There was nothing which the violence of their passions could not induce them to commit; nothing to which they did not submit to atone for their offences, when reflection gave an opportunity to repent.

But by degrees the sanctions of religion began to preponderate; and as the monks at this time attracted all the religious veneration, religion everywhere began to relish of the cloister: an inactive spirit, and a spirit of scruples prevailed; they dreaded to put the greatest criminal to death; they scrupled to engage in any worldly functions.

A king of the Saxons dreaded that God would call him to an account for the time which he spent in his temporal affairs and had stolen from prayer.

It was frequent for kings to go on pilgrimages to Rome or to Jerusalem, on foot, and under circumstances of great hardship.

Several kings resigned their crowns to devote themselves to religious contemplation in monasteries,--more at that time and in this nation than in all other nations and in all times.