privilege, and all those in the least tainted with heresy, or suspected of evil or unholy lives, must be rigorously excluded from the service of the altar. Every parish priest ought to labour for the salvation of his people, and as far as his means will allow, he must assist the poor. All the clergy are bound to live at their own churches, and there, according to their ability, to see to the hospitals and other works of charity. All churches are to be carefully looked after, and the chalices, books, and the ecclesiastical ornaments must be sufficient and clean. On the death of a priest, if he has not in his lifetime properly seen to the care of his church, this has to be made good from the property he leaves behind him. All the faithful are to be warned that they must know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Angelical Salutation. The meaning of these the priest must diligently and frequently teach to the people, at least in their native language.'

In another set of constitutions issued by Walter Gray, archbishop of York, in 1250, the work of the parishioners in their parish church is stated clearly. They are to be taught and made to understand that it is their duty and privilege to provide the chalice, missal and principal vestments, i.e. chasuble, alb, amice, stole, maniple, girdle, corporals, as well as other vestments for the deacon. According to the means of the parishioners, their churches should have a silk cope for the chief feasts, and two others for the conductors of the choir on those days; a processional cross for feast days and another for funerals; a bier for the dead and a vessel for holy water; the instrument for giving the pax; the great candlestick for Easter; the thurible; the lamp and bell used in carrying the Blessed Sacrament to the sick; the Lenten veil; two candlesticks for wax

1 Wilkins, Concilia, i. 688-693.

lights; such books as the legend, antiphonar, grayle, psalter, tropary, ordinal, missal and manual; the frontal of the high altar, and three surplices; a proper pyx for the Body of Christ; the banners of the Rogation days; the great bells with their cords; the holy font with its fastenings; the vessel for the chrism; the images in the church; and, in the chancel, the chief image of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Moreover, to the people pertain all repairs of books and vestments, etc., when needed; the keeping of the lights in the church, and the repairs; and indeed, when necessary, the construction of the nave. The rector has to see to the chancel with its walls, windows and ornaments.1

In a third set of constitutions issued by Walter de Kirkham, bishop of Durham, in 1255, the necessity of frequently expounding the moral law and of teaching the people what they should know about the sins by which God is offended, etc., is insisted upon in plain language. The clergy are to preach to the people on holydays and Sundays "in the common and vulgar idiom," about the sacraments and about the articles of their faith, and to teach them the Pater and Ave, and how they should make the sign of the Cross, lest when the laity be asked on these matters "in the last day's judgement, they shall be able to excuse themselves, by reason of the negligence of priests."

2

1 Wilkins, Concilia, i. 698.

2 Ibid., 704.

CHAPTER XIX

THE POPE'S GIFT OF THE SICILIAN CROWN TO

HENRY'S SON EDMUND

IN the autumn of 1251, the pope, with his hands already too full of other business, became involved in considerable difficulties as to Sicily. On the deposition of the emperor Frederick II, that kingdom devolved upon the Holy See; and the situation became grave when the emperor's son, Conrad IV, landed at Naples to commence operations for recovering the sceptre. The pope could only protect, or recover his position, by the help of some prince powerful enough to dislodge the Hohenstauffen from southern Italy, and to found there a dynasty faithful to the pope, acknowledging him as overlord. Innocent IV, with this end in view, opened negotiations simultaneously with the royal houses of France and England. In the former kingdom his thoughts turned to Charles of Anjou, who, being very rich, and possessing great domains, could easily collect and support the considerable forces which would be necessary when hostilities were commenced against Conrad IV. By his marriage with the heiress of Provence, also, his estates, stretching along the shores of the Mediterranean, were not too far removed from the papal possessions to make him a useful ally. In August, 1252, therefore, not only was the offer made to Charles, but the king, St. Louis, and the count of Poitiers were asked to urge upon their brother the importance of accepting the pope's offer. At

the same time, however, Innocent IV had more than one string to his bow, and he was already in communication with others.

In the same month of August, 1252, Innocent wrote to the English king about Sicily. He had long before, he says, offered the crown to Richard, earl of Cornwall, Henry's brother. This was probably in 1250, when the earl of Cornwall paid a visit to the pope at Lyons, and is Isaid to have had several secret conferences with him. Earlier again, in 1247, on the death of the first prince whom the pope had set up as king of Sicily on the deposition of Frederick II, a papal legate had journeyed to England to offer Richard of Cornwall this very unstable throne, which offer, however, was rejected. At Lyons,' three years later, the negotiations for the Sicilian crown, referred to in Pope Innocent's letter of August, 1252, were in all probability commenced, but at the time the pope's intentions received little encouragement from Richard, who was apparently not anxious to occupy the throne of his deposed brother-in-law Frederick. In his letter to the English king, dated 3rd August, 1252, the pope asks him to press his brother to accept the crown “out of reverence of God, the Apostolic See, and of us," so that "by His help whose business it is, he may attain through his temporal crown to an eternal one." Richard himself received two papal Bulls, one dated 2nd August, and the other 8th August, which were doubtless couched in similar terms, and the existence of which is now known only by an ancient inventory of the papal archives printed by Muratori.3

1 Matthew Paris, v. 347.

2 Rymer, i. 284.

3 Antiquitates Italiae, vi. col. 104. This catalogue was made in A.D. 1366, and is noticed by M. Elie Berger, Reg. d'Innocent IV, ii. cclxxix.

Failing to obtain a satisfactory conclusion by letter, Pope Innocent dispatched his notary, Albert of Parma, to England, and he reached this country on 11th November. He was not altogether unknown in the land, as two years before he had been sent to the English king to convey the pope's orders that during the absence of the king of France in the Holy Land, the English were not to molest that country in any way. The chronicler sees in the offer of the Sicilian kingdom to Richard of Cornwall, a desire on the part of the pope to make use of the great riches he was supposed to possess in defence of the Church. Earl Richard himself gave Matthew Paris his information on the subject, and the reasons stated by the chronicler for his refusal of the papal offers are thus probably correct. He was not in good health, nor very skilled in the arts of war; it did not appear right to supplant his own nephew Henry, the son of the emperor Frederick, nor was it prudent to give up a certainty for an uncertainty.'

Apparently the earl of Cornwall, whilst showing plainly enough his determination to refuse, asked what the pope on his part was prepared to do in the way of finding money, and of placing in his hands certain strongholds. Innocent would grant nothing of this kind, and Albert left England with what amounted to Richard's refusal. When the nuncio got back to Rome and reported the failure of his mission, he said that Richard of Cornwall had told him that if the pope would not agree to his conditions it was as much as to say, "I sell you, or give you, the moon; go and take it." And this proved to Innocent that his scheme was impossible so far as the earl was concerned.

Master Albert, the papal notary, also carried back with him a letter from the king to the pope, the terms of which

1 Matthew Paris, v. 346-347.