_THE PAPACY AND THE PARLIAMENT._
ECCLESIASTICAL CHARACTER OF THE REIGN--ARCHBISHOPS AND THEIR
ECCLESIASTICAL ADMINISTRATION--PROVISIONS--STATUTE OF PROVISORS--OF
PRAEMUNIRE--REFUSAL OF TRIBUTE--RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE
STATE--CAUSES OF DISCONTENT AT THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCH--ATTACK ON
CLERICAL MINISTERS AND THE WEALTHY CLERGY--CONCORDAT WITH THE
PAPACY--THE GOOD PARLIAMENT--CONCLUSION.
[Sidenote: Character of the period.]
The fifty years of the reign of Edward III. are of special importance in
the history of our Church; for they witnessed the restriction of papal
authority by parliament, and the rise of a spirit of discontent at evils
which existed in the National Church. From the time of John's submission
the Popes had constantly treated England as a never-failing treasury, and
had diverted the revenues of the Church to their own purposes. The breach
between the papacy and the Crown in the reign of Edward I. had been
followed by the expression of the national sense of injury in the
parliament of Carlisle. The war with France caused the anti-papal feeling
to grow and bring forth fruit. It was intolerable that the wealth of the
country should go to enrich its enemies, and that French Popes should
exercise jurisdiction here in defiance of the will of the king and to the
subversion of the common law. The victories of England find their
ecclesiastical significance in the legislation against papal oppression,
in the statutes of Provisors and Praemunire. Within the Church several
causes combined to give rise to an anti-clerical feeling. While the nation
suffered severely from the expenses of the war, the Church was rich, and
might, so men thought, well be forced to bear a larger share of the
general burdens than the clergy were willing to lay upon themselves. The
bishops filled all the chief administrative offices, and enjoyed their
revenues in addition to the wealth of their sees. The inferior clergy were
as a rule careless and ignorant. The Church, though it jealously watched
over its rights of jurisdiction, found itself powerless to enforce needful
discipline on the clergy, while the abuses of the ecclesiastical courts
were a continual source of irritation to the laity. An attempt was made to
debar the prelates from political offices, and an attack on the wealth of
the Church was threatened. Then came the papal Schism, and new ideas were
openly expressed concerning the papacy itself, the position and rights of
the clergy, and the relations between Church and State. With these ideas
we have nothing to do here. But as we follow the ecclesiastical history of
the reign we shall see how the way was prepared for them; how it was that
Wyclif, a strenuous upholder of the rights of the National Church, was led
to form a spiritual conception of the Church Universal, to declare that a
Pope who was not Christ-like was Antichrist, and to teach that it would
be well for the Church to strip herself of her endowments and to become
independent of the State; why it was that the bulwarks already raised
against papal interference were strengthened, and why for a season there
were from time to time evidences of a spirit of revolt against the
ecclesiastical system. It will perhaps be convenient to divide the Church
history of the reign into two unequal parts at the return of the Prince of
Wales and the meeting of the anti-clerical parliament in 1371, and after
some notices of the archbishops and their ecclesiastical administration
down to the consecration of Whittlesey in 1368, to take a survey of the
relations, first, between the papacy and England, and, secondly, between
the National Church and the State during that period, and to end with some
account of the anti-clerical movement of the last years of the reign.
[Sidenote: Simon Mepeham, archbishop of Canterbury, 1328-1333.]
On the death of Reynolds in 1327, the Canterbury chapter elected Simon
Mepeham, and at Queen Isabella's request, and after receiving a gift from
the convent, John XXII. confirmed the election. Mepeham was a scholar and
a theologian. He held councils, published canons, and did what he could to
rule well. Conscious of the necessity of reform, he set about a provincial
visitation, and fined and excommunicated the bishop of Rochester for
non-residence, neglect of duty, and laxity of government. When he came to
Exeter, Bishop Grandison, who built a large part of the cathedral there,
refused to receive him, and drew up his men under arms to oppose his
entrance. Grandison, who claimed a papal exemption from metropolitan
visitation, appealed to the Pope, and the king ordered the archbishop to
desist from his attempt. This seems to have brought his efforts for
reformation, which excited much ill-will among his suffragans, to a
premature end. He was involved in a quarrel with the monks of St.
Augustine's, who also resisted his authority. They appealed to the Pope,
and Mepeham, who refused to give way, died under excommunication.
[Sidenote: John Stratford, archbishop of Canterbury, 1333-1348.]
[Sidenote: His controversy with the king.]
[Sidenote: A lay chancellor, 1340.]
John Stratford, bishop of Winchester, of whom we have heard before, was at
the king's instance elected to succeed him, and the Pope provided him, not
in virtue of the postulation of the chapter, but "of his own motion."
Although the chapter of Winchester elected, and the king recommended, the
prior of Worcester as Stratford's successor, Orlton, who happened to be at
Avignon, was, on the recommendation of Philip of France, provided by the
Pope to the vacant see. The king was indignant, and called on Orlton to
answer for thus procuring the papal brief against his will, but let the
matter drop. Edward's ministers were mostly churchmen, and for about
eleven years after the fall of Mortimer, Stratford, or his brother, the
bishop of Chichester, generally held the office of chancellor, and exerted
themselves to raise money for the French war. For some years Edward made
no progress in the war, and was generally unsuccessful except at sea.
Stratford, who belonged to the old Lancastrian party, disapproved of the
constant waste of money, and recommended peace. Money on which the king
reckoned was not forthcoming, and in 1340, excited probably by the
misrepresentations of the court party, and especially by Bishops
Burghersh and Orlton, he returned suddenly to England, turned Stratford's
brother, the chancellor, and other ministers out of office, and imprisoned
some of his judges and other officers. Stratford was summoned to appear at
court, but retired to Canterbury, and there preached some sermons, the
character of which may be judged by the text of one of them: "He was not
moved with the presence of any prince, neither could any bring him into
subjection" (Ecclus. xlviii. 12). He further excommunicated all who
offered violence to clerks or accused them falsely to the king. Edward
replied by putting forth a pamphlet containing his complaints against the
archbishop. In this pamphlet, which is called the _famosus libellus_, he
charged Stratford with being the cause of his want of success by keeping
him short of funds in order to gain profit for himself, and added several
accusations which were mere abuse. Although Orlton denied it, this
discreditable document was probably drawn up by him. Stratford answered it
point by point, and complained that the king was condemning him, one of
the chief peers of the realm, without trial. Edward carried on this paper
war with another weak letter, and wrote to Benedict XII., complaining of
the archbishop, and hinting that he wished the Pope to suspend him. When
parliament met in the spring of 1341, various attempts were made to
prevent the archbishop from taking his seat, and the king began
proceedings against him in the Exchequer. Stratford persisted in appearing
in parliament, and offered to plead before his peers. The lords thereupon
declared that no peer should be brought to trial except before his peers
in parliament. Edward found it advisable to be reconciled to the
archbishop, and the struggle ended. The archbishop's persistence thus led
to the establishment of the most important privilege of the peerage, and
the result of the controversy illustrates the constitutional position of
bishops as of equal dignity with the temporal lords. Meanwhile the king
appointed Sir Robert Bourchier chancellor, the first layman who ever held
that office. After a little time, however, the office was again held by
clerks.
[Sidenote: His constitutions.]
