version of the liberty of the Church, they declared, and rather than contribute, they would prefer to die like St. Thomas to protect the interests of their Sees. The archbishop of Canterbury was away, the archbishop of York had given in, the elect of Winchester was suspect in his intentions, and the bishop of Hereford was plainly and openly for Rustand and his exactions. After some days' discussion, the majority of the prelates followed the lead of the bishop of London, and refusing the demands of the papal envoy, appealed for protection to the pope himself. Their action was apparently as displeasing to the king as to Rustand himself, since Henry had, no doubt, hoped to pacify the outcries against himself on the part of the pontiff, by allowing him to plunder the prelates of his kingdom.' As some at the time said, "the pope and the king were like the shepherd and the wolf combining to destroy the flock."

So matters stood till the close of the year 1255. The king, in December, was pressed to find four thousand pounds, which he owed to the papal agent for money advanced to secure the crown of Sicily for his son. He endeavoured to get the money from the collector of the sums to be expended on the crusades. The collector, however, naturally hesitated to apply money obtained for one purpose to another so wholly different, and refused to do so without some surety. Henry thereupon required the abbot and convent of Westminster and other religious houses to guarantee the sum to the collector."

With the new year, 1256, Rustand called another meet

1 Matthew Paris, v. 520-599. The method by which the tithes were to be collected is set out in the Annales de Burton (Ann. Mon. i. 354-360), where also past exactions from Burton are noted. For other accounts of the synod under Rustand, see Reg. S. Osmundi, i. 709, and Ann. Mon. iii. 196-198. For Rustand's questions, cf. Barth. Cotton, p. 135.

2 Rymer, i. 334.

ing of the prelates in London, which from his point of view was not more successful than the previous one. Rustand claimed that all churches belonged to the pope, to which assertion the prolocutor of the clergy replied: Certainly, so far as guardianship goes, but not as regards use or appropriation. Just as we speak of everything belonging to the prince, which is as much as to say, they are his to defend, not to take away; so we talk of all churches as belonging to the pope, and this, he added, was the intention of the founders." The papal nuncio, angered at this reply, demanded that every one should speak his mind for himself, so that both the pope and the king might know what were the real sentiments of all. Rustand, moreover, refused to abate any of his written demands, although it was pointed out to him that he wished the prelates to declare "that they had borrowed large sums of money from the Italian merchants, and had used it for the good of their Churches." Which statement was false in fact, and was known to be so by all. For this, if for no other reason, the prelates declared that they would rather court the martyrdom of St. Thomas, than agree to such demands as these. Upon this Rustand somewhat retreated from his position, and it was agreed to send representatives to Rome on the subject.'

Meanwhile, if we can trust Matthew Paris, the popular devotion of England to the Roman Church and Curia was severely tried by these demands upon the ecclesiastical revenues of the country. "We all, both prelates and people," he says, "have been hitherto noted for our devout attachment to our mother, the Roman Church, and our father and pastor, the lord pope," but during this year, 1255, and the year following, English loyalty was tested

1 Matthew Paris, v. 532.

almost beyond endurance.' Still, the affair of the kingdom of Sicily was pressing; and in spite of the appeals of Pope Alexander IV, King Henry made no move. Edmund, his son, acted as if he were established on his throne, and provided in quite a royal manner for those who had served him or his cause out of the forfeited estates and other escheated possessions in the territory of which he had become the king. In February, 1256, the pope's patience became nearly exhausted, as appears in a letter he wrote on the 5th of that month to the bishop of Hereford. He had been told very frequently, he writes, about the great zeal which Henry had for the honour of the Roman Church, and how, moved by devotion towards it, he had accepted the kingdom of Sicily, trusting to the help and in the power of the King of kings. But, when it came to paying some of the great expenses which had been incurred, when it came to meeting the debts about which the money lenders were ever vexing and troubling the Holy See, nothing was forthcoming but promises which were not kept. The situation was serious beyond words, as the very churches of Rome were pledged for the repayment of the loans, and already the merchants were threatening to seize them for the debts. The bishop is consequently urged to secure a tithe of all ecclesiastical benefices in England and other lands ruled over by the English king, and also whatever money he can get from the king himself, and forthwith to send over the whole towards liquidating the debt. As to the general position, the pope declares that he is overwhelmed with astonishment that Henry has done nothing. The situation in the kingdom of Sicily has been made known to him, and he sends neither money nor men to try and retrieve the misfortunes which 1 Matthew Paris, iii. 535.

have befallen the papal arms in endeavouring to protect what are now the interests of the English king in Sicily.'

3

It was indeed an extraordinary situation. Henry was apparently unwilling that the real state of the case should be made known in the Curia, for at this time all clerics passing through the port of Dover were compelled to swear, if they went to Rome, not to do anything against the king's interests in the matter of the kingdom of Sicily." The king was at the time trying to satisfy some of his creditors, who had apparently come over to England to try on the spot to secure payment. On 17th February, 1256, he ordered the abbot of Westminster to pay 1,705 marks, 17s. and 8d. to some merchants from Siena, which Rustand, the nuncio, had certified as due to them for the Sicilian business; but about the same date he wrote to his agent in the Curia, to secure some delay in the payment of the 135,541 marks, which he had bound himself to pay at Michaelmas, and which he promised still to strive to meet as soon as possible. Again, on 27th March of this year, the king wrote fully to the pope as to his critical position. The bishops and nobles, he declares, will not consent to assume the obligations attached to the gift of the crown of Sicily to the English prince, Edmund, and in particular they refuse to hold themselves bound to the item of the conditions which says that we are pledged to pay 135,541 marks before taking possession. We have thus found the greatest difficulty in meeting the sums of money due to the Florentine and Sienese merchants, and "we do not believe," he continues, "that there is to-day any prince who could find so great a sum" as that demanded of us. Under these circumstances the conditions previously imposed on him are not only diffi1 Rymer, i. 336.

2 Ibid., 337.

3 Ibid.

▲ Ibid.

cult, but have become practically impossible for him to carry out, and he appeals to the pope for some consideration. The sums of money for which he had become answerable were truly enormous, especially when it is remembered that the whole matter was practically repudiated by the nation. For example, during the latter half of May, Henry had to pay 60,000 marks to the merchants of Florence and Siena, over and above the 10,000 which he had to find for the pope and cardinals at the same time, and over and beyond these, the furnishing of the expedition would necessarily take a considerable sum of money. Still, the difficulty did not appear to the king to be insuperable; for at this time Prince Edward, his eldest son, promised the pope to carry out all the conditions upon which Sicily was given to his brother Edmund, should his father, Henry, die before they were all fulfilled.'

At this time, naturally, every expedient was made use of to raise money. The abbot and monks of St. Alban's appealed to the Holy See against having to provide a benefice for an Italian cleric, John de Camezana, whose induction would have been specially hurtful to the interests of the monastery. Apparently the only reply that they received was in the shape of an order to pay a sum of 400 marks to certain money lenders. This sum they were said to owe to these "merchants," although it was the first they had heard of the matter, and the payment was called for under penalty of suspension. In the same way many other religious houses found themselves compelled to pay like sums, for the repayment of which the king had apparently pledged their credit.3

1 Rymer, i. 337-338.

2 Ibid., 338.

3 Matthew Paris, v. 552; cf. Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 205, where it is said that all the Benedictine houses were made responsible for thirty marks at least, without their knowledge.