further protestations to the pontiff, and to take measures to prevent the payments being made by any of his subjects. In England there were many who feared the consequences of these constant demands on the part of the Roman Curia. Rumours were in circulation that princes and magnates whose predecessors, or who themselves had founded and endowed the ecclesiastical and religious bodies by their charters, were talking of resuming possession, now that the revenues were being taken for purposes other than those for which they had been intended, or were being given to foreigners. Meanwhile the case of St. Alban's was pleaded before the pope at Lyons by a monk possessing the characteristic name of John Bull, who had been accompanied to the Curia by a lawyer named Adam de Bern. Before these proctors, however, had time to present their case fully, Friar John in England again peremptorily summoned the abbot to meet him at Bedford on 17th December, 1247, and there to pay the subsidy demanded. This the abbot refused to do, sending only the same reply as before, namely, that an appeal to the pope in person had been lodged against these demands. At the Curia, Friar John represented that St. Alban's was the only place among the abbeys of England which would not obey the pope. Counter representations were of course made, and, after long delays, the amount demanded was reduced to two hundred marks, but the whole business, with expenses, cost the convent three hundred marks sterling.' Apparently before the close of the year 1247 the somewhat irregular papal mission of Friar John came to an end; and Innocent IV dispatched one of his chaplains, named Marinus, with the powers of a legate residing in England, who was to forward to the Curia 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 617-622. T whatever money he could secure out of the sums declared to be due. The historian, Matthew Paris, says that the people nicknamed him "another Martin," in recollection of the official who a few years previously had won for himself such an unenviable reputation, and who was forced to retire somewhat hastily from the country. This name of Marinus, "the sailor," suggested also the popular saying at the time, that he was "a fisher rather of men's possessions than of their souls." This delegate was not called by the title of legate, though he was armed with all the powers of one, and in this way he was in reality able to effect more in the business for which he had come.' On 9th February, 1248, parliament met in London. The chief work before it was the consideration of the financial condition of England. The country was undoubtedly being more and more impoverished by the constant drain made upon its resources. The archbishop of Canterbury was still away, but the meeting was attended by Walter Gray, the archbishop of York, and by eight other bishops, besides many abbots and other prelates. The straits to which the king was now reduced were little short of desperate, and he was forced to apply to his subjects for money to carry on the business of the State. Parliament, however, was in no mood to grant him any relief without some security for better government. The nobles reminded him that the last time he appealed to them he had promised by charter not to do so again; they blamed him for bringing over his foreign relations and friends, and setting them in places which should be filled by Englishmen. They complained that he allowed his subjects to be impoverished by arbitrary exactions and impositions, and that he had kept Sees and abbacies in his hands, in order to enjoy their 1 Matthew Paris, iv. 617-622. revenues during the vacancies. Henry was repentant, and once again he promised that all complaints should be redressed; but even this did not satisfy the meeting. His counsellors had bitter remembrances of broken promises. The past brought visions of a similar future, and so they agreed to grant no pecuniary assistance until the 8th of July following, and thus to allow a six months' trial of the king's good dispositions. They promised that if during that period Henry would act up to his professions, they would then be disposed to give him all he asked of them.' When on 8th July, the day appointed, parliament again assembled, the members fully believed that the king would be prepared to show himself amenable to the reasonable wishes of his subjects. They were, however, quickly undeceived. Henry at once declared his unwillingness to be dictated to by his subjects, or to be bound by any conditions which they might wish to impose upon him. It was his place, he said, to rule, theirs to obey: "the servant is not above his lord nor the disciple above his master," he said (quoting St. Matthew's gospel), " and I should not be your king, but a mere slave, if I were to bow in this way to your will." Parliament, notwithstanding the royal attitude, was firm in its refusal to grant the money without the promised reforms, and so the king hastily dissolved the assembly. The money asked for was, however, now imperatively necessary. To obtain it, Henry sold his plate and jewels to the City of London, but apparently with the secret design of some day or other recovering his valuables from them. Pope Innocent IV chose this moment to remind the king that the annual English tribute of a thousand marks to the Holy See was now due, and to ask that it might be paid over to 1 Matthew Paris, v. 6-8. the Knights Templars at Lyons, from whom he had borrowed the sum in anticipation.' At this same time, also, the pope was actively stirring up the bishops of Lincoln and Worcester, who were his agents in the matter of the crusade, to see that proper collections for this purpose were made in the country. Henry, however, had already come to an understanding with the pope. On his promise to take the cross, which he made in the summer of 1247, he had requested the Holy Father to allow him, towards the necessary expenses of his preparations for the crusade, the various sums collected in England for the purpose; and Innocent IV had replied by praising the king for his "true faith and devotion towards his mother the Roman Church, which he had so often experienced," and by promising to write to the bishops of Lincoln and Worcester on the matter. This the pope did the same day, announcing that Henry was to start within a year after the French expedition had sailed, and telling them to satisfy their king as to the payment to him of the collections for the Holy Land.* At Henry's request the pontiff wrote also to St. Louis of France and to Queen Blanche, begging them to allow Guy, son of the earl of March, to be freed from his promise to go with the French force, as it was proposed to make him leader of the English crusaders. Although at this period the number of presentations of foreigners made by the pope to English benefices was comparatively few, they were still sufficiently numerous to keep the popular attention fixed on the subject. Archbishop Boniface, writing from the Curia to Bishop Grosseteste, passed on to him a papal command to find a benefice 1 P.R.O. Papal Bulls, Bundle liii. No. 3. 3 Ibid., No. 4,054. or benefices, with or without the cure of souls, to the value of three hundred marks, for Robert, son of the duke of Burgundy. "Though we are bound," says the pope's letter, "to desire to provide for all who ask this favour from us, we are more constrained to have a special care for those who are sprung from a noble stock, when they have merited our Apostolic gratitude by their true devotion." Remembering therefore the true and sincere service shown to us and the Roman Church" by the duke of Burgundy, we desire to give him a proof of the love we bear him, by extending our service to his children also." For this reason Archbishop Boniface was ordered, under severe censures, to find the youth a suitable benefice in the province of Canterbury; and he, in his turn, forwarded the order to the bishop of Lincoln; and, under similar penalties, he prohibited him from conferring any benefice whatsoever in his diocese on any individual, until this command of the pope has been carried out,' and the son of the duke of Burgundy had been comfortably provided for. An interesting question on the subject of episcopal elections was raised in the early part of 1248. The previous year the bishop of St. Asaph died, and the Chapter unanimously elected their dean in his place and sent representatives to Lyons to obtain the confirmation of the archbishop, who was then in the Curia. The pope, however, took the matter into his own hands, probably because the powers of confirming suffragans were given to the archbishop of Canterbury only when in England. He appointed the cardinal-bishop of Albano to examine and confirm the elect, if the examination was satisfactory. The cardinal, however, referred the matter again to Archbishop Boniface, before whom the proctor of the English king entered a pro 1 Additamenta, 149. |
