ALL Henry's endeavours for the material and political re-
vival of his kingdom had been regulated thus far by one
simple, definite principle:--the restoration of the state of
things which had existed under his grandfather. In his own
eyes and in those of his subjects the duty which lay before
him at his accession, and which he had faithfully and suc-
cessfully fulfilled, was to take up the work of government
and administration not at the point where he found it, but
at the point where it had been left by Henry I. and Roger
of Salisbury: to pull down and sweep away all the innov-
ations and irregularities with which their work had been
overlaid during the last nineteen years, and bring the old
foundations to light once more, that they might receive a
legitimate superstructure planned upon their own lines and
built upon their own principles. In law, in finance, in general
administration, there was one universal standard of refer-
ence:--"the time of my grandfather King Henry."

But there was one side of the national revival, and that
the most important of all, to which this standard could not
apply. The religious and intellectual movement which had
begun under Henry I., far from coming to a standstill at his
death, had gone on gathering energy and strength during
the years of anarchy till it had become the one truly living
power in the land, the power which in the end placed Henry
II. on his throne. It looked to find in him a friend, a

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