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[ch. 6.
on an analogous occasion by Clement VII. He disbelieved the danger; and daring the Government to persevere, he granted a prebendal stall at Wells to an Italian cardinal, to which a presentation had been made already by the King. Opposing suits were instantly instituted between the claimants in the courts of the two countries. A decision was given in England in favour of the nominee of the King, and the bishops agreeing to support the Crown were excommunicated.[1] The Court of Rome had resolved to try the issue by a struggle of force, and the Government had no alternative but to surrender at discretion, or to persevere at all hazards, and resist the usurpation.
1392-3.The proceedings on this occasion seem to have been unusual, and significant of the importance of the crisis. Parliament either was sitting at the time when the excommunication was issued, or else it was immediately assembled; and the House of Commons drew up, in the form of a petition to the King, a declaration of the circumstances which had occurred. After having stated generally the English law on the presentation to benefices, 'Now of late,' they added, 'divers processes be made by his Holiness the Pope, and censures of excommunication upon certain bishops, because they have made execution of the judgments [given in the King's courts], to the open disherison of the crown;- ↑ Lingard says, that 'there were rumours that if the prelates executed the decree of the King's courts, they would be excommunicated.'—Vol. iii. p. 172. The language of the Act of Parliament, 16 Ric. II. cap. 5, is explicit that the sentence was pronounced.
