ral history of the Western world and events in England: these last
form but a part of the great victory of the hierarchy and its advance
in power, which marks the first half of the 13th century. By combining
with the vassals the Popes had overcome the monarchy, and had then in
turn overcome the vassals by combining with the monarchy and its
endangered rights. It must not be regarded as a mere title, an empty
word, if the Pope was acknowledged to be feudal Lord of England: his
legates, Gualo, Pandulph, Otho, and with them some native prelates,
devoted to him (above all that Peter des Roches, who, by his conduct
when Bishop of Winchester, through the mistrust awakened, incurred
almost the chief responsibility of the earlier troubles), spoke the
decisive word in the affairs of the kingdom and crushed their
opponents. It was reported that Innocent IV was heard to say, 'Is not
the King of England my vassal, my servant? At my nod he will imprison
and punish.'[37] Under this influence the best benefices in the
kingdom were given away without regard to the freedom of election or
the rights of patrons, and in fact mostly to foreigners. The Pope's
exchequer drew its richest revenues from England; there was no end to
the exactions of its subordinate agents, Master Martin, Master Marin,
Peter Rubeo, and all the rest of them. Even the King surrounded
himself with foreigners. To his own relations and to the relations of
his Provencal wife fell the most profitable places, and the advantages
arising from his paramount feudal rights; they too exercised much
influence on public affairs, and that in the interests of the Papal
power, with which they were allied. Riotous movements occasionally
took place against this system, but they were suppressed: men suffered
in silence as long as it was only the exercise of rights once
acknowledged. But now it happened that the Popes in their war with the
last of the Hohenstaufen, whom they had resolved to destroy, proposed
to employ the resources of England and in a very different manner than
before. They awoke Henry III's dynastic ambition by promoting the
elevation of his brother to be King of the Romans, and destining his
younger son Edmund for the crown of Naples and Sicily. King Henry
pledged himself in return to the heaviest money-payments. It began to
appear as if England were no longer a free kingdom, using its
resources for its own objects: the land and all its riches was at the
service of the