ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY archbishops of Canterbury and York preceding him in a solemn procession with cross and lighted candles and litany, he ascended to his seat . . . The Gospel beginning 'I am the good shepherd ' was solemnly read as is the custom, the proper collects were said by the legate, and the Veni Creator was sung. Later in the proceedings, before the statutes were read, the legate preached to the people, his subject on this occasion being the episcopal office. ^^' London was suffering with the rest of the country at this period from papal exactions, and the feeling against the Roman clerks was very strong. In 1 23 1 Cincio, a Roman clerk and canon of St. Paul's, was seized and ill-treated "' by a number of armed and disguised men near St. Albans. Bishop Roger, with ten other bishops, in 1232 excommunicated in St. Paul's all who had been concerned in this and other outrages on foreigners,"" but this did not save the bishop from being accused the year after, by the commission appointed by the pope to inquire into the matter, of complicity in a plan of robbing the Roman clerks ; and the old man had to set off for Rome, where after great labour and expense he cleared himself from the charge."' In 1 241 he died, having a few years before dedicated part of the building of the church of St. Paul, in which he had taken so much interest."* London's next bishop, Fulk Bassett, chosen against the will of the king, whose nominee was the Bishop of Hereford,"* was also a stalwart defender of his Church against papal and royal oppression. When the pope at the Council of Lyons in i 245 forced the English bishops to sign John's charter of tribute to the Holy See, Fulk of London signed ' last and unwillingly,' and therefore, adds the chronicler, deserves less blame than the rest."* Next year he refused or neglected to fulfil a papal provision to a prebend in the diocese of London, and in consequence the Dean of Wells was ordered to grant out of the revenues of the see of London an annuity to the papal nominee equal to the value of a prebend in St. Paul's." On 13 October 1 247 the king received a portion of the blood of our Lord, which had been sent him from the Holy Land, and himself carried it from St. Paul's to Westminster."* But Henry's piety accorded ill with his weakness in permit- ting the continued depredations of the papal emissaries. In the very same year a great remonstrance was sent to Rome by the people and clergy of the province of Canterbury, in which London had an honourable part ;
- because this community has no seal we send these present letters to your
holiness signed with the seal of the community of the city of London.' ' In 1250 the clergy of the City, v/ith Bishop Fulk at their head, made a determined stand against the projected visitation of Archbishop Boniface, which they considered to be an unwarranted aggression."^ At the council held in London in October 1255 Rustand, the papal envoy, demanded huge '*' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 416-20. "' Roger of Wendover, Fhres Hist. (Rolls Ser,), iii, 19 ; cf. Gasquet, Hen. Ill and the Church, 132-4. '™ Roger of Wendover, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 20. '" Ibid. 47 ; Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 240. '" Ibid, iv, 49, 169. '" Ibid. 171. "• Ibid. 479. '" Papal Bulls (P.R.O.), bdle. xx, no. 44 ; bdle. xix, no. 29. "' See under Westminster in ' Religious Houses.' '" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, S95-6. "' For full account of proceedings see accounts of St. Paul's, St. Bartholomew's, and Holy Trinity in 'Religious Houses' ; cf also Monum. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 162, for disturbance in diocese, and Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), vi, 190, for Fulk's attitude. 189 77
