Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

he says, "Eternal Providence had intended it to be governed by one pastor with the plenitude of power; the other pastors being assumed to bear a part of his charge; just as the members (support) the head united to them, so are both bound together with an indissoluble union in any difficulty." To prepare for this council, as has been just now said, the pope desired the services of the legate, who, however, did not on that account stop his preparation of supplies for the winter in this country, and his demand for "procurations" towards the expenses of his stay in England. Meanwhile, about the Feast of All Saints, Ist November, Peter Rosso and Ruffinus, Otho's two agents, returned from Scotland with £3,000 for the pope; and at the same time there arrived Mumelino, another papal collector, bringing with him twenty-four Romans wanting to obtain benefices in England. "Thus," writes Matthew Paris, "the English were the most wretched of all wretched people. They were ground between the upper and nether millstones. Now it was Peter Rosso, now Mumelino, now the legate, who ground down prelates, religious and clerics." "

On All Saints' day, by the advice of the pope, Otho summoned the clergy to meet him for the last time in London, having first won the goodwill of the king to his demands. At the meeting, so far from the clergy finding that they could rely upon Henry to protect them, he showed plainly that he was against them, and so they reluctantly consented to pay what the departing legate demanded. The only religious who made a stand against the exactions were the Cistercians, who upon Otho demanding "procurations" from them, appealed at once to the Holy See to defend them. Gregory advised his legate 2 Matthew Paris, iv. 55.

1 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,354, f. 319.

to content himself with moderate gifts of food from them, and to refrain from demanding money.

This was almost the last act of the papal legate Otho in the country. Henry kept the Christmas of 1240 at Westminster, and acceding to the legate's request, on the feast day created Otho's nephew a knight, and gave him a revenue of £30 stirling, which the youth promptly sold for a capital sum, as he knew he was leaving the country at once. Then at a banquet given to the legate, to the astonishment of many, Henry set Otho in the highest place the royal place-in the centre of the table, himself taking the right hand and placing the archbishop of York on the left. Four days later Otho set out, accompanied by the king and his court to the very sea shore. When, on 7th January, they had embraced and separated, and Otho had really left, there was, says Matthew Paris, a general sigh of relief that the three years of the legate's stay in England had really been brought to a close.

CHAPTER XI

FROM THE DEPARTURE OF OTHO TO THE

ELECTION OF INNOCENT IV

EARLY in the year 1241, the difficulty between the monks of Durham and the king, as to a successor to Bishop Poore, was settled by the resignation of the prior,' who had been the first choice of the community, and the subsequent election of Nicholas de Farnham. The bishop-elect had had a distinguished career at the University of Paris, had graduated in medicine at Bologna, and, subsequently taking to the study of theology, had become a professor of that science in the latter university. By the advice of the legate King Henry had called him over to England to "look after the souls and bodies" of himself and his queen, as their confessor and physician.

It was with difficulty that Nicholas de Farnham could be induced to consent to take upon his shoulders the burden of the episcopate. Bishop Grosseteste, however, finally overcame his reluctance, by representing that, as the king would certainly accept this election, his consent would put an end to the troubles and difficulties which had long afflicted the monks and See of Durham. “If you do not accept," he said, "the king will get some foreign, ignorant and unworthy person appointed" to the See.' The bishop-elect consequently withdrew his objection and was consecrated on 9th June of this year 1241.

1 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,354, f. 5,323.

2 Matthew Paris, iv. 87.

The death of St. Edmund abroad on 16th November, 1240, seemed to the king to present a favourable opportunity for the advancement of the queen's uncle, Boniface of Savoy, the bishop-elect of Belley. The Canterbury monks, who had proceeded to Rome to obtain canonical absolution from the censures placed on them by St. Edmund, returned to England in April, 1241, bringing with them letters addressed by the pope to the abbots of St. Alban's and Waltham, to declare the monastery of Christ Church free of all interdict, etc., ad cautelam, so that the monks might elect with safe consciences.' The king at once let them know pretty plainly his wish as to the result of their free choice; and the monks on their side, knowing that the pope and king would help each other, and that any other election would certainly be quashed, made a virtue of necessity and elected Boniface as archbishop. They knew nothing more about him than that he was the queen's uncle, and that, although bishopelect of Belley since 1232, he was still only in subdeacon's orders.

Henry, in order to prevent the pope's rejection of the elect as unworthy, not only wrote to Gregory IX urging his claims and testifying that he was worthy to receive confirmation, but also had a special letter of recommendation drawn up, and persuaded many bishops and prelates to affix their names and seals to it, and this he forwarded to his agents in Rome, instructing them to forward the cause of Boniface by every means in their power. Matthew Paris relates, however, that many of the monks had grave qualms of conscience as to their part in electing to so high an office one about whom so little was known except his royal connections. Some were so greatly disturbed in

1 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,354, f. 343.

mind at what they had done that they betook themselves to the shelter of a Carthusian monastery, to expiate by a life of continual penance what they had come to look on as a crime. The pope's confirmation was long delayed, in spite of all the royal agents could do to expedite matters; and, before it could be obtained, Gregory IX died. It was not till after the accession of Pope Innocent IV, in 1243, that the elect was able to obtain recognition from the Holy See and be consecrated to the Chair of St. Augustine.

Meanwhile the election at Winchester still remained unsettled, owing to the action of the king in refusing to accept the choice made by the monks. It is difficult to understand on what grounds the royal objections were based, as the elect, William de Raleigh, had been faithful in the king's service, and had previously been chosen to present the king's protest to claims, advanced by the legate in behalf of the pope, at one of the councils held at St. Paul's; and, as the royal representative, had remained behind to watch the proceedings on Henry's behalf. Since he had been first chosen for Winchester and rejected by the king, de Raleigh had been chosen and consecrated bishop of Norwich. The monks, however, in spite of the royal determination not to accept him for Winchester, carried their case to the Holy See. Whilst the decision was pending, the king tried by every means in his power to bend the refractory electors to his will. Immediately upon this second choice becoming known, the king required de Raleigh to sign a paper refusing the nomination to Winchester. This the bishop absolutely refused to do, on the ground that to refuse translation "was altogether unreasonable, and contrary to his profession as a bishop. For, should the pope order him under holy obedience, he 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 105.

« PredošláPokračovať »