hown by the king to foreigners, the
English clergy were no less disgusted by the exactions of the Pope.
The claim of Innocent III. to regulate the proceedings of kings had
been handed down to his successors and made them jealous of any ruler
too powerful to be controlled. The Emperor Frederick II. had not only
succeeded to the government of Germany, and to some influence over the
north of Italy, but had inherited Naples and Sicily from his mother.
The Pope thus found himself, as it were, between two fires. There was
constant bickering between Frederick and Gregory IX., a fiery old man
who became Pope in =1227=, and in =1238= Gregory excommunicated
Frederick, and called on all Europe to assist him against the man whom
he stigmatised as the enemy of God and the Church. As the king of
England was his vassal in consequence of John's surrender, he looked
to him for aid more than to others, especially as England, enjoying
internal peace more than other nations, was regarded as especially
wealthy. In =1237=, the year before Frederick's excommunication,
Gregory sent Cardinal Otho as his legate to demand money from the
English clergy. The clergy found a leader in Robert Grossetete, Bishop
of Lincoln, a wise and practical reformer of clerical disorders; but
though they grumbled, they could get no protection from the king, and
were forced to pay. Otho left England in =1241=, carrying immense sums
of money with him, and the promise of the king to present three
hundred Italian priests to English benefices before he presented a
single Englishman. In =1243= Gregory IX. was succeeded by Innocent
IV., who was even more grasping than his predecessor.

12. =A Weak Parliamentary Opposition. 1244.=--Against these evils the
Great Council strove in vain to make head. It was now beginning to be
known as Parliament, though no alteration was yet made in its
composition. In =1244= clergy and barons joined in remonstrating with
the king, and some of them even talked about restraining his power by
the establishment of a Justiciar and Chancellor, together with four
councillors, all six to be elected by the whole of the baronage.
Without the consent of the Chancellor thus chosen no administrative
act could be done. The scheme was a distinct advance upon that of the
barons who, in =1215=, forced the Great Charter upon John. The barons
had then proposed to leave the appointment of executive officials to
the king, and to appoint a committee of twenty-fi