Stratford desired good government, and the clergy under his rule on one
occasion joined the other estates in demanding redress of grievances,
asking, for their part, that the charters should be confirmed, as well as
that their own privileges of jurisdiction should be better observed: yet
he made no real effort to secure constitutional liberty. Although more of
a statesman than an archbishop, he was fully alive to the evils arising
from the oppressions of the ecclesiastical officials and the secular lives
of the clergy, and held two councils, in which he regulated the officials'
fees, forbade bishops and archdeacons, when on a visitation, to quarter a
large retinue on the clergy, ordered that archdeacons should not make a
gain of commutations for corporal penance, and that clerks who concealed
their tonsure, had long curled hair, and imitated the dress of laymen by
wearing knives, long shoes, and furred cloaks, should be suspended.
[Sidenote: Battle of Nevill's Cross, 18th October 1345.]
Meanwhile William Zouche, archbishop of York, was engaged in the defence
of his province. In October 1345, while Edward was absent in France,
David of Scotland led a large army into the bishopric of Durham, wasting
the country as he advanced. Archbishop William and the lords Nevill and
Percy raised a force, in which, along with knights and men-at-arms, were
many of the northern clergy, the archbishop in person leading one of the
divisions. The English gained a signal victory at Nevill's Cross; the
Scottish king was taken prisoner, and the "chapter of Myton" was amply
avenged.
[Sidenote: John of Ufford, archbishop-elect of Canterbury, 1348.]
[Sidenote: Thomas Bradwardine, archbishop of Canterbury, 1349.]
On Stratford's death in 1348 the monks of Christ Church, thinking to
please the king, and doubtless also to found a precedent, elected Edward's
chaplain, Thomas Bradwardine, without waiting for the _conge d'elire_.
Bradwardine, the _Doctor Profundus_, as he was called, a famous
philosopher and theologian, was the champion of the Augustinian doctrine
of predestination against the Scotists. He had accompanied the king in his
victorious campaigns against France, and had been employed by him to treat
of peace. Edward, though he was willing enough that he should be
archbishop, would not allow the chapter to act independently, and so
caused Clement VI. to provide his chancellor, John Ufford, who was an aged
man. The pestilence now reached England, and Ufford died of it before he
was consecrated. Bradwardine was then raised to the archbishopric by the
common action of the king, the chapter, and the Pope; for after the
English victories Clement was ready to oblige Edward, declaring that "if
the king of England asked a bishopric for an ass he could not refuse
him." His subservience to Edward displeased the cardinals, and at the
consecration feast of the great English doctor at Avignon one of them sent
into the hall a buffoon mounted on an ass, with a petition that the Pope
would make him archbishop of Canterbury. A week after Bradwardine came to
England he too died of the pestilence, which both now and in its later
outbreaks fell as heavily on the clergy as on the laity, carrying off four
bishops in a single year.
[Sidenote: Simon Islip, 1349-1366.]
[Sidenote: Simon Langham, 1366-1368.]
[Sidenote: William Whittlesey, archbishop, 1368-1374.]
Simon Islip, Bradwardine's successor, endeavoured to remedy ecclesiastical
abuses. He founded Canterbury Hall at Oxford, to enable the clergy to
receive a better education, and published some excellent constitutions in
convocation. Clerical offenders claimed by the Church from the secular
courts, and committed to the custody of the bishops, were often kept in
comfort; they sometimes escaped from their prisons, and sometimes were
released without good cause. This was no longer to be; and imprisonment
was to be made a real punishment. The archbishop also decreed that
chaplains who were engaged to perform commemorative masses should, if
required, be bound to do parochial work at a fixed stipend of one mark
beyond their ordinary pay, which he fixed at five marks. A long-standing
dispute between the sees of Canterbury and York as to the right of the
northern metropolitan to carry his cross erect in the southern province
was at last settled by an agreement between Islip and John Thoresby,
archbishop of York. When the king and the parliament checked the papal
aggressions Islip abstained from interference; for, while he could not
quarrel with the papacy, he would not uphold it against the will of the
nation. While, however, he was prudent and moderate in temper, he did not
shrink from speaking plainly on behalf of good government, and wrote a
strong remonstrance to the king about the oppression of the people by the
royal purveyors. On Islip's death Simon Langham, bishop of Ely, was raised
to the primacy. He was chancellor when he was translated, but did not hold
the office long afterwards. By the command of Pope Urban V. he instituted
an inquiry into cases of plurality, and found that some clerks held as
many as twenty benefices by provisions, with license to add to their
number. After he had held the archbishopric two years, Urban made him a
cardinal. The king was displeased at this, and seized his temporalities.
Langham resigned the see and went to Avignon, and was succeeded at
Canterbury by his kinsman, William Whittlesey, who took little part in the
affairs either of Church or State, for he soon fell into ill health.
[Sidenote: The Church and the Papacy, 1327-1371.]
[Sidenote: Reservations and provisions.]
[Sidenote: Resisted by the king and parliament.]
There was comparatively little direct taxation of the clergy by the Popes
during this reign, though first-fruits were still demanded, and the
frequency with which promotions were effected by provision probably led to
a growing compliance with the demand. At the same time, the Church was
wronged in a more mischievous manner by the Popes' usurpation of
patronage. English bishoprics, dignities, and cures were conferred without
regard to the fitness of the person promoted, and simply as a matter of
policy, or a means of providing for the friends and advisers of the Pope.
The first decided check that was administered to this abuse arose from the
war with France; for it was felt to be intolerable that the wealth of the
country should be handed over to the French cardinals and other members of
the papal court at Avignon. During the early years of the reign little
resistance was offered to the system of appointment by provision, though
two sees, Exeter and Bath, which had been reserved, were filled up by the
joint action of the Crown and the chapters. The abuse grew rapidly, until,
in 1343, Clement VI. declared that he had reserved benefices, not
including bishoprics, as they fell vacant, to the annual value of 2000
marks for two cardinals, who sent their agents to England to carry out
their claims. These agents were ordered to depart, on pain of
imprisonment, and a complaint was made to the Crown by the lay estates in
parliament that the richest benefices in the country were bestowed by the
Pope on foreigners, who never came near it, or contributed to its burdens,
and who abstracted the wealth of England to the prejudice of the king and
his kingdom, and, above all, of the souls of his subjects. The bishops did
not dare to join in this complaint, and wished to withdraw, but the king
made them stay during the proceedings. In answer to this complaint, a
royal ordinance was published that any one who brought bulls or
reservations into the kingdom should be imprisoned. Moreover, the king
wrote a letter to the Pope representing that provisions led to the
promotion of unfit persons, who did not understand the language of the
country or reside on their benefices, and that they robbed patrons and
chapters of their rights, and removed cases of patronage from the royal to
the papal courts. A vigorous letter of remonstrance was also sent by the
parliament by the hands of John of Shoreditch, a famous lawyer, who
presented it to the Pope in the presence of the cardinals. Clement was
angry, and declared he had only provided two foreigners. "Holy Father,"
John replied, "you have provided the Cardinal of Perigord to the deanery
of York, and the king and all the nobles of England know him to be a
capital enemy of the king and kingdom." High words passed; the cardinals
left the court in some confusion, and John departed from Avignon in haste,
lest mischief should befall him.
[Sidenote: Statute of Provisors, 1351.]
These remonstrances had little effect, and at last, in 1351, the statute
of Provisors was enacted, on the petition of the lords temporal and the
commons. By this statute any collation made by the Pope was to escheat to
the Crown, and any person acting in virtue of a reservation or provision
was, after conviction, to be imprisoned until he had paid such fine as the
king might inflict, and had made compensation to the party aggrieved. To
this statute the bishops, who were, of course, hampered by their position
as regards the Pope, did not assent. Its immediate effect was rather to
strengthen the hold of the king upon the Church than to increase its
liberty. Edward connived at its evasion whenever it suited him to do so,
and infringed the rights of patrons by a writ called "Quare impedit,"
while the concurrence of the Popes, who took care to keep on good terms
with the victorious king, enabled him to do much as he liked. The Popes,
moreover, still continued to provide to sees vacant by translation, and
accordingly multiplied translations to the hurt of the Church. It was
found necessary to re-enact the penalties of the statute fourteen years
later, and, as we shall see, fresh efforts were made against the abuse
towards the end of the reign.
