Thus died this courageous patriot, leaving a remembrance which will be immortal in the hearts of his countrymen.  This steady champion of independence having been removed, and a bloody example held out to all who should venture to tread in his footsteps, Edward proceeded to form a species of constitution for the country, which, at the cost of so much labor, policy, and bloodshed, he had at length, as he conceived, united forever with the English crown.

Ten commissioners chosen for Scotland and twenty for England composed a set of regulations for the administration of justice, and enactments were agreed upon by which the feudal law, which had been long introduced into Scotland, was strengthened and extended, while the remains of the ancient municipal customs of the original Celtic tribes, or the consuetudinary laws of the Scots and Bretts—­the Scotto-Irish and British races—­were finally abrogated.  This was for the purpose of promoting a uniformity of laws through the islands.  Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the administration of justice.  There were provisions also made for a general revision of the ancient laws and statutes of Scotland.

FIRST GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

A.D. 1300

FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS

Benedetto Gaetani, born at Anagni, Italy, about 1228—­whom contemporary poets and historians also consigned to infamy—­occupied the pontifical throne but ten years, 1294-1303, but those were years of almost continual strife.  It is indeed likely that partisanship painted him, in some respects, with colors too black, attributing to him crimes of which he was not guilty.  But even these exaggerations of dispraise were due to the unquestioned facts of his character and career.  When at length Boniface was worsted in his quarrel with Philip the Fair, a widespread reaction began on the part of the laity against ecclesiastical assumptions, and the great dramatic act by which, under Hildebrand, the papacy first displayed its power had its counterpart in the manner of its decline.  “The drama of Anagni is to be set against the drama of Canossa.”

But Boniface enjoyed one year of triumph scarcely paralleled in all the experience of his fellow-pontiffs.  This was the closing year of the thirteenth century.  Taking advantage of a fresh wave of religious enthusiasm which then swept over Europe, the Pope called upon the Christian world—­almost at peace from long warfare—­to celebrate a jubilee.  The institution of the Catholic jubilee is generally considered as dating from this celebration, though some writers refer its establishment to the pontificate of Innocent III, a century earlier.

Boniface VIII inaugurated the fourteenth century with a pilgrimage festival which has become renowned.  The centennial jubilee had been celebrated in ancient