The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy

CHAP. I. Containing the several Treasons, Conspiracies, Rebellions, Seditions, Contumacies, Disloyalties of the Arch-bishops of Canter • ury against their Sovereigns, Kings of England ; the several Wars, Tumults, Dissensions occasioned and raised by them in, or against our Realm, with their manifold practices and attempts to undermine our Laws.

IN relating these Disloyalties of our holy Ar • h-Prelates of Canterbury, I cannot sing as the Poet once did,

(since there is little of God in any of their actions I am now to relate:) unless I take Jove here, not for the true living God, but for a mere impious, treacherous, murthering, usurping Devil incarnate, who thrust his Father Saturn out of his Royal Throne, and injuriously possessed h • mselfe of his Kingdom against all right and equity. And in this sense I may truly chaunt, Ab Jove principium, &c. since I must not only begin, but proceed and end, with Devils incarnate, masked under a P •• la • es white Rocher, rather than with holy Fathers of the Church.

One of the first men of this stamp that encounters me in the Sea of Canterbury, is Odo, surnamed the Severe, possessing this Pon ••• call Chair about the year of our Lord 940. This pragmatical turbulent Arch-Prelate, as he was thrice in Arms in the Field, after he was made a Bishop, where he • ought like a valiant Champion; so he caused King Edwin, wi • h whom he had very evil agreement, to be divorced from his Queen, some say for consanguinity, others for other reasons: Whereupon the King betaking himself • o his Concubines, Odo there • pon suspended the King from the Church, excommunicated his Concubines, causing one of them, whom the King unreasonably do • ed upon, to be fetched out of the Court with violence, branded her in the fore-head with an hot Iron, and then banished her into Ireland : After which she returning into England, Odo apprehends her the second time, and cuts off her sinews at the • ocke bone. The King being therewith much exasperated, spoiled all the Monks of all their goods, banished Dunstan, the chief of the Monks in • o Flanders ; (who, together with Cynesius, the Bishop on the day of this Kings Coronation, entered most audaciously into his Bed-chamber, and by violence dragged him both out of his Bed, and Bed-chamber, where they pretended he was sporting with his Concubine) and threatened Odo, with severe punishments, who was taken away by death soon after, and so delivered from all fear of the Kings displeasure. This Odo together with his Monks, wrought so with the Subjects before his death, that the Mercians with the Northumbrians, did utterly cast off the yoke of obedience to Edwin, and by an unanimous consent, made choice of his Brother Edgar for their King, Deo dictante & populo annuente, God himself (to wit, by the mouth of Odo and the other Prelates and Monks) dictating it, and the people thereunto consenting, writes Matthew Westminster. Arch-bishop Parker, and Bishop Godwin, in the life of Dunstan, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury after Odo, record, That during the time of Dunstan his Banishment into France, King Edwin, by the Rebellion of his Subjects, at the instigation, as is likely, of our Monks, Prelates, and their favorers, was deprived both of his life and Kingdom: Whereupon Edgar, that succeeded him, warned by his Brothers example, was content to curry savor with them and Dunstan, creating him first Bishop of Worcester, next of London, and finally of Canterbury. A good reward for this his Treason.

Dunstan coming to the Arch-Bishopric in this manner, not long after caused King Edward to be slain by his Soldiers, for refusing to aid the Bishop of Rochester against his Brother Agelredus, who besieged that City and the Bishop: The Monks of that time impute th • s treacherous Act to Queen Alsdrith, his Mother in Law, and God's Divine Judgment, to excuse their Patron Dunstan. After his Murder, (as John Capgrave and Speed record) this holy Arch-Bishop Dunstan would have advanced Edgith his sister to the Crown, and invested her against Etheldred the lawful Heir, had she not by the late experience of Edwards fall, utterly refused that Title • which neither belonged to h •• Right, nor was safe for her Person to undertake: Whereupon Dunstan and the Monks perceiving that Queen Elfrida, Alferus Duke of Mercia, and many Nobles, combined for young Etheldred, the right Hei • e, disavowing Prince Edward (surnamed the Martyr) as illegitimate, did with all their might oppose Etheldred, holding their states dangerous, and their new-gotten footing unsure, if in the Nonage of the King, Elfrida his Mother, and other their Opposites, should rule all under him, as was probable: For Elfrida hated Dunstan, because he desired to hinder King Edgar from ma • rying her, after he was contracted to her; rushing impudently into the Kings Bed-Chamber the first Night he lay with her, demanding of the King, who it was he had in Bed with him? who answering, that it was his Queen and Consort; Dunstan replied, that he could not marry her without offending God, and breaking the institution of the Roman Church, because of the spiritual Kindred that was between them, he being her God-father, often warning the King to be divorced from her, which he refused. Wherefore, Dunstan and the P • elates considering that Edward was altogether wrought in their mould, they abetted his Title to the Crown (though a Bastard) as one lawfully borne, and begot in the Nuptiall Bed of Queen Ethelfleda. Their Claimes thus banded among the S • atesmen, began to be diversely affected among the Commons, and had put the Game to the Hazard, if the wisdom of Dunstan had not seen • he Chase: For a Council being assembled to argue their Rights, the Arch-bishop came in with his Banner and Cross, and not staying for further debate de Iure, did de facto present King Edward for their lawful King; and the Assembly consisting of Clergy men, persuading peace, drew the approbation of the rest; and so was he admitted and proclaimed their Sovereign, and after Crowned at Kingston by Dunstan, and the true Heir put by for the time by this Arch-Traitor Dunstan, and his Clergy; till about three years after Edward was murdered, by the procurement of Queen Elfrida, and Etheldred Crowned King by Dunstan, much against his will. This King, Dunstan and his Monks continued to oppose • For Etheldred conceiving a just indignation against the Bishop of Rochester for his obstinacy and contumacious carriage towards him, thereupon besieged his City: Whereupon Dunstan commanded the King to desist from his purpose, lest he should provoke Saint Andrew, the Patron of that City; which the King refusing to do, without the Bishops submission, and unless he would likewise pay him an hundred pounds • Dunstan wondering thereat, sent this Message to the King: Because thou hast preferred Silver before God, Money before an Apostle, and Covetousness before me, violent mischiefs shall come upon thee, which the Lord • ath spoken. Such an Arch-Traitor and proud imperious Prelate was this Arch-Bishop Dunstan. And if • his Saint was such, what think you may his Successors prove, who were not so holy as to be Canonized? This Dunstan before he became Arch bishop of Canterbury, caused King Etheldred to p • eferre him before all his Nobles, and to • ay up all his richest Royal Household-stuff, Charters, Records, with all his Wealth and Treasures in his Monastery; and finally, to commit his very Kingdom, Body and Soul, to him: so that all things were in Dunstans power, the King not daring to do anything, either in public Affaires of the Kingdom, or in his own private Negotiations, without Dunstans advice; so that he alone exercised Royal Authority in every place. In and by which, he wholly employed his endeavors, how to enrich those Monasteries with Lands and Revenues, which himself had founded, or the Danes wasted, wasting the Kings Treasury, and appropriating the Crown Lands to this purpose: Which, when King Edwyn coming to the Crown, sought to resume, Dunstan much displeased herewith, sharply reprehended him, then affronted him, and at last cau • ed him to be murdered, as is before remembered. And for all this good service, he was not only made an Arch-Prelate, but a Saint.

Siricius, his next Successor but one, consilio infausto, by an unhappy, if no • perfidious Traytorly advice, persuaded King Etheldred, in the thirteenth year of his Rain, to buy his Peace of the Danes at ten thousand pound annual Rent, to the ignominy and almost utter destruction of • he whole Kingdom: Which evil (writes Henry Huntingdon ) hath continued to this very day, and will longer endure, unless God's mercy help us. For now we pay that to our Kings out of Custom, which was paid to the Danes out of unspeakable fears. (Yea, we a • this day have • ared the worse for this President, it being much insisted on, to justify the late Tax of Ship-Money.) Such perfidious and pernicious Counsellers of State have these Prelates been, in teaching Princes in every Land to lay new Exactions on, and Tyrannize more and more over their Subjects. Woe (saith Mr. Tyndale ) is to the Realms where they are of the Council; as profitable are they to the Realms with their Counsel, as the Wolves unto the Sheep, or the Foxes unto the Geese : As was this Arch-Prelate, who is much blamed in our Histories for this his advice.

Robert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury laid the first foundation of the Normans Conquest in England, persuading King Edward to make Duke William his Heir; Whereunto when he had condescended, himself became the Messenger of this good tidings unto the Duke, taking Harold with him, that he might hamper him with an oath (as he did indeed) and so bar him from all possibility of the Kingdom: which Oath he breaking afterward, lost both his li • e and Kingdom together. The Arch-Bishop now assuring himself of the favor of the King not only present • but him that was to succeed, could not endure that any should bea • e so great sway as himself in Court; and therefore fell to devise, how he might overthrow Emma the Kings Mother, who only served to over-top him. He began therefore to bea • e into the Kings head, how hard a hand his Mother had held upon him, when he lived in Normandy ; how likely it was, that his Brother came by his death by the practice of her and Earl Godwyn ; and that she used the company of Alwyn, Bishop of Winchester, somewhat more familiarly then was for her honor. The King somewhat too rashly crediting these Tales, without any further examination of this matter, seized upon all his Mothers goods, and committed her to Prison, in the Nunnery of Warwell, banished Earl Godwyn and his son, and commanded Alwyn upon pain of death, not to come forth of the Gates of Winchester. The Queen made the best friends she could, to be called to her answer; but the Arch-bishop so possessed the King, as other trial of her innocence might not be allowed then this; she must walk over nine Plough-shares red hot in the midst of the Cathedral Church of Winchester : If she performed not this Purgation, or were found anything at all hurt, she and the Bishop both should be esteemed guilty; if otherwise, the Arch-Bishop was content to submit himself to such punishment as they should have endured. The Arch-Bishops Authority was then so prevalent over the most powerful persons, that the Queen her self, neither by her own power, nor of the King her Son, nor of the Nobles and Bishops, nor by any other means than by her innocence, could keep off this so notorious an injury and contumely, the King and Bishops being forced to approve this most severe Edict of the Arch-Bishop, against their wills: Whereupon the Queen, led by two Bishops, in the open sight of the people, did this hard Purgation, and • o acquitted herself and Alwyn of the Crimes objected- The King then greatly bewailing the wrong done to his Mother by the Arch-Bishops malicious false suggestions, asked her forgiveness upon his knees, restored her and the Bishop to their goods and places; and to make satisfaction, would needs be whipped by the hands of the Bishops there present; and receiving three stripes of his Mother, was by her clearly forgiven. The Arch-bishop, the author and plotter of all this stir and mischief, fearing the success of this matter, held himself at Dover, under pretence of sickness; and as soon as he heard how the world went, knowing England to be too hot for him, got him over to the Abbey of Gemmeticum ; where overcome with shame and sorrow, he there shortly after ended his days: the King having passed a public Sentence against him and his confederates, Quod Statum Regni conturbarant, &c. That they had disturbed the State of the King • dome, stirring up the Kings mind against his Mother and faithful subjects, whereupon he was deprived.

Stigand, placed in his Sea before his death, after William the Conqueror had slain Harold, and vanquished his Army in Battlefield; Edwyn and Mercar endeavored to Crown Edgar, Etheling, the right • ull Heir; to whose • side, most of the Nobles, the Citizens of London, with the Navall Forces, adhered; and so did Aldred, Arch-Bishop of York : who presently, with the other Prelates, • ell off to William the Conqueror, being the stronger side, (to whom the Pope had sent a consecrated Banner, an Agnus Dei, and one of Saint Peters hairs, in way of good speed) refusing to side with the Lord's, whereupon their designements were all suddenly quashed. But Arch-bishop S • igand, and Eglesigne Abbot of Saint Augustine's, assembling all the Kentish men together, encouraged them to stand for their Liberties, though with the loss of their lives; and marching before them as their Generalls, enclosed him and his Army by a Stratagem, with Branches of trees, their Banners displayed, and Bows bent, and so purchased a confirmation of their Freedomes and Customs from him, by way of composition. Then coming to London, the Conqueror refused to be Crowned by Stigana, Aldred Arch • Bishop of York performing this Ceremony on • he day of Christ's Nativitie, Anno. 1066. Stigand not long after, and Alexander Bishop of Lincoln, fled int • Scotland, where they kept themselves close for a season; and at last returning, King William depart • into Normandy, knowing Stigand to be of a crafty Pate, and perfidious heart, and of great power among his Kentish men, carried him over Sea with him, lest he • hold raise new stirs, and cause a Revolt from him in England during his absence: and then returning into England, he caused him (with other Bishops that had been • reacherous to him) to be deposed from his Arch-Bishopric in a Synod at Winchester, for holding the Bishop of Winchester in Commendam with his Arch-Bishopric; for invading the Sea of Canterbury, whiles Robert lived • for using his Pa • l, left at Canterbury ; for Simony, and to prevent him from raising any further Tumults. The King after his degradation, spoiling him of his goods, committed him to perpetual Prison; where at last he was starved with hunger, refusing to reveal those infinite Treasures which he had heaped up in store, to work some mischie • e, which were discovered after his death. Not long after which, plures Episcopy & Abba • es, many Bishops and Abbots joined in a Conspiracie with Ralph de Ware, and Roger Earl of Hereford, against the Conqueror, to thrust him out of his Kingdom: such faithful Subjects were they to their Sovereign, to whom they had sworn allegiance.

