iS^^

A HISTOEY OF THE ENGLISH CHUECH
Jtr0t ipertot.
FROM THE PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN BRITAIN
TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIIL

BY THE SAME AUTHOR,
THE STUDENT'S ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY
SccottU ^Pertati
FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRT VIIL TO THE SILENCING OF
CONVOCATION IN THE 18th CENTURY, 1609-1717. Post Suo, 7s. 6rJ.

THE
STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY
EfjirD ^EtinS
FROM 1717 TO THE PRESENT TIME.

The Students English Chubgh History.

A HISTOEY

ENGLISH CHUECH

Jirst ^crioti
FROM THE PLANTING OF THE OHUROH IN BBITAIN TO
THE ACCESSION OF HENKY VIIL (596-1509)

By G. G. PEEEY, M.A.
OAKON OF LISCOLN AND RECTOR OF WADDINGTOM

THIRD EDITION

LONDON
JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET
1887
TTie rigTht of translation is reserved.

Uniform with the present Work.
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III. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL
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Berlin, 1878.

PEEFACE.
In this volume an attempt is made to give the early
and mediaeval history of the English Church in a con
cise form, but with sufficient detail to fix it on the
mind of the reader. The histories we possess seem to
be either too cumbrous or too jejune to satisfy the
requirements of the student. The book has been
compiled throughout from the original sources, but
very great help has been derived from the learned
labours of the band of Oxford historians — A. W.
Haddan, Doctors Stubbs, Freeman, Shirley, and Bright
— as well as from the excellent work of many of the
Editors of the Chronicles published in the EoUs Series.
But little attempt is made in this volume to criticise,
or estimate the truth or fitness of the doctriaes and
practices which were prevalent in the Church of
earlier days. These raatters are merely treated as
facts to be noted. One leading idea, however, seems
forced upon the attention of any one who would
compile an Early English Church History, viz. the
relations of the National Church to that of Eome.
It wlU perhaps be a surprise to some to discover

vi PREFACE.
how constantly the Church of England is found
struggKng and contending against the encroachments
and exactions of a foreign power, and asserting its
rights against the ever-growing pretensions of Papal
supremacy. It is time indeed that that shaUow view
of history, which sees in the Eoyal Supremacy a new
invention of Henry VIII., were altogether discarded.
The Church of England has been contendiag through
out for national life, which it only fuUy reached in
the sixteenth century. Thus, this volume is strictly
introductory to the one already published in the same
series, containing the History of the Eeformation; and
forms, together with it, a complete and continuous
History of the Church of England.
Waddington, 1881.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L
PAGE
Traces of the History of the Early British Ohitech . 1
Notes and Illustrations : —
A. The Liturgy of the ancient British Church . . 17
B. The Dispute as to the Calculation of Easter . .17

CHAPTER XL— 596-604.
The Planting of the Chuech in Kent and among the East
Saxons ....... 18
Notes and Illustrations : —
The Venerable Bede . ... 33

CHAPTER IIL— 604-655.
The Planting of the Church in Northumbria . .34
Notes and Illustrations : —
St. "Columba ....... 45
CHAPTER IV.— 632-664.
Planting of the Church in the other English Kingdoms
— The Conference at Whitby . . . .46
Notes and Illustrations : —
A. The Early Monasteries of England . . .54
B. The Abbess HUda  55
C. The Monk Csedmon . ... 55

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER v.— 668-709. PAGB
Primacy of Archbishop Theodore . . . .56
Notes and Illustrations : —
A. John of Beverley . . . . . .74
B. Table of the Dates of the Foundation, and Names of
First Occupants of the English Sees . , .74

CHAPTER VL— 734-803.
The Period of the Three Metropolitans . . .75
CHAPTER VIL— 803-925.
The Period of the Danish Troubles . . . .89
Notes and Illustrations : —
Joannes Scotus, named Erigena . . , ,105
CHAPTE.R VIIL— 942-988.
The Contest between the Seculars and Regulars . . 106
Notes and Illustrations ; —
The early Life of Dunstan ..... 121
CHAPTER IX.— 988-1042.
Period of the Danish Ascendency .... 122
Notes and Illustrations : —
The Writings of .ffllfrio . . . . .143
CHAPTER X.— 1042-1066.
Contest between National and Foreign Influence in the
Church of England ..... 144
Notes and Illustrations :—
The Ecclesiastical Laws of Edward the Confessor . , 155

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XL— 1066-1087. PAGE
Foreign Influence triumphant in the English Church 156

CHAPTER XII.— 1087-1107.
Contest between the Lay and Spiritual Powers . . 176
Notes and Illustrations : —
WiUiam de St. Carileph, Bishop of Durham . . 19S
CHAPTER XIII.— 1107-1135.
The Establishment of the Legatine Authority in Eng
land ....... 199
Notes and Illustp.ations :-^
Tho Literary Works of Anselm . . . .217
CHAPTER XIV.— 1135-1154.
The Church in Troublous Times .... 218
CHAPTER XV.— 1154-1170.
The great Conflict between Church and State . 230
Notes and Illustrations : —
A. The Early Life of Thomas Becket . • 254
B. The Constitutions of Clarendon . . .255
CHAPTER XVI.— 1171-1213.
The Growth of the Power of Rome in England . . 257
Notes and Illustrations :—
Pope Innocent's Directions as to the way in which the
Interdict was to be observed in England 304

X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVII.— 1213-1253. PAGE
The Beginning of the Reaction against Rome . . 305
Notes and Illustrations : —
A. Tlie Provisions of the Council of Oxford . . 350
B. The Legatine Constitutions of Cardinal Otho . . 352
CHAPTER XVIIL— 1253-1272.
The Clergy on the National Side as against King and
Pope ........ 353
Notes and Illustrations : —
The Constitutions of Cardinal Othobon . . ,371

CHAPTER XIX.— 1272-1353.
The Nationality of the Church foetified by Law . 372
Notes and Illusteations : —
A. The various forms of summoning the Clergy . . 410
B. The Constitutions of Archbishop Peccham at Reading 411
Archbishop Peccham's Constitutions at Lambeth . 411
C. The Suppression of the Templars in England . . 413
CHAPTER XX.— 1353-1384.
The Revolt against MsDiiEVAL Doctrine— John Wyoliffe 414
CHAPTER XXL— 1384-1431.
The Revolt against Medi/eval Docteine— The Lollards . 445
CHAPTER XXII.— 1447-1459.
The Revolt against Medmval Doctrine— Bishop Pecock . 471

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIII.— 1390-1509. PAGE
England and Rome during Fifteenth Century . . 483

CHAPTER XXIV.
Practical Religion in the Fifteenth Century . . 498

APPENDIX A.
Historical Sketch of the Election of Bishops in the
Church of England ..... 519

APPENDIX B.
Constitutions of Canterbury and York : Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries ..... 524

Table of Succession of English Kings, Archbishops of
Canterbury, and Popes . . . . .539

Chronological Table of Events .... 545

INDEX . . . . . . . .553

HISTORY OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
FROM ITS FIRST PLANTING
TO THE ACCESSION OP HENRY VIII.
CHAPTER L
TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY BRITISH CHUECH.
1. Uncertainty of the date of the commencement of Christianity in
Britain. 2. The Legend of St. Joseph of Arimathea. 3. The Con
jecture as to St. Paul. 4. The Legend of Lucius. 5. Christianity
probably established in Britain in the second century. 6. Testi
monies of Tertullian, Origen, Sozomen, Eusebius. 7. British
Martyrs. 8. The Story of St. Alban. 9. Other probable Martyrs.
10. The Council of Aries. 11. Nicjea and Sardiea. 12. Orthodoxy
of the British Church. 13. British Bishops at Rimini. 14. Testi
monies of the Fathers as to the British Church. 16. The history of
Pelagius and Celestius. 16. Introduction of Pelagianism into
Britain. 17. Mission of Germanus and Lupus. 18. The Roman
Province of Britain Christian before the coming of the Saxons.
19. Missions of St. Ninian aud St. Patrick. 20. British Church
driven into Wales and Cornw.ill. 21. The Invective of Gildas.
22. Improvement at close of sixth century.
1. The earlier history of Christianity in Britain must
needs bear the character rather of an inquiry or investiga
tion than of a narrative. The secular history of Eoman
Britain is dark and indistinct ; much more so is the
religious history. It is, indeed, certain that the Church
of Christ had struck its roots into the soil long before the
Christianising of the empire by the conversion of Con
stantine. But the exact date of the first appearance of
Christianity in Britain it is perhaps impossible to ascertain.
A passage in Gildas seems to assert that Britain received

2 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
Christianity at the very beginning of the Christian era, but
the passage is evidently rhetorical, and Gildas is a writer
of the sixth century.^ The same writer also bitterly
laments the absence of all records of the first planting of
Christianity in the land.
2. The legends which assert that the Christian Church
was first planted here by St. James, the brother of John,
by St. Simon Zelotes, by St. Peter, are not worth examining.
Scarcely more consideration is ¦ due to the legend of St.
Joseph of Arimathea, which appears to have been first set
forth by William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century,
and which was unknown to the earlier writers. From this
legend, however, a residuum of truth may be extracted. It
seems to show that the religious house at Glastonbury was
probably the oldest in the kingdom, and dated from British
times, inasmuch as no rival claim for superior antiquity was
ever raised against it.- From this it would follow that the
first part of Britain that was Christianised was the south
west, and hence that the first introduction of Christianity
into Britain was from Eastern rather than from Western
sources, the intermediate agent being France. The West
of England had a trade with the South of France, and
especially with the Greek colony of Marseilles. Hence
the production in Britain of a Christianity which had some
special Eastern peculiarities.
3. The assertion that Christianity was first preached in
Britain by St. Paul has a certain amount of probability.
The Pudens and Claudia mentioned in the Second Epistle
to Timothy may have been the same Pudens and Claudia
the latter of whom is said by Martial to have been of
'The passage runs thus : "Interea glaciali frigore rigenti insulje,
et velut longiori terrarum secessu, soli visibili non proximEe, verus ilie
sol non de firmamento solum temporall sed de summa etiam ccelorum
arce, cuncta tempora exoedenti, orbi universo prasfulgiduiu sui coruscum
ostendens tempore (ut scimus) suuimo Tiberii Cfesaris (quo absque uUo
impedimento ejus propagabatur religio, comminata, senatu nolente, a
principe morte delatoribus militum ejusdem) radios suos primum
indulget, id est prajcepta Christus. "—Gildas, ed. Gall. p. 11.
2 At the Council of Basle the English deputies contended for the
superior antiquity of their Church against the representatives of France
and Spain, on the ground of its foundation by St. Joseph of Arimathea.

CHAP. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 3
British origin ;i which would imply that St. Paul had
made important British converts before the date of his last
epistle. The Pomponia Grascina, said by Tacitus to have
been accused of " foreign superstition " to her husband,
who had been a dweller in Britain," may have learned
the opinions denounced (which were probably Christian
tenets) in Britain. Between the fifth year of Nero, when
St. Paul was set at liberty, and the fourteenth, when he suf
fered martyrdom, there is abundant room for a visit to
Britain, and the assertion of St. Clement of Eome that he
traveUed " into the extreme west," and the similar expres
sions to be found in Basil, Chrysostom, Jerome, Epiphanius,
and Theodoret, may have something more of historical
value than is usually imputed to them. But in this matter
we cannot go beyond conjecture.
4. There is, perhaps, less historical foundation for an
other legend which was a great favourite with the earlier
writers, and which told how Lleuer Mawr or Lucius, a
king of the Britons, became in the second century a Chris
tian, and desiring to be better taught, sent a letter to
Eleutherus, then Bishop of Eome. This story rests upon
the Catalogus Pontificum Romanorum, written a.d. 530, and
was first pubhshed by Bede. Gildas knows nothing of
it. A vast array of chroniclers has repeated it, but the
assertions of those separated by so long an interval prove
nothing. No less than twenty-three different dates are
assigned for the conversion of the supposed king,^ and the
letter which he is asserted to have sent to the Pope is
utterly condemned as a forgery by its internal evidence.*
But the legend of Lucius seems to give some support to
the opinion that the Church of Christ must have been
introduced into Britain at least during the second century.
5. How indeed could it be otherwise in a Eoman pro-
' Claudia c(zruleis cum sit Hufina Britannia Edita. — Mart. Epig.
iv. 13, 1. The name of Pudens is certainly to be found in Britain.
It has been identified as that of the giver of a site for a heathen temple
at Chichester. — Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, i. 22.
' Tacit. Annal. xiii. 22.
' See Usher, De Brilann. Eccl. Primordiis, c. iii.
* First printed in 1 521, and again by Lambord in the Archaionomia,

4 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
vince with constant communication between it and the
capital, where a flourishing Christian Church existed ; and
in a country with a trading connection with the East,
which was now everywhere full of the religion of Christ?
There were probably before the close of the second century
Eoman Christians in Britain, as well as British Christians
not converted from Eoman but from other sources.
6. Tertulhan, in the well-known passage in which he
testifies to the existence of Christianity in Britain, specially
asserts that this religion flourished among the Britons "in
places which had never been approached by the Eomans." ^
This testimony as to the existence of Christianity in Britain
is of the beginning of the third century (208 A.D.) A
little later (239) Origen speaks of Britain as having one
religion, and that one the religion of Christ.^ In another
passage, however, he declares that as yet not all the Britons
have received the gospel.' Constantius, the father of Con
stantine, is said by Sozomen to have favoured and sup
ported Christianity in Britain/ and there are several
passages in the historian Eusebius which imply the exist
ence of a Christian British Church. °
7. In the terrible persecution of Diocletian at the
beginning of the fourth century, there were not wanting
to the British Church martyrs ready to confirm their tes
timony with their blood. Gildas mentions Aaron and
Julius as having suffered at Caerleon, and Alban at the
Eoman town of Verulamium." It is asserted, indeed, by
Eusebius, that Constantius prevented the fury of the Dio
cletian persecution from being felt in Britain/ and Lac-
tantius, though he declares that Constantius caused the
Gonventicula, or churches, to be destroyed, yet says that " the
temple of God, which is in men, was preserved safe by him." '
' " Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vfero subdita." —
Adv. Judosos, c. vii.
^ "Quando enim terra Britaunise ante adventum Christi in Unius
Dei convenerit religionem." — Homil.iv.in Ezek. (Jerome's Translation).
^ Origen, Homil. xxviii. in Matt. xxiv.
' Sozom., Hist. Eccles. i. 6.
^ Dem. Evang. iii. 6 ; Fita CoTistant. ii. 28 ; lb. iv. 9.
^ Gildas, Hist, viii. ' Euseb., Eist. Ecc. viii. xiii. 12.
' Lactant. de Morte Pers. xv. xvi.

CHAP. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 5
8. There is, however, so strong a tradition as to the
martyrdom of St. Alban, that we must assume that he, at
least, suffered. The tradition, as given by Bede, is as fol
lows : — Albanus was a Eoman soldier, who hospitably
received and entertained a Christian priest flying from the
persecution. By this priest he was instructed and baptized.
The priest being discovered and sent for, the soldier changed
garments with him, and presented himself in his place.
Being recognised, he was ordered to sacrifice to the gods ;
but refused, and declared himself a Christian. Upon this
he was terribly tortured. Still being constant, he was
ordered to execution ; but the soldier appointed to perform
the office, touched by the fortitude of Albanus, refused to
do his work, and also declared himseK a Christian. The two
were martyred together, but the name of only one of them
has survived. Miracles are said to have been worked at
the execution. A river dried up when Alban desired to
pass. A fountain burst forth when he desired water. The
eyes fell from the head of the executioner. Miracles are
said to have followed his death. But that Alban was a
real character and his martyrdom a real event there is no
question. About the date of his death there may be more
doubt.' 9. Upon the whole, the balance of probabdity seems
to incline to the supposition, not only that St. Alban suf
fered at this time, but that many others suffered also, as
Gildas and Bede assert. The courtly expression of Euse
bius, who desired to fiatter Constantine by eulogising his
father, does not go for much ; and the assertion of Lactan-
tius as to buildings alone having suffered is somewhat
rhetorical. And if persecution prevailed in Britain, there
is no reason to doubt that here too, as in other places, it
bore its natural fruit in the growth of the Church.
10. In the year 314 was held a Council at Aries in
1 ' ' That St. Alban's martyrdom happened in the Diocletian perse
cution rests only upon the knowledge or (according to another reading)
on the guess of Gildas himself. And the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and
the Lib. Landavens, , although the latter still attributes it to that per
secution, date it in 286." — Haddan's ISToteto Councils of Gfreat Britain,

6 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
France to consider the opinions of the Donatists. At this
Council, which was attended by a large number of Western
bishops, three British bishops were present, and affixed
their signatures to the decrees of the Council. Their
names as read in the ancient EoU are — " Eborius, bishop of
the town of Eboracum (York), in the province of Britain ;
Eestitutus, bishop of the town of London, in the above north
ern province ; Adelfius, bishop of the town of Caerleon (or
perhaps Lincoln).' Besides these, Sacerdos, a presbyter; and
Arminius, a deacon." The Synod of Aries was the most
important of any that were held before the general Council
of Nicaea. It had in it bishops from all parts of the
Western Church. It not only condemned the Donatist
heresy, but also undertook to settle other points which
needed settlement, as the controversy as to the time of
Easter, the baptism of heretics, the rules for discipline.
It promulgated twenty-two valuable canons on these points.
By the presence of some of its chief bishops at this Synod
the British Church must have been well informed as to the
mind of the Universal Church, while by its still preserving
a way of calculating Easter different from that which was
generally accepted in the West, it showed an independence
and self-reliance which indicate a considerable strength.
1 1. There is good reason also for believing that at the
great Council of Nicsea, held eleven years after that of
Aries (325), British bishops were present. The Emperor
Constantine, who summoned the Council, connected as he
was with Britain, would naturally summon bishops from
that island to the general gathering, and we have the
testimony of Athanasius that the British Church accepted
and assented to the faith as defined at Nicaea.^ At the
Council of Sardiea (347), which acquitted Athanasius of
the charges brought against him, British bishops were
either present, or, if not present, signified afterwards their
adhesion to the decisions of the Synod.^
^ The MS. has apparently Colonia Londinensium, but for this we
must read either Legionensium, i.e. Caer-Leon, or Lindcnsivm, which
would imply Lincoln. This latter town was an early head-quarters of
the Romans, and the conjecture seems a very probable one. See
Bingham, B. ix. c. 6, § 20.
2 Athanas. ad Jovian Imp. ^ Athanas. Apol cont. Arian.

CHAP. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 7
12. There appears, indeed, to be no reason for suppos
ing that Arianism was accepted in Britain, although
Gildas, misapplying a general expression in Eusebius,
asserts the contrary.' Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, often
called the Western Athanasius for his vigorous defence of
the faith, writes a congratulatory letter to the bishops of
Britain (among others) on the ground of their orthodoxy.^
13. At the unfortunate Synod of Eimini (359), when
all the more orthodox were entrapped by the Emperor
Constantius into accepting an Arian formula, three British
bishops were present. These are said to have been so
poor that they accepted the imperial allowance when the
other bishops refused it. They had previously rejected a
collection made among' their brethren at the Council for
their support, " thinking it rather right to be burdensome
to the general revenue than to individuals."^
14. St. Chrysostom, writing in 367, speaks of the
British Islands as possessing churches and altars. In
another passage he says that in Britain you may hear the
truths of the gospel spoken indeed in another language,
but not other in meaning.'' Several passages in St. Jerome
imply that the Britons were in the habit of making pil
grimages to the holy places in Palestine.^ The same is
also asserted by Palladius and Theodoret.s
15. This custom of making pilgrimages to the holy
places must have tended to keep up and strengthen the
connection which always seems to have existed between
the British Church and that of the East, and the history
of the remarkable persons now to be spoken of still further
increased and strengthened this connection. Early in the
fifth century one of the most conspicuous figures in the
Church of that day was Pelagius, universally declared to
have been a British monk ; Augustine, Jerome, Prosper,
' Councils, etc. (Haddan and Stubbs), i. 8, note.
^ Hilar. Pictav., de Synodis Frologct, § 2.
^ Sulpic. Severus, Hist, Sac, ii. 41.
* Chrysost., Cont. Judceos, Serm. de Util. Lect. Script., in Epist.
II. ad Cor. XII., Homil. xxviii.
^ Hieron, Ep. XLIV. ad Paulam, Epist. LXXXIV. ad Oceanum.
^ Pallad., Hist. Lavsiac, cxviii. ; Theodoret, Philoth., xxvi.

8 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap, l
Orosius, all distinctly state this. Born, according to the
testimony of numberless chroniclers, in Cambria, and pro
fessed at the monastery of Bangor, he was some sixty years
old' when his opinions began to attract attention, and to
draw upon him the notice of three of the greatest of the
Fathers — Augustine, Chrysostom, and Jerome. Though
called a monk by all his contemporaries, it is not to be
supposed that Pelagius was a Coenobite, or bound by any
special rule. He was a layman, and had adopted probably
a life of contemplation and study, such as that of which an
example had been given a hundred years before by Pacho-
mius in the East. The name Pelagius was evidently one
adopted to give a dignified and learned character to the
man, but whether the original name was Morgan, as
Camden and Usher suppose, may be doubtful. The for
tunes of Pelagius are linked together with those of a friend
of his named Celestius, who appears to have been of the
Scotic or ancient Irish race. St. Jerome's invective against
him calls him " a dog of Albion, one bred from the Scotch
race, the near neighbour to the British." ° Both these men,
Pelagius and Celestius, are said by Gennadius to have writ
ten treatises before they became known and attracted notice
as heretical teachers — Celestius on the monastic state, and
Pelagius on the Trinity and on the religious life. About
the end of the fourth century these two British monks left
their Western homes, and, visiting first Egypt and then
Constantinople (where they became known to St. Chry
sostom), finally found themselves at Eome. They arrived
there in the pontificate either of Siricius or Anastasius, in
the last decade of the fourth century. At that period the
absorbing business, the great topic of interest at Eome, was
1 It is asserted by Dempster, on the faith "of a very ancient
ecclesiastical writer," that he was born on the same day as Augustine,
in the year 351.
2 Professor Bright thinks that these expressions were used of Pela
gius, and says — "It is an error to make Jerome refer to Celestius as
Irish (Early E. Ch. Hist., p. 14, note). I venture to differ from this.
He also says Pelagius "had left Britain in early life.'' This, I think,
is not so. He was some forty years old before we hear of him at Rome.
An exhaustive account of Pelagius and Celestius will be found in
Wiggers' Augustinismus, etc. (Hamburg, 1833).

CHAP. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 9
religion, and the questions connected with it. Into the
speculations which were everywhere rife the two Western
monks entered eagerly. They speculated not on the
objective truths of the nature of the Godhead, but on the
subjective facts of ^ the human will. They sought to dis
cover how the great truth of the freedom of the will, and
the manifest power which men have of choosing between
two alternatives, could be reconciled with the extreme
opinions which prevailed on the misery and helplessness
of human nature, and the need of frightful austerities to
mortify the fiesh. They soon attracted attention, and rose
into distinction. Before the year 399, when Eufiinus left
Eome, they had become intimately acquainted with him,
and had learned from him those views adapted from the
speculations of Origen, which were the foundation of all
their theological system. They were also intimate visitors
at the house of Pammachius. Their reputation soon
reached Augustine in Africa. They were known to and
highly esteemed by Paulinus of Nola. Augustine wrote of
them that " their abilities were great and acute." He calls
them "most powerful, most renowned." Pelagius is
described as " in the highest degree acute." Celestius, " a
man of most vigorous judgment." The addresses and
harangues of Pelagius are described as " vehement and
burning." His books are made popular by "their bitter
and eloquent style." ' The sojourn of Pelagius and Celes
tius in Eome extended over fifteen or sixteen years. That
which first caused them to be suspected of heresy was the •
animadversions made by Pelagius in his lectures on a book
then intensely popular — the Confessions of St. Augustine.
But his first distinct utterance of his peculiar views was
conveyed in his Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul,
made public about the year 409. The first work of Augus
tine against these views {The Epistle to Marcellinus) was
written in 412. After the devastation of Eome by Alaric,
Pelagius and Celestius went first to Sicily, then to Carthage.
From thence Pelagius passed on into Palestine, while
Celestius remained at Carthage. They both now began to
^ Augustinus, Epp. ad Paulinum, ad Bonifacium, ad Julianum ; De
Natura et Gratia ; De Gestis Palsst.

10 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
teach more openly, denying the doctrine of original sin,
asserting the freedom of the will, and the power of man to
do right of himself, though they by no means denied the
valuable help of the grace of God ; asserting also the possi
bility of a human being reaching complete perfection.
Celestius was excommunicated by a Synod at Carthage.
Pelagius in Palestine was soon engaged in fierce strife with
St. Jerome. The former, however, was supported by
John, bishop of Jerusalem, and by a powerful party. It is
not needful here to notice the various controversial writings
which were put forth on the one hand by Augustine and
Jerome, on the other by Pelagius and Celestius. Suffice
it to say that the fragments of the vwitings of both these
monks which remain exhibit very considerable talent and
power, though they are unquestionably chargeable with
false doctrine. An attempt was made by the opponents
of the new views to crush them by the decisions of a
Synod, but at Diospolis (the ancient Lydda) a small Synod
of the bishops pronounced them to be free from, heresy.
This acquittal evidently arose from a misunderstanding.
Eastern prelates did not fully understand the Latin terms.
In Africa two Synods organised by Augustine strongly •
condemned the Pelagian views. An unexpected difficulty
now arose for the defenders of orthodoxy, from the action
of the Pope. Zosimus, a Greek who had succeeded to the
papal chair, received favourably the appeals of Celestius
and Pelagius, and pronounced them free of all heresy.
This was in direct contradiction to the decisions of his
predecessor, and he himself was soon obliged by the ener
getic action of Augustine to recant and acknowledge himself
to have been in error. The Pelagians were now condemned
by a rescript from the Court of Eavenna, and banishment
and confiscation, of their goods was decreed against them.
But their opinions had taken deep root and spread far and
wide, and an influence proceeding from the British Church,
and disseminated by British teachers, affected all the chief
centres of Christianity. What special effect did it have
upon the Church in Britain %
1 6. It is asserted by Prosper that Agricola, the son of
Severianus, a bishop who had adopted Pelagian views was

chap. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 11
the first introducer of these heretical opinions into Britain.'
Fastidius, a British bishop, mentioned by Gennadius as a
writer of a book on the Christian life, and another on pre
serving widowhood, was also probably a semi-Pelagian.''
17. The heresy spreading rapidly, the orthodox deter
mined to ask aid to combat it from the neighbouring Church
of Gaul. "An embassy," says Constantius, " directed to the
Gallic bishops, informed them that the false opinions of
Pelagius had spread far and wide, and that the Catholic
faith needed immediate succour. With this object a numer
ous Synod was collected, and by the judgment of all two
illustrious lights of religion are fortified by the prayers of
all for the work — namely, Germanus and Lupus, apostolical
priests, living, indeed, in body upon earth, but already
possessing heaven by their merits."^ Passing over into
Britain, they were followed by enormous crowds, and every
where converted the people to the true faith. The heretical
leaders at last determined to oppose them openly, and
before a vast assembly of the people a disputation was
publicly held at Verulamium. The apostles of the truth
were completely triumphant, and the people could scarce be
restrained from laying violent hands on the Pelagians.
Such is the account given by Constantius, a presbyter of
Lyons, who wrote a life of Germanus, with whom he was
contemporary. On the other hand. Prosper of Aquitain,
the chronicler, attributes the mission of Germanus and
Lupus to the action of Pope Celestine, who had been ap
pealed to by Palladius the deacon, to help the endangered
Church of Britain. There is no room for doubt as to the
main facts, namely, that Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and
Lupus, bishop of Troyes, did visit Britain with the object
1 Prosper, Aquitan, Chron., and Contra Collatorem, § 58.
^ See Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, i. 16. This, however, is denied
by StiUingfleet, who considers the book orthodox (it is printed in the
Bibl. Patrum), The special point of Semi-Pelagianism was the denying
the necessity of preventive grace. It repudiated the heresy of Pelagius
in denying original sin, and aU mischief from the Fall ; but it asserted
man's power to turn to God of himself. At the same time it held that
many were drawn by the operation of grace. — Prosper, Cont. Collatorem.,
¦ a. 40 ; Milman, Lat. Christianity, i. 130.
^ Constantius, de Vita Oermani, i. 19.

12 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
of instructing the people, probably in the year 429, and
that they were to some extent successful. But the infiu
ence which these missionaries exerted soon passed away
after their departure from Britain. The people relapsed into
Pelagianism, and sorrowful messages were addressed to
Germanus praying for his renewed help. Lupus being
unable to join with him, Germanus appealed to' Severus,
bishop of Treves, for assistance, and together with him
came again to Britain in the year 447. A miracle said to
have been performed by Germanus in restoring a crippled
youth named Elaphius to the use of his limbs, gave such
prestige and force to the teaching of the Gallic bishops
that the false opinions of Pelagius were utterly cast down
and discredited.' It is to the earlier visit of Germanus
that the story of the Hallelujah Battle is attributed ; and
there is nothing incredible in the supposition that an army
of Britons contending against their pagan and un-Eo-
manised brethren the Picts, and the allied Saxons, who
had already begun to prey upon Britain, should have been
stirred to martial enthusiasm by the presence of the saint,
and cheered on to victory by the loud hymns raised by
him and his followers.
1 8. Before the period when the fatal step was taken of
subsidising the Saxons, the Eoman province of Britain may
be regarded as essentially Christian. Gildas asserts the
general existence of churches in later Eoman Britain.
There are special records in Bede and other early chron
iclers of British churches at Canterbury (St. Martin's, St.
Saviour's); near Verulam ; at Caerleon (two); near Chester ;
at Glastonbury ; at Whitherne, in Galloway ; near Eves
ham. Traces of Eomano-British churches are believed still
to remain at Dover, Eichborough, Eeculver, and Lyminge
in Kent, at Brixworth in Northamptonshire, besides the
numerous remains possibly belonging to a post-Eoman
period in Wales and Cornwall.
19. And it is an indisputable fact that the British
Church not only itself flourished during the Eoman occu-
1 Constantius, (fe Vila Germani, ii. 1-4. Later legends , connect
Germanus vnth. Vortigern. It is singular that Gildas knows nothing
of Germanus.

chap. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 13
pation, but that it also sent missionaries to other churches.
Of the first of these, St. Ninian, Bede thus speaks : — " The
Southern Picts, long time ago, as they say, left the errors
of idolatry and received the true faith, having the Word of
God preached to them by Ninian the bishop, a most rev
erend and holy man of the nation of the Britons, who had
been regularly taught at Eome the Christian faith and the
mysteries of the truth. His Episcopal See was made illus
trious by the name of St. Martin, and by the church dedi
cated to him ; and there he himself rests in body, together
with many saints, which holy place the race of the English
now holds. It is in the province of Bernicia, and is
commonly called the White House (Whithern) because he
made his church of stone in a fashion to which the Britons
were unaccustomed." ' Other authorities record a visit
made by Ninian to St. Martin, to whom he dedicated his
church ; and as St. Martin died just at the close of the
fourth century, the work of Ninian in Galloway must be
placed early in the fifth. Another still more famous mis
sionary of the British Church was St. Patrick, the apostle
of the Irish. Among the various legends by which the
work of St. Patrick is obscured there would seem to be.
some foundation of fact obtainable. Palladius, a Eoman
missionary, had first endeavoured to convert the heathen
Scots (Irish), but was driven away by them and landed in
Scotland, where, among the Picts, already in part Chris
tianised by St. Ninian, he found a home, and built, as it is
said, a church at Fordun. A young Briton who had come
under his influence and been told by him of the heathen
inhabitants of the neighbouring island, was stirred up to
attempt the work in which Palladius had failed. His father
was Calphurnius, a noble Briton, and his mother Conche,
niece to St. Martin of Tours. He gave himself to the
work, and succeeded in planting Christianity in Ireland.
20. The irruptions of the Saxons and Angles into
Britain, and the wars carried on during a century, almost
uniformly with bad success to the Britons, had the effect
of filling the main part of this island with heathen colo
nists. The Britons, whether Christian or pagan, were either
1 Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii. 4.

1 4 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap. i.
exterminated, made slaves of, or driven into two main dis
tricts — the one on the west, extending from the Clyde to
the Dee ; the other in the south-west, comprising Corn
wall, Devon, and part of Somerset. In these two districts,
and among the mountains of Wales, whatever was left of
the British Church was to be found. What was its con
dition and history during these times of trouble 1 The
most that we know about these is to be found in the
work of Gildas, a Welsh monk who wrote, about 564, an
epistle or history of the 'destruction of Britain. From
this we gather the saddest ideas both as to the sufferings
which the British Church had to endure, and also as to
the moral and religious condition of the British Christians.
21. Gildas begins his work by a sketch of the irrup
tions — first of the Picts and Scots, and afterwards of the
Saxons, by which the Britons were in a great measure
exterminated, the remnants of the nation being driven into
Wales and Cornwall. The battle of Badon Hill (520), in
which the Britons were victorious, gave them an era of
comparative peace. But, he continues, though foreign
attacks ceased, civil wars continued. The country was
desolate, and when the generation which had had to fight
for its existence had passed away, a new one arose which
was worse than the former. Then Gildas turns his Invec
tive with terrible energy against the chiefs and judges of
the land, accusing them by name of fearful crimes and
wickedness. " I wish," he then exclaims, " that I could
stop here, but I am constrained to censure also the clergy.
Some indeed there are among them of high excellence, but
for the most part it is not so. Priests they are, but
foolish ones ; ministers, but shameless ; clerks, but roblDers ;
shepherds, but rather wolves ; having the buildings of the
church, but only entering them for gain; teaching the
people, but showing them the most evil example ; offerino-
the sacrifice but seldom, and never with a pure heart ¦
not rebuking the people for their sins, as truly doing the
same themselves ; spurning the precepts of Christ, and
desiring only to satisfy their lusts ; sitting in the chair of
St. Peter with unclean feet ; hating truth and favouring
lies ; looking upon the righteous who are poor with fierce

CH.4.P. I.] THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH. 15
looks, and venerating the wicked who are rich as angels of
heaven, without any shame ; preaching the giving of alms,
but giving none ; passhig over in silence 'the crimes of the
people, but amplifying the injuries which they themselves
had suffered as though they were done to Christ ; driving
from their homes mothers and sisters, and bringing in
other women to live with them without any regard to
decency ; being more eager for promotion in the Church
than for the kingdom of heaven, but using their ofiices
tyrannically and not illustrating them with righteous liv
ing ; careless and inattentive to the precepts of the saints ;
eager and intent upon amusement and the foolish fables of
secular men ; imitating bulls in their fatness and bellow
ing ; miserably eager for all forbidden things ; arrogant in
look ; of the very lowest debasement in conscience ; sad
for the loss of a penny, glad to gain one ; dull and dumb
in apostolic exhortations, most learned in the tricks of
worldly business ; rushing into the priesthood by means of
bribery, and when in it, either as bishops or priests, con
tinuing to roll in the mire of pollution ; with the name of
priests indeed, but not the character, being not fitted for
the apostolical dignity even by penitence for the sins they
have committed, yet aspiring to all, even the highest grade,
to which none ought to be preferred save the holy and
perfect and the true imitators of the apostle. These men
buy the office of priesthood, not from the successors of the
apostles, but from the tyrants, desiring it as the cover and
protection of their wicked lives. Those who sacrilegiously
ordain them have obtained their ofiices in the same way.
If they cannot force themselves on a parish, they go
into foreign parts and then return to their country puffed
up by excessive pride, laying their hands violently on the
venerable altars, and polluting the Christian sacrifice. It
is true that there are some among them who are not
wicked, or proud, or schismatical, but inasmuch as these
do not denounce their evil brethren, and take a stand
against them, they are polluted by them. Where are there
any to be found hke the holy fathers 1 where any who
correspond to the character given in the Holy Scriptures
of the ministerial office 'i My words are indeed harsh, but

16 TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF [chap, i
a milder tone would only serve to anoint the wound, not
to cut out the infected part. St. Paul says that he who
desires the office of a bishop desireth a good work. Ye
desire it simply for the sake of avarice. ' A bishop,' he
says, ' must be the husband of one wife.' Your bishops
are not content with one, but have many wives. If they
are hospitable, it is to gain popularity. They are strikers
and violent. They do not attempt to govern their house
holds. The deacons are in all things the very opposite
to that which St. Paul has ordered them to be. How can
those either loose or bind who are themselves dissolved in
sin and bound in iniquity 1 May God's anger be averted
from the Church defiled by such evil pastors !" Such is the
substance of the Invective of Gildas against the British
Church of his day ; and though allowance must be made for
its oratorical inflation, it yet remains a truly terrible indict
ment. 22. " One is almost led to think," says Professor
Bright, " that Gildas's bitter complaints were effective, for
there is certainly a burst of religious activity in the Welsh
Church during the second half of the sixth century.
Colleges or monasteries did much for study and devotion,
usually bearing the name of Ranger — that is, ' high choir
or circle,' or ' eminent community.' " ^ Of these Bangors
four are enumerated ; and some four or five colleges
for the instruction of clergy are known to have existed.
Welsh Synods also were held, the notices of which have
been recovered and illustrated by the labours of Messrs.
Haddan and Stubbs, and Welsh missions were sent to
Ireland, " thus repaying the charity which had spread the
Church in Cornwall." ^ Two Welsh bishops were especially
famous — Dubricius, the founder of the church of Llandaff,
and Dewi or David, the national saint of Wales and the
founder of St. David's. The most ancient See was that of
Caerleon, an occupant of which had perhaps attended the
Council of Aries. Thus the Church in Britain struggled
on, in comparative obscurity indeed, but not without signs
of life and vigour, until two powerful reinforcements, com
ing the one from the north, the other from the south, gave
1 Bright, Early English Church, p. 29. 2 Jb, p. 31.

CHAP. I.]

THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCH.

17

to Christianity in the island a vast increase of power and
extension.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A) THE LITURGY OP THE
ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.
A document of the eighth century
aflirms that the British Church had
a Liturgy different from the Gal
ilean. It traces this through Ger
man and Lupus to St. Mark. It is
probable, however, that the British
Church had from the flrst the Gal
ilean use. Bishop Forbes (Preface
to Arbuthnot Missal) holds that the
earliest use in these islands was
Ephesiue, i,e, Gallican. Probably,
German and Lupus made no change
of importance in the Liturgy which
they found in use in the counliy. See
Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities, Article " Liturgy. "
(B) THE DISPUTE AS TO THE
CALCULATION OP EASTER.
The complicated dispute about
Easter, which was such a bone of
contention between the British and
Roman Churches, may be thus sim
ply stated. The original dispute was,
whether Easter should be kept on
a fixed day of the month (the 14th),
following the Jewish Passover, and
disregarding the day ol the week,
or on a fixed day of the week, name
ly, the first. 'I'he Nicene Council
aifirmed the latter as the proper prin
ciple ot the celebration. Then, it
having been decided that Easter
should always be on Sunday, the
question arose. What Sunday ? The
Sunday that fell next alter the full
moon of the first month. But when
did the first (lunar) month com
mence, and when did the full moon
fall ! To determine this, and to
make the lunar and solar months

agree, various cycles or periods of
calculation were devised, at the ex
piration of which the limar and
solar months would correspond.
Without specifying these, which
were all more or less farilty, it is
sufficient to say that the Church
generally had accepted a calculation
or cycle, different from that which
was held by the British Churches.
But this was not the most important
point of difference. The British
Churches held, probably on accoimt
of some tradition supposed to be
handed down from St. John, that
Easter Sunday might be on the foiirr-
ieenth of the month, if that day
happened to be Sunday ; the rest of
the Church held, as ordered by the
Council of Nice, that Easter Sunday
coyZd not ie lefore the fifteenth. It
was possible, therefore, for the Bri
tish Christians to be celebrating
their Easter on the fourteenth, while
the Eoman Christians celebrated
theirs on the twenty-first. This, in
reality, as we learn from Bede's
account of the conference at Whit
by, was the matter of contention
between them. The British Chris
tians then alleged the authority of
St. John, who was held to have sup
ported the original plan of always
adhering to tlie fourteenth of the
month ; but they did not in truth
follow this tradition- entirely, inas
much as they did not hold that the
fourteenth could be the right day,
except it were a Sunday, They
were thus not altogether Quartodeci-
mans. For further information on
the Easter Controvery see Dr. Smith's
Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,
Article "Easter."

18 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. a.

CHAPTER II.
THE PLANTING OP THE CHURCH IN KENT AND AMONG
THE EAST SAXONS.
596-604.
1. The Divisions of England after its conquest by the Saxons, Angles, and
Jutes. 2. Circumstances likely to influence the heathen settlers to
embrace Christianity. 3. Special circumstances in the case of the
Bretwalda Ethelbert. 4. Gregory sends the mission to England. 5.
His Letter to encourage the timid monks. 6. Gregory's Letters to
the Bishops of Prance. . 7. The reception of Augustine and his com
panions by King Ethelbert. 8. Establishment of Augustine at Can
terbury ; his consecration, and questions addi'essed to Pope Gregory.
9. Gregory's Letter to lEulogius. 10. The Mission of Mellitus,
Justus, Paulinus, and Euffinianus. 11. Gregory's scheme forthe hier
archy of England. 12. Ethelbert's donations : commencement of the
Cathedral of Canterbury. 13. Augustine's negotiations with the
British Bishops. 14. Establishment of the Church at London and
Rochester. 15. Consecration of Laurentius to Canterbury. Death
of Augustine.
1. When, towards the end of the sixth century, wars
had in great measure ceased in this island, and the invad
ing tribes had effected a permanent settlement, the various
nations are found to be distributed as follows : — In the
extreme north beyond the Fortli were located the two
Celtic nations of Picts and Scots ; the former to the east,
the latter to the west, in close proximity to its brethren in
Ireland. From the mouth of the Clyde right down to the
Land's End, in Cornwall, the whole western part of the
island was occupied by the conquered British, forming the
three kingdoms of Strathclyde, North Wales, and West
Wales. In the other parts of the island there were new
settlers. These consisted of three tribes, all of Teutonic
origin — the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. Of these,
the Jutes held the county of Kent, the Isle of Wight, and

596-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 19
part of Hampshire ; the remainder of the southern part of
the island being divided into the three Saxon kingdoms of
Essex, Wessex, and Sussex. From the Thames to the
Forth, the three large provinces of Mercia, Deira, and
Bernicia were peopled by Angles, while the same tribe also
occupied the easterly jut of the island to the north of the
Saxon Essex. These were the main tribal divisions, though
there were numerous other smaller ones, as the Hwiccians,
along the estuary of the Severn ; the North Folk and
South Folk, in East Anglia. If we include Deira and
Bernicia in the one province of Northumbria, we shall find
seven prominent kingdoms of the Teutonic settlers. Of
these, one or other always had a sort of recognised leader
ship, and its chief assumed, and was allowed, the name of
Bretwalda — a foreshadowing of the union of the whole
nation under one king, the first real approach to which was
made in the ninth century.'
2. At the close of the sixth century the Bretwalda, or
leading prince in England, was Ethelbert, sovereign of the
Jutish kingdom of Kent. He and his people were heathens,
worshippers of Woden and Thor, the fierce war-gods of the
northern tribes ; but in his territories were the remains of
Eomano-British Christianity, and among the subject popu
lation of the land there were some who cherished the
Christian faith. No efforts had been made by the British
Church to preach Christianity to the Saxons, Angles, or
Jutes ; nor would such efforts, if they had been made, have
had any probability of success. The mutual hatred and
contempt of the Teutons and the Celts, the savage exter
minating wars in which they had been constantly engaged,
made the breach between them too wide for any peaceful
approaches to be welcomed. Christianity, if it was to come
to the English race, must come from a quarter more re
spected than the despised and conquered dwellers in Wales
and Cornwall. The irruptions of the various northern
nations had dislocated and overthrown the old effete frame
work of the Eoman Empire of the West ; but the force of
the civilisation, and the grand traditions of the countries
into which they had violently thrust themselves, exercised
* Freeman, Norman Conquest, 1 28.

20 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. ii.
a strong influence over the new settlers. In all cases they
were quickly subdued by the religion which the old empire
had professed. The heathen conquerors of Britain were
indeed slower in this respect than any other Teutonic nation,
for Britain was less thoroughly Eomanised than either Gaul,
Spain, or Italy. The Angles and Saxons " did not find
that perfect and striking fabric of Eoman laws, manners,
and arts, which elsewhere impressed the minds of the con
querors and changed them from destroyers into disciples." '
But they found enough to dispose them to regard with
reverence the authority and greatness of Eome. They
knew that kindred nations had been taught from this great
ecclesiastical centre, and so, when the fierce wars with the
Celts had subsided, the new settlers were in fact predis
posed to receive Christianity, should it come to them from a
quarter which they respected, and not from one which they
despised. Thus Pope Gregory, writing to the kings of the
Franks, says : — " We are informed that through the mercy
of God the English nation is desirous to turn Christian ; but
the clergy of your nation, notwithstanding their neighbour
hood, refuse to assist them in their good motives and en
courage their piety. " "
3. In the case of the Bretwalda Ethelbert, this predis
position was increased by the fact of his being married to
a Christian Prankish princess. Bertha, daughter of Chari-
bert, king of Paris. This points to the fact of a very
considerable amount of intercourse between the English aud
the Christianised Franks of Paris. Queen Bertha was
allowed the quiet exercise of her religion. She had as
chaplain Liuthard, bishop of Seiihs, and as a place of wor
ship the old Eomano-British church of St. Martin's, by
Canterbury. It was not altogether, then, as to a heathen
country, where the greatest hostility was to be expected to
the faith which they preached, that the Eoman missionaries
came to England.
4. The Eoman mission to convert England was due
to the zeal and charity of Gregory the Great, one of the
greatest, if not one of the wisest, of the popes. The story
told by Bede, and in the Life of Gregory by John the
' Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 19. 2 Greg., Ep., 1. 5, e. 58.

696-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 21
Deacon, of his seeing the fair-haired slave boys in the
market at Eome, and the making a vow to labour to fit
those children of bright and beauteous looks for the society
of the angels in heaven, may be perfectly authentic.
Certainly Gregory, some years before he reached the
popedom, did himself set out on a mission to redeem his
vow ; but the mutiny of the people, who saw in him the
one able and virtuous man of the city, compelled the pope
to recall him. Then when he reached the supreme power,
he took measures to perform by deputy what he had been
hindered from doing in person. In the fourth year of his
pontificate he summoned from the monastery of St. Andrew,
of which he had been abbot, the monk Augustine and some
forty companions, and charged them to go on a mission to
the West to convert the heathen islanders. They proceeded
on their journey by way of Lerins and Marseilles to Aix ;
but there their heart failed them. Probably they heard
accounts of the ferocity of J;he English, and feeling them
selves but iU suited for the work from their ignorance of
the language and customs of the islanders, they despaired
of success. They sent Augustine, as the leading man among
them, back to Eome to remonstrate with the pope, and to
demand a release from the burden laid on them.
5. But Gregory was not inclined to yield to their fickle
ness and timidity. He sent back Augustine with a letter
to encourage them. " Gregory, the servant of the servants
of God, to the servants of our Lord. — Forasmuch as it had
been better not to begin a good work than to think of
desisting from that which has been begun, it behoves you,
most beloved sons, to fulfil the good work which by the
help of the Lord you have undertaken, being assured that
much labour is followed by an eternal reward. When
Augustine your chief returns, whom we also constitute your
abbot, humbly obey him in all things ; knowing that what
soever you shall do by his direction, will in all respects be
available for your souls. Almighty God protect you with
His grace ! and grant that I may in the heavenly country
see the fruits of my labour." '
6. In addition to exhortations addressed to the mis-
1 Bede, I. xxiii.

22 ¦ PLANTING OP THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. ii.
sionaries themselves, Gregory paved the way for their work
by letters addressed to the bishops of the Franks. To
the prelates of Lyons, Marseilles, Aix, Aries, Vienne,
Autun, Orleans, Metz, Salutes, and Tours, he wrote recom
mending Augustine and his companions to their " priestly
affections," and bidding them afford them all the comfort in
their power. Augustine was to inform the bishops of the
object of his journey, which, the pope doubted not, would
induce them " zealously to afford him relief." The pope also
wrote to the king and queen of the Franks, to request their
good offices for the missionaries.
7. In France they were kindly entertained durmg the
winter. In the spring of the year 597 (14th April) Augus
tine and his companions, together with some French priests,
arrived on the shores of England. They had been furnished-
with interpreters, and had learned, no doubt, somewhat of
the character of the race which they were to endeavour to
instruct, and of the country to which they were bound.
Ethelbert, the powerful king of Kent, whose authority was
recognised right up to the Humber,' heard that a band of
strangers had landed at Ebbfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, the
old cradle of the Jutish power, from whence .^SIso had gone
forth to conquer Kent, of whose descendants, the j3Escingas,
Ethelbert was fourth. His command was that the strangers
should remain in the island, then separated by nearly a mile
of water from the mainland, and that they should be fur
nished with all necessaries. Often had he heard of the
religion of the Christians, which it was reported these men
came to teach, froni his wife Bertha ; ' but, occupied in his
wars and in securing his position as Bretwalda, he had paid
but slight attention to it. But he had not opposed or dis
countenanced the true faith, so that it is only reasonable to
suppose that there were many about the court and in the
^Bede, i. 25. This, of course, means over-lordship, not direct
authority. 2 In a letter addressed by Pope Gregory to this princess, he some
what reflects upon her for not doing more to propagate the knowledge
of Christianity ; but it does not appear whether the reproach was
deseiTcd. She had been married to Ethelbert some twenty-six years
Ep. vi. 59.

596-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 23
neighbourhood who had been attracted towards the religion
of the queen. Now that an imposing embassy had arrived
from the most famous city of the West, the king was con
strained to listen more attentively to any reasons that might
be urged why he should quit the faith of his ancestors.
Accordingly, within a few days after the arrival of the
monks, Ethelbert visited the Isle of Thanet and commanded
the strangers to be brought into his presence. He was
careful to receive them in the open air, to avoid the dangers
of magical incantations. "But they came," says Bede,
" furnished with divine, not magic virtue, bearing a silver
cross for a banner, and the image of our Lord and Saviour
painted on a board ; and, singing the litany, they offered up
their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of
"themselves and of those to whom they were come."' The
king answered their exhortations by declining for himself
to accept the faith which they preached, but allowing them
to make it known to his subjects, and promising them
favourable treatment. The missionaries were then suffered
to go to the city of Canterbury, which they entered in pro
cession, chanting their litany with petitions for the success
of their work in the city which they were entering.
8. At once, when they were located in Canterbury,
Augustine and his monks began to practise the regular
life to which they had been accustomed in their old home.
The people were much struck by their discipline and devo
tion. They worshipped in the church of St. Martin, which
had been built by the Eomans ; and here, too, they were
ready to instruct the people, and to baptize any who were
ready to embrace the faith. Of these Ethelbert himself
soon was one. Within two months of the entry of the
Eoman monks into Canterbury, on Whitsunday (June 1,
597), King Ethelbert was baptized. This was an immense
help to the work, but the king, taking a just view of the
religion which he had adopted, refused to constrain any of
his subjects to follow his example, but left them free to
•^ Bede, I. xxv. According to jElfrio their preaching was to set
forth "quemadmodum misericors Jesus propria ipsius passione orbis
hujusce universitatis peccationem redemerat et omnibus vere fidelibus
in ccelestia regna aditum patefecerat. " — Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 11.

24 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. ii.
choose for themselves. To the missionaries whose faith
he had accepted, King Ethelbert made liberal presents, and
gave them every facility for their work. Augustine, finding
the work going on so happily, now considered it necessary
to apply for episcopal consecration, which he had been
directed by Gregory to seek from the French bishops. He
went to Aries, where the apostolical succession was^ con
veyed to him by the hands of Vergilius the archbishop
(November 16, 597). But he was quickly back in Kent
again, intent upon the prosecution of his work. So rapidly
did this proceed, that on Christmas Day, 597, no less than
10,000 persons were baptized. Augustine was able to
send to Gregory the happy news of this great progress by
Laurentius a priest and Peter a monk — to tell him of the
conversion and zeal of the king, of his own consecration,
and of the numbers now made Christians, and at the same
time to seek from the experience and wisdom of the Bishop
of Eome directions as to several points on which he needed
advice. The first matter on which he desired direction
was as to the proportion in which the funds entrusted to
the bishop by the faithful were to be distributed. Gregory
suggested in reply that they should be made into four por
tions — one for the bishop and his household, another for
the clergy, a third for the poor, and the fourth for the
repair of churches. Inasmuch, however, as Augustine was
to live the coenobitic life with his clergy, it would not be
necessary to make a division between his share and that
of the clergy, only to take care that any clergy who desired
to marry should receive their stipends separately. Augus
tine's second question was as to the liturgical uses — What
was he to do in this respect, as one custom prevailed in
the Eoman Church, another in the Gallican t The Pope
replies, " You know the custom of the Eoman Church in
which you were brought up. But it pleases me that if you
have found anything either in the Eoman, or the Gallican,
or any other church, which may be more acceptable to
Almighty God, you carefully make choice of the same, and
sedulously teach the Church of the English, which is as yet
new in the faith, whatsoever you can gather from the sev
eral churches. For things are not to be loved for the sake

596-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 25
of places, but places for the sake of good things. Choose,
therefore, from every church those things that are pious,
religious, and upright; and having, as it were, made them
up in one mass, let the minds of the English be accustomed
thereto." The third question related to the punishment
to be exacted from those who stole from the churches.
Some, said the Pope, should be fined, others scourged, but
due moderation was to be observed in punishment, and all
things done in charity. The fourth question was whether
two brothers could lawfully marry two sisters. Gregory,
of course, replied that there was nothing to hinder this.
The fifth question was as to the degrees of affinity within
which matrimony might be contracted. Gregory pronounces
against the marriage of first cousins, and of the deceased
wife's sister, but he would not have those who had con
tracted such marriages in their unbelieving days excluded
from communion. The sixth question asked whether
bishops might be consecrated when there was only one to
consecrate. Gregory's answer is that it might be done, but
that it was better that three or four should be present, and
Augustine was to endeavour to arrange accordingly. In
the next place Augustine asked how he was to stand
towards the neighbouring bishops. The Pope replied that
he had no authority over the bishops of France, but as to
those of Britain, " he committed them to his care, that the
unlearned might be taught, the weak strengthened by per
suasion, and the perverse corrected by au.thority." The
eighth and ninth questions related to certain details of
married life and of supposed impediments to religious acts,
as to which it is sufficient to say that Gregory's answers
were full of good sense.^ Indeed, the whole of the Pope's
directions are marked by this quality, especially that which
relates to an establishment of an " English use," and the
not seeking an exact uniformity with Eome. The most
objectionable part of his utterances is that in which he
quietly disposes of the British bishops over whom he had
no sort of authority, and subjects them to Augustine's rule,
who could have no claim to govern them.^
1 Bede, B. I. c. xxvii.
2 The answers to Augustine's questions were not sent till 601.

26 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap, il
9. On receiving the good news brought him by Lau
rentius and Peter, Gregory was able to write to Eulogius,
Patriarch of Alexandria, that he rejoiced to hear tidings
from him as to the conversion of heretics, and that he
was glad to be able to make a return of a similar piece of
good news. " I must tell you," he writes, " that the nation
of the Enghsh has remained up to the present time in un
behef, adoring gods of wood and stone. I have sent thither
a monk of my monastery, whom the bishops of Germany ^
— having ordained bishop by my allowance — have caused
to be conveyed thither at the extremity of the world, and
we have just received news of the happy success of then
labours. For he, and they that are with him, perform so
many miracles, that they seem to be almost equal to those
of the Apostles. We have learned that at the festival of
Christmas last this new bishop baptized more than ten
thousand English. I write this to you that you may see
the effect of your prayers." ^
10. The work growing thus rapidly, Augustine felt the
urgent need of additional helpers of somewhat a higher
class and greater power than those companions he had
brought with him. Gregory, to whom his needs were
communicated, was of the same mind. He thought the
time was now come for a more formal establishment of
Augustine as the head of the Church, and generally for a
strong reinforcement of the Church which had been so
happily planted. Accordingly, as Bede tells us, he now
sent the pall^ to Augustine, which was held to give him
the authority of a Metropolitan over a province of bishops,
and with this he despatched some whom he had selected
to be helpers to him — viz. Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and
Euffinianus. These missionaries also carried with them
" all things in general for the worship and service of the
Church — viz. sacred vessels and vestments for the altars,
^ "St. Gregory calls the kingdom of France Germany, either be
cause in reality it included a pari; of Germany, or because the nation of
the Franks was of German origin." — Fleury.
^ Greg., Ep. vii. 30.
' Originally a grand outer robe, but gradually reduced in dimen
sions to be a little stole or tippet of lambswool undyed.

596-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 27
also ornaments for the churches, and vestments for the
priests and clerks, as likewise relics of the holy apostles,
besides many books." ' But the most remarkable and
important part of this second mission, which reached Eng
land in the year 601, was the advice which Gregory de
spatched to Augustine not only in answer to the questions
which had been proposed to him, but also as to his way of
treating the heathen temples, and generally all those practices
of heathenism to which the English had been accustomed.
With an extraordinary largeness of mind Gregory charged
Mellitus to advise Augustine, as from him, not to interfere
with the heathen temples save only to destroy the idols, but
to sprinkle the temples with holy water, and then to erect
altars in them as Christian churches. He also advised him
to substitute Christian festivals in the place of the heathen
feasts, which might be observed with somewhat of the
same ceremonies ; for, says the Pope, " It is impossible to
efface everything at once from their obdurate minds ; be
cause he who endeavours to ascend to the highest place
rises by degrees or steps and not by leaps."' There is no
doubt that to this wise and politic advice the rapid spread
of Christianity among the Saxons and Angles was greatly
owing. 11. By another letter despatched to Augustine himself
by the hands of the second mission, Gregory appointed the
future arrangement and subordination of bishoprics in
England. Augustine himself was, during his lifetime, to
be at the head of all ; he was to consecrate twelve bishops
under him, of whom the Bishop of London was, at the
death of Augustine, to have the primacy. And as London
had been the chief city of the southern portion of Eoman
Britain, and so was to have the honour of being the Metro
politan See, thus also the city which in the northern division
had enjoyed a similar precedence, viz. Eboracum or York,
was to be the metropolis of the north, and its bishop was to
have the pall conferred upon him when appointed. Under
each metropolitan in Gregory's scheme there were to be
twelve suffragans, and the seniority of consecration was -to
¦• Bede, I. xxix. See for an account of these Thomas de Elmham
(ed. Hardwick), p. 96. ^ B^de, I. xx.n:.

28 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. it.
give the actual primacy either to the Bishop of London or
to the Bishop of York, as the case might be.^
12. Gregory also wrote letters by the same messengers
to King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha. He praises Ethel
bert for the zeal which he had already shown for Christ,
and exhorts him to use his utmost endeavours for the
spreading of the truth among his subjects. To Bertha
he writes that though she had begun late, yet now at
last, having begun, she should strive the more zealously
to infiuence her husband in his love for the gospel, and
his zeal for spreading it abroad. To both of them he
recommends Augustine and the other holy men whom he
had sent for the conversion of the nation.^ To Augustine
himself he writes what probably was a salutary caution
against pride and self-exaltation. He had, it seems,
claimed to have been the means of working many miracles
in carrying on his missionary labours. Gregory bids him
rejoice with fear, " lest amidst the wonders that are
wrought, the weak mind may be puffed up in its
own presumption, and as it is externally raised to
honour it may thence inwardly fall by vainglory.
For we must call to mind that when the disciples
returned with joy after preaching, and said to their
Heavenly Master, ' Lord, even the very devils are subject
unto us in Thy nauie,' they were presently told : ' In
this rejoice not, that the devils are subject unto you ;
but rather rejoice because your names are written in
heaven.' For all the elect do not work miracles, and
yet the names of all are -written in heaven." Augustine
is bid to remember his shortcomings, which ought to
extinguish all vanity, and to reflect that if any miraculous
effects had been shown, this was done, not for him, but
for the sake of those whose salvation had been given
to him.3 While the Eoman Bishop was thus fostering
the beginnings of the Church in England, the newly
¦¦ It is unnecessary to note that this arrangement was never carried
out, but the directions as to the relative position of the Metropolitans
gave occasion to the long contest waged by York against Canterbury
on this point.
2 Greg., E2->i^t. ix. 39. Bede, I. xxxii. 3 Bede, I. xxxi.

696-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 29
converted king of Kent was showing himself solicitous
for its temporal interests. Eetiring from his palace
in Canterbury to Eeculver, he gave up the former to
the uses of Augustine and the missionaries. Near the
Idng's palace was an old Eoman church long desecrated.
This Augustine reclaimed and rededicated as Christ
Church, enlarging it with choir and aisles and apses in
imitation of the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter at Eome.
This was the original of the venerable cathedral of Canter
bury. He then proceeded to erect outside the city walls
a monastery on the site of an old Eoman Temple, which he
dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, and with the help of
Ethelbert, who "enriched it with several donations,"' he was
able rapidly to advance it. This was the monastery after
wards called by the name of its founder, St. Augustine's.^
Having full license now to reclaim for the purposes of
worship any of the old Eomano-British churches, he also
recovered, and rededicated in the name of St. Pancras,
another ancient Eoman church near Canterbury.
13. The powers given by Pope Gregory to Augustine
of being supreme over all Christians in the island, natur
ally led him soon to attempt to bring the British churches
under his regulation, and to make them submit to his
authority. The antipathies of race, and the recollections
of the long and bitter struggles between the Britons
and the Teutons, would necessarily form a great impedi
ment, but it was thought that the faith common to the
two might overcome this. And had the demands of
Augustine been less exacting, or his demeanour more
conciliating, this might have been the case. A meeting
was arranged between the Archbishop and certain repre
sentatives from the British churches of Wales, at a place
which is described by Bede as " Augustine's Ac," that
is Augustine's Oak, on the borders of the Wiccii and West
Saxons."^ The way in which Augustine commenced the
^ Bede, I. xxxiii.
3 On the question as to the relative antiquity of Christ Church and
St. Augustine's a gi-eat strife arose. (See Thomas of Elmham, Rolls
Series, pp. 84, 85, etc.)
3 Bede, ii. 2. The Wiccii or Hwiccians were settled along the banks

30 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT [chap. ii.
interview did not promise well for its success. He began
by admonishing the Britons as to the irregularity of their
proceedings, especially in the matter of keeping Easter,
which they persisted in observing on the 14th day of
the month when the full moon fell rightly for this,
whereas the custom now generally accepted in the
Church did not allow the festival by any possibility to
be observed before the 15th,i in order to avoid the
day of the Jews' Passover. Other customs and traditions
of the British Church were also denounced. The British
clergy naturally defended their long-practised customs.
Augustine, instead of a friendly argument with them,
demanded that the matter should be settled by a trial
as to which of the parties could work a miracle. A blind
man was brought who (it is said) could not be cured
by the British, but was immediately healed by the prayers
of Augustine. There must have been some suspicious
circumstances connected with this transaction, as the
British clergy do not seem to have been struck and
awed by it. They demanded another meeting. At this
seven British bishops and many learned men from their
famous monastery of Bangor assisted. They had previously
consulted a hermit renowned for his piety as to whether
they ought to forsake their traditions at the bidding of
Augustine. The hermit had told them that if Augustine
showed himself meek and humble they might do so. They
were to judge as to his humility by observing whether
he rose up to receive them when they came to him.
Augustine remained sitting. The British bishops charged
him with pride and haughtiness. Augustine replied that
many of their traditions were contrary to those of the
universal church, but that if they would abandon their
computation of Easter, and their peculiar mode of admin
istering baptism, and would join with him in preaching
the gospel to the English, he would readily tolerate all
their other peculiarities. They responded that they would
change none of their customs. Then Augustine threatened
of the Severn. The place is supposed to have been the village of
Aust or Aust-cliff on the Severn, in Gloucestershii-e.
1 See above. Notes aud Illustrations to Chap. I.

596-604.] AND AMONG THE EAST SAXONS. 31
them, that if they would not seek to convert the English,
they would suffer death at their hands. His threat
received so marked a fulfilment, that on the one hand
it was held to have been a prophecy, on the other, he
has been charged with complicity in the massacre which
followed, though it was certainly some nine years after
his death. ^ For Ethelfrid, king of the Northumbrians,
making war upon the British, defeated them in a great
battle near Chester. During the battle a large body of
the monks of Bangor were observed by the pagans
occupied in prayer for the success of the arms of their
countrymen. " These men," said the Northumbrian king,
" are fighting against us as much as the others." The
conquering Angles fell upon them, and out of the twelve
hundred monks only fifty survived.
14. The unsuccessful negotiations with the British are
generally assigned to the year 603 ; and in the following
year, 604, Augustine made a great step forward in estab
lishing the Church of Christ among the English. Sebert,
the king of the East Saxons, was the nephew of Ethelbert
of Kent, being the son of' his sister Eicola. The Christian
missionaries, therefore, obtained an easy access into his
dominions, which contained the great city of London, the
opulence and importance of which had been scarcely
injured by the Anglo-Saxon conquest,^ and which was
then, as in Eoman times, by far the leading city in the
island. Here were two famous temples of the Eoman
heathen worship, one of Diana in the centre of the city,
and another of Apollo in the neighbouring island of
Thorney. Sebert, now converted to the faith, determined, in
^ The massacre of the Welsh •monks by Ethelfrid was "almost
certainly" in 613 (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils), It seems strange
that so many writers have attempted to connect Augustine with this
massacre, inasmuch as it is certain that he died in 604. Bede carefully
notes tbat the massacre took place after the death of Augustine.
(Bede, ii. 2). It has been suggested that the passage in Bede is
an interpolation, because it is not found in King Alfred's translation.
This probably may be accounted for. The passage is in all the most
ancient MSS. of Bede. There can be no good ground for supposing
that Augustine had anything to do with the massacre. See Collier,
i, 180, sq, ^ Palgrave, Hist, of England, i, 61.

32 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN KENT, etc. [chap. ir.
concert with Ethelbert, to build on these sites two great
Christian churches ; the one in the city to be dedicated to
St Paul, the other at Thorney to St. Peter.' For this pro
mising field of mission labour one of the band of Eoman
missionaries, Mellitus, was set apart by Augustine, and
consecrated the first bishop of London. At the same time,
for further help in his own nearer neighbourhood, another
bishop was consecrated for a portion of the county of
Kent. The place chosen for his See was the town of Eof,
the Englishman, where King Ethelbert built a church in
honour of St. Andrew, and endowed it with many gifts.'
This church was entrusted to Justus, consecrated by
Augustine the first bishop of Eochester.
15. One other important act was done by Augustine
before his earthly work was completed. Fearing " lest
upon his death the state of the Church, as yet unsettled,
might begin to falter if it should be destitute of a pastor
even for an hour," he consecrated Laurentius to be
his successor at Canterbury.^ After this the prelate who
had been instrumental in performing so great a work, and
who, in spite of probable imperfections and mistakes, had
performed it so admirably, died May 26, 604, and was
buried near to the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which
was fast rising through the zeal of Ethelbert. As soon as
the building was in a sufficiently advanced state to be
dedicated, the body of the first Archbishop of Canterbury
was brought within it and buried in the north porch.*
' The ancient condition of the city of Westminster is thus described
by Sir F. Palgrave : "On the western side of the city, and at the dis
tance of nearly two miles, a small river which fell into the Thames
formed an island so overgrown with tliickets and brushwood, that the
Saxons called it Thorney, or the Isle of Thorns. The river surrounding
Thorney crept sullenly along the plashy soU, and the spot was so
wild and desolate that it is described as a fearful and terrible place,
which no one could approach after nightfall, without great danger." —
Hist, of England, i. 62.
2 Bede, ii. 3. The grants of Ethelbert were recognised by the
Witan or Parliament, and specially protected, which is the first re
cognition of Christianity in England by law. ^ lb. ii. 4.
* In 613, under the episcopate of Laurentius.— Thomas de Elmham
(ed. Hardwicke), p. 132.

596-604.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

33

Upon his tomb was inscribed the epitaph, " Here rests the
Iiord Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, who being
formerly sent hither by the blessed Gregory, Bishop of the
city of Eome, and by God's assistance supported with
miracles, reduced King Ethelbert a,nd his nation from the
worship of idols to the faith of Christ, and having ended
the days of his office in peace, died the 7th day of the
kalends of June, in the reign of the same king."^
1 Bede, ii. 3.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE VENERABLE BEDE.
The historian ou whom we de
pend for all the earlier portion of
English Church history was a very
remarkable person. He was a native
of Bernicia, the northern province of
Northumbria, and was born in a
village which afterwards belonged to
the two monasteries of St. Peter and
St. Paul at Wearmouth and Jarrow.
The time of his birth was about 673.
He was committed in his early youth
to the abbot Benedict to be in
structed, and began his education
in the House of Wearmouth. The
abbot was a man singularly learned
for his age, and Bede took every
advantage of his instructions; He
then passed to the House of Jarrow,
under the abbot Ceolfrid, also a
traveller and a learned man. About
the nineteenth year of his age, he
was ordained deacon by John of
Beverley, Bishop of Hexham, and
at the age of thirty, priest by the
same bishop. Bede now began to
put to a practical use the studies in
which he had been long engaged.
He wrote on history, astrology,
orthography, rhetoric, and poetry ;
and at the request of Ceolwulph,
king of Northumbria, he wrote his
Ecclesiastical History, an invaluable
treasure, as without it we should be
absolutely ignorant as to the begin

nings of the Chiirch among the Anglo-
Saxons. Of still greater value was
the translation which he made into
his native English of parts of the
New Testament, and his comments
upon them. The story of his death,
just after the conclusion of the trans
lation of the Gospel of St. John,
is well known. The Ecclesiastical
History, which contrasts wonder
fully with other similar works of
the same period, was translated into
English by King Alfred, and may be
thoroughly relied upon where the
matters which it relates fell within
the cognisance of the writer. He
died in 735. "It is impossible,"
says Professor Stubbs, " to read the
more popular writings of Bede,
especially the Ecclesiastical History,
without seeing that the great know
ledge of the scholar was coupled
with the humility and simplicity of
the purest type of monasticism.
Employed on a theme which, iu the
prevaihngbelief of miraculous stories,
could scarcely be treated of without
incurring the charge of superstition,
he is eminently truthful. The
wonders that he relates on his own
account are easily referred to very
conceivable natural causes, and
scarcely iu any case is a reputed
miracle recounted without an autho
rity."— Dr. Smith's Dictionary of
Christian Biography, Art. "Beda."

D

34 THE PLANTING OF THE [chap. hi.

CHAPTER IIL
THE PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA.
604-655.
1. Laurentius, second Archbishop, endeavours to conciliate the British,
Scotch, aud Irish. 2. Mellitus, bishop of London, attends a Roman
Synod. 3. Mellitus and Justus retire to France. 4. The vision of
Laurentius and the conversion of Eadbald. 5. Mellitus Archbishop.
6. Paulinus goes to Northumbria. 7. The hesitation of Eadwin is
overcome. 8. The heathen worship overthrown in Northumbria.
9. General conversion of the Northumbrians. 1 0. Success of Paulinus in
Lindsey. 11, He consecrates Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury at
Lincoln. 12. The overthrow ofthe Northumbrian Church. 13. Victory
of Oswald, and restoration of the Faith of Christ In Northumbria.
14. St. Aidan and Oswald. 15. Final overthrow of Paganism in the
North of England.
1. The zeal and vigour which had been conspicuous in
Augustine were no less remarkable, in his successor
Laurentius. The first important act of his primacy seems
to have been a renewed attempt to bring the British and
Scotch^ bishops into conformity with the Church over which
be presided. With this view he sent synodical letters in
the names of himself, Mellitus, and Justus, to the British,
Scotch, and Irish bishops, to the following effect : " To our
most dear brothers the lords bishops or abbots throughout
all Scotland, Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus, servants of
the servants of God. When the Apostolic See, according
to the universal custom which it has followed elsewhere,
1 The Church of the Scots and Picts having received the Faith from
St. Ninian and British missionaries, naturally followed the traditions
of the British Church. The Irish Church, in like manner, had been
founded by Patrick, a Briton, and had in turn sent missionaries (as
St. Columba) to Scotland. All these Churches were therefore agreed
in holding peculiar customs as to Easter, baptism, the tonsure. The
term Universa Scotia includes Ireland.

604-655.] CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. 35
sent us to these western parts to preach to pagan nations,
we came into this island which is called Britain without
having any previous knowledge of its inhabitants. We
held both the Britons and Scots in great esteem for
sanctity, believing that they had proceeded according to
the custom of the universal Church ; but coming acquainted
with the errors of the Britons, we thought the Scots had
been better, until we were informed by Bishop Dagan,
coming into this aforesaid island, and the Abbot Colum-
banus in France, that the Scots in no way differ from the
Britons in their behaviour ; for Bishop Dagan, coming to
us, not only refused to eat with us, but even to take his
repast in the same house wherein we were entertained.'"
Another letter was also addressed by the same bishops to
the priests among these nations. Neither of the epistles
appears to have had any success.
2. It was natural that a close intercourse should be
kept up by those who had come forth from Eome with
their mother Church. Hence we find Mellitus, Bishop of
London, present at a Synod in Eome, in 610, and taking
part in the proceedings. On the conclusion of the Synod,
he brought back with him to England copies of the decrees
and letters from the Pope (Boniface IV.) to Laurentius and
Ethelbert.2 3. All went well with the newly-planted Church in
England, until the death of Ethelbert, king of Kent, who
finished a reign of 56 years on February 21, 616. His
queen. Bertha, had died previously. Ethelbert had been a
staunch defender and a munificent supporter of the Church ;
but his successor, Eadbald, refused to adopt the Christian
faith, and scandalised all good Christians in his dominions
by marrying his father's widow. Shortly after Ethelbert
died his nephew, Sebert, king of the East Saxons, whose
sons in like manner were pagans. There was now no Chris
tian prince left in England, and the Church was in sore dan
ger. Mellitus was first expelled out of London, and coming
to confer with his fellow bishops in Kent, it was determined
that both he and Justus should retire to France, whither
Laurentius, the primate, designed soon to follow them.
^ Bede, ii. 4. ^ lb., u.s.

36 THE PLANTING OF THE [chap. hi.
4. On the last night of his intended sojourn in Eng
land, Laurentius caused his bed to be laid within the
Church of St. Peter and Paul. Perhaps still uncertain as
to his line of duty, he expected and desired some revelation
of the Divine will, by way of a vision. If so, his desire
was not disappointed, for it seemed to him in his sleep as
if St. Peter appeared to him, and severely scourged him
for meditating this desertion of his post. It is probable
that through this vivid dream the bishop perceived a
method of influencing the king, and that he either himself
inflicted, or caused some one to inflict, stripes upon him,
the marks of which he might show to the king.' Upon
seeing the scars, Eadbald was much astonished, and asked
who had ventured thus to assault so great a man. Lau
rentius replied that the stripes were inflicted by the great
Apostle of Christ. Struck with amazement, the king de
termined to abjure idols, abandon his incestuous marriage,
and to be baptized. He became a zealous promoter of
Christianity; recalled Mellitus and Justus; and carried on
with vigour the church-building which had been begun by
Ethelbert. 2
5. In the year 619 died Laurentius, the second Arch
bishop of Canterbury, and was succeeded by Mellitus, who
had been unable to induce the East Saxons to allow him to
return to his See of London. Justus had been allowed by
the now Christian king Eadbald to return to Eochester.
Of the primacy of Mellitus, the only thing recorded by
Bede is the sudden stoppage of a conflagration which
threatened to destroy the whole city of Canterbury, by the
efficacy, as it was thought, of his prayer. He died in the
year 624, and was buried, like his predecessors, in the
church of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul.
6. Mellitus was succeeded by Justus, who left his See
of Eochester for the more important post of Canterbury.
His primacy was destined to witness a large extension of
1 Perhaps a more probable explanation is that some Christian monk
or priest personated St. Peter, and actually scourged the Archbishop.
2 Bede, ii. 6. He built the church of St. Mary in Canterbury,
afterwards annexed to the Abbey Church, and known as the Church
in Cryptic, — Thomas de Elmham, p. 144.

604-655.] CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. 37
the Church in England. Pope Boniface sent to Justus the
pall with his license to consecrate bishops, and acting on
this he consecrated Eomanus to succeed him in the See of
Rochester.' More important events soon followed. Eadwin,
king of the Northumbrian Angles, had now risen into the
position of Bretwalda, by his victories over the Britons,
and his conquest of the Mevanian Islands.' Desirous to
strengthen his rising power by alliances, he had demanded
of Eadbald, king of Kent, the hand of his sister Ethelburga,
but had been answered : " It is not lawful to marry a
Christian virgin to a pagan husband ; but the faith and
mysteries of the heavenly King should be profaned by her
cohabiting with a king that was altogether a stranger to
the worship of the true God." " Eadwin, on receiving this
answer, offered to guarantee to his bride the fullest
freedom for her worship, and to allow her to bring any
Christian companions with her. He held out also a hope
of his embracing the Christian religion himself. Upon this
Paulinus, one of the second band of Eoman missionaries,
who had been labouring for twenty-four years as a priest
in Kent, was consecrated bishop, and sent to accompany
Ethelburga to her northern home (July 625). He made
but little progress untd, on the night before Easter Sunday
(626), King Eadwin was wondrously saved from the dagger
of an assassin by the devotion of his minister Lilla, who
received the blow in his own body ; and on the same night
Queen Ethelburga was safely delivered of a daughter. Ead-
vidn's heart was softened towards Paulinus,' to whose prayers
he attributed the safe dehverance of the queen, and he
vowed that, if he returned safe and victorious from his
wars with the West Saxons, he would cast off idols and
serve Christ. Meantime he gave his infant daughter to
the bishop for baptism, and twelve of his household were
also baptized.
7. But the king himself, though crowned with victory,
still hesitated about baptism, though he had abjured his
idols. "He was a man," says Bede, "of extraordinary
sagacity ; and he sat alone by himself a long time silent as
to his tongue, but deliberating in his heart how he should
^ Bede, ii. 8. '' i.e. Anglesea and Man. •* Bede, ii. 9.

38 THE PLANTING OF THE [chap. hi.
proceed, and which religion he should adhere to." ' Letters
addressed to him by the Pope (Boniface V), pointing out
to him the vanity of the heathen rites had failed to deter
mine his decision. The entreaties of his young wife
Ethelburga equaUy fell short of persuading him. It was
then that Paulinus, becoming acquainted with a strange
passage in the king's early life,'' was able to bring an
effective influence to bear upon him. For Eadwin, in his
early days, when in exile in the kingdom of Eedwald, king
of the East Angles, and in utter despair of escaping from
the cruelty of Ethelfrid, king of Northumbria, had seen in
a vision an aged man, who assured him of future safety,
and placing his hand upon his head, had bidden him to
remember that sign. Soon after this Eedwald defeated
Ethelfrid, and slew him, and Eadwin was raised to the
throne of Northumbria. Paulinus, becoming acquainted
with this, came to the king in one of his periods of solitary
meditation, and, placing his hand upon his head, asked
him if he " remembered that sign." Eadwin, struck with
amazement, fell down at the bishop's feet. Paulinus raised
him up, and bade him no longer delay that which he was
doubting about, but receive the faith, and save his soul.'
8. But King Eadwin would not cast off the faith of his
forefathers without solemn conference with his principal
friends and counsellors. At York, the chief men of the
nation met to deliberate. Coifi, the high priest of the
faith of Woden and Thor, took the lead in declaring that he
had become persuaded that the gods whom he served were
worthless, for they did nothing more for him than for
others, though he expended so much pains upon them.
Another of the king's chief men illustrated the pitiable
ignorance of man as to his after destiny by the beautiful
apologue of a bird flying out of the dark cold night into
the light and warmth of a banqueting room, and passing
swiftly through into the outside darkness once more. So
dark, he said, was man's mind, both as to what he was be-
^ Bede, u.s.
^ Bede's words are : " As we may suppose, it was shown him in
spirit. " It is probable that the king had not been entirely silent as to
this vision, and Paulinus may have heard of it fi'om the relation of
others. 3 Bede, ii. 12.

604-655.] CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. 39
fore, and what he will be after the short brightness of life.
Then Paulinus took the word, and spoke of the glories of
the world to come. Coifi, the priest, declared that if the
rehgion of the Christians could give these, it was indeed
worth accepting. " Let us up," he said, " 0 king, and
destroy the images and temples of these worthless gods."
" But who," said the king, " will venture to commence the
work 1 " " Who can do this so fitly as myself," said Coifi,
"who have served them more than other men?" So,
mounted on a stallion, girt with a sword, and with a spear
. in his hand,' the chief priest of the heathen rites made
assault upon the famous temple of Godmundigham. The
spear was cast against it, the gods publicly insulted, and no
vengeance lighted upon the daring priest. Then the people,
gathering courage, rushed in a tumultuous band upon the
temples and idols of the heathen gods, overthrew and de
stroyed them ; and thus was Northumbria purged of the
worship of the false gods.^
9. King Eadwin, with all the nobility of the nation, and
a large number of the common sort, received the faith and
the washing of regeneration at Easter-eve (April 11, 627).
They were baptized at York in a little wooden church,
which had been hastily erected and dedicated to St. Peter
the Apostle,^ the first germ of the glorious pile of York
Minster. A nobler church of stone was immediately
begun, intended to enclose the little wooden baptistery ;
and here, in his capital city, in imitation of what had been
done in Kent, King Eadwin fixed the See of his instructor,
Paulinus, who thus became the first Archbishop of York.
King Eadwin's sons by a former marriage, Orfrid and
Eadfrid, were baptized, as were all his children by Ethel
burga ; and " so great was the fervour of the faith, and the
desire of the washing of salvation among the nation of the
Northumbrians, that Paulinus, at a certain time, coming
with the king and queen to the royal country-seat, which
is called Adgelsin, stayed there with them thirty-six days,
1 " It was not lawful for the high priest either to carry arms, or to
ride on any but a mare." — Bede, ii. 13. " Bede, ii. 13.
* Nennius {Hist, Brit, ) says that 12, 000 people were baptized on the
the same day as Eadwin.

40 THE PLANTING OF THE [chap. hi.
fully occupied in catechising and baptizing ; during which
days, from morning to night, he did nothing else but
instruct the people, resorting from all villages and places,
in Christ's saving Word ; and when instructed, he washed
them with the water of absolution in the river Glen, which
is close by."i This was in the northern part of the king
dom of Eadwin (Bernicia) ; but in the southern part (Deira)
the work 'Went on with equal success. Great numbers
were baptized in the river Swale, which runs by the
village Cataract ; and on the plain of the Don a church
was built, which was afterwards burnt in the unhappy
wars with the infidels.^
10. But the labours of the great missionary Pauhnus
were not confined to the kingdom of the Northumbrians.
He crossed the Humber, and made his way into Mercia,
preaching the gospel with great success in the district of
Lindissa, or Lindsey. Advancing southwards to the Eoman
town of Lindum-Colonia, he converted to the faith Blecca,
the ealdorman, and all his household; and not far from the
famous Eoman arch of Trajan, and close under the Eoman
enclosure of the camp or castle, he built a little stone
church of noble workmanship, which was afterwards made
famous as the place of consecration of the fifth Archbishop
of Canterbury.^ The ministrations of Paulinus in Lindsey
were not confined to Lincoln. Leaving the neighbourhood
of the Witham, he proceeded to the grandly -fiowing Trent,
and there, at a place called by Bede Tiovulfingacestir,
which has been identified as the modern Torksey, and is
about the nearest point of the Trent to Lincoln, were
baptized, in the presence of King Eadwin, a vast number
of people by Paulinus, assisted by James the deacon.
Thus was the Church first planted in Mercia.*
1 Bede, iii. 14. The village of Yevering, under the Cheviots.
' ' An other place in the same district preserves the tradition of a similar
visit in its name of Pallinsburn. " Bright, p. 120.
' The village is Catterick or Catterick-Bridge. The place of the
Church perhaps, Almonbury, i,e, Albansbury, the town of St. Alban,
to whom the church was dedicated. According to others, Doncaster.
3 This church still survives under the name of St. Paul's. The
Norman castle is built over much ancient Roman work.
* Bede, ii. 16, Paulinus is described by Bede as "tall of stature.

604-655.] CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. 41
11. It was while Paulinus was thus employed that
Archbishop Justus died, and the clergy of Canterbury
having chosen Honorius to be his successor, he came to
Paulinus at Lincoln, and was there consecrated by him, in
the stone church which Paulinus had raised, fifth Arch
bishop of Canterbury (627). To both these prelates, one
of whom was destined to preside over the Northern, the
other over the Southern province, the Bishop of Eome,
Honorius, sent palls. These were accompanied by en
couraging letters addressed to Eadwin, and a letter to
Honorius, directing that when either of the two Metro
politans deceased, the survivor should consecrate a successor
without waiting to apply to Eome. The difficulty which
stood in the way of appointing a Bishop of London had thus
caused Gregory's original arrangement to be abandoned.
Canterbury, was to be definitely accepted in place of
London, but York and Canterbury seem to be still placed
on the same footing, the senior of them to be the Primate.^
12. But now a terrible calamity overtook the Church
planted in northern England. For six years King Eadwin
had zealously forwarded the work of spreading the gospel,
and great advances had been made, both in his own
dominions, and in those of his neighbours. Probably
Penda, the tributary king of Mercia, foresaw that if Chris
tianity spread among his subjects, his power would soon
vanish, for he was resolutely attached to heathenism.
Joining, therefore, with Cadwallader, king of the Western
Britons, he led his forces against King Eadwin, and
defeated him with great slaughter at Hatfield (633).
Eadwin was killed, and all his army was dispersed, and
the Northumbrian and Mercian Christians were given over
to the savage violence of the heathen conqueror and his
not less ferocious Christian ally ; for, says Bede, " The
Britons to this day pay no respect to the faith and religion
of the English, nor correspond with them any more than
with Pagans."^ Thus the Church, which had scarcely
a little stooping, his hair black, his visage meagre, his nose slender
and aquiline, his aspect both venerable and majestio."
1 Bede, ii. 17, 18. ^ lb., ii. 20.

42 THE PLANTING OF THE [chap. hi.
taken root, was completely overthrown in Northumbria.
The queen, Ethelburga, attended by Paulinus, escaped
by sea into Kent, and some of the rich church furniture,
given by the zeal of Eadwin, was conveyed to Canterbury.
But the work of Paulinus seemed to be hopelessly ruined.
He, himself, reaching Kent, found an asylum in the church
of Eochester, whose bishop, Eomanus, had been drowned.^
The See was committed to him by Honorius and Eadbald,
and here he continued to labour till his death (643).^
1 3. At York, Paulinus had left in charge James the
deacon, who laboured assiduously to prevent the extinction
of the faith. The village of Akeburg bears witness by its
name to his presence and work there. Yet, for a short
space, all was dark and apparently hopeless for the
Christian cause in Northumbria. The banished son and
nephew of Ethelfrid succeeded to the rule, — one of Bernicia,
the other of Deira ; and, though both of them had pro
fessed Christianity while in exile among the Scots, both
renounced it on their accession to power. But the war
with Cadwallader, the British king, not being terminated
by the death of Eadwin, both the renegades, Osric and
Eanfrid, were slain by this fierce warrior, who oppressed
Northumbria for a year. Then Oswald, brother of Eanfrid,
and son of Ethelfrid, rallied the Chiistians of Northumbria,
and, attacking the British king with a very small force,
overthrew and slew him at Dilston (634).^ Oswald had
raised the sign of the Holy Cross before engaging, and had
joined with his soldiers in prayers to Heaven ; for which
cause the place was afterwards called " the Heavenly Field,"
and many miracles are said to have been done there ; and
before that time there was "no sign of the Christian faith,
no Church, no altar, throughout all the nation of the
Bernicians."* 14. Oswald united the claims of both Osric and Eanfrid,
and reigned over the two provinces of Northumbria. He
had learned Christianity when in exile in Scotland from
the disciples of St. Columba, the Irish missionary, who
had established a rehgious centre at the little island of
1 Thomas de Elmham, p. 173. => Bede, u.s.
^ lb., iii. 1. * n., iii. 2.

604-655.] CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. 43
Hy or lona.^ Consequently, when he desired to restore
the faith in his kingdom, he did not send for Paulinus, but
sought teachers from the place which he had learned
specially to revere. They sent to him Bishop Aidan, " a
man of singular meekness, piety, and moderation, zealous
in the cause of God,"^ although he did hold that Easter
Sunday might fall on the fourteenth of the month, and
differ from the Eoman use as to the tonsure and the use of
the chrism in baptism. To him the king assigned, as an abode
and See, not the church of York, which Eadwin had begun,
but the quasi-island of Lindisfarne, where he built a
religious house. He seconded Aidan's work with the
greatest zeal, and it " was delightful to see," says Bede,
"the king himself interpreting the Word of God to his
commanders and ministers, for he had perfectly learned the
language of the Scots during his long banishment."'
Under the fostering care of Oswald, the Church rapidly
grew in Northumbria. The teachers who came from
Scotland practised the regular discipline, and lived in com
munity. Money and lands were freely given by the king
to found monasteries, and the zeal and devotion of Aidan
inspired all around him.
15. But in the ninth year of his reign King Oswald
was overthrown and slain at Maserfield by the same ruthless
Pagan chieftain, Penda, the king of the Mercians, who had
slain King Eadwin (642). He was succeeded by Oswy,
his brother, who continued to uphold the Church, but not
with the same pure devotion as Oswald had done, for he
cruelly put to death Oswin, of the race of Eadwin, who had
obtained the government of Deira, and was distinguished
for his devotion and humility.* Twelve days after Oswin,
whom he greatly loved. Bishop Aidan himself was taken to
his rest. King Oswy, being driven to desperation by the
exactions of Penda, king of the Mercians, determined to
engage him, though but with a small army. Before the
^ For an account of St. Columba see Notes and Illustrations.
^ Bede, iiL 3. It is well to observe that Bede, although he holds the
British customs to be such great enormities, nevertheless does not
stint his praise for true British saints such as was St. Aidan.
3 lb., iii. 3. * lb., iii. 14.

44 THE CHURCH IN NORTHUMBRIA. [chap. hi.
battle he vowed his infant daughter to a religious life if he
should be successful. He completely triumphed over the
pagan forces at Wingfield (655), and having "cut off the
wicked king's head, converted the Mercians and the adja
cent provinces to the grace of the Christian faith." ^ Thus
the Christian faith was again firmly planted in Northum
bria. " The battle of Wingfield," says Mr. Freeman, " is
a name which is obscure as it now stands, but it marks an
important turning-point in the history of our island. The
strife between the creeds of Christ and Woden was there
finally decided ; the Mercians embraced the religion of
their neighbours, and Northumberland again became the
leading power of Britain." ^ It will now be necessary to
revert to other of the Teutonic kingdoms, and to see how
the Church took root in them also.
' Bede, iii. 24. There is a curious confusion in Bede's statements
as to King Penda. In c. 21 he represents him as not opposed to the
Christian religion, though himself a pagan, and as allowing his son to
marry a Christian princess. In c. 24 he is described as a ferocious
pagan, who was bent ou exterminating the Northumbrians, and his
death is said to be the means of opening Mercia to the faith.
' Norman Conquest, i. 37.

604-655.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

45

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

ST. COLUMBA.
In the case of all the earlier apos
tles of Christianity we have to con
tend with legend and manifest exag
geration in trying to obtain a know
ledge of their true history. Columba
is said to have been born at Gartan, in
Donegal, about the year 521. He be
longed to a chieftain's family, and
was able to found several monas
teries. His clan being involved in
a quarrel with King Diarmaid, on
account of an insult offered to him,
Columba, penitent for the blood shed
on his account, determined to go on
a Christian mission to Scotland. In
563 he embarked iu an open boat
covered with skins, and on Whit
sunday eve landed on a little island
known by the name of Hy (Island),
and afterwards softened into lona.
Columba obtained a grant of this
island from the chief of Argyleshire,
who was of Irish blood, and pro
ceeded to erect a monastery there,
the buildings being of the simplest
description. The first monks were
all Irish, but British and even
Saxons came to jotu them. Columba
was remarkable for his assiduous
study of Holy Scripture, and the
monks were employed in learning
the Psalter by heart and trans
cribing the lives of saints. They
were also diligently engaged in out-
of-door occupations needed for their
support. The settlement, chiefiy
owing to the great qualities of its
head, became immensely popular,
and speedily sent off offshoots into
the neighbouriug district. Columba

himself went on a mission to the
Picts, and carried the gospel to the
Orkneys and Hebrides. He visited
Ireland, and took a leading part in
a council held there, and then re
turned to his Scotch home. A con
tinued progress in influence and use
fulness attended his work. He
caused larger and stronger boats to
be constructed, aud was constantly
employed in visiting, supervising,
and dh'eeting the many monasteries
among the islands and on the coast
in the west of Scotland which he had
founded. At length, at a great age,
on the morning of Sunday, June 9,
A.D. 597, this holy and most success
ful pioneer of Christianity departed
to his rest. "On the Saturday
afternoon he was transcribing the
thirty-fourth Psalm (Ps. xxxiii. B.
V. ), and coming to the verse, ' They
who seek the Lord shall want no
manner of thing that is good,' he
said, ' Here I must stop, at the
end of this page ; what follows let
Baithen write.' He then left his
cell to attend Vespers, and return
ing at the close, lay down on his
couch of stone and gave his last
injunctions to Baithen, till the bell
at midnight called them to the noc
turnal ofiice. St. Columba was the
first to enter the ortitory, and when
the brethren followed with lights,
they found the saint prostrate before
the altar, and he soon passed away
with a sweet smile on his face, as
though he had merely fallen into a
gentle sleep." — Dr. Smith's Dic
tionary of Christian Biography,
Article "Columba."

46 PLANTING OP THE CHURCH IN [chap. iv.

CHAPTER IV.
PLANTING OF THE CHUBCH IN THE OTHER ENOIilSH
KINGDOMS  THE CONFERENCE AT WHITBY.
632-664.
1. Conversion of the East Angles. 2. Conversion of the West Saxons.
3. The See transferred to Winchester. 4, Leutherius made Bishop
of the West Saxons. 5. Establishment of the Church in Mercia. 6.
Chad, Bishop of Lichfield. 7. Cedd reconverts the Bast Saxons —
becomes second bishop of London. 8. Which parts of the land
were converted from Roman, and which from British sources. 9.
The two Uses must needs collide. 10. Their Collision in North
umbria. 11. The Conference at Whitby. 12. Bflfects of the Whitby
Conference.
1. Five years after the baptism of Eadwin, king of Northum
bria, was baptized Eorpwald, king of the East Angles ' (632).
His father Eedwald, who had entertained Eadwin of North
umbria during his banishment, had been baptized formerly
in Kent ; but either mistaking Augustine's ruling as to the
heathen temples and worship, or still adhering in his heart
to his old faith,'' had endeavoured to unite in the same
church the worship of Christ and the false gods. His son
Eorpwald was more thorough-going in his acceptance of the
truth, but very soon after his conversion he was slain. Then
after three years of anarchy, Sigbercht, brother to Eorp
wald, obtained the rule of East Angha, and being a " most
Christian and learned man," applied himself earnestly to the
1 A.-S. Chronicle ; but other authorities place the conversion of
Eorpwald in 627 or 628. See Smith on Bede, ii. 15.
2 Bede says, " Seduced by his wife and certain false teachers." It
is evident, however, that Redwald did not completely apostatise from
Christianity, but made an attempt at combination. This may have
proceeded from the views set forth by Gregory as to the heathen
temples.

632-664.] THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 47
planting of the Church there. Sigbercht had, during a
period of banishment, lived in France, and there had be
come fully instructed in the Christian faith. It was natural
for him, when he reached power, to seek instruction for his
people in the same quarter where he himself had found it.
Accordingly, Felix, a Burgundian bishop, was, with the
consent of the primate Honorius, appointed to superintend
the missionary work among the East Angles. His success
was great. His See was established in- the city of Dunwich,
in Suffolk, which was thus the original of that which many
centuries afterwards became the See of Norwich.'
2. A more important conversion than even that of East
Anglia, inasmuch as the tribe was more aggressive and
played a greater part in the subsequent history of the land,
was that of the West Saxons, or the kingdom of Wessex.
Wessex occupied a large and fertile part of the south of
England, having access both to the Southern Sea and to
the estuary of the Severn, but during its earlier days it
was not able to cope with the power of the northern
princes. Five of its kings fell in battle against Eadwin,
and Penda, the heathen king of Mercia, took away a large
district from it.'' The gospel was first preached to the
West Saxons by Birinus, a missionary from Eome, who
undertook to Pope Honorius to sow the seed of the holy
faith where no other teacher had been before him. He
received episcopal consecration from Asterius, bishop of
Genoa, and started on his mission. He found the West
Saxons utterly heathen, and commenced his work among
them (634). The king himself, Cynegilsus, was disposed
to receive the faith, perhaps from the knowledge of the fact
that the most powerful princes of the land had already
1 Bede, ii. 16. Herbert of Losinga, in the time of William Rufus,
moved the See, then at Thetford, to Norwich, and built the cathedral.
Before that time Dunwioh had been united to Elmham, the other East
Anglian See, and the bishop of the East Angles was Bishop of Elmham.
This was Stigand's title in the time of Edward the Confessor. Then
followed the movement of the See to Thetford, six years after the Con
quest, and soon afterwards to Norwich. Dunwioh has long since dis
appeared beneath the sea. See Thomas de Elmham, p. 167.
^ Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 36.

48 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN [chap. iv.
become Christian. He was also without doubt infiuenced
by Oswald, the Bretwalda, king of the Northumbrians, who
was then in his territories seeking his daughter in marriage.
He was baptized in the presence of Oswald, and the people,
as they universally did, following in great numbers the
example of their king, Birinus was able to see speedy fruit
of his labours (635). Cynegilsus, with the consent of
Oswald, gave him the city of Dorchester in which to estab
lish his See, and here he built a church and ended his
days.' 3. In the year 643 (or 642^) Coinwalch or Kenwealh
succeeded to the kingdom of the West Saxons. He soon
began to .take steps for abandoning Dorchester, probably
as being too near the borders of the Mercian kingdom, and
for transferring the See to Winchester,^ where a church
and monastery were built and hallowed in the name of St.
Peter.* In the year 650, Birinus being dead, Agilbert, a
Frenchman, succeeded him as bishop of Dorchester, with
the charge of the whole of the West Saxons. King Ken
wealh, " grown weary of this bishop's barbarous tongue," °
brought another bishop into his dominions, Wini, a Saxon
by birth, and desired to divide his territory between them.
At this Agilbert took offence and returned into France, and
Wini was made the first bishop of Winchester, the country
being divided between that See and Sherborne.
4. It does not indeed appear that a bishop of Sherborne
was appointed at this time, for Bede says that Wini being
soon afterwards expelled from his bishopric," took refuge
with Wulfere, king of the Mercians, and thus the province
of the West Saxons continued no small time without a
bishop. During this period King Kenwealh suffered many
defeats, and his conscience suggested to him that perhaps
his misfortunes were due to his neglect of the spiritual
1 Bede, iii. 71. A.-S. Chron. = ^.g, chrou.
3 Kenwealh was involved in war with Penda, king of the Mercians,
and driven into exile by him. Bede says that it was in his exile
among the East Angles that he became a Christian. ^ A.-S. Chron.
^ Bede. The Winchester Annals speak of Agilbert as flying away
because of the king's resolve to transfer the See to Winchester. — Ann.
Monast, ii. 4. ^ He held the bishopric three years. — A.-S. Chron,

632-664.] THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 49
interests of his kingdom. Accordingly, he sent messages
to Agilbert in France, desiring him to return. Agilbert
declined to do this, having become bishop of Paris, but he
sent in his stead Leutherius, his nephew, whom he declared
to be worthy of a bishopric. The king and people received
him honourably ; and at their request, 'Theodore, then
Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated him bishop. For
many years he zealously administered the whole bishopric
of the West Saxons.'
6. From the settlement of the Church among the East
Anglians and West Saxons we pass to its commencement
in the powerful kingdom of Mercia, The work of Paulinus
in converting the Mercians, or at least the people of Lindsey,
during the time of Eadwin,^ has been already spoken of.
The power and violence of the heathen king Penda pro
bably soon effaced the work of Paulinus, and up to the
year 652 Mercia remained almost entirely heathen. In
that year," or the following, Peada, the son of Penda,
having been made by his father chief or ealdorman of the
Mid-Angles, desired of Oswy, king of Northumbria, the
gift of his daughter Alhfleda. But he could not obtain his
desire unless he would " embrace the faith of Christ and be
baptized with the nation which he governed." * He con
sented to be instructed, and was baptized by St. Finan.
He then returned to Mid-Anglia with his bride and with
four priests — Cedda,Adda,Betti, and Diuma — who preached
the gospel in Mercia, and were willingly listened to. King
Penda himself did not oppose the preaching of the Word in
Mercia, but was only particularly severe on those who did
not live up to their Christian profession. But Penda was
soon involved in war with Oswy, king of Northumbria,
and at the battle of Wingfield (665) was slain, so that now
there was nothing to hinder the establishment of the
Church in Mercia.
6. Diuma, one of the priests who had come with Peada
from Northumbria, was made bishop of the Lindisfaras and
^ Bede, iii. 7. The A.-S. Chron. says that he succeeded to the See
670, and held it seven years. He probably resided at Dorchester, as
he is not mentioned by the Winchester Annalist.
= Between 627 and 633. ' A.-S. Chron. * Bede, iii. 21.
E

50 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN [chap. iv.
Mid-Angles. His See probably had no fixed headquarters.
He was rather in the position of a missionary bishop. To
Diuma, who died at Eepton, succeeded Cellah, who quitted
his Episcopal office and retired to Scotland. To Cellah
succeeded Trumhere, an Enghsh abbot; to Trumhere,
Jaruman ; and to Jaruman, Ceadda. Ceadda was one of
four brothers who are mentioned by Bede as all having
entered the priesthood, and all laboured as missionaries.
One of them, probably the eldest, Cedda, was one of the
four priests who came with Peada. Of Ceadda (better
known as Chad) it will be necessary to speak again in
giving the history of Wilfrid. He was consecrated by
Wini, bishop of Winchester, and occupied the See of York
for three years. He then gave way to Wilfrid, and was
made bishop of Mercia, being reconsecrated on account of
a canonical defect by Archbishop Theodore (669), and
settled at Lichfield.'
7. In the meantime Cedd, the brother of Chad, had
done a great work in restoring the Church among the
East Saxons. After the happy commencement made by
Mellitus at the beginning of the century, under the patron
age of King Sebert, Christianity had, on the death of
Sebert, been completely overthrown in the kingdom of the
East Saxons. It was now reintroduced by the persuasion
and influence of Oswy, king of Northumbria. The East
Saxon king Sigebert was on friendly terms with the Bret
walda, and often came into Northumbria. Here Oswy
endeavoured to convince him that those could be no gods
which were made with hands ; that God is of incompre
hensible majesty and greatness. After many conversations
of this sort Sigebert consented to be baptized, and he and
his chief men were admitted into the Church by Bishop
Finan. Then Sigebert asked Oswy to give him some
teachers to instruct his people, and the Northumbrian
prince, knowing the value of Cedd, who was then employed
in ministering to the Mid -Angles, sent him and another
priest to instruct the people of Sigebert. After labouring
some time Cedd repaired to St. Finan, and by him was
' Bede, iv. 2, 3. He had been consecrated to a See not in reality
vacant, as Wilfrid was merely absent, but was rightly bishop.

632-664.] THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 51
consecrated bishop, thus becoming (after an interval of
forty years) the second bishop of London (654).
8. Thus, with the exception of the South Saxons, the
Church was planted in all the English Idngdoms, and in
the majority of cases not by the action of Eoman clergy,
but by missionaries deriving their commission from Scotch
or Irish — that is, from ancient British sources. The Scots
and Irish owed their conversion to British missionaries, and
thus repaid their obligations by converting the heathen
conquerors of that land. This will appear clearer if we
pass in review the special cases of each of the English
kingdoms. Northumbria, the most important during this
era, as being the seat of three successive Bretwaldas, though
originally converted partially by Paulinus the Eoman, yet
without doubt owed its complete conversion to the labours
of St. Aidan and St. Finan, who came from the Scoto-
British 'settlement of lona. From Northumbria East
Anglia received the gospel, and its conversion was due
partly to the Burgundian Felix, but probably more to the
Irish monk Fursey and his companions. The important
kingdom of Mercia, comprising all the central parts of the
country, received its entire Christian organisation from
Scoto-British sources. Among the East Saxons, Christianity,
first planted from a Eoman source, had been entirely wiped
out, but was restored by Cedda, the disciple of St. Finan.
There remains only Kent, which had been Christianised from
Eome, and the kingdom of the West Saxons, where the
Church had been planted by the Eoman missionary Birinus.
9. The differences between the form of Christianity
derived from Eome, and that derived from lona, were
mainly external, and cluefiy these three — viz. a difference
as to the computation of Easter ; a difference as to the
method of making the tonsure ; and a difference as to
the rites to be observed at baptism. The Eoman party
regarded their customs with reverence as being derived
from the centre of Western Christendom, and supported
by the consent of the Catholic Church. The British party
were no less fondly attached to their practices, as being
handed down to them, as they held, from primitive tradi
tion, and hallowed by the sufferings through which their

52 PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN [chap. iv.
Church had passed. It was evident that the two habits
of church life could not co-exist together in friendly
fashion; one or other must yield if there was to_ be
anything like unity in the rehgion of the various portions
of the island. The two forms or uses first met and
came into direct collision in the court of Oswy, king of
Northumbria. 10. Oswy had married a Kentish princess, Eanfleda,
who kept the Eoman use, while the king himself, who
had been taught by the Scotch clergy, was an observer of
their rules. Oswy's son, Alchfrid, had been instructed by
Wilfrid, a young man of great talent, who had studied at
Eome and at Lyons, and of course upheld the Eoman
methods. The controversies therefore which arose in the
royal family on these points were constant. Sometimes it
would happen that the king and the British priests were
celebrating Easter, while the Queen and the Eomans were
still keeping Lent. But while St. Aidan and St. Finan
lived, so great was the reverence which they inspired that
no change was attempted. When Finan died and Colman
came in his place to Lindisfarne, the Eoman party were
able to induce the king to order a solemn conference to be
held on the disputed points.
11. The place chosen for this was Strenaeshalch or
Whitby, where Hilda, a woman devoted to God, had
founded monastic houses for monks and nuns.' In the
year 664 assembled at Whitby King Oswy and his son
Alchfrid ; on the British side Colman the bishop with his
Scotch clerks, the abbess Hilda and her attendants, Cedd,
bishop of the East Saxons ; on the Eoman, Agilbert,
bishop of the West Saxons, the priests Agatho and
Wilfrid ; James, who had been deacon to Paulinus, and
Eomanus, the queen's chaplain. The two parties were
thus each well represented, but the discussion was confined
to Wilfrid on the Eoman side and Colman for the national
party. As to the time for the observance of Easter,
Colman declared that the keeping the festival on the four
teenth day of the month, was a tradition which had been
' For an account of Hilda and of Caedmon, the famous poetical monk
of Whitby, see Notes and Illustrations to this chapter.

632-664.] THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 53
handed down from St. John the Evangelist, and used
by all the churches in which he presided. Wilfrid urged
against this that the custom observed by St. John was in
deference to the Jewish Christians, as St. Paul had cir
cumcised Timothy ; but was not intended, any more than
circumcision, to be perpetual. But Peter, when he preached
at Eome, gave directions that Easter should always be
kept on the Sunday, and that that Sunday should be
chosen which fell first after the evening of the fourteenth
day. But, said Wilfrid, you do not follow the custom
of St. John, as you too always observe Easter on Sunday,
only you begin your calculation wrongly, making it pos
sible to fall upon the fourteenth, whereas the fourteenth
should be excluded. Then Colman alleged the practice
of Anatolius and St. Columba. Wilfrid denied that
Anatolius supported their view, and as to St. Columba,
though he may have been a good man, he acted in this
with "rustic simplicity," and his authority was not to
be compared to that of St. Peter, who kept the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. Upon hearing this King
Oswy exclaimed, " Is it true, 0 Colman, that St. Peter
keeps the keys 1 " Colman replied, " It is true, 0 king."
Then said the king, " I will not contradict him, lest when
I come to the gates of the kingdom he should refuse to
open." And so the controversy was deterniined in favour
of the Eoman use.^
12. It is said by Bede that besides the dispute about
Easter, " there was much controversy at Whitby about
the tonsure," and this too was determined to be after
the Eoman fashion, that is to say in a complete circle,
and not in the crescent shape adopted by the British
Churches. As to the other disputed point — the use of
the chrism in baptism — it is not said that any question
arose. The immediate effect of the conference was that
Colman retired to Scotland in disgust, and was succeeded
as bishop of Lindisfarne by Tuda, who had been educated
and ordained among the Southern Scots, the church
of St. Ninian, which observed the Eoman rites. Bishop
^ Bede, ui. 25. See for the Easter Controversy, Notes and Illus
trations to Chapter I. (B).

54

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

[chap. IV.

Cedd, on the contrary, submitted to the decision of the
Conference, abandoned the national customs, and accepted
those of Eome.i The ultimate effect of the meeting at
Whitby was to settle for the whole Church of England
a conformity to the Church of Eome, and thus to pave the
way for the work of the great prelate who was soon to
succeed, and whose mission it was to constitute the
churches of the various kingdoms into one great national
church — the Church of England.
' Bede, iii. 26. It should be observed that the decision arrived
at at Whitby was the act of an independent National Synod, and in
no way dictated or even influenced from Rome.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A) THE EARLY MONASTERIES
OF ENGLAND.
Houses for " common life,"
guided more or less by "rules,"
may be regarded as having been
an absolute necessity for the estab
lishment of Christianity among wild
/and imsettled races. Thus the
earlier Christianity, both of the
British aud English type, led to
the founding of monasteries. Of
the more famous British monasteries,
the oldest (according to WiUiam of
Malmesbury) was Glastonbury, the
traditions about which have been
mentioned (Chap. I.) The next most
famous was perhaps Bangor, in
North Wales. Bangor (high circle)
is a name belonging to several
monasteries (Bright, £.S. Ch. Hist,,
29). The North Welsh Bangor is
said to have numbered 2000 monks.
Some writers say that Pelagius was
a monk of this establishment. In
Northumbria, when Aidan came from
St. Columba's House of Hy, he
founded Lindisfarne (635). After

the battle of Wingfield (655), six
religious houses were founded in
Bernicia, six in Deira. Gilling, the
original of Tynemouth, was founded
in expiation of the murder of Oswin
(651). Hilda, who founded Whitby
in 657, had been previously abbess
of a small nunnery near Hartle
pool. At Medeshamstede (after
wards Peterboro') the first religious
house of central England was
founded (656). Of the earlier
religious houses springing from
Romano-English sources we must
of course put first the two Canter
bury monasteries, those of Christ
Church and St. Peter and St. Paul
(St. Augustiue's), which may be
assigned to the end of the sixth
century. Afterwards, as each king
dom and district received the gospel,
a religious house commenced its
existence at the central spot, the
See or Seat of the Bishop. Thus
Dorchester and Winchester began,
and Selsey was founded by Wilfrid,
who had already founded many
religious houses in the north. Of

chap. IV.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

55

religious houses which were not
Cathedral centres, one of the earliest
and most famous was Croyland,
among the Lincolnshire Pens, which
owed its origin to the hermit
Guthlac, about the end of the
seventh century, and Evesham,
founded by Bishop Egwin about
the same time. Bardney, in Lincoln
shire, was also a very early Mercian
house. The earlier monasteries
were governed by a much less
elaborate rule than that of St.
Benedict, which only slowly found
its way into England, and the rule
of one house differed in many ways
from that of another. See Article
" Monasteries," Dictionary of Chris
tian Antiquities.

(B) THE ABBESS HILDA.
HUda was the grand-niece of
King Eadwin, the firpt Christian king
of Northumbria. She was baptized
at York by Paulinus at the age of
thirteen, and desired to join her
sister Hereswid in a Prankish con
vent, but was recalled by the sum
mons of Bishop Aidan. She was
for one year a nun in a small cell
on the north of the Wear, then
abbess at Hartlepool, then foundress
and abbess of Whitby. She was
a woman of great power as well as
of great devotion. Her house con
sisted of monks as well as nuns,
living in separate establishments.
No less than five of her monks
reached the episcopal dignity. The
place chosen by her for her convent
was called Strenseshalch, the "bay
of the lighthouse. " It was founded
about 657, and at once attained a
high reputation for sanctity and
learning. Hilda died in 680, and
was succeeded at Whitby by the
princess - nun Elfled, who had
been devoted by her father Oswy
to the monastic life just after the
great victory of Wingfield.

(C) THE MONK CffiDMON.
Csedmon was a cow-herd attached
to Whitby monastery, noted for his
stupidity, and for not being able to
sing at the beer-parties of his com
rades. One night he had retired in
melancholy from a merry meeting,
and lay doivn in a cattle-shed, where
he had a dream that some one bade
him sing of the creation, and lines
seemed to be suggested to him in
his dream, which in the morniug he
was able to remember. On this
being told to the abbess Hilda, she
caused a portion of Scripture to be
read to him, and bade him turn
it into poetry. He did so. His
"gift" was admitted, and he be
came a monk. Many a poem did
he afterwards indite on sacred sub
jects. He was the first poetry-
writer in the English tongue, and
thus the "father" of English poetry.
"We are indebted to Bede for a
general description of Cajdmon's
poems. He put into verse, among
many other things, the books ot
Genesis and Exodus. In the New
Testament he sang the chief incidents
in our Lord's life, the descent of the
Holy Spirit, the teaching of the
Apostles. Ou the teiTors of the
coming judgment, the pains of hell,
and the blessedness of heaven, he
wrote numerous poems, and many
on the goodness aud visitations of
Providence. Bede gives us a trans
lated fragment of the poem that the
new-made poet sang to the mysteri
ous visitant who first awoke his
inspiration. King Alfred, in his
version of Bode, gives the words in
the vernacular, aud it is probable
that the king is quoting Ccedmon's
own words. These words have been
used as a test applied to othej
alleged poems of Caedmon, but the
genuineness of these is still doubt
ful."— See Article "Cfedmon" Dr.
Smith's Dictionary qf Christian
Biography.

56 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.

CHAPTER V.
PBIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE.
668-709.
1. Wighard sent to Rome for consecration as archbishop. 2. Wighard
dying, Theodore is consecrated in his stead. 3. Theodore visits the
English Church. 4. The Council of Hertford, 673. 5. Theodore's
absolute power. 6. Extirpation of the British "Uses." 7. Theo
dore divides the Northumbrian diocese. 8. The Mercian diocese
divided into five. 9. The Council of Hatfield. 10. Cuthbert made
Bishop of Lindisfarne. 11. Death and character of Theodore, 12.
Earlier work ot Wilfrid as bishop. 13. He appeals to Rome against
Ecfrid and Theodore. 14. The decision of Rome repudiated in
England — Wilfrid imprisoned. 15. Wilfrid converts the South
Saxons. 16. Replaced in York — again banished — Bishop of Leices
ter. 17. Synod of Easterfield — Wilfrid appeals to Rome. 18. Com
promise made at the Synod of the Nidd. 19. Wilfrid's death and
character. 20. Covamencement of the Parochial System. 21. Relations
between State and Church. 22. Protection of the Church by the State
Laws of Ina and Wihtred. 23. Attempt to persuade British Churches
to abandon their uses. 24. Adhelm, first Bishop of Sherborne. 25.
The missionaries Willibrord and Boniface. 26. Benedict Biscop.
27. Bede. 28. Bede's testimony against the monastic corruptions.
1. Having thus traced the establishment of the Church in
the various kingdoms of England, we turn back to the first
place of its settlement — the kingdom of Kent. Here King
Eadbald, who had become a Christian under Laurentius,
had died (640), and been succeeded by his son Earconbert.
This prince was more zealous in upholding Christianity
than his predecessors. He caused the idols throughout his
dominions to be destroyed, and the fast of Lent to be gene
rally observed. His daughter was professed as a nun in
France, whither many of the noble ladies of the English
race resorted to practise the religious life.^ Under this
king's fostering care the Church grew and flourished.
^ Bede, iii. 9.

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 57
Honorius had been consecrated archbishop by Paulinus at
Lincoln, and in his turn Honorius consecrated a successor
in the See of Eochester to Paulinus, who, after the over
throw of the Church at York, had retired thither. Here
he died in 644. It is remarkable that his successor at
Eochester, Ithamar, was a man of the Kentish race, but, as
Bede declares, " not inferior to his predecessors for learning
and conduct of life." ' In the year 664 there was great
mortality in England.'' Earconbert, king of Kent, and the
sixth Archbishop of Canterbury, Fritonas or Deusdedit,
who had followed Honorius, died on the same day (July
1 4). Egbercht, son of Earconbert, succeeded to the king
dom, and he, in conjunction with the Bretwalda Oswy of
Northumbria, sent Wighard, a priest of the English race,
to Eome to be consecrated archbishop in succession to
Deusdedit. 2. At Eome, Wighard and almost all his companions
were carried off by a pestilence. The Pope, Vitalian, was
then requested by Oswy, in his capacity of Bretwalda, to
provide a fit person for the office of archbishop.^ He first
selected Adrian, an abbot, who was well acquainted with
the western parts. Adrian declined the office, and recom
mended as one more suited for it Andrew, a monk, who
refused it on the ground of ill-health. He then suggested
Theodore, a Greek monk born at Tarsus ; a man famous for
his learning and skill. Theodore was sixty-six years of age
and a layman, but the Pope approved the choice of him for
the important office of Primate of the English Church. But
first it was necessary that he should wait four months in
Eome for his hair to grow. According to the Eastern cus
tom his head had been entirely shaved. It must now be
shorn in a tonsure, according to the orthodox Western pat-
' Bede, iii. 14.
2 Anglo-Saxon Chron., the "Yellow Pest." — See Bright, Ch, Hist,,
206. During the four years' vacancy of the See, it was administered,
says Thomas de Elmham, by Bishop Wilfrid. — P. 193. But this does
not appear compatible with the chronology of Wilfrid's life.
' That the English kings requested the Pope to do this, and that
he did not do it independently of them, appears plainly from Vitalian's
letter to Oswy.— Bede, iii. 29. See Bright, 216.

58 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
tern.^ Theodore was consecrated March 26, 668, and
about two months afterwards was sent towards England,^ the
abbot Adrian being appointed to accompany him, both as
being acquainted with Western customs, and also to take
care that Theodore " should not, according to the custom
of the Greeks, introduce anything contrary to the faith into
the church where he presided." ' The prelate thus chosen
in somewhat of a haphazard fashion, and without any pre
vious knowledge on the part of the Pope, proved a most
valuable and efficient director for the English Church.
3. His first care was to visit all the island wherever
the nation of the Angles inhabited. He was, says the
historian, everywhere most willingly entertained and heard
by all persons, being accompanied and assisted by the abbot
Adrian. Both of them dispensed freely the stores of their
learning, having many disciples whom they instructed both
in sacred and profane literature. Theodore was every
where obeyed as the archbishop of the whole land. The
times were happy and peaceful' All men were intent upon
learning the doctrines of the faith, and improving their
manner of worship. Sacred music was now generally
taught and practised. Theodore appointed bishops where
he saw them to be most needed, and among others he re
consecrated Chad, who was removed from the See of York
and made bishop of Lichfield, as has been already said.'
4. In the year 670 died Oswy the Bretwalda, king of
the Northumbrians, and was succeeded by Ecgfrid, his son.
With Oswy the ascendency of the Northumbrian kingdom
expired, and Mercia now rises into pre-eminence. But it
was not within the kingdom of Mercia, but at Hertford in
' Bede, iv. 1.
2 Bede in this place and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle put Theodore's
arrival iu England in the year 668, but in the next chapter Bede says
that he arrived in his see the second year after his consecration.
He was detained in France from various causes. King Egbert sent
his reeve Redfrid to bring him into England. He arrived and was
installed at Canterbury the second Sunday after Pentecost, May 27,
669. See Bright, pp. 222-3. 3 -gede, ib.
* Ecclesia mirifici Sabbatizavit, says Thomas de Elmham, p. 206.
" Bede, iv. 2.

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 59
the dominions of the East Saxons ^ that Theodore assem
bled his first council (673). At this were present Theo
dore, the archbishop ; Bisi, bishop of the East Angles ;
Pulta, bishop of Eochester ; Leutherius, bishop of the
West Saxons ; Winfrid, bishop of the Mercians ; and (by
his proxies) Wilfrid, bishop of the Northumbrians. The
Archbishop first exhorted those present to receive all things
that had been canonically decreed by the Church, and they
agreed to do so. Theodore then produced a Book of
Canons. I. The first of these ordained that all should
keep Easter on the same day, namely the Sunday after the
14th of the first month. II. That no bishop should in
trude into the diocese of another. III. That no bishop
should trouble monasteries or take anything forcibly from
them. IV. That monks should remain in the monastery
where they have been professed. V. That priests should not
wander from one diocese to another, nor be received vnth
out letters of recommendation. VI. That bishops and
clergy, when travelhng, should be content with the hospi
tality afforded them, and not exercise clerical functions
without leave of the bishop where they were. VII. That a
synod be held every year in July at Clovesho. VIII. That
bishops should take rank according to the time and order
of their consecration. IX. That additional bishops be ap
pointed as the number of the faithful increases — no detailed
proposals at present. X. That marriages be not made with
those of near kindred ; that divorce be only allowed for
adultery ; that the divorced person do not marry again.
These canons were all accepted and subscribed by those
present, and thus the foundation of the discipline of the
Enghsh Church was laid.''
5. Theodore, by virtue of the deference and respect
everywhere paid to him, was able to act altogether as an
English pope. Soon after this Synod he deposed Winfrid,
bishop of the Mercians, for " some disobedience," and in
his place consecrated Saxulf. He also consecrated Earcon-
wald to be bishop of the City of London, who obtained a
' On the borders of Mercia and Essex.
2 Bede, iv. 5 ; Thomas de Elmham, 238 ; Haddan and Stubbs,
iii 118, sq.

60 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
high reputation for sanctity. Monasteries were now every
where springing up in the land. Earconwald before his
consecration had founded a religious fiouse of men' at
Chertsey, and one for women at Barking. Saxulf had
been the first abbot of Medeshampstede, afterwards better
known as Peterborough. In the north Lindisfarne and
Whitby were already famous. In the south St. Augus
tine's at Canterbury, and the British founded Glastonbury.
The earlier condition of the Church, before the introduction
of the parochial system, was altogether monastic, a certain
proportion of monasteries being as necessary to the exist
ence of the Church in a diocese, as the bishop himself.
6. Under the vigorous administration of Archbishop
Theodore that complete subjection of the English customs
to those of Eome, which had been determined on at Whitby,
was now carried out. The national uses had no powerful
supporter, and were everywhere obliged to yield. Accord
ing to the Penitential of Theodore, the bishops who had
been consecrated by the Scots or Britons were not to be
admitted to the offices of their function without the impo
sition of the hands of a Catholic bishop ; chrism and the
holy eucharist were permitted only to those who made
profession of reuniting themselves to the Church, and those
who doubted of their baptism were to be rebaptized.'
Theodore also introduced that potent instrument of clerical
power — the practice of auricular confession — which was
unknown in the Church of England before his time.^
7. One of Archbishop Theodore's chief works was the
creation and constitution of new Sees, a pressing need, as
the Church in England began to expand and grow. The
principle of subdivision of Sees had been affirmed by the
Council of Hertford, but Theodore carried it out in a
high-handed and autocratic manner which caused much
heart-burning, and which brought him into collision with
Wilfrid, the famous bishop of York, whose settlement in
that See by Theodore's act has been already mentioned.
The history of Wilfrid will be brought into a connected
1 Theodori Penitent,, "De Communione Scottorum."— Thorpe's
Ancient Laws, p. 307 ; Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 197.
^ Egberti Dialogus— Eccles. Instil— Thorpe's Ancient Laws.

668-709.] PRIMACY 01' ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 61
form subsequently ; it is sufficient here to say that about
the year 678, "Theodore, without any consultation with
him, consecrated three new bishops to act with Wilfrid in
his diocese,-"- and upon his appeal to Eome against the
arrangement, appointed one of these to occupy his See of
York. Seven years afterwards he subdivided the diocese
again ; made Eata bishop of Lindisfarne, Trumbercht of
Hexham, and Trumwine of the Southern Picts, who had
been subjected by the Northumbrian king, establishing his
See at Abercorn.
8. A more important subdivision even than this was
that which was made by Theodore of the great Mercian
diocese, the See of which was at Lichfield. In the year
(probably) 679, a partition of this was effected by Theodore
into five dioceses, with the consent of a Mercian Witena-
gemot, -viz. Lindsey, Leicester, Lichfield, Worcester, and
Hereford.^ The northern of these dioceses, that of Lindsey,
a district which had been conquered and reconquered by
the kings of Northumbria and Mercia, had its See at a
place called by the chroniclers Siddena or Siddena Castra,
which may be almost certainly identified as the modern
Stow.' Leicester was a convenient centre for the Mid-
Angles. At Lichfield Saxulf was already established, and
retained his See. Worcester was the capital of the sub-
kingdom of the Hwiccians, and its king, Oshere, was anxious
for a bishop. At Hereford, Putta, who had been obliged
to quit Eochester, was established. Thus, without any
difficulty or opposition, the one huge diocese fell naturally
into five, and a great accession of strength was brought to
the English Church.
'' Lindsey was just at that period under Northumbria. The three
bishops were therefore Eata and Bosa for Lindisfarne, and Eathed for
Lindsey. In a very short time Lindsey was reconquered by Mercia,
and Eathed retired to Ripon, not, however, to act as bishop.
^ Florence of Worcester makes Dorchester the fifth, but Dorchester
was not now in Mercia. It was a part of the See of Winchester. It is
probable that Bede speaks by mistake of J5tla, a bishop pf Dorchester,
for Heddi of Winchester, and that Florence was misled by this. See
Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 128, sq,
" The earliest mention of the Syddensis ci-vitas as the seat of the
Lindsey bishopric is at the Council of Clovesho, A.ii. 803. — Haddan
and Stubbs, iii 547.

62 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap, v,
9. Furnished now with a respectable number of suffra
gans. Archbishop Theodore was able to hold a synod which
should make its voice heard and respected by the whole
Church. Under him the Church of England could meet,
not simply to regulate its own internal discipline, but to
pronounce an opinion on matters of general concernment.
This was the period when one of the forms of heresy which
sprang out of the great controversy on the nature of the
incarnation was agitating the Church, and Monotheletism,
the last wave of Eutychianism, was gaining many adherents.
In the same year that the third Council of Constantinople
was held, which condemned this heresy (680), there was
held at Hatfield, under Archbishop Theodore, a Synod,
which in like manner repudiated it, and which also for
mally declared the acceptance of the Church of England of
the five General Councils, their canons and decrees, and that
the Church of England believed as they believed, and
anathematised those whom they anathematised.^
10. In the year 685 we find Archbishop Theodore again
exercising his autocratic authority by the deposition of
Trumbercht from the See of Hexham. In the same year a
Synod was held at Twyford or Alnmouth, at which the
Archbishop presided. It was agreed that the See of
Hexham should be filled by the appointment of Cuthbert,
who had been prior of Melrose, then of Lindisfarne, and
now retired to live as a recluse on the little island of Farne.^
He shrank from the responsibility of the episcopate, but at
length yielded, becoming bishop of Lindisfarne, while Eata
was translated to Hexham. Cuthbert's hohness and devo
tion to his work made him a great power for good in the
Northumbrian Church. When his end drew near, he
retired again to his hermitage on Fame, where he died.'
11. The bitter quarrel which arose between Theodore
and Wilfrid out of the subdivision of the northern dioceses,
did not, happily, prevent their reconciliation before the
death of Theodore. This took place September 19, 690.
1 Bede, iv. 17. The canons of the Lateran Council of 649, which
had been brought to England by Johu the Precentor, were adopted by
the Hatfield Council. It also accepted the doctrines of the " double
Procession " of the Holy Spirit. See Bright, p. 319.
2 Bede, iv. 27, 28. a March 20, 687.

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 63
Theodore was eighty-eight years of age, and had governed
the Church of England for twenty-two years. By his great
powers as an administrator, his strong character and deter
mined will, his learning and high qualities, he had conferred
infinite benefits on the English Church. He had organised
dioceses throughout the land, had effected the commence
ment at least of the parochial system,^ had restrained the
violence of kings, and had strengthened in every way the
influence for good. He was autocratic in his proceedings,
and had no doubt angered manj', but a strong ruler was
greatly needed- for the Church in the weak and disorganised
state in which he found it, and such an one the providence
of God gave to the English Church in him. He was
buried at Canterbury, within the church of the monastery
of St. Peter and St. Paul, the northern porch, in which his
predecessors lay, being already full.
12. It is now the place to bring together the main
facts in the interesting history of Wilfrid, who was con
temporary with Theodore, and brought into some unpleasant
relations with him. It has been already said that he took
a prominent part in the conference of Whitby, and was
afterwards nominated to the See of York. He thought fit
to go into France for consecration, the English primate
(Deusdedit) being dead, and most of the other bishops
being (in Wilfrid's eyes) uncanonical through their Scotic
consecration.^ In France he obtained a magnificent conse
cration, but he remained so long in that country that
another was put into his place at York. This, however,
was remedied by Archbishop Theodore, and Wilfrid entered
upon his Diocese of York (669). During the time that
he had been kept out of his See, Wilfrid, whose energy
was immense, had been usefully employed in Mercia, which
for the moment was without a bishop. On succeeding
to York, he gave himself with great vigour to his work.
He found his church at York dilapidated, and repaired
and beautified it ; he built a grand church at Eipon,
another at Hexham ; he diligently laboured to improve
1 Bright, 362,
^ The only one whom Wilfrid would hold to be absolutely unob
jectionable was Boniface, bishop of Dunwich.

64 PRIMACY OE ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
the divine service, setting Eddi^ and (Eona to teach the
way of responsive song, according to the custom of the
primitive Church. Everywhere throughout his diocese he
went teaching, confirming, and ordaining.
13. But Wilfrid's bold and energetic spirit soon em
broiled him with Ecfrid, king of Northumbria. Ecfrid's
queen, Etheldreda, whom he tenderly loved, was en
couraged by Wilfrid to devote herself to a monastic life,
and in spite of her husband's opposition received the veil
from the hands of Wilfrid. The queen who succeeded her
was bitterly hostile to Wilfrid. He was banished the
court; and when in 678 Archbishop Theodore, at Ecfrid's
invitation, visited Northumbria, he altogether sided with
the king as against the bishop. Then was made that par
tition of Wilfrid's diocese, without any consultation with
him, of which mention has been made ; and Wilfrid, indig
nant, appealed to Eome, and determined to set off at once to
prosecute his cause. On his way he was driven by stress
of weather to the coast of Friesland, and landing there
he zealously laboured at the conversion of the heathen
inhabitants. Leaving Friesland, Wilfrid journeyed on
through France, escaping by the way plots arranged against
his liberty, and reached Eome about the middle of the year
679. A preliminary council was held after his arrival to
consider generally the state of the English Church.^ It
was then determined that his case should be specially
inquired into, and a Synod of fifty bishops was summoned
to try it, in the church of the Lateran. The decision
arrived at was that Wilfrid had been dealt with unfairly,
that he must be replaced in his diocese, and that any divi
sion of it must be made by him with the consent of a
council at York. But at the same time it was declared
that Theodore's division of dioceses was right in principle ;
that each English kingdom was to have its bishops, and
that the number for the whole country should be twelve.'
1 Eddius or Eddi wrote the Ufe of the bishop, in a strain of the
highest laudation. '^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 131.
' Johnson, English Canons, i. 102-104 ; Haddan and Stubbs, iii.
136 ; Bright, 295. Mr. Johnson holds that the decision was substan
tially in favour of Theodore ; Professor Bright, on the contrary, that
it was in favour of Wilfrid.

668-709.] PRIMACY OE ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 65
The Archbishop was thus encouraged to proceed in his
work of increasing the episcopate, and soon after this
followed the subdivision of Mercia, and the further sub
division of Lindisfarne. It does not appear that the Eoman
decision in favour of Wilfrid (if it is to be considered such)
in any way benefited him, or changed the state of affairs.
Wilfrid remained at Eome, when it would seem that he
ought at once to have returned to endeavour to amend
the matters in which he considered himself aggrieved. He
took part in the large Synod held at Eome in 680, on
the subject of the Monothelite heresy, when he should
rather have been present at Hatfield ; and then at length
he found himself once more in Northumbria.
14. In the Witan which he attended after his return
he exhibited the document obtained at Eome, which con
tained the favourable provisions ; but it was received with
contempt, and declared to have been obtained by corrupt
influences. So great indeed was the anger excited in the
English king and his councillors against this first appealer
to Eome, that he was thrown into prison, and immersed in
a dark dungeon in the midst of the rigours of winter.
After a nine months' imprisonment he was liberated, and
he then retired into Mercia. Here, however, finding the
influence of the Northumbrian king and queen, and the
archbishop, too strong against him, he could not remain.
He passed into Wessex, and from thence, still persecuted, he
made his way into the territory of the South Saxons, the
only kingdom of England which was as yet entirely heathen,
¦with the exception of its king and queen.'
15. Edilwalch, the king of this country, had been bap
tized in Mercia ; and Ebba, the queen, was a Christian
princess of the Hwiccian race, so that the opportunity was
very favourable for the conversion of the people. Wilfrid
was eloquent and zealous ; and it is said by Bede that his
exhortations were greatly helped by the fact that a long
' For all the preceding portion of Wilfrid's history after his appeal
to Rome we are dependent on Eddius. Bede merely says in one place
that "he went to Rome, and returned to Brita,in " (iv. 13). In another,
that " he was acquitted of what had been laid to his charge, and de
clared worthy of his bishopric " (v. 19). See Article ' ' Eddius, " Diction
ary of Christian Biography. F

66 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
drought, which had produced a terrible famine, ceased
coincidently with his ministrations ; and that he instructed
the people in the art of fishing in the sea, they having
been before contented to grope after eels in the rivers.
Wilfrid established himself at Selsey, where he built a
monastery (681). There he remained for five years,^ untU
the death of Ecfrid enabled him to return to Northumbria.
On Wilfrid's return to the north, and after the conquest of
the South Saxon kingdom by Wessex, the Christians of the
southern kingdom were placed under the bishop of Win
chester. The conversion of the inhabitants of the Isle of
Wight, which then belonged to the South Saxon kingdom,
soon followed; and " thus," says Bede, " after all the pro
vinces of the island of Britain had embraced the faith of
Christ, the Isle of Wight also received the same." ^
16. When Wilfrid returned to Northumbria (686), of
which Alfrid was now king, he found the See of Hexham
vacant by the recent death of Eata. To this he succeeded
as administrator ; but he was not inclined to be contented
with anything else than his own old See of York. Bosa, the
occupant of this, was by some means induced to retire, and
Wilfrid was again bishop of York. But the Eoman decree
was not carried out. Cuthbert remained bishop of Lindis
farne, and at his death a successor was appointed to his
See, and Wilfrid was content to accept the reduced See as
it had been settled by Theodore.' It appears, however,
that this contentment was not of long duration. On the
proposal to erect a separate See at Eipon,' Wilfrid revived
his claims to the whole province of Northumbria. For
doing this he was banished by the king and Witan of
Northumbria, and retiring into Mercia, was entrusted with
the See of Leicester, then vacant by the death of Cuthwin
(691). ^ The See of Selsey, the original of Chichester, was not established
till 709. 2 Bede, iv. 13.
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 171. Abercorn had been reconquered by
the Picts.
* The monastery of Eipon had been governed by a bishop (Eathed,
expelled from Lindsey, and then by Wilfrid), but it was not a See
separate from York.

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 67
17. Here he remained for sometime; but about the
beginning of the eighth century a movement arose as to
reconsidering his case. A council was held at Easterfield,
a place situated somewhere in Yorkshire (702), under the
presidency of Bertwald, Archbishop of Canterbury. At
this Wilfrid was summoned to appear, and he came
attended by many of his abbots. He was asked whether
he would submit to the regulations of Theodore, i.e. to the
subdivision of the Northumbrian diocese, against which he
had appealed to Eome. He refused, and again appealed to
Eome. The king and the council were much exasperated.
It was decreed that Wilfrid should be deposed from the
episcopal dignity. Once more he appealed to Eome, and
set out in company with Acca to lay his cause before the
Pope. The archbishop forwarded the charges made against
him. A Synod met to consider the matter, but an obscure
and temporising decision only was arrived at. It is evi
dent that the Eoman Curia feared to put itself in direct
opposition to the sentence of the English Church. Wilfrid
slowly returned to his country, weary and broken-spirited.
18. At another council, held somewhere on the river
Nidd (706), a compromise was agreed upon. Wilfrid was
to return to a Northumbrian See, but not to York. He
was to have the See of Hexham and the minster of Eipon,
recovering, however, his domains and monasteries. His
Eoman appeals had not much availed him. " In fact," says
Professor Bright, " the second compromise was less favour
able than the first," ^ But Wilfrid was now broken in
health, and weighed down by old age, and he must needs
submit. 19. After a short time spent in his northern diocese,
he undertook another visit to Mercia, where he had
founded many religious houses ; and at length in the
minster of St. Andrew, at Oundle, he died (709).^ Thus
passed away the most energetic and remarkable of the early
Enghsh Churchmen — a man of wonderful activity, great
resources, conspicuous talents ; but a lover of pomp and
show, and power and rank ; a man to whom it was almost
impossible to occupy a subordinate position, and for whom
' Early English Church History, p. 415. ^ Bede, v. 20.

68 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
troubles must need arise when brought into collision with
the stern discipline of Archbishop Theodore, and the strong
and resolute will of the Northumbrian kings. It is well
remarked by Professor Bright that with the death of Wil
frid closes a " great period," and that the period which
succeeded was altogether inferior, and adorned by less
splendid names.
20. In order to preserve the continuity of Wilfrid's
history, some matters of importance have been omitted.
It is especially of interest to remark that from the death of
Theodore may be noted the commencement of the paro
chial system. Not only did that great prelate provide a
number of Sees sufficient for the government and direc
tion of the clergy and people, but he made a strenuous
commencement of the task of providing churches for the
different districts, and obtaining a settled and localised
clergy to officiate in them. On the first commencement of
the Church in England this had been much neglected.
Oratories had been erected in different places where the
mission preachers had penetrated, as by Aidan, Birinus,
and Cedd,' but no attempt had been made to pro-vide
churches everywhere. Monasteries were founded, and
from these a certain amount of missionary efforts were di
rected to the inhabitants of the towns and villages of the
country, which had as yet no settled resident clergy. But
Theodore, who had above all things a talent for organisuig,
perceived that this system would never avail to keep alive
Christianity in the land ; hence he encouraged the lay
people to build churches for themselves, and directed that
the tithes and offerings which they had before paid to the
bishop should be paid to their own churches." He also is
said to have obtained a grant from some or all the kings
of his time that those who built a church should have the
right of patronage to that church ; so that the parochial
system distinctly took its origin from this great arch
bishop.^ I Bede, iii. 3, 7, 17, 22.
2 Theodore's Penitential (Haddan and Stubbs), iii. 203.
^ Thomas de Elmham says: "Excitabat fidelium devotionem et
voluntatem in quarum libet provinoiarum civitatibus nencon viUis

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 69
21. From the period of Theodore's death, we may
observe, also, more distinct relations between the State and '
the Church. The State undertook to protect the Church
in its temporalities, and to uphold its status in the land.
The first and most remarkable of these provisions was
made by the laws of Ina, or Ine, a king of the West Saxons.
The enactment of these laws .by a Witan, or assembly of
notables, was made, probably, about the year 690. They
enact, under penalties, the baptism of infants within thirty
days, the abstaining from work on Sunday, the observance
of their rules by the monks and clergy, the due payment
of church scot or dues, the right of sanctuary, the sacred
ness of the church building, the sacred character of the
clergy.^ 22. The same care for the interests of the Church
which was displayed by King Ina in Wessex, was also
shown by Wihtred, king of Kent. At a solemn assembly
held at Bapchild (692), in the presence of Archbishop
Bertwald, the bishop of Eochester, and many abbots and
clerks, he decreed that all the churches given by his pre
decessors should remain in possession of the Church, that
no layman should intermeddle with or seize upon the goods
of the Church, and that no bishop should be appointed
without the consent of the archbishop. Also, at a Witan
held at Bersted, near Maidstone, in the year 696, Bertwald,
the successor of Theodore, called " chief bishop of Britain,"
as well as the bishop of Eochester, being present, certain
laws or dooms, partly of an ecclesiastical, partly of a secular
character, were promulgated. Freedom from taxes is
conceded to the Church, sanctuary recognised, rules for
priests and monks prescribed, the Sunday and the fasts
of the Church protected.^
23. A synod held in Wessex in 705 introduces us to
one of the most conspicuous figures in the early Church
history of England, — Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury,
ecclesias fabricandi, parochias distinguendi, assensus eisdum regies pro-
curando ; ut si qui suifioientes essent, et ad Dei honorem pro voto
haberent super proprium fundum ecclesias construere, earundem per-
petuo patron atugauderent." — p. 285.
1 Johnson's English Canons, i. 129. ^ lb,, i. 125-139.

70 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap, v,
afterwards first bishop of Sherborne.' The occasion of the
synod was the annoyance felt by the English Church at
the persistency with which the British Church adhered to
their old Easter rule. It was determined to try the effect
of an earnest remonstrance, and Aldhelm, famous for his
learning, and his great success as a teacher, was appointed
to draw up a fitting one. The letter which he wrote still
remains.2 It is a -violent epistle, showing a strange
ignorance of Scripture for one who enjoyed so great a
reputation in his day.^ It is addressed to Geraint, king of
Cornwall, but its effect appears to have been limited to
those Britons who were under West Saxon rule,* and who
probably had other good reasons for abandoning their old
traditions. The main body of the Welsh Christians did
not finally adopt the Catholic Easter until after the expira
tion of another century.
24. About the time of the council mentioned above,
Aldhelm was consecrated to the new See of Sherborne.
The division of the West Saxon diocese had been determined
upon long before, but had been delayed, probably, by the
opposition of Bishop Heddi This prelate died in 703,'
and was succeeded by Daniel. A provincial council now
threatened to suspend communion with Wessex if there
were delay in appointing another bishop. Therefore, " in
the early days of Bishop Daniel,"^ the land was divided,
Winchester retained Hampshire and Surrey, and, after
a time, was able to annex to itself the Isle of Wight ;
Sherborne took Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Berkshire, and great
part of Somerset.^ The administration of this large See
by Aldhelm was very vigorous and successful. He retained
the headship over the abbey of Malmesbury, and, by his
infiuence with King Ina, was able to procure the foundar
tion of the famous abbey of Abingdon, and the enrichment
1 Bede, v. 18. = See Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 268.
' See Bright, p. 420. Aldhelm was remarkable for an extremely
grandiloquent (not to say fustian) style of -writing.
* Bede, v. 18. » Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
" Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 267. This is supposed to have been the
regular annual synod provided for by the Council of Hertford.
' Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 275.

668-709.] PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 71
of the ancient Glastonbury, where a church in connection
with the old British structure had been raised by Anglo-
Saxon devotion.
25. Daniel, bishop of Winchester, was the patron and
friend of the famous Winfrid, or Boniface, who did such
good work in evangelising the Germans. Wilfrid's mis
sionary labours among the Frisians have been already
mentioned. About the year 690, Willibrord, who had been
educated in Wilfrid's monastery of Eipon, and afterwards
studied in Ireland, went with Egbert to take up the work
among the Frisians. Meeting -with the support of the king
of the Franks, who had subjugated part of Frisia, his
labours were very successful. About the year 719 he was
joined by Boniface, a young English monk from Bishop
Daniel's diocese, who had, by his bishop's recommendation,
first repaired to Eome to obtain the papal commission.
He came to Willibrord at Utrecht, where Christianity was
firmly established by their labours. Willibrord was con
secrated archbishop of a See established at Utrecht, but
Boniface, who aspired to more daring attacks on heathen
ism, would not remain here. He went into Hesse, and
there, and in Thuringia, he boldly attacked the prevailing
superstitions with wonderful success. Eaised to the dignity
of archbishop by the Pope, he continued his missionary
labours in Germany for many years, until at length he
reached the crown of martyrdom (755).^
26. The English Church at this period was indeed
fertile of great men. Conspicuous among them was
Benedict Biscop, who has been well described as " an
ecclesiastical traveller, a founder of monasteries, and a
promoter of religious art. "2 A nobly born and wealthy
Northumbrian, he made no less than six visits to Eome for
the purpose of acquiring manuscripts, and gaining a know
ledge of Church life to be made available for the service of
his countrymen. He was instrumental in introducing
Archbishop Theodore to the English Church ; and, having
taken the tonsure, was made by him abbot of the Canter
bury monastery. This he held only two years. After
1 See Article " Bonifacius " in Dictionary of Christian Biography,
2 Bright, p. 189.

72 PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, [chap. v.
another visit to Eome, he was presented by the Northum
brian king with a domain on the banks of the Wear. Here
he proceeded to build a monastery, obtaining skilled labour
and fittings from abroad. To this house, destined to
become so famous, afterwards, in connection with the name
of Bede, Ceolfrid, a man in many respects like minded
with its founder, was appointed abbot. On his fifth
journey to Eome in company with Ceolfrid, Benedict
obtained the services of John, the precentor of St. Peter's,
whom he brought back with him to Northumbria to teach
psalmody to his monks. Soon after this, Benedict received
another grant of land from King Egfrid, on the other bank
of the Tyne. Here he built the monastery of Jarrow,
which was taken possession of in 681 by a detachment of
the Wearmouth brethren, the two houses being intended
to form one establishment.
27. The Wearmouth monks who went to the new house
at Jarrow were accompanied by a little boy about eight
years old, who, born on the land belonging to the Wear
mouth monastery, had been "given" by his parents to
Abbot Ceolfrid to be educated. This was the famous Bede,
the first ecclesiastical historian of England ; to whose honest
and simple narrative, indeed, we owe all the knowledge
we possess of the first century and a half of the Church's
life in England. Born in 673, and at the age of seven
dedicated to monastic life, Bede spent the whole of his
time in one or other of Benedict's two monasteries, and
gave his whole life to literary labours. In the little sketch
of his history which he has left, he tells us that he " always
took delight in learning, teaching, and writing.'" He
made it his business to compile from the Fathers interpret
ations of the books of Scripture, to translate histories of
saints, to write lives of Cuthbert and of the founders of
his monastery, and, most valuable of all, to translate into
English the four Gospels, — in which sacred labour he was
engaged when death came upon him. His ecclesiastical
history was begun at the request of Ceolwulph, king of
Northumbria, and was submitted to him .for approbation.
Though a recluse, mixing scarcely at all in the affairs of
' Bede, v. 24.

668-709.] PRIMACY OE ARCHBISHOP THEODORE, 73
the world outside his monastery, no man has had a more
important influence on the history of the English Church
than the venerable monk of Jarro-vv.^
28. Before the death of Bede the monastic system,
which had been very valuable in the infancy of the Church,
began greatly to deteriorate, and to assume very strange
and anomalous lineaments. In a letter addressed by him,
very shortly before his death, to Egbert, bishop of York,
the venerable monk of Jarrow strongly advocates the in
crease of bishops and clergy, and the taking of some of the
monasteries in order to find the means of doing this. He
says, there are many houses unworthy the name of monas
teries, being, in fact, merely secular establishments, where
all sorts of luxury and evil living are practised. It had
become a rage among great people, both men and women,
to get together such societies, and to preside in them.
Nothing could be more unlike devotion than the way of life
which they observed. Every vice was allowed and even
encouraged, bringing contempt upon the name of religion.
Luxury in living and in apparel, grievous unchastity, were
everywhere predominant. A firm stand needed to be made
against such defilements. He would that such establishments
were suppressed, and a better provision made of those who
might be really of use in instructing the people ; and with
this view he would counsel Egbert to assume the position
of Metropolitan, originally destined for the See of York by
Pope Gregory, and greatly to increase the number of his
suffragans and clergy .2 With this most useful counsel for
the Church the life of the devout scholar and valuable his
torian of the Church closes, and we are left for the succeed
ing period to sources of information very inferior to those
which he furnished.
^ Bede died May 26, 735, aged sixty-two. He wrote, in addition
to the subjects mentioned, on Astrology, Orthography, Rhetoric,
Poetry, etc. See Article " Beda," Dictionary of Christian Biogra2}hy,
2 See Bede, Fp. ad Egbert; Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 314, sq.

74

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

[chap. v.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A) JOHN OP BEVERLEY.
The bishop who ordained Bede
both deacon and priest was a. con
spicuous figure in his day, and ob
tained a high reputation for sanctity.
He had been educated at the school
of Canterbury established by Theo
dore. He then entered the Whitby
monastery, from whence, in 687, he
was consecrated bishop of Hexham.
It is not, however, in connection
-with Hexham, but with Beverley —
"the monastery called Inderwood,
in the wood of the Deiri" — that
Bishop John is best known. To
this he retired after having been
bishop, first at Hexham and after
wards at York, for thirty- three years.
The fame of his sanctity grew aud
increased. Bede devotes several
chapters to the detailed account of
miracles more than usually bizarre
and strange attributed to him, and
St. John of Beverley became one of
the most popular saints of the north
country.

(B) TABLE OP THE DATES OF
THE FOUNDATION AND
NAMES OF FIRST OCCU
PANTS OF THE ENGLISH
SEES. A.D.
1. Canterbury (Augustine) . 597
2. London (Mellitus) . . 604
3. Eochester (Justus) . . 604
4. York (Paulinus) . 625
5. Dunwich (PeUx) . . 631
6. Lindisfarne (Aidan) 635
7. Dorchester (Birinus) . 635
8. Winchester (Wmi) . . 662
9. Lichfield (Diuma) . . 656
10. Elmham (Badwin) . . 673
11. Hereford (Putta) . . 676
12. Hexham (Eata) . . 678
13. Sidnacester (Eadhed) . 678
14. Worcester (Bosel) . . 680
15. Leicester (Cuth-win) . 680
16. Selsey (Wilfrid) . . '681
17. Sherborne (Aldhelm) . 705
— Bright's Early English Oh. Hist,
448, 60.
1 Not permanently established till 709.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 75

CHAPTER VL
THE PEEIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS.
734-803.
1 . Egbert, first Archbishop of York. 2. Boniface censures the state of
morals in England. 3. Exhorts Archbishop Cuthbert to hold a
Coimcil. 4. The Council of Clovesho (747). 5. Low state of
morality in the country. 6. King Offa procirres the erection of
Lichfield into a Metropolitan See. 7. The Constitutions of Chelsea.
8. Archbishop Ethelheard. 9. Alcuin. 10. Alcuin writes again.st
the Decrees of the second Nicene Council. 11. His Letters to
Clergy in England. 12. The Council of Frankfort. 13. Ethelheard
driven from Kent. 14. King Kenulf desires to restore the lost Dio
ceses to Canterbury. 15. Ethelheard visits Rome. 16. Pope Leo
agrees to -withdraw the Metropolitan power from Lichfield. 17.
Council of Clovesho (803) finally decides against the Metropolitan
claims of Lichfield.
1. The counsel offered by the venerable Bede to Egbert,
Bishop of York, that, with a view to the greater efficiency
of discipline and the advancement of the Church, he should
assume the dignity originally granted to the See of York
by Gregory, and demand the pall of a Metropolitan, no
doubt concurred -with the wishes of that prelate on the
matter. Either immediately after the letter was written
— if not before it was finished '¦ — Egbert became Metropoli
tan and Archbishop of York. Paulinus had occupied this
position a century previously ; but from the long interval
which had intervened when York was merely an ordinary
See, Egbert may be regarded as the first Archbishop of
York, and first Metropolitan of the North. In the following
year (735) Nothelm, a priest of London, not belonging to a
' See Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 326. The date of his receiving the
pall was probably before his consecration of Bishop Frithbert to
Hexham, which took place September 8, 734. The letter was -written
some time in 734. See Art. " Egbert," Dictionary of Christian Biography.

