Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/54

46 to the archbishop in 1338 that after searching the records he had ascertained that twelve marks had been paid.

There is no record that the pope appointed any one in England to absolve the clergy who had incurred excommunication by contributing to the subsidy in fear and thus disregarded the bull Clericis laicos. Moreover, in 1299 the archbishop's registrar noted several instances of absolutions which the papal penitentiary at Rome had empowered him to grant after taking a caution that the offenders, who had erred not through contempt of the keys but in ignorance, would obey the mandates of the church and after imposing a salutary penance. The prior and chapter of Worcester were suspended from orders for fifteen days and were bound individually to say five psalters and five masses for the reformation of the universal church. The abbot of Hayles was suspended for several days and ordered to feed forty poor persons. It is probable that in addition to the abbots of Walden, Barlings, and Basingwerk, and the rector of Batheley in the diocese of Norwich, there were numerous other instances which were not entered. Another instance was noted in the register of John de Pontissara, bishop of Winchester; others occur in 1303 and 1306 in the register of William Gainsborough, bishop of Worcester. In spite of the efforts of successive papal collectors, the popes did not receive more than the fixed amount for Peter's pence. In 1306 the papal collector, William de Testa, appointed commissaries to secure the collection of firstfruits and all other dues of the papacy, whose inquisitorial demands stirred the resentment of the laity as well as of the clergy, and at the parliament of Carlisle in 1307 a petition from lords and commons was presented against papal oppression; it was urged that a fixed sum had been paid for Peter's pence from time immemorial, and that the present unreasonable exactions would be to the grave loss of the churches and of the whole nation. It has been observed that if the several articles of this petition presented at Carlisle had been drafted into a statute, part of it would have anticipated the Statute of Premunire, but on the arrival of Peter of Spain, cardinal bishop of Sabina, Edward I judged it impolitic to provoke a contest with the papacy.