[Sidenote: Statute of Praemunire, 1353.]
The system of provisions increased the number of appeals to Rome, and
matters that were determinable at common law were carried to the Pope's
court, much to the inconvenience of the parties concerned, and to the
profit of the papal officers. In 1353 a check was given to the appellate
jurisdiction of the curia by the Statute of Praemunire, which, without
verbal reference to the Pope, made it punishable with imprisonment and
forfeiture to draw one of the king's subjects out of the kingdom to answer
in a foreign court, the offender being compelled to appear by a writ
beginning "Praemunire facias." This statute was re-enacted in 1365, with
distinct mention of the Roman court; the prelates protesting, evidently
for form's sake, that they would assent to nothing that was injurious to
the Church. Although the Pope still granted dispensations from the canon
law, and his jurisdiction might still be invoked in cases for which no
remedy was provided at common law, papal interference in legal matters of
importance now became rare. New statutes of Provisors and Praemunire were
promulgated in the next reign.
[Sidenote: Repudiation of vassalage, 1366.]
The victories of Edward and the Prince of Wales rendered the Popes
powerless to resent anti-papal legislation. France was no longer able to
protect them at Avignon. During their residence in that city the papacy
had become French, and had consequently in a large measure lost its hold
upon England. Urban V. unwisely provoked a declaration that bore witness
to this decline of influence. He wrote to Edward demanding the arrears of
the tribute promised by John, and threatened to cite the king if he
neglected payment. Edward laid the demand before the parliament that met
in May 1366, and requested the advice of the estates. The prelates,
speaking for themselves, asked for a day for deliberation. The next day
the three estates separately and unanimously declared that John had no
power to bring his realm and people under such subjection, and repudiated
the vassalage and tribute that the Pope demanded. For a short time Edward
stopped even the payment of Peter's pence.
[Sidenote: The Church in relation to the State, 1327-1371.]
[Sidenote: Taxation.]
[Sidenote: Legislation.]
[Sidenote: Jurisdiction.]
Early in the reign the Pope granted the king a clerical tenth for four
years, and later, during the French war, the clergy taxed themselves
heavily. All attempt to induce them to make their grants in parliament was
discontinued, and they settled the amount of their contribution in their
provincial convocations. In convocation they legislated without
interference on spiritual matters, including those which concerned their
jurisdiction. Parliament, however, did not allow them to enact anything
that should bind the laity without its consent. Accordingly, when
Stratford published a constitution on the right to the tithe of underwood,
a petition was the next year presented by the commons, praying that the
Crown would not grant any petition of the clergy that might prejudice the
laity without examination; for, though the clergy legislated on the
process for recovery of tithes, parliament claimed to determine their
incidence. This distinction found its counterpart in jurisdiction; for the
common law courts decided questions of right to tithes, while the
spiritual courts enforced payment. In matters affecting temporal
interests, parliament legislated for the Church. This legislation was
during this period generally of a favourable character, and was founded on
petitions from the clergy. Parliament, for example, declared by statute
that the temporalities of bishops were not to be seized except according
to the law of the land and after judgment, and that during a vacancy they
were to be carefully and honestly administered. Again, as the pestilence
raised the price of clerical as well as of all other labour, parliament in
1362 represented that chaplains had become scarce and dear, and prayed
that they might be compelled to work for lower pay than they were in the
habit of receiving. The king ordered the bishops to find a remedy; and
they reported Islip's constitution, which was thus turned into a
parliamentary statute, a kind of "Statute of Labourers" for the
unbeneficed clergy. Disputes still went on as to rights of jurisdiction,
and in 1344, after the grant of a clerical tenth, it was enacted, with the
assent of the lay estates, that the ecclesiastical courts should not be
subject to unfair interference either by writs of prohibition or by
inquiry by secular judges; the whole statute forming a kind of reading of
"Circumspecte agatis" in the clerical interest.
[Sidenote: Discontent of the laity.]
[Sidenote: Non-residence.]
[Sidenote: Secular employments.]
Nevertheless the nation regarded the condition of the Church with growing
discontent. The papal interference with the rights of patrons, besides
grievously wronging the bishops and chapters, irritated the people at
large, for they saw ecclesiastical offices and revenues held by foreigners
who never set foot in England, and were in many cases their enemies. Of
this perhaps enough has been said. Non-residence and plurality, however,
were not confined to foreigners. All the great offices of State were, as a
rule, held by bishops and other dignified clergy, who neglected their
ecclesiastical for their civil duties; and the inferior clergy followed
their example, and engaged in secular employments of all kinds.
Non-residence was increased by the pestilence. Much land fell out of
cultivation, and so ceased to yield tithes, and parsons left their
parishes whenever they could obtain some profitable work to do elsewhere.
So the poet of Piers Ploughman records how--
Parsons and parisshe preestes
That hire parisshes weren povere
To have a licence and leve
And syngen ther for symonie;
Somme serven the kyng
In cheker and in chauncelrie
Of wardes and of wardmotes
And somme serven as servauntz
And in stede of stywardes
Pleyned hem to the bisshope,
Sith the pestilence tyme,
At London to dwelle,
For silver is swete.
And his silver tellen
Chalangan his dettes
Weyves and streyves.
Lordes and ladies,
Sitten and demen.
In the absence of the parish priests, or while they were immersed in
worldly affairs, the churches fell into decay, and the people were
neglected. Wyclif tells us that secular employment was the only road to
ecclesiastical preferment. "Lords," he says, "wolen not present a clerk
able of kunning of God's law, but a kitchen clerk, or a peny clerk, or
wise in building castles or worldly doing, though he kunne not reade wel
his sauter." Clergy such as these held a vast number of preferments, for
the Pope readily granted dispensations for plurality. William of Wykeham,
the king's architect, afterwards bishop of Winchester, held at one time,
while Keeper of the Privy Seal, the archdeaconry of Lincoln and eleven
prebends in various churches.
[Sidenote: Lack of discipline.]
[Sidenote: Oppression of the spiritual courts.]
[Sidenote: Decline in the general character of the clergy.]
[Sidenote: Efforts to raise their character.]
The spiritual jurisdiction for which churchmen contended so jealously had
altogether failed to preserve discipline. The secularization of the clergy
rendered this failure specially disastrous; for a clerk, who had laid
aside everything clerical except the tonsure, and had perhaps concealed
that, if accused of any crime, however grave, was immediately claimed by
his order, and was only amenable to a law that was powerless to inflict an
adequate punishment for the worst offences. Nor were clerical offenders
rare, for the number of those in orders of one kind or another was very
large. Many of them had little to do, their duties merely consisting in
the performance of anniversary services, and so, being idle, they were
prone to self-indulgence and mischief. Several of the archbishops of
Canterbury endeavoured, as we have seen, to restore discipline, but the
spiritual courts were corrupt, and their efforts were of little avail.