William the Conqueror dying, by the persuasion of Lanfranke Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, (who had brought up William Rufus from his Child-hood) he left the Crown of England to his younger son William, putting the eldest son Robert from the Crown, which was due unto him. In which Action, God blessed not the Arch-Bishop: for the King (though thus advanced and Crowned by him, and the Prelates, against all right, and the approbation of the Nobles and People, who stood for Robert ) fell out with him, banished him the Realm, as being overbusie and pragmatical; till at last, with much ado, he mediated his peace. Now, what was this but an act of Treason, Treachery, and injustice, to thrust the right Hei • e from the Crown, and set up an Usurper? Which, as it procured many bloody Wars between the two Brethren, so it brought great misery on the whole Realm, as the Histories of those times witness; and procured himself much blame. This Arch-Prelate Lanfranke, was used by Pope Gregory before this exploit of his, for the undermining of William the Conqueror, and the subjecting both of him and his State to the Papacie; which he endeavoring, but not effecting, his Holiness growing angry with this Agent, Lanfrancke cleared himself of the blame, showing him how diligently, (but indeed treacherously) he had bestirred himself in counseling to swear to yield obedience and do fealty to the Pope: Suasi, sed non persuasi, saith he, I have so advised him, but I could not persuade him. O perfidious, ungrateful counsel and suasion of this Prelate, to make his Sovereign and his Realm me • e Vassals to the Pope! This Lanfrancke so far offended William Rufus, that he banished him the Land, whereupon he went to Rome, and travelled over divers Countries in Exile; till a writing on a certain night falling as it were from heaven into the hands of a Clerke, wherein it was written that William Rufus was slain (which afterwards came to pass) he heard the news of Rufus his death, and thereupon returned again to his See of Canterbury, and there died of a Feaver.

Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, his immediate successor, presently after his Consecration sell into contestation with his Sovereign William Rufus, naming and accepting Urban to be Pope, before the King had acknowledged him to be so; for which, and for his over-saucy speeches and carririage to the King, and his refusing to acknowledge his fau •• , he was commanded out of the Realm, all the Prelates of England, except only Gundalfus Bishop of Rochester, assenting to the King against Anselm, that he was guilty of High Treason, for attempting to deprive the Crown of sundry Prerogatives Royal belonging to it • to wit, That no Arch-Bishop nor Bishop of the Kingdoms should be subject to the Pope, or Court of Rome, with whom they had naught to do: That none ought to be received for Pope in this Realm, but him whom the King and state had first approved: That none should appeal to Rome in any case without the Kings license: and for siding with the Pope, and preferring him above his Sovereign • Pope Urban used Anselm as his instrument to draw the King to his beck, and to subject the Crown and Kingdom to his will; which incredible pride and Popish encroachments of his, attempted by the means of Anselm, and other chief Prelates of the Kingdom, caused the King for prevention of further mischefes, to banish th •• Rebellious Trayterly Prelate; who repairing to the Pope, where he had good entertainment, made many complaints against his Sovereign, whose death he both plotted and conspired; as is probable by that Vision which Matthew Westminster records to have appeared to Anselm during his exile, wherein he saw God, at the prayers of the Saints in England, deliver a fiery Arrow to Martyr Saint Alban, who delivered it to an evil Spirit, an avenger of wickedness, that cast it flying like a Comet throw the air, understanding presently in the Spirit, that the King wounded and shot with that Arrow, perished that night he saw this Vision. Wherupon celebrating the Mass very early the next morning he packed up his clothes, Books, and other things which he would have carried with him, and forthwith began his journey towards his Church of Canterbury, to which when he came near, he heard the King was slain about the same time; he having, in all likelihood, before that plotted with and hired Walter Tyrell the French Knight (who shot the King in the breast with an Arrow instead of the S • ag he was chasing) to murder the King in this manner about that time; which fore-plotted Treason was the occasion of this Vision: True it is, that the Monks who favored Anselm, and writ the Histories of those times impute this murder only to a casualty, as if the Arrow had glanced against a Tree, and so by accident slain the King, who with one only groan fell down and died: But certainly this Vision with many other of that nature, registered by our Monks compared with other circumstances; as the great hatred of the Clergy, Monks, and Prelates towards him, his premonition not to ride abroad a hunting that day, that Tyrell and the King were alone, and all the company else scattered from him when this was done; that most of his followers as soon as they heard of it made away; that Tyrell so easily escaped without any prosecution for this fact; that the Kings Corpes was laid by some few Country Peasants only (all the rest forsaking him) into a Colliers Cart, drawn with one silly beast, through a very foul and filthy way, where the Car • breaking, he lay pitifully gored, and filthily bemired, that he was obscurely buried at Winchester the next day following, not only without any state or solemnity, but without any tears, In cujus Sepultura lachrymae locum prae gaudio non habe • ant (saith Matthew Paris ;) that there were so many predictions of his death by Monks ; that Anselm had such speedy notice of it, and provided for his return to England the next morning after: These several circumstances, I say, compared with Anselm's Vision, are strong arguments to me, that his death was not casual, but plotted by this Arch-Prelate and his instruments, to end the controversies then between them. This King being thus dispatched, King Henry the first succeeded him, calls home Anselm from his Exile; who immediately upon his return deprived divers Bishops and Abbots in a Convocation at London, and presently after fell out with this King also, as he had done with William Rufus, for disposing of all Bishoprics that fell at his pleasure, giving investiture and possession of them by the delivery of a Staff and a Ring, according as his predecessors had done, and all Princes generally used to do in that Age; whereupon Anselm denying this Prerogative to his Sovereign, refused both to consecrate any of the Bishops thus elected, and appointed, or to repute any of those, already consecrated by such election, for lawful Bishops; alleging, that it was la •• ely prohibited by Pope Urban the second, in a Coun • cell held under him, that any Clerke should take the investiture of any spiritual pre • erment from the hand of any King, Prince, or Layman: The King upon Anselm's refusal, required Gerard Arch-Bishop of York to give these Bishops Consecration; whereunto he readily assented; but William Giffard nominated to Winchester, stood so in awe of Anselm, that he durst not accept consecration at Gerards hands. This incensed the King wonderfully, so as presently he commanded Giffards goods to be confiscate, and himself banished the Realm: great ado there was througho • t the Realm about this matter, some defending the Kings right, others taking part with the Bishops: The King thinking to pacify the Controversies, sent an Ambassador to the Pope, together with the Archbishop, to grow to some reasonable conclusion: • ase • all the second, who then was Pope, would not yield one jot unto the King, animated no doubt by Anselm, a man so resolute in his quarrel: insomuch that when the Kings Ambassador William Wartlewast said, he knew the King would rather lose his Crown than this privilege; he answered, Yea, let him lose his head also if he will, whilst I live, he shall never appoint Bishop, but I will resist him what I may. So without doing any good, homeward they came. The King understanding beforehand how the world went, sent a Messenger to forbid Anselm to enter into the Realm, & presently seized all his goods, movables, and immovables into his hands. After three years Exile, Anselm at the importunate mediation of Adila Countess of Bloys the Kings Sister, was restored, upon these conditions; that he should be content to consecrate the Bishops already nominated by the King, and that the King should renounce all right to such nominations and investitures for time to come: No sooner returned he again, but he kindled a fresh combustion, by enforcing all married Priests to forsake their wives, depriving them of their goods, Benefices, and adjudging their wives Adulteresses. The King upon their complaint, pitying their case (half of the Priests of England being then married, mediates for them, and protected them a while from Anselm's severity, granting them Licenses to retain their wives; but he (a man always most peremptory in his resolution) would not be persuaded to yield one jot in this or any other thing he intended: so that notwithstanding the Kings inclination to succor them, many of them were miserably vexed; which engendered a new quarrel between him and the King: In a word, this rebellious traytorly Prelate, did so good service for the Pope against these two Kings (whom he caused to be in a manner excommunicated by the Pope, and subjugate to his pleasure) that in favor of him, he afforded to his See this honor, That whereas the Arch-bishop of Canterbury was wont to sit next the Bishop of Ruffine in General Counsels, hereafter his place should be at the Popes right Foot, and withal used these words, Includamus hunc in Orbe nostro tanquam Papa alterius orbis, Let us include this man in our world, as the Pope of another world. In a word, King William Rufus was so vexed with Anselm, William Bishop of Durham, and other rebellious Prelates, that William of Milmesbury records of him, That he animated the Jews at London to enter into a Dispute against our Bishops, telling them (in merriment, as this Historian conceived) that if they overcame the Christians by manifest Arguments, that he would be of their Sect. Therefore this thing was acted with great fear of the Bishops and Clergy-men, affected with a pious solicitude of the Christian Faith. But in this Combat, the Jews obtained nothing but confusion; although they often boasted, that they were not overcome by Argumentation, but by the Faction of the Prelates.

This fire-brand of Contention departing this life, Ralph of Canterbury, his immediate Successor, an insolent choleric proud Prelate, offered two such notable affronts to King Henry the first, his Sovereign, who advanced him to this Sea, as no Age (I think) can parallel. For King Henry having assembled all his Nobles to Windsor Castle; to consult with them about his Marriage with Adelicia, his second Wife, Daughter to the Duke of Loraine ; the Bishop of Salisbury being requested both by the King and Queen to solemnize the Marriage between them, and clad in his holy Vestments, ready to perform this service, this decrepit resty proud Arch-Prelate commanded him to desist, contrary to the King and Queens Precept and desire, and committed that service to the Bishop of Winchester, who performed it. After which, Adelicia being solemnly to be Crowned Queen at London, on the Feast of Pentecost, in the presence of the King and Nobles, this Arch-Prelate as he was chaunting Mass at the High Altar in his Pontificalibus, to grace this Solemnity, espied the King sitting on his Royal Throne with his Crown upon his head: Whereupon he grew into such choler, that intermitting his begun Mass, he goes to the King, thus sitting in the Church on his Throne amidst his Nobles, and demands of him in big words, Who it was that had set the Crown upon his head ? (he being Crowned by Thomas Arch-Bishop of York, in the absence of Anselm of Canterbury :) To which the King replied: It is no great matter to me who did it, and it was done so long since, that I remember not who it was. But the Arch-Bishop enraged with choler, auswered: That whoever had done it, did it wrongfully and unjustly; therefore thou shalt either cease to wear thy Crown, or else I will desist from saying Mass. The King nothing moved herewith, answered with a pleasant and mild countenance: If this Crown, as thou sayest, be not lawfully set on my head, you may do that which you conceive to be agreeable to Law, I will not gain-say it. At which words, the Arch-Bishop approached nearer him, and lifting up his hands to pull the Kings Crown from off his head, whiles the King was untying the Button under his Chinne, by which his Crown was tied on his head, the Nobles admiring the Kings modesty, and the Arch-Bishops anger and arrogancy, cried out with one voice against the Arch-Prelate, and earnestly ent • eated him, That in the solemn Coronation of the Queen, he would not uncrowne the King himself. With who • e clamours Ralph being overcome, desisted f • om this his insolent attempt, and standing by the King, began the Song, Glory be to God on high ; and then proceeded in his Mass. Higden (and Speede out of him) records, That this testie old man could hardly be entreated by the Nobles to with-hold his hands from striking the Crown off the Kings head; and that even in the Church; in the presence of all his Lord's, his Queen, and God himself: of such an high spirit then was this devout Arch-Prelate. From hence (writes Matthew Parker ) it may be discerned, how unseasonably and impudently these kind of men abused the lenity of this Prince, who thought themselves more worthy in holiness than others, and deemed they had an imperial command over Princes.

This furious proud Prelate being dead, William Corbell his next Successor, was so good and trusty a subject to King Henry the first, who advanced him, that upon the Kings death, he was content to betray and dis-inherit of the Crown his Daughter Maud the Empresse, and contrary to his Oath, to join with Stephen Earl of Bloys, whom he Crowned with his own hands, but with such fear and terror of Conscience, that the consecrated Host fell out of his hands in the midst of Mass, by reason of his trembling and fearful amazedness. Raphael Holinshed his relation of this Fact, is worthy observation: Stephen (writes he) was Crowned at Westminster on Saint Stephens day by William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, the most part of the Nobility being present, and swearing Fealty unto him, as to their true and lawful Sovereign: Howbeit, there were diverse of the wiser sort of estates, which regarding their former Oath (to be true unto the Empresse Maude) could have been contented, that the Empresse should have governed till her Son had come to lawful age; notwithstanding they held their peace as yet, and consented unto Stephen. But the breach of their Oaths was worthily punished afterward, insomuch, that as well the Bishops, as the other Nobles, either died an evil death, or were afflicted with divers kinds of calamities and mischances, and that even here in this life. Yet there were some of them (namely the Bishop of Salisbury ) which protested, that they were free from their Oath of Allegeance made to the said Empresse, because that without the consent of the Lord's of this Land, she was married out of the Realm: Whereas they took their Oath, to receive her for Queen upon that condition, That without their assent she should not marry with any person out of this Realm. Moreover, (as some writers think) the Bishops took it, they should do God good service, in providing for the wealth of the Realm, and the advancement of the Church, by their Perjurie. For, whereas the late deceased King ( Henry the first) used himself not altogether for their purpose, they thought, That if they might set up and create a King chiefly by their especial means and authority, he would follow their counsel better, and refo • me such things as they judged to be amiss: So He. But this treacherous Act of them, in dis-inheriting Maude, (wherein the Bishop of Wi •• hester was a chief Actor, yet afterwards joined with Maude for a season, and then fell off again) what Civil Wars, Tumults, Battailes, evil effects, and blood-shed it occasioned here in England, to the prejudice of the whole Realm, 〈◊〉 all our Chronicles and Historians, in the life of King Stephen, testify at large.

