BONI- in defiance of all equity, canon, and conscience, make it FACE, Abp. Cant. their business to overgorge themselves, and procure several churches to be settled upon them by way of commendam : that this is a plain perversion of the design of the canons, straining the words against the intention of the legislators, and preferring the sound, in contradiction to the sense. And thus the people are neglected, the ends of the sacerdotal function lost, and the holy revenues mispent upon luxury and pride. To prevent this abuse, the canon voids all commendams enjoyed by any person excepting one, and orders those who have a right to collate or institute, to dispose of such benefices within two months; and that in case of failure, all such preferments shall lapse to the pope. The canon provides farther, that no person who has more than one living with cure of souls, shall be capable of any commendam. As to the original of commendams, Father Paul gives this Hist. Coun- account of it. When the Northern nations broke in upon cil of Trent, the Western empire, it often happened that churches were The rise of unprovided with bishops, who were either taken off by na lib. 6. commen dams. tural death or the barbarities of the enemy. In such cases it frequently happened that those who had a right to provide a pastor, were hindered from acting by sieges, imprisonments, or other calamities of an invasion. Now that the people might not suffer for want of the government of a diocesan, the principal prelates of the province used to recommend the see to some clergyman of character and conduct. That this was only a temporary provision, to continue no longer than till the obstructions were removed, the times better settled, and an opportunity given to elect a bishop in a canonical way. The bishops and parochial priests made use of this expedient, when vacancies happened upon such occasions in country villages. And here the rule was always to pitch upon a person of capacity and credit: and he that was commended endeavoured to act up to expectation. And thus the provision gave great satisfaction, and proved very beneficial to religion. But as the best establishments are apt to suffer in the progress of time, some of the commendatories began to think of serving their fortunes, as well as the Church, and stood too much to the point of interest: the prelates, likewise, sometimes commended churches III. without necessity: this disorder increasing, there were ca- HENRY nons made that the commendams should not last above six K.of Eng. months; nor the commendatory receive the profits of the benefice held in commendam. However, the popes, sometimes pretending to a power paramount to the canons, broke through this constitution, both with respect to the time and other circumstances; for sometimes they disposed of commendams for term of life, and assigned all the profits of the benefice to the person thus promoted. But to return to the council. XXXII. The two-and-thirtieth canon decrees, that when any person was elected bishop, there should be strict enquiry made before his consecration, whether he was a pluralist or not; and in case he held more livings than one with cure of souls, whether he had a dispensation for such privilege; whether the dispensation was authentick, and extended to all the promotions enjoyed by him; and, in case the elect failed in any article of this enquiry, he was not to be completed in his character, nor consecrated by the archbishop. XXXIV. The four-and-thirtieth complains of the abuse of the trust of patronage, and that presentations are given upon contracts to pay the patron a certain sum of money yearly out of the profits of the living. To prevent such simoniacal practices, so prejudicial to the interest of religion, the canon declares all such promises and contracts utterly void. XXXV. By the five-and-thirtieth, all commerce and secular business is forbidden to be managed in churches. XXXVI. The six-and-thirtieth decrees a solemn and public procession to be made yearly, the day after the octaves of Whitsuntide. The design of it was, that both the religious and secular clergy should publickly bless God for restoring peace to the kingdom, pray for the repose and prosperity of Christendom; that God would please to inspire the members of the Church with a desire of peace and union, continue the blessings of a good understanding among Christian princes, and deliver the Holy Land from the tyranny and misbelief of the Mahometans. And to make these provisions more effectual, it is ordered by the XXXVIIth., that all archbishops, bishops, abbots, 477. FACE, BONI- priors, and chapters of cathedral churches, shall furnish Abp. Cant. themselves with a copy of the canons of this synod, and that all archbishops and bishops shall be obliged to have them Spel. Con- read every year distinctly in their respective synods. cil. vol. 2. p. 263. Concil.Lab. tom. 11. The rest of the canons are only regulations for the monasteries, and therefore I shall pass them over at present. col. 867 et This year pope Clement IV. died. deinc. A. D. 1269. King Henry, who had a great veneration for the memory of Edward the Confessor, put his corpse in a golden shrine, and removed them to a place more in view, in Westminster abbey. And here we are to observe that this prince pulled down the old abbey church, and built the new one, with the same largeness and magnificence as it exhibits at present. This year, prince Edward engaged with Lewis the Godly Continuat. to undertake the holy war, and was furnished by that king for the expedition. However, he did not set forward till two years after. Wikes Chronic. p. 88, 89. Paris, p. 1005, 1006. A. D. 1270. The death of Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury. The next year, Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, died at the castle of St. Helen's in Savoy. This prelate, perceiving the king disgusted with him, left England some little time before his death, and returned into his own country. He built and endowed two great hospitals; one at