1225, with certain proposals for the king and the archbishop, The king was prevented by sickness attending on the day appointed for the reception of Otho and his proposals. But as many clerical personages, not advised of the king's enforced absence, had assembled, a kind of private audience was given to the pope's messenger. Otho laid before the meeting letters. signed by the pope, in which the pope bewailed the scandals and the crimes of the Church. Such was the poverty of the Roman see, it was impossible for it to avoid simony and bribery. The remedy proposed for these admitted crimes was not repentance and amendment of life on the part of the confessing criminals, but Our provided terms are these: in the first place, we re'quire two prebends to be granted to us from all cathedral churches, one from the portion of the bishop, and another 'from the chapter, and from monasteries in the same way, 'where there are different portions for the abbot and convent; ' and from convents the share of one monk, on an equal distri'bution being made of their property, and the same from the 'abbot.' The messenger of his Holiness, on pressing these claims, received an unexpected rejoinder, this in substance : that the bishops must needs be consulted; the king's sanction must be received; and when, in the council held at Westminster after Easter, Master Otho's proposals were read, they were received with loud fits of laughter, and a less formal reply to the papal demand was drawn up:-These grants, to which our 'assent is asked by the pope, concern the whole Christian community, and, as we are situated in the extreme corner of the 'world, we will see how other kingdoms act, in regard to these ' demands, and when we have their example, our lord the pope shall find us more ready in our acquiescence than any other.' We have no reason to lament or be ashamed of the share which our own illustrious prelate took in directing these and other counsels of a like tendency. Amid such labours he was found when called to his rest; and he passed peacefully away on July, 9, 1228, at Slindon, a few miles from Chichester. More a statesman than an ecclesiastic, more a politician than a shepherd of souls-and this seems to be the character indelibly impressed upon the Anglican episcopate-he stands forth on the stage of history a presence that is not to be put by '-the most notable vindicator of the traditional independence of the English Church. He was no Ultramontane: and, indeed, in a sense neither was Becket. Becket had probably Celtic blood in his veins; and, whether this will or not account for his pugnacity, he dearly loved a row for its own sake. He was in fact the prototype of that great athlete, Dr. Bentley. In his lucid intervals, if he had any such, he no doubt thought that the

frenzy of the Vatican justified his own; but we seriously doubt whether his views and the pope's were really, however they might often seem to be, identical. Apart from the consideration of Langton's political services to England, we must ever gratefully regard him as the consolidator of the English Church within the definition of its nationality. His catholicity did not-what Rome now aims at effecting-extinguish, it purified and sublimed his patriotism. Like Paul, in reference to his native city, he never but once forgot what honour and service were due to his fatherland.

Our next cardinal was Robert Curzon. He had been educated at Oxford, and thence proceeding to Paris, he gained such distinction in the university that he drew to himself the favourable regards of the king, who commended him to the pope. The same deed that created Stephen Langton cardinal presented Robert Curzon to the Sacred College as cardinal priest of S. Cælius, A.D. 1212. As cardinal or legate, he does not seem to have achieved any distinction. He was sent into England to preach, on behalf of his Holiness's exchequer, a crusade against the recusant and defaulting Anglicans. He was sent into France to urge a crusade against the Albigenses. He was commissioned to preach throughout Christendom a third crusade against the infidel. In all these undertakings he was, by God's mercy, unsuccessful. Let us hope that his failure was owing to his having no heart for duties so unwelcome.

Materials for an historical notice of Robert Somercote, cardinal deacon, are very scanty indeed. He came out as a prominent preacher at a time when the corruptions of Rome were spreading more fatally, despite the denunciations of S. Bernard, of Abbot Joachim, and Hildegarda. We find mention of him in a letter, April 6, 1235, written by King Henry III., to whom he probably acted as chaplain. The pope was no doubt glad to keep a trustworthy friend near the king, the pontifical anxiety being, not to save the soul of the said king, but to keep him from forming any alliance with the Emperor Frederick. In the quarrel between the two chiefs of Christendom, some very pungent things were said and written; and it would seem that the emperor had generally the best of the fight. What said thẹ Teacher of all teachers?' he demanded. Peace be with you! 'What mission did he entrust to His disciples? That of love, Why, then, do you, Christ's nominal vicar on earth, act in so contrary a spirit?' The question provoked an answer of wrath. A beast,' wrote the pontiff, hath risen from the sea, ' and opened its mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.' To this Frederick retorted, Thou art thyself the beast of

'which it is written, "And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take 'peace from the earth." Thou art the dragon which deceived the whole world, the Antichrist" (vol. i. 271).

In due time Robert found his way to Rome, and there was made cardinal deacon of S. Adriano. Of his life in Rome we have little record. He proved his fidelity to the pope who promoted him by adhering to him in his troubles, when all else forsook him. But he does not seem to have ever interfered on behalf of his native Church. In 1237, that part of the Eastern Church which we now know as the Greek separated itself from the Western Church. The consequence of this was, that the pope sustained a large pecuniary as well as ecclesiastical loss; and this he set about to remedy by making heavy exactions on the clergy, and by disposing in a very profitable way of the English bishoprics. Whatever humiliations Cardinal Somercote may have experienced at witnessing the degradation of the Anglican Church, he seems to have eaten his leek with marvellous patience. It seems very likely that he would have succeeded to the vacant pontifical throne, but that he had, like a great many other prominent persons of the day, the exceeding ill luck to be poisoned.

John-from the city where, in an age studious of Arabic and rabbinic lore, he pursued his studies, called John of Toledowas a Cistercian monk, and in his own profession achieved a respectable reputation. At a time when the political exigencies of the pope compelled him to lead a wandering life, John was his faithful henchman; and seems to have witnessed, but not without reclamation, the wholesale plundering of England, from which country the pope, according to Bishop Grostête of Lincoln, drew an income thrice that of the king.

