CHAP. XXXIII. KING JOHN'S TRIBUTE ABOLISHED. WICLIFFE. RISE OF AGAINST THE APPOINTMENT OF CHURCHMEN XXXIII. 1365. SUCH was the relative condition of the CHA P. civil and ecclesiastical authorities in England at the commencement of the period we have now to consider. Little further occurs on the subject of the pope's oppressive pretensions, till the year 1365. At that time we find the statutes of provisors and of premunire once again reenacted at the personal requisition of the king. But the year is ren- King John's tribute demanded. a Cotton, 39 E. 3, XXXIII. 1365, CHAP. dered more remarkable by the letters of pope Urban V. to the king of England, requiring the payment of the arrears of the tribute of one thousand marks per annum, imposed upon the realm by king John, and which had failed to be discharged ever since the year 1333 (the very year in which Edward III. came of age); and summoning the king to his court to answer for the default, in case he should hesitate to comply with this demand. It cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained at this distance of time, with what degree of regularity this disgraceful tribute had been conceded. Some historians have questioned whether it had ever been paid after the death of its royal imposer. There are however various records in the collections of Rymer, proving that it was discharged, though irregularly and with intermissions and arrears, in one instance of eight and in another of b Barnes, Book III, Chap. xii, §. 8. © Tom. II, 5 Edv. 1, Dec. 18; 6 Edv. 1, Fcb. 23; 16 Edv. 1, Apr. 28; 29 Ed, 1, Mar. 18, eleven XXXIII. years, down to the year 1330, which CHAP. may be admitted as an evidence sufficient to establish the veracity of sentation. pope Urban's repre It certainly appears to have been ill policy in the pope, to have revived this obsolete claim at the present period. The reign of Edward III. was illustrious; his character was high; and his influence and name were sufficiently great, to enable him to treat with contempt the demand that was now made. He had gained the battles of Cressy and Poitiers, and confirmed himself in all the acquisitions he could ever have thought of as permanent, by the peace of Bretigni. No event had yet happened to tarnish his glory, or disarm his energy. The sovereign pontiff attacked him in all his vigour, instead of waiting for the period which soon after arrived, when he appeared, to the vulgar eye at least, shorn of his beams. Edward III, felt that the time had now 1365. Tom, IV, 4 Edv. 3, Apr. 28. XXXIII. 1366. CHAP. come, to reject for ever the ignominious vassalage which his base-hearted predecessor had fastened upon the realm; and accordingly, instead of adopting any measures for discharging the pretended arrears, he resolved to submit the whole question to the parlia ment which met on the thirtieth of March in the following year. This assembly with one consent pronounced, that neither king John, nor any other king, could bring the realm and people into such thraldom without the approbation of parliament, and that what he had done was contrary to his coronation oath ; they therefore exhorted the king, if the pope should attempt any thing against him by process or any other way, to oppose such usurpation with all his power and force. It was on this occasion that Edward III. came to a resolution of putting an end to the payment of the annual tax of one penny upon each house for the support of an English college at Rome, commonly called Peter's Pence, Peter's Pence abolished. XXXIII. which had originated in the time of the CHA P. heptarchy' 1366. At this period it is that the memorable Wicliffe, name of Wicliffe first occurs in the annals of our country. He seized the present occasion to write a treatise against the tribute claimed by Urban V, in answer to an argument published by an English monk in defence of the papal demand. He had before distinguished himself by his writings against the claims and the pretended superior holiness of the mendicant friars", following in these productions the steps of William de St. Amour, and Richard archbishop of Armagh, before mentioned. As the same parliament which abolished king John's tribute, made a law, forbidding the mendicants to receive into their orders under the age any scholar of eighteen years, we may with some degree of probability infer, that Wicliffe did not enter into Act against dicant the men fiiars. ' Barnes, Book III, chap. xiii. §. 1. Lewis, Life of Wicliffe, Chap. II. Lewis, Chap. I. Cotton, 40 E. 3. i Chap XXV. |