The thirty-seventh enjoins the office for the dead to be HENRY said daily, excepting upon great festivals. The forty-fifth forbids monks farming the livings which belonged to their patronage: and that they were not to occupy any part of the rectory without the allowance of the ordinary. This canon was made to prevent the encroachment of the monasteries upon the parochial clergy. The eighty-sixth commands the archdeacons to take care these canons may be duly observed; to give copies of them to the rural deans, who were to transcribe them, and furnish the rectors and vicars within their precincts. III. 2. p. 137. What year these canons were published, is not easy to determine; however, by their mentioning the council of Oxford, held under Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, it is certain they must have been made after the year 1222. Spelman. Upon the breaking up of the council, the bishops and Concil. vol. clergy addressed the legate to use his interest with the et deinc. king, that those customs and practices which were prejudi- Labbe et cial to the liberties of the Church, might be altered and sup- tom. 11. col. pressed. I shall mention some few of them. First, they 247. et complained that the crown had broken in upon Magna Charta and the forest charter. Concil. Cossart. deinc. They request that the king's justices may not have the try- The clergy's petition to ing of ecclesiastical causes: for instance; that the jurisdiction the crown. of such secular persons may not reach to the determining whether the privileges of baptism and burial belong to a chapel or no, nor give judgment whether quarries, silva cædua, herbage, or other things of that nature, are tithable or not. That a bench consisting wholly of lay judges may not be allowed to pronounce whether a cause ought to be accounted ecclesiastical or secular. The reason of this part of their petition is, because if there happens to be either partiality or mistake in the lay judges, they will be apt to extend their own jurisdiction too far, and encroach upon the spiritual courts. To proceed to another branch or two of their petition: one of which is, that bishops may not be compelled to give an account of any part of their administration before the king's justices, i. e. why a bishop did not confirm the election of an abbot, or give him his benediction: or for what reason he would not admit such a clerk to such a benefice. ED Abp. Cant. That the king's prohibition may not prevent the ecclesiMUND, astical courts from pronouncing whether a chapel belongs to such a church or not. And whether such parcels of tithes are to be paid to this or the other church. 441. Annal. That the bishops' officials, or archdeacon, or any of his clergy, may not be obliged to appear in the secular courts, to give an account why they excommunicated such a person. Burton, p. Whether this petition of the clergy in these and other instances was granted, is not mentioned by the historian. Monast. 290. et deinc. A satire upon the court of Rome. Paris, p. 438. This year, Matthew Paris breaks out into a tragical complaint of the times: his satire is chiefly pointed at the encroachments and misbehaviour of the court of Rome. He laments that the privileges of the Church were in a manner lost that Christian charity was ready to expire, and religion fallen under contempt: "that the daughter of Sion was become, as it were, an harlot." That persons of no merit or learning came menacing with the pope's bull into England, hectored themselves into preferment, trampled upon the privileges of the country, and seized the revenues, designed by our pious ancestors for the support of the religious, for the benefit of the poor, and for the entertainment of strangers. "And in case," says he, "the injured persons have recourse to the remedy of an appeal, the pope strikes the cause dead, and sends out an excommunication against the plaintiff. And thus, instead of gaining their preferment, by modest and respectful applications, they invade the patrimony of the Church, and, as it were, plunder the kingdom. And whereas, formerly, the Church preferments were held by natives of birth and character, men who were a credit to their country, and spent their wealth in hospitality and relieving the poor: instead of this, we are now pestered with obscure rapacious people; no better than farmers and servants to the court of Rome, who glean up the wealth of the country for the pride and luxury of their masters: and thus, England, which was formerly so illustrious in figure and command, and so exemplary in religion, was clapped under hatches, made a prey to foreigners, and sunk to an ignominious degeneracy." This complaint was made by the historian before the convening of the council: how far the occasion of it was removed by that meeting, is not mentioned; only, Matthew Paris observes that the legates, at the breaking up of the HENRY council, gave but slender satisfaction. III. A. D. 1238. at Oxford. The year after this synod, the legate went a progress to Oxford; he was received with great respect, and lodged in 4 quarrel the abbey of Osney. The clergy of the university sent Id. p. 455. him in provisions for his table; and, after dinner, went to pay him the ceremony of a visit. When they came to the abbey, the legate's porter saluted them roughly, and asked them what they would have? When they told him, they came to wait upon my lord legate, he returned them ill language, and shut the gate upon them. The scholars meeting with this unexpected usage, forced their passage. Upon which, the Italians, who were the cardinal's retinue, endeavoured to beat them back. During this scuffle, a poor Irish priest happened to be in the abbey to ask a charity. The clerk of the kitchen being heated with the fray, threw scalding water in the Irishman's face. This affront was highly resented by a Welsh clergyman, who, being furnished with bow and arrows, let fly at the clerk of the kitchen, and killed him. This clerk of the kitchen happened to be the legate's brother. The legate finding himself attacked in so near a relation, retired in his canonical The univerhabit, to the abbey steeple. In