was not even in sacred orders, although he was already in possession of various ecclesiastical benefices, from which he derived revenues which equalled if they did not surpass those of the archbishop of Canterbury himself. The choice belonged, of course, to the monks of the cathedral monastery, and Henry's first care was to try, by trusty friends, to induce them by promises of his favour, backed by judicious threats of possible consequences should they fail to oblige him in this, to choose Aylmer as their bishop. The arguments of the royal agents so far prevailed with many, and their reports were so favourable, that within a fortnight Henry considered the ground sufficiently prepared for him to make a personal appeal. He went, consequently, to Winchester, and summoning the monks to meet him in Chapter, took the bishop's place and addressed them at length on the matter he had so much at heart. Whilst princes and the judges of the land, he said, were bound by the principles of strict justice and judgement, monks should be men of peace and quiet, and these qualities of religious men they had shown in listening to his request about Aethelmar. In choosing and supporting their late bishop, William de Raleigh, whom he would not accept, they had been in opposition to him and they could find no better way of purging their faults and obtaining his friendship than by now meeting his wishes in regard to a successor. They had once refused to choose as their bishop William, the elect of Valence, the queen's uncle, when he had begged them to do so; let them now remember his own connection with Winchester, how he was born in the city and baptised in the cathedral, and not act again against his known wishes.

This royal speech, or sermon, to the Winchester monks in their Chapter-house, ended with vague threats of what

would follow, in case they did not do what was thus so forcibly brought to their notice. The electors were in serious difficulties. The memory of their recent troubles and persecutions for refusing to have William, the elect of Valence, as their bishop, was only too fresh, and their loyalty to their first choice had only caused him to die in exile as the result of their conscientious support of him. "The requests of our lord king," they said, "are backed up by the royal power. To resist them is a very grave and formidable thing, and one fraught with danger to our Church." The pope, who is in a very difficult position, gives way to the king in everything, and so in this matter he will take the king's side. If we refuse to elect as is suggested to us, we shall only in the end find ourselves crushed between the two mill stones of the papal and the royal power. Under these circumstances, and trusting that Aylmer would content himself with remaining merely elect bishop, by which were secured to him all the revenues of the See, and not proceed to episcopal consecration, the monks of Winchester chose him conditionally upon the pope being willing to dispense with the canonical objections against him.

Matthew Paris loudly and at length condemns the circumstances which could bring about an election such as that of Aylmer: "Alas! alas!" he says, "men born in this country, who are good, learned, and religious men, are now set aside, and foreigners are thrust into (these positions), who are unworthy of such honours, and who, wholly ignorant of letters and of English, are useless so far as hearing confessions and preaching are concerned-O! Pope, Father of Fathers, why do you suffer Christian lands to be polluted by such abuses?-Above other countries and peoples, England, where, as all the world knows, the Christian faith

flourishes most, is worse treated, and by papal action is despoiled of its possessions and (the fruits of its labours). She gets nothing, whilst she herself is the prey of every plunderer. When did anyone ever hear that an Englishman had any revenue given him in Rome, Italy, Genoa, or other kingdom, whilst those from such places take everything in England."1

The infatuation of the king for foreigners generally, and for his uterine brother Aylmer de Lusigna in particular, was fast alienating from the Crown the remnant of loyalty left to it in his kingdom. Before securing this election at Winchester for Aylmer, Henry had, the previous year, 1249, made similar demands, but happily without effect, upon the monks of Durham. They had refused courteously but firmly to be parties to a transaction so detrimental to the interests of the Church. "Lord King and most Christian of kings," they said in their dignified remonstrance at his action in this matter—“Lord King, remember the first and chief oath you swore at your coronation. Allow holy Church sometimes to enjoy its liberty, so that we may choose for ourselves, according to our duty to God, the Father and Shepherd of our souls. You know, and all the world knows, that your said brother (Aylmer 2), is not old enough, and has not sufficient learning, to bear the yoke of so serious a spiritual office." 3

As already noted, large ecclesiastical revenues had been secured to Aylmer by the king's influence, in addition to the income granted him on his first arrival in England. For example, the cure of St. Mary's, Abingdon, was granted to him by the abbot and convent, at Henry's demand, and 1 Matthew Paris, v. 185.

2 He is said in a Bull of Alexander IV, on 30th July, 1255, then not to have reached the age of thirty (Reg. d'Alex. IV, i. No. 686).

3 Matthew Paris, v. 5.

the king threatened the bishop of Norwich with his grave displeasure, because he had not given to his protégé the living of Dereham. He succeeded better in Durham, where, though he failed in regard to the election to the vacant See, he secured the revenues of the church of Wearmouth, to add to the already large ecclesiastical property held by this favoured foreigner.

The Christmas festivities of 1250-1251 were passed by Henry at Winchester. On account of the vacancy of the See, the temporalities of the See were then in the king's hands. To assert his royal rights he had many of the woods belonging to the bishopric cut down and sold; but, as the chronicler remarks, because Aylmer had been elected to the office of bishop, he held his hand somewhat, and did not impoverish the See so much as he was wont to do in similar vacancies.' About the beginning of the year 1251, Henry seems to have contemplated a journey to Lyons, with the view of seeing the pope personally about many matters pertaining to the good of the Church, of which, we cannot doubt, the appointment of Aylmer was not the least important, at the time, in his eyes. Pope Innocent, however, wrote from Lyons on 2nd April, 1251, to say that for the present at least this would seem to be hardly possible, and owing to the difficult circumstances of the times, certainly unwise to attempt. The importunity of the royal agents at the Curia, however, quickly obtained confirmation for Aylmer to the See, in spite of his youth and want of learning, and in spite, too, of his ignorance of the language of the country, which, it might be supposed, would alone have suggested sufficient grounds for his rejection. It is hinted by Matthew Paris that the pope was assisted in settling this grave question according to Henry's wishes 1 Matthew Paris, v. 198. Registres d'Innocent IV, ii. No. 5,337.

2

by the king's promise of an annuity to Robert, son of the duke of Burgundy, to whom Innocent IV was under some obligations, which he saw his way to satisfy in this manner.'

By the middle of the year 1251, Aylmer returned to England from the Curia with the documents necessary for his confirmation to the See of Winchester. He was accompanied by a large retinue of foreigners, who were rapturously received by the Poitevins already established in the country in considerable force. On 23rd July, a Sunday, the new bishop-elect had reached Winchester; for on that day he gave to all his foreign followers a great banquet in celebration of his appointment by the pope, who had also allowed him to keep whatever other ecclesiastical revenues he had previously obtained through the king's good offices, to the amount of 1,000 marks yearly. Even those which he could not keep, Aylmer seems to have passed on, by the royal authority and influence, to some of his followers. Thus the annuity, which Henry some years before had forced the abbot of St. Alban's to pay to the bishop-elect, was now transferred to one of his Poitevin clerks, whom he wished to reward for his services,' in spite of the strong objections and protests of those chiefly concerned. The appointment to the See of Winchester naturally gave great scandal to Englishmen. Not only was Aylmer, as a foreigner, held to be unfit for the charge of a great and important diocese; but for the first time in history there was appointed to one of the English sees, a youth who was unable to receive episcopal consecration, and who apparently was not intended to be more than the elect of the diocese, which, however, gave him authority and power to draw the revenues of the See, whilst at the same time he was permitted to retain many of his previous ecclesiastical benefices.

1 Matthew Paris, v. 224.

2 Ibid., 242.