On the day after All Saints in the same year, the King held his
Parliament at St. Edmund's, where he was granted, on his request, a
twelfth by the people, and an eighth by the cities and boroughs; a fifth
was demanded from the clergy, but they replied that they were unable to
grant anything, and the King to receive anything, without each incurring
the sentence of excommunication pronounced in the Bull; a result which
they deemed the King did not desire, and which they knew would be
injurious to themselves. But this reply did not satisfy the King, so
postponement was made to another Parliament to be held at London on the
day after S. Hilary, to see if after mature deliberation in the interval
they would give a more favourable reply. At length the day came, and
when the clergy were assembled, Master Robert of Winchelsea Archbishop
of Canterbury, after hearing the advice of the messengers sent from the
King, replied as follows: "You know well, my lords, for it is
undeniable, that under God Omnipotent we have two lords, one spiritual
and one temporal; our spiritual lord is the Pope and our temporal lord
the King; and although we owe obedience to each, yet in a greater degree
to the spiritual than to the temporal; but with the aim of satisfying
both, we permit and desire our special messengers to be sent at our
expense to our spiritual lord the Pope, in order that we may have
liberty to grant, or, at least, may be informed by him what we are to
do; for we believe that our lord the King fears and wishes to avoid the
sentence of excommunication pronounced in the Bull, even as we do." To
this the King's messengers replied, "Appoint from among yourselves, my
lords, men whom you may send to make these proposals to the lord King;
for we, knowing that his wrath is roused, fear to tell him of them."
When the clergy had done so, the King's anger broke forth, and giving
way to furious rage, he declared the Archbishop of Canterbury himself
and all the clergy of England outside his guardianship and protection;
and ordered that all the lands--even the lands received in gift--of the
Church of England should be taken into his own hand. And, as is
believed, it miraculously happened that, on the very day on which the
King outlawed the clergy, his soldiers were thrown into confusion and
defeated, in Gascony, by the French. Even the King's Justiciar, seated
at the tribunal, in the place of the King, said, publicly, in the
hearing of all who were present: "Do you, who are attorneys of
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and Priors, and all other clerics,
announce to your masters that for the future they shall receive no
justice in the King's Court for anything, even though they suffer the
most cruel wrongs; yet justice shall be done on them in the interest of
all who complain against them and wish to have redress. Wonderful to
tell! common justice, which is granted to the people, is, I know not for
what reason, denied to the clergy; so Mother Church, which of old had
dominion over her sons, now walks in bondage and servitude."
But Henry de Newark, Bishop-elect of York, the Bishops of Durham, Ely,
and Salisbury, and some others, fearing the anger of the King, and
imagining some grave danger to be impending, announced that they had in
mind to deposit in their churches a fifth part of the ecclesiastical
property of the year, for the defence of the Church of England and the
warding off of a great crisis, so that they might avoid the King's
anger, and yet not incur the sentence pronounced in the Bull. Thus,
whatever was deposited by the clergy the treasury took into its
possession; by so doing, and under a pretence granting a fifth, these
Churchmen obtained the King's protection. But the Archbishop of
Canterbury remained steadfast, refused to grant or deposit anything, and
chose rather to incur the anger of the King than the sentence of
excommunication; wherefore all his goods were seized, his gold and
silver vessels, and all his horses; and his friends forsook him, nor was
there even anything left for the maintenance of Christ's poor; and it
was ordained, under pain of heavy forfeiture to the King, that no one
should receive him to lodge within a religious house or elsewhere,
heedless of the command of the Apostle, "Receive one another, as Christ
also received you"; and he remained an outcast in the house of a simple
rector, with only one priest and one clerk, not having in the whole
diocese where to lay his head; yet he ordered himself even according to
the word of God, begging publicly, ever ready to die for the Church, and
everywhere protesting that all who had granted anything to the King or
any other lay person, against the will of the lord Pope, had thereby
surely incurred the sentence of excommunication.
The friends of Oliver, Bishop of Lincoln, who also had refused to
perform the King's will, persuaded the Sheriff of Lincoln to take a
fifth part of the Bishop's goods, and then restore him his possessions
and lands. All the monasteries of that same episcopate, and of the whole
Province of Canterbury, were taken into the King's hand, and by his
command wardens were appointed who allowed to the monks the barest
necessaries, while everything else was gathered into the Treasury.
Whereupon the Abbots and Priors, driven by necessity, approached the
King's Court, and redeemed, not their sins, but their own property, by
the payment of a fourth. At that time the clergy received no justice,
and clerks suffered many injuries. Churchmen were even robbed of their
horses on the King's highway, and were unable to obtain justice, till
they ransomed themselves and were received back into the royal
protection.