II. your fault that Malchus attempts to seize our Saviour; that HENRY Pashur outrages the prophet Jeremy; and Belshazzar de- K. of Eng. bauches in the vessels of the temple. When I mention your humility and inoffensive behaviour, they account this a cold commendation, and a mean character for a prelate. They object, these virtues are but slender qualifications for a person of your station. That bare abstaining from evil without doing good, falls short of the duty of an archbishop. And, that a barren tree will be cut down and cast into the fire.' They complain, you found the Church in an admirable condition: that now affairs are much altered for the worse, discipline decayed, and the honour of religion sunk, by your cowardice and inactivity. These reproaches are a great mortification to me, and yet I am in no condition to silence them. 395. "When I commend you for repairing the houses, improving the farms, and managing the revenues of the archbishoprick, they will not allow it for any defence; this plea serves only to revive their satire against you. And what is a farther addition to my grief is, that the king, who, to my knowledge, has a hearty regard for you, is sensible of your feeble management. That he is so appears by the A. D. 1184. private reprimands he has given you. How often has he lamented your tameness and neglect, and put you in mind of the encouragement given to disorder by the slackening of discipline? Neither have you any reason to complain of want of support and countenance; for I, who have sometimes the honour to attend the king, heard him, amongst other other expressions of favour, speak this remarkable sentence: 'I would desire my lord archbishop to take notice,' says the king, 'that if any person of the highest quality, not excepting my own son, shall presume to embarrass their primate of Canterbury, and hinder him in the execution of his office, I will revenge the affront as deeply as if it had been a treasonable attempt against my own crown and dignity.' I know," continues Blesensis, "that the king has been desirous a great while that you would awaken your courage, and exert your authority; that your hand, if I may say so, would take hold of judgment, and reprove for the meek of the earth." RICH ARD, He proceeds to excuse the freedom of his remonstrance; Abp. Cant. and, at last, endeavours to excite the archbishop to his duty from the topicks of a future account and the terrors of another world. Pet. Ble sensis, Epist. 5. Baron. An nal. ad An. 1184. A contest the election Canterbury. The see was quickly filled, though not without some dispute, after the archbishop's death: for this year, the king came to Reading, and summoned a convention thither to between the proceed to an election. And here there happened a conbishops and monks about test between the monks of Canterbury and the bishops. of the arch- The monks pretended to the privilege of voting first, and bishop of the greatest interest in the election: for this they produced the king's charter. The bishops, on the other side, argued against the authority of the charter; that it was a grant against common right, and made in prejudice of the Church of England: insisting, withal, that suffragans ought to have the liberty of choosing their metropolitan. The controversy running thus high, the meeting broke up without effect. But not long after, the king convened the bishops and monks of Canterbury to London for the same purpose. Baldwin elected. And here, the monks reviving the dispute, Gilbert, bishop of London, who, in right of his see, had the privilege of voting first, chose Baldwin, bishop of Worcester: all the rest of the bishops concurred in this election, but the monks of Canterbury refused to comply, made an appeal to the pope, and so went off. The bishops presented their elect of Canterbury to the king, who received him as archbishop: he was saluted, with the same regard, by Richard, Geoffrey, and John, the king's sons. Soon after, the king came to Canterbury to satisfy the peevishness of the monks, and put an end to the contest: and at last, giving them the formality of a new choice, he prevailed with them to pitch upon Baldwin. And to secure the privileges of their convent, Alan, prior of Christ's Church, and a select number of the chapter, came to London, with letters of deputation from the whole house. These commissioners, meeting in the chapter-house at Westminster, chose Baldwin, above mentioned, archbishop of Canterbury. And that they might not seem to own anything done already, or assent to the bishops' election, Hoveden, they sung the Te Deum, led the archbishop to the altar, and, saluting him on the cheek, presented him to the king fol. 355. and his sons, where the same ceremony was repeated to HENRY II. him. K. of Eng. This year the king divided his forests into several pre- Ibid. cincts, and constituted four justices for each division, viz. two clerks, and two knights. Ibid. The monks of Christ's Church, Canterbury, appearing He designs troublesome at the late election, the king and the archbishop a college projected an expedient to check their interest, and make canons at Hackingthem more inoffensive for the future. For this purpose, the ton. archbishop designed to found a society of secular canons, and to build a college upon St. Stephen's churchyard, at Hackington, about half a mile from Canterbury. This college was to consist of twenty canonries, one of which was to be endowed by the king, and the rest by each of the suffragans of the province. These preferments, as they became vacant, were to be filled up by the respective founders. The archbishop's part was to build the church and the college, for which he had drawn a very magnificent model. The foundation was to be in honour of archbishop Becket, whose memory and martyrdom made so great a blaze in Christendom. Thus the king's settling a prebend, was to be, as it were, a perpetual penance upon the crown, for the misfortune of that prelate's death. These appearances looked so honourably, and gave