Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/62

 had forsworn their original vows of poverty, excited the alarm, not to say the cupidity of the monarchs, and whetted the edge of their hostility to Rome. England, France, the Empire, and Castile had at different times taken measures to curtail the growing evil. In England alone, it was found in the reign of Edward I., something like one half of the knights' fees, which had contributed to the revenues of the Crown under William the Norman, had passed into the hands of the clergy and monks. In order to check further diversions of the national wealth into the coffers of the Church, the Statute of Mortmain (1279) forbade the alienation of estates to religious corporations, under pain of forfeiture. But the statutes of those days did not grind very small, and the mischief went on.

Meanwhile the English Church, from motives amongst which we may fairly include those of national independence and patriotism, had paid subsidies from their growing revenues to the crippled resources of the State. This had been done in the reign of Henry III., and was continued in the reign of Edward, the Church virtually admitting its liability to taxation, but making an occasional stand in regard to the amount. Towards the end of the thirteenth century the King was badly in want of money, and he was not very particular as to the means of raising it. He made heavier demands upon the clergy, to the extent of one fifth and even one half of their income, until in self-defence they denied their liability altogether. Edward threatened to confiscate their property, and partly carried out his threat;