Theobald, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, his immediate Successor being summoned by the Pope to appear at the Council of Reims, the King (at the instigation of Henry Bishop of Winchester his Brother, the Popes Legat and Arch-Bishops opposite) prohibited him to pass beyond Sea, to stay him at home: But he thinking it safer to offend the King then the Pope, resolved to go; and though all the Ports were stopped, and laid for him, yet over the Seas he got. The King thereupon seized all his goods and Temporalties, and banished him the Realm: he like a tall fellow, thereupon interdicted the King, with the whole Realm; and taking advantage of the time, which was very troublesome, came home and lived in Norfolk, till by the intercession of the Bishops he was restored to his Bishopric. After which, growing into great favor with the King, in a Convocation summoned at London 1152. the King would have constrained the Clergy to make Eustace his son, King: which they refusing, and delaying to do, having a command from the Pope to the contrary, pretending that his Father King Stephen was an Usurper, and perjured Intruder; the King and his son cau • ed the doors to be shut upon the Clergy, where they were assembled, thinking by force and threatening to compel them thereto, before they departed. The greater number seemed to yield, but the Arch-Bishop stealing secretly out of the place, took his Barge, and rowing down the Thames, got beyond Sea; so that by this means the Synod was dissolved. His goods hereupon were presently once more confiscate, and his Temporalties seized into the Kings hands. He thereupon troubled the Realm with Fire, Sword, and bloody Wars, causing Henry Fitz-Empresse to invade the Land, whose Title the Pope favored, of purpose to strengthen himself against King Lewis of France, who had highly offended his Holiness, by casting his Bulls (whereby he require • the Fruits of Vacancies of Cathedral Churches in France ) into the fire, saying, He had r • there the Popes Bulls should r • st in the fire, than his own Soul sho • ld fry in Hell.

Thomas Becket succeeding Theobald, by King Henry the seconds extraordinary favor (though against the Canons, he being both a soldier, a Courtier, and skilled only in • ecular affairs,) to require his Sovereigns extraordinary favor, he first resigned his Bishopric, which he had received from the Kings hands, into the Popes in a secret manner, receiving it back again as from him; and then looked so narrowly into the Lands belonging to his See, having great authority, and some skill in the Law, That under color of defending the Rites of his Church, he took violently from every man what he listed: and practicing Treason secretly, he required of the King the keeping of Rochester Castle, and the custody of the Tower of London ; and called Roger Earl of Clare unto Westminster, to do his homage unto him for the Castle of Tunbridge ; which the Earl denied, through the setting on of the King; so as he provoked many of all sorts of people everywhere with open mouth to exclaim against him, and to make their complaints thick and three-fold to the King; between whom and the King there arose a great quarrel upon this occasion. The Clergy by their flattery, policy and Canons, having exemp • ed themselves from secular Jurisdiction, and presuming upon Beckets power, grew strangely impudent and disorderly; insomuch, that the Chief Justice declared in the Kings presence, how that Clergy men had committed above an hundred murders since his reign; wherewith the King highly offended, he became somewhat too vehement in punishing them; but the blame of the Kings over-much earnestness must lie on the Prelates, inasmuch as they gave the cause thereof: For whereas sacred Canons ordain, that Clerks found guilty, not only of heinous and grievous sins, but also of lesser, should be degraded, and thousands of such were then in the Church of England, like in • umerable chaff among a little good Corn, yet very few such for many years had been then deprived. The Prelates, forsooth, while they bestirred themselves rather to uphold the liberties and dignities of Clerks, than to chastise and cut off their vices, thought they did God and his Church good service, in protecting from public Discipline such heinous offenders, whom by duty of their places they ought to correct according to the Canon censure; whereby they thr • ugh their impunity, having liberty to do what they listed, had neither fear of God, (whose Judgment they thought to be a far off) neither of men in authority; since on the one side their Prelates neglected to reform them, and on the other side they were thus exempt by their order from secular Jurisdiction. This being the state of the Church and Realm, where in some were so injured without remedy, and others so injurious without coertion, as if neither sort were in condition of Subjects; the king thereupon took special care of quickening the public Discipline, and the rigor of ancient • awes which thus lay neglected, and thereupon would, that all such of the Clergy as were depreh • nded in any Robbery, Murder, Felony, burning of houses, and the like, should be tried and adjuged in his temporal Courts as Lay men were: Against which the Arch-Bishops resolution was: That Clergy-men so offending should be tried only in the Spiritual Courts, and by men of their own Coat: who, if they were convict, should at first be only deprived of their O • fice and Benefice, but if they should again be guilty of the like, they should be adjudged at the kings pleasure. In this main controversy between the Crown and the Mitre, the Arch-Bishop stood so peremptory on the immunities of his Clergy and See, as that he challenged from the • Crown (to the Kings great offense) the custody of Rochester Castle and other Forts, which the King for securing his State, had resumed into his own hands. The King finding himself to be hereby but a demi-king, deprived of all Sovereignty over one half deal of his Kingdom, and perceiving Beckets stiffness in thus contesting with his Sovereign, to be no ways mollifiable by whatsoever his old favors or fresh persuasions, notwithstanding resolved to put nothing in execution which should not first be ratified and strengthened with the consent of his Bishops: Who thereupon assembling at Westminster, the King took both offense there at the Arch-Bishops thwarting his desires and occasions to establish sundry Articles, which he called his Grand • athers Customs, peremptorily urging Becket to yield thereunto, without any such reservation, (as saving in all things his order and right of the Church) wherewith he would have limited his assent. The points in those ordinances which he principally stuck at, as appears by his own Letter to the Pope, were these:

• 1. That none should appeal to the Bishop of Rome for any cause whatsoever, without the Kings license.
• 2. That it should not be lawful for any Arch-Bishop or Bishop to depart the Realm, or repair to the Pope upon his summons, without the Kings license.
• 3. That no Bishop should excommunicate any man holding of the King in chief, or put any other of his Officers under interdict, without the Kings license.
• 4. That Clerks criminous should be tried before secular Judges.
• 5. That it should not be lawful for a Bishop to punish any one for perjury, or faith-breach.
• 6. That the Laity, whether the King or other, should hold pleas of Churches and Tithes, &c.