so strong a colour to the undertaking, that the pope gave Baldwin a commission to pursue his model, and granted him a fourth part of the offerings made from that day forward at Becket's tomb. But after all, the secret of the project was to draw the election of the archbishop from the convent of Christ's Church, to this new erection; it being reasonably supposed that the canons would prove more manageable upon such occasions than the monks, and be influenced by the directions of their respective patrons. In short, there were great preparations of materials, the building was begun, and carried on with great application; and several estates were settled 396. for the maintenance of the canons. But the monks, at last, The archdetected the design, and foreseeing how prejudicial it would bishop and be to their convent, made a heavy complaint to the pope upon disagree that subject; setting forth that the archbishop designed to project. strip them of their ancient privileges. That his intention in The pope building this collegiate church, was to make the holy chrism, by both monks about the addressed parties. BALD- and consecrate bishops there, to injure their convent in its WIN, Abp. Cant. authority and revenues, and to remove the archiepiscopal see to the new foundation. To give this remonstrance the greater force, they complained that Baldwin was, in a manner, forced upon them by the interest and overruling of the court; that he had shewn himself disaffected to their society; that he had seized the customary presents made to them, deprived them of their advowsons, expelled some of their members, and excommunicated others. It seems these monks had been very stubborn and untractable in their behaviour to the archbishop, insomuch that he had formerly sent his agents to the see of Rome, to complain of them. These commissioners charged the monks with intolerable pride, and perverseness with reference to the late election. They urged that Baldwin was both their metropolitan and abbot: that the archbishops, thus fortified in their character, had all along had the disposal of everything belonging to the see of Canterbury; that the placing, and displacing of the prior, sub-prior, and all other officers, and members of the society belonged to them. To give one instance, Theobald turned out the two priors, Jeremy and Walter. From hence they argued, à fortiori, that if the archbishop could make and unmake the prior, other business of less consequence must, of course, fall within his jurisdiction. To this they add, that the monks confessed this power in the archbishop by dropping their appeal; and that they would never have made so dishonourable a retreat, had they not been conscious of their being in the wrong. I mention this to shew the height of the misunderstanding, and that the monks bore hard upon their archbishop. Gervas. Dorobern. de Discord. inter Mo narch. et 1303 et deinc. ad 1309. To return to the monks' remonstrance; they inform the pope farther, that the archbishop had suspended their prior, Baldwin, p. and some other of their members, who were sent to his holiness with an appeal; that he had published an order to forbid the monks going out of the cloister upon any occasion whatsoever that he had sent clerks throughout all the kingdom to preach up a contribution for the new church. That he had brought the crown into his interest, and was grown irresistible in his encroachments: that he endeavoured to make the king and the bishops the judges of the controversy that by this means the convent would be brought un II. der this dilemma, either to incur the displeasure of the king HENRY and kingdom, or else be forced to betray their society, and K. of Eng. put a contempt upon his holiness. Ibid. determined monks, and bishop Notwithstanding this application to Rome, the archbishop went on with his structure, consecrated the church, and installed several prebendaries. Upon this, the prior Honorius posted to Rome with all the speed imaginable. The king being willing to put an end to the contest, and understanding that the monks refused to refer the difference to himself and the bishops, went down to Canterbury in hopes to bring the convent off their obstinacy. But the monks refused to stand to the king's award; and to excuse themselves, they alleged the matter now lay before the pope, and could not be referred to any other decision. An accommodation being The cause thus impracticable, the king and the archbishop sent their at Rome in agents to Rome, who besides their instructions from their favour of the masters, were charged with letters to the pope from each of the archthe bishops of the province of Canterbury. The pope, upon forced to dethe hearing of both parties, pronounced judgment in favour of the prior and monks; and ordered the archbishop to restore the religious he had displaced. Baldwin took little notice of this order, and instead of restoring the monks, gave the convent a new provocation, by consecrating the chrism at London. The monks addressed his holiness for relief, and prevailed with him to send his legates for their restitution. Archbishop Baldwin received a menacing order sent him by the pope, to pull down the new church, and proceed no farther in the undertaking. And thus the king, the archbishop and his suffragans, were overruled by the pope's authority, and suffered themselves to be baffled by the monks. Thus the noble design was blasted, and the buildings at Hackington all demolished. sist. Not long after, pope Urban III. departed this life, and was succeeded by Gregory VIII. The archbishop expecting more favourable treatment from this pope, attempted to work the point another way. To this purpose, he bought a manor at Lambeth, of the bishop and convent of Rochester, and ordered all the timber and materials prepared for the college at Hackington to be brought hither. And here, where the Antiquit. archbishop's palace now stands, he began to build upon the old plan, but did not live long enough to carry it through. Britan, and Godwin in |