76 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [ohap.vi.
monastic order, was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury
in succession to Tatwin. Both the new Metropolitans, im
mediately on receiving the pall from Pope Gregory III,
consecrated suffragan bishops — Egbert to the sees of
Hexham and Withern ; Nothelm to those of Hereford,
Elmham, and Sherborne.' In 740, Archbishop Nothelm
died, and was succeeded by Cuthbert, bishop of Hereford,
sprung from a noble English family.
2. But the most influential prelate at this time in
England was one who did not occupy a diocese within the
limits of the island, but in a foreign country, where, as has
been seen, he had gained signal success by his intrepidity
and devotion. Boniface, mindful of his English origin, and
of the Church of his baptism, strove earnestly to abate the
scandals which were becoming painfully prevalent in Eng
land. The testimony of Bede as to the demorahsation
spreading in the monasteries is unhappily confirmed by a
letter which the Archbishop of Mentz and five other Ger
man bishops addressed to Ethelbald, king of Mercia. From
this we learn that this king was in the habit of using the
monasteries of nuns very much as royal harems, and
debauching the inmates as he pleased. There were other
kings also who did the same, while the nuns are freely
accused of the crime of infanticide. Such a hideous state
of morals drew forth the indignant and bold reproofs of this
zealous Christian bishop, and induced him also to -write
another letter to Egbert, Archbishop of York, exhorting
him to second his admonitions to King Ethelbald, and to
be very diligent to repress any beginnings of these evils in
his own diocese.^
3. But Boniface did more than this, tie not only
wrote hortatory letters to reprove vice, but he suggested
practical means for combating it. He addressed a letter to
Archbishop Cuthbert, dwelling most strongly on the great
responsibihties of the pastoral ofiice, and specially of that
of chief pastors, mentioning the sad scandals prevalent in
England, and exhortuig him to hold a Council there, as
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 335.
= lb,, iii. 350, 358. The letters of Alcuin point also to a com
plete demoralisation in the monasteries.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 77
they had lately done in Germany, in order to devise means
for abating these mischiefs.^ Incidentally Boniface men
tions in this letter some special points of scandal attaching
to the English. The women who went on pilgrimage to
Eome, whether veiled or not, for the most part fell into
vicious and hcentious habits of life,^ and he desires that
such pilgrimages should be stopped. Kings and great men
were in the habit of violently seizing on monasteries, ex-
pelhng the abbot or abbess, and usurping all rights over
the community and the property. A great luxury in
clothing prevailed even in religious houses. Drunkenness
was common, not only among the lay people, but among
the clergy, and even bishops. Monks were violently seized
and compelled to perform forced work for the king. To
remedy aU such scandals he would have Archbishop
Cuthbert summon a Council.*
4. Whether in consequence of this appeal or not, a
Council was held at Clovesho (747). According to William
of Malmesbury, it was attended by twelve bishops, by
many priests and dignitaries of the lower order, and by
King Ethelbald and his nobles. Letters from Pope Zach
arias, exhorting the English to amend their way of life,
were read therein. Some important and interesting regu
lations were made by this Councd. Bishops were to visit
their dioceses every year ; they were specially to examine
and regulate abbots and abbesses ; they were to go to the
monasteries held by secular persons, and to insist on their
providing the ministrations of a priest for the inmates.
They were to ordain none without testimony of their moral
hfe ; to encourage sacred study in the monasteries, which
was almost entirely neglected. It was ordered that priests
should weigh well the solemn duties to which they were
1 For the vexed question whether this letter was written before or
after the Council of Clovesho, see Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 382. It
seems to me impossible, from the contents of the letter, to put it after
the English Council.
2 He even says, "Perpaucae sunt civitates iu Longobardia vel
in Francia aut Gallia in qua non sit adultera vel meretrix gentis
Anglorum. "
3 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 376.

78 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [ohap.vi.
called ; that they should preach and baptize diligently.
That they should learn the exact meaning in their native
tongue of the Latin words of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer,
and the order of Mass and Baptism ; that they should use
one uniform method of performing their office, and be care
ful to see that all baptized persons were acquainted with
the Creed ; that they should not declaim in a theatrical
style the words of their ofiices, but use a simple melody, or
else read them just as they speak, and not presume to use
the parts assigned specially to bishops ; that the great
festivals and the festivals of the martyrs should be always
celebrated on the same days on which the Eoman Church
celebrates them, and with the same hymns and psalms that
the Eoman Church uses ; that the Lord's day should be
strictly observed by the cessation from all worldly employ
ments, and by using it in religious services and hearing the
word of God ; that the seven canonical hours should be
observed with such psalms and prayers as the Eoman
Church uses ; that solemn litanies should be said by clergy
and people on April 23 and the three days before Ascen
sion day, with fasting and the celebration of mass at the
ninth hour to implore pardon for the sins of the people ;
that the natal day of St. Gregory and the day of the-burial
of St. Augustine should be observed as holy days ; that the
Ember fasts of the fourth, seventh, and tenth months should
be strictly observed ; ' that monks and nuns should hve
regular lives, and not wear showy dress; that bishops
should see that the monasteries do not become the recep
tacles of poets, musicians, and buffoons, and that the lay
people have not free access to them, which was the cause
of grievous scandals, and that the nuns do not spend their
time in luxury or in working vain embroidery, but in
reading and singing psalms ; that those belonging to
monasteries and all ecclesiastics should avoid the sin of
drunkenness,- and not drink early in the day ; that the
religious and clerks who abstain from Holy Communion
on account of their evil lives, and do not confess and amend,
be severely reproved ; that lay persons, both young and
' The first of the Ember fasts is not mentioned here, apparently as
being included in the season of Lent.— Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 376.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 79
old, be encouraged to frequent communion ; that none be
admitted to the tonsure without strict examination of their
previous lives ; that the bishops take care that the decrees
of the Synod be made known in their dioceses ; that alms
giving be practised after a religious manner, and not with
the view of gaining license thereby to evil living, nor of
excusing oneself from fasting and works of penance ; that
psalmody also be used with understanding, and that none
think that this will obtain for them license to abstain from
other good works, or that their sins can be put away by the
religious services and fasting of others ; that no ruler of a
monastery take more into his society than he can feed and
clothe, and that those who have professed religion do not
return to the luxurious garments of the lay people ; that
professed religious do not dwell among the lay people ;
that in order to prevent ill-feeling from the laity towards
ecclesiastics, prayers be offered at the canonical hours for
kings and those in authority, and for the safety of all
Christian people.'
5. The canons thus enacted form a picture of the Church
of that day, and it must be confessed not a flattering one.
The severe charges brought against the monasteries by
Boniface are fully confirmed by the regulations now sanc
tioned. The monasteries appear to have been often the
private property of the abbot,^ and no rule either of dress
or living seems to have obtained in them save at his will.
The Penitential of Archbishop Egbert, by the variety of
foul crimes which it specifies, the small penances it pre
scribes for many of them, and the saving clause it often
introduces, " si in consuetudine erit," implying that a single
lapse need not be animadverted on, also indicates a low
state of morality.
6. The over-lordship of the country was at this period
wielded by a king of great power, vigour, and talent —
Offa, king of Mercia. He was on friendly terms with his
great contemporary Charlemagne, who treated him as the
Emperor of the West, as he himself claimed to be the
1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 362-376 ; Johnson's English Canons,
i. 240-263. 2 Dialogue Egberti. Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 408.

80 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [chap. vi.
Emperor of Eastern Europe. ^ He was triumphant not only
over his neighbour kings, but over the British also in
Wales, who became his vassals. In the fulness of his
power Offa determined that his own proper kingdom of
Mercia should not ecclesiastically be in an inferior position
to that kingdom of Kent which he had subdued, or the
kingdom beyond the Humber which he far surpassed in
power. He determined that the See of Lichfield should be
raised into the dignity of an archbishopric and a metropoli
tan See. Pope Adrian, who had learned to respect and
perhaps to fear^ the powerful king of England, despatched
Legates into England " to renew the faith and the peace
which St. Gregory had sent by Augustine the bishop,"* and
with these Legates Offa held a council at Chelsea in the
year 787, when Jaenbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, "gave
up some portion of his bishopric ; " and Higbert, Bishop of
Lichfield, was constituted archbishop, with the four other
bishops of the Mercian kingdom and the two East Anglian
as his suffragans.* The new Metropolitan, under the
powerful patronage of his king, even takes precedence of
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Offa obtained from Eome
the pall for Archbishop Higbert, and also the grant of
special privileges for the great monastery which he was
about to found at St. Albans.
7. In this same Council of Chelsea, when the dignity
of Canterbury was thus grievously intruded on, a body of
constitutions or canons, brought by the Legates George and
Theophylact from Eome, was proposed to and accepted by
the English Synod. The Legates had previously visited
the northern province and obtained the assent of the
Metropolitan of York and his suffragans to these constitu-
1 Palgrave, Hist, of England, i. 88.
2 See his letter to Charlemagne as to the rumour that Offa intended
to dethrone him. — Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 440.
3 Anglo-Saxon Chron., s.a, 785.
^ A.-S. Chron. ; Wilhelm. Malmesb... De Gest, Pontif, p. 16 (ed.
Hamilton) ; Johnson's English Canons, i. 264 sq. ; Haddan and
Stubbs, iii. 446. There were only four bishops left to the Province of
Canterbury, viz. London, Winchester, Rochester, and Selsey. See
Thomas de Elmham (ed. Hardwick), p. 334.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 81
tions,^ which form the most direct interference of the
Church of Eome in the affairs of the English Church that
had yet been attempted. The substance of the constitu
tions was as follows : — (1.) The Nicene faith and that of
the six General Councils was to be firmly held. (2.)
Baptism was to be used at the canonical times, and only
those were to be baptized who knew the Creed and the
Lord's Prayer. Sponsors were to undertake for infants
that they should be instructed in these. (3.) Two Councils
to be held every year ; bishops to be diligent in visiting
their dioceses. (4.) Bishops, canons," monks, and nuns to
use proper apparel as the Easterns {i,e. those of France and
Italy). (5.) On the death of an abbot or abbess, a successor
to be chosen by the community and approved by the
bishop. (6). Bishops to be careful as to the ordination of
fit persons to the priesthood. (7.) All churches to have
service at the canonical hours. (8.) The privileges con
ferred by the Eoman See on certain churches to be
observed. (9.) Fasts to be properly observed. (10).
Priests to wear drawers in consecrating ; proper bread to
be offered at the Eucharist. The chalice not to be made of
horn; bishops not to judge secular matters. (11.) Kings
to show due deference to bishops and priests. (12.) Kings
to be duly reverenced by all (13.) Justice to be strictly
administered. (14.) Concord and unanimity to be observed.
(15.) Incestuous marriages forbidden, specially with the
virgins dedicated to God. (1 6.) Illegitimate offspring not
to succeed to an inheritance. (17.) Tithes to be strictly
paid. (18.) Vows to be rigidly performed. (19.) All
heathen rites to be avoided. (20.) All to be exhorted to
timely confession and repentance. This document was
accepted and signed by the bishops and abbots, the kings
and nobles, of the northern and southern Councils.^
1 At the Synod of Pincahala (perhaps Einchale, near Durham). —
See Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 444, 445.
" This is the first use of this word for canons living in community.
The rule of Chrodegand for secular canons was published about fifty
years before. — Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 461.
2 In the north six bishops, in the south twelve, sign. The signa
ture of Higbert is as Bishop, not Archbishop, of Lichfield, probably
G

82 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [chap. vi.
8. In 791 died Jaenbert, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had been constrained to surrender so large a portion
of his province to the Archbishop of Lichfield, and two
years afterwards was consecrated to the primacy Ethel
heard, supposed to have been by birth a Mercian, and to
have been consecrated to the archbishopric by the Arch
bishop of Lichfield.' If this were the case, it would account
for so long an interval as two years having elapsed between
his election and consecration. The Kentish clergy would
naturally be indignant at the diminution of the authority
of the Metropohtan See, and would not desire in any way
to recognise the new archbishop, or to accept his assist
ance. 9. In the time of Ethelheard a great figure emerges
into prominence in the English Church, and a worthy suc
cessor of the Venerable Bede is found not only instructing
and enlightening his own countrymen, but acting as the
principal teacher and educational guide of the whole of
Western Europe. Alcuin was born at York before the
middle of the eighth century.^ He came of a noble family,
and was quickly distinguished by his talents and industry
in the school of Egbert, Archbishop of York. On Egbert's
death in 766 he became master of the York School, and
soon brought pupils by the fame of his teaching from Gaul
and Germany. Archbishop Ethelbert ordained him deacon,
and treated him with much consideration ; and the suc
ceeding Archbishop Eanbald, who had been Alcuin's pupil,
sent him to Eome to obtain the pall for him. In Italy he
met with Charlemagne, who was already acquainted with
his merits, and remained with him as his instructor till
790, when he returned to England and obtained the con
sent of his king and archbishop to take up his abode per
manently with Charlemagne as the director of his vast
educational schemes.''
10. It was now the time when the Church was being
because he had not yet received the pall. — See Johnson, English Carums,
i. 264-285 ; Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 447-462.
^ But Thomas de Elmham calls him ¦" Bishop of Winchester " (p.
335). 2 r^robably 735.
' See Art. "Alcuin" in Biog. Brit, Lit. — A."^. Period.

734-803.] PERIOD OE THE THREE METROPOLITANS, 83
convulsed and distracted by the question of image-worship.
In 787 met the second Council of Nicsea, sometimes called
the Seventh (Ecumenical, which decided that a lower sort
of worship (irpoo-Kvvrjcri'i) was due to images, on the ground
of the worship paid to them being, in fact, paid to the
originals of the image. The decrees of this Council were
sent for acceptance to Charlemagne, the powerful Emperor
of the West, but he was by no means inclined to concur
with them. Instructed as he had been by Alcuin, and
brought into contact with the heathen idolatry of the
Saxons, with whom he had carried on war, he saw the false
principles and palpable danger of the Nicene decrees, and
prepared vigorously to oppose them. Knowing well the
mind of Alcuin in the matter, he sent to him in England
the synodal letter received from Constantinople, desiring
him to ascertain the opinions of the English Church there
upon. This Alcuin readily performed, and despatched,
in reply to the emperor, " a letter admirably confirmed by
the authority of the Divine Scriptures," refuting the state
ments of the Eastern Council. This letter was despatched,
not in his own name alone, but in that of the bishops
and princes of England as well, whom he had consulted in
the matter.'' 11. The letter to Charlemagne may have been carried
by Alcuin himself, or, at any rate, he soon followed it to
the court of that monarch. Here, though busied in for
warding the various schemes of the emperor, he was yet
not unmindful of the wants of the Church of his native
land, and addressed letters of exhortation and guidance to
his friends in England. A letter of his, written in 793 to
the monks of St. Peter at Wearmouth, praises them
generaUy for their observance of their rule, but specially
1 Simeon Dunelm. , s. a. 792. Mr. Haddan says, "Simeon was,
no doubt, drawing from the ancient annals of the Northumbrian kings,
which this portion of the work represents, and which gave it its
extreme value as representing a contemporaneous record of the eighth
century." — Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 469. The question as to how far
Alcuin was the author of the Libri Carolini, the treatise which
Charlemagne published against Image-worship, is a difiicult one. He
was probably, in great part, the author of them.

84 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [chap.ti.
warns them against pomp and pride in clothing, and luxury
in food.^ Shortly after this, Alcuin addressed a letter to
the bishop and clergy of Lindisfarne of a sadder nature.
The savage irruptions of the Danes had now begun to
harass and vex England. The special fury of these pagan
rovers was directed against churches and monasteries, and
the monastery of Lindisfarne, exposed as it was to the sea,
was naturally an early victim to their attacks. Alcuin
condoles with deep sorrow with the persecuted monks.
" What church," he says, " in Britain can hope to escape,
if St. Cuthbert and so many saints could not defend themi
But perhaps this is a judgment for the sins of the brethren.
Avoid, then, luxury in dress ; avoid drunkenness, lustful-
ness, covetousness. God often chastens, and then restores
more than has been lost. Do thou, 0 holy father (Bishop
Higbald), be strenuous in preaching and working for Christ."^
Another letter, written in the same year (793) was ad
dressed to Ethelheard, Archbishop of Canterbury, being the
year of his consecration. It bids him think of " the great
and illustrious doctors, the hghts of the whole of Britain,"
who have preceded him in his ofla^ce. While he offers his
devotions in the midst of the relics of their most holy
bodies, he will certainly be aided by their prayers if,
unmoved by blandishments and unappalled by threatenings,
he strives to follow in their footsteps. ^
12. In the year after these letters were written was
held the great Council at Frankfort (794), in which the
Adoptivist heresy, which had sprung up in Spain, and the
decrees in favour of image-worship, which had been accepted
at Constantinople, were both condemned. At this Council
all the authorities agree that English bishops were present'
The records of the Councd of Frankfort are extremely
interesting, as it was, in fact, the first movement of the
Western Church to assert its independence of the East.
The vast power of Charlemagne, the control which he
exercised over the Pope, the earnestness with which he had
adopted the views advocated by Alcuin, availed to make
nearly three hundred prelates, including deputies from Eome,
1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 470. 2 lb,, iii. 472.
^ lb,, iii. 474. 4 /j.'jii. 481.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 85
set themselves in complete opposition to the arrangement
lately sanctioned both by Constantinople and by Eome as to
image-worship. By the action of this CouncD, which the
Pope afterwards sanctioned, the Eoman See was withdrawn
from the danger of falling into a position subordinate to
that of Constantinople. The Church of the West was, as
it were, founded. The Eoman Bishop, whose power was
growing less and less, received a sudden and enormous
accession of influence, though at the cost of his own con
sistency, as he now repudiated that which, a little before,
he had accepted. When it is considered how important a
part Alcuin bore in forming the mind of the emperor, and
determining the policy which brought about the Council of
Frankfort, and thus gave strength and vigour to the
Western Church, it must be admitted that the English
Church has had no small share in colouring the religious
history of Christendom.
13. The acquiescence of Ethelheard in the diminution
of the authority of the See of Canterbury made him a
very unpopular archbishop in Kent. About the year 796,
an attempt was made by Eadbert Proen '^ and the Kentish
nobles to shake off the yoke of Mercia ; and the archbishop,
a Mercian, and a partisan of Offa's rule, was made the
subject of attacks, so that he fled away from his See, and
sought a refuge with the Mercian king.^ The powerful
Offa died about the time that these troubles began, but
his successor, Kenulf, was after a time able to reduce
Kent to obedience, and to restore Ethelheard to his See.^
For his desertion of his post, Ethelheard is somewhat
severely taken to task in a letter addressed to him by
Alcuin, where he is recommended to do penance for this
lapse. At the same time, Alcuin speaks of it as most
desirable that the dignity of the See of Canterbury should
be restored, and the schism healed, not taking from Arch-
^ He was an apostate priest. He held the chief power for about
three years.
" Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 495, 510.
^ Egfrid, who had been made king in his father's lifetime, but died
before him, was desirous to do this had not death prevented him. —
Thomas de Elmham, p. 336.

86 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [ohap. vi.
bishop Higbert his position of Metropolitan so long as he
lived, but preparing that at his death things should return
to their old arrangement. ¦"-
1 4. Of the same mind in this matter was Kenulf, the
new king of Mercia. He saw that the opposition developed
against Ethelheard in Kent was a difficulty in the way of
upholding his authority, and that he obtained no sub
stantial benefit from the metropolitan position of Lichfield.
He therefore wrote to Pope Leo, magnifying the dignity
of the See of Canterbury, and adding, " The honour of this
dignity. King Offa, on account of the ill-will which he
entertained towards Jaenbert, the archbishop, and the
Kentish people, first strove to impair by dividing Canter
bury into two provinces, a proceeding which your pre
decessor, Adrian, confirmed, honouring the bishop of the
Mercians with a pall. We would desire your HoHness to
consider whether this be not a rending of the coat of
Christ, and whether it would not be well to restore the
former unity. "^ The Pope answers that "the establishment
of the position of Lichfield had been done at the desire of
King Offa, and of all his nobles, on account of the large
size of his dominions, and for many other good causes."^
He does not say anything definite as to restoring the
jurisdiction to Canterbury, but he reminds Kenulf, signifi
cantly, that Offa had promised very large gifts to the See
of St. Peter.
15. As matters did not progress very rapidly. Arch
bishop Ethelheard determined on a visit to Eome. He
had first held a conference with Eanbald, Archbishop of
York, and had ascertained, probably, that no opposition
would be offered by him to the return to the old state of
things. There is a letter from Alcuin to Ethelheard
touching this journey, in which, as in all his letters, he
speaks severely of the ostentation and luxury of the
English clergy, and trusts that they will not exhibit these
in foreign lands to the scandal of the Church. He also
promises Ethelheard his horse with a saddle suitable to an
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 518.
2 Willelm. Malmesb., De. Gest. iJeg-. —Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 522.
" Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 524.

734-803.] PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS. 87
ecclesiastical rider. Alcuin also wrote to the Emperor
Charles to recommend the archbishop to his protection.^
16. The journey of Ethelheard appears to have been
efficacious, as in the year following that in which it was
undertaken, the Pope addresses to him a letter giving to
him and his successors the authority " over all the churches
of the English, as it had been in old times," ^ and threaten
ing with deposition any who refused to concede this
authority to him. By another letter to King Kenulf, the
Pope informs him of what he has done, and declares that
he has fully restored to him the jurisdiction which had
been taken from his See."
17. Leo had thus undone that which his predecessor
Adrian had done by granting the pall to Bishop Higbert.
But there remained the fact that the erection of Lichfield
into a Metropolitan See was not the act of the Pope, but
of the English Council of Chelsea. If, therefore, the
arrangement was to be undone, it must be undone also by
an English Council Accordingly, in the year 803, in the
" celebrated place" called Clovesho, where so many councils
had been held, was assembled a meeting of Archbishop
Ethelheard, eleven bishops of the southern province, divers
abbots and presbyters, as well as King Kenulf and some
of his great men ; and the metropolitan dignity was
solemnly taken from Lichfield and restored to Canterbury.
The act of the Council recites what had been procured by
King Offa to the great detriment and injury of the See of
of St. Augustine, and declares that with the co-operation of
Pope Leo, Ethelheard, and all his fellow-bishops, and all
the dignitaries there assembled, had determined that an
Archiepiscopal See should never be allowed any more in
Lichfield, nor in any other place save Canterbury, and that
the pall granted by Pope Adrian to Lichfield availed
1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 532, 533.
" lb,, iii. 537. No mention is made of York, but it cannot have
been intended to change the relations then existing between Canter
bury and York.
2 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest. Reg. — Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 539.
See Thomas de Elmham (p. 336), who gives all the credit to
Ethelheard.

88 PERIOD OF THE THREE METROPOLITANS, [chap. vi.
nothing, inasmuch as it had been obtained by surreptitious
means and false representations.-' Thus did this dispute at
length terminate, and Lichfield subsided into its former

''&

place of one of the suffragans of the See of Canterbury.^
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 542.
" Archbishop Higbert appears to have resigned. He signs one of
the Acts of the Council as Higbert-^iios,

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 89

CHAPTER VIL
THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES.
803-925.
1. Supremacy of Wessex. 2. Orders for Reformation of Monasteries. 3.
Remonstrance of EngUsh Bishops against the Primate being obliged
to go to Rome for the Pall. 4. Quarrel between King Kenulf and
Archbishop Wulfred. 5. Council of Chelsea, 816. 6. Stoppage of
Church progress through Danish invasions. 7. The Dotations of
Bthehvulf. 8. Destruction of Monasteries and Chiurohes by Danes.
9. Martyrdom of King Edmimd. 10. Ceolnoth introduces Secular
Clerks at Canterbury. 11. Settlement of the Danes, and Baptism of
their Chief. 12. The Ecclesiastical Laws of King Alfred. 13. The
Laws agreed upon between him and Guthrun. 14. Alfred's account
of the English Chnrch in the Preface to Gregory's Pastorale. 15.
Other books translated by King Alfred. 16. The learned men
patronised by Alfred. 17. The new Bishops — Pope Formosus and
Archbishop Plegmund. 18. The Church under Edward the Elder.
19. The Laws of Eling Athelstan.
1. During the earher part of the ninth century the supre
macy which had been long enjoyed by Mercia is transferred
to Wessex, and Egbert, by a series of brilliant victories over
the other English kings, as also over the Britons of Corn
wall and Wales, becomes fully established in the state and
honour of the eighth Bretwalda, or supreme governor of
the island of Britain.
2. The history of the Church during this period is some
what obscure. No doubt, in the councils which were so
constantly held, remedial measures for the evils and scandals
of the time were devised, though often, probably, but im
perfectly carried out. In that same Council of Clovesho,
which had terminated the metropolitan state of Lichfield, a
remedy was sought to be applied to the crying abuses which,
by the acknowledgment of all, prevailed in the monasteries.
Secular persons were no longer to be allowed to preside as

90 THE PERIOD OE THE DANISH TROUBLES, [chap. vii.
abbots, and the monasteries were aU to observe a rule, not,
as it appears, a uniform one, but as it is expressed, " such
an one as is contained in the privileges granted by the
Apostolic See, or was delivered by apostolical men in the
beginning of the infant Church in sacred canons, or even
such as was appointed by the special possessors of the
monasteries." This constitution is signed by 12 bishops,
25 abbots, 41 presbyters, 1 archdeacon, and 4 deacons; so
that from it we may gain a pretty clear idea of the compo
sition of the ecclesiastical council of the time.^
3. In the year 805 died Ethelheard, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and was succeeded by Wulfred, who had been
his archdeacon. After his election and consecration, the
clergy in synod assembled addressed a letter of remonstrance
to Pope Leo on the custom which had been growing up of
the English Metropolitans being obliged to go to Eome to
solicit the pall from the Pope. They point out to him that
Augustine, though only a priest when sent to England, was
not required to go to Eome for consecration, but to the
French bishop Of Aries, and that the pall was afterwards
sent to him. In like manner, by the directions of St
Gregory, when a Metropolitan died, the other who survived
was to consecrate a successor, and Gregory promised that
palls should be duly sent, as they had been to Paulinus,
consecrated by Justus, and Honorius, consecrated by Paul
inus, as also to the three bishops consecrated by Augustine,
who in turn occupied the Metropohtan See of Canterbury,
viz. Laurentius, Melhtus, and Justus. They desire that
the ancient custom should be preserved, and the Enghsh
Metropolitans freed from the burden which had been im
posed upon them.'' In consequence of this remonstrance
the pall was sent to Wulfred in the following year.
4. By a letter addressed to the Emperor Charles by
Pope Leo, in the year 808, we find that the Metropolitans
both of Canterbury and York ^ were on bad terms with
their respective kings. The Pope solicits the help of the
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 546-7. There are numerous indications
that the Benedictine rule was not observed in the English monasteries
before the Conquest.
' Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 559. s ji^ j;j^ 552.

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 91
Emperor to heal the quarrel ; but, in the case at least of
the southern Metropolitan, it was not healed, but went on
increasing, until at length it culminated in one of the
strangest and most obscure episodes in our early Church
history, -viz. the infliction of a six years' interdict on the
southern province. The learned editors of the Councils of
Great Britain think that the origin of the quarrel may be
traced " to a similar series of circumstances to that which
caused the establishment of the archbishopric of Lichfield
— the jealousy felt by the Mercian king towards the Kentish
Primate, which arose after the deaths of Ethelheard and
Cuthred, and was probably intensified by the dislike of the
friendship of the archbishop with the emperor." ^ King
Kenulf seized upon the Kentish monasteries of South
Minster and Eeculver, which properly belonged to the
archbishop, and by representations made at Eome ha-ving
gained the Pope to his side, was able to cause the suspension
of the archiepiscopal authority, and, it would seem, of all
ministerial functions through the land for six years. " The
whole nation was deprived of the benefits of primordial
authority, and of the ministry of holy baptism, for six
years." ^ About midway in this period there was held a
council in London, when King Kenulf met the archbishop
and offered to be reconciled to him, to set him right with
the Pope, and, it would seem, to restore the monasteries
which he had seized, if he would give to him a town of his
(called Leogenerhamme) and the sum of 120 pounds of
denaru. Should the king fail in his conditions, the money
to be restored. On the other hand, if the archbishop did
not consent, he was threatened with perpetual exile, and
the loss of all his goods. Wulfred was very unwilling to
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 587. Yet it is remarkable that Kenulf
was the person who moved in the matter of doing away the arch
bishopric of Lichfield.
^ Canterbury Cartulary; Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 602. "It is
difficult," say the editors of the Co%mdls, "to believe that so strange
and unprecedented an event as a virtual' interdict should have taken
place immentioned by any of our annalists ; but the e-vidence for it
depends on an original contemporary Act and ancient version of the
same recorded in the Cartularies of Canterbuiy and Worcester."—
H. and S., iii. 587.

92 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES, [chap, vil
come to terms, distrusting the king utterly ; but he was
over-persuaded by the chief persons of the land, who ear
nestly desired the reconciliation. He yielded, therefore ;
but as he had expected. King Kenulf held fast to his monas
teries, did not take any steps to remove the interdict, and
altogether falsified his promises. The dispute was only
terminated by the death of Kenulf in 822, and even then
his daughter Cwendritha, an abbess, continued to hold the
archiepiscopal estates until she was finally obliged to give
them up by the Council of Clovesho in 825.^ Thus ended
this singular quarrel. As to the interdict, it does not seem
clear whether it was inflicted by the Pope at the request of
Kenulf, or by Kenulf himself with the consent, or at least
connivance, of the Pope. The latter, however, appears best
to accord with the expressions used in relation to it.
5. Before the quarrel between the king and the arch
bishop had become strongly developed, a council was held
at Chelsea, in which the Mercian king, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and the southern prelates, were present (816).
The canons enacted at this council contain some points worth
noting. Canon 2 ordains that all churches, when buUt,
should be consecrated by the bishop with the sprinkling of
holy water, and all other ceremonies prescribed in the Book
of Ministrations;^ that the Eucharist, with the relics, should
be enclosed in a case and preserved in the church, and that
there should be a representation (depictum), either on the
walls or on the altar, of the saints to whom the church was
dedicated. Canon 5 ordains that the Scoti (Scotch or Irish
priests) should not be allowed to minister, as their orders
were uncertain. Canon 10 enacts that on the death of a
bishop the tenth part of his goods should be given in alms
to the poor; also, that every Englishman who has been
adjudged to slavery to the bishop should be liberated ; that
in each church in the diocese 30 psalms should be sung for
the soul of the deceased ; that each abbot and head of a
rehgious society should cause 600 psalters' and 120 masses
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 603.
2 This is a reference to the service for dedication contained in
Egbert's Pontifical (ed. for Surtees Society).
* Psalterios — Mr. Johnson translates Psalms, It is singular to ob-

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 93
to be said for his soul, should liberate three men, giving
each three shillings ; that all religious persons should fast
for a day, and for thirty days at the seventh canonical hour
sing a paternoster for him, and on the thirtieth day of his
obit feast in the refectory.i
6. Beornwulf, who had succeeded Kenulf in the kingdom
of Mercia, was more disposed to respect the Church and
its oflacers than his predecessor had been. Not only did
he at once on his accession bring about the termination
of the dispute which had caused so much trouble in the
Church, but he also made liberal grants of land to the
archbishop, moved " by the love of God and the vener
able rank of the prelate, and by the grace of consecration
which he had received from him." ^ But Beornwulf was
but a sub-regulus or tributary king. The real power was
in the hands of Egbert, king of the West Saxons. There
is but little on record of church matters during his rule,
though some grants of lands made by him to churches are
preserved. He was engaged in incessant war. During
the last years of his reign the attacks of the Danes were
continual, and they were ever gaining in strength. They
were sometimes joined by the Welsh, who still nourished
an undying hatred to the Anglo-Saxon invader. Under
Egbert's son Ethelwulf, the country suffered still more.
London was stormed and pillaged. Eochester and Canter
bury shared the same fate. Ethelwulf fought vigorously
against the heathen invaders, and in the year 851 gained
such important successes over them, that there seemed a
hope of a period of tranquillity.
7. It was a few years after this, viz. in 855, that
King Ethel-wnlf made that grant or arrangement which is
frequently said by historians to be the origin of tithes and
glebe — in fact, to be the formal endowment by the State
serve that the singing of psalms is put upon just the same footing as the
saying of masses.
' Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 579. The curious word beltidum is used
here. It denotes the bell-time, or the time of ringing the bell for the
prayers of the canonical hours, and not a " belt of paternosters," as it
is somewhat absurdly translated by Johnson, Eng. Canons, i. 307.
^ Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 590.

94 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES, [chap.vii.
of the Church of England. AU the Chroniclers say that
he gave " the tenth of the whole kingdom, or the tenth
of all his possessions," to God and the Church for ever,
free from all exactions and impost.' The fact of the gift
of Ethelwulf is undoubted, but what did he give ? He
could not make a new dotation of the tenth of lands and
goods, inasmuch as this had been given long before, was
probably introduced by Augustine, was certainly regulated
by Theodore, was accepted as part of the law of the Church
by the Council of Chelsea (787), and had been given by
King Offa. But what Ethelwulf seems to have done, was
to enact by a formal State ordinance that which was pre
viously the accepted custom and law of the Church, and
at the same time give the tenth of his own lands and
possessions. Before this probably the Church had but
little power of enforcing that which was hers by law and
custom. Ethelwulf supplied this power, and made tithes,
which had always been the law of the Church, become now
also the law of the State as well.^ It is said that the
king himself was an ordained priest,* so that this care
for the interests of the clergy would be all the more
natural in him. Soon after making this grant, Ethelwulf
went to Eome. His absence gave occasion to an unnatural
conspiracy of his son Ethelbald against him, in which
Alstan, bishop of Sherborne, took part. The forgiving king
resigned part of his dominions to his son. His Christian
charity was further manifested by an ordinance, that on
every tenth hide on his estates a poor man should be
clothed and kept.* He is also said to have built a
^ Decimam totius regni sui partem — decuma-vit de omni possessi-
one suS, — deoimavit totum regni sui imperium — regni totam terram
decuma"vlt — decimam omnium hydarum concessit — decimam regni.sui
contulit. " See the discussion of this point in Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 636,
and the quotations from Kemble. I have not exactly followed his
conclusions. Dr. Hook says : — " He devoted to religious and charit
able uses a tenth part of his private estates, and released from all
payments due to him as king, a tenth part of the folklands or lands
unfranchised." — Lives of the Archbishops, i. 287.
8 Collier, i. 363. « Willelm. Malmesb., De Gestis Beg,, ii. 113.

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 95
monastery at Eome " to the glory of God and the
honour of St. Mary, His holy mother, and there to have
placed an English school, which ever by night and by
day should serve God for our people." ' But the most
important matter which Ethelwulf did at Eome was the
causing his youngest son Alfred, who had been previously
despatched to the holy city for instruction and information,
to be crowned by the Pope as king,* thus marking him
out as the successor whom he desired, and leading his
mind to the contemplation of the high destiny which was
before him.
8. Before, however, Alfred reached the throne, the
Church and people of England were to suffer direful
calamities. One after another all the great monasteries
which had risen up in the central and northern parts
of England were destroyed by the fury of the Danish
invaders, the monks slain, and the churches burnt. Thus
Bardney, Croyland, Peterborough, Ely, and Eamsey perished,
and in the north the famous monastery of Lindisfarne
and all the religious houses of Northumbria were destroyed.
Winchester was burnt, as London, Canterbury, and Eoch
ester had previously been. York was captured, and in
the words of the old chronicle, " there were strife and
sorrow over England." ^ The fury of the Danes was
speciaUy directed against everything connected with the
Christian religion, while the English Christians gave many
examples of heroical fortitude and constancy in the pro
fession of their faith, in spite of the heathen fury of their
assailants. 9. Of these, none was more remarkable than that
shown by Edmund, king of the East Angles, who, being
captured by the Danes, was treated with every possible
cruelty, in order to make him deny his faith. But he
steadfastly refused to yield, and gloried in declaring himself
a Christian. He was then tied to a tree and made a
mark for the arrows of the Danish soldiers ; but nothing
could shake his constancy, until at length the Danish chief-
^ Charter printed in Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 647. Said by Kemble
to be spurious.
^ A.-S. Chronicle. " Ib, p. 61.

96 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TRODBLES. [chap.vii.
tain, wearied out, ordered him to be beheaded (870).
A later king of Danish race, who had embraced the
religion which his progenitors so much hated, reared
in honour of the royal martyr a splendid monastery at
the place which still bears his name.^
10. During the ravages of the Danes in which Kent
especially suffered, as the invaders had established a
regular camp on the Isle of Sheppey, Archbishop
Ceolnoth appears to have escaped to Eome, as the chron
icle reports that he died there in 870.^ It is recorded
of this archbishop that he introduced secular clerks into
the monastic establishment of Christ Church, Canterbury,
the monks having dwindled down to the number of five,
and the flrst care of his successor Ethered, who had
himself been a monk in that monastery,^ was to drive
out these intruders.
11. At length a deliverer was raised up for the per
secuted English. Alfred, who succeeded to the throne of
Wessex in 871, after several years of struggles -with the
invaders, in which he sometimes was reduced to the
utmost straits, at length in 878 defeated them in a
great battle at Ethandune. The immediate results of this
victory were such as to cause a complete revolution in
the state of England. Large portions of territory were
now conceded to the Danes as settlers, and their principal
men adopted Christianity. The territory which they occu
pied was called Danelagh, and appears to have gradually
extended to the whole district north and east of the Watling
Street. Guthrun, their chief, had at his baptism Alfred
as his godfather, and assumed the name of Athelstan.
Thus somewhat of quiet was given to the land, though
the incursions of the foreign and heathen Danes did not
cease. 12. It was about the period of the settling of the
Danes as dwellers in the land, that King Alfred pubhshed
his ecclesiastical laws. They form a very remarkable
document. The code is prefaced by the Ten Command-
1 Palgrave, Hist, of England, i. 117. ^ A.-S. Chronicle, s. a.
^ Not of St. Augu.stine's, as Dr. Hook states, Archbishops,
i. 298.

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 97
ments and a number of the judicial laws of Moses from
the Book of Exodus. " It is not easy," says Mr. Johnson,
" to say with what view King Alfred put this scriptural
preface to his laws, if it were not to show his great esteem
for God's Word. There is no hint given that he expected
his people should make the judicial precepts of Moses
the rule of their actions." ^ The purpose, indeed, is evi
dently not to set them forth as laws, for the king adds
immediately that Christ came not to break or repeal these
Commandments, but to enlarge them with everything that
is good, and He taught mercifulness and humility. Then
foUows a short account of the Councd of Jerusalem, and the
directions given to the GentUes as to the ceremonial law.
Then it is said that since that time Christian men have
held many synods, and appointed mulcts or punishment for
various crimes ; of these Alfred the king had made a col
lection, selecting those which he thought right, and making
divers alterations, and these, with the consent and approval
of his counsellors, he now set forth for men to observe.
(1.) The first law is that every one be compelled to observe
strictly his oath and covenant. (2.) The second establishes
sanctuary in a monastery for three nights. (3.) The third
appoints fines for breach of suretyship — five pounds with
the king, three with the archbishop. (4.) The fourth
aUows sanctuary in a church for seven nights, but no food
is to be given to the fugitive ; and it enacts that " if any man
betake himself to a church for any crimes whatever, that
were before unknown, and there confess them in God's
name, half the mulct shall be forgiven him." (5.) The fifth
enacts that if any man steal anything in the church, he not
only forfeits the mulct, but the hand with which he stole ; if
he will ransom his hand, he must pay his weregild. Double
fines for thefts on Sunday, Christmas, Easter, Holy Thursday,
the Lent fast, and the Perambulation days. (6.) For
stealing a nun from a monastery 120 shillings were to be
paid, half to the king, half to the bishop and the lord of
the monastery whose property the nun was ; neither she
nor her child could inherit property. (7.) For adultery,
120 shillings, but if the woman be of low degree, less.
''¦English Canons, i. 113.
H

98 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES, [chap. vii.
(8, 10, 13.) Unchaste actions towards a woman of low
degree to be punished by small fine, a woman of higher
rank more,i a nun double. (9.) To fight or draw a weapon
in presence of an archbishop incurs a fine of 130 shillings,^
in presence of a bishop or alderman, 120. (12.) If a priest
slay another man, all his property to be forfeited, and he
to be degraded, then to be expelled his monastery unless
his lord will compound. (1 4.) " If any man implead
another of a breach of promise to God, and will accuse him
for that he has not performed somewhat that he had
plighted, let him first give his oath on it in four churches,
and the other, if he will justify himself, let him do the
same in twelve." (17.) Burglary in the king's borough to
be fined 120 shillings; in the archbishop's, 90 ; in the
bishop's or aldermen's, 60. In Lent the mulct to be
doubled. For tearing down the holy veil in Lent,* 120
shillings. (20.) Holidays to be given to free servants, "but
not to slaves and drudges " — twelve days at Christmas ;
first day of Lent (or first Sunday in Lent) ; St. Gregory's
mind-day (March 12); seven days before Easter, seven
after ; one day at St Peter and St. Paul's tide (June 29) ;
a week before St. Mary's mass in harvest (August 15) ; one
day at All-Saints ; and to slaves are given the four Wed
nesdays in Ember weeks for their own use.*
13. Besides these laws which King Alfred published for
the general direction of his people in matters connected
with religion, there was a certain special agreement made
between him and Guthrun, the newly converted Dane, as to
the religious government of these neophytes in the faith.
These laws are curious as indicating the first restraints put
upon a violent and fierce people, nurtured in heathenism.^
1 This distinction appears in all the laws, and seems entirely opposed
to all notions of even-handed justice.
^ That is, il greater fine than for the ravishing a nun, or commit
ting adultery.
^ This appears to have been a custom lately introduced, of putting
up a veil between the church and the altar in Lent, so that the people
could not see the mass. It was much resented. — Johnson, i. 326.
* Johnson's English Canons, i. 310-330.
6 They were republished in 907 as the Laws of Edward and Guthrun.

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 99
The first assures peace within the walls of the church. The
second orders a fine for apostasy from the faith. The
third appoints fines to priests, for crimes or for failure in
their duties, but if a priest commits murder he is to be
reserved to the bishop's doom. The fourth appoints fines
for incest. The fifth declares that a man condemned to
death should not be denied shrift. The sixth authorises
ecclesiastical dues, and prescribes the punishment for mur
der. The seventh, eighth, and ninth forbid, under penalties,
the sale of goods or work on Sundays or fast-days, and also
the use, on that day, of purgation by oaths or ordeal, and exe
cutions. By the tenth a condemned malefactor, if he have
lost a limb and sur-vived the third night, may be spared. By
the eleventh witches and open whores are to be driven away.
By the twelfth a man in orders or a stranger committing a
capital crime may be aUowed to make satisfaction."^
14. But the laws which Ejug Alfred promulgated for
guidance in ecclesiastical matters do not represent the
whole, or indeed the chief benefits which he conferred upon
the Church. A far greater boon were the schools which he
established, and the books which with his o-wn pen he ren
dered into the Enghsh tongue. From the Preface to one
of these, the Pastoral of St. Gregory, may be seen, as
depicted by the king, the extreme need which existed of
some educational help. After speaking of the enlighten
ment which existed in the English Church in former days,
the king goes on, " So clean was it ruined amongst the
English people, that there were very few on this side the
Humber who could understand their service in English ; and
I think there were not many beyond Humber. So few such
there were that I cannot think of a single one to the south
of the Thames when I began to reign. . . We have loved
only the name of being Christians, and very few the duties.
When I thought of all this, then I thought also how I saw
it before it was all spoiled and burnt, how the churches
throughout all the English nation were filled with treasures
and books, and also with a great multitude of God's ser
vants ; and yet they knew very little of the fruit of the
Some conjecture that there was a second Guthrun, but there seems no
ground for this. ' Johnson, English Canons, i. 332.

\

E DANISH TROUBLES, [chap. vii.
100 THE PERIonf^*^ understand nothing of them,
j written in their own language.
books, because thl^^ to ™e better th^.we trans-
because they -Trer^^em most needfi^e, '^ ^'^'i "^"n tg*
• ¦ • Therefore it V_pKainan, 12"^ -..^ '^ <^ mderstand,
late some books whr^roperty ^(^,^\a^ y^'^.^ ^ ""^ ^^^"^
'erstand into that YP^^ed ^\^ ^ <S?^t:
cause aU the vontH-) "^^ \^V^
"- of free men,'^5toGod^^'y>
iselves, may be pjmed ^o^^S^^%^^
¦fc-nglish writinff -Ais oath on> =P ^ i\

late some books whifroperty to>'^^^ ^<'^ . m tie Unghsli
understand into that expelled '^^ «, x^^™ 'o mamtain
and cause aU the vontH-) "i?)> „ \^ vj,! they ran read
nation of free men sv^ ^o God\ '%^»'^ -^'bteacli fctlier
themselves, may be'p/med somr^^^i<>A(mt]aiiiSii
well English writing ;,/his oath on> ^^^ ^J^ how the leam-
m the Latin tongue d justify himse'''^i2,«'°"^'*^cayed through
ordain to higher de/Burglary in theSg-.,- , , ^'''^.read English
mg of the Latin la/; in the archbisK^^°^^'^ land manifold
the English peop* 60. 'In LeDV^+TIgM the book
witmg, then T -%^Y> r- - -f^^^ 1^*0 ^t ™d for
aiFairs of +' ¦-'°^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ Pastorale, sometiM ^^^^^ .^^j
whicJ' ) aometimes meaning for meaning, as II ^^. ^^
i-'iegmund my archbishop, and of Asser mw \ ,
of Grimbald my presbyter, and of John ¦ ^,\ ' .j
After I had then learnt it so that I undersm . , ., . ,
as my understanding could allow me, I traift. 1 1 s ;„
English ; and I will send one copy to each hr / .
T J J I. 4.1: • .-ife of the value
my kingdom, and on each one there is a still , ,
/cti. jTi,-j • n J! , 1 «at no one take
01 fifty mancuses ; and I bid m God s name tl* " ,
the handle from these books, nor the books l\^™. ,
ster, unknown, so long as there are any learF °^ ^'^ / ' t
(thanks to God) there are now everywheret,' . ,,
would that they remain always in their plT *''^^' ,
bishop win have them with hun, or it \,e FkrA somnvihm
until somebody -write another copy." ^ L v tv,
15. Besides the Pastoral .afcr-S^ GrePW- *''^7*f
books translated by King Alfred wi ) ^^^ Chronicle 01
Orosius, containing a history of the wl '''"'' " '^e Mi century,
and incorporating the accounts of tL„ a "'^'^^™ voyagers,
Andher and Wulfstan, which had IA S'^^" ^ ^^f [^
personally; (2) Bede's History oAg\trod ^°S^f .^ ^^T'
(3) The Sohloquies of St. Augustio wi\ s. boethius de Oon-
solatione Philosophise; (5) Tho-<ex...lFlS^"'^ "^^'^
^ King Alfred's Preface to Gregorii Pastorale, WrigJ ^ rans.—
Lit., p. 397. / 7

803-925.] THE PERIOD OE THE DANISH TROUBLES. 101
unfinished, and (probably) some other parts of the Scripture.
He also composed a Manual, containing prayers and psalms,
historical anecdotes and observations. A Book of Proverbs,
jl|;ributed to him, and a version of .^Slsop's Fables, are
jjjDbably neither of them genuine.^ So large an amount
jjj literary work, done under such great difficulties, and in
jjjje midst of so many military and ci-vil labours, is indeed
,,jGonishing. 16. But not alone did King Alfred furnish the instru
ments for the education of his subjects, he was also careful
to provide the machinery by which such instruments might
be applied and made efiectual, by the schools which he
founded, and the learned men whom he brought from
various quarters to work in them. Among these latter
may be noted Grimwald, who was made abbot of the newly
restored monastery of Winchester, and a learned priest of
the nation of the Old -Saxons, named John, to whom
Alfred is also said to have given an abbey.^ Plegmund,
who had been leading a hermit's life in the neighbourhood
of Chester, he called forth from his solitude, to take upon
himself the metropolitan dignity of Canterbury (890).
Other learned men were called to his court, and promoted
by him, as — -Bishop Werfrith, the Abbot St. Neot, and
the priests Ethelstan and Werwulf. Especially is to be
noted one, whose name is intimately connected with that
of Alfred, as ha-ving had attributed to him the life of the
famous king, namely, Asser, abbot of St. David's,'' who was
promoted to the bishopric of Sherborne. A man more
famous than any of these, Joannes Scotus, surnamed
Erigena, cannot be shown to have been one of Alfred's body of
1 Biog. Ut,, p. 395.
^ Biog. IM., p. 392. Grimwald was a monk of St. Bertin, in
France. The See of Canterbury, when vacated by the death of
Ethered, was offered to him by Alfred. He declined it. — Hook's
Archbishops, i. 322.
^ There is great doubt as to whether Asser, the bishop, was in
reality the author of the Life of Alfred which bears his name (see
Mr. Wright in Biog, Lit,, s, v,) The Welsh Church was now completely
in communion with the Church of England, as is shown by the
application of Cameliac, Bishop of Llanrlaff, to Archbishop Ethered
for consecration. — Hook, i. 310.

102 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES, [ohap. vii.
learned men. His name has been confounded with that of
the other John mentioned above ; but as he was by birth
an Irishman, and by adoption a Frenchman, the English
Church can scarcely take credit for his great reputation.^
The staff of learned teachers which Alfred had thus col
lected he used for instructing the young nobles in a school
which he established, in which instruction was given both
in Latin and English. But there is no sufiicient authority
for asserting that Alfred established this school at Oxford.
17. Under the fostering care of Alfred the Church of
England advanced greatly in learning and vigour. But
some evil consequences resulted from the higher standard
required by the king in those who were to govern the
Church. From the lack of suitable persons to fill them, a
large number of Sees were left vacant. This drew forth a
letter from Pope Formosus, who declared that he had
formed the intention of putting the nation under an in
terdict, but on the representations of Archbishop Pleg
mund had changed his intention. He desired that they
would speedily proceed to carry out the needful reforms.
It was not, however, till some years after this letter had
been sent, and after the death of Alfred, probably in the
year 905, that Archbishop Plegmund consecrated seven
new bishops ; so that the statement made by Wilham of
Malmesbury, and repeated by numerous writers, that the
Pope constrained the king and bishops of England to act
by placing the land under an interdict, is unfounded.
Pope Formosus died in 896, and it was certainly not till
ten years after this date that the new bishops were con-
secrated.2 The names of the prelates consecrated were
Fridstan, for Winchester ; Werestan, for Sherborne ; Ken-
ulph, for Dorchester ; Beornock, for Selsey ; Athelm, for
1 For an account of Joannes Scotus, see Notes and Illustrations to
this Chapter.
2 See Johnson's English Canons, i. 336, and Mr. Baron's notes ad
loc. It is a very obscure passage of history. Brompton says that the
seven bishops were all for West- Saxony, and were consecrated in the
twenty-second year- of King Alfred (ed. Twysden, p. 812) ; Gervase
of Canterbury, that they were for all England, and were consecrated
under King Edward (ed. Twysden, p. 1644).

803-925.] THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES. 103
Wells ; Eadulph, for Crediton ; and Athelstan, for Eams-
bury, in Wiltshire.' But it must remain at least doubtful
whether all these prelates were consecrated at the same
time. 18. The erection of the new sees of Wells, Crediton,
and Eamsbury, by Edward, the son and successor of
Alfred, indicates that he, like his father, was zealous for
the well-being of the Church. He is also recorded to have
confirmed the ecclesiastical laws of King Alfred. But
during the constant wars in which he and his successor,
Athelstan, were engaged with the Danes, the progress
which King Alfred so eagerly desired was much impeded.
The tenth century is, nevertheless, remarkable for great
developments both in Church and State. It is the " age of
the chroniclers, and abounds in legal and disciplinary
enactments in the native tongue." ^
19. In the year 925, Athelstan, the son of Edward the
Elder, succeeded to the throne ; and in that year (or soon
after) certain ecclesiastical laws were set forth by him,
" with the advice of Wulfelm, his archbishop, and other
his bishops." (1.) The first of these enacts that all the
king's reeves and aldermen shall pay tithes of all the royal
possessions, and that nothing shall be exempted. Also
that from every two of his farms one poor man shall have
food and clothing given to him, and one man be set at liberty.
(2.) The second, that those who break into churches shall
make satisfaction " as the doom books direct." (3.) The
third decrees punishment for witchcraft and magical arts.
(4.) The fourth regulates the coining places which were
allowed to the bishops.' (5.) The fifth prescribes the
1 See Mr. Griffiths' Notes to Inett, chap, xviii., who shows that
William of Malmesbury substituted the word Cornubiensem for Coi--
vinensem, which is the word in the MS. from which he copied, .ind
means Ramsbury. Mr. Griffiths is of opinion that there is no sufficient
evidence for the consecration of these seven bishops at one time by
Plegmund.— Inett, Ch, Hist., i. 376, note 1.
' Stubbs's Const, Hist., i. 240.
3 " At Canterbury let there be seven coiners, four of the king's.
two of the bishop's, one ofthe abbot's. At Rochester three, two of the
king's, one of the bishop's." — Johnson's Eng, Canons, i. 343. Coins
of the archbi.shop's of a much earlier date than this are known.

104 THE PERIOD OF THE DANISH TROUBLES, [chap. vii.
religious ceremonies to be used by the man who goes to
ordeal before his trial. (6.) The sixth forbids marketing
on Sundays. (7.) The seventh ordains that a perjured
person shall not be admitted afterwards to take an oath,
nor be buried in consecrated ground.-' The above laws
were enacted at a council held at a place called Gretan-
leu, supposed to be Grantley, near Andover. Other
ecclesiastical laws were afterwards set forth by this
king in councils which he held at Exeter, Feversham,
Thunderfield, and London. Some of these are rather of
the character of general exhortations to good living than
laws, as for instance — " It concerns priests in their diocese
diligently to help every one as to what is right, and not to
suffer, if they can help it, one Christian to hurt another ;
and that every master be compassionate and condescending
to his servants in the most indulgent manner that is pos
sible. The slave and the freeman are equally dear to the
Lord God who bought them, and bought them all with the
same price ; and we are aU of necessity servants to God,
and He will judge us in the same manner that we on the
earth judged them over whom we had a judicial power" ^
Others prescribe that in every cathedral fifty psalms should
be sung for the king every Friday. Others prescribe the
weregild or life-value of the different personages of the
realm. An archbishop was valued as an earl, a bishop as
an ealdorman.^ From the meagre notices of Church affairs to be gathered
during the troublous period of the Danish wars, we pass
to a period more full of interest, and in which Churchmen
of greater importance and power perform their parts.
1 Johnson's Eng. Canons, i. 337-345.
¦¦* Johnson, i. 350. s jjj^ j_ 352.

chap. VII.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

105

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

JOANNES SCOTUS, NAMED
ERIGENA.
Joannes Scotus, surnamed Eri
gena to mark from what part of the
Scotic race he sprang, is one of the
grandest figures in the early literary
history of Eui'ope. We know no
thing of his antecedents ; he appears
first in history at the court of
Charles the Bald about the middle
of the ninth century. He was the
tutor, friend, and literary director
of the emperor. Possessing an ac
curate knowledge of Greek, he trans
lated into Latin the writings of Diony-
sius the Areopagite, and adopted
much of the fanciful mysticism of
the " celestial hierarchy. " His
speculations in philosophy led him
to adopt opinions very sirailar to
those which are now described as
pantheistical ; but he did not con
sciously or intentionally reject the
doctrines of Christianity. On the
contrary, he defended many of them
with great skill and power, as, for
instance, the doctrine of free wUl
against the fatalism of Gotteschalous,
and that of the spiritual or trans
cendental character of the presence
in the Eucharist against the mate

rialist theory of Paschasius Rad-
bert. Berengar of Tours, in his
treatise on the Eucharist, constantly
appeals to this work of Erigena
as expressing his views. He tell us
that it was -written at the request of
Charles the Bald. The book was
condemned to be burned, together
with Berengar's writings, by the
Council of Vercellfe, and is generally
supposed to be lost ; but there ia
good reason for believing that it is
the identical treatise which now
passes under the name of Ratramn
or Bertram (see Labbe and Cossart,
Condi,) Erigena's great work is
called the Division of Nature, an
abstruse and difficult treatise, which,
lUce some of the works of the school
men, affects to treat the whole ex
tent of knowable matter. In this
there are many dangerous speeula-
lations, as for instance, that as all
being is centred in God, sin and
rebellion have no proper being, and
cannot be rightly spoken of as exist
ing — they are mere negations. This
might easily be used as a prop for
Antinomianism. The character and
-writings of Erigena have been inves
tigated -with much care by Mr. Mau
rice in his History of Philosophy.

106 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap, viii

CHAPTER VIIL
THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE SBCULAES AND REGULARS.
942-988.
1. Overthrow of the Monastic System. 2. Archbishop Odo. 3. Odo's
Canons. 4. His zeal for high ecclesiastical views. 5. Triumph of
the extreme Churchmen. 6. Dunstan succeeds to the Primacy. 7.
Bishop Ethelwold at Winchester. 8. Bishop Oswald at Worcester. 9.
Establishment of the Benedictine rule. 10. Practice of clerical matri
mony. 11. Gradual displacement of married clergy. 12. Ascend
ency of the monks during the reign of Edgar. 13. Contest revived
on death of Edgar. 14. The Council of Calue. 16. The latter days of
Dunstan. 16. Canons of the reign of Edgar. 17. Penitential Canons.
1. One effect of the prolonged troubles inflicted upon Eng
land by the Danish wars had been to raise the authority
and influence of the secular clergy as compared with the
monastic. In its first beginnings the English Church
had been eminently monastic. Clergy unconnected with
monasteries scarcely figure at all in its annals.^ But the
coenobitic life had developed into grievous corruptions and
abuses, such as are found recorded in the pages of Bede
and Alcuin. There was no uniform restraining authority
to check the tendency towards license within the religious
house, no sufficient protection for it from influences from
without. The strict rule of Benedict had been introduced
into but few, perhaps none, of the English houses. The
rules varied infinitely, and sometimes seem to have been
merely the capricious will of the proprietor of the house.
Upon the societies thus enfeebled by luxury and careless
living had come the great storm of the Danish invasions.
Monasteries being the most prominent bulwarks of the
Church which these heathen despised and hated, and being
for the most part rich, were especially the object of their
' Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 226.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 107
attacks. Thus, in the Northumbrian houses in the north ;
in the great Mercian houses of Bardney, Croyland, and
Peterborough ; in East Anglia and in the south, the murder
of the monks, the spoiling and burning of the houses and
churches, had been perpetrated. As the Danes receded, or
subsided into Christianity, there were but few religious
houses left to take a position of influence, while the secular
clergy being more easily replaced, and having been prob
ably more fortunate in evading the attacks of the invaders,
stepped into the places of the regulars, whether monks or
canons regular, and occupied the houses and lands which
had been vacated by them, but without adopting their rule.
Thus we find an archbishop of Canterbury placing secular
clerks in Christ Church monastery, because there were " but
few monks remaining to do God service," ' and at Win
chester, Worcester, and throughout the north, secular
canons had stepped into the place of regulars. The bishops,
the representatives of the secular clergy, had become more
powerful in the land by performing secular offices both
civU and mihtary. The clergy were generally married,
and abundance of charters providing for the transmission
of ecclesiastical estates to the direct heirs of the body ^
prove that this was a recognised and legal state of things.
From this condition of things the tenth century -witnessed
a great recoil in the Church of England. This was brought
about mainly by the energy and power of one man — the
abbot, statesman, and archbishop Dunstan,' — but inaugu
rated, and in its commencement -vigorously pushed forward,
by the resolute and unscrupulous action of Archbishop Odo.
2. Odo was born of Danish parents, and disinherited
and driven from his home because he manifested a disposi
tion to hsten to Christian teachers. He was protected and
educated by one of King Alfred's nobles, and is said to
have learned with remarkable facility both Greek and
Latin.* He was baptized and ordained subdeacon, and
after a decent interval, deacon and priest. He then accom-
' A.-S. Chron. s. «.. 870. ^ Stubbs, Const, Hist., i. 224.
' For Dunstan's early life, see Notes and Illustrations to this
Chapter. ^ Osbern, Vita Odonis, printed in Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 79.

108 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. viii.
panied his patron to Eome, where his devotion to the
clerical life was confirmed.' He became weU known to
King Edward and afterwards to King Athelstan, and was
by the latter appointed to the bishopric of Eamsbury, which
had been cut out of the See of Sherborne. He was with
King Athelstan in the battle of Brunanburgh, and rendered
him remarkable assistance.^ Two years after his accession
(942) King Edmund appointed Bishop Odo to the See of
Canterbury, vacant by the death of Wulf helm. Odo's first
step was in strong contrast to the character which had pre
viously distinguished the bishop. " Forsaking the party of
the secular clergy, to which he had hitherto belonged, he
declared that no one was fit to be an archbishop of Canter
bury unless he had first become a monk." No monastery
professing the true rule of St Benedict then existed in
England. Odo repaired therefore to Fleury in France,
where a monastery had been estabhshed on the model of
the famous convent of Monte Cassino. He returned a
monk duly professed, and was enthroned at Canterbury in
the year 942.'
3. Odo's first care was to restore and renovate the
cathedral of Canterbury, which had suffered great dilapi
dations during the Danish troubles ; his next, to publish
a body of canons or constitutions to regulate various parts
of ecclesiastical discipline. (1.) The first of these declares
Church property free from secular burdens, and demands
restitution of any property that had been taken from the
Church. (2.) The second claims obedience from kings, and
all that are in authority, to the archbishops and bishops.
(3.) The third charges bishops to exercise an active super
vision of their dioceses, and to preach constantly. (4.) The
fourth admonishes priests to live so as to gain respect for
^ He is said by William of Malmesbury to have served as a soldier
liefore he took clerical orders. — De Gest. Pontif., SaviUe Script., p. 114.
2 The author of his Life says that when the king's sword was broken,
and he stood helpless before his enemies, Odo provided him with an
other by a miracle. — Osbern, Ang, Sac, , ii. 81.
3 WUlelm. Malmesb,, De Gest, Pontif, SaviUe, p. 114. The writer
of Odo's life, Osbern, says that an abbot of Fleury came to England t»
initiate him in the rules ofthe order. — Ang. Sac, ii. 82.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 109
their habit, and to instruct the people both by doctrine and
example. (5.) The fifth bids them observe the ancient
canons of the Church. (6.) The sixth enjoins monks to
abide in their monasteries, and live according to their rules.
(7.) The seventh forbids marriage with near kindred or
nuns. (8.) The eighth enjoins concord and unity. (9.)
The ninth orders the careful observance of the fast days
and of the Lord's day. (10.) The tenth enjoins the pay
ment of tithes.^
4. Odo also addressed a synodical epistle to the bishops
of his province, exhorting them to devotion to their office
and the zealous performance of their duties. Of the zeal
of the archbishop there could indeed be no question, but
that he was lacking in gentleness and Christian charity is
equaUy apparent. He threw himself with impetuous ear
nestness into the support of the policy advocated by Dun
stan, and sanctioned by the kings Edmund and Edred.
" The palace assumed the severe air of a monastery ; " '^
everywhere the monasteries were encouraged to adopt the
Benedictine rule, and the married clergy were discounte
nanced. So long as the secular power was completely in
accord with the ecclesiastical, this revival of a stricter rule
for the clergy went on without check; but on the accession
of the young Edwy, in 955, a change took place. Without
adopting the hard things said by the chroniclers against
this young prince, it is easy to understand that the strict
and sombre regimen of the archbishop and Dunstan was
distasteful to him. He showed himself little inclined to
advance their authority, perhaps even espoused the cause
of the secular and married clergy. Then, as the biographer
of Odo puts it, " the bishop became his enemy." '
5. Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the vast
ascendency which, in the powerful hands of Dunstan and
Odo, the Church had now obtained, than the events which
followed. The tragical story of Edwy and Elfgiva is well
known. But Dunstan would not have dared to force the
young king from his wife's embraces that he might take his
place at the banqueting hall, nor would Odo have ven-
1 Johnson's English Canons, i. 358-63. "^ Hist. Lit. , 430.
* Osbern, Vita Odonis, Ang. Sac, ii. 83, 84.

110 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. viii.
tured first to cause the branding of the face of the beautiful
Elfgiva, and to send her to Ireland as a slave, and then, on
her return, to cause her to be put to death in a most mer
ciless fashion,' had not all the powerful nobles of the land
supported him in his cruel proceedings. It is true that the
rage of Edwy compelled Dunstan to fly, but this seems to
be due to a demand for the return of a treasure which had
been deposited with him at Glastonbury, and which he
could not readily account for.^ Edwy could really make
no head against the powerful ecclesiastics. When the
quarrel was declared between him and Odo, the archbishop
was able, by his influence, to deprive him of the larger por
tion of his kingdom, all England north of the Thames being
given to his brother Edgar ; and the despairing death of
Edwy, and the return of Dunstan, marked the complete
triumph of the extreme Churchmen.
6. Around the name of Dunstan controversy still
continues to rage. On one side he is designated as the
very ideal of unscrupulous ecclesiasticism, on the other, as
a patriot statesman, who was scarcely at all concerned in
the ecclesiastical changes then proceeding.^ But what
ever ecclesiastical measures were taken by the government
of Edgar, for these Dunstan is surely responsible ; and
as his apologists fairly claim for him to be judged by the
laws of Edgar as to the legislation of which he approved,
so the policy prevailing under Edgar must have been the
policy of Dunstan, who was throughout the trusted right
hand and alter ego of the king. On the death of Odo,
probably in 958,' Elfsy, bishop of Winchester, was ap-
^ These acts are distinctly attributed to Odo, and credit duly taken
for them by his biographer Osbern. — Ang. Sac, ii. 84.
^ Lappenberg, ii. 133.
' On the one side we have Mr. Hallam and Dean Milman, on the
other Mr. Robertson and Mi-. Stubbs. Mr. Stubbs has printed, with a
somewhat laudatory preface, five monkish lives of St. Dunstan (Rolls
Series). All the writers appear to marshal their facts according to their
-views of what the fitness of such a narrative requires. They frequently
contradict each other. Mr. Stubbs in his latest work says: "The
memory of Dunstan has suffered rather than gained by the praises of
his monastic admirers." — Const. Hist., i. 241.
"' For the chronology of these events, see Mr. Stubbs's Introduction
to the Memorials of Dunstan, p. xcii. sq.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. Ill
pointed to succeed him. He is represented by the
chroniclers as entirely opposed to the policy of Odo,
and as having insulted his tomb,^ but he perished by
cold in his journey across the Alps to obtain the pall
at Eome. Byrthelm, bishop of Sherborne, was then
nominated to the primacy, but before he could take
possession of it, Edwy died, and the nomination was
retracted in favour of Dunstan.^ Having thus (959)
reached the highest place in the Church, Dunstan pro
ceeded, with the concurrence of the king, to fill the chief
Sees with Churchmen ready to carry out the Benedictine
revival, and to promote the ascendency of the regular over
the secular clergy. In 961 he consecrated Efstan and
Oswald his successors in the Sees of London and Wor
cester, while Ethelwold, his " old fellow-pupil or disciple,''
was made bishop of Winchester. From this point com
mences the great struggle between the monks and clerks,
the regulars and seculars, which is the chief feature of the
Church history of this period.
7. The dioceses of Winchester and Worcester were
the chief scenes of this struggle. The bishop appointed to
the first of these was the abbot of Abingdon, who had
already introduced' the Benedictine rule into that monas
tery, as Dunstan had done at Glastonbury. Eadmer, the
Monk of Canterbury, has given a graphic account of the
proceedings of Bishop Ethelwold at St. Swithun's. The
canons who had usurped the place of the original monks
are represented as men of dissolute and licentious lives,
and had been frequently admonished by their bishop to
abandon their irregularities, and to accept the regular
discipline. They often promised to do this, but always
neglected to perform their promises. At length the
bishop appeared in the choir of the church where they
were collected for service, with a number of monkish
dresses, and bade them assume these at once, together
^ Osbem, Vita Odonis, Ang. Sac, ii. 85.
' Dunstan was already a bishop, having been consecrated probably
in 957 as an "unattached" bishop, and subsequently receiving the
Sees of Worcester and London. — Stubbs's Introduction to Memorials
of Dunstan, p. xci.

112 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [ohap. vm.
with the obligations which they entailed, or quit the
church. In vain the canons protested. The bishop,
backed by all the power of the Church and the State,' was
too strong for them. Some of them accepted the monkish
profession ; others left the church, and their places were
filled by monks brought from Abingdon. The dispossessed
canons carried their grievances to the king, and a council
was held at Winchester to investigate the matter. In
this the historian represents the party of Ethelwold as
near being vanquished, when a voice was heard to issue
from the crucifix whieh commended his policy. What
ever was the cause, it appears that the bishop's -vigorous
proceedings remained for the present undisturbed.^
8. The same writer, in his Life of Oswald, describes the
proceedings at Worcester. The canons of the cathedral
were, it appears, too strong to be disturbed by -violence, so
the bishop had recourse to artifice. He buUt a new
church to the honour of the Virgin, and entrusted it to
Benedictine monks. Their services became so popular,
that the cathedral was deserted. The dean was thus
induced to take the habit of a monk, and many of the
canons followed his example. Gradually the control aud
service of the mother church of the diocese passed into
the hands of the Benedictines. Many of the other
churches in the diocese of Oswald were in like manner
transferred from the secular to the regular clergy .° But
when in 971 Oswald for his zeal was translated to York,
his energy appears to have suddenly ceased. "During
twenty years we do not read that he introduced a single
colony of monks, or changed the constitution of a single
clerical establishment."* Possibly Oswald's reasons for
thus relaxing his strictness at York may have been the
same which induced Dunstan not to attempt a change
at Canterbury. It is certain that secular canons continued
1 He is said to have been accompanied by a State officer.
^ Eadmer, Vita Dunstani, Memm-ials of Dunstan, p. 211, sq. The
account is given with some variations by other chroniclers. Some
appear to put the story of the Crucifix to a subsequent Council.
3 Eadmer, Vita Oswaldi, Ang. Sac,
* Liugard, Ang, Sac, Church, ii. 290.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 113
under his rule to occupy Christ Church, though in after
times they were displaced.
9. Meantime Ethelwold at Winchester proceeded vigor
ously in the monastic revolution. He founded two new
abbeys at Winchester, one for monks, another for nuns.
From Chertsey and Milton he removed the clerks to
make way for monks with the regular discipline, and
he restored and enriched with the aid of the king,
the ruined abbeys of Ely, Thorney, and Peterborough.^
Altogether, under the reign of Edgar, no less than forty
monasteries practising the Benedictine rule were estab
lished. The revolution thus effected at the chief centres
of ecclesiastical power did not extend universally to the
country clergy, and there were many cathedrals also, which
still retained their prebendaries, though these were now
compelled to live according to a rule.^
10. The general enforcement of clerical celibacy was
a matter still harder to compass than the substitution of
regular monks for irregular canons. That this was
attempted by Dunstan and his party there can be no
question, but with what success is doubtful. In the
laws of the Northumbrian clergy (A.D. 950), clerical matri
mony appears as a legalised practice, inasmuch as regula
tions are made for priests' wives without any condemnation
of their marriage.' " It is plain," says Dr. Lingard, " that
the bishops confined themselves to entreaties and ex
postulations, to general censures, and the denunciation
of punishment in the world to come. They deemed it
imprudent, in the existing circumstances, to proceed to
particular instances of severity, and to provoke a still
greater evil by depriving the offenders of the power
of exercising their ministry in the rural churches."* It
is evident, indeed, that the practice of matrimony amongst
the clergy was so general, and had so much of legal
prescription to support it, that those even who were
most opposed to it did not venture to attempt any
distinct legal prohibition of it. Among the canons
1 A.-S. Chron., s. a. 963. ^ Lingard, ii. 297, note,
' See Canon 35, Johnson's Eng. Canons, i. 377.
¦* Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 253.
I

114 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [ohap. viil
enacted in the reign of Edgar, there is only one which
touches this matter. " If a mass-priest, or a monk, or
a deacon, had a lawful wife before he was ordained, and
dismisses her and takes orders, and then receives her
again by lying with her, let each of them fast as for
murder, and vehemently lament it." '¦
11. But what could not be done by legal enactment
was attempted by censure and influence ; and graduaUy,
by the exercise of royal and episcopal power, a large
number of the married clergy were put out of their
benefices. 12. It is not to be supposed that the expulsion of the
secular canons from the cathedrals, and of the married
clergy from many of the chief benefices, could have been
accepted by the persons aggrieved without opposition.
They were a powerful body, backed by powerful support
in the country, and Dunstan could not but perceive that
when a less vigorous hand than his o-wn should be at
the helm of affairs, they might probably succeed in
regaining what they had lost. He endeavoured, therefore,
to fortify his position, by procuring, at a CouncU held at
Winchester, an enactment that the monks should be the
electors to a vacant See, and that the bishop should be
of the regular order. This, of course, could only apply
to those cathedrals where monks were in possession, but
it served to prop up and establish the newly revived
monastic influence.^ During the reign of Edgar, the party
of the secular clergy could make no head against their
opponents. The king was altogether under the control
of Dunstan. " He believed in his counsel as in his own
life, and received all that was said by him as though
^ Johnson's Eng. Canons, i. 437. " This canon, on which appa
rently depends the charge of persecuting the married clergy, made so
commonly against Dunstan, is an extract from Penitentials of a much
earlier date, and cannot with any certainty be assigned to him as its
re-enacter." — Stubbs's Introduction to Memorials of Duiistan, p. cvii.
The Council and speech of Edgar, as given by Ethelred, abbot of
Eievaux, quoted doubtfully by Dr. Lingard, but adopted by Mr.
Martineau (p. 190), seem to be a pure myth.
° Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 298.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 115
it were spoken by the very mouth of God ; and thus
he ordained what was to be ordained, and condemned
what was to be condemned." ^
13. But when Edgar died (975), and his young son
Edward succeeded, affairs assumed a different aspect. The
succession to the crown was disputed. Edward's step
mother desired to substitute for the son of Edgar's choice
her own son, and a powerful noble, Alfere, ealdorman of
Mercia, upheld her side. The whole of the influence of the
secular clergy was naturaUy given to this faction. The
ealdorman of Mercia expelled the monks from his territory,
and replaced the married clergy with their wives.^ In fact,
the contest that arose, threatening civil war in the land, was
not so much a contest between the rival princes as between
the seculars and regulars.^ Help came to the former from
the north. Many of the expelled clergy had fled to Scot
land, and they now returned from thence, bringing with
them as an ally a bishop named Beornhelm, " a man almost
insuperable both for talent and eloquence," ^ with whose aid
they were able to make a stand against the party of the
regulars, although by Dunstan's influence the young Edward
had now been crowned king.'*
14. The parties were so equally balanced, that both
sides agreed to meet at a CouncU at Calne (978), when the
rival claims of the two clerical factions should be argued,
and it should be decided whether the seculars were to
remain ejected from their benefices, or be reinstated in
them. At this Witan all the chief persons of the land
were assembled. Bishop Beornhelm argued eloquently for
the married clergy. Dunstan, either from inability to meet
1 Osbern, Vita Dunstani, Mem. of Dunstan, p. 110.
"^ Simeon Dunelm., p. 160, ed. Twysden.
3 Lappenberg, ii. 146. ^ Osbern.
" Some writers— 6. g'. Dr. Lingard and Dr. Hook — assert that another
Council was now held at Winchester, in which the regular party got
the better. I do not find sufficient authority in the Chronicles for
this, though it is mentioned by WiUiam of Malmesbury. Dr. Lappen
berg does not adopt it. There is, however, great obscurity about these
Winchester meetings, and at which of them the miracle of the speak
ing crucifix is alleged to have happened.

116 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. vm.
his arguments, or from poUcy, said little in reply. " The
matter," he declared, " had long ago been settled by the
divine declaration. He should not open it again. He was
aged, and he desired to pass the rest of his days in peace.
He committed his cause to the Lord." As the archbishop
said these words, the floor of the room in which the large
assembly was gathered gave way, and all were precipitated
among the ruins except the archbishop and his supporters.'
This was held to be a practical decision of the matter by
an interposition of Divine Providence, and the cause of the
secular and married clergy was lost. Everywhere zeal was
displayed in favour of the Benedictines. Monasteries sprang
up, in which their rule was strictly practised, and the policy
of the Archbishop and of Bishops Ethelwold and Oswald
was triumphant.^
15. The tragical death of Edward by the plot of his
stepmother, the weak boyhood of Ethelred, which left the
country completely in the hands of Dunstan, confirmed the
triumph of the regular discipline. But as Ethehed's reign
advanced, and the king displayed his dislike to the great
Churchman, Dunstan gradually withdrew from political
affairs, and devoted himself to the religious life at Canter
bury. The picture of his later life is thus drawn by a
friendly hand : — " His chief employment was in the divine
service, prayer and psalmody, and holy vigUs ; now and
¦^ This occurrence has given rise to all sorts of comments. The age
esteemed it a miracle. Later writers have in many cases thought it a
plot contrived by Dunstan. Dr. Hook appears to lean to this latter
opinion. But the supposition appears to be too monstrous to be enter
tained except on the clearest evidence, and there is no evidence what
ever. On the other hand. Dr. Lingard, who, with great scorn expressed
for the unfairness of Protestant -writers, is himself by no means al
ways a fair -writer, relates the occurrence as though Dunstan only, by
"fortunately clinging to a beam," escaped. He has indeed the short
notice in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to quote, but he certamly should
have mentioned the fact that both Osbern and Eadmer say that not
alone Dunstan, but his friends also, escaped {Mem. Dunstan, 114, 213).
Dr. Lingard is equally unfair in giving the account of Edgar's rape of
the young woman at Wilton. He omits to mention that Osbem dis
tinctly calls her a nun (p. 109).
^ Eadmer, Vita Dunstani, Mem, Dunstan, p. 213.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 117
then he resumed the employments of his youth, exercising
his old skUl in handicraft in the making of musical instru
ments like the organs which were kept at Malmesbury, or
the bells that were known at Canterbury as his own work ;
the early hours of the day he gave to the very needful task
of correcting the faulty manuscripts of the library. Even
after he had retired from political life, leaving Ethelred to
mismanage his kingdom as he chose, the great domains of
his church afforded him abundance of public work ; it was
his delight to make peace between man and man, to receive
and assist the widows and the fatherless, pilgrims and
strangers of all sorts. As an ecclesiastical judge he never
stayed his hand against unlawful marriages, or in the
maintenance of ecclesiastical order. He was an admirable
steward of the Church's wealth, a founder and endower of
new churches, and indefatigable in the work of instruction,
gathering young and old, men and women, clerk, monk, and
lay, to listen to his teaching. . . . There is nothing gro
tesque about the man as he appears in the pages of the
eyewitness ; nothing of the tyrannical ascetic. It is the
cro-wning of a laborious hfe, of a man who has had great
power and has used it for his country, and who now, that
other rulers have arisen who do not know or love him, falls
back on the studies of his youth, and spends his last years
in the promotion of pious and learned works." ^ The
death of Dunstan took place in 988, but before that period
the reappearance of plundering bands of Danes and Norse
men threatened a renewal of those troubles from which the
country under Dunstan's administration had been exempt.
16. Among the canons passed in King Edgar's reign,
but the exact date of which is uncertain, there are some
that deserve special notice. Several of them recognise the
institution of a yearly Synod, which had been preserved as
^ Stubbs, Introduction to Memorials of Dwnstan, p. ciii. Dr.
Hook takes also, upon the whole, a favourable -view of Dunstan {Lives
of Archbishops, vol. i.), but he enumerates among his other merits
"his merits as a literary man." Mr. Stubbs, however, ruthlessly over
throws this when he says that " not a single literary monument ol
Dunstan survives, not a single letter that can by any possibility be
attributed to him " (p. cix.) But see Wright, Biog. Lit, p. 459.

118 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. vm.
a regulation of the Church, though doubtless with many
interruptions, from the time of the CouncU of Hatfield.
To this the clergy are to bring their books and their vest
ments for divine ministration, and ink and parchment for
writing down instructions. They are to be accompanied
by their servants, and to make presentments of their griev
ances and of any criminous persons who refuse to submit
to penance. By another canon the clergy are bid to be
diligent in teaching the manual arts. Another, speaking
of the time at which baptism is to be administered, orders
that every child shall be baptized within thirty-seven
nights, and that no one shall remain too long unbishoped.
Priests are to be careful to discourage sorcery and heathen
worship, as of fountains, trees, and stones. All Christian
children are to be taught Paternoster and Credo. Sunday
is to be observed as a day of rest from business. Churches
are to be kept for divine ministrations, and no idle and
profane words, nor any indecent drinking, are to be per
mitted within them. None are to be buried in churches
but those of holy lives. Mass is only to be celebrated in
a church, except in cases of extreme sickness. For mass
there must be always a hallowed altar,^ and the priest must
never celebrate without book. He must always have a
corporas or napkin, and wear all the fitting mass -vest
ments.^ He must never celebrate alone without some one
to make the responses for him. The housel must be taken
fasting. No priest must celebrate more than thrice in one
day. The housel must be kept with reverence always
ready, and if it become corrupted must be burnt. The
priest must be careful to have pure. bread, pure -wine and
water. He must al-nrays eat the housel himself when cele
brating, and never twice haUow it. The chalice must
always be of metal, not of wood ; a light must always be
burning in the church when mass is sung. There must be
holy water, salt, frankincense, bread. No woman to be
1 This requirement probably gave rise to the custom of having
mper-altars— small pieces of stone or metal, which had been duly
blessed, and which were inserted into the wooden table.
2 The word subumblem, which has sorely puzzled the commentators,
occurs. Probably a girdle.

942-988.] SECULARS AND REGULARS. 119
allowed near the altar. The hours of service to be noted
by ringing bells. Priests always to wear stoles, even
when not officiating. In church services the same use
to be observed by all, and an equal pace to be kept.
The priests are to instruct the youth dUigently, and preach
to the people every Sunday, and distribute the alms of
the people. They are to beware of over-drinking, not to
be common rhymers or musicians, not to swear, nor to
love too much the company of women,i nor to bear false
witness, nor to be accomplices with a thief, nor to decline
ordeal or the oath. Priests are not to be hunters or
hawkers, or players of dice, but to " divert themselves with
their book." They are to teach those who confess penance
and satisfaction, to housel sick men, and anoint them if
they desire it ; to see that due respect is paid to the
corpse ; to have oU ready for baptism and anointing ;
and when the chrism is fetched from the bishop, to give an
account how these laws have been observed.^
17. Besides these canons, there was a body of peni
tential canons passed about this time, which present some
features worth noting. They commence with a form of
confession. Confession is ordained to be made to the
bishop sitting in his episcopal chair on Ash Wednesday,
then the fitting " satisfaction " is to be enjoined, and those
who have performed it are to appear again before the
bishop on the Thursday before Easter, who then -will
" sing over them and give them absolution." ' Then follow
the various satisfactions to be made for the various sins
enumerated. As to these, it may be remarked that in
voluntary sin is treated as sin, though of a lesser hein
ousness, and also that the notion of making satisfaction
or compensation for sin runs through the whole. Satis
faction for sin may be made by a layman if he " lay aside
his weapons, and travel far away, and not be a second
night in the same place, and fast and watch much, and
1 It is very observable that in this code of minute laws for priests
nothing is said against clerical marriage.
' Johnson, English Canons, i. 412-425.
^ It is remarkable that the form of absolution given in the Peni
tential is precatory, not declaratory.

120 THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE [ouAp.viii.
pray earnestly night and day, and wear woollen and be
unshorn, so as that no iron come upon his head or nails,
and come not into a warm bath, nor a soft bed, nor taste
any flesh, nor anything that is intoxicating, nor come
within a church (though he zealously inquire after holy
places), and declare his guUt, and earnestly beg prayers for
himself, and kiss nobody, but be always vehemently bewail
ing his sins.'' But, on the other hand, " much satisfaction
may be redeemed by alms-deeds," by building churches
and giving to the poor ; and in fact there follows (Canon 72)
a scheme by which fasting may be redeemed. One day's
fasting may be redeemed with a penny, a year's with thirty
shillings, or with freeing a slave that is worth that money ;
or, again, seven years' fasting may be redeemed in twelve
months by singing every day a psalter of psalms ; or twelve
days may be redeemed by a mass. Another plan- is also
proposed (Canon 74): — "A very wealthy man, or one that
abounds in friends, may make his satisfaction much more
easy by the assistance of his friends." If he has seven
years' fast to perform, he may procure seven times a hun
dred and twenty men to fast for him three days, " then are
there as many fasts kept as there are fasts in seven years "
(Canon 75). "This is that softening of penance which
belongs to wealthy men and such as abound in friends ;
but one in a lower condition cannot make such despatch,
but therefore he must pursue it in his own person with the
greater earnestness. And it is most righteous that every
one revenge his own crimes upon himself by dUigent satis
faction ; for it is written, ' Every one shall bear his own
burden.' " The text quoted comes in, it must be con
fessed, with rather a singular effect after the provisions
detaUed above for getting the burden borne by others.^
' Johnson's English Canons, i. 426-449.

chap, vm.]

SECULARS AND REGULARS.

121

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE EARLY LIFE OP
DUNSTAN.
Dunstan was a native of Wessex,
the son of Heorstan and Cynedrida,
who lived neat- Glastonbury, and the
nephew of Athelm, Archbishop of
Canterbury. He was born in 925,
and, when a child, placed in the
school of Glastonbury, where he
made extraordinary progress. He
was of a feeble habit of body, and
when a chUd, suffered from a fever,
dmlng the delirium of which he
escaped from his nurses and mounted
to the roof of the abbey church,
going up and descending -without
accident. This was thought to be
miraculous. Prom Glastonbury, after
finishing his education there, he
went to Canterbury to his uncle
Athelm, who soon after his arrival
presented him to King Athelstan.
His beauty, engaging manners, and
literary accomplishments, made him
a great favourite at court. He was
highly skilled in music, and played
well on the harp and other instru
ments. This excited jealousy among
the courtiers, and Dunstan was ac
cused of various crimes. H« retired
from Court to the house of another
uncle Alfheh, bishop of Winchester,
but the malice of his persecutors
followed him. Hired ruffians fell
upon him, beat him severely, and
threw him into a marshy pond. He

succeeded in crawling out, but was
then attacked by a pack of hungi-y
dogs, from which he took refuge in a
peasant's hut. The dogs were after
wards thought to be demons in canine
shape. At Winchester he fell in love
-with a young lady of great beauty,
but his marriage was opposed by his
imcle Alfheh, who wished him to
become a monk. Dunstan fell into a
grievous illness, and during his weak
ness was induced by the bishop to
make a vow to become a monk. On
his recovery he built himself a little
cell close to the church of Win
chester, in which he constantly lived,
occupied vrith devotions and -with
the cultivation of various arts, such
as working in metal and illuminating
manuscripts. He believed himself
constantly assaulted by de-vils, and
to this period of his life belongs the
legend of his having caught the devU
by the nose with a pair of red-hot
pincers. King Edmund called Dun
stan from his cell (soon after 940),
and made him one of his coimsellors,
and the abbot of Glastonbury. He
introduced into the abbey the strict
discipline of the Continental monks,
and expelled the secular clergy, who
had before occupied the abbey, and
by whom he himself had been
taught. The remainder of his life
is closely connected with the general
history of the country. — Biographia
Britannica, Wright.

122 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap, ix

CHAPTER IX.
period of the DANISH ASCENDENCY.
988-1042.
I. Disastrous character of the period. 2. Jillfric. 3. vElfric's Canons.
4. His exhortation to the priests. 5. He succeeds Sigeric at
Canterbury. 6. Elphege made Archbishop. 7. Canons of the
Council of Bynsham. 8. Murder of Archbishop Elphege. 9. The
Council of Habam. 10. Accession of the Danish Prince Cnut.
11. Troubles of the period. 12. Cnut's religious benefactions.
13. Cnut's laws ecclesiastical. 14. Consecration of the church at
Assandun. 15. Ethelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury. 16. Letter
of King Cnut from Rome. 17. He upholds both Regulars and
Seculars. 18. Scandals among the bishops.
1. The prophecy said to have been made by Dunstan
that under the reign of Ethelred "such evils should fall
upon the English as they had never yet suffered," was en
tirely fulfiUed. From almost the beginning of Ethelred's
reign (979) to the death of Edmund Ironside and the
general acceptance of Cnut (1016), England was the
constant scene of war and rapine. That which was even
worse was that these wars were disgraced almost beyond
example by the most revolting treachery, cowardice, and
abasement ; the only redeeming figures being those of the
bold Edmund Ironside, and the grand and noble Elphege,
Archbishop of Canterbury. During this period of anarchy
and bloodshed but few events connected -with ecclesiastical
history are discoverable. It is probable that the monas
teries refounded under Dunstan's influence were now of
especial service to the Church, as offering somewhat of an
asylum ; the Danes, in this second period of their invasions,
do not appear to have directed their attacks against them
so persistently as in the first period. Probably the fact of
BO many of their countrymen being now settled in England.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 123
aiid professing Christianity may have deterred them from
this, and doubtless many of the invaders were also of the
same faith. It was perhaps also, in great measure, due to
the timid counsels of the monks and clergy that the custom
of- buying off the invaders by enormous ransoms was
adopted, and thus the Danes may have looked upon the
clergy as their best allies.-'
2. It is, however, at this period, when ecclesiastical
events are rare, and instances of distinguished Churchmen
difficult to discover, that we come upon the most dis
tinctive and striking teaching that had appeared in the
English Church since the days of Bede and Alcuin. The
author of this was .lElfric, known as the " Grammarian "
from his having composed a grammar, and who subsequently
reached the rank of Archbishop of Canterbury.'' The
father of .^Ifric was ealdorman of Kent. When young
his education was entrusted to a secular priest, who was
very ignorant, and scarcely knew Latin ; hence .iElfric
speaks -with much contempt of this class of clergy; When
Ethelwold at Abingdon opened a school, iElfric became
one of his scholars, and probably went with his master
from Abingdon to Winchester. From thence he was sent
(about 988 or 989) to govern the newly founded abbey of
Cerne in Dorsetshire, at the instance of the ealdorman
Ethelmer. It was at the request of Ethelmer and his son
Ethelward, that .^Elfric wrote his large coUection of Anglo-
Saxon homUies, made his translation of Genesis, and his
abridgment of the Eule of Ethelwold.^ This last was
' " This counsel first advised Archbishop Sigeric." — A.-S. Chron.,
s. a. 991.
^ There were two, perhaps three, .^Unos contemporary, and great
confusion has arisen between them. That the -writer of the canons and
homilies was the Archbishop of Canterbury, is, I think, well shown by
Dr. Hook (Archbishops, i. 435). Mr. Baron, however, thinks that he
was the Archbishop of York (Johnson's Canons, i. 387). A further
difficulty arises from .ffiUric's describing himself as a monk in the preface
to the homilies, when it is known that he succeeded Siric as bishop of
Ramsbury. But it is probable, as suggested by Mr. Wright (Hist. Lit.,
483), that there was an interval of vacancy in the See of Ramsbury or
Wilton between Siric and .zElfric.
3 For a fuller list of the writings of .ffilfrie see Notes and Illustra
tions to this Chapter.

124 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap. ix.
done for the direction of the monks of Eynsham, of whom
he had been made the abbot. It was probably some time
in 994 that ^Ifric was made bishop of Eamsbury. He
now joined vsdth Wulfsine, bishop of Sherborne, in a
vigorous attempt to reform his clergy, and to drive out the
secular priests. With this view he composed and addressed
to Wulfsine a body of canons, which are in many ways
remarkable.' 3. The canons are addressed to Wulfsine by a " humble
brother," who declares that he has not written any
thing as to the episcopal office, as Wulfsine well knows
its duties, but for the clergy, " whose negligence and per-
verseness require to be reproved." He has -written in
Enghsh, according to Wulfsine's desire, that the clergy may
understand. The document then begins in a severe tone ;
" I tell you, priests, that I wUl not bear your neglect of
yonr ministry ; and I tell you in good sooth how the matter
stands with priests. Christ established Christianity and
charity, and all that went with Him in His way forsook
every worldly thing, and the company of their -wives ; there-.
fore He Himself said in His gospel, ' He that hateth not his
wife is not a minister worthy of Me.' " At the great Synod
at Nice the liturgy of the Church was established, and the
mass creed, and it was decreed that neither bishop, priest,
nor deacon should retain any women in his house but
mother, sister, or aunt. "This seems strange to you to
hear, for ye have so brought your wretched doings into
fashion, as if there were no danger of a priest's living like
a married man." ^ " But the holy men of old lived without
wives. You say that St. Peter had a wife, but this was
under the law ; he left his wife under the gospel.^ So the
priests under the old law might marry, but they had not
to say mass." The same synod forbids any to be made
priest who had married a widow, or who was married for
' Wright, ^'wi. Lit., art. "Alfric."
" If these canons are to be da;ted 994 (and not 957, ag Johnson), it
would seem that the movement against the married clergy under
Dunstan had not had much success.
'^ It seems, however, that he still " led her about." The Bishop
presumes on a considerable ignorance of his clergy.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 125
the second time ; nor may priests attend a wedding where
a man marries a second time. The writer then gives the
seven orders appointed in the Church — viz. ostiary, lector,
exorcist, acolyth, sub-deacon, deacon, presbyter — and ex
plains their offices. The ostiary is to attend to the church
doors and the bells ; the lector to read the Scriptures in
the church ; the exorcist to adjure malignant spirits to
depart out of men ; the acolyth to hold the taper when the
Gospel is read or the housel hallowed, to signify bliss, and
to the honour of Christ who is our light ; sub-deacon to
bring the vessels to the deacon, and to minister under the
deacon about the vessels of the altar ; deacon to place the
oblations on the altar, to read the Gospel at the mass — he
may also baptize children and housel the people — he must
be clothed in a white alb ; the priest hallows the housel,
and preaches to and instructs the people. " There is no
more between a bishop and a priest, but that the bishop is
appointed to ordain, and to bishop chUdren, and to hallow
churches, and to take care of God's rights."^ These are
the only orders, monkship and abbotship are of " another
sort." " Mass priests and all God's servants are to keep
their churches employed with divine service. Let them
sing therein the seven tide-songs that are appointed them,
viz. the uht-song (matins), the prime-song, the undern-
song (tierce), the midday-song, the noon- song (none), the
even-song, and the night-song (compline) ; and they shall
pray devoutly for the king, and for their bishops, and for
aU Christian people.^ And the mass priest shall procure
the furniture for his ghostly work before he be ordained —
that is, the holy books, the Psalter, and the Pistol Book
Gospel Book, and Mass Book, the Song Book (Antiphonary)
and the Hand Book (Manual), the Calendar, the Passional,^
the Penitential, ¦* and the Lesson Book." The priest must
also have his "mass -vestment, that he may reverently
' This refusing to recognise bishops as a separate order is remark
able at this date.
^ It is observable that there is no mention of the Pope.
' Martyrology, containing the accounts of the suffl'erings of the
saints. '' Directing the special penance for each sin.

126 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap.ix.
minister to God, as is becoming, and his altar-cloth weU
made. Let his chalice, likewise, be made of pine wood,^
not subject to rottenness, and also the paten ; and let the
corporal be clean, so as befits Christ's ministration." " The
mass priest on Sundays and mass days shall speak the
sense of the gospel to the people in Enghsh, and of the
paternoster and the creed as oft as he can, for the
inciting of the people to know their belief and retain their
Christianity." Tithes are to be brought into the church,
and divided into three parts — one for the repair of the
church, one for the poor, a third for the ministers. Mass
is not to be celebrated in any house except one that is
hallowed, save in cases of necessity from sickness. If un-
baptized chUdren be brought to the priest, he must baptize
them at once. No ministrations are to be sold for money,
nor must the priest remove himself for gain from one min
ster to another. Priests are not to get drunk, nor to be
much given to drink, nor to trade, nor wear arms, nor
plead causes, nor frequent taverns, nor swear oaths. They
must with discretion enjoin penance, housel the sick, and
anoint them, as enjoined by St. James. There have been
four great Synods of the Church, which are to be regarded
as " the four books of Christ in His Church. Many synods
have been holden since, but yet these are of the greatest
authority. How dare you overlook all these decrees?"
The monks are obliged to observe the rule of St. Benedict.
" Ye also have your rule, if ye would read it. But ye
affect secular judicatures, and choose to_^be reeves, and aban
don your churches." But we wiU remind you of your
duties. " Christians ought to frequent the church, but
men ought not to prate or dispute there, because it is the
house of prayer, hallowed to God for ghostly speech. Nor
ought men to drink or eat intemperately in God's house,^
which is hallowed to this purpose, that the body of God
may be there eaten with faith. Yet men often act so
absurdly as to sit up at night and drink to madness within
God's house, and to defile it with scandalous games and
¦^ In other canons wooden chalices are forbidden.
^ This implies rather a singular state of things as regards the use of
chiu'ches.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 127
lewd discourse, r . . Ye ought not to make merry over
dead men, nor to hunt after a corpse, except ye are invited
to it ; when ye are invited, forbid the heathenish songs of
laymen, and their obstreperous ejaculations. Do not your
selves eat and drink where the corpse lies, lest ye become
imitators of the heathenish superstition which they then
practise. Ye ought not to be gorgeously dressed with
rings, nor let your garment be made in too gorgeous, nor
yet in too sordid a manner ; but let every one wear what
belongs to his order ; the priest that to which he was
ordained, nor let him wear a monk's shroud, nor that which
belongs to laymen, any more than a man wears the woman's
attire. Christ saith of His ministers who serve Him that
they shall always be with Him in bliss, where He Himself
is in life truly so called. To Him be glory for ever and
ever. Amen."^
4. To this document, caUed Canons, but more properly
described as an Episcopal Charge, there is an exhortation
to the priests when they come, as was the custom, on
Maunday Thursday, to fetch the holy oil for baptism and
extreme unction during the foUo-wing year. It is interest
ing, as illustrating the ecclesiastical customs of the day.
Housel, it is said, must not be hallowed on Good Friday,'
but service must be said with adoration and kissing of the
Rood. Then the priest must go to the altar with the
remains of the housel hallowed on Thursday, and with
unhallowed wine mingled with water, and cover them with
a corporal, . and say certain prayers. Then let him put a
particle of the housel into the chalice in silence. Then let
him go to housel, and whoever else pleases. Then special
directions follow as to the services on Maunday Thursday,
Good Friday, and Easter Eve. It is wrong to reserve the
housel haUowed at Easter for the sick throughout the
whole year. This is wrong, as it causes the holy housel to
putrefy. It ought not to be allowed to get stale, but to be
hallowed for the sick about every fortnight. The housel
hallowed to-day is as good as that hallowed at Easter, for
' Johnson's English Canons, i. 388-403.
" Called here Long Friday. It is supposed on account of the
length of the services.

128 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap. ix.
" that housel is Christ's body, not corporally, but spiritu
ally ; not the body in which He suffered, but that Body of
which He spake when He blessed bread and wine for
housel one night before His passion, and said of the bread
blessed, ' This is My Body ; ' and again of the wine blessed,
' This is My Blood, which is shed for many, for the forgive
ness of sins.' Know now that the Lord who was able to
change the bread into His body before His passion, and
the wine into His blood, in a spiritual manner. He Him
self daily blesseth bread and wine by the hands of His
priests, into His spiritual body and blood." ^ The priest
ought to have clean hands as weU as heart, to take care
that the oblation be properly baked, and to mingle water
with the wine. On account of the attention needed for
the offering, none ought to celebrate mass who is defective
in his sight. The chahce ought never to be used for any
other purpose. The four days after Easter are to be kept
as feasts. The Sunday feast is to be from Saturday noon
to Monday's light. All appointed feasts and fasts to be
observed. Every Friday is a fast, save those which faU
between Easter and Pentecost, and between Christmas and
^ This passage has been often quoted and referred to, to show
that the writer did not hold the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the
sense of the modern Romanists. The Homily of MUric for Easter
states the same doctrine more at length. " Great is the difference
between the body in which Christ suffered and that which is hallowed
for housel. . . . His ghostly body, which we call housel, is
gathered of many corns without blood and bone, limbless and soulless,
and there is therein nothing to be understood bodily, but all is to be
understood spiritually." Now, as the Homilies of .SUrio had the
authoritative approval of Archbishop Sigeric, it seems not unfair to
assert that this was the doctrine of the English Church of his time.
Dr. Lingard, however, asserts that this language was novel, and that
nothing like it is to be met with in any Anglo-Saxon writer who lived
either before or after iElfric (ii. 314). Yet Osbern, in the Life of
Archbishop Odo, says, "Hoc ferme tempore quidam clerici maligno
errore seducti, asseverare conabautur panem et vinum quae in altari
pouuntur post consecrationem in priori substantia permanere, et
figuram tantummodo esse corporis et sanguinis Christi, non verum
Christi corpus et sanguinem." — Osbern, Vit. Odonis, Anglia Sacra,
ii. 82.

988-1042.] PJeRIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 129
a seven-night after Epiphany, and those on which a feast
is appointed; also the days before the mass days of St.
Mary and the mass days of the Apostles ; and the mass
contra paganos is to be sung every Wednesday .^
5. In the year 995 died Siric, Archbishop of Canter
bury. He is said by Gervase to have left books to the
cathedral ; and he certainly gave his sanction and acceptance
to the Homilies of Alfric. He is, however, best known as
having suggested or supported the fatal policy of the
Danish tribute. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle supplies some
interesting details as to the choice of the bishop to succeed
him. " iElfric, bishop of WUtshire, was chosen on Easter
day (April 21), by Kmg Ethelred, and by all his 'Witan.'
This .^Ifric was a very wise man, so that there was no
more sagacious man in England.^ Then went Alfric to
his archiepiscopal See, and when he came thither, he was
received by those men in orders, who of all were most dis
tasteful to him, that is by clerks." He immediately
instituted an inquiry into the ancient condition of the See,
and sent for all the wisest men that he knew, that both by
their testimony and his own, the king and the Witan might
be convinced that in the old times there were monks at
Canterbury, and not clerks. The king was convinced, but
desired that .<51lfric should have the Pope's sanction before
making any changes. The clerks getting to hear of this,
and taking the alarm, sent in all haste two of their number
to Eome to offer the Pope a large sum, if he would grant
them the pall to convey to the new archbishop ; which
would give them the opportunity, of making terms with
him. But the Pope would not do this, as the clerks " had
brought no letter either from the king or from the people,"
but sent them away. Then the archbishop came, and was
received at Eome with great honour, and commanded to
' Johnson, Eng. Canons, i. 403-407. In addition to this the
Capitula of Bishop Theodulf, of Orleans, in the eighth century, were
translated into English by .ffllfric, for the use of his clergy. — Johnson,
i. 452-479. ^ The learning of jElfrio is testified to by the monk Bridferth, in
his dedication to .iElfric of his Life of St. Dunstan, " ol enormitatcm
divulgates peritim, — Mem. Duiistan, ap. init.
K

130 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap.ix.
celebrate mass at St. Peter's altar ; and the Pope himself
put on him the pall, aud the matter of the clerks having
been discussed between them, the Pope authorised .iElfric
to turn them out of the monastery, and to " put in men of
that order which the blessed Gregory commanded Augus
tine therein to place." The archbishop returned and
" occupied the archiepiscopal chair," and then went to Can
terbury, and, with the consent of the king and the people,
" drove the clerks out of the monastery, and therein placed
monks, all as the Pope had commanded him." ^ Thus the
secular canons of Christ Church, who had been introduced
by Archbishop Ceolnoth on account of the scarcity of
monks, and who had contrived to hold their own through
out the period of Dunstan's influence, were at length
ejected in favour of men of the character of the original
occupants of Christ Church. Monachism, under Ethelred
and Alfric, may be considered to have finally gained the
triumph over the secular clergy. But this new movement
lasted only as long as the supremacy of the family of
Edgar. The Danish kings who succeeded, as more practi
cal men, founded colleges.^
6. It was during the occupancy by .^Ifric of the See of
Canterbury (1002), that the horrors of St. Brice's day
(vere enacted, and the unsuspecting Danes were massacred
by the command of Ethelred. He also witnessed the ter
rible miseries brought on the land by the avenging army
of Sweyne. It was reserved, however, for one who had
already gained the character of a saint by his asceticism and
devotion, to iUustrate, by a striking example, the yet un
tamed ferocity of the Danes, and the Christian courage
which could animate one whose life was devoted to God.
Elphege had been taken from a Benedictine monastery to
be bishop of Winchester, and though strongly opposed by
the secular clergy, had yet gained the admiration of ah by
his devotion and alms-deeds. In 1006, on the death of
Alfric, he was, with the applause of all the nation, trans
lated to Canterbury.^ Even the troublous times on which
' Anglo-Saxon Chron., s.a. 995.
^ Stubbs, Introduction to Epp. Cant., p. xix.
2 Hook, i. 463. There is a Life of Elphege, by Osbern, printed in
Anglia Sacra, vol. iL

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 131
he had fallen could not excuse the new Primate from the
journey to Eome for the pall. His first act on his return
was to unite with the Archbishop of York in inducing King
Ethelred to summon a council. Accordingly, a general
assembly of the great men of the kingdom was held at
Eynsham, in Oxfordshire, in the year 1007, or somewhat
later. At this council, which had the character of a
Witenagemot, both secular and ecclesiastical laws were
passed. An earnest religious spirit seems to have per
vaded the assembly. " The bishops, with mutual instruc
tions, exhorted each other in their wholesome discourses to
adorn themselves with comeliness of faith, hope, and
charity, and of the four principal virtues, viz. prudence,
justice, fortitude, and temperance ; and they appointed a
dafiy mutual intercession, and faithfully confirmed a league
of peace and concord between themselves." ¦¦-
7. The character of the laws enacted at Eynsham is
decidedly mUd. Monks are exhorted to observe chastity,
the wearing of the habit, and to serve God " in the best
manner that they can." Priests are to consider that they
cannot " lawfully cohabit with a wife." ^ If they will
" desist from this,'' an " addition of worldly honour '' is
promised them. "They shall be equal to a thane, both as
to their weregild, their rights in lifetime, and burial."
Churches are declared to be under special protection, and
no man can bring a church into servitude, or make mer
chandise of it, or turn out a " church-thane," without the
bishop's consent.^ Tithes are to be duly paid, "that is,
plough alms, fifteen nights after Easter at farthest;
tithe of young, at Pentecost; and of all fruits of the
earth, by All -hallow's mass ; and the Eome-fee, by Peter's
mass ; and the church-scot, at Martin's mass ; and the
light-scot, thrice a year ; and the soul-scot, at the open
grave." Feasts and fasts are to be strictly observed ;
^ Johnson, Eng. Can., i. 481.
' Yet,, says the canon, " Some have two or more, and some, though
they dismiss her whom they formerly had, afterward take another, the
former li-ving."
5 This limitation of the rights of patrons, preventing them from
"making merchandise " of their churches, is observable.

132 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [ohap. ix.
Ember-days and Fridays as fasts ; and Lent made to ex-
.tend from Scptuagesima till the fifteenth night after
Easter. Intermixed with these religious laws are pro
visions for a universal coinage, for the preparation of the
fieet, and against desertion from the army, and many earnest
exhortations to good living are joined.^ " The circumstances
of the country," says Dr. Hook, " rendered the meeting
peculiarly solemn." ^
8. A terrible proof indeed was now to be given of the
insecurity which encompassed even the greatest and best of
those assembled at Eynsham. The plundering bands of
Danes, unchecked by the feeble resistance of the English,
marched as they pleased across the land, robbing, burning,
and murdering. In 1011 they were before Canterbury.
They had threatened the city before, but had been bought
off by money. Now they had returned, determined to
wring the very last penny from the dignitaries of the
metropolitan church. The archbishop, though entreated
to fly, refused to do so. He exhorted the citizens to fight
like men, and for twenty days they kept the foe at bay.
Each soldier, as he went to the ramparts, repaired first to
the cathedral, where the Primate was ready to bless and
housel him. But on the twentieth day a traitor, said to
have been an abbot, enabled the enemy to enter.^ He set
fire to a portion of the city, and while the garrison rushed
to extinguish it, he opened the gates of the undefended
part. Then ensued one of the most terrible scenes ever
recorded. The outrage, torture, and murder of women and
children were carried on amidst fiendish laughter and
mockery. The archbishop appealed to the murderers by
their manhood not to make war upon infants. He was
seized and carried to see his cathedral in flames, and to
witness the devilish sport in which the Danes indulged of
cutting down the unfortunate monks and priests as they
1 Johnson's Eng, Canons, i. 482-493. = Archbishops, i. 464.
5 .^Ifmaer, abbot of Canterbury. It is observable that Osbern in
his Life of Elphege, says nothing of the traitor. As he was a Canter
bury monk, he may have desired to screen his memory. The A.-S.
Chronicle says, ' ' Jilfmaer betrayed it, whose life the Archbishop iJlfeah
had before saved."

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 133
rushed from the burning pile. Some were spared to be
sold as slaves, or ransomed at large sums. Among these
latter was the archbishop, whose ransom was fixed at 3000
pieces of silver. The archbishop refused to use the reve
nues of the Church for ransoming himself He was then
bound in chains and carried along with the marauding
army when they quitted Canterbury. For seven months
he was led about by them, and it is said that during that
period he converted many of the Danes to Christianity.
At length the patience of his captors was exhausted. They
demanded the payment within eight days. The archbishop
stUl resolutely refused. Then, at one of their drunken
orgies at Greenwich, the leaders of the army sent for the
archbishop, to amuse themselves with threatening and in
sulting him. "Money! money !" they shouted. The Pri
mate with true dignity refused to gratify them, but exhorted
them to repentance. Then some one threw an ox bone at
the venerable speaker. Amidst a shout of laughter the
example was generally followed. Elphege was knocked
down wounded and bleeding. A friendly Dane clove his
skuU with a battle-axe, and ended his sufferings.^ The
Danes, struck with somewhat of contrition for the murder,
allowed the body of the Primate to be honourably interred
at London. It was afterwards brought in state by a Danish
king to its final home at Canterbury.
9. The heroic fortitude of Elphege contrasts strongly
with the timidity displayed by his successor Lyfing, a monk
of Glastonbury, who, in terror of the Danes, fled away from
England. These savage invaders were everywhere tri
umphant. Ethelred fled to Normandy, from whence, upon
the death of Sweyne, he was recalled by the English
Witan, who declared that "no lord could be dearer to
them than their natural lord, if he would rule them better
than before." ^ This Ethelred undertook to do. He re
turned, bringing with him the archbishop, and in order to
inaugurate an improved administration, held a council at
Habam (1014), where certain religious laws were passed.
The first of these orders attention to religious duties and
1 A.-S. Chron., s. a. 1012 ; Osbern, Vita et Martyrium S. Elphegii,
Ang. Sac., vol. ii. 134-142. 2 a.-S. Chron. s, a. 1014.

131 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap.ix
the payment of tithes. The second orders a special fast,
with processions, confession of sins, and satisfaction on the
three days before the Feast of St. Michael next ensuing.^
. The third charges every congregation to have a mass sung
daily for the king, and in convents the inmates are to sing,
" with their limbs extended on the earth," the psalm " Lord,
how are they increased that trouble me," during the present
troubles, and to use the " Collect against the pagans," and
to celebrate thirty masses for the king and people, and
every monk is to sing thirty psalters. The fifth forbids
selling men for slaves. The fourth and seventh reiterate
directions as to church-dues and tithes. The eighth gives
directions for the office of a judge, forbids bribes, directs
care to be taken as to the appointment of deputies, orders
the judge to be calm and patient, and no respecter of per
sons.^ 1 0. The religious preparations thus made for a struggle
against the Danes were accompanied by a greater display
of valour and conduct than the English had previously
shown. The gallant citizens of London again and again
foiled the attacks of the enemy, and Edmund Ironside, a
true hero, made so determined a stand that Cnut, the
Danish king, agreed to divide the land between them.
But on St. Andrew's Day (1016) King Edmund died, and
thus Cnut became ruler of the whole land. It was now to
be seen how the Church of England would fare under one
who, though he himself had embraced Christianity, never
theless inherited all the savage traditions and ferocious
nature of the race from which he sprang.
11. From almost the commencement of the reign of
Ethelred (979) down to the accession of Cnut to the whole
kingdom (1017) — a period of thirty-six years — England
had been harassed, distracted, and convulsed by a constant
series of wars, rapines, burnings, and murders. The Primate
1 It is supposed that this was done in imitation of what had been
done in Apulia, where a signal victory was obtained by the Christians
over the Northmen, owing, as was believed, to the aid of St. Michael.
There was then a feast of St. Michael on May 8, as well as on Sep
tember 29. The former of these days is supposed to be here intended.
—Johnson's Eng. Canons, i. 496. " Johnson. Eng. Can., i. 495-500.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 135
of the Church had been foully slain ; many clergy and
monks had perished.-' Some parts of the country had alto
gether lost their Christian organisation. The period had
been marked by the constant recurrence of treachery of the
most hideous character. The repeated treasons of Edric,
the massacre of St. Brice, the mutilations of hostages by the
Danish princes, all invest it with a peculiar horror. It may
be assumed that if external religion were almost extinguished,
internal rehgion and morality had fared even worse. " The
traffic in human beings had become an important branch
of commerce. What has been rarely known among the
debased negro tribes — brother sold brother, the father his
son, the son his mother ! Terror of the ferocious Northmen
had deadened every energy." ^ From this miserable con
dition the Church and country began to recover immedi
ately after the accession of Cnut. He from whose savage
youth the worst auguries might have been drawn, never
theless proved himself a tender and prudent guardian of
the Church, and a friend to its best interests. The reign
of Cnut commences with murders and banishments, but no
sooner is he firmly seated on the throne than a remarkable
change takes place. " The stern warrior appears from this
time as a provident and wise ruler, capable of valuing and
promoting and profiting by all the blessings of peace."*
Cnut was a nominal Christian when he succeeded to the
throne. He soon shows himself to be an earnest promoter
of Christianity. " The society which is unable to withstand
his arms almost immediately humanises and elevates him."*
12. The most obvious and the most likely form forthe
awakened religious feeling of a prince of battles and mur
ders to take (especially at a time when the idea of satisfac
tion was the one most prominent religious idea) was that of
' For the most part the Danes, in this second period of invasions,
appear to have chosen to extort money from the monasteries under
threats rather than destroy the monasteries. See the account given in
the Chronicle of Croyland, attributed to Ingulph, but written in the
thirteenth or fourteenth century. This chronicle, though tainted by
the fictitious name of its author, was yet doubtless compiled from
original materials. ^ Lappenberg, ii. 179.
3 lb,, ii. 201. ^ Stubbs, Const, Hist, i. 243.

136 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap.ix.
buUding churches and religious houses. Accordingly, Wil
liam of Malmesbury says of Cnut, " The monasteries through
out the whole of England, which had been either violated
or overthrown in either his own or his father's wars, he
restored ; all the places in which his battles had been
fought, and especially Aschendun,^ he decorated with
churches, and appointed to them ministers who, through
out aU succeeding ages, might make supplication to God
for the souls of those who were there slain. Over the
body of St. Edmund, whom an earlier generation of Danes
had slain, he built a church with a royal spirit, placed there
an abbot and monks, conferred upon it many farms and
mighty ones, and such was the amplitude of his gifts that at
this day it can look down upon almost all the monasteries of
England." ^ He conciliated the Pope by the restoration of
St. Peter's penny, and gratified the English clergy by be
stowing Danish bishoprics upon some of them. The priests
chosen for these Sees were consecrated by Ethelnoth, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, who grounded upon this a claim for
supremacy over the Scandinavian Church. He was, how
ever, stoutly resisted in this by Unwan, Archbishop of
Hamburg, and Cnut was obliged to uphold the authority
of the latter.*
1 3. But Cnut's care for the Church was not confined to
its outward organisation or its temporal possessions. At
some period during his reign a number of ecclesiastical laws
were passed in the Witans convened by him. During the
' Assingdon in Essex, the place where he had gained so decided
a victory over Edmund. ' ' This was for the Danes what half a centm-y
later Hastings was for the Normans. " — Lappenberg, ii. 192. " Accord
ing to one account," says Mr. Freeman, "not Assandun only but all
his battlefields were marked by commemorative churches. But as
Assandun was Cnut's only undoubted victory on English soil, and as
men do not usually commemorate their defeats, we may conclude that
Assandun was his only foundation of the kind."— iV"o?7?iaK Conquest i.
485. 2 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Peg. (Saville), p. 41. It is remark
able that Cnut not only enriched English monasteries, but also did the
same in France and Germany. St. Omer's, Chartres, Bremen, and
Cologne received substantial benefactions from him. — Lappenberg, ii.
204. 3 See Lappenberg, ii. 205.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 137
Heptarchic period ecclesiastical councils, as instituted by '
Theodore, were frequent, though from these the lay element
was not excluded, and " they are scarcely distinguishable
from the separate Witenagemots." But after the Danish
troubles such councils are hardly to be found. Church
laws are now passed by the Witenagemot, in which there
always existed a strong ecclesiastical element. '' No jea
lousy as yet existed between the two systems ;"^ no plainly
marked distinction, in fact, between the secular and eccle
siastical was perceived. It seemed as obvious a thing that
King Cnut should make "la-vvs ecclesiastical" as laws civil.
In an ancient collection of these former which has been got
together, the first commands the love of God and the king ;
the second enacts the sacredness of the Church as a sanc
tuary for criminals ; the third has the curious declaration
that all churches are not equally potent as sanctuaries.
There are " head churches," for violating which the fine is
to be two hundred and forty shillings ; " middling churches,"
the sanctity of which is valued at one hundred and twenty
shillings ; " lesser churches, which have a burying-place, but
where little service is done," for which the fine is sixty
shilhngs ; and "country churches, where there is no burying
place," for violating which the fine is only thirty shillings.
The next laws, after describing the exalted dignity of a
priest, enact how he is to make purgation by ordeal when
accused of a crime. The purgation of the priest was to be
by the housel — that is, if he denied his guilt and celebrated
mass upon that denial, he was to be held free ; but if there
was a triple accusation against him — that is, an accusation
by three persons — then he was to get two other priests to
be compurgators with him. But if he could not find any
friends ready to imperil their souls for his truth, he was "to
go to Corsned " — that is, to put a piece of bread and cheese
in his mouth, praying that it might choke him if he was
guilty.^ In the sixth canon the clergy are exhorted to
godly living and to obeying their rule — " Let them know
full well that they cannot of right converse with women in
a carnal manner, and let him that wiU desist from this and
1 Stubbs, Const. Hist, i. 230-2.
' See Johnson's Eng. Canons, i. 504, and Notes.

138 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap.ix.
preserve chastity find mercy with God, and for his worldly
worship be worthy of the right of a thane." The seventh
law forbids marriages within the sixth degree of relation
ship, and with " the kin of a former wife," and with sureties
at baptism, a consecrated nun, or a divorced woman. The
laws as to Church dues and fees are almost identical with
those in the laws of King Edgar, as also those for the fasts
aud feasts. " St. Edward's ^ mass-day" is declared to be
appointed by the Witan as a mass-day for all England. The
laws then assume the character rather of a sermon than a
code, earnestly pressing upon men Christian lives, bidding
them go to housel three times a year at least, and to learn
well Paternoster and Credo, exhorting the clergy as shep
herds to care for their sheep, and provide them with wise
instructions.^ In another collection of Cnut's " laws eccle
siastical" one enactment forbids any man being sold as a
sla,ve into a heathen country, lest his soul should perish. But
the selling of a slave to Christians is not forbidden. Offend
ers against the laws are in this code somewhat strangely
called, upon to desist, instead of penalties being fixed for
their misdeeds. A law of King Edgar, which bids the
bishop sit on the bench with the ealdorman, is repeated.
The priest is here called an " altar thane." The Sunday is
guarded from work by severe penalties. No executions are
to take place on Sundays. By the 29th law it is enacted
that " all people ought of right to assist in repairing the
church."* This code also ends with a devout exhortation
to religious obedience and holy hving.*
1 4. The very strong rehgious tone which is apparent in
the laws of King Cnut was not contradicted by or opposed
to his way of life. His rule was just and equitable. " The
forsaken fields were cultivated anew, fortresses, bridges, and
roads restored, churches and chapels erected. Neither
against the king nor his officials has one complaint on the
part ofthe Anglo-Saxons reached us." ^ Connected with
his zealous buUding of churches before mentioned, the con-
1 That is, tho young king who was slain by his stepmother in 978.
^ Johnson, English Canons, i. 501-511.
3 This is probably the earliest institution of church-rate.
¦* Johnson, English Canons, i. 512-520. '' Lappenberg, ii. 208.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 139
secration of the church at Assandun, built in commemora
tion of his great victory, is worthy of notice. The church
had been built in partnership with Thurkill as earl of the
district, and as Cnut's chief comrade in the battle ; and it
was consecrated in 1020, in the presence of the king and
the earl, by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, and several other
bishops. The church was built of stone, though that ma
terial was not easily to be found in the neighbourhood. It
was wanting, however, in grand proportions, and was only
founded for a single priest ; and it is remarkable that
Stigand, afterwards so prominent a figure as Archbishop of
Canterbury, was the first priest of Assandun. "-
15. The employment of the Archbishop of York in the
consecration of Assandun was due probably to the fact that
the primacy was at the moment vacant. Archbishop Lyfing
having died in this year.^ The most notable matter re
corded in connection with this prelate is that he declined
to go to Eome for the pall ; and as this ornament was now
only granted on a personal application, the archbishop never
obtained it.* The prelate who succeeded him was of a
higher cast. Ethelnoth, called by the chroniclers " Dean of
Christ Church," * was originally a Benedictine of Glaston
bury, that famous abbey which gave no less than seven
primates to the English Church before the Conquest.^ Ethel
noth, as president of the Canterbury monks, was brought
into contact with Cnut, who learnt to respect his character
and opinion, and to be infiuenced by his advice. When the
See of Canterbury fell vacant, Cnut nominated Ethelnoth
to it (without, apparently, referring at all to the chapter),
^ Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. 471.
^ A.-S. Chron., s. a. 1020. ^ Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, i. 476.
^ "From 1012 to 1070 a curious compromise between theory and
fact seems to have prevailed [at Christ Church]. The church was a
monastery, and the inmates bore the name of monks ; but they did not
keep the monastic rule, and, moreover, assumed the titles of a secular
chapter. Their president was called a dean ; the monks were also
cathedral canons." — Stubbs, Introcl. to Ep). Cant., p. 24.
= Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Beg., p. 42 (ed. Saville). The arch
bishops were Brihtwald, Athelm, Dunstan, Ethelgar, Siric, Elphege,
and Ethelnoth.

140 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap. ix.
and issued his letters patent to Wulfstan, Archbishop of
York, to consecrate bim. This was done as the king de
sired, and Ethelnoth afterwards proceeded to Eome to obtain
the pall. On his way home, at Pavia, he considered him
self fortunate in becoming the possessor of an (alleged) arm
of St. Augustine at the price of a " hundred talents of sUver
and a talent of gold." ^ This costly relic he presented to
Leofric, earl of Mercia, for the church at Coventry, which,
in conjunction with the Lady Godiva, his wife, he had
magni-ficently furnished. The devotion of the archbishop
was imitated by Cnut, -who visited Glastonbury with the
archbishop, to do honour, as he said, to the place where
" his brother's " ^ remains rested, and gave to the church
a grand cope embroidered with the figures of peacocks
in -various colours.* Cnut also adorned and enriched the
cathedral church of Canterbury.
1 6. The bearing of King Cnut towards the Church, and
the effectual services which he rendered in raising it up
after the' long miseries of the Danish wars, may perhaps
best be estimated by his letter, written after his pilgrimage
to Eome.* " This," says an able writer, " is his best epi
taph." ^ It certainly exhibits him not only as a devout
worshipper, but as an able ruler, prudently providing for
the best interests of the Church. He tells his people that
he has undertaken his journey to Eome to pray for the for
giveness of his sins, and for the welfare of bis people. He
thanks God for allowing him to visit the sanctuary of thS
Apostles, especially as he believes that St. Peter has great
power in binding and loosing.'' He then describes the great
assembly which had been held at Eome, at which the Em
peror had been present and King Eodolph, and at which
^ Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Beg,, p. 42.
'- The body of Edmund Ironside was buried at Glastonbury. Cnut
calls him his brother, as having been joint king with him.
3 Will. Malmesb., Ib.
* The exact date ofthe Roman visit is uncertain. 1031 is the date
usually adopted ; but see Freeman (i. 479, Note 2), who adopts ] 027.
5 Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 479.
8 This is almost an exact parallel with what is attributed to Oswy,
king of Northumbria, at the Synod of Whitby.

988-1042.] PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY. 141
they had agreed to remove obstacles from the way of Eng
hsh pUgrims going to Eome. He says that he had expressed
his " high displeasure" to the Pope at the immense sums of
money exacted from his archbishops when they went to
Eome to get the pallium, aud it was promised that this
should be no more done. He declares that he has humbly
vowed to Almighty God to amend his life in all respects, to
rule his people aright, to uphold strict justice, to enforce
impartial law for rich and poor. He is going to Denmark
to conclude a treaty of peace, then he hopes to return to
England. He desires that before he comes all dues belong
ing to God be carefully paid, and the pence payable to St.
Peter. Those who make default will be fined.^
17. On the matter which had caused so great excite
ment in the reigns of preceding English kings, the
question between the regulars and seculars, it does not
appear that King Cnut took a decided line either way.^
Assandun, his chief, perhaps his only, new English estab
lishment, was secular. On the other hand, when he
rebuilt the minster of St. Edmund, and endowed it with
such rich gifts, he turned out the secular canons who had
before been attached to it, and planted there an abbot and
monks. His benefactions were chiefly given to monasteries.
St Benet at Holm, Winchester, Ely, and Eamsey partook
of his bounty. From the general fairness and breadth of
his character, it may be assumed that merit, whether
secular or regular, found in him a ready patron.
18. The eighteen years of the reign of Cnut were a
time of growth and restoration, both for the ecclesiastical
and civil interests of the country. During the period of
the divided empire which followed his death, only signs
of retrogression as regards Church matters can be perceived.
We read of bishoprics being held in plurality and sold for
money.* Archbishop Ethelnoth, who had been the friend
1 Florent. Wigorn. s. a. 1031 ; Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Beg,,
(ed. Saville), 41.
^ Mr. Freeman says, " He mainly but not exclusively favoured the
monks." — Conquest, i, 484. Mr. Stubbs appears to favour the opposite
view. — Introd. to Epp, Cant,, p. xix.
3 Freeman, i. 563. Stigand was appointed to a bishopric, then

142 PERIOD OF THE DANISH ASCENDENCY, [chap, ix,
and counsellor of Cnut, and who is said to have refused to
crown Harold, inasmuch as Cnut had wUled the crown only
to the chUdren of Emma, died soon after his patron. He
was succeeded by Eadsige, who had been a chaplain of
Cnut, and who had been consecrated as coadjutor bishop by
Ethelnoth during his lifetime, taking his title from the little
church of St. Martin's at Canterbury, "in which Queen
Bertha prayed and Luithard preached."^ The new arch
bishop was not of the high character of the last ; he is said
to have been a time - server. He crowned Harold, which
Ethelnoth had refused to do, but he was quite as ready to
crown Edward, the son of Emma. The other Primate,
Alfric, Archbishop of York, obtained an evil notoriety by
supporting the tyrannical proceedings of Harthacnut after
the death of Harold. It was by his counsel, according
to William of Malmesbury, that the corpse of Harold was
disinterred and beheaded, and thrown into the Thames.^
JElMc also, by the aid of the evil king, seized the bishop
ric of Worcester, to which Lyfing had been appointed, but
which had been held in plurality by the three preceding
archbishops of York. Bishop Lyfing was beloved by the
people of his diocese, being a friend and supporter of Earl
Godwin, who was striving to uphold the liberties of his
country against the Danish tyrant.* Archbishop Alfric
was violently forced into the diocese, but the people
refusing to receive him, he induced the king to take a
terrible vengeance upon them, — to burn and spoil the city
of Worcester.* Another grievous scandal was witnessed in
the north. Edmund, the second bishop of Durham, had
succeeded in raising a minster over the bones of St
Cuthbert. In the year 1042 he died when at Gloucester
with King Harthacnut, and Eadred, called by Simeon,
"second in rank after the bishop," purchased the See of
deposed before consecration because some one else offered a larger
sum. 1 Hook, Archbishops, i, 488.
2 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pont, 154 (ed. Saville).
^ Freeman, i. 572.
* Willelm. Malmesb. Simeon Dunelm., p. 179 (Twysden). Bishop
Lyfing was restored the next yeaj-, having found means to pacify
(sereiiare) the king.

988-1042.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

113

the king by great treasures taken from the coffers of the
Church. The simoniac was, however, not allowed to take
possession of his ill-gotten dignity. As he was about to
enter the church, he was seized with a sudden malady, and
died after lingering ten months.-^ In the midst of all these
scandals of Church and State, it must have been a relief to
all well-disposed folk when King Harthacnut died suddenly
at a drinking bout in Lambeth, and " all the people
received Edward for king, as was his natural riglit."^
^ Simeon Dunelm., Hist Dunelm., p. 34 (ed. Twysden).
2 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 6-. a.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE WRITINGS OF .ffiLFEIC.
The following is a list of the -writ
ings attributed to iElfric taken from
Mr. Wright's Biographia Literaria.
1. A Latin Grammar, being a
translation of the old grammars of
Donatus and Priscian, preceded by
a Latin and Anglo-Saxon preface.
2. A Glossary of Latin words most
commonly used in conversation. 3.
A Colloquium or conversation in
Latin, with an interlinear Saxon
gloss. 4. An Anglo-Saxon Manual
of Astronomy. 5. A collection of
Homilies, amounting in number to
eighty. " These sermons are trans
lations and compilations from the
Latin homilies which had long been
used in the Anglo-Saxon Church ;

even the famous paschal sermon, in
which the Anglo-Saxon doctrine oi
the Eucharist is stated, is in its
more important part taken from the
Latin of Ratramn. " 6. Anotherset
of Homilies compiled from the Latin,
commemorative of the different saints
revered by the Anglo-Saxon Church.
7. A. translation of the Pentateuch
and the Book of Job. 8. A Treatise
on the Old and New Testament. 9.
A Treatise on the Trinity. 10. The
Abridgment of Ethelwolf's Constitu
tions for the monks of Eynsham.
11. [Perhaps] the Translation of the
Life of Guthlac. , 12. An Epistle to
Sigferth on the marriage of the
clergy. 13. [Probably] Sermo
JSlfrici Episcopi ad Clericos. 14.
Sermo ad Saoredotes.

144 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [ohap. x.

CHAPTER X.
CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN
IHE CHUBCH OF ENGLAND.
1042-1066.
1. Good auguries for the Church in the accession of Edward. 2. His
promotion of foreign prelates. 3. Stigand advanced to Winchester.
4. Leofric first bishop of Exeter. 5. Ulf bishop of Dorchester at
Vercellae. 6. Eobert, Archbishop of Canterbury ; foreign influence
at its height. 7. Robert and Ulf expelled. 8. Stigand archbishop.
9. Herman bishop of Eamsbury, and the Malmesbury monks. 10.
Earl Harold's foxmdation of Waltham. 11. Gisa bishop of Wells. 12.
Ealdred's advancement to the See of York. 13. Wulfstan bishop
of Worcester. 14. Building and consecration of Westminster Abbey.
15. A.rchbishop Stigand consecrates Harold.
1. The restoration of the English famUy and of the
line of Cedric and Ethelred, in the person of a prince
renowned for his virtue, and especially for his devotion,
gave promise of good days for the English Church. In
the election and appointment of Edward, a bishop had
borne a prominent part. Lyfing, bishop of Worcester,
hardly used, as we have seen, by Harthacnut and .^lllfric,
had great influence in the land through his close connec
tion with Earl Godwin. He had been favoured by King
Cnut, and by him appointed to the Devonshire and Corn
wall See,^ the headquarters of which were then at Crediton.
When appointed to Worcester he had not relinquished the
western See, but had held it in plurality. There were
many examples of this evil practice at that time, Worcester
especially being a sort of appanage to York.^ Lyfing,
' The See of Cornwall, the original of which was due to the ancient
British Church, was united to that of Devonshire during the episcopate
of Lyfing. Now, after more than eight hundred years, again happily
dissevered. " On the connection between Worcester and York, see Stubbs's
Const Hist, i. 239, note.

1042-1066.] AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 145
known as " the eloquent," and admired as a true patriot
bishop, must have had much power to commend the new
king to Churchmen. 1 Edward was "haUowed" king at
Winchester on Easter-day (1043) "with great worship,"
and Archbishop Eadsige "well instructed and exhorted
lum."^ No better promise for the tranquillity and advance
ment of the Church could be given than in such a ruler
so generally acceptable to the nation.
2. The one thing which to a great extent marred all
these good hopes, was Edward's inveterate preference for
foreigners, and his constant practice of putting foreign
Churchmen into English Sees. Edward had spent his
life in Normandy, and was more Norman than English.
His great eagerness was to surround himself with Normans.
But besides the Normans and Frenchmen brought over by
him, there were many Germans or Lotharingians promoted
in the Church at this time.* The Church of England thus
gradually acquired a foreign complexion and foreign habits.
Speaking of the Lotharingians, Mr. Freeman says, " II
they were not Normanisers, they were at least Eomanisers.
They brought with them habits of constant reference to
the Papal See, and a variety of scruples on points of small
canonical regularity, to which Englishmen had hitherto
been strangers."* Increased connection with the Continent
meant, in fact, increased subordination to Eome. The
TMtional character of the Church of England was impaired.
" We now first hear of bishops going to Eome for consecra
tion or confirmation, and of the Eoman court claiming at
least a veto on the nomination of the English king."^
Eobert of Jumi^ges, a Norman monk, made bishop of
London, becomes the great adviser and director of the king.
What the Church gains in tranquiUity and in royal favour
she loses in nationality and freedom.
3. The man destined to take the most prominent stand
1 See Freeman, ii. 82, and the q^uotations from William of Malmes
bury. ' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s. a,
' Freeman ii. 80. — "We can hardly fail to see in these appoint
ments an attempt of Godwin and the patriotic party to counterbalance
the merely French tendencies of Edward himself."
* Norman Conquest, ii. 81. ^ Freeman, ii. 67.
L

146 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [chap. x.
agamst this foreign influence in the Church of the land,
is' heard of again in a singular manner about the time of
Edward's coronation. Stigand, appointed priest at Assandun
by Cnut, had been nominated to a bishopric, but his
nomination had been cancelled before consecration. Now
again he is both nommated and consecrated bishop of
Elmham in East Anglia.^ But he is not allowed to enjoy
his dignity. He is deprived of his See, and his goods are
confiscated, probably on the ground that he was aiding
and abetting Queen Emma in her schemes for bringing in
a Danish prince.^ In the year 1047, however, Stigand
regained a suflScient influence to obtain the appointment to
the important See of Winchester, vacant by the death of
Bishop ^Ifsige.
4. Lyfing, bishop of Worcester, died in 1046, and was
succeeded in that See by Ealdred, whose name frequently
occurs in the after history. In the Devonshire bishopric
Lyfing was succeeded by Leofric, a Briton, that is, pro
bably, a native of CornwaU and a Briton by race.* The
episcopate of this prelate was signalised by the removal ¦
of the See from Crediton to Exeter (1050), and in the
church of St. Peter in that city, Leofric was solemnly
enthroned by Edward and Emma. This, and the removal
of the See of St Cuthbert to Durham, was the beginning
of that policy which was consummated by the Council
pf London in 1075. Bishop Leofric was an upholder of
the secular cause as against the monastic. He removed
the nuns from the Church of Exeter, and substituted for
them a society of secular canons, who were to live ac
cording to the rule of Chrodegang,* though not bound by
monastic vows, nor wearing the monastic habit.
^ The See of Dunwich had been amalgamated with Elmham, which
now included Norfolk and Suffolk. It was soon after moved to
Thetford, and then to Norwich. ^ Freeman, ii. 65. ^ lb., it 83.
^ The rule of Chrodegang followed closely that of St. Benedict for
monks. The same canonical hours are enjoined. The bishop stands
in the place of the Abbot, the Archdeacon of the Prior. But there
are two fundamental differences. The canons were boimd neither by
the vow of poverty, nor, in its monastic strictness, by the vow of implicit
obedience. See Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography, Article
"Chrodegang."

1042-1066.] AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 147
5. WhUe the national and foreign parties in the Church
of England were more or less evenly balanced in the
appointment of prelates, the latter party gained great
strength by the custom which began to prevail about
the middle of the century, of English prelates attending at
foreign Councils. At the Synod of Eheims, held by Pope
Leo (1049), several English prelates were present, and
at that of Vercellee (1050). held to condemn the doctrines
of Berengarius, English affairs took a prominent place.
The previous year Eadnothus II., bishop of Dorchester,
who had buUt a fair church at Stow in Lindsey, to do
honour to the old home of his See, ^ had died, and the
great See of Dorchester was conferred by the king on
one of his Norman chaplains, named Ulf One of the old
Enghsh chroniclers says emphatically, " he ill bestowed it ;"
another declares of Ulf, " he did nothing bishopdike, so
that it shames us now to tell more."^ This objectionable
prelate had now to appear before the Council to seek
confirmation from the Pope — an innovation rapidly growing
at this time. He was found very incompetent. The
Chronicle says : " They were very near breaking his staff,
if he had not given the greater treasures, because he could
not do his offices as well as he should." * The " greater
treasures," however, availed to procure for Ulf confirmation
and consecration, and he returned from Vercellae bishop
of Dorchester, a standing monument of the lengths to
which the king's evil partiality for foreigners could carry
him. 6. But a still more striking and insulting proof of this
was now to be given to the Church of England. Before
the end of the year (1060) Archbishop Eadsige died. He
had previously been incapacitated by illness, and had
consecrated Siward as his coadjutor. But Siward died
before him, and after his death Eadsige had performed,
or attempted to perform, his archiepiscopal functions again.
The monks of Christ Church elected as his successor jElfric,
a monk of their house, and a kinsman of Earl Godwin.
¦" Stow, no doubt, was the ancient Siddena or Sidnacester, tho
original home of the Lindsey bishopric.
* A.-S. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), ii. 140-142. » iS., p. 143.

148 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [chap. x.
The king disregarded their choice, and bestowed the
primacy on Eobert, the Norman bishop of London. He
was probably the most unpopular foreign prelate in the
kingdom, and as his influence with the king was known
to be all-powerful, the worst was feared from the appoint
ment.^ Eobert at once went to Eome, and returned with
the pall. On St. Peter's day (June 29, 1051), he was
enthroned. His first act was a remarkable assertion of
papal authority as against national law and custom.
Spearhafoc, abbot of Abingdon, had been nominated
bishop of London, and applied to the new Primate for
consecration. Eobert refused to consecrate him. He
declared that he had been forbidden to do so by the
Pope.^ The abbot, though denied consecration, neverthe
less went to occupy his See ; " he resided in it with the
king's full leave all the summer and autumn." * But the
foreign infiuence was for the moment all-powerful. Spear
hafoc was expelled, and William, a Norman, consecrated
in his room. Earl God-win, the head of the Enghsh party,
was banished, and Norman influence seemed to be triumph
ant both in Church and State.
7. The return of Earl Godwin and Harold, in the
following year, by force of arms, changed the whole aspect
of affairs. The foreign prelates, dreading the popular
indignation, were then only anxious to fly. Of the two
most conspicuous among them the chronicler tells us :
" Archbishop Eobert, with Bishop Ulf and their com
panions, went out at East-gate (London), and slew and
otherwise maltreated many young men, and straightway
betook themselves to Eadulfsness (Walton-on-the-Naze),
and there lighted on a crazy ship, and he betook him-
¦¦ Robert, in order to strengthen the Norman influence in England,
began the practice of establishing alien priories — little establishments
of foreign monks, being branches or offshoots of great foreign houses.
These served admirably to uphold foreign inflinence, but they were a /
terrible thorn in the side of the English bishops, to whose discipline
they would not submit. See Hook's Archbishops, i. 496.
2 "Things had come to such a pass, that an Englishman appointed
to an English ofBce by the king and his Witan was to be kept out of
its fuU possession by one foreigner acting at the alleged bidding of
another." — Freeman, ii. 122. s ^ .g_ cj^ron., ii. 144.

1042-1066.] AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 149
self at once over the sea, and left his paU and all Chris
tianity here in the country, so as God willed it, as he
had before obtained the dignity as God willed it not." ^
The next day the Witan proclaimed the fugitive bishops
to be outlaws. The bishop of London is said by one
chronicler to have escaped wdth Eobert and Ulf, but the
chronicler quoted above does not mention him. As he
was soon afterwards restored to his See, it is probable that
he did not share in their flight, or at least not in the
violent deeds which seem to have accompanied it.^ The
Primate at once betook himself to the Pope. There had
been few (if any) appeals by English Churchmen from a
sentence of an English Court to the Eoman Curia since
the time of WUfrid.* Wilfrid, indeed, had not gained
much by his action, neither did Archbishop Eobert. No
notice, in fact, was taken of his appeal in England, and by
the consent of the Witan,* Stigand, bishop of Winchester,
was advanced to the primacy, and took possession of the
paU which Eobert had left behind him.
8. It is somewhat remarkable that Stigand should
have been chosen for the primacy rather than .Mlfric, who
had been elected by the Canterbury monks before Eobert's
intrusion. But Stigand had been engaged in negotiating
between the king and Earl Godwin. He was a person
evidently of much influence and energy of character. The
popular party probably desired him, and the king, who
was for the moment helpless, as being deserted by his
foreign allies, yielded. The policy, however, of at once
advancing Stigand, was an unfortunate one. He continued
to hold the See of Winchester, and thus gave sufficient
ground for his enemies to declare his promotion un
canonical. He had never been elected by the chapter of
his See, which was also opposed to precedent. He did
not affect to disregard -the Eoman pall, but seized upon
that of Eobert, which was an absurd pretence. At length
he applied for a pall for himself, but to a usurping Pope.
1 A.-S. Chron., ii. 152. ^ See Freeman, ii. 331, note I.
^ Hook's ArchTiishops, i. 504.
'' This seems to be implied by the chronicler, but is not absolutely
stated.

150 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [ohap. x.
Churchmen generally in the country regarded him not as
legitimate Primate, but simply as de facto archbishop. The
consecrations of prelates during his incumbency were
generally done by other hands.^ Harold himself passed
him over, and preferred the ministry of other prelates.
Finally, Duke William was able to allege as one of the
reasons which called him to England, the uncanonical
intrusion of Stigand into the primacy of the church.^ As
regards the other bishops who were implicated in these
troubles, Ulf of Dorchester was after a time replaced by
Wulfwig, an Englishman, and William was restored to the
See of London. He was now the only Norman who
retained a bishopric*
9. After the death of Godwin, his son, the Earl Harold,
occupied the position of greatest influence in the land, and
was able, for the most part, to bend the king tp his will.
The contest between seculars and regulars, begun in the
days of Dunstan, still continued. The Devonshire See had
been provided with a secular chapter. It was now at
tempted to do the same for the See of WUtshire, and
Harold's influence was invoked and exercised to save the
threatened monks. Hermann, a man of Flanders, was
bishop of Eamsbury. He complained to the king that he
neither had a chapter of clerks nor a sufficient revenue,
and he asked that both might be supplied to him by the
gift of the abbey of Malmesbury, the abbot of which was
lately dead. The monks might be made to give way to
canons. The revenues of the monastery would supply
what was lacking in the See. The king agreed to the
proposal. The Malmesbury monks, animated by the usual
hatred of monks towards bishops, addressed themselves
to Harold. He obtained for them a reversal of the grant
of the monastery, and thfi baffled bishop retired abroad in
anger.* ^ Yet it is remarkable that after the Conquest and by consent of
William, Remigius was consecrated by Stigand.
^ See, Freeman, ii. 342, and Appendix U. William of Malmesbury
has much to say of the matter, both in the De Gestis Begum and De
Gestis Pontificum, In the latter he attributes Stigand's errors to
ignorance. 3 Freeman, ii. 346.
* Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, 142 (ed. Saville). Mr.

1042-1066.] AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 151
10. Earl Harold appears as the champion of the monks
on this > occasion. But it is by no means to be inferred
from this that he was a partisan of the cause of the
regulars as against the seculars. The noble college which
he buUt and endowed at Waltham, and in which he estab
hshed secular clergy, rather proves the contrary. Waltham
was connected with the legend of a famous crucifix, and a
small church had been biiUt there by Tofig before it passed
into the hands of Harold. This was rebuilt by the earl on
a splendid scale, and enriched with precious gifts. A dean
and twelve canons, Uberally endowed, were settled in this
church. These clergy were not bound by vows. Some of
them were probably married. Their duty was not merely to
minister in the church, but to form a school. A man famous
for learning, Adelard of Ltittich, was brought over to be
lecturer in the college. The foundation of Waltham, so
plainly differenced from the monasteries by its evident use
fulness, stands out unique in its day, and was an anticipation
by some centuries of the great colleges of our universities.^
The church of the college was consecrated in May 1060, and
it is remarkable that Ajrchbishop Stigand was not called to
perform the duty, but Cynesige, Archbishop of York. It
has been argued from this that Harold was in doubt as to the
canonical status of Stigand, but it scarcely seems probable
that such scruples should have occurred to him. Stigand,
if not canonically Archbishop of Canterbury, was at any
rate canonically a bishop, and therefore competent to per
form this office. But it may be that the feelings of the
clergy present were against him.
11. Soon after the consecration of Waltham, we find
Earl Harold involved in a dispute with Gisa, the Lotha-
ringian bishop of- WeUs. He is said to have kept back
Freeman puts the occurrence in 1055. Hermann afterwards returned
and became bishop of Sherborne, as well as Ramsbury, and twelve
years after the Conquest, transferred the united Sees to Salisbury. —
Freeman, ii. 406.
1 The interesting subject of Waltham has been so fully worked out
by our great Oxford historians, Messrs. Stubbs and Freeman, that
nothing remains to be elucidated. See the Treatise De Inventione and
Mr. Stubbs's Preface, and Freeman's Norman Conquest, ii. 439, sq.

152 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [chap. x.
from the bishop some estates belonging to the See. It was
not on any ecclesiastical grounds that the quarrel turned,
and we do not find that Harold, on this occasion, was acting
as the champion of the regulars, as he had done at Malmes
bury. Gisa, indeed, was busy, not in expelling monks, but
in enlarging, strengthening, and enriching the very feeble
canonical body which he had found in existence on his
promotion to the See.
12. Archbishop Cynesige, the consecrator of Waltham,
died before the close of the year, and his place was
immediately filled by Ealdred, bishop of Worcester, who
attempted once more to carry out the arrangement, for
which there was a considerable amount of evil precedent,
of holding Worcester in conjunction with York. Of this
prelate, Wilham of Malmesbury has some strange stories to
relate. First of all, he declares that it was by the adminis
tration of a bribe that Ealdred " abused the simplicity of
Edward," and obtained the grant of the northern arch
bishopric. Then he has a very interesting account of
Ealdred's journey to Eome to fetch the pall. He went in
company with Gisa and Walter, who sought consecration,
and also in company with Earl Tostig and his suite, who were
bound to the Papal See on business of the king's. Ealdred
was kindly received by Pope Nicholas, and made to sit
by his side in a synod which Nicholas had summoned
against the simoniacs. The two bishops-elect were'
examined and consecrated, but the scrutiny in Bishop
Ealdred's case did not turn out so favourably. He was
compeUed to admit that he had paid money for his pro
motion, and the avowal being, as it seems, openly made, it
was necessary to inflict an open censure. He was sentenced
to be degraded from all ecclesiastical dignity. After this,
the English party, much humihated and very indignant,
set out on their homeward journey. But at Sutrium a
band of robbers fell upon them, and stripped them of all
their goods. This, as it happened, was a fortunate occur
rence for Ealdred. They returned to the Pope, and Earl
Tostig, full of fury, proceeded to hurl reproaches at him
for what had occurred. " Of what value," he asked, " were
his excommunications when there were at his very doors

1042-1066.] AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 153
those who utterly despised them?" The Pope was severe
to suppliants, but had no weapon to launch against open
rebels. He claimed the restitution of what they had been
robbed of through the Pope's ill government. If they
were not compensated, the English king would be justified
in stopping the payment of the tribute of St. Peter. The
Pope, terrified at this threat, at once changed his demeanour.
He conferred the pall upon Ealdred for York, only stipu
lating that he should resign the Worcester See.^
13. The Archbishop Ealdred returned with the paU
(1061), and was soon followed by certain papal Legates,
partly, no doubt, with a view of seeing that his promise of the
resignation of the See of Worcester was effectively carried
out. There was, at that time, at the head of the Worcester
monastery, a prior named Wulfstan, a man distinguished
alike for learning and sanctity. He was the friend of
Harold, and acceptable at the same time to the Witan and
to the papal Legates. The monastic chapter readily elected
hitn to the See, but Wulfstan himself was with difficulty
persuaded to undertake the office. He was consecrated by
his predecessor. Archbishop Ealdred,^ and became the most
valuable and saintly prelate of his era. Though of pure
English race, and, through his friendship with Harold,
committed to strong opposition to the foreign invaders,
Wulfstan nevertheless secured by his conspicuous virtues
the respect of the Conqueror, and was able to render to his
Church and country the great service of suppressing to a
considerable extent the iniquitous traffic with Ireland in
slaves, which then prevailed at the port of Bristol.*
14. While the national and foreign, influences were
contending for mastery in the Church of England, the king
was ever unmistakably on the side of the foreigners.
Edward desired to bring the Church of the land into more
' Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, p. 154 (ed. SaviUe). Vita
St, Wulfstani. — Ang. Sacra, ii. 250.
^ William of Malmesbury says Ealdred robbed him of almost all his
farms ; and it was not till after his death that Wulfstan succeeded in
obtaining their restoration.
' See Life of St. Wulfstan by William of Malmesbury in Anglia
Sacra, vol. ii. The slave-trade is described at page 258.

