bishops and bishops under papal orders compelled them to pay by ecclesiastical censures," which, says the chronicler, "the lay power would not have been able to do." 1

Almost simultaneously with this, the king gave evidence of the uncertain character of his pledges, which subsequently made it impossible to rely upon them any more than on those of his father. In the month of February, Henry summoned a council at Oxford, at which he declared himself to be of age, and that he intended henceforth to transact the affairs of the State himself, without the advice of the bishop of Winchester, who had been his tutor since the death of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. At the same meeting the young king publicly repudiated the "Charter of liberties of the forest," for granting which, just two years previously, he had obtained a grant from the nation. The ground of this repudiation was that, as these charters had been given whilst he was under age, he did not consider he should be bound to them in any way, now that he was his own master. In the same way, religious and others were informed that the sovereign did not admit any ancient charter or privilege; and that if they wished to enjoy any of the rights they claimed, they must take out new charters under the king's own seal, and for granting these they were forced to pay large sums into the king's treasury.

On 18th March, 1227, Honorius III died. One of his last acts, so far as England was concerned, was to send orders for the collection of money for the Holy Land, and to remind those who had taken the cross of their duty in regard to the projected expedition, which, now that matters had been arranged with the emperor Frederick, he hoped soon to direct upon its way. He was succeeded by the 1 Matth. Paris, iii. 122. 2 Reg. S. Osmundi, ii. 77.

aged cardinal of Ostia, then eighty years of age, who took the name of Gregory IX. The new pope wrote to the archbishop and bishops of England to announce his accession, asking their prayers for the divine assistance in the duties of his high office, and ordering them to compel all in their respective districts who had taken the cross, to fulfil their grave obligations. To King Henry he wrote in terms similar to those in which he addressed other Christian rulers. He looked on him "as a special son of the Roman Church," and exhorts and orders him "ever to strive to honour and revere the Holy Roman Church, your mother, thus walking in the footsteps of your ancestors," and, "as becomes a Christian prince, humbly and devotedly to help us, who by God's providence are called to rule it.”2 In a second letter, which apparently followed that announcing his election, the new pontiff addressed a more personal letter of fatherly advice to the English king. In it he earnestly prays him to cultivate a knowledge of God's law and endeavour in his acts to manifest true Christian devotion to His service.3

In acknowledging these letters, Henry appears to have acquainted Gregory IX of his desire to establish his personal rule in his kingdom and to get rid of the governors, who, by the authority of the pope's predecessors, had been appointed over him during his minority. He likewise seems to have complained about certain lands, which he thought belonged to the Crown, but which were kept from him. On this point papal letters were dispatched at once to Archbishop Langton, ordering him to make all inquiries and to satisfy the king.*

1 Registres de Grégoire IX (ed. L. Auvray.) Tome i. No. I.

2 Ibid. No. 3.

4 Ibid. No. 23.

3 P. R. O. Papal Bulls, Bundle xxxv. No. 30.

Early in this, pontificate communications passed between the pope and the king, which furnish a sufficient indication that the relations between the State and Church in general, and between Archbishop Langton and the king in particular, had become both cordial and settled. It will be remembered that Pope Honorius had not only refused to ratify the election of Langton's brother, Simon, to the archiepiscopal see of York; but had forbidden his return to England, and this at the king's request, or at any rate at that of his advisers. A few months before the death of Pope Honorius III, Henry had written, in December 1226, to beg that this prohibition might now be cancelled. Cardinal Langton, he said, “was strenuously exerting himself to shield him (the king) from anything hurtful and to help him to everything good." He understood "that if (the archbishop) could occasionally enjoy the society of his brother Simon, of whom, as is not to be wondered at, he thinks not a little, he would pass his life in less sadness, which we would much desire, and would devote himself to our affairs with even greater ardour." Henry consequently begs that leave to come to England may be no longer refused to Simon Langton; and "by the affection, which the archbishop has for us," we beg that "the pope will be pleased to grant this."1

In the last days of Honorius nothing was done in the matter; but on 19th May, 1227, Pope Gregory wrote, that the petition addressed to his predecessor having come into his hands, he willingly granted what the king requested.' The same day the new pope wrote to Simon Langton himself: "though the Roman Church may pour out the wine that you may experience its discipline, still together with the rod of a father it has the affection of a mother, and we 2 Ibid., No. 84.

1 P.R.O. Papal Bulls, Bundle xxxv. No. 83.

who, though unworthy, hold on earth His place, who in wrath restrains not His mercy nor forgets to take pity, now pour out for you the oil of mercy, after you have experienced the bitterness of the punishment, and after the rod offer to you the salve," and permit you, at the king's request, to return to England, which hitherto you have been forbidden to do by the Apostolic See.1

Gregory, from his first coming to the papacy, in no way relaxed the watchful solicitude over the English king, which the policy of his two predecessors had made traditional. On 25th May, 1227, he dispatched a letter of strong remonstrance to the French king on the policy of aggression upon which he had apparently once more embarked. He says that the Roman pontiffs had never hesitated to interfere to prevent menaces of English rights by the French kings, "since the kingdom of England specially belongs to" the Roman Church. It was altogether in defiance of the papal prohibition that the grandfather of the present French king had attacked the English sovereign, who ought to have been shielded from attacks as a crusader. Against the pope's prohibition also, the king's father had occupied almost all the possessions of England over the sea, and now once again rumour speaks of a design to disturb the peace which had existed between the two countries, and of an attempt on the part of France to wrest the remaining English possessions on the continent from the English Crown. Gregory II consequently warns the French monarch to desist from such designs, and at once to restore any parts of English territory he may have already occupied.'

Notwithstanding his great age, the new pontiff at once commenced to manifest as great a capacity of administraRegistres de Grég. IX., etc., i. No. 86.

1 Royal Letters, i. 548.

2

tion as his predecessor. His letters deal with every kind of ecclesiastical business, from the organisation of the great crusade and the writing of individual letters of protection to those who had taken the cross, to the appointment of some minor official to a benefice in far-off England. In this last matter, indeed, Gregory IX seems to have taken a more personal interest than did even Honorius III. Several difficulties having risen about these papal presentations, and indeed, in one case, one bishop having refused to induct, it is hardly wonderful if the national spirit was stirred against a practice which could not be regarded as anything less than unwarrantable exactions from the revenues of the country. In the first year of his pontificate the same thing had been felt by the Church of France, and the Chapter of Paris had protested against the demands that were being made by the legate in the pope's name. He had made great promises of help to the French king out of the ecclesiastical revenues, which the French ecclesiastics held to be quite beyond his powers, and which they determined to resist, since, if allowed, it would, in their opinion, lead to the destruction of the Church.' Later on, as will be seen, the opposition to these "provisions" in this country became so acute, as to call forth a strong letter on the subject from the pope. This, however, was after Langton's death, for so long as he lived the relations between England and the Roman officials were apparently uniformly harmonious.

There is sufficient evidence, in the royal correspondence of the time, to show that there was a very great amount of business transacted at this period by the king's agents in Curia. On several occasions letters of credit for large sums -in one case amounting to as much as 3,000 marks—are Registres de Grég. IX., etc., i., No. 134.

1