+Source.+--_Matthew Paris_, _Chronica Majora_, vol. i., pp. 126-129.
(Bohn's Libraries.)
At this time, the legate, having come to Oxford, and been received with
the highest honour, as was due to him, was entertained in the house of
the canons, which was at Oseney Abbey, where the scholar-clerks before
breakfast-time sent him an honourable present, in the way of meat and
drink, and after breakfast proceeded to his place of abode to pay their
salutation to him, and to visit him out of respect. On their approach,
however, a transalpine porter, with unbecoming and improper raillery,
raising his voice after the manner of the Romans, and holding the door a
little open, said: "What do you want?" To which the clerks replied: "We
want his lordship the legate, that we may pay our respects to him;" for
they confidently believed that they would receive honour for honour. The
doorkeeper, however, with taunting speeches, saucily refused admittance
to them all, with haughtiness and abuse; on seeing which, the clerks
rushed forward with impetuosity, and forced their way in, whilst the
Roman attendants, in their endeavours to keep them back, struck them
with their fists and sticks. Whilst the contending parties were engaged
in repeated blows and taunts, it happened that a poor Irish chaplain was
standing at the door of the kitchen, and had earnestly besought for
something to be given to him in God's name, after the custom of a poor
and hungry man, when the master of the legate's cooks (who was also his
brother, and whom he had placed at the head of that office, that no
poison might be given to him, which he, the legate, greatly feared)
heard him, but paid no heed to his request; and, becoming angry with the
poor man, threw in his face some boiling water drawn from the caldron
where fat meat was being cooked. At this injury to the poor man, one of
the clerks, a native of the Welsh borders, cried out: "Shame on us to
endure anything like this!" and drew a bow which he carried (for, as the
tumult had increased, some of the clerks had seized on whatever came to
hand), and by an arrow discharged from it, himself pierced the body of
the cook (whom the clerks satirically called "Nabuzardan," which means
chief of the cooks). On the fall of the dead man a cry was raised,
hearing which the legate was astounded, and, struck with fear, which can
overtake the boldest man, he betook himself to the tower of the church,
clad in his canonical hood, and secured the doors behind him. When the
darkness of the night had put an end to the tumult, he put off his
canonical dress, quickly mounted his best horse, and under the guidance
of some persons who knew the most private fords, crossed the river at
the nearest part to him, although with much danger, for the purpose of
flying under the protection of the King's wings as soon as possible; for
the clerks, carried away by rage, continued to seek for the legate in
the most secret hiding-places, crying out: "Where is that simoniacal
usurer, that plunderer of revenues, and thirster for money, who perverts
the King, subverts the kingdom, and enriches foreigners with spoil taken
from us?"... Having crossed the river with much trouble (as above
mentioned), and with only a few attendants, owing to the difficulty of
the passage, the rest remaining concealed in the convent, the legate
came to the King breathless, and in a state of alarm, and with sighs and
tears interrupting his discourse, he explained to the King, as well as
his attendants, the series of events which had happened, making a
serious complaint in the matter. The King was astonished at his pitiable
story, and sympathised much with him, and sent the Earl of Warrenne with
an armed troop to Oxford, with all haste, to rescue the Romans who were
lying concealed there, and to arrest the scholars; amongst the latter,
one Master Odo, a lawyer, was roughly seized, and, together with thirty
others, was ignominiously consigned to close imprisonment in the Castle
of Wallingford, near Oxford; whilst the legate, thus liberated from the
broken snare, summoned some of the Bishops, laid Oxford under an
interdict, and excommunicated all the abettors of this enormous offence.
The prisoners were then, at the instance of the legate, conveyed in
carts, like robbers, to London, and were there committed to close
confinement, after being deprived of their incomes, and bound by the
anathema....
At length it was suggested to the legate, by the Bishops and the whole
of the clergy, that the dispute took its risk from his own dependants;
but at the end of the dispute the clergy got the worst of it, for, by
his orders, a great portion of them were committed to prison; the rest
of them, in obedience to his orders, were ready humbly to make
submission, at a place about three days' journey from Oxford; to these,
on the petition of so many great men, his mind ought to be inclined to
mercy. At length it was arranged that the legate would grant this mercy,
on condition that all the scholars there assembled should proceed on
foot, in company with the Bishops, also on foot, from St. Paul's Church,
which was nearly a mile distant from the abode of the legate, until they
reached the abode of the Bishop of Carlisle, and from thence should go,
without hoods and cloaks, and barefooted, to the abode of the legate,
where they would humbly ask pardon, which would be granted them, and
they would become reconciled. This was done; and the legate, seeing this
humiliation, received them again into his favour, restored the
University to its municipal site, mercifully withdrew the interdict,
with the sentence of excommunication, and granted them letters that, on
this account, no stain of disgrace should at any time be thrown on them.