whilst maintaining his right to make the disposition complained of, declared he had no wish that the crusaders in that country should not also receive grants from those

sums.'

In England and Ireland rumour had it, apparently, that the king intended to exact from all who sought to free themselves from the obligation of the crusade much greater sums of money than they had agreed to when assuming the cross. "They were filled with fear where there was nothing to fear," he said in a letter intended to allay the alarm; and, consequently, to put a stop to these reports, which seemed likely to prevent men seeking absolution and thus pay the money, which he chiefly looked to, he sent these letters to all parts, declaring that he had no such intention. As time went on, and Henry showed no greater desire to prepare for the expedition than was manifested by his wish to secure the money granted him for the purpose by the Holy See from the ecclesiastical revenues of his kingdom, the pope issued another general letter of exhortation. The situation in the Holy Land was grave, and he urges all prelates to exhort those who had taken the crusading vow to redeem their promises quickly. He reminds clerics of the duty imposed upon them by the General Council of contributing the twentieth part of all their benefices, during three years, to the expenses of the expedition against the infidels. He invokes the spiritual power of excommunication and anathema against all who assist the Saracens with arms, ships, engines of war, or money; and he concludes by granting the highest spiritual privileges to all who take part in the holy war. This he does, he adds, "relying on the mercy of the Almighty God, and upon the authority of the Rymer, i. 278. 2 lbid., i. 278.

blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and the power of binding and loosing which God has bestowed upon us, though unworthy."

In March, 1252, the pope sent further letters to his collectors in England, again warning them to pay over to the king monies received for the redemption of crusading vows, as Henry had complained that he had not received what he ought to have done. At the same time, being pressed to assign a period when the English expedition would set out without fail, the king met his council at Eastertide and fixed the end of another four years as the limit; but he added, that "if the illustrious king of France would restore the lands taken from our ancestors and now held by him," he "would undoubtedly set out earlier," a condition which, of course, he had no expectation of seeing realised.

1 Rymer, i. 279.

2 Ibid., 282.

CHAPTER XVII

AYLMER DE VALENCE, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER THE long absences of Archbishop Boniface from Canterbury and his continued differences with his suffragans and others on the vital question of his metropolitical rights, did not, of course, tend to the peace and quiet of the Church in England. Other causes of ecclesiastical disquiet were moreover present about this time—the middle of the thirteenth century. Difficulties in regard to some of the episcopal elections in the Canterbury province, complicated no doubt by the abnormal position of the archbishop, caused much friction and many unnecessary delays in filling up the vacant offices. The case of Winchester will serve to illustrate this unfortunate state of affairs. The bishop, William de Raleigh, had been at war with King Henry for some years, and had been nearly a twelvemonth living in comparative obscurity at Tours when he died on 21st September, 1250.' When the news reached England the king resolved, if possible, to secure the election of his half-brother, Aethelmar, or Aylmer de Valence, to the vacant See, although he possessed none of the necessary qualifications of age and learning. He

1 Matthew Paris, v. 179.

2 Aylmer or Aymer was the youngest son of Isabella, King John's widow, who married, as her second husband, the count de La Marche. After Isabella's death in 1246, Guy de Lusigna, William, bishop-elect of Valence, and this Aylmer came over to England to enrich themselves, their father having failed in his rebellion against the king of France.

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