Benedict. Innocent IV, in 1253, wrote to various bishops in England directing them to enforce the observance of these statutes, except where a dispensation from them had been granted by the Holy See,1 and he forwarded a copy of the reformed statutes. There is little in these statutes which could be objected to; and according to the document printed by Matthew Paris as the criticism of the Chapter of St. Alban's, little that was objected to, as not according to rule. In many instances, however, and notably in regard to the entire abstinence from flesh meat, so easy in the warmer south, custom had changed the observance in England. As far as it is now possible to piece together the documents regarding this papal ordinance, the chief result of the endeavour to enforce primitive strictness, was the almost wholesale granting of dispensations to such religious houses as sought them in the proper way. Thus Durham, for instance, obtained its freedom from the new legislation, and the same book which records the law, records also the exemption from it. In the same way, Edmundsbury, St. Alban's, and a host of other monasteries received the necessary dispensations, some of them being recorded in the registers at a time when the papal permission to pledge the credit of the houses for the purpose of their business show that the monks were present in the Curia to represent their case. The principle upon which the pope acted in giving such dispensations is stated clearly in some of the documents which convey them. The Rule of St. Benedict, the pope declares in substance, is sufficiently difficult and hard; and to this the legislation of Pope Gregory IX, and the statutes of his legate, added many precepts and ordinances of great 1 Matthew Paris, Additamenta, p. 234; cf. Wilkins, Concilia, i. 702, where the document is addressed to Durham. gravity, which circumstances and times made it hard, if not impossible, to observe. Moreover, this later legislation took away from the abbot the wise discretion left to him by the founder of the Order. The pope, therefore, released the monks from the obligation of these later statutes, and restored the discretionary power of the local superior, except where "by the rule he had no authority to dispense." It was at this time, and in connection with the same matter, that the pope directed the bishops of Christendom to make a visitation of all the religious houses within their jurisdiction, in order to ascertain whether the legislation above referred to was effective, in cases where no dispensation from the observance had been granted. In France the Benedictine Order, by the payment of a large sum of money, secured immunity from this visitation for their entire body. In England, where only some of the monasteries were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, the question only arose in cases where the bishop had no authority. Many of these obtained the individual dispensations just referred to, and in some cases, as at St. Alban's, for example, the monks contended that the pope's order did not apply to the exempt houses. The abbot of St. Alban's successfully resisted the proposal of Bishop Grosseteste to visit his house, and he appealed to the pope to uphold the privileges of his monastery.2 During the period which includes the last few years of the reign of Pope Innocent, the life of the greatest English churchman of his age, Bishop Grosseteste, was also drawing to a close. On his return to England from his journey to Reg. d'Inn. IV., iii. No. 7,440. The document has reference to the case of a foreign monastery. 2 Matthew Paris, v. 381. Lyons, "sad and downhearted," he is said for a time to have thought of resigning his office, but he allowed himself to be persuaded to fight to the last. In the Lent of 1251 he was suspended from his office for a time, for his refusal to institute a certain Italian, who knew no English, to the best benefice in his diocese.' About the same time, he made a severe visitation of his diocese, preaching everywhere and compelling all holders of benefices not ordained, to receive the priesthood or to resign their cures. In this reform, he was, however, to some extent defeated by the dispensations obtained from the Roman authorities, by many of the non-ordained beneficed clerks in the diocese of Lincoln." He made no secret as to his views about the foreigners who had been forced into English benefices by papal provisions. "If he handed over to them the cure of souls," he used to say, "he felt that he would be damned."" His refusal to institute the Italian nominee of the pope, just referred to, was the first actual break with the Roman authorities; but his suspension could not have lasted very long, if indeed it took place at all, since on the occasion of the dedication of the church at Hayles, on 5th November of the same year, 1251, he is found acting as bishop of the diocese, and singing the Mass at the high altar, as became the consecrating prelate. The monastery of Hayles was founded at this time in pursuance of a vow, made during a storm when coming back from Gascony, by Richard of Cornwall. At the dedication of the church there were present the king and queen and most of the great nobility. Thirteen bishops took part in the consecration, each celebrating at his own altar, and Bishop Grosseteste singing the Mass at the high altar. Richard of Cornwall himself described the celebration to Matthew Paris and told him Ibid., 279. 3 Ibid., 257. 1 Matthew Paris, v. 227. 2 that besides entertaining the royal guests and the bishops and nobles, he also provided a fish banquet for all the monks, and dined more than three hundred knights besides.1 One important measure, which Grosseteste had long striven to secure, he was enabled to see accomplished before his death. This was the regular appointment of vicars with fixed salaries, to work in the parishes where the benefice had been appropriated to some monastery, college, or ecclesiastical establishment. Although the papal brief arranging this was dated in September 1250, for some reason or other it was not published till two years later, when a special letter from Pope Innocent IV directed Grosseteste to see that the stipends of the vicars in his diocese were increased from the sum formerly paid by the collegiate establishments and monasteries." In 1252, when the question between the archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans as to the right of visitation was being debated in the Roman Curia, the proctor for the bishops received the papal permission to borrow the sum of two thousand marks for his expenses in the cause. There appears to have been a difficulty in securing the repayment of this loan, and Bishop Grosseteste received a letter from the pope directing him, in common with the rest of the bishops, to have collections in all the nonexempt churches of England. The money, the pope directs, was to be paid by all according to their means under the usual penalties of suspension and excommunication, the diocese of Canterbury alone being exempted. On the same date, 5th June, 1252, the pope issued another letter, in which he speaks of a sum of four thousand 2 Wilkins, Concilia, i. 699. 1 Matthew Paris, v. 262. 3 Matthew Paris, v. 300. marks, which had been promised him by the clergy of the province of Canterbury, but which, as he understands, they are now unable to pay immediately without great difficulty. In this document, therefore, the Holy Father suggests, and, in fact, orders, that the money be raised by a collection in the churches of the province, to which each church should contribute the sum at which it had been rated.' Both of these papal letters Bishop Grosseteste ordered to be published and carried into effect in his diocese. In what was to be almost the last year of his life, Grosseteste embarked upon the most serious, as it is perhaps the best known incident in his whole career-his disagreement with the pope. Innocent IV, in January 1253, wrote to the archdeacon of Canterbury and to Master Innocent, the papal notary in England, saying that he had conferred a canonry at Lincoln, at the request of one of the cardinals, upon Frederick di Lavagna, his nephew. Di Lavagna was a cleric, and the letter directed that he should have the next vacant canonry at Lincoln, all laws to the contrary being dispensed with, and that he might be instituted to the benefice by means of his ring and by proxy.' When this order was communicated to Bishop Grosseteste he wrote in the strongest terms of protest to the commissioners, thinking, as both he and the other bishops of England had often declared, that such appointments were unjust and against right reason." "You know," he writes, "that devotedly and reverently and with filial affection I obey the apostolic orders; but in cases such as this, which are against the apostolic precepts, zealous for the paternal honour, I oppose and resist, as by divine law I am bound to do both." The pastoral office Additamenta, 213-217. 3 Matthew Paris, v. 389. 2 Ibid., 229-231. |