"stout Lincoln," says the historian*, “cried out "aloud, let us not be divided; if we are divided, 66 we are lost."

In 1252, the king, in a parliament then sitting in London, demanded, by virtue of a papal mandate, a tenth of all ecclesiastical revenues, according to a new valuation. "Do you think," think," exclaimed the bishop of Lincoln," that we shall submit to this "wretched exaction ?"—" Father," said the young bishop of Winchester, "what shall we do? the "king pulls; the pope hauls; and our French "brethren have granted such a subsidy."-" This," replied Lincoln, "is the very circumstance, which “should induce us to oppose it. Two acts make "a precedent; let us not be the authors of the "precedent now sought to be established." The advice was taken, and the demand avoided: but it was renewed in the following year. This produced an able letter from our prelate to St. Edmund, his former primate, who had recently resigned the archbishopric of Canterbury. The subsidy, however, was granted, but it was accompanied by a requisition for the redress of grievances. This the clergy presented to his majesty by a deputation, consisting of Boniface, the uncle of the queen, who had succeeded St. Edmund in the see of Canterbury; by William, bishop of Sarum; Sylvester, bishop of Carlisle, and Aylmer, bishop of Winchester, the king's half-brother. "I am sorry,' the king said with a sneer, on receiving it," for all

* Matthew Paris, p. 849. Ann. Burt. p. 322.

"the transgressions of which you complain; I "shall take care to correct what is past, and to "avoid the like for the future; and in this, I beg

your concurrence.-It was in the very manner, of "which you now complain, that I promoted you, "Boniface, to the see of Canterbury; you, William, "from the lowest degree, to the see of Salisbury, "and to the honour of being my secretary and "chief justice; you, Sylvester, from being a little " clerk in chancery, to the see of Carlisle ; and you, brother Aylmer, in spite of the monks, and your "want both of age and science, to Winchester. Surely, it is not less your duty than mine, that you should take the lead in the redress which you pray for, and resign your offices." The prelates could only reply that the petition regarded not the past, but the time to come.

-It is observable, that, though in the controversies which have been, and in others, which might be mentioned, the bishop of Lincoln took an active part against the king, yet he preserved through life, both the reverence and the regard of the monarch, of his family, and of the principal nobility. No place was thought so proper for the education of the royal or the noble youth of his times as his episcopal palace.

VIII. 5.

Contests between bishop Grossetete and the Popes.

"We are now entering," says doctor Perry in the manuscript, which we have mentioned, " upon

"the most remarkable, as well as upon the most ❝ delicate; and we may add, the most glorious part "of the bishop of Lincoln's life: viz. those con"troversies, which he had with the head of the "church, and wherein, like another Paul, he re"sisted Peter's successor, or his officers in the see: "but then, if it was with the zeal and courage of "St. Paul, it was also with a like humility and respect for his superior."

66

In a former page, we have mentioned the demand of pope Gregory the ninth, that the English hierarchy should provide certain Roman ecclesiastics with benefices. This was accompanied with a tax on every spiritual benefice in England. The proportion of it, which was to be raised on the diocese of Lincoln, amounted to 600 marks: the bishop generously eased his clergy from contributing towards it, by advancing the whole sum. Unfortunately, all the collection, and the legate Otho, the bearer of it, fell into the hands of the emperor, with whom the pope was then at war. The death of Gregory discharged the obligation of providing for the Romans. His holiness was succeeded by pope Celestine, a prelate commendable for piety and learning. He survived his election only eighteen days, and was succeeded by pope Innocent the fourth, who was elected at Lyons, about Midsummer 1243.

A council being called in that city, our prelate repaired to it, and was honourably received. The council held its first meeting in 1245; and the first measure of the meeting was to excommunicate and

depose the emperor Frederick. The sentence was pronounced by the pope, and confirmed by the prelates, holding lighted torches in their hands: it was committed to writing, was subscribed by all the prelates, and sealed with their seals.

Soon after this deplorable exhibition, the bishop of Lincoln returned to England: charged with three commissions from the pope,-one, by which his holiness recommended to the archbishop of York, the cause of the bishop of Servia, who had been banished by the emperor Frederick, for adhering to the pope in the contests between them; one, by which our prelate was enjoined to confirm his sovereign in his attachment to the holy see; and one, by which he was charged to raise one subsidy for his holiness, and one for Boniface the archbishop of Canterbury. When he executed the second of these commissions, the monarch made him a firm and temperate reply, in which, while he professed great devotion to the see of Rome in spirituals, he asserted, in the most explicit terms, the independency of the crown upon the pope all temporal concerns. In the third commission, other prelates were joined with Grossetete, and they all reluctantly acted in its execution. A further subsidy being still required, and the diocese of Lincoln being assessed 6,000 marks towards its discharge, the bishop declared it to be an intolerable exaction, and declined to make the advance; but the assessment being afterwards modified, with the assent of the lords and commons, the bishop then contributed his quota.

in

The general alienation of the public mind from the court of Rome in consequence of these exactions, and the tendency of them to produce that defection which took place at a subsequent period, are described by Matthew Paris* in forcible terms. The reader will do well to compare them with the observations made by cardinal St. Juliant, at a time much nearer to the reformation, which we shall transcribe in a future part of this work.

When the Wickliffites and the other separatists from the see of Rome disturbed the church and state, in the following century, the predictions of our prelates, (as those of the celebrated Thaulerus and other distinguished personages of those times), were venerated as prophecies: but this was unnecessary in these eminent men,

"Old experience did attain

"To something like prophetic strain”-

MILTON ;

and enabled them to foresee the consequences of the scenes which shifted before them.

The demands of pope Innocent the fourth, and his officers at length rose to such a height, as made our prelate think resistance to them a necessary duty. What principally excited his indignation, was the amount of the ecclesiastical revenues possessed by foreign beneficiaries. Upon a computation, which he caused to be made of them, he found, that Innocent the fourth alone had impoverished

* P. 865.

I Chap. x. s. 9,

+ Hist. des Variations, lib, i. s. 1.