Yet, while the laity saw discipline utterly broken down, they found the
spiritual courts strong enough to oppress them with heavy fees, especially
in testamentary cases, and in various other ways, and the cost and
vexation entailed by ecclesiastical processes were a constant source of
irritation. At the same time, high as the pretensions of the clergy were,
there can be no doubt that the clerical standard was lowered by the
pestilence. Many benefices were suddenly vacated, and there were few to
fill them. The ranks of the clergy must have been recruited with men of
inferior education, and it was by them that the vacant cures were
supplied. Some efforts were made to remedy the ignorance of those who
should have been the teachers of the people. Islip's foundation at Oxford
has already been noticed; it was soon to be followed by the more
magnificent foundations of William of Wykeham. Meanwhile, in the north,
the most backward part of the kingdom, Archbishop Thoresby, a prelate of
noble character, laboured to bring about a better state of things. He
constantly visited different parts of his diocese, teaching, and
correcting abuses, and in order that his people might know the elements of
Christianity, he published a kind of catechism in two versions, one in
Latin for the clergy, whose ignorance and carelessness he severely
reprehended, and the other in English verse for the laity.
[Sidenote: Attack on the clerical ministers and the wealthy clergy, 1371.]
Discontent at the condition of the Church grew bitter as the people at
large felt the burden of a war that had ceased to be glorious, and the
general decline in prosperity aggravated the religious disaffection. Men
saw with anger that, while the nation groaned under heavy taxation, the
greater ecclesiastics held all the richest offices in the State as well
as in the Church, and that, large as their revenues were, the country was
misgoverned and the war mismanaged. An anti-clerical party arose, and an
attack was made on ecclesiastical ministers and the wealthier churchmen.
When the Prince of Wales returned from Aquitaine, in January 1371, fresh
supplies were demanded of parliament. In reply, the lay estates presented
a petition complaining that the government had too long been in the hands
of the clergy, who could not be called to account, and requesting that the
king would consider that laymen were fit to be employed in offices of
state. In consequence of this petition, the chancellor, William of
Wykeham, and the treasurer, the bishop of Exeter, resigned, and their
places were taken by laymen. An attempt of the monastic orders to claim
exemption from the payment of subsidies led to some bitter words
concerning the wealth of the greater churchmen. A lord compared the Church
to an owl that was unfledged until each bird gave it a feather to deck
itself with; suddenly, he said, a hawk appeared, and the birds demanded
back their feathers in order that they might escape. The owl refused; so
they stripped him, and flew away in safety, leaving him in worse plight
than he was before. Even so, he continued, in this dangerous war ought we
to take back from the wealthy clergy the temporalities which belong to us
and to the realm, and defend the realm with these our own goods rather
than by increased taxation. The clergy took the hint, and promised the
Prince of Wales in convocation to grant L50,000, a sum to which even
those whose endowments had hitherto escaped on account of their smallness
were obliged to contribute. John of Gaunt returned the next year, and
probably took the lead of the anti-clerical party, in opposition to the
Prince of Wales, who upheld William of Wykeham. Although this year an
attack was made in parliament on the lawyers, the abuses of the Church did
not escape. Petitions were presented requesting that the king would
confiscate the revenues of foreign beneficed clergy who did not live in
the kingdom--this was refused; that bishops' officials should demand less
exorbitant fees in testamentary cases--in this matter the bishops were
ordered to find a remedy; and that the benefices of clergy who lived in
open concubinage should, if the bishop neglected to act, become _ipso
facto_ void, and that the Crown should present--to this no answer was
returned.
[Sidenote: Concordat with the Pope.]
[Sidenote: Conference at Bruges, 1374-1375.]
When John of Gaunt came back from his unsuccessful campaign in 1373 his
influence in parliament was lessened. Nevertheless a petition was
presented against the encroachments of the clerical courts. A strong
remonstrance was also made on the subject of reservations and provisions
and on the withdrawal of money from the country by foreign ecclesiastics.
To this the king replied that he had already sent an embassy to the Pope
to represent these grievances, probably in consequence of the petition of
the year before, and the matter was referred to a conference about to be
held at Bruges. When the king's demand for a tenth was laid before
convocation by Archbishop Whittlesey, the clergy declared that they were
undone by the exactions of the Pope and the king, and that they could
better help the king "if the intolerable yoke of the Pope were taken from
their necks;" and Courtenay, bishop of Hereford, protested that he would
not consent to the grant unless some remedy were devised for these evils.
The tenth was, however, granted, and all looked for what the negotiations
at Bruges would bring forth. To this conference, which met the following
year, Edward sent the bishop of Bangor, Dr. John Wyclif, and others, as
his representatives to arrange a concordat with Gregory XI. The immediate
results, which were declared in 1375, were unsatisfactory, for they were
merely temporary in their application. However, in 1377, the king's
jubilee year, Edward announced that the Pope had promised that he would
abstain from reservations; that he would not provide to any bishopric
until sufficient time had elapsed for him to hear the result of the
capitular election; that he would respect the elective rights of other
capitular bodies; that he would diminish the number of foreign
ecclesiastics; that though he would not give up his claim to first-fruits,
which were still held to be an innovation, he would see that they did not
press too heavily on the clergy; and that he would be moderate in issuing
expectatives and provisions.
[Sidenote: The Good Parliament, 1376.]
No parliament met from 1373 until the Good Parliament of 1376. In this
parliament the party of reform was upheld by the Prince of Wales and the
bishop of Winchester. The Prince of Wales died during the session of the
parliament, and left the leaders of the party exposed to the vengeance of
John of Gaunt. A series of accusations was brought against Wykeham, his
temporalities were seized, and he was forbidden to come near the court.
Accordingly, he did not come up to the convocation of 1377, and Simon
Sudbury, the archbishop of Canterbury, refused to specially request his
attendance. His opposition was overruled by Courtenay, now bishop of
London, who dwelt on the injustice that had been done Wykeham by the
Crown, and urged the clergy to make no grant until he joined them. Wykeham
came up to convocation, and the king promised to redress his wrongs. And
here, at the point at which the quarrel assumes a new phase, when the
clergy were about to aim a blow at their enemy, John of Gaunt, by
attacking his ally, John Wyclif, at the opening of strife between Lollardy
and the Church, and at the beginning of a new era in the relations between
Rome and the English and other national Churches, brought about by the
papal Schism, this narrative reaches its appointed limit.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Summary, 601-1066.]
[Sidenote: 601-664.]
[Sidenote: 663-829.]
Each period of the history we have been studying has some special
characteristics, and it may be convenient to sum them up briefly. The
partial failure of the Kentish mission and the break-down of Gregory's
scheme of government left the English Church in a disorganized condition,
and Rome had to win a second victory to save it from Celtic customs and
separation from the rest of Christendom. The hero of that victory was
Wilfrith, its token the restoration of the see of York. A new period opens
with the work of Theodore, and extends from the victory of the Roman
party at Whitby to the end of the greatness of the Northumbrian Church,
and the establishment of the sovereignty of Wessex. The diocesan scheme of
Theodore succeeded, and is the basis of our present arrangement. His
attempt to bring the whole Church under the rule of a single metropolitan
failed, for the northern Church was for a season more advanced than the
rest of the land in religion and culture; and its failure is marked by the
restoration of the see of York to metropolitan rank. From the first the
Church was national in character, independent of the rise and fall of the
petty kingdoms into which the land was divided, and it became a powerful
agent in the accomplishment of national unity. Nor was it by any means a
handmaid of Rome, for the attempt of Wilfrith to regain his position by
invoking the papal authority met with derision and defeat. From the first,
too, the Church and the civil power worked in complete harmony, and when
national unity was attained, the Church bore its own share in every
department of the polity it had done so much to create. For a moment,
indeed, its work in teaching the lesson of union was threatened by the
baleful predominance of Mercia; for the foundation of the Mercian
archiepiscopate was an attempt to make the Church minister to the
greatness of a single kingdom; its failure saved her from degradation, and
probably saved the nation from prolonged division. By Archbishop
Ceolnoth's alliance with Ecgberht, the Church adopted the interests of the
line of kings under whom the unity of the nation was accomplished.
