drive off and crush their malice and insolence. And this, as CHAP. XIV. you love us and our honour and yours, and the security of Holy Church and of our realm aforesaid, do you in no wise omit. Witness myself at Westminster, the 16th day of June, in the year of our reign of England 46, of France 33.* The condition of the Church and the state of public opinion weighed heavily on the mind of Whittlesey. He felt deeply his incapacity to take his proper place in the country. He consulted physicians, and was ever expecting to have a remedy prescribed for his disorder, while they found it difficult to decide on the precise nature of the complaint under which he suffered. He lingered at Otford, where he had early found a home and, in his predecessor, an affectionate kinsman. Meantime the financial difficulties of the country were increasing. It was necessary to have recourse to strong measures to replenish the exhausted treasury; and to the credit of the king, it must be observed that, unlike his ancestors, he was anxious that the measures should be conducted on constitutional principles. The House of Commons determined to deal with the property of the clergy and of the religious houses; and the clergy had, unfortunately for their cause, placed themselves in the wrong, and thus had laid themselves open to attack. The Statutes of Mortmain, which had been enacted in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I., and had been renewed under Edward III., declared that it should not be lawful for any person, religious or other, to buy, sell, or receive under pretence of gift, any lands or tenements without the king's licence. Yet, in spite of this enactment, lands had been received, and the Statutes of Mortmain had been transgressed. The parliament was, *Ex. Reg. Whittlesey, fol. 162. 7 Edw. I. c. 2. 18 Edw. III. c. 3. William Whittle sey. 1368-74. XIV. William therefore, perfectly justified in deciding, that in the great tax voted in 1371, all lands should be included in the Whittle rate which had passed into mortmain since the eighteenth of Edward I. Whether it was equally justifiable to 1368-74. year of Edward I. enforce payment from small livings hitherto exempt is not quite so clear.* sey. That the parties concerned, the clergy of that age, should feel indignant at the course pursued, and that they should not regard the proceeding with that impartiality with which we are able to view it, is only what one could expect. They simply saw an aggression, a novelty: for ecclesiastical property had hitherto been regarded, in the eye of the law, as sacred. They could not but suspect, and perhaps they were not wrong, that the object was to get in the thin end of the wedge, and what would follow might be easily surmised. Then, again, the clergy had really a strong case, if we pass over that infraction of the law to which we have referred. At this period, a violation of the law was not unusual, for laws were generally regarded as enactments to meet a present difficulty or grievance. When that end was answered, they were not more binding than are the present laws of the Church of England upon a clergy who, in every rank. are found to violate them with impunity, though they may, at any time, be called to account. The property of the Church was not subject to parliamentary taxation, and never became so until the reign of Charles II. But while the parliament taxed the laity, the clergy, taxing themselves, were the most heavily-taxed portion of the community. Not only were they compelled, when the king was either despotic or weak, to contribute more than their quota to the expenses of the court, the army, and the country, but they had also to submit to various * Walsingham, 186. XIV. William Whittle sey. 1368-74. actions on the part of the papal court. Repeatedly CHAP. ad they petitioned the government to protect them from he pope, but scarcely ever did they obtain redress, until he laity as well as the clergy became objects of papal exortion; or until the country, impoverished by the money which passed from this country into the papal coffers, was nade practically to understand that what affected one portion of the community could not fail, after a time, to have an influence upon the whole body. Depressed and feeble as he was, Whittlesey felt deeply the state of public affairs, and the treatment which the lergy experienced, at this time, from the parliament. He leplored his own impotence; and in 1373, when another subsidy was demanded of the clergy, he determined to leave his sick-room, and, at the risk of his life, to make a public protest, if he could do nothing more, against proceedings which, if he could not prevent, he could at least condemn. He was a man of acknowledged eloquence; and he determined to open the convocation with a sermon which would enable him to address not the clergy only, but the people in general. It did not require much skill to convert a "concio ad clerum" into a general declaration, when the congregation consisted of all classes of the citizens of London. The convocation met at St. Paul's. The great west door was thrown open to receive the metropolitan, attended by the diocesan. The whole staff of the cathedral presented themselves, arrayed in their most splendid copes. All were eager to look upon the archbishop, who had been so long confined to his house and his room. His form was bent; he could hardly walk, though supported by his chaplains; his gorgeous apparel seemed to sit so heavily upon him as almost to extinguish him. Yet there was fire in his eye. His face, usually so pale, was now flushed. The excitement of his mind made itself visible CHAP. XIV. William sey. 1368-74. in every feature of his countenance and every movement of his body. The Bishop of London attended the Whittle metropolitan to the stall which had heen prepared for him, and then went to his throne. Instead of preaching from his stall, the archbishop, with tottering steps, ascended the pulpit that he might be the better heard.* There was a solemn silence, for it seemed as if the aged prelate were about to utter his last words. He took for his text John viii. 32, "Ye shall all know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." He preached in Latin. The deep tones of his well-managed voice were heard through the aisles. He proceeded to argue, from these words, that it is the duty of the clergy to propagate and maintain the truth; and that, for their works' sake, they were free from all taxation, except that which was self-imposed.† He had scarcely stated his argument and the plan of his sermon, when his voice sank into a whisper. His nerves gave way, his strength failed. He sank into the arms of the chaplain, who held his cross; and, through a congregation both terrified and sympathising, he was borne out of the church, was placed in his barge, and was rowed up to Lambeth. The Bishop of London, Simon Sudbury, immediately waited upon the archbishop, and received the proper instruments to constitute him president of the convocation. The proceedings of the convocation, under the direction of Courtenay, Bishop of Hereford, were conducted with moderation and decorum. There was no attempt to dwell upon the privileges of the clergy, theoretically-a course which the archbishop, not a very practical man, had evidently intended to pursue; a course which could only have the effect of exasperating enemies, without earning friends. Complaint was made, and in the complaint the whole nation concurred, of the prodigal expenditure of the * Parker says, as if to mark an unusual fact, suggestum ascendens. † Parker, 380. Wilkins, iii. 97. Fuller's Worthies, ii. 100. court and the royal family. It was stated that, while all the people were aggrieved by the heavy taxation consequent thereupon, the clergy had a double burden to bear.* They were required to tax themselves to meet the requirements of the pope as well as the demands of the king. Remove from our necks, it was said, the papal burden, and we shall not only be able to give more to the king, but we shall give it with hearty goodwill. When the discussion had assumed this shape, and the members of the convocation were sufficiently prepared, the Bishop of Hereford rose under considerable excitement from his seat, and solemnly declared, that neither he nor the clergy of his diocese would contribute a fraction of their property to the king, until the king applied a remedy to the calamities which, through the exactions of the pope, the Church of England had so long endured. This was an indirect attack upon the Duke of Lancaster, who, in his opposition to the clergy of the Church of England, was prepared to encourage the pope in his exactions; permitting him, in the treaty of Bruges, to demand of them a contribution of 100,000 florins. In this spirit negotiations were entered into with the government, still in the hands of the Duke and of Alice Perrers. To the Duke's party Sudbury, the Bishop of London now president of the convocation, belonged; and between him and Courtenay it was at length arranged that the convocation should grant a tenth, on condition that the government would unite with the clergy in laying a statement of their grievances before the pope, and in demanding immediate redress. * Parker, 380. "Clerus se jam paucis annis regiis sumptibus exhaustum penitus et enervatum conqueritur, eoque magis, quod non minus a rege, quam a papa, singulis pæne annis interpellarentur, cujus intolerabile jugum si a suis cervicibus depelli possit, subvenire se posse commodius regiis necessitatibus." CHAP. XIV. William Whittle sey. 1368-74. |