These points so nearly touched the Papal Soveraigntie and Church-liberties, that the resolute Metropolitan mainly opposed his whole power against them. The King being as resolute to enforce him to subscribe to them, both to • nlarge his Sovereign authority, and to exempt his estate by degrees from dependency on any external Government, as lineally claiming from absolute Sovereign Antecessors. At last Pope Alexander very desi • ous to keep the Kings love, though secretly wishing well to Beckets attempts, sent one Philip his Almoner to compose the controversy; by whom the Pope and Cardinals required the Arch-Bishop to promise the King to keep his said Ordinances absolutely; without any savings or exceptions. Whereupon Becket seeing his Scrupulositie thus disapproved by his Sovereign, by all his Brethren the Bi • hops, and the Court of Rome it self, he rode to Woodstock to the King, and there promised that he would keep the said Laws B • na fide, and without male engin. The King thereupon supposing now all contradictions would cease, called an Assembly of the States at Cla • endon, to collect and enact those Laws; where Becket relapsing from his former promise to the King, said, He had grievously sinned in making that absolute Oath, and that he would not sin anymore. At which the King was so vehemently inflamed, that he threatened banishment and destruction to him and his. But at last the Arch-Bishop being overcome by persuasions of divers Nobles and Bishops sware before the King, Clergy and people in the word of a Priest, and sincerely, that he would observe the Laws which the King entitled, Avitae : And all the Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and whole Clergy with all the Earls, Barons, and Nobility did promise and swear the • ame faithfully and truly to observe and perform to the King and his Heirs forever. But when the King not so contented, would have him to subscribe and fixe his Seal to an instrument, in which these Customs and Laws were comprised, as everyone of the other Bishops had done b • fore him; he once again starting from his faith, did absolutely refuse it; alleging, that he did promise to do the King some honor in word only, but not with an intent to confirm these Articles, being 16. in number; neither would he subscribe or seal them, unless the Pope by his Bull did first confirm them. The King hereupon sent two Ambassadors to Rome to the Pope, to crave his allowance of those Laws, and to pray that the Legantine power of England might be committed to the Arch-Bishop of York; Becket being so far from seeking to pacify the Kings displeasure, as daily he provoked him more and mor •• The Pope knowing the cause to be his own more than Beckets, rejected both these suites; Becket having dealt so with him be • ore-hand, that he would do nothing to his prejudice; and withal absolved him and the other Bishops from their Oath of Allegeance to their Prince: Whereupon the King commanded Becket to be condemned in damages • or a Manor which John de Marshall claimed, and in the Parliament of Northampton demanded an accoun • of him of 30000. pound, which came to his hand during his Chancellorship; which he excusing, and refusing punctually to answer, the Peers and Bishops condemned all his movables t • the Kings mercy: After which, the Prelates • hemselves by a joint consent, adjudged him guilty of perjury, for not yielding tempo • all obedience to the King according to his Oath, disclaiming all obedien • e to him thence forward as to their Arch-Bishop: Becket the next day, whiles the Bishops and Peers were consulting of some f • rther course with him, caused to be sung before him at the Altar: The Princes sit and speak against me, and the ungodly persecute me, &c. And forthwith taking his silver Crosier in his own hands (a thing strange and unheard of before) enters armed therewith into the Kings pr • sense, though earnestly dissuaded by all that wished him well: Wherewith the King enraged, commanded his Peers to sit in judgment upon him, as on a Traitor and perjured person, and accordingly they adjudged him to be apprehended and cast in prison as such a delinquent. The Earls of Cornewall and Leicester (who sat as Judges) citing him forthwith to hear his sentence pronounced; he immediately appealed to the See of Rome, as holding them no competent Judges; wh • reupon all reviling him with the name of Traitor and perjured person, he replied; That were it not for his function, he would enter the Duel or Combat with them in the field, to acquit himself from Treason and perjury : and so speeding from the Court departed into Flanders (disguised under the name of Dereman ) in a poor Fisher-boat, accompanied only with Servitors: The King thereupon seized all his Goods and Temporalties into his hands, and sent Ambassadors to the Earl of Flanders, the French King, and the Pope, praying them in no wise to suffer or softer within their dominions, one that was such a notorious Traitor to him. The French King, thinking that this disagreement between the King and the Arch-Bishop would breed some stir in England, dealt with the Pope, that as he loved the Roman Church, and the aid of France, so he would support Beckets cause against the King; with whom though he had amity before, yet at Beckets instigation, as is probable, (whose whole life was nothing else but a continued act of Rebellion, Treachery, and Disobedience against his Sovereign Lord) he presently fell to invade the King of England's Dominions, and took by Assault certain Holds of his in Normandy. The Arch-Bishop also about the same time growing in great savor with the Pope, whom the King by all his friends and Agents could not move to anything against him, sent out particular Excommunications against all the suff • agan Bishops of his Province, and all such as had obeyed, defended, or occasioned the said Laws and A vital customs, and against some of them by name; which Excommunications he published at Vizely in France on Ascension day, when the Church was most full of people, getting into the Pulpit the • e; and solemnly accursing them with Bell, Book and Candle, threatening the like thunderclap against his own Royal person: Whereupon the King receiving such a foil from the Pope, and such an affront from the Arch-Bishop, directs his Writs to the Sherifes of England, commanding them to attach all such who appealed to the Court of Rome, with the Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Nephews, and Neeces, of all the Clergy that were with the Arch-Bishop, and to put them under sureties; as also to seize the Revenues, Goods, and Chattels of these Clergy-men. And by other Letters to Guilbert Bishop of London, he sequestered the profits and Livings, which within his Diocese did belong to any of the Clergy who were fled to Thomas ; and signified to his Justices by a public Decree, that no man should bring any Letters or Commandment from Pope Alexander, or Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury into England, containing an Indiction of the Realm, upon peril to be apprehended and punished as a Traitor to the King, and an enemy to the Realm. And that they should safe keep whosoever did bring any Interdict into England, till the Kings pleasure were further known; causing all the Arch-bishops goods to be confiscated, and banished out of the Realm all the Arch-Bishops kindred, Man, Woman, Child, and sucking Babes; forbidding he should be any longer mentioned publicly and prayed for in the Church, as Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ; and to vex him the more, because he knew he was much delighted in the Monastery of Pontiniac, an Abbey of Cirstercian Monks, he signified to all the Monks of that Order in his Dominion, that he would banish them everyone, if they would not procure the Arch-Bishop to be thrust out of that Monastery; which for fear of so great calamity to so many men of their Order, was effected. And because Pope Alexander, Beckets surest Card, was ferrited much in like sort by Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor, the King therefore determined to join in league with him, being a professed enemy both to the French King and the Pope, sending Ambassadors to him for that purpose; which the Pope having notice of, began presently to quail, promising speedily to end all Controversies between him and Becket to the Kings liking: Whereupon at the procurement of John of Oxford, two Legates were sent into England to reconcile the King and Thomas ; but the Pope hearing when they were gone, that they were resolved utterly to confound the Arch-Bishop, sent Letters after them to rebate their absolute power, who when they came to Thomas he absolutely refused to put their cause unto them, but upon such conditions, as neither they nor the King would brook. The passages between the King, and the Pope and Becket, and his Complaints to the Pope against the King, too tedious to recite at large, you may read at leisure in Holinshed, Vol. 3. p. 70. to 75. wherein he desires the Pope to use his rigor both against the King, and the Prelates that sided with him, and to contstrain them to amendment. After this, the Pope moved the French King to mediate a Peace between them: For which purpose, both the Kings and the Arch-Bishop were brought together at Paris ; where suite being made to the King in his behalf, That he might return, be restored to his goods and revenues arising during his absence, and likewise to the Kings favor, upon his humble submission : The King answered, That for the rest he was contented, but that he could not allow him the profits of his Arch-Bishopric since his Banishment, for that he had already given them to others; yet he would give him such recompense for them, as the French King, or the Senate or Students of Paris should think meet. Whereupon Becket being called for, and advised by his frieuds to submit himself in the presence of both Kings, without anymore reservations, he falling down humbly upon his knees, used these words: My Lord and Sovereign, I do here commit unto your own judgment the cause and controversy between us, so far forth as I may, saving the honor of Almighty God : The King much offended with his last exception, turned him about unto the French King, and telling how much he had done for the Arch-Bishop, and how • ee had used him, said, I am so well acquainted with the Trickes of this Fellow, that I cannot hope for any good dealing at his hands: See you not how he goeth about to delude me with this clause, (saving the honor of God?) for whatsoever shall displease him, he will by and by allege to be prejudicial to the honor of Almighty God. But this I will say unto you, whereas there have been Kings of England many before me; whereof some were peradventure of greater Power than I, the most part far less; and again, many Arch-Bishops before this man, holy and no • able men; look what duty was ever performed by the greatest Arch-Bishop that ever was, to the weakest, and simplest of my Predecessors, let him but yield me that, and it shall abundantly content me. Hereunto the Arch-Bishop answered cunningly, and stoutly; That his Predecessors who could not bring all things to pass at the first dash, were content to bear with many things, and that as men they fell, and omitted their duty oft times; that that which the Church had gotten, was by the constancy of good Prelates, whose example he would follow thus far forth; as though he could not augment the privileges of the Church in his time, yet he would never consent they should be diminished. This answer being heard, all men cried shame of him, and generally imputed these stirs unto him; and King Lewis offended with his Answer, asked him, Whether he thought himself to be greater or holier than Saint Peter? And the Peers of both Nations accused him of arrogance, as being himself the willful hinderer of his own and the Churches Tranquillity. Notwithstanding, the Pope forgot not faithful Thomas ; and there • ore, after he had graced him with a Confirmation of all the Privileges and Powers which any of his Predeces • ors in that See did enjoy (to the daring and defiance, as it were, of the Kings utmost indignation) the King sent a Letter into Germany, declaring, That he would forsake Pope Alexander, and join with the Emperor and Anti-Pope. The King doubting what might become of these broils, caused his Son Henry to be Crowned King in his own life time, to assure him of the Succession: Afterwards coming into France again, Becket and he were upon the point of reconciliation, but the casting out some word or other, as before, married all; At length the King and he were made Friends, but his full restitution referred till he had behaved himself quietly a while at Canterbury, which he promised to do: But he was so far from performing that promise, as he sent into England before him divers Excommunications, which the Pope had granted out long before, and committed to his discretion. Amongst other the Arch-bishop of York, the Bishop of London and Salisbury were named in them, together with so many as were doers in the Coronation of the young King, which the Arch-Bishop said might not be performed by any but by his appointment. The men thus stricken with this holy fire, hasted them over into Normandy, to make their complaint to the King, who infinitely grieved at this kind of dealing, cursed the time that ever he had made him Arch-bishop, and restored him to his place again, adding, It was his chance ever to do with unthankful men, otherwise some or other would long ere this have made this proud Priest an example to all such troublesome perturbers of his Realm and State. It happened among other, four Knights, to wit, Reynald Fitz-Vrse, Hugh de Mor • vill, William de Tracie, and Richard Briton, to be present at this speech of the Kings; who gathered thereby, they should do a deed very acceptable unto him, if they killed the Arch-Bishop, who in the mean time was come to Canterbury, and was received there with great joy: whence he went to London, and so to Woodstock where the young King lay. But before he could get to the Kings presence, word was brought him, the Kings pleasure was, he should first go to Canterbury, and revoke those Excommunications, before the King would talk with him; whereupon he returned to Canterbury, without seeing the King at all: where the four Knights before mentioned arrived upon Innocents day; who coming to the Arch-Bishop, told him, the Kings pleasure was, First, That he should go to his Son, and reverently make offer of doing homage and fealty unto him for the Barony of his Arch-Bishopric : secondly, That he should cause all the strangers he brought into the Realm with him, to be sworn to his obedience : thirdly, That he should revok those Excommunications which he he had caused to be denounced against the Instruments of the young King • Coronation. To which demands he answered, That neither the King nor any other mortal man should extort from him, or any of his, by his consent, any unjust or unreasonable Oath: And as for the Bishops and others excommunicate concerning the Coronation, it was indeed (quoth he) a thing done in my behalf, for an injury offered to my Church, but it was the Act of the Pope. If therefore they will swear, they shall be ready to make me amend • at the Popes discretion, I will absolve them, otherwise not: And whatsoever you say, it was the Kings pleasure I should take my best course for the redress of this abuse by Ecclesiastical authority. Many other words then passed between them, they breathing our terrible threats, and he continuing still the same man, without yielding one jot. At last the Knights departed, giving the Monks charge in the Kings name, to see the Arch-Bishop for • h-coming, and not to suffer him to escape away. At Evening Prayer time, the same day, they came suddenly into the Church with their Swords drawn, crying, Where's the Traitor? Where's the Traitor? The Arch-Bishop, who was then going up the steps towards the Choir, hearing the noise, turned back unto them, and everyone of the four striking mainly at him, upon the third or fourth greice of those steps he was slain. His body these Knights determined to have cast into the Sea, or else to have hewn into a • housand pieces; but the Prior and Monks doubting some such thing, buried it immediately in the Under-Craft; whence shortly it was taken up, and laid in a most sumptuous Shrine, in the East end of the Church. The Pope hearing of this Massacre of this his grand Champion, immediately excommunicated all that were either authors or consenters to it. The King was • aine to purge himself thereo • by Oath, and yet could not be absolved, before he had done certain strange Penance: as first, That he sho • ld pray devoutly at the Tomb of this new Martyr; That he should be whipt in the Chapter-House, receiving of every Monk one Lash; That he should maintain two hundred Soldiers for the space of one year, at Jerusalem ; and lastly, revoke the Declaration published at Clarindon, that originally gave the occasion of this Murder, with other particulars recorded by Master Fox. All which (such were those times) the King was fain to perform; to such slavery were Kings and Princes then brought, under the Popish Clergy: who pre • ently Canonize this Arch-Traitor for a Saint, write large Volumes of his Prayses and Miracles, pray unto him Morning and Evening in their solemn public Mattins and Vespers, in elegant Rymes and Poems composed by Thomas Aquinas, in a more elegant style, to delight and ravish the Auditors; honor his Sh • ine with infinite Oblations, Pilgrimages, and Gifts: who was so much honored an visited in times of Popery, that whereas in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, there were three principal Images; on, consecrated to Christ; another, to the Virgin Mary ; and a third, to Thomas Becket ; their Annual Oblations to Thomas Becket, were commonly 1000. pound, or more • to the blessed Virgin 200. pounds; but to our blessed Savior some years 6. pounds, 13. shillings, 4. pence; some years 3. pounds, 6. shillings, 8, pence; and, Hoc Anno Nih • l, some years just nothing: as Bishop Mort • n hath recorded out of their own Register of Canterbury. So that they preferred this Traitor and Rebell, in their blind devotion, at least one thousand times more than Christ himself: and, which is yet more abominable, advanced his blood above our Savior's; praying even to Christ himself, to save them, no • by his own, but by this Arch-Rebels blood (as if his own were not sufficien • ) as these two blasphemous Verses, inserted into their Psalters, evidence.

Had he been quartered, and then hanged up for a Traitor on some high Pinacle, as he deserved, I should have liked the Prayer well; thinking it just that all who durst honor such a Traitor, or pray unto him as a Saint, deserved to have their quarters elevated as high as his. But in that sense they took it then, and many have used it since: yea, some at this very day: It is no le • se than Blasphemy and High Treason against Christ himself: Especially, i • we consider what they there annex to these Verses, Gloria & honor • Coronasti eum Domine, R. Et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuaru • ; attributed unto Christ himself, Heb. 2.7, 8. 1 Cor. 15.27. Roger Walden Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, in a full Convocation held at Paul's in London, Anno Domini 1098. (if Aton mistake not) ordained, That a solemn Commemoration should be kept on Wednesday every week throughout the year, if it were possible, for this Arch-Traitor Thomas ; in which Constit • tion there is this passage: And although we oug • t to honor all and singular constituted in the heavenly Kingdoms with solicitous endeavors, and to advance them with loud praises; yet we ought to extol with highest acclamations our m • st glorious Bishop and Martyr, Saint Thomas, both the Master and Patron of our Metropolitical Church, who is known to have shed his blood for the defense of the Churches liberty, by whose both Merits and Passion our whole Province of Canterbury is illustrated, and the universal Church adorned; and it is meet to personate him with supremest praises, and to worship him with spiritual honors. This Traitor shortly after became so eminent, that divers Kings Ambassadors, Bishops, and others, came on Pilgrimage from • orraine parts, to visit his Tomb at Canterbury. And though • he Trayterly Prelates, Monks, and Clergy, thus Deified him for a Saint and Martyr (as many now account him) yet the Peers and Nobles about the King, gave it out in strict charge, upon pain of death, and confiscation of all their goods, That • o man should be so hardy as to name Thomas Becket to be a Martyr, or to preach of his Miracles. And King Henry the eight; after he had been a long time Canonized for, and adored as an Arch-Saint, declared him in his Inju • ctions, published Anno 1539. to have been a Rebell and Traitor to his Prince; and therefore straightly charged and commanded, That from thenceforth he should not be esteemed, named, reputed, or called a Saint, but Bishop Becket ; That his Images and Pictures throughout the whole Realm should be pl • ckt down • and avoided out of all Churches, Chapels, and other places; and that the Days used to be Festival in his name, should be no more observed, nor the Service, Offices, Antiphones, Collects, and Prayers in his name read, but rased and put out of all the Books upon pain of his Majesty's indignation, and imprisonment at his Graces pleasure. After which, Stephen Gardener, Bishop o • Winc • ester, and Lord Ch • ncelour in Queen Mary's days, with his other fellow Bishops (who were much in love with this Traitor, being such themselves) caused the Image of this old Romish Traitor Becket to be set up over the Mercers Chapel door in Cheapeside in London, in form of a Bishop, with a Miter and Crosier; but within two days after, his two blessing-fingers were first broken off, and on the seventeenth day of February his head struck off: whereupon arose a great stir, and many suspected for doing it, were committed to Prison. Which being again set up the second day of March, at the suspected parties cost, and strictly watched with a Guard each night, for fear it should be re-demolished; on the fourteen • h day of the same Moneth, the head of this Trayterous Beast was once more broken off, but the Agent not discovered; though there was a Proclamation made in London the next day, That whosoever would reveal the Party, though of Counsel and privity to the Act, should have his Pardon, and an hundred Crowns of Gold, with hearty thanks: So zealous were our Trayterly Bi • hops for this their Brother Arch-Traitor; whose very Crosier staff some of late adored in the Tower, and have likewise Printed his Life.

