedly had an influence upon the relations of
church and state in England at many later times, and
worked itself into the English tradition that shared in
producing the important anti-papal legislation of the
fourteenth century.3
Of the changes necessarily wrought in the English
church by the Conquest, enough can be seen in the early
post-Conquest period to make clear the general character
1 In a time of frequent anti-popes, and when the attitude of a country
towards claimants of the papal office might have political bearings, this
was a necessary principle for a sovereign who would really rule.
2 This was Eadmer, who was writing in Henry I. 's reign. He was one
of the most reliable and intelligent chroniclers of the twelfth century. For
this passage, see Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 96.
3 Why Gregory VII., who must have been offended at what he probably
considered William's ingratitude and bad faith, never used coercive meas-
ures in order to gain from the Conquest the advantages which he had
looked for, is an interesting question. The answer probably lies in the
greater importance the contest with the Emperor must have had in the
eyes of a pope of that period. And the practical difficulty of dealing with
so distant a country as England, filled with the traditions of an independ-
ent church and having such a self-willed sovereign as the Conqueror, must
have been great.