ing for
pacification was appointed between them at Lincoln, by means of the
present Archbishop of Canterbury, who went off between him and the
Cistertian commissioners before the matter could be finished. In the end
the king himself came also unto the said commissioners as they sat in
their chapterhouse, and there with tears fell down at their feet, craving
pardon for his trespasses against them, and heartily requiring that they
would (from henceforth) commend him and his realm in their prayers unto
the protection of the Almighty, and receive him into their fraternity,
promising moreover full satisfaction of their damages sustained, and to
build an house of their order in whatsoever place of England it should
please them to assign. And this he confirmed by charter bearing date the
seven-and-twentieth of November, after the Scottish king was returned into
Scotland,[115] and departed from the king. Whereby (and by other the
like, as between John Stratford[116] and Edward the Third, etc.) a man may
easily conceive how proud the clergymen have been in former times, as
wholly presuming upon the primacy of their pope. More matter could I
allege of these and the like broils, not to be found among our common
historiographers. Howbeit, reserving the same unto places more convenient,
I will cease to speak of them at this time, and go forward with such other
things as my purpose is to speak of. At the first, therefore, there was
like and equal authority in both our archbishops, but as he of Canterbury
hath long since obtained the prerogative above York (although I say not
without great trouble, suit, some bloodshed, and contention), so the
Archbishop of York is nevertheless written Primate of England, as one
contenting himself with a piece of a title at the least, when all could
not be gotten. And as he of Canterbury crowneth the king, so this of York
doth the like to the queen, whose perpetual chaplain he is, and hath been
from time to time, since the determination of this controversy, as writers
do report. The first also hath under his jurisdiction to the number of
one-and-twenty inferior bishops; the other hath only four, by reason that
the churches of Scotland are now removed from his obedience unto an
archbishop of their own, whereby the greatness and circuit of the
jurisdiction of York is not a little diminished. In like sort, each of
these seven-and-twenty sees have their cathedral churches, wherein the
deans (a calling not k