Hubert the 42. Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, a man that swayed the Kingdom in King Richard the first his days; and after that advanced King John to the Crown, p • tting by Arthur Duke of Britain, right Heir to the Crown, being Son to Geoffrey, elder Brother to John ; which occasioned many Wars, and the loss of Normandy : He finding the King not so tractable as he supposed to his will, did under-hand bolster up the Clergy, to affront him in the election of the Bi • hop of Norwich, repenting more now than anything he did in all his life, that • he had so advanced King John to the Crown, showing such slender respect to his Sovereign, that being prohibited by Fitz-Peter, the Kings great Justiciarie and Minister (in the Kings absence) of Regal Command, from holding a General Council of his Province, (never used to be held but by Sovereign perm • ttance) his pleasure scorned to take any count • mand: after which, he spared not to out-brave his Sovereign himself. For having notice, the Feast of the Nativitie then approaching, that the King intended with his Queen at Guilford to keep that festival with great Magnificence; he, whose Palace ordinarily for splendor, multitude of attendants, and sump • uous entertainments, did strive with the Kings; thought this a fitting time to show forth his great State, and little regard of his Princes discountenance, by parallelling to the Kings his own sumptuous preparations, with rich Attires and costly Gifts for his attendants at Canterbury. The King, as Kings brook not to be braved by their subjects (nor is it wisdom for dis-favorites to do it) moved with great indignation, thought the man had too much Riches, and too little discretion, (which seldom lodgeth in the Brain, where Pride dwells in the Heart) and therefore to abate somewhat the one, and learn him more of the other, he kept his Easter at Canterbury, at the Costs of Hubert the R • ch; and not to spare him who spared not himself; he there increased that great expense, with a greater of his and his Queens solemn Crowning again on Easter day in the Cathedral Church: where, in lieu of his expense, Hubert had the formal Honor to set on their Crowns, but yet not the grace to sit near the Kings heart. Such being the first overtures of heart-burnings betwixt the King and his Clergy; they afterwards • by addi • ament of daily fuelling, burst forth into a more fearful • ame. For Hubert, bearing too much good will to the French King, and in very deed repenting himself of nothing so much, as for that he had commended King John to the Noblemen and Pee • es of the Realm, since he proved another manner of man then he looked to have found him; the King having prepared a Royal Hoast and mighty Navy to revenge his foreign losses and wrongs on the Fre •• h King, Hubert the Arch-Bishop (who con • ederated with the Pope and French King against his Sove • aigne,) came with sundry others to Portesmouth to the King, and ••• lie forbids the King to proceed in the Voyage, (in tr • th, for fear he should hinder King Philip from aiding the Pope against Otho the Emperor.) Whereupon the King dism •••• d his Forces; Hubert being the instrument, that so resolute Projects, so inestimable Charges, so necessary an Action of the Kings fell suddenly to the ground: whereby, besides the self-mischief which therewith fell on the King, many fresh grudgings accrued unto him, for suffering himself to be thus violently repulsed from so behooveful a purpose. The King the next day checking himself, for over-prizing the command of any man above the value of his Kingly Honor and Estate, resolved to collect his disparkled Troupes, and to put forth to Sea. To which end, taking order with his Nobles to follow him, they gave him leave with a small company to wa • t up and down two days, in expectance of their attendance; till seeing them more obsequious • o Huber • s command than his, (the Arch-Bishop also sending his inhibition after them on the Sea, to stop their passage with the King) he was forced to come again to Land. The King hereupon put many of his Earls, Barons, Knights, and Clergy-men to a grievous pecuniary Redemption, for thus refusing to follow him, for recovering his Inheritance. The Arch Bishop, though their Ring-leader, might well have been exempted from this Judgment, by his passage to an higher, dying the same week, either of Griefe, or of a Feaver, which killed him in four days: But the King forthwith in person going to Canterbury, seized upon all his Wealth and Possessions, showing himself right joy • ull, that now he was rid of him, whom men suspected of too familiar practicing with the French King, saying, He was never a King till now ; by reason of Huberts too presumptuous daring to cross his Royal Resolutions, as of late he did. This Hubert, being Chief Justice and Arch • Bishop in Richard the first his tim • , Anno 1198 the Monks of Christ's • Church in Canterbury exhibited this Complaint against him to Pope Innocent: That their Arch-Bishop Hubert ( contrary to his Order and Dignity ) exercised the Office of High Justice, and sa • e in Judgment of Blood, being so encumbered in Temporal matters, that he could not • ave time to discharge his Office, touching Spiritual Cause • Whereupon the Pope sent to King Richard, admonishing him, not to suffer the said Arch Bishop to be any longer troubled with Temporal Affaires, but to discharge him thereof, and not to admit any Spiritual person from thenceforth unto any Temporal administration. He further prohibited, by virtue of their obedience, all manner of Prela • es, and men of the Church, that they should not presume rashly to take upon them any manner of Secular Function or Office. Whereupon the Arch-Bishop was discharged of his Office of Chief Justice, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter succeeded in government of the Realm in his stead. Afterwards, this Arch-Prelate being made Lord Chancellor of England by King John, Anno. 1199. and uttering some words unadvisedly, that shown how he inwardly rejoiced at the Kings favor towards him in the gift of this Office, and so gloried in the Honor whereto he was preferred, (which he would never have done, if he had weighed of worldly pomp, as by his Profession he ought, and as one asketh the question in the same case, Dic mihi, nunquid,

Tantundem &c. ) The Lord Bardolfe said unto him, yet not so so • tly in his ear, but that some over-heard it: My Lord, to speak and not offend you: surely, if you well consider the Honor and Dignity of your Calling, you would not willingly yield to suffer this yoke of Bondage to be laid upon your shoulders: For we have oftentimes heard of a C • ancellour made an Arch-Bishop, (as was Thomas Becket, who upon his instalment in the Sea of Canterbury, immediately resigned his Lord Chancelours Office, sending his great Seal to the King then in Normandy, with a Letter, wherein he certified him, That he could not serve the Church and the Court both at once, and that this moved him to resign his Chancelourship, as incompatible wi • h his Arch-Bishopric ) but we never heard of an Arch-Bishop made a Chancellor till now. Such an unseemly and unlawful thing was it then reputed for Bishops to intermeddle with Temporal Offices and Affaires, which are incompatible with their Spiritual Function, and are seldom managed by them, but to the great oppression, the ruin of the People and State.

Hubert being dead the Monks of Canterbury secretly at midnight elected Reginald their Sub-prior, for his Successor, taking an Oath of him, not to make his Election known to any, till he came to the Popes presence, whither he was advised to post with all speed. The Oath he violates as soon as ever he had crossed the Sea, bearing himself everywhere as Lord Elect, showing withal the testimonial of his Election to divers; which so incensed his Brethren the Electors against him, as they presently resolved to become suitors to the King • or pardon of their fault, in choosing him without his license, and also that he would permit them to make a new Election, supposing the old frustrate by the Elects perjury: They did so, and obtained their request, the rather because they made show of readiness in satisfying the Kings desire, who wished them to elect John Gray Bishop of Norwich : him they sent for in all haste to Canterbu • y where they sol • mnly elected him for their Arch-Bishop, publishing his Election in the Church before the King and an infinite number of people, placing him in the Bishops Chair. The King putting him in possession of his temporalties • orth-with. These two Elections being presented to the Pope, he adjudged them both void, and making use of the Monks debate ( • he greater part being then at Rome, some of them avouching their first Election as good, others importunately seeking to have the latter confirmed) he secretly practiced with them, and at last persuaded them to elect Stephen Langhton an English man, and Cardinal of Rome, of singular gifts and Learning: which done, the Pope with his own hands gave him Consecration at Viturbium ; and well knowing how hayno • sly the King would take the matter, he writ Letters unto him sweetened with many entreaties, large praises of the new Arch-Bishop, and seasoned now and then with some touches of doubtful threatening, if he should oppose himself against that was then done. This notwithstanding, the King in great indignation, as he had just cause, banished and drove out all the Monks of Canterbury by force (who were entertained in foreign Monasteries) seized upon all their goods, lands, and forbad Stephen Langhton entrance into the Realm: The Pope hearing this, sends his Mandates unto William Bishop of London, Eustace Bishop of Eli, and Mauger Bishop of Worcester, wherein he willed them first to admonish and persuade the King to restore the Monks their goods and place, and to give the Arch-Bishop possession of his Temporalties by a day: then if he refused so to do, to interdict the whole Realm. They durst not but obey, and finding the King resolute in his determination, at the time appointed, they published the Popes Interdiction, interdicting the whole Realm: And as well foreseeing the ensuing trouble to come, as their present danger, got them out of the Land, together with Ioceline Bishop of Bath, and Giles of Hereford. The King immediately seized all their Goods and Temporalties into his hands, and moreover banished all the friends and Kinsfolks of these Bishops, that were likely to yield them any comfort or relief. During the time of this Interdict, all Divine Service ceased throughout the Realm (God's Service giving place to the Popes pride and malice) except only Baptism of Children, Au • icular Confession, and the Administration of the Sacrament unto such as lay upon the point of death. The Pope seeing this Curse prevailed not; at the instigation of the Arch Bishop and other Prelates, proceeded to a particular Excommunication of the King, and not long after deprived him (by a Judicial sentence) of his Crown, Kingdom and all Regal authority; a thing till that time in no age ever heard of. For the better executing which sentence, he writes to Philip the French King, to expel King John out of his Kingdom, promising him remission of all his sins, and giving the Kingdom of England to him and his successors for this his good service; and withal sends • orth his Bulls to the Nobles, Knights, and Soldiers in divers Countries, that they should sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, to cast the King of England out of his Throne, and revenge the injury of the Universal Church, by aiding King Philip in this Catholic War, promising them all as large and ample indulgences in all things as those enjoyed, who visited the Lord's Sepulcher at Jerusalem : whereupon the French King prepared a great Army both by Sea and Land, to expulse King John ; who made himself so strong by Sea and Land in a short time, that he had far more Ships and Land-Soldiers than Philip ; which Pandolfe the Popes Legate perceiving, and doubting of the success, willingly repairs into England, tells King John, in what danger he and his whole kingdom were, how much Christian blood he was like to cause to be spilled • to prevent all which inconveniences, he counsels him to resign his Crown and Kingdom to the Pope, and then to receive it from him again; which he yielded to at last. See now to what extremities this poor King was brought by these rebellious and traytorly Prelates means, who refused to appear before him when he sent for them; his whole Land was under Interdiction, and so remained for 5. whole years, like an Heathenish Nation, without the celebration of Divine Service and Sacraments. John himself was by Name Excommunicated, and had so remained for divers years. All his Subjects were released & freed a Regis fidelitate & subjectione, from owing either fidelity or subjection to him, yea, they were forbidden, and that under pain of Excommuni • ation, so much as to company or converse with him, either at Table, or a • Council, or in speech and conference. Further yet, John was deposed from his Kingdom, and that judicially, being in the Roman Court deprived of all right to his Kingdom, and judicially condemned; and that sentence of his deposition and deprivation was solemnly denounced and promulgated before the French King, Clergy, and people of France ; Neither only was John thus deposed, but his Kingdom also given away by the Pope, and that even to his most mortal enemy; for the Pope to bring his sentence to execution, writ unto Philip the French King, persuading, yea, enjoining him, to undertake that labou • of dethr • ning John actually (as judicially he was before) and expelling him from the Kingdom, promising him not only remission of all his sins, but that he and his Heirs • hold forever have the Kingdom of England ; withal, the Pope writ Letters to all Nobles, Soldiers, and Warriors in divers Countries, to sign themselves with the • rosse, and to assist Philip for the dejection of John. Philip was not a little glad of such an offer, b •• hereupon gathered Forces and all things fit for such an expedition, expending in that preparation no less than 60. thousand pounds: all these things being notified to King John, did not a little daunt him, and though he was too insensible of the impendent calamities, yet to strike a greater terror into his amazed heart, and make a more dreadful impression in his mind of the dangers which now were ready to fa • l on his head, Pandolph was sent from the Pope unto him to negociate about the resigning of his Kingdom; to which if he would consent, he should find favor, protection, and deliverance at the Popes hands. Pandulf by a crafty kind of Romish Oratory, at his coming to the King, expressed, yea painted out in most lively colors all the difficulties and dangers to which the King was subject; the loss of his Crown, the loss of his honor, the loss of his life; that there was no other way in the world to escape them, but by protection under the Popes wings. John seeing dangers to hang over him on every side, by the French abroad, by the Barons at home: and being dejected and utterly dismayed and confounded with the ponderation of them, resolved for saving his life, to lose his liberty and honor, and to save his Kingdom from his open Adversary, to • ose it and give it quite away to his secret but worst enemy that he had, and to take an Oath of sealty to the Pope, recorded in Holinshed, p. 178. doing herein as if one for fear of being slain in the open field, should kill himself in his own chamber. It was not piety, but extreme misery; nor devotion, but fear only and despair, that caused and even • orced John against his will being then drowned in despair, to resign his Crown, and to make two several grants thereof to the Pope. The first Charter was made to Pandulph the Popes Lega • e, on the 15. day of May in the 14. year of King John's reign, the Copy whereof is set down in Matthew Paris, Matthew Westminster. The second Charter was made to Nichol • s Bishop of Tusculum the Popes Lega • e, for the Popes use, in Saint Paul's Church in London, the 3. of October in the 15. year of King John, An. Dom. 1213. agreeing verbatim with the former, differing only from it in this; that the first was sealed with Wax, the second with Gold: which several Grants were so detestable to the whole world, that it made all men exclaim against and detest King John. How much the Barons disliked this Grant of King John, his own words to Pope Innocentius, as also the Popes answer, do witness • Our Earls and Barons, saith he, (and the Pope writes the like) were devout and loving unto us, till we had subjected ourselves to your Dominion, but since that time, and specially even for so doing, they all rise up against us. The manifold opprobrious speeches used by the Barons against King John, for subjecting himself and his Kingdom to the Pope, do declare the same. John (say they) is no King, but the shame of Kings; better to be no King, than such a King: behold a King without a Kingdo • e, a Lord without dominion. Alas thou wretch, and servant of lowest condition, • o what misery of thralldom hast thou brought thyself? Thou wast a king, now thou art a Cow-heard, thou wast the highest, now the lowest: Fie on thee John, the last of Kings, the abominaton of English Princes, the confusion of English Nobility Alas England, that thou art made tribu • ary and subject to the rule of base servants, of strangers; and which is most miserable, subject to the servant of servants. Thou John whose memory will be woeful in future time; thou of a most free King, hast made thyself tributary, a farmer, a vassal, and that to servitude it self: this thou hast done, that all might be drowned in the Hell of Romish Avarice. Yea, so detestable was both this Fact of John, and dealing of the Pope, that Philip the French King, though the mortal enemy of King John, he • ing thereof, even upon this very point, That the Barons and State did no • consent to that Act, did proclaim both the absolute freedom of the Kingdom of England, no • wi • hstanding this grant of John, and declaim also against this Pope, for seeking to enthrall Kingdoms unto him. As the King, by the Treason and treachery of these Prelates, and especially of the Arch-Bishop, was thus enforced most ignominiously to resign and prostitu • e his Crown and Kingdom to the Pope, to the loss of his Kingly honor, and the hearts of all his Barons and Subjects; so he was fain to receive the Arch-Bishop, and restore the other Bishops, Monks, and banished Rebels against him to their Bishoprics, Goods, and Revenues; and to give them such Dammages and Recompence, as the Pope should think 〈◊〉 . For this King, Anno Domini 1213. intending a Voyag • into Guien, his Realm standing as yet interdicted, his Lord's refused to go with him, unless the interdicting might be first released, and he clearly absolved of the Popes Curse, to the end that God's wrath and the Popes being fully pacified, he might with better speed move and maintain the Wars: whereupon he was constrained to alter his purpose; and coming to Winchester, dispatched a messenger with letters, signed with the hands of twenty four Earls and Barons, to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Hereford, then sojourning in France ; requiring them, with all other banished men, to return into England ; promising them by his Letters Patents, not only a sure Safe-conduct for their coming over, but that he would also forget all passed displeasures, and frankly restore unto every man all that by his means had been wrongfully taken from them, and as yet by him detained. Hereupon the Arch-Bishop, and other Bishops, with all speed came into England, with the other exiles, and went to Winchester, where the King then remained: Who hearing that the Bishops were come, went forth to receive these Traitors; and at his first meeting with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, the King kneeled down at his feet, (who should have rather kneeled to the King) and asked him forgiveness, and that it would please him and the other Bishops also to provide for the miserable state of the Realm: requiring of the Arch-Bishop (having as then the Popes power in his hands, as being his Legat) to be absolved; promising upon his solemn received Oath, That he would before all things defend the Church, and the Order of Priesthood, from receiving any wrong: also that he would restore the old Laws made by the ancient Kings of England, and namely those of S. Edward, which were almost extinguished and forgotten; and further, that he would make recompense to all men whom he had by any means endamaged. This done, he was absolved by the Arch-Bishop, and shortly after sent his Orators to Rome, to take off the Interdict. The Pope hereupon sent the Cardinal of Tusculum into England, to compound the differences and damages between the King and the Bishops, and then to release the Interdict. Who, after a Convocation summoned, and sundry meetings had at London, Reading, Wallingford, and elsewhere, & some messages to Rome ordered the King to pay 40000. Markes damages to these rebellious Prelates; which done, the Interdict was solemnly released by the Legat, in the Cathedral of Paul's in London, June 29. 1214. after the term of 6. years, 3 months, and 14. days, that the Realm had been shaken with that dreadful Dart of Correction, as it was then esteemed. After this, King John raised an Army, intending to go against those Lord's who refused to follow him to Poitou. But the Arch-Bishop meeting him at Northampton, sought to appease him • but he marching on to Nottingham, there with much ado, the Arch-Bishop following him, and threatening to excommunicate all those that should aid him, enforced him to desist his Enterprise. This done, he thought all troubles at an end, but the worst were yet behind. For the King having wound himself into the Popes favor, by this his Resignation, and holding his Crown from him as his Feudatarie, began to curb the Arch-Bishop and his Faction; who finding the King stronger in the Popes favor than they, thereupon stirred up the Barons to rebel and take Arms against the King, who had lost their hearts by his Resignation: In this Rebellion and Conspiracie, Stephen Langthon the Arch-Bishop was the Ring-leader, yea, the principal Abettor, Conspirer, chief Agent, and Counselor (as Matthew Paris, Wendover, Speed, Holinshed, and other our Historians testify:) The Pope hereupon excommunicates the Barons, and all other English or French, who impugned King John, even in the general Council of Lateran, then held • and the Bishop of Winchester, and Pandulph the Popes Legat (who solemnly denounced the Popes Curse against the Barons) did likewise suspend the Arch-Bishop from all his Episcopal authority: who thereupon repairing to Rome for absolution, was in the Council of Lateran accused and convict of Conspiracie and Treason against the King, and contempt against the Pope and Churches Censure: for which, the Pope resolving to depose him from his Sea and dignity, by the Cardinals intercession for him (he being their brother Cardinal) was entreated to deal somewhat milder, but yet confirmed his suspension from his Bishopric by public sentence; commanding by his Letters, all his Suffragan Bishops to withdraw their obedience from him and for a further revenge whereas Simon Langthon, his brother, by his procurement had been elected to the Sea of York, (a strange example, to have an whole Kingdom ruled by two Brethren, of so turbulent humors:) the Pope not only did cassate his Election, but likewise made him uncapable of any Episcopal Dignity, placing in that Sea Walter Gray (a trusty • riend to the King, and a professed enemy to the Langhtons ) whose Pall cost him no less than a thousand pound. King John having thus procured all his Barons to be excommunicated, and the City of London (siding with them) to be interdicted, and the Arch-Bishops suspension to be confirmed; the Barons and Arch-Bishop held these Censures in such high contempt, that they decreed, neither themselves nor the Citizens should observe them, nor the Prelates denounce them; alleging, that they were procured upon false suggestions, and that the Pope had no power in Secular matters from Christ, but only in Spiritual, and that Prelates had nothing at all to do with Wars; and thereupon sent for Lewis, the Dolphin of France, to receive the Crown of England : Who not so void of Ambition, as to lose a Crown for want of fetching, was not long behind, landing here in England, in despite of the Popes inhibition, and threats of Excommunication to hinder him, with a great Army, and Fleet of six hundred Boates. After which, he repairs to L • ndon, electing Simon Langhton for his Chancelor, the Arch-Bishops Brother, the Arch-bishop being the chief man in this Rebellion and Trea • on against King John ; by whose Counsel and Preaching, the Citizens of London, and Barons, though all excommunicated by the Pope, did celebrate Divine Service, and drew on Lewis to do the like. King John levying a great Army, and hasting to give Battle to those Rebels and Enemies, coming to Swinshed Abbey, was poisoned in a Chalice, by a Monk of that House; who went to the Abbor and shrived himself, telling him, how he intended to give the King such a Drink, that all England should be glad and joyful thereof: at which, the Abbot wept for joy, and praised God for the Monks constancy; who being absolved beforehand by the Abbot, took the Cup of Poison, and therewith poisoned both the King and himself, to do the Arch-Bishops and Prelates a favor; since this King could not abide the pride and pretended authority of the Clergy, when they went about to wrest out of his hands the Prerogative of his Princely Government. He dying, Henry his young Son was received to the Kingdom, Lewis forsaken, the Barons absolved by the Pope and Clergy-men too, after a composion paid by them. After this, Stephen Langhton enshrines his Predecessor Becket (as great a Traitor as himself) in a very sumptuous Shrine (the King and greatest part of the Nobility of the Realm being present at the solemnity:) which done, this Arch-Traitor, after he had endeavored to raise a new War between the King and the Nobles, died himself, July 9. 1228. To obscure whose Treasons and Rebellions, our Monks, who writ the Histories of those times, have raised up many slanders and lies of this poisoned King John, to his great defamation.

