igh treason, in respect that he had
stormed and taken towns and castles, and shed much blood. "Traitor,"
said Wallace, "was I never." The rest of the charges he confessed and
proceeded to justify them. He was condemned, and executed by
decapitation, 1305. His head was placed on a pinnacle on London
bridge, and his quarters were distributed over the kingdom.

Thus died this courageous patriot, leaving a remembrance which will be
immortal in the hearts of his countrymen. This steady champion of
independence having been removed, and a bloody example held out to all
who should venture to tread in his footsteps, Edward proceeded to form
a species of constitution for the country, which, at the cost of so
much labor, policy, and bloodshed, he had at length, as he conceived,
united forever with the English crown.

Ten commissioners chosen for Scotland and twenty for England composed
a set of regulations for the administration of justice, and enactments
were agreed upon by which the feudal law, which had been long
introduced into Scotland, was strengthened and extended, while the
remains of the ancient municipal customs of the original Celtic
tribes, or the consuetudinary laws of the Scots and Bretts--the
Scotto-Irish and British races--were finally abrogated. This was for
the purpose of promoting a uniformity of laws through the islands.
Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the administration of
justice. There were provisions also made for a general revision of the
ancient laws and statutes of Scotland.

FIRST GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

A.D. 1300

FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS

Benedetto Gaetani, born at Anagni, Italy, about 1228--whom
contemporary poets and historians also consigned to
infamy--occupied the pontifical throne but ten years,
1294-1303, but those were years of almost continual strife.
It is indeed likely that partisanship painted him, in some
respects, with colors too black, attributing to him crimes
of which he was not guilty. But even these exaggerations of
dispraise were due to the unquestioned facts of his
character and career. When at length Boniface was worsted in
his quarrel with Philip the Fair, a widespread reaction
began on the part of the laity against ecclesiastical
assumptions, and the great dramatic act by which, under
Hildebrand, the papacy first displayed its power had its
counterpart in the