CHAPTER XIV. (A.D. 1228-1327). THE REACTION AGAINST ROMAN SUPREMACY. "And what melodious sounds at times prevail! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Fair court of Edward! wonder of the world! I see a matchless blazonry unfurled Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love."-Wordsworth. 1. Edmund Rich of Canterbury.-Stephen Langton was succeeded in the see of Canterbury by Richard Weathershed, but his term of office lasted only two years. He was not a popular prelate. He died abroad in 1231, and there was not another archbishop until Edmund, surnamed Rich, of Abingdon, was consecrated in 1234. Three men chosen by the Canterbury monks to succeed Weathershed had been rejected by the pope, who claimed the right to nominate to English sees. The popes had now reached the height of their autocratic power, and were obeyed from sheer terror all over Europe. The people of England were now very heavily taxed by Henry III., a notoriously extravagant prince in public as well as private expenditure, and the barons and clergy had to protest bitterly against his demands upon them. Not only so, but the pope sent legates to demand tribute from the English people, which served to increase their irritation. Matthew Paris, the great chronicler of this age, likens the Englishmen of his day to sheep, for whose destruction the pope and king, as shepherd and wolf, were allied together. It is impossible to describe the impoverished condition of the nobility and clergy through these combined exactions. The Great Charter of Stephen Langton, though repeatedly acknowledged by Henry III.,was as often ignored by him; and it became necessary for clergy and laity to band themselves together as a patriotic party against the unholy alliance of king and courtiers with the papacy. Archbishop Edmund, although a nominee of the pope, attached himself to the patriots; and assembled the barons in council at Westminster, as Langton had done in the previous reign. Their object was to force Henry to observe the conditions of Magna Charta. The king would promise anything if the prelates and nobles would grant him supplies, and they, in their anxiety to be loyal, too readily accepted his fair speeches, and gave him what he needed, in order to keep him out of the toils of unscrupulous adventurers from abroad. The absolute necessity laid upon the clergy to bear the lion's share of these new impositions, while on the one hand it made patriots of many, resulted on the other hand in the promotion of such superstitions as brought wealth to the Church; especially the sacrifice of masses, for the repose of the souls of persons who had died, which were thought to be beneficial to the departed, whatever their previous lives had been. The patriotic party were powerless to stem the invasion of foreign nobles; and although in Langton's time (1226) the demand of Rome for two appointments in each cathedral church to be at the disposal of the pope was indignantly rejected, many foreign ecclesiastics were soon intruded upon the English church. In 1229, the pope's temporal influence here had grown to such an extent that he demanded a tenth of English property on behalf of his see. The nobles refused to pay any such claim. Their estates, they said, were not fiefs of the pope. But as some of the prelates had been nominated by the papacy the clergy could not escape so easily. The king and nobles often upheld papal claims on church revenues to rid themselves of any such tribute. The pope was far too powerful to be altogether ignored, and so, to preserve England from his enmity, the church was plundered. In 1231 a mysterious band of patriots in masks kept the foreign clergy, who occupied English livings, in a perpetual state of terror by sudden attacks upon their storehouses, the contents of which were sold cheaply to the poor. The leader of this band was Sir Robert de Twenge, who seems to have been encouraged in his proceedings by Hubert de Burgh, the last of the great justiciars. The pope protested against such treatment of his incumbents, and, in 1237, sent Cardinal Otho, as legate extraordinary, to uphold the papal dignity and protect the foreign clergy. Otho held a council at St. Paul's, London, in November of that year with the avowed intention of promulgating a visitation of monasteries, the deposition of such clergy as held more than one benefice, and other high moral reforms; but really to create vacancies for papal nominees. The country was indignant at his interference, and the bishops even refused to give the legate hospitality. They thought it was better to have clergy in England holding more offices than one, but within reach of their duties, than that the benefices should be presented singly to foreigners who resided abroad. Unfortunately Henry III. upheld the office of the legate in order to promote his own schemes. There seems to have been something like a conspiracy between king and pope to denationalise the English Church and realm. When Otho found that the English were averse to his mission, he endeavoured to conciliate them by offering to permit the observance of all ancient privileges on condition that the clergy paid him a consideration. But his overtures were refused, and some of the nobles went to Rome to protest against his infringement of their rights as patrons of livings on their estates. They obtained very little permanent satisfaction, and soon after, encouraged by Pope Gregory, Otho demanded a fifth part of English Church revenues, to assist in defraying the cost of a new crusade, as the war between the pope and the emperor of Germany, about this time, was called. A feeble resistance was made by the clergy, but ultimately they yielded to the audacious impost. Further, to obtain additional funds for his campaigns, the pope offered all the benefices of the English Church to the Romans and their friends, in return for their assistance. In short, every conceivable advantage was taken by this unscrupulous pontiff, with the connivance of the iniquitous king Henry, to provide resources at the expense of the English Church. Such tyranny was more than Edmund Rich could bear. He would gladly have been a second Langton, but it was not in him. Owing to these foreign encroachments and the consequent demoralised condition of the English clergy, he felt himself altogether unfitted for his responsible office; therefore, he resigned the archbishopric and went into voluntary exile, dying of a broken heart in November, 1240. 