instance of Lewis king of France who was then in open war with England, was sent into France with power to put the dominions of the king of England under an interdict, in case he did not suffer his son Richard to marry Alice the daughter of the French king. And when by his menaces that legate had brought those two princes to an agreement, he farther engaged them to agree upon an expedition to the Holy Land; an undertaking so fatal to all the Western princes who engaged in it, that one can hardly forbear applying to him who gave this advice, what our Saviour saith of sowing tares, "it was an enemy that did it." This was one article first put upon king Henry, when he made his peace the death of Becket: and indeed this was the usual atonement required to appease their wrath, whenever the court of Rome was offended. And if weakening Christian princes and rendering them an easier prey to the papal usurpations were not at the bottom of this war, it is very certain this was the effect and consequence thereof. upon Whilst the court of Rome was thus carrying on its designs to render the Western princes vassals to the papacy, and was every day making some new advances, they did not forget to mortify and humble their bishops; and in order thereunto took all occasions to encourage those who attempted to break through the ancient discipline of the church. And as the religious were ever the most forward therein, their encourgement bore proportion to the importance of that interest which the court of Rome hoped to serve by it. It was this consideration which ever made them friends in that court, which no interest was sufficient to resist. And Richard archbishop of Canterbury about this time felt the effects of the bias that court lay under, and not only saw his authority disobeyed, and a Baron. Annal. ann. 1177. N. 126. 1 Felt the effects.] Of the progress, effects, &c. of this exemption of the religious orders from episcopal jurisdiction, we may take the following as a melancholy specimen from Sir Roger Twisden: "When the papacy first attempted the exempting some great monasteries from the jurisdiction of their ordinary, it was salva Primatis reverentia ;' or, as Malmsbury explains it, Archiepiscopi tantum nutum in legitimis spectaturus.' But, however this was thus carefully penned not to thwart with the archbishop, yet, being brought hither, it was taken away by Lanfranc, and not permitted to be made use of, the abbot finding no other way to regain it but multorum preces.' Yet afterward the pope without scruple exempted them not only from their diocesan, but even such as were under the archbishop's nose, with all pertaining to them, were taken out of his jurisdiction; the offender supported in his rebellion, but put in a condition to set him at defiance, and to insult him in his own province; and this was occasioned by the vanity and ambition of the monks of Canterbury. The convent of the monks of St. Austin having first driven out, and then by their interest in the court of Rome got their former prior deprived about two years before, they chose Roger in his room, who having in a very haughty manner required the archbishop to come to Canterbury, and to give him his benediction in his own monastery, was told by the archbishop that it was his duty to attend the place which he appointed. Nevertheless he at last consented to come to Canterbury and give him his benediction, provided the prior would make such profession of obedience as had usually been made to his predecessors: but this was a condescension the monks had not humility enough to think of, much less to bear; and therefore their prior was sent away to Rome, and in the beginning of this year returned to England with the ring and the mitre, the usual ensigns of the episcopal authority", and with a mandatory letter from pope Alexander, requiring the archbishop of Canterbury to go to the monastery of St. Austin in Canterbury, and there to give his benediction to the prior elect, and without requiring from him the usual profession of canonical obedience b. When the archbishop refused to obey, the prior returned to Rome, and there received his benediction. Nor was this the only mortification put upon that prelate; for pope Alexander did at least pretend to confirm the scheme and model projected by Gregory the Great, and to determine that the two archbishops of and he who at first preserved others' rights, had now those houses at an easy rate removed from his own: a fact of infinite advantage to the papacy, by which it had persons of learning in all parts, who, depending wholly on it, defended what was done as being so by one who had a power (right) of doing it. And he (the archbishop), who alone did at first agere vices apostolicas in Anglia,' was under no legate, permitted no bull from Rome to be made use of in England but by his approbation, was now so far from taking them away from the bearers, that private clerks, by deputation from thence, did sit as his superiors in determining differences between him and others, who by strength were taken from his jurisdiction." Vindication of the Church of England, &c. p. 39, 40. On the general question, see a learned and elaborate statement in Inett, vol. ii. p. 204-23. See also 226,7. 318,9. 