Richard Wethershed, the very next Arch-Bishop, withstood King Henry the 3. who in Parliament demanded Escuage of those who held any Baronies of him; maintaining that the Clergy ought not to be subject unto the judgment of Laymen, though all the Laity and other of the Spiritualty consented to the King. After this, he had a great controversy with Hubert de Burgo, Earl of Kent, concerning some Lands of the Earl of Gloucester, the profits whereof the Arch-Bishop challenged as due unto him in the minority of the said Earl. The Arch-Bishop complained of the pretended wrong to the King (with whom Hubert was very gracious, for the good service he had done him in defending Dover Castle against the French, ) and finding no remedy answerable to his mind at the Kings hands, who answered him truly, That the Lands were held of him in capite, and so the wardship of them belonged to himself, not to the Arch-Bishop; he thereupon excommunicated all the Authors of this his supposed injury, the King only excepted, and then gat him to Rome (the common Sanctuary and receptacle for all Rebellious, Traytorly Prelates,) this being the first Excommunication that was pronounced against any man for invading the Temporalties of the Church. The King hereupon sends divers to Rome, to stop the Arch-bishops proceedings, and defend his Royal Prerogative. The Pope notwithstanding delighted much with the eloquence, gravity, and excellent behavior of the Arch-Bishop, granted presently all his demands, even in prejudice of the Kings Crown and Right. Little joy had he of his Victory, for being but three days in his way homeward, he fell sick at Saint Gemma, and died. In this Bishops time, the Italians had gotten many Benefices in England, who being much spited at, certain mad fellows took upon them to thresh out their Corn everywhere, and give it unto the poor, as also to rob and spoil them of their money and other goods, after which the Italians were not so eager upon English Benefices.

Saint Edmund Arch-Bishop of Cante • bury had many bickerings with King Henry the third, he was baptized in the same Font that Thomas Becket his Predecessour was, and somewhat participated of his disposition: Being consecrated Arch-Bishop, he presently fell into the Kings displeasure, by opposing himself against the marriage of Elianor, the Kings Sister, with Simon Moun • fort, Earl of Leicester, because upon the death of the Earl Marshall her first Husband she had vowed Chastity; to have which vow dispensed withal, the King procured the Pope to send Otto his Legate into England, between whom and the Arch-Bishop there were many quarrels: This Arch-Prelate refused to appear upon summons before the King, went to Rome where he made many complaints, not only against Otto, but against the King himself, • or certain injuries received at his hands; yet with ill success, and was foiled in two several suites, both with the Monks of Rochester and the Earl of Arundel, to whom he was condemned in a thousand Markes, to his great disgrace and impoverishing. He Excommunicated the Monks of Canterbury, for choosing a Prior without his consent. The Popes Legate absolving them for money, h • excommunicated them afresh, and interdicted their Church, till Otto decided the Controversy; which Otto excommunicated Frederick the Emperor, first in the Monastery of Saint Albanes, and then publicly in Paul's Church, and collected infinite sums of money here in England to maintain the Popes wars against him, which the Emperor took very ill at the Kings hands. This Arch-Bishop, for a great sum of money, obtained a Grant f • om the Pope in derogation of the Kings Supremacy, that if any Bishopric continued void by the space of six months, it should be lawful for the Arch-Bishop to confer it on whom he list, which the King procured the Pope immediately to revoke. Polichronicon writes, that he called a Council of the Prelates together, how he might relieve the holy Church that was made subject and thrall. It was consulted, that the King and all other men that were Rebels should be warned, and if they would not amend, then the wreck of censures of holy Church should not sleep. The holy man ( Edmund ) assented, and went to the King with the other Bishops, who threatened to Excommunicate him, if he would not reform the things they demanded, and put away his evil Counselors. The King asked avisement, and he abode, but all for naught: Therefore the King was spared alone, and all other that were Rebells were denounced accursed: But thereby would they not be amended. This Arch-Prelate, at last, being continually vexed, thwarted and disgraced both by the King, the Pope his Legates, and others with whom he contested, taking his leave of the King, departed into voluntary exile, and there bewailing the misery of his Country, spoiled and miserably wasted by the tyranny and strange exactions of the Pope, spent the rest of his time in continual tears, and through extreme grief, sorrow, and fasting, fell into a Consumption and died, being afterwards canonized for a Saint by Pope Innocent the fourth.