154 CONTEST BETWEEN NATIONAL [chap. x.
and more complete subjection to the Church of Eome. One
cause of this was the intense and special devotion which he
ever felt and expressed to the cultus of St. Peter In
honour of this saint, the adopted patron of his life, the
king had been engaged in erecting a costly and noble
monument. On the island of Thorney, famous for its
connection with the earliest Christianity in the land,
Edward had enlarged and rebuilt the ancient monastery,
and had long been occupied in raising a grand abbey church
destined to eclipse all other religious buildings in the land.
This was to celebrate for ever the glories of St. Peter.
Foreign workmen and the architectural skill then being
wonderfully developed on the Continent, had enabled him
to erect a magnificent temple, and on the 28th December^
1065 the church ofthe West Minster was consecrated with
every circumstance of pomp, the whole of the notables of
England, both in Church and State, being present.^ There
was one conspicuous personage, however, who was absent
from the grand ceremonial, and this was King Edward
himself Overpowered by a malady which was fast bring
ing him to his grave, Edward was constrained to entrust
the task of representing the founder of the church to his
Queen, Edith. Within eight days of the consecration of
the abbey, the funeral rites of its builder were celebrated
within it, and very soon afterwards it was the scene of the
consecration of the newly elected king, the Earl Harold.
15. At the time of the death of King Edward, Arch
bishop Stigand displayed great energy and vigour. He
at once, as the first man in the country, summoned the
Witan. The members of it were already present at West
minster for the ceremony of the consecration, and in fact,
the regular winter Parliament was proceeding there. But
^ The chronicler calls it "Childemas Day," the feast of the Holy
Innocents. ^ No part of the minster as built by Edward now remains, save a
few bases of pillars and other fragments. But a considerable amount
ot the domestic buildings of the abbey is to be discovered, See
Freeman, ii. 507. In a Norman-French poem called TJie History of
St Edward the King, published iu the Rolls Series, there is a full
account of the church and the consecration.

1042-1066.]

AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE.

155

Stigand took the initiative in calling upon it to act in the
matter of the succession. It was a difficult question. The
nearest heir of the royal family was a boy, but in those
days there was no absolute law of hereditary succession.
The Witan chose Earl Harold, the brother of the Queen
Dowager, — and confessedly the most worthy of the crown
of any man in the kingdom. The people gladly accepted
him. Then Stigand consecrated Harold in the new abbey
of Westminster.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

pelled in the case of thieves taking
sanctuary. 6. Any person injuring
chiu'ch or clergy to be cited if con
tumacious to the king's courts. If
he refused to appear, to be outlawed,
and his head might lawfully be
taken. 7. The tenth sheaf of corn,
the tenth of cattle, cheese, and milk
to be paid to the Church. 8. Tenth
of fees, underwood, meadow, parks,
wan'ens, fish-ponds, mills, gardens,
and gains in trading, to go to the
Church. " This revenue granted by
the king, the nobility, and the com
mons. " 9. Regulations for the trial
by ordeal. 10 and 11. Regulate
payments for Peter's pence and Dane-
gelt. 12. Fixes the amount of fine
for killing a slave or tenant. The
king and archbishop to receive three
marks each, bishop aud ealdorman
twenty shillings each. 13. Regu
lates treasure-trove in churchyards.
Gold to go to the king, of silver the
Crown to have half, the Church the
other. All Jews in the kingdom
are declared to be under the pro
tection and guardianship of the
Crown.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS
OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
1. Clergymen and scholars to
enjoy privileges of their order, and
to be under protection ot the Church.
2. Times during which lawsuits and
prosecutions were to cease — -viz.
from Advent to Octaves of Epiphany ;
from Septuagesima to Octaves of
Easter ; from Ascension-day to Oc
taves of Whitsunday ; the tlu-ee days
in Ember weeks ; Saturdays, from
afternoon tUl Monday morning; vigils
cf the days of St. Mary, St. Michael,
St. John Baptist, the Apostles, and
other chief saints ; anniversaries of
consecration of churches ; persons
travelling Jor any religious act or
purpose, were to be exempted from
molestation. 3. Church business
to have precedence in the king's
courts, 4. Chm'ch tenants to plead
iu Church courts,^ unless these fail
in doing justice. 5. Church, church
yard, and priest's house and premises
to be sanctuary, unless sanctuary be
abused for purposes of crime. Res
titution of stolen goods to be com-
1 i.e. Courts presided over by Cliureli officials, manor com-ts of the Churcll—
not spiritual coiurts.

156 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.

CHAPTER XL
FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH.
1066-1087.
1. Ecclesiastical effects of the Conquest. 2. Appointment of foreigu
prelates. 3. Ravages of the Normans. 4. Council of Winchester,
1070. 5. Council and Synod ot Windsor, 1070. 6. Appointment
of Lanfranc to the primacy. 7. Consecration of Thomas, Archbishop
of York. 8. Lanfranc visits Rome. 9. Primacy dispute settled at
Winchester and Windsor, 1072. 10. Building of cathedral churches
by the foreign prelates. 11. Change of Sees from villages to cities.
12. Prohibition of clerical matrimony. 13. Separation between
ecclesiastical and lay jurisdictions. 14. Effects of this. 15. The
royal supremacy under William. 16. Independent spirit towards
Rome shown by Lanfranc. 17. The attempt to secularise the mon
astic cathedrals. 18. St. Wulfstan at Worcester. 19. St. Osmund
at Salisbury. 20. Remigius at Lincoln. 21. Hardships of Enghsh
monks.
1. The contest which had been proceeding through aU the
reign of Edward between foreign and national influences in
the Church of England, was destined to be completely
decided in favour of the former by the great secular revo
lution of the Conquest. It was as much the policy of the
Conqueror to substitute foreign ecclesiastics for native in
places of influence in the Church, as it was for him to put
foreigners into places of power, wealth, and influence in
the State. "^ And thus it came about that, putting aside
instances of individual hardship and oppression, the Church
of England generally suffered this mischief at the Conquest
— it lost to a great extent its nationality. And the Church
policy of the Conqueror contributed towards the same end
as his administration of preferment. The separation of the
1 Throughout this chapter I am constantly indebted to Mr. Free
man's chapter on The Ecclesiastical Settlement of England at the
Conquest (oh. xix. vol. iv.)

1066-1087.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 167
ecclesiastical from the secular, both in legislation and juris
diction, snapped asunder some of the national bands, and
threw the Church of England more directly into the arms
of the Pope. But while the Church in England suffered in
the point of its nationality, it gained considerably in the
matter of its efficiency.^ A vast amount of vigour was
imported into the Church as into the State, though in both
cases accompanied by injustice and cruel wrongs.
2. The first ecclesiastical effect of the Conquest was
shown in the exclusion of bishops and abbots of the Eng
lish race from all preferment. The deposition of those al
ready in possession was soon to follow, but at first a cautious
moderation was observed. Stigand and his friends must
have anticipated the coming storm, but it did not come
immediately. WUliam, indeed, would not accept his " hal
lowing " from the hands of Stigand, but preferred Ealdred,
Archbishop of York, who " hallowed him on Midwinter's
day at Westminster."^ Stigand, however, was allowed
to perform other episcopal acts, und was not immediately
suspended.* But though some of his acts were tolerated,
the Primate was not trusted, and when WiUiam visited
Normandy in 1067, Stigand was taken with him as a sort
of hostage, perhaps to ensure the quiet of the national party
Ul the English Church. Athelnoth, abbot of Glastonbury,
was also made to accompany William, probably for the
same reason. Some time during the year 1067, probably
near to its close, the Primate was permitted or obliged to
consecrate Eemigius to the See of Dorchester.'' Eemigius
was a monk of Fescamp, who had been long employed by
William, and who is said by all the chroniclers to have
1 "The English Church was drawn into the general tide of eccle
siastical politics, and lost much of its insular character ; it gained in
symmetry and definiteness of action, and was started on a new career."
—Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 280. ^ _4^..g. chron., ed. Thorpe, ii. 169.
5 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, p. 36 (ed. Hamilton).
* See the Professio Remigii made to Lanfranc, printed in Girald.
Camb. -vii. (Appendix A). The editor does not appear to be aware
that this Profession had been before printed by Dr. Inett in an English
translation. Remigius was, no doubt, consecrated in 1067, but at
what period of the year is uncertain. Mr. Freeman puts it quite at
the end (iv. 131).

168 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.
made a direct compact with his patron, that on the condi
tion of furnishing him with a ship and armed men, he should
succeed to the first See which fell vacant in England.^
Wulfwig, bishop of Dorchester, died soon after the Conquest,
and the great Mercian See was given to Eemigius. It may
have been from a refinement of malice that the English
Primate was thus made to inaugurate the ascendency of the
foreigner, and to perform an act which certainly presaged
his own downfall. Certain it is that this appointment was
the beginning of a complete era of exclusion for English-
born Churchmen from all preferment. " For a long time
the appointment of an Englishman to a bishopric is un
known, and even to a great abbey it is extremely rare." ^
3. For the two years which succeeded the Conquest
there may be said to have been no Church history in Eng
land. The whole land was writhing in the deadly grasp
of the Conqueror. Fhst in the west and south, and then
in the north, a devastation of the country, 'conducted in a
systematic and ruthless fashion, which the inhumanity of
no previous tyrant had conceived, and which left the rav
ages of the Danes far behind, paralysed all action save the
mere struggle for life. The minster of York was now
burned,* as that of Canterbury had been (accidentally) on
the day of William's return from Normandy. William
professed a reverence for the Church and its sanctuaries,
and some of the richer English, hoping by this means to
shield somewhat of their property, had, stored up wealth in
the monasteries. The only effect of this was to cause
William to make a general raid on the monasteries.
Throughout the whole of England, says a chronicler, he
caused the monasteries to be carefully searched, and all
deposits found in them to be carried away into his treasury.
Another chronicler declares that he not only stole money
but charters wliich he had himself ratified ; and another,
that he did not spare the sacred chalices and shrines of
the saints.* This spoliation took place during the Lent of
'' Will. Malmesb., De Gest Pont, p. 312 (ed. Hamilton).
2 Freeman, iv. 131. s pjoj.^ -\^jg^^ ;j_ ^ (£_ jj_ g_j
¦» Flor. Wigorn., ii. 5 ; A.-S. Chron., ii. 176-; Thorn., p. 1787 (ed.
Twysden) ; Matt. Paris, ii. 6 (ed. Luard).

1066-1087.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 159
1070, and WUliam thus inaugurated the ecclesiastical set
tlement of the land with which he now proceeded to occupy
himself. 4. At Winchester after Easter 1070 met the great
council of the nation. WUliam was again crowned, but
this time not by an English bishop, but by the Legates of
the Pope sent to congratulate him, and to assist him in the
great work of bringing the English Church more completely
under a foreign yoke, and of deposing the national bishops.
The Primate Stigand was the first to suffer. There was
abundance of colourable pretext for his deposition. He
had held the bishopric of Winchester together with the
primacy; he had thrust himself into the primacy while
Eobert was yet alive ; he had used his pallium, and (worst
of aU) he had applied to Benedict the anti-pope for a
pallium for himself. In his case the malice of the Pope
against one who had supported a rival, as well as the
hatred of William to a man of English race, might both be
gratified, and Stigand was deposed, and imprisoned for the
remainder of .his Ufe at Winchester.-' The next victim was
MfhehasBT the brother of Stigand, who had succeeded him
as bishop of the East Angles, and whom, doubtless, his close
relationship to the Primate was held sufficient to condemn.^
Florence of Worcester adds, " Certain abbots were there
degraded, the king endeavouring that as many as possible
of the English should be deprived of their honour, in whose
place he substituted persons of his own race for the confir
mation of the new kingdom which he had acquired.* And
some, both bishops and abbots, against whom there was no
apparent cause of condemnation, either from the councils or
the secular laws, he deprived of their honours, and detained
1 Flor. Wig., u. 5. , WiUelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, 37. This
last writer accuses Stigand of simony and grievous covetousness.
^ Mr. Freeman notes, from the Domesday Survey, that Jjlthelmaar
had a -wife (iv. 335, and note).
3 Eadmer says, " Usus atque leges quas patres sui et ipse in Norman-
ni^ habere solebant in Anglic servaro volens de hujusmodi personis
episcopos abbates et alios principes per totam terram instituit, de quibus
indignum judicaretur si per omnia suis legibus, postposita omni alii
consideratione, non obedirent." — Hist Nov. (ed. Selden), i. 6.

160 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [ohap. xi.
as prisoners to the end of their lives, only, as I have said,
induced to do this from a possible danger tbat might arise
to the new kingdom." ^ This council also decreed the
seizure of .^Ethelric, late bishop of Durham, who had re
tired from his See to the Peterborough monastery, and also
the outlawry of ^thelwine, his successor in that bishopric.^
The council dealt too with a man of more conspicuous
position than some of these — one whose sanctity was re
cognised and venerated on all sides — Wulfstan, bishop of
Worcester. There was no question of deposing this pre
late. Englishman though he was. Such a proceeding would
have been somewhat too monstrous. But Wulfstan himself
came forward to demand the restitution to his See of lands,
which had been, as he alleged, improperly taken from it
by Ealdred, Archbishop of York. The matter was left
undecided, on the ground that, the Church of York being
vacant, there was no one to defend the opposite interest.*
5. At the national council held soon after (May 23) at
Windsor, Wilham nominated Thomas, a canon of Bayeux,
to the archiepiscopal See of York, and Walkeline, one of
his chaplains, to that of Winchester, vacant by the deposi
tion of Stigand. The work of deposing the English pre
lates was then resumed, but now in a purely ecclesiastical
Synod held by Ermenfrid, the Pope's Legate * (May 24).
At this Synod Agelric (or ^thelric), the bishop of Selsey,
was deposed. His oft'ence is not specified, indeed the
chronicler asserts that he was " free from fault," and that
his deposition was "uncanonical." He was put in prison
at Marlborough. .(Ethelric's crime was no doubt his
nationality. Certain abbots were also now deposed. Her-
fast and Stigand, both Normans, were appointed bishops,
the one of Elmham and the other of Selsey, and certain
Norman monks received abbeys. The two primatial Sees
1 Flor. Wig., ii. 5.
^ Simeon of Durham records the fact of .ffithelwine's attempted flight
with a great amount of the treasures of the Church — his being driven
back — his capture and confinement at Abingdon. — Sim. Dunehn., p.
41 (ed. Tvrysden). 3 yioj,^ -y^rjg^^ ji_ 6.
* The chronicler is careful to tell us that it was by the "King's
order " that the Legate acted.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 101
being both vacant, the new bishop of Winchester was con
secrated by Ermenfrid, the Pope's Legate.^ Thus the sub
jugation of the English Church to the foreign authority
went rapidly forward.
6. But 'in order to perfect and give stability to this
policy, it was needful that an able and efficient man should
be placed in the highest post of the Church, and then, by
causing the new Metropolitan of York to make profession
of canonical obedience to th« new Primate of Canterbury,
a unity and consistency might be given to the Church of
England, and the scheme of St. Gregory for dividing it into
two independent provinces might be altogether effaced.
The choice of the king, which was ratified by the National
Council, fell upon Lanfranc, abbot of Caen in Normandy.
Lanfranc had been long well known to William. He was
a native of Pavia in Italy, distinguished for his learning and
acquirements no less than for his natural ability. In search
of a monastery in which to make his profession, he had
been attracted to Bee by finding the abbot with his frock
tucked up employed in baking. He entered the monastery,
and soon, by his lectures on dialectic, made the abbey
famous. Having offended one of the royal chaplains ^ by
deriding his ignorance, Lanfranc was summoned to court,
and William quickly discerned his powers. He was pro
moted to be abbot of Caen, and then to be Primate of Eng
land. His selection for this great dignity was made known
to him by the Legates of the Pope, Ermenfrid and Hubert,
who went expressly to inform him of it, and a Synod was
held in Normandy authorising him to accept the dignity.
Lanfranc expressed his unwillingness, dwelling on the feeble
ness of his bodily powers, and his ignorance of the language
of the country, and of the barbarous races over which he
would have to preside. But these excuses, if genuine,
were not allowed to have weight. Both William and the
Pope evidently attached the greatest importance to secur
ing this able man for the primacy. Lanfranc accordingly
reached England in August, and having been duly elected
by the chapter of Canterbury, he was consecrated there
1 Flor. Wigorn., ii. 6 (E. H. S.)
' Herfast, afterwards made bishop of Elmham.
M

162 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.
August 29, 1070) by WiUiam, bishop of London, Walke
line of Winchester, Eemigius of Dorchester or Lincoln,
Siward of Eochester, Herfast of Elmham, Hermann of
Sherborne, Gisa of Wells.^
7. Soon after the consecration of the new Primate,
Thomas, elect of York, arrived at Canterbury for consecra
tion. Lanfranc, no doubt fully informed of the mind of the
Pope in the matter, demanded of him a -written profession
of obedience to the See of Canterbury. Thomas rephed
that he would not do this unless he saw ancient authorities
for it, and heard arguments to con-vince him that he could
do it without prejudice to his church. Lanfranc, in his
account of the matter, attributes this to ignorance on the
part of Thomas, and to inexperience of the customs of Eng
land. But Thomas was no doubt well aware of the arrange
ment of St. Gregory, and also that it could not be shown
from English custom that the northern Primate had always
professed obedience to the southern. Thomas therefore
went away unconsecrated. The king now thought it
necessary to interpose. He held that Lanfranc was asking
too much. Thomas also was a man well learned and of
great knowledge. But Lanfranc was able to convince
WUliam that he had right and authority on his side, and
Thomas was required to give a written profession of
obedience. A sort of compromise was, however, allowed.
No Archbishop of York was to be obliged to promise
obedience to the See of Canterbury in future, unless a com
petent council should in the meantime decide that it was
to be so. On these conditions Thomas was consecrated.^
8. Lanfranc, after his consecration, was required, as a
dutiful son of the Papal See, to go to Eome for the pal
lium of Metropolitan. He took with him Thomas, the
newly consecrated Archbishop of York, and Eemigius,
bishop of Dorchester and Lincoln. Both of these needed
the papal dispensing power. Thomas was the son of a
priest, and hence was considered to have canonical unfit-
1 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest, Pont,, pp. 37, sq. (ed. Hamilton);
Flor. Wig., ii. 7 ; Lanfranci Epistolce (ed. GUes), i. 19, 20.
- Willelm. Malmesb. (ex, Ep. Lanfranci), p. 39. Freeman, iv.
350, sq.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 163
ness for the ministerial office. Eemigius had notoriously
aided William by providing a ship and men-at-arms, on the
understanding that he was to have a bishopric. He thus
might be regarded as tainted with simony. Lanfranc was
received with all honour by Pope Alexander. To the
astonishment of all in the Eoman Court, the Pope rose up
as he entered ; and, anticipating his prostration vidth an
affectionate embrace, said, " We honour you not on account
of your archbishopric, but as our old master, to whom we
owe all we know — nevertheless, St. Peter must have his due
reverence." Then Lanfranc prostrated himself before him,
but was at once raised up and kissed, and made to sit by
his side. The day was passed in pleasant discourse. On
the morrow Lanfranc formaUy accused Thomas of being the
son of a priest, and Eemigius of having bought his See.
The two prelates resigned their staves and rings, and prayed
for a merciful consideration. Lanfranc declared them to be
men of worth, and most useful to the king, and supported
their prayer. Upon this the Pope said, " Look you, you
are the father of that country ; do you decide what is best
to be done. Here are the pastoral staves, take them and
use them as you hold best." Then Lanfranc, taking the
staves, restored them to the two bishops.^ He himself was
gratified by the present not only of the ordinary pallium of
Metropohtan, but also of another which the Pope himself
was wont to use in saying mass. Then Thomas brought
the question of the relative rights of Canterbury and York
before the Pope. He claimed an independent primacy for
York, and as suffragans of the See the bishops of Dorchester
and Lincoln, Worcester and Lichfield. He quoted the
letter of St. Gregory, which declared the two Sees equal,
the priority of the prelates to be determined by date of
consecration, and he asserted that the three bishops named
had always been subject to his predecessors.^ Lanfranc
rephed that the constitution of St. Gregory did not apply
' Eadmer, Hist Nov., pp. 6, 7 (ed. Selden) ; Willelm. Malmesb.,
p. 65. ^ This was altogether a mistake, but there had been sufficient
complications in the history of the Mercian bishoprics to make the
contention plausible.

164 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.
to Canterbury, but to London and York.^ He also denied
the assertion as to the three Mercian Sees. The Pope
very vrisely ordered the whole question to be examined and
decided in England.^
9. Accordingly, at the Easter following (1072), the
cause was discussed at Winchester^ and the prelates brought
forth their pleadings. Lanfranc caused the History of Bede
to be read, showing how Canterbury was originally the
Primatial See, and then "quoted a long series of papal
letters, all confirming and strengthening this position of
Canterbury. The Archbishop of York contended that
Gregory had given precedence merely to Augustine per
sonally, that he had never assigned any primacy to the See
of Canterbury, but had desired the southern primacy to be
at London. To this Lanfranc replied that, in giving the
primacy to Augustine, Gregory gave it also to his successors,
even as Christ, in giving the primacy to Peter, gave it to his
successors. This sophistical argument appears to have had
some weight attached to it. " Thomas," says the chronicler,
"succumbed to such great reasons." The primacy of
Canterbury was decreed, and the Humber was to be the
division of the two jurisdictions. The matter was finally
decided in this sense at a councU held at Windsor at Whit
suntide (1072),^ which appears to have been a purely
ecclesiastical assembly, sitting probably concurrently with
^ St. Gregory had given Canterbury the primacy during the hfe of
Augustine. Afterwards he decreed that York and London were to be
the two primatial Sees, each with twelve suffragans, seniority giving
the precedence. The arrangement never having been carried out, did
not now apply.
2 Willelm. Malmesb. (Ex. Ep. Lanfranci), pp. 41-65.
* For the full account see Lanfranc's letter to the Pope, quoted in
Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, 41-65 (ed. Hamilton) ; and the
same -writer, De Gest, Beg,, p. 66 (ed. Saville). Mr. Freeman says that
the council at Winchester was purely ecclesiastical ; that at Windsor
the general Gemot, and therefore partly lay (iv. 358 and notes). I
venture -with much diffidence to differ from this -view. Lanfranc
(Ep. 23) speaks of the Winchester Council as having the lay element.
William of Malmesbury says of the Windsor Council that it was com
posed of "the king, the bishops, and abbots of divers orders. " The matter
would therefore appear to have been terminated by the spu'ituality alone.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 165
the Gemot. At the same council the important matter of
the precedence of the bishops in council was settled —
Canterbury was to preside, York was to sit at his right
hand, next to him was to be Winchester, and on the left
of Canterbury, London. If York, in the absence of Canter
bury, presided, London was to be on his right, Winchester
on his left. The rest of the bishops in the order of their
consecration.^ 10. With the settlement of this dispute, the Church
of England may be regarded as having fairly entered on
the newp)hase and condition of things brought about by
the Conquest. The foreign prelates who had been intro
duced into English Sees brought to them, for the most part,
an increase of -vigour, energy, and power. Everywhere
cathedral churches, conceived with a grandeur of design,
and executed with a solidity and beauty of detail unknown
before in England, began to arise. At Canterbury Lan
franc rebuUt in seven years, -with splendid magnificence,^
the Metropohtan church, which had been destroyed by fire
just at the period of the Conquest. The church of York
was rebuUt by Archbishop Thomas. St. Paul's was begun
by Bishop Maurice on a scale of vast splendour. Walkeline
at Winchester raised a grand minster, much of which still
remains untouched. Gundulf rebuUt Eochester, Wulfstan
Worcester ; whUe at Lincoln, on a new site, and in a newly
chosen place for the cathedral of his diocese, the Norman
Eemigius raised a splendid pUe, which on its completion
was held to be inferior to none in England.
11. The change of the place of his See from Dorchester
to Lincoln ^ by Eemigius, was probably the first of those
transfers of Sees in this reign which marked the increase of
vigour in the Church as much as the rebuilding of the
cathedral churches did. In the reign of Edward a change
of this sort had taken place in the removal of the western
See to Exeter, and at an earlier period in that of Lindis
farne to Durham. But now this policy was generally
'¦ Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Beg., 67.
^ "The building was enriched with eveiy ornament known to the
age." — Freeman.
3 See Henric. Huntingdon, Hist, p. 213 (ed. Saville).

166 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.
adopted and sanctioned by the decree of a councU. The
charter granted to Eemigius for his new foundation recites
that it was by the advice and authority of Alexander the
Pope that he had transferred his See from Dorchester to
Lincoln ; and, as Alexander died early in 1073, it is prob
able that the removal had taken place before that date.^
A council was held at St. Paul's in 1075, when a canon was
enacted as follows : — " According to the decrees of Pope
Damasus and Leo, and the CouncUs of Sardiea and Lao-
dicea, it is granted by royal favour and the authority of
the Synod to three bishops to remove from vUlages to
cities — ^that is, Hermann from Sherborne to Salisbury,
Stigand from Selsey to Chichester, and Peter from Lichfield
to Chester."^ Other changes of a simUar character foUowed
later in the reign. Elmham, the East Anglian See, was
removed to Thetford in 1078, and afterwards in 1101 to
Norwich. Wells in 1088 ceased for a time to be the
cathedral of the Somersetshire bishopric, and Bath was
adopted in its place.
1 2. At the CouncU held by Lanfranc at Winchester
in 1076, a very important matter touching the clergy
was treated. Clerical celibacy was now being earnestly
pressed by the great Pope who governed at Eome, and in
1074 a Eoman Council had absolutely prohibited the mar
riage of the clergy. Lanfranc was now to consider how
far this law could be applied to the English Church, in
which clerical matrimony had never ceased to be an ordi
nary practice. Accordingly, at Winchester, a canon was
enacted, which draws a distinction between the capitular
and the secular clergy. It prohibits matrimony absolutely
1 Both Mr. Freeman and Mr. Stubbs, however, put it in 1085. But
the fact of the transference not being mentioned in the Council of
London, 1075, seems to imply that it had taken place. Remigius,
also, signs the acts of that council as Episcopus Lincolniensis. There
seems, therefore, to be some good ground for the earlier date. Mr.
Dimock (Giraldus Cambrensis, vii. 19) adopts the date of 1072, on the
ground that the transference was ordered in the Windsor Council of
1072, together with other Sees ; but in the London Council, where the
other Sees are again mentioned, Dorchester and Lincoln are not
mentioned. ^ Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 14.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 167
to the former, to the latter it forbids it for the time to
come, allowing, however, the priests already married to
continue living with their wives. ^ This, as has been well
observed, although doubtless a politic compromise, never
theless " amounted to giving up the point as a matter of
principle. For if, as Hildebrand taught, no saving grace
could be bestowed by the ministrations of a married priest,
a large part of the people of England were doomed to go
without valid sacraments for years to come." ^ As a matter
of fact, the canon was never strictly observed in England,
though its enactment and the repeated attempts to prop it
up in after councils involved a considerable amount of
unhappy subterfuges, and no small scandal to the Church.
Another canon of this CouncU forbade any marriage to
take place -without the priest's benediction, and another
forbade all " supplantation of churches." This latter was
intended to check an abuse beginning to be very pre
valent, by which aU churches which could not show an
actual charter or -written title to their estates were liable
to be despoUed of them. As estates in earlier times had
frequently been conveyed by word of mouth, or by giving
a staff, and without any written document, this was a griev
ous hardship, and it was also productive of many dishonest
practices on the part of the holders of the estates, the
monks without scruple forging documents by which the
attacks of their adversaries might be defeated.^
1 3. At what precise date the most important part of
the ecclesiastical policy of this reign — the separation
between the ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions — was
carried out, is uncertain, the charters not being dated. In
the early English Church, as has abundantly appeared,
there was no separation between ecclesiastical and secular
causes, either as regards the persons who tried them or the
places where they were heard.* This was altogether
^ Johnson, English Ca/iwns, ii. 18.
' Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 425.
^ Johnson, English Canons, ii. 19. Mr. Johnson adds — "This was
the cause of so many false deeds and charters as are everywhere to be
found in the repositories of the antiquarians."
* " The practice of separating ecclesiastical and temporal affairs had

168 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [ohap.xi.
opposed to the poHcy of Pope Gregory, who sought to
make the clearest possible distinction between the two,
and under his directions probably Lanfranc exerted his
influence upon the king to induce him to effect this.
It is certain that William had no intention of allo-vring
spiritual causes to be altogether removed from the con
trolling power of the Crown, but he consented to order a
separation between them and lay suits in the first instance.
This was done by the promulgation of two charters — one
addressed to '' -the liege men of Essex, Hertford, and
Middlesex ; " the other, " to the Earls, Sheriffs, and all
other persons, whether French born or English, within the
bishopric of Eemigius." The substance of the charter is the
same in both cases. It runs as foUows :—" Know ye and
all my liege men in England that I have determined that
the episcopal laws, which up to my time have not been
right, nor according to the precepts of the sacred canons in
the kingdom of the English, should be mended by a com
mon council, and by the advice of my archbishops, bishops,
abbots, and all the principal men of my kingdom. 'Where
fore I command and charge you, by royal authority, that
no bishop nor archdeacon do hereafter hold pleas in the
Hundred, according to the laws episcopal, nor bring any
cause before the secular jurisdiction which concerns the
regimen of souls. But whoever is impleaded by the laws
episcopal for any causes or crime, let him come to the place
which the bishop shall choose or name for this purpose, and
there make answer concerning his cause and crime, and not
according to the Hundred, but according to the canons and
the laws episcopal let him do right to God and his bishop.
But if any one, being lifted up with pride, scorn or refuse
to come to the bishop's court, let him be summoned three
several times ; and if by this means he be not brought to
amend, let him be excommunicated, and, if need be, for the
support of this, let the strength and justice of the king
and sheriff be used ; and he who upon summons refuses
to come to the episcopal court shall make satisfaction for
every summons according to the laws episcopal. This also
even been solemnly condemned by a formal decree of a national
Gemot." — Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 392.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 169
I absolutely forbid, that any sheriff, provost, minister of the
king, or any other layman, do any ways concern himself
with the laws which belong to the bishop, and let no lay
man bring another man to judgment -without the sentence
of the bishop ; and let judgment be nowhere undergone
but in the bishop's See, or in that place which the bishop
shall appoint for that purpose." ^
14. It is hardly probable that an ordinance of this
importance, setting forth, as it did, a complete change in
the constitution of the country, and invol-ving the most
serious issues, should have been delayed so late in William's
reign as 1085.^ It is probably to be placed much earlier
than this. " The change," says Mr. Stubbs, " involved far
more than appeared at first. The growth of the canon law
in the succeeding century from a quantity of detached local
or occasional rules to a great body of universal authorita
tive jurisprudence gave to the clergy generally a far more
distinctive and definite ci-vU status than they had ever
possessed before, and drew into Church courts a mass of
l3usiness with which the Church had previously had only
an indirect connection. . . . The clergy found themselves
in a position external, if they chose to regard it so, to the
common law of the land ; able to claim exemption from
the temporal tribunals, and by appeals to Eome to paralyse
the regular jurisdiction of the diocesans. Disorder followed
disorder, and the anarchy of Stephen's reign, in which
every secular abuse was paralleled or refiected in an eccle
siastical one, prepared the way for the Constitutions of
Clarendon and the struggle that followed, -with all its
results, down to the Eeformation itself" ^
15. The great increase in power which the Church
gained by the separation of the two jurisdictions was com
pensated for under WiUiam by his vigorous assertion of
the royal supremacy inherent in the Crown of England, and
used by him in its true and fitting character as a check to
the encroachments of the Pope. The right of investiture
of spiritual persons in the privileges of their office was
' Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 81.
' This is the date conjectured by Sir H. Spelman, and accepted by
Johnson. ^ Stubbs, Constit Hist, i. 284.

170 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap. xi.
always practised by WUliam without question from the
Pope. When Gregory demanded homage of him for the
realm of England, he simply refused it on the ground that
his predecessors had never paid it to the Pope's pre
decessors.^ His other relations with the Pope are described
by the historian Eadmer as follows : — " He was not wUling
to suffer any one in all his dominions to receive any actual
pontiff of the Eoman city as the apostolical pontiff except
by his orders, or to accept his letters unless they had first
been shown to himself The Primate of his kingdom — I
mean the Archbishop of Canterbury — ^when he presided at
a general assembly of bishops, he did not aUow to command
or prohibit anything except such matters as were in accord
ance with his wUl, and had been first settled by himself
To none of his bishops did he give Uberty to sue any of his
barons or officers, if accused of incest or adultery, or any
capital crime, or to pronounce excommunication upon them,
or any ecclesiastical penalty, except by his orders." ^ The
ecclesiastical supremacy, therefore, claimed and exercised by
William I., even exceeded that which was exercised by
Henry VIIL, as this latter monarch never asserted a right
to stay excommunications or purely Church censures.^
16. The same spirit of independence towards Eome
exhibited by William was also in a measure shown by
Archbishop Lanfranc. He was rebuked by Pope Gregory
for not having brought the king to a better mind. He
answered that he had indeed ad-vised him differently, but
had not persuaded him. The King's letters to the Pope, he
says, have explained the reason. This was something hke
taking William's part as against the Pope. Accordingly
Gregory's tone towards the English Primate becomes very
severe. He is rebuked for not coming to Eome and pre
senting himself at the threshold of the Apostles, and is
distinctly threatened with being suspended from his epis
copal office if he does not appear -within four months.
1 I^. Lanfranci, 10. Eadmer (ed. Selden), p. 164.
2 Eadmer (ed. Selden), p. 6.
^ " There was no time when the royal supremacy in matters eccle
siastical was more fully carried out than it was in the days of the
Conqueror." — Freeman, iv. 437.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 171
There is no record that Lanfranc obeyed this curt injunc
tion, and certainly Gregory never proceeded to infiict
suspension upon him.^
17. On one point of ecclesiastical policy Lanfranc was
zealous to carry out the papal policy. In the history of
the Enghsh Church before the Conquest, various attempts
had been made to give effect to the views of Dunstan, by
connecting aU the cathedral churches -with monasteries,
and making the monks constitute the chapter ; in which
case the bishops as elected by the chapters would of
course be regulars. This policy was only partially suc
cessful before the Conquest. More than half of the
chapters continued to be composed of secular canons,^
and the efforts that had been made to bring these canons
under the rule of Chrodegang or Augustine had failed.
It would seem that Wilham was in favour of the arrange
ment of secular canons, as he aUowed the new foundation
of Eemigius to be thus constituted. Indeed, Eadmer
asserts that not only the bishops who were not regulars,
but also the king and the chief men of the kingdom were
of that opinion. They desired to get rid of the monks
from Canterbury, and Walkeline, bishop of Winchester,
had prepared a body of canons to supplant the monks at
St. Swithun's.^ But Lanfranc stood firm, and having
obtained a letter from Pope Alexander strongly supporting
him in his policy, he was able to frustrate the attempt to
remove the monks from Canterbury,* to oblige Bishop
WalkeUne to give up his project for Winchester, and to
' See the letters of Gregory, printed in Labbe, Concil., v. xii. One
chief reason why Lanfranc was thus peremptorily summoned to Rome,
was to meet Berengar of Tours, whose cause Gregory had taken up.
The Pope publicly declared that Berengar was "much more diligent
than Lanfranc in the study of the Scriptures." See Martene, vol.
iv. 109.
^ At the time of the Conquest, York, London, Hereford, Selsey,
Wells, Exeter, Rochester, Lichfield, Dorchester, and Elmham, were
secular — Winchester, Worcester, Sherborne, Durham, Canterbury,
monastic. ^ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. (ed. Selden), p. 10.
* For the curious mixed history of the Chapter of Canterbury, see
Mr. Stubbs's Preface to Epp. Cantuar,, pp. xxiii. -xxv.

172 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [chap.xi.
enable Gundulf to substitute monks for canons at
Eochester. The cathedrals thus continued to be divided
nearly equally between the two systems.
18. The energy of the prelates of the period of the
Conquest was not confined to church-buUding and external
work. Zeal and earnestness may be observed in the work
both of the bishops of the English race who were aUowed
to remain, and in the new-comers. The honour of the
English bishops was well sustained by St. Wulfstan at
Worcester, who has left behind him a name second to
none of the prelates of that era.^ The attempt to eject
him from his See, on the ground of ignorance, altogether
failed, for his life was so holy, and his character so high,
that this for very shame could not be entertained.^
The good English prelate was therefore allowed to con
tinue his work. This work consisted not only in the
rebuilding of his cathedral, and the vigorous government
of his clergy,^ but in an earnest attempt to get rid of the
great scandal of his age and country by the abolition of
the slave trade between England and Ireland. The
account given by WiUiam of Malmesbury, in his Life of
St. Wulfstan, of this unholy traffic almost surpasses behef
St. Wulfstan went to Bristol,, then the head-quarters of
the trade, and by his earnest and long -continued ex
hortations, induced the merchants in great measure to
abandon it.*
1 9. The fame of St. Osmund, bishop of Salisbury, rests
upon a somewhat different foundation from that of St. Wulf
stan. He was pre-eminently a learned man, and skilled
in all matters of ritual. William of Malmesbury says of
him : " He brought together clerks from every quarter
who were famous for letters,- and by his liberal treatment
of them, constrained them to remain with him. In his
church more than anywhere else, was conspicuously seen
^ " In sanctitate nostro saeculo nominatissimus. " — Willelm.
Malmesb., De Gest Pont., p. 278. ^ iJ., p. 285.
3 "In divino segnitiem nuUo modopatiens si quis ministrorum vol
temulentiS, vel somnolentia, victus matutinis non affuisset, acri ferulie
ictu in ilium ulcisci." — lb,, 282.
* See Life of St. Wulfstan in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. ii.

1066-1078.] IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 173
an Ulustrious body of canons, renowned equally for their
powers of song and for their literature. An abundance
of books was sought for and got together, the bishop
himself not disdaining either to copy or to bind them
when written." ^ To the ritual zeal of Bishop Osmund
the Church of England owed an amended Breviary
and Missal, which, under the name of the Sarum Use,
became the most generally adopted of the English Service
Books.' 20. At Lincoln, Eemigius, whose accession to his See
had involved somewhat of scandal, redeemed his fame by
his liberal and generous charity, and his active labours as
a preacher. A writer of his life tells us that " every
summer, from May tUl August, besides his ordinary works
of charity, he gave support to a thousand poor persons,
and besides this fed and clothed a hundred and sixty, who,
being blind, lame, or sick, could not come to the general
table. It was his wont to have with him at dinner every
day thirteen poor persons, and every Saturday he was in
the habit of celebrating a Maunday with the greatest
humility. He founded a hospital for lepers at Lincoln,
and for their support settled on it a rent of thirteen marks.
These he frequently visited, comforted, and instructed.
He found the flock committed to him steeped in horrible
suis, accustomed to seU their own children into slavery,
given to incest, adultery, and promiscuous fornication ;
these by his preaching and instruction, actively carried on
in all parts of his diocese, he ceased not to strive to bring
to a better mind." ^
21. But the zeal and earnestness to be traced at the
time of the Conquest were coincident with an impairing of
the nationality of the Church and with unjust oppression
towards some of its prelates. Still less scruple was shown
as regards the abbeys than had been shown to the Sees.
1 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pont, p. 184.
" Brompton, -writing about 1200, says of Bishop Osmund's Custom-
took, which contained the offices, that it was used almost everywhere
in England, Wales, and Ireland. —Brompton, (ed. Twysden), 977. It
was drawn up about 1085. Osmund is said to have been a relative of
the Conqueror. ' Giraldus, Vita Bemigii, Op., yil 17-20.

174 FOREIGN INFLUENCE TRIUMPHANT [ohap.xi.
Everywhere abbots of English race were deposed, and
foreigners substituted in their room. These also were great
builders, and many magnificent structures rose under their
hands. 1 But, for the monks of English race, their rule was
doubtless severe and harsh. In one notorious instance, in
deed, the tyranny of an abbot involved a wholesale massacre
of the monks. At Glastonbury, Thurstan of Caen insisted
on the monks giving up the use of the Gregorian chants,
and adopting the use of William of Fescamp. They re
sisted, and the abbot, furious at their insubordination, called
in armed soldiers and bade them shoot the refractory monks ;
three were slain and eighteen wounded.^ At Malmesbury,
Turold, intruded on the abbey on the expulsion of Brehtric,
governed his monks -with such strict mUitary discipline that
William transferred him to Peterborough, where he thought
his mUitary qualities might be more usefully employed in
resisting Hereward and the English outlaws.^ But more
galling to the monks, perhaps, than even the strict discipline,
was the contempt poured by the new-comers on the saints
of the English race. In some cases their tombs were opened
and their bones scattered.* The Primate set the example of
undervaluing English saints. He refused to acknowledge
the merits of St. Elphege, saying that he was slain for not
paying a sum of money, and not for contending for the
faith.® This error he afterwards, indeed, abandoned, on the
persuasion of St. Anselm ; but its origin indicates a con
temptuous tone of mind towards the worthies of the Eng
lish Church, which no doubt was the feeling prevalent
among the Norman ecclesiastics.^ Thus the EngUsh clergy
and monks had to bear not only the spoUing of their goods,
but also the mortification of being undervalued and de
spised by the dominant race. It was scarce possible, in-
^ " Ubique nova monasteriorum sedificia, sicut hodie apparet, con-
structa." — Eadmer, p. 7. " A.-S. Chronicle, ii. 185.
3 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest. Pontif, , p. 420.
* Matt. Paris., Gest Abb. S. Albani.
5 Eadmer, Vita Anselmi, p. 42 (ed. Selden).
" Eadmer says :— " Angli isti inter quos degimus instituenmt sibi
quosdam quos colerent Sanctos. De sanctitatis eorum merito animum
a dubietate flectere nequeo."

1066-1078.] IN TH:E ENGLISH CHURCH. 175
deed, that it should be otherwise. But if these temporary
inconveniences and troubles ushered in the beginnings of a
higher life and greater earnestness in the Church, they
certainly have some compensation, at least in the judgment
of posterity.

176 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap, xit

CHAPTEK xn.
CONTEST BBTWBEN THE LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS.
1087-1107.
1. An organised system of simony. 2. Anselm comes to England. 3.
Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. 4. Negotiations with the
King, and consecration. 5. Beginning of quaiTel with William. 6.
Ecclesiastical business at Hastings in 1094. 7. CoimcU of Rocking
ham ; Anselm outlawed. 8. The King obtains the paU from the
Pope. 9. Anselm goes to Rome. 10. Consecration of the first Bishop
of Waterford. 11. Confiscation of Church revenues. 12. Anselm
returns to England. 13. Has to face the custom of lay investiture of
prelates. 14. Progress of the dispute ; counter-statements of the
Envoys. 15. TheCouncQof Westminster (1102). 16. The prelates-
elect converted to Anselm's views. 17. Anselm again at Rome ;
Henry seizes the Canterbury estates. 18. Mischievous effects of
Anselm's absence from his See. 19. Exactions from the clergy hy
the King. 20. Settlement of the investiture dispute. 21. Nature
of the compromise.
1. On the death of WUham I. and the accession ofhis son
the Church of England had to contend against a new class
of enemies and a new sort of dangers. However harshly
and unjustly William I. may have sometimes acted towards
Churchmen, there is no reason to question the truth of his
own assertion, made at his death, that he had never sold
Church offices for money. It is true that the reward given
to Eemigius for substantial service, according to a pre-vious
compact, had much the same character ; but, at any rate, a
decent veil was thrown over simony ; it was neither openly
exhibited nor encouraged.^ On the accession of William II.
all this was changed. By a systematic and acknowledged
arrangement introduced by a clerk named Ealph Flambard,
who was appointed the king's Justiciary, all Church prefer-
^ Ordericus Vitalis says of him — "The heresy of simony he utterly
abhorred, and in choosing bishops and abbots he considered not so
much men's riches or power as their holiness and wisdom."

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 177
ments were openly administered for the benefit of the royal
revenue. Whenever a prelate or beneficed clerk died, the
royal officers at once took seisin of the benefice, and re
ceived the profits for the Crown, until such time as a clerk
could be found who would pay to the royal exchequer the
price at which the preferment was valued. This system
was not fully carried out during the lifetime of Lanfranc,
of whom the king stood in some httle awe ; but at his death
in 1089, not only the estates of the primatial See, but the
whole of the ecclesiastical estates of England, were deli
berately treated as the property of the Crown, to be granted
out on a sort of feudal tenure to occupants who would pay
a sufficient honorarium, or else to be held continuously for
the use of the king. By this arrangement not only was the
most grievous injustice and robbery continually perpetrated
by the State, but the whole of the clergy of England were
encouraged and almost compelled to taint themselves with
simony.^ A rapid deterioration of the character of the
clergy and of the condition of the Church followed neces
sarUy upon such a state of things as this. The open and
scoffing profligacy and contempt for religion exhibited by
the king and his minions contributed an evil influence, and
Christianity seemed in danger of perishing out of the land,
when one was raised up whose work had a mighty influence
in staying the progress of evil and upholding truth and
righteousness. 2. This man, whose influence was destined to be so
valuable for the English Church, was Anselm, abbot of
Bee. A native by birth of the subalpine town of Aosta,
he had crossed the Alps and been attracted to the Norman
abbey of Bee by the fame of Lanfranc's teaching. When
Lanfranc was removed to Caen he succeeded him as prior,
and in 1078 he became abbot of Bee, and in that same
year paid a visit to England, where the Norman abbey
had been endowed with divers estates. " With a larger
heart than the Normans," says his biographer, " he warmed
towards the English with something of the love and
1 Willelm. Malmesb. , De Gest. Beg, , p. 69 J (ed. Sa-ville) ; Ordericus
'Vitalis, B. x. oh. 2. On the systematic character of the scheme of
Ealph Flambard, see Stubbs, Const, Hist, i. 298.
N

178 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap xii.
sympathy which had filled the soul of the great Eoman
Pope who had sent us St. Augustine." ^ Anselm's visits to
England were repeated several times after this, and in
1092, when the church and lands of Canterbury had been
for long years in the hands of the notorious Ealph Flam
bard, and men were weary and sick of the unrighteous
practices and scandalous oppressions by which the Church
was being degraded, Hugh, Earl of Chester, prevailed with
much difficulty on the famous abbot to make another visit
to the suffering land. The general feeling as to the iniquity
of keeping the Church without an archbishop was so strong
that, at the meeting of the Court at Gloucester at Chris1>
mas 1092, it was determined among the nobles to ask the
king's leave that in all the churches prayers might be said
that God would incline the heart of the king to make an
appointment.^ Anselm was desired to draw up a form of
prayer. With great reluctance he consented. The king,
who had given a mocking consent to the request of the
nobles, exclaimed — " The Church may pray as much as it
likes ; I shall, nevertheless, do just as I please." On some
one suggesting to him the holiness of Anselm, who had
arranged the prayers, and saying he loved nothing but
God — " Except," said Eufus, " the archbishopric of Can
terbury." The other replied that he did not think that he
in any way desired this. " He would run to it dancing
and clapping his hands," said the king ; " but by the holy
face of Lucca, neither he nor any one else shall be archbishop
at this time except myself" ^
3. But from this defiant and blasphemous tone the
sharp touch of dangerous illness caused the hardened
king to recede. At the beginning of Lent William was
lying sick at Gloucester, and, believing his end to be
approaching, desired Anselm to be sent for to minister to
him. The good abbot, who was happily staying near, at
once came, and exhorted the king to confession and amend
ment of life. Eufus, under the influence of compunction,
ordered the prisoners to be discharged from the dungeons,
' Church, Life of St Anselm, p. 90.
2 " Quod postcris minim dictu fortassc videbitur. "—Eadmer, Hist.
Nov., p. 16. 3 Eadmer, Hist Nov,, pp. 15, 16.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS, 179
promised to fill up the vacant churches, and undertook, if
spared, to lead a good lU'e for the future, and to govern
with justice and mercy. Those who were around him,
dehghted with the salutary change, besought him at once
to give evidence of its reality by appointing an Archbishop
of Canterbury. Eufus consented, and very naturally
nominated the abbot Anselm. All were rejoiced, but
Anselm himself shrank from the honour with unfeigned
and overpowering dismay, and it was at length almost by
force that he was brought to yield.' The king freely pro
mised him everything, but when he was restored to health
all his promises were forgotten. Nay, as though in anger
against himself for ha-ving weakly yielded for a moment,
Eufus strove to make the state of things in England worse
than it was before ; ^ and when exhorted by a well-meaning
prelate to be warned by his illness to have more care for
God in the future, " Know, 0 bishop," he replied, " that
God shaU never have any goodness from me on account of
the evil which He has inflicted on me."
4. The king being in this temper, it was absolutely
necessary that Anselm should have some definite under
standing -with him with regard to the possessions of the See
of Canterbury, before he could consent to undertake the
office of archbishop. At an interview with him he demanded
first that aU the lands held by Lanfranc should be made
over to him ; secondly, that those which had been granted
away before Lanfranc's time should be restored if the claim
to them could be established ; thirdly, that the king should
act by his advice in spiritual matters ; and lastly, that he
should recognise Urban as Pope and not Clement. To the
first of these demands Eufus agreed ; to the others he
would say nothing. Afterwards, at Windsor, he begged of
' Eadmer, Hist, Nov,, pp. 17, 18, givfes a long account of the
struggles of Anselm, which, kno-wing as he did what Rufus was, we may
well believe to be sincere. On the same day on which Rufus appointed
Anselm he also nominated Robert Bloet to the See of Lincoln. He was
not consecrated till 1094.
2 Eadmer, p. 19. "Omne malum quod rex fecerat, priusquam
iufirmatus fuerat, bonum visum est comparatione malorura quae fecit
ubi est sanitati redonatus. "

180 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [ohap. xii.
Anselm not to press his claim to estates that had been
alienated since Lanfranc's death for military service. To
this request to him to consent to the spoliation of the See
Anselm refused to listen, and determined, rather than yield
to it, to refuse consecration. Then a great clamour was
raised by the chief men of the State at the prospect of a
still continuing vacancy of the Primacy. The Idng at
length yielded, and at Winchester, before the CouncU of
the land, Anselm was made the king's man for the whole
archbishopric as Lanfranc had held it. On the 5th of
September Anselm was received at Canterbury vrith the
greatest demonstrations of joy ; but on the very day on
which he was enthroned in the archbishop's seat Ealph
Flambard appeared, and commenced a suit against him^ on
the part of the king. This was enough to cast a damp on
the general joy, and was a sad presage ofthe future. On De
cember 4, 1093, Anselm was consecrated by the Archbishop
of York, all the bishops of England except Worcester and
Exeter taking part in the ceremony. When Walkehne,
bishop of Winchester read the Act of Election, the church
of Canterbury was found to be described therein as totius
Anglix Metropolitana. To this Archbishop Thomas ob
jected, saying that these words altogether took away his
rights, and the reasonableness of the objection being ad
mitted, the word Metropolitana was changed to Primas, and
under this character the consecration went forward.^
5. Anselm was no sooner consecrated than he was
involved in bitter quarrels with the king. WUliam wanted
money for his war in Normandy, and the Primate was not
willing to give what would seem like a simoniacal payment
for his See. He offered, indeed, five hundred marks, but
this was despised as insufficient, and Anselm then dis
tributed it among the poor. To the archbishop's earnest
request that WiUiam would summon a CouncU to devise
some means for checking the fearful licentiousness of the
period, and would nominate to the vacant abbacies, a con
temptuous refusal was returned. William was waiting at
' "Placitum contra eum instituit." — Eadmer. The suit was pro
bably ag.ainst some of the archbishop's tenants for arrears.
^ Eadmer, Hist Nov,, pp. 19-21 (ed. Selden).

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 181
Hastings for a fair wind to pass into Normandy, and all the
bishops were with him to help him -with -their prayers.
The king expressed his bitter hatred of the Primate,
and desired him to depart. This Anselm at length did,
hopeless as he must have been of obtaining any good thing
from such a monarch.^
6. During the assembly of the bishops at Hastings in
1094, while the king was waiting for a fair wind, several
pieces of ecclesiastical business were transacted. Before
Anselm had departed in soprow and indignation, he and
his suffragan bishops (February 11) solemnly dedicated the
church of the abbey which the Conqueror had vowed as
a thank-offering to St. Martin if he should obtain the
-victory over Harold. Various difficulties had delayed the
finishing of the abbey for some twenty years after its com
mencement,^ and he who had vowed it was not allowed to
witness the completion of his work. Its consecration is
important in English Church history, because of the
exemption from episcopal control which was granted to
it. Battle Abbey became thus the first of the English
monasteries which introduced the evU custom of exemptions,
a custom which tended more than anything else to the
overthrow of monasticism in the land. On the day follow
ing the consecration of the church dedicated to St. Martin,^
Eobert Bloet, the king's Chancellor, was consecrated to the
bishopric of Lincoln. Bloet had been nominated by the
king to the See of Lincoln, which had then been vacant
nearly a year, at the same time that Anselm was nominated
to Canterbury; but the Archbishop of York, secretly
encouraged thereto by the king, revived his claims over the
See of Lincoln ;* and not until Bloet had given a large
bribe to the king^ would he force the northern Primate to
' Eadmer, pp. 23, 24. ^ See Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 407.
3 See Mr. Dimock's note to Giraldus Cambrensis, vii. 31.
^ Henric. Huntingdon, Hist, i. 213 b (ed. Sa-ville). It appears
that the claims of York against Lincoln were twofold. The archbishop
claimed parts of Lindsey as belonging to his diocese, and the whole
See as a suffragan See of his province.
' Stubbs, Act. Pontif. Ebor., p. 1708 (ed. Twysden), says one thousand
pounds ; Henry of Huntingdon, f. 213 (ed. Saville), five thousand.

182 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. xii.
yield his claim. The consecration was performed in the
" church of St. Mary, which is within the castle itself"!
At the same time and place also, a singular transaction
took place. Herbert de Losing!,, bishop of Thetford, was
arraigned for an attempt to go beyond seas to Pope Urban,
in order to obtain absolution for simony. He had bought
for himself the See of Thetford, and for his father the
abbey of Hyde at Winchester. This would suffice to
embitter Anselm against him. The king, on the other
hand, who had received a thousand pounds for the trans
action,^ had no mind to have his dealings denounced at
Eome, neither had he as yet made up his mind to recognise
Urban as Pope. The unfortunate bishop, therefore, had
both King and Primate against him, and was deprived of
his pastoral staff.
7. On the return of William from Normandy, the
quarrel between him and the Primate was renewed.
Anselm desired to be aUowed to go to Eome for the paU,
but when he declared that he intended to demand it of
Pope Urban, the king would not consent. This Pope, he
said, had not as yet been recognised by him ;^ and it was
the undoubted prerogative of the king to settle, in the case
of a disputed election, who was to be accepted as Pope.
Anselm maintained that he could recognise no other as
Pope, that he had already recognised Pope Urban. He
demanded that the Council of the Enghsh prelates and
nobles should be assembled to settle this important question.
A meeting of the great Council of the nation was accord
ingly held at Eockingham, on Mid-Lent Sunday (March 11,
1095). Anselm made a speech to the Assembly. He
explained the point of difference between himself and the
king, and declared that he had already recognised Urban
1 Eadmer, Hist Nov., p. 23.
2 Roger de Hoveden, i. 148 (ed. Stubbs) ; Florent. Wigorn., ii. 33.
William of Malmesbury (De Gest Pontif, p. 151) calls Losinga
"Magnus in Anglia simoniae fomes;" but he does not show him to
have been worse than other prelates of his day. Farther on he tells
us that he was penitent, that he received back his staff, and became a
good bishop, and buUder of his cathedral.
' Eadmer, p. 25.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 183
when abbot of Bee, and could not now withdraw his
recognition.! The king, however, would not acknowledge
Urban, and how was he, the archbishop, to combine loyalty
to the Pope with obedience to the king 1 He desired the
counsel of the bishops. The bishops' advice was that he
should not attempt to run counter to the king. " Give
up," they said, " this Urban, who can never be any advan
tage to you, cast away the yoke of servitude, and asserting
your freedom as becomes an Archbishop of Canterbury, be
ready to follow the king's directions." Anselm replied
that he could never renounce Urban. His reply was
carried to the king by William de St. Carileph, bishop of
Durham, who acted as the spokesman of the bishops, and
the chief supporter of the king. In return, the archbishop
was informed that by thus creating a Pope of his own in op
position to the Crown, he was, in fact, guilty of treason. He
demanded that this charge against him should be brought
to the proof, and declared that he was ready to defend
hunself But the bishops were not disposed to constitute
themselves judges of their Primate, and the nobles showed
rather a disposition to support him. The king then, ha-ving
made the bishops formally renounce all obedience to the
Primate, declared him outlawed, and swore that from
henceforth he could never hold him for archbishop or
spiritual father.^
8. Being thus put out of the protection of the laws,
Anselm desired to be allowed to leave the country,
but this was denied to him. The king, changing his
tactics, instead of attacking him for recognising Urban,
whom he had not himself acknowledged, now recognised
and heavily bribed Urban, obtaining by this means the
despatch of the pall by the hands of a papal Legate
for himself to bestovr upon the archbishop if he would
submit to his will. He attempted, indeed, to obtain
from the Pope the deposition of Anselm, but this he
could not obtain. Having now the pall in his hands,
the king endeavoured to exact from the Primate the pay-
' Eadmer, Hist Nov., p. 26. The fullest account of these trans
actions is to be found in Eadmer, who was present at the CounciL
¦ Eadmer, Hist Nov., 26-31.

184 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap.' xii.
ment of a sum of money as its price. Anselm refused.^
At any rate Anselm would sue to him for the gift of the
pall. In this too Anselm was resolute. It was a papal
gift and pri-vilege, he could not take it from the king.
Thus baffled at all points, the king yielded. The paU was
laid on the altar of the church of Canterbury, and from
thence was taken by Anselm and assumed with great
devotion.^ The king resented his defeat bitterly. Anselm's
chief oppnnent, WUliam de St. Carileph, bishop of Durham,
being regarded by Eufus as ha-ving faUed, was made to
experience such cruel ill-usage from him that it hastened
his death.* The bishops who had taken so strong a part
against the Primate now desired to be reconciled to him,
and he exhibited no angry feelings towards them. He
had throughout contended for right and principle, and
though his claim to recognise a Pope whom his sovereign
and Church had not recognised may be held to be of
doubtful justice,* yet in the real ground of William's
hostility to him — his refusal to pay money for his appoint
ment and privileges — all must sympathise with Anselm.
9. After a short lull the quarrel between the king and
archbishop broke out again ; and, as before, the cause of it
was the question of money. Anselm had indeed readily
furnished his contingent of the sum raised to pay the
mortgage of Normandy to William, whUe his brother Eobert
went on the Crusade. He had even taken the strong
measure of borrowing part of the sum required from the
treasure of the church of Canterbury.^ But the men whom
^ " Negavit se quicquam propter hoc datui'um quia parvi sestimaret
beneficium cujus amplitudinem ipsi tanti penderent." — Willelm.
Mahne.sb., De Gest Pont, p. 90.
2 June 10, 1095. Eadmer, Hist Nov., 31-34 ; Flor. Wigorn.,
ii. 37; Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, 86-91.
' See Notes and Illustrations to this Chapter.
¦* England generally inclined towards the Antipope. " In Guiber-
tum pro metu regis inclinatior. " — Willelm. Malmesb. "It was a fair
question to men with the inherited convictions of the religion of that
age. The claim which William maintained had come do-wn to him
from his father, who had insisted on it resolutely, vnth Lanfranc's
sanction or acquiescence, even against Gregory VII." — Church, Life of
St An.selm, p. 199. 5 Eadmer, p. 35.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 185
he had furnished to the king for his Welsh expedition had
been insufficiently equipped, and a sum was demanded of
the archbishop for compensation. Anselm's reply was a
request for leave to go to Eome. It does not appear that
there was any special reason for this request, except that
the archbishop desired to get out of the way of the royal
exactions.^ The bishops remonstrated against it, and the
king refused his permission. But Anselm persisted in
demanding leave, and at length he was allowed to depart,
but without a formal sanction for his going ; and, in fact,
at the last moment he was subjected to the indignity of
having his goods searched to see if he was carrying away
any of the king's treasure. For nearly three years
Ansehn continued uselessly hanging about the papal court,
or hving in Italian monasteries. He was courted and
caressed by the Pope, styled alterius orbis Papa,^ but he got
no substantial help, and so he wasted his time untU the
death of King William. This betaking himself to Eome
when things went against him was hardly worthy of the
bold stand which the archbishop had before made against
simoniacal exactions, and was the beginning of that miser
able system of papal appeals which more than anything
else inflicted deadly injury on the Church of England.*
10. Before Anselm left England for his long foreign
sojourn he had taken part in an important episcopal act
connected with the Church of Ireland. In 1096 Waterford
was erected into a See, and Murtach the king, Donald
bishop of Dublin, and Dermot the king's brother, together
with the clergy and people of Waterford, addressed a letter
1 Henry of Huntingdon says he went " quia nihil recti rex pravus
in regno suo fieri permittebat. " — f. 216 (ed. Saville).
2 WOlelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, p. 100. This was said at the
Council of Ban, when Anselm was specially called upon by the Pope
to argue agamst the Greek doctiine of the Procession of the Holy
Spirit. ' ' ' And thus began that system of appeals to Rome, and of inviting
foreign interference in our home concerns, which grew to such a
mischievous and scandalous height, and Anselm was the beginner of it."
— Chmch's Anselm, p. 223. The details of Anselm's foreign sojourn
are given at much length in Eadmer, Hist Nov,, b. ii., and WiUiam
of Malmesbury, De Gest Pont, pp. 92-102 (ed. Hamilton).

186 CONTEST BETWEEN THE I'ohap. xii.
to Anselm, praying him to consecrate as bishop of the new
See Malchus, a monk of the monastery of Winchester.
Anselm, after having examined the bishop-elect and found
him competent, complied with their request, and conse
crated him at Canterbury, December 27, 1096, bemg
assisted by Ealph, bishop of Chichester, and Gundulf,
bishop of Eochester.^
11. The archbishop having left his post, and the other
bishops being without spirit or courage to resist the king's
exactions, a most complete system of organised confiscation
was adopted towards the Church revenues. Ealph Flam
bard, the great spoUer, who had shown singular dexterity
in the work of robbing the Church, was advanced, after
the death of William de St. Carileph, to be bishop of
Durham, and the king appointed him " general impleader
and exactor of the whole kingdom." ^ " By many and
various ways," says the chronicler, " both before his eleva
tion to the episcopate and when bishop, did he afflict both
small and great alike, and this he continued to do quite up
to the death of the king, for on the very day on which the
king was slain he held in his hands the revenues of the
See of Canterbury and the Sees of Winchester and Salis
bury." * Such was the state of miserable spoliation and
oppression from which the arrow shot by an unknown
hand in the New Forest delivered the Church of England.
1 2. The great contest into which Anselm now entered
with the Crown is distinctly connected with his presence
at the CouncU held at the Lateran in Eome in the year
1099. At this the burning question between the Popes
and the Emperors — that, namely, of lay investiture — was
brought forward for discussion. The right claimed for the
ruler of giving the ring and the crozier to the bishop, and
thus making him " the man " of the emperor or king, found,
as might be expected, little support in a council of eccle-
^ Eadmer, Hist Nov,, p. 36. The consecration of Archbishop
Samuel to Dublin, said by some to have taken place previously to this,
could not very well have been done at the time alleged, as it is Donald,
not Samuel, who applies for the consecration of Malchus.
^ Flor. Wigorn., ii. 46.
' Ib. Besides eleven abbacies ; A.-S. Chron., ii. 204.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 187
siastics. Excommunications and anathemas were freely
uttered against all those who gave and all those who
accepted lay investiture. The clergy declared that it was
" a thing too execrable that the hands which had been so
highly honoured as to be allowed to do that which no
angel could do, namely, to create God the Creator, and
offer Him for the redemption of the world, should be
degraded to become the servants of those hands which
were polluted by obscenity -or stained by rapines and the
unjust shedding of blood." ^ A general shout of "Be it
so! be it so!" was raised by the Council. Under the influ
ence of this excited feeling, and fully possessed with the
strength of the papal views on the matter, Anselm returned
to England on the invitation of the new sovereign,
Henry I. (September 23, 1100).
13. Henry, a prince of great ability, and anxious to
strengthen his title, which, while his elder brother lived,
was insecure, saw the absolute necessity of making some
concessions to the Church as well as the State on his acces
sion. The policy of William, which had been established
and systematised by Ealph Flambard, of obtaining for the
king a regular revenue from Church benefices, was now
dehberately abandoned. In the first article of his Charter
of Liberties Henry declares — " I make the holy Church of
God free. I wUl neither sell nor put to farm [its property].
I will not, when an archbishop, or bishop, or abbot dies,
take anything from the domain of the Church, or from its
men, untU a successor enters upon it." ^ But there was no
promise of giving up the Crown's right of appointment to
ecclesiastical offices, and of investing the holders of them in
their privUeges and jurisdictions, so as to make them the
king's men. Anselm, therefore, fresh from the violent
enthusiasm of the Eoman Council, was brought face to face
with this claim, which was held in such utter abomination
at Eome. He himself was in a difficult position to dispute
it. He had acquiesced in it at the time of his own appoint
ment, and had received investiture from William II. He had
accepted the system which had been sanctioned by his pre-
1 Flor. Wigorn. , ii. 43.
= Stubbs, Select Clmrters, p. 97.

188 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [ohap. xii.
decessor Lanfranc. How was he now to act against that
which he had previously tolerated ?
14. Anselm's first relations with King Henry were very
friendly. He took vigorously his part against his brother
Eobert, and was able to influence the nobles so as to keep
them faithful to their oaths sworn to Henry. He sanc
tioned his marriage with Edith, daughter of the king of
Scotland, who had the blood of the old English kings in
her veins, but about whose marriage there was a difficulty,
as she had been an inhabitant of a nunnery, though -with
out actually taking the veU. But the demand made by
the king on him for homage Anselm at once stoutly
refused. He declared that he would only be guided by
what had been ordained by the Pope, if the king were
ready to accept this, well and good ; if not, he could not
remain in England.^ The king was very indignant, but
Anselm's support was necessary to him, and it was agreed
that messengers should be sent to Eome to ascertain the
Pope's decision on the case. Paschal had succeeded Urban
on the papal throne, but his policy was the same. He
returned, after some delay, a letter to the king, in which he
asserts the highest claims for the spiritual authority, and
declares that he -will not tolerate the king's claims to
nominate to Church preferments and to invest ecclesiastics
in them. This letter was read at the Whitsuntide Council
(1101), and caused great indignation. Henry was urged
to demand that the archbishop should become " his man,"
and promise to consecrate those whom he should appoint
to Sees, or else be banished. Anselm replied that he could
do nothing, except what the Pope aUowed, -without incurring
excommunication. " What is that to meT' said the king ;
" I wUl not lose the customs of my predecessors, nor wUl I
endure in my kingdom any one who is not my subject.''
Upon this Anselm quietly retired, saying that he would
await the event in patience. The archbishop had not long
remained in quiet when letters from the king reached him
of a friendly tone, desiring another interview with him.
They met at Winchester, and it was mutually agreed to
send another embassy to the Pope, three bishops being
1 Eadmer, Hist. Nov., p. 56.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 189
sent on the king's part, and two monks for the archbishop.
When this embassy returned, bringing letters from the
Pope both for the archbishop and the king, a great Council
was held at London. Anselm was formally called upon to
accept "the customs of the fathers." He replied that he
would be guided by the Pope's letters. " The letters are
not the question," said the king ; " will you or will you not
submit ?" In fact, the Pope's letter to the king, with many
praises for what he had done in remedying the mischiefs
of the last reign, had yet refused to concede the point of
the investitures. But the bishops who had been the king's
envoys declared that, though the Pope had thought it neces
sary to -write this, they had nevertheless been privately
informed that, if the king would act well in other matters,
the Pope would not trouble him about the investitures.
This the two monks denied, and appealed to the written
judgment of the Pope. The bishops, however, were firm,
and they had the support of the Council. Both sides
adhered positively to their views, and it was determined to
send a third time to Eome. The probability is, not that
the bishops reported falsely, but that the Pope had been
guUty of a duplicity not altogether unknown at Eome.^
15. The king appears to have been satisfied at the turn
which events had taken. Perhaps he only wished to gain
time. However, he proceeded to act on what he held to
be his right. He gave the pastoral staff to two of his clerks,
appointing Eoger, his Chancellor, to the See of Salisbury,
and another Eoger, the head of his kitchen,^ to that of
Hereford. Anselm was also allowed to do that which he
had long desired to do, -viz. to hold a council. About
Michaelmas 1102 there met at Westminster, in St. Peter's
church, a general council of the bishops ^ and abbots of the
1 Eadmer, Hist Not)., pp. 55-66. Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest
Pontif, pp. 104-109. See Hook, Lives ofthe Archbishops, ii. 248.
^ Lardesarium suum. — Eadmer.
' The bishops present were Gerard of York, Maurice of London,
William (elect) of Winchester, Robert of Lincoln, Samson of Worcester,
Robert of Chester, John of Bath, Herbert of Norwich, Ralph of Chi
chester, Gundulf of Rochester, Hervey of Bangor, and the two clerks
lately nominated to Sees— Roger of Salisbury and Roger of Hereford. It

190 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap.xii.
realm, together with the king and chief nobles, who attended
at Anselm's desire ; inasmuch as the correction of morals, at
which the council aimed, would thus be better promoted.
The council ordained twenty-nine canons as foUows : — (1)
That bishops do not keep secular courts of pleas ; that they
be apparelled not as laymen but as becomes religious per
sons, and have honest men to bear testimony to their con
versation. (2) That archdeaconries be not let to farm. (3)
That archdeacons be deacons. (4) That no archdeacon,
priest, deacon, or canon marry a wife, or retain her if mar
ried ; ^ that every subdeacon be under the same law, though
he be not a canon, if he hath married a vrife after he had
made profession of chastity. (6) That a priest who has
illicit intercourse vrith a woman be not a la-wful priest ; let
him not celebrate mass, or be heard by others if he do. (6)
That none be ordained subdeacon, or to any degree above
that, -without professing chastity. (7) That sons of priests
be not heirs to their fathers' churches. (8) That no clergy
men be reeves or agents to secular persons, nor judges in
cases of blood. (9) That priests go not to drinking bouts,
nor drink to pegs. (10) That priests' clothes be all of one
colour, and their shoes plain. (1 1) That monks and clergy
who have forsaken their order do either return or be ex
communicate. (12) That the tonsure of clerks be visible.
(13) That tithes be paid to the Church only. (14) That
churches or prebends be not bought. (15) That new chapels
be not made without the consent ofthe bishop. (16) That
churches be not consecrated till all necessaries be provided
for the priest and the church. (17) That abbots do not
make knights, and that they eat and sleep in the same
is said by Johnson that Hervey of Bangor was the first Welsh bishop
who ever attended an English synod. He represented himself to have
been driven (Jut of his See by secular -violence. He was soon after
wards made bishop of Ely. — Johnson, English Canons, ii. 25.
^ This was a great advance on Lanfranc's canon of 1076, and was
the first deliberate attempt to make the secular clergy put away their
wives. It was not, however, successful. Henry of Huntingdon says
very wisely, "Quod quibusdam mundissimum visum est, quibusdam
perioulosum, ne dum munditias viribus majores appeterent, in immun-
ditias horribiles, ad Christiani nominis summum dedecus, inciderent."
— f. 217 (ed. Saville).

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 191
house with their monks, except in case of necessity. (18)
That monks enjoin penance to none without their abbot's
consent, and that abbots give no license to enjoin it to any
but those whose souls are entrusted to their cure. (19) That
monks be not godfathers, nor nuns godmothers. (20) That
monks do not hire farms. (21) That monks do not take the
impropriations of churches without the bishop's consent, nor
so rob those which are given them of their revenues that
the priests who serve them be in want of necessaries. (22)
That promises of marriage made between man and woman
without witness be null, if either party deny them. (23)
That they who wear long hair be so clipped that part of
their ears be visible and their eyes not covered. (24) That
they who are related in the seventh degree be not coupled
in marriage, nor cohabit if married ; and if any who is con
scious of this crime do not discover it, let him acknowledge
himself an accomplice in the incest. (25) That corpses be
. not carried out of their parishes to be buried, so that the
priest of their parish lose his just dues. (26) That no one
attribute reverence ^ or sanctity to a dead body, or a foun
tain, or other thing (as is sometimes done to our knowledge),
-without the bishop's authority. (27) That no one exercise
that wicked trade, which has hitherto been practised in
England, of selling men like beasts. (28) Those guilty of
sodomitical crime, and those who voluntarily aided them,
were struck with heavy anathema, till, by confession and
penance, they had deserved absolution ; and it was ordained
that if any ecclesiastical person were guilty of this crime, he
be never admitted to any higher order, and that he be de
graded from that in which he was ; if any layman, that he
be deprived of all lawful dignity in the whole realm, and
that no one but the bishop presume to absolve him except
he were a vowed regular. (29) That the aforesaid excom
munication be published in all churches throughout England
every Lord's-day.^ With this last stipulation Anselm was
obliged soon to dispense ; so great, says Eadmer, was the
number of transgressors in every class of men. In addition
' Eadmer has "ne quis temerarii, novitate," which is left out in
Johnson's translation.
^ Eadmer, Hist Nov., 67-68 ; Johnson's .E'«g'. Canons, ii. 24-28.

192 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap.xii,
to making canons, the council also proceeded to strike at
some notorious offenders. Three abbots — Guy of Pershore,
Wimund of Tavistock, and Aldwin of Eamsey — were de
posed for simony. Three others who had got possession of
abbeys, though not yet instituted— namely, Godric of Peter
borough, Haymo of Cerne, and Egelric of Middleton — ^were
removed for the same offence. For other offences Eichard
of Ely, Eobert of St. Edmund's, and the abbot of Michelney,
were deposed.^
1 6. The bold stand made by Anselm against the king's
prerogative was not without its effect on the bishops and
clergy of England. In the former reign they had been
miserably subservient to the oppressions and spohations of
Eufus ; but now even those who had received promotion
from the king began to assume an attitude against his
claims. The independence of the spiritualty of the tem
poral power, advocated with such extreme violence at Eome,
was a fascinating and attractive doctrine to Churchmen, and
Anselm was already becoming a hero in the eyes of his
brethren. Thus WUliam Giffard, nominated by the king
to the bishopric of Winchester, refused to be invested by
the king. Henry, however, was determined that Wilham,
who was a statesman much trusted by him, should be made
bishop. The Winchester chapter was equally desirous to
obtain him, and so the king " connived," says Eadmer, at
his receiving the staff from Anselm.^ But when the Primate
was required to consecrate him, together with the bishops-
designate of Salisbury and Hereford, he positively declined.
He would consecrate William, he said, but not -the others.
Henry then ordered that the consecration should be done
by Gerard, Archbishop of York. Upon this the designate
of Hereford, Eeinhelm,^ brought back to the king his staff
and ring, declining to be consecrated by Gerard against the
wishes of Anselm. The king drove him from the court in
^ Eadmer, u. s. "And many there, both French and English,
lost their staves and authority which they had unjustly acquired or
lived on with iniquity." — A.-S. Chron., ii. 206.
2 Hist Nov., p. 69.
^ The king's "larderer," Roger, had died before consecration. Rein-
helm was a clerk of the royal chapel.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 193
anger. Archbishop Gerard was now prepared to consecrate
WUliam to Winchester and Eoger to Salisbury, but the
courage of the former failed him j his conscience would not
allow him to receive consecration in what he thought an
irregular manner.^ He declared to the bishops assembled
for the service in St. Paul's Cathedral that he would rather
be spoUed of all than thus be hallowed. The service was
broken off. The bishops, in confusion, reported the matter
to the king. William was despoiled of all his possessions
and banished ; but the people extolled his name as that of
a confessor for the truth, and cried shame upon the bishops.
Anselm had won a great victory.^
17. The king, however, had no thought of yielding,
and was determined to make a strong effort to subdue
Anselm. Appearing at Canterbury in Lent 1103, he
demanded of him that he should accept the paternce
consuetudines, and do him homage. Those about the king
believed that he intended inflicting some serious punish
ment on Anselm if he refused. But the Primate was flrm.
He could not do it unless the Pope allowed. The
messengers were now come back from Eome. He desired
the khig to inspect their letters. Henry would not look
at the letters. " What has the Pope to do with my
concerns?" he cried j "that which my predecessors enjoyed
is mine. If any one takes it away, he is my enemy."
" I desire to take away nothing," replied Anselm, " but
I would rather lose my head than yield in this." ^ The
king saw that the only way out of the difficulty was
to get Anselm himself to go to Eome, where he might
hear from the Pope advice very different from that which
the Pope wrote to him in formal documents, and similar
to that which the Pope had doubtless spoken to the three
bishops. Anselm consented to go. Arrived at Eome,
he found WUliam Warelwast an envoy from the king
to oppose him. William was a dexterous envoy, and
' Tam nefando ministerio. — Eadmer.
' Eadmer, p. 69; Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pont, p. 110.
Roger, bishop of Salisbury, thus left alone, " prsEdicanda prudentia
ita rem temperavit ut nee regem irritaret nee archiepiscopo injuriam
faceret." — "Willelm. Malmesb. ^ Eadmer, p. 70.
0

194 CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. xii.
represented the great beneflts which would accrue to the
See of Eome by favouring the king of England, at the
same time that he used other methods of persuasion. But
the Pope was unable to yield in a matter on which such
great interest was excited in men's minds. He wrote to
the king, indeed, a friendly letter by way of keeping the
matter open, but he would not sanction his investitures.^
Then, on the way back, Anselm was informed by WUliam
Warelwast, that unless he would return to England to be
the " king's man," the king did not desire his return.
Having ascertained this to be the case, the archbishop
remained at Lyons, and the king seized the estates of the
See, appointing as receivers two of the archbishop's men.^
18. Again the archbishop condemns himself to a long
period of inactivity and uselessness rather than yield a
point, which doubtless he held to be of high importance
for the welfare of the Church, but which should hardly
have been allowed to stand between him and some
attempts to reform the grievous moral and ecclesiastical
corruptions of the land in which he held the highest
religious rank. He remained waiting a year and a half
at Lyons, whUe the Church in England was suffering
from every sort of mischief.^ He was hoping that the
Pope would excommunicate Henry ; but the Pope had
substantial reasons which induced him not to do this.
Then Anselm himself determined to return to England
and pronounce the excommunication. Henry, not de
siring this, contrived to meet him abroad, spoke him fair,
restored to him the revenues of his See, but stUl would
not yield as to the investiture. Once more a reference
to Eome was determined on, and during the long time in
which the answer was delayed, Anselm retired to his old
monastery at Bee. Here a letter given by Eadmer reached
him from England, which described in terms, sufficient, one
would suppose, to move the flrmness of the Primate, the
^ See Hook, Lives ofthe Archbishops, ii. 255.
2 Eadmer, Hist Nov., pp. 70-76; Willelm. Malmesb., De Oest
Pontif., 110-114.
^ The Pope, though upholding Anselm, reminded him how griev
ously tho Church was suffering from his absence. — Eadmer, p. 79.

1C87-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 195
miserable state of things in the English Church. The
writer declares that the point in dispute between Anselm
and the king appeared to every sane man in England to
be nothing at all, but rather a contrivance of the devil to
vex the English Church. Meantime the possessions of
the Church were being plundered, and the service of God
neglected. The clergy were given over to aU iniquity.
The laity contracted marriages with their near relatives
in spite of the Church. The enactments of the late councU
against abominable crimes, and the perpetrators of them,
were altogether a dead letter. Things were worse than
could be shown by writing. Men freely said that all this
was the archbishop's fault, inasmuch as he who could have
done most to abate these evils kept away for a mere
nothing. The writer solemnly appeals to the archbishop
whether such proceedings were justifiable.^
19. Meantime, though the most important disciplinary
directions of the CouncU of Westminster remained a dead
letter, those by means of which money might be extorted
from the unfortunate clergy were not allowed to sleep.
The clergy had been ordered to put away their wives, but
they had not done so, and had no intention of doing so.
Upon this, the king inflicted a heavy fine upon all married
clergy, allowing them thus to purchase immunity from the
decrees of the councU by payments to him. But this
source of revenue not pro-ving sufficient, the king inflicted
a fine upon aU parishes, and for this the parson of the
parish was made responsible.^ A widespread trouble was
caused. Two hundred presbjrters in albs and stoles, with
their feet bare, appeared before the king and besought
his mercy. They were roughly repulsed. The bishops in
their despair addressed Anselm, begging him to return,
but the impracticable archbishop merely answered that he
was waiting for the envoys from Eome. He wrote, how
ever, to the king, remonstrating with him as to his
treatment of the clergy. But the king would not admit
himself to be in the wrong. At length the messengers
returned from Eome. The Pope, e-vidently desiring a
compromise, bade Anselm to release from excommunication
1 Eadmer, Hist, Nov,, p. 81. " Eadmer, lb., p. 83.

19G CONTEST BETWEEN THE [chap. xii.
those who had received lay investiture, and those nobles
who upheld the royal policy. Anselm was clearly in
tended to return to England and live at peace with king
and bishops.-"- Henry now visited the archbishop at Bee,
and some friendly intercourse having taken place between
them, at length (1106) Anselm consented to return to
his See, from which he had been for three years very
unjustifiably absent.
20. Now at last the settlement of the weary dispute
came. " On the first of August" (1107), says Eadmer,
" an assembly of bishops, abbots, and nobles, was made at
London in the king's palace.^ For three days continuously
the matter of the investitures to churches was discussed
between the king and the bishops, Anselm being absent,
some striving that the king should make them according
to the manner of his father and brother, and not according
to the precept and the obedience due to the Pope. For
the Pope standing firm in the sentence which had been
promulgated on this, had conceded the matter of homage
which Pope Urban had forbidden equally with investitures,
and by this means had got the king to yield about investi
tures. Then in the presence of Anselm, the multitude of
people standing by, the king agreed and enacted that
from henceforth no one should be invested in England in
a bishopric or abbey by the giving of a pastoral staff or
a ring by the king, or any lay hand, and Anselm agreed
that no person elected to prelacy should be debarred from
consecration on account of the homage which he should
do to the king. These things being so settled, in almost
all the churches of England, which had been long widowed
of their pastors, by the counsel of Anselm and the nobles,
without any investiture of pastoral staff or ring, fathers
were instituted by the king." ^ This compromise having
1 Eadmer, Hist. Nov., p. 87.
2 This, says Professor Stubbs, "must have been a very large
gathering, and here and during the other councils of this reign, we
may observe a peculiar mark of our ecclesiastical history, the king
holding his CouncU at Westminster, while the archbishop holds Ms at
the same city, a precedent for the coincident summoning of Parliament
nnd Convocation in later days." — Stubbs, Const, Hist, i. 374.
^ Eadmer, Hist Nov,, p. 91.

1087-1107.] LAY AND SPIRITUAL POWERS. 197
been effected, the consecration of the bishops, about which
so much difficulty had arisen, immediately followed.
William, elect of "Winchester, Eoger of Salisbury, Eeinelm
of Hereford, and WiUiam 'Warelwast, who had conducted
aU the king's negotiations with the Pope, now elect of
Exeter, were consecrated by Anselm, Gerard of York,
Eobert of Lincoln, John of Bath, Herbert of Norwich,
Eobert of Chester, Ealph of Chichester, and Ealph of
Durham. 1
21. The compromise thus effected between the King
and the Pope, and the Primate who represented the Pope's
pohcy, was a judicious one, and in fact the only one possible
under the circumstances. In face of the rising power
of the Church, and the jealousy of lay control which had
been developed, it was impossible for the king to keep in
his hands the semi-ecclesiastical investiture of bishops by
the ring and staff ; but by securing the oath of homage he
stUl ensured their being English subjects. Henry also
surrendered the right of nominating to Sees independently
of chapters, but by ordaining that the chapters should
make the election in the court, he secured their choosing
the candidate whom he himself might favour. The arch
bishop might now hold councils when he pleased, but a
necessary preliminary was that the king's consent must be
obtained before the assembly could meet or legislate. The
Pope's jurisdiction was recognised in England, but no Legate
was allowed to visit England without royal license.^ Under
the circumstances, as much was done as was possible and •
perhaps needful to save the ancient right of royal supremacy,
whUe the liberty granted to Churchmen was sufficient to
satisfy the scruples which had of late assumed such large
dimensions. 1 Eadmer, Hist Nov, , p. 92. It seems startling to find the notorious
miscreant Ralph Flambard calmly acting -with Anselm in consecrating
the new bishops. Gerard, Archbishop of York, made a promise of
allegiance to Anselm. That is to say, he promised that as archbishop
he would pay him the same obedience which he had already vowed to
bim as bishop of Hereford. ^ See Stubbs, Const, Hist, i. 317.

198

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

[chap. xii.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

WILLIAM DE ST. CARILEPH,
BISHOP OF DURHAM.
William de St. Caeileph is a
personage of some importance as
the builder of the great cathedral
of Durham. He was a Norman
monk (St. Calais, in the diocese of
Mans), and afterwards abbot of St.
Vincentius in the same diocese.
Being a good man of business and a
fluent speaker, he obtained from
William I. the bishopric of Durham
(1081), was in high favour under
William Rufus, and succeeded Ro
bert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln, as
chancellor. He was involved in
the plots of Odo of Bayeux, and had
to fly from England. After two
years' exile he was, however, allowed
to return. Henceforth (according
to William of Malmesbury) he
courted the king most assiduously,
and adapted himself to every tem
per of the royal mind. Thus he

took occasion of the king's anger
against Anselm to make himself the
leader of the party of bishops against
him. The firmness of Anselm, how
ever, foiled him, and the king's anger
fell upon him. At the court at
Gloucester, being absent, he was or
dered to attend. A message was
brought that he was suffering from
lUuess. The king swore he was only
feigning. Then the unfortunate
bishop, more dead than alive, made
his appearance. His brethren, in
stead of cheering him, discussed the
place of his burial, and thought he
ought to be buried -within the
church of St. Cuthbert, which he
was rebuilding so magnificently.
This honour he disclaimed -with his
dying breath, but desired to be
buried iu the chapter-house (1096).
He Introduced monks at Durham,
and conferred special privileges on
the prior. — Willelm. Malmesb., De
Gest Pont, 272.

1107-1135.] THE LEGATINE AUTHORITY. 199

CHAPTER XIIL
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND.
1107-1135.
1. Council of London, 1108. 2. Foundation of the See of Ely, 1109. 3.
Thomas II. of York and Anselm. 4. Death and chsiracter of Anselm.
5. Archbishop Ralph and the Pope. 6. The claim to send a Legate
to England. 7. Thurstan treacherously obtains consecration to York
from the Pope. 8. Renewed abortive attempt to send a Legate to
England. 9. Archbishop Wilham concedes the point of the estab
lishment of a Legate. 10. The Legate Cardinal John of Crema. 11.
Council of Westminster, 1125. 12. Archbishop of Canterbury be
comes Papal Legate. 13. Council of Westminster, 1127. 14. An
other coimcil (1129) on clerical matrimony ; the king sells licenses
to the married clergy. 15. Fountains Abbey founded — the Cister
cian order. 16. Foundation of the See of Carlisle — Austin canons.
17. Death of Henry I. — His policy towards the Church.
1 . There can be no question that the work which Anselm
had done had been salutary for raising the character of the
Church, and the dignity of the episcopal office — in danger
as it was of faUing into the degraded condition of a mere
feudal service of the king. " The king was strongly and
solemnly reminded that he owed an account for the persons
whom he appointed bishops ; they were not merely his
creatures; they were not merely elevated and promoted
on the terms on which he made a knight or a baron ; the
office was not his in the sense that he could sell it." ' And
a decided improvement in the state of the Church of Eng
land may be traced during the greater portion of the reign
of Henry. But there were many among the clergy who
regarded with anything but satisfaction this attempt to
regulate by the new discipline of Eome the old habits and
customs of the Church of England. This was especially
the case with respect to clerical matrimony. The sweeping
1 Church, Life of Anselm, p. 291.

200 ESTABLISHMENT OE THE [ohap. xiii.
canon passed in 1102, ordering 'aU priests to put away
their wives, had been but little regarded. The king had
used the resistance of the clergy as the means of extorting
fines, but this also had not availed to put a stop to clerical
matrimony. " Many presbyters," says Eadmer, " making
light of the statutes of the Council of London, and of the
vengeance which the king had exercised towards them, still
retained their wives, or indeed married wives, which they
had not done before." ^ Anselm was very anxious to re
strain this liberty, and the king, seconding his views, sum
moned a councU of the magnates of the kingdom and the
bishops to meet at London (1108), which ordained as
follows : — (1.) That priests, deacons, and subdeacons
should live chastely and keep no women in their houses
but such as were nearest of kin to them, according to the
decrees of the Council of Nice. (2.) That such as have
kept or taken wives since the prohibition of the CouncU
of London, and have celebrated mass, do so wholly discard
them as not to be with or meet them in any house know
ingly ; and that the women may not live on any ground
belonging to the Church. (3.) If they have any honest
occasion to speak with them, let it be done -without doors
before lawful witnesses. (4.) If any of them (the clergy)
are accused by two or three lawful witnesses, or by the
public report of the parishioners, to have transgressed this
statute, let him, if a priest, make his purgation by six wit
nesses, if a deacon by four, if a sub-deacon by two ; and if
he fail, let him be deemed a transgressor. (5.) Let such
priests as choose to live with wives in contempt of God's
altar and their holy orders be deprived of their office and
benefice, and put out of the choir, being first pronounced in
famous. (6.) And if a priest celebrate mass and do not leave
his wife, let him be excommunicated unless he come to satis
faction within eight days after summons. (7.) Let arch
deacons and canons be liable to the same sentence as to their
leaving their wives, and as to the censure to be passed if
they transgress. (8.) All archdeacons shall swear that
they will not take money to tolerate men in transgressing
this statute, nor for tolerating priests whom they know to
^ Eadmer, Hist, Nov., p. 94.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 201
have wives, in celebrating mass, or in having vicars; and if
they shall hear them charged with this, they shall inquire
into the truth. Deans shall, in like manner, swear to these
things, and they who refuse to swear shall lose their offices.
(9.) Priests who choose to leave their wives and to serve
God and His holy altar, shall have vicars to officiate for
them during the forty days in which they are to desist
from their office, and are to have penance enjoined them at
the bishop's discretion. (10.) AU the movable goods of
the clergy who offend after this shall be given to the bishop,
as well as the concubines -with their goods, as adulterous
persons.-' The last clause of these decrees is wanting in
the report of Florence of Worcester. It is to be hoped it
was not really sanctioned by the council. By the old law
of England the adulterous woman became the slave of the
bishop.^ This would therefore put it into the power of the
bishop to sell the wives of the clergy as slaves.
2. One of the last important transactions in which
Anselm was concerned was the forwarding the arrange
ments for the creation of the See of Ely. The account of
this reads somewhat differently in Eadmer, and in William
of Malmesbury and the monkish historian of the Historia
Eliensis.^ According to the former, the large and unmanage
able size of the See of Lincoln would seem to have been a
matter for consideration at the council between the king
and nobles, and the Primate and the bishops. It was
thought that it would be " conducive to the cause of Chris
tianity," * that from the diocese of Lincoln enough should be
taken to make a See, of which the abbey of Ely should be
the cathedra. Anselm wrote to the Pope recommending the
plan, and Eobert, bishop of Lincoln, being willing to con
sent to it for an equivalent which he received, the matter
was accomplished. But according to the monastic account
and that of William of Malmesbury, whose predilections did
not incline him to regard the putting a famous monastery
under the power of a bishop as an unmixed good, the matter
' Eadmer, Hist Nov., p. 95 ; Flor. Wigorn., Chron,, ii. 58.
2 Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 33.
' Printed in Anglia Sacra, vol. i.
* "Ratio Christianitatis id utile fore suadebat."

202 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [chap, xiu,
reads differently. In this view the foundation of the See
was due to the ambitious machinations of " one Hervey," as
William of Malmesbury calls him, who had been bishop of
Bangor, but who had left his See in the hope of getting an
increase of wealth, alleging as a pretence that he could not
agree with his Welsh neighbours.^ He was assigned by the
king as acting abbot to the monastery of Ely, and recom
mended himself so well to the monks that they desired to
have him their abbot for a continuance. Hervey suggested
to them that it would be greatly to the honour of the society
to become the chapter of a bishop, and the monks assent
ing, Hervey obtained the sanction of the king, and induced
him to direct the bishop of Lincoln to consent to it, " the
royal hberality giving him that which was not its own,
viz. a vill belonging to Ely, Spald-wick by name." ^ Upon
this, Hervey, having obtained the Pope's consent, was en
throned first bishop of Ely, 1109.^
3. The closing days of Anselm's life were troubled by
a dispute with Thomas II. elected Archbishop of York in
succession to Gerard. Both Thomas himself and the
canons of York were anxious that the northern Primate
should be spared the profession of canonical obedience to
Canterbury. This was sought to be accomplished by
delaying the consecration of Thomas, as it was thought that
Anselm's life was drawing near to its close. With him at
Canterbury there could be no hope of evasion, but during
the vacancy of the See, or with a new occupant, the matter
might perhaps be managed. Thus Thomas delayed, on one
pretence or another, to apply for consecration. He pleads
his poverty, then that he had sent to Eome for the paU,
and must await its arrival, then the opposition of his
canons. Anselm saw clearly through all these devices, and
in order to guard against the possibility of their success
charged solemnly all his suffragans that in case his death
' Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pont, p. 325. ^ tj,^ „. j.
' Though Eadmer makes the arrangement of the See independent
of Hervey's machinations, he says of his appointment, "quod quidem
ut adipisci mereretur muM prece, multis multaiiim rerum promis-
sionibus, multorum quoque offioiorum exhibitionibus, vix post obitum
strenuissimi Anselmi obtinuit." — Hist Nov,, p. 104.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 203
should happen before the consecration of Thomas, they
were not to consecrate him without the due profession.
This prudent precaution was completely successful. The
Primate died before Thomas was consecrated, but all the
bishops remaining firm to the charge which Anselm had
given them, and being supported by the king, Thomas
was obliged to make the required profession. ^
4. The life of the great Primate was now come to its
close. He died on AprU 21, 1109, exhibiting in his last
illness much devotion and charity. Anselm was one of the
greatest prelates with whom the English Church has been
adorned. He was one of the most learned men and
deepest thinkers of his age. No breath of slander could
assaU his morals. His earnestness and devotion were
beautified by tolerance and gentleness, which attracted even
his enemies. His ecclesiastical policy was the result of
full con-viction, and was all founded on principle, and while
it did much to enslave the English Church, it also did
much to purify and elevate it. How vast was the interval
between Anselm, bringing all things into subjection to the
Pope, and his contemporary Ealph Flambard, scheming to
make the Church a mere tributary appanage of the Crown.
Both may be held to be -wrong, but what a difference be
tween the morahty and aims of one wrong-doer and the
other ! The weak point in Anselm's character, while it was
also his strength as a partisan, was that he was a man of one
idea. WhUe he was contending for the claims of the Church
in investitures, he could think and care for nothing else.
A great part of his primacy was spent abroad, though the
Enghsh Church with its grievous corruptions needed above
all things such a governor. If he could not have his own
way on what he had set his heart, he would do nothing.
Even at the very last, in the dispute with Thomas, elect of
York, he -wrote to the Pope that if Thomas should gain his
point he would leave England for good.^ His absence from
England during the reign of Eufus seems due to pique
rather than, to principle. Anselm could not yield. The
1 Eadmer, Hist Nov., 97-104.
^ lb,, p. 99. For an account of Anselm's writings, see Notes and
Illustrations to this Chapter.

204 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [ohap. xiii.
claims of expediency had no weight with him. Such a
character is great and noble, but falls short in the important
point of doing good in its generation. ^
5. After the death of Anselm Henry imitated the evil
example of his brother Eufus, and kept the primatial See
vacant for no less than five years. In another point, too,
he seems to have imitated the bad policy of the two pre
ceding kings. In all the appointments made by him to
abbacies or Sees he studiously avoided giving any prefer
ment to a man of English race. " If he were an English
man," says Eadmer, " no amount of virtue could cause him
to be judged worthy of honour." ^ At length, after five
years' delay, the general clamour of all the chief men of the
State compelled the king to provide a successor to Anselm.
A great council was summoned at Windsor (April 26,
1114). The king desired to appoint Faricius, abbot of
Abingdon. The councU desired to have a secular clerk.
A compromise was effected by the election of Ealph, bishop
of Eochester, who had been an abbot, and was a person
generally popular with all classes.^ The election ha-ving been
regularly made, a deputation of the Canterbury monks was
sent to Eome for the pall, the archbishop being unable to
undertake the journey on account of illness. Pope Paschal
treated the canons of Canterbury with marked contempt,
and took no notice of them. Anselm, a nephew of the
archbishop, who had been much in England, and was living
at the papal court, then took their case in hand, and in
duced the Pope to send the pall by him. At the same
time the Pope wrote an angry letter complaining that the
See of Eome was treated by the English Church and king
with scant reverence. No appeals came from England, no
questions were referred to Eome for decision. The English
Church presumed to act independently. He trusted this
1 " As a practical man ho failed, and faults in his character were
educed of which he was not hunself conscious, and to the existence of
which his admirers were equally blind. It was requisite for him not
only to maintain, but according to circumstances to modify his prin
ciples. " — Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 266.
2 Hist Nov., p. 110.
3 Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest Pontif, p. 125.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 205
would be rectified by the agency of Anselm, whom he had
sent to negotiate matters.^ The pall brought by Anselm
was received with all devotion by the new archbishop, and
the king summoned a general councU of prelates and nobles
to meet at Winchester (September 15, 1114). At this
assembly Anselm produced a long letter from the Pope,
reprehending in severe terms the independent proceedings
of the king of England, his presuming to hold councUs
without the papal authority, his ordering the translation
of bishops, and other enormities. It was determined by the
council to send messengers to Eome to explain to the Pope
the position of the English Church, and William Warelwast,
bishop of Exeter, though now blind, was selected for the
purpose, as being the most familiar -with the papal court.^
6. Anselm also returned to Eome, and in the following
sutiuner (1115), the king being in Normandy, he came to
him, bringing a commission from the Pope to act as Legate
in England. This was a new and unheard-of claim. It was
something quite different from receiving legates for special
purposes and -with a defined object. The establishment of
a permanent Legate in England had never been tolerated.
'When the attempt became known in England there was a
general excitement; bishops, abbots, and nobles met at
London, and it was determined to despatch the Archbishop
of Canterbury at once to the king and the Pope. He found
the king at Eouen, and Anselm -with him. The effect of
his interview -with Henry was that the papal Legate was
forbidden to enter the country.* From the visit to the Pope
no special results followed ; the archbishop was not able to
procure a personal interview, he merely obtained a letter
from Paschal to the king, saying that he did not desire in
any way to interfere with the privileges of the See of Can
terbury. *
1 Eadmer, Hist, Nov,, p. 112. 2 xh_^ p_ iig_
3 lb., p. 118 ; Willelm. Malm., De Gest, Pontif., p. 128. He wa.s
stopped on the ground that it was the ancient pri-vilege of the Arch
bishops of Canterbury to be legates of the Pope. This is not to be
interpreted as though the archbishops were actually appointed legates
as yet, but that by their ofiice and connection -with Rome, they were
the proper persons to act for the Pope.
¦> Will?lm. M.almesb., De Gest Pontif, p. 129.

206 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [chap. xiii.
7. The independent attitude assumed by the Church
of England was now causing decided uneasiness at Eome.
This Ul feeling was further aggravated by the circumstances
connected -with the dispute between Thurstan, Archbishop-
elect of York, and Ealph, Archbishop of Canterbury, a
dispute which had a very important effect on the after
history of the Church of England. Thurstan, being elected
to York, apphed for consecration to Archbishop Ealph.
The Archbishop of Canterbury required the customary oath
of obedience. Thurstan objected. An appeal was made to
the king, who upheld the Archbishop of Canterbury's
claim. Upon this, Thurstan renounced his election, but
being over-persuaded by his friends, adopted it again, and
applied to the king to accept him. He also in-vited the
interposition of the Pope ; and going to Eome, obtained
a letter from Pope Paschal to the king, recommending his
consecration, and offering to settle any disputes between the
two primacies afterwards. Archbishop Ealph, however,
was firm in refusing to consecrate, and the king supported
him. At this time CaUxtus II. , a Frenchman, became
Pope after a disputed election. He held a Synod at
Eheims, to which Thurstan went. The king had exacted
a promise from the new Pope that he would do nothing
prejudicial to the See of Canterbury, and had warned the
Pope not to consecrate Thurstan. Calixtus had replied
that he would do nothing to lower the dignity of the See
of Canterbury. Nevertheless, on the day before the synod
met, the Pope consecrated Thurstan in spite of the protests
of the archdeacon of Canterbury. Not only did he con
secrate him, but he conferred upon him, so far as in him
lay, the privilege of not being subject to the See of Canter
bury (Oct. 19, 1119). King Henry was so indignant at
this trickery, that he prohibited 'Thurstan from residing
in any part of his dominions.^ The ultimate effect of
Thurstan's action was that henceforth " the assembling of
national councils became almost a matter of impossibility ;
1 Eadmer, Hist Nov., pp. 117-124 ; Willelm. Malmesb., De Gest
Pontif, 262-266. In the following year, however, Henry relaxed this
sentence ou the threat of the Pope to excommunicate him and suspend
the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and Thurstan returned to his See.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 207
the disputes, amounting often to undignified personal
altercations between the archbishops themselves, disturbed
the harmony of even the royal courts and national parlia
ments."^ 8. Pope Calixtus having thus shown himself utterly
careless of the wishes of the king of England, could hardly
expect that so much deference would be shown to him as
for the old custom of the land, which prohibited a papal
Legate from establishing himself in England, to be abrogated
in his favour. Yet, when he had become settled in the
papacy, and put down his rival, he attempted this. In
order to impress the king and the people of England, he
selected as his Legate, Peter, son of a very famous Peter,
Prince of the Eomans. Great reports were circulated of
the grandeur and talent of the coming envoy. The king
sent a bishop and a clerk to meet him abroad, and accorded
him his permission to enter England, though he had not
the least intention of allowing him to stay, or, in fact, to
do any act as Legate in the land.^ Peter arrived, and
desired hcense to act as Legate. The king alleged the fact
that he had much business on his hands ; that before the
claim of the Pope to have a Legate in England could be
allowed, there must be a general meeting of the prelates
and barons of the land to consider the point ; that it was
one of the ancient privileges of England that the kingdom
should be free from all domination of a Legate, and that
this ancient right he would never abandon wUUngly.
Impressing this upon Peter with abundance of civil words,
he, in fact, bowed him out of England.* Sojourning at
Canterbury on his way back, Peter received strong repre
sentations from the monks as to the way in which Canter
bury had been treated in the matter of Thurstan, and was
brought, himself to acknowledge that the primatial church
had been badly used, and that he would do what he could
1 Stubbs, Const Hist, ii. 198.
^ His conductors were especially charged not to allow the proposed
Legate to lodge in any monastery, but to bring him straight to the
king. ' " Immunis ab omni officio, cum ingenti pompS, viS, qua venerat
extra Angliam missus est." — Eadmer.

208 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [chap. xiir.
to remedy the injustice done. The independence of the
English Church was thus carefully guarded by the action
of a wise and vigorous king, acting under the advice of a
primate of no narrow views. The death of Archbishop
Ealph followed soon after the episode of the would-be
Legate Peter.^ In him the Church of England lost a -wise,
far-seeing, and liberal-minded prelate, and one who well
understood the due position of the English Church, and
the nature of the unjust encroachments attempted by
Eome. 9. The prelate who succeeded Ealph in the chair of
Augustine was, unfortunately, a person of a different
character from his predecessor. He owed his election,
principally, to the fact that he belonged to an order which
occupied a sort of middle position between the regulars
and the seculars, — that, namely, of Canons Eegular. For
when, at the council held at Gloucester on 'the Feast of
the Purification (1123), the question of appointing a prelate
to the See of Canterbury was discussed, great differences
manifested themselves. The monks of Canterbury pre
sented the names of certain persons of the monkish order
whom they had selected. But the bishops, who were all
seculars, said they would not have a monk to rule over
them. The monks replied that from the time of Augustine
the See of Canterbury had been always occupied by monks.
The king, however, favoured the clerical party, and the
names of four clerks were submitted to the deputation
from the Canterbury convent, that they might select one
from them. Their choice fell upon "WUliam of CorbeU,
who had been a clerk of the notorious Ealph Flambard,
bishop of Durham, but afterwards, " -with the object of
^ Eadmer, Hist, Nov,, pp. 137, 138, 141. We here take leave of
Eadmer as a guide, who had so faithfully depicted the lives of Anselm and
Ralph. He had been selected by Alexander, king of Scotland, for the
bishopric of St. Andrews, but refused to be consecrated without taking
the oath of obedience to the See of Canterbury, to which the king of
Scotland would not consent. Archbishop Ralph is also the last of the
primates in William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum,, He gives the
highest character of him, concluding, " de quo quicquam sinistrum
suspicari contra religionem est niti."

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 209
bettering his life," had been transferred to the priory
of the canons regular of Chiche in Essex. He thus
might be regarded as uniting the two characters of secular
and regular. When his election had been confirmed.
Archbishop Thurstan kindly offered to consecrate him,
but his offer was declined unless he would declare that
he consecrated him as Primate of all England. This
Thurstan was by no means prepared to do, and William
was consecrated by his suffragans, and immediately after
wards set out to Eome to obtain the pall ; Thurstan also
going at the same time to keep a careful watch over the
newly obtained immunities of York.^ The king did not
faU to send clerks with the archbishop to guard his interests,
but either he was badly served, or else Archbishop William
and the Pope contrived to enter into a secret compact, for
there can be no doubt that now the whole question of the
Eoman Legate was conceded as far as the archbishop was
concerned. He agreed also, that the quarrel between the
two primatial Sees, which had been sharply urged by both
the archbishops at Eome, should be decided in a council in
England, at which Legates of the Pope should preside.^
10. Soon after the return of the archbishop, the consent
of the king having been obtained, the papal Legate, John,
Cardinal of Crema, arrived in England. The reception
which he met with from the archbishops, each eager to
secure his good wUl for their side, moves the patriotic
indignation of the monk Gervase. " Too pompously,
indeed, was he received. He made his progress through
England, and everywhere excited extreme indignation.
You might see, indeed, a thing before unheard of in the
kingdom of England, a clerk, forsooth, who had only
reached the grade of the priesthood, taking precedence of
archbishops, bishops, abbots, and all the nobles of the land ;
sitting upon a lofty throne, while they, sitting beneath him,
were waiting for' his nod. On Easter Day, at his first
coming into England, he celebrated the office of the day in
the mother Church in the place of the chief pontiff, presid
ing on an elevated seat, and using the pontifical insignia.
' Simeon Dunelm., Hist, pp. 247-248 (ed. Twysden).
^ Simeon Dunelm., p. 250.
P

210 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [chap. xin.
although not a bishop, but simply a priest. The minds of
many were gravely scandalised, for they saw in this both
an unusual novelty and the destruction of the ancient
liberties of the kingdom of England. For it is a thing
most well known to the kingdom of England, and to all
the regions lying round about, that from the days of
Augustine, the first Metropolitan of Canterbury, up to the
time of that WUliam, all the successors of Augustine who
were monks had been held primates and patriarchs, and
had never been placed under the dominion of any Eoman
Legate." ^ Political reasons were for the moment all-powerful
with the king, and induced him to treat this Legate in a
different manner from that which had been used towards
those who had before attempted to exercise the Eoman
authority here.^ He was allowed to move freely about the
country. He went to Scotland to settle a dispute between
the Scots and Archbishop Thurstan, and on September
9 (1125), he presided, much to the disgust of both clergy
and laity of the English Church, in a great council at
Westminster.^ 11. The canons enacted at this council were as follows;
(1.) We, following the ancient fathers, forbid by apostolical
authority any man to be ordained for money. (2.) We
charge that no price be demanded for chrism-oil, baptism,
visiting or anointing the sick, for the communion of the
body of Christ, or for burial. (3.) That at the consecrat
ing of bishops, blessing of abbots, dedicating of churches,
neither the cope, the carpet, the towel, nor the basin, —
nothing in fact at all, — be demanded violently, nor taken
except willingly offered. (4.) That no monk or clergyman
accept a church, tithe, or any ecclesiastical benefice at the
hand of a layman, without the bishop's consent ; that
every such donation be null, and the offender liable to
canonical punishment. (5.) That uo one challenge a
church or prebend by inheritance from his father, or
appoint his own successor to an ecclesiastical benefice.
(6.) That clergymen who have churches or benefices be
1 Gervas., Act Pont Cant,, p. 1663 (ed. Twysden).
= For these, see Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 308.
' Contin. Flor. Wigorn. , ii. 81.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 211
deprived of them if they refuse to be ordained though
their bishops invite them to it, that they may live more at
liberty.^ (7.) Let none be promoted to a deanery or
priory but a priest; none to an archdeaconry but a
deacon. (8.) Let none be ordained priest or deacon, but
to some certain title ; if he be, let him not enjoy the
honour of his order. (9.) Let no abbot, clergyman, or
layman eject any one from a church to which he has been
ordained by the bishop, without the bishop's sentence,
under pain of excommunication. (10.) Let no bishop
ordain or judge one of another diocese ; for no man is
bound by a sentence passed by an improper judge. (11.)
Let no one receive to communion him that is excommuni
cated by another ; if any one do this, let him be deprived
of Christian communion. (12.) Let no one person have
two archdeaconries, or two honours of a different grade.
(13.) By apostolical authority we forbid to priests, deacons,
subdeacons, and canons, intercourse with concubines, or
to hve with any woman except mother, sister, aunt, or such
women concerning whom no suspicion could arise. Who
soever shall violate this decree, upon confession and
conviction, must suffer the loss of his order.^ (14.)
We forbid usury and base gain of every sort to clerks.
Let the offender, upon confession and conviction, be
degraded. (15.) Those who practise sorcery — sooth
sayers and fortune-tellers, and those who support them — we
doom to excommunication and perpetual infamy. (16.) We
forbid those that are related within the seventh degree to be
married ; if any such are married, let them be separated.
' Mr. Johnson says that this means proceeding from minor orders
to the diaconate or priesthood. But there is no question that actual
laymen held benefices, employing vicars for the service. This griev
ance continued long, and will appear again in the time of Grossteste.
'^ A sti'ange comment on this promulgation of the Legate is men
tioned by Henry of Huntingdon, who says of him : — " Cum, iu conciUo
severissime de uxoribns sacerdotum traotasset, dicens summum soelus
esse a latere meretricis ad corpus Christi conficiendum surgere, cum
eadem die corpus Christi confecisset, cum meretrice post vesperam inter-
ceptus est. Res apertissima Londonis gesta uegari non potuit. Sum-
mus honor prius ubique habitus in summum dedecus versus est."

212 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [ohap. xiii.
(17.) We forbid the refusal of regard to husbands and the
witnesses they produce, when they charge their wives with
consanguinity — let the ancient authority of the Fathers be
preserved.-' 1 2. In this Synod nothing was done towards settling
the vexed question between York and Canterbury, which
had been the ostensible reason for the mission of the
Legate into England. It has always been the policy of
Eome to keep questions of dispute unsettled and open,
that thus a more complete dependence upon itself may be
maintained. The Legate and the two Primates left Eng
land for Eome soon after the Council. It was promised
that the relations of the two Sees should be settled by the
Pope himself. And now the policy of the Eoman Pontiff
invented a method by which the desire for precedence and
authority cherished by the prelate of Canterbury might be
satisfied, and at the same time the ambition of the Roman
See to govern all the churches might be gratified. The
method by which he proposed to make the See of Canter
bury dominant over that of York, was to make the arch
bishop of the former the Legate of the Eoman Pontifi'.
This Archbishop WUham weakly and shamefully accepted,
and thus gratified his own personal ambition at the
expense of the dignity and independence of his Church.^
The Primate of all England, alterius orbis papa, the patri
arch to whom the bishops of the British Church of "Wales,
the Irish Church, and the Scotch Church, now looked for
consecration, was henceforth to govern his province in the
name and by the authority of the Pope. It has been well
said of this transaction, that " the Archbishops of Canter
bury were by this means stripped of their rights, and
clothed with the shadow of them. It is here that we are
' Contin. Flor. Wigorn., ii. 8; Simeon Dunelm., p. 253; John
son, Eng. Canons, ii. 34-37.
2 The Bull of Honorius may be found in WOkins, i. 409. Dr.
Hook endeavours to apologise for William ; but he forgets that
William's predecessor, as well as the king, had successfully resisted the
Pope's claim. Professor Stubbs says that the king was acting in con
cert with the Primate in obtaining the legateship. Of course, if there
was to be a legate, it was better for the king that it should be one of
his own bishops than a foreigner. —See Stubbs, Const Hist, i. 375.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 213
to date the vassalage ofthe English Church."^ The lega
tine authority of the archbishop was to extend to Scotland
as well as to England, and by virtue of it he had the poor
satisfaction of repulsing the Archbishop of York, at the cere
mony of placing the royal crown on the head of Henry, at
Windsor (Christmas 1126), and causing him to lower his cross.^
13. At the beginning of the year 1127 the archbishop
and all the bishops took the oath of allegiance to Henry's
daughter Matilda, an oath which, though solemnly renewed
afterwards, was shamefully disregarded by them when the
time of trial came. The new Legate of the Pope, anxious
to make full proof of his dignity and power, summoned a
councU at Westminster (May 13, 1127), "by virtue of the
power of Peter, prince of the Apostles, and his own." In
this council he presided as Legate of the Apostolic See.
But his triumph over his rival Thurstan was snatched from
him, for the wily Thurstan, "by messages and letters,"
showed that he was hindered by a reasonable cause from
" being present at that assembly." ^ The canons passed by
this council were for the most part a repetition of those
enacted in 1125. Sorcery was strongly condemned
(Canons 1, 2, 3). Deans were to be priests, archdeacons
deacons. (4.) Clerical matrimony was again strictly for
bidden. Beneficed persons were to be deprived if
married ; assistant priests to be interdicted from officiat
ing. (5.) Concubines of priests were to be expelled from
the parish, unless they were lavrfuUy married there. If
they offended again, they were to be sold into slavery.*
(6.) Archdeacons were not to hold two archdeaconries.
(7.) Clergy were not to farm churches. (8.) Tithes were to
1 Inett, Ch. Hist., ii. 221.
2 Contin. Flor. Wigorn, ii. 84 ; Gervas. , Act. Pont. Cant, p. 1663.
The Chronicler records -with evident satisfaction, " Lator Crucis, quam
in regis capellam se coram fecit deferri, extra capeUam cum cruce ejectus
est." ' Contin. Flor. Wigorn., ii. 86.
^ This probably did not apply to the wives, inasmuch as in the
former canon, a distinction is drawn between the conjuges and the
conmbince. It may, however, have included both ; as by the canons
of 1108, the wife was to be judged an adulteress, and to become the
chattel of the bishop. It is unnecessary to point out the iniquity of
the provision.

214 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [chap. xiii.
be paid punctually. (9.) No rector was to give away
churches or tithes, or to take them without the consent of
the bishop.^ (10.) No abbess or nun was to use more
costly garments than lambskins or catskins.^
14. The severe canons passed against clerical matri
mony in these several councils might be expected to produce
speedily considerable effect. But it appears that this was
not the case. Priests still lived with their wives, and it is
to be feared Ulicit connections were also very prevalent.
So firmly rooted was the custom, that, in accordance pro
bably with the request of the archbishop, the king ordered
the assembling of a councU in London, in the beginning of
August 1129, specially to take counsel about this matter.
The chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, who, as himself the
son of a priest, was a strong opponent of the attempt to
enforce clerical celibacy, records with somewhat of irony
the proceedings of this assembly. "There were many
bishops assembled," he says, " the columns of the kingdom,
and the bright lights of sanctity. But the king played a
trick upon them through the simpleness of Archbishop
William. For they gave up into the king's hands the
having justice done concerning the -wives of the priests,
and they were held to have greatly lacked prudence in thus
acting by what appeared afterwards, when the matter was
terminated in a way which reflected great disgrace upon
them. For the king took large sums of money from the
priests, and so redeemed them from observing the canons.
Then, when it was too late, the bishops were ashamed of
their concessions, when everybody saw that they were
deceived, while their clergy were heavUy burdened." ^
15. The year 1132 witnessed the foundation of Foun
tains Abbey, the most famous house of the Cistercian
Order.* The Cistercian or White Monks had only lately
1 This refers to the formation of vicarages. In many cases the
monastery had become the persona, and no arrangement as to what
portion of the tithes was to be given for the vicarage was to be made
without the bishop, nor was the monastery to receive the tithes of any
church without his sanction. ^ Contin. Flor. Wigorn., ii. 86-88.
' Hen. Hun., Histor., p. 220 (ed. Saville).
* Ann. de Wavcrlria, Ann. Monast, ii. 223.

1107-1135.] LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 215
obtained a footing in England (1128), but from this time
forward they contrived to monopolise all the most liberal
gifts of lands and wealth for monastic purposes, and were
the most popular form of "religion" in England. The
Cistercian Order was due to the zeal of Eobert, Alberic,
and Stephen, the Englishman who endeavoured, in the
eleventh century, to bring about a reform of the prevailing
laxity of the Benedictines. They founded a monastery at
Citeaux, in Burgundy, in the rule of which manual labour
was to have a prominent part, and the strictest asceticism
was to be enjoined. The order of the White Monks soon
increased rapidly. Within thirty years from its founda
tion its first abbey was buUt in England, at Waverley, near
Farnham, in Surrey. The popes heaped privileges upon
the Cistercians, and granted them complete exemption from
episcopal control, and even from the restrictions of an
interdict. It was this which was the especial attraction of
the order, and all those who were ready to dedicate their
goods to the Church were encouraged to choose this channel.
The great abbeys of Eievaulx, Tintern, and Fountains,
sprang into being soon after that of Waverley. Fountains
was founded by a detachment of thirteen monks from St.
Mary's, at York, who, hearing of the austerities of the
Cistercians, and conscience-smitten for their own laxity,
inaugurated an establishment of the new and stricter order
under the protection, and with the aid, of Archbishop
Thurstan. It soon began to send offshoots to found other
abbeys, one of the earliest of which was that of Meaux,
and its prosperity was so great, that it became one of the
wealthiest and most luxurious abbeys of the land.^
16. In the year 1133 another See was given to the
English Church. The king founded the bishopric of
Carlisle " on the confines of England and Scotland," and
placed there as the first bishop, Adulf, the prior of the
canons regular of St. Oswald, " to whom he had been
accustomed to confess his sins.'' The bishop naturally
determined to form his chapter of the order from which he
' Much information will be found about the Cistercians in the
Annals of Waverley and of Meaux (Melsa), published in the Roll
Series, and the learned prefaces of the editors .

216 THE LEGATINE AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND, [chap.xiii.
himself had sprung, and accordingly established a body of
canons regular at his See.^ This was among the first of
the houses of canons regular established in England.^ The
order did not differ in any essential particular from those
of monks. The canons were outwardly marked by wearing
a cap and allowing their beards to grow, and their rule had
some variations from that of St. Benedict.
17. By the death of Henry I. in 1135 the State lost
an able ruler, and the Church a temporal head, who, con
sidering the times in which he lived and the material -with
which he had to deal, was on the whole favourable to her
best interests. But during the latter part of the reign of
Henry his ecclesiastical policy underwent a considerable
change. The ruler who had so stoutly withstood the
claims of Eome when advocated by Anselm, and the
attempts to force a Legate upon the country when Ealph
was Primate, relaxed his opposition to Eome, allowed the
legatine power to be established as an institution of the
land, and the rulers of the Church to take their own
course. This was greatly due to his desire to obtain the
good will of the clergy in support of his daughter's claims
to the throne. Twice were the Primate and all the bishops
called upon to swear allegiance to Matilda, but the oath
was lightly disregarded in the troublous times through
which the Church of England was now to pass.
^ Ann. de Waverleia, Ann. Monast, ii. 223.
" Not the very first ; probably the house of St. Osyth at Chiche,
of which Archbishop WiUiam was the prior, was the first. The
canons regular must not be confounded with the canons secular
living under the rule of Chrodegang, several societies of which had
been established in England, but without much success. The canons
regular professed a rule drawn from the writings of Augustine. Pope
Innocent, at the Lateran Council, 1139, decreed that all societies of
canons should be bound by this rule. But divers variations from the
original Austin Canons afterwards sprang up, — as the Premonstra-
tensian and the Gilbertine. At the time of the Dissolution the
Austin Canons possessed 175 houses in England.

CHAP, xiii.] NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

217

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A) THE LITERARY WORKS
OP ANSELM.
It is not easy to give in a short
space an adequate account of the
literary works of Anselm. He was
a great philosophical and meta
physical -writer, as well as a great
theologian. His metaphysical works
were chiefly composed when he
was ¦ prior of Bee. It was then
he -wrote on "Truth," on "the
Liberty of the Will," on "the Gram
marian," and those more famous
treatises, the Monologium and the
Proslogium, The first of these is a
dialogue, the great object of which
is to identify truth -with rectitude,
aud to connect it -with the highest
Right, that is, God. It would seem
as if Anselm's doctrine pointed to
wards that held by Erigena and
others, i.e. the falsity, or, in other
words, the non-existence (in a tnie
sense) of evil. The two treatises, De
Volwntate and De Libera Arbitrio, en
deavour to establish the theory that
the will is perfectly free to choose
the right, but not free to choose the
wrong, the choice of which implies

that the will has been brought
into slavery. The dialogue on the
" Grammarian " is a rather trivial
disquisition as to what the essence of
a grammarian is. Is he a substance
or a quality? Of a far more im
portant character is the Monologue,
which is "an attempt to eUcit from
the necessity of reason, without the
aid of Scripture, the idea of God
and the real foundation of it, and to
exhibit it without the usual employ
ment of learned proofs." — (Church).
In the Proslogium the argument
advanced is that the innate idea of
God in the soul is a complete proof
of the existence of God (the argument
afterwards advanced by Descartes).
The most famous theological treatise
of Anselm is the Cur Deus Homo,
a treatise on the Incarnation, which
suggests many speculative novelties
on the great doctrines of the faith,
although, at the same time, it contains
much admirable matter on the great
subject of which it treats. Anselm
also -wrote on Predestination, on the
Trinity, on the Procession of the
Holy Spirit, and many homilies and
meditations.

218 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [ohap. xiv.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.
1135-1154.
1. Relations of Stephen to the Church. 2. Stephen's Charter. 3. His
poor performance of his promises. 4. Charges against the bishops of
that day. 5. Stephen's treatment of the bishops of Salisbury aud
Lincoln. 6. The Legate calls a CouncU and summons the king.
7. Stephen resists the cmmcil. 8. Civil and Canon law introduced
into England. 9. Outrages on rehgious places and persons. 10.
St. William of York. 11. Archbishop Theobald defies the king, and
lays the land under an interdict. 12. Leading Churchmen combine
for a settlement of affairs.
1. There can be no question that the successful seizure by
Stephen, Count of Blois, of the crown destined for Matilda
was greatly due to the support which he obtained from
the Church dignitaries. These, as has been said, had aU
twice taken the oaths to Matilda, but they lightly dis
regarded their obligations. The most influential of the
bishops at that moment were William, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Eoger of Salisbury, the Justiciary of the king
dom, and Henry of Winchester. The latter of these was
the brother of Stephen, and of course devoted to his
interest. It was, according to WUliam of Malmesbury, from
the pledges given by him that Stephen would allow perfect
liberty to the Church, that the archbishop was induced to
crown him at Winchester on St. Stephen's day (1136).
Bishop Eoger, the Justiciary, had been previously gained,
and he, together with Henry of Winchester, assisted at the
coronation. There were no other bishops present, no
abbots, and but few nobles.^ In fact, the Church generally
was taken by surprise, and knew not what to expect from
the now king. At or soon after his coronation, Stephen,
1 Willelm. Malmesb., Hist Nov., p. 101 d(cA.. Saville).

1135-1154.1 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 219
desiring to propitiate the good wUl of the clergy, promised
to allow the canonical election of bishops, and not to pro
long vacancies;^ and during the first year of his reign he
issued at Oxford an important charter guaranteeing the
liberties of both Church and State.
2. Those parts of this charter which related to the
Church ran thus : — " Out of reverence and love of God I
agree that holy Churcll shall be free, and I steadfastly pro
mise to it due respect. I undertake to do nothing, or
permit nothing to be done, in the Church or in Church
matters, simoniacally. I declare and confirm justice and
power over ecclesiastical persons and their goods to belong
to the bishops, as well as the distribution of ecclesiastical
honours. I decree and allow that the dignities of churches,
confirmed by their pri-vUeges, and tlieir customs held
according to ancient tenure, shall remain inviolate. All the
possessions of churches and their tenures, which they held
when William the king, my grandfather, was alive, and at
his death, I grant to them freely and absolutely, without
any right of challenge from opponents. If any of these
things held before the death of the said king, but now lost,
the Church shall afterwards seek to recover, I reserve for
my indulgence and right of dispensing the power either
of restoring them or inquiring into the claim. I confirm
whatever grants have been made since his death, either
by the hberaUty of kings or the gifts of chief men, whether
made by way of offering, or purchase, or by any exchange.
I promise that I will act according to peace and justice in
aU things, and to my power preserve them. The forests
which William my grandfather and William my uncle
instituted and held I reserve to myself All the rest which
Henry the king superadded I restore 'and concede, without
quit-rent, to the churches and the kingdom. If any bishop
or abbot, or other ecclesiastical person, shall before his
death have distributed his goods reasonably, I confirm it ;
if he shall die without having done this, let the distribution
be made for the good of his soul according as the Church
counsels. While Sees are vacant of their proper pastors, I
wUl commit them and all their possessions to the custody
1 Hen. Hunt., Hist, I 221 (ed. Saville).

220 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [ohap. xiv.
of clerks or honest men of the same church, until a pastor
be canonically supplied." ^
3. Such were the great promises of the new king. But
the chroniclers do not allow us to believe that they were
very carefully observed. " He kept none of these things,"
says Henry of Huntingdon ; " he broke his vows to God,
and his paction to the people." ^ William of Malmesbury
writes the charter, but adds — " The names of the witnesses,
who were many, I do not take the trouble to write, for he
changed all these things as utterly as though he had only
taken the oath to show himself before the whole kingdom
as a perjured person. A man he was, indeed, of most nuld
disposition, but yet I must not hide the truth. Had he not
obtained the kingdom unla-wfuUy, and had he not lent his
ears to the whispers of malevolent persons in the adminis
tration of it, there would have been but little falling short
in him of true kingly excellence. Yet under him the trea
sures of some churches were plundered ; estates given away
to laymen ; the churches of clerks were sold to strangers ;
bishops were captured or compelled to give up their pro
perty ; abbacies were granted to unworthy persons, either
to please friends or to pay off debts. These things, indeed,
were not so much due to himself as to his counsellors, who
constantly persuaded him that he need never be in want of
money as long as the monasteries were filled with trea
sures." ^ Another chronicler draws a yet more lamentable
picture : — " Every one raises his head against another ; dis
cord arises which lays waste all things, both high and low ;
there is robbery and spoliation everywhere ; the strong
crushes the weak, stifles his complaints -with threats, and
hands over to death any one who resists. The great care
not how the wretched' poor are afflicted — all only think for
themselves, pro-vide castles stocked with supplies and gar
risoned by armed bands."*
4. In these respects the bishops, it is to be feared, were
for the most part but little better than the lay barons A
1 Stubbs, Select Clmrters, p. 114.
2 Hen. Hunt, Hist, ff. 221, 222.
¦• Willelm. Malmesb., Hist Nov,, f. 101 * (ed. Saville).
* Contin. Flor. Wigorn., ii. 96.

1135-1154.] THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 221
contemporary writer, the author of the Gesta Regis Siephani,
accuses them of having done no little to aggravate the
miseries of the land. He says they were in an abject state
of terror, like a reed shaken with the wind, and would not
give protection to anybody. They feared to strike with
the sword of the Word of God the children of Belial, but
in terror at these bold misdoers they either altogether sub
mitted to them or only spoke some mild and trifling sen
tence against them. Some of them most unepiscopally
occupied themselves in furnishing their castles with food
and armed retainers, and were more pitiless in plundering
their neighbours than any of the freebooting barons. Some
of them, girt in armour and mounted on their war-steeds,
joined in plundering expeditions, and were ready to inflict
prison and torture on their captives to extort money, laying
the blame of all not upon themselves but upon their fol
lowers. To omit others — for all were not equally to blame
— the bishops of Winchester, Lincoln, and Coventry were
beyond all others publicly accused of these evil and ungodly
practices." ^
5. Yet though the bishops may have deserved but
little of their countrymen, and have been but too ready to
foUow the bad example of the temporal barons, it is never
theless certain that the reverence -with which their office
was regarded had not died out, for nothing created such a
storm of unpopularity against King Stephen, and went so
near to endanger his throne, as his seizure of the bishops
of Salisbury and Lincoln at Oxford, and his compelling
them to surrender their castles and their treasures. Eoger,
bishop of Sahsbury, the favourite minister and justiciary of
Henry I., had amassed vast treasures, and had expended
them in erecting four be^autiful' castles at Malmesbury,
Devizes, Sherborne, sftid SiiUsbury. Of his nephews, one
(Alexander) had been promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln,
another (Nigel) to that of Ely. The former of these had
imitated his uncle in castle -building, having erected the
^ Gesta Begis Siephani, p. 96 (Eng. Hist. Soc.) The bishops
specially noted were Henry, the king's brother, Alexander of Blois,
nephew of the Justiciary, and Roger de Clinton.

222 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [chap. xiv.
castles of Newark, Sleaford, and Banbury ,i in his diocese.
Some of the bad advisers of whom William of Malmesbury
speaks, had been frequently suggesting to the king that the
wealth and possessions of these magnificent prelates were
altogether unbecoming to Churchmen, and ought to be
turned to better account. At the council held at Oxford,
June 1139, Stephen determined to act upon these sugges
tions. The bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln were sum
moned to attend ; they went unwUlingly, knowing perhaps
the mind of the king towards them. They considered it
necessary to be attended by a large body of retainers, and
a tumult, accidental or intentional, arose between their fol
lowers and those of the Count of Brittany. The prelates
were summoned before the king ; they were charged with
levying war, and bid to give up the keys of their castles.^
They hesitated, and were immediately taken into custody.
Nigel, bishop of Ely, who had escaped before the arrest of
his relatives, hastened to Devizes to put the castle in a state
of defence against the king. Stephen soon appeared before
it -with the bishops as his prisoners, and with Eoger, the
Chancellor, the son of the bishop of Salisbury, whom he
threatened to hang if the castle were not surrendered.
Bishops Eoger and Alexander entreated Bishop Nigel to
surrender, and declared that they would not taste food
untU he had done so. For three days the bishop of Ely
held out, and his brother and uncle were constrained to
fast. Then he surrendered the castle, and the king came
into the possession of no less than seven strong places fur
nished with vast treasures.^
6. So violent and grievous an outrage, done to leading
Churchmen, excited a vast commotion. Henry, bishop of
' He also built four religious houses, -viz. Thame, Haverholme,
Louth Park, aud the house for Austin Canons at Dorchester.
^ Conveniri jussit episcopos ut curise suae satisfacerent de hoc quod
homines eorum pacem ipsius exturbassent ; modus satisfactionis fuit ut
claves castellorum suorum quasi fidei vades traderent." — WUl. Mahn.,
Hist Nov., p. 102 b (ed. Saville).
3 Willelm. Malmesb., Hist Nm,, f. 103 (ed. Saville) ; Contin. Flor.
Wigorn,, ii. 103 ; Henric. Huntingdon, Hist, f. 223 (ed. Saville) ; Gesta
Regis Siephani, 47-51, E. H. S.

1135-1154.] THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 223
Winchester, was the brother of the king, but he was also
the Legate of the Pope, and bound to defend the privileges
and immunities of Churchmen ; and at this moment the
bishop of Winchester, who had done so much to help the
accession of Stephen, was not very favourably disposed
towards the king ; for at the death of Archbishop WiUiam
(November 1, 1136) he had expected to be advanced to the
dignity of Primate. Stephen, however, probably fearing
that his brother would thus become too powerful, refused
to second his views. The bishop of Winchester procured
the presence of a papal Legate, Alberic, bishop of Ostia,^ to
aid him with his infiuence and intrigues in his designs on
the primacy; but all his plans were unsuccessful. The
king obtained the election, by the Canterbury chapter, of
Theobald, abbot of Bee, who was consecrated January 8,
1139. To make up for the disappointment which the
bishop of Winchester had experienced, the Pope conferred
upon him the ofiice of Legate (1139), and thus constituted
him -virtually a more influential person than the archbishop.
Proud of his new dignity, and anxious to show its power ;
angry and resentful against the brother who had slighted
him, the bishop of Winchester called a council of the pre
lates in the name of the Pope, and cited King Stephen to
appear to answer for his outrage on the bishops of Salis
bury and Lincoln.
7. The king appeared by his representatives in answer
to the summons, but he was by no means in a yielding
mood. He caused his advocates to plead against the bishops
that it was utterly against the canons for bishops to possess
castles, and that even supposing it was lawful for them to
have them, yet, when the king demanded their surrender
to him for purposes of State, they ought not to refuse.
Stephen also declared that if any attempted to appeal to
Eome against him, it would be at their peril. His attitude
was so defiant that the Legate and the bishops were cowed.
They did not dare to speak the curse of the Church against
him, though he had thus violently dealt with ecclesiastical
property. They had recourse at length to prayers and
^ This Alberic held a Legatine Council during this short sojourn in
England. See Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 42.

224 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [chap. xiv.
entreaties that the king would have pity upon the Church
and upon his own soul, and not suffer this serious " breach
between Church and State " to arise. Stephen appears to
have promised little, and to have performed stUl less.'-
8. Theobald, who had succeeded to the primacy in
spite of the intrigues of Henry of Winchester, introduced
some important changes in the matter of Church law. The
Conqueror had caused the separation of Church courts from
those of the common law, but the law which the Church
courts administered was doubtful and uncertain, and there
was no regular standard or body of jurisprudence by which
their decisions were guided. The twelfth century witnessed
the rise in Italy of the study of ci-vil law founded upon the
Pandects of Justinian, and in imitation of this code the
Church began to compile a code of her own, the most
famous form of which was finaUy due to the labours of Gra-
tian, a Benedictine monk.^ This law Archbishop Theobald
determined to introduce into England.^ He sent one of
his clerks, Thomas Becket, afterwards so famous in history,
to study the new science at Bologna, and when, at the death
of Pope Innocent II. (1 143), the legatine commission granted
to Henry of Winchester expired, and Theobald obtained the
appointment of Eoman Legate, he was able to carry out his
purpose.* From the time of its appearance, about 1151,
the compUation of Gratian, known as the Decretum, was
the text-book of the EngUsh Church courts.^ The Arch
bishop of Canterbury was from the time of Theobald held
to have a prescriptive right to the character of Eoman
Legate, and was styled Legatus natus, but his authority might
1 Willelm. Malmesb., Hist Nov., pp. 103 b, 104 a (ed. Saville).
* " Burchard of Worms, Ivo of Chartres, and after them Gratian sup
plied manuals of the new jurisprudence." — Stubbs, Const Hist, ii. 171.
' Gervase says of him, ' ' Cum esset naturS, simplex et aliquantulum
literatus, ascivit clericos scholares quorum consilio suo impetu quoHbet
ducebatur." — Chron,, p. 1312 (ed. Twysden).
* " Tunc leges et causidici in Angliam primo vocati sunt, quorum
primus erat magister Vacarius. Hie in Oxonefordia legem docuit."
— Gervas., Act Pont. Cant, p. 1665.
^ Gratian's Decretum contained the false decretals of Isidore, and
hence was by no means a trustworthy guide for papal decisions.

1135-1154.] THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. -225
at any time be superseded by the mission of a Legate direct
from Eome called Legatus a Latere, so that the appointment,
though it might give him temporary precedence over his
rival the Archbishop of York, did not ready confer upon
him either dignity or power, while it altogether destroyed
his independent attitude towards the See of Eome.
9. The troubles of the evU days of Stephen had one
especially marked feature, that the reverence for holy places
and the rights of sanctuary were almost entirely cast away.
The chronicler tells us that the buildings erected by pious
founders for the service of God were now violently seized
and turned into freebooters' castles. Thus one Geoffrey
expelled the monks of Eamsey, and used the monastery as
his castle. Count William of York treated in the same
way the monastery of St. Mary at Bridlington, and Alan,
Count of Eichmond, violently entered and seized the church
of Eipon.i Everywhere throughout England men were
striving to get castles, each of them, says William of Mal
mesbury, defending, or I should rather say wasting, its own
district. Into these robbers' holds armed men drove away
from the fields herds and fiocks, and spared neither churches
nor cemeteries in their plunder. When the houses of the
wretched peasants had been utterly spoiled, they then threw
themselves into dungeons, nor did they let them go till they
had exhausted all that they had, and all that in any way
they could procure. Many perished in the tortures used
upon them. The Legate, with the bishops, again and again
excommunicated all violators of cemeteries and churches,
and thosfr who laid hands upon men of religious orders or
their dependants, but their anathemas were scarce of any
avail. Such was the utterly miserable state of the land
that not even bishops or monks could go from one town to
another in safety.^ Yet though the reverence for holy
places and things would seem to have almost departed, at
no time did the building of monasteries go on more rapidly,
due mainly, no doubt, to the zeal stirred up by the new
Cistercian Order. Ford and Meaux, Thame, Boxley, and
1 Johann. Hagustald. (Twysden), p. 273.
= WUlelm. Malmesb., ifisi. Nov., p. 105 a (ed. Saville).

226 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [chap. xiv.
Woburn, Bruerne, Combe, and many other religious houses,
owe their origin to this period.
10. Amidst the grievous complaints against secular
and martial prelates, some of them said to be even more
fierce and cruel than secular barons, it is pleasant to tum
to one at least of another temper, and to contemplate in
St. William of York a gentle and holy man who adorned
the religion of Christ. The only fault of Wilham appears
to have been that he was a nephew of the king, and was
thus pressed, perhaps somewhat strongly, on the chapter of
York by royal infiuence. This seems to be the only excuse
for the opposition which arose against him at York, which
was propagated to Eome, and upheld by all the influence
of the great St. Bernard. William was a canon of York
and treasurer of the churcll, and at the death of Thurstan
was, after a considerable delay, for his conspicuous merits,
elected by a majority of the canons to the archiepiscopal
throne. " He was a man," says Thomas Stubbs, " of noble
race, and incomparably distinguished by the excellence of
his morals and his most pure life. But Osbert the arch
deacon (who perhaps desired the post for himself), urged
on by envy, contrived to stir up a quarrel among the elect
ors, and pertinaciously hindered the confirmation of the
election, although by all men WUliam was held to be
worthy. The business was therefore suspended, and the
parties to the election summoned to Eome, and there,
through the false accusations of his adversaries,^ WUliam
could not obtain the grace of consecration. For five years
the process ran on, and at length nothing seemed to remain
to cause further delay. But Eugenius, a Cistercian monk,
had succeeded to the Papacy, and he, on no ground of per
sonal unfitness, but simply because he chose to do so,
declared the election void." Henry Murdak, a monk of
his own order, was consecrated, and for the period of his
episcopate William waited quietly and meekly.^ On the
' The sum of their charge, says John of Hexham, was that WUliam,
Earl of York, declared at the synod that it was the wish of the king
that SCUliam should be elected. — Johann. Hagustald., p. 272 (ed.
Twysden). 2 He retired to Sicily and lived with his friend Robert, the Chan-

1135-1154.] THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 227
death of Murdak (1153), William was again elected, and
now another pope had succeeded the Cistercian pupil of
St. Bernard, who condemned his predecessor's acts, and at
once consecrated William and invested him with the pall.
WUliam returned into England, everywhere reverenced for
the purity and holiness of his life. He took possession of
his See with aU solemnity, displaying (as it was thought)
both the power of working miracles and the gift of pro
phecy ; but -within thirty days of his arrival at York he
died, to the universal regret of his people.^ The episode
of his life is chiefly remarkable in showing how a faultless
man, canonicaUy chosen bishop, could yet be unfairly kept
back from his oflSce by the intrigues of Eome, the inordi
nate jealousy of secular influence, and finally, by that blind
devotion to the interests of a particular order, which, even
in St. Bernard, seems to have overpowered all other con
siderations.^ *
11. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the bitter foe
of Henry of Winchester, was opposed to the claims of
WUham, and nothing perhaps more iUustrates the anarchy
of the period than the part which Archbishop Theobald
was able at this time to play towards the king and the
country. Pope Eugenius had called a councU at Eheims,
to which all the English bishops were summoned. King
Stephen, feeling not unnaturally some resentment against
the Papacy on account of the unfair treatment to which
his nephew St. William had been subjected, and mindful,
it may be, of the ancient traditions of the freedom of the
English Church, forbade the bishops to attend.^ But the
ceUor of King Roger, who was by birth an Englishman. (Johann.
Hagustald., I. c.) Afterwards, according to Brompton, he lived on a
manor belonging to the bishop of Winchester. — Brompton, p. 1041 (ed.
Twysden). 1 He is said, in Roger de Hoveden's Chronicle, to have been poisoned
at the ablutions after the Eucharist (i. 213, Rolls ed.)
" Stubbs, Act Pontif. Ebor. (Twysden), p. 1721 ; Johann. Hagus
tald., p. 268, sq. (ed. Twysden) ; Brompton, p. 1041 (ed. Twysden) ; S.
Bernardi Epp. ccxxx-viu. ccxxxix.
3 This is said by Gervase to have been done at the instigation of
Henry of Winchester, out of spite against the archbishop. — Chronica
Gervas., 1363 (ed. Twysden).

228 THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES, [chap. xiv.
archbishop, a Eoman Legate, and feeling more bound to
Eome than to England, determined at all costs to disobey
the prohibition, and to present himself at the councU,
As all the ports were carefully watched, so that no vessel
could sail from them, he trusted himself to a broken boat,
and with great danger and difficulty reached the shores of
France. The Pope received him -with the greatest joy and
honour, and declared before the whole council, that the
reverence of the Archbishop of Canterbury was so great
for St. Peter and the Eoman Court, that he had reached
them rather by s-wimming than by sailing. It was before
this council that the case of St. WUliam was brought It
was declared by some of the clerks of York that William
had not been canonically elected, but had been forced
upon them by the king's nomination. His deposition was
decreed, without, as it seems, any hearing of the opposite
side, simply on the ground that thfe king had interfered
with the election. As King Stephen's nominee, WUham
would scarce be likely to obtain much consideration, and
there by the side of the York clerks, and as one probably
to succeed to his place, stood Henry Murdak, abbot of
Fountains, a grand foundation of the order to which the
Pope himself belonged.^ On his return from the councU,
Archbishop Theobald was honourably received at Canter
bury, but the king, full of wrath at the open contumacy
exhibited by the archbishop, hastened to that city, and
after severely upbraiding him, inflicted on him the sentence
of banishment. Theobald retired to France, where at St
Omer's he exercised his ofSce as much as he could,^ and
carried on a correspondence -with the king. Stephen
showing no disposition to yield. Archbishop Theobald had
the audacity to lay the whole land under an interdict.
After this he ventured to return to England, and, strong
1 Henry Murdak did succeed, as has been stated. But it is observ
able that at the election which took place after WiUiam's deposition,
Hilary, bishop of Chichester, obtained the majority of votes, and was
unfairly passed over by the Pope in favour of the Cistercian abbot.
Gervas, Chron., p. 1363.
2 He consecrated at this time Gilbert, bishop of Hereford, two
foreign bishops assisting him.

1135-1154.] THE CHURCH IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 229
in the support of the Pope, to make his interdict stUl more
pressing. At Framlingham iri Norfolk he received a
deputation of the bishops of London, Chichester, and
Norwich, accompanied by many nobles, beseeching him
to relax the interdict. The central authority was so
powerless, that the archbishop, though within the terri
tories of Stephen, seems to have acted like an independent
prince, and to have treated almost on equal terms with
the king. At length it pleased him to withdraw the
curse which he had inflicted upon his province on account
of his own supposed personal grievances, and he and the
king were reconciled.^
12. The weariness felt by all men in the country of
the state of anarchy and misery in which England had
been so long kept, was still more oppressive, doubtless,
to the rulers of the Church than to secular men. The
work of the Church could not go on during such a chaos.
Men freely said that Christ slept. Excommunication had
lost its power. Men were all accursed and forsworn and
abandoned.^ The miseries of the time were sufficient at
length to draw together enemies and rivals so pronounced
as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Win
chester. Forgetting their mutual grudge as to the legate
ship, these two influential prelates co-operated with the
other nobles of the land in making the settlement which
resulted in continuing the regal power to Stephen for his
life, and after his death conferring it on the young Henry
Fitz-Empress. On the death of Stephen (1154), the arch
bishop conducted a regency as head of the Council of
State, and managed affairs with prudence and success.
The young king came to England, weU disposed to the
Primate, and his regard for him led him to appoint as his
Chancellor, Thomas, his archdeacon, who had long been
the principal ad-viser and director of the archbishop's
policy. • Chron. Gervasii, pp. 1363-4 (ed. Twysden). " A.-S. Chron.

230 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap. xv.

CHAPTER XV.
THE GKEAT CONELICT BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE.
1154-1170.
1. Importance of the reign of Stephen. 2. Thomas Becket as Chancellor.
3. His reasons for shrinking from the primacy. 4. Election and
consecration of Becket. 6. First coldness between Becket and the
king. 6. Other causes of estrangement. 7. The dispute at West
minster on the " ancient customs. " 8. Becket promises to observe
the " ancient customs. " 9. The Council of Clarendon ; Becket draws
back from his promise. 10. He is induced to yield and to swear to
the "Constitutions." 11. Becket attempts to escape to the Pope,
but is brought back. 12. The CouncU of Northampton ; Becket's
escape. 13. Henry's envoys and Becket before the Pope at Sens.
14. Henry's vengeance on the archbishop's friends. 15. Becket at
Pontiguy ; his excommunications at Vezelai. 16. Becket at Sens ;
his return to England. 17. The letters against the bishops ; Henry's
fury. 18. The murder of Becket. 19. Horror at the crime.
20. Effects of Becket's murder.
1. The reign of Stephen is important pohtically, as " ex
emplifying the working of causes and principles which had
no othdr opportunity of exhibiting their real tendencies." ^
It showed, in fact, that feudalism meant anarchy. And it
is important ecclesiasticaUy, because, during its commo
tions, and through the weakness of the secular governing
power, the Church made rapid advances in its claims for
authority as a rival of the State. Thus the way was
prepared for the great confiict which was fought out in
the next reign. It is remarkable that during the earlier
years of Henry IL, the same person kept the advancing
claims of the Church within bounds, who afterwards, when
he himself became responsible for them, contended most
zealously for their fullest development.
2. Thomas, archdeacon of Canterbury,^ was appointed
1 Stubbs, Const Hist., i. 335.
^ For the early life of Thomas Becket, see Notes aud Illustrations

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 231
by the king his ChanceUor, on the strong recommendation
of Archbishop Theobald.^ The archbishop had had
plentiful experience of the zeal and capacity of the
archdeacon, and he could not have recommended to the
king a minister more capable of carrying out the reforms
so urgently needed in England after the lawlessness of the
reign of Stephen. The great glory of Henry II.'s reign
was the inauguration of the rule of law — not depending,
as in the Conqueror's time, on the personal administration
of the sovereign, but administered by fixed courts and
regular judges. In this all-important matter Becket zeal
ously aided the king. He himself sat as a judge, which
previous Chancellors had not done. He was " the Chan
cellor, lawyer, judge, financier, captain, and Secretary of
State." ^ By the vigorous policy in which he bore a pro
minent part, during the early days of Henry IL, the
mercenaries were dismissed, the castles of the robber
barons razed to the ground, the Crown recovered its
demesne lands, fixed payments were established in lieu
of mUitary service, malefactors were punished, the debased
coinage improved. There remained but one great class
of reforms to be entered upon, viz. the reform of the
morals of the clergy. Henry doubtless believed that in
this too his Chancellor would furnish him the most
efiBcient aid. He had never as yet shown himself specially
eager to defend the liberties of the Church. He had
defended the king's claims, as against the bishop, in the
matter of Battle Abbey. He had acquiesced in the clergy
being made liable for scutage. He was generally regarded
to this Chapter. Probably the life of Becket has been more written of
and commented on than that of any other Churchman. Dr. Giles has
coUected seven contemporary lives, all written by men well cognisant
of the circumstances — viz. an anonymous Vita S. Thomce, Lives by
Roger de Pontigny, William Fitz-Stephen, John of Salisbury, William
of Canterbury, Lambethiensis, and Herbert de Bosham. To say
nothing of the earlier chroniclers and later historians, this life has
been investigated with great care by Canon Robertson, Dean Stanley,
Dean Milman, and Dean Hook. There is probably no better authority
for the events of it than Ralph de Diceto, who was well known both to
Becket and his great opponent Foliot, and the partisan of neither.
1 Roger de Hoveden, i. 215. = stubbs, Const Hist, i. 461.

232 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap. xv.
by the clergy as a persecutor and enemy of the Church.^
The king, therefore, thought that he could not have a
more efficient instrument in bringing the clergy to some
thing like order and decency, than this able and vigorous
minister ; and in order to increase his efficiency and power,
he determined, on the death of Theobald (April 1161), to
make Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury.
3. It was no mere ordinary Nolo Episcopari which made
Becket deprecate the honour attempted to be thrust upon
liim.^ He knew himself to be one who could not perform
what he held to be the duties of any post which he accepted,
slackly. He was weU aware also of the king's mind and
intention with regard to the clergy. His view of moral
obligation being as it seems entirely positive, and not
founded on any deeper principle, he was conscious that
what he had upheld when chancellor, he must violently
oppose when archbishop. He was contented, therefore, to
continue the secular " persecutor," believing that his duty
to the king excused and required this of him, rather than
become the responsible and high-placed Churchman, when,
in his view, the obligations upon him would become
changed, and the Church would now demand of him that
which before she had not claimed, "(dz. an entire opposition
to the king's will. This singular view of duty Thomas did
not fail to impress upon the king during the thhteen
months which elapsed between the death of Theobald and
his election to the primacy. As, however, it is in itself
somewhat difiicult of apprehension, and as Henry had had
ample proof of the ready service of his minister, it is
scarcely to be wondered at, that the king did not believe
in it, and that, in spite of warnings and protests honestly
put forth by Thonias, he insisted, with his resolute will, in
forcing him to accept the post of Primate.
4. The long delay between the appointment of Becket
to the primacy and his consecration was due to the opposi
tion manifested on the part of Churchmen to the appoint
ment. The Canterbury monks did not discern, any more
than the king, the future line of policy of the archbishop-
' See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 382.
" Gervas, Act Pont Cant, p. 1669 (ed. Twysden).

