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king, to do any of the things aforesaid, even were "he ever so desirous to do them." The pope wrote to the king, that" the emperor and king of France had "submitted to him."-" If both the emperor "and the French king should take the pope's part," replied Edward, "I am ready to give battle "to them both in defence of the liberties of my 66 crown

In the 40th year of the reign of Edward III, pope Urban V. attempted to revive the papal claim to vassalage and annual rent, to which king John had subjected the kingdom. In consequence of it, the king assembled his parliament, and referred the demands of the pope to them. The prelates desired a day to consult in private, and, on the next morning, answered that, "neither John, nor any other person could subject the kingdom to another

power, without the consent of the nation." The temporal peers and commons assented; and, in a public instrument, repeated the answer of the prelates; adding that "the act of John was done with❝out the consent of the realm and against the tenor "of the oath, taken at his coronation." It was then resolved by the lords and commons, (the king and prelates having withdrawn), that, "if the pope "attempted to enforce his claim by process of law, "or any other means, they would resist and stand+ "against him, to the very utmost of their power."

• Collier's Ecc. History, tom. i. p. 725.-Lingard's History of England, vol. ii. p. 438.

+ Lingard's History of England, vol. iii. p. 146, 147, cites Rot. Parl. ii. p. 289, 290. See also Cotton's Abridgment o Records, p. 102.

At subsequent times different statutes were passed to strengthen the foregoing laws, and extend their provisions. These statutes were generally called the statutes of præmunire. They received this appellation from the language of the writ of citation, preparatory to the prosecution upon them. By this, the sheriff was ordered "to cause the offender to be "forewarned,"-(præmunire,-a barbarous word for præmonere, facias),-"N. N. to appear, and to "answer the contempt with which he was charged;" which offence was recited in the preamble to the writ. The contempt was supposed to consist, in paying that obedience to a process issuing from the papal court, which was due to the king alone. The punishments inflicted by these statutes, are various. Collectively taken, they are thus shortly summed up by lord Coke,-" that, from the time of con"viction the defendant should be out of the king's protection, and his lands and tenements forfeited "to the king; and that his body should remain at "the king's pleasure."

Such were the provisions, by which, when the popes were in the zenith of their authority, our catholic ancestors disclaimed and resisted their pretensions to temporal power, and even the undue exercise of their spiritual power, within this imperial realm'

• The subject of this chapter is exhausted by lord Coke, in his treatise De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico, prefixed to the fifth volume of his Reports, and the answer to it by father Persons, published in 1606.-See also Mr. Lingard's History of England, voi. ii. ch. 15, p. 304, 311 :--and vol. iii. ch. 19, p. 144, 156; ch. 20, p. 189, 198.

VII. 4.

Services rendered by the Popes to Religion and
Government.

THE scenes, in which the popes were engaged, in consequence of their claim to temporal power by divine right, present the dark side of the papal character. In most other respects, they appear to advantage, both in their sacerdotal and their civil capacities. That a few, in the long list, were stained by vice, is not denied; nor that others exhibited the workings of those passions, which too generally accompany the possession of power; but can it be said, that, even in the times of the greatest ignorance, the roman bishops were not eminently distinguished by superior virtue and superior acquirements? Collectively taken, let them be compared with the contemporary princes in every age; and most assuredly they will not suffer on the comparison.

Voltaire observes that, in the dark ages, there was less of barbarism and ignorance in the dominions of the popes, than in any other European state. Much, unquestionably, was done by them, in every portion of christendom, to dispel ignorance, to spread the faith and morality of the gospel, to protect the lower ranks against their oppressors, to preserve peace among princes, and to alleviate the general calamities of the times. Their exertions, during the middle ages, to compel the monarchs of Europe to respect the sanctity of the marriage bed, have not been sufficiently observed: had it not been for these, royal

incontinence, even of the worst kind, would probably have become common, and would probably have been generally imitated.

Persecuted by every other power, the jews were protected by the popes; great exertions were made by them for the redemption of captives, and for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves*. Nothing contributed more to elevate the third estate into notice, and give it importance, than the assistance, which the Italian republics, in their contests with the emperors, received from the popes. Their exertions for the conversion of infidels were unremitted: few nations can read the history of the introduction of christianity among them, without being sensible of their obligations to the popes.

CHAP. VIII.

HISTORICAL MINUTES OF ROBERT GROSSETETE, BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

THIS illustrious prelate † took an active and honourable part in many of the events mentioned in the preceding chapters. As several circumstances

In 1167, pope Alexander III. solemnly declared in council, that all christians ought to be exempt from slavery.

+ This account of Robert Grossetete is taken from "The Life of Robert Grossetete, the celebrated bishop of Lincoln, by Samuel Pegge, LL. D. prebendary of Louth, in that diocese, with an account of the bishop's works, and appendix, quarto, 1793." This work is become extremely scarce, and a new

of his life shew the spirit of the times, to which this portion of our work relates, on most of the subjects of the preceding pages; and as, notwithstanding the great renown of this prelate in his own time and in the times, which immediately followed, the particulars of his life are little known to the generality of readers, it has been thought, that a short biographical notice of him in this place, would not be unacceptable.

VIII. 1.

Birth and early years of Grossetete.

He was born, according to the most probable opinion, about the year 1175, at Stow, a village near Lincoln, of obscure parents. His mother on her death bed, recommended him to "seek God "and true wisdom, more than meat or drink." Impressed with this sentiment, the mayor of Lincoln having proffered him a boon, Robert entreated the mayor to procure him the means of improving his

edition of it, enlarged by interweaving in it a history of the times, which was Dr. Pegge's original design, would be a valuable present to the public.-By the favour of Dr. Cameron, the roman-catholic bishop in the Lowlands of Scotland, the writer has been favoured with a perusal of a manuscript life of bishop Grossetete, by the late doctor Perry, president of the English roman-catholic college of Valladolid. Should such a work, as the writer has suggested, be undertaken, both this manuscript and a life of Grossetete, which Dr. Pegge mentions in his preliminary observations, to have been left in manuscript, by Mr. Knight the biographer of Erasmus, should be consulted.