As it was known, however, that the pope had prohibited him from in any way attacking the French king's possessions whilst he was away on the crusade, this suggested reason for requiring money only raised a smile. In this design for extorting assistance, therefore, Henry did not succed, although it was hinted somewhat mysteriously that the pope's representative, Master Albert, had received papal powers to place England under an interdict if the people still rebelled against the royal demands. Failing with the nobility, the king next turned his attention to the religious houses, and endeavoured to obtain the much needed money as a present, or at any rate as a loan, from various abbots. Early in 1249, whilst on the road to Huntingdon, he sent for Ranulf, the abbot of Ramsey, and earnestly begged him to give him a hundred pounds, or at least to lend him the sum. "I am really in want," he said, "and I must have money at once." The abbot, taken by surprise, was forced to raise the money at heavy interest from the Florentine usurers. In the same way he tried the abbot of Peterborough, declaring that no beggar needed help more than he, their king, did. Abbot William, however, knowing the pecuniary condition of his house, was firm in his refusal to burden it still further with debt; but from the abbot of St. Alban's, by similar complaints as to his poverty, he obtained sixty marks. This success, with these and other abbots singly, emboldened Henry to demand a general contribution from all the religious houses in Essex and Hertford. He wished, he wrote, to test the friendship of his devoted and faithful subjects, by asking their assistance to enable him to protect the rights of his kingdom; and, as the truce between England and France was at an end, it was necessary to endeavour at once to recover the ancient possessions of the Crown beyond the seas. To do this would entail great expenses, and he consequently had turned to them, and had sent Simon Passelew with the sheriffs to explain his needs and to collect what they would no doubt "so abundantly offer to him, as to deserve his royal thanks and great reward." At the same time it was known that the money was not required for the purposes he had named, but to pay the debts he, contrary to his promises, had incurred in Poitou and Gascony,' since the truce between the kings of England and France had been prolonged.2 On 23rd January, 1249, the pope issued another Bull concerning those royal estates which had at any time during his reign been granted away. It was couched in almost identical language to the one previously issued on the same subject to the nobles and prelates, and authorised the king to make a resumption of all such Crown possessions, notwithstanding any previous promise.3 At this time, Archbishop Boniface was about to return to England in order that his long-delayed enthronisation at Canterbury might at last take place. A letter from the pope, giving him power to reward some of his clerks with benefices in any part of his province except in the dioceses of Lincoln and Salisbury, marks his departure from the Curia. A warning in the same year, addressed to the prebendaries of Chichester, shows that the archbishop intended to enforce, to the fullest extent, rights which had been given him by the pope, in regard to the first fruits of all English canonries. On the death of a prebendary, it had been the custom, approved of by more than one pope, that the first year's revenues should be divided, one part going to the prebendary newly appointed, and the other to the cathedral church. On re 1 Matthew Paris, v. 49-53. 3 Registres d'Innocent IV. ii. No. 4,393. 2 Rymer, i. 209. ▲ Ibid., No. 4,496. ceiving notice of the papal gift of the first year's income for seven years to the archbishop, the canons of Chichester had concluded that this only applied to the half, which under ordinary circumstances would have gone to the new prebendary, as they considered that the other half already belonged to the cathedral fabric, with the sanction of previous popes. They were now undeceived; and they were threatened with extreme spiritual penalties unless the whole sum was paid to the archbishop in order to extinguish the debts of his See.' On All Saints' day, 1249, the archbishop was enthroned in the presence of the king and queen and most of the English prelates. He had been elected in 1240, confirmed by the pope in 1245, and now, after nearly nine years, and when already his predecessor, St. Edmund, had been canonised for more than two years, at length took possession of his See. 1 Wilkins, i. 696. 2 Matthew Paris, v. 8o. CHAPTER XVI ARCHBISHOP BONIFACE ONE of the first acts which the archbishop of Canterbury on taking possession of his See was called upon to do, was to circulate a letter addressed to him and his suffragans by the pope on 24th September, 1249. This document dealt with the troubles and afflictions of the Church, caused not only, as the pope said, by those that had not the faith and did not acknowledge the Church as a spiritual mother, but even by those who had been received into its bosom by the regenerating waters of baptism. It then pointed out the sorrow which the continued revolt of the emperor Frederick against papal authority had given to the heart of the supreme pastor, and expatiated upon the serious state of affairs in the Holy Land. For all these reasons the pontiff urged the faithful to unite in prayer, that God might remedy the ills from which the Church was suffering. Early in the year 1250, the king again applied to the pope to force the ecclesiastics of England to give him substantial assistance. On 13th April, Innocent IV replied that he rejoiced to hear that Henry was getting ready "with power and might, and, moved with zeal for the faith and devotion," was preparing to come to the help of the Holy Land. "As this business necessitates great expenses," he writes, "previously and now again, you have asked me to grant you a tenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues of your kingdom and of other lands subject to your juris diction." Although most desirous to do what you ask as far as possible, it is to be remembered that we did not grant this to the French king, after he had taken the cross, until he had first obtained the consent of the prelates of his kingdom. Wishful, however, that you should obtain the tenth, we have asked the prelates of your kingdom to act as liberally and willingly in what you desire, as those of France have done. They have replied, asking us "to provide for you generously out of the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom for so important a business, which is pleasing and acceptable to us." It was necessary, however, so as not to forget the duties of the office which has set him over all the Lord's flock, he continued, to point out to the king a danger which threatened all Christendom. The French king and his brothers were already away; and, as by the two nations of France and England the Christian religion was chiefly sustained, it might be a real danger should Henry also now be absent from his kingdom. It would possibly therefore be better that he should delay his expedition. "But," continues the pope, "whatever you shall determine as to this, it has been necessary for you, in order to carry out the design, to incur expenses; and, as holy mother the Church should encourage and as far as possible assist your Majesty's praiseworthy design, we have thought proper to grant your Highness for three years a tenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues of your kingdom and of all other lands subject to your jurisdiction, to assist you in the expedition to the said Holy Land. We have given orders to our brethren, the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Hereford, to hand over the tenth to you without delay or without any deductions, when it is collected and when you wish to begin your journey over the seas."1 1 |