Page:VCH London 1.djvu/266

 A HISTORY OF LONDON against the Catholic faith and the sacraments of the church.' The bishop therefore imprisoned him at Stortford until he should decide what to do, but Ranulf's death soon released him from his difficulty.^*' In 1 22 1 Bishop William, 'who in time of the interdict and affliction of the English church suffered persecution, tribulation, divers injuries, expenses, and exile for the liberty of the church,' obtained permission of the pope to resign his bishopric, and the ceremony took place in the presence of Pandulf, the papal legate, in St. Paul's."' His place was filled after some dispute by the election of Eustace de Fauconberg, the king's treasurer, 'a man in every way praiseworthy and discreet.' ^'° The great event of Eustace's episcopate was the settlement of the bishop's relation to the abbey of Westminster and its possessions."* Almost immediately after his consecration he sought from the Abbot of Westminster rights of visitation and all other jurisdiction, but the abbot refused, and an appeal was made to Rome.*"- Next year the case was decided by a papal commission entirely in favour of the monastery, which from henceforth was exempt from all episcopal jurisdiction. The exemp- tion included the parish church of St. Margaret and its chapels,*" which Ralph de Diceto had tried in vain to include in his archdeaconry of Middle- sex.*^* This decision on behalf of Westminster is interesting with regard to the growth of other ecclesiastical immunities in London at this period. The monastery of Holy Trinity Aldgate received in 1223 a confirmation of its freedom from all subjection except to the church of St. Paul.*" In 1225 St. Martin's le Grand was first declared a royal free chapel exempt from all jurisdiction of the diocesan. A struggle went on for over a century concerning this matter, but St. Martin's in the end was triumphant. *^^ It did not, however, succeed in making itself quite so independent as Westminster, for when the church of St. Leonard in Foster Lane, which stood to St. Martin's in the same relation as St. Margaret's did to West- minster, was being built, the then bishop, Roger Niger, succeeded in extort- ing an acknowledgement that it should be subject to the Bishop and Arch- deacon of London like the other parish churches of the City.*" But while the growth of ecclesiastical immunities tended in one direction to diminish the sphere of the episcopal jurisdiction, through the same movement the bishop gained something from the temporal power : for in 1228, the last year of his rule, Eustace and his cathedral chapter made an agreement with the City by which special privileges and immunities were granted to men of the bishop's fee and that of St. Paul's.*'* "^ Chron. Ediv. I and Edtc. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 365. See also ibid, i, Introd. p. xcviii. '" The authorities disagree as to the part taken by the legate in the proceedings. Walter of Coventry, Mem. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 248, says ' Willelmus. . . resignavit episcopatum eidem legato ' ; Jnn. Mon. Waverley (Rolls Ser.), ii, 294, h.is ' resignat episcopatum. . . coram Pandulfo. . . legato'; Ralph of Coggeshall, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 1 88, followed by Matthew Paris, makes no mention of the legate at all. "° Walter of Coventry, Mem. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 249. "' For full discussion of question see account of Westminster Abbey in ' Religious Houses,' '" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 67. "^ Wharton, Hist, de Epis. Lond. 247. '** Stubbs in R. de Diceto, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), i, pp. xlix, 1, quoting S.T.C. v, 363, i.e. Gilbertl [Foliot] Eputoke (ed. Giles), i, 363. '=* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 24^. '** See under St. Martin le Grand in ' Religious Houses.' •»' D. and C. St. Paul's, Liber A. fol. 30. '" Lib. de Antiquis Leffbus (Camd. Soc), 243. 186