[Sidenote: 829-988.]
[Sidenote: 988-1066.]
While the invasion of the Northmen completed the ruin of the northern
church, Alfred and his son imparted new vigour to the life of the southern
province, and their work was carried further forward by the great
churchmen whose names are connected with the monastic revival of the tenth
century. This period of recovery may be said to close with the death of
Dunstan. Although the relations between England and Rome became more
intimate under the immediate successors of Ecgberht, and especially under
Alfred, the work of restoration was not due to direct Roman influence; it
was effected mainly through intercourse with France, Flanders, and
Germany. Throughout the period the unity of action of the Church and State
is strongly marked; separate conciliar action became rare, and both
spiritual and secular affairs were administered by statesmen-bishops.
During the first part of the eleventh century this union became even more
intimate, greatly to the loss of the Church; for the bishops were absorbed
in worldly matters and party strife. Freedom from Roman interference and a
long course of independent and purely national life, however good in
themselves, proved dangerous, for the Church had not yet attained any
widespread culture.
[Sidenote: Summary, 1066-1135.]
The conquest of England may be regarded as a papal triumph over a Church
and a nation which had stood apart from Roman Christendom and followed
their own devices. Both before and after his victory the Conqueror availed
himself of the help of Rome. Nevertheless he was strong enough to hold his
own even against Gregory VII., and refused to allow the Pope any
authority in his kingdom excepting within limits of his own appointment.
The Church equally with the nation was conquered, and tasted the
bitterness of defeat, but there was no break in the continuity of its
life. Each Norman or French bishop who succeeded to the see of an English
predecessor looked on himself as an English bishop, and the Church of the
conquered people united conquerors and conquered in one English nation.
William strengthened the Church as a means of strengthening himself, and
his policy of separating the spiritual and secular courts was followed by
few signs of coming conflict during the strong rule of the Norman kings.
[Sidenote: 1139-1205.]
The conflict came after a suspension of the royal authority. The immunity
of the clergy from secular jurisdiction confronted Henry II. as a
dangerous obstacle to the success of his designs for the foundation of a
strong and orderly government. His strife with Archbishop Thomas ended in
his humiliation, but it left in the Constitutions of Clarendon the
groundwork of a system to which the future relations between Church and
State made continual and progressive approaches. The Church lost by the
dispute; for the energy that might have been devoted to producing a higher
clerical standard was frittered in a somewhat ignoble quarrel. Yet it also
gained something besides a victory of doubtful benefit. Anselm, in a
better cause, had already resisted despotism; and Thomas died for what he
believed to be the rights of the Church over which he had been called to
rule. Both alike asserted the sacredness of spiritual things. Neither
Anselm nor Thomas received any hearty support from Rome; in both cases the
action of the Popes appears to have been governed by motives of
expediency. Nor was it in the Church's quarrel alone that churchmen dared
to encounter the wrath of kings. Thomas of Canterbury, Hugh of Lincoln,
and Geoffrey of York each opposed the undue exercise of the royal power in
secular matters, and were the earliest assertors of constitutional rights.
At the same time, under both the Norman and the first two Plantagenet
kings, the Church at large was on the side of the Crown, and did the
nation good service by maintaining its authority against the feudal
nobility.
[Sidenote: 1205-1265.]
The quarrel between John and Innocent III. introduces a new period in our
history, during which the Church was in opposition to the Crown, and was
contending for national liberties against the king and his suzerain, the
Pope. Although, as the vassal of Innocent, the king was upheld by all the
power that the greatest of the Popes could exert, the Church cast in its
lot with the nation, and took a foremost part in winning the Great
Charter. It paid dearly for its self-devotion. Innocent had, however,
overreached himself, for his attempt to uphold his vassal against the
liberties of the country roused a bitter feeling against the papacy; and
this feeling was deepened as succeeding Popes took advantage of the
weakness of Henry III. to grind down the Church and oppress the country in
order to raise funds for their war with the Hohenstaufen house. In the
resistance that was at last made to the king's misgovernment the Church
was again foremost in the cause of liberty, while the Pope again upheld
his vassal against his people. The barons' war, however, virtually brought
the papal suzerainty to an end.
[Sidenote: 1272-1307.]
[Sidenote: 1307-1327.]
A decisive blow was given to the power of the Popes in England by the
folly of Boniface VIII., who forced Edward I. into hostility, and so made
the Crown at one with the people in resisting papal pretensions. Nor were
the clergy whole-hearted on the Popes' side, for they had learned by
bitter experience that they would at least gain nothing by the victory of
Rome. Almost as soon, then, as the machinery for the expression of the
national will was perfected, the king and the nation used it to express
their indignation at the usurpations of the papacy. The reign is further
memorable in ecclesiastical history for the king's work in defining the
position of the Church in relation to the State. The policy of making the
clergy a parliamentary estate so far failed that they succeeded in
withdrawing themselves from parliament and making their grants in
convocation, yet the attempt to secure their attendance brought their
action in fiscal matters into correspondence with, though not into
dependence upon, the action of the other estates of the realm. In matters
of jurisdiction, Edward's rule contained in the writ "Circumspecte agatis"
was founded on clear and well-considered principles, and became the
groundwork of all future legislation on the subject in mediaeval times. In
all points the Church was given an ascertained place in the national
system, and while the king exacted many heavy taxes from the clergy, and
occasionally, when it suited his convenience, made use of the papal
authority, he never gave way to any attempt of Pope or archbishop to act
as though the clergy had separate interests from the nation at large. For
our purpose, the reign of his unhappy son is important mainly as
exhibiting how entirely the success of the policy of Edward I. was the
result of his personal character. The weakness of Edward II. gave the
Popes a chance of which they did not fail to avail themselves. While
wholly under French influence, they did not hesitate to treat the English
Church as arrogantly as they had treated it in the days when the papacy
was strong. Under Edward I. the chapters virtually lost the power of
electing bishops; during the reign of his son the will of the Crown was
constantly set at nought, and the introduction of the system of
reservation and provision as applied to bishoprics indicates the utter
disregard with which the rights both of the Church and the king were
treated at Avignon.
[Sidenote: 1343-1377.]
A new and powerful motive for resistance was supplied by the French war of
Edward III. Parliament and the Crown were at one in refusing to yield to
papal pretensions, and the first statutes of Provisors and Praemunire,
though they by no means put a stop to the evils at which they were aimed,
at least taught the Popes the necessity of moderation. We leave the Church
in the midst of a struggle. Exhausted with the burden of the French war,
and disappointed at the change from victory to defeat, the nation was
inclined to find fault with existing institutions. The wealth and power of
the Church provoked envy; its abuses were regarded with indignation. The
earliest phase of the struggle, the attack made in Parliament upon the
clerical ministers and the richer clergy, brings this volume to a close.
The work and theories of Wyclif and his followers, and the effects of the
papal schism on the relations between England and Rome, are reserved for
another volume of this series.
INDEX.
Abercorn, see of, 19.
Adam Marsh, 155, 157.
Adoptionists, 33.
AEddi (Eddius), 21.
AElfgifu, wife of Eadwig, 46, 47.
AElfheah the Bald, bp. of Winchester, 45.
AElfric, archbp.-elect, 67.
AElfric the Grammarian, 53, 54.
AEthelberht, king of Kent, 2-4, 28.
AEthelburh, queen, 5.
AEthelred the Unready, king, 51, 56, 57, 59.
AEthelstan, 42, 43, 44.