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 233
designate, and they were unwilling to elect to the highest
post in the Church one whom they had only hitherto
known as a strong repressor of ecclesiastical pretensions.^
The suffragan bishops would be equally apprehensive of
accepting such an one to rule over them, and it is said
that not untU the arrival of the great Justiciary Eichard de
Luci, with the king's peremptory commands and menaces,
could the election be brought about.^ Becket had been
previously despatched to England, the king being still
abroad, and in May 1162, at a large assembly at West
minster, in the presence of Prince Henry and the Justiciary,
the prior and monks of Canterbury elected Thomas as
archbishop, and the suffragan bishops accepted him, Foliot,
bishop of Hereford, alone protesting.^ The archbishop-
elect returned to Canterbury to be consecrated. He was
only in deacon's orders, and on the Saturday before Whit
sunday he was raised to the priesthood by Walter, bishop
of Eochester. It was intended that his consecration should
take place the next day, the great festival of Whitsunday,
but a dispute arose as to who was to be the chief con
secrator. The Archbishop of York claimed the honour, and
it was conceded that it ought to belong to him, if only he
would restore to Canterbury the allegiance which had been
taken away by Thurstan. This, however, he refused to do.
Then a "Welsh bishop claimed it as being the senior, by
consecration, of all the bishops then present. Walter of
Eochester also claimed it as chaplain of the archiepiscopal
See. It was at length agreed that (the See of London
being vacant) Henry of Winchester was the fitting person,
as he was precentor of the church of Canterbury, and by
the position of his See and his o-wn royal blood, the fore
most of the suffragans of Canterbury. By him, therefore,
the ceremony was performed on the octave of Whitsunday,
June 1162, thirteen bishops ofthe province assisting.*
1 Grim, Vita S. Thomce (GUes), i. 14 ; R. de Pontigny (Giles), i. 104.
' See the letter of GUbert Foliot, printed by Dr. Giles. On the
authenticity of this letter, which has been disputed, see Milman, Lat.
Christianity, iii. 454, note.
^ Grim, Vita S, Thomce (GUes), i. 15 ; R. de Pontigny (Giles), i. 107.
^ Chronica Gervasii, pp. 1382-3 (ed. Twysden). The first act of the

234 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap. xv.
5. It is said on good authority that one principal
reason why the king was so eagerly bent on having
Thomas as archbishop, was that he desired to have an
archbishop for his Chancellor. Proportionately, therefore,
was he disappointed when, almost as the first act of the
archbishop, a messenger was sent to him in Normandy,
bearing the resignation by Becket of the post of Chancellor,
and restoring the seal. Henry had calculated that, with
the highest dignitary of the Church acting as his Chancellor,
and ready to append his seal to that of the king, matters
both in Church and State would proceed easily. But this
hope was at once dispelled by the action of the archbishop.
"When Henry then returned to England, at Christmastide,
he met the archbishop coldly. The relations between them
were already changed.^ Henry's reply to the cession of the
chancellorship was a demand that the archbishop should
resign the rich post of archdeacon of Canterbury, which, at
the king's desire, he had continued to hold to reimburse
him for the expense of entering upon his See. Possibly it
may have been with the intention of further' signifying his
annoyance with Becket, that at this time Gilbert Foliot,
bishop of Hereford, the only bishop who had ventured to
express aloud his dislike of Becket's advancement, was
translated to the See of London.^
6. When the relations between him and the king were
thus strained, Becket went to attend the councU summoned
to meet at Tours by the Pope. He was attended by aU
his suffragans except three, who were excused on account
of illness. His state and retinue were magnificent, and he
was treated with marked honour by the Pope, being
seated on his right hand. The temper prevalent in the
councU, and the discourses delivered there, were aU un
favourable to the claims of the secular authority; and
new archbishop was to raise the day of his consecration to the dignity
of a high festival in honour of the holy and undivided Trinity.
I Radulph de Diceto, i. 307-8 (Rolls ed.)
2 See the letter of Pope Alexander in Diceto : — " Qnod idem rex
desiderat plurimum et requirit." — R. de Diceto, i. 309. It is also said
that Thomas desired his advancement (Gervas, 1384) ; but this seems
doubtful.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 235
Becket returned to England more determined than before
to concede nothing to the king. On his return he pro
ceeded at once to make divers claims on the part of the
temporal possessions and rights of the See of Canterbury,
which may possibly have been founded in justice, but
which were somewhat inopportune, and calculated to em
bitter against him both the king and the barons whose
interests were involved.^ He even ventured, in open con
tradiction of the law of the Conqueror, to excommunicate a
tenant-in -chief of the Crown,^ without previously certifying
the king as to his intentions. Thus then, when the king
and the archbishop met at Woodstock, in July 1163, the
ground was already prepared for an open quarrel between
them. The immediate cause of this quarrel is obscure,^
but it was connected with some claim made by the king to
collect the ancient tax, known as the Danegelt, as direct
revenue to the Crown, instead of allowing the sheriffs to col
lect it, making a profit out of it for themselves, and com
pounding for it to the Crown. The archbishop flatly
refused to allow this tax to be paid as revenue to the
Crown. The king swore by the " eyes of God " that it
should be paid as revenue. The archbishop as -violently
replied that not a penny should thus be paid from the lands
of the Church. Thus there was an open quarrel between
the king and the Primate.^
7. The Ul-feeling thus developed between Becket and
Henry soon came to be connected with a question of prin
ciple, and greatly intensified thereby. At this moment the
crying grievance in England was the outrageous immorality
of the clergy,^ and the immunity which they enjoyed in
^ See Gervas, Chron., p. 1384 ; R. de Diceto, i. 311.
" The archbishop gave the living of Eynesford to one Lawrence.
WUliam, baron of Eynesford, the pation of the Uving, drove out
La-wrence. The archbishop excommunicated Mm. — R. de Diceto, i.
312. Possibly this may not have taken place till after the meeting at
Woodstock. =* See Stubbs, Const. Hist,, i. 462.
^ Grim, Vita S. Thomce (GUes), i. 21 ; R. de Pontigny (GUes), i. 113.
^ It must be remembered that this term is not to be confined to those
in the higher orders, but includes aU those who had taken the tonsure,
as well as their servants and dependants.

236 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap, xv
their Ul-doings. The long disorders of Stephen's reign had
naturally produced a grievous crop of crime and ignorance.
This had been in some measure repressed among the laity,
but the clerical offenders were still untouched. They had,
or claimed to have, a right of being tried only in their o-wn
courts and by their own superiors. The effect of this was
to bring about an entire failure of justice. WUliam of
Newbury, a contemporary annalist, -thus -writes : — " How
many clerks have been deprived of their office in England 1
The bishops will defend the hberties of the clergy and con
tend for the dignity of their order, whUe they are not care
ful to correct and repress their vices. They think they are
performing well their duty to God and the Church if they
defend against all public censure those criminous clerks
upon whom they themselves either refuse or neglect to
inflict canonical censures, as their office ought to make them
ready to do. From which cause the clergy called to the
Lord's inheritance, and placed as stars in the firmament of
heaven, who ought to shine above the earth both in life
and word, having impunity to do whatever they please, are
led into license and liberty, and throw off all reverence for
God, whose judgment seems to tarry, and for rulers, inas
much as the bishops care not to check them, and the pre
rogative of their sacred order exempts them from secular
jurisdiction." ^ This monster abuse the king determined
now, if possible, to remove. Mainly with a view to this he
summoned a great councU to meet at Westminister in
October 1163. It was agreed both by king and archbishop
that after degradation the secular law courts might deal
with one who had been a clerk. The exact point of dispute
seems to have been whether these courts could punish the
degraded clerk for the offence for which he had been de
graded, or only in case he offended again after degradation.
It was contended by the Church advocates that the former
would be equivalent to punishing a man twice for the same
offence; it was replied by the seculars that degradation, even
when inflicted, was no adequate punishment for such
monstrous crimes as murder, rape, arson, etc. ; that the
Church courts, which could not sentence to death, had no
' Willelm. Noubridg., lib. ii. c. 15.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 237
power to punish such crimes fittingly; and that it was
absolutely necessary that the clerk, having been degraded,
should then be handed over to the secular court for a
further trial.^ This argument was so evidently reason
able that the bishops assembled at Westminster were
quite prepared to accede to the king's demands. They
did not in fact amount to any invasion of clerical im
munities, inasmuch as the criminated clerk was first to be
tried before his bishop, and if found guilty, degraded, and
then only to be amenable to the secular discipline. Only
the king desired that, to prevent the failure of justice and
the escape of the clerk, some of his officers should be
present at the degradation. But though the bishops were
ready to agree to what the king desired, the Primate was
not. Possibly he might have been, had there been no ill-
feeling between him and the king. But as it was, the
archbishop vehemently declared that to grant what was
asked would be to impair the hberty of the Church, and
by his earnestness he made the bishops draw back where
they had before been inclined to yield. All day long the
fierce strife continued. At length the king, whose hot
temper must have been grievously tried, put to the bishops
this plain question — " Were they willing to observe the
ancient customs of the land 1 " They did not reply at once,
but took counsel -with the archbishop, and then gave for
answer, " That they were wUling to observe the known
customs of the king and kingdom, but without prejudice
to their order and the right of the Church." The king,
indignant at this answer, which in fact meant nothing,
swore -with his usual profane oath that he would have those
words, "without prejudice to their order," away. The
bishops remained silent. Only Hilary of Chichester, a vain
and empty man, thought he could mend matters by substitut
ing for salvo ordine, bond fide. The king, who was too angry
to consider the force of terms, would have an answer to
what he had asked. Yes or No, -without any conditions ; and
when the bishops would not say Yes unconditionally, he
went away in his -wrath. ^
1 See Radulph de Diceto, i. 313.
'' Gervas. Dorobem. Ch/ron. 1384-5 ; Roger de Hoveden, i. 219-220.

238 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap. xv.
8. As the king's wrath cooled down, and as he
reflected on the importance of the matter at stake, he
determined to try upon Becket the effect of a conciliatory
appeal This was done at Northampton, but the arch
bishop showed himself in no-wise inclined to yield; he
rather took the line of lecturing Henry for his attempt to
intrude upon the sacred ground of the Church. The
effect, therefore, was an increased hostihty between them.^
But now Becket, much probably to his surprise and annoy
ance, found by letters from the Pope and the Cardinals
that his cause was not espoused by the heads of the Church
which he was so zealous to serve. They counselled sub
mission to the king, whose support was so much needed at
Eome. Becket discovered also that some of the bishops
who had been with him at Westminster would not support
him any longer. He went, therefore, to the king at "Wood
stock, and promised to observe the ancient customs without
any addition of the phrase "without prejudice to my
order." ^ Henry's reply was that the avowal must be
made publicly, as the refusal had been, and he summoned
a council to meet at his manor of Clarendon, near Sahs
bury, January 25, 1164.
9. At the king's command the archbishops and bishops
and a large number of barons assembled. AJl were caUed
upon to -accept the ancient customs of the kingdom.
Immediately there arose a question as to what these
ancient customs were. The expression was too indefinite
to justify an oath taken blindly. There were " immense
discussions," ^ and at length it was determined that two
well-skilled persons — namely, Eichard de Luci, Grand
Justiciary, and Jocelin de Bailleul, a French la-wyer, should
draw up a codification of the customs. They produced a
list of sixteen " constitutions," which were represented to
be the ancient and recognised customs of the kings of

' The account of this interview is given in Roger de Pontigny
(GUes), i. 116.
= Roger de Pontigny (GUes), i. 123 ; Grim (GUes), i. 27. '"Ad
consentiendum quodammodo coactus est." — Gervas, p. 1385.
' Post immensos tractatus. — R. de Diceto.

1164-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 239
England.1 j^ these Constitutions the ancient custom as to
the point speciaUy in dispute between the king and the
archbishop is thus set forth: — " Clerks accused of any crime
shah be summoned by the king's justice into the king's
court, to answer there for whatever it shaU be determined
they ought to answer there ; and in the ecclesiastical court
for whatever it shall be determined they ought to answer
there ; yet so that the king's justice shall send into the
court of holy Church to see in what way the matter shall
there be handled ; and if the clerk shall confess and be
convicted, the Church for the future shall not protect him."
This is sufficiently vague. It does not actually settle the
disputed point as to whether a clerk could be tried twice
for the same offence— once in the Church court, and then,
if degraded, in the secular court. It does not settle whe
ther a clerk, acquitted in the spiritual court, could be tried
in the temporal. Probably the archbishop might have
accepted this exposition, and not have been induced by it
to draw back from his promise. But when we look at the
whole body of the Constitutions, the case is very different.
Becket found " that he was required to make concessions
which involved the sacrifice of the great principle to which
he had devoted his life. Instead of a distinct imperium, of
which he was to be the head, the Church was to be reduced
to its ancient condition under the Anglo-Saxons and the
Conqueror, and become merely an imperium in imperio." ^
He drew back from his general promise in the face of these
particulars. With his principles he could do no less.
Better would it have been for his fame had he persisted in
his refusal to accept the Constitutions.
10. On the refusal of the archbishop to accept the
draft of the Constitutions, the rage of the king, the excite
ment of the councU, knew no bounds. The bishops were
now -with the Primate. Only two of them besought him
to yield.^ But the barons supported the king. Things
looked so threatening that the better among the nobles,
^ They are printed in Gervas. Chron,, p. 1386. They-wUl be found
in Mr. Stubbs's translation in Notes and Illustrations to this Chapter.
" Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 409.
' Jocelin of Salisbury and William of Norwich.

240 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap. xv.
Eobert, Earl of Leicester, and Eeginald, Earl of Cornwall,
earnestly prayed the archbishop to accept the Constitutions.
Two of the most famous of the Knights of the Temple,
with prayers and tears, urged him to have pity on the
clergy, who were placed in imminent danger.^ Everywhere
armed men were rushing through the rooms, brandishing
their weapons as if the bishops were to be straightway
massacred. Becket at length yielded to the importunity,
and promised to observe the Constitutions. He gave per
mission also for the bishops to observe them.^ It may be
doubtful whether Becket's promise was made bond fide.
Probably he had in view, in making it, the dispensation of
the Pope to repudiate it, which he immediately sought.
At any rate, when the king required him to put his seal to
the Constitutions, he angrily refused. " Never," he said,
" should seal of his be put to that -writing, nor would he
confirm those laws." ^ It seems impossible to reconcile
this with a bond fide promise to accept them.* Yet, though
he would not seal, he accepted a portion of the MS. of the
Constitutions which were written in triplicate,^ and then
hastily left the council, directing his course towards Win
chester. The proceedings at Clarendon do not tend to
raise the character of Becket, and he is said to have been
so angry with himself, that he appointed himself a forty
days' penance, and eagerly sought absolution from the Pope.
11. Meantime the king, who had thus triumphed over
his opponent, was anxious to secure and extend his -victory,
and applied also to the Pope to make Eoger, Archbishop of
York — a strong opponent of Becket's — Legate instead of
him. Pope Alexander was greatly perplexed. His sym
pathies were of course with Becket, but his interests
seemed to require the support of Henry. His plan was to
grant the legateship to Archbishop Eoger as the king de-
I Gei-vas, airon,, p. 1386 ; Grim, Vita S. Thomae (Giles), i. 30;
R. de Pontigny (Giles), i. 126.
^ Roger de Hoveden, i. 222 (Rolls ed.) ; Gervas, Chron, I, c.
" Roger de Hoveden, I. a. ; Grim. (GUes), i. 31 ; R. de Pontigny -
(GUes), i. 127.
¦* And if, as is said by some, he did afterwards seal them, this is
still more strange. ^ Grim, R. de Pontigny, «. s.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 241
manded, but to exempt Becket from its control,^ which
would only have made confusion worse confounded. Becket,
indignant at this half-hearted support, determined to plead
his cause personaUy. He had also other matters to complain
of The Archbishop of York had caused his cross to be
carried before him in the province of Canterbury, and the
Pope would not forbid him the privUege except in the
Diocese of Canterbury. GUbert Foliot, translated from
Hereford to London, would not make a profession of sub
jection to the archbishop, upon the ground that he had
already made it as bishop of Hereford. The prior of St.
Augustine's, Canterbury, demanded the benediction to be
given to him in his own abbey, and refused to come for it
to the cathedral. At this moment Becket stood absolutely
alone, but his spirit did not quail. He embarked privately
at Eomney, determined to seek out the Pope at Sens. But
the saUors, finding that he had not the king's permission to
leave the country, were afraid to proceed, and the arch
bishop was accordingly brought back.'' It would have
suited the king's purpose well for the Primate thus to have
offended against the law, and the morning after his de
parture the king's officers appeared at Canterbury ready to
confiscate his goods. But his presence sent them away in
confusion. 12. In the meanwhUe the king and his ad-visers had
been carefuUy dehberating how they might best humble and
subdue the archbishop, and thinking that they had found
a means of doing so by calling Becket to account for his
administration of affairs when Chancellor, a council was
summoned to meet at Northampton, October 6, 1164.
The weapons now to be used against him were scarcely
honourable ones. Becket had obtained a full acquittance
and discharge as to all his judicial and fiscal proceedings
when Chancellor, before his consecration to the primacy.^
At his first coming to Northampton a petty insult was
' His first idea was to make the king Legate, exempting Becket
from his control. — Roger de Hoveden, i. 223 ; Gervas., Chron,, p.
1388. = Gervas., Chron,, p. 1389.
3 R. de Diceto, 1. 314 ; Grim, VUa S, Thomce (Giles), i. 15 ; R.
de Pontigny (Giles), i. 108. E

242 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap. xt.
offered to the Primate. He found the lodging destined
for him in the monastery of St Andrew, full, and no place
reserved for him and his attendants. Upon this the
Primate sent word to the king that he should not stay un
less proper provision were made for him, and he carried his
point.^ He was, then called to answer before the council,
on the charge made against him by John the Marshal, that
he had been refused justice in his court. He met the
charge by a bold denial ; but the barons adjudged him to
pay a fine of five hundred pounds.^ The shock and annoy
ance of this probably unfair sentence made Becket Ul.
But the king was not disposed to spare him. He for
mally summoned him to give an account of his receipts
as Chancellor. He was called upon to account for the
revenues of all the bishoprics, abbacies, benefices, which
during vacancy had been paid to him ; for the receipts
from the wardenship of Berkhamstead and Eye ; and
for numerous matters which he could not possibly answer
off-hand, and as to which he had received no intima
tion beforehand that he would be required to give an
account. Such a proceeding was altogether unworthy
the magnates of a kingdom, and it is not to the credit
of the bishops that they joined in supporting it. To
them, however, in his perplexity the Primate resorted
for advice. The chronicler Gervase has preserved the sub
stance of the answers made by them. The bishop of Lon
don recommended unconditional submission, and for Becket
to humble himself before the king. Henry of Winchester
counselled resistance, on the ground that such interference
as the king meditated was destructive of the hberty of the
pastoral office. Hilary of Chichester made a fine speech,^
the purport of which was submission. Bishop Eobert
Chesney of Lincoln, a simple and unpretending man,
thought that the archbishop's life was in danger, and he
had better yield. Bartholomew of Exeter thought that
Becket had better be sacrificed than the whole Church of
England be imperilled. Eoger of Worcester thought the
1 R. de Hoveden, i. 224.
° Grim, Vita S. Thomrn (Giles), i. 40 ; R. de Pontigny (GUes), i-
133. 3 Gloriosus in verbis.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 243
matter so full of danger that he would rather not say any
thing.^ There was not much counsel to be found in his
brethren, who were evidently in the greatest terror of the
king. But the archbishop could not bring himself to yield
so as to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, and
to defend and explain his accounts before it. He ob
tained a delay tUl the 13th October, and it was intimated
to him that if he did not appear and plead on that day his
life would not be safe.^ The bishops, on the morning of
that day, besought him with tears not to ruin himself
They recalled to him the fact that he had sworn to the
Constitutions of Clarendon, and that for having repudiated
them he might be treated as a traitor. The archbishop
replied that he deplored that oath; but having made a
wicked promise, it was better to break it than to keep it.
He upbraided the bishops for having sat in judgment upon
him, their father, in conjunction with temporal barons,
and inhibited them on their obedience from doing so any
longer. Then he declared that he appealed to Eome.^
After this he put on his vestments, and going into the
church, said the mass of St. Stephen, implying thereby that
he was preparing for martyrdom. He then went, carrying
his cross in his own hand, to the council chamber.* The
bishops strove earnestly to induce him to put away the
cross, but he refused. Gilbert Fohot cried aloud in anger,
" You have always been a fool, and to-day your folly will
appear manifest." The king, hearing that the archbishop
was approaching in this solemn fashion, retired into an
inner chamber with his barons. After a time the bishops
were summoned to him, and the Primate left alone in the
outer hall. The bishops reported the inhibition which
had been pronounced against them, and the archbishop's
appeal to the Pope. They offered themselves to appeal to
the Pope against him. The king, turning to his barons,
' Gervas., Chron., p. 1390.
^ Gervas., Chron., 1391 ; R. de Hoveden, i. 226.
' Gervas., Chron,, p. 1391.
' There are so many varying accounts of this famous scene in the
Lives of Becket, that it is impossible to reconcile the whole of the state
ments. I have mainly followed Gervase. See also Grim, Vita S, Thom.ai
(Giles), i. 43 ; R. de Pontigny (Giles), i. 136.

244 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap.xv.
ordered them to judge this perjured and contumacious
person. They agreed to a sentence. Eobert, Earl of Leices
ter, went out and was about to notify to the archbishop
his sentence, when he was stopped by him and commanded,
on the allegiance which he owed to his spiritual father, not
to venture to do so. He hesitated, and then arose a general
cry that the perjured and contumacious one should depart
from the court. Becket looked round fiercely on those
thus insulting him, and said, " Were it not for my orders,
I would defend myself in arms against those who dare thus
to accuse me." He then turned and left the court -with
dignity. The door of the castle was locked, but one of his
attendants found the key, and Becket retired to the church
of St. Andrew, where he occupied himself in devotions.
Sending then for three of the bishops who were best affected
to him, he despatched a message to the king, asking for
leave to depart from the country. The king said he would
give his answer to-morrow, but Becket, fearing violence, in
the first watch of the night, after solemnly reciting a htany,
went secretly from the church, and finding one of the gates
of the town unbarred, escaped, accompanied only by three
companions, and made his way safely to Lincohi. From
Lincoln he proceeded by cross roads, and journeying by
night, to Estrey, a viU belonging to the monks of Christ
Church, Canterbury. Here he remained in concealment
untU he could get a boat to convey him across the Channel.
He landed on the beach near Gravelines, and being wearied
with the tiresome walk across the mud, his two companions
hired a sorry horse for a penny to carry him and his effects.
In this fashion they arrived at the monastery of Clair
Marais, near St. Omer, where the brethren -willingly re
ceived him.^
13. Henry, on discovering the flight of the archbishop,
sent at once letters to the King of France, informing him
that Thomas, a traitor, late Archbishop of Canterbury, had
escaped into his territories, and desiring him not to allow
him a refuge in his dominions. The king's letters were
1 Gervas., Ch/ron,, pp. 1391-2 ; Roger de Hoveden, i. 228, 229 ;
Grim, Vita S, Thomce (GUes), i. 48, 49 ; R. de Pontigny (GUes), i.
142-6 ; William Fitz-Stephen (GUes), i. 218, sq.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 245
carried by a goodly band of ambassadors, comprising no
less than five bishops — Eoger of York, Gilbert of London,
Bartholomew of Exeter, Eoger of Worcester, Hilary of
Chichester — and many clerks of less dignity, and barons.
Louis, instead of acceding to Henry's request, paid all
honour to Becket, and the ambassadors, finding themselves
unable to effect anything with the king, hastened on to
the Pope at Sens. They arrived before Becket, and a
consistory being immediately granted to them, they
pleaded the king's cause. GUbert Foliot spoke first,
blaming earnestly Becket's rash proceedings in embroUing
the Church with the king. The Pope checked him for his
vehemence, and he became mute. Then Hilary of Chi
chester began a stUted harangue against Becket, but
making an unfortunate sUp in his Latin, there was a
general burst of laughter in the court.^ The Archbishop
of York said he knew well the obstinacy of Becket, and
that there was no hope of getting over the difficulty but
by the Pope's interference. The bishop of Exeter desired
the Pope to appoint Legates to hear the cause. Then the
Earl of Arundel spoke in EngUsh of the high respect felt
by the King for the Pope, and his desire that he would
interpose to settle these unhappy differences. The Pope
paid great attention to this speech, and in answer to it
said that he had the highest regard for the English king,
and as they desired to have Legates to settle this quarrel,
they should have them. The bishop of London then asked
that the Legates might have the power' of settUng the
matter without appeal. To this the Pope would not
consent. In a few days the Archbishop of Canterbury
arrived, attended by a gallant train of knights. Being at
once admitted to a secret audience by the Pope, he de
clared to him that it was not for a light cause he had left
England; that there had been great love between him
^ His words were — "Et certe virum tantse auctortatis id non
decuit nee oportuit, nee aliquando oportuebat, insuper sui si saperent
non oportiiemnt in talibus prsbuisse assensum." Audito itaque
qualiter facundus ilie rhetor et grammaticus et eausidicus prosUiret de
portu in portum soluti sunt in risum universi. — Gervas., Chron..
p. 1395.

246 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap.xv.
and the king, and he might easily be reconcUed to him,
but only at the cost of irreparable mischief to the Church.
He then produced a copy of the Constitutions of Clarendon.
As these were read aloud there arose groans, and tears
were shed in the Papal Curia, so terribly did they appear
to contravene the rights of Holy Church. Subsequently,
at a more private interview, the archbishop acknowledged
with tears that the ills which had overtaken the English
Church were due chiefly to himself. He, he said, had
chmbed up into the sheepfold, and not entered by the
true way of canonical election. The fear of the secular
power had brought about his appointment. Had he, how
ever, resigned it, as his enemies demanded, he would have
inflicted stUl greater scandal on the Church by obeying
unauthorised commands. Now, however, before the true
ruler of the Church, he solemnly resigned that post into
which he had been unduly thrust. Then he took off his
episcopal ring, and placing it in the Pope's hands,'removed
to a distance from the Cardinals. The Pope and Cardinals
held a short consultation. Some thought a way out of
the difficulty was thus opened for them, and that the arch
bishop might be otherwise provided for. But others
thought this course would be base and mean, inasmuch as
the archbishop had boldly stood for the right, even to the
peril of his life. He was therefore reinstated in his posi
tion, and promised every sort of help and support.^
14. But promises were aU that Becket was to obtain
from the Pope, who at that time had a most difficult part
to play.^ He was, no doubt, well disposed to aid Becket,
but he feared Henry. The most, therefore, that he could
do for the archbishop, was to recommend him to the care
of the abbot of Pontigny, while he sent as concUiatory
messages as possible to the king of England. Henry was
not a man likely to be satisfied -with soft words. He
united a wonderful political instinct with the most un
bridled passions, and he now proceeded to give one of the
worst proofs of his -violent nature. He not only seized
the archbishop's goods, but he drove into exile, pillaged
1 Gervas., Ch/ron., pp. 1293-1298 ; Grim, Vita S. Thomce (GUes),
i. 52. " See MUman, Lat Christianity, iii. 478.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 247
and destitute, all his relatives, dependants, and friends, to
the number of about 400, who, with a refinement of
cruelty, were forced to swear that they would present
themselves to the archbishop at Pontigny, that he might
be the spectator of the mischief he had wrought. By
a public edict, the kin^ forbade any one in England
to communicate with and aid the archbishop, or even to
pray for him.^
15. WhUe Henry thus raged, the archbishop, in his
retreat at Pontigny, had ample opportunity for reviewing
the past and considering the future. The accounts of his
life in the abbey are somewhat contradictory. Some of his
biographers assert that it was that of a mortified and self-
torturing ascetic ; but there are other passages which seem
to represent the archbishop as too much addicted to luxu
rious living and free indulgence in food and wine.^ It was
on St. Andrew's day 1164 that Becket sought this retreat.
During his stay there, throughout the whole of the year
1165, he was revolving projects of resuming the strife with
the king of England. He was so much occupied with the
study of the canons and the .false decretals, that one of his
friends, John of Salisbury, -wrote to him to remonstrate
against such studies, and to recommend the devotional
study of the Scriptures. Happy would it have been for
Becket had he taken this good advice, and saved himself
from the long undignified squabble which he now entered
upon with the king. He had, during 1165, three times
cited Henry to submit to his censure ; and on these invita
tions being very naturaUy disregarded, he was preparing
to excommunicate him, when he received a letter from
Pope Alexander checking his bitterness, and bidding him
at any rate to stay proceedings against the king tUl after
Easter (1166). At length, however, his desire to curse his
enemies could be no longer restrained ; and on Ascension-
day, in the cathedral of Vezelai, the archbishop solemnly
excommunicated John of Oxford, promoted to the deanery
1 Gervas., Chron,, p. 1398.
" See, for Becket's life at Pontigny, Hook, Lives ofthe Archbishops, '
ii. 436-443. I do not, however, see that the passages quoted prove
any excess on the part of Becket.

248 THE GREAT CONFLICT [ohap.xv.
of Salisbury and divers others, clerks and laymen, by
name, whom he judged to be most hostile to him ; and
finally all those who upheld, observed, or defended the
Constitutions of Clarendon.^ This general curse, if it meant
anything, included the king and almost the whole nation.
Henry's counter-move was to order the persons cursed to
appeal against Becket's sentence, and to send forth Becket
from his retreat at Pontigny by declaring that he would
expel the whole Cistercian order from his dominions if the
abbot harboured him any longer.^
16. 'Upon hearing of these violent proceedings at
Vezelai, the bishops of the English Church addressed a
strong letter of remonstrance to the Primate, which was
penned or inspired by his great opponent Gilbert Foliot:^
but such remonstrances had but little effect upon the arch
bishop.* He always treated the bishops who were opposed
to him with a scornful indignation. He excommunicated
the bishop of London and the bishop of Salisbury. Being
fully persuaded in his own mind, he refused to listen to any
suggestion of yielding, and repeatedly declared that he was
prepared for and expected martyrdom. During the four
years that he remained at Sens, where the king of France
had given him an asylum after his expulsion from Pontigny,
he waged a continual and internecine war against all who
upheld the claims of the secular authority to interfere with
the privileges of ecclesiastics. He was surrounded, indeed,
with a band of devoted friends, and everywhere, both in
France and England, the common people were with him ;
but the Pope only feebly supported, and sometimes openly
checked him. The king and the barons, the great Church
men of England, were all against him. It is impossible not
to admire the courage of the man. Much fault may, no
doubt, be found with his temper, his language, his persist
ent enmities ; but his was a grand figure, contending fear-
1 R. de Diceto, i. 318.
2 Gervas., Chron., p. 1400 ; Grim, Vita S. Thomce (Giles), i. 59-,
R. de Pontigny (Giles), i. 155.
3 R. de Diceto, i. 321 ; R. de Hoveden, i. 262.
¦• The answer to this letter, addressed to Gilbert Foliot, will be
found R. de Diceto, i. 323 ; R. de Hoveden, i. 256.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 249
lessly for what he believed to be the right. To detail all
the proceedings of these four years would fill a volume.
The Pope issued no less than four commissions to Legates
to endeavour to settle the dispute ; all the chief men ofthe
day were more or less mixed up in it. The letters which
passed, the negotiations which took place, were endless. At
length Henry, wearied out with the strife, and unable to
bend the firm spirit of the archbishop, or to curb the rising
power of the Church, determined to yield all.^ At Freteval,
on July 22, 1170, the king and the archbishop met. Great
cordiahty prevailed. Henry agreed that Becket might
inflict ecclesiastical punishment on the bishops who had
-wronged him by taking part in the coronation of the young
king. Of the Constitutions of Clarendon nothing was said.
The archbishop . was free to return to England ; he em
barked at Whitsand, and landed at Sandwich, December 1,
II70. 17. Unhappily the archbishop did not return in peace,
but -with his spiritual sword drawn in his hand. He had
obtained letters from the Pope suspending the Archbishop of
York and the Bishop of Durham for ha-ving crowned Prince
Henry in the province of Canterbury, and without exacting
from him an oath to preserve the privileges of the Church ; ''¦
and another letter to the bishops of London, Salisbury,
Exeter, Chester, Eochester, Llandaff, and St. Asaph, sus
pending them in like manner for having joined and con
curred in this act ; while the bishops of London, Salisbury,
and Eochester, being old offenders against the archbishop,
were excommunicated.^ Having obtained these weapons
of offence, Becket proceeded to use them skilfully. Had
he brought them himself, his purpose would have been
frustrated. The bishops were well aware that he had
obtained letters against them, and were on the look-out to
seize them on his arrival as contraband and illicit. An
' This temper on the part of the king was no doubt greatly due to
the complications arising from his unfortunate mistake in suffering his
son to be crowned by the Archbishop of York. There was an immi
nent danger of an interdict. — See Stubbs, Const. Hist, i. 474.
2 R. de Diceto, i. 310 ; R. de Hoveden, u. 7.
3 R. de Diceto, i. 340-1 ; R. de Hoveden, U. 8.

250 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap. xv.
ordinance of great severity, passed in the preceding year,
had made it highly penal to bring any papal letters into
the country.^ But Becket had contrived, by means of an
unsuspected messenger, to convey these letters into the
country before his own arrival;^ and the bishops found
themselves suddenly stricken vnth the terrible bolt of a
papal excommunication before the coming of their great
opponent. Becket was therefore saluted on his arrival
with a fierce demand upon him to undo this work and to
absolve the bishops. He informed the king's officers who
made this demand, that if the bishops of London and
Sahsbury would solemnly swear henceforth to obey him,
he would absolve them.^ He was unmoved by the
menaces hurled against him by Ealph de Broc and others,
and cheered and exhilarated by the enthusiastic joy with
which the people everywhere received him. From Canter
bury he proceeded to London, where the excitement was
immense ; but even here he put forth some excommuni
cations.* Being ordered not to approach the court,
which was at Woodstock, Becket returned to Canterbury.
Preaching on Christmas Day on the text, " Peace on earth,
goodwill towards men," he illustrated his subject by break
ing forth in a furious curse against Nigel de SackvUle,
Ealph and Eobert de Broc.® These men may have de
served his censure, but the occasion and the manner terribly
illustrate the unrelenting character of the man. Mean
time the bishops smitten with the papal curse hastened to
seek the king, whom they found in the neighbourhood of
Bayeux. They complained of the conduct of the arch
bishop in excommunicating them for doing that which
they had done at the king's command. Henry was
excited to fury, and was perhaps all the more furious
1 R. de Hoveden, i. 231.
2 Some say the messenger was a nun. Gervase says the letters
were conveyed by a boy who had come mth Robert, the sacristan of
the church of Canterbury, to make preparations for the archbishop's
return. — Chron., p. 1413. See also R. de Pontigny (GUes), i. 150.
3 R. de Diceto, i. 342.
« See WUliam Fitz-Stephen, VUa S. Thomm (GUes), i. 285 ; Grim
(GUes), i. 66. e R. de Diceto, i. 342.

1154-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 251
because he remembered that he had himself consented
that the archbishop should censure these bishops. Prob
ably he had not expected anytlung so severe as a papal
excommunication. In his passion he shouted out the well-
kno-wn words which avaUed to send four of his knights in
all haste to Canterbury.^
18. The four knights^ arrived in Canterbury on De
cember 28, and took up their quarters with the abbot of
St. Augustine's. They probably hardly knew what they
were going to attempt, but had a general purpose of
insulting, terrifying, and humbling the archbishop on the
following day (December 29).^ They first went to him
unarmed, and with the object, as it seemed, of reproaching
him with his conduct to the king, and demanding the
absolution of the bishops. An angry colloquy took place.
Fitz-Urse was the spokesman for the knights. He told
Becket that he spoke in peril of his life. There was no
sign of timidity about Becket. He defied them to do their
worst. The knights rushed out for their arms. The doors
of the palace were barred. Sounds were soon heard of
some one he-wing at them with an axe. His friends im
plored Becket to take sanctuary in the church. He refused.
Then he was told it was the time for vespers. The bell
was tolUng. The archbishop went in his usual state into
the church.^ The monks were rushing to close the door
into the cloisters. Becket would not allow them to do so.
The church, he said, must be open to all. The monks
were too terror-stricken to continue the service. The
archbishop stood calmly waiting for his enemies. They
1 See Grim, Vita S. Thomce (GUes), 1. 68. Grim altogether acquits
the king of intending Becket's death.
^ Reginald Fitz-Urse, WiUiam de Tracy, Hugh de MorviUe, Regi
nald Brito.
^ The year of course, according to our reckoning, was 1170, but it is
frequently dated 1171, because it was the custom of many to begin the
year from the Nativity, whUe others began it at the Annunciation. —
See Gervas., Chron., p. 1418.
^ There is a conflict of testimony here. WiUiam Fitz-Stephen, who
was present, says he walked into the chuich vrith his cross carried
before him.— GUes, i. 299. R. de Pontigny says the monks carried
him bodily into the church. — Giles, i. 165.

252 THE GREAT CONFLICT [chap. xv.
were soon upon him, shouting, " Where is the traitor ]
Where is the archbishop 'i " " Behold me, no traitor, but
a priest of God," was the reply. After a violent alterca
tion they seized Becket, intending probably to drag him
out of the church and to make him a prisoner.^ But the
archbishop resisted stoutly. He had been a brave soldier
in his day, and knew not how to fear. He seized a pillar.
He struck De Tracy to the ground, and hurled a foul
epithet at Fitz-Urse.^ Then Fitz-Urse aimed a blow at
him with his sword. It was partly arrested by the de
votion of his faithful attendant Grim, whose arm was
nearly severed.^ When Becket felt the blow, and saw the
others preparing to strike, he seems to have resisted no
longer, but recommended his soul to God and the saints.
Then they all wreaked their vengeance upon him, and
leaving his mangled body on the pavement, rushed away
to plunder.* 1 9. The horror produced by this great crime was ex
cessive. The king, who could not feel himself clear from
having contributed to it, fasted and wept. He was able,
no doubt, truly to declare that he had never meditated or
intended bodily harm to the archbishop. He had deter
mined to seize and imprison him, though not by the agency
of these knights. He obtained absolution from the Pope,
though with difficulty, and at the cathedral of Avranches
in Normandy, Henry having sworn that he had not sought
the death of Becket, but deeply grieved for it, and having
made certain promises supposed to be in favour of the
Church, was, after a formal flagellation, reconcUed to the
Church. One of the promises which the king made at
1 They tried to force him upon De Tracy's back, who was to carry
him off.— R. de Pontigny (GUes), i. 167.
" Lenonem appellams. — Grim, Vita S. Thomae (GUes), i. 76.
3 Grim, i. 77.
* The particulars of the murder of the archbishop are of course
recorded by aU his numerous biographers. Of these Grim was an eye
witness and a feUow-sufferer with Becket, whom he gallantly tiled to
save. Gervase has also a graphic account of the murder. He had
been admitted as a monk, and had also received holy orders from
Becket. — Chron,, p. 1418.

1164-1170.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 253
Avranches was to abrogate some at least, if not all, of the
Constitutions of Clarendon.
20. The murder of Becket was an unmixed evil to the
Church of England. He had been a trouble to the Church
during his life. He was a far greater mischief to it in his
death. His fate was straightway elevated to the dignity
of a cruel martyrdom, and thus aU his violent policy, all
his anti-national projects, were invested with a divine halo,
and became rooted in the affections of his countrymen. As
the opponent of the king and barons he had ever naturally
been the favourite of the people, and much of the old Eng
lish national sentiment of hatred of the conquering Norman
race was mixed with the feelings which he inspired. This
contributed greatly to excite the enthusiasm with which
his memory was haUowed. The nation gave itself up
madly to the worship of St. Thomas. The king was con
strained by the strength of the popular feehng to approach
his tomb in the guise of the most abject penitence, and the
policy of the Constitutions of Clarendon was much discred
ited. These Constitutions offered a fair promise for the
administration and working of a national Church. " They
are no mere engine of tyranny or secular spite against a
Churchman. They are really a part of a great scheme of
administrative reform, by which the debatable ground
between the spiritual and temporal powers can be brought
within the reach of common justice, and the lawlessness
arising from professional jealousies abolished." ^ They re
mained, indeed, to be the groundwork of later legislation,
and a most valuable testimony to the opinions of the day
in which they were promulgated. But numberless troubles
aud contentions between Church and State, and the rapid
growth of the Pope's intrusive power, proved the great
evil of their temporary abrogation. At the time they were
drawn up they were unanimously accepted by the bishops.
We have a remarkable testimony from Becket himself that
the reverence for the Pope had almost ceased in England.
" But for me," he wrote to Alexander, " and my fellow-
exUes, aU authority of Eome had ceased for ever in Eng
land. There would have been no one to maintain the
¦" Stubbs, Const Hist, i. 465.

254 CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE, [ohap.xv.
Pope against kings and princes." ^ The reverence paid to
St Thomas was extended to Eome, which, though it had
only feebly upheld him in life, yet canonised him after
deatL No Churchman desiring to stand weU -with his
people could now take national ground. The martyr
triumphed where the living Churchman had faded. And
yet it was only by an utter misuse of terms that the death
of Becket could be called a martyrdom. He died like a
brave soldier contending against ruffian assailants who had
no authority to attack him, and no power to accept any
undertaking on his part had he been willing to make one.
There was no question of principle involved in his death.
The four savage knights had a hatred of their own to ap
pease, and a hope to win a reward from the king whose
secret -wishes they supposed themselves to know. Becket
withstood them as he would have -withstood robbers in a
wood, who sought to plunder his treasure. It was the sanc
tity of the place where the deed of violence was done, and
the great antecedents of the man who had so long contended
with kings and popes, that gave a special character to the
murderous act. This sufficed to make all Europe shudder,
and to bring it about that the cause which Becket had
espoused became so strong that no secular power could for
a time resist it. ^ Giles, Letters of Becket, iii. 55.

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.
(A) THE EARLY LIFE OP ! recommended him to Archbishop
THOMAS BECKET. i Theobald, into whose service he was
taken. Here he continued to enjoy

The father of Thomas Becket was
Gilbert, a citizen of London. Of his
mother a romantic story is told that
she was a Moslem girl, who had
learned to love Gilbert in Palestine,
and sought him out on his return to
England in London. Thomas was
born 1H7. He was taught at

high favoiu-. He was made incum
bent of Brantfeld, then archdeacon
of Canterbury. On the accession of
Henry II. he was recommended hy
the archbishop for the place of Chan
cellor, in which he served the king
well. He proved himself a skilful
diplomatist, and showed also con-

London, then at Oxford, .afterwards ' siderable prowess as a soldier, lead-
at Paris. His abilities iiud manners ing an expedition against Cahors,

ohap. XV.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

255

which he took, and seizing and im
prisoning a marauding chieftain
named 'Wydo de la Val. He was
remarkable for the pomp and splen
dour of his appearance aud retinue,
and for the great expense in which
he indulged. His ready zeal to as
sist the king iu repressing the robber
nobles of Stephen's reign and the
excesses of some of the clergy, led
the king to suppose that he would
also zealously support his policy
when made archbishop.
(B) THE CONSTITUTIONS OF
CLARENDON.
1. If dispute shall arise between
laymen concerning advowson and
presentation to churches, or between
laymen aud clerks, or between clerks,
the matter must be treated and set
tled iu the court of the lord king.
2. Churches of the fee of the lord
king cannot be given in perpetuity
without the assent and concession of
the king himself.
3. Clerks accused and charged
with any matter, being summoned
by the king's justice, shall come
into his court, to answer there con
cerning that upon which it shall
seem right to the king's court that
answer should be made there, and in
the Church court concerning that
which shaU seem right to be answered
there ; so that the king's justice shall
send into the court of Holy Church to
see in what manner the thing shaU
be treated there. And if the clerk
shall have been convicted, or have
confessed, the Church ought not to
defend him any longer.
4. It is not lawful for archbishops,
bishops, and parsons of the kiugdom
to go out from the kingdom without
the license of the lord king. And
if they go out, if it shaU please the
lord king, they shall give security
that neither in going, staying, nor
returning, they shall do evU or mis
chief to the king and kingdom.
5. Excommunicates ought not to
give pledge for the future, nor to take

oath, but only security and pledge
of abiding by the judgment of tho
Church, that they may be absolved.
6. Laymen oughtnot to be accused,
except by certain and legal accusers
and witnesses, in the presence of the
bishop, so that the archdeacon may
not lose his rights, nor anything that
he ought to have from thence. And
if they who are blamed shall be such
that no one is willing or dares to
accuse them, the sheriff, being re
quested by the bishop, shall cause
twelve legal men ofthe vicinity, or of
the town, to swear before the bishop
that they wiH show the truth in that
matter according- to their conscience.
7. No one who holds of the king
iu chief, nor any of his officers of
the lordship, shall be excommuni
cated, nor the lands of any of them
placed under an interdict, until flrst
the lord king, if he be in the land ;
or his justice if he be outside the
kingdom, be applied to to do right
-with respect to him ; and so that
what shall belong to the king's court
be there settled, and what shall be
long to the Church court be sent to
it to be treated there.
8. In appeals, when they occur,
from the archdeacon they ought to
proceed to the bishop, from the
bishop to the archbishop. And if
the archbishop fail to give justice,
last of all recourse must be had to
the lord king ; that by his precept
the controversy may be ended in
the court of the archbishop ; so that
it ought not to proceed further -with
out the assent of the lord king.
9. If a quarrel arise between a
clerk and a layman, or between a
layman aud a clerk, concerning a
tenement which the clerk wishes to
bring to franc-almoign, but the lay
man to a lay fee, it shaU be settled
by the award of twelve legal men,
by the consideration of the chief-
justice of the king, whether the tene
ment belongs to franc-almoign or to
the lay fee. And if it shall be
awarded to belong to franc-almoign,
it shall be plended in the Church

256

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

[ohap. XV.

court ; but if to lay fee, unless both
claim underthe same bishop or baron,
it shall be pleaded in the king's court.
But if both claimants make their
claim for the fee under the same
bishop or baron, it shall be pleaded
in his court ; but so that on account
of the award he who was first seised
of it shall not lose seisin until it
shaU have been proved by the plea.
10. If one who belongs to a city
or castle or town or manor of the
lord king shall have been cited by
the archdeacon or bishop for any
crime for which he ought to answer
them, and he be unwiUing to satisfy
their citations, it is permissible to
put him under an interdict ; but he
ought not to be excommunicated
before the chief ofScer of the lord
king in that to-wn be applied to to
cause him to come to satisfaction.
And if the king's o£6cer faU in that
respect, he shall be at the king's
mercy, and from that time the
bishop shaU be able to restrain the
accused person by law ecclesiastical.
11. Archbishops, bishops, and all
parsons of the kingdom who hold of
the king in chief, hold all their pos
sessions of the lord king as a barony,
aud from them must answer the
justices and king's officers, and fol
low and do all rights and customs
royal, and, as other barons, must be
present at the judgment of the king's
court -with the barons, until that the
judgment comes to mutilation or
de.ath. 12. When an archbishopric or
bishopric, or abbey or priory, in the
lordship of the king be vacant, it
ought to be in his hand, and he

shall receive from it all rents and
profits as belonging to the lord.
And when the time comes for con
sulting the Church, the lord king
ought to send for the more import
ant persons of the Church, and the
election ought to be made in the
chapel of the lord king, by the assent
of the lord king and the council of
the chief persons of the kingdom,
whom he shall have called to do this.
Aud there the elect shaU do homage
and fealty to the lord king as his
liege lord, concerning his life and
limbs and his earthly honour, saving
his order before he be consecrated.
13. If any of the chief men of the
kingdom hinder by force the arch
bishop or bishop or archdeacon from
trying him or his men, the lord king
ought to use law to him. And if
by chance any one shaU have held
back by force from the lord king his
right, the archbishops, bishops, aud
archdeacons ought to use law to
him to make him satisfy the lord
king. 14. The chattels of those who are
outlawed by the king, the Church,
or the cemetery must not detain
against the king's justice, because
they are the king's, whether they
have been found in the churches or
-without. 15. Pleas for debts which are
owed -with a promise, or without a
promise, are in the king's cognisance.
16. The sons of rustics ought not
to be ordained without the assent of
the lord on whose laud they are
kno-wn to have been bom. — Stubbs,
Select Charters, pp. 132-134 ; John
son's Eng. Canons, ii. 50, sq.

1171-1213.] GROWTH OF THE POWER OF ROME. 257

CHAPTEE XVL
THE GHOWTH OE THE POWER OF EOME IN ENGLAND.
1171-1213.
1 Papal exemptions of monasteries. 2. St. Alban's obtains exemption.
3. Claims made by Christ Church, Canterbury. 4. Archbishop
Richard's complaint of the license of the monasteries. 5. Claim of
the Canterbm-y monks to elect the Primate "freely." 6. Election
of Eichard, Prior of Dover. 7. Confirmed by the Pope ; claim to
confirm suffragan bishops. 8. Henry's penance at the shrine of St.
Thomas. 9. Destruction of Canterbury Cathedral. 10. Council of
Westminster, 1175. 11. The Eoman Legate allows the clergy to be
subject to the forest-laws. 12. Clerical appointments at the CouncU
of Woodstock. 13. Quarrel between the two archbishops at West
minster. 14. A Legate arriving -without leave summarily stopped.
15. Henry's) foundation of three monasteries. 16. National feeling
among the bishops. 17. Election of Archbishop Baldwin ; beginning
of quarrel -with Canterbury monks. 18. Nature of the quarrel ;
success of the monks. 19. Preparations for a crusade ; the arch
bishop takes the cross. 20. Council of PipeweU ; ecclesiastical
appointments. 21. Secular prelates ; Archbishop Hubert Walter.
22. St. Hugh of Lincoln. 23. Archbishop Hubert Walter obliged to
take do-wn the church at Lambeth. 24. Hugh, bishop of Coventry,
obliged to restore the monks. 25. Suspension of Archbishop Geoffrey
of York. 26. Hubert Walter holds Legatine Synod at York. 27.
Accession of Innocent III. ; the advance in papal power. 28. Arch
bishop Hubert Walter yields to the Pope. 29. The Council of West
minster, A.D. 1200. 30. Effects of the contemporaneousness of ,
Innocent and John. 31. The disputed election to the primacy.
32. The Pope's proceedings in the matter. 33. Letters between
John and Innocent ; Stephen Langton consecrated. 34. John's
furious rage. 35. The Pope thi'catens an interdict. 36. The inter
dict published. 37. Effect of the interdict. 38. The King's re
prisals. 39. John excommunicated ; faUure of the Pope's measures.
40. Pandulfs interview with John. 41. John's opposition coUapses.
42. He surrenders his kingdom to the Pope, and does homage. 43.
The bishops return and absolve the King.
1. Foe a period of six years the Church of England was
practically without a Primate, and that too at a time when
a reformation of ecclesiastical discipline was most urgently
s

258 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
needed. In the midst of his great struggle against the
king, Becket had no time or thought for the administration
of the ordinary business of the Church, and the other
bishops were so absorbed in and mixed up with the strffe,
that their diocesan work must have been greatly hindered.
There were other causes also at work at this time to
hamper episcopal action. With the gro-wing power of the
Papacy began to grow up that most formidable obstacle to
all good government — the system of granting exemptions
to monasteries from episcopal control — exemptions which
not only secured license to the parent house, but to all its
cells and churches, and all in any way connected with it.
There had been some exemptions secured by convents even
before the Conquest. A privilege was granted to some
houses of electing their own abbots, but the bishop had to
approve the abbot and give him benediction. Others had
the privilege of keeping the property of the house entirely
independent of the diocesan.^ But as yet no monasteries
had the power of entirely excluding episcopal control.
This license was first introduced by the Cistercians, that
order being made everywhere entirely independent of
bishops ; but it was soon coveted and eagerly contended
for by monks of other orders, and but too often with com
plete success. The first notable example of an abbey
obtaining complete immunity from episcopal control by
means of papal grants was that of St. Alban's.
2. The famous abbey of King Offa, which had suffered
hard measure at the time of the Conquest, had nevertheless
not ceased to grow in wealth and dignity. Its mcreasing
power and importance led it to desire independence of that
episcopal control which it felt to be humiliating to its
greatness. An opportunity to effect this occurred, and it
was eagerly used. It had been the strange fortune of
St. Alban's to reject, on account of ignorance, a candidate
for admission into its ranks, who was afterwards raised to
the chair of St. Peter as Adrian I"V". The Pope, instead of
bearing ill-will to the society which had refused him in his
youth, felt deeply grateful to it as having really thrown
him in the way of his future advancement. Taking advan-
^ Stubbs, Introd. to Epist, Cant, xx-viii.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 259
tage of this feeling, the abbot Eobert apphed to Pope
Adrian to relieve him of what he styles the " intolerable
oppressions of the bishop of Lincoln," his diocesan ; and
the Pope, lending a ready ear to his request, gave him a
bull which decreed that " all the dwellers in the monastery,
all inhabitants of its dependent houses and of its vills,
should be altogether free from subjection to bishops, and
only be subject to the Eoman pontiff." ^ He also appointed
the Feast of St. Alban as a day to be observed in all
churches, and ordered that the Whitsuntide Processions in
the county of Hertford should no longer be made to Lincoln
but to St. Alban's. At a subsequent period he also gave
to the abbot the right of wearing the episcopal ornaments.
These great privileges were, in spite of the opposition of
the bishop of Lincoln, continued to St. Alban's by the fol
io-wing Pope. The matter came before the Council of
Westminster (1163), and the king, though indignant at this
papal uiterference, could find no better way of settling
the difficulty than recommending the bishop to make a
composition with the abbot. The monastery agreed to
give its viU of Tynghurst to the See for a perpetual im
munity for itself, and for fifteen churches immediately
dependent on it, from episcopal control. The Processions
of these churches were to. be made to the abbey, and the
abbot was allowed to wear the episcopal ornaments — the
mitre, gloves, and sandals — and to preside in a synod at
St. Alban's over his affihated clergy as a bishop.^ Such a
precedent would soon find imitators, and nothing could be
devised more thoroughly destructive of Church order, and
more completely hampering to the bishops.
3. The same policy which appeared full blown at St.
Alban's had been going on gradually at Canterbury. St.
Augustine's, ever jealous of Christ Church and of its nominal
abbot the archbishop, had long been contending for exempt
privUeges, and the same spirit was also manifested in
Christ Church itself. This had, in fact, been encouraged
both by Lanfranc and Anselm, in both of whom the
^ Matt. Paris, Hist Sti, Albani.
^ Matt. Paris, u. s, ; Dugdale, Monasticon, vi. 1276. The abbot of
St. Alban's thus became the first mitred abbot in England.

260 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
monastic feehng was stronger than the episcopal. St
Thomas, who had assumed privately the monkish habit,
which he wore under his episcopal robes, continued in the
same course. He surrendered the offerings of the church
to the monks, and his successor, who was an affiliated prior
of the house, was not likely to oppose it. The history of
Christ Church is a chequered one. It had sometimes been
secular, sometimes monastic; but after 1070 it may he
regarded as completely of the latter character. Its wealth
and luxury became enormous, its pretensions overweening ;
so that an archbishop who was shortly to succeed, was
constrained to embark in a strife against it which lasted
many years, and excited the keenest interest in England,
and indeed throughout Europe.-^
4. Thus, inside the Church of England, as well as out
side, were growing up influences unfavourable to discipliae
and subversive of episcopal action. The system of appeals
to Eome, encouraged by that See for ob-vious reasons, was
destructive of healthy local control. Abuses multiplied,
but there was no power to check them. Within a few
years an Archbishop of Canterbury thus wrote to the Pope :
— " Abbots exalt themselves against primates and bishops,
nor does any one exhibit reverence and respect towards his
superiors. The yoke of obedience, in which was the only
hope of safety and the remedy against former falsehood, has
been shaken off. The abbots greatly detest having a cor
rector of their excesses. They embrace the licence of im
punity, and, relaxing their bond of claustral warfare, give
free scope to their desires. Hence it is that the property
of nearly aU the monasteries has been given over to spoli
ation and plunder. For the abbots outwardly follow the
desires of the flesh, caring nothing, provided they make
a fair show, and there be peace in their days. The
brethren of the cloister, being as it were -without a head,
spend their time in ease and idle conversation, for they
have no superintendent to bend them to a better course of
life. Indeed, if you were to hear the stormy contentions,
you would think their cloister differed little from a market
' See the able Introduction to Epistolce Cantuarienses by Professor
Stubbs.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 261
All this, reverend father, requires your seasonable correc
tion ; for unless a speedy stop be put to this evil, is it not
to be feared that as the abbots are released from the
bishops, so the bishops wUl be from the archbishops, and
the deans and archdeacons from the prelates ?" ^
5. The great Mat shed round the church of Canterbury
by the merits of St. Thomas encouraged the prior and
monks of Christ Church to assert overweening pretensions
in regard to the election of his successor. There was no im
mediate attempt to provide a new archbishop. For a year
all but nine days the church of Canterbury remained in
mourning. The altars were stripped, the pavement torn
up, the walls bared, the bells silent, and no divine offices
were performed in the desecrated building. At length, on
the humble petition of the convent, the suffragan bishops
of the province met at Canterbury on the festival of St.
Thomas the Apostle, and solemnly reopened the church with
great pomp and rejoicing. Bartholomew, bishop of Exeter,
preached on the occasion on the text, " In the multitude of
the sorrows that I had in my heart, thy comforts have re
freshed my soul."^ The important matter of selecting a
successor to St. Thomas began soon to be treated of The
king had solemnly purged himself from complicity with the
murder, and been absolved.^ The Archbishop of York, the
bishops of London and Sahsbury, had been relieved of their
excommunication, and restored to their functions.* In
August (1072) the young king and his bride arrived in
England, and were crowned at Winchester by the Arch
bishop of Eouen. ^ On September 1, a synod was held at
Windsor to appoint the new archbishop. Odo, the prior of
Christ Church, demanded that the election should be left
free to that body. This unheard-of claim astonished the
council, but so great was the terror at the moment of the
'- Epp. Petr. Blesensis ; Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 536.
= Ps. xciv. 19. R. de Diceto, i. 349.
5 May 21, 1172. The ceremony was repeated September 27. R.
de Hoveden, ii. 34, 35, note.
* R. de Diceto, i. 347, 348, 351.
^ Gervase says that another insult was thus given to the church of
Canterbury.— C/troJi., p. 1421.

262 THE GROWTH OF THE [ohap. xvi.
overweening pretensions of Churchmen, that it was only met
by a request for delay. Odo was to return to Canterbury,
and take counsel with his society.^ At Michaelmas the
bold prior repaired again to the court, and informed the
council that he was still of the same mind. The election
must be left free to the monks, or none would be made.
The king's advisers could now think of no better expedient
than sending the prior abroad to the old king in Normandy.
The account of his reception shows very strikingly the
enormous effect which had been produced by the murder
of Becket. The king prayed the prior, even on his knees,
and with outstretched hands, to have mercy upon him, and
not to cause him to add another to his crimes. He ear
nestly implored him to choose the bishop of Bayeux, whom
the chronicler describes as a simple man easUy swayed from
his purpose. The prior received the king's request -with a
stern haughtiness. He was not inclined to accept the
bishop of Bayeux, or any one else, without the consent of
his society. It was not for that purpose that he had crossed
the sea. He returned to England, and again a councU was
held to endeavour to bring about the election ; but as free
liberty was not conceded to him, the prior went back to
Canterbury without any election ha-ving been made.^
6.' This new and preposterous claim for the monks of
one convent to choose the Primate of England, as though
he were simply their abbot, without regard to the king's
will, without regard to the suffragan bishops, was altogether
perplexing, and, in the state of feeling then prevalent, very
difficult to contend -with. A fresh attempt was made to
bring about an election at Lambeth on March 2. The
bishops, taking advantage of the fact that three abbots of
Bee (Lanfranc, Anselm, Theobald) had succeeded to the
chair of Augustine, and reigned with distinction, induced
the Canterbury deputation to unite with them in selecting
Eoger, abbot of Bec.^ But now a new difficulty arose from
the pride and assumption of the monastery. Who was to
^ Gervas., Chron., p. 1422.
^ Gervas., Chron,, p. 1423. (Christmas 1072.)
3 Gervase writes as though the first choice of the abbot came from
the convent. R, de Diceto seems to imply the contrary, i. 354.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 263
announce the election? The bishops said this privilege
belonged to the bishop of London ; the monks, that it was
the privilege of their prior. A compromise was at length
effected, and Eichard, archdeacon of Poitiers, was allowed to
declare the election.^ But the abbot Eoger was not to be
persuaded to undertake the perilous dignity. Whether it
was from a love of religious retirement or from " littleness
of mind,'.' he could not be moved from his purpose, and the
See of Canterbury was still vacant. Another council of
bishops and clergy was summoned to meet at London at
the end of AprU. Six bishops nominated by the king were
appointed without difficulty,^ but when it came to the
election of Primate obstacles immediately arose. The same
unheard-of claim was stoutly maintained by the prior of
Christ Church, that the election should be freely left to the
monastery. After much wrangling, it was determined to
send an embassy to King Henry abroad, to ask for direc
tions. The king gave no definite answer, but he appears
to have sent private instructions to the Justiciary, Eichard
de Luci, that if the Canterbury monks would not yield,
they must be allowed to have their own way. At the be
ginning of June the council met again, and Odo still being
firm for a free election, the bishops agreed that the convent
should choose two persons. They accordingly selected Odo
their prior, and Eichard,priorof Dover, a monk of their house.
The bishops naturaUy enough adopted Eichard, who took
the oaths to the Idng in the chapel of St. Catherine's,
Westminster, with the qualifying clause -of " without pre
judice to my order," and no mention whatever was made
of the '' ancient customs."* So completely for the moment
had the cause of St. Thomas triumphed.
7. An unexpected obstacle arose to impede Eichard's
consecration. The young king, then on ill terms with his
1 R. de Diceto, i. 356.
' Among these was Geoffrey, the king's natural son, a youth of
twenty years of age, to the vast See of Lincoln. R. de Diceto says that
the elections were free, but it is absurd to suppose that the young
Geoffrey was freely chosen by the Lincoln chapter. Gervase says that
the bishops were elected ad libitum regis et curialium (p. 1424).
'' R. de Diceto, i. 369.

264 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap, xvt
father, -wrote to forbid it, and appealed to Eome.i The elder
Henry, with an utter forgetfulness, as it might seem, of the
policy which he had been so vigorously striving to advance,
appealed also, and the disputed election thus was brought
to the decision of the Pope. Previously to this (March
13, 1173) the Pope had addressed a letter to the bishops,
clergj'-, and people of England, decreeing the canonisation
of Thomas Becket, " whose life had shone with the great
glory of merits, and who had at last consummated the
glorious contest by martyrdom." ^ The letter was, as
might be expected, received with infinite rejoicings, and
the influence of Eome was paramount. It is probable that
Henry, taking accurate account of the state of feehng, de
termined now, instead of vainly striving to oppose the
ultramontane influence, to endeavour to triumph through
it, and thus he threw his cause, in opposition to his son
and the king of France, unreservedly into the Pope's hands.
The character of the elect of Canterbury was no doubt well
known to him. He felt sure that in him he should not
have a second Thomas to contend with, and he was -wUling
to sacrifice something to obtain for the Church of England
a head so well calculated to soothe down the troubled and
angry feelings which had been excited, and to bring about
a more wholesome condition of things. Eichard, the arch
bishop-elect, accompanied by Eeginald the elect of Bath,
reached Piacenza about Christmas (1173), and embarking
at Genoa, arrived at Civita Vecchia after a nine days'
voyage. The Pope was at Anagni, and with him were
many who most violently opposed the consecration of
Eichard, bringing all sorts of evil accusations against him
and his supporters. He was constrained to prove his
freedom from simony, the legitimacy of his birth, and to
show that he had taken the oath to the king with the
approved reservation, "without prejudice to my order."
At length he obtained the confirmation of his election
(April 27, 1174), and three days afterwards was conse
crated by the Pope, and the legateship conferred upon
him.* The Pope having thus the primacy of the English
1 Gervas., Chron., p. 1425. ^ R. de Diceto, i. 370.
^ R. de Diceto, i. 389, 390 ; R. de Hoveden, ii. 59.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 265
Church put into his hands, was inclined to keep his advan
tage to the utmost. He asked angrily why the other
bishops-elect had not come to seek their confirmation from
him. Especially why the elect of Ely (who was probably
known to him) was not there.^ The Pope thus began to
claim the right not only of confirming the archbishop, over
whose election he had always exercised a sort of control
by the device of the pall, but of confirming the suffragan
bishops also — an unheard-of stretch of power.^
8. Henry, pleased with having gained his purpose in
the consecration by the Pope himself of one who, he felt
sure, would not prove an intractable opponent, received the
archbishop kindly on his homeward journey.^ He was now
preparing for that great act of self-abasement and humilia
tion, nothing less than which, he'felt persuaded, would give
him back the fuU confidence of his English subjects, and
defeat his son's machinations against him. Before the
archbishop had reached England (which was not till Sep
tember 3, 1174), the king of England had conspicuously,
and with every exaggeration possible, performed an elabo
rate penance at the shrine of St. Thomas. He landed at
Southampton early in July, and restricting himself to a
diet of bread and water, and refusing to attend to any
matters of business, or even to enter a town, he hastened
on towards Canterbury. On approaching that city he dis
mounted at the church of St. Dunstan, and walking with
bare feet, and with every outward mark of the deepest
penitence, he arrived at the great church on Friday, July
12. With tears, groans, and sobs, he made his way to the
tomb of the martyr. There, prostrate with outstretched
hands, he remained long in prayer. Gilbert Foliot, the
bishop of London, Becket's most vigorous antagonist of
old, preached a sermon. He declared that the king had
in no way desired or sought the death of Thomas, but that
' Upon this Bishop Berter of Orleans ventured on a joke. "My
lord," he said, "he has the excuse ofthe Gospels." "What excuse is
that?" said the Pope. "He hath married a -wife, and therefore he
cannot come." The See was the -wife. — R. de Hoveden, ii. 59.
^ See Appendix A, Historical Sketch of Episcopal Appointments.
' Gervas., Chron,, p. 1428.

266 THE GROWTH OF THE [ohap. xvi.
his incautious words had been wrongly interpreted. The
king himself repeated the same assertions publicly. For
his rash words he desired now to receive chastisement.
He then bared his back, and received from all the clergy
present and the monks three or five blows each with a
scourge. All day long, and during the night, he remained
fasting and praying at the shrine. In the morning he
arose, put on his garments, heard mass, and offered costly
gifts at the martyr's tomb, assigning a rent-charge of
forty pounds a year for providing lights. On the Satur
day he departed for London. Then it was believed that
the penance was accepted, inasmuch as news was brought
to him that on the very day he left the church the king of
Scots was captured at Eichmond.^
9. Those who were so ingenious at interpreting passing
events as indications of the Divine displeasure or approval,
might with some reason, had they been so disposed, have
read in the great calamity which soon afterwards befell the
church of Canterbury the displeasure of the Most High at
the pollution of His house by creature-worship. But this
was a thought which probably occurred to none ^ amidst
the fierce conflagration which consumed the church of Lan
franc. The great Norman cathedrals of England were
singularly unfortunate. Within a short time the church
of Eemigius at Lincoln, the church of Herbert Losinga at
Norwich, and the church of Lanfranc at Canterbury, suf
fered from fire. The archbishop was received at Canter
bury amidst the ruins of the church (October 2), and
enthroned as well as circumstances allowed ; and on the
following day he consecrated the four bishops whose non
appearance at Eome had excited the anger of the Pope,^
Eeginald, bishop of Bath, having been previously conse
crated by him abroad.
10. The Church being thus furnished -with prelates,
and the king being at peace, the time was suitable for
holding an ecclesiastical synod to consider and care for
1 Gervas., Chron,, p. 1427 ; R. de Diceto, i. 383-4.
^ They were, on the contrary, inclined (as the chronicler says) to
blaspheme the Lord and His saints for suffering such things
^ Gervas., Chron., p. 1428.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 267
the needs of the Church. If we except the pseudo-synod
held by Alberic, the Pope's Legate (in 1138), it was nearly
fifty years since- an ecclesiastical synod had been held in
England.^ The meeting at Clarendon, though it was much
concerned with Church laws, was a civU rather than an
ecclesiastical assembly. But this meeting at Westminster,
on the Sunday before Ascension Day, 1175, was purely
ecclesiastical, being called by the arch'bishop (with the con
sent of the king), and consisting of eleven English bishops,
the archbishop, the bishop of St. David's, and four abbots.
The canons enacted were taken, for the main part, from
the decrees of Popes and Councils, but they were in almost
all instances somewhat altered.^ From their provisions we
gather the existence of considerable scandals in the Church.
Canon 1 decrees that subdeacons and those above them in
orders are to be unmarried, and that sons are not to be
instituted to their fathers' benefices. By Canon 9, which
orders that churches be not handed down as inheritances,
we gather that this custom had become prevalent, and it
is evident that clerical matrimony had by no means ceased.^
Clerks are bidden not to frequent drinking bouts at taverns,
not to take secular offices, or to be concerned in judgments
about blood; not to wear long hair* or unseemly apparel.
Bishops are not to accept clerks ordained in foreign dio
ceses. Churches are not to be used as law courts. No
money is to be exacted for Church offices ; clerks are not
to trade for gain ; deputies or curates are to be in subjec
tion to their parsons ; tithes are to be duly paid. Some
curious directions as to the mass are given. Only ten
proper prefaces are to be admitted.^ The elements are
not to be sopped. Chalices are to be of gold or silver, not
^ The last was under WUliam de CorbeU in 1129.
' See Johnson, Eng. Canons, U. 59.
2 When the son of a clerk, Nicholas Breakspere, had reached the
Pontifical dignity, it is evident that clerical matrimony had sufficient
encouragement. ^ "Ab archidiacono etiam in-viti tondeantur." — Gervas., 1430.
* In the Decretal of Pope Pelagius, which is referred to in the
Canon, only nine prefaces were sanctioned. A tenth, in honour of the
blessed 'Virgin, was added by Pope Urban in 1095. — Johnson, ii. 63.

268 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap, xvi
of tin.i Marriage is to be public, with full consent of both
parties. Marriages between infants are null.^
11. At this Council the old dispute between the Arch
bishops of Canterbury and York broke out again -with great
violence. During the Becket dispute Pope Alexander had,
under the influence of the king, conceded to Archbishop
Eoger of York the right of having his cross carried before
him in the province of Canterbury, though not in the dio
cese of the archbishop. Some clergy now claimed, on the
Archbishop of York's part, the confirmation and extension
of this privilege, and they threw in as a makeweight a wUd
claim made by him to all the Mercian dioceses. This of
course was disallowed, and it was shown that in the discharge
of the claim, made with some colour, for the jurisdiction
of York over Lindsey, a composition had been formally
given and accepted in the time of William Eufus.^ York
was to receive the church of St. Oswald in Gloucester, and
the abbey of Selby, of which the bishops of Lincoln had
been formerly patrons. Upon this it was retorted that the
compensation was not a real one, inasmuch as the arch
bishop of Canterbury had excommunicated the clergy of
St. Oswald for not accepting him as Metropolitan. The
representatives of York therefore appealed to Eome. The
authority of Eome was now so fully recognised, that the
appeal was at once admitted, and in the following year a
Legate a latere. Cardinal Hugo, was despatched to England
to settle this and some other disputed questions. The king,
seeing that in the present temper of the nation it was hope
less to attempt to coerce the clergy in spite of Eome, had
now adopted the policy of governing them through Eome
— a policy which he found much more easily worked than
the other. Thus, lavishing his attentions upon Cardinal
Hugo (whom he desired also to make useful in his con
templated divorce case), he arranged with him a sort of
composition of the Constitutions of Clarendon, of which the
following were the chief items : — (1.) Clergy not to be
1 Yet tin was usually sanctioned, but not brass, because of the
mixture of metals.
^ Gervase, Chron,, p. 1429, sq. ; Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 59-64.
' Dugdale, Monasticon, vi. 1271.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 269
brought before secular judges in the first instance, except
for transgressions of the forest laws, and in respect of lay
fees which they may hold. (2.) Sees not to be kept in the
king's hands above a year, except for urgent and manifest
cause. (3.) Murderers of clerks convicted, or confessing,
to be judged by the secular judge in the presence of the
bishop. (4.) Clergy not to be compelled to accept wager
of battle. That these arrangements were considered very
derogatory to the privUeges of the clergy may be gathered
from what Gervase says : — " The Legate, seeking rather the
favour of the king than of his flock, at the very beginning
of his legation agreed that the king might implead clerks
for taking game. Behold with how sad a beginning, and
with what a portentous example, did a cardinal of the
Eoman Church commence his mission ! Is this the safe
security that Eome gives — that clerks should be dragged
into lay courts and condemned there by secular judges ? ^
But what is there that the accursed hunger for gold cannot
do" ] ^ Certainly a great step was thus made towards the
return to the Constitutions of Clarendon, and a severe blow
was struck against that policy which St. Thomas had so
vigorously upheld.^
12. WhUe the king was thus skilfully endeavouring to
bring clerical malefactors within the reach of the law, he
showed some disposition to relax his grasp upon clerical
revenues, which for some time past, during the quarrel
-with St. Thomas, had been tightening more and more.
The unfortunate See of Lincoln, which from the richness of
its revenues was especially tempting to a needy monarch,
had, after more than eight years of vacancy, been allowed
to receive his nominee in the person of his youthful illegiti
mate son Geoffrey ; * and at a council at Woodstock (July
^ Roger de Wendover, Flm: Hist, ii. 385.
2 Gervas., Chron,, p. 1432.
^ Dr. Hook (Lives of Archbishops, ii. 536) says that the Constitu
tions of Clarendon were renewed at Northampton, January 1176. But
this is a mistake. It was the Assize of Clarendon which was then re
published, which did not specially concern the clergy. — See Stubbs,
Const. Hist, i. 669, note.
* Geoffrey was nominated by the king in 1172, but not confinned
by the Pope tUl 1175. He took possession of the See, August 1 (R. de

270 THE GRCWTH OF THE [ohap. xvl
8, 1175) Henry had, with the advice of the bishops, nomi
nated the heads of no less than ten abbeys which had been
kept for a longer or shorter time without their abbots.^
John of Oxford, dean of Salisbury, who had been especially
conspicuous in the quarrel with Becket, was now made
bishop of Norwich. About the same time the diocese of
Canterbury was divided into three archdeaconries, it having
before been all included in one.^
13. In March (1176) an attempt was made to settle
the questions in dispute between the Archbishops of Can
terbury and York, which had been the ostensible reason of
the journey of the Legate into England. A synod was
held in St. Catherine's Chapel, Westminster,^ on March 1 4,
in which a strange scene occurred. Eoger, Archbishop of
York, had advanced a claim to take precedence of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and to sit at the right hand of
the Legate, grounding himself on the old constitution of
St. Gregory, that of the two Metropolitans of London and
York, that one should have precedence who had the prior
consecration. He maintained that Canterbury stood in
the place of London as the metropolis of the southern pro
vince, and that he, as the senior, ought to have precedence.
He forgot that the whole matter had been carefully investi
gated and settled by a council in 1070, and that the
scheme of St. Gregory, which had never been carried out,
had then been finally abrogated. Determined to try to
carry his point by force. Archbishop Eoger, finding on his
Diceto, i. 401), and held it till January 6, 1182, when the Pope insist
ing that he should either resign or be consecrated, he chose the former.
There was no appointment made to the See for nearly two years after
this, so that when Walter de Coutances succeeded in the -winter of
1183, the See of Lincoln had been kept -without a bishop for very nearly
seventeen years. i R. de Diceto, i. 401. ^ lb.
^ St. Catherine's was the chapel of the infirmary. Why was not
the synod held in the abbey church ? Probably on account of the dis
pute which had arisen between the Legate and the abbot of West
minster. R. de Diceto teUs us that the Ijishop of London had given to
the newly-elected abbot the right of wearing the episcopal mitre and
gloves. But the Legate, not thinking himself to be treated with proper
respect, had forbidden the abbot to wear the mitre, and also inter
dicted the prior from entering the choir of the church.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 271
arrival at the chapel the coveted post already occupied by
the Archbishop of Canterbury, endeavoured to squeeze him
self between him and the Legate, but was dragged down
from his seat by main force by the suffragans of Canter
bury, assailed with blows, his cope torn, and overwhelmed
with abundance of abuse. The injured archbishop carried
his complaint to the king, exhibiting his torn garments
and demanding justice, while the Legate in disgust gave
up the attempt to settle the quarrel, and would have left
the country forthwith, had he not been delayed by the
earnest request of his friends.^
14. Cardinal Hugh had been needed for the king's
policy, and Henry had contrived to make him useful to
himself by obtaining his consent to bringing the clergy
within reach of the forest laws. But the king of England
was not yet prepared to receive a Legate a latere from the
Pope to intermeddle in the affairs of the English Church
whenever his Holiness should please to despatch one.
Accordingly, when Cardinal Vivian arrived in England in
July, he was at once greeted, on the part of the king, with
the demand by whose authority he had dared to enter the
kingdom without the king's license.^ The terrified Legate
declared himself ready to make oath that he would do
nothing in England without the permission of the king,
and on this understanding he was allowed to pass through
the country on his way to Scotland. Probably, had he
not been thus somewhat roughly dealt with, the Legate
would have endeavoured to take up the matter which his
predecessor had failed to settle, and to make some agree
ment between the two Metropolitans. This was partially
effected at a synod held at Winchester (August 15, 1176),
at which the rival archbishops agreed to a truce for five
years, the Archbishop of Eouen and the French bishops in
the meantime being requested to examine into and arbi
trate upon the matters in dispute, and both the English
archbishops undertaking to abide by their decision.*
^ There are varying accounts of this scene. William of Newbury
says that the Archbishop of York arrived first and took his seat. — D
Reb. Ang. iu. 1. See Gervas., Act Pont Cant, 1674 ; Chron., 1433 ;
R. de Diceto, i. 405 ; E. de Hoveden, ii. 92.
" R. de Hoveden, ii. 99. ^ lb.

272 THE GROWTH OF THE [ohap.xvi.
15. It has been observed that Henry skilfuUy used
the prevailing reverence for Eome and its Legates to wrest
a privilege from the clergy which he could not compass by
straightforward and legitimate means. Somewhat of the
same tortuous policy may be traced in the way in which
the king discharged the vow made on the tomb of St
Thomas to found three monasteries. The monasteries
must be founded to satisfy public opinion, but the king
determined that it should not be to him a costly matter to
discharge his vow. The tide was at the highest in favour
of pure monasticism. The hair shirt of St Thomas, the
glories shed around the Canterbury monks, were in the
mouths of all men. In proportion as the purely ascetic
system was raised, so was the utilitarian system of coUeges
of prebendaries, designed to study and teach, lowered. The
king, taking skilful advantage of this, induced or compeUed
the Dean of Waltham, the famous collegiate establishment
of King Harold, to resign his dignity and rights into the
hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury.^ The prebendaries
shortly followed bis example, and "Waltham thus falling
into the king's hands, was founded as a house of canons
regular, in discharge of one part of the obligation incurred
by the king.^ A second part was stiU more easUy per
formed. The nuns of Amesbury had become notorious for
their incontinence. They were removed and incarcerated
in divers houses, and the king invited over from Fonte-
vrault a band of French sisters to take their places.^ The
third item in the account has perplexed some of the
chroniclers, but it was doubtless considered to be discharged
by the establishment at Witham, in the wilds of Somer
setshire, without any help indeed for their buddings or
support from the king, of a few Carthusian recluses. The
settlement at Witham had well-nigh perished, when it was
saved from extinction by the coming of the famous Hugh
1 R. de Wendover, ii. 387.
^ R. de Hoveden, ii. 118. For an account of the foundation of
Waltham, see Chap. X. The prebendaries are accused by the mmik
Gervase of " mnndanis operibus et Ulecebris Ulicitis plus quam divino
servitio intendentes. " — Chron., 1434.
3 R. de Hoveden, u. 119.

11 71-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 273
of Burgundy to act as its prior.^ Nothing could well
have been meaner than such a performance of a solemn
vow, and it is hardly possible to avoid judging that the
king regarded the whole matter with the utmost contempt,
and only did what barely sufficed to satisfy the popular
sentiment. 16. In contending against the advancing spirit of
papalism the king found considerable support from the
bishops. Archbishop Eichard was in every respect a
happy choice, and governed the Church well and wisely.
There is extant a letter of his which condemns in the
strongest manner the exemption from secular justice
claimed for all crimes wherein a clerk was concerned either
as a doer or a sufferer. "By this accursed jurisdiction,
which we ambitiously and proudly take to ourselves, we
offend God and our lord the king, and open a secure way
to laymen to ill-treat the clergy."^ What wonder if
with sentiments so entirely opposed to the ultramontane
and Eomanising party, the archbishop has been roundly
abused by them 1 * Nor were the suffragan bishops, for the
most part, eager to cast themselves into the arms of Eome.
It is remarkable that at the Lateran Council of 1179,
where so much good and valuable work was done, only
four English bishops were present, while the abbots were
in great numbers. " For," says the chronicler, " the bishops
of England have constantly asserted that to a general
councU of our lord the Pope only four English bishops
ought to be sent to Eome." * Again, when the Pope who
succeeded Alexander HI., being in trouble with his rebellious
Eomans, desired help from Henry, the bishops, being con
sulted as to the way the aid should be given, answered
that they had nothing to urge against the King's granting
a subsidy to the Pope as he thought fit, both on his own
account and theirs j but that they would far prefer to pay
' Girald. Camb., De Instit Pont,, ii. 7 ; Magnxr, Vita S, Hugonis
(ed. Dimock), Rolls Series. ^ Hook, Hives ofthe Archbishops, ii. 518.
' In the matter of the abbot of St. Augustine's he had ventured
flatly to disobey the Pope's peremptory summons to go to Rome. —
Gervas., Chron,, 1444. See for the monkish view of him Gervas.,
Chron., 1465. ^ E. de Hoveden, u. 171.
T

274 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
their contributions to the King himself, rather than that
he should allow the Pope's envoys to collect money in
England, " inasmuch as that might be turned into a prece
dent for the injury of the kingdom." ^
17. On February 17, 1184, Eichard, Archbishop of
Canterbury, died somewhat suddenly. In him the Church
of England had a great loss, and the misfortune of his
death was increased by the prospect of a difficult and
stormy scene in the election of his successor. For the
monks of Canterbury still held most firmly to their inordi
nate pretensions of having the right to elect the Primate
of England with entire freedom, as though he were merely
the abbot of their church ; and. in the present state of
feeling about the church of Canterbury their claims were
most difficult to deal with. The suffragan bishops, on the
other hand, claimed the right of election for themselves,^
while the king strove to mediate between the two bodies,
and to bring them to consent to the election of the same
person, promising that he would confirm and accept any
election so made. The chronicler Gervase, a Canterbury
monk, gives at great length the various negotiations and
disputes between the monks and the bishops, first at
Windsor and then at London. The result was that the
bishops in the first place elected Baldwin bishop of
Worcester ; but as the Canterbury convent utterly refused
to concur in an election so made, the king declared it null
and void. Then the prior and monks of Canterbury,
satisfied with this tribute to their power, unanimously
made the election of the same person, and so Baldwin was
happily translated to Canterbury.^ A better choice could
not have been made. Baldwin had been a Cistercian
^ R. de Hoveden, ii. 283. The monk Gervase says of the bishops
— "In omnibus ecclesia necessitatibus maximis regis magis quam dei
favorem quserebant. — Chron,, p. 1471.
^ " The claim of the bishops to take part in the election of the arch
bishop, which was occasionally enforced during the twelfth century
was rejected by Innocent IIL, and was never revived afterwards." —
Stubbs, Const. Hist, iii. 305. See Appendix A.
3 Gervas., Cftrom., 1468-1474. The account of the election given in
the Life of Baldwin differs a little. See p. 1675.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 275
abbot, and was on this ground not distasteful to the
monkish feeling. He had, as bishop of Worcester, won
golden opinions by his devotion and boldness.^ " He was
a man," says Professor Stubbs, " of singular sanctity,
courage, and honesty. He was one of the most distin
guished scholars of his time, and has left behind him works
which attest his proficiency in the studies of the day." ^
To such a man the state of the monks of his cathedral
church was of necessity offensive. They were luxurious,
proud, independent, despising the authority of the arch
bishop, raised to the utmost pitch of arrogance by. the
popularity which attached to the shrine of St. Thomas,
and by the vast wealth which flowed into their treasury.
Archbishop Eichard had made the offerings of the church
over to the convent, and in consequence their riches were
immense. " The refectory was the scene of the ¦ most
abundant and tasteful feasting. Seventeen dishes were
served up at the prior's table. The servants and equi
pages of a hundred and forty brethren were numerous and
splendid. The monastery had become a little town in
which the prior was supreme both temporally and
spiritually." * Looking at their internal condition, together
with their pretensions to doniinate the Church of England
by electing the primate of their own free choice, it was
clear to the new archbishop that the monks of Christ
Church needed some abatement of the position which they
had taken up. Bald-win therefore commenced a strife
against them, which lasted throughout his primacy and
that of his successor ; and in which the monks, aided by
Eome, ever the zealous upholder of abuses, were able to
withstand the power of the Primate, though supported by
the king, and practically to maintain their ground.
¦¦ EspeciaUy on the famous occasion when he rescued a malefactor
undeservedly condemned, and actually already hanged (R. de Hove
den, iL 286). Dr. Hook says the man was hanged again next morning,
but this was not the case. He was kept in prison till the death of the
king. ' Introd, to Epist, Cant, p. 34, His works are published in the
fifth volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum Cisterciensium.
' Stubbs, Introd. to Epist. Cant, , p. 32.

276 THE GROWTH OF THE [ohap.xvi.
18. Into the complicated details of the struggle be
tween the archbishop and the convent it is impossible here
to enter. The letters which passed on the subject fill a
large volume,^ and the chronicler Gervase, who was himself
a prominent member of the contending body, has left a
minute history of it. The way in which the archbishop
attacked the convent was by erecting, at Hakington, near
Canterbury, a collegiate church of secular clergy, which
was to be occupied by distinguished men, the suffragan
bishops of the province and the king himself having staUs
in it. There can be little doubt that this church was in
tended to be the mother church of England, to elect the
archbishop, and to supersede and reduce to insignificance
the monastery. It was to be endowed out of the estates
of the monks ; the offerings at the cathedral were taken
from them, and bestowed upon it ; some of the churches
of which they enjoyed the tithes were in like manner
appropriated to it. It was therefore a question of -vital
importance to the monastery, and the prior and monks
proceeded to contend against the archbishop's scheme with
every weapon which they could find to their hands. Eome
was of course their great hope, and of the three popes who
rapidly succeeded each other at that period, two were
strongly on their side, while Gregory "VIIL, who favoured
the archbishop, lived but for a very short period. They had
also in their support the great influence of the Clugniac
order of monks, which was bitterly opposed to the Cis
tercians, who favoured the Primate. The archbishop had
the aid, more or less open, of the king and the Grand Jus
ticiary, E. de Glan-vU. He had with him also almost all
the suffragan bishops and the courtiers. But the public
opinion of what may be called the religious world was
against him. The reverence for St. Thomas, whose com-
. munity was supposed to be attacked, the high estimation
in which the monastic discipline was held in comparison
with the secular, were strongly in favour of the monks, and
thus it was that they were able to hold out against him,
and ultimately to obtain a partial triumph. For during
^ Edited by Mr. Stubbs for the Rolls Series. His admirably
lucid Introduction gives a very clear account of the quarrel.

1171-1213.] POWER OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 277
the long space of eighty-four weeks, in which the monastery
was shut up and the monks detained as prisoners to make
them yield to the archbishop's demands, they were so well
supplied that two hundred strangers were daily fed with
the superfluous contributions.^ The archbishop acted with
great vigour. He treated with open contempt on several
occasions the papal mandates obtained by the monks.^
But in the end, at the commencement of the next reign, he
agreed to demolish the church at Hakington, and to remove
the prior whom he had placed over the monks at Canter
bury, while the remaining matters of dispute between them
were to 'be reserved for arbitration.^ The whole history
weU Ulustrates the tremendous power which the monastic
body had now acquired. The king might well complain
that " he was a Idng only in name, that the power in Eng
land was di-vided into many parts, and that only a small
part remained for him. This, that, and the other privilege
were possessed by monks, white or black, and canons of
different orders. Many even from foreign parts had their
possessions in England. The secular clergy were depraved
in morals, and only occupied in lawsuits. Eome with
persevering hostUity seemed to have nothing else to do but
to exercise her power over him, to sell its letters of
exemption, to multiply appeals, and to confound everything
for the sake of money." *
19. The strife of Archbishop Baldwin -with the refrac
tory monks of Canterbury was interrupted by the engross
ing interest attaching to the preparations for a new Crusade.
The capture of Jerusalem by Saladin was knovfu in Europe
towards the end of 1187,^ and caused the most intense
excitement. One pope was popularly reported to have
died of grief. Another pope published his letters exhorting
all Christian persons to hasten to the rescue. The Emperor
of Germany, the Kings of France and England, and Prince
Eichard, took the cross. The cardinals agreed to give up
1 Stubbs, Introd, to Epist Cant, p. 61. ^ lb,, pp. 48-49.
= lb., p. 77 ; E. de Hoveden, u. 325. ^ Gervas., Chrrni,, p. 1599.
^ Jerusalem was captured Oct. 6, 1187. It was said that Pope
Urban III. died of grief at the news, but this was hardly possible, as
his death took place on October 20.

278 . THE GROWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
pomp and luxury, and to devote themselves to preaching
the Crusade ; and Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave
himself with eager zeal to the same work. At a great
council of prelates and barons held by the King of England
at Le Mans, it was agreed that a tithe of all the revenues
and goods of both laymen and clerks should be devoted to
the Crusade. This tithe, called the Saladin Tithe, was to
be collected in each parish by a committee formed of the
parish priest, the rural dean, a Templar or Hospitaller, a
servant and a clerk of the king, a servant and a clerk of
the baron, and a clerk of the bishop. Clerks and knights
who took the cross were not to pay the tithe, but all that
their tenants had to pay, and aU debts due to them, were
to be collected and given to them. The bishops were to
issue letters ordering the tithe to be paid at the Feast of
the Purification. The Pope published an ordinance for the
Crusade, declaring (1) that all sins confessed and repented
of were forgiven to those who took the cross ; (2) confirm
ing the arrangement for the tithe ; (3) ordering that none
should swear enormously, nor play at dice, wear fine
clothing, or indulge in luxuries, or take with them any
women, save such as might act as laundresses; (4) that
where lands have been pledged to creditors, the debtor
should have the rents of the year for himself ; that after
wards the creditor should receive the rents, but not as
interest but in discharge of the capital sum ; (5) that clerks
or laymen might, for the purposes of the Crusade, pledge
their revenues for three years ; (6) that the moneys of ah.
dying in the Crusade should be di-vided between the ser
vants of the deceased, the fund for the sacred war, and the
poor.^ The king, after holding this council in his foreign
possessions, returned quickly to England (Jan. 30), and at
Geddington assembled another council of English prelates
and barons (Feb. 11). At this gathering Baldwin, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, and GUbert, bishop of Eochester,
preached with such teUing effect, that great numbers, both
of clerks and laymen, took the cross. The efforts of the
archbishop to promote the cause of the Crusade culminated
in himself taking the cross and assuming the scrip and staff
1 E. de Hoveden, ii. 335-337.

1171-1213.] POWEE OP EOME IN ENGLAND. 279
of a pilgrim. Having made the best provision he could
for the government of his province, and appointed Eichard,
bishop of London, his deputy. Archbishop Baldwin saUed
from Dover (March 6, 1190), for the Holy Land, from
which he was not destined to return.^
20. Before the departure of the archbishop for the
Holy Land great changes had taken place in England.
The talented and vigorous king, Henry II. , had died sadly
at Chinon,^ and his eldest surviving son, Eichard, had suc
ceeded to his great inheritance. Eichard had been received
in England with the utmost joy, and crowned at West
minster, September 3, 1189, with exceeding magnificence;
four archbishops, fifteen bishops, and almost all the abbots
and priors of the country assisting at the ceremonial.^
The rejoicings at the coronation were marred by the fearful
riot and slaughter of the Jews which followed it, but this,
it is to be feared, did not much affect the prelates and
barons assembled, so bitter was the feeling cherished against
the -wretched Jews. On September 15 the new king held
a great ecclesiastical council at PipeweU Abbey in North
amptonshire, with the object of filling up some of the
numerous vacancies in Sees and abbeys which had been
aUowed to accumulate. The late king, -who had experienced
so much trouble from prominent Churchmen, seemed to
desire to have as few of them as possible, and constantly
refused to fill up vacant posts. The confusion, scandal, and
injury to the Church through this neglect must have been
enormous. The new king determined to begin his reign
with a different policy, and proceeded to nominate to the
vacancies. In doing this he had regard to the claims of
those who had been the faithful servants of his father, but
whom Henry, remembering his sad error in the case of
Becket, had refused to transfer from secular employments
to ecclesiastical rank.* To Godfrey de Luci, who had
refused the bishopric of Exeter as not sufficient for his
support, he gave the See of Winchester ; to Eichard, the
Treasurer, and archdeacon of Ely, that of London; to
WUham de Longchamp, his chancellor, that of Ely ; to
1 Gervas., Chron,, p. 1564. ^ r, ^g Hoveden, u. 366.
' lb., ui. 8. * Stubbs, Introd, to Epist Cant, p. 80.

280 THE GEOWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
Hubert Walter, dean of York, that of Salisbury. Abbots
were nominated to Selby and Glastonbury, the deanery and
treasurership of York were filled up, and divers other
appointments made. Some of these, indeed, were sufB.-
ciently remarkable, and utterly opposed to all notions of
ecclesiastical fitness. Thus Geoffrey, the king's natural
brother, who had been employed ever since his resignation
of Lincoln in 1181 in secular and military affairs, was now
advanced to the high dignity of Archbishop of York, while
the same unfortunate church had thrust upon it as dean
Henry Marshall, who was actually not in orders.^ The
new archbishop-elect, though he had not much claim of
his own to advance, was nevertheless highly displeased at
the appointments made in his diocese. He remonstrated
against them so strongly that the king threatened to
deprive him of the archbishopric, and of all his goods at
home or abroad.^
21. The prelates now advanced by Eichard were for
the most part promoted in reward for merely secular ser
vices, and their subsequent career was of a purely secular
character. At no period of our Church history, not even
during the reign of Stephen, are topics of ecclesiastical
interest- more completely wanting than during the reign of
Eichard. Three prelates in succession — William Long-
champ, Walter of Coutances, and Hubert Walter — exer
cised the great power of Chief Justiciary. Contentions,
squabbles, aud secular strife occupied the time and thoughts
of all the leading Churchmen, In the north, Hugh de
Poiset, bishop of Durham — but rather a great baron than a
bishop — contended against the authority of Longchamp.
Hugh Nonant, bishop of Coventry, the leader of the party
of Prince John, was involved in similar bitter strife. The
characters pf both these latter prelates, as painted, indeed,
by their enemies, are so infamous as almost to surpass
^ He was ordained sub -deacon and deacon the same day soon
afterwards. When he came to York, he could not obtain instaUation
as dean, but only as a prebendary. The new treasurer was also refused
installation. — E. de Hoveden, ui. 18.
^ It is doubtful how far the threat was carried out, as we find
Geoffrey afterwards enjoying the revenues of the See.

117M213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 281
belief! Archbishop Geoffrey, having been consecrated
abroad, returns to England to mingle violently in the
general contention. He is arrested, and dragged from the
altar, denounced to the Pope by his clergy, but still he
fights his way through the stormy scene. Everywhere
there is confusion, bitterness, rancour.^ The Archbishop
of Canterbury dies abroad at the Crusade, and intrigues are
rife for the primacy. An obscure bishop, Eeginald Fitz
Jocelin, bishop of Bath, obtains the appointment, much to
the surprise of all (Dec. 2, 1191). He dies a few weeks
afterwards, and the intrigues recommence. Hubert Walter,
bishop of Salisbury, who had greatly distinguished himself
in the Crusade, returns to England, and in the midst of the
excitement for raising the king's ransom is elected Arch
bishop of Canterbury (May 30, 1193). Soon afterwards
he adds to the highest dignity in the Church the highest
also in the State, and as Chief Justiciary as well as Primate
becomes practically the ruler of England. Hubert was a
man of a far higher stamp than Longchamp and others of
his secular contemporaries. He was loyal to his master,
above self-seeking, an earnest Churchman, as well as a good
statesman. But, hampered as he was by his administrative
duties, he can hardly be regarded as a model bishop.
22, There was at that period in England perhaps but
one prelate who could fairly be thus described. This was
Hugh of Avalon, who had been advanced frorn the priory
of the obscure monastery of Witham to the See of the great
diocese of Lincoln by the resolute determination of Henry
IL, much to the astonishment and vexation of the rich and
secular canons of Lincoln. The king had become intimately
acquainted with Hugh in his retreat at Witham, to the
forests in the neighbourhood of which monastery he often
resorted in his hunting excursions. As the prior of a
monastery founded by himself, and brought by bis own
special request from the Graude Chartreuse, it was natural
that Hugh should attract his notice ; and as he got to know
1 See Guil. Neubridg., iv. 14 ; E. de Hoveden, iu. 141-149.
2 The history of this stormy period, and the doings of the various
bishops, are well brought out by Mr. Stubbs in his Preface to the
third volume of Eoger de Hoveden.

282 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap. xvt.
the man, admiration and esteem were produced in the king
by the many great qualities which he found in him. A man
he was, utterly fearless, of keen intellect, of playful humour;
an ascetic without sourness ; devoted to spiritual things, but
a shrewd observer of secular things ; a hater of evil, but
full of love to every form of suffering. Hugh powerfuUy
influenced the talented but wayward monarch. Having
procured his election to Lincoln in 1186, Henry lived with
him on terms of friendship till his death ; and his son
Eichard was destined to learn that there was one bishop at
least that did not fear to oppose the ruinous exactions with
which he was wasting the land, and to assert and success
fully maintain the rights of the subject. He was to find,
also, that this same prelate feared not to stand before the
impetuous king with a courage equal to his own, teUing him
of his sins, and refusing to yield a jot to his illegal demands ;
so that Eichard, conquered by the perfect constancy of the
man, exclaimed — '' If the rest of the bishops were such as
he, no king or prince would dare to lift up his neck against
them." 1
23. The appointment of Hubert Walter to the primacy
brought about a renewal of the strife between the Arch
bishop of Canterbury and the monks of Christ Church. The
college projected and begun by Archbishop Baldwin at
Hakington had been taken down, and the materials removed
to Lambeth, an estate in which place the archbishops had
lately acquired from the convent of Eochester.^ In 1192
the buildings at Lambeth had made some progress. The
jealousy of the monks was excited. Archbishop Hubert,
after his accession, offered to remove the college to Maid
stone if that would satisfy the monks of Christ Church.
They declined. He then proceeded with the work at
Lambeth. He held the property of the manor, which gave
him a right to build a religious house if he pleased, and he
offered to the monks certain conditions which seemed quite
1 See Magna Vita S. Hugonis, lib. v.
^ The archbishops had been tenants of the manor from the time of
Anselm, who had ordained in the chapel and held a councU there iu
1100. His two successors ordained in the chapel. — Stubbs, Introd. to
Ep, Cant, p. 92.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 283
sufficient to guard their rights ; but the monks were obsti
nate. They believed themselves strong at Eome, and
they were not mistaken. Innocent III., who succeeded the
aged Celestine, upon hearing the representations of the
monks, and -without caring to consult Hubert, ordered the
demolition of the church of St. Thomas at Lambeth within
thirty days, on pain of suspension, accompanying this man
date with an order to the suffragan bishops to withdraw
their aUegiance in case of Hubert's refusal. ^ This extremely
audacious invasion of the liberties of Church and State
called forth the ire of King Eichard, who sent the arch
bishop orders not to obey it. The king now took up the
cause somewhat warmly, and used some severe measures
towards the convent. The archbishop was rather intent on
having the matter reheard at Eome. It was reheard, and
the Pope repeated his former mandate. The archbishop
yielded. The church of the Lambeth College was levelled
to the ground. The king, indignant, seized upon the estates
of the monks : and he perhaps might have forced them to
yield, but his death prevented further action. The dispute
continued, but the archbishop was really powerless against
the prestige of the Canterbury convent, backed by the power
of Eome in the vigorous hands of Innocent. As Baldwin
had been defeated at Hakington, so was Hubert at Lam
beth,^ and the monastic interest triumphed.
24. It was the same in another case of dispute between
monks and canons which was proceeding about the same
time. Hugh de Nonant, bishop of Coventry, had expelled
the monks from his church, and had substituted prebend
aries in their room (1191). The character of this prelate was
probably a bad one, otherwise even his enemies could scarcely
' Letters 434, 435 of Ep, Cant, p. 391 (EoUs ed.) E. de Diceto
says:— "Data fuit Petro potestas sedificandi, potestas multiplicandi,
potestas transferendi sedes, sed qua lege, quo canone sit indulta licentia
diruendi locum sanctum judicet Ipse qui potestatem dedit iEdificandi "
(ii. 165). The church was demolished about January 1199. The
archbishop was aUowed to found a smaU college of Premonstratensian
canons, if he desired, but not out of the revenues of Christ Church.
— See E. de Wendover, iii. 134.
2 For the terms of the flnal arrangement, see Stiibbs, Introd. to Ep.
Cant, p. 109.

284 THE GROWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
have ventured to bring such accusations against him.^ ^It
is said that he came to personal encounters with the monks,
and exhibited himself black and blue from their blows in
the council of Westminster. It is certain that he was the
bitter enemy of the order, and advised Eichard to send all
the monks to the devil, and substitute canons for them in
all the cathedrals.^ His policy, however, was not successful,
even in his own cathedral. The struggle lasted for some
years ; but in 1198, which was also the year of the bishop's
death. Archbishop Hubert, and Hugh, bishop of Lincoln,
acting under a precept from the Pope, restored the monks
to Coventry.^ 25. In the meantime, some high-handed proceedings
were taking place in the diocese of Yorkj which weU illus
trate the rapid advance of that complete tyranny which the
popes now began to exercise over the Church of England.
Archbishop Geoffrey, whose arrival in England, after his
consecration, had been greeted by an arrest by Longchamp,
the justiciary, but who had contrived to escape from his
enemies and establish himself in his diocese, had been
signalising his presence there by a very unepiscopal career.
If we are to lend any credence to his enemies, the arch
bishop gave himself up to sports and pleasure, never doing
any episcopal act save to curse his opponents when any one
resisted his will, indulging the most open simony and high
handed injustice.* Among other arbitrary acts, he had
appointed a dean to the cathedral church, and the canons,
resenting this invasion of their privileges, put the church
under suspension, and left their places.* At the beghming
of January (1194), the archbishop appointed new canons in
the place of those who had quitted their posts. This sthred
up the superseded clerks to action, and they repaired to
Eome, where they prayed for the confirmation of their right
to elect their dean, while the clerks of the archbishop argued
against them for the rights of their master. The Pope,
^ See Hoveden, iii. 149.
" Stubbs, Introd, to R. de Hoveden, vol. iii. p. 54.
3 R. de Wendover, iu. 126 ; Annal. de Oscnoid, Ann. Monast, iv. 49.
' See Letter of Pope Celestine, Hoveden, iii. 312
^ E. de Hoveden, iu. 222.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 285
declining to enter into the question of right, appointed a
dean by his own plenary authority, thus taking upon him
self to dispose of an English benefice without any regard to
legal claims.'- Then the canons of York brought their heavy
complaints against the archbishop for his misdeeds ; and the
Pope issued a commission to Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, the
archdeacon of Northampton, and the prior of Pontefract, to
examine into the charges against the archbishop, and to
report to him. The delegates went to York to hear the
charges (January 15, 1195), and having reduced them to
writing, forwarded them to the Pope, giving notice to
Geoffrey that, within the space of four months and two
weeks, he was to appear at Eome to answer them.^ The
archbishop excused himself from appearing; and, being again
cited and not appearing, the Pope issued a letter of suspen
sion against him, and appointed the new dean of York to
superintend the diocese in spirituals.^ But, though the
mandate for the archbishop's suspension was duly received
by him, Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, utterly refused to give
effect to it by pronouncing the sentence ; and when pressed
earnestly by the canons to act, declared that he would
"rather be suspended himself than suspend the archbishop." ¦*
Now, as the good Bishop of Lincoln was fully acquainted
with the many unepiscopal acts of Archbishop Geoffrey, it
would seem that his refusal to act must rather be attributed
to his dislike of the Pope's high-handed interference in an
English diocese, than to his approbation of Geoffrey's con
duct in his office.
26. If the saintly Hugh was of this mind, as much
cannot be said of Archbishop Hubert Walter, with whom,
indeed, Hugh of Lincoln was never on friendly terms. He
readUy accepted the office of Legate from the Pope, and by
virtue of it proceeded to hold a council in the archdiocese
of York (1195). The assembly should, perhaps, rather be
styled a court than a council, as there was no other bishop
present, and the Legate gave forth his decisions in the form
of decrees rather than synodical resolutions. These decrees
were on the folio-wing points : — The first three are provi-
1 E. de Hoveden, Ui. 230. ^ lb,, iu. 282.
3 lb., Ui. 309. " iS., ui. 305.

286 THE GEOWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
sions for the decent and devout celebration of the mass ;
the fourth forbids masses to be said for money payments ;
the fifth orders three sponsors at baptism ; the sixth forbids
deacons to baptize, or deliver the sacred elements, or impose
penance, except in case of necessity ; the seventh regulates
the repairs of churches ; the eighth orders the coronal ton
sure for clerks ; the ninth forbids the use of copes with
sleeves ; the tenth orders that in Church suits justice should
be administered gratis ; the eleventh enjoins the full pay
ment of tithes ; the twelfth forbids monks and nuns to leave
their convents, or to , use any secular employment ; the
thirteenth orders perjurers to be excommunicated ; the four
teenth forbids priests to keep concubines ; the fifteenth
regulates the process against clergy of bad morals.^
27. The accession of Innocent III. to the popedom
(1198) is an important event in the history of the Church.
He exercised a vast influence over the whole Church, and
not least over the Church of England. Under him the
power of the Popes, which had been steadily growing during
the twelfth century, reached its highest point. Gregory
"V^II. had first devised the great scheme of making the Pope
the feudal head of Christendom. Innocent perfected the
idea, and carried it out in practice with the most signal
success. By one exercise of Papal power after another, the
Church of England had been brought into a position, rela
tive to the Pope, altogether different from that which it
occupied under the Conqueror. Then Papal decrees and
Papal interference could only come through the chief of the
State, and with his permission. Now, though the State
struggled against it, the Pope governed the Church of Eng
land immediately, and almost irrespective of the State
power. The State had lost the power of investing bishops,
and almost that of nominating them. Appeals on every
conceivable subject of internal Church matters were made
to Eome. The King himself had appealed in the matter of
an episcopal election. The Pope claimed the right not only
of confirming the archbishops, but even the suffragan pre
lates. The Archbishop of Canterbury was his officer, and
held councils by virtue of that authority. The attempt to
^ E. de Hoveden, in. 294-297.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 287
bring the clergy under the common law of the State had
failed. The monastic order, which rested entirely on Eome,
everywhere triumphed over the secular clergy. Owing in
great measure to the fame which surrounded the memory
of St. Thomas, the popular sentiment was completely with
Eome, and in favour of the highest stretch of ecclesiastical
self-assertion. It only needed a man of the commanding
power and high character of Innocent III. to perfect the
work, and to make the national Church of England, which
in old times had been independent of external rule, a simple
tributary dependency of the foreign Church of Eome. No
doubt the deception -wrought upon men's minds by the
false decretals had done much, the Crusades probably more,
in accustoming men's minds to contemplate with tolerance
the vast fiction of a universal ecclesiastical empire ; but the
genius and boldness of Innocent gave form and power to
the prevailing sentiment, and made it dominant throughout
Christendom. 28. The keen glance of the new Pope at once detected
a weak spot in the ecclesiastical armour. So long as
bishops and clergy were employed in secular matters, and
were the ministers of the State, they must be more or less
under State influence, and not alive to ecclesiastical im
pressions alone. Accordingly, the Pope at once discouraged
this, which a man of less insight might have thought likely
to add power to the Church. Archbishop Hubert Walter
was ordered to resign the office of Chief Justiciary. This
direction came upon him at about the same time as the
first order to pull do-wn his church at Lambeth. He
obeyed the Pope in both matters. The King would prob
ably have supported him in his retention of the justiciar-
ship'^ as he showed himself ready to do in the other case.
But the archbishop, conscious of the overmastering power
of the Pope, yielded meekly. Indeed, he seems to have
completely accepted the full extent of the Papal claims.
In the two councUs which he held at York and West
minster he inserted a clause into the decrees, " saving in
^ It is said by Hoveden that the Pope ordered the king to remove
him (ir. 48), but it does not follow that Eichard would have been
ready to accept so unlieard-of an interference.

288 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap. xvi.
all things the honour and privilege of the holy Church of
Eome," and in holding these synods he acted as Legate
rather than as archbishop. The council held at West
minster (A.D. 1200) was in fact held in defiance of the
prohibition of the Chief Justiciary (Geoffrey Fitz Peter),
who represented the king in his absence ;'- so that the
archbishop was brought to make common cause with the
Pope^ as against the secular power.
29. In the councU held by Archbishop Hubert at
Westminster most of the decrees resembled those of the
York Synod, but there are some noteworthy points of
difference. These are chiefly dra-wn from the decrees of
the valuable Lateran Council of 1179; e.g., the retinues
of the prelates are curtaUed. An archbishop is not to
exceed fifty men and horses, a bishop thirty, an archdeacon
seven, a rural dean two. They are not to make their
visitations accompanied by hounds and hawks, nor are
they to exact procurations except where they actually
visit churches. The object of the visitation is to see that
every church has a silver chalice, proper vestments for the
priest, ' necessary books and -utensils for the sacrament
of the Eucharist. A direction is given to include Ub
doers under a general excommunication pronounced annually,
which appears to have been a practice then growing, but
which was of most evU consequence, as it tended to bring
the sentence of excommunication into utter contempt.'
By a very salutary regulation — also taken from the Lateran
Council — Templars, Hospitallers, and other religious orders
are obliged to present priests to the bishops for the
churches which they hold not by an absolute right, " that
there may be some one answerable to the bishops for the
care of the people, and to the parson for the temporals."
This was, in fact, to decree the establishment of vicarages,
an institution which owes its origin to the Lateran Council
^ Johnson, Eng. Can,, u. 84.
" Yet he accepted the chanceUorship — a secular office, but not so
purely secular as that of Chief Justiciary.
' From this grew the device of ipso facto excommunications, an
absurd attempt to manipulate solemn Church censures for politic pur
poses. See Johnson, Eng, CanAms, ii. 88, note.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 289
of 1179, and which did something towards alleviating the
mischiefs that came upon the Church from the practice of
heaping the advowsons of churches upon the religious
orders. '-
30. It is one of the wonderful coincidences of history
that the greatest and most vigorous of the Eoman pontiffs
should have been contemporary with the worst and weakest
of the English kings. Of this the immediate result was
the utter prostration of the Church and realm of England
before the footstool of Eome. But the ultimate result
was far otherwise. Out of this very prostration and the
yearning for liberty which it produced, sprang an ever-
increasing movement towards national life and freedom in
the Church of England, which continued to gather force
untU it was completely developed in the sixteenth century.
Taking example from the great prelate through whom the
Church received its most severe humiliation — but who,
like Becket to King Henry, was " splendidly ungrateful "
to the Pope — famous bishops, such as Edmund Eich,
Eobert Grosseteste, and others, preserved the tradition of
nationality up to the vigorous days of Edward I. ; and the
Popes found that in spite of the precedents of the days of
Innocent, they had to deal in the English Church not with
a mere tributary branch of the Eoman See, but with a
national Church ha-ving its own laws, customs, privileges,
and powers.
31. It was the inordinate ambition of the Canterbury
monks (which had assumed such a height in the last few
elections to the primacy, and which Innocent III. had
done very much to flatter^) that led immediately to the
troubles which now fell upon the English Church. Hubert
Walter died July 12, 1205, and immediately — without
waiting for the king's license — secretly, by night, a party
of the monks of Christ Church proceeded to elect Eegi
nald, their sub-prior, to the primacy — to seat him upon the
high altar and the archiepiscopal throne, and to despatch
him in all haste to Eome, to surprise, if it were possible,
1 Wilkins, Concil,, i. 505 ; Johnson's English Canons, u. 84-94.
2 See his letter to the suffragan bishops of Canterbury. Matt. Paris,
Chron. Mag,, n. 490 (Rolls ed.) a

290 THE GEOWTH OF THE [chap. xn.
the Pope's consent.'- The hasty and secret election was
made probably rather to escape from the interference of
the suffragan bishops, which the monks always so much re
sented, than to avoid that of the king ; and it might, per
haps, have been accepted by the Pope had the elected
person been such as he would have desired to place in the
primacy. But Eeginald was a shallow and vain man, who
spoiled his chance by parading his title and showing his
letters of election on his journey to Eome ; consequently he
was received coldly at Eome, and the Pope told him he
would wait for more information in the matter.^ Mean
while, as soon as the Canterbury monks perceived that
Eeginald had forfeited his chance of the primacy by his
weak- behaviour in Flanders, ignoring their first choice, they
applied to the king for license to choose a primate. John
received their application readily, being bent upon obtaining
the election of John de Gray, bishop of Norwich, his most
trusted counsellor. The monks returned to Canterbury ;
and as an opportunity was now open to them both of obhg
ing the king, whose anger they dreaded on account of the
clandestine election of Eeginald, and at the same time of
forestalling their rivals, the suffragan bishops, they at once
elected John de Gray. Upon his election the king went to
Canterbury with the archbishop-elect and put him in pos
session of the temporalties.8 This took place towards the
end of 1205, and at the beginning of 1206 the king de
spatched to Eome certain of the Canterbury monks, under
the guidance of Elias de Brantefeld, to obtain the Pope's
acceptance of the bishop of Norwich. This false move on
the part of the king * was probably due to his anxiety to
1 E. de Wendover, ui. 183 ; Matt. Paris, Chron. Mag., u. 492. It
is said that it was a knot of the younger monks which did this ; but
there is good reason to believe that had the sub-prior conducted him
self prudently, and not made ostentatious parade of his dignity, and
had the Pope regarded the choice favourably, the other monks were
prepared to acquiesce.
^ R. de Wendover, ui. 183 ; Matt. Paris, u. 492.
' E. de Wendover, iu. 184 ; Matt. Paris, u. 493.
^ It is evident that if John had taken no notice of Eome, but simply
left the archbishop to apply for the pall, he would have stood on much
better ground.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 291
overcome the resistance of the suffragan bishops, who, not
having been consulted in the election, and not liking the
person elected, had also repaired to Eome to appeal against
John de Gray. Thus all the parties to the two elections
had put themselves into the hands of the Pope, and Innocent
had a grand opportunity of exhibiting his autocratical power.
32. He first disposed of the suffragan bishops, and
having examined their claim to elect conjointly with the
monks, summarily put it aside with the haughty ruling ;
" On you and your successors we impose a perpetual silence
as to the right of electing the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The monks of Canterbury we free by a definite sentence
from all interference and molestation from you and your
successors." ^ Ha-ving thus got rid of one appeal. Innocent
proceeded at his leisure to examine the others. The few
monks who supported Eeginald had now been at Eome for
more than a year, and had again and again prayed for a
confirmation.^ The king's messengers had also been many
months in attendance when the Pope (December 1206)
condescended to give his sentence. Both elections were
declared void — that of Eeginald as hasty and clandestine,
that of John de Gray as ha-ving been made before the prior
election was disposed of ^ The ground being thus cleared,
the Pope ordered the Canterbury monks then present to
proceed to a fresh election. Up to this point his action
had been justifiable. All parties having appealed to him,
it was right that he should pronounce his sentence. But
by what right he could order a new election to be made,
as if he were already King of England, does not appear.
A stiU greater intrusion on the rights of the English Church
was made when the Pope not only bade the monks elect
then and there, but also told them who was to be elected
— ^namely. Cardinal Stephen Langton, his own friend and
feUow-student, then present at Eome. This was completely
to ignore the existence of the King of England and the
ancient rights of the Crown. The Canterbury monks
trembled, as well they might, for they were aware that in
1 E. de Wendover, iii. 188; Matt. Paris, ii. 496.
^ PrEesentaverunt Eeginaldum, sicut multotiens fecerant. — E. de
Wendover. ' E. de Wendover, iii. 212.

292 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap.xvi.
making this election they would be doing not only an act
of treason, but also an act of perjury, as they had sworn to
the king to elect no one else but Bishop Gray.^ They
alleged, therefore, that they neither had the king's consent
nor that of their own house to make the election. But the
Pope, says the chronicler, " catching the word out of their
mouths, ' Know,' saith he, ' that you have plenary power
in the matter of the church of Canterbury, nor is it our
custom at the Apostolic See to wait for the consent of
princes in making elections. We bid you, therefore, make
the election by virtue of your obedience and under the
penalty of an anathema, and we bid you elect him whom
we nominate as your father and pastor.' " ^ What could
the frightened monks do except obey the imperious order ?
Only one of them, Elias de Brantefeld, their leader, was bold
enough to resist, and Stephen Langton was elected by them.
33. It remained to be seen how King John would bear
this grievous insult and summary overthrow of his plans
for his friend Bishop Gray. He had been quietly super
seded in one of the undoubted prerogatives of his crown ;
would his temper, naturally impatient, submit tamely to
such an outrage 1 The Pope probably thought that he
would do so. He sent home two of the Canterbury monks
with directions to ask the king to send deputies to give his
consent to Langton's election. When nothing came of this
(for the monks were detained at Dover), he wrote a letter
hy his own messenger * containing a few formal commend
ations of Stephen Langton, and full of " bland and suasive
words," and supposing that the matter was thus satisfac
torily ended, addressed another letter to the Canterbury
monks, bidding them receive the archbishop obediently and
give him possession of all the temporals of his See.* John's
reply to the Pope was couched in a threatening tone. He
reproached him for quashing the election of the bishop of
Norwich, and for causing the election of " one Stephen
Langton, a man utterly unknown to him, and who had
long lived in France among his enemies and those of the
State." He reminded the Pope sarcastically, that he drew
^ Annal. de Burton, Ann. Monast, i. 207.
2 E. de Wendover, ui. 212. » lb., iu. 213. ^ Matt. Paris, ii. 516.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 293
a larger revenue from England than from all the rest of the
lands this side of the Alps ; and he swore that if right was
not done him he would utterly close the way from England
to Eome, which would prevent the robbing and impover
ishing of his country. " His prelates in England were suffi
ciently furnished -with a full provision of all learning, and he
had no need to go a begging to foreigners for justice and judg
ment." ^ The letter of John reached the Pope either just
about the time that he was preparing to consecrate Stephen,
or after his consecration. He replied to it in a calm tone,
without, however, in the least receding from the position
he had taken up. He first highly commends Stephen
Langton for that very thing on which John had condemned
him — namely, his sojourn in France, inasmuch as he had
gained so great renown in the University of Paris. He
reminds John that he is an Englishman born, and as to the
king's not knowing him, he declares that he has three times
written to him. Then he proceeds to touch upon the point
of his having acted without the king's consent. He had,
he declares, sent a message to the king by the Canterbury
monks requesting that proctors might be sent by the king
to give his assent to the election.^ This message, it seems,
had not been delivered, and the Idng had first been informed
of the election by a special messenger from Eome. He had
waited some time for the royal assent, though it was not
absolutely necessary ; but as it did not come, he had pro
ceeded to do that which the canons ordained, and give a
' E. de Wendover, iu. 215 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 517. Compare with
this the preamble of the famous Statute for Eestraint of Appeals (24
Henry Till., e. 12). " The realm of England is an empire governed
by one supreme head and king, who has fuU power to give justice in aU
causes to aU manner of folk, without restraint or appeal to any foreign
prince or potentate, the body spiritual of the realm having power, so that
when any cause of the law di-idne happeneth to come in question, or of
spiritual learning, it -was declared and interpreted by that part of the
body politic caUed the spiritualty, now being usually called the Eng
lish Ch-iirch, which hath always been, and is, for knowledge, integrity,
and number, sufficient to declare and determine aU doubts without the
intermeddling of any exterior person. "
^ This, however, was after the election had taken place, so that it
was a mere farce.

294 THE GEOWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
pastor to the Lord's flock by consecrating Stephen. For
this the king ought to be grateful and not to set himself up
against the vicegerent of the Most High ; remembering the
cause for which the blessed Thomas shed his blood, and how
his father and brother, kings of England, had renounced the
evil custom of nominating the Primate.^ Stephen Langton
had been already consecrated at Viterbo (June 17, 1207).
34. The king's fury now knew no bounds. The first
to feel his vengeance were the unfortunate monks of Christ
Church. They had sinned first of all in electing Eeginald
without license, and then, having elected the bishop of
Norwich by way of amends, and drawn money from the
Treasury for their journey to Eome to obtain his confirm
ation, had basely turned round and, in place of him, had
elected the king's "public enemy" Stephen de Langton.
As punishment for this offence the king sent Fulk de Can-
tilupe and William de CornhUl, " most cruel and barbarous
knights," with an armed band, to drive the monks of Christ
Church out of the land as guUty of treason, or, if they re
sisted, to slay them. The fierce soldiers entered the mon
astery with drawn swords, calling with furious words upon
the prior and the monks that, as traitors, they should
instantly quit the land, or they and their monastery should
be burned together. The frightened monks fled at once,
and found a refuge in Flanders. Their old rivals from St.
Augustine's were invited to perform the services of the
Church. Their goods were plundered by Fulk, and their
lands and those of the See remained uncultured (July 15).^
At the same time the king swore mighty oaths that Stephen
Langton should never set his foot on English ground.
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 216 ; Matt. Paris, u. 517-520. Dr. Hook
(Lives of the Archbishops, ii. 670) puts this letter of the Pope's before
the consecration. But this is not consistent -with its contents. He also
puts the letter of John too early. Dean MUman (Lat, Christ,, iv. 85)
supposes that Johu had received no letter from the Pope. But Inno
cent expressly says that he had written again after the letter which
had been enb'usted to the monks, and that this letter had been deli
vered to the king by his messenger : "Cursor noster apostoUcas tibi
literas prseseutavit." — E. de Wendover, iii. 218.
^ E. de Wendover, iii. 214 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 516 ; Ann, Monast,
\. 28, 58 ; u. 80, 259 ; iu. 450 ; iv. 62, 395.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 295
35. The Pope's reply to these menaces and acts of rage
was to direct three bishops — WiUiam of London, Eustace of
Ely, and Mauger of Worcester — to proceed to the king and
to exhort him, with aU pious persuasion, to yield to the
Lord's wUl and accept the Primate. Then, if they found
him contumacious, they were to threaten him, from the
Pope, with an interdict for the whole land, and if this
should fail, with still hea-vier punishment, inasmuch as it
was necessary for Him- to be victorious, who, for the salva
tion of His holy Church, spoiled the prison of hell.^ The
bishops performed their dangerous duty, " humbly and with
many tears " exhorting the king to yield. The king broke
out into furious blasphemies, sweariog " by the teeth of
God " that if they or any others should put his land under
an interdict he would send all the clergy packing to the
Pope, and confiscate all their goods. And if he could catch
any Eomans in his land, he would put out their eyes and cut
off their noses, and send them in this plight to Eome. He
bade the bishops hasten out of his presence if they valued their
o-wn safety, an ad-vice which they thought it prudent to foUow.
36. Having faUed to find "the fruit of penitence" in
the king, the prelates, in the following Lent, took courage to
perform the task committed to them by the Pope. On the
Monday after Passion Sunday, which fell that year (1 208) on
the 24th March,^ they put the whole of the land under an
interdict, and having done this awful and sacrilegious deed,
they succeeded in effecting their escape from the country.^
37. What was the effect of this sentence, which a
Christian bishop had pronounced on a Christian people in
order to revenge himself on a king who bad ventured to
stand up for the immemorial rights of his crown? The
chronicler tells us — " Throughout the whole of the Church
of England all divine offices ceased, except only the baptism
of infants, and the confession and absolution of the dying."*
' E. de Wendover, iu, 221 ; Matt. Paris, u. 521.
2 Ann, de WaverldA, Ann. Monast, u. 260. " In vigUia Annunti-
ationis Dominicse. "
' E. de Wendover, iu. 222 ; Matt. Paris, u. 522 ; Ann. Monast,
ii. 260, iu. 30, iv. 396. The interdict was pubUshed on Passion
Sunday, to take effect upon the folio-wing day.
* Ann. de Waverleid, Ann. Monast , u. 260.

296 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap. xvi.
If this were all that was permitted, fearful indeed must
have been the state of the land throughout those long
years during which the curse was allowed to remain. But
another annalist gives a somewhat less gloomy picture.
The Dunstable chronicler says — "Marriage rites and
churchings were done at the door of the church, and
then the Gospel was read ; and on Sundays a sermon was
made to the people outside the church, and there holy
bread and water were given to them ; the priests baptized
in the churches, and, lest the chrism should faU, they were
allowed by the Pope to mis oil with it, and all who desired
to offer were aUowed to approach the altar." ^ But whUe
it is highly probable that the occasional offices of the
Church were performed, and that even the dead sometimes
received a Christian burial, there yet remained this one
undoubted fact, that wherever the interdict was observed
. there was no consecration of the Eucharist, which, -with the
views held as to the nature of that sacrament, was equiva
lent to a shutting-up of heaven. In many parts of England
" the world seemed to be surrendered to the unrestrained
power of the devil and evil spirits. The intercourse between
man and God was utterly broken off, souls left to perish, or
but reluctantly permitted absolution at the hour of death." ^
From the miseries of the interdict one order of " rehgious "
was by special and pecuhar privUege exempt. The Cister
cians, or White Monks, could celebrate their services in the
midst of an interdict.* They at first ventured to do this in
1208, but the Pope hearing of it ordered them imperatively
to desist, so that they were obliged to abandon the privUege.*
38. It was John's determination to make the clergy
and religious, as a body, feel to the utmost extent the
bitter effects of the Pope's curse. Immediately on the
publication of the interdict, he took vigorous measures for
¦' Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iu. 30. For the exact orders
given by the Pope as to the interdict, see Notes and Illustrations to this
Chapter. ^ Milman, Latin Christianity, iv. 87. The Pope, in order to make
the prohibition of the Eucharist more bearable, propounded the doctrine,
"Crede et manducasti." See Notes and Illustiations.
^ Vita S. Hugonis (ed. Dimock), 324 ; Dugdale, v. 283.
* E. de Wendover, ui. 225.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF ROME IN ENGLAND. 297
the sequestration of all the estates of those who should
obey the Pope. He issued his letters -patent for the
dioceses whose bishops had fled, appointing certain re
ceivers of the ecclesiastical property.^ At the same time
he endeavoured to frighten the clergy out of tEe kingdom
by terrible threats, the work of confiscation being more
easUy and effectually carried on in their absence. For the
most part, however, the chief clergy, aware of this, shut
themselves up in monasteries, and refused to depart except
they were violently expelled. No personal violence was
used towards those who did this, but they had a small
aUowance for sustenance out of their confiscated goods.^
Everywhere their barns were sealed up, and all their rents
brought into the Exchequer. A more atrocious and un
feeling expedient was also adopted. Great numbers of the
clergy were stiU married. Their wives were everywhere
seized, and only allowed to be redeemed by a heavy
ransom. If a clerk were met by the king's officers riding
on a journey, he was dragged from his horse, robbed, and
Ul-treated, and there was no way by which he could obtain
justice. When a robber was brought before the king,
charged with killing a priest, the king ordered him to be
released, for, said he, "he has only slain one of my
enemies." The relatives of those bishops who had ven
tured to pronounce the interdict were seized, mulcted of
^ Rot Lit. Pat, p. 80. The form of the letters for the diocese of
Lincoln ran as foUows : — "The king to aU clerks and laymen of the
diocese of Lincoln, greeting. Enow ye that from Monday next, before
the feast of Easter, we have committed to WiUiam de Cornhill, Arch
deacon of Huntingdon, and to Gerard de CaviUe, aU the lands and
property of the abbots and priors, and of aU religious, and also of all
clerks in the diocese of Lincoln, who shaU refuse from that date to
celebrate the divine offices ; and we command you from that time for
ward to be obedient unto them as our baUiffs, and to give credit to
them in those matters in which they shaU advertise you in the mean
whUe as to oui proper selves."
^ "Dr. Lingard, from the Close EoUs, has given what was the
' rationale estuverium ' aUowed, namely, two dishes a day (ad prandium)
for a monk, and as much as should be judged necessary by four sworn
men of the parish for a secular clergyman. " — Mr. Coze's Note, E. de
Wendover, iii. 223.

298 THE GEOWTH OF THE [chap. xvi.
all their goods, and thrown into prison.'- These violent
measures of the king no doubt intimidated many of the
clergy, and caused them to disregard the interdict, and
still to continue the celebration of divine offices. They
thus obtained protection. There were three bishops at least
— Winchester, Bath, and Norwich ^ — who remained faith
ful to the king, and in their dioceses the interdict was but
little observed. The king was desirous to add another to
their number by causing (in 1209) the election to the
See of Lincoln of Archdeacon Hugh of Wells, brother to
the bishop of Bath, who was serving the king; but the
elect, who had been the king's vice-chancellor, and had
acted for him against the Eomanising clergy, being obliged
to go abroad for consecration, was drawn over to the papal
party, and remained in exile with the other bishops.
39. The Pope, furious at the partial failure of his curse,
and at the contumacious behaviour of John, prepared to take
still more violent measures. Hitherto he had only punished
the king's innocent subjects for a fault in their ruler which
they had no means whatever of mending. Now he at last
bethought him of punishing the offender himself But
John, anticipating his excommunication, and probably his
deposition so far as the Pope could effect it, took pre
cautionary measures. He seized a number of hostages from
the families of his chief nobles to secure their allegiance.
He showed no relaxation of his ferocious temper towards
the clergy, but rather increased it. At" Oxford, where a
woman had been murdered by a clerk, who had escaped,
the king caused, without a shadow of justice, three clerks
who belonged to the same haU as the criminal to be hanged
in his stead. At this gross outrage the university was
1 Ann, de Waverleid, Ann. Monast, ii. 260 ; E. de Wendover, in.
223 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 523. The chronicler adds that "the bishops
stayed comfortably beyond seas, li-ving in every comfort, not putting
themselves forward like a waU before the house of God."
^ See Political Songs (Camd. Soc. ), where a violent attack is made
upon these three bishops. Bath is satirised for his addiction to secular
business, and called "Doctus iu Decalogo, ceecus in form^ canonis.''
Norwich is stigmatised as "Norwicensis bestia ;" and Winchester as
"ad computandum impiger, piger in Evangelium." — Political Songs
(Wright), pp. 10-12.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 299
broken up, and the students retired, some to Cambridge,
some to Eeading, leaving Oxford deserted.^ The interdict
had continued for the greater part of two years before the
special excommunication of the King himself was spoken.
It was signified by the Pope to the three bishops of
London, Ely, and Worcester, and they were ordered to
take measures for publishing it in England. The churches
of the monasteries had now, by the intercession of Stephen
Langton, been allowed by the Pope to have divine service,
and the celebration of the Eucharist, once a week.^ It
was ordered that the excommunication should be published
in these churches during the time of mass. The three
bishops entrusted with this difficult duty thought that they
had discharged it by sending word to some of their brethren
in England that it was to be done. But in England, so great
was the terror of the king's vengeance, no one was found
hardy enough thus to devote himself to certain destruction.
The sentence therefore remained unpublished. But it was
known that it had been spoken,^ and men began to talk
secretly about it, one with another. An unfortunate clerk,
Geoffrey, archdeacon of Norwich, thought himself obliged
to leave his place in the king's Exchequer because of the
sentence. He was seized and thrown into prison, tortured,
and starved to death.* The Pope was as yet quite unable to
tame this savage king, and it is probable that he would not
have succeeded finaUy had it not been for the deep hatred
which John's evU conduct had excited in his subjects. At
the Christmas season of 1209-10, John was at Windsor,
and all the magnates of the kingdom attended his council,
and communicated with him in spite of the excommunica
tion, which was well known to have been spoken. Some
abortive attempts had been made at reconciliation. Arch
bishop Langton had even crossed over to Dover under a
safe-conduct, but he had not seen the king. The principal
difficulty between the king and the bishops seemed to be
one of money.^ John, on the failure of these negotiations,
1 E. de Wendover, ui. 227 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 526.
2 E. de Wendover, ui. 226. ^ lb., iu. 229.
* Ib„ iu. 229 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 527.
° Ann. de Waverleid, Ann. Monast, ii. 263.

300 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap. xvi.
applied himself to the congenial work of torturing the
Jews to exact money, and pillaging the Cistercian monas
teries. From the whole order of the White Monks
he is said to have extracted the sum of 33,300 marks,^
though it is hard to understand how this could be if the
king had already their estates in sequestration. His expe
ditions against Ireland and Wales were singularly fortunate,
and he was in no specially yielding frame of mind when at
Northampton, on the festival of the Assumption, he received
the Pope's messengers, Pandulf, the sub-deacon, a trusted
agent of Innocent, and Durand, a Templar.
40. Of this interview between John and Pandulf a
very graphic account is preserved in the Burton Annals.^
The king argues strenuously for his right as sovereign of
England. Pandulf replies that his predecessors had sur
rendered these rights, as notably his father Henry II. in
the matter of Archbishop Eichard. John replies, "He
could not bind his successors.'' " But you have sworn to
observe the customs of your ancestors," said Pandulf
John was silent, but he had already pointed out that there
were abundance of precedents on the other side. John
offers to accept any other archbishop from the Pope if he
will give up Stephen. Pandulf refuses this. He then
proceeds to threaten. The king says contemptuously, " Can
you do any more harm than mere words?" "You are
already excommunicated. The promulgation of the sen
tence only stays till my return." "What then?" "We
shall absolve all those who have not communicated with
you ; and those who have done so wUl be excommunicated."
" What then ?" " We shall absolve all your subjects from
their allegiance, and send an army into England to de
throne you." " What more can you do ? " " Neither you
nor any of your heirs can ever be crowned." "By the
Almighty Euler," said the king, " if you had not had my
special command to come here, you and yours should be made
to ride upon nothing." ^ "I know my danger," said the
bold envoy ; " but I am ready to suffer death for the Church
^ Ann. de Waverleid, Ann. Monast, u. 263.
^ See Ann, Monast, i. 207, sq, , and ii. 268, sq:
^ Equitare is the expression used.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 301
of God." John then caused a number of his prisoners to
be brought forth, and exhibited their various punishments
and tortures to Pandulf He bore the sight stoically, but
when a clerk was about to be hanged, roused to energy on
behalf of holy Church, he rushed out to get a candle that
he might excommunicate the executioners.^ Upon this
the king made him a present of the clerk.
41. Pandulfs mission having faded, and interdict and
excommunication having proved alike inoperative, the arch
bishop and bishops repaired to Eome to press for stronger
measures. The Pope then formally pronounced John's de
position, and sent Pandulf into France to make Philip II.
the offer of the crown.^ Against this pressing danger John's
energetic preparations seemed to promise every probabUity
of success, when suddenly the king's heart almost failed him.
He knew that he had bitterly angered his nobles.^ He
knew that the power of the king of France was great, and
his hatred of himself intense. But above all, his mind,
superstitious though unbelieving, was possessed with a
vague terror by a prophecy which foretold that he should
not be king of England after Ascension Day. When
Pandulf therefore appeared again on the scene, and ex
horted him to yield, he declared himself ready to submit
to the Pope. Part of the terms of course were that the
archbishop and bishops in exile should be received back,*
that the Canterbury monks should be restored, and all
other exUed clerks. The king bound himself to give peace
able restitution to the ecclesiastics, under penalty, if he did
otherwise, of forfeiting all his rights of patronage to the
Pope. He promised a full restitution of all goods plundered
from the Church, eight thousand pounds to be paid down
on the coming of the person commissioned to absolve him,
and the rest to be assessed afterwards. He promised to
hberate aU the clerks whom he had in prison, to take off
^ Pandulf, as a sub-deacon, could not have had the power of validly
excommunicating. ^ E, de Wendover, iu. 241.
' Tot fere habuit hostes quot magnates. — Wendover.
* These were Archbishop Stephen Langton ; William, bishop of
London ; Eustace, bishop of Ely ; GUes, bishop of Hereford ; Jocelin,
bishop of Wells ; Hugh, bishop of Lincoln.

302 THE GEOWTH OF THE [ohap.xvi.
all outlawries, to restore their goods, all which things being
rightly performed, it was promised that the interdict should
be removed.^ 42. But this was not all. John, now in a state of abject
terror, would be contented with nothing less than formally
surrendering his crown and realm into the hands of the
Pope. His charter of resignation i^eclared that he had
grievously offended God, and desirifig. to humble himself
before Him, not through fear of man, he gave of his own
free will to God, St Peter and St. Paul, 'and the holy
Church of Eome, the whole kingdom of England and the
whole kingdom of IrelE^nd, for the remission of his sins ; and
receiving them again at the hands of the Pope to hold as
his feudatory, he swore fidelity to the Pope, and promised
to do homage to him, binding his successors for ever to
this, and promising as tribute, in addition to Peter's Pence,
a payment of 1000 marks at Michaelmas.^ A form of
homage was then drawn up which ran as follows, "I,
John, etc. , from this time forward wUl be faithful to God,
St. Peter, and the Church of Eome, and to my lord the Pope,
the lord Innocent, and his Catholic successors. I will not
consent or counsel either by words or deeds that they shaU
lose life, limb, or liberty. Their damage I wUl hinder, and
wUl make them to know of I will keep their counsels
secret, and reveal nothing to their hurt. The patrimony
of St. Peter, and specially the kingdoms of England and Ire
land, I will to my power defend against all men. So help
me God and the Holy Gospels." ^ Thus this king, who had
in so many ways disgraced the throne of England, consum
mated the baseness of his reign by this final degTadation.
The prediction of Peter of Wakefield had been abundantly
fulfilled, and John had indeed ceased to be king of Eng
land before Ascension Day. But as he was still alive and
still able to do evil deeds, the unfortunate prophet and his
son were dra-wn at horses' feet, and their bodies afterwards
hanged, while the self-dethroned king gloried in his revenge.*
43. As the barons showed a decided repugnance to
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 248 ; Matt. Paris, u. 541-544.
« E. de Wendover, ui. 254 ; Matt. Paris, u. 545 (May 15, 1213).
5 E. de Wendover, iu. 254 ; Matt. Paris, u. 546.
^ E. de Wendover, iii. 255.

1171-1213.] POWEE OF EOME IN ENGLAND. 303
foUowing John in the attack he meditated upon PhUip,
and alleged as the reason of this that John was still ex
communicated, and as John could not be released till the
bishops returned, it was necessary to bring them back as
quickly as possible. They were unwilling to return until
they had the undertaking of twenty-four nobles, as well as
that of the king, that they should be unmolested. This being
obtained, they landed at Dover on the 16th July 1213, and
on the 20th reached Winchester, where the king was. The
king came to meet them, and on " seeing the archbishop and
the bishops, feU prostrate on the earth at their feet, be
seeching them with tears to have pity on him and on the
realm of England. The archbishop and bishops with many
tears raised the king up, conducting him on the right hand .
and the left to the door of the Cathedral, where, after recit
ing the 51st Psalm in the sight of aU the magnates, freely
weeping for joy, they absolved him as holy Church
ordains." ^ The absolution took place in the chapter-house.
The king swore that he would cherish and defend holy
Church, that he would bring back the good laws of King
Edward, that he would judge justly and give to all their
rights, that he would make full restitution of all wrongs
done under the interdict before Easter next. He swore
fidelity to Pope Innocent and his successors. Then the
archbishop leading him into the Church celebrated mass, and
after mass they feasted together royally. On the morrow
the king sent letters to the sheriffs, ordering them to cause
four competent men with a president to be chosen from
each town to assemble at St. Alban's in August to assess
the damages suffered by the clergy from the seizures made
of their goods during the interdict.^ The Eoman party
had thus obtained a complete triumph. The king, once
so bold and defiant, now held his crown and place simply
as the deputy of Eome. The archbishop, proscribed and
threatened with hanging, was now the most important
person in the country. Happily for England, he knew how
to use his power better than his patron Innocent, and by
his admirable conduct and firmness earned for himself one
of the highest niches among the worthies of England.
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 260 ; Matt. Paris, ii. 550.
8 Matt. Paris, ii. 550.

304

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

[OHAl'. XVI.

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

POPE INNOCENT'S DIREC
TIONS AS TO THE WAY IN
WHICH THE INTERDICT
WAS TO BB OBSBEVED IN
ENGLAND. [Letter to the three bishops who
pronounced the sentence.] " Vestris
consultationibus respondemus quod
cum occasione Interdicti no-vum
chrisma in Coen^ Domini nequeat
consecrari, veteri utendum est in
baptismate parvulomm, et, si neces-
sitas postulaverit, ipsi clirismati, ne
deficiat, est oleum commiscendum
per manum pontificis, aut etiam
sacerdotis. Quamvis autem viaticum
pertinere videatur ad poenitentias
morientium, si tameu haberi non
possit, iUud in hoc casu ' qui legimus
credlmus ' obtinere — ' crede et man
ducasti ; ' quum sacramentum neces
sitatis articulus, sed non contemptus
religionis excludat, ipsaque neces-
sitas in proximo speretur defutura.
Nee evangelium nee hors ecclesi-
asticse celebrentur iu loco solemni
sive alio, populo ibidem oonveniente.
Viri religiosi quorum monasteria
causa religionis visitare consueve-
runt, non per majus ostium sed per
secretiorem locum peregrines intra
ecclesiam admittant ad orationem.
Ostia eoclesiarum olausa permaneant
prseterquam in prajcipuo festo eccle

sia;, quando apertis ostiis parochiani
et alii admitti poterunt in ecclesiam
ad orandum. Baptismus intra
ecclesiam ostiis clausis modo oon-
sueto cum veteri chrismate et oleo
celebretur, nulla laica personi prater
patrinos admissa, et si necessitas
postulaverit est oleum novum com
miscendum. Pcenitentia tam sano
quam aegroto est infligenda, quia
media vita in morte sumus. Con-
fessi in jure vel con-victi super aliquo
crimine ad episcopum vel ejus pceni-
tentialem sunt transmittendi, et si
necessitas fuerit ad hoc per ecclesia-
sticam censuram sunt compellendi.
Presbyteri suas horas et orationes
privatim dicere possunt. Presby
teri die dominica, aquam possunt in
ocemiterio benedicere et aspergere,
panemque benedictumfacereet tribu-
ere, et festivitates et jejunia deuun-
ciare, sermonem facere ad populum.
Muher enixa veniat ad ecclesiam et
extra parietes ecclesise suam faciat
puriflcationem. Presbyteri iufirmos
visitabunt, confessiones audient, ani
marum commendationem modo con-
sueto celebrent, cadavera mortuorum
quia ecclesiastica oarebunt sepultua
non sequentur. Presbyteri die Passi-
onis sive solenmitate crucem extra
ecclesiam ponent, et parochiani ip-
sam consuet^ devotione adorent." —
Wilkins, Concil,, i. 626, ex MSS.
Cotton., Cleopatra B. 1, fol. 143,

1213-1253.] THE BEGINNING OF THE EEACTION. 305

CHAPTEE XVIL
THE BEGINNING OP THE REACTION AGAINST ROME.
1213-1253.
1. The Primate restrains John's vindictive projects. 2. He publishes
the charter of Henry I. 3. Compensation to the Church ottered by
Johu. 4. The Legate, in the King's interest, oppresses the clergy.
5. The Ai'chbishop strives to resist his oppressions. 6. The interdict
removed. 7. Archbishop Langton's provision for the Church in the
Great Charter. 8. The Archbishop suspended by the Pope. 9. lU-
treatment of the clergy by Pope and King. 10. The oppressions con
tinue under the new king. 11. Translation of St. Thomas. 12.
Council of Oxford ; vicarages. 13. The friars in England. 14. The
Pope's demand for prebends and monks' portions rejected. 15. The
Pope appoints the English Primate. 16. Money exacted from the
clergy j the Caursins. 17. Riotous proceedings against the Koman
clergy in England ; the " Le-wythiel. " 18. The Pope forces Edmund
Rich on the English Church as Primate. 19. Visitation of monas
teries. 20. Eobert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. 21. Melancholy
state of the Church. 22. Coming of the Legate Otho. 23. CouncU
of London. 24. Excitement caused by proceedings of Legate. 25.
Resistance of the clergy to demands upon them ; remonstrances of
the barons. 26. The Roman exactions overwhelm the archbishop.
27. Resistance of the clergy ; departure of the Legate. 28. Boniface
of Savoy elected Archbishop of Canterbury. 29. The clergy protest
against Papal exactions. 30. The exactions nevertheless continue.
31. Grosseteste becomes tax-gatherer for the Pope. 32. Vigorous
but inefifectiial resistance. 33. Efl'ect of the exactions on the prin
ciples of the clergy. 34. Bishop Grosseteste's sermon at Lyons. 35.
His energetic efforts at reformation. 36. The Pope intrudes his
nephew into a prebend at Lincoln. 37. Grosseteste's letter refusing
to admit him. 38. His appeal to the English people to protect the
National Church. 39. His dying testimony against the Papal pohcy.
1. John had reconcUed himself to the Church by a das
tardly prostration, but he had by no means reconciled
himself to his barons. The quarrel which these had against
him did not arise from his ecclesiastical position, nor was
it satisfied by his humiliation before the Pope and the
bishops. In the midst of that humiliation the king was
X

306 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap.xvii.
'^^tating projects of vengeance, and counting upon his
.Solution as a means for facilitating his schemes. In his
calculations, however, he had left out of consideration the
noble and intrepid character of the archbishop. Stephen
Langton boldly opposed the king's preparations for war,
told him that by attacking any one he would forfeit the
benefits of his absolution, threatened, without regard to
the king's furious anger, to excommunicate any who joined
with him, and thus brought the savage monarch, in spite
of himself, to forego his intended violence. The Interdict
was not yet removed. It might be indefinitely prolonged
if the king should again put himself in the wrong. Thus
peace was for the moment secured.'-
2. But it was the object of the archbishop to put the
security of the subject on a firmer basis than was furnished
by the temporary fears or necessities of the king. At a
council held at St. Paul's, London, August 25 (1213), at
which the bishops, abbots, priors, deans, as well as the
barons, were present, after a modified relaxation of the
Interdict had been conceded,^ the archbishop addressed the
assembly, reminding them that the king had promised, when
absolved at Winchester, to uphold the good laws of King
Edward, and announcing that a charter, granted by Henry
I., had been found reciting these good laws, and giving a
statement of the liberties and privileges that they might
claim under them. The charter was then read to the
councU. It contained all the chief provisions afterwards
embodied in its more famous successor, and in particular,
it covenanted that the Church should be free, that no church
should be sold or put out to farm by the king, that the
king should take nothing from a vacant See or abbey, but
reserve its revenues untU a successor should be appointed.
This was to go behind the Constitutions of Clarendon, which
allowed the king to retain the revenues of vacant Church
preferments, and was therefore much more favourable to
the Church. Its other provisions were so manifestly favour-
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 262. ,
2 " Archiepiscopus indulsit tam ecclesus conventualibus quam prea-
byteris ssecularibus ut horas canonicas in ecclesiis suis, audientibus
parochianis, suppress^, voce cantarent." — Wendover.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 307
able to the barons and the nation, that " the barons hearing
it, rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and swore in the pre
sence of the archbishop that for these liberties they would
contend if necessary even to the death." ^ Thus had the
Church stepped forward to be the leader in asserting the
privUeges of the nation. The idea of referring to the laws
of Henry I., as the standard of the liberties of the subject,
had first been mooted at the assembly held at St. Albans
on August 4, to assess the amount of damage due to the
Church from the oppressions used against it during the
Interdict.^ Having thus obtained a knowledge of this
charter, the archbishop was resolved not to allow it to
sleep. Its publication by his direction in the council of
St. Paul's may be regarded as one of the epochs in the
history both of Church and State in England.
3. WhUe the foundation was thus being laid for inde
pendent action, the king, on his part, was busy in completing
his alliance -with the Pope. The Legate Nicholas arrived
about Michaelmas, and at a council held in London the
king offered to pay down 100,000 marks as a compensa
tion to the bishops for the moneys taken from their Sees,
and to promise to make good before Easter whatever further
sum should be assessed against him. The bishops, however,
were suspicious of this offer. They thought probably that
the king having once made a payment and obtained the
release of the Interdict, it would be hard to get him to
repeat the process. They desired that a more full inquiry
should be instituted as to the claims of the Church,. and
John, willing enough to be saved the present expenditure,
readily assented.
4. It was evidently the policy of the king to use his
favour with the Pope and the Legate as against the clergy
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 266.
'¦¦ Matt. Paris, Hist Maj,, p. 239 (ed. Wats). This councU at St.
Alban's was attended by representatives from each shire, and is re
garded by Mr.'.Stubbs as of the highest historical importance. " To the
first representative assembly on record is submitted the first draught
of the reforms afterwards embodied in the charter ; the action of the
councU is the first hesitating and tentative step towards that great act
in which Church, baronage, and people, make their constitutional pact
with the king." — Const. Hist, i. 527.

308 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap. xvii.
and their claims. He did not shrink from again formaUy
resigning his crown, solemnly before the altar at St. Paul's
Church, and giving again to the Pope's representative the
charter of subjection sealed with gold ; expecting, doubtless,
to obtain for this renewed and more formal abasement an
equivalent in the attitude of the Legate towards the clergy.
And in this way he certainly was paid ; for at Eeading, a
few days afterwards, where hy appointment the clergy were
to hand in their claims for compensation, the Legate
decided that there need be no immediate payment of any
claims ; except that the bishops, who had been abroad and
were newly returned, should receive 15,000 marks between
them.'- The disappointed clergy, in the cases of most of
whom the money claim did not represent anything like
their real losses — whose buildings had been thrown down,
orchards and woods destroyed — were full of indignation
against the Legate, who, far from helping them, actually
stood in their way. This indignation was greatly increased
when, on receiving a direction from the Pope to see to the
filling up of the vacant churches, the Legate proceeded,
-\vithout taking counsel with the bishops or with any one
fit to advise him, to give away the preferments haphazard
to any clerks of the king, or others who might recommend
themselves to him ; heaping preferments on such clerks,
utterly regardless of the rights of the patrons, and treating
the Church of England as a completely subject Church with
more than even Eoman pride and injustice.^
5. Doubtless the king looked on well pleased to see
the clergy whom he hated oppressed by the power which
they had invoked against him, but which he was now
using against them. But the archbishop was not of the
disposition to submit calmly to such injustice. Calhng a
meeting of his suffragans at Dunstable about Epiphany
(1214), the grievous injury done to the Church by these
uncanonical intrusions was discussed, and the Archbishop
decided to appeal to Eome against the proceedings of the
Legate. He despatched, accordingly, two of his clerks to
him at Burton-upon-Trent, where he was then staying, to
^ E. de Wendover, Ui. 276 ; Ann. de Waverleid, Ann. Monast, ii.
278. 2 ^ ^le -\Vendover, ui. 278.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 309
inform him of his appeal, and to inhibit him from making
any more appointments to churches or abbeys. The Legate
took no notice of the prohibition, but immediately sent
Pandulf, who was with him, to make good his cause with
the Pope. This clever and unscrupulous person, on arriving
at Eome, blackened with all zeal the character of the arch
bishop, while he extolled the king with the greatest praise.
It was in vain that Simon de Langton, the brother of the
archbishop, contended against these false representations.
The sight of the charter of subjection, with its golden
seals, exhibited by Pandulf, was too strong an argument
against him. Pandulf freely asserted that the demands of
the archbishop and bishops on account of their losses
during the Interdict were excessive, so that the cause of
the English prelates was only injured instead of advanced.^
The Pope finally determined that the amount to be paid
by the king to the bishops, whose revenues he had seized
during the Interdict, should be 40,000 marks, to be paid at
the rate of 12,000 annually. Upon receiving this bull the
Legate summoned another council at St. Paul's, and,
ha-ving ascertained that the said bishops and the Canter
bury monks had already received 27,000 marks, he caused
security to be given to them for the payment of the
remaining 13,000.^ Thus, instead of obtaining more than
the 100,000 marks at first offered to them, the bishops
were obliged to content themselves wdth a far smaller sum.
But the hardest case was that of the other clergy who had
stayed in England, but whose rents had been seized and
goods pillaged by the king. For these there was no
redress. The Legate told them coldly that they were not
mentioned in the Pope's letter, and although they eagerly
appealed to the Papal Court, he absolutely refused to allow
them any portion of their claim to enable them to go and
lay their cause before the Pope. Truly the king was well
paid for his base subserviency to the Pope, while the
spirited conduct of the archbishop involved him and the
bishops who supported him in no small losses.^
6. At length, some sort of settlement of the money
difiiculty having been made, the Legate, armed with the
' E, de Wendover, iu. 278. ^ lb., 284. ^ lb,, 285.

