that it was a pleading before all Western Christendom. Others had
claimed crowns; none had taken such pains to convince all mankind
that the claim was a good one. Such an appeal to public opinion
marks on one side a great advance. It was a great step towards the
ideas of International Law and even of European concert. It showed
that the days of mere force were over, that the days of subtle
diplomacy had begun. Possibly the change was not without its dark
side; it may be doubted whether a change from force to fraud is
wholly a gain. Still it was an appeal from the mere argument of
the sword to something which at least professed to be right and
reason. William does not draw the sword till he has convinced
himself and everybody else that he is drawing it in a just cause.
In that age the appeal naturally took a religious shape. Herein
lay its immediate strength; herein lay its weakness as regarded the
times to come. William appealed to Emperor, kings, princes,
Christian men great and small, in every Christian land. He would
persuade all; he would ask help of all. But above all he appealed
to the head of Christendom, the Bishop of Rome. William in his own
person could afford to do so; where he reigned, in Normandy or in
England, there was no fear of Roman encroachments; he was fully
minded to be in all causes and over all persons within his
dominions supreme. While he lived, no Pope ventured to dispute his
right. But by acknowledging the right of the Pope to dispose of
crowns, or at least to judge as to the right to crowns, he prepared
many days of humiliation for kings in general and specially for his
own successors. One man in Western Europe could see further than
William, perhaps even further than Lanfranc. The chief counsellor
of Pope Alexander the Second was the Archdeacon Hildebrand, the
future Gregory the Seventh. If William outwitted the world,
Hildebrand outwitted William. William's appeal to the Pope to