To return to the legislation of the synod of London considerable number of the constitutions of the legate Otho were concerned with laws regulating the bestowal and proper holding of ecclesiastical benefices, and the qualifications of those beneficed. The question of married clerks was dealt with in some stringent provisions, and it was ordered that all such were to be deprived of the benefices they held, whilst a special declaration pointed out that according to the canons it was never lawful for sons to succeed their fathers in any ecclesiastical office. The clergy were warned against permitting certain abuses in the administration of the sacraments; and they were ordered frequently to explain on Sundays to their people in the common language, the proper form of baptism. The duties of archdeacons in their districts, and those of bishops in their dioceses, were carefully laid down, and particular attention was paid to the statement of the proper mode of hearing and determining causes in ecclesiastical courts. The particular articles, or chapters, were two only in number: one dealt with the consecration or dedication of churches, the necessity for which the legate had reason to believe had not been sufficiently understood in England. This statute directed that within two years from the date of this synod, all cathedral, parochial, and abbatial churches should be consecrated. The second particular statute referred to the diet of monks. Otho rejoiced to understand, he says, that in the late General Chapter the black monks had determined to keep the strict letter of St. Benedict's rule as to abstinence from flesh meat. This decision he approves and confirms by his legatine authority.

To this he added a reminder as to the law of Pope Honorius III that every novice after a year's probation should be obliged to make his profession.

Shortly after the close of the synod, the archbishop of Canterbury, St. Edmund, set out for Rome. The legate endeavoured to prevent his departure, but was unable to do so.' He had in Cardinal Otho, says Matthew Paris, "a powerful adversary at the Roman Curia, as well as at the king's court. In the Eternal City St. Edmund had the case of the Rochester election decided against him, as well as an appeal of the earl of Arundel. In this latter case, besides being compelled to take off the sentence of excommunication he had passed against that nobleman, St. Edmund had to pay costs amounting to many thousands of marks.2

During the absence of the archbishop from England, Simon de Montfort, with the king's leave, married his sister Alcinor, daughter of King John, and widow of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. Richard, earl of Cornwall, the king's brother, and the nobles without exception, were much incensed with Henry for permitting this, and the people also seemed generally to side with them against de Montfort. The legate Otho, recognising the dangerous condition of affairs, approached the earl of Cornwall on the matter. He promised that if the earl would support the king at this juncture, he would get Henry to bestow large possessions upon him, and that "the lord pope would confirm" these grants in his behalf. The earl replied by reminding Cardinal Otho that as legate he had nothing whatever to say to the granting of lands, or even to the confirmation of such grants. He complained that though immense sums had passed through the king's hands, he was still poor, and that ecclesiastical revenues and benefices which pious founders had given to the Church had been secured as so much spoil by the crowd of foreigners who, through the king's policy, had found a home in England.' Upon receiving this reply, 2 Ibid., 480. 3 Ibid., 477.

1 Matthew Paris, iii. 470.

Cardinal Otho recognised at once the serious nature of the situation. He went without delay to the king, accompanied by Bishop de Rupibus, and strongly urged upon him the need of attending without delay to the just grievances of his subjects. This, after some hesitation, Henry agreed to do, and the danger passed away for the time.

Early in this same year, 1238, the pope and the Roman Curia learnt, probably through Archbishop St. Edmund, then in Rome, that the minds of the English generally were gravely disturbed by the multitude of foreigners at that time in the country, and more than all, by the presence of the legate, whom the king had called from Rome without the knowledge of his people. Gregory IX consequently hastened to recall Otho, and, somewhat to disguise the cause, wrote to him about the difficulty of insisting upon the surrender of benefices by those who held more than one. This could not be done, he understood, without grave disturbances, and as it seemed for the time more prudent to leave matters so, it would be better for the legate to retire, so that by his presence he might not appear to give this the force of approval. The idea of recall did not please Otho, and he obtained a letter from the king, sealed with the royal seal, and with the seals of the earl of Cornwall and of all the bishops, declaring that his presence in England was very useful to the king, the kingdom, and the English Church.'

In the spring of this same year, 1238, the legate paid a visit to Oxford, and whilst being entertained at Osney Abbey, the students went out to the monastery to salute him. They were denied access to the cardinal by a foreign doorkeeper, and this rebuff led to a riot, during which Otho's foreign cook was killed. The papal legate was terrified. After hiding in the tower of the church, he himself

1 Matthew Paris, iii. 473.

escaped in disguise at night to the king, leaving his attendants in hiding at Osney. The riot, which evidently commenced almost by accident, brought about a serious manifestation of hostility to the person of the cardinal, who, the rioters declared, was upsetting the kingdom and enriching his foreign followers with the spoils of the English. The king was then at Abingdon; and being greatly disturbed at the insults shown to Otho, sent at once to Oxford, and seizing some of the rioters put them into prison, first at. Wallingford, and then at London. The legate meanwhile placed the city and university of Oxford under an interdict, and called the archbishop of York and the other bishops to London to discuss the affair with him. By their advice, on the humiliation of some of the ringleaders, he removed the interdict.1

On 9th June of this year the celebrated bishop of Winchester, Peter de Rupibus, after an episcopate of two and thirty years, died at Farnham. Henry now thought he saw a chance of securing the See for the queen's uncle, William, the bishop-elect of Valence. The Winchester monks, however, refused to consider the royal nominee, and elected Ralph Nevile, bishop of Chichester, and chancellor of the kingdom. The king declined to ratify their choice, and not only sent at once to Rome to give notice that the confirmation was to be opposed cost what it might, but immediately deprived the bishop-elect of the chancellorship. Gregory IX quashed the election; and upon the monks asking for the king's licence to proceed to a second choice, Henry again did all in his power to make them promise to choose his former nominee. To this they refused to agree, and after some delay they determined upon William de Raleigh, who was at once rejected by the king. The fol1 Matthew Paris, iii. 485.

lowing year de Raleigh was chosen bishop of Lichfield, and subsequently bishop of Norwich, to which See he was finally consecrated.

On 18th November, 1239, the anniversary of his great synod, the legate Otho presided over a Chapter of the Benedictines. At this meeting he published a body of statutes for the Order, founded to a great extent upon the legislation of the popes, and especially upon those of Gregory IX and Honorius III. A few months later he took occasion of a meeting of bishops in London, on 20th February, 1240, to mitigate certain regulations which were considered too rigorous for general observance in this country. At this meeting Otho informed the English episcopate that he had been recalled by the pope to Rome because rumours of dissatisfaction and scandal caused by the greediness of the Roman clerics in this country had reached the pontiff's ears. Once more, however, the king interfered. He had been intending to hold a parliament at Easter, in which he hoped to secure the return to power of the queen's uncle, William the bishop-elect of Valence, and he looked to the legate's presence to protect him against the inevitable anger of the nobles. He consequently sent to Rome an urgent appeal for the retention of the legate, and moved heaven and earth that he might be allowed to stay in England to help him. Meanwhile the legate waited1 for the decision. His preparations were all made, and even presents upon his departure had been received, when the king's messenger, a clever lawyer named Simon the Norman, returned in haste from the Curia with the expected letters, cancelling the previous orders for his immediate return.

At the end of July, 1240, Otho, his position in England secured, again called a meeting of the bishops. In this he Matthew Paris, iii. 526.

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