HARVARD LAW REVIEW. VOL. XII. NOVEMBER 25, 1898. NO. 4 THE KING'S JUSTICE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. ^TTILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, it is now common knowl- ^ ' edge, no more intended, in a general way, to disturb the laws and customs of Englishmen than the East India Company to disturb those of the Hindus in Bengal. As for the law of the Church, which at that time every one both spoke and thought of as the law of God, it was binding on conquerors and conquered alike, not as Norman or English, but as Christian men; and not only William, who had prevailed partly in the strength of the Church, could not well have any will to meddle with the things of her jurisdiction, but he could never have supposed himself to have any such power. Admitting the Church to be supreme in her own sphere was not, indeed, the same thing as allowing her particular minister in the See of Canterbury, or even the servant of the ser- vants of God who sat in St. Peter's chair at Rome, to be the sole judge ofhow far that sphere extended; nor did it exclude the King from claiming at least an influential voice in the disposal of eccle- siastical high places which carried with them a great deal of tem- poral emoluments and authority. Plenty of troublesome questions were to arise in these and such like matters in time, but not yet. The Conqueror made one sweeping innovation in the relations of Church and State. He gave the bishops the freedom of their own courts, and removed them from dealing with spiritual matters in the hundred and county courts, in the interest of the canon law 30
