d his approval, the election was complete;
consecration followed; and the bishop having been furnished with his
bulls of investiture, was presented to the king, and from him received
"the temporalities" of his see. The mode in which the great abbots were
chosen was precisely similar; the superiors of the orders to which the
abbeys belonged were the channels of communication with the pope, in the
place of the archbishops; but the elections in themselves were free, and
were conducted in the same manner. The smaller church benefices, the
small monasteries or parish churches, were in the hands of private
patrons, lay or ecclesiastical; but in the case of each institution a
reference was admitted, or was supposed to be admitted, to the court of
Rome.

[Sidenote: Privilege of the pope and of the superiors of the religious
orders in controlling the elections.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1306-7.]

There was thus in the pope's hand an authority of an indefinite kind,
which it was presumed that his sacred office would forbid him to abuse,
but which, however, if he so unfortunately pleased, he might abuse at
his discretion. He had absolute power over every nomination to an
English benefice; he might refuse his consent till such adequate
reasons, material or spiritual, as he considered sufficient to induce
him to acquiesce, had been submitted to his consideration. In the case
of nominations to the religious houses, the superiors of the various
orders residing abroad had equal facilities for obstructiveness; and the
consequence of so large a confidence in the purity of the higher orders
of the Church became visible in an act of parliament which it was found
necessary to pass in 1306-7.[2]

[Sidenote: Act to prevent the superiors resident abroad from laying
taxes on the English houses.]

"Of late," says this act, "it has come to the knowledge of the king, by
the grievous complaint of the honourable persons, lords, and other
noblemen of his realm, that whereas monasteries, priories, and other
religious houses were founded to the honour and glory of God, and the
advancement of holy church, by the king and his progenitors, and by the
said noblemen and their ancestors; and a very great portion of lands and
tenements have been given by them to the said monasteries, priories, and
religious houses, and the religious men serving God in them; to the
intent that clerks and laymen might be admitted in such houses, and that
sick and feeble folk migh