Page:History of england froude.djvu/512

490 would not say that he had not. It was clear, however, that, legal or illegal, such excommunication was against the privileges of the English Crown, and therefore that, on the whole, they would and ought to be with the Crown, loialment, like loyal subjects, as they were bound by their allegiance.

In this unusual and emphatic manner, the three estates agreed that the Pope should be resisted; and an Act passed 'that all persons suing at the Court of Rome, and obtaining thence any bulls, instruments, sentences of excommunication which touched the King, or were against him, his regality, or his realm, and they which brought the same within the realm, or received the same, or made thereof notification, or any other execution whatever, within the realm or without, they, their notaries, procurators, maintainers and abettors, fautors and counsellors, should be put out of the King's protection, and their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, be forfeited.'

The resolute attitude of the country terminated the struggle. Boniface prudently yielded, and for the moment, and indeed for ever under this especial form, the wave of Papal encroachment was rolled back. The temper which had been roused in the contest, might perhaps have carried the nation further. The liberties of the Crown had been asserted successfully. The analogous liberties of the Church might have followed; and other channels, too, might have been cut off, through