to the garden of Eden, over which it was necessary to place a worthy guardian. On examining the monk Walter, he had not thought him sufficiently learned for so important a post, and he hopes that in the person of Richard, the chancellor of Lincoln, he has found one with every necessary quality.' The pope wrote also at the same time to the prior and convent of Christ Church, and sent the pallium to the new archbishop by Walter de Cantelupe, afterwards the Bishop of Worcester.

Within a few months of the settlement of the Canterbury question in favour of the king, the pope asked that the promises made him by the royal agents might be redeemed. A papal chaplain, Stephen of Anagni, was sent over to England to collect the promised tenth of all the property in aid of Gregory's war with the emperor. He brought with him, for the information of the English nation, a full statement of the charges which the pope had to make against Frederick. The king called a parliament at Westminster on the second Sunday after Easter, 29th April, 1229. In this assembly the nuncio read the papal letters, and made his demands; he asked for the tenth of all goods in England, Ireland, and Wales, from both laymen and clerks, which had been promised to Pope Gregory by the royal agents.

In brief, the object of the papal mission was to induce the English people to accept the view that Gregory's attitude towards the emperor was taken up, not for any personal quarrel, but for the sake of the Universal Church, which the rebellious and excommunicated Frederick was seeking to overthrow altogether. Granting this position, it followed as a matter of course, that all loyal sons of Holy Church were bound to come to the aid of the Apostolic 1 Roger de Wendover, ii. 362.

See, the riches and resources of which were not sufficient to enable the pontiff to cope with the danger. The king, being pledged to assist by the action of his agents in Rome, could say nothing; but the barons and laymen absolutely rejected the proposed tax of a tenth upon all their possessions. The clergy were left to their own devices. After a long conference, which lasted for several days, and after not a little murmuring, they, "being in fear of excommunication," consented to the demands of the nuncio.1 Matthew Paris adds to the account of the capitulation of the clergy that it was known that the nuncio was aided in the pressure brought to bear upon them, by a compact with Segrave the justiciar."

The nuncio then exhibited papal letters appointing him collector of the tenth, and determining how this levy was to be made. As the pope's debts were already so heavy that he stood in urgent need of the money it was to be collected not in the usual way, but by a method much to the pope's advantage. The parliament then broke up amid great dissatisfaction and universal murmurs.

The collection of the tax was not only unpopular, but it was carried out in the most oppressive way. The nuncio had devised a scheme to prevent delay in collection which was hitherto apparently unknown, at least in England. On his rounds he was accompanied by a body of usurers of the worst kind, who supplied the amount of the tax, but at exorbitant interest. This not only left a load of debt upon the shoulders of the clergy generally, but necessitated the pledging of the sacred vessels and church ornaments to these rapacious "merchants." In one case a stand was made, not indeed by the clergy, but in their behalf. The earl of Chester, Ralph Blundevil, forbade any monk or 1 Roger de Wendover, ii. 375-376. 2 Chron. Majora, iii. 187.

clerk in his fee to pay the tax, and they only too willingly sheltered themselves under his authority. For the rest, all in "England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland" were compelled to pay, soothed, as Wendover says, by the reflection that they were not alone, and that foreign and far distant countries were also made to feel the burden.' The nuncio Stephen, having scraped up the money by every means in his power, departed; and, adds Matthew Paris, "Anglis foeda reliquit vestigia."" When the funds reached the pope's hands he forthwith distributed them lavishly among his military leaders and was thus able to strike a heavy blow at the emperor.

1 Matthew Paris, iii. 188-189.

2 Ibid., 189.

CHAPTER VIII

ARCHBISHOP LE GRAUND

THE departure of Stephen, the nuncio, left ecclesiastical England dissatisfied and discontented. The pope, having had his immediate wants supplied, bestowed certain favours upon the English in return. Some of the religious houses, on the score of poverty, obtained exemption from further payment of tenths, and the English prelates were permitted to confer benefices, vacated by Italians in England, on fit persons without considering whether such cures once provided for by the pope, by the existing law remained in his gift. A still more important concession on the part of the Holy See at this time was, that in future, when any English benefice was bestowed upon an Italian by a mandate of the pope, the prelates in this country were not to be bound to obey this order, if they were unwilling to do so, unless special mention of an abrogation of this indulgence was made in the document.'

During the year 1230 the attention of the pope was to a considerable extent occupied with the emperor Frederick, and the number of documents issued from the Roman chancery in regard to other countries is naturally somewhat small. Still even in this and the subsequent year, there is sufficient evidence of the continued watchful care of the papacy over the English Church and kingdom.

1 Wilkins, i. 629.

Pope Gregory, for example, exhorts the English king to lay aside his apparent intention of undertaking a war with France, and the abbot of Citeaux is directed to act as mediator between the two countries. Henry writes to the pope to beg him not to permit the encroachments of the Irish bishops upon his royal prerogative,' and the pontiff enjoins English and Irish bishops not to excommunicate the justiciars, sheriffs and bailiffs engaged in making arrangements respecting royal castles and other property of the Crown, without clear cause and due warning. This year also, the constantly recurring question of the employment of bishops as counsellors of the Crown, came once more before the Curia, and the pope gave his sanction to their employment."

From the time of the king's repudiation of obligations contracted during his minority, and his declaration in 1227 of a determination to rule without governors although not legally of age, Hubert de Burgh had incurred the hostility of the nobility and clergy, who regarded him as the originator of both measures. For a time, however, the departure of the king's former guardian, Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, for the Holy Land, had left de Burgh without any competitor for influence over the king, and in spite of the pope's warning to Henry not to throw himself into the hands of any party in the State, he lent the whole of his authority to the favourite. An unsuccessful expedition into France for which de Burgh was blamed, which was followed by the return of de Rupibus, whom Henry received with open expressions of pleasure, were the first signs that the justiciar's influence over the youthful monarch was waning. Several circumstances combined to hasten his downfall. A quarrel arose between him and the new archbishop, le

1 Royal Letters, i. 399. 2 Rymer, i. 200.

K

3

Royal Letters, i. 549.