After  a  reign  of  about  seventeen  years,  the  Conqueror
abrogated  this  ancient  usage,  and  following  continental
precedents,  erected  separate  places  of  judicature  for  eccle-
siastical suits  'y^  which  were  to  be  conducted  solely  by
canon-law.  A  principle  of  clerical  exclusion,  or  more  pro-
perly exemption,  from  one  class  of  secular  duties,  was  thus
established :  probably  to  please  William^s  foreign  ecclesi-
astics, who  must  have  been  indisposed,  both  from  habit
and  prejudice,  to  the  simple  forms  and  mixed  jurisdiction
of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  courts."^  This  alteration,  therefore,
was  rather  meant  to  raise,  than  depress  the  Church.  But
it  may  supply  an  argument,  if  unexplained,  to  such  as
would  close  against  clergymen  all  secular  distinctions  and.
employments.
Soon  after  the  conversion  of  Kent,  an  episcopal  see  was
founded  at  Rochester,  in  subordination  to  that  of  Canter-
bury. To  this,  the  archbishops  are  said  to  have  nominated
until  after  the  Conquest.''  When  other  kingdoms  of  the
Heptarchy  were  converted,  a  single  see  was  established  in
each.  In  Wessex,  this  was  the  Oxfordshire  Dorchester;
in  Essex,  London ;  in  East-AngUa,  Dunwich ;  in  Mercia,
Lichfield;  in  Northumbria,  Lindisfame;  and  in  Sussex,
Selsey.  Essex  and  Sussex  remained  permanently  under
one  prelate.     The  diocese  of  Wessex  was  firstly  dismem-


1  HicKES,  Dissert.  Epistolaris.
Thes.  i.  60.
2  Ih.  4.
3  Gent.  Mag.  Jan.  1844,  p.  35,
*  Godwin,     De   Prcesull.  527.
This  archiepiscopal  privilege,  we
are  told,  was  rehnquished  in  fa-
vour of  the  monks  of  Rochester,
by  Archbishop  Theobald,  in  1 1 47.
