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MEETING OF RICHARD AND BOLINGBROKE AT FLINT CASTLE.

(Richard is disguised as a Priest, and Bolingbroke is represented in mourning for the death of his father, John of Gaunt.)

one appeared to pity his fate; and if we are to believe Froissart, his very dog left his side to fawn upon his destroyer. At Lichfield, while on the way from Chester to the capital, the king eluded the vigilance of his guards, and escaped out of a window; but he was retaken, and from that time treated with greater severity. On their arrival in London, Richard was cursed and reviled by the populace, and thrown into the Tower. Henry was received by the mayor and the principal citizens; while at Chester, writs were issued in Richard's name for the meeting of parliament on the 29th of September. On the day of that meeting, a deputation of lords and commons, which included the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Northumberland, two justices, two doctors of laws, with many others, ecclesiastics and laymen, waited on the king in the Tower, who there, according to the reporters,

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From the Harleian MS. 1319, a History of the Deposition of Richard II., in French verse, professing to be "composed by a Freuch gentleman of mark, who was in the suite of the said king, with permission of the King of France." "The several illuminations contained in this book," says a MS. note by Bishop Percy, appended to the volume, are extremely valuable and curious, not only for the exact display of the dresses, &c. of the time, but for the finished portraits of so many ancient characters as are presented in them." These interesting and beautiful illuminations are sixteen in number; our copies of three of them, which have been carefully traced from the originals, will convey some notion of the style of minute and high finish in which they are executed. The whole have been engraved in the 20th volume of the Archeologia, where the poem is printed with an English translation, and ample explanatory notes, by the Rev. John Webb, M.A., F. A.S., Rector of Tretire, in Herefordshire; pp. 1-423.

made, "with a cheerful countenance," a formal renunciation of the crown, acknowledged his unfitness for government, absolved all his subjects from homage and fealty, gave his royal ring to his cousin Henry, and said, that he of all men should be his successor, if he had the power to name one. Whether all this passed as thus stated by the triumphant party of Lancaster is of little consequence, and Henry was too sagacious to rest his title to the crown upon what could never be considered in any other light than that of a compulsory resignation. The only right that Henry could pretend, was a concise and obvious one; but in his "abundant caution, and to remove all scruple," he determined to prop himself with all sorts of devices, and to heap title upon title. Of these accumulated pretensions, some were nugatory or conflicting, and in reality weakened instead of strengthening his claim; but the lawyers were gratified, and possibly some delicate consciences were tranquillized by each of the clauses. On Tuesday, the 30th day of September, the parliament having met in Westminster Hall, the resignation of Richard was read. All the members then stood up, and signified their acceptance of it, and a great concourse of people outside the hall shouted with joy. Thirty-three articles of impeachment against Richard were afterwards read, and being declared guilty on every charge, his deposition was pronounced; thus a deposition was

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PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED FOR THE DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II. Harl. MS. 1319.

(The Earl of Westmoreland on the right of the Throne; the Earl of Northumberland of the left; Henry of Bolingbroke behind the latter.)

because I am descended by right line of blood from the good lord King Henry III., and through that right, that God of his grace hath sent me, with help of my kin and of my friends, to recover it; the which realm was in point to be undone for default of government and undoing of the good laws." He knelt for a few minutes in prayer on the steps, and then was seated on the throne by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.*

Rot. Parl.-Knyght-Brady.

The history of Scotland during this period is so intermixed with that of England, and has necessarily in consequence been so fully detailed in the preceding narrative, that no further summary of it is required. The reign of the meek and pious, but feeble-minded Robert III. continued down to the date at which we are now arrived, without furnishing any events beyond what have been above related.

CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORY OF RELIGION.