310 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap.xvii.
Pope's authority, on the day of St. Peter and St. Paul,
(June 29, 1214), solemnly, in the cathedral of St. Paul,
declared the Interdict removed, amidst the rejoicings of
the people and the singing of Te Deum. It had oppressed
the land, and vexed the Church of England, for the space
of six years three months and fourteen days.^ The chief
gainer hy it was the king, whom it was intended to coerce ;
the chief sufferers were those clergy who were loyal to
the Pope, whose interests were betrayed by the Legate,
desirous in all things to favour the king who had so humi
liated himself to the Papal See.
7. The barons now began to press for the ratification
of the " good laws " which the king at Winchester had
sworn to estabhsh, and for the substance of these laws they
put forward the charter of Henry I., which the archbishop
had caused to be read pubUcly at St. Paul's. The King
shifted and prevaricated, sought help from his aUy the Pope,
took the vow of the Crusade to give himself a sacred cha
racter, tried to detach the clergy from the barons, and raged
violently against the archbishop, who acted as the emissary
of the barons to explain their demands.^ When, however,
the barons marched to London, and were joined eagerly by
the citizens of the capital, and John's adherents became fewer
and fewer, the king was compeUed at length to accept the
Great Charter, which was solemnly ratified at Eunnymede,
June 15, 1215. The nation owed a vast debt of gratitude
to the clergy, both for efficient aid in obtaining this treaty
of liberties and for the skUfully worded pro-visions which
secured those liberties.^ The acuteness and firmness of
Archbishop Langton deserve the highest admiration. He
saw through the attempt made by the King and the Pope
to separate the cause of the clergy from that of the barons,
by offering to the clergy, first as from the King himself, and
then from the King ratified by the Pope,* a charter of eccle-
^ E. de Wendover, iu. 284. But if the Interdict began March 24,
1208, its duration was six years three months and five days. The
Waverley Annals put the remission of the Interdict on July 2, the
Dunstable Annals on July 3. — Ann. Monast. , u. 281 ; iii 43.
2 E. de Wendover, ui. 298. 3 gee Stubbs, Const Eist, i. 531.
* Issued first, November 21, 1214 ; secondly, January 15, 1215.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 311
siastical liberties which might easily have been accepted by
one less able or more selfish. This charter declared that
elections to Sees and abbacies should be absolutely free ;
but it contained a qualifying clause, " Salva nobis et hseredi-
bus nostris custodia ecclesiarum et monasteriorum vacantium
qusB ad nos pertinent."^ Now, by the twelfth Constitution of
Clarendon it had been enacted, " Cum vaoaverit archiepisco-
patus vel episcopatus vel abbatia vel prioratus de dominio
regis, debet esse inmanu ipsius, et inde percipietomnesreditus
et exitus sicut dominicos."^ It is therefore probable that the
qualtfying clause in the ecclesiastical charter was meant to re
tain this royal right ; but the charter of Henry I., which the
archbishop had published, spoke very differently. Its word's
were — " Sanctam Dei ecclesiam imprimis liberam facio, ita
quod nee vendam nee ad firmam ponam, nee mortuo archi
episcopo sive episcopo sive abbate aliquid accipiam de
dominio ecclesise, vel de hominibus ejus, donee successor in
earn ingrediatur." ^ The archbishop did not consider that
the concession here made was sufficiently expressed in the
ecclesiastical charter, and he accordingly procured a more
distinct enunciation of it to be inserted in the Great Charter.
This provides, " Quod Anglicana ecclesia libera sit, et habeat
jura sua Integra, et libertates suas illsesas ; et libertatem elec-
tionum, quae maxima et magis necessaria reputatur ecclesiee
Anghcanse nos observabimus, et ab heredibus nostris in
perpetuum bon4 fide volumus observari." * It is true that
these words do not contain, as distinctly as those of Henry's
charter, the provision about the vacant preferments ; but,
on the other hand, they do not contain the qualifying clause
recognising the king's rights, and the expression " jura sua
Integra " seemsj^ give a full margin for the Church to claim
this riglit-^'>-°'''^oping its revenues from the royal grasp.
8. 'iii„ evil king, having been compelled to grant justice
and liberty to his subjects, at once set himself to endeavour
to overthrow and retract what he had just before solemnly
conceded. With a view to this he applied to his suzerain,
the Pope, desiring to obtain a dispensation from his pro
mises. At Eome such dispensations have always been
1 Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 280. ^ Ib.,y. 133.
3 lb., p. 97. * Il>., P- 288.

312 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap. xvii.
easily procurable when they suited the policy of the Pope.
Innocent absolved John from his promises, annulled Magna
Charta,and when the barons refused to surrender their hard-
won gains, excommunicated them — first generally, and after
wards by name.^ The king, who went raging through the
country, attended by bands of cut-throat mercenaries, acting
like a fiend in human shape in his rapine and cruelty, was
his " beloved son in Christ," and the archbishop and the
bishops were severely rated for encouraging resistance
against so holy a person. "In what a fashion do you
bishops defend the patrimony of the Eoman Church !
Where is your support of those who have assumed the
Cross 1 Where is your opposition to those who strive to
destroy the image of the crucified ? Ye are worse than the
Saracens, inasmuch as ye try to drive from his kingdom
one of whom there was good hope that he would succour
the Holy Land." ^ The archbishop and bishops are bid to
publish everywhere the sentence of excommunication against
the barons. This order the noble-hearted Primate refused
to obey. With him were all the bishops except Peter des
Eoches, bishop of Winchester, a foreigner, who was acting
as chancellor ; and Walter Gray, bishop of Hereford, an
illiterate man, who was scheming to obtain the archbishop
ric of York. That the Primate should venture to take this
stand against both Pope and King shows the calm courage
which possessed him, and raises him high in the scale of
great English prelates. The Pope was furiously indignant,
and ordered his suspension to be pronounced. It was pro
nounced just as he was setting foot on board to attend the
Lateran CouncU.^ It was afterwards approved and ratified
at Eome.* The mean revenge was also taken against him
of not allowing his brother Simon, though elected by the
York chapter, to succeed to the See.
9. The horrors which England suffered during the last
year of the reign of John, and which more than justified
1 E. de Wendover, iii. 322, 323, 336, 353. = lb., iii. 337.
3 lb., iii. 340.
* lb., p. 345. The suspension was afterwai'ds taken off ou his
undertaking not to return to England until the king and the barons
were reconciled. — Wendover, iii. 366.

1218-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 313
the appeal to the French prince, have probably never been
surpassed. The clergy are said to have been especially
sufferers, as their sympathy with the barons was well known,
though their fear of pope and king, and the absence of their
leader, hindered them from taking an open part. " The
priests, standing at the very altars, holding the emblem of
the cross of the Lord in their hands, shining in their
sacred vestments, were continually seized, tortured, robbed,
wounded ; nor was there bishop, priest, or Levite present to
pour oil or wine into their wounds." ''- Yet these proceed
ings were upheld by the Pope, and by the Legate, who further
occupied himself in making some special exactions for his
o-wn peculiar profit.^ Matthew Paris might well make the
oppressed people of England exclaim — "Woe to thee, John !
last of kings, abomination of the nobles of England ; thou
of sad memory for aU future ages, like the tail of the ser
pent which draws half of the stars from heaven ! Thou
wert free, but thou hast made thyself a vassal of slavery,
and hast involved thy most noble land with thee in the
charter of slavery ! And what of thee, 0 Pope ! who
oughtest to shine as an example to the whole world as the
father of sanctity, the glass of piety, the defender of justice,
the guardian of truth — dost thou defend such an one, that
in the gulf of Eoman avarice all things may be sunk ? Thy
doings and thine excuses for them are thine accusation
before God."^ The death of the evil king at Newark
(October 19, 1216) caused a momentary feeling of relief
throughout the land.
10. But though the evil king was dead, the effects of
his mischievous policy remained. The new king was a
young boy. The French seemed to be firmly established in
the land, and were not willing to forego- the opportunity
which they appeared to possess of subjugating it. The
Pope, who had inflicted such miseries upon England, had
died before the wicked king whom he supported, but men
could see no probability of his policy being reversed. The
archbishop was absent. The Church lay prostrate, spoiled,
pUlaged, and oppressed ; its interests seemed to be the last
1 E. de Wendover, iu. 351. ^ lb., iu. 379.
3 Matt. Paris, Hist. Maj., p. 278 (ed. Wats).

314 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap.xvii.
thing thought of William MarshaU, Earl of Pembroke,
was appointed guardian of the king and the realm, and
with him were associated the Legate, and Peter des Eoches,
bishop of Winchester. The Great Charter was re-issued.
All men of influence flocked to the national side. The
defeat of Louis and the French soon followed A treaty
made at Lambeth (September 11, ] 2 1 7) provided an am
nesty for those who had taken part -with the French. Only
the clergy who had supported the barons against the King
and the Pope were left to the tender mercies of the Legate.-'
Many of these were deposed from their benefices ; ^ many
were heavily fined. The bishop of Lincoln, who was abroad,
had to pay a fine of 1000 marks to the Pope, and 100 to
the Legate, before he was allowed to return to his diocese.
The churches had everywhere been miserably plundered ;
in the eastern counties, in Cambridgeshire, in Lincolnshire,
the spoliation was excessive. After the great victory over
the French in Lincoln, the churches were treated as though
they were under a curse, and robbed without scruple. The
cathedral church, then stUl unfinished, did not escape ; and
the precentor, Geoffrey of Deeping, is said to have lost
11,000 marks of moneys belonging to the Church.^
11. It was some consolation to the clergy to have their
minds drawn off from the sad and troubled state of affairs
which oppressed them, by reviving the memories of the
great Churchmen who had gone to their rest. This was
the era of several important "translations." In 1218 the
remains of the famous English bishop Wulfstan, than whom
no man deserved better the honour of sainthood, were trans
lated, with all solemnity and pomp, into the new cathedral
church of Worcester, which was consecrated the same day
(June 16), in the'presence of the juvenile king and a large
body of the nobUity, by SUvester, bishop of Worcester,
assisted by ten other prelates, seventeen abbots of important
monasteries, many others of lesser note, and a large body
of clergy.* Two years later (1220), the canonisation of
Hugh of Lincoln was decreed by the Pope, and his remains
^ Ann. de Dunstaplid,, Ann. Monast,, ui. 51. ^ Ib.
' E. de Wendover, iv. 25.
* Ann. de Wigorn., Ann, Monast., iv. 409.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 315
were translated from his first tomb before the altar of St.
John the Baptist, to a place more convenient for the accom
modation of the large crowds of worshippers in the enlarged
chapel.^ But both these events were thrown into the shade
by the more magnificent ceremony of the translation of St.
Thomas of Canterbury, which took place July 7, 1220.
Archbishop Stephen Langton had returned in May, and
had been enthusiastically received. Ha-ving fixed the day
for the august ceremony of the translation of the popular
martyr, he proceeded to make energetic preparations for it.
He borrowed large sums of money, and with them he erected
a temporary palace to accommodate the guests, a palace of
so fair and beautiful an appearance that, says the chronicler,
"we believe that none such was ever seen since the days
of Solomon." ^ At the ceremony were present twenty-four
archbishops and bishops, English and foreign. The Arch
bishop of Eheims said high mass, and he also had dedicated
on the previous day the altar erected before the new shrine.
This shrine was supported on stonework about six feet high
— a gorgeous work of gold and silver and precious stones.^
To this shrine the iron coffin containing the bones of the
saint was solemnly borne, in the presence of the young king
and all the notables of the land. A feast followed, so mag
nificent in its viands and liquors, and so splendidly served
with vessels of gold and sUver and precious hangings, that
such was never seen since the days of King Ahasuerus.*
The archbishop published an indulgence of two years to all
who should visit the shrine within the next fourteen days.
In the following year he set forth a sermon or tractate on
the translation, from the tone of which it may be inferred
that a good deal of uproarious revelry took place at the
great festival.^
12. Having thus done sufficient honour to the memory
of his great predecessor, the archbishop applied his atteii-
1 E. de Wendover, iv. 64 ; Chronicon Thomce Wykes, Ann, Monast,
iv. 61. A second and more magnificent translation of St. Hugh took
place in 1280, when his shrine was erected in the Angels' Choir then
newly constructed. ' Ann. de Dumstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 58.
3 Hook's Lives of Archbishops, u. 746. ^ Ann. de Dunstaplid, u, s,
* Printed in GUes's Vitce St Thomce, ii. 269.

316 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap.xvii.
tion to the reformation of the many scandals and defects
existing in the National Church. At an important councU
summoned at Oxford in the year 1222, a large number of
canons or constitutions were passed, regulating in a very
minute way the duties of the clergy and the fittings of the
churches, and thus providing for the restoration of decent
•and reverent worship.^ One of the most important matters
touched by these Constitutions was the regulation of -vicar
ages. These had been, by a wholesome enactment of the
third Lateran Council (1215), ordered to be erected in aU
churches held by monasteries, that the people might not
be dependent on the chance ministrations of one of the
monks, but might have a pastor of their o-wn, paid from
their own tithes and offerings. Some of the bishops had
already begun to act vigorously in this matter. Thus under
the year 1220, we have, in the Annals of Dunstable Priory,
an account of five vicarages settled in the churches belong
ing to the monastery, by Hugh de WeUs, bishop of Lincohi.^
The value of all these -vicarages is about five marks each,
as settled by the Oxford Council. The proportion which
the vicar's stipend bears to the whole revenues of the
Church is about one-third. The curious constitution enacted
by the councU, that priests are not to keep concubines openly
in their parsonages, nor to visit them openly, is not to be
interpreted as giving permission to them to do this pri
vately, but seems to imply a general prevalence of clerical
matrimony ; the most that is now aimed at being that
scandal may be avoided. A further recognition of the
marriage of the clergy took place in 1225, when a canon
was published allowing the -wives of clergy to be admitted
to the sacraments of the Church, if they expressed penitence.'
13. While the archbishop was endeavouring to reform
the sadly disturbed Church of England by councUs and
constitutions, another agency of a more efficient character
was at work to infuse new energy into it, and to heal some
of the wounds which it had received. The beginning of
^ An abstract of the Constitutions of the CouncU of Oxford wiU be
found in Notes and lUustrations to this Chapter.
^ Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 59.
'' E. de Wendover, iv. 104.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 3I7
the thirteenth century is remarkable for the appearance of
a new power in the Church, which, wisely utilised by the
talent of Pope Innocent III., did very much for its help and
profit. Dominic, a noble Spaniard, and Francis, son of a
merchant at Assisi, struck by the miserable condition in
which Christians were living, the almost entire faUure of
instruction from the clergy, and the neglected state of the
poor and suffering, nearly coincidently projected two great
schemes of missionary enterprise. The former sought to
heal the wounds of the Church by establishing a great
order of preachers ; the latter, by organising a staff of
devoted workers, who should penetrate among the sick and
suffering, and bring help to their bodUy wants. A won
derful success attended both efforts. The preaching bro
thers, Dominicans or Black Friars, were soon welcomed as
Christian orators throughout the Christian world. The
Minorite brethren (less than the least), also known as Fran
ciscans and Grey Friars, everywhere carried the tenderest
offices of charity and love. Devoted to poverty, not aUowed
to erect any but the meanest buildings, nor even to possess
books, these orders in their first enthusiasm worked a revival
in Christendom. Many men of the noblest blood joined
them, and while the monks in their splendid monasteries,
living merely for themselves, were regarded with jealousy
or contempt, the friars were welcomed everywhere as the
benefactors of their fellow - creatures. The Dominicans
appear to have reached England about 1219, and the
Franciscans about five years later.^ They landed at Dover,
being nine in number, and soon obtained settlements in
London, Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton, and Lincoln.
They quickly became one of the chief powers in the Church
of England. Other orders followed the two first and most
famous, of which the Austins and Carmelites were the chief
But the direction given to these bodies by their first found
ers was not followed up. The Franciscans, though ordered
not to possess books, became famous for their learning.
' A fuU and most interesting account of their arrival and early
labours is contained in a tract by Thomas Eccleston, De Adventu
Minorum, which has been published with an admirable introductory
sketch by Mr. Brewer (EoUs Series).

318 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap. xvii
They were preachers also, like the Dominicans. All the
orders, enriched by the alms of the faithful, soon began to
erect costly buildings and to possess estates. They rudely
interfered with the work of the parish priest, and often
quite carried away his people from him by their greater
popularity both for sermons and confessions. Leaning
directly upon Eome, and always sure of support there, they
feared not to enter the lists against bishops, priests, or even
monks, with which latter they were generally on very bad
terms. Eventually they became the most powerful agency
for denationalising the Church of England, and upholding
the tyranny of Eome. But the grievous corruption which
overwhelmed them — their devotion to money-getting even
by the most discreditable means — contributed, in the end,
to aid powerfully the reaction against their great supporter
the Pope.^ 14. The year 1226 is notable in English Church history
as having witnessed the first systematic attempt of the
Pope to use the benefices of the English Church as a source
of revenue for himself and his court. This was an evil fruit
produced by the base act of surrender of which John was
guilty. Like other acts of tyranny, however, it awakened
a vigorous opposition, and served to help forward that
systematic opposition to Eome which was steadUy growing
in England throughout this century. At the octaves of
the Epiphany (1226) there was a large councU gathered at
Westminster of prelates and laymen to hear (as the
chronicler puts it) the " commands of the lord Pope " as
lately brought over by the Legate Otho. The king was
not able to be present, as he had been seized with violent
illness at Marlborough, and this turned out a fortunate
circumstance. For the commands of the lord Pope were
nothing less than a definite demand that two prebends in
each cathedral church and two monks' portions in each
monastery should be permanently assigned to the Eoman
Church. The ground on which the demand is made is re
markable for its candour. The Eoman Church, the Pope
^ The great subject of the numerous ecclesiastical satirists of the
fourteenth century is the Friars. See especially Piers Plowman and
Mr. Wright's volume of Satirical Songs. See also Chapter XXIV.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTIOW AGAINST EOME. 319
alleged, had got a very bad reputation for its covetousness,
and for exacting bribes from every suitor in its courts.
These accusations were true, but the cause of them was
the poverty of the Church, and therefore all faithful
persons should make it their business to remove this
poverty. Accordingly, the prebends and monks' portions
were demanded.^ The prelates assembled were somewhat
overwhelmed by this demand, but after consulting together
they found a convenient answer. The king, they said,
and many leading prelates were absent ; in their absence no
answer could be given. Otho, thus baffied, adjourned the
Synod to mid-Lent, when he hoped for better success, but
the prelates would not accept the prorogation, or under
take to assemble at that time, being incompetent, as they
said, to act. In the meantime Archbishop Langton deter
mined to try a counter-movement. He represented at
Eome that Otho, a foreigner, was not likely to succeed in so
delicate a business as that which had been entrusted to
him. The Pope, taking this view, immediately recalled
Otho, who, much to his dismay, when he had arrived at
Northampton, hoping to finish his commission, received the
papal letters ordering his immediate return. The arch
bishop was then charged to negotiate the matter for the
Pope. But the interests of the English Church were safe
in the hands of Langton. He called together the prelates
at Westminster after Easter, and having read the Pope's
letters, there arose a general laugh in the assembly at the
ingenuous manner in which the Pope confessed the greedi
ness of his own court. The answer given was admirable
for its irony. " These matters," said the king and Enghsh
prelates, " belong to the whole of Christendom. We are
a little Church in the corner of the world. When other
parts of the Church have recognised their obligations in a
practical form, we shall not be found lacking." ^ It was
well kno-wn to all those present that a similar demand made
by the Pope on the Church of France had just been re
jected with indignation.
15. But though the formal cession to the Pope of
definite English benefices was rejected somewhat con-
1 E. de Wendover, iv. 115. ^ II,, iv. 124.

320 THE BEGINNING OP [ohap. xvii.
temptuously by the English Church, the opportunities of
his position nevertheless enabled the Pope to prey heavUy
on the revenues of England. When the Church suffered
the great loss of Archbishop Stephen Langton — a man who
throughout his career had been of most signal service to
his Church and nation — the monks of Canterbury, being
allowed to proceed to a free election, abused their privUege
by electing an obscure monk of ill repute named Walter
de Hemisham.^ The suffragan bishops had by no means
abandoned their claim of a right to concur in the election
of the Primate, and they moved the king to refuse to accept
this election, in which they had not been consulted. The
king readily agreed, and, following the ill-precedents of the
last election, adopted the policy of raising an obstacle
against Walter by causing him to be opposed at Eome.
The Pope, whose predecessor Honorius had been so lately
foiled in his project for obtaining English benefices, was
not likely to be very complaisant. It was necessary, there
fore, to offer him a huge bribe before his consent could be
obtained. Upon the condition of his absolutely rejecting
Walter and accepting and confirming the nominee of the
king and bishops — Eichard Grant (or Le Grand), Chancellor
of Lincoln — the king covenanted to give the Pope a tenth
of all the revenue of England both lay and clerical — an
income-tax of two shillings in the pound. For this enor
mous bribe, Eichard was accepted, and consecrated at Can
terbury. He was, says Wendover, "given to the Church,
not elected ;" ^ but he can scarcely be regarded as simply
intruded by the Pope, inasmuch as he was expressly taken
on the nomination of the king and bishops, though with
out any formal election.
16. The king had obtained from the Pope the arch
bishop he desired. It now remained to be seen how he would
bring about the fulfilment of his promise to the Pope of
paying to him the tenth of all the revenues of his subjects.
Henry had lately signalised his coming of age by some very
' He was utterly ignorant, as was proved by his examination at
Eome. His father had been hanged for felony. He himself had
corrupted a nun, and had children by her. — Wendover, iv. 170.
2 lb., iv. 186.

1213-1253.] THE. EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 321
high-handed and unjust exactions of money, so that the
proposal of giving a tenth to the Pope was not likely to be
received with much satisfaction. 'The barons indeed re
fused utterly to entertain the notion. They would give no
tenths, they said. Their baronies and possessions were no
fiefs of the Eoman Church. What claim had the Pope upon
them 1 ^ But the bishops, abbots, and the rest of the clergy
could not so easily dispose of the claim. Having both
Pope and King against them, it was hard for them to resist.
They deliberated long and murmured loudly, but at last,
through fear of the dread censure of the Church, they
yielded.^ Gregory IX. was at this time engaged in a
scandalous war with the Emperor. The Church of Eng
land was to be pUlaged to carry on his martial projects, and
pillaged it was without mercy. Stephen, the agent em
ployed by the Pope, insisted on the tenth being paid on the
whole gross revenue, without any of the deductions usually
allowed. Armed with letters authorising him to excom
municate or interdict as he pleased, the papal envoy not
only exacted an unheard-of amount, but exacted it to be
paid -without any delay, so that the unhappy clergy had to
borrow of the usurers to meet his demands. " So villanous
¦an exacter was be," says Wendover, "that he even
compelled every one to pay him the price of the tenth
of the crops which were to ripen in the autumn, and
which were yet only in the growing grass. The prelates
had to seU their chahces, flagons, relic-cases, and the other
sacred vessels of the altar, or to put them in pledge. The
whole land was fuU of maledictions, men swearing that of
such an exaction no good fruit could come." ' A tribe of
usurers and money-lenders followed in the footsteps of the
papal envoy, and now was first heard in England that
odious -word Caursins, -which came to be applied to the
Italian harpies, who, by ruinous usury, long preyed upon
the vitals of the English Church.*
17. In addition to the intolerable exaction of subsidies,
the Church of England was now suffering from another
1 E. de Wendover, iv. 201. "^ Ib. ^ Ib. 202.
^ Matt. Paris, Hist Maj. p. 362 (ed. Wats). The name is derived
from a union of causantes, making a claim, and ursini, acting like bears.
Y

322 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
special grievance proceeding from Eome. Not only did
the Pope constantly intrude foreign ecclesiastics into bene
fices, but he actually issued inhibitions to bishops and
other patrons of benefices to forbid their appointing to
any preferment until five Eomans (the names not even
being mentioned) had been provided for at the rate of 100
marks each.^ These oppressions soon provoked a spirited
resistance. As there was no help to be found in the king
and the law, the sufferers proceeded to take the matter
into their own hands. In the year 1231 mysterious
letters began to be handed about among influential laymen
and monasteries, whose cause was the same, purporting to
come from the common council, or from the council of the
great men, " who would sooner die than be ruined by the
Eomans." These letters were sealed with a device repre
senting two swords, with the legend Ecce duo gladii. Soon,
all over the country, and at a great many different points
at once, the foreign ecclesiastics at England, or their
farmers, found with dismay their full barns invaded by
parties of strange men in masks, who, after having emptied
the barns, opened a market and sold the corn cheap to the
poor. When the authorities interfered, the masks showed
what they called the king's letters patent, which being
accepted as good warrant, probably without much inquiry
as to how they were come by,^ enabled the unknown
spoilers to proceed quietly and systematically in their
work. The men in disguise obtained the name of Ley)y-
thiel, from the name of their leader WUham Witham or
William the Witherer (Scatterer), but whose real name
was Sir Eobert de Twenge.^ They were said not to
exceed eighty in number, but so well were their plans
laid and their smaU forces distributed, that they kept the
foreign incumbents throughout England in a state, of abject
fear and terror. The Pope of course soon interfered. He
addressed a pompous letter to the Archbishop of York and
the other prelates of England, complaining of their apathy;
' Wendover, iv. 229.
¦ lb,, iv. 237. There is little doubt that the Justiciary Hubert
de Burgh was secretly pri-vy to these proceedings, and encouraged
them. ' lb,, iv. 240,

1213-1263.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 323
declaring that one of his officers had been torn in pieces
and another almost kUled ; asserting that he had in fact
used great leniency towards the English Church by allow
ing a patron to present as he pleased after the death of a
foreign incumbent ; and calling upon them to use freely the
censures of the Church against these ill-doers. ^ Meantime
the Eoman ecclesiastics in England lived in a state of
abject terror. Occasionally one of them (as Cincius, a
canon of St. Paul's) was seized and robbed,^ but for the
most part they shut themselves up carefully until the
Pope's menaces should have caused the danger to pass
away. As for the leader of the Lewythiel, Sir Eobert de
Twenge, he soon afterwards boldly declared himself, and
ha-ving a distinct grievance, even under the Pope's arrange
ments, inasmuch as two foreign incumbents in succession
had been intruded on his church at Lytham, he went to
Eome and obtained redress.
18. Not content with spoiling the English Church of
its revenues, and filling its benefices with aliens, the Pope
now assumed and exercised the power of nominating its
Primate. After the death of Eichard in 1231^ the Canter
bury monks elected the chancellor Ealph de Neville. He
was known at Eome to be opposed to papal interests, and
so was rejected by the Pope on the ground of his being
"a court divine and ilhterate."* Again the monks elected
their prior John. He was severely examined at Eome,
but stood the test well. However, he did not satisfy the
Pope's requirements, and he was induced to resign on
account of his age and too great "simplicity."^ A third
election was made by the monks in 1233 of John Blundel.
He was accused of simony and holding a plurality of bene
fices, and his election also was declared void.^ Then the
Pope, alleging that he could not allow so important a
' Annal. de Burton, Ann. Monast, i. 239.
2 E. de Wendover, iv. 231.
2 Eichard Wethershed, or Eichard le Grand (Grant), appears to
have been completely devoted to Eome. He is said by some to have
held a councU in England ; but this appears to be an error. He only
applied at Eome for certain constitutions. — E. de Wendover, iv. 226.
* K. de Wendover, iv. 227. « lb,, iv. 243. « lb,, iv. 267.

324 THE BEGINNING OF [chap, xvii,
church to be any longer without a pastor, ordered the
monks who were at Eome to elect Edmund, Canon of
Salisbury. They were constrained to obey, though they
determined not to receive him or any other except the
monastery should agree to the choice.^ Edmund was
therefore completely the nominee of the Pope, the monks
having exercised no free choice. The Pope sent him the
pall, and thus, though by an unjustifiable exercise of power,
gave to the Church of England an excellent and devoted
Primate — a worthy successor of Stephen Langton, who had
been intruded on the Churcll by a similar stretch of papal
power. 19. About this time the Pope thought fit to order a
general visitation of monasteries. Those which belonged
immediately to the care of the Eoman See and were ex
empt from diocesan supervision, as the Cistercians and
Premonstratensians, were to be visited by commissioners
specially appointed by the Pope. Those, the care of which
was in the hands of the bishop of the diocese, as the Bene
dictines, were to be visited by the bishop. The Pope
declares that it has come to his ears that the monasteries
in the province of Canterbury are full of great abuses, both
in temporals and spirituals, that the evil living and care
lessness of their inmates is notorious, ^ and not desiring to
be partaker in their sins, he directs a strict visitation of
all houses of monks, canons, and nuns, and an unsparing
punishment of all evil-doers. The monkish historian who
records the event, and to whom all such visitations were
an utter abomination, declares that the special -visitors
appointed by the Pope performed then work with great
cruelty and harshness ; and of the visitation generally he
says that it did a great deal more harm than good, inas
much as before this there had been a uniformity in observ
ing the rule of St. Benedict, but now, by the new con
stitutions made by the visitors, no two monasteries were
alike in their way of living. ^
1 E. de Wendover, iv. 267.
2 Compare with this the BuU of Innocent VIII. in the fifteenth
century (1479). See Chap. XXIV.
* E. de Wendover, iv. 258, 260 ; Ann. de Burton, Ann, Monast,,i. 243.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 325
20. In the year 1235 there succeeded to the episcopate
one who was destined to do more than any man of his day
in carrying out the reforms thus commanded by the Pope
— one who continued during the eighteen years of his
episcopate to hold by far the foremost position among the
prelates of the English Church. This was Eobert, sur
named from his personal pecuharity, Grosseteste — by birth
a Suffolk peasant, but long known as the most eminent
teacher in the University of Oxford — a man profoundly
skUled in aU the wisdom of his day, both in physics and
theology. Grosseteste had long been connected with the
church of Lincoln, having been promoted by Bishop Hugh
de Wells to various offices in it. At ' the time of his
election he was archdeacon of Leicester. He was, says
Matthew Paris, " a man even too learned, and from his
very early years educated in the schools."-"- He had been
selected by the Franciscans as their teacher at Oxford, and
to them and to the Dominicans he was ardently attached.
To the Friars he looked for his instruments in the reform
ation of the Church which he designed, and he found them
at first very effective and valuable instruments. Bishop
Grosseteste entered upon his work when the oppressions
and exactions of Eome were pressing heavUy upon the
National Church. He saw the evil increase and become
intensified, and for a long time he quietly acquiesced in
and even upheld it. At length the mischief and ruin of
the Eoman intrusions became too strong for him to bear.
He recoUed against Eome with startling force and energy,
and uttered -anathemas against her abuses, which mark
most strongly the height which the reaction against the
papal pretensions had reached by the middle of the
thirteenth century.
21. Of the state of the Church in England at this period
Matthew Paris draws a most melancholy picture. " The
fire of faith had grown so cold, that it was almost reduced
^ Matt. Paris, Hist Maj,, p. 409 (ed. Wats). We now take leave
of Eoger de Wendover as an authority, whose narrative up to this
point was adopted by Matthew Paris with some small additions and
alterations. For the next thirty years we have the fuU, rich, and
spirited narrative of Matthew Paris.

326 THE BEGINNING OF [chap, xvii-
to ashes with scarce a spark in them. Simony was perpe
trated without a blush, usurers plied their trade everywhere.
Charity was dead, ecclesiastical liberty had wasted away,
religion was trodden under foot. The daughter of sin was
like a shameless harlot. Every day persons, the most con
temptible and illiterate, armed with Eoman bulls, exacted by
threats the revenues left by holy fathers for religious uses.
If any appealed, they procured their excommunication.
Where formerly there were noble and well-mannered clerks
to practise hospitality and to relieve the poor, there low
bred churls, without polish but full of craft, the farmers of
the Eomans, pillaged everything to send to their masters
in foreign lands, -who lived luxuriously on the patrimony of
the Crucified One. Better would it be to die than to be
forced to witness the evil brought upon our nation and upon
the saints of God." ^
22. It was when men's minds were in this state — full
of heaviness for the manifold evils pressing upon the Church
— that another special Legate appeared in England. His
coming was hailed with universal anger and indignation.
Archbishop Edmund boldly reproved the king for thus
secretly introducing one who was nothing less than the
enemy of the Church and country,^ and whose coming
was only desired by the king to assist him to prey upon
the revenues of his subjects. But Henry heeded not the
reproof He had his own ends to serve in bringing the
Legate over, and a crowd of hungry and shameless prelates,
who were eagerly looking for indulgences and benefits from
the Pope's plenipotentiary, loaded him with costly gifts and
flattery. The Legate is said to have shown some modera
tion, and to have accepted only a part of the good things
pressed upon him.^ But he affected a royal state, and
having issued his orders for a general councU of the English
Church, he directed that a high throne should be buUt for
himself at the west end of St. Paul's, that he might preside
like a monarch among his subjects.*
23. It was not among an over - friendly assemblage,
either of laymen or clerks, that the Legate Otho took his
1 Matt. Paris, Hist Maj., p. 438. 2 lb., p. 440.
3 /i., pp. 443, 446. ^ 16., p. 446.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 327
presidential chair in St. Paul's on the morrow of the octave
of St. Martin (November 19, 1237), to hold the Council of
London. •*¦ A fearful storm raged around. The looks of
the barons were so menacing, that the Legate had obtained a
guard of two hundred men-at-arms from the king. He came
in at the early dawn, and having vested himself in his surplice
and choral cope, proceeded to his throne, the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York, with a solemn procession of cross-
bearers and thurifers preceding him. The council was
then opened by the usual religious forms, and after a revival
of the old dispute between the two Primates, which the
Legate did his best to quiet, the business of the meeting
was commenced. Upon the promulgation of the canon
passed by the Lateran Council against pluralities, Walter
de Cantilupe, bishop of Worcester, rose, and laying aside
his mitre, addressed the Legate. It would, he said, be very
hard on old men who had held benefices for many years,
and had exercised good hospitality, to take their benefices
away and to reduce them to poverty. As for the young,
no doubt they would resist by force of arms such a spolia
tion. He would therefore counsel the Legate to withdraw
this injunction.^ The Legate, seeing that the assembly went
with the speaker, declared that if the bishops were of such
a mind the matter might be referred to the Pope. He then
proceeded to promulgate his Constitutions.^
24. The anger excited against the Legate and the
excitement produced by his attempt to put down pluralities
continued to increase. It was felt to be somewhat more
than bearable that Eome, which conferred without scruple
English benefices upon foreigners who never visited their
parishes, should arbitrarUy interfere to prevent English
^ The CouncU opened on this day, but the Legate did not take his
seat tiU the day foUowing.
^ Matt. Paris, p. 448. In enforcing the Lateran canons as to
pluraUties and secular employment of clergy, it was really intended
not to put a stop to these things, but to make a dispensation for them
necessary, thus filling the coffers of Eome. See Dr. Hook, Lives qf
Archbishops, vol. iU. c. ui.
' An abstract of these wiU be found in Notes and Illustrations to
this Chapter

328 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
incumbents, who, at any rate, were within reach of their
cures, holding more benefices than one. It was discerned
clearly enough that it was not a zeal for the well-being of
the Church which prompted this policy, but the desire either
to obtain the fees for granting a dispensation, or to dispos
sess incumbents from that which they had long enjoyed, in
order that there might be the more to confer on the aliens.
The Pope hearing of the excitement which prevailed, and
fearing for the safety of his Legate, sent an order to him
to return to Eome. But Cardinal Otho, who found England,
in spite of the menaces of his opponents, a profitable field
of labour, and had the zealous support of the king, who
desired his aid against his subjects, contrived to persuade
the Pope that it was better that he should remain.^ Pos
sibly he may have somewhat repented of his boldness
when, soon afterwards, the riot took place at Oxford,^ which
caused him to escape secretly, and to ride in deadly terror
of his life to the king. The vindictive proceedings in which
he indulged against the Oxford students, show his terror
and his anger. But the students found a bold protector in
the person of their diocesan, who had long been their chan
cellor, Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. He appeared before
King and Legate when they were taking counsel as to what
punishment should be exacted from the students, and de
manded the liberation of those who had been imprisoned,
threatening to excommunicate all who had laid hands on
them. Through his intrepid defence the students who had
been seized were given up to him.^
25. About this time the discontent of the clergy, and
their angry feeling towards the King for at once mulcting
them in their revenues and upholding the oppressions of
Eome against them — while he did not hesitate to invade
their most cherished privileges, to cause them to plead in
^ Matt. Paris, p. 446.
^ The particulars are given in aU the chronicles (see Chron. Oseney
and Burton) and in Matt. Paris. The students came to Oseney to salute
the Legate, but were treated with insolence by his retinue, and one of
their number shot accidentally the master cook, who was a near rektive
of the Legate. Otho fled to the tower of the abbey, and stood a sort of
siege, escaping by night. s Ann, Monast., i. 254.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 329
secular courts, and to determine matters purely ecclesiastical
by decisions of temporal judges — found vent in a long paper
of grievances, presented to the King hy the archbishops and
bishops. This specifies minutely various points in which
ecclesiastical immunity had been interfered with.-' It
would seem as though the King had the unhappy faculty
of trampling upon the rights of all his subjects, whether
lay or clerical, and of exciting universal discontent. Thus,
though professing the deepest devotion to the Church, and
desiring to be called the most pious king in Christendom,
he always had the clergy of the land against him, and the
presence of a Legate became a necessity for him, to restrain
by the dreaded power of Eome their bold remonstrances.
Henry was, in fact, altogether un-English. He loved
foreigners, and his constant endeavour was to thrust them
into the high places of both Church and State. The inde
cent and undignified struggle which he carried on for five
years against the Chapter of Winchester, in endeavouring
to thrust upon them the queen's uncle, William of Savoy,
became notorious throughout Europe.^ In this the King
was foUed, mainly through the intrepid action of Bishop
Grosseteste, who was destined on many occasions to head
a successful resistance to his encroachments.^ The spirit
of opposition developed towards the King stimulated and
increased that felt towards the Legate and his demands.
The two were regarded as the double-headed enemy of the
clergy, and their assaults evoked a spirit which often
attained its end. Thus, in the year 1239, a demand
made on the prelates of England assembled in London
at the end of July, that they should pay a new tax
to the Legate by way of procurations, was energetically
rejected. The answer made was, that " they would bear
these things no longer. Let him support you who has
sent you here without any demand on our part." * In the
same spirit that dictated this curt refusal, the barons of
' Printed in Burton Annuls, Ann. Monast, i. 254, sq.
2 Matt. Paris, p. 617.
2 As notably in the case of John Mansel, promoted by the king to
the prebend of Thame, but rejected by the bishop. See Epist R.
Grosseteste (ed. Luard), cu. * Matt. Paris, pp. 488, 515.

330 THE BEGINNING OF [chap, xvii
England at this time sent letters to Eome by the hand of
the bold Eobert de Twenge, who, though he was known
to have been the leader of the Lewythiel, did not fear to
approach the Pope whom he had so much angered. The
letters asserted that it had been the custom in England
from time immemorial, that, on a vacancy occurring in a
church the patrons of the church should present a fitting
clerk to the bishop, who was bound to admit him; but now,
say they, " such adversity has fallen upon us by your con
nivance, that when rectors of churches die, your officers
everyvrhere present to the vacant churches which are in
our patronage, to the prejudice of our liberty and to the
eminent danger of our losing the right of patronage alto
gether ; although your own letters allow us to present after
a vacancy caused by a foreigner. The contrary to which
allowance is every day forced upon us." This was the case
with Sir Eobert de Twenge in his church of Lytham, and
the nobles pray that this injury may be redressed, and
that the evil custom of forcing foreign incumbents upon
churches may be abated. The Pope, seeing that the oppo
sition was becoming serious, -wrote a conciliatory reply. ¦¦-
There was, however, no real thought of relaxing the
burdens which were pressing so heavily upon the English
Church. The Legate continually demanded fresh contri
butions for his support ; the King used all sorts of
expedients for robbing the clergy. He kept benefices
in his hands, and absorbed the revenues; he seized on
the goods of dead Churchmen whenever there was any
indistinctness in their wills. He was ready to sanction
any oppression for a bribe.^ But the attitude of the
prelates and nobles became so menacing, that the King
himself now desired the Legate to withdraw from the
country. Otho refused, or at least delayed to do so.
He was stUl hungering for more spoils, and the clergy
were once again assailed for procurations.^ The Crusade
was made a source of profit. Any one who had taken
the vow might be absolved for a payment of money.
The Pope, engaged in his war with the Emperor, was
raging for more funds, and after all the exactions which
1 Matt. Paris, pp. 513, 514. ^ jj_^ p_ 524. 3 2J.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 331
had been perpetrated on the clergy, the Legate, at a
council assembled at Eeading, had the audacity to demand
a fifth part of the ecclesiastical revenue to enable the
Father of Christendom to carry on his campaigns.
This, at first, was indignantly refused. But the resisting
power of the Church, so long as the prelates acknow
ledged the right of the Pope to lord it over them, must
of necessity be feeble. With the King and the Pope
combined to play into each other's hands, the clergy
must needs in the end yield. Thus, when Archbishop
Edmund had procured from the Pope, as he thought, a
strong command to the King to desist from his evil practice
of keeping benefices vacant, and was beginning to believe
himself another St. Thomas,^ he suddenly found that the
Pope had played him false, revoked the command, and left
the King to spoil the Church as he pleased. The arch
bishop in despair gave up the struggle, and submitted with
out further resistance to the demand for a fifth; the rest of
the prelates, after his example, " allowing themselves to
glide into a similar ruin." ^ But in Eome there were no
bowels of compassion for the English Church. The great
ness of the sacrifice thus made by the clergy did not avail
to arrest the hand of the spoiler. "About that time,"
says Matthew Paris, " was made that most iniquitous
agreement between the Pope and the Eomans, that they
should have at their disposal all the benefices in England
for their sons and relatives, if they would strenuously assist
him against the Emperor. Soon afterwards the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury, received
his commands to provide for 300 Eomans out of the first
benefices which fell vacant, and they were to regard them
selves as suspended from all right of institution until that
number was competently provided for. Upon this a mighty
amazement possessed the hearts of those who heard of it,
and it was feared that one who dared such things, must be
drowned in the abyss of desperation." ^
26. The shock of this new piece of tyranny, was too
much for the archbishop. He had yielded with great
reluctance to the inordinate demand of the fifth. Before
' Matt. Paris, p. 527. ^ lb. " lb., p. 532.

332 THE BEGINNING OF [ohap. xvii.
he had recovered from this came this second and over
whelming blow. "Seeing," says the chronicler, "the
Church of England to be day by day more trodden under
foot, robbed of its possessions, despoiled of its liberties,
life became insupportable to him, and he could not endure
to see the evils which were upon the land. He applied to
the King for permission to depart, but could get no answer.
Harassed with all these trials, he went into exile, and,
passing over to France, he took up his abode at Pontigny,
where his predecessor, St. Thomas, had dwelt as an exile,
and there gave himself uninterruptedly to prayers and
fastings. "¦'- Of ascetic temperament, and of a texture of
mind rather contemplative than active,^ the archbishop was
not suited to contend with the manifold evUs of his day.
His principles and his heart were thoroughly national. He
upheld the rights of the Church as against an encroaching
King; but he also upheld the rights of the Church of
England as against a tyrannical Pope. Thus he had sup
port from neither side. Neither was there any efficient
help from his suffragans. Bishop Grosseteste was indeed
ready enough to support him as against encroachments of
the King, but the commands of the Pope were as yet to
him sacred, and it needed ten more years of oppression
and injustice before the bishop of Lincoln was driven to
revolt against the yoke, and to raise his powerful voice in
condemnation of the Papal iniquities.
27. The most unscrupulous means were now resorted
to by the Legate and the papal officers to obtain the pay
ment of the enormous tax of a fifth from the prelates,
abbots, and clergy of the English Church. The resistance
of the Primate had been overcome, and by his departure
1 Matt. Paris, p. 533.
' His Speculum Ecclesice is a treatise of the most ascetic character.
It does not e-vidence any considerable capacity. It was probably not
written, but finished and made known at Pontigny. Edmund's life
there was very short. He died before the close of the year 1240.
His great asceticism made him a saint in the popular estimation, both
in England and France, and his canonisation was demanded so violently,
that the Pope, though unwilling, was obliged to yield. See Hook,
Lives of Archbishops, iii. 224

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 333
the Church was left without a defender. The King con
temptuously refused his aid even in the case of the most
crying injustice.^ The necessity of the case drove the
clergy to use every means practicable to defend themselves.
The prelates objected to the purpose for which the money
was demanded, viz. war against the Emperor, which was a
cause of blood. They objected to its being demanded
under threats, contrary to ecclesiastical liberty. They
declared that, as they could not reach Eome except
through the Emperor's territories, the aiding in the war
against him would expose them to manifold dangers — that
their own land was exposed to perils which might require
all their means to meet them. The objections appear to
have been so skilfully urged that the Legate was unable to
answer them. So long as the prelates and clergy held
firmly together he could make no progress in his work.
But if any considerable section of the clergy could be made
to yield, then their example might be used with force
against the others. Accordingly he assailed the clergy of
Berkshire with his most insidious attacks, having probably
some reason to believe that he should find them more
compliant than their brethren. But if this was his project,
he was signaUy foUed in it. For his application to this
section of the clergy only availed to draw from them a
document in which the papal claims are calmly and
unanswerably refuted, and sentiments are expressed which
show in a most vivid and striking manner the point to
which the reaction against Eome had now reached.^ " The
Church of Eome," says the answer of the clergy, "has its
own proper patrimony, the administration of which belongs
to the lord Pope, and in a similar manner other churches
have theirs, from the gifts and concessions of kings and
nobles, which patrimony iu'no way is subject to tribute to
' See Matt. Paris, p. 534.
^ This paper is printed in Matt. Paris under the year 1240 as the
Answer of the Eectors of Berkshire. But in the Burton Annals it is
printed under the year 1244 as the answer of the English clergy gener
aUy. It may have been that it was first dra-wn up for the particular
section of the clergy of whom M. Paris speaks, and afterwards adopted
generaUy.

334 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
the Church of Eome. Hence prelates ought not to be
compelled to contribute out of their patrimony to the
Church of Eome. . . . Churches belong to the lord Pope
as regards care and attention, but not as regards dominion
and property. The Truth says, ' Thou art Peter,' reserv
ing to Himself the property, committing to him the care, as
the following words testify : — ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose,' not 'whatsoever thou
shalt seize or exact on the earth, shall be seized or exacted
in heaven.'" A number of special reasons against con
tributing are subjoined.^ Upon the report of this rebuff
being made to the Pope, he counselled the Legate to proceed
by more crafty ways. He was not to attempt to bend any
large body of the clergy assembled together, as their union
gave them strength and support, but he was to attack them
singly and separately, and endeavour, by honeyed words
and liberal promises, to overcome their resistance. The
clergy, finding themselves absolutely without support from
their natural protectors, were by this means in a great
measure induced to yield.^ It was -with profound satisfac
tion that at the beginning of the year 1241 the departure
of the Legate was reported. There remained not in the
land, says Matthew Paris, so much of money as he had
extorted from it. He had bestowed, according to his
pleasure, more than three hundred prebends, churches, and
good pieces of preferment. The kingdom lay like a vine
yard, exposed to the ravages of the wUd boar. He left the
church of Canterbury, and many other cathedral and con
ventual churches, in a miserable state of confusion. He
settled nothing, for he did not come to protect the sheep,
but to enrich himself from them, and he well deserved the
fate which awaited him, viz. that the spoU which he had
made in England should be sei'zed by the Emperor.^
28. On the death of Archbishop Edmund (November 16,
1240) the Canterbury monks were in no position to make
a fresh election. They were lying under a sentence of
excommunication, inflicted upon them by the late arch
bishop for fraudulent dealing with documents. Having
' Matt. Paris, 525 ; Ann, Monast,, i. 265. ^ Matt. Paris, 541.
3 lb,, 549.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 335
applied to Eome for absolution, the Pope granted a com
mission with powers to act for the purpose, but Simon de
Langton, archdeacon of Canterbury, appealed against this,
alleging that the monks had obtained it by false repre
sentations. The King now offered to maintain their cause
with the Pope, if they on their part would undertake to
elect Boniface of Savoy, the Queen's uncle — a young
courtier, only in sub -deacon's orders, but nevertheless
bishop-elect of Bellay — a man without learning or any
clerical experience — but handsome, daring, unscrupulous —
a somewhat strange successor of Lanfranc, Anselm, and
Langton. The death of two popes hindered for some time
the confirmation and consecration of the elect, and in the
meantime Boniface showed himself not disinclined to care
for the interests of the Church in which he had received
such sudden promotion. As his chancellor he appointed
Eichard de la Wych, better kno-wn as St. Eichard of
Chichester, a man not only of profound piety, but like his
friend and first patron St. Edmund, of a truly patriotic and
national spirit. The appointment of Boniface was also
welcomed by Bishop Grosseteste, who, despairing of help
from the non-aggressive temper of the late Primate, thought
that in Boniface he had found one who would not shrink
from opposing the secular authority in those intrusions on
ecclesiastical privileges which so much vexed the soul of
the bishop of Lincoln. " We thank the Lord Jesus Christ,"
writes Grosseteste, " for that He has provided the church
of Canterbury, long destitute of a pastor, with that bless
ing. We hope that after the example of Jesus Christ, the
chief pastor, in whom all pastors are one, you will feed the
flock committed to you in wisdom and doctrine. " He then
proceeds to request his aid in the matter of the bishopric
of Winchester, in which the king was still resisting the
choice of the chapter — WiUiam Ealeigh, bishop of Norwich
— although he, whom he had originally tried to intrude, the
foreign bishop of Valentia, was now dead. He reminds
Boniface that the Pope had confirmed William Ealeigh,
and that the King was bound to accept him.^ Boniface at
once took up the case warmly, and induced the king to
^ Grosseteste, Epist, Ixxxiii. (ed. Luard).

336 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
forego his opposition to WUliam Ealeigh. In another case
he also acted readUy with the bishop of Lincoln. The
king had conferred the bishopric of Chichester on Eobert
de Passelew, a forest-judge. This was a grievous offence
to Grosseteste, who was so strongly opposed 'to the secular
employments of the clergy. He persuaded Boniface to
have the bishop-elect tested in his knowledge. Grosseteste
himself conducted the examination, and, having reported
the candidate as not qualified,-'- Boniface refused to confirm
the election, and procured the appointment of Eichard de la
Wych, his chancellor, who so well became his advancement
29. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, whose confir
mation by the Papal See had been retarded by the death
of two popes, was accepted and confirmed by the new Pope
Innocent IV. (1243). There appears to have been some
expectation that at the accession of Innocent the Eoman
exactions which had so long troubled the English Church
might be mitigated.^ It was found, however, that so far
from this being the case, they were rather increased.^ It
was determined, therefore, by the English prelates to make
a formal protest, to be presented to the king and made
known throughout the land. "If," say they, "the Pope
would consider the state of the primitive Church in England,
and compare it with the present, he would not convulse
churches and churchmen, nor assail them with exactions as
he does ; nor would he continue to extort from churches
that which is not his ; for when St. Augustine, the Apostle
of the English, preached the gospel in England, King Ethel
bert, being converted to the faith of Christ, instituted the
churches of London, Eochester, and Canterbury. In the
one he put clerks and priests, in the other monks, assigning
to them out of his patrimony lands and possessions suffi
cient for their support, that they might celebrate divine
service, give alms, and exercise hospitality to the poor. In
the same manner did other kings to other churches — not,
however, giving them their possessions absolutely free, but
reserving to themselves rights for three purposes — namely,
furnishing of their forces, making bridges, and fortifications,
^ Matt. Paris, p. 652. 2 jj^ p^ 522.
^ Ann, de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 166.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 337
so as to resist the enemy. If, therefore, these and such like
gifts have been made to certain bishops, abbots, and abbeys,
from the property and lay fees of kings and princes, by
what right is it possible, without injury to the lawful claim
of another, to turn the said gifts into other uses, especially
those which relate to war and bloodshed 1 How, then, could
the rights of the lay donors be satisfied '? It is also in the
highest degree dangerous for England to contribute to the
war against the Emperor, inasmuch as his dominions are
only separated from England by a narrow channel, and he is
the brother-in-law of the King, and ought to be respected."^
Such is the substance of this remarkable protest, which, as
entirely ignoring the claims of Eome over the English
Church, and asserting the independence of the latter, testifies
to the strong development of the national spirit then pre
vailing. The King, provoked by the inordinate greed of the
Eomans, which left to him nothing to prey upon, was moved
by it to write strongly to the Pope that in his provisions
and exactions from the clergy he had not a little oppressed
the English Church. Patrons were defrauded of their
rights, works of charity languished ; he was compelled,
therefore, to request the Pope to desist from his demands. ^
30. Probably it may have been with a view to get rid
of this inconvenient and unexpected opposition on the part
ofthe King that the Pope soon after issued a letter exhort
ing the clergy to contribute for the royal requirements.^
They, as weU as the nobles, were unwilling to do this until
they had some security that their liberties and privileges
should be respected. But if the Pope was willing to help
the King against the clergy, he was not inclined to forget
his own interests ; he despatched an officer named Martin
with orders to obtain contributions by every possible con
trivance, and at the same time he addressed a letter to the
abbots and monasteries specially exhorting them to be
liberal.* The clergy were thus placed in the position of
being assaUed on one side by the King, on the other by the
' Matt. Paris, p. 622. ^ Ib.,-p. 623.
^ lb,, p. 640. This attempt to raise money from the clergy was
foUed by the boldness and prudence of Bishop Grosseteste.
¦* Matt. Paris, p. 642. Z

338 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
Pope. After due deliberation they determined that their
contributions should be given to the former rather than to
the latter, especially as the Emperor Frederick put forth
violent threats against all those who should aid his enemy.
Master Martin therefore had to be contented with uttering
threats, and with seizing, with more than usual avidity, on
every benefice which fell vacant. '-
31. Pope Innocently., intent more than anything else
upon carrying on his war with the Emperor, summoned a
councU to meet at Lyons (1245), and to this assemhly
several of the English prelates repaired for various reasons.
Boniface, elect and confirmed, but not yet consecrated, to
Canterbury, went to obtain consecration and the pall. The
bishops of Worcester and Hereford (Walter de CantUupe
and Peter de AquS, Blanch) being, as Matthew Paris puts
it, the two bishops most devoted to the Pope, and most
odious to the English, went on some secret matters of their
own ; ^ and Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, went to endea
vour to bring to a conclusion the suit which he had been
carrying on against his chapter. This dispute had been
raging for some years. The bishop claimed the right of
visiting not only the cathedral itself, but also the churches
belonging to the prebends and those attached to the cathe
dral, a claim which, according to Matthew Paris, was alto
gether unheard of pre-viously.^ He had been resisted stoutly
by the chapter, which was a rich and influential body, and
which zealously defended the right of the dean to act as
ordinary of all the cathedral churches. Grosseteste, how
ever, who was remarkable for obstinacy and determination
of character, persevered,* and the matter was now fahly
before the Pope for his decision. A decision was indeed
arrived at, but in a way not very creditable either to the
bishop, the dean of Lincoln, who was also present, or the
Pope. The See of Lichfield and Coventry was at the
moment vacant. To the dean of Lincoln, Eoger de
Weseham, this was offered, if he would forego his opposi
tion to the claims of his diocesan ; and thus the whole
1 Matt. Paris, p. 644. ^ lb,, -p. 653, ^ lb., p. iS5.
'' A great number of the letters published in the volume of Grosse
teste Epist. (ed. Luard) relate to this subject.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 339
matter was patched up. The chapter of Lichfield and
Coventry was not consulted. ^ The chapter of Lincoln had
to accept the act of their dean, who had thus been bribed
to betray their interests. Grosseteste obtained his coveted
privilege ; but he had to pay a heavy price for it,^ a price
which must have pressed not a little upon his conscience,
when, as was the case soon afterwards, he stood forth as the
bold champion of the National Church. Not only did he
agree to set his seal to another copy of the infamous cession
of England to the Pope made by John, the original of which
had been destroyed by fire,^ but he also undertook to be the
Pope's tax-gatherer, and to endeavour to raise for him in
England, by the great authority and respect which were
universally felt towards him, the money which the Pope's
Italian agents failed to procure. The nobles of England
addressed to the Pope in his council the strongest possible
remonstrances against the way in which the English Church
was being pillaged by his orders.* The Pope, however, far
from hstening to this remonstrance, demanded yet further
aids,^ and the foremost of the English bishops undertook to
carry out this spoliation for him. Upon his return to Eng
land the King charged Grosseteste with this engagement.
The bishop of Lincoln defended himself as follows : — "Your
Majesty has written to me that you are astonished not a
httle, and much moved, that I propose personally to assess
and collect the tax for our lord the Pope from religious
men and clerks. ... I am compelled to do this by the
command of our lord the Pope, whom not to obey is as
the sin of witchcraft and idolatry. It is not a matter of
astonishment if I deal in this matter ; much rather would
it be a matter of astonishment and indignation if, even
without being asked or commanded, I should not be ready
to do a thing of this sort, or even a greater thing. We see
our spiritual father and mother suffering affliction, and were
we not to help them in such a state we should be transgress-
' One of the monks who was present protested against the transac
tion. — Ann. Dunstap,, Ann, Monast,, iii. 168.
" See Mr. Luard's Preface to Grosseteste Epist, p, 62.
' Matt. Paris, p. 681. ^ lb,, p. 666.
^ Ann, Dunstap,, Ann. Monast., iii. 167.

340 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
ing the commandments of the Lord, we should be throwing
away the fear of the Lord and forfeiting his blessing." ^
32. Happily these were not the sentiments of the Eng
lish Church generally. The tax demanded of the clergy
was nothing less than from the resident clergy one-third of
their benefices, from the non-resident one-half, for three
years.^ This was absolute confiscation, and the resistance ac
cordingly was energetic. The King prohibited the gathering
of the impost.^ A general council of the nobles and clergy
was held at Westminster (1246), and an answer was drawn
up to the Pope's demands. The clergy of England declare
that " the English Church has ever been remarkable for its
glories, and has always been an honoured member * of the
holy Church of Eome." Now, however, it is sorely afflicted,
and it needs to bring its troubles to the notice of the
Apostolic See. With regard to the tax lately inflicted upon
the English Church by the Pope at the CouncU of Lyons,
the clergy desire to state, that if the half of the goods of
non-residents be taken, it -will simply be the ruin of aU
canons of cathedrals, who are necessarily connected with
several churches, and so will be judged non-resident. The
same will be the case with the monasteries, which -will he
held non-resident as respects the churches from which they
derive rents. Other clerks who hold more than one benefice
vrill be utterly incapacitated from exercising hospitahty and
relieving the poor. In fact, the sum demanded is so enor
mous that it will ruin the whole of the clergy. The Church
of England therefore opposes it, and appeals to a general
council.* The letter of the clergy was supported by one
from the nobles, who complain that the clergy are subject
to exactions against the will of the King, and that the
patrons of churches are defrauded of their rights of present
ation by the intrusion of foreigners — foreigner often suc
ceeding foreigner in spite of the papal undertaking to the
^ Gross. Ejjist cvi. "" Matt. Paris, p. 716 ; Ann. Monast, i. 277.
" Matt. Paris, p. 716 ; Ann. Dunstap., Ann, Monast, iu. 169.
^ Membrum speciale. It is very observable that in this fonnal
document, as iu the one quoted above, there is a distinct assertion of
the national and independent position of the Church of England.
^ Matt. Paris, p. 716 ; Ann. Burton, Ann. Monast, i. 278, sq.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 341
contrary, and none of them having the least regard for their
charge ; all privileges granted by the Pope being constantly
recalled by the infamous device of the non obstante clause
added to his documents.^ In spite, however, of this formi
dable and systematic opposition, the papal demands were in
a great measure successful.
33. As the exactions of Eome continued to press ever
more heavily upon the English Church, even those who
were most devoted to Eome were driven into opposition.
Thus in 1247, when two Minorite friars came to him with
a license from the Pope and the King, to collect money for
the former. Bishop Grosseteste refused with indignation to
further their work. " This exaction," said he, " is not to be
heard of, and is utterly disgraceful, and it is one which
cannot be met, touching as it does not my interests only,
but also those of the whole clergy and people."^ Indeed,
the unhappy clergy of this period must have been driven
to the utmost straits to meet the multiplying claims upon
their resources. Archbishop Boniface had obtained from
the Pope the grant of the first-fruits of all the benefices in
his province to pay off the debt which he declared pressed
upon the See of Canterbury. The bishops resisted this,
perhaps being incredulous as to the existence of the debt
alleged. Upon this the Primate, supported by the papal
authority, did not hesitate to suspend the whole of the suf
fragans of his province, and thus to compel them to yield.^
We can easily understand the bitterness of spirit with which
the great Churchmen met the King at the Parliament held
at Westminster in the beginning of 1248 — how they re
proached him, when he asked for supplies, with his having
utterly failed to perform the promises made by him when
last they acceded to his requests — with what incredulity
and feelings of contempt they must have listened to his
abject apologies and profuse promises for the future.
There were among the barons of tbat day men both of in-
^ By this favourite papal device all privileges and exemptions pre
viously granted were recalled and nuUifled for the particular case in
hand, thus making the Pope's grants utterly illusory.
" Matt. Paris, p. 722.
' Matt. Paris, p. 734 ; Ann. Dunstap.; Ann. Monast, ui. 181.

342 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvu.
telligence and resolution, and the King, neither by servility
nor arrogance, was able to carry his point. And as Simon
de Montfort and his supporters were beginning to see clearly
that it must come to open resistance, and perhaps to the
arbitrement of war, before the foreign influences which were
desolating the land could be removed, so some at least of
the great Churchmen were being taught, that so long as the
fictions of the Pope's sovereignty over the Church and the
efficacy of his excommunications were upheld, they could
hope for no peace or progress. They saw that in the state
of things at present existing in Church matters there was
something fundamentally wrong ; that utterly false and
immoral principles had sway; that by money-payments
exemptions could be procured for any enormity ; that ah
discipline was frustrated by bribes ; in fact, that the one
supreme and singular virtue in the eyes of Eome was a
readiness to contribute to the papal exchequer.
34. Possessed by these thoughts, and driven to a
righteous indignation by the manifold checks by which
his attempts at reformation were met by means of pur
chased papal exemptions. Bishop Grosseteste determined
once more to seek the papal court at Lyons (1250). He
came now not in the spirit in which he had approached the
council in 1245. The most devoted, the most learned, the
most influential of the papal supporters in England, had
been driven by the unmistakable proofs of grievous corrup
tion which abounded, to come with very different feehngs,
and to address the Pope and Cardinals in a very different
tone. Like some prophet of old. Bishop Grosseteste stood
before that corrupt conclave, and told them some startling
truths. He procured the reading in public before the
Pope and his court of a sermon or tract written by him.
In this discourse, which remains to us, he first draws a
most terrible picture of the corrupt state of the clergy, and
then proceeds, " The cause, the fountain, the origin of all
this, is this court of Eome, not only in that it does not put
to flight these evils, and purge away these abominations,
when it alone has the power to do so, and is pledged most
fully to do so ; but stUl more because by its dispensations,
provisions, and collations to the pastoral care, it appoints

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 343
before the eyes of this sun, men such as I have described,
not pastors but destroyers of men ; and that it may pro
vide for the livelihood of some one person, hands over to
the jaws of the beasts of the field and to eternal death
many thousands of souls, for the life of each one of which
the Son of God was willing to be condemned to a most
shameful death. It commits the care of the flock in the
midst of ravening wolves, bears, and lions, to one who will
take away the milk and the wool ; who is unable, ignorant,
unwilling, or careless to lead out the flock, to drive it into
the pastures and to bring it back to the fold. ... Is not he
who does this guilty of the death of the flock, even though
some of it should by chance escape death t . . . The doings
of this court are as it were a book, and an instruction to
aU who have the right of patronage in parish churches, to
have regard to the claims of kindred and the flesh, to the
recompensing of favours, or to pleasing the powerful, by
preferring such as these to the pastoral care, that they may
enrich themselves and thus destroy Christ's sheep. The
crime is greater in proportion as he who commits it is more
highly placed. . . . Those who preside in this See are
specially the representatives of Christ, therefore ought
they speciaUy to exhibit the works of Christ, and doing so,
ought to be obeyed in all things as Jesus Christ. But if
any of them should put on the garment of favouritism, or of
the flesh, or of the world, or of anything else besides Christ,
and so, from the love of this, should command anything
opposed to the precepts and will of Christ, he that obeys
him in matters of this sort manifestly separates himself
from Christ and his body, which is the Church, and from
the Pope as representative of Christ and true Pope ; and
should there be a general obedience paid to him in such
matters, then there is a true and complete apostasy, and
the revelation of the son of perdition is close at hand. . . .
The clamour of the unbridled shamelessness of those who
are of the famUy of this court is multiplied with excessive
vehemence, so that we may ask, How can this court be said
to preside well over its own household 1 and how shall it
govern the Church of God, if it does not know how to
govern its own household, or does not care to do so ! . . .

344 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
The family of this court has filled the world with lies, has
put to flight all modesty, has taken away all confidence in
documents, and has lent all boldness to falsifying one's
word. . . . Unless it corrects itself in these things without
delay, quickly will it be utterly deprived of all good things,
and when it shall say Peace and safety, then shall sudden
destruction come upon it, and it shaU be subjected to the
most terrible woes."-'-
35. Thus did an English bishop testify against the
manifold Oppressions, exactions, and spoliations with which
Eome had long been vexing the Church of his land. After
delivering this spirited protest, Bishop Grosseteste returned
to his See, and set himself once more earnestly to reform
the abuses which were rampant both among the regulars
and seculars of his diocese. The account given in Matthew
Paris represents his visitation of the monasteries as extra
ordinarily severe and searching.^ The Pope, perhaps con
science-stricken by Grosseteste's bold words, now granted
him power to visit the exempt orders as well as the non-
exempt, and to cause the establishment of vicarages by all
religious houses which held parochial churches, a salutary
arrangement which provided some one settled priest to per
form the duties of the Church, and no longer left it to the
chance arrangements of the monastery.^ The energetic
bishop not only compelled the religious houses to recognise
their obligations towards the parishes whose tithes they
had appropriated, but he also obliged those persons who
held benefices without ha-ving proceeded to the order of
priesthood, to become priests, though in this he was in
many instances baffied.* He was more successful in a
systematic opposition which, in concert with some of his
brother prelates, he made to the archbishop's claim to
exact procurations from the whole of his province. In this
claim the Pope refused to confirm Archbishop Boniface.^
Bishop Grosseteste also was leader of the spirited resistance
made by the prelates to the King's demand for a subsidy
^ Brown, Fasciculus rerum e/xpetendarum et fugiendarnm, vol. ii.
pp. 250-258 ; Cliron. de Lanercost, s, «.. 1235.
^ Matt. Par., p. 815. s lb, p. 860. * Ib. p. 833,
° Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 181-.

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 345
of a tenth, which had been expressly sanctioned by the
Pope. The money was demanded under the pretext of a
crusade, but the English prelates, who had suffered so many
oppressions from the King, refused to give it unless Magna
Charter were solemnly ratified, and a distinct undertaking
given that the money should only be spent on the matter
for which it was demanded. ^ The King persisting in his
demands, it was finally answered that in the absence of the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York the prelates were
not competent to vote the subsidy. To Grosseteste, the
energetic reformer, the bold defender of the liberties of the
National Church, the eyes of all men were now turned. At
length fully awake to the enormities of the Eoman abuses,
he prepared himself to resist them with all the energy of
his character. " To such a pitch had the avarice of the
Eomans been allowed to grow," said Matthew Paris, " and
such a point had it reached, that the bishop of Lincoln
being struck with amazement at it, caused his clerks care
fully to reckon and estimate all the revenues of foreigners
in England, and it was discovered and found for truth that
the present Pope, Innocent IV., had pauperised the whole
Church more than all his predecessors from the time of
the primitive papacy. The revenue of the alien clerks
whom he had planted in England, and whom the Eoman
Church had enriched, amounted to more than 70,000 marks.
The King's revenue could not be reckoned at more than a
third part of that sum."^
36. It might almost seem as if the Pope were deter
mined to put the bishop of Lincoln's anti-papal sentiments
to a test, and to try his powers of resistance, by the action
which he now took. He appointed a youth named
Frederick de Lavagna, his nephew, to a canonry in Lincoln
Cathedral, and sent his mandate to Bishop Grosseteste to
induct this youth by his proctor to the next prebend which
fell vacant, or any prebend that might chance to be vacant,
^ Matt. Par., p. 859. The subject had been discussed by the
bishops and clergy of the northern province in September. They re
solved that there must be a consultation of the clergy of both provinces
before they could consent. — Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii. 67.
^ Matt. Par., p. 859.

346 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
though it had been promised to another. This was to
bring matters to a definite issue — a boy — not in orders —
a foreigner — not even presenting himself to be inducted —
nor having any intention of appearing or performing any
ofthe duties of the office— was by the imperious mandate of
the Pope intruded upon an English cathedral. If this
were endured and endured quietly, and by a leading
bishop, and one who had taken of late so strong a national
part in Church matters, then the liberties of the English
Church were absolutely gone, and there was no refuge, no
defence. 37. HappUy, however, for the cause of the Church of
the land. Bishop Grosseteste was equal to the^occasion. He
distinctly refused to admit the Pope's nominee, and ad
dressed to the Pope's commissaries in England a letter
which must be ever memorable in English Church history,
and which laid the foundation for the bold protests of
Wycliffe, and for the national recoil from Eome of the
sixteenth century. Having recited the Pope's letter and
declared himself willing to obey apostolical commands, the
bishop proceeds, " The letter above mentioned is not in its
tenor agreeable to apostolical holiness, but is very alien
from it, and altogether discordant. In the first place, in
this letter, and in others like it spread widely abroad,
the ' notwithstandings ' which are heaped up in such vast
quantity, being," not drawn from any necessity of observing
the law of nature, produce a wide deluge of fickleness,
audacity, and shameless insolence of lying and deceiving, a
distrust in believing or gi-ving faith to anybody, and all the
vices which follow from these things, which are innumer
able ; disturbing and confusing the purity of the Christian
religion, and the quiet of social intercourse among men.
Secondly, since the sin of Lucifer, with which that of anti
christ, the son of perdition, in the latter times, will be the
same, ' whom the Lord Jesus shall destroy with the breath
of his mouth,' there neither is nor can he any sort of sin
so adverse and contrary to the doctrine 9f the Apostles and
the Gospel, and to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself ; so hate
ful, detestable, and abominable, and to the human race so
destructive, as to kill and destroy by robbing them of the

1213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. 347
pastoral office and the ministry, those souls meant to be
quickened and saved by the office and ministry of the
pastoral care. And this sin Holy Scripture clearly shows is
committed by those, who, having power over the pastoral
care, provide for their own carnal and temporal desires and
necessities from the milk and wool of the sheep of Christ,
and do not administer the pastoral office to work the
eternal salvation of the sheep of Christ. . , . Those who
introduce into the Church of God such slayers of the
divine image and handiwork in the sheep of Christ, are
worse than the murderers themselves, and are nearer to
Lucifer and Antichrist ; and in. this gradation of wicked
ness those especially excel, who, from a greater and diviner
power given to them from God, for edification and not for
destruction, are more especially bound to exclude and root
out from the Church of God such most evil destroyers. It
cannot be that the most holy Apostolic See can either
command or enjoin anything so hateful as this, or can
make any attempt at such a thing. For this would
evidently amount to a falling off, a corruption, a misusing
of its most holy and plenary power, a complete departure
from the throne of the glory of Jesus Christ, and a very
close sitting side by side with the two principles of dark
ness in the pestUential seat of hellish punishments. Nor
can any one, who is subject and faithful to the said See
in ^immaculate and sincere obedience, and not cut off
from the body of Christ and the same Holy See by schism,
obey commands or precepts or attempts of any description
of such a character as this, from whatever quarter they come,
even if it should be from the highest order of angels, but
must of necessity with his whole strength resist them and
rebel against them. On this ground, out of the debt of .
obedience and fidelity in which I am bound to the Holy
Apostolic See, and from my love of union with it in the
body of Christ, I refuse to obey the things which are con
tained in the said letter, because they most evidently tend
to the sin whieh I have mentioned, most abominable to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and most pernicious to the human race,
and are altogether opposed to the holiness of the Apostolic
See, and are contrary to Catholic unity. I oppose these

348 THE BEGINNING OF [chap. xvii.
things, and rebel against them. . . . These provisions, as they
are called, are not for edification, but for most manifest
destruction, therefore the blessed Apostolic See cannot
enforce them, for ' flesh and blood,' which shall not possess
the kingdom of God, has revealed them, and not the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who is in heaven." ^
38. Although no recoil is here made from the Pope's
mandate upon Church principles, and the plenary authority
of the Apostolic See is still fully recognised, yet by the
declaration that the minister of Christ might become
Antichrist, and by the strong condemnation of the iniquity
of the act in question, the bishop takes up ground which
is suggestive of and introductory to a more complete and
systematic rejection of papal authority. Innocent was
transported with fury when the bishop's bold opposition and
severe reproof were made known to him. According to
the Lanercost Chronicle he immediately excommunicated
Grosseteste.^ But it is more probable that he was dis
suaded from doing this by the Cardinals, who feared the
scandal which would be brought about by cursing one with
such an European reputation as the bishop of Lincoln.^
Certainly, if Grosseteste were excommunicated, he paid no
regard to the sentence. He followed up his letter to the
Pope's commissaries by one addressed to the " nobles of
England, the citizens of London, and the commons of the
whole kingdom," in which he makesanearnest appeal to them
to protect the national independence of the English Church.
"Would that the faithful and beloved children of the
English Church and her noble pupils would mark the
injury which that noble Church is receiving, that Church
which is their mother, which has regenerated them with
the Spirit and with water ; a Church which beyond all
others in Christendom abounds in temporal goods, and has
flourished in such a special freedom as to have been for a
long time free and untouched by the impositions and pro
visions of the Eoman Court, its goods not being exacted
from it by the hands of aliens, but the inhabitants of the
kingdom, its children, uniting to defend it. But now it is
' Gross. Epist. cxxvii. ; Matt. Paris, p. 870.
2 Chron. de Lanercost, s.a. 1235. ^ Matt. Paris, p. 872,

i213-1253.] THE EEACTION AGAINST EOME. U^
worn down and torn with so many oppressions and pro
visions, that while its own people are thirsting, it is' com
peUed to give its milk (in grief be it spoken) for the use of
ahens and foreigners, and its ample patrimony is ceded to
the profit of a people whom it knows not ; that patrimony
which the pious devotion of the great men of old most
devoutly gave for the advancement of divine worship, and
the support of the ministers of the Church and the poor
of Clirist; this now, against the wUl of its founders, is
seized without reason, not only by unknown persons, but
even by capital enennes, the inhabitants of remote regions,
who not only strive to tear off the fleece, but do not even
know the features of their flock, do not understand their
language, neglect the care of souls, and yet collect and
carry away money to the pauperising of the kingdom.
And, unless a remedy be speedily applied with all caution
against it, by means of these reservations, provisions, im
positions, and processes of the Apostolical See, which
through the too great patience of the English (I should
rather say too great folly) day by day grow stronger, that
Church which was of old free will be subjected to a per
petual tribute. Let, therefore, the noble knights of England,
the renowned citizens of London, and the whole kingdom,
take heed of the injury of their exalted mother, and rise
like men to repel it. Let them see and understand if it be
fitting and expedient that Englishmen (like oxen and sheep
which bear the yoke and carry the fleece not for themselves
but for others) should behold others reap what they them
selves have so-wn, and that thus those who labour the least
should claim for themselves the food. . . . Let the secular
power be effectually armed, that by excluding altogether
provisions of this sort, the priesthood of the kingdom may
increase in the Lord; and the treasure of the English may
be kept for the support of their land, a thing which in
deed -wUl not only tend to the unspeakable advantage of
the kingdom and people, to glorious title of praise for ever
to be remembered, but also to an immense accumulation of
merits in the sight of God." ^
39. Here speaks with no uncertain voice the English
1 Gross. Epiist. cxxxi.

350

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. [chap. xvii.

bishop, with a distinct perception of the rights of the
National Church. The last illness of the great prelate
followed soon after the writing of the words above quoted
(1253), and in his last Ulness he even more distinctly and
emphatically charged the Pope with the sin of heresy for
thus disposing of the benefices of the Church, and declared
that, in thus acting, he was a true Antichrist. " Christ," he
said, " came into the world to win souls ; if then any one
fears not to destroy souls, is he not rightly called Antichrist V
He again enumerates the manifold abuses of the Eoman
See, its disregard of rights, its encouragement of usury, its
dispensations with solemn vows, its misuse of patronage, its
intrusion of legates, its allowance to unconsecrated persons
to hold Sees. With his dying breath and with his last
utterances, did he who had in his day been the strongest
upholder of the papacy and its most devoted servant, con
vinced at last of the iniquity of its claims, denounce its
abuses, and lend his powerful aid to the reaction against it.^
1 The account of the deathbed of Grosseteste and his last utter
ances is given in gi-eat detaU by Matthew Paris, pp. 874-876 (ed.
Wats). He also recounts the miracles said to have foUowed upon his
death.

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

(A) THE PROVISIONS OF THE
COUNCIL OF OXFORD, 1222.
The resolutions of the CormcU are
prefaced by some general sentences
of excommunication against all those
guilty of crimes of violence, the in
vaders or spoUers of churches, and
those who had committed ecclesiasti
cal offences. These general sentences
were intended probably to touch and
awaken the consciences of ill-doers ;
they could hardly be intended to
have the full effect of an excommuni
cation, as the names of the persons
who had been guilty of the offences
were not specified. They were to
be published by the parish priest
with all solemnity at Christmas,
Easter, Pentecost, and All Hallow-

tide. The custom was kept up for
many centuries, and was in full
vigour at the time when reforming
opinions began to be adopted. The
next four Constitutions relate to the
conduct of bishops. They .ire charged
to reside at their churches, executing
their ofSce diligently; to take no
money for instituting to benefices,
nor to delay the admission of clerks,
that they may appropriate the
revenues of the benefice ; to collate
to a benefice if the patron does not
present within six months. The
6th and 7th Constitutions touch
the reverent administration of the
sacraments, especially that of the
Altar. The words of the canon are to
be perfectly pronounced. The priest
not to celebrate twice in one day.

ohap.xvii.] NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

351

except at Christmas and Easter, or
when there is a funeral. Sth and
9th Constitutions forbid priests to
exercise secular ofiices, and especially
to meddle iu cases of blood, lOtli
orders priests to be diligent in
preaching and visiting the sick.
11th pro-vidSs for the furniture of
churches.^ 12th is directed against
evasions of the law as to pluralities.
13th forbids the division of a par
sonage or a vicarage into two parts. ^
By 14 no one must be a vicar who
is not able to perform the duties.
By 16, 16 a -vicarage is fixed at five
marks (except in Wales, where
-ricars are content with less), the
bishop to settle the charges of the
church between rector and vicar.
In large parishes there must be two
or three priests. (17.) The bishop
to take an oath of the person pre
sented, that he has neither given nor
promised anything for preferment.
(18.) Special confessors to be ap
pointed. (19.) Archdeacons and
rural deans not to exceed in their
visitations the number of horses and
men allowed by the General Council
(Lateran, 1215), nor to in-vite
strangers to the procuration ; (22) nor
to exact payments for not visiting ;
(23) nor to let their ofiices to farm.
(24.) To examine if the canon of the
mass be correct, and if the priest
can rightly pronounce the words ; to
teach laymen the form of baptizing ;
to examrae carefully the ornaments
of the church and the minister.
(25.) Not to excommunicate or sus
pend without canonical warning.
(26. ) No money to be demanded or
taken for any ecclesiastical sacra
ment. (27.) Archdeacons to en
courage the peaceful solution of suits.
(28.) Not to allow respectable per
sons to be accused by their appari

tors, nor to suffer the apparitors to
be judges. (29.) Archdeacons and
other dignified clergy to go in a
decent habit with close copes, to
wear short hiiir, to abstain from im
moderate eating and drinking. (30.)
Clergy not to keep concubines pub
licly, or to visit them publicly ; (31)
nor to leave bequests to them ; (32)
nor to alienate the estates of
churches ; (33) or to build houses on
lay fees. (34.) Officials of monas
teries to render account to the breth
ren. (35.) Nuns and monks not to
wear sUk, or gold or silver. (36.)
Abbots to change their chaplains
every year. (37.) Corrodies or rent-
charges on monasteries not to be
given or sold. (38.) Nothing to be
exacted from those that enter reli
gious houses. (39.) Other regula
tions for monasteries. (40.) Monks
not to be admitted under eighteen.
(41.) Neither clergymen nor laymen
-to have frequent access to nunneries.
(42. ) Silence to be observed in reU
gious houses ; members not to go out
without leave, or without a com
panion. (43.) The fare of aU in the
refectory to be the same. (44. ) No
religious person .to make a wiU.
(45.) Canons-regular and monks not
to take churches to farm. (46.)
Monks only to eat and drink a-t
stated hours. (47.) Two seniors to
be present at relaxations in religious
houses. (48.) Churches belonging
to parsons not to be let to farm.
(49. ) Marriages not to be causelessly
obstructed. (50. ) Jews not to keep
Christian slaves. (51.) Jews to be
distinguished by a special dress.
(5 2. ) The Constitutions of the Lateran
Council to be observed, and, together
with these, to be read and explained
yearly in episcopal synods. — John
son's English Canons,\i. pp. 100-121.

1 " We ordain that every cliurch have a silver chalice and a clean white large
linen cloth for the altar . . . books flt for singing and reading, two sets of vestments
for the priest, and that the attendants at the siltar wear surplices."
2 It was thought that though a man could not hold two rectories together, by
the decree of the Lateran Council, he miglit hold one and a part of another, or a
rectory and a vicarage, or two vicarages.

352

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. [chap. xvii.

(B) THE LEGATINE CONSTI
TUTIONS OP CARDINAL
OTHO, 1237.
1. All cathedral, conventual, and
diocesan churches to be consecrated
within two years of their completion,
or else to be interdicted from the
celebration of mass. Ancient
churches not to be pulled down
without consent of the bishop.
2. The sacraments of the Church
to be administered -without payment,
viz. Baptism, Confirmation, Penance,
the Eucharist, Extreme Unction,
Matrimony, Orders. The way of
administering them to form a chief
part of the examination for orders.
3. The Saturdays before Easter
and Pentecost to be observed for
baptism. Parish priests to explain
the form of baptism in the vulgar
tongue to their parishioners.
4. Priests who will not admit to
penance -without money to be re
moved from their benefices.
5. Confessors (special) may be
appointed in each deanery.
6. The bishops to inquire care
fully before ordinations whether any
canonical impediment exists, and lest
any persons should stealthily creep
iu, to make a list of those who are
approved, which is to be read out
before the ordination.
7. Farming of churches to be dis
couraged, and dignities (such as
archdeaconries) not to be allowed to
be farmed.
8 and 9. Churches not to be
farmed to laymen nor to ecclesiasti
cal persons for above five years. In
no case is a church to be granted in
perpetual farm.
10. Only priests to be admitted
to vicarages, or deacons who are
about to be immediately ordained
priests, and the vicar must renounce
other appointments. Vicars not
priests to apply for orders.
11. Benefices not to be conferred
until the bishop is fully satisfled of
the death or cession of the pre-rious
incumbent.

12 and 13. No church to he
dirided into several parsonages or
vicarages. Those divided to be re
united. All rectors to reside.
14. Clerks not to dress like sol
diers and to have trappings for their
horses, but to use a long close cope.
15. Married clergy to be removed
from their churches. Their sons
not to be admitted to churches,
being incapable (17).
16. Priests who keep concubines
to discharge them within a month,
on pain of suspension.
18. Great men not to maintain
and countenance robbers.
19. Profession to be made by
members of religious orders after a
year of probation.
20. Archdeacons to -visit churches,
but not to be burdensome in exac
tions, nor to take money for not
visiting. 21. Composition of suits not to
be hindered.
22. Bishops to reside at their
cathedrals, and to celebrate mass on
principal festivals and the Sundays
.in Lent and Advent ; also to visit
different parts of their dioceses.
23. Judges in causes to be very
careful in their decisions.
24. Oaths to speak the truth to
be taken in causes ecclesiastical.
25. Suits not to be delayed byin-
sufBcient appointments (purposely)
of proctors.
26. Letters of citation not to be
sent by vile persons who are parties
to the suit, and do not summon
fittingly, but by the judge's o-wn ofii-
cer, who is to take care that the
party be summoned duly.
27. Letters of contract not to be
dra-wn by clergy, inasmuch as in
many cases they are equivalent to
forgery. 28. Prelates, monasteries, colleges,
etc., to have a common seal, which
is to be carefully used.
29. Advocates to make oath that
they will perform their duties aright.
Judges to be careful in administering
their office.

1253-1272.] CLEEGY AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 353

CHAPTER XVIIL
THE GIjEEGX on THE NATIONAL SIDE AS AGAINST KING AND POPE.
1253-1272.
1. Violent proceedings of Archbishop Boniface in London. 2. He claims
ad interim jurisdiction in vacant Sees. 3. Irregular exactions from
the clergy. 4. Treacherous scheme of the Bishop of Hereford. 5.
Mission of Eustaud to coUect money. 6. Gravamina of the clergy,
7. The Convocation, after great pressure, grant 52,000 marks. 8.
Convocation of 1257. 9. Mission of Heriot. 10. Convocation of
Merton. 11. Letter of Pope Alexander. 12. Murder of Eoman
clerks in London. 13. The clergy on the side of the barons. J4.
A Legate sent to punish the bishops. 15. Another Legate vrith more
real power. 16. CouncU of London, 1268. 17. Lay assaults on
monasteries. 18. Death of King Henry ; character of the period.
1. At the death of Grosseteste there was no bishop of
weight of character and strength of purpose to lead the
struggle for nationality and independence which had com
menced in the English Church. The Primate was a
foreigner both by birth and in ideas, and his only care for
the Church of England, over which he nominally presided,
was to rob it of its revenues, to be spent luxuriously in
foreign lands. He had attempted to exact hea-vy procura
tions from all the dioceses of his province whUe he himself
was absent, but this had been successfully resisted by the
diocesan bishops.-'- Finding that matters could not be
managed thus easily, he arrived in England in person
towards the end of 1249, and, having been enthroned at
Canterbury, proceeded to hold a metropolitical visitation.
Commencing with his own cathedral he amerced the
monks for their irregularities by heavy fines. He next
visited Eochester,^ and then went on to visit the See of
^ Arm, de Dunstap,, Ann. Monast, iU. 181.
^ Matt. Paris, p. 780. Matthew Paris says that the archbishop was
taught by the example of the bishop of Lincoln to visit the chapters.
2a

354 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [ohap.xviii.
London. Here he at once gave clear enough evidence of
the spirit in which he meant to prosecute the work. He
seized for his lodging a house of the bishop of Chichester
without any leave, and sent his armed retainers into the
markets to lay hands upon provisions, just as if he had
been the king. He visited Eulke, bishop of London, in
an insolent and overbearing style, and with a retinue
armed to the teeth, and encouraged his foUowers to revel
in the bishop's palace without shame. The Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's, upon hearing of his intention to
visit them the day following, refused to submit, and
appealed to the Pope. The archbishop, in a violent Ul-
temper, put on his armour under his pontifical robes, and
betook himself to the priory of St. Bartholomew. Here the
sub-prior and the canons met him in a solemn procession
-with all honour, but when he announced to them that he
was come to hold a visitation on them, they respectfully
dechned the honour, saying that they had a good bishop
who well cared for them. Upon this Archbishop Boniface
broke into a furious passion, struck the sub-prior with his
fists in the face and in the breast, and seizing a costly cope
which he wore, tore it off him and fiung it under the feet
of his attendants ; then, rushing upon the old man, he bore
him to the ground upon the steps which separated one
block of the seats from another, and, falling upon him,
almost killed him. Upon this the other canons dragged
Boniface oflf, and in doing so exposed the coat of maU
which he wore under his robes. His followers then came
to his aid, and, attacking the unarmed canons, beat,
wounded, and maltreated them, untU they fled out of the
church in terror of their lives, to carry their tale of out
rage to the bishop.^ The bishop sent the canons to
the king, but he refused to take up their cause. It was
enough for him that the Primate was a foreigner and
the queen's uncle. Boniface next proceeded to Harrow,
threatening to hold a visitation of the abbey of St. Albans.
But the whole of London was in commotion. Ominous
threats were directed against the archbishop, and his
position became perilous. He elected therefore to retire
1 Matt. Paris, pp. 780-1,

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 355
to Lyons to plead before the Pope against the appeals and
complaints which were on their way thither against him,
and left England for a short time in peace.^
2. A man of the character of this turbulent and avari
cious prelate could not have been a valuable leader for the
English Church, even if his predilections and principles had
been in any way national and English. This, however,
was in no true sense the case. Nevertheless, on his return
to England in 1252, ha-ving been involved in a squabble
with the bishop-elect of Winchester, another foreigner, who
had great court influence, Boniface aflFected to favour the
national party. At the solemn scene at Westminster, when
on the faith of the reiterated promises of the king to
observe the charters the clergy granted him a tenth. Arch
bishop Boniface pronounced a fearful malediction on all
who should -violate the provisions of Magna Charta. The
weight of his condemnation of privilege -breakers could,
however, scarcely have been great, for he is constantly
found himself in the position of a violator of privileges.
At Lincoln, after the death of Grosseteste, he appeared
claiming the right of governing the See ad interim, which
had from time immemorial been the privilege of the Dean
and Chapter.^ The claim was resisted and referred to
arbitration, but in the meantime the archbishop, whose
object probably was to obtain possession of the fees, con
tinued to act. Soon after this Boniface left England, and
actually had the assurance to summon an English bishop-
elect to him for consecration abroad, and to consecrate him
with the assistance of two foreign bishops. Against this
^ Matt. Paris, p. 782. Dr. Hook caUs Boniface ' ' a brave man, '' and
thinks him possessed of "common sense " — two qualities which seem to
be singularly deficient in his character. (See Hook's Archbishops, Ui.
pp. 256-259.) In another place the Dean describes him as a man "of
moral force and superior powers " (p. 265). However, a little further on
the Dean has apparently changed his mind about him. "Of the prin
ciples of Boniface we can say nothing ; indeed, he seems to have had
none " (p. 270).
^ Vide Annal. Monast, iu. 189. Among other extraordinary state
ments whieh are to be found in his Life of Boniface, Dr. Hook says that
he was clearly in the right about this dispute ! — Life, p. 279.

356 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [chap. xvin.
the bishops of England and the Canterbury monastery
vehemently protested.^
3. There was then no adequate leader for the clergy of
the English Church in that time of special trial which was
now coming upon them,^ when, betrayed by the King to
the Pope for the purposes of their joint senseless ambition,
and involved in ruinous obligations by the infamous
treachery of one of themselves, they were unmercifully
pillaged and spoiled. The great diflBculty of this period,
and the special grievance both of lajrmen and churchmen,
was the uncertain incidence of taxation. That both lay
men and churchmen were under an obhgation to contribute
a fitting amount to the needs of the State there could be
no question. That they also owed a contribution to the
Pope so long as they accepted him as supreme governor of
the Church, and as the final judge in aU cases of appeal,
may be not unfairly argued. But that either King or
Pope had the right to tax the lay and clerical bodies
simply according to their own will, and for purposes of
their own setting up, without the consent of the bodies
taxed, may be strongly denied. It was the persistent
attempt to do this which led to so many troubles through
out this period, and which finally issued in the regular
establishment of Parliament as the taxing body for the
laymen, and of Convocation as that for the clergy. As
regards the popes, they had, under the weak and pliant
rule of Henry III., practised various methods for enriching
themselves from the English Church. Honorius III. had
made a simple demand for patronage. Gregory IX. had
obtained, with the king's connivance, a tenth of ecclesiastical
revenues, and by his Legate had practised aU sorts of
exactions for raising money. He had also obtained a
grant of a fifth of revenue which was exacted from the
bishops, while with the monasteries and individual clergy
separate negotiations were carried on. Innocent IV., having
1 Matt. Paris, p. 909.
" "Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis qui quasi umbo contra impetus
hostUes esse debuit, negotiis variis et secularibus implicatus, et de grege
suo in Angli& minus soUicitus, in partibus agebat transmarinis longe
remotis." — Matt. Paris, p. 911.

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 357
" exhausted all the other methods of extortion," advanced
to bolder schemes. He persuaded the weak king to accept
the grant of the crown of SicUy for his young son Edmund,
and to promise for this questionable advantage 140,000
marks ; and having commenced the war against Manfred,
the lawful possessor of the crown, he obtained from
Henry's representative, Peter de Aqua Blanci,, bishop of
Hereford, a guarantee on the part of Henry for the repay
ment of his expenses.^
4. The King had thus involved the nation in an
enormous expense entirely without its consent, and it
became necessary for him, as the Pope pressed for pay
ment, to endeavour to extort the sum needed from the
laity and clergy of the realm. Henry had had some ex
perience of the difiiculty of compelling either the laymen
or the clergy to yield supplies to his demand, and as the
Pope's requirements pressed upon him, he was somewhat
at a loss how to proceed. It was then that the bishop of
Hereford proposed to him a transaction which, as Matthew
Paris truly says, is " redolent with the foulest sulphureous
odour." The King obtained from the chief prelates, on the
pretence of some trifling matter, impressions of their seals
on blank paper. Armed -with these, the bishop of Here
ford went to Eome, and representing to the Pope that
King Henry was so much beloved by Churchmen that they
were ready to trust him -with any amount of their sub
stance, and exhibiting at the same time the blank papers
-with the seals of the bishops appended, obtained his ready
consent for borro-wing from the Eoman usurers large sums
on the credit of the Enghsh prelates. These being entered
on the papers, which were already fortified by the seals,
became legally recoverable by the usurers, and the un
fortunate bishops found themselves involved in a huge
mass of debt without having been in the least conscious of
the transaction. ^
5. But this swindling transaction, though helpful for
the moment, was not sufficient to meet the great demands
which the Pope was making on England ; and accordingly,
1 Matt. Paris, p. 896. See Stubbs, Const Hist, ii. 68-70.
2 Matt. Paris, pp. 910-11.

358 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [chap, xviit.
in the course of the year 1255, there arrived from Eome
an envoy of the Pope named Eustand, who was charged
to give the character of a Crusade to the war against
Manfred, and under this pretext to raise large sums from
the clergy. ^ The three years' tithe which had been granted
to the king in 1253 for the purposes of a Crusade, and
which had been partly raised under a new assessment
made by the bishop of Norwich, was to be diverted to
this object ; and Eustand was empowered to use every
means to obtain anticipatory payments, and to practise
any other available plans for raising money. The clergy
were full of indignation. They had never agreed to pay
a tithe for a war against Sicily. They had no wish to put
an English prince on that throne. Money which had been
hardly extorted from them for what they had deemed a
religious object, was now being tyrannically diverted to
purposes altogether alien. Thus, when the Parliament met
at Westminster at Michaelmas 1255, the general discon
tent assumed the form of a distinct opposition. The clergy,
appearing by their Proctors in Parliament,^ presented a
paper of gravamina, carefully digested, in opposition to the
demand made upon them. The chief grounds on which
this opposition was based were as follow : —
6. " The Proctors of the beneficed clergy of the arch
deaconry of Lincoln put forward on behalf of the whole
community that they have suffered a grievance, in that
the tenth of their benefices has been granted to the king,
they themselves not ha-ving been summoned, and that
when it is a question of committing any one to an obhga
tion, the express consent of the person obliged is necessary.^
^ The commission of Eustand is given at length in the Burton
Annals, which furnish the most valuable authority for the transactions
of this period. — Ann, Monast, i. 350, sq. Alexander IV. had now
succeeded Innocent IV. as Pope, but his poUoy was the same.
^ This is the first occasion on which we read of the beneficed clergy
being represented by Proctors, who about thirty years later became a
constituent part of Convocation.
' This statement of a general principle then but little acknow
ledged is remarkable in an address of this sort. The clergy must refer
to the Parliament of 1253.

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 359
Also that, supposing there was a consent of the clergy to
the tenth, that consent was given that the money should
be expended on certain purposes, and those purposes ceas
ing to be entertained, the grant also ceased and reverted
to the grantors, and could not fairly be applied to an alien
use. The time also for which the tithe is to be claimed is
not specified. Various hardships are also inflicted upon
them by the modes used by Eustand for collecting the
tithe. The goods of deceased persons, which have not
been clearly devised, are unfairly seized. The clergy have
been grossly abused by the action of the bishop of Here
ford. The valuation lately made by the bishop of Norwich
is departed from in many cases. The king has been
traitorously involved in responsibilities for the kingdom of
Apulia, without consent of his subjects. The complainants
are ready to help the Church of Eome according to their
ability in all lawful matters." The Proctors of the clergy
of the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry further complain
" that the clergy are grievously oppressed by being made to
plead in lay courts, and by divers lay exactions ; that
they are now taxed for a matter on which they had not
been consulted, and of which they do not approve ; that
the tax is oppressive and exorbitant ; that unfair treat
ment is used, unfitting favours are shown where money
has been given ; and that the very poor benefices which
scarce suffice for a UveUhood are taxed." ^ The feeling of
the Parliament was so strong both against the Sicilian war
and the methods taken to extort money, that it refused to
grant any aid to the king, taking the ground that it had
not been properly summoned according to the provisions
of Magna Charta. '^
7. The clergy nevertheless remained liable for the
three years' tithe which had been granted by the Pope,
and which Eustand was employed in raising. The remon
strances offered had some small effect in inducing the
Papal envoy to withdraw some of his more oppressive
regulations,^ but there was no relaxation of the claim.
' Annal. de Burton, Ann. Monast, i. 360-63.
2 Matt. Paris, p. 913.
^ See Annal. de Burton, Ann. Monast, i. 363.

360 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [caAP.xviit.
As, however, the clergy felt profoundly dissatisfied at the
purposes for which their money was being employed,^ and
were encouraged in resistance by the general opinion of
the country, doubtless every means was used to evade
payment, and the money came in but slowly. In order
to help forward the collection, and to obtain money if
possible from other sources, such as aids, legacies, vacant
churches, lapses, fines for non-residence, pluralities, etc.,
the Archbishop of Messina was sent in 1256 to support
the work of Eustand ; and at the same time it was in
timated that the Pope had continued the three years' tithe
for an additional two years, and the clergy were invited to
make composition for this.^ The Archbishop of Messina
appeared in the Parliament on Mid-Lent Sunday (1257),
but his requests for aid were received -with a general chorus
of grievances. ^ The King then appealed in woeful guise
to the Convocation of the clergy. He had incurred a debt
to the Pope of 135,000 marks. This he declared (though
quite falsely) had been done with the consent of the clergy.
He prays the clergy to take this debt upon them, and in
addition to the five years' tijthe, to grant him the five first
years' fruits of vacant benefices ; half the revenues of non
residents ; in the case of those who were privileged to
hold many benefices, the revenues of aU their benefices but
one ; and the goods of deceased persons which had not been
clearly devised. These modest demands were met by the
prelates and clergy with the remonstrances to which they
1 A contemporary poem expresses vividly the bitter feelings of
the clergy —
* Ja fu cleregle Li roia ne I'apostoile ne
ftanche e desus, pensent altrement
Am6e e cherle Mes coment au clers tolent lur
nule nen pot plus. or e lur argent.
Ore est enservie, Co est e tute la summe
e trop envilie, ke la Pape de Bume
e abatu jus. Al rei trop consent,
Far Iceus est himie pur aider sa curune
Dunt dut aver a'ie la dimi de clers 11 dune,
je n'os dire plus. De 50 en fet sun talent," etc.
Political Songs (Ed. Wright, Camden Soc), p. 44.
^ Annal. de Burton, Arm. Monast., i. 388. At the same time heavy
procurations were demanded of the clergy for the support of the arch
bishop. See Matt. Paris, p. 944. ' Ann. Monast, i. 387.

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 361
had now become familiar. They had never consented to
the outlay, they said. They had nothing except what was
of the patrimony of the Crucified One. This, which be
longed to the poor, they could not give to kings to carry
on war with, without sin. ^ Nevertheless the clergy ended
by offering to the king a sum of 52,000 marks in complete
discharge of all extraordinary papal claims (quas gratias
vocant), and on condition of the Church of England being
henceforth free. The king took time to consider whether
he would accept this offer. ^
8. In August (1257) another meeting of Convocation
was summoned by Archbishop Boniface to consider the
state of affairs. The King had not sent an answer whether
he would accept the 52,000 marks in discharge of all extra
claims. Should a message be sent to him to know his
decision ? Should a message be sent to the Apostolic See
to know whether the Pope would ratify the arrangement ?
What steps ought to be taken to resist lay encroachments 1
The Kuig had prohibited the meeting of the Convocation
on the archbishop's summons. This prohibition they would
of course not heed,^ but it might require some considera
tion.* On these grounds the clergy were called to meet
iu Synod in London. On this occasion there were no
proctors for the beneficed clergy summoned, but the arch
deacons were charged to obtain procuratorial letters from
the clergy to enable them to act for .them. The Convoca
tion decided that a message ought to be sent to the King
to know his decision. Also that messengers ought to be
sent to the Pope to represent to him the grievances under
which the English Church was labouring — a measure which
they take shame to themselves for not ha^dng resorted to
' Ann. Monast, i. 390-91.
" lb., i. 402. Matt. Paris (p. 951) says 42,000, and that the sum
was granted "in enormem ecclesiae et regni Isesionem et jacturam
irrestaurabUem. " This seems to be about the earliest record of a Con
vocation proper— that is to say, a Synod of the clergy without admix
ture of laymen — summoned by the archbishop.
'^ An liceat et expediat de negotiis ecclesise tractare, vel potius
quodabsit, prohibitioni regiae parere. — Ann. Monast, i. 403.
* Ann. Monast., 1. 402.

362 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [ohap. xviii.
before.^ The Synod then proceeds to the consideration
of special grievances relating to the clashing of the secular
and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and the alleged hardships
which the clergy had to suffer from lay officials. 2
9. The clergy displaying this strenuous resistance to
parting vrith their money, the Pope determined to use yet
more vigorous measures. In the beginning of the year 1258
he despatched his envoy, Heriot, to England, armed with
the fullest powers for excommunication and interdict His
anger was now aroused against the King for his feebleness
in not exacting money from his subjects, and he threatened
him with excommunication and interdict.* The plan was
now adopted, not of demanding money under the threat of
excommunication, but of inflicting the excommunication
and interdict first, in order to save time, and only taking
them off when the money was paid.* Heavy procurations
and aids were thus exacted from the abbeys and the clergy ;
and what with these and the indefinite responsibilities to
which many were committed by the treachery of the bishop
of Hereford, and also the payment of the tithe, an absolute
spoliation was being made of the revenues of the Church.
Under these circumstances the archbishop summoned his
Convocation to meet at Merton on St. Barnabas' Day
(1258). 10. The first thing which engaged the attention ofthe
clergy was the grievances which many of them were suffer
ing from high-handed exercises of the lay power, the king
using unscrupulously the agency of his officers to exact fines
and bribes for illegal privileges. Evidently the clergy were
being subjected to a deliberate system of persecution, re
sembling that used by John at the time of the Interdict, to
punish them for their resistance to extortions, and to force
money from them.® A bold stand is determined upon
by the clergy. The weapon of excommunication was to be
freely used, and against even the king himself if he perse
vere in his evil courses.^ A paper of articles containing the
highest hierarchical pretensions, formerly drawn up by
^ Ann. Monast., i. 404-5. = Ib„ i. 406-7.
- Matt. Paris, p. 960. * Ann, Monast, i. 411.
' See lb., i. 413, sq. ^ Ann. de Burton, Ann, Monast, i, 418.

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 363
Bishop Grosseteste, was brought before the Convocation.^
A long list of clerical pri-vUeges, compiled by Eobert de
Marisco, by the orders of Grosseteste, was also before
them.^ It does not appear what resolution was come to
about the money claims; but, as the great assembly at
Oxford, including the magnates of the whole realm as well
as the clergy, was sitting about the same time, the matter
was perhaps left for this more powerful body to handle.
11. The proceedings at the Parliament of Oxford were
equivalent to a revolution. Power was almost taken out
of the king's hand, his foreign dependants were put to
flight, and the strong castles of the land were given into
the hands of Englishmen. The barons addressed so vigor
ous a remonstrance to the Pope on the spoliations to which
the Church had been subjected, that it drew from Pope
Alexander a long apologetic letter. The Pope professed to
rejoice at the interest and zeal displayed by the barons in
religious matters ; declared that the Papal See had sought
only the good of the Church by its intrusion of foreigners
into English benefices ; is sorry to hear that they have not
cared for their churches, but declares himseK liable to be
deceived like others ; indulges in a somewhat fulsome pane
gyric of England and the saints and doctors which it has
produced ; declares that he by no means desires to rob the
laity of their right of patronage, and that for the future he
wUl take care that no scandals shall arise.*
12. That the papal disposal of English benefices thus
feebly defended by the Pope was both utterly hateful to
the people ofthe land, and not without danger to those who
availed themselves of it, was sho-wn by a tragical event
which happened about this time. A prebend in St. Paul's
Cathedral had been vacated by Eustand, who had assumed
the vows of the regulars, and had been conferred by the
Dean and Chapter on John de Crakhall, archdeacon of Bed
ford. Then came a certain Eoman with the Pope's letters
demanding the prebend ; and, the Dean and Chapter yield-
mg, he was instaUed in it on the first Thursday in Lent
1 Ann, Monast,, i. 422 ; Gross., Epist, p. 72.
2 Ann. Monast. i. 425.
¦* Annal. de Burton, Ann, Monast,, i. 487-91.

364 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [oHAP.xvnr.
(1 259).. But as he went out of the church, accompanied by
two companions, the new prebendary was met by three
young men altogether unknown to him, who fell upon him
and murdered him close to the gate of the churchyard. His
two terrified companions fled, but they were pursued, over
taken, and slain. This happened in mid-day, in the midst
of numbers of people ; but no one lifted a hand to prevent
it, nor was any attempt made to capture the murderers, so
intense and general was the hatred of the foreign intruders. ^
13. The Provisions of Oxford offered a slight and tem
porary hope of a better condition of things between the
king and the barons, but this hope was soon dispelled. The
character of Henry gave no security for the maintenance of
any obligations or promises. He procured from the Pope an
absolution of himself from the promises which he had made.
Fresh disputes arose. The arbitration of St Louis in 1264
seemed to leave the barons no hope for the redress of their
grievances, and open war ensued. In this war the clergy were
for the most part strongly in favour of the baronial party,
headed by Simon de Montfort. It would have been strange
had it been other-wise. They had been vexed, pillaged, and
spoiled for many years by the King, with the connivance of
the Pope.^ They had many special grievances to complain
of in the unauthorised intrusions of the lay power into
spiritual concerns. They had lost all reverence for popes
who could deliberately oppress them by intrusions of aliens
and every imaginable exaction, who could lightly absolve
kings from solemn obligations, and whose policy seemed to
be to follow up purposes of temporal ambition at the ex
pense of the patrimony of the Church. In the eyes of the
clergy Simon de Montfort was a hero, a sa-viour, even a
worker of miracles. The chronicler describes him as going
to the battle of Lewes " ha-ving justice and the fear of God
before his eyes, choosing death rather than falsehood or
dishonesty, being directed by the advice of bishops and
religious men, a man to whom faith was as a shield, a sol
dier fighting the battles of the Lord." He is said to have
^ Annal, de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 214.
' ' ' Papa et Eex velut Pastor et Lupus in ovium exterminium eon-
federati, omnibus niinam minabantur." — Matt. Paris, p. 917.

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 365
won the battle of Lewes by a direct miracle,^ and through
out the monasteries and religious houses of England there
was joy and rejoicing at the defeat and capture of the king
(May 14, 1264). Another event greatly delighted the
clergy. The man perhaps most hated in England, the
treacherous and mischievous bishop of Hereford, had at the
beginning of the war been captured by the barons and
thrown into prison.^
14. The support lent by the prelates and clergy to the
party of the barons drew upon them, as might be expected,
the anger of the Pope. The Cardinal Ugo de Falcodi was
despatched to England -with a mighty retinue, charged to
depose the bishops who favoured the barons, and to decree
the outlawry of the barons who opposed the king. The
times of John and Innocent seemed to have returned. But
the popular party had now a more real power. The cardinal
did not think it prudent to approach nearer to England
than Boulogne ; to this place he summoned the bishops who
supported the barons, viz. London, Worcester, Winchester,
Chichester, Lincoln, Chester, Salisbury, and the elect of
Bath.* It was no doubt convenient for the prelates sum
moned, and not displeasing to them, that the barons strictly
forbade their leaving the country. They were compelled to
send representatives to explain their unfortunate detention
to the Legate, and to make their apologies. The cardinal
was far from being satisfied. He raged against them, says
a chronicler on the royal side, with great vehemence, and
was for punishing them -with the penalty prescribed by the
canons.* The envoys were constrained to appeal to the
Pope, or to a general councU, on behalf of their masters
and the whole clergy of England. Three of the bishops,
^ Ann. de Dunstap., Ann. Monast, Ui. 232. Some of the utterances
as to Simon savoured of blasphemy ; thus : —
" Non sic venerabilis S. de Monte Forti,
Qui se Christi similis dat pro multis morti.
Nee fraus nee fallacia comitem promovit,
Sed divina gratia quas quos juvet novit."
—Polit Songs (C. S.), p. 89. ^ cArow. W. de Rishanger, p. 9.
' Chron, de Dunstap,, Ann. Monast, iii. 234; Chron. Thomx
Wykes, Ann. Monast, iv. 156 ; Chron. W. de Rishanger, p. 39.
^ Chron. Thom/ie Wykes, u. s.

366 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [oHAp.xvni.
after having shown this bold front, timidly yielded to the
fear of the Pope's anathema, and secretly made their way
into France. They were ordered by the Legate to excom
municate Simon de Montfort and his adherents, and to put
London, the Cinque Ports, and other parts of the kingdom
under an interdict. Having received the necessary docu
ments, the prelates began their homeward voyage. Perhaps
they had taken care that their journey and its purport
should be not unknown to those principally interested ; at
any rate, they were seized at sea ^ by the saUors of the
Cinque Ports, their papal documents torn to shreds and
thrown into the water, and they themselves threatened "with
death if they should venture to promulgate any sentences
such as had been committed to them by the Legate.^
15. A convincing proof of the general acceptance of the
party of the barons by the clergy was afforded by the sum
monses issued to Simon de Montfort's Parliament The
Archbishop of York, the bishops of Durham and Carhsle,
ten abbots and nine priors of the Northern Pro-vince, ten
bishops and fifty-five abbots, twenty-six priors, four deans,
and the heads of the military orders in the Southern, were
in-vited to attend.* When, therefore, at the battle of
Evesham (August 4, 1265) the party of the king triumphed
and the great earl, the protector of the clergy, was slain, the
clergy had heavy retribution to expect. In the following
March (1266) Cardinal Othobon arrived as the papal Legate
to infiict censure on the bishops who had favoured the
barons. His arrival was marked by severe measures. All
the towns through which he passed were placed under in
terdict, and he even ventured to inflict the same censure
on the City of London.* The bishops who had been the
chief offenders in supporting the barons were summoned
before him — namely, Winchester, London, Lincoln, and
Chichester — and were commanded to present themselves
before the Pope on a certain day.^ The opportunity of
^ Sponte nescio vel in-viti. — Wykes. ^ Cliron. T. Wykes, u. s.
3 Stubbs, Const Hist, u. 93.
^ Ann, de Oseneid, Ann. Monast., iv. 180. The interdict was soon
removed. ' Ann, de Dunstap,, Ann, Monast, iii. 240. One of them was -wise

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 367
having the clergy at his mercy was not likely to be neglected
by the king. Although the Legate exacted immoderate
procurations, making each religious house, however small,
pay six marks, yet the king must also have his share. He
obtained a grant of a tenth for three years, whereby, says
the chronicler, " the Church of England was terribly im
poverished, and in many ways utterly exhausted."^
1 6. The Legate having thus amerced the clergy in their
property, turned his attention to reforming their manners
and caring for their disciphne. In May 1268, at the
church of St. Paul in London, he celebrated a legatine
councU, at which " the king, all the archbishops, bishops,
abbots, priors, and many nobles of England were present." ^
Here he set forth a valuable body of Constitutions, " very
fruitful for the tranquillity of the Church, the state of the
kingdom, and the welfare of religious men." * In the year
1261 Archbishop Boniface had promulgated a body of
Constitutions at Lambeth, which are remarkable for the
ultra-hierarchical tone in which they deal with lay inva
sions of the spiritual province.* The Constitutions of
Othobon deal more generally with clerical duties. They
are a comment upon the Constitutions of the Legate Otho
set forth in the CouncU of London in 1237, and an enlarge
ment of them. As a body of laws and rules they are
extremely valuable, and are hardly surpassed by any simUar
document; and if the concluding direction given in them were
carefuUy observed, and the bishops caused them to be read
every year in their diocesan synods, they must have had
a considerable influence in improving the state of the
clerical body and fhe condition of the Church. ^
enough to compound for a fine, and so escape this visit. The others had
to suffer much hardship at Eome for many years. Ann. Dunstap,,
247 ; Ann. de Oseneid, Ann. Monast, iv. 181.
1 Barthol. de Cotton, p. 141
^ lb,, p. 140. This chronicler puts the CouncU in the wrong year
aud at the wrong place. ^ Ann. de Dunstap., u. s.
* See Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 182-210.
^ lb,, ii. 211-249. A short resume of the Constitutions, which
are of considerable length, will be found in Notes and Illustrations to
this Chapter. It is said that the Legate was so frightened at the
opposition which had been made to his predecessor Otho's Constitu-

368 THE CLEEGY ON THE NATIONAL SIDE [chap. xvin.
17. The year 1269 witnessed the completion of Henry's
rebuilding of the abbey church at Westminster, which is
said by the chronicler, and not without good ground for
the assertion, to have surpassed all the churches in Christ
endom then existing, and to have no peer.^ But though
the king's devotion was unquestionable, the reverence for
holy things was not in those days universal. This period
is remarkable for several outbreaks of popular feehng
against monasteries. The way in which a religious house
could urge its various claims, both temporal and spiritual,
against civU communities, is well Ulustrated by the Dun
stable Annals. These record a series of quarrels between
the house of Austin canons established there and the to-wn.
At one time the burghers, rendered furious by repeated
exactions, declared that they did not care for the excom
munications ; that they would rather go to the infernal
regions than bear the exactions of the priory any longer,
and they began to make serious preparations for deserting
the town and buUding it on another spot.^ The town here
was but a small one, but in the case of larger and more
important communities, the townsfolk sometimes took the
law into their own hands with considerable effect. Under
the year 1264, the Winchester Annals record that the
townspeople "rose against the prior and convent of St.
Swithun's, and burned the gate of the priory, and the gate
called Kingate with the church of St. Swithun's above it,
and all the buildings and property of the convent near the
wall, and also slew some of the members of the priory
wickedly within the enclosure of the monastery."* And
a still more fierce rising against a monastic house is recorded
by Bartholomew de Cotton. ''In the year 1272, on the
morrow of St. Lawrence, the citizens of Norwich surrounded
the monastery, and not being able to force an entrance,
applied fire to the great gates to which a parochial church
was adjoining, and burnt them with the church and all
tions, that he would not enforce them himself, but left it to the
bishops. — Ann. T. Wykes, p. 217.
^ Ann, Thomce Wykes, Ann. Monast., iv. 227.
2 Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 122.
' Ann. dA Winton., Ann. Monast., ii. 101. "

1253-1272.] AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. 369
its contents. At the same time they applied fire to the
great almshouse, to the gates of the (cathedral) church, to
the great bell tower, all of which, together with the bells,
were burned. They tried to fire other parts of the great
church, but all were saved except the chapel of St. Mary.
They burned the dormitory, the refectory, the guest-hall,
the infirmary with its chapel, and almost all the buildings
of the court. Very many belonging to the house, some of
them sub-deacons, some clerks, some laymen, they slew in
the cloister and within the precincts of the monastery; some
they dragged out and put to death in the town; some they
threw into prison. Entering into the monastery, they plun
dered aU the sacred vessels, books, and vestments, which
had not been consumed, and put to flight all the monks
except two or three." ^ These -violent and sacrilegious out
breaks, whatever may have been the special provocation
which was the immediate cause of them, show that the
feelings of reverence and submission to religious bodies on
the part of laymen could not be altogether depended on.
18. The feelings which had been stirred up by the na
tional struggle against the exactions and oppressions of the
King, supported by the Pope, graduaUy calmed down. The
latter years of the reign of Henry III. were comparatively
quiet. By the " Dictum of Kenil worth " a committee was
appointed of barons and prelates to arrange all matters of
dispute.^ The Church was declared to be free, as enacted in
Magna Charta. The tenth of ecclesiastical revenues (except
those of the exempt orders) which had been granted to the
king for five years,* seems to have been quickly paid. A
twentieth was also afterwards given. The clergy thus showed
themselves not unwilling to contribute when their grievances
were considered and the king no longer sought for their
money for foolish schemes of foreign aggression. On
November 16, 1272, died King Henry, after along and
turbulent reign, and was succeeded by his able son Edward,
without the least show of opposition, although, at the time,
the prince was absent in the Holy Land carrying on his
1 Barthol. de Cotton, p. 147.
^ Ann. de Waverleid, Ann. Monast, ii. 372.
3 Ann. Winton., Ann. Monast, ii. 104.
2 B

370 CLEEGY AS AGAINST KING AND POPE. [chap. xvni.
crusade. Henry, though a bad king, and utterly untrust
worthy in his promises, yet had some good pbints in his
character. He was amiable, chaste, and devout. The
sway of such a ruler, though fruitful of public disturbances,
might yet be favourable to the growth of private -virtues;
and men like Eichard of Chichester, who by a life of un
obtrusive devotion to his pastoral work earned for himself
the title of saint,^ may have been more plentiful than the
chronicles might lead us to suppose. This, too, was the
age of the early zeal and earnest work of the friars, and
both Dominicans and Franciscans were labouring devotedly
among the too-much-neglected masses. But the period is
especially valuable as showing us the clergy first learning
to take a national stand in direct opposition to the tyran
nical dictation of the Pope ; and some good seed was now
sown which was to bear fruit afterwards. In the next
chapter we shall see the condition of things altogether
reversed. The clergy, misled by their primates, are found
resisting the King and the State as the partisans of Eome.
This leads to a vigorous attempt to curb their pretensions
by law ; and the nationality of the Church is now provided
for by statutes, as against the will of the clergy, or at any
rate that of some of the most prominent of their body.
' He was canonised in 1272. E. de Eishanger, Chron., pp. 11, 12,

CHAP. XVIIL] NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

371

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE CONSTITUTIONS
OF CARDINAL OTHOBON.
1. Baptism to be administered at
other times besides Easter and Whit
suntide. Priests to explain the form
of baptism in the mother tongue,
that, in case of necessity, lay per
sons may baptize.
2. The paying for sacraments to
be strictly prohibited. Prisoners
not to be hindered from confession.
3. Churches to be consecrated. A
Taile to be provided in churches.
4. Arms not to be borne by clerks.
5. Clerks to dress in a fitting
habit, wearing close copes and the
tonsure, and avoiding aU lay equip
ments. 6. Clerks not to engage in secular
employment, saving in the king's
service. 7. Clerks not to act as pleaders
in cases of blood.
8. Clerks to dismiss their concu
bines (or -wives) -within a month.
The archdeacons to Inquire. The
concubine (or wife) to be prohibited
from the sacraments.
9. No vicars to be admitted to
cures except they be in priest's
orders, or ready to be ordained.
10. No presentation to be made
to a church except it be absolutely
ascertained that it is vacant either
by death or cession.' [This consti
tution made to protect foreign in
cumbents.} 11. Churches not to be divided.
Only one incumbent to be presented
to any one church.
12. The pri-vileges ol sanctuary
to be maintaiued. He who has
taken sanctuary not to be debarred
from receiving -victuals.
13. Matrimony not to be hindered.
14. Wills to be religiously carried
out.

15. Eevenues of vacant churches
not to be seized by the bishops.
16. Eectors to have rectorial
rights over aU chapels in their par
ishes. 17. Clergy not to suffer churches
or glebe houses to run into dUapi-
dation. 18. Procurations not to be exacted
unless visitation is actually held.
19. Archdeacons not to allow a
composition for grievous sins by
money payment.
20. Dignities not to be farmed.
21. Bishops to reside on their Sees.
22. Vicars to be appointed to aU
appropriate livings. Houses of resi
dence to be provided.
23. Goods of intestates not to be
seized by bishop.
24. Causes to be judged by per
sons of dignity and repute.
25. Letters of summons to be sent
by proper officers, and not by the
party to the suit.
26. Advocates not to be admitted
to plead without permission of dio
cesan. 27. Peaceful settlements of causes
not to be obstructed.
28. Eelaxations of sentences passed
to be publicly notified.
29. Institution not to be given to
immoral persons or to pluralists
-without dispensation.
30. Commendams not to be al
lowed. 3 1 . Pluralists not to be promoted.
32. False resignations to be pre
vented. 33. No compact of payment to
be made for a church.
34. Markets not to be held in
churches. 35. Processions to be used on
Trinity Monday.
36. These Constitutions to be read
yearly in diocesan synods.

372 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. six.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE NATIONALITY OP THE CHURCH FORTIFIED BY LAW.
1272-1353.
1. The Pope "provides" Eobert Kilwardby as Primate. 2. Else of the
friars ; difficulties -with which Edward L had to deal. 3. Archbishop
Peccham. 4. CouncU of Eeading. 5. First Statute of Mortmain.
6. The archbishop recedes from his claims. 7. He attacks the ex
empt orders. 8. The representation of the parochial clergy by proctors
established. 9. The clergy show unwillingness to contribute for State
purposes. 10, Statute of Circumspecte agatis. 11. The new valua
tion of clerical incomes. 12. A half of clerical incomes demanded.
13. The Parliamentary summons of the clergy. 14. Winchelsea
archbishop ; the buU Olericis laicos, 15. The clergy refuse to vote
a subsidy, and are outlawed. 16. The King and Primate reconciled.
17. Eenewed bitterness between the King and the clergy. 18. The
Pope's bull relaxed ; the clergy vote a contribution. 19. Importance
of the struggle ; interests of Pope and King separated. 20. The barons
refuse to aUow the King to plead before the Pope. 21. Winchelsea
iu. disgrace ; the King truckles to the Pope. 22. The Statute of
CarUsle. 23. The Pope claims the right of reservation and provision
to English Sees. 24. Walter Eeynolds " provided " for the primacy.
25. PrivUeges granted by the Pope to the Primate. 26. The Statute
Articuli Gleri. 27. Bishop Orlton tried in a secular coiut. 28.
Bad character of the prelates of that day. 29. Primacy of Archbishop
Mepham. 30. Quarrel between the king and Archbishop Stratford.
31. Edward determines to assert his rights in the matter of patronage.
32. Active measures taken against papal pro-visions. 33. Statute
regulating clerical privileges. 34. Circumstances favourable to the
enactment of a strict prohibition of Provisions. 35. First Statute of
Provisors. 36. Effects ofthe Statute. 37. First Statute ot Prcemunire.
1. At the death of Archbishop Boniface abroad in 1270,
the Canterbury monks had elected their prior Adam de
Chillenden to the vacant See. Ever striving to make the
primacy of the English Church a mere appanage of their
monastery, they had refused to entertain the urgent re
quests of Prince Edward, who sought to obtain the pro
motion for "his clerk Eobert Burnel," one of the best
specimens of the secular clerk to be found in our Church

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 373
history. Edward, already embarked for the Crusade, had
hastened back to Canterbury, thinking by his presence to
overawe the monks. But he did not succeed, and the
election of the prior Adam was completed.^ Not content
with this bold act of independent spirit, the convent of
Canterbury proceeded to a still more audacious assumption
of power. Their right at any rate to take part in the
election of an archbishop was undoubted, but it was alto
gether a new and unheard-of claim that, during the vacancy
of the metropolitan See, they should have the right of
confirming the election of suffragan bishops, and giving
forth their mandate for their consecration. This, however,
they ventured to do in the case of Eobert de Wichampton,
elected bishop of Sahsbury. The bishops having examined
into the legahty of the Canterbury claim, decided against
it, and refused to consecrate.^ Meantime Adam, archbishop-
elect, proceeded to Eome, but there he did not find matters
progress as smoothly as he might have desired. The Pope
declined to confirm him, and recommended him to resign.
To this Adam yielded, and the election was quashed.^ The
Pope did not deem it necessary to order another election,
but, acting with the same arbitrary authority which some
of his predecessors had used, appointed or "provided"
brother Eobert de KUwardby, of the order of Friars
Preachers, or Dominicans, to be the Primate of the English
Church. The Pope aUowed him to choose his consecrator
from among the Enghsh bishops. He selected William de
Bitton, bishop of Bath, who was famed for sanctity, and
by him and eleven other sufiragans of the See of Canter
bury, Kilwardby was consecrated at Canterbury on the first
Sunday in Lent 1272.*
^ Chrcm. Thomae Wykes, Ann. Monast., iv. 236. The king was
very angry and ordered the goods of the monks to be confiscated. —
Barthol. de Cotton, p. 146.
2 " Evooatis legum et canonum magistris totius regni peritioribus,
qusestionem istam difficilem, an mandate capituU parendum fuisset, dili-
gentissime disputari feoemnt ; nee inveniebant in canone vel in jure
probabiles rationes quibus compeUi poterant ad parendum." — Chron.
T. Wykes, Ann. Monast, iv. 243.
2 Ann. de Winton,, A. M,, ii. 112 ; Ann. de Dunstap., A. M.,
iii. 253. * Chron. W. de Rishanger, p. 72 (EoUs Series).

374 THE NATIONALITY OE THE CHUECH [ohap. xix.
2. The new archbishop enjoyed a very high character
for learning and sanctity, but he was a dangerous Primate
for the Church of England. Belonging to an order which
stood outside the ordinary organisation of the Church, and,
though highly popular as yet with the laity, hated alike by
the secular clergy and the monks, it was clear that he
would be thrown altogether into the arms of the author of
his promotion and his most ef&cient supporter, the Pope.
Kilwardby thus became, says Professor Stubbs, "the first of
a series of primates who attempted to impress a new mark
on the relations of Church and State in England. "^ When
Kilwardby reached the primacy, the mendicant orders had
attained to the very summit of their fame and popularity.
At the Council of Lyons, which the archbishop attended
shortly after his consecration (1274), the great Bonaven-
tura, the most eloquent preacher of the Franciscan order,
was present to charm the assembly with his eloquence;
and one still greater, Thomas Aquinas, the most famous
scholar and phUosopher of the Dominicans, was on his way
to attend the council when he was overtaken by death.
So great was the popularity of the Friars, that new orders
of them were continually springing up ; and it was one of
the works of the council to decree solemnly that no new
orders should henceforth be formed, and to abolish the
order of Friars of the Sac, which had attained considerable
popularity. In addition to the Dominicans and Franciscans,
the orders of Augustinians and Carmelites were allowed to
remain, but besides these four there were to be no other
orders intruded on the Church.^ There was probably no
single cause which tended so directly to the denationalising
of churches and to the exaltation of the monarchical power
^ Const. Hist, ii 105. At the Council of Lyons, KOwardby thus
addressed the Pope : " Pater Sancte, opus et creatio manuum vestrarum
ego sum, ecclesia mea ecclesia vestra et bona mea bona vestra sunt ;
disponite ergo de ecclesi& meS, et de bonis meis, sicut et de bonis pro-
priis."— W. Hemingburgh, Chron,, ii. 3.
2 Ann. de Dunstaplid, A, M,, iii. 260. Eishanger says, "Aliquos
status de ordinibus mendioantium approbavit, utpote Predicatores et
Minores ; aliquos toleravit, utpote Karmelitas et Augustinienses ; ali
quos reprobavit, ut Saccinos qui intitulantur ' de PoenitentiS ' sive ' de
Valle Viiidi,' et consimiles " (p. 81).

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 376
claimed by Eome, as the rise and popularity of the Friars.
And when one of this order reached the highest position of
command and influence in the English Church, an element
of mischief was introduced which was not slow to show
itself in its consequences. The able king who had now
succeeded to the throne could see clearly that if the chief
places of power and influence in the Church were to be
under the immediate control of Eome, there would be
needed an especial care and vigUance lest the vast property
held by Churchmen should be altogether exempted from
State burdens, and thus the power of the Crown be seriously
impaired. It became therefore a settled part of the policy
of Edward I., on the one hand, to check the acquisition of
property by the Church, and on the other, to make eccle
siastical revenue contribute its fair proportion to State
burdens. This was one of the great struggles of his reign,
and in carrying it on he was specially hampered by the
principles of those who occupied the place of Archbishops
of Canterbury. Had Burnel succeeded to the primacy, as
Edward so much desired, the strife would have been far
easier for the king. But the primates who were actually
raised to the headship of the Church had no sympathy
-with the State policy of the king. They looked to Eome
for inspiration, and opposed the king's demands, not as
national Churchmen refusing to be unfairly taxed for alien
objects to which they had given no approval, but as main
taining the principle that Church property was to be held
free from all State burdens, however just in themselves and
legaUy imposed, without the sanction of the Pope. At the
first outset of his reign the Council of Lyons had granted
to the king a tenth of ecclesiastical revenue for six years,
but this was upon the ground of the expenses which he
had incurred in his^ Crusade.^ The king, however, would
not be always able to plead the merits of a Crusade, nor
obtain a favourable consideration from popes and councils.
1 Ann. Dunstap., A. M., iii. 260. — The Dean of Lincoln, Eichard
de Mapham, described by Hemingburgh as Magnus ilie philosophus,
opposed this grant with much spirit, and was deprived by the Pope of
his benefices, but afterwards restored.— W. de Hemingburgh, Chron.,
ii 3.

376 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
It was the great object of Edward's administration to in
troduce order and regularity into the institutions of the
country, and this evidently could not be done if the aids of
the clergy were to be exceptional and optional, and not
such as could be counted upon -with certainty beforehand.
Edward at once endeavoured to put the policy of restraining
the acquisition of property by the Church into practice.
It is said by Eishanger that in the first Parliament (1275),
the king " published statutes against the Dead Hand, that
for the future no possessions of lands or rents should
devolve to the Dead Hand without the special license of
the king."^ But it does not appear that any Statute of
Mortmain was actually passed in 1275. This was rather
the foreshadowing of the royal policy and the expression
of its aims.
3. The struggle which the king evidently anticipated
did not commence in the time of Archbishop KUwardby.
This prelate was either too timid or too indolent to place
himself in opposition to the king, but in the year 1278
Kilwardby was honourably relieved of his post by being
made a cardinal and bishop of Porto.^ Edward now made
another earnest attempt to obtain the promotion of his
friend and minister, Eobert Burnel, bishop of Bath. But
though he procured his election at Canterbury, the Pope
deliberately quashed the election, and appointed by his
own authority John de Peccham, a Franciscan friar^ — a
man like his predecessor distinguished for learning, but a
man by virtue of his order standing apart from the Church
of England, and imbued with thoroughly papal principles.
His appointment was an act of arbitrary authority of the
Pope, but Edward acquiesced in it as it was important for
him to have the papal influence still on his side for the
collection of the clerical subsidy, not yet paid.* To the
1 Chron,, p. 85.
' The chronicler Thomas Wykes says, ' ' Licet Cantuariensis archi-
episcopatus in proventibus temporalium commodorum Portuense fastig-
ium incomparabiliter excedere videretur, tamen ne summo Pontifici -ri-
deretur inobediens, ditiori sponsse, venustioris formae captus illecebra,
valedicens, temporalibus commodis non recusavit anteponere digrdta-
tem."— .,^. M,, iv. 277. ^ Eishanger, Chron., p, 93.
* Hook, Archbishops of Canterbury, iii. 337.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 377
policy ofthe new archbishop the king, however, soon opposed
a decided resistance.
4. Peccham was not inclined, like his predecessor, to let
the claims of the Church lie dormant. His first act in
England after his consecration was to stir up the ancient
strife between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York,
his next, to summon by his own authority a council at
Eeading (1279), where he enunciated the strongest ecclesias
tical claims. The Constitutions of this councU take the form
of a comment upon those of the Legate Othobon, which
are generally enforced and adopted without much altera
tion. But certain cases were specified as falling within the
meaning of the general excommunication pronounced
against all opposers of Holy Church, which quickly brought
the archbishop and his proceedings within the royal dis
pleasure. Among these were " those who obtain letters
in any lay court to obstruct ecclesiastics in such causes as
by the canons belong to any ecclesiastical court." " Those
who maliciously neglect to execute the mandates of our
lord the king for taking up excommunicates, or who hinder
their being taken, or unjustly procure their enlargement
contrary to the decrees of ecclesiastical discipline." " Those
who take away, consume, or injuriously lay their hands
upon anything that belongs to the houses, manor, or granges
of ecclesiastical persons." ^ These anathemas were thought,
not without reason, to be directed against the king's oflicers.
Consequently, the king complained to the Parliament,
assembled at Michaelmas, of this infringement of his royal
rights, and the archbishop was compelled to declare that
the excommunications did not apply to the king's officers.
He was also obliged to direct that the copies of Magna
Charta which he had directed to be fastened up in churches
should be taken down.^
6. But, not content with compelling the archbishop to
' Johnson, Eng, Canons, ii. 257-8.
' Revocat provis™- Cone. Reding. Wilkins, Concil, ii. 40. This
CounciL of Eeading is remarkable for having confirmed and settled
the representation of the parochial clergy in Convocation by proc
tors. For the history of the various forms of summoning the clergy,
see Notes and Illustrations to this Chapter.

378 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap. xix.
withdraw some of his most obtrusive claims, the king now
proposed to Parliament as a statute that which had been
in his mind some years before, but which the attitude of
the new archbishop probably hastened — the Statute of
Mortmain — the first statutory check to the power of the
Church,^ — and, under the relations which the National
Church had now entered into with the Pope, a curb also on
the influence of Eome. The statute now passed was en
titled De viris religiosis. It recited that it was of old time
the law that religious men should not enter upon fees
without the license of the lord in chief, but that this was
now commonly done to the detriment of the provision for
the defence of the kingdom, and to the loss of the lord in
chief ; wherefore it provided " that no religious person or
any other whatsoever should presume to buy or seU any
lands or tenements, or under pretence of donation, or grant,
or any other title whatsoever, to receive such from any
one ; or by any method, art, or skill, to appropriate them in
such a way as whereby such lands and tenements should
devolve in any manner to the dead hand." If any such
transference to the dead hand were made, then the lord in
chief should have the power of entering and seizing the
fee.^ It is clear that by the transfer of estates held for
feudal service to religious bodies, which could render no
mUitary service, and from which pecuniary aids were vrith
difiiculty extracted, the Cro-wn was a direct loser. Hence
this statute, which checked the acquisition of wealth by
ecclesiastical bodies. The king also, whose policy was to
bring the taxing power of the State and its sources of
revenue under one distinct and uniform control, obtained
from this same Parliament sanction for demanding a fif
teenth of ecclesiastical revenue, as the Parliament of 1275
had given him a fifteenth of lay revenue. This demand of
the king was considered by the clergy of both provinces in
^ It had been enacted in 1259 that no religious person should be
allowed to acquire laud without the license of the next lord from whom
the donor held it, but this had not been enrolled, and it lacked the
penal clause and the inducement to the next lord to enter. It was
consequently inoperative. See Stubbs, Const Hist, ii. 113.
^ Opus Chronicorum (EoUs Series), p. 45 ; Stubbs, Select Charters,
p. 448.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 379
their provincial synods. The archbishop and clergy of
York agreed to give a fifteenth for three years. The
Primate at first showed considerable reluctance to yield to
the demand, but at length, " compeUed by the earnestness
of the king," agreed to a tenth for two years, " that at
least," says the chronicler, "he might be in something
different from York." ^
6. How great the grievance of the Statute De religiosis
was felt to be is sho-wn by the way in which the clergy
constantly recurred to it afterwards in urging their rights.
The archbishop no doubt felt that he had received a check,
but he was not disposed to yield at once to the controlling
power of the State. He summoned his Convocation to meet
at Lambeth in October 1281, and prepared to make
a vigorous reply to the king's measures. In the meantime
-writs of Quo warranto had been issued to inquire closely into
the tenure of fees, whether they had been illegally trans
ferred to religious persons, and whether those who pro
fessed to have freehold had really acquired it,^ so that the
clergy met the archbishop at Lambeth ^ in some anxiety as
to their tenures. A bold front was assumed by the arch
bishop. Under his direction the synod voted that the
king's courts had no right of inquisition in the case of
patronage, and no right to intervene in causes touching the
chattels of the spiritualty.* But these were matters which
the king was not at all prepared to give up to exclusive
ecclesiastical control. In all matters of property in which
the interests of laymen as well as clergy might probably be
involved, he claimed the right for the king's courts to have
cognisance. It was something of the old dispute of Henry
and Becket, but Archbishop Peccham was not a Becket.
The king threatened him with unpleasant consequences if
he should venture to do anything against the rights of the
crown, and the archbishop, " terrified, abandoned his pre
sumption." ^
' Ann. de Oseneid; Ann, T, Wykes ; Ann. Monast, iv. 286.
^ Ann, de Waverleid, A. M,, ii. 395.
' For the Constitutions published at this Synod of Lambeth, see
Notes and lUustrations to this Chapter.
* Chron. Thomce Wykes, A. M., iv. 285. ' lb.

380 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
7. Peccham seems to have consoled himself for this
discomfiture by a very violent letter against the members
of the exempt orders who had declined to attend his
synod. They held themselves free, he says, like asses' colts ;
they had no feeling for the troubles of their holy mother ;
they were like Hagar, who despised her mistress ; there
fore the bishops of the province are straitly charged to in
flict upon them what punishment they can, viz. to put all
the non-exempt churches which are appropriated to exempt
monasteries under strict sequestration, preventing any
revenue to be paid by them to the religious house, or any
religious offices to be done in them. From this singular
method of punishing the exempt order a chorus of appeals
at once went up to Eome.^ In the conduct of the arch
bishop may be traced not only his bitterness at ha-\Tng
been defeated by the firmness of the king, but also the
fierce antagonism which existed between friars and monks,
who cordially hated one another. It is difiicult to estimate
which party was the more likely to find favour at Eome —
the friars, the new and efficient champions of the Holy See
— or the exempt orders, the old favourites of the popes.
8. The king, in pursuance of the policy on which he
was now earnestly bent — of making the clergy amenable
to the financial needs of the State equally with the laity —
in place of holding a Parliament, summoned, in 1282, two
provincial councUs, to which both clergy and laity were
called. The sheriffs were to summon the laity, the arch
bishops the clergy. In the writ directed to Archbishop
Peccham he is bid to summon his suffragans, the abbots
and heads of religious houses, and the proctors of the deans
and chapters, but no mention is made of the parochial
clergy and their proctors.^ This was a fatal omission, for,
on the assembling of the clerical body at Northampton
1 Ann, de Waverleid, A. M., ii. 395-6-7. The archbishop was
excessively severe upon the character of the clergy of his day. He says,
"The Church of England hath long been plagued with false clerks,
who, for worldly glory and out of covetousness, heaping benefice upon
benefice, contrary to canon and without the Pope's dispensation, de^
stroy souls purchased with the blood of the Eedeemer, and lead an in
famous life." — Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 299. ^ Select Charters,p. 456

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 381
(January 1283), and a demand of a subsidy being made of
them, it was immediately replied that they were an im
perfect body, and could not grant a subsidy because of the
absence of the representatives of the parochial clergy.^ Of
this excuse the assembled prelates readily availed them
selves, and the clerical assembly was dissolved without
doing anything for the king's needs. The archbishop,
however, immediately summoned another Convocation for
May 9, in which, for the first time, the bishops are distinctly
directed to bring two representatives of the clergy from each
diocese, who shall be sufficiently informed of the minds of
their brethren in a diocesan meeting to be held previously,
and thus able to vote for " the honour of the Church, the
comfort of our lord the king, and the peace of the king
dom." 2
9. This Convocation, which was prorogued till the
autumn, probably to give the Diocesan Synods time to
express their minds, did in fact grant the king a twentieth.^
But this subsidy was granted very unwillingly, and with a
full statement of the clerical grievances. The clergy, by
the mouth of their proctors, declared that, o-wing to bad
harvests, the change in the coinage, the loss of cattle, and
the taxes levied on them for the king and the Crusade, the
Church was so impoverished, that its revenues did not
suffice to support its ordinary burdens, and to find main
tenance for its ministers, so that in very many places there
was a woeful falling short of the supply of ministers. A
fifteenth had lately been given to the king, the whole of
which was not yet paid, and many of the prelates had made
special contributions. There had been no relief in the
matter of prohibitions to ecclesiastical courts, so that
mother Church was sunk so low that scarce any one now
1 This argument would seem to establish beyond doubt that the
representation of the parochial clergy had been secured by a canon
passed at the CouncU of Eeading, 1279, as supposed by Hody (iii. 138),
although Mr. Stubbs holds that the canon was not passed untU the
holding of the assembly which avaUed itself of it.
2 Select Charters, p. ihi.
3 Ann. de Dunstap,, Ann, Monast, iu. 299; Barthol. de Cotton,
p. 165. Eishanger (p. 103) says a fifteenth, and afterwards a thirtieth.

382 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap. xix
feared the power of the Keys. A new demand might soon
be expected from the Pope, the Eoman Church being now
subject to unheard-of oppressions, so that the clergy could
not venture to promise anything to the King unless the
sovereign Pontiff should have been first consulted. The
clergy finally acknowledge that there are certain cases in
which they may be justly called to contribute to the Bang's
needs, but this must always be done under the advice and
direction of the chief Pontiff.^ This complete change of
tone from that which distinguished the clergy in the pre
vious reign, and the open profession that, even in cases of
extreme need, they were not prepared to grant a subsidy
to the King except with the consent of the Pope, must
needs have tended to exasperate the King against the
clerical body in a way which the grudging contribution
they at length bestowed hardly availed to remove.
10. Constant complaints had been made by the clergy,
both in this reign and the preceding reign, that they were
drawn into secular courts to plead on matters which be
longed properly to the spiritual courts, that the processes
of the courts-spiritual were hindered by prohibitions, and
that ecclesiastical jurisdiction was continually and rudely
interfered with. In 1285 the clergy of the Southern Pro-
-vince presented a petition to the king, praying that these
prohibitions should no longer be allowed, and that the
courts-Christian should be permitted to exercise their pro
per jurisdiction without interference.^ The whole matter
was fully debated between the Chancellor, as representing
the lay power, and the clergy, and the result was the
issuing of a writ by the king, known as the writ " Circum-
specie agatis," which was afterwards adopted as a statute
(13 Edward I., st. iv., c. 1), and became the authoritative
settlement of this matter which had been so long in dis
pute. This statute recognises the right of the clergy " to
hold pleas on matters merely spiritual, such as offences for
which penance was due, tithes, mortuaries, churches and
churchyards, injuries done to clerks, perjury, and defama
tion." » ^ Ann. Dunstap,, Ann, Monast,, ui. 295.
s Wilkins, u. 119. ^ stubbs. Const Hist, u, 119.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 383
11. The Statute of Circumspecte agatis may have been a
fair and equitable settlement of a troublesome dispute, but
it was not regarded with favour by the clergy, who desired
to have the right to judge in all matters wherein a clerk
was in any way mixed up. Nor were the relations between
the King and the Church mended by the grant of a tenth
of ecclesiastical revenue for six years which Edward ob
tained in 1291.1 -pijig grant, which was nominally for a
Crusade, was conceded by Pope Nicholas IV., and thus the
most papal of the clergy could not object to it on principle ;
but it pressed upon many with peculiar bitterness, as it was
founded on a new and very severe valuation of all ecclesi
astical property. The two chief valuers were John, bishop
of Winchester, and Oliver, bishop of Lincoln. These pre
lates appointed deputies in each of the dioceses. The
chronicler complains bitterly of these new taxers, who,
"incomparably exceeding the insolence of the old officers,
valued property much more heavUy than it was wont to be
rated, and even thus could not extinguish the inextinguish
able avarice of the heart of the King." ^ The Pope's Bulls
granted not only a tenth of ecclesiastical estates, but also
of aU obventions and offerings. The sums arising from all
these sources were safely hoarded and kept in the monasteries
untU the king should set out on his Crusade. But the king,
finding this money -within his reach, rudely seized it with
out giving any care for the purpose for which it was col
lected.^ Another Bull specified minutely such of the poorer
ecclesiastical corporations (as the houses of lepers, the nuns
who hved by charity, the secular clergy who had less than
six marks a year), which were to be exempted from the
tax.* 12. WhUe the clergy were stUl groaning under the
^ The BuU, dated in the fourth year of the Pontificate of Nicholas
IV., is given in Bartholomew de Cotton, p. 189 ; and Hemingburgh, ii.
26, Another tenth (for one year), grounded on the old valuation of
Walter, bishop of Norwich, was given to the king by the clergy in the
year 1290.— Barthol. de Cotton, p. 178.
^ Ann. de Oseneid, Ann. Monast, iv. 333.
^ W. de Hemingburgh, U. 26, 53 ; Barthol. de Cotton, p. 187.
* Barthol. de Cotton, p. 191.

