. Pont. p. 154.]

It was a fixed maxim in this reign, as well as in some of the
subsequent, that no native of the island should ever be advanced to
any dignity, ecclesiastical, civil, or military [k] The king,
therefore, upon Stigand's deposition, promoted Lanfranc, a Milanese
monk, celebrated for his learning and piety, to the vacant see. This
prelate was rigid in defending the prerogatives of his station; and
after a long process before the pope, he obliged Thomas, a Norman
monk, who had been appointed to the see of York, to acknowledge the
primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Where ambition can be so
happy as to cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under
the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible
of all human passions. Hence Lanfranc's zeal in promoting the
interests of the papacy, by which he himself augmented his own
authority, was indefatigable; and met with proportionable success.
The devoted attachment to Rome continually increased in England; and
being favoured by the sentiments of the conquerors, as well as by the
monastic establishments formerly introduced by Edred and by Edgar, it
soon reached the same height at which it had, during some time, stood
in France and Italy [l]. [MN 1070.] It afterwards went much farther;
being favoured by that very remote situation which had at first
obstructed its progress; and being less checked by knowledge and a
liberal education, which were still somewhat more common in the
southern countries.
[FN [k] Ingulph. p. 70, 71. [l] M. West. p. 228. Lanfranc wrote in
defence of the real presence against Berengarius; and in those ages of
stupidity and ignorance, he was greatly applauded for that
performance.]

The prevalence of this superstitious spirit became dangerous to some
of William's successors, and incommodious to most of them; but the
arbitrary sway of this king over the English, and his extensive
authority over the foreigners, kept him from feeling any immediate
inconveniences from it. He retained the church in great subjection,
as well as his lay subjects; and would allow none, of whatever
character, to dispute his sovereign will and pleasure. He prohibited
his subjects from acknowledging any one for pope whom he himself had
not previously received: he required that all the ecclesiastical
canons, voted in any synod, should first be laid before him, and be
ratified by his authority: even bulls or letters from Rome co