A HISTORY OF LONDOxN Another interesting feature of the Taxation with regard to London is the very great number of reUgious houses situated outside of London, West- minster, and Southwark which owned property in that district. In many cases it is known from other evidence that these monasteries had lodging- houses on their property which they frequently used.-"^ This, together with the numerous bishops' residences, must have helped to accentuate the marked ecclesiastical aspect of mediaeval London.""^ Bishop Fulk is described by Matthew Paris as ' a man indeed noble and of great generosity, and, though he hesitated a little of late in a matter con- cerning the public good, the anchor of all the realm and a shield of stead- fastness and defence, who at the same time was a most excellent pastor and father of the church.' ^"^ He died in 1259, and was followed by a succession of less distinguished men, the first of whom, Henry de Wengham, chancellor and a faithful friend of Henry III, had recently refused the bishopric of Winchester.-"' At his consecration early in 1260 a dispute was pending between Archbishop Boniface and St. Paul's, and he inserted in his profession of obedience to Canterbury the words ' saving the right and liberty of the church of London, which I will defend and maintain as far as in me lies against everyone.' The offended archbishop was with difficulty persuaded to finish the consecration, and Henry had to recite his profession again with the omission of the objectionable clause. ^^^ He was a great pluralist, and received licence from the pope to hold for five years all the benefices which he had at the time of his election, and also a canonry and any prebend that did not belong to another in London, and to appropriate any three churches in his gift, appointing perpetual vicars to serve them.'" But he did not long enjoy these privileges, for he died in 1262. The next episcopate, that of Henry de Sandwich, covered a political crisis in which the religious life of the City was to some extent involved through the intervention of the pope in favour of the king. The City and its bishop heartily espoused the baronial cause, and in consequence the Bishop of Sabina, a papal legate who feared to come into England from Boulogne, placed London and the Cinque Ports under an interdict — which no one dared to publish — suspended the Bishop of London and others, and excommunicated all supporters of the baronial party. In November 1265 Cardinal Ottobon was sent to England as legate ; the clergy of London hearing of his coming, in deference to the former sentence which had never been removed hastily placed London under an interdict. As, however, the City had been in the meantime reconciled to the king, the clergy and people swearing to obey the mandate of the Church, the interdict was immediately relaxed by Ottobon, who was solemnly received at St. Paul's on 10 Novem- ber. Early in the next year the legate suspended the Bishop of London and other bishops and ordered them to appear at Rome within three months to
- See Topographical Section, and Ecclesiastical Map of London before the Reformation.
- " On this point see Stubbs, CAron. Edw. I and Edvi. II (Rolls Ser.), i, Introd. p. xli ; Sharpe, Lond.
and the Kingdom, i, 203. ^ Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 747. Paris shows throughout a great sympathy for this bishop. With reference to the occasion of his hesitation mentioned above in the quotation see v, 705. Be- sides the passage already cited see iv, 171, 393 ; v, 206, 407. »' Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 426 ; cf Diet. Nat. Biog. "" Fhres Hist, ii, 443 ; Wharton, Hist, de Efu. Lond. 95^. "' Cal. of Papal LetUrs, i, 366, 373.