Arch-Bishop Boniface, his immediate successor, raised many commotions and stirs both in Church and State, he was the Kings instrument for polling of England, and brought him much money; he was also a great warrior, better skilled in Military than Church affairs. Not to mention this Arch-Prelates combat with the Prior and Monks of Saint Bartholmewes, which put the whole City of London into an uproate, and made much work both at the Kings Court, and at Rome : Or how he procured a Grant from the Pope to receive one whole years profit of all Livings and Cures that should fall void within his Province for 7. years space, to the value of 10000. Markes • At which the King at first was sore offended I shall only reci • e some traytorly and Anti-monarchical constitutions made by him & his fellow Prelates in a Synod held at Westminster, 1270. to the great impeachment of the Kings Prerogative, and affront of his Nobles, Judges, and Temporal Courts of Justice. First, they decreed, That no Arch-Bishop, Bishop, or inferior Prelate and Clergi-man, should ei • her by the Kings Writ, or any other Noblemans, or secu • ar Officers warrant be called to answer before any secular Court or Judge, for any cause which they there determine to be merely Ecclesiastical: Or for any extravagances and undue proceedings in their Ecclesiastical Courts: And that no Clergy-man should presume to appear upon such Writ or summons before any temporal Judge or Court, under pain of Excommunication; because no Lay power hath any authority to judge the Lord's Anointed, whom they ought of necessity to obey. And to take away so great abuses, & preserve the liberties of the Church, we decree and ordain (say they) that the said Arch • bishops & Bishops, and other Prelates shall not appear though they be called & summoned to do it as aforesaid. Yet to preserve the Kings • onour, the greatest Prelates shall go or write to the King, and show that they cannot obey such his Royal Mandates without the peril of their Order, and the subversion of their Ecclesiastical Liberty. And if the King desist not, the Bp. whom it concerns, shall admonish the King the second time, that he look to the salvation of his soul, and altogether desist from such Mandates. And if he desist not at the denunciation of the Bishop, the Arch-Bishop, or else the Bishop of London as t • e Dean of the Bishops, calling to him two or three Bishops, or more, whom he shall think meet, shall go to the King und admonish him more seriously, requiring • im to supersediate his Mandates. And if the King after such exhortations and monitions shall proceed to attachments and destresses by himself or others, then the Sheriffs and all other Baylifes who prosecute the Bishops to attach them, shall by the Diocesans of the places be driven away in form of Law by the sentence of Excommunication and interdiction. The like shall be done if the Sheriffs or Bailiffs proceed to Attachments or Distresses, pretending the foresaid monitions to be made to our Lord the King as afore-said: And if the Sheriffs or Ba • liffes shall persevere in their obstinacy, the places wherein they live, and the Lands they have within the Province of Canterbury shall be interdicted by the Di • cesans of the places, at the denunciation of the Bishop in whose Diocese such Distresses shall be taken. And if such Attachers be Clerks Beneficed, they shall be suspended from their Office; and if they persevere in their malice, they shall be compelled to desist and give satisfaction by subtracting the profits of the • r benefices. And if they be not Beneficed, in case they be presented to any Bene • ice, they shall not be th • reto admitted • or five years space. And the Clerks who shall dictate, write, or sign such Attachments or distresses, or give any counsel or advice therein, shall be Canonically punished, and if any Clerke be suspected of the premises, • e shall not be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Benefice, until he shall Canonically purge himself thereof. And if our Lord the King, or any other secular power competently admonished concerning this, shall not revoke such distresses or Attachments, the Bishop distrained shall put under Ecclesiastical interdict the Lands, Villages, Towns and Castles, which the King himself, or other secular person so distraini • g shall have within his Bishopric. And if the King, or any other secular power contemning such penalties, shall persevere in their obstinacy; then the Arch-Bishop, or the Bishop of London, at the denunciation of the Bishop complaining, calling to him two Bishops, or more, whom he shall think meet, shall repair to the King, and diligently admonish and require him to supersede from the foresaid Mandates. And if our Lord the King having heard these admonitions and exhortations, shall proceed to Attachments or distresses by himself or others, then the other two Bishops, reputing this distress as a common injury to the Church, by the authority of this present Counsel, shall put under Ecclesiastical interdict all the Demisne Lands, Burroughs, Castles, and Towns of the King himself, or any other great man, being within the Precincts of their Diocese. And if the King, or other great Man, shall not within 20. days after revoke the said Distresses or Attac • ments, but shall for this bandy against the Church, being with Pharaoh made more obdurate amidst the strokes of punishments, then the Arch • bishop shall put his whole Diocese under in • erdict. The same shall be done to the Castles, Lands and Burroughs of great men, who have Royalties within the said Province. And if any Bishop shall be found negligent or remiss in the exe • utions of the said penalties in such cases, he shall be sharply reprehended by the Metropolitan. Af • er which they in the same Council, decree the like Interdicts, Excommunications, and Proceedings against all such who shall intrude upon the possessions of the Church; against Clerks who receive Churches by Lay-men's power; against such Judges and others, who shall release excommunicate persons ou • of prison without the Bishops consent; against Lay-men, who shall appreh • nd Clergy-men for civil crimes; against such who obtain or grant Prohibitions to their Courts; against the King or his Officers, who grieve or waste Churches possessions during their vacancy; against Judges and other Officers, who by a Quo Warranto question the Liberties which any Church or Prela • e hath long time enjoyed, though without any Charter; against secular Judges, who shall judge any Charters made to the Church void for uncertain • y; against Lord's, who shall endeavor to enforce Clergy men to make suit to their secular Courts, contrary to the Liberties of the Church; and the like. In all or most of which, if the King upon notice and monition conform not to Prelates desires, and stop not all proceedings and judgments in his Courts against them, his Judges and Officers shall be excommunicated, and their Lands, together with the Kings, and the whole Province of Canterbury interdicted as aforesaid • This Arch-Prelate and h • s con • ederates, thus trampling upon the Kings Crown, Royalties, Judges, Courts, Nobility, Subjects, and the Laws of the Kingdom; the King to stop their encroachments, was enforced to send forth Writs of Ad jura Regia, and Prohibitions to inhibit their proceedings; Wherein he thus complained, We a • e troubled, not without cause, and moved, while we behold those who live under our Dominion, and are there honored with Benefices and Rents, by reason whereof they ought to assist us in the defense and tuition of the Rights of our Royal Crown, with necks li •• ed up against us, endeavoring to the uttermost of their power to impugn the said Rights, to the GRIEVOVS PREIVDICE AND HVRT OF OUR ROYALL DIGNITIE AND CROWNE, and in contempt of us: Wherefore we, who by the bond of an Oath, are obliged to the unwounded Observance of the Rights of our Crown and Dignity, prohibit you, that you presume not to attemp • anything in the promises, which may any way derogate from the Right of our Crown and Dignity, and if anything in this kind ha • h been unduly attempted by you, that you cause it to be revoked without any delay, left we proceed • o apprehe • d you in a grievous manner, as the violaters of the Rights of our Crown and Dignity. Th • s Boniface, at last knowing himself very ill beloved, bo • h of the King and of all the Commons and Clergy in general, and being commanded by the King to give over his Bishopric, he thereupon • elled his Woods, let Leases, forced from his Tenants and others, what moneys he could possibly, and having gathered great sums, one way or other, carried it all with him over Sea into Savoy, where he died.

John Peckam, the next Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but one, was created Bishop of that See by the Popes mere Authority, against the Monks and Kings consents; whence in his Letters to the Pope, he usually styled himself his creature, though he made him pay four thousand Markes for his Creation: And to • hew himself his creature in good earnest, he upon the Popes most insolen • Letter to him (recorded at large by Matth • w Parker, in his life) to prohibit King Edward the first from collecting the Tenths granted to him in England by the Clergy, for the recovery of the Holy Land • rom the Sarazens, which the King collected by his own Officers, and laid up in such places as he thought meet without the Popes special license, not without great sin ag • inst the divine Majesty, and high contempt of the Apostolic Sea • went to the King immediately, being then in the confines of Wales, and there publicly before all his Nobles by virtue of the Popes command, admonished the King: First, within one months space to restore all the Monies collected, and to send it to the places formerly appointed for its custody, with so great promptitude of devotion, as might expiate the former blot of removing it thence. Secondly, that he should • or time to come, wholly desist from such attempts, adding, that altho • gh the Apostolical clemency did yet embrace him as one of her dear Sons: yet if he should hereafter chance to be found guilty of such offenses, that she neither would, nor yet could subtract the Rod of Correction from him, left by sparing man, she should consent to those Divine injuries which she corrected not. Thirdly, that he should neither molest nor grieve any of the Keepers or Depositaries of the said Monies upon this occasion. To which insolent Demands the King gave a very mild Answer.

This Lordly Prelate, was very stately in his gesture, gate, words, and outward • hew; he very often opposed himself against King Edward the first in Parliament, in right of his Church, denying to grant him Tenths; con • esting with him often about certain Liber • ies pertaining to the Crown, touching Church matters. Anno 1279. he held a Council at Reading ; wherein he enjoined all Priests every Lord's day, to excommunicate (among others) those who impetrated Letters or Writs from any Lay Court, to hinder the proceedings of the Ecclesiastickes in Causes pertaining to them by the holy Canons. He held his Prebendary of Lions in France, in Commendam, and would not part with it by any means; because he looked every day to be driven out of England by the King (whom he stiffly opposed and resisted to his face in many things) and then he should have no oth • r home to take to: He promptly obeyed the Popes commands against the King, not to pay him any Subsidies, or give him any aide without the Popes consent, and oft admonishing the King before his Nobles, to obey • he Popes Mandates in derogation of his Crown, and tending to the great oppression of his Subjects. He called another Council a • Lambeth, Anno 1280. in which he went about to annihilate certain Liberties belonging to the Crown, as the taking knowledge of the Right of Patronages, and the Kings Prohibitions, In placitis de catallis, and such like, which seemed merely to touch the Spiritualty. But the King by some in that Council, withstood the Arch-Bishop openly, and with menaces, stayed him from concluding anything that might prejudice his Royal Liberties, and Prerogatives. After which he held another Council at Reading, Anno 1290. where he and the Bishops purposed to draw the Conusans of Advowsons and Patronages of Churches, belonging time out of mind to the Kings Temporal Cou • ts, to the Ecclesiastical Consistories, utterly to cut off all the Kings Prohibitions to these Courts, in suites concerning Goods, Chattels and Debts, so that the Ecclesiastical Judges should not from thenceforth be prohibited to proceed on in them: But the King hearing of this their design, and encroachment on his Royal Crown, prohibited them to proceed therein under pain of his indignation; whereupon the Council was dissolved, and the Arch • Bishop and other Prelates frustrated of their hopes. Who yet proceeding to encroach upon the Kings Royalties in their Ecclesiastical Courts, He thereupon sent forth Writs to restrain them, to this effect: Rex Archiepiscopis, &c. The King to the Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deans, Arch-Deacons, Chancellors, Praecentors, Provosts, Sacrists, Prebends in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, and to all other Ecclesiastical Persons, constituted in whatever Dignity or Office; as also to public Notaries, and all others, greeting. It behooveth us so much the more carefully to do our endeavor, and more solici • ously to extend our hand to our Royal Prerogatives, lest they • hold utterly perish, or by the undue Usurpations of any, be in some • ort substracted, by maintaining them as far as we lawfully may; by reducing them to their due state • if any of them have been substracted and seized on; as likewise by bridling the impugners o • our said Royal Jurisdictions, and by punishing them as it is meet, according to their demerits: And so much the rather, by how much we are known to be obliged to do it by the Bond of an Oath, and behold more men from day today to impugn the same Rights, to their utmost power; whereas we have recovered in our Court before us, by consideration of the said Cour • , our Collation to the Prebend of S. in the Church of Saint Peters in York, &c. And now we have understood, that certain men endeavoring with all th •• r might to impugn our Royal Right, and for • sai • Judgment, as likewise our Collation made to our said Clerke, have made and procured to be made certain Provocations, Appeale • , Indictions, Inhibitions, &c. by the which if they should proceed, our Royal Right, and foresaid Judgment, and the effect of our Collation should be annulled, which might many ways generate prejudice and exheredation to us and our Crown. We desiring by all means we may, to preven • such prejudice and exheredation, and to restrain the unlawful endeavors of all the impugners of the Rights of our Crown, strictly prohibit you and every of you, that you do not, by pretext of any Commission made, or hereafter to be made to you, or any of you, presume by any Authority, without our advice, to attempt, or by others in any so •• cause to be attempted, anything which may tend to the derogation of our Royal Right, or annulling of the • oresaid Judgment rightly given, or the weakening of our said Collation; knowing, that if you shall do otherwise, we will proceed to apprehend you in a grievous manner, Tanquam violatores Iuris nostri Regii, as violaters of our Royal Right. By these Writs the Usurpations of this Arch Prelate and the Bishops, on the Kings Royal Prerogative, and Courts of Justice, were somewhat restrained; otherwise, they had in time made themselves absolute Kings, and the Kings of England mere Cyphers, and only executioners of their Papal pleasures.

