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ce'ifary to bridle them : And then better Princes
rook
it
for their Chief .Piety to advance them,
who were all taken for
facred Perfons, Men of-God:
And after the
Saxom
overthrow of the
·Brittains,
the Countrey being Heathens, aad long in Con–
verting, it
rnuil:
needs be that ignorance'
mufi
be
;predominant for a long time: And
the
Cure of
it
was greatly hindered by the continual Wars of
the
Saxon
Kings among tbemfelves, and after
bv.
the
Danijh
Wars and Conquefi.
And under
the
Normans
the Bia1ops
were
:grown fo firong by their dependance on the
Pope,
who was then grown to the heighth of his Ufur–
pation, as that they were almoft
in
continual Con–
tefls with their Kings. The Ignorance of the
En.
gliil1
Clergy was
fo
great that the Kings were put
.to fetch their chief Bifi1ops fi·om other Lands,.
where they had got more learning than was found
at home,and fo had been trained
up
in the heighth
, ·
of
Popery : And even thofe that were the moft
:famous for Learning and fuch Piety as then pre–
vailed, were yet mofi Zealoufly addieted to the
Pope, and learnt of
Rome
to fl:rive for Gran–
,deur.
V/ilfrid
ofYork._who is magnified by
Malmesbury
.and others after
Beda,
was fo zealous to be the
foie Bilbop in that large Northern Countrey,
when the King and the A. 13iiliop of
Canterbttry
faid there was work enough for four, and decreed
a di-vifion, that in relifl:ance of the King and_ the
A. Bifhop he appealed to the Pope, and went di–
vers times himfelf to
Rome,
and once
at
Seventy
years of age,
ratter
than
have his vail Bifhoprick ·
~ividecl.
'
.B 4 '
And
•