CHAPTER IX THE PAPAL AUTHORITY TRIUMPHANT 66. The Struggle between John and Innocent III. Roger of Wendover ROGER OF WENDOVER (d. 1237) left a work known as The Flowers of History (formerly attributed to Matthew Paris). It is the chief contemporary source for the reign of King John. The stormy rule of that king was full of struggles between the Throne and the Church, and the Throne and the Baronage. The first chain of events grew out of the tripartite struggle between the cathedral chapter of Canterbury, the king, and the pope, to seat their respective candidates in the archbishopric of Canterbury, in place of Hubert Walter, deceased. The pope was able to control the clergy, but the king refused to admit the right of Rome to appoint to the vacant see. THE KING OF ENGLAND ADMONISHED BY OUR LORD THE POPE In the same year pope Innocent, on learning that king John's heart was so hardened, that he would not either by persuasion or threats be induced to acquiesce in receiving Stephen as archbishop of Canterbury, was touched to the heart with grief, and, by advice of his cardinals, sent orders to William bishop of London, Eustace bishop of Ely, and Mauger bishop of Winchester, to go to the said king, about the matter of the church of Canterbury, and to give him wholesome counsel to yield to God in this matter, and so secure the Lord's favour; but if they found him contumacious and rebellious as he had hitherto been, he ordered them to lay an interdict on the whole kingdom of England, and to denounce to the said king that, if he did not check his boldness by that means, he, the pope, would lay his hand on him still more heavily; since it was necessary for him to conquer, who for the safety of the holy church had made war on the devil and his angels, and despoiled the cloisters of hell. He also, by letters of the apostolic see, gave orders to the suffragan bishops of the church of Canterbury, and to the other prelates of that diocese, that, by virtue of their obedience, they were to receive the aforesaid archbishop as their father and pastor, and were to obey him with all due affection. 67. England under the Interdict A. 1208. The bishops of London, Ely, and Winchester, in execution of the legateship entrusted to them, went to king John, and after duly setting forth the apostolic commands, entreated of him humbly and with tears, that he, having God in his sight, would recall the archbishop and the monks of Canterbury to their church, and honour and love them with perfect affection; and they informed him that thus he would avoid the shame of an interdict, and the Disposer of rewards would, if he did so, multiply his temporal honours on him, and after his death would bestow lasting glory on him. When the said bishops wished, out of regard to the king, to prolong the discourse, the king became nearly mad with rage, and broke forth in words of blasphemy against the pope and his cardinals, swearing by God's teeth, that, if they or any other priests soever presumptuously dared to lay his dominions under an interdict, he would immediately send all the prelates of England, clerks as well as ordained persons, to the pope, and confiscate all their property; he added moreover, that all the clerks of Rome or of the pope himself who could be found in England or in his other territories, he would send to Rome with their eyes plucked out, and their noses slit, that by these marks they might be known there from other people; in addition to this he plainly ordered the bishops to take themselves quickly from his sight, if they wished to keep their bodies free from harm. The bishops then, not finding any repentance in the king, departed, and, in the Lent following, fearlessly fulfilled the duty required of them by the pope, and accordingly on the morning of Monday in Passion week, which that year fell on the 23rd of March, they laid a general interdict on the whole of England; which, since it was expressed to be by authority of our lord the pope, was inviolably observed by all without regard of person or privileges. Therefore all church services ceased to be performed in England, with the exception only of confession, and the viaticum in cases of extremity, and the baptism of children; the bodies of the dead too were carried out of cities and towns, and buried in roads and ditches without prayers or the attendance of priests. What need I say more? 68. John excommunicated by Name A. 1209. King John had now for nearly two years, as has been said before, unceasingly continued throughout England, on account of the interdict, a most severe persecution against the clergy as well as some of the laity, and had entirely destroyed all kind of hope in every one of any improvement or satisfaction, and pope Innocent could no longer put off the punishment of his rebellion; wherefore, by the advice of his cardinals, he, in order to cut up by the root such an insult to the church, gave orders to the bishops of London, Ely, and Winchester, to declare the said king excommunicated by name, and solemnly to publish this sentence every Sunday and feast day in all the conventual churches throughout England, that thus the king might be more strictly shunned by every one. But after the aforesaid bishops had, by the apostolic authority, entrusted the publication of this sentence to their fellow bishops who had remained in England, and to the other prelates of the church, they all, through fear of or regard for the king, became like dumb dogs not daring to bark, wherefore they put off fulfilling the duty enjoined on them by the apostolic mandate, and failed to proceed according to the usual course of justice. Nevertheless in a short time the decree became known to all in the roads and streets, and even in the places of assembly of the people it afforded a subject of secret conversation to all; amongst others, as Geoffrey archdeacon of Norwich was one day sitting in the Exchequer at Westminster, attending to the king's business, he began to talk privately with his companions who sat with him, of the decree which was sent forth against the king; and said that it was not safe for beneficed persons to remain any longer in their allegiance to an excommunicated king: after saying which, he went to his own house without asking the king's permission. This event coming soon after to the knowledge of the king, he was not a little annoyed, and sent William Talbot a knight, with some soldiers, to seize the archdeacon, and they, after he was taken, bound him in chains and threw him into prison; after he had been there a few days, by command of the said king a cap of lead was put on him, and at length, being overcome by want of food as well as by the weight of the leaden cap, he departed to the Lord. |