'Innocent IV. seemed to surrender himself to two influences-the one an intense hatred against the emperor, the other an insatiable covetousness of English treasure. Frederick contrived to hold his own both in Italy and Germany. The opposition to papal extortions in England assumed such an aspect, that one of the cardinals, who must have been John of Toledo, described as of English race, and as having been a Cistercian monk, personally remonstrated with the pope, and reminded him that in the present condition of the Church, with the supreme pontiff and the cardinals in exile, and with ill-feeling manifesting itself in Hungary, Germany, Spain, and France, it was not a time to drive the English into revolt. But the pope would not listen to reason; and Master John's counsel effected nothing for bis compatriots.'Vol. i. p. 304.

It is wonderful, to use a North of England phrase, how heavily the English Church was laid upon even now by the authorities at Rome. John of Toledo was made cardinal by Innocent IV. in 1244. He survived till 1274, having seen four pontiffs. He

was, no doubt, much employed in the frequent appeals made to Rome by both the king and the Church of England; but of his actions and his influences we have no record whatever, but it is on record that he founded a monastery at Viterbo.

Robert Kilwardby, whose name has been a crux to historians and decipherers, as there are no less than seven ways of spelling it, and one of these is Chiluuardebeies,' comes first to view at Oxford about the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Indeed, all the cardinals we have hitherto passed in review were more or less contemporaries; and the wonder is, why no Englishman appears among the princes of the Church at an earlier age. Perhaps this has arisen from the same arbitrariness as that which left Ireland, the island of saints, so long without one canonized son, and then canonized S. Malachi before S. Patrick. Kilwardby went to Paris, and fraternized with the Black Friars, a family of Dominicans, and, returning, joined their society, which had been welcomed by Langton to Oxford. There he studied the Scriptures and the Fathers, and in course of time he became a public teacher. Among the pupils who flocked to him was Thomas de Cantilupe, the last Englishman admitted into the calendar of saints. While he pursued his pilgrimage in this life, Thomas betrayed a most uncanonical appetite for pluralities; for besides many Church preferments, and the Bishopric of Hereford, he managed to secure to himself the office of Chancellor to the King's Majesty and Chancellor to the University of Oxford. Robert Kilwardby, if prized by his pupils, was still more prized by his brethren, who joined in electing him their provincial. He was not destined, however, to remain long in this position of comparative obscurity. Archbishop Boniface, of Canterbury, died, June 18, 1270. The monks hastened to elect the prior, Adam de Chillendine. The king violently appointed his friend, the eminent lawyer, Robert Burnell, and they carried the appeal to Rome; the prior lodged his 3,000 marks, and felt sure of his election. The king, a

personal friend of the pope, was equally confident on his side. Gregory X. adroitly extricated himself from his dilemma by appointing the provincial of the English Dominicans. Poor Adam de Chillendine never recovered his full 3,000 marks; and the circumstances reflect some discredit on Kilwardby. The Roman Court referred the matter to the archbishop, as one to be settled by him. We regret to have to say that his Grace, instead of paying, instituted an inquiry into the life and conversation of his old competitor; and, pressing an unjustifiable compromise, succeeded in defrauding the prior of 1,700 marks! Mr. Williams' version of this untoward transaction scarcely expresses the real facts of the case. The 1,300

marks, which had to be paid by the prior's successful rival,' represent the balance of which Kilwardby failed to cheat Adam de Chillendine. In February of 1273 Kilwardby was consecrated, and in the August following he crowned Edward I. and his queen. The monks of Canterbury felt much aggrieved to see a Dominican friar so highly exalted, and held an indignation meeting on the subject; but the happy interposition of the primate brought these angry spirits to an amicable settlement. The archbishop, in this same year, attended by his suffragans, crossed the sea, to be present at the second Council of Lyons, where a deputation from the Greek emperor, preferring terms of reconciliation and his own submission, was to be received. It was to this council S. Thomas was journeying when death overtook him. It was from this council that Bonaventura had just withdrawn when he peacefully yielded up his spirit to Him who gave it. In the death of S. Thomas, the glory of the Dominican order, the archbishop must have felt that he sustained a great loss.1 Bonaventura had already stigmatized the cupidity of the Franciscans, and had complained that one state of things existed inside, and quite a different one outside the monastery. The feuds which arose between the two orders, beside the mischief they created in the multiplication of sects, provoked a spirit of inquiry, and greatly strengthened the anti-papal feeling in England. The Franciscans were unceasing in their denunciations of the secular and corrupt lives of the hierarchy, and the pride and extravagance of the prelates. In consequence of this, of them were put to death. On the other hand, in return for their more complacent demeanour, the Dominicans were entrusted by the pope with the direction of the Inquisition. In 1276, the archbishop, having received from the mayor and barons of London the celebrated site, and being munificently aided by King Edward I., did there erect the splendid establishment of the Black Friars, the chapel having been built at the archbishop's own proper cost. Two years afterwards, when Nicholas III. succeeded Gregory X. as Pope, Kilwardby was made a prince of the Church.

many

'The elevation induced him to resign his archiepiscopate, and betake himself to the Holy See. He did not go empty-handed. He took with him the sum

1 Though differing on the subject of the Immaculate Conception from the Franciscans, yet it is to the Black Friars that we owe the Rosary and the Psalter of Mary. It was the Dominicans who propounded the appalling theory that the blood of the Saviour on the cross was separated from the divine nature. The Franciscans took the opposite view. Pope Pius II. in 1464, hushed the contending parties, whereby it may be seen how incalculable are the benefits to be derived from the possession of an infallible authority, if not to decide on all doubtful questions, at least to keep the Church's peace.