384 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap. xix.
sharp pressure of the payment of the tenth under the new
and greatly increased taxation, another blow came upon
them from the king, which was indeed a crushing one.
Involved in a war with France, and driven to the utmost
extremities for want of funds, Edward determined to
assail without scruple, and to an extent never before
attempted, the revenues of the clergy. There was then no
Archbishop of Canterbury. Peccham had died in 1292,
and the Pope had not yet confirmed the election of his
successor. The King therefore himself summoned the
clergy to a Convocation, or rather a general synod, as both
provinces were to meet together at Westminster, and the
inferior clergy were to be represented by elected proctors.^
The clergy assembled accordingly on St. Matthew's day
(September 21, 1294), and the king explained to them his
necessities. Then Oliver -Sutton, bishop of Lincoln, asked
for time to deliberate. The king conceded three days.
At the expiration of this time the counsels were stUl
various. There was no one to lead the Canterbury pre
lates, and John Eomanus, Ajohbishop of York, was in
great terror, as he owed the king a large sum, and was
afraid to take an open part against him. The consultation
ended by their offering to the king two tenths, to be paid
in one year.^ The king at once informed them that nothing
less than a half of their revenues would be accepted. The
clergy were struck with terror. The dean of St. Paul's is
said to have died with fright in the king's presence. But
the Upper House of the Convocation, awed by the presence
of the king and his threats of outlawry, at length yielded
to the demand. The proctors of the clergy in the Lower
House were more obstinate. Feeling that they had not
only their own interests, but also those of their brethren
in charge, they stoutly resisted. It was not untU the king
had sent a band of soldiers to them to threaten them with
outlawry, and to call upon any one who refused to pay to
1 Barthol. de Cotton, p. 247.
" W. de Hemingburgh, Chron,, ii. 56. Speaking of John Eomanus,
the archbishop, the chronicler says, " Bene Eomanus, qma a Eomano
patre Eomanam cupiditatem extraxit — sitivit valde pecuniam et sub-
stantiam aliorum." — Hemingburgh, ii. 70.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 385
stand forth and declare himself, that the lower clergy at
length yielded. In return they received a protection from
the king, securing their goods and cattle from forcible
seisure for the king's use.^
13. King Edward had found the taxation of the clergy
a valuable source of revenue, but he had also found it
attended with considerable difficulty and risk in the obtain
ing. He could not always expect to find a complaisant
Pope who would grant him tenths for a Crusade which
never was carried out, nor could he always hope to be
able to intimidate the clergy, as he had lately done when
they were without a head and leader. His politic mind
therefore devised a plan for bringing the inferior clergy
into the Parliament by representation, as the spiritual
peers aheady sat there by virtue of their prelatical dignity.
In the -writs issued for the meeting of the Parliament of
1295, the bishops are premonished to appear both by
themselves and by the heads of their chapters, their arch
deacons, one proctor for each chapter, and two for the
clergy of each diocese. The archbishop, bishops, and clergy
of the Northern Province, sixty-seven abbots, and the heads
of the exempt orders, are similarly summoned to West
minster, save that in the case of the abbots the premonish-
ing clause (p'temunientes) is not inserted in the writ.^ It is
e-rident that this summons of the clergyj- and the assembly
which resulted from it, differed altogether from the ecclesi
astical summons to a sacred synod or Convocation, and
from that assembly when met. It was a summons of the
clergy in their secular aspect simply for taxing purposes.
14. To the See of Canterbury had now succeeded
Eobert Winchelsea, archdeacon of Essex, who had been
first selected by the king, and then chosen unanimously
by the Chapter of Canterbury. After a considerable delay,
caused by the vacancy of the See of Eome, Winchelsea had
been consecrated in Italy, and enthroned at Canterbury
with extraordinary magnificence, the king himself being
present at the ceremonial.^ But though selected by the
^ Barthol. de Cotton, p. 249. ^ See the Writ, Select Charters, p. 474.
' See the minute account given in Dr. Hook's Lives of ihe Arch
bishops, vol. iii. chap. vii.
2 c

386 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
King, and specially honoured by him at his inauguration
as Primate, the new archbishop proved anything but tract
able in the matter of the royal policy for the taxation of
the clergy. There was now on the throne of St. Peter one
of the most ambitious and daring of the Popes who had
ever occupied it. The policy of Boniface VIII. wks to
assert and retain a complete control over all clerical
revenues, and by means of this power to hold in check all
the princes who could not afford to do without financial
help from the vast estates then owned by Churchmen. He
was thus brought into collision with two of the most
energetic and able kings who ever reigned in Europe —
PhUip the Fair in France, and Edward I. in England. In
the strife which ensued in England the Primate lent him
self unreservedly to the side of the Pope, and was thus
involved in sharp antagonism with the King. At the
meeting of the Parliament in the whiter of 1295, the
clergy, under the archbishop's direction, consented, after
long delay, to grant a tenth, the king having demanded of
them a third, or at least a fourth.^ But in the foUowing
spring (February 24, 1296) came forth from the Pope the
famous Bull, known as Clericis Laicos, which commanded
the clergy not to pay, and the secular powers not to exact,
under penalty of excommunication, any contributions from
the revenues or goods of churches and clergy.^
15. The effects of this papal prohibition were soon
apparent. At the Parliament held at Bury St. Edmund's,
November 3, 1296, the king demanded a subsidy from the
clergy. The archbishop, calling together the clergy who
were in attendance on the Parliament, laid before them
four points — (1.) Had any promise been made, as the king
asserted, that the clergy would grant a subsidy 1 (2.) Did
not the new papal edict completely bind them not to give
a subsidy? (3.) Was there any imminent danger to the
realm from France ? (4.) Were not the clergy grievously
impoverished by previous exactions?^ The clergy were
divided into four houses to consider these points. In the
1 Barthol. de Cotton, p. 299.
' W. de Hemingburgh, Chron., ii. 113 ; Knyghton, De Eventiha
Anglic (Ed. Twysden), p. 2489. 3 Barthol. de Cotton, p. 314.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 387
first were the archbishop and bishops, with the proctors of
the absent bishops. In the second, the abbots and priors
and representatives of religious houses. In the third, the
deans, archdeacons, and other dignitaries. In the fourth,
the proctors of the parochial clergy. Deliberations and
mutual consultations occupied many days, but no way was
discovered of meeting the demands of the King without
running counter to the orders of the Pope. The arch
bishop then petitioned the King for delay, and was allowed
to postpone his final answer to the feast of St. Hilary next
foUowing. The Primate accordingly summoned his Con
vocation to meet in London, January 13, 1297.-'- Here the
dehberation was resumed with anxious earnestness for
many days. The king sent deputies to the Convocation,
who, when by the command of the Primate the Pope's
BuU was read in the assembly, openly threatened the
clergy, that if they did not give, the King would take.
After a long time fruitlessly consumed in discussion, the
clergy determined to try the effect of a deputation to the
King to explain how they were fettered by the Pope's
ordinance.^ The only answer which Edward vouchsafed
was, " If you wUl not observe the homage and oath which
you have made for your baronies, I am entirely absolved
from all obUgation towards you." The Synod of Canter
bury, however, still refused to yield, and in consequence
were put out of the protection of the law.^ Their property
was at once seized by the king's officers. The horses which
had brought them to the synod were appropriated.* The
' W. de Hemingburgh, Chron., u. 116. The archbishop-elect oi
York vrith his clergy assembled at the same place and time.
2 The archbishop proposed that the king's deputies should explain
this, but they decUned, and said, "Ordinate ex vobis, domini charis-
simi, personas certas qui talia domino regi ex parte vestrS, renuncient ;
nos enem scientes indignationem ejus accensam veremur omnino talia
renunciare." — Hemingburgh, Chron., u. 117.
.* The Justitiary (MeUingham) declared from the bench— "Vos
domini attornati archiepiscorum, episcoporum, etc., nunciate dominis,
vestris et dicite quod de cetero in curi^ domini regis nulla fiet eis
justitia de quacunque re, etiam si illata fuerit eis injuria atrocissima,
justitia tamen de eis fiet omnibus conquerentibus et cam habere volen-
tibus."— Hemingburgh, Chron., ii. 117. * Barthol. de Cotton, p. 322

388 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
sheriffs were ordered to make an inventory of all clerical
estates, and if the clergy should not yield before Easter
the whole were to be confiscated to the king's use.^
16. These violent measures sufficed at once to reduce
the Archbishop-elect of York and the clergy of the Northern
Province.^ They agreed to the subsidy, and received letters
of protection on February 6. Many also of the bishops and
clergy of the Southern Province did the like. Others,
however, resisted, thereby subjecting themselves to all sorts
of insults and oppressions.^ The Archbishop of Canterbury
summoned his Convocation to meet again on March 10.
The same method of deliberation was observed, and with
the same result. The king sent a message to the clergy to
say that he did not care for their subsidy, but that he was
determined to make them pay hea-vUy for their contumacy
and disloyalty.* The archbishop looked anxiously to the
Pope in hope of succour, but no aid came, and as the day
of grace was nearly expired, he recommended the clergy to
make terms for themselves.^ As for himself, he utterly
refused to yield, and in this determination he was joined
by Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln, and some others.*
Upon this there was issued a letter to the sheriffs, ordering
them to sell publicly the goods and chattels of the prelates,
religious persons, and aU clerks having a benefice exceeding
in value forty shUhngs a year, who had not obtained the
king's protection at Easter ; to pay the money into the
treasury, and to retain in their hands, and occupy for the
king's use, the lands and property of such recusants.'
1 Hemingburgh, ii 118 ; Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann, Monast, iii
405 ; Barthol. de Cotton, 318.
^ They resorted to the subterfuge of putting their contributions in
a church, which the king's officers afterwards took away. — Heming
burgh, ii. 118 ; Knyghton, p. 2492 (Ed. Twysden).
3 Ann. de Dunstap,, u.s, * Ib.
^ "Universos et singulos proprus conscientus vos dimitto. Sed
mea consoientia pro regis protectione vel alio colore dare pecuniam non
permittet." — Ann. de Wigomid, Ann. Monast, iv. 531.
^ W. de Hemingburgh, Chron,, ii. 118 ; Barthol. de Cotton, p. 323 ;
Ann. de Dunstaplid, Ann. Monast, iii. 407. MS. Eegist. Oliveri Sutton
(Line. )
' BarthoL de Cotton, p. 324. Hemingburgh says of the archbishop

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 389
Edward I. was an able prince, but his methods of compass
ing what he held to be salutary were sometimes over
bearing and tyrannical, and served to evoke a spirit of
resistance. The bold stand made at this moment against
his arbitrary measures by some of the barons convinced
the king that he must be more conciliatory to the clergy,
who were acting, as they believed themselves solemnly
obhged to act, in refusing their contributions. Accordingly,
on July 14 (1297), he was publicly reconciled to the arch
bishop in somewhat of a melodramatic fashion. The
Primate received back his property, and undertook to
summon his Convocation for August, and again to consult
them as to a subsidy for the king.
17. On August 10 the Convocation met. The arch
bishop put four points to the clergy. (1.) Was it lawful
for them to contribute to the king's needs 1 (2.) If so,
what ought their contribution to be 1 (3.) What privileges
ought they to demand in return ? (4.) Had the king any
special need for their help ? That such a question as the
first could be put to an English synod, and in face of all
the precedents and practice of so many hundred years, is
surprising. Still more surprising is it to find the clergy
coming to a formal decision, that whatever the King's need
might be they could not contribute without the leave of
the Pope, and adding to this a request that the Pope's
leave might be sought. To such an answer there could
be but one reply on the part of a spirited prince like
Edward. He had desired and sought reconciliation. He
was ready to admit that he had been arbitrary in outlaw
ing the clergy merely for their reluctance and delay. But
to have it formally enunciated as a principle that he must
in fact hold his crown at the wUl of the Pope, and humbly
sue to him for the right to draw contributions from the
most wealthy portion of his subjects, was too much. The
king replied that if they would not give he would take ;
— "Mansit in domo eujusdam simplicis Eectoris cum solo sacerdote
et uno clerico, non habens ex toto archiepiscopatu ubi caput reconderet.
—Chron,, ii. 118. As to the bishop of Lincoln, his friends contrived that
the sheriff should seize a fifth part of his goods, and so he was allowed
to re-enter on his possessions.

390 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
that he would not apply to the Pope, or suffer them to
do so ; and that they would excommunicate the officers
who had been employed in the sequestrations at their
perU.^ In spite of this last prohibition the archbishop
renewed the denunciations of all those who had invaded
the property of the Church, and ordered the same to be
published in all cathedral churches. Matters promised to
be as embittered as ever, when a salutary relief came from
the chief author of the mischief, the Pope, who by his
arrogant commands had thus embroiled the heads of
Church and State in England.
18. "Although," wrote the Pope to the King of
France, "we put forth a constitution for ecclesiastical
liberty, yet it was not our intention to forbid all sub
ventions to the king himself or to other secular princes
so absolutely that no aid should be given when foreign
invasion is feared, or internal rebelhon breaks out, or
some evident danger threatens prelates, churches, and
ecclesiastical persons. But the prelates of the Church and
ecclesiastical persons of their own free will may by our
allowance, for the common purpose of defence, in which
each one is interested, aid and assist princes and them
selves as their means permit." 2 Coincidently with this
relaxation of the Bull becoming known, news was brought
of an invasion of the Scots, who were said to have per
petrated horrible cruelties on the English in the north.
An opportunity was thus given to the archbishop and the
Convocation to quit the unjustifiable position they had
taken up, without loss of dignity. If they taxed them
selves voluntarily before the king applied for aid, no
principle would be violated. Accordingly, the Southern
Convocation, which met on the 20th November (1297),
gave the king a tenth for the war against the Scots, whUe
the Northern Convocation gave a fifth.^ At the same
time a declaration was published that this composition
did not touch free gifts and voluntary offerings, nor fees
which were held under tenure of service, and that, in
case of necessity, the king could ask and receive help from
^ Ann. de Wigomid, Ann, Monast, iv. 532-3 ; Barthol. de Cotton,
p. 335. ' Ann. de Wigomid, Ann. Monast., iv. 531.
' Eishanger, p. 182.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 391
ecclesiastical persons without consulting the Eoman pontiff.^
Before this concession was made by the clergy the prince
and the Council had undertaken in the king's absence that
he should formally renounce any right to seize arbitrarily
the property of his subjects whether lay or clerical;^ and
Edward, on his return from France, confirmed this under
taking, and published a general confirmation of the charters
and a general pardon to those who had opposed him. ^
19. Things were now therefore left in this position.
The king reniounced the right of taxing the clergy without
their consent. The clergy on their part declared that they
might give aid to the King when the necessity was apparent,
even without the permission of the Pope. It was evident,
however, that should the Pope please to intervene, the
same difficulty might arise again. It wUl be observed
that this struggle of Edward -with his clergy differed
essentiaUy from the various contests between king and
clergy as to subsidies in the reign of Henry III. At that
time the interests of the King and the Pope were united ;
they are now separated and opposed. Under Henry III.
the King was ready to tolerate any papal exactions, so
long as the Pope would help him in his own exactions.
Now the Pope had taken up the position of forbidding, or
at least checking, the contributions of the clergy for State
purposes, and from this most important results followed,
for as the clergy were ready to yield to this prohibition, it
became the policy and indeed the necessity of the English
kings to check as much as possible the power of the popes
over the English clergy. Hence the Statutes of Provisors
and Praemunire, and the other anti-papal legislation, which
gradually culminated in a complete emancipation of the
English Church. In the struggle neither party had been
free from blame. The king had been arbitrary and tyran
nical. The clergy had been disloyal and unnational. But
the situation was now rendered much clearer, and the
foundation was laid for a wholesome advance in the future.
'¦ Ann. de Wigomid, Ann. Monast, iv. 535 ; Barthol. de Cotton,
p. 339. 2 Eishanger, p. 181. This is known as the Satute De tallagio non
conccdendo. For the different versions of it, see Stubbs, Const. Hist,
ii. 142. '^ Barthol. de Cotton, p 337.

392 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
20. The proceedings which took place with regard to
Edward's claim to a right of dominion over Scotland, had
the effect of producing a serious breach between the King
and the Primate. The Pope had thought fit to adopt Scot
land as a fief of the Papal See, and to forbid the King of Eng
land to meddle with it, and the archbishop very unwisely
upheld this view. At a Parliament held at Lincoln, 1301,
the whole matter was fully discussed, and a long historical
statement was drawn up by the barons for submission to
the Pope. The most important part of this is the last
paragraph, which declares — " Our Lord the King shall by
no means answer before you [the Pope] as a judge con
cerning his temporal rights, nor in any way submit himself
to your judgment, or admit question of his rights ; nor shall
he send proctors to appear before you, seeing that the con
cession of the premisses would be the disherison of the
Crown of England, and an evident subversion of the king
dom, and would be to the prejudice of the liberty, customs,
and laws of our ancestors, to the observance of which we
are bound by oath, and which we will maintain -with our
whole power and strength by the help of G-od. Nor wUl
we ever allow (inasmuch as we neither can nor ought) that
in the premisses, being unaccustomed, unfitting, prejudicial,
and unheard-of, our Lord the King should do or attempt
to do as you desire, even if he himself wished it. Where
fore we beseech your Holiness that you would aUow our
Lord the King to possess his liberties, rights, customs, and
laws aforesaid without diminution or annoyance."^
21. The archbishop refused to join in this spirited
protest, and induced the other prelates to act with him ;
in fact, he was a partisan of the Pope in the matter, and
hence arose anew the quarrels about tlie taxation, and a
feeling of intense bitterness on the part of the King against
the Primate. It was probably in great measure owing to
this that Winchelsea suffered himself to be led into those
treasonable proposals for dethroning Edward I. and sub
stituting his son in his stead, ^ which afterwards brought
upon him such trouble and humiliation. The matter is
^ Eishanger, Chron, , 209 ; Walsingham, Hist. Ang, , i. 96.
= Thorn., X. Script Cot, 2004.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 393
principally important, as regards Church history, from the
fact that Edward fearing difficulties, and not clearly seeing
how to act, inconsiderately referred the affair to the Pope,
and procured the archbishop's trial, or pretended trial,
before Clement V. It might be assumed with certainty
that though the Pope, from his difficult position, might be
obliged to temporise, yet that one who had incurred the
King's displeasure for his too great devotion to the Papal
cause would not be hardly dealt with. ^ Winchelsea's
worst punishment was to remain abroad during the King's
life, and, as he was thoroughly hated by his clergy, this
did not amount to much. The King, having a complaisant
Pope to deal with, unfortunately, not only sent his im
practicable Primate to him, but allowed himself to seek a
dispensation from the promises which he had made as to
rene-wing the charters. There were some privUeges assailed
by the Charta de Forests which he could not bring himself
to give up, and rather than lose them he stained a reign
in many ways glorious and remarkable by this act of ter
giversation and duplicity. What was even worse as regards
the interests of the English Church, the King, by thus
making use of the Pope for his private ends, practically
undid in his old age much of that which had been his life's
work to do, and the nationality of the English Church, and
its due position as regards the State, were greatly impaired
by his action. The Pope and the Kdng are again found, as
in the days of Henry IIL, mutually helping themselv_es
from the revenues of the Enghsh clergy. The Pope grants
a tenth to the King, and the King allows the Pope to
appropriate the first-fruits of all English benefices for
three years. ^
22. The king had been led into this truckling to the
Pope by the desire of obtaining his censure of the arch
bishop, and his absolution of himself from inconvenient
obligations. But the barons who had so stoutly opposed
papal assumptions at the Parhament of Lincoln did not so
readily change their views. To their bold and honest re
sistance to ultramontane claims is due that which is known
' For his treatment, see Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, iu. 436.
2 Eishanger, Chron,, p, 228.

394 THE NATIONALITY OE THE CHUECH [ohap. xix.
as the Statute of Carlisle, the first direct anti-Eoman act
passed by an English Parliament.^ This Statute (35 Edw.
I., st. 1 c. 2) recites the abuses of papal patronage exercised
in the form of provisions, the promotion of aliens, the
seizure of deaneries of cathedral churches for foreigners,
the diversion of the monastic revenues to alien purposes,
the exactions practised under the name of Peter's Pence,
contributions for crusades and fines, and specially the exac
tions of WUliam de TestS,, the Pope's agent, and his
commissaries Ulegally appointed, and enacts that the said
WiUiam de Testi, shall not be allowed to carry out of the
country the moneys which he has illegally exacted ; and that
all those who have assisted him shaU be arrested and brought
before the King's courts for trial, and that messengers shall
be despatched to the Pope to inform him of the above
illegal proceedings, and what has been done by the Parlia
ment in the matter.^ Thus, however the king might vacil
late, the public opinion of the influential laity was aheady
formed and strongly expressed on these abuses ; and though
no further legislation immediately foUowed, a beginning
was thus made of a wholesome restraint of papal aggres
sions. 23. The death of Edward L (July 7, 1307) and the
succession of his son, who had none of the great qualities of
his father, brought about the speedy return of the arch
bishop, the disgrace and punishment of Edward I.'s clerical
ad-viser, Walter Langton,^ and the advance of the papal
influence. There is scarce any period in English history
in which the person of the ruler is more despicable, the
chief persons iu the State more corrupt, and the state of
society more wretched, than the reign of Edward II. ;
hardly was England in a worse condition during the an-
' It is said by the chronicler Hemingburgh, that whUe the Parlia
ment was debating on the papal exactions, there came, as "it were
sent from heaven," a letter -written by Peter, son of Cassiodorus, which
most eloquently denounces the papal oppressions. This letter, which
is given by Hemingburgh, was read in the Parliament in the hearing of
the barons, the king, and the cardinal.
^ W. de Hemingburgh, Chron,, ii. 259, sj,
^ I. de Trokclowe, Annates, p. 63.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 395
archy of the reign of Stephen, or the profligate oppressions
of the latter days of John. Archbishop Winchelsea's return
was marked by a judicial process against the Templars,
endmg in the suppression of the order,i which was character
ised by the grossest injustice, though its cruelty did not
equal the contemporary proceedings in France. At such
seasons of lawlessness and relaxation of the moral fibre of
the land, the watchful and astute papal power generally
finds its opportunity. The time of the great Popes was
now passed ; the Church had entered on the Babylonish
captivity of Avignon. The CouncU of Vienne (1311) had
pronounced against Pope Boniface's famous bulls, the Pope
was a French archbishop, and the strong wUl and unscru
pulous policy of the King of France had triumphed. What
the Pope had lost in power must be replaced by underhand
influence and intrigue ; and Clement V. now turned his
attention specially to the question of patronage, by which
so much might be done to uphold his influence both with
the clergy and the rulers of the State. The right of elec
tion to bishoprics had always been in a confused and un
satisfactory state.^ The popes, by the device of the pall,
had practically obtained control over the appointments to
the two primacies. The right of free election to the suffra
gan Sees had been wrung from John, but this " freedom of
election had resulted in a freedom of litigation, and little
more." ^ Appeals were constantly being carried to Eome,
and thus the appointments were thrown into the hands of
the Pope. The King could usually procure the election by
the chapter of his nominee ; but he had further to ensure
his acceptance at Eome, although the right of confirming
the suffragan bishops of their provinces had never been
abandoned by the English Metropolitans. Thus the Pope
had long had practically the control over the appointments
to English Sees ; but from the beginning of the fourteenth
century his interference takes a new form, and he " assumes
the patronage as well as the appellate jurisdiction." * This
patronage takes the form of what was called reservation.
1 For the fvUl account of this, see Notes and lUustrations to this
Chapter. ^ See Appendix A.
3 Stubbs, Const Hist, iii. 307. ^ H., ui 310.

396 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap.xlx.
Upon the death of a prelate occurring, those to whom it
would properly fall to supply a successor are informed that
the Pope had, during the lifetime of the person just de
ceased, in his mind provided him with a successor, and had
reserved the place for him ; thus the higher dignities of the
Church were now given away, as lesser benefices had been
before, during the lifetime of the incumbents.
24. At the death of Archbishop Winchelsea, in 1313,
the Canterbury monks, having obtained the royal license,
elected unanimously as archbishop Master Thomas Cobham,
" a man of eminent learning, and adorned with many
virtues." They were, however, immediately informed by
the Pope that their election would be null, for that he had,
during the lifetime of Archbishop Eobert, specially reserved
the place for his own disposal. Cobham meanwhUe pro
ceeded to Avignon, hoping to obtain the Pope's confirma
tion. Pope Clement could allege nothing against the elect.
He was a man distinguished for his learning and probity ;
nevertheless the Pope had the audacity to declare the elec
tion null, on the ground that he had " reserved " the place
for his own disposal He would, he said, " provide " in the
best way for the widowed Church. How to do this with
the most profit to himself now engaged his consideration ;
and at length his choice fell upon Walter Eeynolds, bishop
of Worcester, the king's chancellor ; " for he acutely con
sidered," says one chronicler, " how great favour the chan
cellor enjoyed with the king, and how skilfully he had
managed matters between the king and his nobleSj and he
hoped that such a man might be of great help to the
Church and the kingdom, inasmuch as he knew well how
to walk in such dangerous times." ^ Walter Eeynolds thus
obtained the pall, his real antecedents being that he had
acted as a lax and unscrupulous tutor to the profligate
young prince ; and his true recommendation to the Pope,
that one who had shown so little principle in his previous
charge ^ would probably display no more in his higher pro
motion, but allow papal usurpation to go on unchecked.
25. Having made this bold and unscrupulous use ofthe
' I. de Trokclowe, Annal., pp. 81-2.
^ See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, iii. 459.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 397
device of reservations and provisions, without let or hind
rance, the Pope proceeded to make a further extension of
this convenient privUege. Not only did he use it himself,
but he made a grant to his favourites of the power of using
it for their own advantage ; thus we have his bulls directed
to the new Primate Walter, empowering him to reserve and
provide prebends in any cathedral or collegiate church, and
to appoint occupants to them, notwithstanding that such
presentees were canonically incompetent to hold the place,
or that they held prebends in one, two, or three other
churches. This unjust privilege Archbishop Eeynolds was
not slow to use, as his register remains to testify.^ Further,
the Pope concedes to the Primate the power of dispensing
with the tax of bastardy for admission to holy orders, and
the power of dispensing with the required age,^ and gives
to him other uncanonical privUeges, contained in eight bulls,
for which, no doubt, the archbishop had to pay heavily.^
When two such unscrupulous men as the Pope and the
Primate held the mastery over the Church of England, and
the King " cared for none of these things," the worst re-
results might confidently be anticipated to the Church.^
Accordingly, we find that the Church sank into a lament
ably low condition during this disastrous reign.
26. The most important point to be noted in its history
is the attempt, to a certain extent successful, to define the
hmits between the ci-vU and ecclesiastical jurisdictions which
was made by the Statute called Articuli Cleri (9 Edward IL,
st. i. CC. 1-16). A dispute had arisen about patronage, and
' See Wilkins, Concil, ii. 440. 2 jj,^ y 434_
^ Dr. Hook very strangely speaks of Eeynolds being actuated by
"public spirit" in obtaining these bulls ! (iii 471).
* Clement died in 1314 ; but his successor foUowed exactly in his
steps. In 1317 he reserved the appointments to Worcester, Hereford,
Durham, and Eochester ; in 1320, to Lincoln and Winchester ; in 1322,
to Lichfield ; in 1323, to Winchester ; in 1325, to Carlisle and Norwich ;
in 1327, to Worcester, Exeter, and Hereford ; in 1329, to Bath ; iu
1333, to Durham ; in 1334, to Canterbury, Winchester, and Worcester.
—Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. 312. The bulls are all printed in the Fmdera,
vol. iii. They contained an assignation not only of the spiritualties,
but of the temporalties also ; but the bishop was usuaUy made to re
nounce the latter donation before he received his temporalties.

398 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
the question had been brought forward whether the lay
court had the right to call the spiritual officer to account
for refusing to institute. The effect of the Statute was to
enact that it belonged to the spiritual judge to determine
as to the ability of a parson presented to a benefice, even
when the patron was the Crown. A general adjudication
as to what cases fell within ci-vil and what within spiritual
jurisdiction is also to be found in it.^ Many of the cases
decided refer to the right of sanctuary, and its infringement
by the lay authority. The Statute is drawn up in the form
of a series of complaints on the part of the clergy, to each
of which the king's answer is appended seriatim. The
general effect of it was considerably to confirm and clear
clerical immunities.^
27. But in the times of Edward II. it was one thing
to make laws, and quite another to pay any deference to
them when the interests of the king or his favourites were
involved. For, in fact, soon after the passing of this
Statute, it was shown that the privileges conceded to the
clergy availed them but little when the king was set to
overthrow them. In the Parliament of 1 324 Adam Orlton,
bishop of Hereford, who had taken part in some of the
struggles carried on by the barons against the king and his
favourites, was impeached of high treason. The bishop
answered that he had no intention of defending himself in
that place, that he could only answer before the Archbishop
of Canterbury, who was his proper judge, under the Pope,
and that by the consent of the other bishops. Upon this
all the prelates present in Parhament desired the king's
grace for the accused. The bishop was given into the
custody of the Archbishop until the matter should be
decided. But the king ordered him to be seized and
brought before a temporal court. Then the Archbishops
of Canterbury, York, and DubUn, attended by ten other
^ A great argument arose as to the construction of this Statute, and
the laws which regulated the temporal and spiritual jurisdictions in the
time of James I. Archbishop Bancroft pleaded one side, and the whole
of the judges replied. See the argument printed from Sir E. Coke's
Institutes, p. 2, in Collier, iii. 12, sq.
^ See the Statute in Collier, iii. 42, sq.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 399
bishops, and with their crosses erect, went in state to the
court where Bishop Orlton was being tried, and carried
him off in triumph, threatening excommunication to any
who should lay hands on him. The king, not appalled by
this display of clerical force, ordered a jury to be empan-
neUed to try the case. The jurors brought in the bishop
guUty on all the points charged against him. The bishop's
goods were accordingly seized and his estates sequestrated,
he himself remaining in the custody of the Archbishop of
Canterbury.^ Another bishop — Henry Burghersh, bishop
of Lincoln — had been implicated in the same movement as
Orlton, but he was merely kept out of his temporalties for
two years, and then allowed to enter upon them.
28. The prelates of that day were, in fact, little else
than intriguers and schemers, and exhibited but very slight
traces of the true episcopal character. A satirist of the
time thus described them; —
Nostri Cornuti sunt consUio quasi muti.
Sunt quasi confusi, decreto legis abusi,
Et quia non tuti nequeunt sermonibus uti,
Sic perit ecclesia, juris et ipsa via.^
On whichever side they were found — whether that of the
king and his favourites, or the queen and her paramour —
they seem to have been equally forgetful of their Christian
duties ; and if the terrible charge made against Bishop
Orlton be true, he must be marked with an exceptional
brand of infamy .^ As to the Primate, he was at best but
a weak and vacUlating guide, and was contented at last to
desert his former pupil who had heaped honours upon him,
and to cast in his lot with the party of the young prince.
The most respectable prelate of the day was Walter Staple-
' Walsingham, Hist. Ang., i. 171-2. CoUier remarks from Parker
that this was the first case in England of a bishop being tried in a
temporal court (iii. 50). Orlton was attached to the queen and the
Mortimers, and is generaUy supposed to have been the suggester of the
king's murder. Walsingham says of him that he was Uteris abundanter
imbutus (i 173). ^ Walsingham, i. 173.
' The Apologia Adae Orlton, who was afterwards transferred to
Winchester, is printed in Twysden. Script X., p. 2765. The strongest
case against him -wiU be found in Thomas de la Moor, pp. 600-2.

400 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
ton, bishop of Exeter, the founder of Exeter College, Ox
ford, who, though occupied like his brethren in secular
affairs, was faithful to the king, but so hateful to the citi
zens of London that he met his death in a popular tumult
in Cheapside.i Bishops Stratford and Ayermin obtained
their Sees by gross treachery. Having been sent by the
King to the Pope to obtain his acceptance of another man
(Eichard de Baldock), they substituted themselves for the
king's nominee, and, no doubt by a free use of bribes, gained
their end. The bishops had indeed become hateful to the
people. The Church was completely in abeyance as to any
influence for good ; and when at length, by the deposition
of the king and the substitution of the young prince, things
had taken a new form, the hopes of good men probably
somewhat revived, inasmuch as any change seemed to give
possibilities of improvement.
29. A certain measure of relief came to the Church
from the appointment of a new Primate. Archbishop
Eeynolds died in 1327, it is said chiefly from grief and
mortification at his own misconduct in the matter of the
deposition of the king, and Simon Mepham, canon of
Chichester, was chosen to succeed him. Why Simon, a
man but little known and of no great force of character,
was selected for this high post seems doubtful. It is sup
posed by some that he was the queen's confessor, and hence
obtained ^ her powerful influence with the court of Avignon
in procuring the Pope's confirmation. After considerable
trouble and delay this was obtained, and Simon was con
secrated abroad. He was a simple straightforward man,
and he had the especial merit of having no pohtical aims,
and no desire to figure as a statesman. He gave all his
energy, such as it was, to the reformation of the Church.
There was a general wish at this time to substitute laymen
in place of clergy in offices of State, and a general sense of
shame at the degradation to which the episcopal office had
been subjected by being held by scheming politicians. The
age, however, was not yet ripe for the abolition of clerical
office-holders. There were not to be found among the lay-
1 Walsingham, i. 182.
^ See the letters of king, queen, and nobles. — Wilkins, ii. 540.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 401
men a sufficient number of persons competent to manage
State affairs, and the clerical body had still for a long period
to be largely employed in these capacities. Every protest,
however, against this secular degradation, and every indi
cation of its being good to aim at a higher standard, was
valuable, and of such a character was the short episcopate
of Simon Mepham. Immediately after his enthronisation
the archbishop summoned his provincial synod (February
1328), and the Constitutions which he then published are
important.^ The document begins with solemn words.
" It concerns prelates of the Church to have a zeal for the
Lord their God (for faUing this they will be damned not
• only with a personal perdition, but the Lord will require
at their hands the blood of their subjects), especially against
those who are honoured with the name of Christians, and
yet contradict their profession by their dam Jed works ; so
as to root out by the sword of the Spirit and the hoe of
ecclesiastical disciphne all hurtful vices, and graft virtue,
and reform manners, so that evil appetites may not exceed
the bounds of honesty, but that the Christian profession
may be advanced with a salutary increase." ^ After this
preamble, which is a severe comment upon the irreligion of
the day, the archbishop decrees (first) the solemn observa
tion of Good Friday " in reading with silence, in prayer
with fasting, in compunction with tears," and forbids " that
any attend their servUe works on that day, or be employed
in any business inconsistent with piety. Yet we do not
hereby lay any law upon the poor, nor forbid the rich to
yield their customary assistance to the poor in tilling their
lands for charity's sake." * The second Constitution orders
the observance of the Festival of the Conception of the
Virgin, " following the steps of our venerable predecessor
Anselm, who, after other more ancient solemnities of hers,
' Archbishops Winchelsea and Eeynolds also published Constitu
tions. These are not very important, but some curious indications of
the nature of church furniture, fittings, etc., contained in them wUl
he found in Notes and lUustrations.
' Johnson, Eng. Canons, u. 345.
' Ib. This was the first express order for the observance of Good
Friday.
2 D

402 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap, xix,
thought fit to add that of her Conception." ^ The third
Constitution decrees the penalty of excommunication against
those who seize the goods of the clergy, and provides for
the citation of such offenders into the court Christian. The
fourth decrees a like penalty against those who hindered
or opposed the executions of the wUls of villeins, in order
thereby to obtain possession of their goods as lords. The
fifth ordains that nothing be charged to a poor man's estate
for the legal publication of his will.- The eighth ordains,
under severe penalties, the publication of banns before
marriage. The ninth regulates the payments for dUapida-
tions, which are to be assessed " by credible persons sworn
in form of law." ^ These Constitutions are practical and
valuable, and singularly coincide with modern legal require
ments. The arch'bishop also applied his attention to re
straining the number of festivals on which no work might
be done, specifying as chief festivals Sundays, the Nativity,
Circumcision, Epiphany, and Ascension of our Lord ; the
days of the Apostles and Evangelists ; the Conception,
Nativity, Annunciation, Purification, and Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin ; St. Thomas the Martyr, and the Trans
lation of St. Thomas ; the Invention and Exaltation of the
Cross, St. Lawrence, St. Michael, and St. Nicholas; and
declaring that " on other feasts of saints people may -with
impunity proceed to their work." ^ But the principal work
done by the archbishop was done in detail, in the metro-
political visitation which he commenced in 1 329, and carried
on with much vigour. At Eochester he inflicted a severe
censure on the bishop. He visited also the dioceses of
Chichester, Salisbury, Bath and Wells, apparently -without
opposition. But when he came to the diocese of Exeter
the case was different. Here he found a bishop who was
strong in high birth and great wealth, and who was, pro
bably, fully conscious that his administration of his diocese
would not bear a close scrutiny. He determined, therefore,
to resist the Primate's entrance with a high hand. When
the Primate reached Exeter, he found a body of armed
•^ Anselm probably first introduced this festival into England. Its
observation had been decreed many centuries before.
' Johnson, Eng. Can., ii. 345-354. * Wilkins, ii. 560.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 403
men drawn up to oppose his further advance. Unless a
battle were actually to be fought, the archbishop must needs
retire, and this he elected to do. The Primate stirred the
waters of the clerical sea, but he can hardly be said to have
done more. His latter years were troubled by a dispute
with the monks of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and he was
actually excommunicated by the Pope's commissary for
refusing to pay the fine inflicted on him. This fulmina-
tion, however, he had the good sense to disregard.^
30. On the death of Archbishop Mepham (1333) the
primacy was obtained by John Stratford, an able political
prelate of the type of Eoger of Salisliury and Hubert
Walter, and far more of a secular minister than a prelate.
He had been bishop of Winchester, and the Pope readily
accepted his promotion that he might obtain the disposal
of the rich See of Winchester. This he bestowed on the
notorious Adam Orlton, who, with Bishop Burghersh of Lin
coln, was at the head of the party which was in opposition
to that of Archbishop Stratford and his brother the bishop ¦
of Chichester. These two brothers had both held the Great
Seal, and the Primate soon became, " as archbishop, trea
surer, and president of the Eoyal CouncU, supreme in the
treasury as well as in the chancery." ^ It was the period of
the French war waged by Edward III. with such remark
able vigour. The king was sorely pressed for funds. The
archbishop, although he had encouraged the king to un
dertake the war, refused to provide the funds. Hence a
violent quarrel arose between him and the king. The
archbishop complained of oppressions and exactions used
towards the clergy, of illegal imprisonments and outrages,
against the authors of which he published his excom
munications. The king asserted that Stratford was guilty
of gross deception, falsehood, and treason. The quarrel led
to the impeachment of the Primate, the imprisonment of
his two brothers the bishops of Chichester and Coventry.
The king endeavoured to enlist the clergy on his side as
against the archbishop by the publication of a pamphlet or
libellus, in which he violently accused him for his defaults
See the whole account given at great length in W. Thorn, printed
inX. Scriptores (Twysden). ^ Stubbs, Const Hist, ii. 385.

404 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap.xix.
in the matter of providing the supplies. The archbishop
replied in detail to the King's charges. The Parhament,
which felt the pressure of the demands for the war, was
with the Primate, and the King was ultimately obliged,
not only to receive Stratford back into favour, but to make
considerable concessions to the different estates.'- These
concessions were soon afterwards treacherously revoked by
Edward, who, though a great commander, was a bad
governor of his people, and whose word was not to be
relied on.
31. Nevertheless the spirited character of Edward and
his resentment at foreign interference were not -without
considerable value to the English Church. The clergy
were in danger of becoming more and more papahsed as the
patronage of the Church was got more and more completely
into the hands of the Pope, and were even disposed to
ignore the king altogether. Against this the king was de
termined to act with spirit and energy. Anthony Beck,
bishop of Norwich, had been elected without the king's
license for the chapter to proceed to an election, and had
proceeded to Eome without seeking the king's confirmation.
Upon this Edward addressed a letter of remonstrance to
Pope Benedict XI. He declares that the chapters had re
ceived the liberty of choosing their bishop, under the
understanding that they should seek from the king the
license for so doing, and, after the election, present the
person chosen to the king for acceptance. That the king
was to grant the bishop the temporalties on the oath of
allegiance being taken. This arrangement had been ac
cepted and confirmed by popes, but had been disregarded
in the case of Anthony Beck, who, having been elected, had
gone straightway to Eome without seeking the royal con
firmation. The Pope is desired not to countenance such
infringements of the law.
32. That no effectual notice was taken of the king's
just complaint, did not tend to make him better inclined to
tolerate papal encroachments. In 1343, Clement VI. made
' See, for the letters, Hemingburgh, Cliron., ii. 363, sj. ; Walsingham,
Hist. Angt, i 231, sq. ;,Birchington in Anglia Sacra, vol. i. ; Wilkins,
Concilia, ii. 661, sq. ; Eymer, ii. 1143, sg.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 405
a provision for two cardinals on the English Church to the
amount of 2000 marks per annum. This outrage was re
sented by the King and Parliament. The barons in Par
liament assembled addressed a petition to the king that he
would take steps to rectify this great and crying abuse.
The king readUy listened to their request, and undertook
to act in the matter. On the 18th May the barons them
selves addressed a remonstrance to the Pope, stating respect
fully but firmly the causes of their complaint. They say
that they and their ancestors had founded churches to
make pro-vision for Christian devotion and instruction, for
the practice of charity and hospitality, but that all these
good purposes were frustrated by the Pope's seizure of
their benefices for foreigners, who were absentees and
ignorant of the language and habits of the people. The
Pope is requested to remedy this abuse, and he is given to
understand that the barons had no intention of desisting
from energetic action to obtain a redress of their grievances.^
The kingthen directs a letter to those concerned in thematter,
forbidding the papal officers to act in presenting to these
provided benefices, forbidding the presentees or their repre
sentatives to enter upon them, and charging all his subjects
in no case to obey or assist such presentees or their agents.
Another letter was also addressed to the sheriffs, bidding
them make public proclamation that no one, of whatever
degree, should venture, under pain of hea-vy penalties, to
bring within the realm of England letters, bulls, processes,
or any kind of instrument prejudicial to the authority of
the Crown, addressed to the archbishops and bishops ; and
that no one should venture to receive the same, but that
aU those engaged in so doing should be straightway im
prisoned.^ This energetic action soon produced a com
plaint from the Pope. He declared that he had quartered
the two cardinals upon the English Church with a view to
the benefit of that Church and realm, but that their agents
and proctors, coming to take possession of the benefices
assigned to them, had been hindered by the king's officers,
treated with ignominy, thrown into prison, and afterwards
expeUed the country. For all these injuries the Pope
' Hemingburgh, Chron., ii 401. ^ lb., il 410.

406 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [chap. xix.
desired redress.'- In reply to this letter the King addressed
to the Pope what is called in Walsingham " that famous
letter in defence of the liberties of the English Church."
He complains that the Church was suffering grievously
under the system of provisions and reservations ; that the
encouragements of religion were misspent upon unworthy
persons — men that neither understood the language of the
country, nor resided on their benefices, and who were
destitute both of the disposition and the ability to dis
charge their office ; that by these mercenary followers the
value of the priesthood was lost, and the benefit of religion
forfeited, the native clergy, persons of great learning and
probity, were discouraged, patrons lost their rights, the
treasure of the country was carried off by strangers. The
mischief had become intolerable, and the Parliament had
desired that a remedy should be provided for it The Pope
should remember that he was the successor of St. Peter,
not for the purpose of shearing the sheep, but to feed them.
The Apostles took care to appoint fit persons to the
ministry, so ought their successors to do. The kings of
England had been well disposed to the papacy, and deserved
a fitting return. They had agreed, and the See of Eome
had consented, that the choice of prelate should be with
the chapters. But all arrangements were put aside by
these provisions and reservations, and other devices of the
Apostolic See.^
33. Matters were thus tending rapidly towards the
making of some effectual provision to check this abuse
which had so long vexed the English Church. In the
Parliament of the next year (1344), the clergy having
voted a tenth to the King, another statute of the same
character as the Circumspecth agatis and the Articuli Gleri
was passed (18 Edward IIL, st. in. cc. 6, 7). This pro
vided that no prelate should be tried before a secular
tribunal without the king's special order. The case of
bigamy was reserved for the spiritual court. The law
of Mortmain was somewhat relaxed. Prohibitions were

bam, Hist. Ang., i. 259. This letter is not given in
Hemingburgh. ^ Hemingburgh, Chron., ii. 403 ; Walsingham, Hist Ang., i. 255

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 407
checked and regulated. The effect of the statute was to
increase and strengthen clerical privileges and immunities, so
that it might clearly be seen that the King and Parliament,
in resisting papal aggressions, were not animated by any
spirit of hostility to the clergy, but were honestly desirous
to defend the National Church from foreign encroachment.
34. It was indeed marvellous that an abuse so flagrant,
so palpable to all, so utterly indefensible, as the using of
English benefices to "pay the Pope's creatures, should have
been allowed to continue so long; that the same griev
ance which had vexed and overcome good Archbishop
Edmund Eich a hundred years before, should stUl be
vexing English prelates ; and that the barons and kings of
England, who had so often complained of this, should yet
have supplied no remedy. The real hindrance had been
the unholy compact so often entered into between Pope
and King, that each should tolerate the injustice of the other,
on condition that each should be allowed to spoil at will
the undefended clergy. But now political circumstances
made the interests of the Pope and King to be at variance.
The Pope at A-vignon was more a French prelate than the
Father of Christendom. It was not agreeable to the
English aspirant to the throne of France that the goods
of England should be given to one who was under the
control of his rival. Circumstances, therefore, were favour
able for the obtaining some real checks to papal abuses.
As regards the sentiments of the clergy themselves, though
the growth of papal devotion had been greatly developed
in them in the days of Boniface VIII. and Archbishop
Winchelsea, yet, since the transference of the Papal See to
Avignon, this had been much diminished, and indeed they
themselves were some of the chief sufferers in the matter
of provisions. It is true that the higher clergy were led
to look to the Pope as the source of patronage and pro
motion, but their own action as patrons was grievously
interfered with, and in especial the monasteries had to
suffer heavy oppressions. The terrible plague of 1349,
which destroyed at least one-third of the population of
England, and paralysed many industries, rendered it more
than ever necessary to protect every resource of the country

408 THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH [ohap.xix.
from foreign rapacity. When, therefore, the Parliament
met in 1351, it might be augured beforehand that some
strong measures would be passed to check the use so long
made by the Pope of the revenues of English Sees.
35. The spirited proceedings of the year 1343 in this
matter, detailed above, had been to a certain extent con
firmed in 1344, when a petition of the Commons for the
perpetual affirmation of the king's action received the
assent of the king and barons. Three years later, how
ever, the law was still unexecuted. But in the Parliament
of 1351, the king's ordinance was carefully amended and
passed as a statute — known as the first great Statute of
Provisors (25 Edw. IIL, st. 4). This law recited the
Statute of Carlisle (1307), which forbade the sending out
of the country incomes of monasteries which had been
founded in England ; ordained that the elections to elective
dignities and benefices should be free, and that the patrons
should have their rights ; complained that the Pope gave
English benefices to aliens, just as if he were patron ; and
enacted that in case the Pope collated to any archbishopric,
bishopric, dignity, or other benefice, in disturbance of free
elections or presentations, the patronage of such benefice
was to be forfeited to the Crown, and the King was to dis
pose of the benefice for one turn. And if any person
should procure reservations or provisions from the Pope in
disturbance of free elections, or of the presentees of tho
king or other patrons, that then the said provisors, their
procuratories and notaries, were to be arrested, and being
convicted, to be imprisoned till they had satisfied the fine
imposed on them to the king and the party aggrieved.
They were also to find security that they would not attempt
such things in the time to come, and that they would not
sue any man in the court of Eome for the process taken
against them.^
1 The assent of the Lords spiritual was not given to this statute,
and it was systematically evaded. But it nevertheless furnished a
wholesome check on the evil practice, and being followed up by legis
lation in 1352, 1365, and 1390, and enforced by the Parliaments of
Henry IV. and Henry V., it in some measure brought about a cessa
tion of it.

1272-1353.] FOETIFIED BY LAW. 409
36. Such was the first serious attempt to protect by
statute the nationality of the Church of England. An
abuse indeed, which so many were interested in upholding,
and which had been so long tolerated, as that of provisions,
was not hkely to be overthrown by a simple enactment.
But the struggle was thus commenced, and the line of re
sistance indicated, only to completely reach its goal in the
sixteenth century. The immediate effect of the statute
was to make the king's nominations to sees, which in earlier
times had practically been the appointments to them, but
the force of which had been interfered with by the Pope's
action, receive again their original weight. The practice
now regularly began for the King to send to the chapter
with the Cong6 d'eslire, a letter missive signifying the
person whom he would accept. Thus the right of the
chapter to elect freely, recognised in theory, was practically
superseded.^ A letter requesting the Pope's pro-vision or
acceptance of the person nominated and elected was also
written, and the Pope was still allowed to retain the pro
vision to Sees vacated by translation. In the following
year it was thought necessary to support the provisors
statute by an ordinance which declared all those -who pur
chased provisions to be outlaws, and ia the year which
succeeded (1353) another most important Act to restrain
papal influence and power in the country was passed.
37. This is usually known as the Statute of Prcemunire,
from the first word in the -writ addressed to the Sherifi'
contained in the Act, and divers other Acts of the same
tenor which followed, are always described by the same
name. The preamble recites "that grievous complaints
had been made by the great men and commons that divers
of the people were drawn out of the realm to answer of
things whereof the cognisance pertains to the king's court ;
and also that the judgments given in the same court were
impeached in another court to the prejudice of the king
and destruction of the common law ; it enacts therefore that
^ This was in reality the only reliable barrier against the Pope's
action, as through the subserviency of the clergy and their weak fear of
excommunication, the Pope could always aot through them. The royal
supremacy is the true defence of the English Church.

410

THE NATIONALITY OF THE CHUECH. [ohap.xix.

any of the king's lieges who should lodge a plea against any
in courts not within the realm, or on matters whereon the
king's courts give judgment, should have two months' warn
ing given to them to appear in the king's courts to answer
their contempt ; and if they do not appear at the proper
time, then they, their proctors and attorneys, shaU be
straightway put out of the king's protection, their lands,
goods, and chattels forfeited to the king, their persons im
prisoned during the king's pleasure." ^ Thus the rights of
patrons and the independence of the English courts were
fortified and secured as far as statutes could do this. Much
more, however, was wanted before the National Church could
take its proper independent position towards that great
centre of disturbance and usurpation, the court of the
Eoman bishop. In the next chapter a very important
element in the taking up of this position wUl demand our
notice. The National Church, having begun to assert her
rights and privileges, begins now to review her doctrines,
and to discover that just as the rightful legal position of
churches had been overborne by Eome, so too the purity
of primitive doctrine had been grievously obscured by the
accretions fostered and upheld by her ; and that in both
respects much needed to be done to recover what had
been lost.
1 27 Edw. IIL, s. 1. This Act was confirmed in 1365, and re-
enacted more fully in the famous statute of 1393 (16 Eic. II. c. 5),
which is often called the Statute of Prajmunire (par excellence).

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A) THE VAEIOUS POEMS OP
SUMMONING THE CLEEGY.
1. The first plan by which the
representation of the clergy in Con
vocation was attempted to be pro
vided was by making the archdeacons
their representatives. In 1257
Archbishop Boniface issued his man
date for a Convocation, to which the
archdeacons are summoned, and are
ordered to bring with them "pro-

curational letters on the part of the
clergy who are under them." 2.
In 1273 Archbishop Kilwardby sum
moned the bishops, and bade them
bring -with them "three or four
persons from among the most dis
creet and prudent of their church
and diocese." 3. Pom' years later
Archbishop Kilwardby bids the
bishops assemble, with "proctors
for the whole clergy of each diocese."
This probably meant one proctor for

CHAP. XIX,]

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

411

each diocese. 4. In the Council of
Keading (1279) it was agreed that at
the next meeting there should come
to the Convocation " two persons at
least elected by the clergy in each
diocese. " In 1282 a synod at North
ampton would not vote money for
the clergy, because parish clergy
were not represented. The follow
ing year Archbishop Peccham sum
moned the clergy to assemble. Each
bishop was to hold . a preliminary
diocesan council, when two clergy
were to be elected, who should be
"sufSciently instructed and have
full power to treat and agree to what
was decided upon at the Convoca
tion." Thus the present plan was
reached. — Stubbs, Sdect Charters,
pp. 444-446.
(B) THE CONSTITUTIONS OF
AECHBISHOP PECCHAM AT
EEADING, 1279.
The Constitutions commence with
a sort of homily against pluralities,
which are said to be multiplied in
spite of the regulations of Cardinal
Othobon. The archbishop decrees —
That those who accept a benefice
in plurality shall thereby forfeit the
benefices held before, retaining only
the last.
Those who acquire many bene
fices by means of commendams are
declared excommunicate.
A list to be made of aU benefices
and their incumbents.
The directions of the Council of
Lyons as to the holding of benefices
to be observed.
Priests to explain to the people
"on the Lord's day after every
rural chapter " what is implied by
and who are implicated in the gene
ral sentences of cursing ordered by
the CouncU of Oxford to be recited
iu the church. [Several of the
explanations given in the ConstitU'
tions the archbishop was obliged
afterwards to revoke.]
The Constitutions of Othobon to
he pubhshed in churches four times

a year. Magna Charta to be hung
up iu churches in a conspicuous
place. Children born shortly before Pen
tecost or Easter to be reserved to be
baptized then. Children born at
other times to be baptized as they
are born, or soon afterwards.
The ordinance against concubin-
aries to be publicly rehearsed four
times a year.
The chrism, or consecrated oil for
baptism and extreme unction, to be
fetched every year by the priest
from the bishop. The old chrism
not to be reseiwed.
A tabernacle to be made in each
church, where the consecrated wafer
may be kept enclosed and secure ;
wafer to be renewed every Lord's
day ; to be carried to the sick, the
priest being in surplice and stole,
having a light and a bell, that the
people may prostrate themselves.
Solemn service for the dead to be
performed when an Archbishop of
Canterbury or any bishop dies. In
dulgences not to be given beyond
forty days. Clerks imprisoned not
to be allowed purgation on slight
pretences. Eeligious persons not to
stay in secular houses, nor to enter
tain seculars. Eectors not to cut
down the trees in churchyards.
At the meeting of the next Par
liament, " besides the persons of the
bishops, and the proxies of such as
may be absent, two at least, elected
by the clergy of every bishopric, do
come -with sufficient authority to
treat with us concerning such things
as may be 'for the common interest
of the Church of England, even if it
becomes needful to treat of a certalu
contribution or expenditure. " —
Johnson, English Canons, ii. 252-
270. AECHBISHOP PECCHAM'S
CONSTITUTIONS AT
LAMBETH, 1283.
Priests to instruct their parish
ioners that when at mass they receive

412

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

[OHAP. XIX.

the consecrated wafer, the "whole
Christ " is given to them. In small
churches only those who celebrate to
receive the consecrated wine. Wine
may be given to the laity at the
mass to assist the swallowing the
wafer. Priests are not to undertake
special masses so as to disable them
selves from performing the oifice for
their own churches. Not to imder-
take more annuals than they are
able to perform in separate masses
unless the friends of the dead agree
that the memory of their friend may
be joined with that of others. The
priest must not think that by saying
one mass for two he performs his
undertaking to say mass entirely for
two separate persons.
Children who have been baptized
by laymen or women not to be re-
baptized. Inasmuch as Confirma
tion is generally neglected, none are
to be admitted to receive the
Eucharist unless confirmed, except
in case of necessity. Clerks not to
receive five degrees of orders in one
day — that is to say, four not sacred
degrees aud one sacred. Priests not
to absolve those who are ipso facto
excommunicated, and whom they
have no power to absolve. Penance,
which " seems to be buried in
oblivion," to be enforced for great
crimes. Penance for murder re
served to the bishop. A confessor
to be appointed in each deanery to
hear confessions of clergy. Every
priest to expound to the people four
times a year in the -vulgar tongue,
"without any fanatical affectation
ot subtlety, the fourteen articles of
faith, the ten commandments of the
Decalogue, the two. precepts of the
Gospel or of love to God and man,
the seven works of mercy, the seven
capital sins with their progeny, the
seven principal virtues, and the
seven sacraments of grace. And that
ignorance be no man's excuse,
though all ministers of the Churcll
are bound to know them, we have
here briefly summed them up."
[Then follows a form of instruction.]

Eectors, if non-resident, to direct
their stewards to exercise hospitality,
Eural deans not to sell certificates.
Judges in ecclesiastical courts to be
on their guard against false proxies
and fictitious suits, whereby the
interests of absent persons are often
injured. Clandestine inquests into
the tenure of benefices, whereby the
rightful possessors are often ejected,
to be forbidden. Churches not to
be farmed except to ecclesiastics, and
a portion of the revenues to be re
served for the poor. Canons of the
order of St. Augustine to attend
visitations as other canons. Those
guilty of unchastity -mth nuns to be
excommunicated. Nuns not to
wander about the coxmtry, nor to
stay at their friends' houses more
than six days at a time. Nuns and
monks who have been in noriciate
for a year to be held ipso facto pro
fessed, rehgious who return to secu
lar Ufe, to be sent back again to
their rule. Eeligious persons not to
be executors of -wiUs. Clerks not
to dress lite soldiers, but to wear
clerical dress, and no-t to use coifs
or head-laces. Benefices not to be
inherited by the sons of clerks.
Letters -patent to be given hy the
bishop to a clerk admitted to a bene
fice. Holders of pluralities threat
ened with severe punishment. None
to be an advocate in Church courts
who has not studied the canon law
for three years. Mass to be said by
all clergy for a bishop when he dies.
[A Ust is subjoined of the orna
ments of the church, distinguishing
what belong to the parson and what
to the parishioners.]
[Belonging to the parishioners.]
Chalice.
Principal mass-vestment.
Chesible.
Alb.Amyt. Maniple.Gu-dle. 2 Towels.
Processional cross.
Lesser cross for dead.

OHAP. XIX.]

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

413

Bier. Ceuse-pot.Lantern and bell.
Lent-veU. Manuals.
Banners. BeUs. Vessel for holy water.
Salt and bread.
Osculatory.Easter taper -with candlestick.
Bells iu steeple with ropes.
Fonts -with lock and key.
[To the parishioners belong] all
reparations ofthe body of the Church
-within and without, as weU in altars
as images, glass -windows, with the
enclosure of the Church.
[To the parson belong] aU other
particiilars and ornaments, -with the
reparation of the chancel -within and
-without. — Johnson, Eng. Canons,
u. 271-303.

(C) THE SUPPEESSION OF THE
TBMPLAES IN ENGLAND.
This very imjust proceeding was
due entirely to foreign influence.
There was no national movement
aud feeUng in England against the
Templars. But Philip the Fair,
King of Prance, had been excited
to bitter hatred of the order, and
had determined to destroy it, and
the Pope, Clement V., a French pre
late, was a mere puppet in his hands.

To support then his own cruel pro
ceedings against the Templars in
Prance, Philip, using the power of
the Pope, endeavoured to stir up all
the powers in Europe against them.
The English King had actually writ
ten letters in defence of the Templars
to the Kings of Portugal, Castile,
Sicily, aud Arragon, and to the Pope
himself, when the Pope'sBuUs arrived
ordernig the arrest of all the Temp
lars in England. Edward at once
yielded. Orders were sent every
where to the sheriffs, and on the
Wednesday after the Epiphany
(1308) the Templars were every
where arrested. Courts were ap
pointed for their trial at London,
Lincoln, York ; certain commis
sioners, who were all ecclesiastics,
being appointed by the Pope as their
judges. The trial lasted for several
years, aU sorts of hearsay evidence
of the feeblest description being re
ceived. The whole proceedings are
given at length iu Wilkins's Concilia.
Nothing was really proved against
the Templars, but a certain number
of the Imights were, to satisfy the
Pope, condenoned to imprisonment
in monasteries (not very rigid), and
the estates of the order were forfeited
to the Crown. The order of Temp
lars was finally dissolved by the
CouncU of Vienne (1311). The
mild proceedings in England con
trast very favourably with the hor
rible cruelties practised in France.

ill EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.ffiVAL DOCTEINE : [chap.xx

CHAPTER XX.
THE REVOLT AGAINST MEDIiBVAL DOCTRINE  JOHN WYCLIFFE.
1353-1384.
1. Causes which gave occasion for Wycliffe's teaching. 2. His early life
and first propounding of novel doctrines. 3. He advocates the taxing
of the clergy. 4. Anti-Papal feeling in the Good Parliament. 5.
Impatience of clerical wealth encouraged by Wycliffe. 6. WycUffe
summoned before the Convocation. 7. Twenty-four propositions
extracted from his writings sent to the Pope. 8. The Pope issues
Bulls against him. 9. Wycliffe defends his positions. 10. Sum
moned to St. Paul's and Lambeth. 11. His position -compromised
by John of Gaunt's proceedings. 12. Causes which gave a new
direction to Wycliffe's teaching. 13. His twelve propositions on the
Eucharist. 14. Discussed and condemned at Oxford. 15. Change
of feeUng in the matter at Oxford ; his enemies appeal. 16. Court
ney determiues to act against him. 17. The Convocation of May
1382 ; the twenty-four propositions. 18. Movement at Oxford in
favour of Wyclifie. 19. The Primate and the Oxford doctors. 20.
The Lollard divines sUenced. 21. Wycliffe's teaching and work at
Lutterworth. 22. Summoned by Pope Urban ; his reply. 23. Ill
ness and death.
1. The great revolt from the doctrine of the mediaeval
Church which was witnessed in England during the latter
half of the fourteenth century was doubtless due in great
measure to social and political causes. The country was
reduced to the lowest pitch of misery by the plague, which
had carried off one-third of its inhabitants, and the French
war, which had exhausted its resources. It was a pre
valent opinion that the revenues of the kingdom had been
ill-managed, and the odium arising from this belief attached
itself to the Church, the prelates of which had, with rare
exceptions, held all the great ofiices in the State for a long
period.^ As popular anger was directed against them, so
in a still stronger degree it was directed against the Pope,
who, as a French prelate, was regarded as the natural enemy
1 See Stubbs, Const Hist, u. 413.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 415
of the land, as well as the great spoUer of the Church. In
1365 was passed a new Statute of Praemunire, definitely
aimed against the jurisdiction of the Papal Court ; and in
1366 a demand rashly made by the Pope for the arrears
of tribute due from the concession of King John, was
brought before Parliament. A demand of such a nature,
made at such a time, and by one who was clearly in the
interest of- the enemies of the country, was not likely to be
received very favourably. It was rejected by Parliament
with such vigour that a similar claim was never afterwards
renewed.^ This event is principally important in Church
history as having given occasion to the first genuine public
utterance of Johu Wycliffe, who was destined to make so
great a mark upon the Church history of his day. ^
2. Wycliffe, born about 1324 at Hipswell, in Yorkshire,
was educated probably at Balliol CoUege, of which society
he became Master in 1361, and was the same year pre
sented to the living of FUlingham, in Lincolnshire. He
soon obtained leave of non-residence from his living, in
order to prosecute his studies, and for some years rented
rooms in Queen's College, Oxford, from which fact has pro
bably arisen the assertion that he was educated at Queen's.
He was made a royal chaplain,' and in 1363 he took the
degree of doctor in divinity. At this time it is said by his
opponents that his heretical opinions began first to show
themselves.* He had been previously known as an acute
disputant in the schools, and a strong opponent of the
' Stubbs, ii 415 ; Shirley, Introd. to Fascic Zizaniorum, xix.
"Even Peter's pence, the ancient Eomescot, which dated from the
days of Ofifa and Ethel-svulf, was withheld for a time " (Stubbs).
" "That in 1356 WycUffe pubUshed his first work. The Last Age
ofthe Church; that the same year he was one of the feUows of Merton ;
and that in 1360 he took up the pen of the dying Archbishop Fitz-
ralph in his memorable controversy with the Mendicants, are facts
only by courtesy and repetition." — Shirley, Introduction to Fasciculi
Zizaniorum, p. xix.
* Peculiaris regis clericus. The discovery of the fact that there
were two John Wycliffes resident in Oxford at the same time, one ot
whom was FeUow of Merton and Warden of Canterbury HaU, and the
other Master of Balliol, has cleared up the obscurities of the reformer's
liistory. ¦• Fascic. Zizaniorum, p. 2.

416 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI-fflVAL DOCTEINE: [chap.xx
friars, who at that time were a great power in the univer
sity ; but no specially heretical opinions seem to have been
imputed to him until after he had taken his doctor's degree.
Among the dogmas now set down to him appear the pro
positions that " no one in holy orders ought to exercise
temporal authority ;" that " no ecclesiastic ought to be a
holder of property ;" that " temporal lords have the power
of taking away temporal goods from ecclesiastical persons ;"
that " no one is bound to give tithes and oblations to un
worthy pastors." ^ These opinions were just such as to
render Wycliffe a popular person with the anti-Church
party ; and it is quite in accordance with them that we find
him, in 1366, coming forward to defend the right of Parlia
ment to refuse the subsidy to the Pope.^ He maintained
the proposition, " The King can justly exercise sovereign
power (dominion) in the realm of England by denying the
tribute to the Eoman Pontiff, and the mistaken doctrines
which have been imposed upon the realm are false, and
have been imposed without evidence of reason and law." ^
It was this theory of the right of the State to take the pro
perty of the Church, or, in other words, to tax Church
property even -without the consent of the clergy, that brought
Wycliffe to the front, and created so great an audience for
the doctrinal teaching which he afterwards developed. In
earlier days this right had not been doubted ; but since the
time of Boniface VIII. and Archbishop Winchelsea it seemed
to have been conceded that the clergy could not be taxed
without their own consent. Now, in the face of the great
poverty of the country, and the danger threatening from the
renewal of the French war, the question assumed a very
important character.* While the prelates of the Church
' Fascic. Zizaniorum, p. 2.
^ The paper is printed in Lewis's Life of Wycliffe, p. 349.
^ Lewis, p. 349.
^ "Before the Wycliffe movement began there was a strong anti
clerical feeling, and a strong anti-clerical party in the court itself, which,
jealous at once of the influence ofthe Church in social life, and the pre
ponderant share of the clergy in the administration of government, was
likely enough, for its own ends, to ally itself with religious discontent,
whilst it steadily resisted moral or spiritual reformation." — Stubbs,
Const Hist, u. 419.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 417
were filling the chief ofl&ces of an unfortunate, if not incap
able government, she was opulent in the midst of universal
distress ; and her religious orders, ever in the vanguard of
ecclesiastical pretension, were openly aspiring to a total im
munity from national taxation. It was resolved that she
should bear the chief burden of the next campaign." ^
3. The Parhament of 1371 met, with WUliam of Wyke-
ham, bishop of Winchester, as Chancellor, and Brantingham,
bishop of Exeter, as Treasurer. A strong feehng against
these clerical ministers speedily developed itself. Some of
the barons ventured openly to advocate the direct spolia
tion of the clergy. They represented the Church as an owl
dressed up in feathers contributed by all the other birds.
Suddenly the hawk appears, and all the birds want their
plumage back, that they may fly. The owl declines to re
store them. Then the birds seize their own feathers by
force. This apologue is related in a treatise of Wychffe as
having been used in Parhament. He accepts and enforces
the principles put forth in it.^ The feeling against the
clergy was so strong that the king was obliged to dismiss
all his clerical ministers, and a tax was imposed of so much
for each parish, of which the clergy were to pay a part.*
Convocation, the proper taxing body of the clergy, voted
50,000 marks — aU benefices, even the smallest, which
before had been exempt, to be subjected to the tax.* The
principles enunciated by Wycliffe^ made him extremely
unpopular with the clergy, while they recommended him to
the court, and especially to John of Gaunt, the head of the
anti-clerical party.
4. The mishaps to his arms and policy following one
upon another in quick succession, obhged Edward III. to
^ Shirley, Introd. Fasc, Ziz. , p, xxi. ^ Ib.
^ AU lands were included which had passed into mortmain since
the twentieth year of Edward I. — Shirley.
^ Walsingham, Hist Ang., i. 312 (EoUs Ed.)
" He had written:— "Si contra nos bellum ingruerit oportot de
clericis possessionatis temporaUa tanquam nobis oommunia et regno
recipere ; et regnum nostrum cum bonis propriis tanquam magis super-
fluis, prudenter defendere."— Z>e Dominio Civili. Shirley, Introd,, p.
xxi., note.
, 2 E

418 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE: [chap.xx
adopt a change of policy. It became necessary to conciliate
the Pope. Commissioners were despatched to debate the
whole question of the relations between the Papacy and the
Crown of England. One of these was John Wycliffe ; but
Wycliffe was unable to obtain acceptance for his views — all
was conceded to the Pope. The Statute of Provisors was
suspended by the King's sole prerogative, and the chief
English commissioner obtained a See by the Pope's nomi
nation.^ A strong opposition to the royal policy soon dis
played itself in the country. In 1376 met what was called
the Good Parliament, which condemned the unjust pro
ceedings of the court, censured the profligate ministers, and
received and entertained petitions against the Papal See, in
which its iniquitous dealings with the English Church are
most forcibly set forth. Of these petitions no less than thir
teen were presented, one of which recites " That the tax paid
to the Pope of Eome for ecclesiastical dignities doth amount
to five-fold as much as the tax of all the profits that apper
tain to the King, by the year, of this whole realm ; that the
brokers of that sinful city for money promote many caitiffs,
being altogether unlearned and unworthy, to a thousand
marks living yearly, whereas the learned and worthy can
hardly obtain twenty marks ; that aliens, enemies to this
land, who never saw, nor care to see, their parishioners,
have those livings, whereby they despise God's service and
convey away the treasure of the realm, and are worse than
Jews or Saracens ; that there is none so rich prince of
Christendom who hath the fourth part of so much treasure
as the Pope hath out of this realm for churches, most sin
fully ; that cardinals and other aliens remaining at the court
of Eome — whereof one cardinal is a dean of York, another
of Salisbury, another of Lincoln, another archdeacon of
Canterbury, another archdeacon of York, another of Durham,
and another of Suffolk — have divers other the best dignities
in England, and have sent over yearly unto them 20,000
marks, over and above that which English brokers lying
here have ; that, therefore, it would be good to renew all
the statutes against provisions from Eome, since the Pope
reserveth all the benefices of the world for his own proper
1 Walsingham, i. 320,

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 419
gift ; that the Pope in time will give the temporal manors
or dignities to the King's enemies, since he daily usurpeth
on the realm and the King's regality ; that all houses and
corporations of religion, which from the King ought to have
free elections of their heads, the Pope hath now accroached
to himself ;— for remedy whereof they pray that no papal
collector be allowed in England upon pain of life and limb,
and that no Englishman become any such collector, or re
main at the court of Eome." ^
5. The strong feeling entertained against the Pope and
his exactions extended to aU those who were specially con
cerned to uphold the system, and in particular to the friars.
These mendicants had now grown into an immense army,
and regularly perambulated every part of the country, which
was divided into districts or limits for the purposes of their
quest.^ The feeling that, in the poverty of the land and
the great needs for public objects, so much should be
gathered for alien purposes, pervaded the people, and made
them readily listen to the denunciations which Wycliffe now
not sparingly used both of the Pope and his supporters.
He condemned the Pope and his exactions, those who
gathered alms for him, and equally he condemned the
"possessioners," those religious who had great estates, as
weU as the prelates and their luxury. " Prelates," he writes,
" comen instead of apostles, and seyn that they suen Christ
and His Apostles in manner of living. They owen to be
most meke of any other, and most busy in studying and
' Le-wis's Wycliffe, p. 35, from Fox's Acts and Monuments.
^ Chaucer thus describes the friars begging : —
" In every house he gan to pore and pine.
And beggid mele and chese or elles corne.
His felaw had a staff tippid with home,
A pair of ta-bles alle of ivory,
A poyntell polished fuU fetously ;
And -wrote alwey the namis as he stode
Of all the folk that yave him any gcde,
Askauncis, as If he wolde for them pray.
Yeve us a.l)ushel whete, or malt, or rey,
A Goddis kichell or a trip of cheese,
A Goddis halfpenny or a mass peny ;
Or yeve us of your brawn, if he have any,
A dagon of your blanket, leve dame.
Our suster dere, lo here I write your name." Sompnoiir's 2hle.

420 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.fflVAL DOCTEINE : [chap, xx
teching of holy Writ, and ensample of aU good manner of
life both to Christen men and hethen ; but they ben so
choked with tallow of worldly goods, and occupation abouten
them, that they may not preach the gospel and warn the
people of the devil's deceits. Prelates maken themselves most
unable to keep the gospel of Christ by their great business
abouten rotten goods, and by pomp and boast of this world;
for they ben most busy of all men in the world to getten
worldly goods by purchase, and to holden them byfalse plea."^
6. The denunciations which Wycliffe freely uttered
against all classes of the clergy for their luxury and world
liness naturally angered them against him, and induced
them to seek his ruin. On the other hand, they were ex
tremely useful to the Duke of Lancaster, who was striving
for political purposes to humble the clergy, and was espe
cially bitter against William of Wykeham. The duke and
the divine were men totally dissimUar in their characters
and in the objects they had in view, but circumstances
drew them together.^ Wycliffe was summoned from Ox
ford ' by a special messenger, to aid the duke in intimi
dating the Convocation. But the duke found that the
clergy were not to be so easily intimidated. They abso
lutely refused to vote anything in Convocation untU WU
liam of Wykeham, whose temporalties had been seized,
was restored to his rights. More than this ; deeply re
senting the part which Wycliffe had taken in supporting
the attacks of John of Gaunt, they summoned him to
appear before Convocation to answer for his aUeged heresies
on the theory of government and the relations of Church
and State.* His teaching on these points, says Dr. Shirley,
"may easily have appeared subversive of the framework
^ Lewis, p. 39.
^ "Wycliffe, led away perhaps by his o-wn sanguine spirit, and
looking on Lancaster as the Puritans of Elizabeth's time looked upon
Leicester, perhaps as Luther looked on Philip of Hesse, too readily
allowed himself to be used by the unscrupulous politician. " — Stubbs.
' WycUffe had exchanged the living of FUlingham for LuggershaU
near Oxford, and had vacated that by being appointed parson of Lut
terworth in Leicestershire about 1375, but he probably spent a good
deal of his time at Oxford lecturing, etc.
* His books, De Dominio Civili and De Dominio Divino had been

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 421
of society." ^ He connected the rights of property with the
moral and religious condition of the holder in an altogether
perilous manner, and his condemnation would have been
certain had not John of Gaunt and Lord Percy appeared in
St. Paul's at his side. A quarrel ensuedbetween the duke and
the bishop of London, and Wycliffe escaped free for the time.
7. But his enemies among the clergy were too bitterly
set against him to allow him so easy a triumph. They
collected out of his sermons and lectures nineteen proposi
tions, which they sent to the Pope, desiring his judgment
upon them, and his orders how to proceed in the matter.
These propositions, sent to the Pope towards the end of
the year 1376, were as foUows: — (1.) All mankind that
have been since Christ, have not power to ordain that Peter
and all his famUy should have pohtical dominion over the
world. (2.) God cannot give to man, for himself and his
hens, civil dominion for ever. (3.) Charters of human
invention concerning a perpetual civil inheritance are
impossible. (4.) Every one that continues in grace to the
end, has not only a right to, butin fact enjoys all the good
things of God. (5.) Man can only give ministerially to
his son, whether natural or adopted in the school of
Christ, temporal or eternal dominion. (6.) If God may,
so may also temporal lords take away the goods of fortune
from a delinquent Church. (7.) Whether the Church be
in such a state or not, it is not my business to examine,
but the business of temporal lords, who, if they find it in
such a state, are to act boldly, and on the penalty of dam
nation to take away its temporalties. (8.) We know that
it is impossible that the Vicar of Christ should, purely by
his bulls, or by them -with the will and consent of himself
and his college of cardinals, qualify or disqualify any one.
(9.) It is not possible for a man to be excommunicated
unless he be first and principally excommunicated by him
self (10.) Nobody is excommunicated, suspended, or tor
mented with other censures, so that he is the worse for it,
unless it be in the cause of God [or where God approves
the cause]. (II.) Cursing or excommunication does not bind
published some years before this, and his sermons and lectures had
turned much upon this subject. ^ Introd. to Fascic. Zizan., xxvi.

422 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. XX.
simply, but only so far as it is denounced against an adver
sary of the law of Christ. (1 2.) Christ has given to his dis
ciples no example of a power to excommunicate subjects
principally for their denying them temporal things, but has
rather given them an example to the contrary. (13.) The
disciples of Christ have no power forcibly to exact temporal
things by censures. (14.) It is not possible even for the abso
lute power of God to cause that if the Pope or any other
pretends that he binds or looses at any rate, that he does there
fore actually bind and loose. (1 5.) We ought to believe that
then only does the Pope bind and loose, when he conforms
himself to the law of Christ. (16.) This ought to be
universally believed, that every priest rightly ordained has
a power of administering every one of the sacraments,^ and,
by consequence, of absolving any contrite person from any
sin. (17.) It is lawful for kings to take away temporal-
ties from ecclesiastics who abuse them. (18.) Whether
temporal lords or holy popes, or saints, or the head of the
Church, which is Christ, have endowed the Church with
the goods of fortune or of grace, and have excommunicated
those who take away its temporalties, it is notwithstanding
lawful, on account of the condition implied in the endow
ment, to spoil her of her temporalties proportionately to
the offence. (19.) An ecclesiastic, yea, even the Pope of
Eome, may lawfully be corrected by subjects and even the
laity, and may also be accused and impeached by them." ^
8. These accusations were sent to Pope Gregory XI.
towards the end of 1376. The Pope having considered
them, and being made aware of the state of things in Eng
land, issued on May 22, 1377, four bulls — one to the
University of Oxford, commanding it no longer to tolerate
the errors of John Wycliffe, which it had too long allowed;
three to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Simon Sudbury)
and the bishop of London (William Courtney), command
ing them (1) to warn the king and the nobles of the errors
of Wycliffe; (2) to arrest Wycliffe and keep him in strict
^ Wycliffe, or at any rate some of his foUowers, carried this so far
as to hold that a priest has the power of ordaining.
' Walsingham, Hist. Aug., i. 353 ; Fascic. Zizaniorum, 245, sq. ;
Lewis, pp. 46-49.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 423
custody; (3) or in case of his non-arrest to cite him to ap
pear at the Papal court. In addition to these bulls, the
Pope also addressed a letter to King Edward, informing
him of what he had ordered the prelates to do, and re
questing his aid and support.^ The bulls and letter did
not arrive in England till after the death of King Edward
(June 21, 1377) and the succession of his youthful grand
son. The bishops, finding themselves very severely cen
sured in the Pope's bulls for their negligence in allowing
these pestUent opinions so long impunity,^ felt obliged to
act in the matter. But, according to Walsingham, they
proceeded without zeal or earnestness, like reeds shaken
-with the wind, and with words as soft as oil.^ As to the
University of Oxford, the Pope's bull was stUl more unac
ceptable there than it was to the bishops. Walsingham
laments the degeneracy of the University, and how far it
had declined from the wisdom of the ancients, inasmuch as
it was long in debate among the' authorities there, whether
they should receive the papal bull at all, or reject it with
contempt.* They elected at length to receive it, but in
reahty they did nothing in the matter. It is evident that
Wycliffe was popular at Oxford, chiefly, probably, from his
hostUity to the begging friars who had become the bane
and pest of the University.
9. Meantime, whUe the bishops and the University
hesitated to act on the Pope's bulls, WycM'e, informed of
the charges made against him, was not slow in undertaking
his justification and defence. As a known opponent of
paying contributions to the Pope, his influence was great
at court, where, in the scarcity of money, such payments
were very unpopular. He appears to have been formally
' Walsingham, Hist. Aug., i. 346-353.
" The Pope declares that the opinions of Wyoliffe were similar to
those of Marsilius of Padua and John of Ganduno, two lawyers, who,
some twenty or thirty years before, had written treatises to uphold the
imperial as against the papal power, and had been condemned in au
Extravagant of Pope Johu XXII. ^ Walsingham, Hist Ang,, i. 356.
* Hist, Aug., i. 345. It is evident that at this moment, chiefly
from political causes, England was on the verge of repudiating the
Papacy altogether.

424 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIAEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xx.
consulted on the question of the right of the Crown to
withhold the papal payments. This, he maintained, was
perfectly lawful, nay, incumbent on the State to do, on the
principles of natural reason, on the principles of the gospel,
on the principles of conscience. The endowments of our
forefathers, he argues, were not for the Church in general,
but for the Church of England. It would be an injustice
to our forefathers in purgatory to alienate the alms given
for the good of their souls. The Pope might lay the king
dom under an interdict, but God takes no account of such
censures. It were better to restore the endo-wments to the
founders, and to use what remained of them to establish
the true peace of the Church.^ And in addition to this
defence of the general principle of repudiating the Pope's
claims, Wycliffe put forth no less than three papers in
defence of the actual opinions charged against him. One
of these was presented to the Parliament which met Octo
ber 13, 1377 ; another was probably intended for circula
tion among the clergy ; and the third appeared somewhat
later, being designed probably, as Dr. Shirley suggests, " as
a sort of rejoinder in the controversy." ^
10. The full defence of the inculpated opinions was
thus well before the world before the bishops had taken
any steps to bring the accused to trial. The beginning of
the new reign may have produced hindrances to their
action, but there is good reason to believe that the arch
bishop at any rate did not desire to move in the matter.^
However, at length it was held to be necessary to do some
thing, and on December 18 (1377) the bishops addressed
a letter to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford re
citing the Pope's bulls and enjoining him to aid in their
execution. He was desired to assemble orthodox doctors,
and to take counsel with them as to the errors imputed to
1 Fasdc. Zizaniorum, 258-271.
' See Shirley, Introd. to Fascic. Zizan. , pp. xxxi. xxxii. ; Fascic,
Zizan,, pp. 245, 481 ; Walsingham, Hist Ang,, i 357-364.
* Archbishop Sudbury was generally thought to favour novel opin
ions from his ha-ving, when bishop of London, spoken contemptuously
of the value of pilgrimages to a party of Canterbury pUgrims whom
he chanced to meet on theii- way to the shrine of St. Thomas.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 426
Wycliffe, and to inform the bishops of the conclusions
which they should arrive at, under seal. He was also to
cite the said John Wycliffe to appear before the bishops at
St Paul's on the thirtieth court- day after the citation
(Thursday, February 19, 1378.) ^ On that day the bishops
were prepared to proceed to the trial, but instead of the
accused doctor there appeared Sir Lewis Clifford, despatched
by the Princess of Wales, acting as Eegent of the kingdom,
who desired them not to presume to determine anything
against John Wycliffe. Struck with terror (according to
the chronicler), they at once abandoned the business of their
meeting. But Wycliffe was again summoned to appear
at Lambeth, and there, probably some time in April, he
came before his judges. Another impediment now arose.
The citizens of London and " the very dregs of the popu
lace," forced their way into the chapel, and such a scene of
disorder was produced, that the bishops were obliged once
more to abandon the trial. Wycliffe departed unmolested,
and the death of the Pope happening soon after, he
escaped all molestation for a time.^
II. It was unfortunate for the reputation of Wycliffe
that he was complicated by a connection with John of
Gaunt. This violent, overbearing, and lawless prince,
whose power was necessarily great during the minority of
the king, involved his supporter in very false positions.
Thus, when the followers of the Duke of Lancaster invaded
the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, and in the midst of
high mass slew one man on the spot and dragged away
another to prison, the scandal of this atrocious deed seems
to have been partiaUy excused by Wycliffe.* And in like
manner, when the Duke of Lancaster, furious at the quasi-
1 Le-wis, Records, No. 17.
^ Walsingham, Hist. Ang., i. 356. I have followed the chronicler,
who evidently implies that there was first a meeting at St. Paul's, which
was stopped by Clifford, and afterwards a meeting at Lambeth, which
was stopped by the popiUace. Dr. Shirley only speaks of the meeting
at Lambeth. Le-wis's narrative is here a mass of confusion. He applies
to the meeting at St. Paul's the interference of John of Gaunt and
Lord Percy, which belongs to the meeting of the pre-vious year.
' See Fascic. Zizan. Introd., p. xxxvi. ; Walsingham, Hist Aug.,
I 375-9.

426 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI-fflVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xx.
excommunication incurred for his sacrUege, had summoned
a Parliament at Gloucester, and in revenge for the pro
ceedings of the bishop of London proposed a large spolia
tion of Church property, this was doubtless held by aU to
be a practical application of the opinions of his friend and
ally, John Wycliffe.^ Wycliffe's doctrines as to Church pro
perty were, we know, merely ideal and theoretical, and not
meant for practical application, but they were not on that
account free from danger, and might easUy be used as an
excuse for spoliation. The Parliament, however, was not
prepared to accept these revolutionary doctrines, and
declined to sanction the robbery of the Church which the
Duke of Lancaster desired.^
12. HappUy causes now arose which withdrew Wycliffe
from these dangerous theories, so tempting to the un
scrupulous wielders of power, and led him into that path
where his labours have been so eminently valuable, viz.
that of a doctrinal reformer and a translator of Holy
Scripture. The first of these causes was the commence
ment of the great schism in the Papacy. When there was
again a Pope at Eome who excommunicated the Pope at
Avignon, and with him his chief supporter the King of
France, the enemy of England, then the EngUsh reverence
for the Papacy was greatly revived, and Wycliffe no longer
had the audience which he had before, when he called the
Pope antichrist, and advocated the withholding all aid from
him. He himself was also, perhaps unconsciously, influ
enced by the same feeling. Immediately after the estab
lishment of a Eoman Pope we find him sending a copy of his
inculpated opinions to Eome, and declaring that he desired
the judgment of the Eoman Church upon them.* Another
1 ' ' Ostendi quod domini temporales potestatem habent subtrahendi
Buas eleemosjmas coUatas ecclesia, ipsa iUis eleemosynis abutente,
ot quod talis ablatio foret in casu plus meritoria'quam prior coUatio." —
Fasc Ziz., p. 249.
^ Walsingham, Hist Ang., i. 380.
' Volo non solum Ulas examinari per curiam Eomanam sed per
totam ecclesiam militantem et triumphantem, quae est sancta mater
ecclesia cui humiliter me submisi, a quS, absit me excludere Eomunam
ecclesiam, cum credo illam esse caput aliarum ecclesiarum militan-
tium. — De Veritate Scripturce : Fisc. Ziz., Introd., xxxui

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 427
perhaps more influential cause of the change in Wycliffe's
teaching was the breaking out of the Wat Tyler rebellion,
and the circumstances which accompanied it. The most
tragical of these was the murder of Simon Sudbury, Arch
bishop of Canterbury. The archbishop was well known to
Wycliffe, and had been on very friendly terms with him.
He may even be regarded as to a certain extent a favourer
of Wycliffe's views, if the condemnation which, when bishop
of London, he passed upon the Canterbury pUgrimages is
to be regarded as genuine.^ Wycliffe would therefore be
greatly shocked by the archbishop's tragical end, due as it
was to his support as Lord Chancellor of the policy of John
of Gaunt, and "the imposition of the obnoxious poU-tax ;
and it is not improbable that he may have thought that the
doctrines which he himself had taught as to property had
had a tendency to encourage the rising of the commons.
This at any rate was freely charged against him. John
Ball, the seditious priest who was one of the leaders of
the revolt, was spoken of as the apostle of Wyclifi&sm.^
Consequently, Wycliffe shrank from in any way counte
nancing such a false and dangerous notion, while at the
same time he had no longer any sympathy for the Govern
ment, and had probably come to despair of the practical
reform of the Church.*
13. Wycliffe now therefore determined to devote all
his energies to theological works, and in the spring of
1381 he put out a paper containing the following propo
sitions : —
(1.) The consecrated host which we see upon the altar
' See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, ui. 250.
^ See his alleged confession, Faocic. Zizan., p. 273. Knighton
says, " Hie habuit precursorem Joannem BaUe, veluti Christus loannem
Baptistam, qui -vias suas in taUbus opinionibus preparavit, et plurimos
doctrina suS, ut dicitur perturbavit." — Knighton, p. 2644 (Ed. Tvpysden.)
"Joaimes BaUe capeUanus pradicator famosissimus habebatur apud
laicos, qui per plura retroacta tempora verbum Dei insipienter sparserat,
loUium cum tritico immiscendo, laicis nimis placens et libertati juris
eoclesiastici et statds quam maxime derogans, atque multos errores in
ecclesiam Christi inter clerum et laicos execrabiliter introducens. " —
Knighton, p. 2634; Walsingham Hist Ang., u, 32.
' Shirley, Introd. to Fascic. Zizan., p. xiii

428 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIiEVAL DOCTEINE : [ohap. xx.
is neither Christ nor any part of Him, but an efficacious
sign of Him.
(2.) No passer-by can see Christ with his bodily eye
in the consecrated Host, but can only see Him by faith.
(3.) Of old time the faith of the Eoman Church was,
according to the profession of Berengarius, that the bread
and wine which remain after benediction are the conse
crated Host.
(4.) The Eucharist has, by virtue of the sacramental
words as well the body as the blood of Christ truly and
really in every part of it.
(5.) Transubstantiation, identification, and impanation —
which terms are made use of by those baptists of signs in
the matter of the Eucharist — are not to be established from
Scripture. (6.) It is in opposition to the opinions of saints to
assert that there is the accident without the subject in the
true Host.
(7.) The sacrament of the Eucharist is in its nature
bread and wine, containing by virtue of the sacramental
words, the true body and blood of Christ in every part
of it. (8.) The sacrament of the Eucharist is in figure the
body and blood of Christ into which the bread and wine
are transubstantiated, which remain something ^ after con
secration, although, as the faithful beUeve, their nature is
laid asleep.
(9.)The existence of accident without subject is not pro
bable. If it be, God is annihUled, and every article of the
Christian faith perishes.
(10.) Any person or sect is heretical which shall ob
stinately maintain that the sacrament of the altar is bread
existing by itself, and thus in its nature more abject and
imperfect than horse bread. ^
(11.) Whosoever shall pertinaciously defend that the
^ Cujus remanet aliquitas.
' A scholastical view on which WycUffe and his foUowers dwelt
much — namely, that to abstract substance from the accidents, and to
leave the accidents without subject, was to degrade the nature of the
thing thus treated.

1353-1384,] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 429
said sacrament is an accident, a quality or quantity, or an
aggregation of these, falls into the heresy above spoken of
(12.) Wheaten bread, in which alone it is lawful to
consecrate, is in its nature infinitely more perfect than bean
bread or rat's bread, both of which are in their nature more
perfect than an accident.^
14. These propositions of Wycliffe would seem to some
at Oxford to be as great heresies scholastically as doctri-
nally. To deny the possibUity of accidents existing with
out substance was as bad as to declare that the Eucharist
was a true sacrament. The University of Oxford, therefore,
possessed as it was then with the importance of scholastical
subtleties, at once proceeded to call in question Wycliffe's
dogmata. He selected three propositions (the fourth, the
eighth, and the ninth), which he undertook to maintain in
the schools. In the discussion which followed Wycliffe
argued that the mode by which the body of Christ is in
the sacrament is virtual, " as a king in his whole kingdom."
His chief aim, he said, was to recall the Church from idolatry,
inasmuch as the Church has for many years gone wrong on
this question. That the words of consecration do not take
away the material bread and wine, which remain in their
own nature as well after consecration as before. He
iUustrated this by examples, e.g. a sinner is changed into
a good man, but remains the same man as before. - Gregory
or Innocent is made a Pope ; he is still the same man as
before. Wood is converted into an image, water into ice,
the same substance remains. Thus in the sacrament the
material body of Christ is not present, but Christ is present
figuratively or virtually, as the Baptist was Ehas. To say
that accidents can exist without a subject Wycliffe asserted
was to put that bread below horse bread ^ or rat's bread, for
these are substances, and substance is higher than accident.
Wycliffe's doctrine was, after his defence of it had been
heard, condemned as pestiferous by the Chancellor of Oxford
' Fasdc. Zizan., p. 105.
¦ ^ "Quia quodlibet hoium est substantia, et illud sacramentum
visibUe est accidens sine substantist, sed substantia in quantum hujus
modi est perfectius aooidente, et accidens infinitum abjectius sub
stantia." — Fasc, Ziz., 109.

430 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.fflVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xx.
(William Berton) and an assembly of doctors of theology
and canon law, and a formal and argumentative sentence,
condemnatory of it, was published in the University, which
prohibited the advocating of such opinions under the
penalty of excommunication and of suspension from all
scholastical acts.^
15. Upon hearing this sentence Wycliffe at once ap
pealed to the king, hoping no doubt to obtain the support
of the Duke of Lancaster in this matter, as he had obained
it before in the matter of the Church property dispute.
But things had assumed a different complexion since that
time. It was no longer the policy of John of Gaunt to
affront and attack the Church. His previous quarrel with
the prelates had indeed been merely on political and social
grounds. There is no reason to suppose that in doctrinal
opinions he differed at all from the superstitious notions
prevalent in his day. Wycliffe was at once informed that
he need expect no further support from him. The duke
even came down to Oxford to teU him so, and to urge him
to yield to the University authorities, and to speak no more
on the subject of the Eucharist. This served only to bring
out the boldness and earnestness of Wycliffe's character.
He "replied by his memorable confession." ^ In this he
maintains the real presence of Christ's body in the Eucha
rist in the strongest way. He is there more really and in
a different mode from His presence in the other sacraments,
but yet not substantially or corporeally. He declares that
he agrees with Scripture, the ancient doctors, and the
decrees of the Eoman Church. The bread is by miracle
Christ's body ; and just as in the Incarnation there were
two perfect natures in one person, so is it in the Eucharist.
The sacrament of the altar retains the nature of bread and
wine, but is sacramentally the body and blood of Christ.
He produces seven witnesses to this doctrine — Ignatius,
Cjrprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, the decree of Pope
Nicholas II. , the Canon of the Mass. He calls upon the
1 Fascic. Zizan., pp. 106-113. Of the twelve doctors who agreed
to the decree adverse to WycUffe, two were monks, six were friars,
two were secular theologians, and two were jurists.
^ Shirley, Introd. to Fasc. Ziz,, p. xUii.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 431
faithful to weigh these testimonies, and to consider how
the opposite doctrine dishonours Christ's body, and he ends
by denouncing woe against those who prefer the teaching
of the later to that of the earlier Church.^ Wycliffe's bold
and able defence of his doctrine made a great impression
at Oxford. He was always popular there as the opponent
of the Friars, who had ever been the troublers of the
University, and against whom all the secular regents were
deeply incensed. A new chancellor and new proctors at
Oxford espoused his cause, and the University took no
further steps against him. But his opponents were not
to be so easily silenced. Believing, as they no doubt did,
that the very fundamentals of religion were at stake, they
addressed themselves to the Primate.
16. Archbishop Sudbury had now been succeeded in
the primacy by Courtney, bishop of London. Courtney
was a man proud of his ancient family — one of the most
Ulustrious in Europe — prouder perhaps still of his high
ecclesiastical position — a thorough High Churchman — one
who ventured to publish the papal bulls at the risk of
incurring the penalties of a Preemunire,^ and who hesitated
not to place himself in opposition to John of Gaunt, the
most powerful man in the kingdom. Wycliffe had already
been summoned before Courtney, when, under the Pope's
directions, he and the Primate had undertaken to judge
him for his opinions as to church property. On that
occasion he had been rudely rescued by John of Gaunt,
and, when again summoned, had been carried away by a
noisy crowd. He had also defended, or at least palliated,
the invasion of sanctuary by John of Gaunt's followers,
which the bishop of London had greatly resented. On every
ground, then — as the propounder of novel opinions — as the
friend of John of Gaunt — Wycliffe was specially obnoxious to
the new Primate. Just as with Archbishop Sudbury he had
stood well, so -with Courtney the most unfavourable view
of his conduct and writings was sure to be entertained.
The teachings of Wycliffe on the Eucharist, novel and
starthng as they were to the men of that generation, were
1 Fasdc Zizan,, pp. 115-132; Le-svis, p. 323.
' Hook, Lives ofthe Archbishops, iii, 326,

432 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIiEVAL DOCTEINE : [ohap. xx.
such as to invite the immediate action of the archbishop.
Courtney also felt the more constrained to act promptly,
as the teaching, held to be so mischievous, was now not
confined to Wycliffe. There was already a "sect of the
Lollards."^ Wycliffe had a large body of adherents both
in the University and outside it, who preached his doctrines
with the greatest zeal, and constantly came into coUision
with the Friars and others who maintained the opposite
views. He had made the attempt to form these supporters
into a regular order, called "the poor priests," or the
"simple priests," who were to be "poor -without mendi
cancy, to combine the flexible unity, the swift obedience of
an order, with the free and constant mingling vrith the
poor ;"^ and whUe Eigge, Hereford, Aston, Eepyngdon, and
Bedeman upheld his doctrines in the University of Oxford,
were to make the circuit of England, spreading everywhere
the new teaching.* The matter therefore, was, in the
opinion of many a very pressing one, and the archbishop
was called upon from various quarters to apply an effectual
remedy.* At the meeting therefore of the Parliament of
May 1382 the archbishop summoned his provincial council
to meet at Black Friars, May 19, 1382.
17. The council was ushered in by an earthquake, which
caused great dismay among the assembled di-vines, but was
dexterously turned by the Primate into a sign of encour
agement to them to proceed to purge the kingdom of
heresies. Their method of proceeding was to examine a
certain string of propositions collected or supposed to be
coUected from the writings of Wycliffe,^ to condemn them
^ Fascic, Zizan, , p. 272. Various derivations, more or less absurd,
have been suggested for this word. No one acquainted -with the litera
ture of the time could, however, hesitate to derive it from lolium.
^ Shirley, Introd. to Fasc, Ziz,, p. xl. See the rules given in
Wycliffe's Trialogus for the poor priests, p. xH., note.
^ Qui dixit quod erat certa comitiva de secta et doctrin^ Wycclyf
qui conspiraverant quandam confederationem, et se ordinaverant cir-
cuere totam AngUam prajdicando prsedicti Wycclef materias quas
docuerat, et sic tota AngUa consentiret suae perversse doctrinse." — Fasc.
Ziz,, p. 274. * Fasc Ziz,, pp. 272-275.
^ These propositions seem, upon the whole, fairly to represent the
views of Wycliffe.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 433
as heretical or false, and then to prohibit the teaching of
such doctrines under the penalty of excommunication. The
propositions were as follows : —
(1.) That the substance of material bread and -wine
remains, after consecration, in the sacrament of the altar.^
(2.) That accidents cannot remain without a subject in
the same sacrament.
(3.) That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar
identically, truly and really in proper corporal presence.
(4.) 'That if a bishop or a priest be in mortal sin, he
cannot ordain, consecrate, or baptize.
(5.) That if a man be fittingly contrite, all outward con
fession is superfluous or useless to him.
(6.) That it is not set down in the Gospel that Christ
ordained the mass.
(7.) That God ought to obey the devil.
(8.) That if a Pope be a false and bad man, and con
sequently a limb of the devil, he has no power over the
faithful of Christ,^ given to him by any, except perchance
by Caesar. (9.) That after Urban VI. none is to be received as
Pope, but all are to live, in the manner of the Greeks, by
their own laws.
(10.) That it is against Scripture that Churchmen should
have temporal possessions.
These ten propositions were condemned as heresies. The
fourteen foUowing were condemned as errors.
(11.) That no prelate ought to excommunicate any
one, unless he first knows that he is excommunicated by
God. ¦^ " I say as these saints do, and trow as Holy Church troweth, and
teacheth, that the Sacred host is verily the Body of Christ." — Apology
for Lollards, p. 46.
^ Wycliffe did not hold that the Pope was Antichrist absolutely,
but only conditionaUy, i.e. if he were an evil liver. Thus in the
Apology, "This I grant now, that the lawfully ordained [Pope] is
Christ's vicar, either when he doeth or biddeth anything in the name
of Christ, as if Christ did that by him, that then he is the -vicar of
Christ indeed, and then it is to obey to him as Christ's vicar, and as
Jesu Christ."— /J., p. 68.
2 E

434 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIJIVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xx.
(12.) That he who thus excommunicates becomes there
by an heretic or [himself] excommunicated.^
(1 3.) That a prelate excommunicating a clerk who has
appealed to the king and the council of the kingdom, is
thereby a traitor to God, the king, and the kingdom.
(14.) That those who cease to preach or to hear the
Word of God or the Gospel preached on account of the ex
communication of men,- are excommunicated, and in the day
of judgment will be held traitors to God.
(15.) That it is permitted to any one, whether deacon
or priest, to preach the Word of God without the authority
ofthe Apostolical See, or a catholic bishop, or some other
authority which is sufficiently allowed.
(16.) That none is a civil lord, none a bishop, none a
prelate, while he is in mortal sin.
(17.) That temporal lords can at their wUl take away
temporal goods from Churchmen habitually delinquent, and
that the people may at their will correct dehnquent lords.
(18.) That tithes are pure alms, and that parishioners
can hold them back on account of the sins of curates, and
give them as they please.
(19.) That special prayers applied to one person by
prelates or religious persons do not more profit such person
than general prayers do, other things being equal
(20.) That any one entering any private religious rule,
is made more useless and more unfit to observe God's com
mandments. (21.) That saints instituting religious rules, whether
possessionary or mendicant, have sinned in such institution.
(22.) That religious persons living in private religious
rules are not of the Christian religion.^
^ " He that curseth any man or denounceth him cursed, when he
is not cursed, he breaketh God's binding, beareth false witness against
his neighboiu. This showeth itself sooth, and other reasons prove it
weU." — Apology, p, 40.
^ " When the vow of the religious is to wilful bodUy poverty and
obedience and chastity, to be kept, but now our reUgious liveth and
floweth among all men most in delights, and aboundeth in worldly
riches, and taketh to them worldly honours ; certainly they have feignedly
and falsely another vow against the Gospel, or else they break their

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 435
(23.) That friars are bound to get their living by the
labour of their hands and not by mendicancy.
(24.) That he who gives alms to friars, or to a friar
when he preaches, is excommunicated as well as he who
receives the alms.^
18. Meantime, whUe the Convocation was sitting at
Blackfriars, the greatest excitement prevailed at Oxford,
the birthplace of these opinions. Wycliffe had many able
supporters there. Nicholas Herford, a master in theology,
boldly advocated all his views, and is said, in his sermon
on Ascension Day, to have openly exhorted the people to
rescue him from his enemies. Philip Eepyngdon, a doctor
of divinity,^ declared that he was willing to defend all
Wycliffe's opinions in the matter of morals, but as for his
doctrine on the Eucharist he would lay his finger on his
lips, until God had enlightened the minds of the clergy.
This doctor was appointed by the chancellor. Dr. Eigge, to
preach before the University on Corpus Christi Day. The
friars and their adherents were in a great commotion, and
sent a pressing request to the archbishop to order the con
demnation of the inculpated propositions to be published
before the sermon could be delivered. The archbishop at
once assented. He sent the condemned propositions in a
letter to Peter Stokes, a Carmelite, and the leader of the
anti- Wickliffe party, and desired they might be published
(May 28). In a second letter to the chancellor, dated two
days after, he desires him to assist Peter Stokes, and to see
to the pubhcation of the condemnation of the propositions
on Corpus Christi Day, before Eepyngdon's sermon. At
the same time he chides Dr. Eigge for the favour he had
aheady shown to Herford. The chanceUor was by no means
inclined to assent to this direction. He maintained that
the University of Oxford was free, and not under the domi-
vow, and whether it be so or so, the vow is against the Gospel and
damnable." — Apology, p. 104.
^ Fascic. Zizan., 277-282 ; Walsingham, Hist. Ang,, ii. 58, 59 ;
Knighton, p. 2648 (Ed. Twysden).
^ Afterwards nicknamed Eampington on account of the fury with
which he persecuted'tlie opinions of the LoUards (when bishop of
Lincoln), which now he upheld.

436 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap, xx
nation of any prelate. The Friars, and notably Friar Peter,
were the great troublers of the peace. He refused to assist
them in stifling the preaching of sound doctrine. In order
to defend Eepyngdon, the chancellor is said to have at
tended the church of St. Frideswide, accompanied by a
hundred armed men. The doctor was aUowed to preach
Wickliffist doctrine vnthout let or hindrance, and Peter
Stokes, writing to the archbishop, declares that he can do
no more, that he feels that he is in danger of his life, and
prays the archbishop for protection.^
19. Archbishop Courtney was not the man to allow
his authority and that of his synod to be so openly defied.
He summoned Stokes to Lambeth without delay. Dr
Eigge, the Chancellor of Oxford, was also summoned. On
June 12 the Convocation met, and Dr. Eigge was accused
on various grounds of favouring the party of Wycliffe and
the sect of the Lollards, and of countenancing Herford and
Eepyngdon. He was found guUty of contempt of the
authority of the Church, but he submitted himself, and
asked pardon and was excused.^ He then received a man
date from the archbishop, by which he was to regulate his
administration of the University for the future. It stated
that as certain conclusions were condemned, to which Eigge
was known to be inclined, the chanceUor should be careful
not to molest any clergy, regular or secular, who had aided
in the matter, and should not permit such doctrines to be
taught in the University, nor allow John Wycliffe, Nicholas
Herford, John Aston, PhUip Eepyngdon, or La-wrence
Bedeman, "who are notoriously suspected of heresies, or
any other person thus suspected or defamed, to preach, but
should suspend them from every scholastical act untU they
have established their innocence in this matter before
you."* Another mandate followed, ordering the chancellor
to publish in St. Mary's Church, and in the schools, the
condemned propositions, in English and Latin, and to
make strict inquiry in the University for all favourers of
such views, and to compel them to abjure. The chanceUor
remonstrated, declaring that he dared not for the peril of
his life publish them. " Then," said the archbishop, " the
'¦ Fascic. Zizan., pp. 296-SOl. " 7 J., pp. 304-308. ^jn>.,p.3W.

1363-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 437
University is a fautor of heresies, which does not per
mit Cathohc truths to be published." The next day the
Chancellor of Oxford was summoned before the councU, and
commanded by Sir Eichard le Scroope, the Lord Chancellor,
to obey every order of the archbishop, and a royal brief
was issued, confirming the order previously made by the
archbishop.^ By another brief the chancellor was ordered
to quash the sentence which he had pronounced against
Henry Crumpe, a Cistercian monk, and not in any way to
molest him, or Peter Stokes, or Stephen Patryngton, for
anything they had done or should do, to oppose the
doctrine of Wycliffe.^
20. Under the combined pressure of the ecclesiastical
and civU authorities the chanceUor Eigge yielded. He
pubhshed the condemnation of the propositions, and
intimated to Herford and Eepyngdon that they were
suspended from academical acts. Upon this the two
censured divines at once proceeded to appeal for aid
to the Duke of Lancaster. John of Gaunt, however, had
long ceased to take any interest in the matter. He had
never been really in favour of a reformation of doctrine
in the Church, but had merely espoused Wychffe's cause
from political reasons. Herford and Eepyngdon quickly
found that they had nothing to hope for from him. They
therefore betook themselves to the archbishop, and handed
in an answer to the inculpated propositions. They were
ordered to appear before the Convocation on June 20,
when their answers were taken into consideration These
apparently condemn the whole of the propositions either
as heresies or errors, but their answers are drawn in such
a way that they were probably intended to leave them a
loophole for retractation. This at any rate was the opinion
of the archbishop and his assistant divines, who, after hav
ing questioned the two appellants, condemned their answers
as erroneous and evasive, but deferred their sentence for
eight days.* The conduct of John Aston differed from
that of Herford and Eepyngdon. When brought before
1 Fascic. Zizan., p. 312.
2 lb., p. 314 ; Lewis's Wycliffe, p. 316.
s Fascic. Zizan., pp. 319-329.

438 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xx.
the archbishop and his assessors, he refused to make any
answers whatever to the propositions, and was condemned
as a heretic, and handed over to the secular arm. ^ Upon
this Aston published an appeal to the people in the form
of a broadsheet, which he caused to be distributed. In
this he declares that his belief was that " the bread which
the priest holds in his hands becomes, or is made by virtue
of the sacramental words, truly and really the same body
of Christ numerically which was taken and born from the
Virgin, which suffered and died on the cross, lay three
days in the tomb, on the third day rose again from the
dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand
of God, and at the day of judgment shall come to judge
the quick and the dead. Moreover, I believe generally on
that matter whatsoever Holy Scripture determines either
in -words or sense, or the holy Church of God determines.
Wherefore, being required to say speciaUy what I thought
concerning that proposition — ' The material bread remains
in the sacrament of the altar after consecration ' — I pro
tested that I had never put forth that proposition, taught
it, or preached it. For I knew that that matter and
speculation on it transcends my understanding, and there
fore I believe as much as Holy Scripture teaches to be
expressly believed concerning it. On that subject, and on
all others touching the Catholic faith not expressed in
Holy Scripture, I believe as holy Mother Church believes.
Therefore I pray all Christian folk to bear me witness and
to pray for me." ^ This appeal to popular feeling was met
by the clergy by a declaration that it was not for this
doctrine that Aston was condemned, but because he would
not confess that the body of Christ is in the sacrament of
the altar " identically, truly and ready in proper corporal
presence," and that " after consecration there remaineth not
1 Fasdc Zizan., p. 329. It appears that his trial gave rise to a popular
outbreak. Walsingham says, "Sed et ipsum archiepiscopum irreverens
turba prsesumpsit in civitate sedentem impedire cum processum feoisset
contra quendam Johannem Aston magistrum in artibus et artissimum
sequacem Johannis Wyclif; effractis foribus conclavis iu qu8 idem
archiepiscopus sedit cum turba Theologise et Juris Professorum. "—
Hist Ang,, u. 65. 2 lb., p. 330.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 439
the substance of material bread and wine in that venerable
sacrament." Although Aston had shown a bold front, he
was evidently not of a temper to be a martyr, and on
further consideration he accepted all the Convocation
formulae, and obtained his pardon. As for Herford and
Eepyngdon, whose sentence had been deferred, they were
on July I at Canterbury pronounced heretical, and excom
municated. Later on in the year (November 19), when
the archbishop held a Convocation at St. Frideswide's in
Oxford, Eepyngdon recanted, and Herford, though holding
out somewhat longer, at length yielded. He entered the
Carthusian order, and died in it.^ Eepyngdon became
abbot of Leicester, then bishop of Lincoln. Finally he
culminated as a cardinal of the Eoman Church.^
21. Meantime, while such vigorous measures were
taken to suppress the rising sect of the Lollards, what was
the condition and employment of the head and originator
of these inculpated doctrines 1 Why was not John Wy
cliffe summoned before the Convocation, and why were no
proceedings taken against him at Oxford 1 * By some the
reason of this is set down to his illness,* but this would
not have prevented his being summoned, although it might
have hindered his attendance. The probable reason was
the fear of the influence which he might still possess both
in the court and among the people. For the instruction
of these latter, he was now pouring out from his retreat
at Lutterworth, -with ceaseless activity, ^ his English Tracts,
and carrying on his greatest and most noble work, the
translation of the whole Bible into the English tongue.
Portions of this were doubtless appearing during the year
1 Wood, Annals, i. 510. = Lewis, Life of Wycliffe, pp. 261-267.
^ Dr. Shirley says, "That some proceedings were taken against
Wycliffe himself at Oxford, we learn from the so-caUed Knighton (Col.
2649), but it is not easy to assign the true date to them, the more so
as the chronicler himself does not understand them." — Introd. to
Fasc Ziz., p. xliv. note. ^ Lewis, p. 113.
^ The enormous amount of Wycliffe's literary labours may be best
judged of by Dr. Shirley's "Catalogue of the Original Works of John
Wycliffe " (Oxford, 1865), which is an attempt to bring together a list
of his works, both Latin and English. As to the date and arrange
ment of these works, scarce anything has as yet been accomplished.

440 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIiEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap, xx
1382, as weU as those striking English treatises, in which
the reformer appears as the father of Enghsh prose, as
Geoffrey Chaucer was of English verse. And though his
enemies might for a season refrain from attacking him, he
did not hesitate to launch his shafts against them. He
stigmatises the Convocation sometimes as the " CouncU of
Friars," sometimes as the "Earthquake CouncU;" declares
of some of the propositions that they were invented about
Catholic men that their reputation might be blackened;
that poor priests were slandered with these errors, and
false opinions attributed to them to make lords hate them ;
tbat to say that they preached that the people might
correct delinquent lords at their pleasure is a silly prattling
of the Friars' invention.^ The startling propositions which
had been professedly extracted from Wycliffe's writings,
no doubt proved to him the necessity of explaining or
balancing some of the statements which he had put forth.
For instance, he explains in his Great Sentence of Curse
expounded, that his doctrine that temporal lords may take
away their goods from delinquent Churchmen, merely meant
that in case of a fine being inflicted on a clerk, the king's
officers might seize their goods for payment.^ With regard
to this and kindred topics — the most questionable part of
Wycliffe's teaching — the remarks of one who has thoroughly
studied his writings deserve careful consideration. " The
theory of dominion involving the relation of Church and
State which stands numbered by our author among Wy
cliffe's earliest heresies, and which occupies a prominent
position in all the later condemnations of his opinions,
ought never, in justice to its author, to be published with
out his own declaration that it was put forth as an ideal,
and with the full admission that it was incompatible, in
many of its results, with the existing state of society.
Being an ideal, it is the more remarkable to find it tho
roughly feudal in its whole conception. Dominion being
not a right or a power, or anything external, but a habit
of the rational nature,* can, in its highest and purest sense,
1 Lewis, p. 118. 2 2J., p. 121.
^ " Dominium; est habitudo naturae rationalis secundum quam
denominatur suo praefici servienti." — De Dominio Divino, i., cap. i
MS., Denis, ccccv. (Dr. Shirley's note).

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 441
belong to God alone. He deals it out in fief, as it were, to
men in their several stations and ofiices, on condition of
obedience to His commandments. Mortal sin therefore
breaks the link, and deprives man of his authority. Thus
no man in a state of mortal sin has in strict right either
priesthood or lordship, a principle which applies, of course,
in its degree, to every human being. This is the meaning
of Wycliffe's favourite expression, that all dominion is
founded in grace." ^ To this theory, so liable to be mis
understood, and to lead to the most mischievous con
sequences, Wycliffe no doubt supplied corrections, such as,
that as God pleased to allow the power of the wicked in
this world, men are bound to submit to it. This he
expressed in the paradoxical and apparently irreverent
proposition that " God ought to obey the devU." Again,
he appended to the proposition that neither bishop nor
priest could do the acts of their office when in mortal sin,
the salvo that as a matter of fact the sacraments were
received from such priests " inasmuch as they be not the
authors of the sacraments."^ To set forth propositions
apparently contradictory did not trouble one who had
passed his life amidst the subtleties of the schoolmen,
whose chief delight was to enunciate a paradox startling
to aU orduiary minds, and then to establish and defend it by
verbal logomachies. But in fact the scholastic mind and
training of Wychffe eminently suited him for the work he
had to do. His work was not to establish and teach, but
to shake and question. And while he did this, as it were,
-with one hand, with the other he provided material for the
formation and establishment of sound views in the future.
He gave his countrymen the inestimable blessing of the
vernacular Scriptures. The translations of Scripture made
into the English spoken before the Conquest would not at
that period be generally understood, even if they were
accessible, and though versions of small portions of the
Scripture may have been locally known (such as that of
Eichard Eolle of Hampole of the Psalms, and portions of
Isaiah), yet very little knowledge of Holy Writ was to be
found among those who could not read Latin. A certain
¦^ Shirley, Introd. to Fasaic. Zizan., p. Ixii. ^ Lewis, p. 144.

442 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.fflVAL DOCTEINE : [chap, xx
amount of acquaintance with the main facts of the Scrip
ture was no doubt prevalent, due principally to the rhym
ing manuals which were common and very popular. ^ But
manuals in doggerel rhyme were but a poor substitute for
the grand diction of the Scriptures, even if the manual
were fairly made, and did not misrepresent rather than
represent the text Wycliffe gave to his countrymen once
and for ever the power of bringing to an infaUible touch
stone all the Manuals, Prymers, Layfolks' Mass Books,
Legends, and other little devout and instructive volumes,
of which many no doubt always existed in the land.
Wycliffe's version, made from the Vulgate, but clearly
formed on the model of the old English version of Bede,
wherever it was available for a pattern, has a simple
grandeur about it, which, through the medium of Tyndale,
has been imported in great degree into the version now
prevalent. It was truly a KTrjixa Is dei for his Church and
country.2 23. While engaged unceasingly in his invaluable
labours at Lutterworth, Wycliffe received a summons from
Pope Urban VI. ^ to appear before him at Eome. The
enemies of the great reformer doubtless thought that by
this means they would easily crush him. Before the Pope
Wycliffe's great friends could not help him, nor could the
popular voice be an efiicient ally. It is probable that
Wycliffe, whose character was one of remarkable boldness,
would not have shrunk from meeting the Pope, had he not
been disabled by illness. But soon after going to reside
at Lutterworth he had had a stroke of paralysis. From this
he recovered, and was able to continue his astonishing
literary activity by the aid of John Purveye, his amanuen
sis, but the seizure quite incapacitated him from making a
1 See Chapter XXIV.
^ A magnificent edition of Wycliffe's translation has been published
by the University of Oxford.
' This was the Pope who had authorised and blessed the ludicrous
expedition led by Bishop Spencer of Norwich, which he caUed a
Crusade. It was intended to be directed against the Antipope and^his
supporters in France, but it only availed to cost the lives of a good
many ignorant zealots, and cover the name of Crusade wdth a ridicule
from which it never recovered. For fuller account, see page 448.

1353-1384.] JOHN WYCLIFFE. 443
long journey. In a letter remaining in both Latin and
English he explains the situation. He would gladly, he
says, tell all true men his belief, much more the Pope, who
is more obliged than other men to the keeping of the
Gospel, inasmuch as he is the highest vicar that Christ has
here on earth. But this high position must be accompanied
by a corresponding height of devotion, otherwise no respect
is due to him, for no man should follow the Pope, nor any
saint in heaven, but inasmuch as he follows Christ. He
would counsel the Pope to leave worldly affairs to his
lords, and bid his clergy do the same, and give himself to
preaching the Gospel. If he could travel in his own
person he would, God wilhng, go to the Pope. But Christ
has wUled it otherwise, and it is to be supposed that the
Pope will not be Antichrist and resent what Christ has done.
He will pray for him that he may be kept in the right way.^
23. There is a quiet dignity about this letter which
well befits the grand position which Wycliffe now occupied.
But his faUing health and his unceasing labour were rapidly
bringing his career to a close. " No friendly hand," says
his most able commentator, "has left us any, even the
shghtest, memorial of the life and death of the great
reformer. A spare, fraU, emaciated frame, a quiet temper,
a conversation ' most innocent,' the charm of every rank —
he possessed, as few ever did, the qualities which give men
power over their fellows." ^ The senseless and furious
abuse of the chroniclers,* his extraordinary popularity at
Oxford,, the support he gained from men of power who
cared nothing for the real import of his teaching, all attest
this. From his quiet home at Lutterworth, by means of
his bands of " poor priests," who everywhere, clad in their
russet gowns, carried his pithy tracts and preached his
doctrines, Wycliffe was already moving the heart of Eng
land, and opening men's eyes to see the monstrous absurdi
ties with which long centuries of ignorance and superstition
had encrusted the religion of Christ. Then, in the midst
^ Lewis, Coll, No. 23. ^ Shirley, Introd. to Fasc Ziz., p. xlvi.
" Walsingham calls him ' ' Organum diabolicum, hostis ecclesise,
confusio vulgi, haereticorum eidolum, hypocritarum speculum, schismatis
incentor, odii seminator, m.endacu fabricator." — Hist Ang,, ii. 119.

444 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [ohap. xx.
of this great work, he was suddenly summoned away. On
Innocents' Day (December 28, 1384), as he was hearing
mass in his church at Lutterworth, he was struck by
another stroke of paralysis, and fell speechless to the
ground. In two days' time, on the eve of the Feast of the
Circumcision (December 31, 1384), he died. He was
buried at Lutterworth, but a bishop of Lincoln (Flemyng)
afterwards disgraced himself by carrying out the mean and
paltry revenge decreed against Wycliffe by the CouncU of
Constance — the burner of John Huss and Jerome of Prague.
His body was exhumed, his bones burnt, and the ashes
thrown into a running stream.^ It was perhaps supposed,
as it was certainly hoped, that the doctrines and influence
of Wycliffe would disappear and perish like the ashes of
his bones. But in this there was a miscalculation. The
spirit of revolt against superstitious doctrines, which were
founded not on Scripture nor on primitive antiquity, but
on the enunciations of the Church of the day, once evoked,
could not again be suppressed. Wycliffe had evoked this
spirit, and had at the same time supplied the material for
its support in the vernacular Scriptures and his English
tracts. Henceforth, in spite of persecution, of civil war,
of grievous social corruptions, this spirit still struggled on,
until the times of greater freedom and light were reached.
It formed a substratum on which the influences of the
sixteenth century could work. Had Wycliffe never stood
forward as a bold athlete to combat the mischiefs of his
day, the work of the sixteenth century would scarce have
been possible. ^ Narraiio Thonus Gascoigne, Lewis, Coll., No. 25.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 44S

CHAPTER XXL
THE EEVOLT AGAINST MBDIiEVAX DOCTEINE — THE LOLLAEDS.
1384-1431.
1. William Swinderby. 2. Courtney attempts to obtain legal checks to
LoUardism. 3. Its rapid advance. 4. Bishop Spencer's Crusade.
5. Its effect in helping forward LoUardism. 6. Attempt to check
LoUardism in Parliament of 1388. 7. LoUardism at Leicester. 8.
Continued progress. 9. Influence of the Friars threatened. 10. Ee-
euactment of the Statute of Provisors. 11. Ee-enaotment of the
Statute of Prffimunire. 12. The conclusions of the Lollards presented
to Parhament. 13. Ecclesiastical and political changes. 14. Statute
De hcereticis comburendis. 15. Burning of William Sawtry. 16.
Kecantation of John Purveye. 17. Trial of William Thorpe. 18.
Arundel's Constitutions. 19. Parliamentary attacks on the Church.
20. Process against Sir John Oldcastle. 21. Statute of 1414. 22.
Continued persecution of the Lollards. 23. The special injustice
used towards them. 24. The Council of Constance.
1. With the exception of the Oxford doctors, the only
one of Wycliffe's followers who seems to have been pro
ceeded against during his lifetime was William Swinderby.
Svrinderby had lived as a hermit, and had acquired some
fame for sanctity; but, attracted by Wycliffe's teaching,
he had left his solitude and established himself at Leicester,
where, together with John Waytestathe and William Smith,
he preached WyclifSst doctrine at the Chapel of St. John,
near the Lepers' Hospital The points which Swinderby
seems especially to have dwelt upon were those most
questionable parts of Wycliffe's system, put out by him
rather as a scholastic exercise than for practical application,
viz., that it was right to refuse tithes to clergy of evU hfe,
and that the unworthiness of the minister hindered the
efficacy of the sacraments. The bishop of Lincoln, on
report being made to him, inhibited S-winderby from
preaching in the chapel, upon which he took up his station

446 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.ffiVAL DOCTEINE ; [chap, xxl
by the roadside, declaring that he would preach there in
spite of all the bishops. Vast crowds were attracted to
hear him. The preacher was, however, soon summoned to
Lincoln to answer for his contumaciousness. Three friars
were appointed by the bishop as commissioners to hear the
case. Swinderby had not much indulgence to expect from
such judges. He was condemned, and would probably
have been excommunicated and degraded had not John of
Gaunt, who chanced to be at Lincoln, interceded with the
bishop in his favour. S"winderby was set at liberty on the
undertaking that he should read publicly in eight churches
of the diocese his recantation on eleven points touching the
question as to how sinful living affects the clerical office.
He appears to have done this,^ and to have returned to
Leicester (according to Knighton) terribly dejected. Soon
afterwards he retired to Coventry, where he resumed his
preaching, and became more popular than ever. At
length, however, he was driven out of that diocese with
disgrace by the bishop and clergy.^ Some few years after
this we again meet with Swinderby in the diocese of
Hereford (1391). In the process then instituted against
him he declares that he never held the opinions which were
imputed to him at his former trial ; that his trial was very
disorderly and unjust, and that " for dread of death and
for fleshly counsel " he had agreed to admit the charges.
He was condemned at Hereford, and pronounced a heretic.
He appealed to the King and Council, and also addressed
a letter to the Parliament.*
2. The practical immunity enjoyed by the disciples of
Wycliffe during the first years of their existence was not
due to any disinclination on the part of Archbishop
Courtney to use severity, but is rather to be accounted for
by the fact that there did not exist in England at that
time any machinery for bringing severity to bear upon
heretics. Up to this period rehgious persecution had been
^ Walsingham, however, says, " Sae-viens turba demens adeo epis
copum deterrebat ut nihil auderet agere contra eum." — Hist, Ang,, u. 55.
= Knighton, De Event, Ang, Col, 2665-2671 ; Walsingham, Hist
Ang,, ii 53-56 ; Fascic Zizan,, 334-340.
' Foxe, Acts and Monuments, i. 531-541.

1384-1431.] ' THE LOLLAEDS. 447
almost unknown in England, and it is doubtful whether
any one had ever been capitally punished for heresy.^
There was no statutory power to arrest, try, far less to
punish with death. The Church courts might of course
proceed according to the canons, but their action was slow
and difficult, and always liable to be interfered with by
powerful protectors of the accused. The archbishop deter
mined to endeavour to remedy this difficulty. He procured
a Statute to be passed by the Lords in the Parliament of
1382, which enacted that, on certificate from the bishops,
the Chancellor should commission the sheriffs and others
to compel the accused person to satisfy the demands of the
Church. Such a Statute coidd not safely be brought into
the Commons' House, where LoUardy was very popular, and
it was therefore attempted to pass it by the sole authority
of the Lords. Naturally the Commons resented this, and
protested against it, and the Statute was practically can
celled in the October session of the same year in which it
was passed.^ Conscious, probably, that his imperfect legis
lation might turn out to be of no great value, the arch
bishop endeavoured to fortify his position by royal letters-
patent. In July 1382 he obtained from the king letters-
patent giving authority to the archbishop and his suffragans
" to arrest and detain in their own prisons, or in any other,
at their discretion, all and singular who privately or pub
licly preach the condemned conclusions, wherever they may
be found, tUl they shall repent of the pravities of these
errors and heresies." * The Primate also addressed a letter
to his suffragans, exhorting them to use active means for
stopping the advance of error and heresy, and to inhibit
aU heretical preachers.*
3. But no real check was produced by these measures
to the advancing tide of LoUardism. Many men of influ
ence and standing in the country had adopted the new
views. Sir William NevUe, Sir Lewis Clifford, Sir John
Clanevon, Sir Eichard Sturry, Sir Thomas Latimer, Sir John
Montagu, are said by Walsingham to have favoured these
opinions.^ Knighton mentions, in addition to these, Sir
1 Stubbs, Const Hist, u. 470. " lb.
-¦¦ Wilkins, Concil, iu. 156. * lb., iu. 158.
^ Walsingham, Hist, Ang,, ii. 159.

448 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
John TrusseU, Sir John Pecche, and Sir Eeginald de
Hylton. These knights were ready, at all times, to defend
and support the Lollard preachers ; and when any of them
came to the place where they were, they would cause all
the people to assemble and listen to their teaching, so that
the new doctrines spread with the greatest rapidity. It is
said that the half, or even the greater part of the people,
were inclined to these views. The Lollards might be known
by their serious demeanour, their constant reference to
"God's law." Both men and women were teachers and
expounders ; they explained the Scriptures, which they had
translated into the English tongue, and they denounced the
Mendicants, who thus became hateful to the people.^ Pro
foundly disgusted as men were with the luxury, negligence,
and worldliness of the Church, the new opinions had much
to recommend them ; and just about the time that they
were taking root in England the mundane and unchristian
character of Pope and bishops received a striking and re
markable illustration.
4. The quarrel of the Pope and Antipope had now
come to a question of actual warfare, and Urban, whose
chief hope lay in England, had endeavoured to institute a
" crusade " in his favour. This was actually taken up by
Bishop Spencer of Norwich, a martial prelate who had dis
tinguished himself in the late insurrection. Spencer was
the Pope's agent in England, and being supported by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, he preached a " crusade " with
great success. The crusading fervour had indeed long
departed ; but the hatred of the English for the French
counted for a good deal, and some enthusiasm might pro
bably be excited by the very ample absolution and indul
gence which the Pope was willing to bestow on his warriors.
This ran as follows :-- — " By the authority of the Apostolic
See committed to me in this matter, I absolve you from aU
your sins which you have confessed and expressed contri
tion for, and from all those which you would be willing to
confess if you could remember them ; and I grant you a
plenary remission of sins, and promise you the retribution
of the just and the gift of eternal salvation, and aU the
^ Knighton, De Event. Ang. Col, 2661-2665.

1384-1431.1 THE LOLLAEDS. 449
pri-vUeges given to those who go to the Holy Land ; and I
give to you a share in the prayers and good deeds of the
universal Church." ^ It was debated in Parliament whether
the matter should be allowed to proceed, and agreed, after
much opposition, that the bishop should be left free to act,
and that the fifteenth granted in a previous Parliament to
the Bang for carrying on the French war should be conceded
to him. Thus fortified. Bishop Spencer went on with -vigour,
engaging skilful captains and attracting to his standard
many of the common people. There could hardly be a
more complete illustration of the gross ignorance of reli
gion which prevailed than the fact that so many were found
to believe that, by taking a share in this marauding expe
dition, they were really acting for their souls' health. But
doubtless many were under this delusion, while others joined
the bishop's standard simply from the hope of plunder and
the love of fighting. The whole affair seemed to all the
wiser heads so preposterous, that at the last moment the
Eng, rash youth though he was, was persuaded to forbid
it ; but the bishop, who was more the Pope's man than the
King's, set saU in spite of this check. He arrived at Calais,
and " unfurling the banner of the Cross," proceeded to make
a treacherous attack on Gravehnes, which was captured, and
the whole of the inhabitants indiscriminately massacred.
This butchery of unoffending people is recorded by the his
torian, who can find no words bad enough for Wycliffe, as
a most righteous act favoured by heaven.^ Similar scenes
were enacted at Dunkirk, and the success of the " crusaders"
in their bloody work was so great that numbers flocked
from England to join the army. A sort of madness seized
the people, especially the " rehgious " of aU orders, who,
with or without permission, flocked away to the army. The
natural result soon followed. The crowd of useless, inex
perienced, Ul-armed fanatics, who could neither be led nor
fed, were involved in the extremes of misery. The army
Was checked before Ypres, which could not be taken. The
' Walsingham, Hist, Ang,, ii. 79.
^ " Percurrentes -vUlam nuUi parcunt, sed eos usque ad unum delere
laborant, sicque crucis beneficio factum quod unus ex eis non remansit. "
—Hist, Ang,. ii. 89.
2 G

450 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
.King of France was advancing to protect his subjects. The
English crusaders were compelled to capitulate. The ma
rauding bishop obtained terms far more easy than he had
any right to expect, and with the miserable relics ofhis army
returned to England.^
5. So foolish, unjustifiable, and resultless an expedition,
made in the name of religion and the cause of the Church,
must needs have had an effect in advancing the Lollard
movement. Wycliffe wrote strongly against it, blaming the
Pope for bringing " the seal or banner of Christ on the
cross, that is token of peace, mercy, and charity, for to slay
all Christian men, for love of two false priests that be open
antichrist, for to maintain their worldly state, to oppress
Christendom worse than Jews were against Holy Writ and
life of Christ and His Apostles," and asking, " Why will not
the proud Priest of Eome grant full pardon to all men for
to live in peace and charity and patience, as he does to all
men to fight and slay Christian men ?" ^
6. There is no movement against the Lollards recorded
till the Parliament of 1388, when, according to Knighton,
the whole Parliament, seeing the ship of the Church to be
tossed in dangerous waves, made petition to the King to
apply a remedy, lest the ark of the faith should be irreme
diably shattered. The King, in reply, gave command to
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other bishops that
they should exercise their office more diligently in their
several dioceses according to the canonical laws, punish the
delinquents, and examine carefully their English books.
He also directed his letters patent to be sent into aU the
counties authorising the imprisonment of heretics, and that
special inquisitors should be appointed to examine their
books ; but, says the chronicler, " there was a very tardy
and almost null performance of these things, for the hour
of correction had not yet come." *
7. The next year we find the archbishop, who was con
ducting a metropolitical visitation, engaged at Leicester in
trying certain Lollards. Information was laid before him
against eight persons that they held — (1) That in the sacra-
^ Walsingham, Hist. Ang,, ii 103.
^ Lewis, Ufe of Wyclif e, p. 121. ^ Knighton, Col, 2708.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 451
ment of the altar there remained, after consecration, material
bread, together with the body of Christ ; ^ (2) that tithes
ought not to be paid to one in mortal sin ; (3) that images
ought not in any way to be worshipped ; (4) that tho Cross
ought not to be worshipped ; (6) that mass and matins
ought not to be monotoned ; (6) that clergy when in sin
cannot administer the sacraments ; (7) that no Pope can
excommunicate unless a man be first excommunicated of
God; (8) that no prelate can give indulgences; (9) that a
layman may preach ; (10) that it is wrong to give to Men
dicants ; (11) that confession to a priest is not necessary.^
The persons accused of holding these opinions, being sum
moned before the archbishop, refused to come, and were
excommunicated. Warrant was then given to the mayor
and sheriffs to arrest them;* but this does not appear to have
been done. There is, however, a record of three persons,
whether making part of the eight inculpated or not does
not appear — -viz. WiUiam Smith, Eoger and Alice Dexter
— appearing before the archbishop and desiring to be re
leased from excommunication. The penance assigned to
these persons was vexatious and degrading. They were to
appear at the procession of the clergy of the coUegiate
church, WiUiam and Eoger clad in shirts and trousers,
Ahce in a chemise only, aU -with bare feet and heads.
WUham was to carry in one hand an image of St. Catherine,
Eoger and Alice crucifixes, and each of them in the other
hand a taper of half-a-pound weight. They were to adore
their images three times during the procession, and then,
entering the church, to stand before the crucifix whUe mass
was sung, and after the mass to make offerings to the cele
brant. On the following Saturday they were to appear in
the public market in the same guise, and three times to
adore the images by genuflections and kissing. On the
Sunday, in their parish church, they were to go through
the same forms ; but on account of the great cold they were
allowed, in the church, to have on them some of their
clothes, only the feet and head must be bare.*
' The opioions of the LoUards on the Eucharist seem to have
heen nearly equivalent to what we know as Consubstantiation.
' Wilkins, Condi, iii. 208. 2 /j.^ m 2IO. * lb., iii. 211.

452 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIJEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap xxi.
8. It was calculated, no doubt, by this sort of vexatious
publicity, and the shame attendant upon it, to strike terror
into the people. But the effect does not seem to have been
answerable to the expectations. Walsingham comments
(1389) on the vast and rapid increase of the Lollards, and
asserts that they had begun the practice of ordaining,
asserting that every priest had the full power of transmit
ting orders.^ They also declaimed against pilgrimages and
the idolatrous reverence for images. The bishops, he says,
saw and knew these things, but were utterly careless about
them, leaving their sheep to the wolves, and none of them,
save only the bishop of Norwich, venturing to take severe
measures.'' 9. In 1392 Henry Crumpe was brought before the
Convocation sitting at Oxford. Crumpe was a Cistercian
monk, by nation an Irishman, and had before been in
trouble in Ireland under the bishop of Meath. The mat
ters on which- he was accused were of the most trivial
description, being some assertions as to confession being
better made to the parish priest than to the friar.* That
Crumpe should have been arraigned and censured for such
teaching, clearly shows that the friars were now trembling
for their existence, and that under the attacks of the Lol
lards their influence was collapsing. The numerous English
satirical poems which came forth about this period, all have
for the main object of their satire the Mendicants, their
begging, cheating, and hypocrisy.* The friars were there
fore prompted by the principles of self-preservation to
denounce and attack the LoUards, and the struggle between
them was an internecine one. It was clear that both could
^ This came naturally from the opinion generaUy held by the
LoUards, that the difference between bishop and priest was only one
of jurisdiction and governance, not of office. — See Apology for Lolla/rds,
pp. 28, 29.
^ Walsingham, Hist Ang., ii. 188.
' Fascic. Zizan., pp. 343-359.
^ See the volumes of songs edited by Mr. Wright (Eolls Series,
and Camden Soc), especially the poems kno-wn as "Piers Plowman's
Crede," "The Complaint of the Plowman," "The Song against the
Friars,'' "Jack Upland," and, of better kno-wn poems, William Lang-
land's "Vision of Piers Plowman," and Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale."

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 453
not exist together as popular organisations. The bishops,
however, to whom the friars were not very acceptable, were
perhaps not inclined to be moved at every complaint made
by them against a Lollard, and thus the processes were few,
and side by side with them were occasionaUy to be found
processes taken against the friars themselves.^
10. But the principal reason which prevented the
bishops taking active measures against the Lollards was
the pohtical insecurity of the time, and the difficulties in
which they were placed by the contest between the two
rival popes. The Pope recognised in England was eager
to gain, as a help for his struggle, those rich spoils arising
from English benefices which his predecessors had formerly
enjoyed. The Statutes of Provisors of 1351 and 1362 had
been administered but slackly, and often set aside to suit
the royal convenience. It seemed necessary now to renew
the law, and to make it more stringent. This was accom
plished in the Parhament of 1390. Another Provisors'
Statute was thus placed on the statute-book, destined in
deed, hke its predecessors, to be grievously infringed upon
by the irrepressible covetousness of the Eoman bishop, but
testifying valuably to the continuance of that national pro
test which at length made itself effectually heard. ^ The
two archbishops thought it necessary to protest against
this Act as opposed to the liberties of Holy Church and their
duty to the Pope;* but doubtless the clergy generally, and
the nation at large, received it thankfully.
11. The re-enactment of the Provisors' law was soon
followed by the re-enactment of the more general and more
important law of Prcemunire. This was intended " to pre-
^ Thus Brantingham, bishop of Exeter, pubUshed an ordinance
bidding the archdeacons of his diocese not to allow friars to hear con
fessions. — Wilkins, Concil, ui. 147.
^ 13 Eic. II. , st. 2. By this Act forfeiture and banishment were
decreed against future transgressors.
' " Nolumus neo intendimus alicui statuto in praesenti Parlia-
meuto nunc noviter edito, nee antiquo praetenso innovate, quatenus
statuta hujusmodi, seu eorum aliquod, iu restrictionem potestatis apo-
stoUca! aut in subversionem, enervationem, seu derogationem ecclesias
tica Ubertatis tendere dignoscuntur, quomodoUbet consentire."

454 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.ffiVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
vent encroachments on and usurpations of jurisdiction, as
the other was framed for the defence of patronage." ^ The
first statute of Prcemunire (so called from the first word in
the sheriff's writ) condemns to outlawry, forfeiture, and
imprisonment all persons who should venture to avaU them
selves of the aid of foreign courts. The passing of this
Act, or ordinance, was somewhat irregular, but an Act in
1365 brought all suitors in papal courts under its provi
sions. The Act of 1393 was of a stronger character, "one
of the strongest defensive measures taken during the Middle
Ages against Eome." The Pope had grievously interfered
with the rights and pri-vileges of the English Church, deny
ing the jurisdiction of the King's courts, and translating
bishops even against their wUl. Even the most papal
bishops had been constrained to admit that such infringe
ments of the royal prerogative ought not to be endured;^
and with the general consent of all estates of the realm the
most trenchant and valuable anti-papal statute, enacted
previously to the work of the Eeformation Parhament, was
now made law.* This statute, as has been well said, " fur
nishes in ecclesiastical history the clue of the events that
connect the Constitutions of Clarendon with the Eeforma
tion," * and nothing done during all the history of the
Middle Ages more distinctly proclaims and emphasises the
nationality of the English Church.
12. But if the attention of the bishops was caUed off
from the Lollards for the moment by important pohtical
matters, it was soon forcibly drawn to them again by the
extreme boldness -with which their -views were pushed into
notice in 1394. In that year, the King being absent in
Ireland, and a Parhament being held under the Duke of
York, the Lollards, who had many friends in the Commons'
House, brought in there a bill, which set forth under twelve
heads their principal tenets. As this constitutes an
authentic declaration of their views, it deserves to be con
sidered in detail. The " Conclusions " were as follow : —
I. That from the moment that the Church of England
' Stubbs, Const Hist, iii. 330 ; WUkins, Concil, iu. 208.
' See Courtney's Protest. Hook's Dives of the Archbishops, in. 386.
s 16 Eic. IL, c. 5, Statutes, ii. 84. « Stubbs, u. s.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 455
accepted endowments, faith, hope, and charity began to
disappear, and pride and mortal sins to prevail. II. That
the office of priesthood, as conferred by the ritual used by
the Church, is not a true priesthood, but a sham. III.
That the vow of chastity enforced on the priesthood leads
to divers abominable sins. IV. " That the pretended
miracle of the sacrament of bread leads all men, save a
few, into idolatry ; because they think that the body of
Christ, which never is out of heaven, can by virtue of the
words of a priest be essentially included in a little bit of
bread which they show to the people." V. That exorcisms
and blessings of wine, bread, water, oil, salt, etc., the walls
of the church, vestments, chalices, mitres, etc., are practices
of necromancy rather than of sacred theology. VI. That
the holding of temporal offices by prelates and clergy is
altogether opposed to right principle. VII. That special
prayers for particular dead persons, who are named, is a
preferring of one before the other, and a false foundation
for almsgi-ying ; and thus all the eleemosynary houses in
England are on a wrong foundation. VIII. That pUgrim
ages, prayers, and offerings made to crosses and images
are very near to idolatry, and that of all images that of the
Trinity is most to be condemned. IX. That auricular
confession and the pretended power of absolution exalt
the pride of priests and produce many evil consequences.
X. That homicide in war or " by the pretended law of
justice " for temporal causes, without any spiritual revela
tion, is expressly contrary to the New Testament. XI.
That vows of chastity taken by women lead to horrible
sins. XII. That the multitude of unnecessary arts prac
tised in the kingdom nourishes and produces much evil and
sin. " We present to you these Conclusions, which are more
fully explained in books in the English tongue, which we
deshe the people to read, and we pray you to lend your
aid to the reform of the Church." ^
13. This bold appeal to Parliament by the Lollards
was not only presented in the Parliament House, but,
effectually to ensure its publication, it was fastened upon
the doors of St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The
1 Fasdc Zizam:, pp. 360-369 ; WUkins, Concil, iii. 221, sq.

456 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
Lollards seemed to invite and court the strife, and as some
of their conclusions (such as those touching war and capital
punishment) were entirely opposed to the temporal govern
ment, it was manifest that they could not be left unnoticed.
The king, therefore, on his return from Ireland, called to
gether some of the chief supporters of the Lollards, and
threatened them with the most terrible consequences if they
ventured to persevere in supporting such views. These
menaces had the effect of stopping for a time the rapid
progress of these revolutionary opinions.^ The death of
Archbishop Courtney, which followed in the next year
(1396), may have again encouraged them, for soon after
wards the Pope despatched letters to the English King,
requesting him to aid the bishops in their attempts to
repress this gro-wing heresy.^ The new Primate, Arch
bishop Arundel, translated from York (1397), was as ready
to use severe measures as his predecessor, perhaps even
more so. But the great political convulsions which at
tended the latter years of the reign of Eichard II. stood in
the way. The King procured the banishment of Arch
bishop Arundel by the Parliament. He betook himself to
the Pope. The Pope, desiring neither to offend the King
nor entirely to desert the archbishop, made a translation
of Arundel to St. Andrews in Scotland, and then, the See
of Canterbury being considered vacant, " pro-vided for it "
by a Bull, which appointed Eoger Walden, the King's trear
surer, to the post. The effect of this was to create a firm
union between Archbishop Arundel and Henry Bolingbroke,
who was also in exile — a union which quickly culminated
in the triumphant return of Bolingbroke, the abdication
of Eichard, and the restoration of the Primate to all his rank
and privileges. No notice was taken of the pseudo-primate
Walden, nor was any resignation required of him. He was
simply treated as never ha-ving legally occupied the post.
14. One of the conditions upon which the new king,
Henry IV., had obtained the valuable aid of Arundel was
a promise to enable him to act vigorously against the
Lollards. It was held that nothing less than capital
^ Walsingham, Hist. Ang., ii 217 ; Annal. Ric. II. Regis, p. 183.
^ Annal, Ricardi 11,, p. 187.

1884-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 457
punishment would suffice to stop the rapid progress of the
sect, and a new law was therefore required to enable the
secular arm readUy to support the bishops' censures. In
January 1401 a Convocation was summoned and presided
over by Archbishop Arundel. The Primate dwelt upon
the dangerous opinions of the Lollards, and the need of
some sharp legislation to repress them. The dignified
clergy, who felt that their estates as well as their faith
were at stake, through the revolutionary doctrines which
were abroad, readUy assented to these views. They drew
up a petition of a fierce and determined character, calling
upon the Government to take proceedings against heretics,
and stating that if they refused to recant, or after recanting
relapsed to their old errors, the civil officers should do
" what further is incumbent upon them in this matter." The
petition was at once granted by the King, with the assent
of the Lords, and the Commons at the same time petition
ing to the same effect, a statute was enacted and enrolled,
which provided that those who were certified heretics by
the bishops, if they refused to recant, or if they relapsed,
should "be caused to be burnt in some conspicuous place. "^
Thus, for the first time in English history, the Statute law
of the land formally took upon itself the odious task of
being the executioner of those ecclesiastically condemned.
15. WhUe Parliament was stUl sitting, probably before
the new statute had been actually passed, proceedings were
taken against WUliam Sawtry, rector of St. Osith (St.
Bennet Shere-hog), London. He was brought before the
Convocation on Febniary 12 (1401), and charged, that
havuig held and taught certain false doctrines in the dio
cese of Norwich, he had, upon being brought before the
bishop of that see, abjured such doctrines, but that since
then in the diocese of London he had again held and
taught the same doctrines. The doctrines objected against
him were — (1.) That it was not lawful to adore the cross,
but only Christ who hung upon the cross. (2.) That he
would rather adore a temporal king than a wooden cross.
(3.) That he would rather honour holy men than even the
' 2 Henry IV., c 16 ; WUkins, iu. 252 ; Annal Henrici IV.,
p. 335,

458 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
actual cross upon which Christ suffered. (4.) That he
would rather honour a man truly penitent than the
material cross.^ (5.) That a man predestined to glory is
to be honoured above an angel (6.) That if one has
vowed a pilgrimage, he is not bound to perform his vow,
but had better expend the money it would cost him upon
the poor. (7.) That priests and deacons are more bound
to preach than to say the canonical hours. ^ (8.) That
after consecration in the Eucharist there remains bread of
the same nature as before. Sawtry denied having taught
these things, and then recanted them. He also desired
that a copy of the articles might be given him, that he
might make explanation. This was granted. In his de
fence he practically admits that he had taught as articled.
He declared that the gross material cross was not a thing
to be adored because of perU of idolatry ; that good men
are above angels because they are of the same nature as
Christ. Being questioned on the sacrament of the altar,
he hesitated. He was pressed as to his belief whether
there remained bread after consecration. He answered
that he did not know. Being at length induced to declare
his belief, he said that bread was there as before, consecra
tion. Asked if he would stand by determination of Holy
Church, said he was wdlling to do so " if it were not con
trary to the Divine wUl" Pronounced to be heretical His
former condemnation before the bishop of Norwich proved.
This was on February 19. On February 24 he was again
before the Convocation, and was formally degraded. On
February 26 the royal writ for his execution was issued, and
he was burned at Smithfield, suffering, it is said, with great
''¦ ' ' Therefore, if ye -will verily worship the image of God, we open
to you this that is veray, that ye do weU to a-man that is made the
image of God, and give him honour and reverence ; give meat to the
hungry, clothes to the naked, ministering to the sick, harbour to the
stranger, necessaries to the prisoner." — Apology for Lollards, p. 89.
^ " One thing I wot weU, that if priests are bound to their Hours
by the law that themselves have made, they ought to be bound by the
charge that Christ hath given them. And if they have strait con
science to fail in this that themselves have bound them to, they should
have mickle more to fail in this that Christ hath bound them to." —
Apology, p. 45.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 469
constancy. He was the first person burned in England for
heresy.^ 16. Before the same Convocation John Purveye or
Purneye, who had been Wycliffe's amanuensis and helper,
and who had been previously tried for heresy, made a full
recantation and retractation of his views on aU the chief
points of the Lollard teaching. He acknowledged his
belief that in the Eucharist after consecration there re
mained not the substance of bread and wine ; that auricular
confession was salutary ; that holy orders were necessary ;
that civU ministers have the true power of the keys ; that
no priest has a right to preach until sent by the bishop ;
that persons should be compelled to keep religious vows
which they have taken ; that the decisions of the Council
of Lyons are to be accepted. In all these things he desired
to submit himself to Holy Church, and to withdraw all
private opinions.^ The recantation of Purveye was re
ceived and accepted, and the archbishop even promoted
him afterwards to a benefice, where he does not seem to
have borne a very good character.* It is perhaps a little to
his credit, as seeming to show that his earnestness was not
quite gone, that he was again in trouble under Archbishop
Chichele in 1421, and is thought to have died in prison.*
17. The archbishop had now provided himself with a
sharp and effective weapon for contending against Lollard
opmions, but he seems to have shrunk from using it in a
way to satisfy the more violent of the Church party. In
1406 a strong petition was addressed to the King by Par
hament for increased strictness against the LoUards, and a
new statute was founded on it. This does not, however,
appear to have been carried out,^ and the archbishop was
left to those powers which he already possessed. Under
these we find him employed in 1407 in conducting the
1 Wilkins, Condi, iii. 252, sq.; Fasdc. Zizan., 408-411, where the
wrong date is given in the side note. ^ Fascic. Zizan., 383-407.
* " I gave him," says Arundel, ' ' a benefice a mUe out of this castle,
and I heard more complaints about his covetousness for tithes than I
did of aU men that were advanced in my diocese."- — Thorpe's Exam. ,
Wordsworth, Eccl Biog., i. 278. ^ Lewis's Wijckliffe, p. 270.
' Stubbs, Const. Hist, iii. 359.

460 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIiEVAL DOCTEINE: [chap. xxi.
trial of William Thorpe. Thorpe's own account of his
trial remains to us, and though doubtless it cannot be relied
upon as altogether exact, having been written down after
wards from memory, yet, for the most part, it is probably
to be trusted. The archbishop is represented in the
account as very rough and rude, but as displaying con
siderable patience, and discussing at length with Thorpe
all the points on which information had been laid against
him by the men of Shrewsbury, where he "had preached.
Thorpe was peremptorily called upon to submit himself
unreservedly to the Church, but this he refused to do, and
was committed to prison, where he probably remained
during his life, as there is no record that he was burned. ^
1 8. The archbishop, in his examination of Thorpe, seems
to have discovered that something was needed to supple
ment the statute which he had obtained against heretics.
The statute merely provided an extreme remedy. It did
not supply any preventive or cautionary provisions which
it was thought might be salutary. With a -view, therefore,
to remedy this, at a Convocation held at Oxford, October
1409, the Primate published certain Constitutions, designed,
as he expressly says, " to strengthen the common law made
in his behalf" ^ (1, 2, 3.) The first, second and third
of these forbid any ordained person to preach without the
express license of the ordinary, and enjoin preachers to
confine themselves to certain topics, and not to presume to
contradict any doctrine sanctioned by Holy Church. (4.)
The fourth forbids schoolmasters to teach their scholars
anything as to the sacraments, or on theological topics.
(5.) The fifth forbids any to read a treatise of John
Wycliffe, unless it has been formally approved by the
proper authority. (6.) The sixth condemns the translating
of the Scriptures, and forbids any to read Wycliffe's trans
lation. (7.) Ordains that doctrines of the catholic faith
be not called in question by way of scholastic disputation.
(8.) That the old ceremonial sanctioned by the Church be
respected. (9.) That no priest be admitted to celebrate
without letters commendatory. (10.) "Considering and
¦^ See Wordsworth's Eccl Biog,, i. 261, sq.
" Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii 409.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 461
lamenting how our fair University of Oxford, which, like a
thriving vine, used to spread her branches, to the honour of
God and the advancement and protection of His Church,
is in part degenerated, and brings forth sour grapes by
eating whereof many of her sons, being too well conceited
of their knowledge in the law of God, have set their teeth
on edge, and our province is infected with new unprofitable
doctrines, and blemished with the new damnable brand
of LoUardy, to the great scandal of the University itself,
reaching to remote foreign parts, and to the exceeding
regret of those who study there : " We therefore enjoin all
heads and governors of colleges and halls to make, every
month, a strict inquiry into the opinions of those under them,
and if any be found holding these false opinions, he shall
be censured, and if he amend not, be expelled. But if the
wardens and governors be themselves infected, then they shall
be strictly inquired after and censured by the ordinary.^
19. WhUe the archbishop was carefully building up
the ecclesiastical edifice, and striving to establish an
effectual discipline, the whole temporal status of the Church
was subjected to a series of most dangerous attacks. In the
Parliament held at Coventry in 1404,^ the proposition was
boldly made by the Commons, that inasmuch as their
funds were greatly exhausted by their contributions in the
war, and inasmuch as the clergy had done but little, the
king should take the whole of the clerical estates into his
hands for a year. The archbishop vigorously opposed
these suggestions of the knights. He pointed out that the
alien priories which the king had lately seized, had,
through the cupidity of the knights, failed to aid his
revenue. Another bishop (Eochester) declared that the
knights had incurred excommunication by proposing to
abrogate Magna Charta.* The representatives of the
Commons were for the moment silenced, but they speedUy
returned to the attack. In the Parhament of 1410 the
Commons sent a petition to the Crown in which a system
atic scheme for plundering the Church is put forward.
1 Johnson, Eng. Canons, ii. 457, 473.
2 Known as the Parliamentum imdoctum, because the sheriffs were
directed to return no la-wyers. 3 ^^„_ ^^j^_^ jy p_ .393_

462 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxi.
This, according to Walsingham, ran as follows : — " To the
most excellent Lord King and all the nobles in the present
Parliament assembled, all the faithful Commons humbly
represent and truly affirm that our Lord the King can
have from the temporal goods held by bishops, abbots, and
priors, and proudly wasted in the kingdom, sufficient to
support 1500 knights, 6200 men-at-arms, and a hundred
hospitals, more than now there are, well and faithfully
sustained from the lands and tenements now uselessly and
proudly wasted." ^ In addition to this hostile demonstra
tion against Church revenues, which the king was not
inclined in any way to encourage, the Commons made
several attempts to modify the Statute De Hcereticis combu
rendis. They desired that clergy convicted under the statute
might not be imprisoned in the bishops' prisons, but in the
secular prisons, and that it should not be competent to
arrest persons suspected of heresy without the king's -writ.^
In neither of these points, however, did they obtain their
object. The king was resolutely set to uphold the Church,
and to give every facility to the bishops for the suppression
of heresy. 20. The reply to the attempts made to support the
Lollards in Parliament was the burning of Thomas Badby,
a poor tailor in Smithfield,* for a want of theological exact
ness in his views on the sacrament of the altar, and the
archbishop was soon engaged with a more illustrious ad
versary. John Oldcastle, a member of a knightly family in
Wales, had married the granddaughter and heiress of that
old Lord Cobham who had shown himself in Eichard's
Parliaments on the side of the -views of Wycliffe. Pro
bably his granddaughter shared his views, and Sir John
Oldcastle (her third husband) certainly soon made himself
conspicuous by advocating and upholding them. Connected
' Walsingham, Hist. Ang., u. 280. In Fabyan's Chronicle (p. 57!))
the calculation is somewhat different, and more elaborately worked out.
The value of the Church lands is put at 322,000 marks per annum.
Out of this the king was to receive £20,000, 15 earls 3000 marks each,
1500 knights 100 marks each, 100 hospitals 100 marks each, 6200
squires and 15,000 priests 7 marks each.
2 Walsingham, Hist. Ang,, u. 283. ' WUkins, Concil, iu. 326.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 463
as he was by marriage with the De la Poles and Courtneys,
and having the control of large estates, distinguished also for
his skill in war,^ Sh John Oldcastle was a very dangerous
patron of the Lollard views. The archbishop saw plainly
that it was not safe to neglect him, and the young king
was aroused to a suspicious watchfulness by the placard
fastened in bravado on the doors of the London churches,
which declared that the Lollards had 100,000 men ready
to rise to assert their rights.^ In the Convocation of 1413
the archbishop was required by the clergy to proceed
against Oldcastle on the ground that he had encouraged
unlicensed preachers to preach contrary to the archbishop's
Constitutions, and had upheld them by force of arms ; and
that his views on the sacrament of the altar, on penance,
on pUgrimages, on the worship of images, and on the
power of the keys, were different from those which the
Eoman Church held. Upon this representation it was
determined to proceed against the knight, but as he was in
the service of the king it was thought necessary to refer to
him. The king desired that the matter might be a little
delayed, and that he would himself speak with Oldcastle.
Having done this, he was constrained after some time to
report to the archbishop that he could in no way convince
him.* A citation was therefore issued to Oldcastle to
appear before the Convocation at St. Paul's. He was in
his castle at Cowling near Eochester, and the citation could
not be served upon him. He however trusted himself to
go to court, thinking that the king, if he would not receive
his confession, would at least protect him. In this he was
' He had heen a leader of the expeditionary force of 1200 troops sent
into France to aid the Duke of Burgundy. Walsingham calls him
"fortis viribus, operi martio satis idoneus."
^ Walsingham, Hist. Ang,, u. 291. For the process against Old
castle we have the archbishop's o-wn letter in Fasdc. Zizan,, the careful
account of Walsingham, and the account in the Archbishop's Eegister,
Wdkias, Condi, iii. 353.
' Walsingham, Hist Ang,, u. 292. It is said that on the day
when Oldcastle appeared before the king at Kennington a great btun-
ing of Wycliffe's books was taking place, and one was found contain
ing several tracts which Oldcastle o-wned to be his property. — Wilkins,
Oondl, iii. 357.

