Excerpt from Domesday Book: A Popular Account of the Exchequer Manuscript So Called, With Notices of the Principal Points of General Interest Which It Contains Simple and unassuming as they doubtless were in the earliest days Of Christianity in England, episcopal and monastic institutions gradually acquired vast landed possessions in proportion as their moral influence, teaching, and example made themselves felt and respected. It was but natural, after all, that to the Church, to which, as to a central point of light, religion, science, literature, education, sanctuary, hospital, and many other humanising elements naturally and necessarily gravitated, a gradual control over the lands in the vicinity of her precincts should accrue, whether as the result of gratitude for spiritual ministrations and moral elevation, and for services growing out of the superior opportunities they possessed (which none but the Church could so aptly confer on those who sought her assistance), or as the result of a dread and awful veneration of the unseen power which she claimed to wield at will. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.