338–41. and 494. See also Index, under Religious Orders, exemption of, &c. a Gervas. Chron. ann. 1178. X. Script col. 1444. b Ibid. Canterbury and York should have precedence according to priority of consecration, and that the archbishops of Canterbury should not require a profession of canonical obedience from the archbishops of York; and in case they refused to consecrate the archbishops of York for want of such profession, the bishops of the province were then to consecrate them by the papal authority. But though a constitution of this kind appears both in the history of Dicetod and in the appendix to the third council of Lateran, and this doubtless served to perpetuate the quarrel upon this subject, yet it doth not appear that it answered the ends for which it was designed: however, it could not but give some uneasiness to the archbishop of Canterbury. But if pope Alexander gave too much to the province of York, he endeavoured to make the archbishop of Canterbury a recompence at the charge of his suffragan bishops. Those prelates, it seems, had a wrong notion of the legatine authority, and persuaded themselves that the archbishops of Canterbury as legates had no cognizance of such causes as were the proper subject of their authority, but when carried to the legate by appeals: but by a constitution of pope Alexander the third, directed to the bishops of the province of Canterbury, he thinks fit to tell them, that though their archbishop as metropolitan had no cognizance of things arising in their dioceses, but when brought to him by appeals, yet as legate he had cognizance of every thing in the first instance as well as in case of appeals, and commanded them quietly to submit, and to suffer causes from their several dioceses to be brought to his legate; or, in other words, quietly to part with their rights and to yield up their authority, as a sacrifice to the usurpation which was by this time grown masterly and incapable of resistance. This was the return which the court of Rome made to those bishops who were not so careful as they should have been in the defence of their metropolitans; they were made an easy prey, and became a common sacrifice to the usurpation which they wanted precaution or courage to prevent; and if they had any favour, it was only this, to see the rights of the crown and the national church perish first, and to be themselves last devoured. a Concil. tom. x. col. 1690. b Ibid. c Ibid. e Concil. tom. x. col. 1690. INTRODUCTION. KING JOHN, THE BARONS, AND POPE INNOCENT THE THIRD1. THE design of pope Gregory the seventh to change the primitive and apostolic government of the Christian church from an aristocracy to a monarchy, and such a monarchy too as pretended to a supreme authority over princes, falling into the hands of a succession of men who for more than an age pursued it with indefatigable zeal, great applications, and steady counsels, the ecclesiastic monarchy was raised to such a pitch, that pope Innocent, taking the advantage of a dispute (1207) betwixt Otho and Philip, who by different factions were both elected emperors, determined "that the correction of princes belonged to the bishops of Rome;" that "it was their right to judge of the elections of emperors, and either to approve or reject as they saw cause :" and this determination was inserted into the decretals, as a standing law and maxim of the court of Rome. And in the council of Avignon in the year one thousand two hundred and nine, it was decreed by the legates of that court, that bishops might by the censures of the church compel the lords, nobility, and people, and governors of provinces, to promise upon oath to extirpate heresy out of their country, and in case of neglect to interdict their dominions and countries". 1 The Third.] From Inett's Origines Anglicanæ, &c. vol. ii. p. 410-22, 430-52, 465-72, 473-87. a Blondel. decad. ii. lib. vi. c Concil. tom. xi. par. i. col. 43. b Decretal. Greg. lib. i. tit. vi. cap. xxxiv. The conduct of that court was suitable to the maxims thereof; for not contented to command the wealth, and usurp on the authority of the Western churches by drawing the clergy and religious to a dependence upon them, and thereby to secure to themselves a considerable interest in the several dominions of the Western princes, they carried their pretensions still higher, and under the umbrage of the Holy War' found out ways to break in upon the authority of states and kingdoms, to lay impositions on their subjects, and without the leave of their princes to raise men and head armies in their dominions, and in some measure to make themselves masters of their wealth, their arms, and people. And it was an easy step from hence to advance to the command of their crowns; for he who has the wealth and subjects in his power, has the prince and the crown at his disposal. And so artfully did they manage that war, that those expeditions which were at the first the scourge of infidels, became at last the terror of Europe, and were upon all occasions held as rods over the heads of Christian princes. The emperors of Germany had very often felt the dire effects of that holy fury, and the Eastern church and empire were at this time bleeding under it. And yet, as if God had given up the Western princes to blindness and infatuation, and intended to redouble his judgments upon them by suffering them to be parties to their own ruin, whilst these things were doing, they were so fatally charmed by the artifices of the court of Rome, that their arms were engaged one against another, and princes by turns were tools to and suffered under the imposture, and were not allowed to see their danger, till it was past a remedy. For whilst they slept, the new ecclesiastic monarchy grew up to the most formidable power in Europe; and which is still more, it was in the hands of Pope Innocent the third, a young, bold, and active prelate; a man of great capacity, great application and address, and greater ambition; and as exactly fitted to put the last hand to the vast designs of the court of Rome, as if God had raised him up for an original of craft and ambition, and intended in him to let the world see, what base and unworthy designs might be covered and carried on under the colour of religion and the holy name and authority of Christ. 1 The Holy War.] See Index, under Crusade. See also Ben. Accolti De Bello a Christianis contra Barbaros. 1731. 8vo. Buddei Selecta Juris Naturalis, p. 97-148, &c. |