Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/70

 of the king's letter ran, "Indeed, the English Churches are burdened with so many heavy provisions of this kind, that not only are the patrons of Churches, and those whose duty it is to confer ecclesiastical benefices, defrauded of their rights, but besides this many works of charity are given up. For these benefactions, which are usually charitably bestowed on religious houses for their sustentation, and almost all others, are exhausted by your provisions."

The Pope, however, seeing that he had so much strength behind him, could afford to laugh at Henry. No change was made. A proclamation was then issued, saying that not a penny should be given to Rome; but at the last moment the king's courage failed to carry this out, and England was burdened heavier than before.

Listen for a moment to the account of England's wretchedness from these extortions, as given by a writer of the time. "Every day," said Matthew Paris, "illiterate persons of the lowest class, armed with bulls from Rome, burst forth into threats, and despite the privileges enjoyed by our holy predecessors, feared not to plunder the revenues which our pious forefathers had assigned for the maintenance of the religious, the support of the poor, and the sustaining of strangers; for thundering out their decrees of excommunication they made no delay in taking what they demanded by force. And if those who suffered wrong, or were plundered, took refuge in an appeal, or in their privileges, they at once suspended and excommunicated them through some other prelate, under power of a writ from the Pope."