tion [n]. He rejected two clergymen more, whom the monks had
successively chosen; and he at last told them, that, if they would
elect Edmond, treasurer of the church of Salisbury, he would confirm
their choice; and his nomination was complied with. The pope had the
prudence to appoint both times very worthy primates; but men could not
forbear observing his intention of thus drawing gradually to himself
the right of bestowing that important dignity.
[FN [m] M. Paris, p. 224. [n] Ibid. p. 254.]

The avarice, however, more than the ambition, of the see of Rome,
seems to have been in this age the ground of general complaint. The
papal ministers, finding a vast stock of power amassed by their
predecessors, were desirous of turning it to immediate profit which
they enjoyed at home, rather than of enlarging their authority in
distant countries, where they never intended to reside. Every thing
was become venal in the Romish tribunals; simony was openly practised;
no favours, and even no justice, could be obtained without a bribe;
the highest bidder was sure to have the preference, without regard
either to the merits of the person or of the cause; and besides the
usual perversions of right in the decision of controversies, the pope
openly assumed an absolute and uncontrolled authority of setting
aside, by the plenitude of his apostolic power, all particular rules,
and all privileges of patrons, churches, and convents. On pretence of
remedying these abuses, Pope Honorius, in 1226, complaining of the
poverty of his see as the source of all grievances, demanded from
every cathedral two of the best prebends, and from every convent two
monks' portions, to be set apart as a perpetual and settled revenue of
the papal crown: but all men being sensible that the revenue would
continue for ever, the abuses immediately return, his demand was
unanimously rejected. About three years after, the pope demanded and
obtained the tenth of all ecclesiastical revenues, which he levied in
a very oppressive manner; requiring payment before the clergy had
drawn their rents or tithes, and sending about usurers, who advanced
them the money at exorbitant interest. In the year 1240, Otho, the
legate, having in vain attempted the clergy in a body, obtained
separately, by intrigues and menaces, large sums from the prelates and
convents, and on his departure is said to have carried more money out
of the kingdom than he left in it. This experiment was