Worcester and Hereford to send him at once the names of all who had aided the king by their advice or otherwise in this business. This information the bishops at once forwarded to Rome; and the knowledge of this, coupled with the threat of further action with which the papal letter to Henry had ended, brought the king to a more reasonable frame of mind. In the spring of 1244, the bishop of Winchester, still in exile in France, sent messengers to England. These brought back certain articles as to matters in which the king desired satisfaction before he would consent to receive the bishop to his peace. Most of the points upon which Henry asked for assurance had relation to the interdict of Winchester, and to the protection he could secure for those who had assisted him in his resistance to the papal authority. These Bishop de Raleigh promised to consider favourably when he was allowed to take possession of his See, but refused in any way to pledge himself to any course beforehand. One matter raised by the king, namely, that the bishop, contrary to the custom of the country, and against the rights of the Crown, had not sworn fealty to him on his translation, de Raleigh answered by asserting that this was entirely the king's fault, as he had done his best to obtain leave to take the required oath. The last item of the king's objection related to the arrears, etc., of the episcopal revenues, which Henry had kept all this time in his own hands. He hoped that the bishop would not be too particular in his enquiries as to the past, or too exacting in requiring their repayment; to this, for the sake of peace, the bishop agreed.' Nothing now stood in the way of the bishop of Winchester's return to his diocese. He left France, and having 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 350-351. removed the interdict from the city, he entered it and his cathedral church on 29th August, 1244, thus practically ending the long dispute between him and the Crown. Early in the year 1244 Innocent IV, who found himself on his election in great pecuniary difficulties, sent one of his clerks, named Martin, over into England to obtain money. Though not even a nuncio he was given great powers of suspension and excommunication, which he is said to have used liberally against those who did not come into his views. He forbade various prelates who were unwilling at once to satisfy all his demands, to collate to any benefice in their gift until they should prove themselves more reasonable, and besides the rich presents he expected to receive for himself and his retinue, he fixed thirty marks as the minimum he would accept as a contribution to the papal exchequer. He kept a sharp look-out for vacant benefices suitable for his followers, and on the precentor of Salisbury being elected to the See of Bath, he suggested the appointment to the prebend of the pope's nephew, then a boy, "to the disgust and astonishment of many."1 This and numerous instances of such "provisions" at this time caused widespread discontent, and a document setting forth the arguments usually put forward against this attitude of the Roman Curia towards England was drawn up for the king's consideration. It pointed out that from the earliest foundation of the Church in England by King Ethelbert, the endowments of cathedrals and monasteries were intended for the support of religion and for the relief of the poor. These ends were gravely compromised by the various exactions now made upon ecclesiastics, and what was worse for the country at the time was, that the money so taken from England went to aid the 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 385. pope against the emperor, "who by the will, order, and advice" of the Church, had married the king's own sister.' The action of the papal clerk, Martin, met with serious opposition. In some cases his messengers were ill-treated when they were sent to induct his nominees into livings, or take possession of them in their behalf. In one such case, that of the vicarage of Pinchbeck, in the Lincoln diocese, Martin consulted Grosseteste as to how he should deal with the offenders. The bishop gave a cautious reply, in which he said that knowing the holiness of the pope, he was bound to assume that he would pay full regard to the care of souls, and would not be unreasonable. If, then, the nuncio's commands were reasonable and did not need excuse, and they were not obeyed, it would be best to try and reason the disobedient into compliance, and only after that to proceed to extreme measures. This being the general advice, in the particular instance where the messengers of the papal clerk had been seized and ill-treated, the bishop advises that they should be excommunicated, and that as the benefice belonged to Spalding priory, the papal clerk should summon the prior and question him. He would, however, beg the nuncio to understand that the vicar had many souls to deal with, and that it was absolutely requisite that there should be a resident priest." King Henry at this same time addressed Pope Innocent IV on the subject of papal "provisions," as he had previously done Gregory IX. At all times of his reign, he said, he and his kingdom had ever been prompt in obeying papal commands and wishes. He had experienced the pope's paternal care on many occasions, but in the case of "certain provisions, made in favour of clerks foreign as well as English, we and our kingdom consider that we are 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 312-313. 2 Grosseteste, Epist., 315. much burdened and oppressed." He consequently begs that the pope will desist from the practice, and will protect the rights of the English Church, remembering that the benefices in question belong to England, not to foreign countries.1 The archbishop-elect of Canterbury, Boniface of Savoy, reached England early in 1244. Very shortly afterwards the king summoned the barons and prelates to meet him in the refectory at Westminster, where personally he asked from them a subsidy. The assembly required time for consideration, and a small number of nobles and bishops were chosen to answer the king, to the effect that only if he would keep more strictly to the terms of his Charter would they grant what he required. Henry was unwilling to give way, and after an adjournment for some weeks, he kept them in constant session, hoping by this to weary them into concession. Meanwhile his agents had procured letters from Pope Innocent IV, dated from Genoa on 29th July, 1244, urging the clergy to help the king as he desired. "Above all other kings of the earth," he says, "we embrace our beloved son the illustrious king of England with arms of special affection. He, as a Catholic and devoted prince, has ever studied to venerate the Roman Church, his mother, with filial obedience," etc. Consequently, when he asked us to urge you to be liberal to him in his necessities, "we beseech, advise, and earnestly exhort all of you, ordering you also by these Apostolic letters," willingly to grant him a "proper subsidy from your After six days the meeting came to an end; the king, although, as the chronicler expresses it, urging his neces 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 315. sities upon the assembly, "till night-fall," did not succeed in obtaining what he wanted. The prelates were required to meet on the day after the dissolution of the General Council, and the king's officials pressed them to obey the pope's request, even if they refused to consider that of the king. They asked to see a copy of the papal letter that they might consider its tenor, whereupon the king himself entered the place of meeting and again and again besought them to help him. But they refusing to give an immediate answer, and demanding time for consideration, Henry was obliged to leave them in some confusion. On the proposition of Bishop Grosseteste they finally came to the conclusion to stand together with the laity in their reply to the king. Before the council at London broke up, the papal collector Martin appeared on the scene to claim help from the clergy for the pope. He was so constantly producing new papal documents that many considered, says Matthew Paris, that he had brought blank forms already sealed and signed by Innocent IV to be filled in as circumstances might require.' This time he wished to secure a pledge from the clergy that they would pay ten thousand marks, as quickly as possible, as an aid to the papal exchequer. He produced two documents from the pope, one addressed to the episcopate, the other to the abbots of England, and dated on 7th January, 1244. The pope, "knowing the sincerity of their affections as often as necessity afflicts their mother the Apostolic See," turns, he says, to them naturally, "as to beloved and devoted sons." The collections made by Gregory IX in England and other Christian countries, to help to pay the expenses he had incurred in his defence of the liberty and the patrimony of the Church, 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 368. |