the night he put on a dis- dicted by guise, crossed the Thames on horseback, posted to the the legate. court at Wallingford, and complained of the outrage. The king, surprised at the accident, ordered earl Warren to go down with a body of men to rescue the Italians, and seize the scholars. About thirty of these university malefactors were apprehended and imprisoned at Wallingford. The legate, resolving not to go without his full revenge, summoned some of the bishops to attend him, puts Oxford under an interdict, and excommunicates all those concerned in the quarrel. These men were soon after treated with the ignominy of felons; brought up in a cart to London, at the legate's instance; committed to close custody, laid in irons, and deprived of their preferments. At last, at the request of the bishops, the legate was prevailed on to relax the sentence, and restore the university: for, by the way, we are to observe, he had laid an embargo upon the Muses, and forbidden all lectures and disputations. However, the Oxonians were not to be admitted to favour sity inter Id. P. 469. 70. ED MUND, Abp. Cant. Id. p. 469. Westmo nast. et Walsing- An. 1238. ter. without penance and satisfaction: their punishment was to walk in a body from Cheapside to Durham-house, in the Strand; and when they came thither, they appeared barefoot, uncovered, and disrobed of their upper habit; and in this submissive style they received their pardon. During the suspension of the university, several of the members removed to Northampton and New Sarum, to study there. This year, in the beginning of June, Peter de Rupibus, ter's death bishop of Winchester, departed this life. He was born in and charac- Poictou, of a noble family, and not unpractised in the profession of arms. He had a great share in the civil administration, both in this reign and the last. He was always firm to the crown; adhered to king John in his quarrel with the pope, and to his son king Henry, against the barons. He held the see of Winchester about two-and-thirty years, died at Farnham, and was privately buried in his cathedral, according to his own order. Matthew Paris, notwithstanding he is sometimes displeased with him for his loyalty, gives him a noble character at last. He tells us, the Church and state suffered an irreparable loss in his death; and that no man was fitter to direct matters, either in synods or parliaments, than this prelate: that all the advantages gained by the emperor Frederick in the holy war, were chiefly owing to his advice and assistance. And when the late misunderstandings between the pope and emperor were likely to be carried to the last extremities, and to prove very unfortunate to Christendom, he was so happy as to heal the difference, and make them friends. His publick benefactions were extraordinary: he founded and endowed two monasteries; one at Hales, and another at Tikeford, for the Premonstratenses: and a third at Selbourne, for canons regular, of the order of St. Augustine: and at Portsmouth he founded a noble hospital. He was likewise a great benefactor to the Holy Land, made considerable additions to the fortifications of Joppa, and left a vast sum of money in his will, to the Christians of Palestine. 442. A difference between the monks of When the king heard of the death of the bishop of Winking and the chester, he recommended William, brother to the earl of Flanders, and the queen's uncle, to the convent. The about the monks considered that this person was a foreigner, and not election of a acceptable to the nobility; and that, in case the earl of Flan Winchester bishop. 1238. 473. III. ders or his brother should attempt anything to the preju- HENRY dice of the kingdom, they would be aiding and assisting to K. of Eng. each other: for these reasons, and other exceptions to his character, they refused to elect him. This non-compliance of theirs was highly resented by the king, who seized the revenues of the bishoprick, cut down the timber, and dealt hardly with the interest of the convent. The monks, as Matthew of Westminster tells the story, chose rather to suffer than comply against their consciences, and choose a person altogether unqualified for that station; a man of a savage and sanguinary temper, and who had neither learning nor behaviour for so sacred an employment. However, these Westmomonks, to give the court as little offence as might be, de- nast. ad An. sired time to deliberate upon the matter, and, at last, pitched upon one William Raley, a person of merit, and well known to the king. The king, highly disgusted at this disappointment, told the monks, that they had refused the brother of the earl of Flanders, and called him a man of blood: but that this Raley had killed more men with his tongue, than the other had done with his sword; and, in short, he would by Paris, p. no means consent to his election. The monks, being willing to escape the king's displeasure, as far as they lawfully might, proceeded to a new election, and chose Ralph Neville, bishop of Chichester, and lord chancellor. The king was not better satisfied with this election than the other; called Neville a hot-headed tempestuous prelate; told the monks they were a company of blockheads for choosing him; and, instead of approving the election, took the broad seal away from the elect. Upon this he sent his agents to Rome, where, by large sums of money, they prevailed with that court to gratify the king and annul the election. And, not Id. p. 474. long after, the pope wrote to the legate, Otho, to charge the Conventiprior and convent of Winchester, not to choose any per- ræ, &c. tom. son for their bishop against whom the king might have any 1. p. 387. reasonable exception. This year, according to Matthew of Westminster, though The archbishop of Walsingham places it in the next, Simon Montfort, son Canterbury of that Simon who headed the crusade against the Albi- opposes the marriage genses, came into England, where he was well received by between the king's sisthe king, who gave him the earldom of Leicester, made him ter and the one of his privy council, and married him to his sister earl of ones Lite 88. Leicester. |
