It was thus made: it was fastened to a beam and had a sharp iron to go about a man's neck and throat, so that he might noways sit, or lie, or sleep, but he bore all the iron.

Many thousands they starved with hunger." [Sidenote: Religious Revival] It was only after years of this feudal anarchy that England was rescued from it by the efforts of the Church.

The political influence of the Church had been greatly lessened by the Conquest: for pious, learned, and energetic as the bulk of the Conqueror's bishops were, they were not Englishmen.

Till the reign of Henry the First no Englishman occupied an English see.

This severance of the higher clergy from the lower priesthood and from the people went far to paralyze the constitutional influence of the Church.