HE papal dominion in Europe reached its height about the beginning of the thirteenth century, and maintained itself with little outward evidence of decline nearly throughout the century. Boniface VIII. was as arrogant an assertor of the supremacy of the successor of St. Peter over all other earthly powers and principalities, as his predecessor Innocent III., but he was not so fortunate in the time and circumstances in which he attempted to compel submission to his high pretensions. In truth, it was not in the nature of things that such a dominion should last; it was thrown up, as it were, into the air, by a violent, volcanic force; and the greater the height it had attained, the nearer it was to the commencement of its descent and downfal. The very success of Innocent, by the extravagance of the assumptions to which it gave rise in himself and those who came after him, and the dream of security in which it lulled them, was more fatal than anything else could have been to the stability of their colossal sovereignty; its pressure, thus aggravated, awoke and gradually diffused a spirit of resistance both among kings and people; till at length Philip le Bel began, and Wycliffe, nearly a hundred years later, carried forward, the great rebellion, which after little more than another hundred years was to be fought out triumphantly by Luther. But for nearly a century before the time of Philip le Bel the causes which were preparing this conflict were in active though hidden operation, and the proud pontificate of Innocent may be properly fixed upon as the culmination of the papacy-the point at which it both attained its highest rise and commenced its decline. From the time of Boniface the decline became apparent, and has been progressive to our own day. "Slowly," as it has been finely said, "like the retreat of waters, or the stealthy pace of old age, that extraordinary power over human opinion has been subsiding for five centuries."*

In no country were the exactions and encroachments of the Roman pontiffs, in the thirteenth century, carried to a more exorbitant extent than in England. The good nature of the people, and Hallam, Middle Ages, 'ii, 329.

VOL. I.

something perhaps of a turn for superstition in their temper or their habits, their insular separation from the rest of Europe, and their wealth, which even at this period was considerable, concurred with the political circumstances of the country, which from the latter years of Henry II. had been eminently favourable to the spread of this foreign usurpation, in making England the great field of papal imposition and plunder. Throughout this century the bishoprics were filled either by the direct nomination of the pope, or, what was perfectly equivalent, by his arbitration in the case of a disputed election. The course that was taken in regard to this matter may be illustrated by the history of the succession of the archbishops of Canterbury. On the death of Cardinal Langton, in 1228, the chapter chose as his successor one of their own number, Walter de Hemesham; but both the king and the bishops of the province having appealed to Rome against this election, the pope annulled it, and appointed Richard le Grand, or Weathershead, chancellor of Lincoln, to be archbishop. Le Grand died in 1231, on which three successive elections were made by the chapter and set aside by the pope ; and at last Edmund Rich, treasurer of Salisbury, whom the pope recommended, was chosen and consecrated. Archbishop Edmund died in 1242, when King Henry first compelled the chapter by threats, and almost by force, to nominate Boniface of Savoy, the queen's uncle, and then purchased the confirmation of the election at Rome. On occasion of the preceding vacancy the pope had made no scruple in setting aside the original selection of the chapter, although the king had concurred in it. On the death of Boniface, in 1270, William Chillenden, their sub-prior, was elected by the chapter; but the pope nominated Robert Kirwarby, and he became archbishop. Exactly the same thing was repeated in 1278, when Kilwarby resigned on being made a cardinal; the monks elected Robert Burnel, bishop of Bath and Wells, but John Peckham, a Franciscan friar, was nevertheless appointed to the see by the pope of his own authority. The next time the chapter at once elected the person who it was understood would be agreeable to the pope, namely, Robert Winchelsey, who succeeded Peckham in 1293, and fought the battle of the clergy against the crown with great valour during a twenty years' occupation of the The right of nominating to inferior benefices was seized in a still more open manner. It had been a frequent practice of the popes to request