464 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE: [chap. xxi.
deceived. The king ordered him to be arrested and con
veyed to the Tower, and on the day appointed by the
archbishop, to appear before the Convocation. Upon being
brought before the bishops, he tendered a written paper
containing his confession. In this he declares as follows : —
" That it is his desire to believe faithfully as Holy Church
teaches, but that he desires to declare his belief on four
points — (1.) That the most worshipful sacrament of the
altar is Christ's body in form of bread, the same body that
was born of the blessed Virgin our Lady Saint Mary, done
on the cross, dead and buried, the third day rose from
death to life, the which body is now glorified in heaven.
(2.) Also, as for the sacrament of penance, I beheve that
it is needful to every man that shall be saved to forsake
sin, and to do penance for sin before done, with true con
fession, very contrition, and due satisfaction, as God's law
limiteth and teacheth, or else may he not be saved. (3.)
Images are not of belief, but are calendars to la3rmen to
represent and bring to mind the passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and martyrdom and good living of saints. And
that whoso doth the worship to dead images that is due
to God, or putteth faith, hope, or trust in help of them as
he should do to, God, or hath affection to one more than
another, he doth in that the great sin of mammetry.^
(4.) He that knows the holy commandments of God
and keepeth them to his end, he shall be saved, though
he never in his hfe go on pUgrimage as men use now, to
Canterbury or Eome or any other place." These state
ments having been considered by the archbishop, were held
not to be sufficient. Oldcastle was asked the crucial ques
tion which sent so many poor men to the stake, whether
he beheved that after consecration in the Eucharist there
remained material bread or not. Also, whether, when a
priest might be had, it was necessary that confession of
sins should be made to him. He declined to answer
beyond what his written statement had put forth; he
declared himself desirous to believe as Holy Church
taught, but expressed a doubt whether the Pope, cardinals,
and bishops, had the power of determining such things.
^ Idolatry, mammet = an image.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 465
The archbishop then gave him for his consideration what
he declared was the judgment of Holy Church in the matter,
written in English. " The faith and the determination of
the Church touching the blessed sacrament of the altar is
this — that after the sacramental words be said by a priest
in his mass, the material bread that was before is turned
into Christ's very body, and so there leaveth on the altar
no material bread, nor material wine, the which were there
before the saying of the sacramental words. Holy Church
hath ordained that every Christian man, living here bodily
on earth, ought to be shriven to a priest ordered by the
Church if he may come to him. Christ ordained St. Peter
His apostle to be His vicar here on earth, whose See is the
Church of Eome, ordaining and granting the same power
which He gave to Peter should succeed to all Peter's
successors, the which we call now Popes of Eome. By
whose power, in churches particular, special be ordained
prelates as archbishops, bishops, curates, and other degrees,
to whom Christian men ought to obey after the laws of
the Church of Eome. This is the determination of Holy
Church. Holy Church hath determined that it is needful
to a Christian man to go a pilgrimage to holy places, and
there specially to worship holy relics of saints, apostles,
martyrs, confessors, and all saints approved by the Church
of Eome." Oldcastle was required to give his opinions on
these articles. When brought before the archbishop and
his assessors for this purpose he first of all declined to
accept the absolution which they offered him from the
excommunication which he had incurred. As regards the
articles, he said that in the Eucharist there was the true
body of Christ, and also true bread. As to confession, it
might be good and useful to confess to a priest, but it was
not necessary. As to worshipping images, he held that it
was only Christ who hung upon the cross, and not the
material cross which was to be adored. As to the Pope's
power, he said that the Pope was the head of Antichrist,
and archbishops and bishops were his taU ; that no rever
ence -was due to them save in proportion as they were the
true imitators of Christ and Peter. He warned the by
standers against the seductions of false priests, and refused
2 H

106 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIiEVAL DOCTEINE : [ohap. xxi.
to give any other answer. The archbishop then pronounced
formal sentence against him as a heretic, and left him to
the secular arm.^ Arundel, who no doubt honestly desired
to bring this leading man to recant, obtained a respite for
him of forty days from the king. Oldcastle was confined
in the Tower, but he contrived to escape, and to rally
round him some bands of Lollards, who seem to have
entertained the project of dethroning the king. The rapid
and vigorous measures taken by King Henry frustrated
this design, and then followed a series of executions, both
of priests and laymen, who were hanged and burned as
traitors and heretics.^
21. The rebellious movements of the Lollards, real or
supposed, brought upon them another statute of greater
strictness. This ordains that all king's officers, of what
grade soever, are to aid the bishops in their search for
heretics, and to apprehend them, and they themselves are
to make inquisition for them, and arrest them, delivering
them to the ordinaries -v\dthin ten days* (1414). This
severe Act was perhaps compensated for in the opinion
of some by the death of their great enemy, Archbishop
Arundel, whose somewhat strange end, from a swelling of
the tongue and throat, was held by the Lollards to be an
appropriate judgment for having silenced so many of their
voices.* But his successor Archbishop Chichele did not
show himself in any way more favourable to the new
opinions. Numerous cases of trials and punishments are
to be found recorded during the next twenty years.
22. Of some of these victims no very definite records
remain, but as to others particulars may be gleaned. John
Claydon, burned in 1415, was a tanner or skin-dresser in
London. He was accused of heresy, and, probably showing
himself obstinate, was given over to the secular arm and
burned.^ Against William Taylor, a priest of Oxford, we
have the process remaining, and find that the principal
1 Fascic. Zizan., 433-450. Walsingham, Hist Ang., ii. 291-296.
^ Walsingham, Hist Angl, ii. 299. The number of executions
was thirty-eight.— Stubbs, iu. 364, note. ^ WUkins, Condi, ui. 356.
¦* The orthodox Gascoigne calls this a direct judgment of God on
him. — Eogers's Gascoigne, p. 35. ^ Wilkins, Concil, iii 371-375.

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. 467
errors attributed to him were, "that prayer was to be
directed to God alone;" "that clerks ought not to be
lords nor holders of estates." He denied the divine right
of kings, condemned religious mendicancy, the worship of
the cross and the saints, refused to accept the decisions of
the CouncU of Constance. Being unwilling to retract, he
was burned at Smithfield, March 22, 1422.^ Eobert Hoke,
a priest of Braybrooke in the diocese of Lincoln, suffered in
1425. His confession is printed in Wilkins, by which it
appears that his chief offences were not having done worship
to the cross on Good Friday, and having in his possession
books and " treties " containing " many foul and horrible
errors and heresies."^ It is probable that after confession
Hoke relapsed; hence his fate. In 1428 was burned at
Norwich WiUiam Whyte, a priest, of the process against
whom we have copious detaUs. His case was in many
ways remarkable. He was condemned by a diocesan synod
at Norwich, not by the provincial synod of Canterbury.
He had indeed been previously tried before the archbishop,
and had abjured the opinions with which he was charged,
so that he was now treated as a relapsed person. He
appears to have held the doctrine of Consubstantiation.
As to the other points in which he was declared to be in
error, the chief were, "the unlawfulness of Churchmen
possessing property ;" " the condemnation of the mendicant
orders ;" the " denial ofthe necessity of auricular confession
and priestly absolution;" the assertion "that all good men
have priestly powers;" that "a good layman might con
secrate the Eucharist;" that "after consecration bread stUl
remained in the Eucharist ;" that priests might marry, and
that he himself was married ; that the clergy had faUen into
grievous corruption through prohibition of matrimony ; that
extreme unction and fasting at stated seasons were unneces
sary ; that it was lawful to work on holidays ; that the
clergy had no claim for tithes ; that clergy might preach
without license ; that rehcs and images were not to be adored ;
that church property might be taken by laymen; that
capital punishment for theft and that war were unlawful*
^ Fasdc. Zizan., p. 412. 2 -WUkins, iu. 437.
' Fasdc Zizan,, pp. il7-iS2.

4G8 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap, xxi
At the same time that Whyte suffered, Abraham of Col
chester and John Wadden are said to have been also
burned.^ In 1431 Thomas Bagley, a priest, vicar of
Maunden in Essex, was burned in Smithfield. He is
accused of having taught that "the consecrated host is
true bread in its nature and the body of Christ in figure ; "
and of having boldly protested before the Convocation, " I
do not believe, and I will not believe, that the priest, by
virtue of the sacramental words, makes Christ or God."^
These were some of the more conspicuous victims.* But
the most remarkable of all was Sir John Oldcastle, who,
after four years of liberty, was again captured in Wales,
and having now the charge of treason against him as well
as that of heresy, was brought up for judgment.* The
puuishments for both these offences were combined in his
execution (1417). He was hanged as for treason, and
burned as for heresy. A formal recantation of his heretical
errors has been sometimes attributed to him. But the
document which purports to contain this recantation is
from internal evidence so manifestly a forgery, that it
seems useless to quote it.^ Besides those committed to the
flames, there was a large number of Lollards sentenced to
lighter but still most severe punishments. In 1428 the
rector of Hegley was condemned to perpetual imprison
ment, and William Harvey of Tenterden to the same
punishment.^ John Calle, a priest of London, and Ealph
Mangym, priest, are also in the same year similarly
sentenced.'^ Lollards were also before the Northern Con
vocation. Thomas Eichmond, a friar minor of York, was
in 1427 condemned of heresy at York,^ but there does not
appear to be any record of executions in the Northern
Province. ' Foxe, i. 753. ^ "WUkins, iii 515.
' There are other names mentioned as having suffered, e,g. Eichard
Tuimyn (1415), Gregory, Eichard Hunden, John Gardiner (1438),
Eichard Wych and his servant (1440), WUUam Balowe (1466), John
Goose (1473), an old man burned iu Smithfield (1499). — Stubbs, Const
Hist, iu. 364, note ; Foxe, i. 748-763.
'' Capgrave, De lllustribus Henrids, p. 122.
^ Printed in Fasdc Zizan., p. 414.
« WUkins, ui. 496. ' lb., iii. 500. ^ jj^ ^ ^gg

1384-1431.] THE LOLLAEDS. , 469
23. There was much, doubtless, in the tenets of the
Lollards which invited persecution, and which seemed to
make some animadversion and restraint almost necessary
to the very existence of the Church. They had adopted,
and were prepared practically to carry out, some of the
theoretical opinions of their master, Wycliffe, as to Church
property and the disabUities of unworthy ministers. Many
of them were clearly prepared to disparage orders altogether.
They held that the virtuous layman was more competent to
administer the sacraments than the evU-living priest — a
specious doctrine, which nevertheless strikes at the very
root of Church life. Such errors needed correction by
authoritative statements and the exercise of discipline.
But to treat them as the rulei's of the Church in fact did,
as soon as they had acquired the power to do so, was inex
cusable. Having settled that error on the doctrine of the
Eucharist was to be accounted heresy, though the subject
does not belong to either of the accepted creeds, they then
threw the expression of the Eucharistic doctrine into the
baldest and most repulsive form, and made the acceptance
or rejection of this a matter of life and death. If the
LoUard could not say that he believed that after consecration
there remained no longer bread and -wine, if he could not
say that accidents might exist without a subject, he was
straightway burned. The strongest possible expressions of
his behef in the real presence in the Eucharist, such as
Oldcastle and others were quite ready to make, counted for
nothing. He must accept the bald formula or perish, and
aU the time this formula — that bread and -wine no longer
remain save in their accidents — was entirely a modem
dogma, and was not to be found in any of the Fathers.
The persecution of the LoUards on this ground — the
driving many through fear of death to accept doctrines
which in then hearts they did not beheve, the sacrificing of
many others who were more true to their convictions — is
a grievous blot upon the mediaeval Church of England.
The Church had no better way of dealing with poor ignorant
men than to force them to accept a dogma practicaUy use
less, utterly repulsive to reason and the evidence of the
senses, without any sanction in Scripture or primitive

470 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIAEVAL DOCTEINE: [chap. xxi.
antiquity, or to cause them to perish in the agonies of the
flames. 24. The bishops were no doubt encouraged in their
severe action against the Lollards by the proceedings of the
Council of Constance. This great Council, which was held
(1414) to heal if possible the schism in the Papacy (there
were now three Popes), and to reform the Church in its
head and members, distinguished itself by condemning the
doctrines of Wychffe in most express terms,^ and in order
ing the disinterment of his bones, as well as in burning
John Huss, the great assertor of his -views in Bohemia,^ in
spite of the distinct safe-conduct given to him by the
Emperor Sigismund. But whatever help this may have been
to the dominant Churchmen, it is probable that the cause of
Church authority lost more than it gained by the action of
this Council, for it exposed pitilessly and in terrible detail
the abuses of the Church and the -vices and ignorance of the
clergy, so that all the leading members of the CouncU
concurred in denouncing them in terms as strong as could
have been used by Wycliffe himself And yet the matter
ended with words. No action was taken to enforce refor
mation, and thus the Lollards as well as the bishops might
find abundant justification in the proceedings of the
CouncU. ¦¦ Forty-five errors of WycUffe were condemned by the CouncU. —
Labbe, Condi., xii. 45.
^ They had found their way into Bohemia through the support and
approbation of Anne, the Bohemian princess, wife of Eichard II. ,
and by the agency of Peter Payne, other-svise Gierke, a Frenchman, born
in England, who (according to Gascoigne) being a master of arts at
Oxford, had stolen the seal of the University, under which he -wi'ote to
the people of Prague that all England had accepted the Wycliffe tenets,
except the mendicants. — Eogers's Gascoigne, pp. 20, 186.

1447-1159.] BISHOP PECOCK. 471

CHAPTER XXIL
THE REVOLT AGAINST MEDIJLVAL DOCTRINE : BISHOP PECOCK.
1447-1459.
1. Opponents of the LoUards. 2. Bishop Peoook's sermon. 3. Preva
lence of angry feeling against the bishops. 4. Pecock's " Eepressor
of over-much Blaming of the Clergy." 5. His Treatise on Faith.
6. Condemned as heretical. 7. His recantation. 8. His harsh
treatment afterwards. 9. John Bury's Gladius Salomonis.
1. So bold, thoroughgoing, and uncompromising an attack
as that made by the Lollards on the system and status of
the Church, naturally called forth numerous literary de
fenders of the ecclesiastical position. Not all Churchmen
were contented, as Courtney, Arundel, and Chichele were,
to respond to the objections of the Lollards by the simple
expedient of burning them. The Friars had obtained, and
in many cases had well deserved, a considerable literary
reputation. They would not at once abandon their posi
tions as untenable because a number of persons, many of
whom were ignorant and untaught, violently inveighed
against them. John Cunningham, a Carmelite friar, was a
vigorous and able opponent of Wycliffe.'- Thomas Netter
of Walden, also a Carmelite, took a share in all the contro
versies of the period, and drew up, or at least completed,
the collection of tracts bearing on the strife, known by the
name of Fasciculi Zizaniorum Magistri Joannis Wycliffe cum
Tritico. William Wodeford, a brother of the Grey Friars,
in Newgate, -wrote against Wycliffe's doctrines.^ But by
far the most remarkable literary opponent of the Lollards,
^ Some of his treatises are printed in the Fascic, Zizan,
^ His treatise against Wycliffe's Trialogus is published in Brown's
Fascic. Rerum. Expetend.

472 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxii.
both from his treatise itself and from its consequences, was
Eeginald Pecock, bishop of St. Asaph.
2. In a sermon delivered at Paul's Cross in the year
1447, Bishop Pecock set forth seven propositions. (1.) A
bishop is not necessarily bound to preach to the common
people of his diocese. (2.) He ought rather to hold him
self free from preaching, in order that he may attend to
more important matters. (3.) A bishop ought to have
greater knowledge in solving important questions than the
inferior clergy are bound to have. (4.) Bishops are free
to preach or not to preach, having regard to the more im
portant functions they are called to perform, and which
cannot be done by the lower clergy. (5.) A more useful
work may be done to the souls of men than by preaching,
(6.) Bishops may and ought to be non-resident in their
dioceses when weighty causes call them away. (7.) It is
not simoniacal for bishops to obtain their sees from the
Pope by provision, nor to pay him annates and first-fruits.'
The bishop expected that this bold line of defence would
be received vrith applause by his brethren, and he boasted
that no one hereafter would speak e-vU of the bishops nor
murmur against them. But the bishops were not to be so
easily set right in general estimation. The order was un
popular. Many were glad to get any handle of complaint
against a bishop, and the prelates themselves were by no
means pleased to have their defence based on such question
able ground. Many controversial antagonists at once
appeared against Pecock,^ and an appeal was made to
Archbishop Stafford to censure the sermon. Pecock, in
his defence before the archbishop, declared that he desired
to clear the bishops from the calumnies with which they
had been attacked both in the pulpit and out of it, and to
bring their assailants to a better mind. His intentions
being held to be good, he seems to have escaped easUy ;
but he was a man of a temper that could not rest, and he
quickly returned to the subject in a more elaborate form,
from the consequences of which he did not escape so
easUy. ' Gascoigne, Diet, Theol (ed. Eogers), p. 26, sq.
^ Babington's Introd, to Pecock's Repressor, p. xviii.

1447-1459.] BISHOP PECOCK. 473
3. As an acute and well-meaning man. Bishop Pecock
could not but be painfully impressed with the intense feel
ing of dislike and suspicion with which the bishops and
clergy were now everywhere regarded. It was not alone
among the Lollards, or the " Bible-men " as they had come
to be called, that this feeling ' prevailed. There was a
school of more moderate reformers growing up in the
Church, who were utterly shocked and scandalised by the
miserable state of things which prevaUed. These men had
made their voices heard at Constance by the denunciations
of Bishop Hallam, and of Gerson, the famous Chancellor of
Paris. They were represented now in England by Thomas
Gascoigne, the author of The Dictionary of Theology, who
declares that the people openly murmured against the
bishops in the streets, crying " Woe " against them for their
wealth and pomp ; that their negligence was bringing down
divine judgments on the land. And that this popular
hatred was not -without good cause he shows by particular
instances. Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, by birth a
bastard, was Chancellor of England ; Adam Moleyns,
bishop of Chichester, was Keeper of the Privy Seal ; '
the bishop of Nor-wich, Walter Lyard, was the Queen's
confessor, residing at Court ; the bishop of Carhsle, and
afterwards of Lincoln, was Treasurer of England ; the
bishop of Coventry, Buth, was Chancellor to Queen Mar
garet John Kemp, Archbishop of York, scarcely entered
his diocese for twenty-eight years during which he presided
over it, and was twice Chancellor ; and when the mob set
upon Ayscough, bishop of Salisbury, to murder him, they
upbraided him with having always lived with the king, and
never resided in his diocese — therefore he should die.
AU these courtier-bishops were " provided " by the Pope, in
spite of the Statutes of Provisors. The same authority
" provided " George Nevil to the See of Exeter when he was
but twenty-three years of age ; and John Delabere to that
of St. David's, where he signalised his episcopate by allow
ing his clergy to keep concubines at a tax of a noble a year,
' He was afterwards murdered (1450) at Portsmouth by the sailors,
in revenge for the part he was supposed to have taken in the death of
the Duke of Gloucester.

474 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIAEVAL DOCTEINE : [ohap. xxii.
Gascoigne asserts, with a sweeping censure, that from the
year 1403 there were none preferred in the Church who
knew how in a due manner to do good to souls, or who could
or would do it ; that at that time in England the care of
souls was destroyed by appropriations, the non-residence of
curates and prelates, the promotion of worthless men,
pluralities of benefices, and the very worst conferring of
school degrees, and granting graces to the unworthy,
wicked, and vicious persons in Oxford and other universi
ties.'^ It must be confessed, therefore, that when Bishop
Pecock undertook to defend the Church system of his day
in an elaborate ¦ treatise, he showed at least remarkable
boldness. He had to oppose the whole body of the
Lollards, who held aU secular employments of the clergy
in utter detestation, and the large and increasing mass of
moderate reforming sentiment which saw clearly that the
abuses tolerated were bringing ruin upon the Church.
4. The task of defence was undertaken by Bishop
Pecock in a work published in 1449, called "The Eepres
sor of over much Blaming of the Clergy." ^ In this he
undertakes to defend eleven practices or " governances " of
the clergy, but he afterwards restricts himself to the de
fence of six, viz. the use of images — the going on pilgrim
ages — the holding of landed possessions by the clergy —
the various ranks of the hierarchy — the making laws by
papal and episcopal authority — the institutions of the
religious orders.* All these were points specially assailed
by the Lollards. Pecock begins his defence of the Church
by saying that three especially erroneous opinions had to be
overthrown before the matter could be rightly discussed.
The first of these was, " that no ordinance is to be esteemed
a law of God unless it be grounded on Scripture." * The
' Gascoigne, Diet Theol. (ed. Eogers), pp. 16, 35, 37, 40, et p. 1.
Or rather " The Eepressing of over miche ^vyting the Clergie."
^ The five other points which he declares are defended iu his other
works are — (7.) The invocation of saints and priestly intercession. (8.)
The costliness of ecclesiastical decorations. (9. ) The ceremonies of the
mass and the sacraments generally. (10.) The taking of oaths. (11.)
The lawfulness of war and capital punishment.
^ The Lollards had remarkably anticipated the Puritans of the six-

1447-1459.] BISHOP PECOCK. 475
second, " That every humble Christian shall without fail
arrive at a true sense of Scripture." The third, "That
when the true sense of Scripture has been thus discovered,
no arguments of clerks to the contrary should be listened to."
Having devoted twenty chapters to the refutation of these
opinions, in which it may be said that he often takes a
very simUar line to that which was taken in the next
century by Eichard Hooker in arguing against the Puritans
of his day, the bishop proceeds in the second part to defend
the special points of Church practice selected by him for
defence. And, first, of Images and PUgrimages. He meets
very ably the Scripture argument against images, and
declares that reason favours the use of images as memorials,
and boldly asserts that no man commits idolatry with any
image now in Christendom.' By ingeniously asserting that
idolatry can only be committed by believing an image to
be God, he thinks he gets over the difficulty raised by the
fact that people worship certain images especially, and go
pUgrimages to them, and believe that they see and move
and hear. " No inan," he says, " is by anything an idolater
save he taketh and maketh a creature to be his God ; but so
doth no man though he trow that images have such virtue,
and though he trow that images do miracles in such wise
as creatures — the Apostles and other saints — did miracles,
and though he trow that images be quick, or that they see
or speak, or hear, or sweat at some whUes." ^ In the third
part he defends the right of the clergy to be possessors of
estates, and to exercise territorial rights. In this occurs
one of the few allusions to Wycliffe. " Furthermore it is
to -wit that one clerk (but verily to say one heretic)
tempereth the first opinion rehearsed before, and saith on
this manner that if the clerk misuse habitually or custom-
ably his unmovable endowing, the clerk may lawfully and
ought to be despoiled of ^ that endowing by the temporal
lords, and else not. But that this saying is unskilful may
be showed thus. However habitually or customably I
trespass against the king, what shall this hurt mine heir
teenth century. Pecock says, when they heard of any rale or direction,
they were in the habit of saying, " Where groundest thou that in Holy
Scripture?" — Repressor, p. 6. ^ Repressor, i. 148. ^ lb,, i. 154.

476 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI^V-AL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxii.
which nothing trespasseth to the king, but is a full loving
and true servant to the king ? ... If I be a bishop and
misuse habitually mine unmovable possessions, and though
an hundred of my predecessors have misused likewise,
what right were this that an innocent, yea many innocents,
coming after me, to whom these goods be owing as weU as
to me, and which should well use the same goods, should
be deprived ofthe same goods 1"''- The fourth book defends
the government of the Church by archbishops and bishops,
and the making of ecclesiastical laws. In this occurs the
curious mistake of arguing for the headship of St. Peter,
because he is called Cephas, i.e. the head (Ke^aA,7j.) 2 ^
more serious mistake is the advocating the papal error that
the whole government of the Church by archbishops,
bishops, etc., depends upon the divine commission given to
Peter, and that these are merely the officers and deputies
of the Pope. The fifth part undertakes to -vindicate the
religious orders. The bishop is not afraid to attempt the
defence of that luxury and pomp by which the Mendicants
in their buildings and surroundings had completely de
parted from the rule of their founders. He even seems
inclined to defend as a wholesome practice the trick
adopted by the Franciscans of counting money with a
stick, inasmuch as their rule did not allow them to touch
it.'' He briefly touches the five other points, referring to
others of his works in which they were more fully handled.
5. It might have been anticipated that so able, in
genious, and spirited a defence of the practices of the

sor, ii 414.
" The passage is somewhat curious for so acute a controversialist.
" That Holy Scripture of the New Testament aUoweth the same now
said governance I may prove thus : Holy vwit of the New Testament
maketh mention, Johun first chapiter, that Christ said to Symount
Peter thus, ' Thou art Symount the sone of Johanna, thou shalt be
clepid Cephas or head,' and theu Johun settith to this ' which is in
terpreted Peter. ' Poul clepid Peter Cephas ; and as Jerome witnesseth,
Cephas is no word of Hebrew, but it is a word of Grew, in which
language it is as myche as to say as Head." — Repressor, U. 430. It is
hardly necessary to say that St. Jerome does not indulge in any such
etymological vagaries as are here imputed to him.
^ Repressor, ii. 544.

1447-1459.] BISHOP PECOCK. 477
Church would have been received with acclamation by
Pecock's brethren. But such was not the case. The
book, on the contrary, excited great anger and bitterness
among Churchmen. Pecock was indeed promoted to the
bishopric of Chichester by the influence of the Duke of
Suffolk (1450), but this only served to increase his un
popularity, as his patron was generally detested. Matters
seem to have come to a point with the bishop when, with
a -new of converting the Lollards, he published in 1456 a
Treatise on Faith, In this he quits the ground of the
infallibUity of the Church, and argues that we ought to
hsten to authority, so long as the authority is not proved
to be wrong. Very remarkably for one of his time he
advocates the view that the truth of the Christian religion
is not a matter of demonstration but one of probable argu
ment, and that persecution is not justiflable untU the
proper means of persuasion have been tried. " The clergy,"
he says, " shaU be condemned at the last day if by clear
wit they draw not men into consent of true faith otherwise
than by fire and sword and hangment, although I wUl not
deny these second means to be lawful, provided the former
be first used." " It was a shameful thing for the Christian
Church to hold such a faith for substance of its salvation,
and yet not to suffer it to be examined, it were imputing a
vUlany to Christ that would give such a faith to his
people, into which faith he would his people should turn
all other people, and yet could not allow his faith to be full
tried." " The Apostles intended not to give any catholic
faith necessary to Christian men's salvation by word only
to be kept without writing and remembrance. That they
betoken not, out and besides holy Scripture, any articles
unwritten to be believed for necessary faiths." The
ceremonies of the Church were ordained not in apostolic
times, and therefore do not stand on the same footing as
doctrines. The Church and clergy have no power to make
new doctrines. Holy writ is a more worthy ground of our
faith than is the clergy of the whole Church on earth.
The clergy may only declare and explain, the only authority
is in Scripture. But every man is bound to obey the
determinations of the Church, unless he can prove them to

478 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE: [ohap. xxir.
be wrong. The Church has power to make positive
ordinances, and to enforce them. There is nothing against
the faith in priests having wives, which was permitted by
the Apostle Paul ; nor is there any Scripture, any distinc
tion of meats and drinks, or any authority for eating fish
at one season and flesh at another. Too many positive
laws are a grievance and a snare. Christ is the Head of the
Church which is founded on earth.^ These views, so
entirely alien from those which were held by his contem
porary bishops, this bold quitting of the ground of tradition
and infallible decrees of the Church, and basing aU upon
Scripture and reason, must have utterly appalled Pecock's
brethren. He had begun by defending some of the worst
abuses of the bishops and the Church. He had gradually
written himself into clearer views.^ He now severely com
mented upon the characters and practices of the clergy.
The Friars were " pulpit-brawlers," and venters of " untrue
fables." He had not feared to say that even the great
doctors of the Church had no authority, save in so far as
their opinions agreed -with reason.
6. At a council held at Westminster, October 22, 1457,
at which Pecock was present, a -violent attack Avas made
on the bishop, principally, as it seems, by the lay lords,
and the archbishop was appealed to. The divines de
manded that they might have copies of Pecock's books for
examination. The archbishop (Bourchier) agreed, and
Pecock professed himself ready to furnish them. He was
ordered to appear at Lambeth, November 11, and to bring
copies of his books with him. On the appointed day he
appeared and brought nine of his works, among others the
Repressor and the Book of Faith. They were entrusted to
a committee of bishops and doctors to examine. These
divines declared that the writings of Pecock contained
many heretical opinions. In the numerous examinations
^ Le-wis's Life of Pecock, chap. v. ; Babington's Introd. to Pecock's
Repressor, p. xxxiii.
^ This change in Pecock's views is often lost sight of by those who
speak of him, as e.g., by Dr. Hook in his Life of Bourchier, Dr. Hook
seems to misunderstand Pecock, and attributes his condemnation
entirely to political causes.

1447-1459.] BISHOP PECOCK. 479
which the bishop now underwent, we find that his oppo
nents relied entirely on authority and on sentences quoted
from doctors (by which anything might be proved), and
not at all upon Scripture and reason. They were not, in
fact, competent either to understand or to combat Pecock's
positions, and they were quickly constrained to have re
course to their old and famUiar argument. Either he must
recant and accept their dicta, or he must prepare for the
stake. 7. Pecock was not disposed to accept this latter alter
native. He does not appear to have held his opinions
strongly, or to have been prepared to maintain them at
the risk of his life. They were not, in fact, of a character
which seemed to call for this. He had been the censor of
the methods of reasoning used by the orthodox divines.
He had displeased them by disparaging Church authority
and condemning persecution. He had given greater pro-
miuence to the office of reason in controversies than they
were disposed to allow. Still there was nothing in dispute
which excited the bishop to be a martyr. It was shameful,
doubtless, to recant, but the shame really was with those
who forced the recantation upon him.'- Consequently the
bishop determined to accept the unpleasant office of recant
ing. On December 3, 1457, he abjured the condemned
propositions at Lambeth in a written form, and the follow
ing day being Sunday, at Paul's Cross he made a public
recantation in the presence of a vast crowd of people and
four bishops. Some of the items of his recantation were
clearly put in to justify the course which the bishops were
taking, and which was really due to their anger at his
views on Church authority. He was made to say that he
had taught that it was not necessary to believe in Christ's
descent into Hades,^ or in the Holy Spirit, or in the cath-
Dr. Hook says, as it seems without any proof, "This was
evidently a party movement to deprive the Lancastrians of a popular
writer (v. 300). But the archbishop was a strong Lancastrian.
It is surely unjustifiable to speak of Pecock in the way in which Dr.
Hook does. "A buUy in prosperity is generally a coward in ad
versity " (v. 304).
^ In the short Creed contained in the Donet, the article of the

480 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDIEVAL DOCTEINE : [chap. xxii.
olio Church and the communion of saints ; that he had
taught that the Church universal might err in matters of
faith; that it was not necessary to salvation to believe and
accept what a General Council had decreed; that holy Scrip
ture might be interpreted in a literal sense ; and that no
one is obliged to put another sense upon it. Having
recited these errors in Latin, the bishop continued in
English, declaring himself to have greatly erred, and that
he now solemnly revoked and renounced all the errors
aforesaid, and all other heresies and errors contained in
his books, and that he submitted himself to the correction
of the Church as a contrite and penitent sinner. And he
desired that no man should give credence to his false and
pernicious doctrines, nor keep any of his books, but bring
them all to the archbishop or his commissaries; and he
desired that all his books should be openly burnt. He
then himself delivered a parcel of his books to the execu
tioner to throw into the flames, and added, it seems some-
¦what needlessly, the exclamation, " My pride and presump
tion have brought upon me these troubles and reproaches."
Pecock's recantation was certainly a remarkable one.
" He retracted," says his latest able biographer, " errors
which he had never uttered, and retracted utterances which
he knew to be truths. But," he adds kindly, "indeed
he seems to have been so confused and bewUdered, as
scarcely to know what he had said and what he had not
said." ' What was the state of the Church when a man
in the position of Pecock, who had -written temperately,
learnedly, and with a sincere desire to bring back those
who had altogether revolted from the faith of the Church
— when such an one could be thus ignominiously trampled
Descent into Hell is omitted. Pecock knew what the men of his
generation did not know, that the Creed was not composed by the
Apostles, and that this article had no place in it at first.
1 Babington, Introd, to Pecock's Bepressor, p. i. Lewis points out
that the third and fourth of the articles recanted were established by
the Council of Trent. Mr. Babington further shows that it was per
fectly untrue to say that Pecock was unsound in the matter of faith in
the Trinity, and that his views as to the fallibUity of the Church and
of General Councils have been held by many great Eoman doctors.

1447-1459.] BISHOP PECOCK. 481
upon, because he had ventured to doubt the right of the
Church to decide all controversies on the principle of
" Sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro rations voluntas " ?
8. It would have been well for the reputation of the
bishops of those days had the forced recantation, with all
its falsified items, formed the extent of their persecution
inflicted on the liberal-minded bishop. But, in fact, they
persecuted him to death. Pecock had contrived to interest
the Pope in his cause, and had even obtained bulls of
restitution to his bishopric, of which he had been deprived.
Whereupon the archbishop and other prelates went to the
king and represented the enormity of one convicted of
heresy obtaining bulls from the Pope contrary to the Sta
tutes of Provisors, although all these prelates did, in fact,
owe their appointments to the same source. The king
induced Pecock to resign his bishopric, promising that he
should be weU provided for. The bishop resigned, and the
good provision promised him was found to consist in an
imprisonment in Thorney Abbey, where he remained till
the day of his death. His biographer and editor's remarks
on his character are valuable. " He would have been re
markable in any age, but was in his own age most remark
able. He was the enhghtened advocate of toleration in
times most intolerant ; he was the acute propounder of a
rational piety against unreasoning and most unreasonable
opponents. His theological knowledge — ^scriptural, patristic,
and scholastic — ^was for that age very considerable. He
was, indeed, by far the most eminent and learned bishop
of the Church of England in his time." '-
9. Pecock's Bepressor, and his opinions generaUy as
set forth in his numerous works, were answered by John
Bury, a brother of the order of the Eremite Friars of St.
Augustine, m a treatise caUed Gladius Salomonis. The
treatise is a very remarkable one. It assaUs Pecock's
appeals to reason and the moral law, and his aUowing them
' Babington, Introd. to Pecock's Repressor, p. Ux. Gascoigne, an
I honest but somewhat chUdish -writer, foUows up Pecock with most per
severing hostility, and heaps censures upon him. He regarded him as
the apologist for the bad bishops. See Eogers's Gascoigne, pp. 26, 39,
49, 99, 216, etc.
2 I

482 EEVOLT AGAINST MEDI.aEVAL DOCTEINE. [ohap. xxii.
a place of authority side by side with Scripture, exactly in
the fashion that the Puritans of the next century used in
arguing against the Church divines. Scripture, according
to Bury, is all-sufficient. It contains all things needful ;
and reason, the moral law, and the teachings of nature,
derive their only authority from its sanctions, and as far as
they are contained in it. The friar writes apparently
without the least consciousness how completely he is cut
ting away the ground from under his own feet, for by the
strange glosses and mystical interpretations given to Scrip
ture by the schoolmen and other mediseval writers, no doubt
many honest men were persuaded that the whole of the
Church system was to be found therein. That the argu
ment of Bury was not only destructive of his own tenets,
but was also radically false, whUe the views of Pecock were
essentially true, need hardly be said after the immortal
work of Hooker. " These, pretending the Scriptures per
fection, infer thereupon that in Scripture all things la-wful
to be done must needs be contained. But admit this, and
mark, I beseech you, what would follow. God, in delivering
Scripture to His Church, should clean have abrogated amongst
them the law of nature, which is an infallible knowledge
imprinted in the minds of all the children of men, whereby
both general principles for directing of human actions are
comprehended, and conclusions derived from them ; upon
which conclusions groweth in particularity the choice of
good and evil in the daUy affairs of life. Admit this, and
what shall the Scripture be but a snare and a torment to
weak consciences, filling them with infinite perplexities,
scrupulosities, doubts insoluble, and extreme despair ? . . .
We must take great heed lest in attributing to Scripture
more than it can have, the incredibility of that do cause
even those things which it hath most abundantly to be
less reverently esteemed. " ''-
' Hooker, Eccl Poly., B. u. c. viii. 7.

1390-1509.] ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING XV. CENT. 483

CHAPTER XXIIL
ENGLAND AND EOMB DURING FIFTEENTH CESTDRT.
1390-1509.
I. Constant testimony of English legislation to the nationality and inde
pendence of the Church. 2. Laws passed in this direction under
Henry IV. and Henry V. 3. Aggressions of Pope Martin V. 4.
His imperious letter to Archbishop Chichele. 5. Orders him to obtain
the repeal of the Prsemunire Statute. 6. Calls on the King and
Parhament for the repeal. 7. Again attacks the archbishop. 8.
Attempts to supersede his legatine authority. 9. Political causes
tor defence of Chichele. 10. Granting of the See of Ely in commen
dam. 11. Attempt to use the Praemunire Statute against the na
tional Church courts. 12. Cardinal Kemp archbishop. 13. Com
plete papaUsing of the Church of England under Cardinal Morton.
. 14. Archbishop Warham and his patronage of learning. 15. The
method of reformation indicated.
I. In the preceding chapters the revolt against the doc
trines and practices which had gradually grown up in the
Medieval Church of England, through papal influence and
decrees, has been sketched. It now remains to trace the
continuance, through the fifteenth century, of the struggle
carried on by Eome, externally to dominate over and
despoil the National Church. The opposition to the papal
clauns for dominion, traceable through the whole period
from the settlement of the Conqueror, was indeed but
feebly exhibited in the fifteenth century — first, because the
times were fuU of trouble and civil war, but principally
because almost ah the bishops had themselves gained their
Sees by simoniacal Provisions in despite of the law of the
land. The lay mind of England had never hesitated or
doubted as to the justice and necessity of restraining the
Pope's influence, and though the kings often made use of
it illegally to further their own selfish plans, yet the barons
and commons were always true to the principle of the
nationahty of the Church. The re-enactment of the

484 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxiii.
Statute of Provisors in 1390, and the Statute of Prae
munire in 1393, has been already mentioned. In the year
1399, at the time of the deposition of Richard IL, one of
the charges brought against the unhappy monarch was that
he had ventured to apply to the Pope for a confirmation
of his acts. Upon this the Parliament solemnly declares
that " the Crown of England, and the rights of the same
Crown, have been from all past time so free, that neither
chief pontiff, nor any one else outside the kingdom, has
any right to interfere in the same.'"- This principle,
enunciated in the first place by WiUiam the Conqueror,
and repeated energetically by the Parliament under Henry
VIIL, was the principle which, throughout the whole period
between the Conquest and the Eeformation, lay at the root
of the legislation in this country on ecclesiastical matters.
There are no English statutes recognising the jurisdiction
of the Pope, or the right of the Pope to appropriate bene
fices in England, or to levy taxes and imposts. These
things grew up by custom, but they grew up illegally,
either against the provisions, or at any rate without the
sanction of the law- of the land. The spiritual supremacy
and the ecclesiastical claims of the Pope, admitted more or
less by all Churchmen in the Middle Ages, enabled the
Roman bishop, acting upon the devotion or the fears of
those who were pledged to honour him, to establish an
imperium in imperio, which all the statutes passed to restrain
it availed only very imperfectly to curb. In spite of Sta
tutes of Pro-visors, the Pope still provided for bishoprics,
and nominated his courtiers to English benefices. In spite
of Statutes of Praemunire, his bulls and ordinances still had
power in the country, and appeals were carried to his
courts. But it is evident that these laws, nevertheless,
served a very valuable purpose. For, first, they enunciated
^ Quamvis corona regni Anglise et jm-a ejusdem coronse, ipsumque
regnum, fuerint ab omni tempore retroacto adeo Ubera quod dominus
summus pontifex neo aliquis alius extra regnum ipsum se intromittere
debeat de eisdem, tameu praefatus rex, ad roborationem statutorum suo
rum erroneorum, supplicavit domino papas quod statuta in ultimo par-
liamento suo ordinata reformaret." — Rot. Pari., ii. 419 ; Stubbs, Const.
Hist, u. 505.

1390-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 485
and kept alive the principle of the true nationality of the
Church of England; and next, they did actually to a very
considerable extent restrain the exercise of papal jurisdic
tion and papal exactions. It was this which caused the
Praemunire Statute of 1393 to be so deeply resented by
Pope Martin V.,^ that most pretentious of popes, whose
appointment had resulted from the clearance of the three
opposing popes made by the Council of Constance, and which
brought him into sharp collision with the English Primate.
%. Legislation in the direction of the Provisors and
Praemunire Statutes was continued in the reigns of Henry
IV. and v., although the statutes passed did not attain
any special prominence. By 7 Henry IV. c. 6, penalties
were enacted against those who purchased bulls to exempt
them from tithes. By 1 Henry V. c. 7, aliens were re
strained from accepting benefices in England. By 3 Henry
V. st. u. c. 4, incumbents are protected against intruders
ha-ving " Provisions " from the Pope, even though such in
truders have the royal license to execute such provisions.
That such a statute as this latter should have been neces
sary, that alien incumbents pro-vided by the Pope should
not even have had the decency to wait for the vacancy,
but should strive to make their profit out of the benefice
even when the incumbent was alive, shows us to what a
height this abuse had grown.
3. Defensive legislation was at this period much needed
by the Church of England, for in Martin V. the papal chair
had found an occupant more daring in pretension and more
unhesitating in action than any who had sat in it for cen
turies. After the breaking up of the Council of Constance,
the new Pope, acting upon the principle of the invalidity of
acts done during the schism, made void the elections of
many chapters, and proceeded to provide bishops for no less
than thirteen Sees in the province of Canterbury .^ He
made his nephew Prosper Colonna, a youth of but fourteen
years of age, archdeacon of Canterbury. He undertook to
act as a general regulator of discipline within the Church
1 Martin was nominated for the Papacy by the bishop of London,
and supported by the English influence.— "Wals., Hist Ang., ii. 320.
2 Collier, Eccl Hist, ui. 327.

486 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxiii.
of England, appropriating and consolidating churches, giving
incumbents a dispensation for non-residence, and allowing
laymen to receive payments out of Church revenues. At
the same time it was complained that no Englishman could
obtain a favour from him in his court of Rome. Remon
strances had been made against these proceedings by the
English ambassadors, before the Council of Constance had
concluded its session, and the Pope had promised to be
somewhat more considerate in his proceedings. A sort of
concordat indeed was entered into between the Pope and
the Church of England.'- But very soon after this it was
necessary again to send an embassy to this aggressive
Pontiff, warning him not to interfere with any preferments
belonging to the Crown. The Pope appears to have hesi
tated to promise this, holding as he did that all preferments
belonged of right to him ; but he was informed of the cha
racter of the English laws, which forbade such intrusions,
and told that it was only out of respect to his ofiice that
the king had sent messengers to him. He might have
compassed the same end simply by enforcing the law.
About the same time the law was actually put in force
against him by the Chapter of York, who refused to accept
the bishop of Lincoln, who had been pro-vided by the
Pope to the archiepiscopal See, alleging against him the
Statute of Provisors.^
4. To be checked in this way by a law which presumed
to limit the rights and privUeges of the Vicar of Christ, was
no doubt very exasperating to a Pontiff of the temper of
Martin V., and he proceeded to expend his wrath upon
Archbishop Chichele. He writes to him and to the Arch
bishop of York, that he has heard that they and some other
bishops ventured to dispose of certain benefices, canonries,
prebends, dignities, parsonages, and ofiices in churches,
cathedral or collegiate, which belong to the disposition of
the Eoman See, either by the common right, or by the
Constitution of John XXIL, which begins " Execrabilis," or
of that of Benedict XII., which begins "Ad Regimen;"
which thing, says the Pope, tends to the soul's danger, and
^ Collier, u.s.
' Duck., Vita Chichele, quoted by Collier, ui. 327-9.

1390-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 487
the contempt of the Roman See. He forbids them, there
fore, under pain of excommunication, to coUate to these
benefices, and he bids the archbishops inform the other
prelates of his commands. He caUs upon them to disregard
the statutes of Edward and Richard, " which, inasmuch as
they are expressly against the liberty of the Church, we
declare to have been and to be condemned and reprobated." ^
This was a recurrence to the days of Innocent III., and his
declaration against the Great Charter. But there was no
Archbishop Langton now at the head of the English Church,
to make a becoming answer to the arrogant Pontiff.
5. Archbishop Chichele, though not devoid of spirit,
yet did not regard the papal intrusion from the national
stand-point. He answered apologetically, defending him
self from the charge of not being ready to carry out the
papal wishes. He was, he says, the only prelate in England
who ventured to accept the promotion of foreigners. The
other bishops disregarded solemn apostolical injunctions,
and even divine censures, and refused to do this. He alone
was hardy enough to do it.^ To this the Pope replies in
a bitter strain of anger and reproof. " If you desire to
excuse yourself with us you must act effectively, for it is
not words but deeds which produce confidence. Labour
therefore with all your might that that execrable statute
put forth against the liberty of the Church in the kingdom
of England may be abolished, and keep it not, nor, as much
as lieth in you, permit it to be kept ; and reprove and chide
those who keep it in season and out of season, as the
Apostle bids, if you desire to show your innocence in the
sight of God and man. Perform efficaciously that which
we have enjoined you and the other prelates of the kingdom
by our other letters under ecclesiastical censure, namely, by
going to the place where the counsellors of the kingdom
assemble, and instructing them, both ecclesiastical and
secular, monishing and exhorting them, that the aforesaid
1 Wilkins, Concil, iii. 471-2.
' " Heu, pater beate, experientia docet quod, non obstantibus ambas-
siatis solennibus, immo et requisitionibus apostolicis, etiam sub cen-
suris divinis, non est in regno qui quidquam in promotionibus extrane-
orum auderet, nisi solus ego." — "Wilkins, Condi, iu. 473.

488 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxtir.
statute, which is opposed to divine and human law and
reason, which cannot be preserved without the destruction
of eternal salvation and the utter disgrace of the kingdom,
may be altogether abolished." '-
6. The utter ignorance displayed by the Pope in this
letter, as to the English Constitution and the power of the
archbishop to control Parliament, may well surprise us.
Still more astonishing were the proceedings with which he
followed up this sharp lecture to the Primate. As an eccle
siastic who had pledged himself to obey the Pope, Chichele
might be regarded as in some sort amenable to his cen
sures, but when the Pope proceeded to write severely to
the King ^ and to the Parliament, demanding, on peril of
their salvation, the immediate repeal of the Praemunire
Statute, so bold an assumption of dictatorial power almost
surpassed the proceedings of Innocent himself " We are
they," said the Pope, "who are placed by the power of
Almighty God over you, and over the universal Church."^
" This statute is opposed to aU divine and human laws, to
the authority of the Old Testament and the New, to the
decrees of councils, fathers, and popes, to the customs of
the universal Church. Do such laws as these become a
Catholic prince and a Christian people 1 That priests of
God, ministers of the Church, Christian pastors, without
fault, without crime, should incur worse penalties than
Jews or Saracens ? This statute throws into confusion the
whole ecclesiastical state, and brings into the royal courts
'¦ Wilkins, Condi, iii 474.
^ It is clear from the internal evidence that this letter must have
been addressed to Henry V., and not to the child king Henry VI. The
date therefore assigned to it, viz. the tenth year of the pontificate, 1427,
niust be wrong, and CoUier must be in error in his arrangement of the
letters. I have arranged them as the internal evidence seems to indi
cate, disregarding the dates assigned, which seem to have been tam
pered with. See Spencer's Life of Chichele, p. 108, note.
3 WUkins, ui. 480. Pope Martin V. is usually regarded as the
founder of modern Papacy. He quitted the ground of the older Popes,
which was that the MetropoUtans had certain powers, but that the Pope
was the supreme judge in case of reference or appeal, and assumed the
position that the Pope was universal ordinary of the whole Church, and
all bishops but his deputies.

lSeO-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 489
the greater causes of churches, dignities, and benefices, and
the provisions to them in cases prohibited by law ; and dis
poses of ecclesiastical affairs just as if the King and not the
Pope were appointed the Vicar of Christ."'
7. In spite, however, of all this violent tirade, the statute
stiU remained untouched. After the death of the gaUant King
Henry V., when the possessor of the Crown was an infant
and the regency was in the hands of the Duke of Gloucester,
the Pope returned to the charge against the Praemunire
Statute with unabated vigour. The King of England, he
says, disposes of benefices as though he were the Vicar of
Christ, and makes laws concerning clerks and churches as
though he had the keys of the Church in his hands, and
not Peter. All men may go freely to England except those
who receive benefices by the authority of the Chief Pontiff,
the Vicar of Jesus Christ. These are bidden to be exiled,
to be seized, incarcerated, spoiled of their goods. The
executors of the apostolical letters, the proctors, the notaries,
and all others who carry any process or censure from the
apostolical court, are exposed to the utmost punishment, and
are put out of the protection of the law, being liable to be made
captive by all. " Show to them," he -writes to the archbi
shop, " the sin which they who observe the aforesaid statute
bring upon themselves, and bring the evU and the rough
into good and plain ways."^ Moved by these exhortations,
the archbishop and the bishops did actually go in solemn
form to the Commons in Parliament, exhorting them to con
sider whether these statutes, which so much offended the
Pope, could not be modified.^ But instead of yielding to
the archbishop's request, the Commons determined upon
presenting a petition to the king, praying him to uphold
the liberties of the Church of England against the papal
aggressions. They desired that the English ambassadors
might be instructed to demand that the Pope should cease
from his aggressions, and not give credence to any evil
reports against the Archbishop of Canterbury.*
8. Pope Martin, thus foiled in his schemes, was deter
mined to punish the archbishop, and as the most effectual
' WUkins, Condi, ui. 481. ^ lb., ui. 483. ^ jj.^ iii. 434.
* See Hook's Lives of Archbishops, v. 102.

490 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxiii.
way of doing so, he proceeded to take away his ordinary
legatine authority, not by appointing a legatus a latere, as
popes had frequently done before, but by bestowing the
ordinary legatine authority on another bishop, Henry
Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. He also excommunicated
the bishops and threatened the country with an interdict.'
The Pope's bulls arrived in England, and were carried to
the archbishop, but they were immediately impounded by
the order of the Lord Protector, and taken unopened into
the royal archives^ (1427).
9. Political causes had indeed much to do -with this
prompt defence of the archbishop. Beaufort, the son of
John of Gaunt, and great-uncle to the infant king, was the
rival of the Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle and the
Protector. Gloucester appears to have favoured the national
side in Church politics, and Beaufort had lent himself com
pletely to the Pope. Created by him a cardinal,* it was
intended that he should have the further honour of the
legateship, and thus completely supersede the Archbishop
of Canterbury. Gloucester's prompt action, and the formal
appeal at once made by Archbishop Chichele to a General
CouncU,* disconcerted this plan The cardinal never acted
as Legate in England, and he had to display his zeal for
the Pope by acting as generahssimo in the crusade against
the Hussites in Bohemia, for which he was weakly aUowed
to raise men and money in England.*
^ Gascoigne, Diet Theol. (ed. Eogers), p. 17. In 1221 Archbishop
Langton had obtained a promise that the ordinary legateship should
always be attached to the Primacy. The archbishops were henceforth
styled legaii nati. But extraordinary legates (legati a latere) were
often sent by the Pope, as Otho, Othobon, and Guy Foulquois.
2 WUkins, Condi, iii. 486.
^ Beaufort was nominated to the cardinalate as early as December
28, 1417, by Martin V. at the Council of Constance. Chichele ad
dressed a strong protest on the matter toT Henry V., and Henry
refused him leave to accept the dignity, saying " he had as leef sette
his coroune besyde hym as to se him were a cardinal's hatte, he being
a cardinal." The second nomination was made May 24, 1426, the title
being that of St. Eusebius ; on the 25th of the next March (1427) he
received the cardinal's hat at Eouen. — Stubbs, Const. Hist, iii. 108,
note. 4 Wilkins, iii 485.
" A farther great quarrel took place between Gloucester and Cardinal

1390-1609.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 491
10. In the great dispute between Pope Eugenius and
the Council of Basle, as to which of the two was to be
predominant — ;the Council or the Pope — the English clergy
were divided in their opinions. The bishops for the most
part supported the claims of the Pope, the lower clergy
upheld those of the Council' But though the archbishop
might in theory accept the high claims made for the autho
rity of the Pope, yet when they were exercised in such a
way as grievously to interfere with the rights of the Eng
hsh Church, he could summon up courage to make some
resistance to them. About the year 1438 there occurred
an invasion of the Enghsh Church by Eome, which was
absolutely unprecedented in all the previous struggles of
the National Church against the Papacy. Pope Eugenius
ventured to bestow the bishopric of Ely on Lewis, Archbishop
of Tours, to hold in commendam with his archbishopric.
Here it was not only a question of a grievous injury done
to the See, but also a contemptuous insult to the whole
Church of England. The archbishop at once brought the
matter before the Convocation, and no doubt the opinion
of the clergy would be with him in resenting the proceed
ing. But the opposition to the Pope, like all the rest of
Chichele's transactions with Rome, was feeble and half
hearted. The Archbishop of Eouen did not indeed become
bishop of Ely, or receive the spiritualties, but he obtained
that which he probably coveted most, viz. the temporalties
of the See — which he was allowed to enjoy under the title
of perpetual administrator of the See of Ely.^
11. During all this century the discontent of the laity
with the clergy, which had been first evoked by the Wiclif-
fite movement, continued steadily to increase. A constant
grievance was the action of the Church courts, the pro
ceedings of which were arbitrary, vexatious, and often
flagrantly unjust. The action of these courts was con-
Beaufort (1) as to whether a cardinal could hold an English bishopric,
and (2) whether a cardinal could sit in the royal councU. Beaufort
appears to have been successful in both these points.
1 CoUier, in. 358, 369.
^ lb., iu. 369, from Chichele's Eegister; Gascoigne, Diet, Theol.
(ed. Eogers), p. 136.

492 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxiii.
tinually interfered with by the prohibitions of the secular
courts,'- but this was not enough. Towards the middle of
the century the lawyers appear to have thought that they
had discovered a grand secret, which should cut away at
once and for ever the whole jurisdiction of these courts.
The Praemunire Statute directed the penalties of the Act
against those who should purchase or pursue, or cause to
be purchased or pursued, in the Court of Rome or^ else
where, "any such translations, processes, sentences of ex
communication, bulls, instruments, or any other things
which touch the king, against him, his regality, or his
realm." The la-wyers interpreted this clause to apply to
all ecclesiastical judges or officers who should in any, even
the smallest, particular interfere with the king's courts and
their jurisdiction. So that for the future, instead of a pro
hibition issuing to stop the ecclesiastical suit, an action
under the Prcemunire Statute might be commenced against
the promoter of such a suit, involving the loss of all goods,
perpetual imprisonment, etc. The clergy were naturally
alarmed at this interpretation. In 1439, and again in
1447, the Convocation petitioned the Crown that the
Praemunire Statute might be held to apply only to suits,
processes, bulls, etc., made in the Court of Some. It was
never intended, say they, to apply to any but Roman acts.
" Nevertheless, now of late time some men have entended
and plyned them to make to strange and bitter interpret
ations of the said statute, such as if it should be suffered
and have place, should turn to intolerable hurt and pre
judice of the said prelates, and of spiritual judges in the
land, into whose favour the said statute was first made.
They deem therefore that it may be declared that the
statute only refers to suits of the Court of Rome." * There
was nothing in these remonstrances which supported the
views of Pope Martin as to the Pramunire Statute. The
bishops and clergy complained not because the statute
unjustly curbed the Roman jurisdiction, but because it was
1 Wilkins, Concil, iu. 523.
^ The real explanation of elsewhere is that the Papacy was not always
located at Eome, but sometimes at other cities, as Lyons, A-vignon etc. "
3 Wilkins, Concil, iu. 534, 556. ,

1390-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 493
not applied solely to that for which it was intended, but
by a piece of legal chicanery made to affect the national
Courts Christian.' It was not tUl some time after this —
during the reign of Edward IV. — that the pretences of the
lawyers were disposed of by an ordinance which declared
that the Praemunire Statute was not to be interpreted as
referring to proceedings in English courts. ^
1 2. The closing of the schism which had arisen out of
the proceedings of the Council of Basle, and the appoint
ment of a popular Pope in the person of Nicholas V. (1447),
gave to the papal chair an increase of influence and author
ity in England. It is true that when the Pope — who had
presented the King of England with the Golden Rose as
a mark of his appreciation of his piety and devotion —
sought to be allowed to raise a tenth from the English
clergy, the King resisted the attempt, and the archbishop
was not allowed to proceed in the matter.^ Yet, during the
weak reign of Henry VI., and under the influence of
Queen Margaret, the papal power rapidly grew in Eng
land. Cardinal Beaufort died in 1447, but there was
another cardinal in England — Kemp, Archbishop of York*
— who upheld the same policy which had been advocated
by Beaufort, viz. the obliteration of the national character
of the Church, and its complete subser-vience and sub
mission to Eome. This Lancastrian policy, which lost
France, sacrificed the King to a mean alliance, and made
the Pope the ordinary of England, was intensely unpopular
in the country. The clergy preached against it ; LoUardism
began to be again prominent. The extreme unpopularity
' See Stubbs, Const. Hist., ui. 331, note.
2 Wilkins, Condi,, iii 583-4. A curious illustration of the way in
which the PrEemunire Statute might be used against the clergy is found
iu the case of Eichard Hunne, which made so much noise in the time
of Henry VIII. Hunne was sued by the priest for a mortuary in the
Court Christian. He retaliated by bringing an action under the
Praemunire Statute against the priest. ^ CoUier, iii 382.
^ Kemp was made cardinal by the title of St. Balvina by Eugenius
IV., December 18, 1439, and Cardinal- Bishop of St. Eufina, July 21,
1452. There is a high panegyric on him in a letter of Henry VI. to
the Queen on the occasion of his promotion. — Stubbs, Const. Hist., in.
164, note. Gascoigne gives him a very bad character.

494 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [ohap. xxiii.
which assailed bishop Pecock was due to his having ven
tured to preach up this authority of the Pope. Neverthe
less, in 1452, at the death of Archbishop Stafford, the final
step in this anti-national policy was taken by the appoint
ment of Cardinal Kemp to the Primacy. Kemp was first
raised to the dignity of Cardinal-Bishop by the title of St.
Rufina, then appointed to the primacy by provision of the
Pope, and finally constituted Legate a latere. He thus
became altogether a Roman prelate in England, and for
the first time in the history of the English Church, an
Archbishop of Canterbury — the successor of Augustine,
Anselm, and Langton — alterius orbis Papa — was contented
to govern the great Church of England as the Legate
a latere of the Roman pontiff. In order to do this, he not
only had to pay vast sums of money for the papal bulls,
but he also was constrained to perjure himself, swearing
first of all fealty and allegiance to the Church of Rome,
and then, in his oath to the king, "knowledging himself
to hold his archbishopric of the king only." '-
13. The Primate who had thus betrayed the hberties
of the Enghsh Church was succeeded (1454) by another,
who in due time became a cardinal also (1466).^ This pre
late. Archbishop Bourchier, who presided over the English
Church during the whole period of the troublous Wars of
the Roses, and into the beginning of the reign of Henry
VIL, contrived to keep well with both the contending
parties ; but, -with the exception of his prosecution of Bishop
Pecock, which has been already narrated, there is scarce
anything to note ecclesiastically of his work, and certainly
no stand was made under his guidance against the over
weening pretensions of Rome.^ He was succeeded by
Morton, bishop of Ely (1486), who also reached the cardi
nalate ; and deservedly, if the devoted partisanship of Rome
1 See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, v. 258, sq.
^ Bourchier was first named a cardinal in 1464, but not regularly
appointed till the following year, and he did not receive the red hat
tiU 1472.— Hook, v. 346.
' The nation and Church of England owes Archbishop Bourchier a
debt of gratitude for his share in theintroductionofprintinginto England.
Mr. Eogers calls him "selfish, sordid, heartless." — Gascoigne, p. 75.

1390-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 495
and the desire completely to efface the nationality of the
English Church constituted a merit.' To Morton may be
ascribed the successful completion of that policy which was
commenced by Kemp — the throwing of the clergy of the
Church of England absolutely into the arms of Rome.
Becoming more and more the objects of suspicion and dis
like to the laity, the clergy readily grasped at this means
of support and aid. At the same time the king, bent upon
absolute government, and desiring help in his schemes,
wiUingly purchased the papal aid by the most complete
surrender of his duties as the defender of the Church.
Under Morton, therefore, the National Church of England
might almost be said to cease to exist, and to become in
stead a portion of the Church of Rome located in England.
With an utter disregard of the spirit of the Prisemunire
Statute, the king even obtained bulls from Rome to help
him in his state policy.^ Envoys, furnished with the papal
authorisation, were allowed openly to traffic in the sale of
pardons for every crime except those directed against the
Pope and the clergy. There could scarcely be a more com
plete contrast than between the state of the Church of
England under Henry VII. and its condition under Edward
I. or Edward III. Its spirit, its power of resistance, its
national character, were broken down ; and, together with
the weakness of internal demoralisation, of which some de
taUs will presently be given, the weakness of external in
capacity pressed heavUy upon it. It became the mere
creature of the State, because the State could wield at will
the power of the Pope. Its energy, its self-assertion, its
self-respect, were gone ; an absolute necessity was estab
lished that, if the Church of England was to retain any
portion of its national character, its whole status must
undergo a thorough sifting and a complete reformation.
1 Bacon's character of Morton is — " He was a wise man and an elo
quent, but in his nature harsh and haughty ; much accepted by the
King, but envied by the nobUity and hated by the people." — Hen. VII,,
p, 182 (Ed. 1876).
^ As in the case of the excommunication of the Irish prelates who
had helped Lambert Simnel,

496 ENGLAND AND EOME DUEING [chap, xxiii.
14. The first movement towards an improved state of
things may be said to have begun, when, after the short
primacy of Henry Deane, 1601-1503, William Warham was
translated from London to Canterbury. Warham was a
learned man, but his value to the Church consisted not so
much in his own learning as in the patronage which he
readUy extended to men who were destined to make a deep
mark on the history of their times. By his support of
Erasmus, Warham was helping to fashion a keen weapon
for slaying some of the most grotesque monsters of the old
superstition ; and by his loyal patronage of John Colet was
upholding the first of that school of Scriptural reformers who
were destined to do so much for the Church of England.
The archbishop's own views of reformation did not probably
extend much beyond the regulation of the Church courts
and matters of detail.' He could tolerate such popes as
Alexander VI. and Julius IL, and calmly discuss with the
king the projects of these pontiffs for a " holy war " against
the Turks. Yet Warham was a prelate of a different type
of churchmanship from Courtney and Arundel, and less
papal than Morton and Kemp ; and by his somewhat more
liberal views he was unconsciously laying the foundation
for much of the work that was to follow.
15. When that work began, it was a fortunate thing
for England, that men, looking back over the history of the
nation, could see that there had been, ever since the Con
quest, a continuous struggle in the English Church between
a foreign intruding element and a national element — that
they could perceive that most of the evils of which there
was just reason to complain in the Church had come
through the foreign influence, and that, if this foreign
influence were removed, there could at any rate be nothing
to hinder the National Church from shaking itself free from
any mischiefs or imperfections which might be proved to
exist in it. History thus clearly pointed out the true way
of reformation. Men saw that the right method was to
make the policy of the" many Provisors and Praemunire
Statutes of their ancestors a real and effective one. That
following in the same lines as the Constitutions of Clarendon
^ See CoUier, iii, 45 4.

1390-1509.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 497
the Statutes of Edward III. and Richard IL, their wisdom
was to give the finishing touch to the edifice by altogether
breaking off relations with the Pope, and by establishing
the nationality of the Church of England, for which their
fathers had struggh-d, once and for ever, on a firm and
secure basis. This was the work of the English Refor
mation. '-
¦¦ By the publication of a volume of extracts from Gascoigne's Theo
logical Dictionary, edited by Professor Eogers, we are put in possession
of the judgment of a contemporary, who was no heretic, but a high
Churchman, on the ecclesiastical state of England in the fifteenth cen
tury. Nothing can be more severe than his condemnation of the action
of the Popes on the English Chm-ch. He mentions one monstrous
instance of a pope (Eugenius IV. ) gi-ving license to a man who was an
absolute fool, and not in holy orders, to hold a rich archdeaconry and
twelve prebends, none of which he ever visited, but spent his time in
drunkenness and debauchery. See pp. 166, 168, 169, 173. Gascoigne
is also most condemnatory of the morals of the clergy, and throws great
light on many of the points touched on in the foUo-wing chapter.

2 K

498 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.

CHAPTER XXIV.
PEACTICAL RBIilGION TS THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY.
1. Character of the clergy of the fifteenth century. 2. The Popes of the
fifteenth century. 3. Bishop Hallam's protests at Pisa and Constance :
the CouncU of Basle. 4. The English bishops generaUy free from
open vice. 5. ImmoraUty of the lower clergy. 6. The testimony of
the University of Oxford. 7. Archbishop Bourchier' s censure. 8.
Archbishop Morton's directions. 9. The monasteries — coUeges take
their place. 10. Pope Innocent's buU. 11. The Abbey of St. Al
bans. 12. The Friars. 13. The Chantry priests. 14. Secular em
ployment of clergy. 15. Amount of learning in clerical body. 16,
Simony of the clergy. 17. Discipline exercised by clergy. 18. In
struction of the laity — sermons. 19. Manuals of instruction. 20.
The "Visions of Piers Plowman." 21. Scriptural manuals. 22,
The Primer. 23. Pilgrimage and rehc-worship forced on the laity.
24. Defence of these by Bishop Pecock. 25. Indulgences. 26.
False doctrines forced upon the laity. 27. The wealth and power of
the clergy. 28. Erasmus and Colet.
1. It will not be found, probably, at any period of Church
history, that the character of the clergy rises far above
that of the laity of the same era, and hence, during the
specially troubled periods of the Middle Age — ^in the reigns
of Stephen, of John, of Edward II. — clerical scandals
will appear side by side with those of the laity. There are,
however, periods when the clerical character seems to sink
below that of the laity, and to give just offence to them by
its inconsistency with the object and purpose for which the
clerical ofiice exists. Such a period was the fifteenth cen
tury. To establish this recourse need not be had to the
declamations of the Lollards, whose views might be held
to be prejudiced. It wUl be easily established by the ad
missions of the clergy themselves — the censures of bishops,
of councils, of universities, of private clerks.
2. The popes were regarded as the spiritual heads of
the Church. Their decrees and censures were more or less

ohap. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 499
respected ; their example may be held to have had at least
some weight. But the most ardent admirers of the papacy
wUl scarcely maintain that the popes of this period pre
sented a salutary model for the imitation of the clergy.
Boniface IX. was the most accomplished simoniac of his
day. He not only sold all benefices, but he sold them
many times over, sometimes in the same week.' Of the
two popes deposed by the Council of Pisa, the Council
formaUy declares that they are guilty of notorious crimes —
obstinate schismatics, heretics, perjurers, scandalous.^ John
XXIII. was proved at the Council of Constance to be " a
pirate, a tyrant, an adulterer, a violator of nuns."^ Martin
V. and Eugenius IV. must ch-vide between them the hideous
cruelties of the Hussite wars ; to the latter belongs the
special infamy of the butchery of the Colonnas. History
has long since pointed to Alexander VI. as one of the pro
digies of crime ; and to Alexander succeeded Julius, a
brutal leader of mercenary brigands.
3. Prelates and clergy might thus find easily an excuse
for irregularities by the example of those in the highest
places in the Church. All the more creditable to them is
it when we meet with in any of them an emphatic protest
against such corruptions. Such a protest was made by
Robert HaUam, bishop of Salisbury, at the Councils of
Pisa and Constance. Hallam, who had been Chancellor of
Oxford, and was an able and learned as well as upright
man, was one of the English deputies commissioned to both
these CouncUs.* In both of them he -vigorously denounced
the corruptions prevalent in the Church. Nominated a
cardinal by John XXIII.,^ he declined to accept the dignity
from such a source, and at Constance was one of the most
forward accusers of this scandalous prelate, declaring that
he ought to be burned at the stake. That, however, all
the strong language used at Constance came practically to
nothing, may be inferred from the records of the CouncU
1 Theod. a Niem, quoted Milman, Lat, Christianity, -vi. 259.
^ Labbe, Condi, xi. 2128. Fleury, Hist Eccl, 100, 30.
3 MUman, L. G. vi. 84. * Labbe, Condi, xi 2214 ; xu. 184.
5 June 6, 1411. But as he was absent, no title was assigned to
him. Fleury, 100, 48.

500 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
of Basle. The Emperor Sigismund, appalled at the profii-
gacy of the clergy, instructed John of Lubeck to make a
formal demand for the abolition of the rule as to clerical
celibacy. "Nothing could be more fearfully serious than
the representation on this subject which John was to lay
before each deputation, and urge in the strongest manner.
After centuries of strife, after all the laws of Hildebrand
and his successors, the whole clergy are declared to be living
with concubines, in adultery or worse. They were hated
by the whole laity as violating their marriage beds ; con
fession was become odious." '
4. There is no reason to believe that the state of
things in England was as bad as this. The bishops, though
grievously negligent of their duties, did not display any
such open immorality as was to be found in some of the
Continental churches. Speaking generaUy of the Middle
Age, Mr. Stubbs says : — " The higher class of clergy were
free from any general faults of this kind. After the twelfth
century, when many of the bishops were, if not married, at
least the fathers of semi-legitimate famUies, the episcopal
character for morality stands deservedly high. The great
abbots were, with equally rare exceptions, men of high
character."^ 5. But of the lower clergy, the same writer is con
strained to declare from an examination of the legal and
historical records touching the nature of the purity of the
clergy, that there is " a long story of licensed and unlicensed
concubinage, and appendant to it much miscellaneous pro
fligacy, and a general low tone of morality in the very point
that is supposed to be secured. . . . The records of
the spiritual courts of the Middle Ages remain in such
quantity and such concord of testimony, as to leave no
doubt of the facts ; among the laity, as well as among the
clergy of the towns and clerical centres, there existed an
amount of coarse vice which had no secrecy to screen it or
prevent it from spreading." ^
6. In the year 1414 the University of Oxford made a
representation to the king, with a view to its being put
' Milman, Lat Christianity, vi. 259.
^ Stubbs, Const Hist., iii 373. a Stubbs, u. s.

chap. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 601
into the hands of the English deputies proceeding to Con
stance. This document states that the most unworthy and
unqualified persons were constantly admitted into orders;
that prelates unblushingly ordained and preferred their
relatives, when young boys, without obliging them to take
the clerical tonsure, or to relinquish fashionable dress ; that
these youths conducted themselves with the greatest inso
lence, never saying the canonical lessons, or assuming any
part of the clerical character, but giving themselves up to
pleasure, revelling, and feasting in the towns and the
houses of the nobility, -without any thought of the cure of
souls; that the cathedrals were monopolised by a few
residents, who had contrived to make the coming into
residence so expensive a matter that the majority of the
canons were kept out, and the service of the Church lan
guished ; that appropriations of churches to sees and mon
asteries caused a great mischief to the parishioners, the
care of whom was utterly neglected — whUe the revenues
of the churches were often consumed in squabbles between
the rehgious orders, as to which of them the right to prey
upon the Church belonged ; that abbots assumed the in
signia and the position of bishops ; that many obtained
promotions who were absolutely ignorant of the language
of the country, and could not instruct their people ; that
continual quarrels were going on between the secular clergy
and the Mendicants ; that the ,Mendicants were constantly
entrapping or enticing young children to enter their order
against the wishes of their parents ; that there was no
efficient examination of persons before ordination ; that
persons absolutely iUiterate obtained orders ; that priests
led an openly dissolute life, to the scandal of the Church,
and committed fornication -without any censure save a
small pecuniary mulct, being not even debarred from the
celebration of mass; that clergy affected the dress and
manners of soldiers, and indulged in every luxury of ap
parel. '
7. This grave indictment of the clergy at the beginning
of the fifteenth century corresponds but too well with other
documents of later date. About the year 1434 both the
' WUkins, Concil, ui. 360-365. See Gascoigne, Diet Theol, p. 148.

602 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxrv.
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge make complaint to
the bishops, that persons utterly unqualified, ignorant, and
of bad character, were freely admitted into orders, in con
sequence of which the universities were deserted, and no
good preparation for the clerical office took place.'- In
1455 Archbishop Bourchier issued a commission for re
forming the clergy. He complains that there were some
regulars who had thrown off the habit of their order and
wore secular dress ; that some parish priests, who were
bound to reside on their benefices, wandered loose and
dissolute through the kingdom, giving themselves up to
drinking bouts, fornications, adulteries, and other crimes,
leaving all care for their benefices, the buildings of which
fell into dilapidation ; that many wandering priests were
to be found who were ready to act as curates or chantry
priests, who were altogether unknown, and had no letters
testimonial. Some of these were senseless persons (idiotae)
and unlearned, and their ministrations were dangerous to
souls. ^
8. In 1486 Archbishop Morton issued a letter contain
ing directions as to the life and character of clerks. He
complains that the clergy have so cast away clerical decency
as to wear utterly unseemly clothing, affecting the fashions
of the laity, and that they neglected their duty of residence
on their cures.^
9. Nor were worldliness, carelessness, and immorality
confined to the secular clergy. They were to be found, at
this period at least, as prevalent in the monasteries. The
proof of the decadence in the value set upon monastic life
is most clearly exhibited by a glance at the direction which
' Wilkins, Cojicil, iu. 528-530. « lb., 674.
' lb., iii. 619-20. The archbishop is speciaUy severe on the
fashion of wearing cloaks open in front. Clerks are to wear their gar
ments "ab anteriori parte clausas," and not to Wear a hood "penula-
tum aut duplicatum cum serico, seu simplex cum corneto vel liripipio
brevi vel shameleto circa coUum suum publico ; sed utatur quiUbet
taUs presbyter, nuUatenus graduatus, caputio cum liripipio longo
suo ordini conveniente. " The liripipium was a long peak or taU. The
clergy were also forbidden to wear swords, daggers, or belts adorned
with gold, and their tonsures were to show a clear corona, and their
pars were to be seen. See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, v. 450.

chap. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 503
donations for religious purposes took during this period.
Monasteries had ceased to be founded, and in place of them
we have the grand foundations of the two St. Mary Winton
CoUeges by WUham of Wykeham; of Eton and King's by
King Henry VI. ; of Lincoln College by Bishop Flemyng ;
of AU Souls by Archbishop Chichele; of Magdalen, Ox
ford, by Bishop Waynflete ; of Corpus Christi by Bishop
Foxe ; of Christ's and St. John's by the Lady Margaret.
For many of these great foundations (as, notably, for Wyke-
ham's, Chichele's, and Waynflete's) monastic houses were
suppressed under royal license, and a precedent was estab
lished, which afterwards served the purposes of Wolsey and
Henry VIII. With regard to Bishop Foxe's foundation of
Corpus, it is known that he had purposed to found a mon
astery, but was dissuaded from this by the wise advice of
Bishop Oldham, who suggested to him that monastic found
ations had had their day, and were not likely to continue
much longer.
10. Indeed, the state of many of them at this period
was sufficiently self-condemnatory. A bull, issued in 1489
by Pope Innocent VIII. to Archbishop Morton, declares
that the Pope has been informed that the inmates of many
monasteries in England led a lascivious and dissolute life, to
the destruction of their souls, the offence of the Divine
Majesty, and the disgrace of religion. The archbishop is,
therefore, bid to visit the religious houses in head and
members, to inflict censures, to expel the incorrigible, and,
if necessary, to call in the aid of the secular arm.'
11. One record of the archbishop's proceedings under
this mandate remains, and it draws an appalling picture of
the state of one of the greatest and most famous rehgious
houses of England. Archbishop Morton -writes to the
abbot of St. Alban's telling him that he has been accused
to him by credible -witnesses of simony, usury, dilapidation,
and waste, and of certain enormous crimes. That he had
been remiss, prodigal, and negligent in managing the affairs
of the abbey. That the monks under him were leading a
lascivious life, and, horrible to say, were polluting the holy
places, and even the very house of God itself, by commit-
1 Wilkins, iu. 631. See Gascoigne, Diet Theol , p. 1.

504 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
ting acts of incest with nuns, and sometimes, in their quar
rels, by the shedding of blood. The abbot had admitted
one Ellen Germyn, a notoriously adulterous woman, into
the priory of Pray, which was under his jurisdiction, and
made her prioress; and Thomas Sudbury, one of the monks,
was in the habit of constantly going to her for immoral
purposes, and others of the monks also went there to her
and to other of the nuns as to a public brothel. And not
alone at Pray, but in the house of nuns at Sapwell, the
abbot changed the prioresses as he pleased, deposing good
and virtuous women, and placing the vicious in high places.
The goods of the abbey were also wasted by peculations
and unfair dealings. Persons of the worst character were
put in as officers to manage the estates. Timber to the
value of 8000 marks had been cut down and sold. Di-vine
worship was neglected. Common prostitutes were fre
quently brought within the boundaries of the abbey. Sacred
vessels and relics were sold.'- It is not, of course, intended
to imply that this terrible picture of immorahty and abuse
was applicable to all the abbeys of England, many of which
were doubtless under good discipline. But that one of the
most conspicuous and famous houses of England — the first
which reached the dignity of a mitred abbot — should have
attained to such a pitch of licentiousness without outcry or
protest, or, as far as appears, any attempt to correct it, until
the Pope's bull arrived, shows that the case of St. Alban's
was not exceptional, but that men's minds had become
habituated to the spectacle of grievous abuses in the mon
astic body.
12. As to the Friars — if we are to give any weight at
all to the satirical poems, to such writers as Langland and
Chaucer, to the bitter invectives of Wycliffe and the Lol
lards, and to the more moderate complaints of the secular
clergy — they had become a perfect byeword for immorality,
buffoonery, and monstrous lying. But probably in no body
of men were there such great and complete contrasts as in
the Friars. While the common rank and file of the beg
ging brethren were in every way contemptible, there were
in the bodies to which they belonged men of the highest
' WUkins, Concil, iu. 632-3.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 506
excellence, learning, and power. To condemn the Fran-'
ciscans, as a body, would be to condemn learning itself.
The school which produced Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and
William of Occham, " each unrivalled in his way, and each
working with equal ability in opposite directions," '- must
ever stand high in the literary annals of our race. It is
well observed by Dean Milman that the great cause of
mischief to the Friars, and, probably, the chief thing which
brought them to the degradation which they unquestion
ably exhibited in the fifteenth century, was the popularity
of their profession, and the way in which numbers swarmed
into it as the means of obtaining a comfortable subsistence
and leading an idle hfe.^ There was no qualification of
learning, no probation needed. And yet these untrained
and unfit brethren easily obtained orders, as the Oxford
complaint testifies, and were everywhere intruding them
selves into the pulpits and getting almost a monopoly of
hearing confessions. No wonder, therefore, if they became
" pulpit-bawlers," as Bishop Pecock describes them,^ or if,
in order to maintain their popularity, they imported into
their pulpit addresses strange, grotesque, often blasphemous
stories. 13. In addition to the parish clergy, and the monks
and friars who were in orders, there was another class of
clergy to be found in great numbers in England in the
fifteenth century, who probably surpassed all those aheady
mentioned in the irregularity of their hves. These were
the chantry priests, attached either to cathedrals or parish
churches, or ministering in chapels belonging to great
houses. The sole office and work of these priests was to
say masses for the dead. These men " were not dra-wn on
by the necessities of self-culture either to deeper study of
divine truth, or to the lessons which are derived from the
1 Brewer, Introduction to Monumenta Frandscana. The school
of the Oxford Franciscans alone produced Eichard of Coventry, John
WalUs, Thomas Dockyng, Thomas Bungay, Eoger Bacon, Archbishop
Peccham, Eichard Middleton, Duns Scotus, Occham, and Builey. The
other orders also had their famous names.
2 See MUman, Lat. Christianity, vi. 363.
' Letter to Godhard, Le-svis, Life of Pecock, p. 25.

506 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
obligation to instruct others. . . . Every town contained
thus a number of idle men, whose religious duties fiUed but
a small portion of their time, -who had no secular responsi
bilities, and whose standard of moral conduct was formed
upon a very low ideal."' These men were practically
exempt from episcopal control ; they had no religious
" rule " to direct them. They acted for the most part in
some secular capacity for the famUy to which they were
attached, and their way of life was often very scandalous.
The number of persons ordained to this sort of clerical life
was very great indeed. The ordination lists of the -bishops,
which may be seen in their registers, often give the names
of one, two, or three hundred persons admitted into one or
other of the orders of the ministry, and as the members of
the religious orders were for the most part laymen, and
the parishes of England did not number more than 8000,
the great majority of persons ordained must have been
ordained for chaplaincies or as chantry priests.^
14. The employment of many such persons in secu
lar, and often very unbecoming occupations, must have
tended much to degrade the clerical office in the eyes of the
laymen. And as regards secular employment, the bishops
set the clergy the worst possible example. In spite of the
attempts made from time to time to entrust the great
offices of State to lay hands, they always reverted to the
clergy, and it is hardly too much to say that there was
not one of the more distinguished bishops in the Mediaeval
period who was not employed in some State duties. This
was especially the case in the fifteenth century. The
defence of this, ventured upon by Bishop Pecock, has
been already mentioned, and also the indignant protest of
Thomas Gascoigne, a contemporary -writer, who gives a
long list of prelates of his day, who were immersed in
State affairs.^ It is needless to point out how absolute a
bar this secular business must have been to the effectual
supervision of a diocese.
15. As to the amount of learning to be found among
the clergy, it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory estimate.
1 Stubbs, Const Hist., ui. 372. 2 JJ., 366.
' Gascoigne, Diet. Theol (ed. Eogers), p. 1., see pp. 473-4.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 507
There were many, no doubt, among them, whether parish
clergy, chantry priests, or friars in orders, who were grossly
ignorant ; and some even among the bishops who were so ;
but, on the other hand, there were many able men, well
versed in the knowledge then accessible, and famUiar with
and capable of using dexterously all the subleties of the
schools. The school di-vinity, with its fine distinctions and
definitions, and the curious questions which it raised, was
a great sharpener of the intellect and stimulant of thought.
Wycliffe could never have made the impression that he did
had he not been, as Knighton describes him, " second to none
in philosophy, and in the learning of the schools altogether
without a rival." ' Just as Luther did, a century and a half
later, he used the bright and polished weapons with which
practice in the scholastical divinity had furnished him, for
the advancement of the truth ; and among the opponents of
Wycliffe we find men fully able to contend with him with
the same weapons. Pecock's was a mind of remarkable
power, and his learning was considerable, and the leading
part taken by Robert Hallam, bishop of Salisbury, at the
Council of Constance, did credit to the Church of England.
It would be -wrong, therefore, to stigmatise the fifteenth
century in England as a period of ignorance, although
there may have been many curates who, as Wycliffe said
of the clergy of his day, " kunnen not the ten command
ments, ne read their sauter, ne understand a verse of it."^
1 6. There is one other point connected with the clerical
character at this period which must have had a great and
special influence on the way in which the clergy were
regarded by the laity. Simony was almost universal. The
papal court had always been notorious for the bribes which
it requu-ed and accepted, but in the fifteenth century the
payment of money for promotion was formed into a regular
1 "In phUosophiS, nuUi reputabatur secundus, in scholasticis doc-
trinis inoomparabUis. "
^ Le-svis, Life of Pecock, p. 23. Nicholas de Clemangis (De Corrupto
Ecclesice Statu) is equaUy strong. He says there were many clergy who
could not read, who understood Latin no more than they did Arabic,
and who were not able to distinguish A from B. Quoted by Lewis,
lAfe of Pecock, p. 24.

508 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
system. In spite of the prohibitory laws, not only sees,
but benefices also, were openly bought by English clergy of
the Pope, the general form being to purchase what was
called an expectative, that is, the right of succeeding to the
benefice at the next vacancy. But besides this, Boniface IX.
or John XXIL is credited with having introduced the
system of Annates, which was an arbitrary tax fixed by
the Pope's collector, being nominally the amount of the
first year's income of a benefice, but often much more.
This tax had no foundation in English law, and was in
fact a simoniacal buying-off of the Pope's opposition.'- But
neither did the purchase of the Provision, and then the
payment of the Annates, exhaust the demands made upon
the bishop-elect by the Pope.^ He had also to purchase
five or six bulls, authorising his consecration, his jurisdic
tion, etc., for all of which great sums were charged. The
bishop must thus have appeared to the laymen simply as
one who had bought an appointment, and the lay patron,
often robbed of his patronage by the Pope's provisions,
^ By 6 Hen. IV. c. 1, it is complained of as a damnable custom
that "no parson, abbot, nor other should hare provision of any arch
bishopric or bishopric which shaU be void, tUl that he hath com
pounded with the Pope's chamber to pay great and excessive sums of
money, as well for the first-fruits of the same archbishopric or bishopric,
as for other ser-vices in the same court, and that the same sum, or the
greater part thereof, be paid beforehand ; which sums pass the treble
or the double at least of that that was accustomed of old time to be
paid to the same chamber, and otherwise by the occasion of such pro
visions." Mr. Stubbs says that the claim to first-fruits of bishoprics
and other benefices was first made by Alexander IV. in 1266 for
five years — then by Clement V. in 1306 for two years. John XXII.
claimed it throughout Christendom for three years. It was resisted at
the Council of Constance, but nevertheless was generally acquiesced in.
In the debates on it in 1531 we find that £160,000 had thus been paid
between 1486 and 1531. — Stubbs, Const. Hist, iii. 337. Gascoigne attri
butes the commencement of the tax to Johu XXII. — Diet Theol, p. 34.
" "Nee satis perspicio ut se excusare possint hoc modo promoti a
Pontifice quominus iu canonum pcenam incurrant, et, tanquam vitio
creati, ut veteres loquebantur, dignitatem, honoremque ecclesiasticum
amittant, si quis ad priscae institutionis normam potius quam receptee
consuetudinis hsec exigere velit. "— Duarenus, De Benefidis. Quoted,
Lewis, Pecock, p. 42.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 609
would not be slow to take example by the acts of those in
high places, and would refuse to present to the benefices in
his gift, unless fittingly bribed. But if the priest had to
buy his benefice, on the other hand he could sell the
sacraments. Confession and communion, or houseling, were
held to be necessary at least once a year for the layman,
but he could not get these from the priest without bringing
a sufficient offering. This abuse is constantly referred to
and forbidden in bishops' constitutions and injunctions, but
it flourished notwithstanding, and was an ever-ready topic
of reproach against the parish priests.'^ And if the living
could not have the sacraments without money, it is certain
that the masses which were supposed to benefit the dead
were made a regular matter of trade and barter by the
priest. Upon this foundation all the vast apparatus of
chantries and chantry priests rested, and it was without
doubt the most prominent feature in the mediseval religious
hfe of England.
17. And as the clergy were hard exactors from the
laity for the means of grace which they were compelled to
use, so in the matter of moral discipline they plied a gain
ful traffic upon them, which was scarcely likely to recom
mend them to their affections. By a system of discipline
at once inquisitorial and flagrantly corrupt and unjust, they
continually vexed the lives of their parishioners, in order
to extort from them fees and fines. In the Courts Christian
or Church courts, to which a large class of cases — those,
namely, in which religion was concerned — properly be
longed, there had grown up a system of correcting moral
delinquencies by fines and money payments which produced
the most disastrous consequences. " For the spiritual courts,
whUst they imposed spiritual penalties, recognised perfunc
tory purgations, and accepted pecuniary fines, and thus they
really secured the peccant clerk and the immoral layman
' Thus, in the satirical poem of "Jack Upland" —
" I trowe it be thi paroche priest
Jack, tliat thou menest,
That nyl not hosel his parischens
Til the peny be paid,
Ne assoilen hem of her synne
Withouten schrift silver.— PoKJ. Poems, ii. 46.

510 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
ahke from the due consequences of vice, such as either a
stricter discipline or a healthier public opinion would have
been likely to impose. . . . The Church courts became
centres of corruption, which archbishops, legates, and coun
cils tried to reform and failed, acquiescing in the failure
rather than allow the intrusion of the secular power.'"
Readers of Chaucer wUl not need to be reminded with what
feelings this offensive and degrading discipline, which was
simply a machinery for extorting money, was regarded by
the laity.18. We may next inquire how far these evils and op
pressions were compensated for by the benefits received
from the clergy by the laity in the way of instruction and
guidance. The only religious service at all obligatory on a
layman was the hearing of mass, which might certainly
suggest to him devout feelings, but could not much assist
in his instruction. But at the time of mass a sermon was
sometimes preached. Either the parish priest was a preacher,
like the good parson of Chaucer, or some wandering friar
had come by and had offered his services. In the thirteenth
century Bishop Grosseteste had ordered the clergy of his
diocese that every Sunday they should preach a sermon in
the vulgar tongue.^ About forty years afterwards Arch
bishop Peccham, in his Constitutions at Lambeth, ordered
all priests to expound to their parishioners "in the -vulgar
tongue, without any fantastical affectation of subtlety," the
chief points of the faith, and gave a form to assist them in
doing so.^ John Thoresby, Archbishop of York, published
in 1357, with the consent of his Convocation, a manual of
instruction in alliterative lines, to be taught by the parish
priests to the people " openly on Sundays." The translation
of the Speculum of St. Edmund, the writings of Richard de
Hampole, and other early English religious writings, may
have served as homilies for the,priest unable to compose a
sermon for himself. There are English homilies in exist
ence of a very early date. It is probable, indeed, that
preaching had fallen into much disuse in the fifteenth cen-
^ Stubbs, Const. Hist, iu. 373.
^ Grosseteste's Constitutions in the vol. of his Letters (Ed. Luard).
' Johnson's English Canons, ii. 283.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 511
tury. Archbishop Arundel had discouraged it, fearing the
propagation of Lollard doctrines ; and Bishop Pecock had
defended its disuse by the bishops. Gascoigne's comments
on preaching imply that it was rare. He says, " Episcopi
quasi nuUos ad praedicandum miserunt ;" " dabant paucis
licentiam." 19. As regards the mass-service, though unintelligible
to the lay folk, and though their mere presence was all that
was required, there was yet provided for them a means of
gaining edification from it by a " Lay-folks' Mass-Book," or
English metrical manual. This, which followed along with
the mass-service, and provided suitable meditations and
prayers in English at each portion of it, must have been of
extreme value to unlettered people.'- But besides this the
laity were in possession of numerous religious manuals in
English, which gave them simple instruction in the chief
points of their faith. These were not provided formally
by the Church, but were due to the efforts of individuals,
some of them connected with religious orders, others not.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century Robert de Brune,
a canon of Sempringham, wrote an Enghsh version of the
Norman-French poem called " Manuel des Pechiez," which
contains much valuable instruction. In the earlier part of
the fourteenth century we have two important religious and
moral English poems — the " Prick of Conscience," by a
Yorkshire hermit, a layman, Richard Rolle of Hampole ;
and the " Remorse of Conscience " (Ayenbite of Inwyt), in
the Kentish dialect, by Dan Michel of Northgate.
20. In the latter pak of this century England was full
of the striking tracts of Wycliffe and his followers ; but
these were under the severe censure of the Church, and
would be carefuUy avoided by the orthodox layman. Not
so, however, was the poem of the " Visions of Piers Plow
man," by WUliam Langland, one of the most important
and valuable compositions of the Middle Age in England.
William Langland was no foe to the Church ; he doubted not
her power nor her divine mission; but the miserable traffick-
1 The "Lay -folks' Mass-book" has been edited, with a profusion
of erudition, and a vast mass of valuable information as to mediaeval
reUgion, by Canon Simmons for the E. E. T. Society.

612 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
ing of religious quacks excited his soul to wrath, and the
grievously immoral and rotten state of society touched him
to the quick. It was as a moral censor that he wrote, not as
a religious objector. He speaks the language of the en
lightened conscience, and condemns the radically corrupt
state of religion, because of the corrupt evidences of it
apparent on every day. " He shows himself to us," says
his accomplished editor, " as a man of simple, noble, and
pure faith ; strong in saving common-sense, full of love for
his fellows, the friend of the poor, the adviser of the rich ;
with strong views on the duties of a king towards his sub
jects, together with a deep feeling of reverence towards the
kingly character ; unprejudiced, and even wUling to be
taught." 1
21. There are many other early English poems of about
this period which show a simple faith in and devotion to
the Saviour, and prove that, together with the great abuses
and corruptions which prevaUed, there was much genuine
and earnest religious feeling to be found. As to the know
ledge of Scripture possessed by laymen, though until the
era of Wycliffe but little had been translated into the ver
nacular,^ there were yet current rhyming manuals of the
facts of Scripture, which must have taught the people much
of its contents. The earliest of these was Bishop Grosse
teste's " Castel of Love," written in Norman-French, but
Anglicised in several dialects ; the " Story of Genesis and
Exodus," in English of the thirteenth century ; and in the
fourteenth, " Alliterative Poems," of which poem its learned
editor says — " These poems seem to have been -written for
the purpose of enforcing by line upon line and precept upon
precept resignation to the wUl of God ; purity of life as
manifested in thought, word, and deed ; obedience to the
di-vine command, and patience under affliction." * The de
vout teaching in Chaucer's " Parson's Tale " is probably
familiar to most readers. From all this it may perhaps be
1 Preface to Piers Plowman, by Eev. W. W. Skeat, p. xxx-viii
^ Some portions, as the Psalms and parts of Isaiah, were translated
by Eichard de Hampole. There were also, no doubt, other portions to
be found in English.
'' Dr. Morris's Preface to Alliterative Poems, p. ix. E. E. T. S.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 513
inferred that the religious tone, among the laity in the
Middle Ages of England was both superior to that which is
found among the clergy, and but little due to clerical teach
ing. There was not to the layman the mischievous influ
ence of an enforced celibacy, nor of a trafficking in holy
things, nor of a divided aUegiance between the Pope and
the State. The layman reverenced the Pope as in his view
the spiritual head of the Church, but the intrusions of his
jurisdiction into the land he was ever prepared stoutly to
resist. He paid his contribution to Peter's Pence, which
did not fall heavUy upon him,^ but any further exactions,
attempted by the Pope's collector, he was usuaUy able suc
cessfully to baffle.
22. Some of the less known and less regular sources of
instruction open to the layman in the Middle Ages have
been spoken of; but probably one of the chief aids to the
devout lay-churchman in the fifteenth century was the book
called The Primer. This was a book containing, partly in
Enghsh and partly in Latin, but sometimes, it would seem,
entirely in English, " The Hours of Our Lady ;" Evensong
and Compline ; The Seven Penitential Psalms ; The Fifteen
Psahns relating to the Seven Deadly Sins ; The Litany ;
The Placebo and Dirge ; ^ The Psalms of Commendation ;
Pater Noster ; Ave Maria ; Creed ; The Ten Command
ments ; The Seven Deadly Sins. Such a manual, which
was founded on shorter manuals of older date, would be of
the greatest assistance for private devotions.
23. But the layman of the fifteenth century was not
allowed by the clergy to be contented with practising quietly
his own devotions, and frequenting the ordinary church ser
vices. He was required to testify his devotion by more
conspicuous acts, viz. by going on some pilgrimage, and
paying his vows before some famous image. Archbishop
1 The composition for this tax from the whole kingdom was £201 : 9s.
In 1306, Clement V. endeavoured to raise it by levying an actual penny
from every household, but this was resisted. — Stubbs, Const. Hist,
iu. 305.^ That is, the Vespers and Matins, which formed the of&ce for the
dead — the first anthem at Vespers beginning with Placebo, the first at
Matins beginning with Dirige. — Procter's Prayer-Book, p. 423.
2 L

514 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [ohap. xxiv.
Arundel, at the trial of Oldcastle, declared, " Holy Church
hath determined that it is needful for a Christian man to
go a pilgrimage to holy places, and there especially to wor
ship holy relics of saints, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and
all saints approved by the Church of Rome." ' The
favourite pilgrimages in England were those to our Lady
of Walsingham, the rood at the north door of St. Paul's,^
and St. Thomas of Canterbury.
24. The Lollards vehemently objected to these pU
grimages, but they are defended with much skill and
vigour by Bishop Pecock, whose argument probably repre
sents what was generally urged by the clergy of his day
in support of this practice, so lucrative to many of them.
The bishop argues, " It is full reasonable and full worthy
that rememorative visible signs be had of all those now
spoken things. For without rememorative signs of a thing,
the remembrance of that thing or things must needs be the
feebler, and therefore, since the body or bones or other
relics of any person is a full nigh rememorative sign of the
same person, it is full reasonable and full worthy that where
the body and bones or any relic of a saint may be had, that
it be set up in a common place where people may have
devout access for to make the said remembrance. And as
it is not reasonable that such body and bones should be
left in the bare field, therefore it is full reasonable and
worthy for to build over those bodies and bones and other
relics, chapels or churches, and to buUd beside them altars
and choirs, that the office of praising God and of praying
to God and saints be better done. Ajid in a country
where no relic of a saint is to be found, that an image of
him be made aud set up, and a chapel or church budded ; and
because this is the case with Christ and his mother Mary,
it is reasonable that images of Christ crucified and of his
mother be made. And if it can be proved (as the bishop
asserts that it can) that at some of these images special
^ Fasdc, Zizan,, p. 442.
^ " It is vain waste and idle for to trot to Wasingham rather than
to each other place in which an image of Mary is ; and to the rode at
the north dore at London, rather than to each other roode in whatever
place it be." — Bepressor, i. 194.

CHAP. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 515
miracles are worked, then it is reasonable that men should go
on pUgrimage specially to those places which God chooses.
They do not go to worship the image, but to worship God
working in and by the image. This is not idolatry. For
idolatry is never done save when a man taketh a creature
for his God and worshippeth that creature ; but so doeth
no man with any image now in Christendom, after that the
man is come to years of discretion, and is passed childhood,
and is not a natural fooL" '
25. Closely connected with the subject of pilgrimage
and image-worship is that of indulgences. These were
always granted as a boon to the pilgrims, but what was
the moral effect of obtaining them ? Supposing that we
accept the notion that the indulgence is simply a com
mutation of penance, the paying of a sum of money or
performing an act such as a pilgrimage, instead of going
through so many days' penance for sins repented of and
confessed. Something on this ground might be urged in
its favour. It is clear, however, that the indulgence was
practicaUy worked as something much more than this. It
was held out as giving an actual pardon for sins neither
repented of nor confessed, and an actual remission and
freeing from the pains of purgatory. As such, whether
granted by English prelates, or sold by the Pope's traffick
ing agents, it could have no other than an absolutely
demoralising effect, and one of grievous mischief to the
rehgious life.^
26. It may perhaps be thought that the mischiefs done
to the laity by the mediaeval clergy in forcing them to
make pilgrimages, vexing them with a futUe discipline,
and deluding them with indulgences, are yet but small in
comparison with the injury done to them by the way in
which the doctrines of the Christian religion had been
1 " Eepressor of over much Blaming the Clergy,'' vol. i. pp. 148, 182.
2 Gascoigne is exceedingly severe on the retailing of Indulgences.
He says, " Isti qui concedunt Uteras iadulgenciarum discurrunt per
regiones, et dant aUquando Uteram pro duobus denariis, aliquando pro
bono haustu vini vel serevisise, aliquando pro lusu ad pUam si vincan-
tur, aUquando pro actu meretricio, aliquando pro amore carnali" —
Diet Theol. (ed. Eogers), p. 123.

516 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN [chap. xxiv.
manipulated to serve clerical profit and power. By laying
down the necessity of auricular confession ; by inventing the
scholastic theory, that in the consecrated Eucharist bread
and wine no longer remain, save in their accidents ; by
devising the fable of purgatory- — the clergy had provided
themselves with terrible weapons, against which the laity
could but feebly contend. All these doctrines, if accepted,
had a direct tendency to uphold the clergy in their position of
wealth and power. They had a direct tendency to humih-
ate and abase the laity before them, and the acceptance or
non-acceptance of them was not a matter of choice. They
were forced upon every man to hold, or at least to profess,
by the stake and the flame. Either a man's life must be
shamed and degraded by a scandalous retractation, or his
body must be burned in agonies if he ventured to differ
from these cherished assumptions of the clergy. The
records of the fifteenth century are a dreadful commentary
on the practical results of the Mediaeval Church.
27. The amount of wealth possessed by the clergy may
perhaps be fairly estimated by the amount of their con
tribution to the taxation of the country. This was nearly
one-third of the whole taxation of the nation.' And it
must be remembered that after the time of Edward I. the
clergy exercised, without much interference from the lay
power, the sole right of taxing themselves, and although
their contributions generaUy somewhat exceeded those of
the laity in proportion, they would nevertheless be estimated
on a fair basis of property value. Assurning, therefore, the
wealth of the clergy and the religious hou=es to bear this
proportion to that of the laity, it must also be remembered
that the clergy had a majority in the House of Lords,
houses of legislature of their own in the Convocations,
vast immunities conceded by the State, a system of judica
ture of their own, and a corporate cohesion, which was of
the utmost value for giving them power. They were thus
by far the most powerful body in the State, and in fact
there was no other body which could in any way contest
the palm of influence with them. And yet, though sup
ported by this elaborate system of props and defences, the
1 Stuhls,- Const Hist, iii. 365.

CH.4.P. XXIV.] THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 517
power of the clergy began in the fifteenth century to totter,
because by its misuse the conscience of the nation had been
outraged. 28. The first rude blow to the mass of superstition and
ignorance which had gradually accumulated in the Church
came from the hand of Erasmus, the acute scholar of
Rotterdam.' Educated among monks and canons, having
had experience of no less than four " rehgious " houses,
Erasmus had yet learned early in life utterly to despise the
system. Hq was at Oxford with Colet, Grocyn, Linacre,
and More, at the end of the fifteenth century, and it is to
the impressions made upon him at this period and by these
friends, that we must attribute the special bent which his
genius received. With an intellect of wonderful keenness,
a vast and comprehensive knowledge, Erasmus was yet
deficient in moral earnestness ; and he would probably have
been contented to go through life, like Rabelais, laughing
at the follies of the monks, but doing nothing to correct
them, had it not been for the influence of his friend Colet
To Colet's grave expostulations is to be attributed the
publication in 1504 of the Enchiridion Militis Christiani,
which its author declares was written not to display either
genius or eloquence, but simply for this, — to counteract the
vulgar error of those who think that religion consists in
ceremonies and in more than Jewish observances, while
they neglect what reaUy belongs to piety.^ In this book
Erasmus deals his blows with tremendous force against
many of the popular superstitions of the day — relic-hunting,
pilgrimages, saint-worship. The attack is repeated in his
preface to the Dialogues of Lucian (1506), where he ridicules
the men who think that they " lay Christ under a lasting
obligation by inventing fables about some saint." The
sathical power thus displayed was seen in its fullest and
most withering force in the Encomium Morioe, and the
Colloquies. With the constructive part of the work of
Erasmus we are not here concerned.^ John Colet was a
man of a different spirit from his friend. Impressed with
a feeling of bitter sadness for the moral debasement around
1 Born at Eotterdam, October 28, 1467. ^ Erasm. Ep. 102.
3 See Student's Eng. Ch. History (Second Period), Chap. I.

518 PEACTICAL EELIGION IN XV. CENTUEY. [chap.xxiv.
him, his first great effort was to reawaken attention to
Scripture, which, since the days of Wycliffe, had been held
in ill repute. By his lectures at Oxford on St. Paul, and
afterwards at his cathedral, when he became Dean of St.
Paul's in 1505, Colet attracted general attention, and gave
an impetus to the study of the sacred writings. He was
introduced to the court as a preacher by Warham, and
defended by him when accused of heresy. GraduaUy he
drew round him a band of earnest men, and became a
centre of considerable influence. Thus, at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, there were not wanting in England
indications of the presence of new powers and life in the
Church ; but to point out how these acted upon the whole
body is beyond the limits of this work, and wUl be found
fully treated in the History of the Second Period.

APPENDIX. 519

APPENDIX A.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OP THE ELECTION OF
BISHOPS IN THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND.
Abridged from Professor Stubbs's Constitutional History,
vols. i. and iii.
" In the earliest days the Kings of Northumbria and Kent deU-
berated on the election to Canterbury as a matter of international
interest; and in a.d. 1051, Edward the Confessor summarUy
sets aside the choice of the monks. Dunstan was appointed
' ex respectu divino et sapientum consUio.' Edward the Con
fessor appointed Archbishop Robert iu a Witenagemot at London,
and nominated Spearhafoc to London at the same time. Yet
nothing can be more certain than that in many cases the clergy,
and even the people of the dioceses, were consulted. Alcuin
-writes to the priests of York urging them to make a right
election. The Chapter of St. Paul's could exhibit a buU of
Pope Agatho conferring on them the exclusive right. A bishop
of Lichfield, in the ninth century, declares himself elected by
the whole church of the province ; and Helmstan of Winchester,
in A.D. 839, mentions the pope, the king, the church of Win
chester, and all the bishops, optimates, and nation of the West
Saxons as joining in Ms appointment. It is probable that under
the heptarchic kings the action of the churches was compara
tively free in this respect, and that the restriction was a result
of the gro-wth of royal power ; but that like all other ecclesias
tical business the appointment of bishops was a matter of
arrangement between the parties concerned ; the election by
the clergy was the rule in quiet times and for the less important
sees ; the nomination by the king in the Witenagemot was fre
quent in the case of the archiepiscopal and greater sees ; the

620 APPENDIX.
consent of the national assembly to the admission of a new
member to their body being in all cases implied, on behalf of
the most important element in it, by the act of consecration
performed by the oompro-vincial bishops. . . . The struggle
between Henry I. and Anselm on the question of investiture
terminated in a compromise, which placed the election in the
hands of the chapters of the cathedrals, the consecration iu that
of the metropolitan and comprovincial bishops, and the be
stowal of temporal estates and authority in the hands of the
king. Stephen, at his accession, confirmed to the churches the
right of canonical election. Henry IL and Eichard observed the
form ; and John, shortly before he granted the Great Charter,
issued as a bribe to the bishops a shorter charter confirming the
right of free election, subject to the royal license and approval,
neither of which was to be withheld without just cause. The
charter of John may be regarded as the fuUest and final recog
nition of the canonical right which had been maintained as the
common law of the Church ever since the Conquest, which had
been ostensibly respected sLuoe the days of Henry I., and which
the Crown, however often it evaded it, did not henceforth at
tempt to override. The earher practice recorded in the Consti
tutions of Clarendon, according to which the election was made
in the Curia Regis in a national councU, or in the royal chapel
before the justiciar — a relic perhaps of nominating the prelates in
the Witenagemot — was superseded by this enactment. The elec
tion took place in the chapter-house of the cathedral, and the
king's vrishes were signified by letter or message, not as before
by direct dictation. When the elected prelate had obtained the
royal assent to Ms promotion, the election was examined and
confirmed by the Metropolitan, and the ceremony of consecration
completed the spiritual character of the bishop. On his con
firmation the elected prelate received the spiritualties of Ms See,
the right of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ms diocese, which,
during the vacancy, had been in the hands of the archbishop or
the chapter ; and at his consecration, he made a profession of
obedience to the archbishop and the metropolitan church. From
the Crovm, before or after consecration, he received the temporal-
ties of his See, and thereupon made to the king a promise of
fealty, answering to the homage and fealty of a temporal lord.
It was not tiU the thirteenth century that the popes began to
interfere directly in the appointments of the suffragan sees ; over
the metropolitans they had long before attempted to exercise a

APPENDIX. 621
controlling influence in two ways — by the gift of the pall, and
by the appointment of legations. . . . The papal interference in
the appointment of suffragans might be justified either by sup
posing the confirmation of an undisputed election to be needed,
or by the judicial character of the Apostolic See in cases of dis
pute or appeal If we set aside the instances of papal inter
ference which belong to the missionary stage of Anglo-Saxon
Church history, the first cases in which direct recourse to Rome
was adopted for the appointment of bishops were those of Giso
of Wells, and Walter of Hereford. These two prelates having
doubts about the canonical competency of Archbishop Stigand,
went to Nicolas IL, in 1061 and received consecration at his
hands. In this case the actual nomination had been made at
home, and the question at issue was one which might fairly be
referred to the arbitration of the Apostolic See. ... As soon
as the clergy under Stephen had obtained a real voice in the
election of bishops, questions were raised which had the effect
of referring numberless cases to the determination of the Pope
as supreme judge. The King's right of licensing and of assenting
or of -withholding assent to the election, was backed up by his
power of influencing the electors. In every chapter he had a
party who would vote for his nominee, if he cared to press one
upon them ; the shadowy freedom of election left room for other
competition besides ; the overt exercise of such royal influence,
the frequent suspicion of simony, and the various methods of
election — by inspiration, by compromise, or by scrutiny, were
fruitful iu occasions for appeal. ... At the end, however, of the
twelfth century the relations of the tMee parties were sufficiently
weU ascertained. The royal license and assent were indispen
sable. The elective right of the chapters and the archiepiscopal
confirmation were formaUy admitted, and the power of the Pope
to determine aU causes wMch arose upon disputed questions was
too strongly founded in practice to be controverted. This power
was, however, in the case of the suffragans an appellate jurisdic
tion only. It was the archbishops alone who required papal
confirmation and recognition by the gift of the paU ; nor, al
though Pascal II. had claimed a right to take cognisance of and
to confirm aU elections, was the metropolitan authority of Can
terbury and York as yet overruled. The claim of the bishops
to take part in the election of the archbishops, wMch was occa
sionaUy enforced during the twelfth century, was rejected by
Innocent IIL, and was never raised afterwards. . . . The free-

522 APPENDIX.
dom of election promised by John resulted in a freedom of liti
gation, and little more. The attempts of Henry III. to influence
the chapters were undignified and unsuccessful. His candidates
were seldom chosen ; the Pope had a plentiful harvest of appeals.
Between 1215 and 1264 there were not fewer than thirty dis
puted elections carried to Rome for decision. . . . Under Edward
I. there were only twelve cases of the kind ; yet, although the
rarity of the appeals shows the king to have become stronger,
they were so managed by the Popes as to increase their own
influence, and the result was the extinction, for more than a
century, of the elective right of the chapters. . . . From the
begianing of the fourteenth century the Pope's interference in
the appointment- of bishops takes a new form, and he assumes
the patronage as well as the appeUate jurisdiction. This was
done by the application to the episcopate of the rights of pro-vi
sion and reservation, wMch had been -exercised long before in
the case of the lower preferments. ... By the Statute of Pro
visors, 1 35 1, it was enacted that aU persons recei-ving papal
provisions should be liable to imprisonment, and that all the
preferments to wMch the Pope nominated should be forfeit for
that tum to the King. But even this bold measure, in wMch
the good sense of the Parliament condemned the proceedings of
the Pope, was turned by royal manipulation to the advantage
of the Cro-wn alone. A system was devised which saved the
dignity of aU parties. When a See became vacant, the King sent
to the chapter his license to elect, accompanied or foUowed by a
letter nomiaatiag the person whom he would accept if elected.
He also, by letter to the Pope, requested that the same person
might be appointed by papal pro-vision. With equal complai
sance the Popes pro-vided and the chapters elected. The Pope
retained, however, the nomination to Sees vacant by translation,
wMch vacancies he took care to multiply. TMs arrangement
was very displeasing to the country, for the question of patron
age, in other cases besides bishoprics, was becoming complicated
to an extreme degree. . . . Henry V., among the other pious
acts by wMch he earned the support of the clergy, restored the
right of election to the chapters, the ParUament also agreeing
that the confirmation of the election should be performed as it
had been of old by the Metropolitans. For two or tMee years
the whole of the long-disused process was re-rived, and the
Church was free. But Martin V., when he found Mmself seated
firmly on Ma tMone, was not content to wield less power than

APPENDIX. 623
his predecessors had claimed. He provided thirteen bishops in
two years, and threatened to suspend CMchele's legation, because
he was unable to procure the repeal of the restraining statutes.
. . . Under Henry VII. and Henry VIII. the royal nominees
were invariably chosen ; the Popes had other objects in -view
than the influencing of the national churches, and the end of
their domination was at hand. The clergy, too, were unable to
stand alone against royal and papal pressure, and placed them
selves at the disposal of the Government. The Government was
ready to use them, and paid for their service by promotion."

524 APPENDIX

APPENDIX B.
CONSTITUTIONS OF CANTERBURY AND YORK:
FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.
[The cMef Constitutions of the Metropolitans of the two
Pro-vinces, not noticed in the Text, or in Notes and lUus
trations, are here given.]
Constitutions op Archbishop Winchelsea, published
AT Merton, 1305.
1 and 2 Regulate the payment of tithes.
3 Ordains that the second best animal belonging to a man
go to the church at his death as a mortuary fee.
4. List of ornaments to befoundbythe parishioners. — A Legend,
an Antiphoner, a GraU, a Psalter, a Troper, an Ordinal, a
Missal, a Manual, a ChaUoe, the principal Mass-vestment -with
Chasuble, a Dalmatic, a Tunic, a Choral Cope and its appen
dages, a Frontal for the Altar, 3 Towels, 3 Surplices, 1 Rochet,
a Cross for Processions, a Cross for the dead, a Censer, a Lantern,
a Hand-Bell, a Pyx, a decent veU for Lent, Banners for the
Rogations, Bells with ropes, a Bier for the dead, a Vessel for
holy water, an Osculatory, a Candlestick, a Font -with lock and
key, the Images of the Church, the. chief Image in the chancel;
the enclosure of the Churchyard, the repair of the body of the
Church -witMn and -without, the images, the glass -windows, the
repair of books and vestments. The rectors and -vicars are to
repair all the rest, the chancel and whatever is here omitted, or
they to whom it belongs, at their own cost.
Canon 5 regulates the beha-riour of Chantry priests (Stipendi
ary) towards the Incumbents of the Churches, and forbids them
to hear confessions.
Canon 6 gives minute directions as to Tithes.

APPENDIX. 525
Constitutions of Archbishop Reynolds, published
at oxeord, 1322.
1. None to be ordained without canomcal examination.
Simoniacs, manslayers, excommunicates, usurers, sacrUegious
persons, incendiaries, falsaries, those under canonical impediment,
to be incapable of orders. Those who have been ordained in
Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or elsewhere, to exMbit letters com
mendatory before beiug allowed to ofiioiate. Monks to be
ordained by the bishop of the diocese.
2. ChUdren to be taken to the bishop for confirmation " as
soon as may be after baptism." On the third day afterwards to
be taken to the Church, that their foreheads may be washed by
the priest to remove the holy oil, and the cloths which were
bound round their heads burnt. No chUd to be held at con
firmation by its father or mother, stepfather or stepmother.
Holding a cMld at confirmation estabUshes spiritual affinity.
3. Priests to exhort the people to receive extreme unction,
which may be repeated every year.
4. The Eucharist to be kept in a pyx of ivory or silver, not ¦
reserved above seven days ; to be carried to the sick with due
reverence ; linen cloths and ornaments of the altar to be decent ;
two suits of priest's vestments to be provided, those who tend
the altar to wear surpUces.
5. The priest to be very careful in. saying mass, " nor
tMotigh affectation to make the office nauseous to the hearers."
The priest not to celebrate mass tUl he hath finished Matins,
Prime, and Undem (Tierce) ; aU clerks to wear surpUoes ; two
candles to be lighted at mass. Priests, if they have committed
mortal sin, to make special confession. The general confession
only purges venial sins.
6. Archdeacons in their visitations to inspect the ornaments
of the Church, and to provide that repairs be executed.
7. Matrimony to be celebrated in the face of the Church.
PubUcation of banns to be made on three Lord's days preceding.
8 Regulates confession ; and
9 Sentences any priest who betrays confession to degrada
tion. 10. Priests to be appointed in each deanery to hear the
confessions of the clergy. Hermits, friars, monks, not to admit
strangers to penance.

526 APPENDIX.
Constitutions op Archbishop Mepham, published at
St. Paul's, London, 1328.
Some extracts from these are given, p. 401.
Constitutions op Archbishop Stratford, published London,
1342. (CaUed also Extravagants or Addenda.)
1. Priests not to celebrate mass in private oratories.
2. Clerks not to be charged above twelvepence for certifi
cates of institution, and not above sixpence for letters of orders.
3. Only moderate fees to be charged for induction, i.e. forty-
pence to the archdeacon ; Ms official (if he aot) two shiUings.
4. " Religious " who have benefices to give a portion of the
revenues thereof to the poor.
5. " Religious " owning property in a parish to be subject to
the burden of repairing the Parish Church equaUy -vrith the
parishioners. 6. In pro-ring -wills no fees to be taken by the bishop. Six
pence to be aUowed for making certificates if the goods do not
exceed thirty shiUings, and ten onward in proportion.
7. In -riew of the great abuses practised by archdeacons, who
demand procurations without visiting churches, it is ordered that
no procuration be paid unless the church be properly visited ;
that not more than one procuration be received in a day.
Victuals suppKed may be reckoned as procuration. Fines inflicted
for lack of repair to be used for the purposes of the fabric.
8. Consistories and courts ecclesiastical only to be summoned
in the cMef places of the diocese, where pro-visions may be easUy
had. 9. Inasmuch as the clergy are greatly vexed by the multi
tude of apparitors who make demands of them, it is ordained
that each bishop have only one riding apparitor, and each arch
deacon one foot apparitor, who shall only have right of lodg
ing with the clergy for one night.
10. Penance for grievous sin not to be commuted for money
" where the offender hath relapsed more than twice." Excessive
corporal punishment not to be used in order to frighten men
into compounding.
11. Persons accused of crimes to be allowed to make their
purgation in the deanery where they are accused.
12. A fee of one penny, and no more, to be charged by the

APPENDIX. 627
archdeacon for entering the name of a clergyman in the roll of
the clergy. 13. Clerks obtaining by false representations presentations
from the Crovm' to benefices which are not vacant, and prosecut
ing the bishops in secular courts, for not admitting them, to be
excommunicated. 14. Those who legaUy gain the right of patronage in the
king's courts to be aUowed by the ordinary to present.
Archbishop Stratford's Constitutions, published a.d. 1343.
I. Offenders against the laws to be denounced pubUcly as
excommunicate. 2. " The prevailing excesses of the clergy as to tonsure,
garments, and trappings, give abominable scandal to the people,
because such as have dignities, parsonages, honourable prebends,
and benefices -with cure, and even men in holy orders, scorn the
tonsure (which is the mark of perfection and of the heavenly
kingdom), and distinguish themselves -with hair hanging down
to their shoulders in an effeminate manner ; and apparel them
selves hke soldiers rather than clerks, with an upper coat short
and tight, with long hanging sleeves, and not covering the
elbows, their hair curled and powdered, and caps with tippets
(? tassels) of a wonderful length, -with long beards, and rings on
their fingers, girt -with girdles exceeding large and costly, having
purses enameUed with figures and various sculptures gilt, hang
ing, with kmves like swords in open -riew ; their shoes chequered
with red and green, exceeding long and variously pinked ; with
cruppers to their saddles, and baubles like horns hanging down
on the necks of their horses, and cloaks furred on the edges, con
trary to canonical sanctions, so that there is no distinction
between clerks and laics, wMch renders them unworthy of the
privUege of their order ; we therefore, to ob-riate these mis
carriages as weU of the masters and scholars within the univer
sities of our province, as of those without, -with the approbation
of this sacred synod, do ordain and charge that all beneficed
men, those especiaUy in holy orders in our pro-rince, have their
tonsure as comports with the state of clergymen, and if any of
them do exceed by going in a conspicuously short and close upper
garment, vrith long or unreasonably -wide sleeves, not covering
the elbow, but hanging down, -with hair undipped, long beards,
with rings on their fingers in public (excepting those of honour
and dignity), or exceed in any particular before expressed, they

528 APPENDIX.
shaU incur penalties as follows. ... Yet by this constitution
we intend not to abridge clerks of open-wide surcoats, called
table-coats, vrith fitting sleeves to be used at seasonable times
and places, nor of short close garments while they are travel-
Ung in the country at their o-wn discretion. But because
bishops cannot -with a good face reprehend others, if they do
not reform themselves and their domestics in tMs respect, we
ordain that the bishops of this province observe a decorum in
their tonsure, habits, and other points before mentioned, and
cause it to be observed by such clerks as dwell with them."
3 Regulates the farming of benefices.
4 and 5. Tithes.
6 ProMbits laymen from taking away what had been offered
in church. 7 and 8 Regulate the execution of -wills.
9 Forbids estates to be disposed of while the giver is aUve.
10 Forbids watching by the dead.
1 1 Forbids priests to marry those that do not belong to their
parish. 12 Is directed against those who obstruct the process of
ecclesiastical courts.
13 Forbids secular officers to release excommunicates from
prison. 14 and 15 Forbid laymen to encroach on the goods of the
church. 16 Forbids maUcious prosecutions.
Archbishop Islbp's Constitutions, 1351, touching the
Imprisonment op Clerks.
Complaint having been made that the secular judges seized
and tried clerks, and even condemned them to death, it was
answered that the imprisonment of clerks by their ordinaries
was a mere pretence ; that clerks were " deUciously fed in the
prison intended for a punishment ; that this was turned into a
refreshment and delicious solace ; that they were pampered in
their vices by ease and such excitements, and make their escape
when they wiU out of custody." It was therefore ordained
that aU clerks taken by their ordinaries " be closely imprisoned
vrith aU proper care and expedition, according to the quality of
the persons and heinousness of their crimes, that they may not
to the scandal of the Church return to their former way of life
from an imprisonment intended as a punishment And if any

APPENDIX. 629
clerks so delivered are notoriously infamous malefactors, or
guUty by their own confession of felonies or other grievous
crimes, and so publicly defamed that they cannot deny that the
crimes were committed by them, or that their enlargement
would bring manifest scandal to the Church and her liberty, or
to the tranquillity of the kingdom ; that then every Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday they be aUowed once a day only bread
and water of affliction ; on other days bread and small beer ;
but on the Lord's Day, bread, beer, and pulse for the honour
and eminence of that day ; (and for others) we -wUl that such
caution be used that there be no proceedings made towards their
purgation in a judicial manner tiU dUigent inquiry be first made
concerning their way of life, reputation, etc., vrithout gi-ving any
warning of this inquiry to their acquaintance or friends."
Archbishop Islep's Constitution, a.d. 1359.
" Though it be prorided by sanctions of law and canon that
all Lord's days be venerably observed from eve to eve, so that
neither markets, negotiations, nor courts pubUc or private, ecclesi
astical or secular, be kept, or any country work done on those
days, that so every faithful man remembering Ms creation may
then at least go to Ms parish church, ask pardon for his offences,
supply his omissions and commissions for the whole week,
honour the di-rine mysteries, leam and keep the commandments
of the Church, there expounded, and earnestly pour out prayers
to God in the churches that are consecrated from above for
places of prayer, not only for themselves, but for every degree of
men, whether of the secular or ecclesiastical part, laying aside
aU worldly care ; yet we are clearly informed that a detestable
perverseness has prevaUed, insomuch that in many places mar
kets, unlavrful meetings of men who neglect their churches,
various tumults and other occasions of e-yil, are committed,
revels and drunkenness and many other dishonest things are
practised, and the worship of God and the saints ceaseth by
reason of the absence of the faithful people ; the sacred mysteries
are not had in due veneration, and the mutual support of men
in praying is withdrawn . . . wherefore we strictly command
you, our brother (the Bishop of London), that you without
delay canonicaUy admonish and effectually persuade in virtue of
obedience those of your subjects whom you shall find culpable
in the premisses, that they do wholly abstain from markets,
courts, and the other unlawful practices above described, on the
2 M

530 APPENDIX.
Lord's days for the future ; and that such of them as are come
to years of discretion do go to their parish churches, to do,
hear, and receive what the duty of the day requires of them ;
and that ye restrain all whatsoever that transgress and rebel in
this respect both in general and particular, vrith Church censures
according to the canon. And that you do further enjoin your
flock that they do in their prayers at church most devoutly
recommend the king, the noblemen of the kingdom, and aU
others whatsoever that attend him in his expedition, to the Lord
most Mgh, the King of kings, and make two customary proces
sions about their churches and churchyards every week for them
and for the peace of the kingdom."
Archbishop Islep's Constitution, a.d. 1362.
" We are certainly informed by common fame and experience
that modern priests, through covetousness and love of ease, not
content vrith reasonable salaries, demand excessive pay for their
labour, and receive it ; and do so despise labour and study
pleasure that they wholly refuse to serve as parish priests in
churches or chapels, or to attend the cure of souls, though fltting
salaries are offered them, that they may live in an idle manner
by celebrating annals for the quick and dead ; and so parish
churches and chapels remain unserved, destitute of parocMal
chaplains, and even proper curates, to the grievous danger of
souls ; and the said priests, pampered vdih excessive salaries,
discharge their intemperance in vomit and lust, grow wild, and
dro-wn themselves in the abyss of -rice, to the great scandal of
ecclesiastics and the evU example of laymen : We, therefore,
desiring a quick cure of tMs plague, do, -with the advice and
consent of our bretMen, enact and ordain that aU unbeneficed
chaplains, especially such as are quaUfied for parocMal churches
and chapels and the cure of souls, be bound to officiate and
attend them at the moderate salaries mentioned below, postpon
ing aU private and peculiar services of any persons whatsoever
when required by the diocesan or any ordinary judge competent
in this respect. And if they neglect to comply for twenty days,
let them know, unless there be a la-wful impediment, that they
are thereby to incur suspension from office. And we enact and
ordain that chaplains and they who celebrate annals, and aU
who do not attend the cure of souls, be content -with five marks,
but such as officiate in parish churches and the cure of souls
thereto belonging, with six marks for their annual stipends.

APPENDIX. 631
unless the diocesan, in regard to the largeness of the parish, or
for some other la-wful cause, do otherwise in Ms discretion
determine." And no priest is to be received into a diocese
unless he show commendatory letters from the bishop of the last
diocese where he officiated.
[SimUar provisions, with some variations, are repeated in
subsequent Constitutions of this archbishop, both as to
salaries and obUgations of priests and the observance of
Sundays and holidays.]
Archbishop Langham's Constitutions, 1367.
'• 2. Appro-ving and promoting what was set on foot with
a regard to the health of souls and bodies, that is the pro
hibition of sootales and other drinking bouts, we charge
rectors, ricars, and other parish chaplains that they by frequent
exhortations earnestly persuade their parishioners that they do
not rashly violate this prohibition, or else that they denounce
such as they find culpable in this respect, suspending them from
entering the church and from participation in the sacrament, till,
setting aside other penalties, they go to our penitentiary humbly
to' receive whatever we shall enjoin as a penance for such lians-
gression. Wben a multitude of men, exceeding ten in number,
stay long in the same house for drinking's sake, we declare these
to be common drinking bouts. But we mean not to comprehend
traveUers and strangers, and such as meet, though in taverns, at
fairs and markets, under tMs proMbition Detesting these com
mon drinking bouts, wMch by a change of name they caU
charity scotales, we charge that the authors of such, and they
who meet at them, be pubUcly excommuMcated tiU they have
made competent satisfaction
" 3. Let none presume to celebrate mass twice a day unless on
the day of the Nativity or Resurrection of the Lord, or when one
has a corpse to bury, and then let not the celebrator drink the
washings of his fingers and the cup."
Archbishop Sudbury's Constitutions, 1378.
1. Chantry priests to receive seven marks or their diet and
tMee marks, and parish priests eight marks or diet and four
marks. 3. Women to confess in a public place, where they can
be seen but not heard, and -without the veU. 4. Confessions to
be made thrice in the year, and men to be enjoined to communi-

532 APPENDIX.
cate as often, viz. Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. Abstinence
to be practised previously. Confession and commuMon, at least
at Easter, imperative.
Constitution op Archbishop Courtney, 1391,
Enjoins that aU who are presented to benefices should make
corporal oaths that they have not given or promised anything to
the presenter or any other person, nor undertaken to resign or
exchange their benefices, and that in case of exchange no proxies
be aUowed without the presence of the principals ; and that non
residents be caUed to do their duty, and simomacal possessors of
churches be censured, and that " the accursed partakers -with
Gehazi and Simon, the " choppe-churches," who cMefiy are in
London, be in general admomshed to desist from such procurings,
changings, and trickings made in their conventicles and simon
iacal assembUes for the future ; " and aU bargains made are to be
declared nuU, and the makers of them enjoined penance, and the
-wicked merchants of the Lord's inheritance be struck -with the
sword of ecclesiastical censure, especiaUy such of them as are in
orders. [For a notice of Archbishop Arundel's Constitutions against
LoUards (a.d. 1409) see page 460.]
Archbishop Chichele's Constitutions, 1415.
1 Decrees that special days be kept in honour of St. George
the martyr, St. Da-rid and St. Chad, bishops, and St Winifred,
-virgin and martyr.
2. That married and bigamous clerks be not admitted to any
spiritual jurisdiction or ecclesiastical office.
A.D. 1416.
1 Orders diligent search to be made for those suspected of
heresy, and process to be taken against them.
2. That the feast of St John of Beverley be observed.
A.D. 1430
Condemns the using of the " aunceU " weight by merchants in
their purchases from producers.
[TMs appears to have been a method of weighing by holding
the beam of the balance on the finger, and might easUy
give opportunity for fraud in dexterous hands.]

APPENDIX. 633
A.D. 1434
Gives the form for the general excommumcation to be pro
nounced in parish churches " at least on three Lord's days in the
year, that is, on the first Lord's day in Lent, the first Lord's day
after Trinity, the first Lord's day in Advent, as foUows : —
" First they be accursed that presume to take away or deprive
any church of the right that belongeth thereto, or else against
right to destroy, break, or trouble the Uberties of the church.
And also those that purchase any manner of letters from any
temporal court, to let any process of spiritual judges, in such
cases as belong to spiritual courts ; and all those that with people
and noise come to spiritual courts, and put the judges or parties
that there plead in fear; or else, forasmuch as the parties sue in
spiritual court such causes as belong to spiritual courts, make or
procure any of the said parties, advocates, proctors, or other
ministers of spiritual courts, to be indited or arrested, or any
wise be vexed. Also they that presume to destroy and trouble
the ease and tranquiUity of the king and his realm of England,
and those that -wrongfully -withhold any right that belongeth to
the king. Also all those that vrittingly bear false witness or
procure false -witness to be borne, or else -wittingly bring forth
in judgment false -witness to let right matrimony, or procure
disheriting of any person. Also, aU those that of malice put any
crime of slander to man or woman, the wMch were not slandered
before among good men and worthy, so that he or she should be
called to judgment, a purgation assigned to. them on the said
crime, or grieved in any other -wise. And also those that receive
the king's -writs or commandments to take such as be accursed,
for need or favour or any other -wUful causes they do not due execu
tion thereof, and those that let such executions or procure wrong
ful deUverance of such that be accursed. And also aU those
that take wasting or -withdra-wing out of house, manors, granges,
or other places of archbishops, bishops, or any other person of
Holy Church against their -wUl, or against the wUl of such
persons as are ordained and deputed keepers thereof Also all
those that draw out of sanctuary any man or woman that flee to
chuich or churchyard, or cloister, for girth or impumty of Holy
Church, or let or forbid necessary UveUhood to be given to such
persons being -within sanctuary. And those that put -riolent
hands on priest or on clerk. Also aU those that use any vritch-
craft, or give thereto faith and credence, and all false swearers,
and others that are forsworn on book, or off any other holy

634 APPENDIX.
thing. And all those that do simony or sacrilege, heretics,
Lollards, and fautors of any famous thieves, robbers, rievers, and
ravishers ; falsaries of the Popes, or the Kings, or of any ordinary
of Holy Church. And they that let execution of true testaments
or last -wUls, and withholders of tithes or any other spiritual
commodities that belong to Holy Church."
1439.
That those who sue in ecclesiastical courts for the augmenta
tion of small ricarages may be aUowed to plead in formS, pauperis.
Archbishop Stappord's Constitution, 1445,
Decrees the observation of the Feast of the Translation of Edward
the Confessor. Archbishop Bourchier's Constitution, 1454,
Ordains that all clerks and laics in cathedral, coUegiate, and
parochial churches, on Lord's days and festivals, celebrate pro
cessions " in a most devout, affectionate, and solemn manner, and
sing or say the Utames with other suffrages that are seasonable
and acceptable to God, as weU on those Lord's Days and festivals,
as on every Wednesday and Friday, vrith aU humlMty of heart,
for the driring away and removing far from the bounds of the
Christian world the -wicked powers of them that are enemies to
the Christian orthodox faith, and its professors, and for the total
extinguishing and (may God so please) the exterminating of them,
and for restoring and perfecting the weKare of our lord the
king and this famous kingdom of England."
A.D. 1463.
I. That no arrests are to be made in churches.
2 Regulates the apparel of the clergy. .(See page 502.)
[Constitutions of the pro-rince of York set forth by Arch
bishops Zouche, Thoresby, Kemp, and NevU.]
Archbishop Zouche's Constitutions, a.d. 1347.
1. Stipendiary chaplains not to receive more than six marks
annual payment ; no chantries to be served untU the parish
churches are prorided with chaplains at tMs payment.
2. Mothers and nurses not to have their infants in bed with
them for fear of overlaying them.

APPENDIX. 635
3. Clergy not to be disturbed or impeded in taking away
their tithe-corn.
4. Persons not to be allowed to alienate their property when
aUve, instead of -wiUing it.
5. Priests not to wear clothes " ridiculous and remarkable
for their shortness."
6. Archdeacons and others having ecclesiastical jurisdiction
to appoint fit persons to be their substitutes.
7. Clandestine marriages forbidden. Banns to be always
published on three holy days. Strict inquiries to be made.
Arohbishop Thoresbt's Constitution, 1363.
1. Markets not to be held in churches, or the porches and
cemeteries thereof, on the Lord's day or other festivals, and no
" -wrestlings, fightings, or shootings," to be performed therein.
2. VigUs and exequies for the dead to be observed with
solemmty and prayer for the dead, and not polluted with the
grievous excesses which often accompany them.
3 Renews Archbishop Zouche's Constitution as to the salary
of stipendiary priests.
4 Gives modifications as to the excommunication incurred
for clandestine marriages.
5 Gives a Ust of the greater crimes which either incur
irregularity, or are reserved for absolution to the Apostolic See.
[These are in number 37. No. 19 is as follows]: — "When
archdeacons, deans, rural deans, provosts, chanters, and other
clergymen that have parsonages, and priests, study law or physic,
unless within two months' space they wholly desist." No. 33.
" When one is ordained out of the Ember days or otherwise in
an uiUa-wful maimer, and ministers before he has obtained a
dispensation." Archbishop Kemp's Constitutions, a.d. 1444.
1 Repeats Archbishop Winchelsea's Constitution (No. 5),
as to stipendiary priests in their relations to the incumbents of
churches. 2 Forbids abbots and other heads of religious houses to sell
the goods of the house, or to seU. or grant " corrodies," or to let
churches to farm, or to give away the goods belonging to the
commumty, " by occasion whereof their monasteries, houses, and
places thereunto belonging, are under great want of repair and

536 APPENDIX.
ready to fall, divine worsMp in such places is diminished, regular
observances are neglected, and the goods of such places are wasted
and to our great grief consumed."
By a Constitution passed by William Booth, Archbishop of
York, at a Convocation in his Cathedral Church a.d.
1462,
It was agreed as foUows : —
"The prelates aud clergy in Convocation 1462 do unani
mously wiU and grant that the. effects of the pro-vincial constitu
tions of the province of Canterbury, had and observed before
these times, being no wise repugnant or prejudicial to the Con
stitutions of York, be admitted, and not otherwise, nor in any
other manner ; and that such Constitutions of the pro-vince of
Canterbury, and the effects thereof in manner aforesaid, be in
serted among the Constitutions of the province of York and
incorporated, to be kept together with them for the future, and
be observed for law, as there is great occasion, and as decency
requires." [Notwithstanding this acceptance. Archbishop NevU, 1466,
thought it necessary to confirm speciaUy some of the
Canterbury Constitutions.]
1. He confirms in Synod Const 9 of Archbishop Peckham,
beginning the " ignorance of priests."
2. The fifth of Archbishop Stratford for tithe of timber
trees. 3. The ninth of Stratford against fraudulent deeds of gifts.
4 and 5. The tweKth of Stratford against obstruction of
ecclesiastical process.
6. The last of Stratford against fraudulent suits.
[Adding these new ones.]
7. To check the proceedings of " questors " or the seUers of
indulgences, not allowing them to exceed iu their offers of indul
gences what has been published by authority of the Pope.
" Some questors, -with extreme impudence and to the deception
of souls, have granted indulgences to the people from a motion
of their own, have dispensed -with vows, have absolved from
murders, perjuries, and other sins, have remitted what has been
stolen for an uncertain sum of money given unto them, have
relaxed a third or fourth part of penances enjoined, have falsely
affirmed that they have drawn three or more souls of the parents

APPENDIX. 537
and friends of those who have given them alms out of purgatory
and conveyed them to the joys of paradise, have given plenary
remission of sins to thefr benefactors in the places where they
were questors, and, to use their own words, have absolved them
from aU punishment and guilt."
8 Ordains that aU are to contribute to the Parish Church,
even though they may have to contribute to private chapels.
9 Ordains that monks are not to Uve alone, absent from
monasteries. 10 Forbids arrests in Church.
1 1 Is the same (nearly) -with sixth of Archbishop Winchel
sea's, regulating tithes.

639

TABLE OF SUCCESSION OF ENGLISH KINGS, AECHBISHOPS
OF CANTEEBUEY, AND POPES.

Kraos OF

Archbishops of

Date.

Eng LAND.

Canteeediit.

Popes.

Date.

590

Gregory the Great
590
597
Augustine .
597
604
...
Lawrence .
Sabinianus . . .
604
606
...
Boniface III. . .
606
607
...
Boniface IV. . .
607
614
Deusdedit . . .
614
617
...
Boniface V. . .
617
619
Mellitus
619
624
Justus. . , ,
624
626
...
Honorius I. . .
626
627
...
Honorius
627
639
...
Severinus . . .
639
639
...
...
Johu IV. . . .
639
641
...
...
Theodorus . . .
641
649
...
^
Martin I. . .
649
655
...
Deusdedit .
Eugenius . .
655
655
...
Vitatianus . .
655
668
...
Theodore
668
669
...
,,
Adeodatus . . .
669
676
...
...
Domnus . . .
676
678
...
...
Agathon . . .
678
683
...
...
Leo II 
683
684
.a.
..
Benedict II. . .
684
685
*••
...
JohnV. . . .
685
686
Conon ....
686
687
Sergius ....
687
693
Bertwald
...
693
701
...
...
John VI. . . .
701
705
...
...
John VII. . . .
705
708
...
Sinsinius I., Con
stantine
708
714
...
...
Gregory II. .
714
731
Tatwin
Gregory HI. . .
731
735
Nothelm
735
741
Cuthbert
Zachary . . .
741
752
...
Stephen II. & III.
752
757
Paul I 
757
759
Breogwine .
759
763
...
Jaenbert
763
768
...
Stephen IV. . .
768
772
...
Adiian I. . . .
772
540 TABLE OF SUCCESSION OF ENGLISH KINGS,

Kings or

AaCHBISHOPS OF

Date.

England.

Canteeburt.

Popes.

Date.

790

Ethelheard .
790
795
*.•
Leo III."" . . .
795
805
Wulfred
803
816
...
Stephen V. . .
816
817
Pascal L . . .
817
824
...
Eugenius II. . .
824
827
Egbert . .
...
Valentin . . .
827
827
Gregory IV. , .
827
829
FleogUd *".
...
829
830
Ceolnoth . ,
830
836
Ethelwulf .
...
...
836
844
...
...
Sergius II. . .
844
847
...
Leo IV. . . .
847
854
...
Benedict IIL. .
854
858
Ethelbald
.*.
Nicholas I. . .
868
860
Ethelberht .
.•¦
...
860
866
Ethebed . .
,»>
...
866
867
¦>*
Adrian II. . . .
867
870
Ethelred .
...
870
871
Alfred".' . .
• a.
871
872
...
Johu Viii. . .
872
882
...
...
Martin II. . . .
882
884
...
...
Adrian III. . .
884
885
Stephen VL . .
885
891
Plegmund ,
Formosus . . .
891
897
... j
Boniface VL . )
Stephen VII. . \
897
901
Edward the
... j
Theodorus II. . )
John IX. . . (
Elder
901
905
Benedict IV. . .
905
906
: !
LeoV. . . . )
Christopher . )
906
907
Sergius III. . .
907
910
...
• ..
Anastatius III. .
910
912
...
...
Lando ....
912
913
...
JohnX . . .
913
923
...
athelm
923
925
Athelstan . .
...
925
928
Wulfhelm " .
LcoVl". . .
928
929
...
Stephen VIIL .
929
931
...
...
John XI. . . .
931
936
...
...
Leo VIL . . .
936
939
...
Stephen IX . .
939
940
Edmund , .
...
940
941
Odo .
...
941
943
...
Martin lil. . .
943
946
...
Agapetus . . .
946
947 Edred . . .
...
...
947
AECHBISHOPS OF CANTEEBUEY, AND POPES. 541

Kings of

Archbishops of

Date.

Bnglabb.

Cantebburt.

Popes.

Date.

955

Edwig . . .

John XII. . . .
955
958
Edgar . . .
958
959
Dunstan
959
963
...
Leo Viii.' . . .
963
964
...
Benedict V. . .
964
965
...
John XIIL . .
965
972
...
...
Domnus II. . 1
Benedict VI. . j"
972
974

Boniface VII. . .
974
975
Edward the
Martyr
...
Benedict VII. . .
975
979
Ethebed the
Unready
...
979
984
...
...
John XIV. . . .
984
985
...
...
John XV. . . .
985
988
...
Ethelgar
988
990
...
Siric ....
990
995
M]Mo.
...
995
996
...
...
Gregory V. . ,
996
999
...
Silvester II. . .
999
1003
...
... j
John XVI. . )
John XVIL . S
1003
1006
^Ifeai (Elphege)
1006
1009
Sergius IV. . .
1009
1012
...
• ••
Benedict VIII. .
1012
1013
Lyfing
...
1013
1016
Edmund Iron
side
...
...
1016
1017
Cnut . . .
...
1017
1020
...
Ethelnoth .
1020
1024
...
JohnXvilL . .
1024
1034
...
Benedict IX. . .
1034
1037
Harold ". . .
...
1037
1038
...
Eadsige
1038
1040
Harthacnut .
...
...
1040
1042
Edward the
...
1042
' Confessor
1044 1
...
Gregory VI. . .
1044
1046
...
Clement . . .
1046
1048
...
Damasus II. . .
1048
1049
Leo IX. . . .
1049
1050
Eobert of Jumi&ges
1050
1052
Stigand
1052
1054
...
Victor liV . . .
1054
1057
Stephen X. . .
1057
1059
Nicholas IL . .
1059
1061
Alexander II. . .
1061
1066
Harold . . .
1066
543 TABLE OP SUCCESSION OF ENGLISH KINGS,

Kings of

Archbishops of

Date.

England.

Cakterbtjrt.

Popes.

Date.

1066

William L .

1066
1070
Lanfranc
1070
1073
*.*
Gregory VIL . .
1073
1086
• ••
Victor III. . .
1086
1087
"William IL .
•*•
1087
1088
*..
Urban II.' . . .
1088
1093
Anselm
1093
1099
...
Pascal li.' . . .
1099
1100
Henry I. . .
1100
1114
Ealph (de Turbine)
1114
1118
...
...
Gelasus II.
1118
1119
Calixtus . . .
1119
1123
...
William (de Curbellio)
1123
1124
...
Honorius II. . .
1124
1130
...
• **
Innocent II. . .
1130
1135
Stephen . .
...
1135
1139
...
Theobald .
1139
1143
...
...
Celestine II. . .
1143
1144
...
...
Lucius II. . . .
1144
1145
, ...
...
Eugenius IIL . .
1145
1153
...
Anastatius IV. .
1163
1154
Henry il. . .
...
Adrian IV. . .
1154
1159
Alexander III. .
1169
1162
.*¦
Thomas Becket .
1162
1174
Eichard of Dover
1174
1181
...
Lucius III. . .
1181
1184
...
Baldwin
1184
1185
...
...
Urban III. . .
1185
1187
...
...
Gregory VIII. .
1187
1188
Clement III. . .
1188
1189
Richard I. , .
1189
1191
Eegiaald Fitz-Joceline .
Celestine ill. . .
1191
1193
Hubert Walter .
1193
1198
Innocent III. . .
1198
1199
John . . .
1199
1207
Stephen Langton
1207
1216
Henry' III. .
Honorius III.
1216
1227
Gregory IX. . .
1227
1229
...
Eichard Weathershed .
1229
1233
...
Edmund of Abingdon .
1233
1241
Celestine IV. . .
1241
1243
...
Innocent IV. . .
1243
1245
Boniface of Savoy
1246
1254
...
...
Alexander IV. .
1254
1261
...
Urban IV. . . .
1261
1265
...
Clement IV. . .
1265
1271
1272
Edwfjrdl. . .
Eobert Kilwardby
Gregory X. . .
1271 1272
AECHBISHOPS OF CANTEEBUEY AND POPES.

643

Kings of

AECHBISHOPS OF

1

Date.

England.

Cantebbdkt.

Popes.

Date.

f
Innocent V. )
1276
: ^
Adrian V. } .
John XIX. )
1276
1277
...
Nicholas III. . .
1277
1279
...
John de Peccham
1279
1281
Martin IV. . .
1281
1285
...
Honorius IV.
1285
1288
...
Nicholas IV. . .
1288
1294
...
Eobert Winchelsea J
Celestine V.
Boniface VIIL
1294
1303
...
Benedict X. . .
1303
1305
...
Clement V. . .
1305
1307
Edward II. .
1307
1314
Walter Eeynolds .
1314
1316
John XX.' . .
1316
1327
Edward III. .
1327
1328
Simon de Mepham
...
1328
1333
...
John Stratford .
1333
1334
Benedict XL . .
1334
1342
Clement VI. . .
1342
1348
...
John de Ufford .
1348
1349
...
Thomas Bradwardine .
1349
1349
Simon Islip .
1349
1352
Innocent VI. . .
1352
1362
Urban V. . . .
1362
1366
Simon Langham .
1366
1369
WiUiam Wittlesey
1369
1370
...
Gregory XI. . .
1370
1375
Simon Sudbury .
1375
1377
Eichard II. .
1377
1378
Urban VL . .
1378
1381
WiUiam Courtney
1381
1389
Boniface IX. . .
1389
1397
Thomas Arundel .
1397
1398
Eoger Walden
1398
1399
Henry' iv. .
Thomas Arundel (re
stored)
...
1399
1404
Innocent VII.
1404
1406
...
Gregory XII. . .
1406
1409
...
Alexander V. . .
1409
1410
...
JohnXXI.i . .
1410
1413
Henry" V. .
1413
1414
Henry Chichele .
1414
1417
Martin v! . . .
1417
14221431
Henry 'vi. .
Eugene IV. . .
14221431
1443
John Stafford
1443
1447
...
Nicholas V. . .
1447
1 Another method of calculation inserts t-svo other early Popes of this name, thus
advancmg the number of thi later Johns by two.
544 TABLE OF SUCCESSION OF ENGLISH KINGS, ETC.

.„ Kings of

Archbishops of

Date.

England.

Cantekbuby.

Popes.

Date.

1462

John Kemp

1452
1454
...
Thomas Bourchier
1454
1456
...
CaUxtus "ill. . .
1456
1458
PiusIL . . .
1468
1461
Edward IV. .
...
1461
1464
...
Paul il'" . . .
1464
1471
Sixtus IV. . .
1471
1483
Edwar'd'v. .
...
...
1483
1483
Eichard III. .
...
1483
1484
¦•¦
Innocent VIII. .
1484
1485
Henry VIL .
...
1486
1486
John Morton
1486
1492
...
Alexander VI. .
1492
1501
Hemy Deane
1501
1603
1
Pius III." . . )
Julius II. . . j
1503
1504
WiUiam Warham
1504
1609
Henry VIIL .
...
1509
CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 546

CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.