2. Robert "Grossetête," of Lincoln.-A stronger mind was soon forthcoming to fight the Church's battle against the potentate of Rome and lead the English barons in their struggle against the vices of the king, as well as to resist Henry's seizure of Church temporalities during the vacation of a benefice, and revive the dying embers of religious life in England. This was Robert, surnamed "Grossetête," or Greathead," on account of his scholarly attainments, who had been made bishop of Lincoln, A.D. 1235. Living as he did during a time of universal lawlessness and anarchy, and presiding over the largest diocese in England, his fearless efforts on behalf of justice, 66 without respect of persons, has earned for him undying fame. He utilised the religious enthusiasm of the friars to reform the habits of his clergy, and insisted that the monasteries should make due provision for the adequate ministerial care of parishes from which they drew tithes. At first he had belonged to the party which favoured the papal claims; but when he realised the depravity and cupidity of the pope and his adherents he went right over to the national side, and boldly protested against the ambitious designs of the Roman see. Boniface of Savoy, uncle to the Queen of England, had succeeded Edmund Rich in the see of Canterbury; but Grossetête was able without difficulty to influence the new comer, and his advice was asked in most things concerning the affairs of the Church and country. By his influence Richard-de-la-Wych was appointed to the see of Chichester, and thus another notable addition was made to the band of patriotic prelates. The king had desired that another man should have this Sussex bishopric, and appealed to the pope against the appointment of Wych, withholding the temporalities of the see until a decision was arrived at. This appeal came before a council at Lyons A.D. 1250, where the pope then lived. Robert Grossetête was present, and did not hesitate to preach a sermon before Innocent IV. and the college of cardinals, denouncing them as the authors of all the troubles that afflicted the English Church. "The cause," he said, "the fountain, the origin of all this is the court of Rome, because it commits the care of the flock to ravening wolves." Much more of a like nature found a place in this remarkable discourse, and we may set it down as the first definite public protest on the part of the English Church, through its representatives, against the inveterate worldliness of the papacy. Innocent was obliged to uphold the appointment of Wych, in the hope of conciliating Grossetête; but the note of defiance had been sounded, and henceforth the bishops of Rome had often to submit to open reproofs. No foreign cleric was instituted in the diocese of Lincoln during Grossetête's term of office. The pope had commanded him to institute a mere child to a canonry at Lincoln, but he refused; and wrote a letter, remarkable for its boldness, to the effect that he would resist and oppose the orders contained in the pope's letters, "because they deprived Christian souls of the ministry of their pastors, and were altogether opposed to the sanctity of the apostolic see, and contrary to the Catholic Faith. The popular enthusiasm in England for Grossetête prevented the pope's anger from harming the bishop, but he was never forgiven, as we may imagine. The legate Otho was now replaced by another, named Martin, who was still more eager to seize upon English benefices, and to demand aids for the papal exchequer than his predecessor had been. This still further alienated the people from any affection they may have felt for the see of Rome and made them think the more highly of the great reformer Grossetête. So great were the evils that resulted from the introduction of foreign nobles into the councils of the realm that Grossetête, in combination with Earl Simon de Montfort and the national peers, demanded a voice in the election of the king's advisers, and in this way prevented the utter subversion of the government by aliens. Had Grossetête lived, his efforts would doubtless have ended in the complete rebellion of the national party against the papal yoke; but he died in 1253, much to the delight of the pope, who asked every true son of the Roman Church to rejoice with him now that his enemy was removed." Even in his last illness Robert the Greathead fearlessly denounced the Roman pontiff as a heretic and Antichrist for his iniquitous claim to "provide "the English benefices with foreign clergy who seldom resided near, or cared for, their cures. Archbishop Sewell, of York, endeavoured for a time to take Grossetête's place as the champion of the English Church against the foreigners, but the two men were incomparable; for when the pope excommunicated Sewell for his resistance he pined away and died. 66 3. The First Representative Parliament.-Earl Simon was now leader of the national party against foreign courtiers, and he was as firm in upholding the rights of the English Church against the demands of Rome, as he was in resisting the king's extravagant taxes for the support of an improvident court. Although the king was already helplessly in debt he pledged the country to the cost of a war in Sicily, waged by the pope; and when the barons objected he attempted to silence them by procuring papal excommunications against them, but Earl Simon's party watched the shore, and searched all persons who landed from Italy, seizing and destroying any papal edicts or "provisions " that were found upon them. In 1256 two papal envoys were busy in this country raising money for the see of Rome, and it was about this time, during the papacy of Alexander IV., that the papal demand for annates, or "first-fruits "—that is, the first year's income of an incumbent was first heard of in England. So great was the popular hatred against foreigners that once when an alien had been installed as a prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral (A.D. 1259), |