The one result of amalgamation is the consolidation of Norman and Saxon interests.

RISE OF THE NEW ENGLISH NATION.

THE Normans brought with them a taste for history. (History, after all is a "national selfishness" or egotism.") Their history was a literature of deeds. They were great students and wonderful workers.

CAUSES OF CONSOLIDATION OF ENGLISH AND NORMAN.

1st. Henry II's Reign. "Reign of law" introduced in the midst of the feudal system. Henry II. established the jury system. Twelve unbiased men were selected from every parish.

CIRCUIT JUDGES-ITINERANT JUDGES-ESTABLISHED BY HIM.

Staying at home led to the growth of English towns. 2nd. Rise of English Towns. They grew up on the lands of the lords, hence the lords owned the towns.

NOBILITY GETS INTO TROUBLE WITH THE CROWN.

The King needs money for the Crusaders. Here arose a custom of buying liberty.

"In those towns (the towns of the lords) we find

the arks that bore across the seeds of organic liberty." Preservation of free speech.

Formation of the Guilds. Guilds were formed by weavers, hatters, brewers, and members of other occupations. These guilds managed their own affairs. They had a stamp put on their goods by a masterworkman-hence the trade-mark used to prevent counterfeiting.

3rd. Preaching of the Friars. Reformation of the Church.

Few men prominent in the movement.

Dominic-A Spaniard. Francis-An Italian.

The zeal of Dominic was aroused "at the sight of the lordly prelates who sought by fire and sword to win the Albigensian heretics to the faith. 'Zeal,' he cried, 'must be met by zeal,' lowliness, false sanctity, by real sanctity, preaching lies by preaching truths." (Green's History, 207.)

"The life of Francis falls like a stream of tender light across the darkness of the time." He gathered about him young men who took upon themselves the vows of poverty. They were called "Franciscians " or "Grey Brothers." (Read Green's Larger History of the English People.)

CHIVALRY.

In the reign of John simple stories of the Bible are found.

Friars attacked the monks. Poems-the result in literature.

The Friars were finally corrupted.

4th, Rise of Universities. Interest in knowledge

led to the formation of Universities. University was at Paris.

The greatest

John found himself face to face with new English people. They were quickened with a new life and throbbing with a new energy.

The establishment of universities was everywhere throughout Europe a special mark of the impulse which Christendom gained from the Crusades.

WALTER DE MAP AND GERALD DE BARRI.

MANY legends were extant which were finally drawn into the whirpool of Arthurian romance. "The church, jealous of the popularity of the legends of chivalry, invented as a counteracting influence the poem of the "Sacred Dish," the San Graal (Holy Grail), which held the blood of the cross invisible to all eyes but those of the pure in heart."

"Walter de Map wove the rival legends together, sent Arthur and his knights wandering over the sea and land in quest of the San Graal, and crowned the work by the figure of Sir Galand, the type of ideal knighthood, without fear and without reproach."

The "Holy Grail," gave Spencer his inspiration. Gerald de Barri was an historian during the reign of Henry II. At this time the purely literary class begins to part from the church. This aids Henry in his struggle against the church. From the time of Bede to Henry II., every writer, whose works have been preserved and of whom anything is known, was either a monk or an ecclesiastic of some kind with but two exceptions" Alfred the Great" and an obscure Saxon writer, "Ethelward." This covers a space of about 500 years.

Let the reader go back to the time of Chaucer, a period of 500 years. America was then an "undiscovered-unexplored continent." Printing had not been invented."

A man in South France begins to study the Bible and is persecuted by the Pope. It is a momentous step to diverge from the path of 500 years. The purely literary class part from the church.

Laymon carried on the work begun by William of Malmesbury. His poem, "Brut," was in fact an expansion of Wace's "Brut" with insertions from Baeda. Historically it is worthless; but as a monument of the English language it is beyond all price. This poem preserved the old legends and was written in the alliterative verse of Caedmon. It was the first poem in Modern English.

The "" Gleemen were displaced by the "Trouveres.” Remarkable phenomenon is found here of a literature living on the lips of a people.

The Anglo-Saxon Gleeman continued to sing his songs in the houses of the people, so the old dialect or form was still preserved, to some extent, in verse; hence Caedmom's form is seen reproduced in the reign of Henry II.

"The stream of native literature that had been flowing for a time under the ground rises again to the surface; broadens and in time becomes the stream of all English Literature.”

The inspiration can be traced back to ChivalryWilliam of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth-; the form traced back to Caedmon.

REIGN OF EDWARD I.

EDWARD I. becomes the first English king after the Conquest. ("Edward" is a pure English name.) He brought to the throne new aspirations. He endeavored to accomplish his designs, through sympathy and the co-operation of the nation at large, by putting himself at the head of the English people. He strove to make England a power in Christendom. He was in the truest sense a national king. England saw in her ruler no stranger, but an Englishman. His reign was a great era. He is the great law giver, great politician, great organizer of English policy. In 1295, he organized the first English Parliament. There were three divisions in that Parliament. (1) Clergy, (2) Nobility, (3) Commons. The commons were composed of two elected knights from each shire; two elected citizens from each city; two elected burgers (or burgess) from each burough. "Burough" was an incorporated town. Bur," Anglo-Saxon word which means town. Clergy and Nobility formed the "House of Lords."

The confirmation of the "Great Charter," establishing the right of the people to determine the taxation, took place in 1297.

Edward died in 1307. "The people for whom he had labored and cared could hardly understand what he had done for them." His work has been a factor in the world's civilization ever since. In his reign a vast force is at work elevating the English people. The American Republic itself owes much to Edward I.

REIGN OF EDWARD II. (1307-1327).

His reign is described in three words-Misrule, Ruin, Death.