Robert Winchelsie, his Successor, exceedingly opposed his Sovereign King Edward the first: Who having spent an infinite sum of Money in the Wars of Scotland, summon • d a Parliament at Barwicke ; wherein, when the Temporalty contributed liberally toward the charge of that War, the Clergy alleging the Canon of the late Council of Lions, wherein it was decreed, That no Clergy-man should pay any Ayde or Subsidy to any Temporal Magistrate, without the Popes license, (which Canon the Arch-Bishop alleged against the Subsidy, granted by the Clergy two years before in his absence, causing them then to set it down for a Canon, afterwards to be kept inviolably) refused to grant the King a Subsidy, without the Popes consent; and would then give no Subsidy nor supply at all to the King, though at the same time they readily granted three Subsidies to the Pope, towards his Wars against the French. The King would not take this for payment; and therefore presently took order, That all Barns of these undutiful rebellious Clergy-men should be locked up, and by Proclamation put all the Clergy from out of his protection, so that hereafter it should be lawful for any man to sue them for any Cause, but they might not commence Suite against any man; holding a Parliament with his Temporal Lord's and Commons only, and shutting the Bishops and Clergy out of the Parliament house. This constrained some of the Clergy, after much contest, (though animated and solicited by the Arch-Bishop still to resist) to submit to the King at last, and to be content to grant him such a proportion of their goods (though it were the fifth part of their Revenues) as he should like of; only the Arch-Bishop, the Head of this • action, continued obstinate, making no other answer to the King but this: Under God, our universal Lord, we have two other Lord's, a Spiritual Lord the Pope, and a Temporal Lord the King; and though we be to obey both, yet rather the Spiritual Lord then the Temporal: When therefore he saw all the rest inclining to yield, using no other words then this; Salvet unusquisque animam suam, Let every man save his own Soul, (as if Rebellion against his Prince were the only means to save his soul) and pronouncing all those excommunicated that contributed anything to the King, he rose up, and suddenly departed out of the Convocation House. The King for this his contumacy, seized all his Lands, and commanded all such Debts of his as were found in the Rolls of the Exchequer, to be le • ed with all speed on his Goods and Cattle, which he seized into his hands, and made show of great displeasure. Notwithstanding, shortly after being to make War with the French King in France, he thought good before his departure to receive this Arch-Rebell to favor again, who had caused the King to be cited up to the Court of Rome, and there suspended. But this grace endured not long: for presently upon his return, the King laid divers high Treasons to his charge; as, That he had dehorted his Subjects, in his absence, from paying their Sub • idies; That he went about to trouble the quiet state of the Realm, and to defend and succor Rebellious persons; That he had conspired with divers of his Nobility, to deprive him of his Kingdom, (though the best Prince that ever England had before) to commit him to perpetual Prison, and to Crown his Son Edwa • d King in his stead; and that he was the Ring-leader and Author of this Conspiracy. The Arch-Bishop no • able to deny these Treasons, and being suspended from his Office by the Pope, till he should purge himself of these things, he fell down on the ground at the Kings feet, craving pardon of his heinous offenses with tears and howling, calling the King then his Lord, which he never did before, neither with his month, nor in his Letters. Thus this proud Prelate, ex • crable both to God and man, who had twice a little before prohibited the King, in the Popes name, to make War with the rebellious and treacherous Scots, his Enemies, who had invaded his Kingdom in his absence, because the Pope had taken them into his protection; who had defiled and infected the whole Priest-hood and Clergy of England with his pride, exercised an unheard of Tyranny over the people; being now deprehended by the King in his wickedness, terrified and dejected with the guilt of his sin, and fear of punishment, lay now prostrate on the ground before the King, offered him his Pall, and sub • i • ted his person and goods to his mercy. To whom the King gave this answer: I will not punish thee myself, le • t I should seem rather to have respect to my own Revenge, though most just, then to thy Order. And although thou art altogether unworthy of thy Order and my Grace, yet I will refer the matter to thy fellow Bishops, and the Pope of Rome, that thou mayest be tried by thy Peers, lest thou shouldest think me an unjust Judge; though the Conusans of Treason, the highest Crime in a S • bject, belongs without doubt to my Tribunal, not to theirs. Moreover (added the King) I have known thy hatred and malice towards me, not only in the greatest things, but even in the smallest and in matters of least moment, in which by thy authority thou hast over-much abused my patience; depriving my Clerks in thy visitation, notwithstanding my Letters to the contrary, and their just appeals; both which thou hast contemned, together with my Royal Authority. The Arch-Bishop troubled and confounded in mind at these things, craved a Blessing from the King; who replied, That his Blessing would rather become him, then his the Arch Bishop. The King hereupon complains of him to the Pope, That he had troubled the peaceable and safe estate of the Kingdom in his absence, and stirred up the Nobles to a Rebellion and Conspiracy against him, &c. And notwithstanding his submission, cited him to appear at Rome, banished him the Realm, seized upon all his goods moveable and immovable, forbidding all his Subjects, under a great pain, to foster him: Yet the Monks of Canterbury secretly harboured him for a time, furnished him with necessaries, and conveyed him beyond the Seas. Which the King afterwards understanding, seized on all their Goods and Lands, banished them the Monastery, turning fourscore Monks a begging, forbidding any to harbor them; and kept them in that miserable estate, till afterwards he was pleased, upon their submission, to restore them. After which, the Bishop of Winchester interceded to the King for this Arch Traitor, calling him his Lord: with which the King being greatly offended, put this Bishop out of his protection, and confiscated his goods, because he acknowledged another then the King to be his lord; even such a one, who being guilty of Treason & manifest contempt against the King, had lost the very right of a Subject in his Kingdom. While the Arch-Bishop was thus in exile, before any hearing of this Cause at Rome, the King deceaseth; who, as Holinshed writes was an earnest enemy of the high and presumptuous insolency of Priests, which he judged to proceed chiefly of too much Wealth and Riches; and therefore he devised to establish the Statute of Mortmain, to be a bridle to their inordinate lusts and riotous excess: which Statute they labored to repeal, and purchase out, by giving large Subsidies to that end. His Son Edward the second succeeding him, out of an over-indulgent pity, calls home this Arch-Traitor by his Letter, writes to the Pope to discontinue his Fathers Suite against him, and to send him over with all speed to Crown him: Who glad with the news, and unable to make haste home, as was requisite, by reason of his crazy body, sent a Commission to the King, with the names of three Bishops in it, giving him liberty to elect which of the three he desired, to Crown him in his behalf; who made choice of the Bishop of Winchester, who set the Crown on his head. The King upon the Arch-Bishops return, restored him all his goods, and every penny received of his Temporalties during his two years exile, (a good reward for a Traitor) whereby he became the richest Arch-Bishop of many before and after him. He was no sooner come home, but a new danger encountered him, by his own wonted boldness. The King, by the counsel of Piers Gaveston, had committed the Bishop of Coventry to Ward, at York : A Convocation shortly after being assembled, the Arch-Bishop would not suffer any matter to be debated in the House, till the Bishop were set at liberty; which the King was contented to bear withal at that time. This Bishop (saith Matthew his Successor) though he were reported to be a stout Governor of the English Church, and a Defender of its Rites, yet he was too excessive in this, and ever opposite to the King, attributing that to the Pope, with whom he was most strictly linked, which he derogated from the King; seeking not so much the Liberties of the Realm, as the increase of the Popes power, and deminishing the Kings Authority, that he might transfer it to the Pope. He was a great enemy to Prohibitions, laboring the advancement of the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction, and the eclipsing of the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts. He was the Author of Articuli Cleri, and Walter Reynolds his Successor, procurer of the Kings answer to them in Parliament. Which Articles, though they be commonly taken for a Statute, yet in truth they are none, but a mere Answer of the King in Parliament, to Articles exhibited to him by the Clergy, made by the advice of his Council, but not of the Commons and whole Parliament; and a particular Grant of the King only, not of the Parliament: as appears by the several Answeres to each of those Articles, but especially to the last. Finally, he ever sided with the Pope for the Liberties of the Church, and with the Barons also, against the King. He opposed himself against Piers Gaveston, the Spensers, and other Favouri • es and Corruptors of the young King, very boldly; and enforced John Warren, Earl of Surrey, to forswear the Company of a certain beautiful Harlot, with the love of whom he was greatly bewitched. And afterwards, when notwithstanding his Oath, he returned to her company, and got Children upon her, he accused him to the Convocation both of Adultery and Perjury, and a • last made him to leave her. He excommunicated Walter, Bishop of Coventry, for revol • ing from him and the Clergy, and adhering to Piers Gaveston ; who appealed unto the Pope, and was by him absolved. Which last Acts of his are commendable, though they proceeded rather from the stournesse and haughtiness of his Spirit, then the Piety of his Heart: How ever, his former are most execrable.

Walter Reynolds, his next Successor, advanced and preferred only by King Edward the Second to that Sea; when the King, after the Barons Wars ended, had done execution upon divers of the Nobl • s that had reb • lled, Adam Tarlt • n Bishop of Hereford, by the Kings direction, in a Parliament holden at London, Anno Dom. 1324. was apprehended and brought to the Ba ••• , to be arraigned for the like faults of Rebellion and High Treason against his Sovereign; to wit, for aiding, succouring, and maintaining the Mor • imers and other Rebels: who having nothing to say in defense of himself, against the Crimes objected unto him, at first disdained to make any answer at all; and when he was in a manner forced thereto, standing mute a long space, at length he brake out into these words, and flatly told the King: My Lord and King, saving your Reverence, I am an humble Minister and Member of the Holy Church of God, and a consecrated Bishop, though unworthy; I neither can nor ought to answer to such high matters, without the connivence and consent of my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, my direct Judge next after the Pope, and of the other Fathers, the Bishops, my Peers. At which saying, the Arch-Bishops and Bishops there present, rose up and interceded to the King, for their Colleague: and when as the King, would not be entreated, the whole Clergy challenged the Bishop as a Member of the Church, and so exempt from the Kings Judicature (as if Lay men were not Members of the Church too, as well as Bishops and Priests, and so, by this reason, exempt from Secular Jurisdiction.) The King forced thereunto with their Clamours (though for a very Traitors rescue) committed him to the Arch-Bishops custody, to answer elsewhere for these Crimes. But within few days after, when the King called him again before his presence, to make answer to the matters laid against him, and there arraigned him before his Royal Tribunal for his Treasons, all the Bishops of England almost being then at London, the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury, York, and Dublin, accompanied with ten other Bishops, and a great troupe of men, hearing of Tarl • ons Arraignment, in great haste hyed them thither; and having their Crosses borne before them, entered the Court by violence, took the Prisoner from the Barre before he had made any answer, chased away the Kings Officers by force, and carried him away with them from the Barre, (the highest affront that ever was offered to public Justice in the Kingdom; and that in open Parliament, in case of High Treason against the King,) and withal they proclaimed, That no man should lay violent hands on this Traitor whom they had rescued, upon pain of Excommunication. The King being exceedingly moved with this unparalleled insolence of the Clergy, as he had reason, commanded an Inquest to be impanelled, and a lawful inquiry to be made of the Treasons committed by him, in his absence. The Jury, without fear of the King, or any hatred of the Bishop, according to the truth of the matter, finding the Bishop guilty of all the Treasons and Rebellions whereof he was indicted: the King hereupon banished the Bishop • seized upon his Temporalties, Lands, and Goods; but the Bishop himself, by the consent of all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops, was by strong hand kept safe in the Arch-Bishop of Canterburies custody, notwithstanding his proscrip • ion, who at last reconciled this Traitor to the King. So industrious have the Bishops been, not only to plot and execute Treasons, but likewise to defend and int • rcede for Traitors of their own Coat, to keep them from execution, and to get them again into favor, that so they might more boldly proceed on in their intended Trecheries and Rebellions, being sure to escape unpunished, by means of their fellow Bishops, how ever other Traitors speed. After this, the King demanded Subsidies of the Clergy, towards his Wars; which they at first stiffly denied to grant, without the Popes Licence first obtained; which the King was enforced to procure: and notwithstanding it, they stood off a while, alleging, That the Pope had of late years received so many Subsidies and Procurations from them, that they were not able to give the King so much as one Subsidy; who could readily grant the Pope so many: At last, upon this condition, That the King should augment and confirm those Ecclesiastical Privileges they claimed, they granted him a Subsidy; and he thereupon gave the Answeres, to Articuli Cleri, and granted the Clergy to be free from Purveyances. After this, the Queen, with Edward the third, her Son, went into France, to make Peace between France and England ; where, by the French Kings persuasions, being her Brother, she continued, refusing to return again into England : The King hereupon banisheth her and her Son; great Wars and stirs arise hereupon: divers of the Nobles, together with the Bishops of Lincoln, Hereford, Dublin, and Eli, side with the Queen, and levy a great sum of Money for her: The Arch-Bishop, though advanced merely by the King, who highly favored him, secretly joins with the Queen against his Sovereign, in his greatest necessi • ies, and sent the Queen both monies and supplies secretly, yet keeping in with the King in outward show, the better to betray him and his secrets. And Bishop Tarlton whom he had formerly rescued from his Arraignement, and reconciled to the King, became the chiefest stickler and Incendiary against his Sovereign, and the Author of his subsequent murder. The King what with wars and Papal exactions, was brought to such penury, that he was forced to borrow 260. pounds even of the Popes Collectors of Peter -pence. The Queens side and For • es at last prevailing against the King, who was glad to lurk in Wales like a fugitive, the Arch-Bishop openly revolts from him, and the King by his and other the Bishops means, being deposed in Parliament, Edward the third his Son was unanimously elected King by all the people. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Prelates (here all Arch-traitors) consented to the Election, and the Arch-Bishop taking this Theame, The voice of the People is the voice of God, made a speech to the people, exhorting them to pray to the King of Kings for the new Elected King; who out of his filial duty refused upon any terms to accept the Crown, without his Fathers consent: whereupon three Bishops, with others, were sent to the King to Kenelworth where he was imprisoned, to get his consent; which being implyedly obtained, the Arch-Bishop Crowns his Son King in his stead, at Westminster (the very height of Treason.) This Arch-Bishop much hindered the course of Prohibitions from the Kings Court to the Ecclesiastical. At last he was commanded by the Queen to consecrate one James Barkely Bishop of Exeter, which he did, but for his labor was so threatened, taunted, and revi • ed by the Pope, who had reserved the Donation of this Bishopric to himself, that for very grief he died.

John Stra • ford, his very next successor, being made Bishop of Winchester by the Popes provision, against King Edward the seconds liking, who would have preferred Robert Baldocke his Chancellor to that See, had no sooner set sooting into this Bishopric, but the King caused all his Goods to be seized, and his Livings to be sequestered to his use, besides, he caused him to be summoned to answer • to several Actions, so as for fear he was fain to hide himself: Whereupon Proclamation was made, that no man should dare to harbor or give him entertainment, by meat, drink or lodging: At last, after much ado, the Arch-Bishop made his peace, and brought him into favor with the King, who dying King