flowed into the Roman exchequer, or a
property to be distributed as the private patronage of the Roman bishop:
and the English parliament for the first time found itself in collision
with the Father of Christendom.

[Sidenote: Statute of provisors forbidding the attempts of the popes to
present to benefices in England.]

"The pope," says the fourth of the twenty-fifth of Edward III.,
"accroaching to himself the signories of the benefices within the realm
of England, doth give and grant the same to aliens which did never dwell
in England, and to cardinals which could not dwell here, and to others
as well aliens as denizens, whereby manifold inconveniences have
ensued." "Not regarding" the statute of Edward I., he had also continued
to present to bishopricks, abbeys, priories, and other valuable
preferments: money in large quantities was carried out of the realm from
the proceeds of these offices, and it was necessary to insist
emphatically that the papal nominations should cease. They were made in
violation of the law, and were conducted with simony so flagrant that
English benefices were sold in the papal courts to any person who would
pay for them, whether an Englishman or a stranger. It was therefore
decreed that the elections to bishopricks should be free as in time
past, that the rights of patrons should be preserved, and penalties of
imprisonment, forfeiture, or outlawry, according to the complexion of
the offence, should be attached to all impetration of benefices from
Rome by purchase or otherwise.[4]

[Sidenote: The statute fails, and is again enacted in fresh forms.]

If statute law could have touched the evil, these enactments would have
been sufficient for the purpose; but the influence of the popes in
England was of that subtle kind which was not so readily defeated. The
law was still defied, or still evaded; and the struggle continued till
the close of the century, the legislature labouring patiently, but
ineffectually, to confine with fresh enactments their ingenious
adversary.[5]

[Sidenote: The popes threaten the censures of the church.]

[Sidenote: The parliament declares that to bring any such censures into
the realm shall be punished with death and forfeiture.]

At length symptoms appeared of an intention on the part of the popes to
maintain their claims with spiritual censures, and the nation was
obliged to resolve upon the course which, in the event of their
resorting to that extremity, it w