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bishops to confer the next benefice that should become vacant on a particular clerk. Gradually these recommendations, which were called mandats, became more frequent; but it was not till the time of Gregory IX. (a.d. 1227—1241) that they were distinctly avowed to be of an authoritative character. Even that pope claimed, in words, no more than the right of nominating one clerk to a benefice in every church. But he and Innocent IV. are asserted to have, in fact, placed Italian priests by their mandatory letters in all the best benefices in England. In the three last years of Gregory IX. it is said that three hundred Italians were sent over to this country to be provided for in the church. It was solemnly stated by the English envoys to the council of Lyons (held in 1245) that Italian. priests drew from England at this time sixty or seventy thousand marks every year-a sum greater than the whole revenue of the crown. Nor did these foreigners even spend their incomes in the country. Most of them continued to reside at Rome, or elsewhere in Italy, where, in general, they held other preferments: it is affirmed that in some cases fifty or sixty livings were accumulated in the possession of one individual. At length the universal right of nomination to church livings was asserted in plain terms by Clement IV., in a bull published in 1266. Nor was even this the utmost extent to which the claim was carried. By what was called a reservation, the pope assumed the power of reserving to himself the next presentation to any benefice he pleased which was not at the time vacant; or by another instrument, called a provision, he at once named a person to succeed the present incumbent. In this way all the benefices in the kingdom, both those that were vacant and those that were not, were turned to account, and made available in satisfying the herd of clamorous suitors for preferment and dependants on the holy see. In a letter addressed to the pope by the king, the prelates, and barons of England, in 1246, complaint is made that the foreigners upon whom livings were thus bestowed not only did not reside in the country, nor understand its language, but, even in their absence and incompetency, appointed no substitutes to perform their duties. In the numerous churches filled by them, it is declared there was neither almsgiving nor hospitality, nor any preaching or care of souls whatever. The Italians, it is moreover affirmed, were invested with their livings without trouble or charges, whereas the English were obliged to prosecute their rights at Rome at a great expense. The letter also touches upon some of the other vexatious modes by which the holy see laboured to extend its power or to gratify its rapacity, particularly the great grievance of drawing all causes of importance to be heard and decided at Rome. This was a material part of the scheme for bringing the civil under subjection to the ecclesiastical power, which had been pursued with such pertinacity from the time of Anselm and the first Henry. It was also a means of drawing much

wealth from the country, and augmenting the ample stream, fed by multiplied contrivances of exaction and drainage, that was constantly flowing thence into the papal treasury. The entire taxation or tribute annually paid, under a variety of names, by England to Rome, must have amounted to an immense sum. Gregory IX. is said to have, in one way and another, extracted from the kingdom, in the course of a very few years, not less than nine hundred and fifty thousand marks, -a sum which Mr. Hallam estimates as equivalent to fifteen millions at present.*

It

In 1376, the commons, in a remonstrance to the king against the intolerable extortions of the court of Rome, affirmed that the taxes yearly paid to the pope out of England amounted to five times as much as all the taxes paid to the crown. A considerable portion, indeed, of the revenue thus extracted by the Roman pontiff was levied directly from the clergy themselves, in the form of Peterpence, annates, or first-fruits, fees upon institution to benefices, &c. ; but it did not the less on that account come ultimately out of the property and industry of the nation. The church was but the vast conduit or instrument of suction by which the money was drawn from the country. is calculated, from a statement of the historian Knyghton, that in the early part of the fourteenth century the annual revenue of the church amounted to the enormous sum of seven hundred and thirty thousand marks, which was more than twelve times the amount of the whole civil revenue of the kingdom in the reign of Henry III.+ Very nearly one-half of the soil of England was at this period in the possession of the church. At the same time, as we have seen, all the richest benefices were in the hands of foreigners. Where a cure thus held by a non-resident incumbent was served at all, it was intrusted to a curate, who appears to have been usually paid at the most wretched rate. In his account of the great pestilence of 1349, Knyghton observes, that before that plague a curate might have been hired for four or five marks a-year, or for two marks and his board; but that so many of the clergy were swept away by it, that for some time afterwards no one was to be had to do duty for less than twenty marks or pounds a-year. To remedy this evil a constitution or edict was published a few years afterwards by the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, forbidding any incumbent to give, or any curate to demand, more than one mark a-year above what had been given to the curate of the same church before the plague.

The extensive and more systematic form given to the canon law in the course of the thirteenth century considerably aided the pope and the church in their contest with the civil power. We extract

from Mr. Hallam the following summary of the additions made during this period to the Decretum of Gratian, originally the great text-book of that

Mid. Ages, ii. 306. Macpherson, An. of Com. i. 519.

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