Maidstone, and another at Canterbury, in honour of archbishop Becket. The first of these, at the dissolution of the abbeys, Antiquitat. was valued at a hundred and fifty-nine pounds, annual rent. Boniface. The rest of this prelate's character has been mentioned already. The monks of Christ's Church, upon the death of their archbishop, chose William Chillenden, their prior, who renounced the election before pope Gregory X. Upon this vacancy, Robert Kilwarby was nominated by the pope, in Angl. Sacr. 1272, and consecrated at Canterbury the first Sunday in p. I. p. 116. Lent the year after. Britan. in An attempt Edward's life. The next year, prince Edward, who was now arrived at upon prince Acre in the Holy Land, was in danger of being assassinated. One Anzazin, who used to bring letters from the admiral of Joppa, pretended private business with prince Edward, and taking him to the window when the company was withdrawn, drew a poisoned dagger, and wounded him twice in the arm, and a third time under the armpit. The prince struck him down with his foot, and afterwards wrested the A. D. 1271. dagger out of his hand, and killed him with it. III. The next year, there happened a quarrel between the HENRY monks and townsmen of Norwich; the occasion is not men- K. of Eng. tioned, but the burghers were so far enraged as to carry a quarrel the fray to the last extremity of outrage, for they burnt the between the cathedral, and plundered all the books, jewels, and plate, townsmen of which belonged to the Church; the king was exceedingly disturbed at this sacrilegious violence, and sent down * sir monks and Norwich. 1272. Trivet, one of his justices, to try the malefactors. And soon after, he took a journey thither himself. And here he fined the corporation three thousand marks for the rebuilding the cathedral; and besides, a great many of the townsmen, who were convicted of setting fire to the church, Continuat. were drawn in a sledge and executed. Paris, 1008, 1009. King Henry bury. The king, in his return to London, fell sick, and died at A. D. 1272. St. Edmundsbury. He behaved himself with great piety in dies at St. his sickness, ordered his debts to be paid, and that the re- Edmundsmainder in the exchequer should be distributed among the poor. The corpse was carried to Westminster, and buried there. He reigned six-and-fifty years. He married Eleonora, daughter to the earl of Savoy, by whom he had Edward, who succeeded him, and Edmund, earl of Leicester and Lancaster. He had likewise two daughters by this queen, Beatrix, who married the earl of Bretagne, and Margaret, married to Alexander, king of Scotland. Upon the death of king Henry, prince Edward, his eldest A. D. 1274. son, was proclaimed king. This prince, upon the notice of August. his father's death, quitted the Holy Land, and returned into England, and was crowned at Westminster by Robert, archbishop of Canterbury. This year, on the first of May, the council of Lyons was The council of Lyons. opened by pope Gregory X. This council is called a general one, and had representatives from all parts of Europe. Knighton reports, that the pope, insisting upon an aid for the Holy Land, Robert de Kilwarby had not the courage to oppose the motion, because he had been preferred to his see by the court of Rome. However, Richard de Pecham, dean of Lincoln, was so hardy as to contradict his holiness's demands; he pleaded the poverty of the Church of England, and that the late wars and payments to the see of Rome had impoverished them to that degree, that they were scarcely in a condition to subsist. For this free 478. ROBERT, dom the pope deprived him of his preferments, carried his Abp. Cant. point over the synod, and gained a tenth from the Church, Knighton to be paid for six years together. de Eventi bus Angliæ, King Edward sent four proxies or agents to this synod, 1. 3. p. 2461. and gave them commission to propose and contradict in the assembly as they thought proper. Conventiones, Literæ, &c. tom. 2. p. 23. Churches At this council the Greeks closed with the Latin Church. To throw some light into this matter, we are to take notice The Greek that Michael Paleologus had lately taken Constantinople, and Latin and chased away the emperor Baldwin, who was the last of reconciled. the Latins that reigned in that city. Paleologus, therefore, being at the head of the Greek empire, it was feared the Greeks might break with the court of Rome, and return to their ancient independency; for, we are to observe, that in the reign of Constantine Monomachus, when Michael was patriarch of Constantinople, the Greeks declared against the supremacy of the see of Rome, condemned their consecrating the sacrament with leaven, their Saturday's fast, and several other customs of the Latin Church. Besides, they denied the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, and anathematised the Latins, for adding the filiologue to the Constantinopolitan creed. But these doctrines were long before maintained by the famous Photius, who was patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century. After Photius, the Greeks and Latins continued distinct communions till Baldwin the First, earl of Flanders, took Constantinople. At this prince's gaining the empire in the Levant, the Greeks were brought to submission to the see of Rome in the beginning of this century. But when the Latins were expelled, they began to recover their former doctrines, and return to their old liberty. The court of Rome, 9. col. 138 however, was so successful as to stop their progress, and bring Concil. et deinc. Wikes Chron. p. 100. A. D. 1275. them back to a temporary dependance upon that see: I call it a temporary dependance, because it was not long before they came to a rupture, and reasserted their ancient privilege. In the third year of the reign of king Edward, there was a parliament held at Westminster about the octaves of Easter: the heads enacted at this parliament, are called the the first statute of Westminster. By the second chapter of this statute it is provided, that |