AEthelwold, bp. of Winchester, 48.
AEthelwulf, king of W. Saxons, 35, 36.
Agatho, pope, 19.
Agilberct, bp., 11, 12.
Aidan, St., 7, 9, 14.
Avignon, 179, 199, 201.
Alchfrith, king, 10-14.
Alcuin, 25, 29, 32, 33.
Alexander II., pope, 71, 77, 79, 86, 87.
Alexander III., pope, 118-122.
Alexander IV., pope, 155.
Alfred, king, 36, 40, 43, 44, 214.
Andover, 57.
Andrews, St., see of, 101.
Anselm, archbp., _see_ Canterbury, archbps. of.
Anselm, legate, 99.
Appeals to Rome, 18-20, 31, 81, 88, 93, 105, 107, 131, 137, 149.
Archdeacons, 30, 41, 98, 111.
Assandun, battle of, 60, 61, 67.
Asser, bishop, 39.
Augustin, St., _see_ Canterbury, archbps. of.
Aust, conference at, 3.
Ayermin, William, bp. of Norwich, 186, 187.
Baeda, 21-23, 30.
Bari, council of, 94.
Bath, 50, 51, 82.
Beaumont, Lewis, bp. of Durham, 185.
Benedict, Biscop, 10, 16.
Benedict III., pope, 36.
Benedict X., antipope, 71.
Benedict XII., pope, 196.
Bernard, St., of Clairvaux, 109, 111, 126.
Bernicia, kingdom of, 5, 7, 10, 11, 35.
Bertha, queen, 2.
Bigod, Roger, earl of Norfolk, 175, 177.
Bishops and archbps., election of, 28, 29, 64, 65, 70, 81, 90, 141, 149,
184, _see_ Provisions.
Birinus, bp. of Dorchester, 6.
Bodmin, see of, 42.
Bohun, Humphrey, earl of Hereford, 175, 177.
Boniface V., pope, 5.
Boniface VIII., pope, 174-179, 217.
Boniface (Winfrith), 32.
Bourchier, Sir Robert, chancellor, 197.
Bristol, 85.
Brithelm, bp. of Wells, 47.
Bruges, conference at, 211.
Brunanburh, battle of, 44.
Burnell, Robert, bp. of Bath and Wells, 163, 164, 171.
Burghersh, Henry, bp. of Lincoln, 185, 186, 195.
Bury St. Edmund's, 37, 60.
Cadwallon, British king, 5.
Caedmon, 11, 21.
Calixtus II., pope, 100-102.
Canterbury, see of, 2-4, 15, 16, 24, 26-28, 36, 42, 52, 58, 62, 74, 79,
80, 89, 100-102, 107, 120, 124, 146, 199.
Archbishops of--
Augustin, 1-3.
Laurentius, 4.
Mellitus, 4, 5.
Justus, 4, 5.
Honorius, 6.
Deusdedit, 15.
Theodore, 15-20, 23, 27, 29, 30.
Brihtwald, 20.
Jaenberht, 27.
AEthelheard, 27.
Ceolnoth, 28, 213.
AEthelred, 42.
Plegmund, 39, 42.
Wulfhelm, 43.
Oda, 44, 45, 47.
Dunstan, 45-53, 61, 214.
Sigeric, 56.
AElfric, 74.
AElfheah (St. Alphege), 57-59, 86.
Lyfing, 60, 61.
AEthelnoth, 61, 62.
Robert of Jumieges, 64, 67, 68, 70, 71, 88.
Stigand, 61, 67, 68, 70, 71, 77.
Lanfranc, 78-80, 82-87, 89.
Anselm, 86, 90-98, 117, 215.
Ralph, 99-101.
William of Corbeuil, 99, 106.
Theobald, 107-112.
Thomas (Becket), 111-123, 216.
Richard, 123, 127.
Baldwin, 129.
Hubert Walter, 131-133, 136, 137.
Stephen Langton, 137-145, 149, 160.
Richard Grant, 149.
Edmund Rich, 149, 150.
Boniface, 150, 160, 163.
Robert Kilwardby, 163.
John Peckham, 162, 164-173.
Robert Winchelsey, 162, 172-185.
Walter Reynolds, 185, 187, 194.
Simon Mepeham, 194, 195.
John Stratford, 186, 187, 195-198, 204.
Thomas Bradwardine, 198, 199.
Simon Islip, 199, 205.
Simon Langham, 200.
William Whittlesey, 200.
Simon Sudbury, 212.
Captivity, the Babylonish, 179.
Carlisle, parliament of, 181, 192.
Cashel, council of, 127.
Ceadda, _see_ York, bps. and abps. of.
Ceadwalla, king of W. Saxons, 32.
Cedd, bp., 8, 11, 14.
Celtic Christianity, 8-14.
Cenwulf, king of Mercia, 27, 28.
Chancellor, office of, 63, 112, 113;
a lay, 197.
Chaplains, stipendiary, 199, 205.
Charles the Great, king and emp., 25, 32, 33, 34.
Charter of Henry I., 95, 240, 342;
of John to Church, 141;
the Great, 142, 143, 154, 165;
the Forest, 154.
Charters, confirmation of the, 176.
Chester-le-Street, 35, 57.
Chester, see of, 82.
Chichester, see of, 82.
Chrodegang of Metz, rule of, 66, 85.
"Chronicle," the "Anglo-Saxon," 39.
Churches, liability of laity to repair, 61.
Circumspecte agatis, writ of, 169, 184, 204, 217.
Clarendon, constitutions of, 116, 117, 123, 215.
Clement, anti-pope, 84.
Clement III., pope, 102, 129.
Clement IV., pope, 157, 158.
Clement V., pope, 179, 180, 184.
Clement VI., pope, 198, 202.
Clericis laicos, bull, 174.
Clerks, the king's, 62, 103.
Clevesho, 17.
Cnut, king, 50, 61-63.
Colman, bp., 10-12.
Columba, St., 6, 12.
Concordat with Rome, 210, 211.
Conquest, Norman, 71, 72, 76, 214.
Conrad of Germany, 155.
Convocation, 98, 172-174, 189, 191, 204.
Cornwall, 42.
Coronation, 50, 120, 136.
Courtenay, William, bp. of Hereford and London, abp., 211.
Crediton, see of, 42, _see_ Exeter.
Crusades, 128, 158.
Cuthberht, St., 9, 35, 57.
Danegeld, 56, 75, 114.
Danes, 35-38, 43, 57, 64.
Deira, kingdom of, 5, 10.
Dioceses, organization of, 2, 17-20, 41, 42.
Dorchester, see of, 6, 26, 42.
Disafforestation, 177, 179.
Drokensford, John, bp. of Bath and Wells, 186.
Dunstan, _see_ Canterbury, abps. of.
Dunwich, see of, 6, 41.
Durham, see of, 57, 58.
Eadbald, king of Kent, 4, 5.
Eadgar, king, 47-50.
Eadmer, 90, 101.
Eadmund, king, 46.
Eadmund (St. Edmund), king of the E. Angles, 37, 60.
Eadmund Ironside, king, 60.
Eadred, king, 46.
Eadward the Confessor, king, 64, 69, 129.
Eadward the Elder, king, 42.
Eadward the Martyr, king, 51, 58.
Eadwig, king, 46, 47.
Eadwine, king of Northumbria, 5, 6, 11.
Ealdfrith, king of Northumbria, 19.
Ealdhelm, bp. of Sherborne, 25, 26.
Ealhstan, bp. of Sherborne, 35.
Eanflaed, queen, 10.
Easter, date of, 3, 9-14, 16, 25.
