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"has admonished me on your part to do homage to you and your successors; and to think better re"specting the money which my predecessors were "accustomed to send to the Roman church. Of these demands, one I have granted: the other I have refused. Homage I would not, nor will I do. For I "did not promise it myself; nor can I learn that it "was ever done by my predecessors to yours. As to "the money, during the three years I have been in "Gaul, it has been very negligently collected. But "now that by the divine mercy I am returned to my kingdom, what is in my hands shall be sent by the legate, and the remainder, when an opportunity "offers, by the messengers of Archbishop Lanfranc. Pray for us, and the state of our kingdom; for our predecessors loved your predecessors, and we our"selves desire sincerely to love, and obediently to "hear you above all others.*"

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From this answer it may be justly inferred that William and his council, though they acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope, did not believe that supremacy to confer any temporal superiority on its possessor. The inference will appear evident from the grounds on which alone they conceive it possible that the papal claims should rest; either the promise of the king himself, or the practice of his predecessors. That Gregory should pretend to a temporal superiority on account of his ecclesiastical pre-eminence was an idea, which either did not present itself to their minds, or which was instantly dismissed as unworthy of notice.

2. The frequent attempts of Edward I. to subjugate the kingdom of Scotland, are well known. During his third expedition in 1301, he received a letter from the pope, Boniface VIII., in which that pontiff declared that Scotland was a fief of the holy see, and required Edward to desist from force, and pursue his claim in the court of Rome. To so extraordinary a requisition

*Seldeni ad Eadmeri Hist. Spicileg, p. 164.

the king paid no regard. But the papal message was laid before the parliament at Lincoln, and from the answer of that assembly I shall transcribe such passages as may serve to shew, what were at that time the sentiments of the English barons with respect to the temporal interference of the popes.

"To the most holy father in Christ, the Lord Boni"face, by divine Providence chief bishop of the holy "Roman church, John, Earl of Warren, and one hun"dred and five other barons, send greeting. It is well "known to us and to many others, most holy father, "that the kingdom of Scotland never did, nor does,

by any right whatever, belong in temporals to the "Roman church. Nor have the kings of England, on "account of the independent pre-eminence of their "royal dignity, and a custom at all times inviolably "observed, ever pleaded, or been bound to plead, with "respect to their right to the kingdom aforesaid, or to "their other temporal rights, before any ecclesiastical "or secular judge whatsoever.

"Having, therefore, diligently deliberated on the " contents of your letter, it is, and by the grace of God "shall always be, our common and unanimous resolve, "that with respect to the rights of his kingdom of

Scotland, or any other his temporal rights, our afore"said lord the king shall not plead before you, nor "submit to any trial, nor inquiry, nor send any messengers or procurators to your court: especially as "such proceedings would be to the manifest dishe"rison of the rights of the crown of England and the royal dignity, the evident subversion of the sove"reignty of the kingdom, and the prejudice of the "liberties, customs, and laws, which we have inherited "from our fathers; to the observance and defence of "which we are bound by our oaths, and which we "will continue to hold to the best of our power, and, "with the assistance of God, will defend with all our strength. Neither do we, nor will we in any manner "permit, as we neither can nor ought to permit, our "lord the king to do, or attempt to do, any of the

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things aforesaid, even were he ever so desirous to do 66 them.'

After the perusal of these passages the reader, I have no doubt, will agree with me, that the distinction between the spiritual supremacy and the temporal power of the pope is not a discovery of modern catholics, but was perfectly understood by our ancestors, who thus, five centuries ago, while they admitted the one, in the most public and determined manner rejected the other.

The sentiments which were at this time expressed by the English, appear also to have animated the Scottish barons. When Edward II. enforced the claims of his father, the pope, John XXII. espoused his cause, and even excommunicated Robert Bruce, for having broken his oath of fealty to the English king. The barons of Scotland assembled at Aberbroth, and wrote an expostulatory letter to the pontiff. In this they acknowledged him for the vicar of Christ upon earth: and as such they promise to obey him, but only so far as they are bound to obey. They tell him that they are fighting for their liberty, and will fight for it till death: that they leave the decision of their quarrel to the Almighty, their Lord and Judge: and cite him, unless he abandon the cause of the king of England, to answer before that tribunal for all the blood that may be shed, and the crimes that may be committed in the prosecution of so unfounded a claim.†

3. In the year 1302, William of Gainsborough was promoted to the bishoprick of Worcester. The bull of institution was, as usual, directed to the new bishop, but it contained the following unusual clause: "We commit to thy charge the spiritualties and temporalties of the said bishopric." The insertion of the word temporalties alarmed the jealousy of the king, who considered it as an invasion of the rights of the crown. The bishop was immediately summoned before Edward and

* Collier, Church Hist. tom. 1. p. 725. No. xliv. + Burnet, Hist. vol. 2. Records, No. 10. p. 109.

his council, condemned in a fine of one thousand marks for having received the bull, and compelled to renounce publicly the obnoxious clause, and to declare that he held his temporalties of no one but the king.*

It is probably to this incident that we are to ascribe the origin of a custom inviolably observed in the succeeding reigns till the reformation. The bishop elect, as soon as he had received his bull of institution, appeared before the king or his deputy, and in his presence abjured every clause in the bull that could be prejudicial to the temporal rights of the crown. The abjuration was required from foreigners, as well as natives: even cardinals residing in the court of Rome were not exempted. Of this we have a remarkable instance in the cardinal Adrian, who in reward of his former services was promoted by Henry VII. to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, and in consequence made the usual abjuration at Rome in the presence of the king's commissioners, the Bishop of Worcester, the Dean of St. Paul's, and Hugh Young, professor of divinity. The following was the form of renunciation made on such occasions. "I, N. bishop of N. expressly renounce, and by these presents subscribed by my "hand, and sealed with my seal, totally abjure all and

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every word, clause, and sentence in the apostolic "bulls directed to me concerning the aforesaid bishop"ric, which are or by any means whatever may here"after be prejudicial to my sovereign lord the king, or "his heirs, or the rights, customs, and prerogatives of "the kingdom, and in this respect wholly submit, and place myself at the good pleasure of his highness, humbly beseeching his majesty to grant me the temporalities of the said bishopric, which I acknowledge "to hold of him alone as my sovereign lord."†

To these I might have added many other instances of a similar nature; but I hasten to the reigns after the reformation, and trust that the preceding documents will be deemed sufficient to prove, that our ancestors

* Collier, tom. 1. No. xlv. p. 726.

† Burnet, vol. 1. Records, No. 1. p. 3,

knew well how to distinguish between that spiritual authority which they acknowledged in the pope, as the chief bishop of their church, and that temporal sovereignty which they were convinced resided in the state. We have seen catholic kings, catholic parliaments, and catholic prelates for several centuries maintaining the independence of the English crown, and disclaiming all belief in any civil authority of the bishop of Rome within this realm. Now it should be observed that this was at a time, when the temporal power of the popes had reached its zenith, and at a period, which the supercilious knowledge of modern times has honoured with the appellation of the age of darkness.

But, if even then such were the sentiments of our catholic ancestors, it must betray an excess of caution to fear, lest at the present day, when the papal power in temporals is annihilated, and when the nature of civil and religious authority is so well understood, the catholics of the United Kingdom should renounce the opinions of their ancestors, and conspire to lay the liberties of their country at the feet of a foreign prelate.