"^¦^ PAGE
304. Martyrdom of St. Alhan ..... 6
314. Council of Aries . ... 5
325. Council of Nicae'a
347. CouncU of Sardiea
369. CouncU of Eimini .
409. Pelagius publishes his tenets at Eome
429. Mission of Germanus and Lupus — Hallelujah Battle . 11
447. Mission of Germanus aud Severus — Overthrow of Pelagianism 12
620. Battle of Badon HUl . . . . .14
564. Gildas writes De excidio Britannice ... 14
597. Mission of Augustine — Baptism of Ethelbert . 22
601. Mission of Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and Euffinianus . 26
603. Conference vrith British Bishops at Augustine's Oak . 31
604. Sees of London and Eochester founded . . .32
,, Death of Augustine — Succession of Laurentius . . 32
616. MeUitus and Justus driven from their Sees . . .35
625. Paulinus accompanies Ethelburga to Northumbria . 37
627. Conference at York — Baptism of Eadwin . . .39
,, Honorius consecrated by Paulinus at Lincoln . . 41
633. Battle of Hatfield— Death of Eadwin . . .41
634. Battle of Dilston or Heavenfield . . . .42
635. Birinus founds See of Dorchester — Felix that of Dunwich 47-48
642. Battle of Maserfield — Death of Oswald . . .43
653. Baptism of Peada — Mission to Mid- Angles . 49
654. Cedd, Bishop of London (East Saxons) . . 51
655. Battle of Wingfield — Christianity established in North
umbria ... ... 44
656. Foundation of Medeshamstede (Peterborough) . . 54
664. Conference at Whitby . . . . .52
,, Wighard sent to Eome . . . . 57
668. Consecration of Archbishop Theodore . . ,58
2n

546 CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.
date - PAGE
669. WUfrid, Bishop of York— Chad at Lichfield . . 50
673. CouncU of Hertford . . . . .59
678. Division of Northumbrian Diocese — Appeal of WUfrid . 61
679. Division of Mercian Diocese . . . .61
680. CouncU of Hatfield . . . ... 62
681. WUfrid converts the South Saxons . . .65
685. Synod of Twyford — Further division of Northumbrian
Diocese . . . . . .62
690. Death of Archbishop Theodore . . . .62
„ Laws of King Ina . . . . . .69
691. Banishment of Wilfrid— He acts as Bishop of Leicester . 66
692. Witan of Bapchild ...... 69
696. Witan of Bersted ...... 69
702. Synod of Easterfield — WUfrid's second appeal , . 67
705. Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne . . , ,70
706. Synod ofthe Nidd— Wilfrid submits . , ,67
709. Death of Wilfrid ...... 67
734. Egbert first Archbishop of York , . , .75
735. Death of the Venerable Bede . . . ,72
747. CouncU of Clovesho . . . . .77
787. CouncU of Chelsea — Bishop of Lichfield, Metropolitan . 80-
794. CouncU of Frankfort — Alcuin Education Minister to
Charlemagne . . . . . .84
803. Council of Clovesho — Lichfield reduced to a Suffragan See 87
808. Quarrel of Kenulf and Wulfred — a six years' Interdict . 91
816. Council of Chelsea — Consecration and Ornament of Churches 92
825. CouncU of Clovesho — Eestoration of Archiepiscopal Property 92
856. Eegulatiou and Legalisiag of Tithes by King Ethelwulf . 94
870. Martyrdom of King Edmund . . . .96
871. Alfred succeeds to the Throne of Wessex . . .96
879. Ecclesiastical Laws of King Alfred . . .96
905. Consecration of Bishops by Archbishop Plegmund . 102
925. Ecclesiastical Laws of Athelstan .... 108
942. Archbishop Odo publishes his Constitutions . . 108
959. Dunstan, Archbishop — Contest between Seculars and
Eegulars ...... Ill
978. CouncU of Calne — Triumph of Dunstan's Policy . . 115
988. Death of Dunstan . . . . . .117
994. Canons of Mfrio . . . . . .124
995. JSlfric Archbishop of Canterbury .... 129
1007. Council of Eynsham . . . . .131
1011. Destruction of Canterbury by the Danes — Murder of Arch
bishop Elphege . . . . .132
1014. CouncU ot Habam . . . . . .133

CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 647
DATE PAGE
1017. Cnut King of aU England ....
1020. Consecration of the Church of Assandun .
1027. Cnut's Visit to Eome ....
1043. Coronation of King Edward the Confessor .
1060. See of Devonshire removed from Crediton to Exeter
„ Synod of VerceUae — Bishop Ulf admitted through bribery
„ Eobert of Jumieges, Archbishop of Canterbury
1052. Stigand appointed Archbishop by Witan .
1060. Consecration of Earl Harold's Collegiate Church of Waltham
1061. Wulfstan consecrated Bishop of Worcester
1065. Consecration of Westminster Abbey Church
1067. Eemigius consecrated to Dorchester by Stigand
1070. CouncU of Winchester — Deposition of Stigand
, , CouncU of Windsor — Deposition of English Bishops
,, Consecration of Lanfranc to Primacy of English Church
1072. CouncU of Winchester (Easter) — York declared subject to
Canterbury .....
„ Synod of Windsor (Whitsuntide) — Precedence of Bishops
1075. CouncU of London — Sees to be removed to dvitates
1076. CouncU of Winchester — CeUbaoy of the Clergy
1085. St. Osmund draws up his Custom-Book
1089. Death of Arohbishop Lanfranc
1093. Consecration of Anselm to the Primacy
1095. CotmoU of Eockingham — ^Anselm outlawed
1097. Anselm goes to Eome to lay his cause before the Pope
1099. Council of the Lateran — Anselm present .
1100. Anselm returns to England ; Henry I.
1102. Synod of Westminster — correction of morals
1103. Anselm sent to Eome by King — not allowed to return
1106. Eetum of Anselm .....
1107. CouncU of London — Settlement of the Investiture Dispute
1108. CouncU of London — Clerical Matrimony .
1109. Foundation of See of Ely — Hervey first Bishop .
„ Death of Anselm .....
1114. CouncU of Windsor— Ealph appointed Archbishop
1119. Thurstan consecrated Archbishop of York by the Pope-
Subjection to Canterbury dispensed with
1123. WUUam of CorbeU elected Archbishop of Canterbury
1125. Legatine Synod at Westminster .
1126. Archbishop of Canterbury becomes Legate of the Pope,
(Legatus natus) ....
1127. Legatine Synod at Westminster under Archbishop
1128. Cistercian Monks estabUshed in England (Waverley)
1129. Synod to prohibit Clerical Matrimony

.548 CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.
DATE PAGE
1132. Foundation of Fountains Abbey .... 214
1133. Foundation of See of CarUsle. Austin Canons . . 215
1135. Death of King Henry I. . . . . 216
1135. Charter of King Stephen . . . . .219
1139. Seizure of the Bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln by the King 222
„ Henry Bishop of Winchester calls a Council as Legate of
the Pope ..... 223
1143. Archbishop Theobald introduces the Canon Law into Eng
land ...... 224
„ The Archbishop lays the land under interdict . 229
1153. Death of St. WUliam of York . . . .227
1161. Thomas Becket nominated to the Primacy . . 232
1162. Election and Consecration of Becket . . . 233
1163. First quarrel of Henry II. and Becket at Woodstock . 235
„ Council of Westminster — " The Ancient Customs " . 236
1164. CouncU of Clarendon (January) .... 238
„ CouncU of Northampton (October) — Flight of Becket . 241
1166. Becket pronounces excommunications at Vezelai . . 247
1170. Becket returns to England (December 1) . . . 249
,, Murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral (December 29) 261
1173. Canonisation of Becket ..... 264
1174. Archbishop Eichard consecrated by Pope . . . 264
,, Burning of the Cathedral of Canterbury . . . 266
1175. Synod of Westminster ..... 267
1176. Synod of Westminster — Quarrel between Archbishops of
Canterbury and York . . . 270
„ Synod of Winchester .... 271
1179. II. Lateran Council . . . , .273
1184. Baldwin Arohbishop of Canterbury . , . 274
1186. Hugh of Burgundy, Bishop of Lincoln . . 282
1187. Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin . . . 277
1189. Innocent III. Pope . . . . .286. 279
. 279
. 281
. 285
. 285
. 288
. 292
. 295
. 299
. 302
. 303
. 306

CouncU of PipeweU Abbey
1190. Archbishop Baldwin goes to the Crusade .
1193. Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury
1195. Trial of Archbishop Geoffrey at York
,, Hubert Walter holds Legatine Council at York
1200. Legatine CoimcU at Westminster .
1207. Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury
1208. England put under Interdict
1209. King John excommunicated
1213. King John cedes his kingdom to the Pope .
„ Eetum of the banished Bishops
„ Stephen Langton promulgates Charter of Henry I,

CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 649
DATE PiGE
1214. Eemoval of the Interdict . . . . .310
1215. Great Charter signed ..... 310
,, III. Lateran Council ..... 316
1216. Death of King John .... 313
1218. Translation of St. Wulfstan —Worcester Cathedral con
secrated . . . . . .314
1219. The Dominican Friars reach England . . . 317
1220. Translation of St. Hugh . . . . .314
„ Translation of St. Thomas Becket . . . .315
1222. CouncU of Oxford . . . . . .316
1224. The Franciscans reach England .... 317
1226. Pope Honorius III. makes a demand for English benellces 318
1231. The Lewythiel Eiots in England . . . .322
1233. Edmund Eich Archbishop of Canterbury . 324
1236. Eobert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln . , . 326
1237. Legatine CouncU of London .... 327
1240. Archbishop Edmund resigns his See . . . 332
1243. Boniface elected Archbishop .... 336
1245. CouncU of Lyons under Innocent IV. . . . 338
1247. Bishop Grosseteste opposes Papal exactions . .341
1248. ParUament at Westminster refuses the King supplies 342
1250. Bishop Grosseteste's sermon at Lyons . . 342
1262. Bishop Grosseteste resists the King's demands . . 345
1253. Bishop Grosseteste refuses to institute the Pope's nephew 346
,, Death of Bishop Grosseteste .... 360
1255. Proctors of the Clergy heard in Parliament . . 358
1 257. Archbishop of Messina pleads before Parliament . 360
„ A Convocation under Archbishop Boniface . 361
1268. Convocation of Merton under Archbishop Boniface 362
,, Parliament of Oxford ..... 363
1259. Murder of a Eoman Prebendary of St. Paul's . 364
1264. Battle of Lewes . . . . . .365
1265. Battle of Evesham ... . . 366
1266. Arrival of Cardinal Othobon as Legate . . . 366
1268. Legatine CouncU at St. Paul's ... 367
1269. Completion of rebuilding of Westminster Abbey . 368
1270. Burning of Monastery and Cathedral at Norwich . . 368
1272. Accession of Edward I. . ... 369
1274. CouncU of Lyons ... . . 374
1279. John de Peccham Archbishop . . 376
„ CouncU of Eeading . . . 377
1280. Statute de mris religiosis (Statute of Mortmain) 378
1281. Convocation at \Jjambeth ... . 379
1283. Pro-vincial CouncUs of Clergy and Laity . . .381

550 CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OE EVENTS.
DATE PAGB
1283. First Convocation -with diocesan Proctors . . 381
1285. Statute of circumspect^ abatis .... 382
1291. New Valuation of Ecclesiastical Eevenues . . . 383
1294. Clergy of both Provinces summoned by King . . 384
1295. Parliamentary Summons of Clergy by Prcemunientes Clause 385
1296. Bull of Boniface VIII. ; CUricis laicos . . .386
1297. Convocation of Canterbury outlawed . . . 387
„ Convocation agrees to grant subsidies without leave of the
Pope . . . . . . .391
1301. Parliament of Lincoln ..... 392
1306. Arohbishop Winchelsea condemned by Pope . . 393
1307. Statute of Carlisle . . . . . .394
1308. Process against the Templars in England . . . 395
1316. Statute of articuli cleri ..... 397
1324. Trial of Bishop Oriton by Lay Court . . 398
„ Birth of John Wycliffe . . . , .413
1327. Simon Mepham Archbishop . . . .400
1328. Observance of Good Friday ordered .... 401
1333. John Stratford Archbishop . . . . .403
1343. Clement VI. " provides" for two Cardinals in England . 404
„ King's Letter in defence of the Church . . . 406
1344. Statute to regulate Prohibitions .... 406
„ Petition of the Commons against Pope's action affirmed . 408
1351. First Statute of Provisors . . . . .408
1352. Ordinance to confirm Provisors Statute . . . 409
1353. FUst Statute of Praemunire . . . .409
1363. WycUffe proceeds Doctor in Divinity . . . 415
1366. Wycliffe defends refusal of subsidy to the Pope . . 416
1371. Anti-clerical feeling developed in Parliament . . 417
1376. Meeting ofthe "Good ParUament" . . .418
1376. WycUffe's Propositions sent to the Pope . . . 421
1377. Pope Gregory issues Bulls against Wycliffe . . 422
1378. Wycliffe summoned to St. Paul's and Lambeth . . 425
„ Murder of Archbishop Sudbury .... 427
1381. WycUffe publishes his Propositions on the Eucharist . 427
„ WycUffe condemned at Oxford .... 430
1382. Meeting of the Convocation at Blackfriars . . 432
„ Meeting of the Convocation at St. Frideswide's . . 439
„ Bishop Spencer's Crusade ..... 448
1384. Death of John Wycliffe . . . . .444
1388. ParUament petitions against the LoUards . . . 450
1390. Ee-enactment of the Provisors Statute . . . 453
1393. Ee-enactment of the Praemunire Statute , , . 453
1394. LoUards BiU brought into Parliament . . . 454

CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 651
DATE PAGE
1397. Arohbishop Arundel translated to Canterbury . . 456
1401. Enactment of the Statute De Hmretids comburendis . ihi
„ Burning of WUUam Sawtry . . . .457
1404. ParUament at Coventry — Church property threatened . 461
1407. Trial of WiUiam Thorpe . . . . .460
1409. Constitutions of Archbishop Arundel . . . 460
„ CouncU of Pisa ...... 497
1410. Scheme brought into Parliament for seizing Church Lands 462
1413. Trial of Sir John Oldcastle . . . 463
1414. Severe law against Lollards .... 466
„ CouncU of Constance ..... 470
1415. Burning of John Claydon ..... 470
1417. Execution of Sir John Oldcastle . . . ,468
1422. Burning of WUliam Taylor . . -. .467
1425. Burning of Eobert Hoke . . . . .467
1427. Cardinal Beaufort appointed Legate by Martin V. . 490
1428. Burning of WUUam White . . . .467
1431. Burning of Thomas Bagley . . . 468
„ CouncU of Basle ...... 497
1438. Pope Eugenius gives Bishopric of Ely in commendam . 491
1447. Bishop Pecock's Sermon at Paul's Cross . . . 472
1449. Publication of " Eepressor " by Bishop Pecock . . 474
1450. Murder of Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester . . 473
1452. Cardinal Kemp Archbishop of Canterbury . . 494
1454. Cardinal Bourchier Archbishop .... 494
1456. PubUcation of Treatise on Faith by Bishop Pecock . 477
1467. Condemnation of Bishop Pecock .... 478
„ Bishop Pecock recants his opinions . 479
1486. Cardinal Morton Archbishop . . .494
1501. Henry Deane Archbishop ..... 496
1503. WUUam Warham Archbishop . . .496

INDEX.

Aaron, martyred at Caerleon, 4
Atbots, deposition of, at "VVestniinstev,
1102, 192
ATjercom, See of, 61
Abraham of Colchester, burning of,
468
Adelfius, British bishop at Aries, 6
Adrian, Abbot, nominated Archbishop of
Canterbury, 57 ; declines the office, ib. ;
suggests first Ajidrew, then Theodore,
%b.
Adrian (L), Pope, agrees to Lichfield's
becoming a Metropolitan See, 80
Adrian (IV.), Pope, rise of to the papacy,
258 ; grants exemptions to St. Alban's,
259
Adulf, Bishop, first bishop of Carlisle,
215 ; settles Austin Canons as his chap
ter, 216
.fflfric. Archbishop of Canterbury, early
life and works of, 123 ; Bishop of Rams
bury, 124; Canons of addressed to
Wulfsine, ib, ; teaching of on the Holy
Eucharist, 128, and note ; learning of,
129, note ; succeeds to Canterbury, ih. ;
honour paid to him at Rome, 130 ; re
moves secular clerks from Christ
Church, ib. ; list of works of, 143
MMq, Archbishop of York, supports
tyrannical proceedings of Harthacnut,
142 ; holds see of Worcester in plurality
with York, ib. ; forced upon Worcester
diocese, ib. ; causes city of Worcester
to be burned and spoiled, ib. ; elected
to succeed Eadsige, 147
.ffithehuEer, Bishop, deposed at Winches
ter, 159
^helric, Bishop, deposed and imprisoned
by Council of Windsor, 160
.fflthelwine, Bishop, outlawed by Council
of Winchester, 160
iEgilbert, Bishop, occupies see of Wessex,
48 ; retires in disgust, ib. ; declines to
return to Wessex, 49 ; sends Leutherius
(or Lothair), ib. ; at the Conference at
Whitby, 52
Agricola, introduces Pelagianism into
Britain, 10
Aidan, Saint, sent to Northumbria from
lona, 43; founds a religious house at

Lindisfarne, ib. ; zeal and devotion of,
ib. ; death of, 43
Alban, Saint, martyrdom of, 45
Alban's, Saint, Monastery of, obtains
exemption from Episcopal control,
258, 259; flrst mitred abbey in Eng
land, 259, note; meeting at, on the
ceasing of the interdict, 303, 307 ; scan
dalous immorality of, 503.
Alchfrid, son of Oswy, instructed by Wil
frid, 52 ; at the Whitby Conference,
ib.
Alcuin, early life of, 82; educational
minister to Charlemagne, ib. ; directed
by Charlemagne to consult English
Church on image worship, 83 ; letter of
to monks at Wearmouth, ib. ; to bishop
and clergy of Lindisfarne, 84 ; to Ethel
heard, Archbishop of Canterbury, 84,
85, 86 ; censures the English clergy, 86 ;
oflers horse to Ethelheard, 87 ; letter to
Charlemagne in favour of Ethelheard,
ib.
Aldhelm, Bishop, Abbot of Malmsbury,
69; letter of to the British Churches,
70; first bishop of Sherborne, ib. ;
founds abbey of Abingdon, ib.; en
riches Glastonbury, 71
Alexander III., Pope, perplexity of in
the Becket quarrel, 240, 248 ; hears the
case against Becket at Sens, 245 ; re
stores the primacy to Becket, 246 ;
checks the bitter temper of Becket,
247 ; issues commissions to legates in
the quarrel, 249 ; grants letters of ex
communication of English bishops, ib. ;
gives absolution to Henry II., 252 ; con
firms privileges of St. Albans, 259 ; con
secrates Richard to Canterbury, 264 ;
claims right of confirming suffragan
bishops, 265
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, seized by
King Stephen, 221 ; bad repute of, i&.,
note ; castles buUt by, 222 ; religious
houses built by, ib., note
Alfere, Ealdorman of Mercia, opposes
Dunstan, 116
Alfred, King, translates Bede's Ecclesias
tical History, 33 ; crowned at Rome,
95; defeats Danes at Ethandune, ""
publishes ecclesiastical laws, 96 ; pre^
fece of, to the pastoral of St. Gregory, 99

554

INDEX.

ALHFLEDA.
other translations made by, 101 ; schools
established by, 101
Alhfleda, daughter of Oswy, marries
Peada, 49
Alstan, Bishop, conspires against Ethel
wulf, 94
Amesbury Monastery, refounded by Henry
IL, 272
Anglia, East, conversion of, 47 ; received
gospel from Northumbria, 51
Annates, beginning of tax of, 508 and note
Anselm, St., Archbishop, early life of, 177 ;
visits of to England, 178 ; draws up
form of prayer for English Church, ib. ;
sent for to Kufus in his iUness, ib.;
nominated to primacy, 179 ; reluctance
of to undertake the post, ib. ; makes
conditions with Rufus, ib. ; does hom
age to the king for temporalties, 180 ;
consecration of, ib. ; refuses to give
money to king, ib. ; leaves the Synod at
Hastings, 181; desires leave to go to Rome
for the PaU, 182; at the Council of
Rockingham, ib. ; refuses to acknow
ledge the Antipope, 183 ; declared out
lawed, ib. ; refuses to receive the Pali
from the king, 184 ; desires leave to go
to Rome, 185 ; goes to Papal Court,
185; long absence of, abroad, i6.; styled
Alterius orbis Papa, 185, and note ; con
secrates first bishop of Waterford, ib.; at
Council of the Lateran, 1099, 186 ; re
turn of to England, 187 ; first relations
of with Henry L, 1S8 ; refuses homage
to the king, ib. ; refers to the Pope,
188, 189 ; holds a Synod at Westminster,
ib.; refuses to consecrate clerks ap
pointed by king, 192 ; refuses the
-paUrncB cotisiietudiTies, 193; sent to
Rome, ib. ; long sojourn of at Lyons,
194 ; determines to excommunicate the
king, ib. ; another reference to Rome,
ib.; letter to, describing sad state of
English Church, 195; remonstrates
with the king for oppressing the clergy,
195 ; agrees to compromise as to hom
age, 196 ; consecrates bishops, returns
to his see (1106), 196 ; raises character
of English Church, 199 ; instrumental
in founding See of Ely, 201 ; dispute of,
with Thomas IL, Archbishop of York,
202 ; takes measures to ensure subjec
tion of York, 203 ; death and character
of, ib. ; literary works of, 217
Anselm, nephew of Archbishop, induces
Pope to send the Pall by him to Eng
land, 204 ; brings commission from the
Pope to act as Legate, 205 ; not allowed
to enter England as Legate, 205
Appeals to Rome, abuses produced by.
260
Arianism, not prevalent in Britain, 7
Aries, Council of, British bishops at, 5 ;
decisions ofthe, 6
Arminius, British deacon at Aries, 6
Articuli Ckri, statute of, 397, 398

BARDNEY.
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury,
translated to Canterbury, 456 ; trans
lated by Pope against his will to St.
Andrews, ib. ; restored to Canterbury,
ib. ; presides in Convocation (1401),
457 ; gives benefice to Purveye, 459 ;
conducts examination of William
Thorpe, 459 ; publishes Constitutions
(1409), 460 ; tries Sir John Oldcastle,
462, 463, 464, 465 ; death of, by swelling
of tongue, 466
Assandun, Church of, founded by Cnut,
136, and note ; consecration of, 139 ;
Stigand, first priest of, ib.
Asser, Bishop, teacher of Alfred, 100, 101
Asterius, Bishop, consecrates Birinus, 47
Aston, John, supporter of Wycliffe at Ox
ford, 436 ; before Convocation of Canter
bury, 438 ; publishes a broad-sheet to
the people, ift;. recants, 439
Athelstan, King, ecclesiastical laws of,
103, 104
Augustine, Saint, controversy of, with
Pelagius, 8, 9, 10
Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury,
starts on his mission to England, 21 ;
sent back to Gregory, ib. ; again dis
patched by Gregory, ib. ; ordered to
communicate with tiie French bishops,
22 ; arrives in England, ib. ; established
at Canterbury, 23 ; consecrated at Aries
by Vergilius, 24; reports progress to
Gregory, 26 ; asks solutions of various
difficulties, 24, 25 ; seeks additional
clergy from Gregory, 26 ; receives the
Pall, ib. ; made head of the English
bishops, 27 ; cautioned by Gregory as to
looking for miracles, 28 ; attempts t )
reduce the British clergy to obedience,
29, 30, 31 ; threatens the British
bishops, 31 ; consecrates Laurentius as
successor, 32 ; death and burial of, ib. ;
epitaph of, 33
Augustine's, Saint, at Canterbury, be
ginning of, 29
Augustine's Oak, meeting at, 29

Badby, Thomas, burning of, 462
Badon Hill, battle of, 14
Bagley, Thomas, burning of in 1431, 468
Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, elec
tion of, 274 ; character of, 275, and
note ; quarrel of with monastery of
Christ Church, 275, 276, 277 ; preaches
crusade, 278 ; joins crusading army, ib.;
279
Balle, John, said to be a follower of
Wycliffe, 427
Bangor, monasteries so called, 16, 54
Bangor Monastery, monks of, 30 ; slaugh
ter of by Ethelfrid, 31, and note
Baptism, use of chrism in, 53 ; regulations
as to, 81, 118
Bardney Abbey, foundation of, 55

INDEX.

555

Basle, Council of, 491, 500
Bath becomes See of Somersetshire
bishopric, 166
Beaufort, Cardinal, appointed Cardinal
by Martin V., 490, and note ; made
Legate, but unable to act, ib. ; leader of
the Bohemian war, ib.
Beck, Anthony, Bishop, attempts to
evade oath of allegiance, 404
Becket Thomas (St.), Archbishop of
Canterbury, a clerk of Archbishop
Theobald's, 224; sent to Bologna to
study Canon Law, ib. ; appointed Chan
cellor on recommendation of Archbishop
Theobald, 229 ; work of, as Chancellor,
230, 231 ; looked on with suspicion by
clergy, 232 ; nominated Archbishop, ib. ;
^dews of as to the appointment, ib.; op
position of Churchmen to, 232, 233 ;
elected by Chapter, 233 ; consecration
of, ib.; resigns office of Chancellor,
234 ; first coldness of with king, 234 ;
attends Council at Tours, ib. ; quarrel
of with Henry II. at Woodstock, 235 ;
resists the Mug's demands at West
minster, 237 ; partially reconciled to
the king at Woodstock, 238 ; refuses to
accept Constitutions of Clarendon, 239 ;
persuaded into accepting the Constitu
tions, 240 ; refuses to put his seal to
them, ib. , attempts to go to the Pope,
241 ; brought back, ib. ; summoned to
Northampton, 241 ; insult offered to,
242 ; fined five hundred pounds, ib. ;
called to account for moneys received
when Chancellor, ib. ; consiJ,ts bishops
of province, 242 ; refuses to exhibit his
accounts at Northampton, 243 ; appeals
to Rome, ib. ; says mass of St. Stephen,
ib. ; goes to the Council with cross in
hand, ib. ; bold demeanour of at the
Council, 244 ; leaves the Council, ib. ;
escapes to Lincoln, ib. ; reaches Grave-
lines, ib. ; arrival of at Sens, 245 ; pro
duces copy of the Constitutions of
Clarendon, 246 ; resigns his Arch
bishopric to the Pope, ib. ; reinstated
by Pope, ib. ; retires to Pontigny, ib. ;
life of at Pontigny, 247 ; checked by
Pope Alexander, ib. ; excommunications
by, at Vezelai, ib. ; driven fi-om Pontigny
by Henry II., 248 ; life of at Sens, 248 ;
reconciliation of with Henry at Frete
val, 249 ; lands at Sandwich, 249 ; had
sent letters of excommunication before
him, 249, 250 ; demands made on his
arrival, 250; goes to Canterbury and
London, ib. ; sermon of at Canterbury,
ib.; angry colloquy of with the four
knights, 251 ; goes into the cathedral,
ib.; muixierof in Canterbury Cathedral,
252 ; evil consequences of the crime to
the Church, 253 ; murder of, not pro
perly a martyrdom, 254 ; early life of,
ib.; decree for canonisation of, 264;
translation of (1220), 315

Bede, the Venerable, mention of King
Lucius by, 3 ; account of the martyr
dom of St. Alban by, 5 ; sketch of his
tory of, 33 ; writings of, S3, 72 ; early life
of, 72 ; letter of to Bishop Egbert on
corruption of monasteries, 73
Benedict Biscop, Character and work of,
71 ; Abbot of Canterbury, ib. ; builds
monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow,
72
Benedict, St., rule of, not prevailing in
English monasteries, 55 ; introduced at
Glastonbury and Abingdon, 111 ; at
Worcester, 112 ; at Winchester, 113
Beornhelm, Bishop, advocate for secular
clergy, 115
Beornwulf, King, supporter ofthe Church,
93
Bertha, Queen of Ethelbert, a Christian,
20 ; reproved by Gregory for not having
done more to spread Christianity, 22,
note; letter of Gregory to, 28; death of,
35
Bertwald, Archbishop, Council held by, at
Easterfield, 67 ; present at the Witan at
Bapchild, 69 ; at Bersted, ib.
Beverley, Bishop John of, ordainer of
Bede, 33 ; account of, 74
Birinus, Bishop, sent by Pope Honorius
to Wessex, 47 ; converts large numbers,
48 ; builds a chiirch at Dorchester, ib. ;
death of, ib.
Bishops, English, attend foreign councils,
147 ; order of precedence of, settled at
Windsor, 165 : support Anselm as to
investitures, 192 ; call upon Anselm to
return 192 ; bad conduct of in Stephen's
time, 220; seizure of by Stephen, 221;
forbidden to attend Council at Rheima,
227 ; plead against Becket at Sens, 237 ;
inclined to yield to Henry II.'s demands
at Westminster, 237 ; support Becket at
Clarendon, 239 ; against Becket on the
question of accounts, 242 ; opinions
given by, at Northampton, 242-243 ;
offer to appeal to Pope against Becket,
243 ; endeavour to induce Becket to
yield, 243 ; send letter of remonstrance to
Becket, 248 ; excommunications of, pro
cured by Becket, 249 ; appeal of to the
king, 250 ; claim of, to select the
Primate, 262-274 ; choose Roger, Abbot
of Bee, ib. ; claim the right of proclaim
ing the election, 263 ; six appointed at
Council of London, ib. ; agree that the
monks should select two persons for
Primacy, 263 ; opposed to claims of
Rome, 273 ; secular character of, under
Richard I., 280 ; suffragan of Canterbury
declared to have no right to elect
Primate, 291 ; brought back from exile
under King John, 303; money compen
sation promised to, 308 ; protest of, to
Innocent IV. against exactions, 336 ;
at Council of Lyons (1245), 338 ; involved
in obligations by Bishop of Hereford,

55Q

INDEX.

357 ; send representatives to Legate at
Boulogne, 365 ; three of them afterwards
go personally, 366 ; summoned before
Cardinal Othobon, 366; three of them
ordered to go to Rome, ib. ; of times of
Edward II. , bad character of, 399-400;
jealousy of power of, 412 ; call on the
Chancellor of Oxford to act against
WycUffe, 424; offended Avith Bishop
Pecock, 472 ; great unpopularity of in
fifteenth century, 473; comparative mo-
raUty of, 500 ; secular employments of
in fifteenth century, 506
Boniface, Archbishop, joins Willibrord at
Utrecht, 71 ; converts the Germans, ib.;
Archbishop of Metz, ib. ; martyrdom of,
ib. ; letter of to King Ethelbald on cor
rupt state of monasteries, 76 ; letter of
to Archbishop Egbert to support his
remonstrance, ib. ; letter of to Arch
bishop Cuthbertto recommend a council,
77
Boniface IV., Pope, letter of to Lauren
tius and Ethelbert, 35
Boniface VIIL, Pope, Character of, 386;
BuU of called Clericis Laicos, ib. ; re
laxes the Bull Clericis Laicos, 390
Boniface, of Savoy, Archbishop of Canter
bury, election of procured by Pope, 335;
character of, ib. ; election of confirmed
by Innocent IV., 336 ; consecrated at
Lyons, 338 ; demands first-fruits of aU
benefices in his pro^'ince, 341 ; suspends
the whole ofhis suffragans, ib. ; Metro-
poUtical visitation of, 353, 354 ; violent
proceedings of at St. Bartholomew's,
354 ; obliged to retire from England, ib. ;
upholds national party, ib. ; claims
government of sees during vacancy, ib. ;
summons a bishop-elect abroad for
consecration, ib. ; summons meeting of
Convocation in London, 361 ; summons
Convocation at Merton, 362
Bosa, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 61 ; removed
from York to make room for Wilfrid, 66
Bourchier, Cardinal, institutes inquiry
into Pecock's writings, 480 ; character
of, 494 ; complaints of, against the irre
gularities of clergy, 502
Brantingham, Bishop, Treasurer in 1371,
417 ; ordinance of against Friars, 453,
note
Britain, Beginning of Christianity in, 1,
2, 3
Brune, Robert de, SanMyng Synne of,
511
Burghersh, Bishop, implicated in designs
against king, 399
Bury, John, Gladius Salomonis of, 481, 482

Cadwallader, King, assists the heathen
Penda against Eadwin, 41 ; carries on
war in Northumbria, 42 ; defeated at
Dilston, ib.

Casdmon, monk, account of, 55
Caerleon, martyrs at, 4, 5 ; Adelfius (per
haps) bishop of, 6 ; the most ancient
see in Wales, 16
Calixtus IL, Pope, promises to do nothing
prejudicial to Canterbury, 206; conse
crates Archbishop Thurstan, ib. ; ex
empts him from subjection to Canter
bury, ib.; attempts to settle a permanent
Legate in England, 207
CaUe, John, sentenced to perpetual im
prisonment, 468
Cambridge, University of, representation
as to clergy, 502
Canons (See also Constitutions) of Chelsea,
816, 92 ; of reign of Edgar, 117, 118, 119,
120 ; penitential, of reign of Edgar, 119 ;
of Archbishop iElfric, 124, 125 ; of Win
chester, 107(3, 167 ; of Westminster,
1102, 189 ; of Westminster, 1125, 210 ;
of Westminster, 1127, 213 ; of Westmin
ster Synod, 1175, 267
Canons, Austin, characteristics of, 216 ;
flrst houses of in England, ib. ; differ
from canons secular living in rule, ib.,
note ; offshoots from, ib. , note
Canterbury, See of, invasion of the Metro
politan rights of, SO ; restored to its full
Metropolitan rights, 87 ; primacy of,
determined at Winchester, 164; finaUy
settled at Windsor, ib.
Canterbury, Cathedral of, commencement
of, 29 ; restoration of, by Archbishop
Odo, 108 ; rebuilding of, by Lanfranc,
165 ; stripping of, after murder of Beck
et, 261 ; reopening of, ib. ; burning of,
266
Cantilupe, Walter de, Bishop, speech of,
in London Coimcil, 327.
Carileph, WiUiam de St., Bishop, chief
opponent of Anselm, 184 ; Ul-usage of,
by Rufus, ib. ; account of, 198
CarUsle, foundation of See of, 215
Cathediul churches, rebuilding of after
Conquest, 165
Cathedrals, number of secular and mon
astic, 171, note
Catterick, baptisms at, 40, and note
Caursins, the, first heard of in England,
321
Cedd, Bishop, restores the church among
East Saxons, 50 ; consecrated bishop by
St. Finan, 51 ; second bishop of Lon
don, ib. ; at the Conference at Whitby,
52 ; acquiesces in Roman uses, 54
Celestine, Pope, said to have sent teachers
to Britain against Pelagius, 11
Celestius, a Scotic monk, 8 ; accotmt of,
8, 9, 10
Cellah, bishop of the Mid-Angles, 10
Ceolfrid, Abbot, instructor of Bede, 72
Ceolnoth, Archbishop, flies to Rome, 96
Ceolwulph, King, patron of Venerable
Bede, 72
Chad (Ceadda), St., bishop of the Mid-
Angles, 50 ; consecrated by Wini, ib. :

INDEX.

557

occupation of York, ib. ; reconsecrated
by Theodore, ib.; settled at Lichfield, ib.
(^haUce not to be made of horn, 81 ; of
pine wood, 126
C^iarter, the Great, signed by king and
barons, 310 ; ecclesiastical provisions
of, 311
Chaucer, Geoffrey, Parson's tale of, 512
Chelsea, CouncU of, 787, 80 ; accepts a
bodyi-of Roman canons, ib. ; CouncU of,
816, 92
Chichele, Archbishop, anger of Pope Mar
tin V. with, 486; defence of against
Pope, 487 ; attempt of Pope to punish,
490 ; resists the appointment of a Le
gate, ib. ; applies to Convocation in
matter of See of Ely, 491
Christ Church, Canterbury, beginning of,
29 ; nature of history of, 260 ; claims to
elect the Primate without interference,
261, 262, 274 ; wealth and luxury of, 275 ;
quarrel of with Archbishop Baldwin,
276, 277 ; quarrel of with Archbishop
Hubert Walter, 282, 283; proceedings
of on death of Hubert Walter, 289 ;
monks of sent to Rome by John, 290 ;
compeUed to elect Stephen Langton,
291, 292 ; violent proceedings against,
by King John, 294 ; excommunication
of monks of, 334 ; claims of to confirm
suffragan bishops, 373
Chrodegang, rule of for canons secular,
81, note, 146, note ; not popular in Eng
land, ib.
Chrysostom, St., speaks of the British
Churches, 7
Church, the British, due to Eastern rather
than Western sources, 2 ; Eastern pecu
harities of, 2 ; planted in second cen
tury, 3 ; architectural traces of, 12 ;
driven into Wales and the western
coasts, 14, 18 ; improvement in at end
of sixth century, 16 ; makes no effort
to convert the heathen Teutons, 19 ;
handed over to Augustine by Gregory,
25 ; deaUngs of with Augustine, 29, 30,
31 ; refuses to submit to Augustine, 30 ;
holds off from Archbishop Laurentius,
35 ; adopts the CathoUc Easter, 70 ;
completely in communion with EngUsh
in time of Alfred, 101, note
Church, the English, planting of, in Kent,
18 ; among East Saxons, 31 ; in Nor
thumbria, 34 ; in East AngUa, 46 ; in
Wessex, 47 ; iu Mercia, 40, 49 ; among
South Saxons, 65 ; in Isle of Wight, 6Q
Church and State, relations of, under
King Ina, 69
Churches, buUding of at close of seventh
century, 68
Church-rate, early provision for, 138
Circumspecte Agatis, Statute of, 382
Cistercians, entrance of into England,
215 ; monasteries of founded, ib. ; ex
emptions of, 258
Clarendon, Constitutions of, 238, 254 ; par

tiaUy abrogated at Avi-anches, 253;
value of, ib.
Claudia mentioned by St. Paul, 2 ; a Bri
tish Claudia mentioned by Martial, 3
Claydon, John, burning of in 1415, 466
Clement V., Pope, trial of Archbishop
Winchelsea by, 393 ; absolves Edward
I. from engagements, ib. ; exactions of
checked by Statute of Carlisle, 394;
attempts of to seize patronage of Eng
lish benefices, 395, 396
Clement VI., Pope, makes "provision" for
two cardinals from English Church, 405
Clergy, secular, take the place of monks,
107; oppose Dunstan's poUcy, 114,
115, 116 ; English, Danish bishop
rics given to, 136 ; immoraUty of, at
beginning of Henry II.'s reign, 235,
236 ; persecution of by King John dur
ing interdict, 297, 299; defrauded of
compensation, 308 ; exposed to violence
in latter days of John, 313 ; plunder of
during war with French, 814; harsh
taxations of under Henry III., 321 ;
obliged to borrow of usurers, ib. ; pre
sent their grievances to the king, 329 ;
oppose the demands of Legate, ib.;
crushed by Roman exactions, 331 ; suc
cessful struggle of against Pope's de
mand, 333, 334 ; appeal to Parliament
against Rustand's exactions, 358 ; disci
pline of enforced by Cardinal Othobon,
367 ; representation of as to poverty, in
1283, 381; change of tone of, under
Edward I., 382; valuation of income
of, in 1291, 383 ; summoned to Parlia
ment by representatives, 385 ; refuse to
contribute to the king, 386, 387; violent
contest of with Edward I., 387; out
lawed, ib. ; constrained to yield, 388 ;
refuse to pay taxes without leave of
Pope, 389 ; agree to contribute to king
without leave of Pope, 391 ; privUeges
conceded to by statute, 398; various
forms of summons of, to convocation,
410 ; of fifteenth century, morahty of,
498, 500, 501, 502, 505, 506 ; the chantry,
character of, 505, 506 ; of fifteenth cen
tury, amount of learning of, 507 ; pre
valence of simony among, 507, 508 ;
harassing discipUne by, 509 ; doctrines
forced on laity by, 516; amount of
wealth of, ib. ; infiuence of begins to
totter, 517
Clericis laicos, BuU of, 386
Clovesho, CouncU of, 747, 77 ; Canons of,
78, 79 ; CouncU of, 803, 87 ; restores
the rights of Canterbury, ib. ; CouncU
of, 825, 92
Cnut becomes King of aU England, 134
shows friendly care for the Church, 135
rebuUds and endows monasteries, 136
makes ecclesiastical laws, 136; founds
the Church of Assandun, 136J; adorns
Cathedral of Canterbury, 3 40 • visits
Rome, ib.; letter of to the English

558

INDEX.

people, ib. ; angry with the Pope for
extorting large sums for the Pall, ib. ;
favours both seculars and regulars, 141
Coifi, High Priest, declares against idol
atry, 38 ; attacks Temple of Godmun
digham, i&.
Coiu-walch or Ken-wealh, King, takes steps
for transferring See of "West Saxons to
¦Winchester, 48 ; weary of Bishop Agil
bert, ib. ; brings in "Wini as bishop, ib. ;
attributes his defeats to neglect of re
ligion, 49
Colet, Dean, patronised by Archbishop
¦Warham, 496 ; character of work of,
617, 618
Colman succeeds Finan at Lindisfarne,
52 ; takes principal part in the Confer
ence at Whitby, 52, 63 ; retires to Scot
land from Lindisfarne, 53
Columba, St., founds monastery at lona,
42; sketch of his life, 46
Columbanus, St., consulted by Lauren
tius as to British Church, 35
Compensation for sin — leading idea in
Penitential Canons in Edgar's time,
119, 120
Consignee, Council of, orders exhumation
of ¦Wycliffe's bones, 444, 470 ; condemns
LoUard opinions, 470 ; condemns the
immorality of the clergy, ib. ; Bishop
Hallam at, 499
Constantine, Emperor, connected -with
Britain, 6
Constantius supports Christianity in Bri
tain, 4
Constitutions (See also Canons) of Arch
bishop Odo, 108, 109 ; of Cardinal Otho,
327, 362 ; of Cardinal Othobon, 371 ; of
Archbishop Mepham, 401 ; of Peckliam
at Reading, 411 ; at Lambeth, ib,, 412 ;
of Arundel, 1409, 460 ; of Archbishop
-Winchelsea, 1806, 624; of Archbishop
Reynolds, 1822, 525; of Archbishop
Stratford, 1828, 526 ; of the same, 1343,
527; of Archbishop Islep, 1351, 628; of
the same, 1369, 529 ; of the same, 1302,
530 ; of Archbishop Langham, 1367,
631 ; of Arohbishop Sudbury, 1378, ib. ;
of Archbishop Courtnay, 1391, 682 ; of
Archbishop Chichele, 1415, 682, 533,
634 ; of Archbishop Staflford, 1446, 634 ;
of Archbishop Bourchier, 1454, i6. ; of
Arohbishop Zouche, 1847, 434; of Arch
bishop Thoresby, 1363, 635; of Aroh
bishop Kemp, 1444, ib. ; of Archbishop
Booth, 1462, 536 ; of Archbishop Nevil,
1466, ib.
CovsuetudiTies avitos discussed at West
minster, 237 ; drawn up at Clarendon,
239
Convocation of Canterbury summoned by
Archbishop Boniface, 361 ; offers Henry
III. 52,000 marks, 361 ; summoned to
meet at Merton, 302 ; determines to re
sist exactions, ib. ; meeting of at Lam
beth, 1281, 379 ; meetings of in 1288,381 ;

-violent contest of -with Edward 1,, 387 ;
outlawed, ib.; forced to yield to Edward
L, 388 ; meeting of 1297, 389 ; renewed
quarrel of -with Edward I., 389 ; grants
a subsidy to king, 390 ; defends William
of -Wykeham, 420 ; meeting of at Black
friars, 1382, 432 ; condemns propositions
attributed to -Wycliffe, 433 ; meeting of
at St. Frideswide's, Oxford, 439 ; of 1401
petitions for sharp legislation against
LoHards, 467 ; at Oxford, 1409, 460
Convocation of York yields to demands of
Edward L, 388; giants a subsidy to
king, 391
Cornwall, See of, united to Devonshire by
Lyfing, 144
Corsned, a species of clerical ordeal, 137
Council, Ecclesiastical (See also Synod
and Convocation)— Ajies, 314, 5 ; Mcffia,
825, 6 ; Sardiea, 347, ib,; Eimini, 369, 7 ¦
Hertford, 673, 68; Hatfield, 680, 62;
T-wyford, 685, ib, ; Easterfield, 702, 67 ;
the Nidd, 706, ib, ; Clovesho, 747, 77 ¦
Chelsea, 787, 80 ; second of Nicaea, 787,
83 ; Frankfort, 794, 81 ; Clovesho, 803, 87 ;
London, 91 ; Chelsea, 816, 92 ; under
King Athelstan, 104 ; -Winchester, 112,
114; Calne, 978, llf ; Bynsham, 1007,
181 ; Habam, 1014, 133 ; Windsor, 1070,
160 ; Windsor, 1072, 164 ; London, 1076,
166 ; Winchester, 1076, ib. ; Lateran,
1099, 186 ; London, 1107, 196 ; London,
1108, 200 ; Windsor, 1114, 204 ; Winches
ter, 1114, 206 ; London, 1129, 214 ; West
minster, 1163, 236, 237 ; Lateran, 1179,
273; Westminster, 1200, 288; Oxford,
1222, 316, 360, 861 ; London, 1237, 327
362 ; Lyons, 1245, 338 ; Lambeth, 1261,
367 ; Legate Othobon, 1268, 367 ; Lyons
1274, 374; Reading, 1279, 377; Nor
thampton, 1283, 381; Pisa, 499; Con
stance, 499 ; Basle, 491, 600
Courtney, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Wyoliffe before at St. Paul's, 421 ; Bulls
directed to, against Wycliffe, 422 ; char
acter of, 321 ; strongly opposed to Wy
cliffe, ib,; summons Convocation to
Blackfriars, 1382, 432 ; orders the Chan
ceUor of Oxford to publish censure of
Wycliffe's propositions, 436; holds a
meeting of Convocation at Oxford, 439 ;
endeavours to procure sharper law
against Lollards, 447; letter of to
suffragans, ib. ; visitations of at Lei
cester, 450 ; death of, 466
Courts, Ecclesiastical, grievances from,
491 ; attempt to suppress by Pramunire
Statute, 492 ; declared to be not affected
by that statute, 493; vexatious pro
ceedings of, 609; reformed by Ai-ch-
bishop Warham, 609
Crediton, foundation of See of, 103 ; See
of transferred to Exeter, 146
Croyland Abbey, fo-nndation of, 65
Ciuinpe Henry, before the Convocation
at Oxford, 452

INDEX.

559

Crusade, preparations for, after capture
of Jerusalem, 277, 278 ; Bishop Spencer's,
448
Cunningham, John, opposes Wyoliffe, 471
Cuthbert, St., made bishop of Lindis
farne, 62; holy Ufe of, ib. ; dies at
Fame, ib.
Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, suc
cessor to Nothelm, 76
CynepQsus, King, disposed to receive
Christianity, 47 ; baptism of, 48

Dagan, British bishop, refuses to com
municate -with Laurentius, 35
Danelagh territory conceded to Danes, 96
Danes, effects of ravages of on Church in
time of Ethelred, 134, 135
Daniel, Bishop, succeeds Heddi at Win
chester, 70 ; patron of Boniface, 71
David, St., the national Saint of 'Wales, 16
Deusdedit, Archbishop, death of, 57
Dilston, battle of, 42
Diuma, Bishop, missionary to Mid-
Angles, 60 ; dies at Repton, ib.
Dominicans, the, origin of, 317
Dorchester, See of, foundation of, 48 ; not
in Mercia, 61, note
Dubricius, founder of the Church of Llan
daff, 16
Dunstan, Archbishop, work of, 107 ;
treatment of Edwy by, 109 ; compelled
to fly, 110 ; return of, ib. ; responsible
for the ecclesiastical policy of Edgar,
ib. ; made Archbishop of Canterbury,
111 : consecrates bishops, ib. ; attempts
of to enforce ceUbacy of clergy, 113,
114 ; opposition to policy of, 114, 116 ;
holds Council at ¦Winchester, 114 ; at
Calne, 115, 116 ; poUcy of triumphant,
116 ; withdraws from pubUc affairs, 116 ;
employment of at close of Ufe, ib. ;
early Ufe of, 121
Dunsl^ble Abbey, unpopularity of with
to-wnspeople, 368
Durham, commencement of See of, 146
E
Eadbald, King, refuses to adopt Christi
anity, 36 ; death of, 66
Eadbert PrcBn attempts to shake off
Mercian rule, 85
Eadmer, character of history of, 208, note
Eadnothus II. , Bishop, builds the Church
of Stow, 147
Eadred, Bishop, gains See of Durham by
simony, 142 ; evU end of, 143
Eadsige, Archbishop, coadjutor-bishop of
Ethelnoth, 142 ; character of, ib. ; hal
lows King Edward, 145 ; death of, 147
Ead-win, King, becomes Bretwalda, 37 ;
marries Ethelburga, ife. ; hesitation of,
about baptism, 87 ; character of, ib. ;

early history of, 88; converted by
Paulinus, ib.; holds a conference at
York, ib. ; baptism of, 89 ; assists in
planting tlie Church in Lindsey, 40, 41 ;
defeated and slain at Hatfield, 41
Ealdred, Archbishop, succeeds Lyflng at
Worcester, 146 ; promoted to York, 162 ;
holds Worcester in plurality, ib, ; ac
cused of simony, i&. ; journey of to
Rome, ib, ; deposed by tho Pope, ib. ;
restored to York, but has to resign
Worcester, 153
Eanfleda, wife of Oswy, a Kentish prin
cess, 62
Earconbert, King, succession of, 66 ; deatli
of, 67
Earconwald, Bishop, consecrated by Theo
dore, 69 ; reputation of, for sanctity, 60 ;
founds monasteries, ib.
Easter, calculation of, regulated at Aries,
6 ; calculation of, dispute as to, 17, 62, 63
Easterfield, Council of, 67
Eata, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 61, and note ;
removal of to Hexham, 62 ; death of, 66
Eathed, Bishop of Mid-Angles, 61 ; retires
to Ripon, ib,
Ebba, Queen of South Saxons, a Chris
tian, 65
Eborius, British bishop at Aries, 6
Bogfrid succeeds Oswy, 38
Eddius appointed by Wilfrid to teach
Church music, 64 ; writer of Life of Wil
frid, ib,, note
Edgar, King, succession of, 110; under
direction of Dunstan, 111, 114 ; canons
enacted in reii^ of, 117, 118, 119
Edilwalch, King of South Saxons, baptism
of, 66
Edmund, King, martyrdom of, 96, 96
Edmund II., King, valour and death of,
134
Edmund, Bishop, buflds minster at Dur
ham, 142
Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury,
overwhelmed by Pope's exactions, 331 ;
retires to Pontigny, 332 ; character of,
ib,, and note ; speculum of, 510
Edmund's, St., monastery of, buUt by
Cnut, 186
Edward (the Elder), King, carries on
Church poUcy of King Alfred, 103
Edward (the Confessor), King, virtuous
character of, 144; promotion of fo
reigners in EngUsh Church by, 145;
devotion to St. Peter of, 164; builds
Westminster Abbey, ib. ; death and
burial of at Westminster, ib, ; ecclesi
astical laws of, 156
Edward I., King, quiet succession of,
369 ; Church poUoy of, 375, 880 ; obtains
giant of tenth for Crusade, 388 ; sum
mons clergy to a General Synod, 384 ;
demands half of their revenues, ib, ;
summons clerical representatives to
ParUament, 386 ; -violent contests oi
with clergy, 387 389; renounces right

560

IliTDEX.

to tax clergy without their consent,
391 ; declaration of barons as to appear
ing of before Pope, 392 ; accuses Arch
bishop before Pope, 393 ; destructive
later policy of, ib. ; death of, 394
Edward III., King, quarrel of, with Arch
bishop Stratford, 403 ; resents Papal
intrusions, 404 ; vigorous measures of
to stop Papal provisions, 405 ; letter
of, in defence of liberties of English
Church, 406
Edwy, King, opposes the High Church
party, 109 ; violently treated by Dunstan
and Odo, ib. ; tragical end of, 110
Egbercht, succeeds to kingdom of Kent,
57 ; sends Wighard to Rome, ib.
Egbert, Archbishop, letter to from Bede,
73 ; Archbishop and Metropolitan, 73,
75 ; consecrates suffragans, 76 ; peniten
tial of, 79
Egbert, King, Bretwalda, 89 ; troubled
state ofhis time, 93
Eleutherus, Pope, pretended letter of, to
Lucius, 3
Elfgiva, cruel treatment of, by Dunstan
and Odo, 110
Elfsy, Archbishop, opposed to poUcy of
Odo, 111 ; death of, ib.
Elmham, See of, transferred to Thetford ;
166
Elphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, suc
ceeds to Canterbury, 131 ; obtains the
holding ofa council, ib. ; encourages the
citizens of Canterbury against Danes,
132 ; is captured by Danes, ib.; refuses
to use Church money for ransom, 133 ;
murder of, ib. ; disparaged by Lanfranc,
upheld by Anselm, 174
Ely, See of, foundation of, 201 ; given by
Pope in commendam, 491
Eorpwald, King, baptism of, 46
Erasmus, patronised by Archbishop War
ham, 496 ; character of work of, 517
Ermenfrid, Legate of Pope, holds a Sjmod,
160 ; consecrates Bishop of Winchester,
161
Ethelbert, King of Kent, Bretwalda, 19 ;
married to Bertha, a Christian princess,
20 ; baptism of, 23 ; liberal presents of,
to the Church, 24 ; gives up his palace
to the Christian clergy, 29 ; letter to,
from Gregory, 28 ; builds a Church at
Rochester, 32 ; death of, 35
Ethelburga marries Eadwin, 37 ; has
Paulinus for chaplain, ib. ; escapes with
Paulinus into Kent, 42
Ethelfrid, King, slaughter of the monks of
Bangor by, 31
Ethelheard, Archbishop, consecration of,
82 ; unpopularity of iu Kent, 85 ; obliged
to fiy into Mercia, ib. ; restored by Ken
ulf, ib. ; reproved by Alcuin, ib. ; jour
ney of to Rome, 86 ; success of, 87 ;
restored to rights as Metropolitan, ib. ;
death of, 90
Ethelnoth, Archbishop, promoted to pri

macy, 139 ; gives relic of St. Augustine
to Leofric and Godiva, 140 ; makes a
claim for primacy of Scandinavian
Church, 136
Ethefred, King, holds coimcU at Eynsham,
131 ; flight and return of, 133 ; holds
councU at Habam, ib.
Ethelwold, Bishop, made bishop of Win
chester, 111 ; proceedings of in putting
monks in place of canons. 111, 112, 113
Ethelwulf, King, devastations of Danes in
his time, 93 ; gains success over Danes,
ib. ; makes grant of tithes to the Church,
94; nature of the grant, ib.; goes to
Rome, ib. ; conspiracy against, ib. ;
foundations of at Rome, 95 ; procures
coronation of his son Alfred, ib.
Ethered, Archbishop, restores monks to
Christ Church, 96
Eugenius III., Pope, unfair treatment of
St. WUliam by, 226; caUs councU at
Bheims, 227
Eugenius IV., Pope, gives See of Ely to be
held i/Kcommiendam, 491 ^character of, 499
Eusebius, passages of, relating to Chris
tianity in Britain, 4, 5
Evesham Abbey, foundation of, 55
Excommunication, ipso facto beginning of,
288
Exeter, commencement of See of, 146
Expecliatives, nature of, 508
Eynsham, CouncU of, 131
F
Fastidius, British bishop, favours Pela
gianism, 11 and note
Felix, Bishop, sent for to convert East
AngUa, 47 ; establishes See at Dunwich,
ib. ; part converter of East Anglia, 51
Finan, St., baptizes Peada, 49; sends
missionaries to Mercia, ib.
Flambard, Ralph, Bishop, organises sys
tem of simony, 176, 177, 1S6 ; made
bishop of Durham, 186
PoUot, GUbert, bishop of London, opposes
Becket's election, 233 ; translated to Lon
don from Hereford, 234; proclamation
of, against Becket at Northampton, 243 ;
writes letter of remonstrance to Becket,
248 ; sermon of at the penance of Henry
IL, 265
Fordun, '^church at, 13
Formosus, Pope, displeased at long
vacancy of English Sees, 102
Fountains Abbey, foundation of, 214;
plants daughter-houses, 215 ; wealth and
luxury of, ib.
Franciscans, the, origin of, 317 ; learning
of the English, 505 ; great scholars pro
duced by, 505, note
Frankfort, Council of, English bishops at,
84 ; decrees of, ib. ; gi-eat importance of,
85
Friars, the, first appearance of, in Eng
land, 317; corruption of, 318: new

INDE.X.

561

orders of forbidden at Lyons, 374, and
note ; growth and exactions of, 419 ; wan
ing popularity of, 452 ; compeUed to con
tend against LoUards, ib. ; decay of, 504
Fui-sey, Monk, part converter of East
Anglia, 51 G
Gascoigne, Tliomas, Dictionary of Theology
of, 473 ; charges of against bishops, ib.,
474
Gaunt, John of, supports Wycliffe on
account of his opinions on Church pro
perty, 417, 420 ; defends him before the
bishops at St. PaxU's, 421 ; convocation
resists dictation of, 420 ; support of un
fortunate for Wycliffe, 425 ; refuses sup
port to Herford and Repyngdon, 437
Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, nominated
to York, 280; violent proceedings of,
281, 284; proceedings against at York,
285 ; suspended by Pope, ib.
Gerard, Archbishop, caUed upon to conse
crate in Ueu of Anselm, 192
Germanus, Bishop, caUed into Britain to
oppose Pelagianism, 11; at Verulamium,
ib.; visits Britain a second time, 12 ; at
the HaUelujah battle, ib.; overthrows
Pelagianism, ib.
Giffard, William, Bishop, aUowed to receive
the staff from Anselm, 192 ; refuses to be
consecrated by Gerard, 193 ; possessions
of forfeited and banished, ib.
GUdas, assertions of as to beginning of
Christianity in Britain, 1 ; a writer of
the sixth century, 2 ; does not mention
Lucius, 3 ; mistake of as to Arianism in
Britain, 7 ; asserts existence of Churches
in later Roman Britain, 12 ; knows
nothuig of Germanus, ib., note ; account
of the Christians in Wales and CornwaU
of, 14, 15, 16
Gisa, Bishop, strengthens the canons at
Wales, 152 ; journey of to Rome, 153 .
Glastonbury, the oldest monastery in
Britain, 2, 54; enriched by Aldhelm,
71 ; Anglo-Saxon Church at, ib. ; gives
seven primates to English Church, 139 ;
violent proceedings at, under Thurstan,
174
Godiva, benefactress to Church at Coven
try, 140
Good Friday, directions as to mass of, 127 ;
first order as to observance of day of,
401
Gratian, compUation of Decretum by, 224
Gregory, Pope (The Great), writes to kings
of Franks as to the English, 20 ; deter
mines to send mission to England, ib.;
the story of the English boys seen by
htm, 21 ; personal attempt of, to go to
England, ib.; sends Augustine and his
companions, ib.; refuses to let them
return, ib.; answers of to Augustine's
questions, 24, 25 ; letter of to Eulogius
on the conversion of the English, 26 ;
9.

wise advice of to Augustine as to the
heathen ceremonies, 27 ; arrangement
of Sees for England of, ib.; letter of
to Ethelbert and Bertha, 28 ; to Augus
tine to caution him against pride, ib.
Gregory VIL, Pope, homage refused to by
WiUiam L, 170; anger of with Arch
bishop Lanfranc, ib.
Gregory IX. , Pope, exacts money for war
with the Emperor, 321 ; anger of, at the
proceedings of the Lewythiel, 322 ;
appoints Edmund Rich to Canterbury,
324 ; orders a visitation of monasteries,
ib.; demands 300 English benefices, 331
Gregory XL, Pope, issues BuUs against
Wycliffe, 422
Grimbald, teacher of Alfred, 100, 101
Grosseteste, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln,
succession of to episcopate, 825 ; char
acter of, ib.; defends the Oxford stu
dents, 328 ; welcomes appointment of
Boniface, 335 ; opposes appointment of
Robert Passelew, 336 ; goes to CouncU of
Lyons, 338 ; obtains sentence against
his chapter, ib.; undertakes to collect
tax for Pope, 339 ; signs the cession of
'¦ King John, ib. ; defends himself against
the king, ib. ; driven to oppose Roman
exactions, 341 ; goes a second time to
Lyons, 342 ; sermon of against abuses
of Court of Rome, 342, 343 ; vigorous
reforming measures of, 344; leads op
position to king's demands for subsi
dies, 345 ; makes calculation of revenues
of foreigners in England, ib. ; refuses to
induct Pope's nephew to a prebend, 346
letter of to Papal commissioners, ib.
said to have been excommunicated, 348
letter of to people of England, ib.,
death of, 350 ; orders preaching of ser
mons in EngUsh, 510 ; Castel of Love of,
512
Gundulf, Bishop, substitutes monks for
canons at Rochester, 172
Guthrun, baptism and settlement of, 96,

Habam, CouncU of, 133
Hakington, CoUegiate Church of, pro
jected, 276 ; demolished, 277
Hallam, Bishop, deputy of English Church
at Pisa and Constance, 499, 507; de
nounces immoraUty prevalent in Church,
499
Hallelu.iah battle, 12
Hampole, Richard de, writings of, 442,
510, 512
Harold, King, great influence of, under
Edward, 150 ; protects Malmesbury
Abbey, ib. ; founds Waltham for preben
daries, 151 ; dispute of with Bishop
Gisa, 151, 152
Harvey, WUliam, sentenced to perpetual
imprisonment, 468
Hatfield, Battle of, 633, 41
0

562

INDEX.

Hatfield, Council of, 62 ; accepts canons
of Lateran Council, ib.
Heddi, Bishop, opposes division of See of
Winchester, 70 ; death of, ib.
Henry I., King, succession of, 187; charter
of, ^6.; first relations of with Anselm,
188 ; demands homage from Anselm, ib. ;
refuses to submit to the Pope's direc
tions, 188, 189 ; at CouncU of London,
189 ; invests clerks in Sees, ib.; anger of
at Anselm refusing to consecrate, 192 ;
demands that Ansehn should accept the
customs of the fathers, 193 ; refuses to
look at the Pope's letters, ib. ; sends
Anselm to Rome, ib.; makes advances
to Anselm, 194 ; exacts money from the
clergy for aUowance to have wives, 195 ;
keeps Canterbury vacant five years, 204 ;
will not promote men of English race,
ib.; refuses to allow Papal Legate to
enter England, 205 ; dismisses the Legate
Peter from England, 207
Henry II., King, succession and policy of,
231 ; appoints Thomas Becket primate,
232 ; demands that Becket should resign
the archdeaconry, 234 ; quarrel of with
Becket at Woodstock, 235 ; holds coun
cil at Westminster, 1163, 236 ; goes away
in anger from Westminster Council, 237 ;
partial reconcUiation of with Becket,
238 ; summons Council of Clarendon,
ib. ; rage of against Becket for refusing
Constitutions of Clarendon, 239 ; appUes
to the Pope to make Archbishop of York
Legate, 246 ; summons councU at North
ampton, 241 ; harsh treatment by of
Becket at Northampton, 242, 243 ; sends
letter to King of France against Becket,
244 ; embassy of to the Pope at Sens,
245 ; outrage by on Becket's dependants,
246 ; forbids any to communicate with
or pray for Becket, 247 ; drives Becket
from Pontigny, 248 ; reconcUed with
Becket at Freteval, 249 ; outburst of
anger of against Becket, 251 ; dismay of
at murder of Becket, 252 ; penance of at
Avranches, ib.; promises to abrogate
Constitutions of Clarendon, 253 ; refers
the election to Canterbury to the Pope,
264 ; penance of at shrine of St. Thomas,
265, 266 ; obtains cession of clerical
privileges from Cardinal Hugo, 269 ;
nominates his son Geoffrey to See of
Lincoln, ib. ; foundation of three Abbeys
by, 272
Henry IIL, King, promises tenth of re
venue to Pope, 320 ; allows clergy to be
unjustly taxed , 321 ; invites Papal Legate
to England, 326 ; Avrites to Pope Inno
cent to deprecate exactions, 337 ; opposes
the Pope's exactions, 340 ; cheeked in
his demands for aid by Bishop Grosse
teste, 845 ; accepts Sicily for his son
Edmund, 357 ; appeals to Convocation
for money, 360 ; character of, 370
Henry, Bishop of Winchester, brother of

King Stephen, 218 ; supports Stephen's
cause, ib. ; Legate ofthe Pope, 223 ; holds
council and summons King Stephen, ib. ;
consecrates Thomas Becket, 233
Hereford, foundation of See of, 61
Herfast, Bishop, nominated to See of Elm
ham, 160
Herford, Nicholas, supporter of Wycliffe
at Oxford, 435 ; suspended by the Chan
ceUor, 437 ; appeals to John of Gaunt,
ib. ; before Convocation of Canterbury,
ib. ; excommunicated, 439 ; recants, ib.
Heriot sent by Pope to exact money, 362
Hermann, Bishop, attempts to secularise
Abbey of Malmesbury, 150 ; retires
abroad, ib. ; made Bishop of Sherborne,
151, note ; transfers imited Sees to Sahs
bury, ib.
Hertford, CouncU of, 59
Hervey, Bishop, first Welsh bishop who
attended an English Synod, 190, note;
first bishop of Ely, 201 ; account of him
by WiUiam of Malmesbury, 202
Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield, made a
Metropolitan by Ofia, 80 ; takes pre
cedence of Archbishop of Canterbury,
ib.; resigns his MetropoUtan dignity,
88, note
HUary, St., asserts orthodoxy of British
Church, 7
HUary, Bishop of Chichester, words of at
CouncU of Westminster, recommends
Becket to submit, 242 ; bad Latin of at
Sens, 245 and note
HUda, Abbess, at the Whitby Conference,
52 ; sketch of life of, 55
Hoke, Robert, burning of, in 1425, 467
Homage to be done by clerks for tempor
alties, 196
Honorius I. , Pope, sends Palls to Paulinus
and Honorius, 41
Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, con
secrated by Paulinus at Lincoln, 41 ;
consecrates successor to PauUnus at
Rochester, 57
Honorius IIL, Pope, demands prebends
and monks' portions, 318 ; fails to obtain
his demand of EngUsh Church, 318, 319,
320
Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canter
bury, appointed Bishop of Salisbury,
280 ; Archbishop of Canterbury, 281 ;
Chief Justiciary, ib. ; quarrel of, with
Christ Church Monastery, 282 ; begins
coUege at Lambeth, ib. ; obUged by Pope
to demolish the college, 283 ; holds
Council at York as Legate, 285 ; obliged
to resign office of Chief Justiciary, 287 ;
holds CouncU at Westminster, ib.
Hugh, St., Bishop of Lincoln, chai-acter of,
281, 282 ; refuses to publish Archbishop
Geoffrey's suspension, 285 ; translation
of, 314, 315
Hugo, Cardinal, mission of to England,
268 ; agrees to surrender clerical privi
leges, 269

INDEX.

563

Image-worship approved by second Coun
cU of Nicsea, 83
Ina, King, laws of in support of the
Church, 69 ; benefactions of to churches,
76
Indulgences, nature of, 515 ; great abuses
of, ib., note
Innocent IIL, Pope, importance of charac
ter in history, 286, 287, 289; orders
clergy to resign secular offices, 287 ;
appeals to, in the matter of the
Canterbuiy election, 290 ; compels the
election of Stephen Langton, 291 ; letter
of to King, John as to Langton's election,
293 ; orders three bishops to pronounce
an interdict, 295
Innocent IV., Pope, letter of to clergy,
bidding them contribute to the king,
337 ; sends the Nuncio Martin to prey
upon English clergy, 337 ; summons
Council at Lyons, 1245, 338 ; exactions
of from English clergy, 336, 339, 340,
341 ; appoints his nephew to a prebend
at Lincoln, 345 ; said to have excom
municated Bishop Grosseteste, 348
Innocent VIU., Pope, BuU of on monas
teries, 1489, 503
Interdict laid on England in ninth century,
91 ; of Archbishop Theobald, 228 ; of
Innocent III. under John, 295 ; nature
and effects of, 295, 296, 304 ; removal of,
1214, 310
Investitures, Lay, question of at Lateran
CouncU, 1099, 187 ; Pope Paschal for
bids, 188 ; exercised by Henry L, 189 ;
Anselm refuses to consent to, 188, 192,
193, 194 ; debated in CouncU of London,
196 ; compromise as to, ib., 197
Ithamar, Bishop, consecrated to Rochester
by Honorius, 57 J
Jaenbert, Archbishop, gives up part of his
province to Lichfield, 80 ; death of, 82
James, Deacon, assists Paulinus in baptiz
ing, 40 ; left by Paulinus at York, 42 ;
labours to uphold Christianity, ib.; at
the Conference at Whitby, 52
Jaruman, Bishop of the Mid- Angles, 50
Jerome, St., impUes that Britons were in
the habit of making pUgrimages to
Palestine, 7 ; controversy of with Pe
lagius, 8, 10
John, Cardinal of Crema, character of his
reception as Legate, 209 ; owed his
favour to political causes, 210 ; presides
in CouncU at Westminster, ib. ; vicious
habits of, 211, note
John De Gray, Bishop of Norwich, elected
to Canterbury, 290 ; election of quashed
by the Pope, 291
John, King, procures the election of John
de Gray to Canterbury, 290 ; appeals to
the Pope, ib.; anger of, at the Pope's

LANFRAUO.
action with regard to Stephen Langton,
292, 293, 294 ; fury of at the pronounc
ing of the interdict, 295, 297, 298 : ex
communication of, 293 ; seizes hostages
after his excommunication, ib. ; oppres
sions of, 299, 300 ; interview of with
Pandulf, 300 ; yields to the Pope, 301 ;
makes cession of his kingdom to Pope
Innocent, t302 ; vengeancejof on Peter
of Wakefield, ib. ; absolution of at Win
chester, 303 ; checked in vindictive
proceedings by Langton, 306 ; repeats
his cession of the Crown, 308 ; promises
compensation to clergy, 308, 309 ; sup
ported by Pope against clergy, 309, 312 ;
forced to sign the Great Charter, 310 ;
obtains dispensations from his promises,
310, 311 ; violent proceedings of against
clergy, 312, 313 ; death of, 313
John, precentor, brought over by Bene
dict to teach Church music, 72
John, presbyter, teacher of Alfred, 100, 101
John Scot (Erigena), not connected with
Alfred, 101, 102
Joseph of Arimathea, legend of, 2
Julius, martyred at Caerleon, 4
Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury, sent
by Gregory to England, 26 ; first bishop
of Rochester, 32 ; retires to France, 35 ;
succeeds Mellitus as archbishop, 36 ;
consecrates Romanus to Rochester, 37

Kemp, Cardinal, anti-national policy of,
493 ; promotion of, 494 ; governs Church
as Legate a latere, ib.
KenUworth, dictum of, declares Church
free, 369
Kent, Christianity of, due to Roman
sources, 81
Kenulf, King, restores Archbishop Ethel
heard, 85 ; letter of to the Pope as to
restoring Canterbury, 86 ; quarrel of
with Archbishop Wulfred, 91 ; brings
about the laying of the land under in
terdict, ib.
KUwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury,
consecration of, 373 ; character of, 374 ;
attends Council of Lyons, ib. ; made a
cardinal and Bishop of Porto, 376

Lactantius, passage of, relating to Christi
anity in Britain, 4, 5
Lambeth, coUege of, building of, 282 ;
demolished, 283
Lanfranc, Archbishop, chosen by King
and CouncU for primate, 161 ; early life
of, ib. ; informed by Papal Legates of
promotion, ib. ; unwillingness of to
accept it, ib. ; elected and consecrated,
ib.; requires oath of submission from
Thomas of York, 162 ; consecrates him
with an imderstanding, ib. ; goes to

564

INDEX.

LANGLAIID.
Rome, ib. ; obtains dispensation for
Thomas and Remigius, 163; honour
paid to by Pope, ib. ; defends primacy
of Canterbury, 164 ; rebuilds Canterbury
Cathedral, 165 ; obtains canon as to
clerical matrimony, 166 ; exhibits spirit
of independence towards Rome, 170 ;
threatened by Pope Gregory, ib. ; policy
of in making cathedrals monastic, 171
Langland, WiUiam, Fiers Plowman, visions
of, by, 511, 512
Langton, Simon de, upholds his brother's
cause at Rome, 309 ; elected to York,
but not accepted by Pope, 312
Langton, Stephen, Cardinal, Archbishop
of Canterbury, election of to Canter
bury forced on by the Pope, 219 ; obtains
privileges for monasteries during the
interdict, 299 ; comes to England to
negotiate, ib. ; comes to England as
primate, 303 ; pronounces absolution of
King John, ib. ; stops the vindictive
proceedings of King John, 306 ; promul
gates the charter of Henry I. , ib. ; good
service of in the matter of Great Char
ter, 310 ; refuses to excommunicate the
barons, 312 ; suspended by the Pope,
ib. ; carries out translation of St.
Thomas, 315 ; holds CouncU at Oxford,
316 ; baffles the demands of the Pope,
319 ; death of, 320
Laurentius, Archbishop of Canterbury,
consecrated by Augustine as successor,
32 ; attempts to bring Scotch and Irish
bishops to conformity, 34 ; designs to
retire to Prance, 35 ; vision, and aUeged
chastisement of, 36 ; interview of with
Eadbald, 26 ; death of, ib.
Law, canon, introduction of, into Eng
land, 224; text books of, ib., note;
Gratian's compUation of, ib.
Laws, ecclesiastical, of King Alfred, 96,
97, 98, QQ ; of King Athelstan, 103, 104 ;
at Eynsham, 1007, 131 ; at Habam, 133 ;
of King Cnut, 137, 138 ; of Edward the
Confessor, 155
Legends as to commencement of Christi
anity in Britain, 2
Leicester, foundation of See of, 61
Leo IIL, Pope, letter of, to King Kenulf,
86 ; acquiesces in the restoration of the
rights of Canterbury, 87 ; remonstrance
of English clergy to, 90 ; sends PaU to
Wulfred, ib. ; endeavours to compose
the quarrel between king and primate,
91 ; inflicts, or permits, a six years' in
terdict of England, ib.
Leofric adorns church at Coventry, 140
Leofric, Bishop, upholds seciUars against
regulars, 146 ; succeeds Lyfing at Credi
ton, ib. ; transfers the See to Exeter, ib.
Lepers, hospital for, founded by Remi
gius, 173
Leutherius, Bishop, sent by Agilbert to
Wessex, 49; consecrated by Theodore,
ib.

MABSHALL.
Lewythiel, the, origin and proceedings of,
322 ; plead their cause at Rome, 330
Lichfield, See of, limitation of, 61 ; con
stituted a Metropolitan See, 80 ; reduced
to the condition of a suffragan, 87 ;
transferred to Chester, 166
Lincoln, See of, See of Dorchester trans
ferred to, 165, 166 ; cathedral church
built in, ib. ; Geoffrey nominated to,
269 ; long vacancy of, 270, note
Lincoln, Chapter of, dispute of with
Bishop Grosseteste, 338, 339
Lindisfarne, foundation of, 54
Lindsey, conveiBions in by Paulinus, 40 ;
foundation of See of, 61, and note
Liturgical uses, various in the early
Church, 24 ; the Sarum, 173
Liturgy of ancient British Chnrch, 17
Liuthard, Bishop, chaplain to Queen Ber
tha, 20
Lollards, immunity of at first, 446 ; new
law projected against, 447 ; rapid in
crease of, ih. ; character of, 448 ; move
ment against in ParUament of 1388,
450 ; King's commands concerning, ib. ;
at Leicester, opinions of, ib. ; penance
inflicted on, 451 ; rapid increase of, 452 ;
boldness of, in 1394, 454 ; twelve tenets
of, 454, 455 ; menaces of king against,
456 ; letters of Pope against, ib. ; rebel-
Uons movements of, 466 ; stricter laws
against, ib. ; executions of, 466, 467;
tenets of invited animadversion, 469 ;
harsh and unjust treatment of, ib.;
proceedings of CouncU of Constance
against, 470 ; penetrated to Bohemia,
ib., note ; literary opponents of, 471
London designated as the See of a Metro
poUtan, 27 ; foundation of the See of,
30 ; churches buUt in, 32
Longchamp, WUliam, appointed bishop
of Ely, 279 ; Chief Justiciary, 280
Losinga, Herbert de. Bishop, simony of,
182, and note
Lotharingians promoted by King Edward,
145
Lucius, King, legend of, 3
Lupus, Bishop, accompanies Germanus to
Britain, 11
Lyflng, Archbishop of Canterbury, flies
from England, 133 ; never receives PaU
from Rome, 139
Lyfing, Bishop, made bishop of Worces
ter, 142 ; influence of, 144, 145 ; bishop
of Crediton, 144

M
Malmesbury, Abbey of, attempts on, by
Hermann, 150; protected by Earl Ha
rold, ib.
Mangym, Ralph, sentenced to perpetual
imprisonment, 468
Marshall, Henry, appointed Dean of York
when not in orders, 280

INDEX.

565

Martin, Papal Nuncio sent to England,
337 ; proceedings of, 338
Martin V., Pope, character of, 485; in
fringement of English Uberties by, 486 ;
checked by EngUsh law, ib. ; anger of,
against Archbishop Chichele, ib. ; caUs
upon Archbishops of Canterbury and
York to disobey the law, 486; caUs
upon Chichele to get repeal of statutes,
487 ; letter of to King and Parliament
against Premunire Statute, 488 ; reiter
ates demands to Archbishop Chichele,
489 ; appoints Henry Beaufort Legate,
490
Mai-tin, St. , Church'of, at Canterbury, 20, 23
Maserfield, battle of, 43
Mass Boole, fhe Lay-folk's, 511
Matrimony, clerical, general in tenth cen
tury, 107, 113 ; discouraged at Eynsham,
131 ; different rules as to, for secular
and capitular clergy, 166 ; prohibited by
Synod of Westminster, 1102, 190, and
note ; aUowance of for money, 195 ; not
diminished by canon of 1102, 200 ; coun
cU to put down, 1108, ib. ; forbidden by
canons of 1127, 213 ; by CouncU of Lon
don, 1129, 214 ; permission for sold by
the king, ib.
Medeshampstede, Peterborough, first ab
bot of, 60
MeUitus, Archbishop of Canterbury, sent
by Gregory to England, 26 ; charged
with a special message by Gregory, 27 ;
flrst bishop of London, 32 ; expeUed
from London, 35 ; retires to France, ib. ;
attends synod at Rome as bishop of
London, ib.; succeeds Laurentius as
Archbishop, 36 ; stoppage of a conflagra
tion by prayer of, ib. ; death of, ib.
Mepham, Simon de. Archbishop of Canter
bury, character of, 400 ; holds provincial
synod, 401; Constitutions of, ib., 402;
visitation of, 402 ; cheeked at Exeter,
403 ; quarrel of with Canterbury monks,
ib.
Mercia, planting of Chnrch in, 40 ; over
throw of Christianity in, 41, 42 ; re-
estabUshment of Church in, 49 ; con
version of, due to British sources, 51
Merton, Convocation of, 362
Messina, Archbishop, in ParUament asks
money for the Pope, 360
Michel, Dan, of Northgate, Eemorse of Con
science of, 511
Monasteria, early foundation of, 60 ; cor
ruption of manners in, 73, 76, 77, 78,
79, 89 ; destruction of by Danes, 95,
106 ; spared by Danes in later invasions,
122 ; rebuilt and endowed by Cnut, 136 ;
plundered by WiUiam L, 158; rebuilt
after Conquest, 174 ; of the Cistercians,
215 ; rapid building of in Stephen's
time, 225 ; exemptions granted to, 258 ;
foundation of by Henry II. , 272 ; visita
tion of ordered by Gregory IX., 324;
lay attacks upon, 368 ; fall of into dis

repute, 502 ; bull of Pope Innocent on
immorality of, 503
Monothelitism, rejected by CouncU of
Hatfield, 62
Montfort, Simon de, leader of baronial
party, 342 ; reverence of clergy for, 364,
365 ; summons a ParUament, 366 ; death
of, ib.
Mortmain, first statute of, 378 ; grievance
of felt by clergy, 379
Morton, Cardinal, Archbishop of Canter
bury, character of, 495, and note
Papalises Church of England, ib. ; com'
plains of irregularity of clergy, 502
letter of, to abbot of St. Alban's, 503
Murdak, Henry, Ai'chbishop, consecrated
in place of St. WiUiam, 226
IT
Netter, Thomas, opposes Wycliffe's doc
trines, 471
NicEea, first CouncU of, British bishops
probably present at, 6 ; second Council
of, 83
Nicholas IV., Pope, grants of revenue by,
to king, 383 ; valuation of clerical in
comes ordered by, ib.
Nicholas V., Pope, obtains an increase of
authority in England, 493
Nidd, the CouncU of, 67
Nigel, Bishop of Ely, holds Castle of
Devizes against Stephen, 222 ; forced to
surrender, ib.
Ninian, St., work of in Galloway, 13;
converts Southern Picts, 13 ; visits St.
Martin at Tours, ib.
Nonant, Hugh, Bishop, character of, 280 ;
quarrel of with monks of Coventry,
283
Northumbria, conversion of, due chiefly
to British sources, 51
Norwich, See of Thetford transfeiTed to,
166, 182
Norwich Abbey, attack on, by towns
people, 368, 369
Nothelm, Archbishop, a secular clerk be
fore consecration, 75 ; consecrates suf
fragans, ib. ; death of, ib.

Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, early life
of, 107, 108 ; made Archbishop of Canter
bury, 108 ; becomes a monk, ib. ; re
stores Canterbury Cathedral, ib. ; pub-
Ushcs canons, ib. ; addresses synodical
epistle to bishops, 109 ; severity of, ib. ;
dealings of with Edwy and Elfgiva,
109, 110 ; great power of, ib. ; death of,
ib.
Odo, Prior of Christ Church, demands
free election of archbishop, 261, 263 ;
goes to the king in Normandy, 262 ; one
of the persons selected for primacy, 263
Offa, King, friendship of, with Charle-

5QQ

INDEX.

OLDCASTLE.
magne, 79 ; raises Lichfield to a Metro
poUtan See, 80 ; holds a council at Chel
sea, 787, ib.; obtains the PaU for
Bishop Higbert, ib.
Oldcastle, Sir John, trial of ordered by
Convocation, 463; will not be con
vinced by king, ib.; arrested and
lodged in Tower, 464 ; confession of,
ib., 465; pronounced heretical, 466;
escape of from Tower, ib. ; capture and
execution of, 1417, 468 ; forged recanta
tion of, ib.
Origen, passages of relating to Christi
anity in Britain, 4
Orlton, Adam, bishop, trial of before
Secular Court, 398, 399; probably im
plicated in king's murder, 399, and
note ; obtains See of Winchester, 403
Ornaments of Church and ministers, 125,
126
Osmund, St. , Bishop, learning of, 172 ;
Custom-book of, 173 ; general adoption
of book of, ib., note
Oswald, King, defeats CadwaUader at
Dilston, 42 ; sets up a cross on field of
battle, ib. ; king of both Northumbrian
provinces, ib. ; sends to lona for Chris
tian teachers, 43 ; supports the Church
in Northumbria, ib. ; slain by Penda at
Maserfield, ib.; marries daughter of
CynegUsus, 48
Oswald, Archbishop, made Bishop of Wor
cester, 112 ; introduces Benedictine rule,
ib. ; translated to York, 112 ; activity
of ceases, ib.
Oswin, humility and devotion of, 43 ; slain
by Oswy, ib.
Oswy, King, succession of to throne, 43 ;
puts to death Oswin, ib. ; attacks King
Penda, ib. ; defeats and slays him at
Wingfield, 44, 49 ; gives Peada his daugh
ter in marriage, 49 ; uses his influence to
restore Christianity among East Saxons,
50 ; holds Conference at Whitby, 52, 53 ;
joins with Egbercht in sending Wig
hard to Rome, 57 ; requests Pope Vi-
taUan to provide an archbishop, ib. ;
death of, 58
Otho, Cardinal, comes as Legate to demand
beneflces, 318 ; faUure and recaU of, 319 ;
comes again as Legate, 326 ; holds Coun
cil of London, 327 ; proceedings at Oxford
in connection with, 328 ; refuses to leave
England, 330 ; departure of, from Eng
land, 334 ; Constitutions of, 352
Othobon, Cardinal, mission of to England
to punish clergy, 366 ; Constitutions of,
367
Oxford, University of, outrage on, by King
John, 298 ; desertion of by students,
299 ; students of defended by Grosse
teste, 328 ; Wycliffe's opinions popular
at, 423, 435, 437 ; representation of as to
clergy, 500, 501, 502
Oxford, Council of, 316; Parliament of,
363

P'
Palladius attempts to convert the Irish,
13
Pandulf, interview of with King John,
300 ; sent to offer King Phillip the crown
of England, 301 ; receives the submission
of King John, ib. ; upholds John's cause
with the Pope against Langton, 309
Paris, Matthew, dark pictures by of state
ofthe Church, 313, 325, 334
Parliament, of Westminster, 1248, 341 ; of
Oxford, resists King and Pope, 363 ;
provisions of the Oxford, 364 ; of 1344,
regulates proceedings against clergy,
406 ; checks Papal intrusions, 408 ; of
1351, passes flrst Statute of Provisors,
408 ; of 1371, opposition to the Church
in, 417 ; "The Good" (1376), anti-papal
feeling in, 418 ; petitions to, against
Roman intrusions, ib. ; of Gloucester,
rejects measures for Church spoliation,
426 ; of 1388, petitions against Lollards,
450 ; of 1394, LoUard opinions in, 454 ;
of 1404, discusses forfeiture of Church
oroperty, 461 ; of 1410, puts forth a
scheme for confiscating Church revenues,
461, 462 ; declaration by, in 1399, against
Pope's jurisdiction, 484, and note
Parochial System, introduced by Theodore,
63 ; operation of, after Theodore's death,
68
Paschal II. , Pope, anger of, with English
Church for its independent action, 204,
205
Patrick, St., converts the Irish, 13
Paul, St., the assertion that he preached
Christianity in Britain, 2, 3
Paulinus, Archbishop of York, sent by
Gregory to England, 26 ; accompanies
Ethelburga to Northumbria, 37 ; con
verts King Eadwin, 38 ; flrst archbishop
of York, 39 : baptizes large numbers iu
Bernicia and Deira, 40 ; converts men
of Lindsey, ib. ; baptizes many in the
Trent, ib. ; buUds a church at Lincoln,
41 ; consecrates Honorius Archbishop of
Canterbury, ib. ; appearance of, de
scribed, 40, note ; escapes into Kent after
battle of Hatfield, 42 ; becomes bishop
of Rochester, ib. ; death of, ib.
Peada, son of Penda, desires to marry
Oswy's daughter, 49 ; is converted to
Christianity, ib. ; baptized by St. Finan,
49 ; brings four priests with him into
Mercia, ib.
Peccham, John de, Archbishop of Canter
bury, promotion of to Primacy, 376 ;
holds councU at Reading (1279), 377 ;
obliged to recall anathemas of Reading,
377 ; summons convocation of Lambeth,
379 ; bold measures of, 'ib. ; retracted,
ib. ; violent letter of, against exempt
orders, 380 ; ordered by king to call
provincial council, ib, ; summons con
vocation (1283), 381 ; Constitutions of

INDEX.

567

at Reading, 411; at Lambeth, ib., 412;
orders preaching of sermons iu EngUsh,
510
Pecock, Reginald, Bishop, Uterary oppon
ent of LoUards, 471 ; sermon of at Paul's
Cross, 472 ; offence taken at, by bishops,
ib. ; trial of by Archbishop Stafford,
472 ; Bepressor of over-mv£h Blaming the
Clergy of, 474 ; Treatise on Faith of,
475, 476 ; books of, given to a committee
to examine, 478 ; declared heretical,
ib.; recantation of, 479, 480; iU-treat-
ment and imprisonment of, 481 ; defence
of pUgrimages by, 514
Pelagius, a British monk, 7 ; account of,
8, 9, 10
Pelagianism, in Britain, 10 ; introduced by
Agricola, ib. ; GalUc bishops caUed in
to oppose, 11 ; condemned at Verulam
ium, ib. ; revival of, 12, overthrown by
Germanus and Severus, ib.
Pdagianism, semi-, its nature, 11, note
Pelagians, condemned by African Synod,
10; acquitted at DiospoUs, ib.; Pope
Zosimus favours, ib. ; banished by Court
of Ravenna, ib.
Penda, King, defeats King Eadwin at Hat
field, 41 ; defeats Oswald at Maserfleld,
43 ; defeated and slain at Wingfleld, 44,
49 ; statements of Bede concerning, 46,
note ; takes away territory from Wessex,
47
Peter, sent to England as Legate, 207 ; not
aUowed to remain, ib.
Peter de Aqua Blanca, Bishop of Hereford,
envoy of the king in Italy, 357 ; fraud
ulent transaction of, at Rome, ib. ;
thrown into prison by barons, 365
Peter's Pence, amount of tax of, 513, and
note
PUgrimages, enjoined as necessary for lay
men, 513, 514 ; the favourite in England,
ib. ; defence of, by Bishop Pecock, ib.
PipeweU Abbey, CouncU of, 279
Pisa, CouncU of, 499
Plegmund, Archbishop, teacher of Alfred,
100 ; made Archbishop of Canterbury,
101 ; consecration of seven bishops by,
102, 103, note
Poems, alliterative, 512
Poiset, Hugh de. Bishop of Durham,
character of, 280
Pomponia Grsecina, mentioned by Tacitus,
may have been a dweUer in Britain, 3
Popes, the, of fifteenth century, bad
character of, 499
Prcemunire, first Statute of (1353), 409,
410 ; Second Statute of 1393, 453, 454
PrcBmunientes, clause in bishops* writs, 385
Primer, the, contents and character of,
613
Proctors, of clergy, before Parliament,
358, 359 ; ordered by Council of
Reading, 377, note ; first attend Convo
cation in 1283, 381 ; resist king's
demand in 1249, 384 ; heavy demands

made on, in 1294, 384 ; tlireatened with
violence, ib.
Prohibitions of ecclesiastical courts com
plained of, 381, 882 ; checked and regu
lated, 466
Provisors, fu:st Statute of (1351), 408;
Ordinance of (1352), 409 ; Act of, of 1390,
453 ; protest of archbishops against, ib.
Pudens, mentioned by St. Paul, 2 ; a
British name, 3, note
Purveye, John, Recantation of, 459 ;
indifferent character of, ib.
Putta, Bishop, transferred from Rochester
to Hereford, 61 R
Raleigh, WiUiam, Bishop of Norwich, ob
tains See of Winchester, 335
Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury, election
of to Canterbury, 204 ; receives the PaU,
205 ; sent to the Pope to remonstrate
against appointment of Legate, 205 ;
refuses to consecrate Thurstan without
profession of obedience, 206 ; death and
character of, 208
Ramsbury, foundation of Bee of, 103
Redwald, King, defeats Ethelfrid, 38 ;
baptism of, 46 ; endeavours to unite
heathen and Christian rites, ib.
Remigius, made Bishop of Dorchester, 157,
158 ; charges of simony against, ib. ;
consecrated by Stigand, 157 ; goes to
Rome with Lanfranc, 162 ; obtains papal
pardon for simony, 163 ; transfers the
See to Lincoln, 165 ; date ofthe transfer,
166, and note ; builds cathedral at
Lincoln, 165 ; vigorous administration
of diocese by, 173
RepyngdoUjICardinal, supporter of Wycliffe
at Oxford, 435 ; sermon of on Corpus
Cliristi day, 435, 436 ; suspended from
scholastical acts, 437; appeals to John
of Gaunt, ib. ; before the Convocation of
Canterbury, 437 ; excommunicated, 439 ;
recants, ib. ; after promotion of, ib.
Reservation to English Sees commenced
by the Pope, 395
Restitntus, British bishop at Aries, 6
Reynolds, Archbishop, provision of, by
Pope, -396; antecedents of, ib. ; righte
of patronage conferred on, 397 ; charac
ter and death of, 400
Rimini, Council of, British bishops at, 7 ;
their poverty, ih.
Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canter
bury, elected to Primacy, 263 ; appealed
against by younger Henry, 264 ; goes to
the Pope at Anagni, 264 ; consecration
of, by Pope, ib. ; enthroned at Canter
bury when church in ruins, 266 ; con
secrates four bishops, ib. ; holds a synod
at Westminster, 267 ; character of, 273 ;
letter of on immunities of clergy, ib. ;
death of, 274
Richard (le Grand), Archbishop of Canter
bury, appointment of by Pope, 320

568

INDEX.

Richard, St. , Bishop of Chichester, appomt
ed ChanceUor by Boniface, 335 ; Bishop
of Chichester, 336 ; character of, 370
Richard I., King, succession of, 279;
coronation of, ib. ; holds councU at
PipeweU, ib. ; nominates to Church
appointments, 280
Richard IL, threatens Lollards, 456 ; ban
ishes Archbishop Arundel, ib. ; charged
with applying to Pope for confirmation
of his Acts, 484
Rigge, Dr. , Chancellor of Oxford, supporter
of WycUffe at Oxford, 431, 435; sum
moned before Convocation of Canterbury,
436 ; yields to the archbishop, 437 ;
suspends Herford and Repyngdon, ib.
Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, bishop
of London, 145 ; director of King Ed
ward, ib. ; made Archbishop of Canter
bury, 148 ; unpopularity of, ib. ; refuses
to consecrate Spearhafoc, ib.; driven
into exUe, ib. ; appeals to the Pope, 149
Rochester, foundation of See of, 32
Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, consecration
of, 197 ; Justiciary of England, 218 ;
favours Stephen's claims, ib.; seized by
King Stephen, 221 ; castles built by, ib.
Roger, Archbishop of York, attempt of,
to take precedence of Archbishop of
Canterbury, 270, 271
Romanus consecrated to Rochester, 37
Ruffinianus sent by Gregory to England, 26
Rustand sent by Pope to collect money
for crusade, 358 ; exactions of, 359
S
Sacerdos, British Presbyter at Aries, 6
Saints of English race despised by Nor
mans, 174
Salisbury, commencement of See of, 151,
note
Sanctuary, regulations of, 97; power of
different churches as to, 137; disre
garded iu Stephen's time, 225
Sardiea, CouncU of, British bishops per
haps present at, 6
Sawtoy, WiUiam, before convocation, 457 ;
condemned as heretical, 458 ; burned at
Smithfield, ib.
Saxons, East, Church planted among, 31 ;
Christianity re-introduced from British
sources, 51
Saxons, South, conversion of, 65, 66 ; in
diocese of Winchester, 66
Saxulf, Bishop, consecrated by Theodore,
59 ; first abbot of Medeshampstede, 60 ;
bishop of Lichfield, 59, 61
Scripture, rhyming manuals of, 512
Scot, John (Erigena), aecount of, 105
Sebert, King of East Saxons, converted,
31 ; builds churches in London, 32 ;
death of, 35
Sees, early, dates of foundation of, 74;
consecration to seven, by Plegmund,
102 ; held in plurality in eleventh cen- I

tury, 141, 144 ; elections to be made to
by chapters at Court, 197
Selsey, founded by WUfrid, 54; founda
tion of monastery of, 66 ; See of, ib.,
note ; See of transferred to Chichester,
166
Separation between secular and ecclesias
tical matters, 167
Sermons, provision for in Middle Ages,
510
Severus, Bishop, accompanies Germanus
to Britain, 12
Sherborne, beginnings of See of, 48, 70 :
See of transferred to Salisbury, 166
Sigbercht, King, plants the Church in
East Anglia, 47 ; sends for Felix, a Bur
gundian, ib.
Sigebert, King, baptism of, 50 ; allows
settlement of Church among East Sax
ons, ib.
Siddena, Stow, See of Lindsey, 61, and
note, 147
Simony, organised system of, under Ru
fus, 176
Siric, Archbishop of Canterbury, advises
buying off the Danes, 123, note
Siward, Bishop, coadjutor-bishop of Ead
sige, 147
Spearhafoc, Bishop, refused consecration
by Archbishop Robert, 148
Spencer, Bishop, "crusade" of, 448 ; igno
minious return of, 456 ; effect of crusade
of, to advance LoUardism, ib.
Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, con
ducts trial of Bishop Pecock, 472
Stapleton, Walter, Bishop, character of,
399, 400 ; death of, ib.
Statute, De viris religiosis, 378 ; Cireiim-
ffpect^ Agatis, 382 ; of Carlisle, 394 ; of
Articuli cleri, 397 ; first of Provisors,
408 ; flrst of Prcemunire, 409 ; confirm
ing Prcemunire, 410, note ; second of
Provisors, 453 ; second of Prcemunire,
454 ; declaratory of royal supremacy,
484 ; De Sereticis Comburendis, 457 ;
against LoUards, 466 ; of Henry IV. and
Henry V. against Papal intrusions, 485 ;
limitmg the Prcemunire Statute, 493
Stephen, King, accession of, due to Church
infiuence, 218 ; pledges himself to allow
liberty to Church, ib. ; character of,
219 ; keeps none of his promises, 220 ;
seizure of bishops by, 221, 222 ; cited to
councU, 223 ; appears by representa
tives, ib. ; obtains virtual triumph, 224 ;
forbids bishops to attend CouncU at
Rheims, 227 ; banishes Archbishop Theo
bald, 228; is reconcUed to him, 229;
death of, ib. ; importance of his reign
ecclesiasticaUy, 230
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, first
priest of Assandun, 139 ; made bishop
of Elmham, 146 ; deprived of See, ib. ;
bishop of Winchester, ib. ; made arch
bishop of Canterbury by Witan, 149;
seizes Robert's Pall, ib. ; promotion of

INDEX.

569

unfortunate, ib. ; not allowed to dedi
cate Waltham, 151 ; summons Witan at
Westminster, 154 ; crowns Harold, 155 ;
taken by WUliam to Normandy, 157 ;
consecrates Remigius, ib. ; deposed at
Winchester, 159 ; imprisoned for life, ib.
Stigand, Bishop, nominated to See of
Selsey, 160
Stokes, Peter, employed by the Arch
bishop against Wycliffe's party at Ox
ford, 435, 436 ; summoned to Lambeth, ib.
Stow, Siddena, ancient See of Lindsey
Bishopric, 61, and note, 147
Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury,
quarrel of with Edward IIL, 403 ;
character of, ib.
Sudbury, Simon, Archbishop of Canter
bury, tries Wycliffe at St. Paul's, 421 ;
BuUs against Wycliffe directed to, 422 ;
murder of in Wat Tyler Rebellion, 427 ;
not unfavourable to Wycliffe's views,
ib.
Sunday, restraint of work on, 99, 104, 118,
138
Swinderby, William, opinions of, 445 ;
process against, 446 ; after history of,
ib.
Synod (see Cov/ncil Ecclesiastical, and
Convocation). T
Taylor, WiUiam, burning of, in 1422, 467
Templars, suppression of in England,
395
TertuUian, passage of relating to Christi
anity in Britain, 4
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, suc
ceeds to primacy, 223 ; introduces civil
and canon law, 224 ; styled Legatus natus,
ib. ; attends councU in spite of king's
prohibition, 227, 228 ; honour paid to,
228 ; banished, ib. ; lays land under in
terdict, ib.; reconcUed to the king, 229 ;
regent of the kingdom tiU coming of
Henry, ib.
Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, a
monk bom at Tarsus, 57 ; selected by
Pope Vitalian for Canterbury, ib. ; has
the Eastern tonsure, ib. ; consecrated
and sent to England, 58 ; begins visita
tions, ib. ; appoints bishops, ib. ; re
consecrates Chad for Lichfield, ib. ; in
structs people in learning, ib. ; accepted
as archbishop of the whole land, 58 ;
summons councU at Hertford, 59 ; de
poses Winfrid and consecrates Saxulf,
59 ; consecrates Earconwald to London,
ib. ; brings about general adoption of
Roman uses, 60 ; introduces auricular
confession, ib. ; divides the Northum
brian See, 60, 61 ; supersedes WUfrid at
York, 61 ; again divides the See, ib. ;
divides the Mercian diocese into five,
ib.; holds councU at Hatfield, 62; de
poses Trumbercht from Hexham, ib. ;
2

appoints Cuthbert to Lindisfarne, ib. ;
translates Eata to Hexliam, ib. ; recon
cUed to Wilfrid, ib. ; death and charac
ter of, 63 ; introducer of parochial sys
tem, ib. ; obtains right of patronage for
those who buUt chui-ches, 68, and note
Thetford, See of, transferred to Norwich,
166
Thomas I., Archbishop of York, nomi
nated to See of York, 160 ; applies to
Lanfranc for consecration, 162 ; obliged
to promise obedience to See of Canter
bury, ib. ; goes to Rorae, ib. ; obtains
dispensation for illegitimacy, 163 ;
claims independent Metropolitan dig
nity from Pope, ib. ; referred by the
Pope to a councU, 164
Thomas II. , Archbishop of York, dispute
of with Anselm as to primacy, 202 ;
consecrated with profession of subjec
tion to Canterbury, 203
Thoresby, Archbishop of York, orders
use of Lay-folks' Catechism, 510
Thorpe, WiUiam, examination of before
Arundel, 459, 460
Thurstan, Abbot, violent proceedings of
at Glastonbury, 174
Thurstan, Archbishop of York, election
of, to York, 206 ; applies for consecra
tion to Archbishop Ralph, ib. ; conse
crated by Pope Calixtus, ib. ; obtains
Papal exemption from subjection to
Canterbury, ib. ; banished by the king,
ib. ; declines to consecrate WUliam of
CorbeU, 209 ; goes to Rome to guard
privUeges of York, ib. ; obUged to yield
precedence to Canterbury, 213 ; avoids
attending Westminster Synod, ib.
Tithe, the Saladin, ordinance for, 278
Tithes ordered to be strictly paid, 787,
81 ; confirmation of, by King Ethel
wulf, 94
Tonsure, dispute as to form of, at Whit
by, 52 ; the Eastern method of, 57
Tostig, Earl, journey of to Rome, 152 ;
upbraids the Pope, ib.
Transubstantiation, doctrine of, opposed
to .Mfric's teaching, 128
Trumbercht, Bishop of Hexham, 61
Trumhere, Bishop ofthe Mid-Angles, 10
Trumwine, Bishop of Southern Picts,
61
Tuda succeeds Colman at Lindisfarne, 53 ;
supports Roman uses, 54
Turold transferred to Peterborough to
oppose Hereward, 174
Twenge, Sir Robert de, leader of the
Lewythiel, 322 ; obtains redress at
Rome, 323
Tynemouth, foundation of, 54
TJ
Ulf, Bishop, made bishop of Dorchester,
147 ; found ignorant at Vercellte, ib. ;
obtains confinnation in See by bribery,

570

INDEX.

ib. ; driven into exUe, 148 ; deposed by
Witan, 149
Urban V., Pope, demands arrear of Eng
lish tribute, 415

Valuation of ecclesiastical revenues in
1291, 383
Veil, the Lenten, 98
Verulamium, place of martrydom of St.
Alban, 4
Vicarages, foundation of by Council of
Oxford, 316
Vitalian, Pope, addressed by King Oswy,
57 ; selects Theodore as archbishop, 57
Vivian, Cardinal, not aUowed to act as
Legate in England, 271
Wadden, John, burning of, 468
Walkeline, Bishop, nominated to See of
Winchester, 160 ; attempts to get rid of
monks from Winchester, 171 ; foUed by
Lanfranc, ib.
Waltham, foundation of as a College by
Harold, 151 ; dedicated by Archbishop
Cynesige, ib. ; founded as an Abbey by
Henry II., 272
Warelwast, William, Bishop, sent to Rome
to oppose Anselm, 193 ; informs Anselm
that he must not return to England,
194 ; sent to Rome when blind, 205
Warham, Archbishop, supporter of literary
men, 496 ; value of primacy of, ib.
Wells, foundation of See of, 103
Weseham, Roger de, promotion to Lich
field, 338
Wessex, conversion of, 47 ; Christianity of,
due to Roman sources, 51
Westminster Abbey, built by Edward the
Confessor, 154; dedication of, ib.;
Harold crowned in, 155 ; completion of
rebuUdiug of, 368
Whitby, Conference at, 52, 53, 54
Whithern, Church at, 13
Whyte, WUUam, burning of, m 1428, 467 ;
opinions of, ib.
Wighard, sent to Rome for consecration,
57 ; carried off by pestUence, ib.
Wight, Isle of, conversion of, 66; in
diocese of Winchester, 70
Wilfrid, Bishop, taught at Lyons and
Rome, 52 ; tutor of Alchfrid, ib. ; takes
chief pai-t in the Conference at Whitby,
52, 53 ; on division of his See appeals to
Rome, 61 ; goes to France for consecra
tion, 63 ; obtains possession of York,
ib.; work of in Mercia, ib.; beautifies
York Cathedral, ib. ; builds churches at
Ripon and Hexliam, ib. ; active labours
of in the north, 64; embroiled with
King Ecfrid, ib. ; gives the veil to Queen
Etheldreda, ib.; banished from North
umbria, ib. ; diocese of divided, ib. ;

WINCHELSEA.
appeals to Rome, i6. ; work of iu Fries
land, ib. ; decision on case of at Rome,
ib. ; takes part in the Synod at Rome,
680, 65 ; returns to Northumbria, ib. ; is
thrown into prison, ib. ; released and
goes to Mercia, ib. ; preaches the Gospel
to South Saxons, ib.; founds reUgious
house at Selsey, 66 ; returns to the See
of York, ib. ; again banished, id. ; ad-
minsters See of Leicester, ib.; at the
CouncU of Easterfield, 67 ; again appeals
to Rome, ib. ; allowed to return to
Northumbria on conditions, ib.; goes
back to Mercia and dies at Oundle, ib. ;
character of, ib.
WiUiam of CorbeU, Archbishop of Canter
bury, cause of the election of, 208 ; de
clines to be consecrated by Archbishop
Tliurstan, 209 ; goes to Rome for PaU,
ib. ; makes compact with Pope as to
Roman Legate, ib.; goes to Rome with
Legate, 212 ; accepts the office of Legate
of the Pope, ib. ; repulses Archbishop of
York, 213 ; swears aUegiance to MatUda,
ib.; holds Synod at Westminster as
Legate, 1127, ib.; favours accession of
Stephen, 218 ; death of, 223
WUliam, St. , Archbishop of York, account
of, 226, 227 ; takes possession ofhis See,
227 ; poisoning of, ib., note
William I., King, ecclesiastical poUcyof,
156 ; crowned by Archbishop Ealdred,
157 ; takes English prelates with him to
Normandy, ib.; charter of decreeing
separations of civil and ecclesiastical
causes, 168 ; importance of this act, 169 ;
vigorously asserts royal supremacy, 169,
170 ; practises investiture of spiritual
persons, 170 ; refuses homage to the
Pope, ib.; requires submission of the
clergy, ib.; favours secular canons
rather than monks, 171
William H., King, simony and profligacy
of, 176, 186 ; refuses to flU up primacy,
178 ; iUness and promises of, 179 ; nom
inates Anselm to primacy, ib. ; makes
conditions with him, 179, 180 ; involved
in quarrels with Anselm, ISO, 181 ; pro
ceedings of, at Hastings, 181 ; renewed
quarrel with Anselm, 182, 183 ; unable
to carry his point about the Pall, 184 ;
refuses Anselm leave to go abroad, 185 ;
increased oppressions of on tiie Church,
186 ; death of, ib.
William, Bishop, consecrated Bishop of
London, 148 ; restored to See of London,
150
Willibrord, Archbishop, labours of, among
the Frisians, 71
Winchelsea, Robert, Archbishop of Can
terbury, consecration and enthronement
of, 385 ; calls convocation at Bury St.
Edmunds, 1296, 386 ; in London, 1297,
387 ; refuses to yield to king's demands,
388 ; reconcUiation of, with Edward I.,
389; summons Convocation 1397, ib.;

INDEX.

571

WINCHESTER.
refuses to join in protest of barons,
392 ; impUcated in plans for dethroning
Edward, ib.; tried and punished by
Pope, 393 ; return of from banishment,
394 ; proceedings against Templars
under, 305
Winchester, foundation of See of, 48 ;
Wmi, first bishop of, ib. ; division of See
of, 70
Winchester, CouncU of, 1070, removes
EngUsh prelates, 159; of 1072, deter
mines the primacy of Canterbury and
bounds of province, 164
Winchester, Synod of, 1076, enacts clerical
ceUbacy, 166 ; other canons of, 167
Winchester Abbey, attack on by towns
people, 368
Windsor, CouncU of, bishops nominated
at, 160
Windsor, Synod of, 1070, deposes English
bishops, 160; of 1072, finaUy settles
primacy of Canterbury and precedence
of bishops, 164, 165
Wingfield, Battle of, 44 \
Wini, Bishop, brought into Wessex by
king, 48 ; fii'st bishop of Winchester, ib. ;
expeUed from his See, ib.
Witham Priory founded by Henry II. , 272
Withred, King, laws of, in support of the
Church, 69
Wodeford, William, writes against Wy
cUffe's doctrines, 471
Worcester, foundation of See of, 61 ; long
held in plurality with York, 142
Worcester Cathedral, consecration of,
1218, 314
Wulfelm, Archbishop, advises Athelstan
in his laws, 103
Wulfred, Archbishop, consecration of, 90 ;
the PaU sent to, from Rome, ib. ; quarrel
of with King Kenulf, 91, 92
Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, consecrates
Church of Assandun, 139
Wulfstan, St., Bishop, made Bishop of
Worcester, 153 ; efforts of to suppress
slave trade, 153, 172 ; makes a claim be
fore the Council of Winchester, 160 ;
work of at Worcester, 172 ; translation
of, 314
Wulfwig, Bishop, succeeds Ulf at Dor
chester, 150
WycUffe, John, birth and early life of, 415,
and notes ; opinions of, as to Church

property, 416 ; recommend him to John
of Gaunt, 417, 420 ; commissioner to the
Pope, 418 ; condemns wealth of the
Church, 419 ; summoned to appear be
fore Convocation, 420 ; escapes censure
by aid of John of Gaunt, 421 ; nineteen
propositions of, sent to Pope, ib. ; BuUs
against, issued by Pope, 432 ; defends
himself against Pope's censures, 424 ;
summoned a second time to St. Paul's,
425 ; before the bishops at Lambeth, ib. ;
excuses the violence in Westminster
Abbey, 425 ; opinions of on Church
property merely theoretical, 426 ; causes
which led him to tum his attention to
theological topics, 426, 427 ; discredit
thrown on by Wat Tyler's rebeUion,
427 ; theological propositions put out by,
1381, 427 ; caUed in question at Oxford,
429 ; defence of doctrine on the Euchar
ist by, ib. ; condemned at Oxford, 430 ;
abandoned by John of Gaunt, ib. ; * ' Con
fession " of, on the Eucharist, ib. ; canse
of, espoused at Oxford, 431; "poor
priests " organised by, 432 ; why not
summoned in 1382, 439 ; translation of
Bible by, 439, 442 ; English tracts of,
439, 440, 443 ; explanation of views of,
440, 441 ; summoned to Rome, 442 ;
letter to the Pope of, 443 ; death of,
444 ; exhumation of bones of, ib. ; value
of work of, ib. ; condemnation of tenets
of at Constance, 450 ; literary oppon
ents of, 471
Wykeham, WUUam of. Bishop of Winches
ter, chanceUor, 417 ; defended by Con
vocation, 420

Yevering, baptisms at, 40 and note
York, designated as the See of a Metro
politan, 27 ; conference at, as to abandon
ing idolatry, 39 ; baptism of Eadwin and
his famUy at, ib. ; first germ of Minster of,
ib. ; bumingof Minster of, 158 ; rebuild
ing of, 165 ; Council of, under Hubert
Walter, 285 ; decrees of, ib., 286

Zacharias, Pope,
clergy, 77

Z
letter

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With Coloured Map and Woodcuts. (686 pp.) Post Svo 7" M
THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF THE ROMAN
, EMPIRE. From the Establishment of the Empire to thr
Accession of Commodi,s,a.d. ,80. Post Svo. tlnPreZrathn
THE STUDENT'S GIBBON: An ¦ EPITOME OF THF
History of the Decline and Fall of thr Rmo..,., ir.
Historians. With 100 Woodcuts, (700 pp.) Post Svo, ys. €d

311^. MC/RRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 3
Europe.
THE STUDENT'S HISTOBY OF MODERN ETJROPE.
From the Capture of Constantinople by the Turk-, 1453,
To THE Tkeatv of Berun. 1878. By RICHARD LODGE, M.A.,
Fellow of H.N.C., Oxford. (800 pp.) Post Svo. 7^.6^.
wn ^}^-J:''°^'^^ '^'^^ treated this wide subject in a Ijroad and intelligent spirit.
I J ^ P^ges abound in facts, he has not been content to (jive a mere
crowded summary of events : he presents us with many sound and thought
ful remarks on the tendencies of each of his periods. His grasp is lirm and
he never loses his way amidst a multitude of details . . . above all, we
believcthat we are justified in saying that it is minutely accurate. "—yoMrjiai
of Education,
THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF EUROPE DURINO
THE MIDDLE AGES. By HENRY HALLAM, LL.D.
(650 pp.) Post Svo. 71, 61^.

France.
THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. FROM THE
Earliest Times to the Fall of the Second E.mpire With
Notes and Illustrations on the Institutions of the Country, By W. H.
JERVIS, jM.A, With 4 Coloured Maps, and Woodcuts. (760 pp.)
Post Svo. 7f. 6d,  ? 
Geography and Geology.
THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEO-
GHAPHY. By Canon EEVAN, U..\. With 150 Woodcuts
(710 pp.) Post Svo. ys. 6d.
THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MODERN GEO
GRAPHY, IVIathematical, Phvsic.-.l, and Descriptive. By
Canon BEVAN, M.A. With 120 Woodcuts. (684 pp.) Post Svo. 7s. 6rt.
THE STUDENT'S GEOGRAPHY OF BRITISH
INDIA, Political and Physical. By GEORGE SMITH, LL.D.
With Maps, Post Svo, ys. 6d.
THE STUDENT'S ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. By
Sir CHARLES LYELL, F,R.S, A New Edition, tlioroughly
revised by Professor P, M.ARTIN DUNCAN, With 600 Wood
cuts. Post Svo, g.r.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By MARY SOMERVILLE,
7th Edition, corrected and. revis,d. Post Svo, gs.

Law and Philosophy.
THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MORAL PHILOSO
PHY. With Quotations and References, By WILLIAil FLEM
ING, D,D, (440 pp,) Post Svo, ys.id.
THE STUDENT'S EDITION OF AUSTIN'S JURIS
PRUDENCE. Compiled from the larger work. By ROBERT
CAMPBELL, (544 pp.) Post Svo, 121,
AN ANALYSIS OF AUSTIN'S LECTURES ON
JURISPRUDENCE. By GORDON CAMPBELL, (214 jp,)
Post Svo. 6s.

4 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.
Br. Wm. Smith's Smaller Manuals.
These "Works have "been drawn up for the Lower Forms, at the request of
several teachers, who require more elementary books than the STUDENT'S
HISTORICAL SEAKUALS.
A SMALLER SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF THE OLD
AND THE NEW TESTAMENT. In Three Divisions:—!. Old
Testament History. II. Connection of Old and New Testaments.
III. New Testament History to a.d. 70. Edited by WM. SMITH.
With Coloured Maps and 40 Illustrations. (370 pp.) i6mo. 3J, 6d.
This book is intended to be used with, and not in the place of, the Bible,
*' Students well know the value of Dr. Wm. Smith's larger Scripture His
tory. This abridgment omits nothings cf importance, and is presented in
Fuch a handy form that it cannot fail to become a valuable aid to the less
learned Uible Student,"— People's Magazine.
A SMALLER ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST.
Fkom the Earliest Times to the Conquest of Alexander
THE Great. By PHILIP SiMITH, B.A. With 70 Woodcuts.
(310 pp.) i6mo. ^s. 6d.
" This book is designed to aid the study of the Scriptures, by placing in
their true historical relations those allusions to Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia,
Phccnicia, and the Medo-Persian Empire, which form *!ie background of the
history of Israel from Abraham to Nehemiah. I'he present work is an in
dispensable adjunct of the ' Smaller Scripture History;' and the two have
been written expressly to be used together."
A SMALLER HISTORY OF GREECE. From the
Earliest Times to the "Roman Conquest. By WM. SMITH.
Y/ith Coloured Maps and 74 Woodcuts. (268 pp.) i6mo. 35. 6d.
This history has been drawn up at the request of several teachers, for the
use of lower forms, elementary pupils. The table of contents presents a full
analysis of the work, and has been so arranged, that the tcaclier can frame
from it QUESTIONS for the examination of HIS CLASS, the answers to
w hich will be found in tiie corresponding pages ofthe volume.
A SMALLER HISTORY OF ROME. From tjie
Earliest Times to the Establishment of the Emi'Ire Bv
WM. SMITH, D.C.L. With Coloured JMap and 70 Woodcuts.
(324 pp.) i6mo. 3^. 6d.
The "Smaller History of Rome" has been written and arranged on thesame
plan, and with the same object, as the " Smaller History of Greece," Like
that work it comprises separate chapters on the institutions and literature
of the countries with which it deals.
A SMALLER CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY. With Trans
lations from the Ancient Poets, and Questions on the Work Bv H
R. LOCKWOOD. With 90 Woodcuts. (300 pp.) iGnio. '3s. 6d. '
This work has been prepared by a lady for the use of schools and younj;
persons of both sexes. In common with many other teachors, she has Ion"
lelt the want of a consecutive account of the heatlien deities, which mi-'lit
safely be placed in the hands of the young, and yet contain all that is gc7ie-
rally necessary to enable them to understand the classical allusions thev may
meet with in prose or poetry, and to appreciate the meanings of works of art
A carefully orepared set of questions is appended, the answers to which
will be found in the correspcnding pages of the volume.

MR, MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS, 5
A SMALLER MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
By Canon BEV AN. M.A. {240 pp.) With Woodcuts. i6ino. 3J.&/.
"This work has been drawn up chiefly for the lower forms in schools, at
the request of several teachers who require for their pupils a more elemen
tary work than the ' Student's Manual of Ancient Geography.' The arrange
ment of the two works is substantially the same. The more important
towns alone arc mentioned; the historical notices are curtailed; modern
names are introduced only in special cases, either for the purpose of identifi
cation or where any noticeable change has occurred ; and the cjuotations
from classical works are confined for tne most part to such expressions as are
illustrative of local peculiarities. A very ample Index is supplied, so that
the work may supply the place of a dictionary for occasional reference."
A SMALLER MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY.
By JOHN RICHARDSON, M.A. New and Revised Edition.
i6mo. (ago pp.) zs. 6d.
This "Smaller ^^anual" has been compiled for pupils who are acquiring
for the first time the chief facts of General Geography, and no pains have
been spared to render the learner's task as easy and as pleasant as the
nature of the subject admits of. Accuracy as to details has been striven
afterj in order that the young student may have a solid and safe foundation
for his future studies in the advanced branches of the Sciences.
"Great pains appearto have been spent on the verification of facts, and
the arrangement is a model of good method. Throughout the book there
are unmistakable indications of solid, conscientious work.sound judgment,
and practical acquaintance with teaciiing." — Sc/tool Guardian.
A SMALLER HISTORY OF ENGLAND. From the
Earliest Times to the Year 1880. By PHILIP SMITH,
B.A. With Coloured Maps and 68 Woodcuts. (400 pp.) i6nio.
35. 6d.
" The most recent authorities have been consulted, and it is confidently
believed that the Work will be found to present a careful and trustworthy
account of English History for the lower forms in schools, for whose use it i3
chiefly intended." — Preface.
" This little volume is so pregnant with valuable information, that it will
enable anyone who reads it attentively to answer such questions as are set
forth in the English History Papers in the Indian Civil Service Examina
tions." — Reader.
A SMALLER HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE:
Giving a Sketch of the Lives of our Chief Writers, By JAMES
ROWLEY. (376 pp.) i6mo. 3^.6^.
The important position which the study of English literature is now
taking in education has led to the publication of this work, and of the
accompanying volume of specimens. Both books have been undertaken at
the request of many eminent teachers, and no pains have been spared to
adapt tnem to the purpose for which they are designed — as elementary works
to be used in schools.
SHORT SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Selected from the chief authors and arranged chronologically. By
JAMES ROWLEY. With Notes. (368 pp.) i6nio. 3?. 6d.
While the " Smaller History of English Literature" supplies a rapid but
trustworthy sketch of the Uves of our chief writers, and of the successivi
influences which imparled to their writings their peculiar character, the
present work supplies choice examples ofthe works themselves, accom
panied by all the explanations required for their perfect explanation. The
two worlcs are thus especially designed to be used together.

6 MR. MURRA TS LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Dr, Wm, Smith's Biblical Dictionaries.

A DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE : comprising its
Ant'quities. Biography, Geography, and Natural History.
By Various Writers. Edited by WM. SMITH, D.C.L and LL.D.
With Illustrations. 3 vols. (315B pp.) Medium Svo. £$ 5s.
" The most complete, learned, and trustworthy work of the kind hitherto
produced." — Athenizian.
A CONCISE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, Con
densed from the larger Work. For Families and Students, Wiib
Maps and 300 Illustrations, (1039 pp.J Svo. ms.
A Dictionary of the Bib'c, In some form or another, is indispensable for
every family. To students in the Universities, and in the Upper Forms
at Schools, to private families, ai d to that numerous class of persons who
desire to arrive at remits s mply, this CoN'CiSE DJCTiONARY will, it is
btlieved, supply all that is necessary lor the elucidation and explanation of
the Bible.
A SMALLER DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE.
Abridged from the larger Work. For Schools and Young Persons
With Maps and Illustrations. (620 pp.) Crown 8vo. 7^. Sd.
" An invaluable service has been rendered to students in the condensation
of Dr. Wm Smith's Bible Dictionary. The work has been done as only a
careful and intelli ent scholar could do it, which p- eserves to us the essential
scholarship and value of each z.Tiic\e."— British (Quarterly Review.

The two follffwing Works are intended to furnish a complete accotiJit
of tke leading personages, the Institutions, Art, Social Life,
Writings, and Controversies of the Christian Church from the
time of the Apostles to the Age of Charle7nag?ie. They commence
at the period at which the ' ' Dictionary of the Bible" leaves off,
and form a continuation of it.
A DICTIONAR-y OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES.
The History, Institutions, ana Antiquites ofthe Christian Church.
Edited by WM. SMITH, D.CL., and Arckdeacon CHEETHAM,
T}.D. With Illustrations. 2 vols. Medium fcvo. £,3 x-^s. Sd.
" The V7r,rk before us is unusua'ly well done. A more acceptable present
for a candidate for h )'y orders, or a ore valuable book for any library, than
tlie 'Dictionary of Christian Antiquities' could not easily be found." —
Saturday Revie'jj.
A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY,
IiITEFATURE, SFCTS, and DOCTRTNEe. Edited by
WM. SMITH, D.C.L., and HENRY WACE, D.D. Vols. I.,
II., and IIL Medium Svo. 31J. 6d. each. {To be completed in
4 vols. )
" The value of the work arises, in the first place, from the fact that the
contributors to tnese volumes have diligently eschewed mere compilation.
In thtse volumes we welcome the most important addition iha hHS been
marie for a century to the historical library of the EngUsh theological
student."— yi"?/!!!.

MR, MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Dr. Wm. Smith's Classical Dictionaries.
AN ENCYCLOP-ffiDIA OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY.
By Various Writers. Edited by WM. SMITH, D.C.L. and LL.D.
" It is an honour to this College to have presented to the worid so dis
tinguished asch lar as Dr. Wm. Smith, .vho has, by his valuable manuals •¦{
classical antiquity, and classica history md biograj hy, done as much as any
man living to promote the accurate knowledge of the Greek nd Roman
world among the students oi this ; ge."— :Wr. Grote at ihe London University.
I. A DICTIONARY OF GREI^KAND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.
IncludinjT the Ljivs, In^tiiutions. Doine'-tic Usuges J amting. Sculpture. Music,
the Drama, &c. (1300 pp.) With 500 Illustrations. Medium Svo. c8f.
II. A DICTIONARY OP BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY.
Containing a History of the Ancient World, C vil. Literary, and EcclesiasticaL
{3700 pp.) W ith 560 Illustrations. 3 vols. Medium Svo. S+f.
III. A DICTIONARY OF GREEK AND ROMAN GEOGRAPHY.
Including the Political History of both Countries and Cities, as well as their
Geograpny. (2500 pp.) With 530 Illustrations, 2 vols. Medium Svo. sSj'.
FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY O P BIOG-RAPHY,
MYTHOLOGY, AND GE ^GRAPHY. For the ^ Higher Forms
in Schools. Condensed from the larger Dictionaries. With 750
Woodcuts. Svo. i8j.
A SMALLER CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. For Junior
CI sses. Abridged from the above Work. With 200 Woodcuts.
Crown Svo. "js. td.
A SMALLER DICTIONARY OF ANTIQUITIES.
For Junior Classes. Abridged from the larger Work. With aoo
Woodcuts. Crown Svo. 7^-. 6d.

Dr. Wm, Smith's Ancient Atlas.
AN ATLAS OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY, Bibucal
AND Classical. Intended to illustrate the " Dicfonary of the Bible,"
and the " Classical Dictionaries." CompileH underthe superintendence
of WM. SMITH, D.C.L., and Sm GEORGE GROVE, LL.D.
With Descriptive Text, Indices, &c. With 43 Maps. Fulio, half-
bound. Price Six Guineas.
" The students of Dr. Smith's admirable Dictionaries must have felt
themselves in want of an A' las constructed on the same scale of precise and
minute information wilh the article tliey were reading. 1 hs want has at
length been supplied by the superb work befo c us. The indice- are full the
engrav ng is exquisite, and the delineation of the n.itural featbre- very
minute ;;nd beautiful. It may sa.'ely be pronounced— and higher praise can
scarcely be bestowed— to be a worthy companion of the volumes which it is
intended to illustrate."— C7»*rii:'aK,

8 MR. MURRAY'' S LIST OP SCHOOL BOOKS.
^Dr. Wm. Smith's Latin Dietionaries.
"I coQBider Dr. Wm. Smith's DictionarieB to have conferred a great and laattog
service on the cause of classical learning in this country."— Sean LZDSELL,
"I have fotmd Dr, Wm. Smith's Latin Dictionary a great convenience to me. I
think that he has been very Judioioua in what he naa omitted, as well as what he
has inserted."- Dr. SCOTT.
A COMPLETE LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. Based
ON THE Works of Forcellini and Freund. With Tables ofthe
Roman Calendar, Measures, Weights, and Money. ByWM. SMITH,
D.C.L. and LL.D. (1200 pp.) Medium Svo. 21s.
This work aims at performing the same service for the Latin lanjjuage as
Liddell and Scott's Lexicon has done for the Greek. Great attention has
been paid to Etymology, in which department especially this work is ad
mitted to maintain a superiority over all existing Latin Dictionaries.
"Dr. Wm. Smith's ' Latin-English Dictionary' is lifted, by its indepen
dent merit, far above comparison with any school or collese dictionary
coinmonly in usz."^Exaininer.
A SMALLER LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, with
a Separate Dictionary of Proper Names, Tables of Roman
MoNEvs, &c. A New Editio7i, Edited by Prof. T. D. HALL. The
Etymological portion by JOHN K. INGRAM, LL.D. Square i2mo.
"JS. 6d.
This edition of Dr. Smith's 'Smaller Latin English Dictionary'- is to a
great extent a new and original Work. Every article has been carefully
revised. The improvements introduced fall mainly under the followin-'
heads :— °
X. A much larger number ofthe examples given are actually translated.
2. Many articles have been re-cast, and not a few entirely re-written.
3. All the etymological articles have been revised, and the greater part of
them re-written.
4. Very great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the quantities.
5. Short notes on synonymous Vicr.Is have been introduced in a large
number of cases.
_ 6. The Index of Troper Names has been largely increased ; and additional
information given.
A COPIOUS AND CRITICAL ENGLISH-LATIN DIC
TIONARY. Compiled from Original Sources. Ey WM. SMITH
D.C.L. and LL.D., and THEOPHILUS D. HALL, M.a'
(970 pp.). Medium Svo. ijs.
It has been the object ofthe Authors of this Work to produce a more cocv
plete and more perfect English-Latin Dictionary than yet exists an J
every article has been the result of original and independent research. '
Each meaning is illustrated by examples from the classical writers • atv?
those phrases are as a general rule given in both English and Latin. '
A SMALLER ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY. Abridged
from the above Worlt, for the use of Junior Classes. (7m pp )
Square 1 2mo. .js. 6d.
"An English-Latin Dictionary worthy of the scholarship of our aee and
country. It will take absolutely the first rank, and be the standard Enelish-
J^atm Dictionary as long as either tongue endures. Even a general exami
nation of the pages \vil serve to reveal the minute pains taken to ensure its
lulne.ss and phi ological value, and the ' work is to a large extent a diction
ary of the English language, as well as an English-Latin Dictionao..'"—

MR. MURRA VS LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 9
¦Dr. Wm. Smith's Educational Series.
** The general excellence of the books included in Mr. Murray's educa
tional series is so universally acknowledged as to give in a great degree
the stan^p of merit to the works of -which it consists."— SCHOOLMASTEB.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LATIN COURSE.
THE -yOUWa BEaiNNEE'S FIKST LATIN BOOK:
containing the Rudiments of Grammar, Easy Grammatical Questions
and Exercises, with Vocabularies. Being a Stepping Stone to "Prin-
cipia Latina," Part I., for Young Children. (112 pp.) i2mo. zs.
THE YOUNG BEGINNER'S SECOND LATIN
BOOK: containing an easy Latin Reading Book, with an Analysis
of the Sentences, Notes, and a Dictionary. Being a Stepping Stone
to "Principia Latina," Part II. J for Young Children. (98pp.) i2ino. is.
Latin Course.

PBINCIPIA LATINA, Part I, First Latin Course.
Grammar, Delectus, Exercises, and Vocabularies. (216pp.) i2mo. 2,s.6d.
The main object of this work is to enable a Beginner to nx the Declensions
and Conjugations thoroughly in his memorj', to learn their usage by construct
ing simple sentences as soon as he commences the study ol the language,
and to accumulate gradually a stock of useful words.
The Cases of the Nouns, Adjectives, and Pronouns arc so arranged that
the work can be used with equal advantage by those who prefer either the
Public School I'rimer or the older arrangement.
APPENDIX TO PKINCIPIALATINA, Part I. Containing
AdditioiialExercises, with Examination Papers. (125pp.) ismo. 2s. 6d.
PBINCIPIA LATINA, Part II. Reading Book. An
Introduction to Ancient Mythology, Geography, Roman Antiquities,
and Histoi-y. With Notes and a Dictionary. (268 pp.) i2mo. -^s. 6d,
PHINCIPIA LATINA, Part III. Poetry, i. Easy
Hexameters and Pentameters. 2. Eclogse Ovidianse. 3. Prosody and
Metre. 4. First Latin Verse Book. (160 pp.) i2mo. 3J. 6d.
PBINCIPIA LATINA, Part IV. Prose Composition.
Rules of Syntax, with Examples, Explanations of Synonyms, anil
Exercises on the Syntax. (194 pp.) i2mo. -^s. 6d.
PBINCIPIA LATINA, Part V. Short Tales and
Anecdotes from Anxient History, for Translation into
Latin Prose. (102 pp.) r2mo. 3J.
LATIN-ENGLISH "VOCABULABY. Arranged according to
Subjects and Etymology ; with a Latin-English Dictionary to Phasdrus,
Cornelius Nepos, and Cxsar's "Gallic War." (190 pp.) i2mo. 3^.6^
THE STUDENT'S LATIN GBAMMAB. For the
Use of Colleges and the Higher Forms in Schools. By
WM. SMITH, LL.D. and T. D. HALL. Thirteenth Edition^
thoroughly revised and pai-tly re-written. (450 pp.) Post Svo. Ss.
SMALLEB LATIN GBAMCMAB. For the Middle and
Lower Forms. New and thoroitghy revised Edition. (260pp.)
i2mo. 3.J. td.
TACITUS, Germania, Agricola, and First Book of
THE Annals. With English Notes. i2mo. -^s. td.
".' Keys may le had by Authenticated Teachers on apJ'UcatioH.

10 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Greek Course.
INITIA GrB-ffiCA, Part I. A First Greek Course,
containing Grammar, Delectus, Exercise Book, and Vocabularies.
(284 pp.) i2mo. 3^. 6d.
\* The present Edition has been very thorouglily revised, and many additions
and ijnprovemcnts have been introduced.
The great object of this work, as of the " Principia Latina," is to make
the studv of the language as easy and simple as possible, by giving the
grammatical forms only as they are wanted, and by en blin;j the pupil to
translate from Gr ek into English and from EnGrlish into Greek as soon as
he has learnt the Greek characters and the First Declenion. For the con
venience of teachers the cases of the nouns, &c., are given accordii g to the
ordinary grammars as well as according to the arrangement of the Public
Schools Latin Primer.
^PPENDIX TO INITIA GB^CA, Part I. Containing.
Additional Exercises, with Examination Papers and Easy Reading
Lessons with the Sentences Analysed, serving as an Introduction to
Initia GRiECA, Part II. (no pp.) i2mo. 25. td.
INITIA GB-ffiCA, Part II. A Reading Book, Con
taining short Tales, Anecdotes, Fables, Mythology, and Grecian
History. With a Lexicon. (220 pp.) i2mo. 3.?. 6^'.
INITIA GB^CA, Part III. Prose Compcsition.
Containing the Rules of Syntax, with Copious Examples and Exer*
cises. (202 pp.) i2mo. s^. 6d.
THE STUDENT»S GBEEK GBAMMAB. For the
Higher Forms. By Professor CURTIUS. Edited by WM.
SMITH, D.C.L. (386pp.) Post Svo. 6s.
The Greek Grammar of Dr Curtius is acknowledged by the most com
petent scholars to be the best representative of the present advanced state
of Greek scholarship. It is, indeed, almost the only Grammar which
exhibits the inflexions of the language in a really scientific form; while its
extensive use in schools, and the high commendations it has received from
practical teachers, are a sufiicient proof of its excellence as a school-book.
It is surprising to find that many ofthe public and private schools in this
country continue to use Grammars which ignore all the improvements and
discoveries of modern philology.
A SMALLEB GBEEK GBAMMAB. For the Middle
AND Lower Form.s. Abridged from the above Work. (220 pp.)
i2mo. ^s. 6d.
THE GBEEK ACCIDENCE. Extracted from the above
Work. (125 pp.) lamo. 2.J. td,
PLATO: The Apology of Socrates, the Crito, and
Part of the I h.edo: with Notes in English from Stallbaum,
SchleiekmalHEr's Introductions, (242 pp.) i2mo. 3J. Sd.
"»'* A'eys may be had by Authenticated Teachers on apf^Ucation.

MR. MURRAY'S LIS?' OF SCHOOL BOCA'S. ii

French Course.
FBENCH PBINCIPIA, Part I. A FiRST French
Co"RSE, containing Grammar, Delectus and Exercises, with Vocabu
laries and Materials for French Conversation. (202 pp.) izmo. 3s. Sd.
This work has been compiled at the repeated request of numerous teachers
who, finding the " Principia Latina" and " Initia Graeca" the easiest boohs /or
learning Latin and Creek, 2.r& anxious to obtain equally elementary French
books on the same plan. There is an obvious gain in studying a new
language on the plan with which the learner is already familiar. The main
object is to enable a beginner to acquire an accurate knowledge of the ch.ef
grammatical lonns, to learn their usage by constructing simple sentences as
soon as he commences the stuay of the language, and to accumulate
gradually a stock of words useful in conversation as well as in reading.
iftPPENDIX TO FBENCH PBINCIPIA, Part I. Con
taining Additional Exercises and Examination Papers, {no pp.)
i2mo. 2 J. Sd.
FBENCH PBINCIPIA, Part II. A READING Book.
Containing Fables, Stories, and Anecdotes, Natural History, and
Scenes from the History of France. With Grammatical Questions,
Notes, and copious Etymological Dictionary. (376 pp.) i2mo. 4J. Sd.
PBENCH PBINCIPIA, Part III. PROSE COMPOSITION.
Containing a Systematic Course of Exercises on the Syntax, with the
Principal Rules of Syntax, i2mo. 4^-. Sd.
THE STUDENT'S PBENCH GBAMMAB: Practical
AND Hi.storical. For THE Higher Forms. By C. HERON-WALL,
with Introduction by M. Littr^. (490 pp.) Post Svo. ts.
This Grammar is the work ofa practical teacher of twenty j'ears' experi
ence in teach ng English boys. It has been his special aim to produce a
book which would work well in schools where Latin and Greek form the
principal subjects of study.
*' This book as a whole is quite a monument of French Grammar, and
cannot fail to become a standard work in high-class teaching" — School
Board Chronicle.
"It would be difficult to point more clearly to the value of Mr Wall's
¦work, which is intended for the use o{ Colleges and Upper Forms in schools,
than by quoting what M l.ittre' says of it in an introductory Icttei : — ' I
have carefully tested the principal parts of yonr work, and have been com
pletely sati:fied with the accuracy and correctness which I found there.'"—
Saturday Review.
A SMALLEB FBENCH GBAMMAB. For THE
Middle and Lower Forms, Abridged frora the above Work.
(230 pp.) i2mo. 3.?. Sd.
\* Keys may be had by Authenticated Teachers on aIJ>licatioH.

German Course.
GEBMAN PBINCIPIA, Part I. A FiRST GERMAN
Course. Containing a Grammar, Delectus and Exercise Book, with
Vocabularies and materials for German Conversation. (244 pp.) T2rao.
35. 6d.
•,¦ The Resent edition has undergone a very careful revision, and various
imjrroventents and additions have been introduced.
This work is on the same plan as the " French Principia," and therefore
requires no further description, except in one point. Differing from the
ordinary grammars, all German words are printed in Roman, and not in
the old German characters ; and as the Roman letters are not only used by
many modern German writers, but also in Grimm's great Dictionary and
Grammar, there seems no reason why the beginner, especially the native of
a foreign country, who has learnt his own language in the Roman letters,
should be any longer debarred from the advantage of this innovation. It is
believed that this alteration will facilitate, more than at first might be sup
posed, the acquisition of the language. But at the same time, as many
German books continue to be printed in the German characters, the exer
cises are printed in both German and Roman letters.
GEBMAN PBINCIPIA, Part II. A Reading Book.
Containing Fables, Stories, and Anecdotes, Natural History, and
Scenes from the History of Germany. With Grammatical Questions,
Notes, and Dictionary. (272 pp.) i2mo. 3s. td.
PBACTICAL GEBMAN GBAMMAB. With a Sketch
of the Historical Development of the Language and its Principal
Dialects. (240 pp.) Post Svo. 3J. td.
•,• Keys may be had by Authenticated Teachers on application,
Italian Course.
ITALIAN PBINCIPIA, Part I. A First ItaUAN
Course. Containing a Grammar, Delectus, Exercise Book, wilh
Vocabularies, and Materials for Italian Conversation. By Signor
RICCI, Professor of Italian at the City of London School. (388 pp.)
i2mo. 3.?. Sd,
ITALIAN PBINCIPIA, Part II. A First Italian
Reading-Book, containing Fables, Anecdotes, History, and Passages
from the best Italian Authors, with Grammatical Questions, Notes,
and a Copious Etymological Dictionary'. By Signor RICCI, i2mo,
3^. td.
••* Keys may he had by Authenticated Teachers on a/>plicaiion.

MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 13
English Course.
A PRIMARY ENGUSH GRAMMAR for Elementai7
Schools. With 134 Exercises and carefully graduated parsing lessons.
By T. D. HALL, M.A. (120 pp.) i6mo. i^.
This Work aims at the clearest and simplest statement possible of the
first principles of EngUsh Grammar for the use of children from about eight
to twelve years of age.
"We doubt whether any grammar of equal size could give an introduction
to the English language more clear, concisCj and full than this," — Watchman.
A SCHOOL MANUAL OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
With 194 Exercises. By WM. SMITH, D.C.L., and T. D. HALL.
I\I.A. With Appendices. Eighth Edition, carefully revised. (270
pp.) Post Svo. 3?. td.
This Work has been prepared with a special view to the requirement.-* ul
Schools in which English, as a living lan^iage, is systematically taught, and
differs from most modern grammars in its thoroughly practical character.
A distinguishing feature of the book is the constant appeal for every usage
to the authority of Standard English Authors,
" An admirable English Grammar. We cannot give it higher praise than
to say that as a school grammar it is the best in this country. There
is a more complete and systematic treatment of Syntax than in any other
works of the kind. It is a work thoroughly well done." — EnsUsh Churchman.
•»• Keys may be had by Authenticated Teachers on application.
A MANUAL OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION. V^ith
Copious Illustrations and Practical Exercises. Suited equally for
- Schools and for Private Students of English. By T. D. HALL, M.A.
(210 pp.) i2mo. 2^. td,
"Mr. Hall's ' Manual ' is certainly the most sensible and practical book
upon English composition that we have lately seen. The great variety of
subjects which it suggests as themes for exercising the imagination as well
as tne literary powers of young students will be found a great assistance to
teachers, who must often be sorely puzzled to hit upon subjects sufficiently
diversified without being ridiculously beyond the scope of youthful experi*
CTtz^."— -Saturday Review.
A PRIMARY HISTORY OF BRITAIN for Elementary
Schools. Edited by WM. SMITH, D.C.L. and LL.D. With a
Map. (430 pp.) i2mo. 2.?. td. ^
A New and thoroughly revised Edition, contmued down to ifiSo, with a
new chapter on the Bntish Empire and Constitution.
Without at all breaking up the continuity of the narrative the paragraphs
are now supplied with headings in distinctive type, serving at oncc to catch
the pupil's eye and impress his memory', and to suggest to the teacher
questions for Examination.
A SCHOOL MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY
Physical and Political. By JOHN RICHARDSON, M.A,
(400 pp.) Post 8vo. 5i-.
This work has been drawn up for Middle Forms in Public Schools, Ladies*
Colleges, Training Colleges, Assistant and Pupil Teachers, Middle Class
and Commercial Schools, and Civil Service Examinations.
" It fully sustains the high reputation of Mr. Murray's series of school
manuals, and we venture to predict for it a wide popularity. Bearing in
niind its high character, it is a model of cheapness."— .sfAcw/ Guardian.
A SMALLER MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY.
For Schools and Young Persons. Ne^v and Revised Editioiu By
JOHN RICHARDSON, M.A. (r^gopp.) i6mo. zs. td.
" Great pains appear to haye been spent on the verification of facts, and
the arrangement is a model of good method. Throughout the book there
are unmistakable indications of solid, conscientious work, sound judgment,
and practical acquaintance with te&chinz."— School Guardian,

14 MR. MURRA YS LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.
Eton College Books.
THE ETON LATIN GRAMMAR. PART I. — Ele
mentary. For Use in the Lower Forms. Compiled with the
sanction of the Headmaster. By A. C. AINlJER, IVl.A., and'H. G.
WINTLE, M.A., Assistant Masters at Eton. Crown Svo. 3^. ed.
A iso^ hy ihe same Editors^
A FIRST LATIN EXERCISE BOOK. Adapted to the
Eton Latin Grammar. Crown Svo. zs, td.
THE ETON LATIN GRAMMAR. Part II. For use
in the Fifth Form. By FRANCIS HAY RAWLINS, M.A., and
WILLIAIM RALPH INGE, M.A., Fellows of King's College, Cam
bridge, and Assistant-Masters at Eton College. Crown Svo.
THE ETON FOURTH FORM OVID. Being Easy
Passages selected from the Elegiac Poehi.s of Ovid and Tibullus.
With Explanatory Notes. By H. G. WINTLE, M.A. Post 8vo. 2j. M.
THE ETON HORACE. Part I.— The Odes, Epodes,
AND Carmen Seculars. With Notes to the Odes, Book I., chiefly
derived from the edition of Orelli and Hirschfelder. By F. W.
CORNISH, M.A., Assistant-Master at Eton College. Crown Svo.

Standard School Books.
A CHILD'S FIRST LATIN BOOK. Comprising
Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives, with the Active Vskhs.
With ample and varied Practice of the easiest kind. Both old and
new order of Cases given. By THEOPHILUS D. HALL, M.A.
(124 pp.) New and Enlarged Edition. i6mo. 2S.
The speciality of this book lies m its presenting a great variety of
vivd voce work for class-room practice, designed to render the young
beginner thoroughly familiar with the use of the Grammatical forms. °
KING EDWARD VI.;s LATIN GRAMMAR; or,
An Introduction to the Latin Tongue, (324 pp.) i2mo. 35. 6d.
KING EDWARD VI.'S FIRST LATIN BOOK.
Accidence, Syntax and Prosody. (220 pp.) z2mo. zs. td.
OXENHAM'S ENGLISH NOTES FOR LATIN
ELEGIACS. (156 pp.) i2mo. 31. 6d.
HUTTON'S PRINCIPIA GRiECA. An Intro
duction TO THE Study of Greek. A Grammar, Delectus and
Exercise Book, with Vocabularies, (154 pp.) ramo. 3J. 6d.
A PRACTICAL AND CONVERSATIONAL DIC
TIONARY OF THE ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND GERMAN
LANGUAGES, containing numerous colloquial phrases and idioms.
By G. F. CHAMBERS. (730 pp.) i6mo. 6s.
LEATHES' HEBREW GRAMMAR. With the Hebrew
Text of Genesis i. — vi., and Psalms i. — vi. Grammatical Analysis and
Vocabulary. (252 pp.) Po.st Svo. 7^. td.

MR, MURRAY'S LIST OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 15
Natural Philosophy and Science.
THE FIRST BOOK OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY;
an Introduction to the Study of Statics, Dynamics, Hydrostatics,
Light, Heat, and Sound, with numerous Examples. By SAMUEL
NEWTH; ma., D.D., FeUow of University College, London.
(200 pp.) SmaU Svo. 3-?. 6d.
*^* This work embraces all the subjects in Natural Philosophy re
quired at the Matriculation Examination of the University of London.
ELEMENTS OF MECHANICS, INCLUDING HYDRO
STATICS. With numerous Examples. By SAMUEL NEWTH,
M.A., D.D., Principal of New College, London, and Fellow of
University College, London. (3152 pp.) Crown Svo. Bs. Sd.
This Edition (the Sixth) has been carefully revised throughout, and
with especial reference to changes recently made in the Regulations of
the University of London.
MATHEMATICAL EXAMPLES. A Graduated Scries of
Elementary Examples in Arithmetic, Algebra, Logarithms, Trigono
metry, and Mechanics. (378 pp.) SmaU 8vq. Bs. td.
THE STUDENT'S ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 13y
Sir CHARLES LYELL. A New Edition, thoroughly revisoj,
by Professor P. MARTIN DUNCAN. With 600 Woodcuts.
Post Svo. gs.
" The work before us may be regarded as an almcst perfect introd'JCtion
to the sciences of geology and palceontology. Sir Charles Lyell has admir
ably abridged some portions of his larger work, and has adverted briefly to
som- Oi the more important recent discoveries. He has entirely succeeded
in his attempt to unite brevity with the copiousness of illustration which is
almost a necessity in a volume intended for beginners." — Examiner,
THE CONNECTION OFTHE PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
By MARY SOMERVILLE. Revisedby A. B. BUCKLEY. Portrait
and Woodcuts. (468 pp.) Post Svo. gs.
*' Mrs. Somerville's delightful volume. The style of this astonishing pro
duction is so clear and unaffected, and conveys, w ith so much simplicity, so
great a mass of profound knowledge, that it should be placed in the hands
of every youth, the moment he has mastered the general rudiments of
education."— ^Kiir/.fr/j' Review.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By MARY SOMERVILLE.
Revised by JOHN RICHARDSON, M.A. Portrait. (548 pp.) Post
Svo. 9.J.

" Mrs. Somerville's 'Physical Geography' is the work she is most gene-
, K:t tha
Natwe.

rally known by, and notwithstanding the numerous works on the same sub
ject that have since appeared, it still holds its place as a first authority,"—

i6 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF" SCHOOL BOOKS.
Mrs. Markham's Histories.
"Mrs. Markliam'a Histories are conBtructed on a plan which Is novel' and wa
think well chosen, and we are glad to find that they are deservedly popular, for they
cannot be too strongly recommended. "—JOUBNAL OF EDUCATION'.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE FiRST INVASION
BY THE Romans. Nezv and revised edition. Continued down to
1880. With Conversations at the end of each Chapter, With 100
Woodcuts. (528 pp.) i2mo. 3.S. td.
" Mrs. Markham's ' History of England * is the best history for the youn:;
that ever appeared, and is far superior to many works of much hifrher pre
tensions. It is well written, well informed, and marked by sound judgment
and good sense, and is moreover extremely interesting. I know of au
history used in any of our public schools at all comparable to it." — QQ in
Notes and Queries.
HISTORY OF FRANCE, FROM THE Conquest of
Gaul by Julius Caesar, Ne^w and revised edition. Continued
down to 1878. With Conversations at the end of each Chapter.
With 70 Woodcuts. (550 pp.) i2mo. -3^5. td.
*' Mr J. Markham's Histories are well known to all those engaged in the
instruction of youth. They are deservedly very popular; and we have been
given to understand, in proof of this assertion, that of her Histories many
thousand copies have been sold." — BelVs Messenger.
HISTORY OF GERMANY, FROM ITS INVASION EY
Marius. Nevj and revised edition. Continued down to 1880. With
50 Woodcuts. (460 pp.) i2mo. -^s. td.
" A very valuable compendium of all that is most important in German
History. The facts have been accurately and laboriously collected irom
authentic sources, and they are lucidly arranged so as to invest them v.ith
the interest which naturally pertains to them?' — Evangelical Magazine.
LITTLE ARTHUR'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By
Lady CALLCOTT, New and revised edition. Continued down to
1878. 4802'^ thojisand. With 36 Woodcuts. i6mo. ir. Sd.
*' I never met with a history so well adapted to the capacities of children
or their entertainment, so philosophical, and written with such simplicity."
—Mrs. Marcett.
LITTLE ARTHUR'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. FROM
THE Earliest Times to the Fall of the Second Empire.
With Map and Illustrations. i6mo. 2s. td.
"The jaded schoolboy, surfeited with tales and the 'over-pressure'
arising from lonp attention to lives and adventures, will, towards the latter
part of his holiday, turn with some relief to this book, and begin feasting
afresh. Those who know what ' Little Arthur's England ' did to popularise
the subject among little folks, will know what to expect in this ' France.'
The book is capitally illustrated, and very wisely the compiler does not
reject the exciting and IcRcndary parts ofthe subject" — Schoolmaster.
iESOP'S FABLES. A New Version. Chiefly from the
Original Sources. By Rev. THOMAS JAMES. With loo.Wood-
cuts. {168 pp.) Post Svo. 2.?. td.
*' Of j^sop's Fables there ought to be in every school many copies, full
of pictures "^Frasei'^s Magazine.
THE BIBLE IN THE HOLY LAND. By Dean
STANLEY. With Woodcuts. (210 pp.) i6mo. zs. Sd.
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
Bradbury, Agnew, & lo.j {.P^^iater* Whitefriara.

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