East Anglia, conversion of, 4, 5, 6, _see_ Dunwich.
East Saxons, conversion of, 2, 4.
Ecgberht, king of W. Saxons, 28.
Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, 18, 19.
Edward I., 158, 160-182, 217, 218.
Edward II., 182-189, 217.
Edward III., 189, 192, 204, 218.
Edward, the "Black Prince," 194, 203, 209-211.
Eleanor, queen, 170.
Ellandun, battle of, 28.
Elmham, see of, 18, 37, 67, 82.
English used in prayers and homilies, 39, 54, 75.
Evesham, battle of, 157.
Eugenius III., pope, 109, 126.
Eustace, son of Stephen, 110, 112.
Exeter, see of, 65.
Farne Island, 9.
Felix, bp. of Dunwich, 6.
Festivals, ecclesiastical, decreed by the king and witan, 50, 58.
Finan, bp. of Lindisfarne, 10.
First-fruits, 181, 182, 200, 211.
Flanders, 44, 47, 214.
Fleury, abbey of, 45, 48.
Formosus, pope, 42.
Frankfort, council of, 33.
Frederic I., emperor, 118, 119.
Frederic II., emperor, 148, 155.
Fulk, bp. of London, his mitre and helmet, 156.
Fulk, Fitz-Warin, threatens a papal envoy, 152, 153.
Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis), 127-129.
Gerent, king, 25.
Ghent, 47.
Gilbert Foliot, bp. of London, 118.
Gisa, bp. of Wells, 66.
Glastonbury, 45, 46.
Godwine, earl, 64-67.
Grandison, John, bp. of Exeter, 194.
Gratian of Bologna, 111.
Greek, knowledge of, 16, 22, 44.
Gregory the Great, pope, 2-4, 17, 79, 212.
Gregory III., pope, 24.
Gregory VII., pope, 72, 76, 77, 82-84, 106, 214.
Gregory IX., pope, 148-150, 159.
Gregory XI., pope, 211.
Grimbold, 39.
Grosseteste, Robert, bp. of Lincoln, 151-157, 159.
Gualo, legate, 144, 145.
Guthred, 42.
Guthorm, king, 37.
Hadrian, abbot, 15, 16.
Hadrian I., pope, 26, 31.
Hadrian IV., pope, 126.
Harold I., king, 62.
Harold II., king, 68, 69, 71-73.
Harthacnut, king, 64.
Hecanan in Herefordshire, bishopric of, 18.
Henry IV., emperor, 84.
Henry I., 95-101.
Henry II., 112-129.
Henry III., 145-158, 216.
Henry, bp. of London, 157.
Henry, bp. of Winchester, 106-112.
Henry, son of Henry II., 120.
Herbert, bp. of Salisbury, 132.
Hereford, see of, 18.
Hereford, synod of, 17.
Heretics, 125.
Hermann, bp. of Salisbury, 82.
Hexham, see of, 19, 20, 35.
Higberht, archbp. of Lichfield, 27.
Hild, abbess, 11.
Honorius II., pope, 99-101.
Honorius III., pope, 144-146, 148.
Hubert de Burgh, 145, 148.
Hugh, bp. of Lincoln, 123, 130, 132, 133, 216.
Hugh Puiset, bp. of Durham, 129.
Hwiccan in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, bishopric of, 18.
Ida, founder of line of Bernician kings, 7.
Ini, king of the W. Saxons, 25, 26, 32.
Innocent II., pope, 106, 109.
Innocent III., pope, 128, 133, 137-144, 155, 158, 159, 216.
Innocent IV., pope, 152-156.
Inquisition, the, 125.
Investiture, episcopal, 64, 94-97.
Iona, 6-8.
Ireland, Scots of, 6;
relations with Canterbury, 80, 126;
slave-trade with, 85;
conquest of, 126, 127.
James, the deacon, 6, 12, 21.
Jarrow, 21, 22, 34.
Jerusalem, 70, 128, 129.
Jews, 170, 171.
John, king, 130, 131, 136-144, 204.
John VI., pope, 20.
John XIII., pope, 48.
John XV., pope, 57.
John XXII., pope, 185, 187, 194.
John de Gray, bp. of Norwich, 137.
John of Crema, legate, 99.
John of Salisbury, 111.
John of Shoreditch, 202.
John, the old Saxon teacher, 39.
Jurisdiction, ecclesiastical, 30, 43, 81, 88, 98, 115-117, 124, 160,
165, 166, 168, 169, 184, 193, 197, 205, 207, 210.
Kent, conversion of, 2-5;
overthrow of kingship in, 27;
end of ealdormanship of, 52.
Kingship, 31, _see_ Coronation.
Kingston, council at, 28.
Lambeth, Archbishop Hubert's foundation at, 133;
council at, 166.
Lancaster, John of Gaunt, duke of, 210.
Lancaster, Thomas, earl of, 188.
Langton, Walter, bp. of Lichfield, 179, 182.
Lateran council of 1099, 94.
Law, canon, 111, 149, 159;
civil, 111, 125, 159;
common, 125, 149.
Legates, 23, 27, 31, 70, 77, 84, 93, 98-100, 103, 107, 124, 125, 140,
144-146, 150, 157, 158.
Legislation, ecclesiastical, 17, 28, 29, 40, 41, 43, 49, 58, 60, 80, 82,
83, 98, 160, 197, 203, 204.
Leicester, see of, 18, 41.
Leo III., pope, 28, 34.
Leo IV., pope, 36.
Leo IX., pope, 65, 66.
Leofric, bp. of Exeter, 63, 65, 66.
Lewes, battle of, 157.
Lewis VII. of France, 118-120.
Lichfield, see of, 17, 18;
made metropolitan, 26-29;
removals of, 82.
Lincoln, parliaments of, 178, 183.
Lindisfarne, see of, 7, 13, 17, 19, 35.
Lindsey, conversion of, 5;
bishopric of, 18.
Lisbon, taking of, 128.
Llewelyn, prince of Wales, 167.
London, proposed as a metropolis, 2, 3;
see of, 4.
Lotharingian bishops, 64-66, 68, 84.
Lyons, council of, 165, 168.
Manfred, 155.
Manumissions, 73.
Marriage, the Church and, 45, 49, 151, 169;
clerical, 39, 45, 48, 82, 96, 98, 151, 167, 210.
Martin, papal envoy, 152.
Martin IV., pope, 168.
Maserfield, battle at, 7.
Matilda, empress, 106, 108.
Melrose, 11.
Mercia, conversion of, 8;
diocese of, divided, 17, 18;
predominance of, 26, 213.
Merton, council of, 150, 159.
Missionaries, early English, 32, 54.
Monasticism, Celtic, 8, 14;
Benedictine, 38, 43, 46, 47, 53.
Montmirail, conference at, 119.
Mortimer, Roger, 187.
Mortmain, statute of, 165, 166, 172.
Myton, the chapter of, 188, 198.
Nevill's Cross, battle of, 198.
Nice, second Council of, 33.
Nicolas of Tusculum, 141.
Nicolas II., pope, 69.
Nicolas III., pope, 163, 164.
Nicolas IV., pope, taxation of, 171.
Nidd, the, council held near, 20.
Northampton, council of, 117.
Northumbria, conversion of, 5, 6;
two kingdoms, 6;
division into dioceses, 17-20;
literary splendour, 21, 33;
ruin of, 34, 35;
conquest of, 42;
revolt of, 46.
Norwich, see of, 82.
Oath, coronation, 51, 120, 129, 136;
in suits, 50;
a false, taken cognizance of by spiritual courts, 169.
