e provided--or appointed
beforehand--his nominees to English benefices, and expected that his
nominees would be allowed to hold the benefices to the exclusion of
those of the patrons. In =1351= the Statute of Provisors[20] attempted
to put an end to the system, but it was not immediately successful,
and had to be re-enacted in later years. In =1353= a Statute of
_Praemunire_[21] was passed, in which, though the Pope's name was not
mentioned, an attempt was made to stop suits being carried before
foreign courts--in other words before the Papal court at Avignon.
Another claim of the Popes was to the 1,000 marks payable annually as
a symbol of John's vassalage, a claim most distasteful to Englishmen
as a sign of national humiliation. Since =1333=, the year in which
Edward took the government into his own hands, the payment had not
been made, and in =1366= Parliament utterly rejected a claim made by
the Pope for its revival.

[Footnote 20: Provisors are the persons provided or appointed to a
benefice.]

[Footnote 21: So called from the first words of the writs appointed
to be issued under it, _Praemunire facias_; the first of these two
words being a corruption of _Praemoneri_.]

6. =Predominance of the English Language.=--The national spirit which
revealed itself in an armed struggle with the French and in a legal
struggle with the Papacy showed itself in the increasing predominance
of the English language. In =1362= it supplanted French in the law
courts, and in the same year Parliament was opened with an English
speech. French was still the language of the court, but it was
becoming a foreign speech, pronounced very differently from the
'French of Paris.'

7. =Piers the Plowman. 1362.=--Cruel as had been the direct results of
the English victories in France, they had indirectly contributed to
the overthrow of that feudalism which weighed heavily upon France and
upon all Continental Europe. The success of the English had been the
success of a nation strong in the union of classes. The cessation of
the war drove the thoughts of Englishmen back upon themselves. The old
spiritual channels had been, to a great extent, choked up. Bishops
were busy with the king's affairs; monks had long ceased to be
specially an example to the world; and even the friars had fallen from
their first estate, and had found out that, though they might
personally possess nothing, their order might be wealthy. The men who
won