Offa, king of Mercia, 26, 27, 32, 33.
Olaf, king of Norway, 57, 60.
Ordainers, the lords, 183.
Ordeals, 43.
Orkneys, bishopric of the, 80, 107.
Orlton, Adam, bp. of Hereford and Winchester, 185, 187, 195, 196.
Osbern, bp. of Exeter, 86.
Oswald, bp. of Worcester, _see_ York, abps. of.
Oswald, king of Northumbria, 6, 7.
Oswiu, king of Northumbria, 6, 7, 10-12, 15.
Otho, legate, 150, 160.
Otto the Great, king and emperor, marries a sister of AEthelstan, 44.
Ottoboni, legate, 158, 160.
Oxford, 106, 108, 125, 149, 151.
Pall, archiepiscopal, 2, 6, 24, 30, 61, 71, 93.
Pandulf, legate, 140, 144, 145.
Parishes, 23.
Parliament, clerical representation in, 172-174, 189, 204.
Parliament, the Good, 211.
Paschal II., pope, 96, 100.
Paulinus, _see_ York, bps. and abps. of.
Peerage of bishops, 197.
Penda, king of Mercia, 5.
Penitentials, 23, 30.
Peter des Roches, bp. of Winchester, 140, 142, 143, 149.
Peter's pence, 36, 40, 49, 61, 84, 181, 204.
Philip II. of France, 139, 141.
Philip IV. of France, 177, 179.
Pilgrimages, 25, 32, 36, 69, 70.
Plague, the great, 198, 199, 205, 208.
Plurality of benefices, 41, 63, 164, 206.
Pontigny, 118, 119.
Praemunientes clause, 173, 189, 190.
Praemunire, statute of, 193, 203, 218.
Provisions, 147, 150, 184, 201, 202, 210, 211, 218.
Provisors, statute of, 193, 202, 218.
Quare impedit, writ of, 202.
Ralph Flambard, bp. of Durham, 88.
Ramsbury, see of, 42.
Reading, provincial council at, 165.
Reginald, abp.-elect, 137.
Regulars and seculars, struggles between, 48, 51, 85.
Remigius, bp. of Dorchester, 79.
Reservations, 184, 201, 202, 211.
Rheims, council of, 110.
Richard I., 129-133.
Ripon, 10, 19, 57, 187.
Rochester, see of, 4, 6, 52.
Rockingham, council of, 92.
Roger, bp. of Salisbury, 103, 107, 108.
Rome, "Saxon school" at, 32, 36.
Rustand, papal envoy, 156.
Saeberct, king of the East Saxons, 2.
Saladine tenth, 124.
Salisbury, see of, 82.
Scandinavian invasions, 34, 56, _see_ Danes.
Schism, the Celtic, 8-14, 16, 17, 25, 212.
Schools, 21, 25, 49, 53.
Scotland, relations with York, 3, 80, 101;
papal dictum concerning, 102;
Church freed from dependence, 102;
a fief of Rome, 178;
wars with England, 107, 178, 187, 197.
Scottish missionaries and clergy, 4, 6, 8, 9.
Scutage, 113, 146, 147.
Sees, removals of, 65, 82.
Selsey, see of, 19;
removed, 82.
Sergius, pope, 19, 26.
Sherborne, see of, 26;
removed, 82.
Sherburn, northern parliament of, 188.
Sidnacester, see of, 18.
Simon de Montfort, earl, 156-158.
Simony, 63, 64, 67, 89, 144.
South Saxons, conversion of, 19.
Spearhafoc, bp.-designate, 67.
Standard, battle of the, 107.
Stapleton, Walter, bp. of Exeter, 187.
St. David's, see of, 128.
Stephen, king, 106-112.
Stephen, papal collector, 148.
Swend, king of Denmark, 57, 60.
Swithun, bp. of Winchester, 35.
Synods and ecclesiastical councils, 11, 17, 29, 31, 55, 80, 91, 97, 98;
_see_ Whitby, &c., also Convocation.
Taxation, ecclesiastical, 74, 75, 113, 124, 146, 147, 152-154, 171,
174-177, 200, 205, 209.
Templars, suppression of the, 125, 183.
Tenths, 147.
Testa, William de, 181, 182.
Thurkill, 58, 59.
Tithes, 23, 24, 43, 49, 61, 98, 169, 204, 205.
Tostig, earl, 69.
Transubstantiation, 54, 86, 87.
Translations, episcopal, rule concerning, 184.
Tribute, papal, 140, 182, 204.
Ufford, John, archbishop-elect, 198.
Ulf, bp. of Dorchester, 64, 66, 67, 70.
Urban, II., pope, 91-94.
Urban IV., pope, 157, 158.
Urban V., pope, 200, 204.
Vacarius, 111.
Vercelli, council of, 66.
Vezelay, abp. Thomas at, 119.
Vicarages, erection of, 151.
Victor, anti-pope, 118.
Walchelin, bp. of Winchester, 85, 86.
Wales, church of, not in communion with Canterbury, 3, 8, 10;
joins communion, 25;
in S. Wales bishops profess obedience, 42;
independence of church, 80;
dependence, 102;
character, 127, 177, 168.
Alfred's power in, 42.
Conquest of, by Edward I., 167.
Wallingford, treaty of, 112.
Walter Map, 133.
Walter of Cantelupe, bp. of Worcester, 156-158.
Waltham, 68, 71.
Wedmore, peace of, 37.
Wells, see of, 42, 82.
Wessex, conversion, 6, 8;
diocesan division of, 18, 26, 42;
gains supremacy, 28.
Westminster abbey, 69, 71, 85;
councils at, 24, 98, 116, 124;
convocation of Canterbury meets at, 98, 191.
Whitby, synod of, 11-13, 16, 29, 213.
Wighard, abp. designate, 15.
Wight, Isle of, conversion, 19.
William the Conqueror, 71, 72, 77-87, 92, 105, 215.
William Rufus, 87-95.
William, bp. of London, 67, 68.
William Fitz-Osbert, 133.
William Longchamp, bp. of Ely, 129.
William of Saint-Calais, bp. of Durham, 87, 88, 92.
William Wither, 148.
Winchester, see of, 26, 42;
councils at, 83, 108.
Wini, bp. of W. Saxons, 8.
Witchcraft, 39.
Worcester, see of, 18;
held with York, 69.
Wulfstan, bp. of Worcester, 63, 70, 71, 84.
Wyclif, John, 193, 211, 212.
Wykeham, William of, bp. of Winchester, 207-212.
York, see of, founded, 2, 5;
overthrown, 6;
restored, 13;
metropolitan dignity restored, 22, 24, 212;
period of greatness, 25;
of obscurity, 34, 35;
special position of, 35, 46, 74, 79;
claim to obedience of Scottish bishops, 80, 101, 102;
disputes with Canterbury, 79, 100, 101, 199.
York, bps. and abps. of--
Paulinus, 5, 6, 12, 13, 24.
Wilfrith, 10-14, 17-20, 31, 213.
Ceadda, 14, 16, 17, 29.
Ecgberht, 22, 24, 25, 30.
AEthelberht (Albert), 25.
Eanbald, 34.
Wulfstan, 43, 46.
Oswald, 44, 48.
Ealdred, 63, 66, 69, 78.
Thomas, 78-80, 85.
Thurstan, 100, 101, 107.
William, 109, 110.
Henry Murdac, 109, 110.
Roger, 120, 124.
Geoffrey, 122, 130, 131, 138, 216.
Walter Gray, 144.
Sewal de Bovil, 155.
William Melton, 187.
William Zouche, 197.
John Thoresby, 199, 208.
THE END.
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