p. 501, 507, 518, 578, 606, 625, 548.

*** M. Paris, p. 244.

**** M. Paris, 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 favors, 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 forever, and 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 renewed four years after with success by Martin the
nuncio, who brought from Rome powers of suspending and excommunicating
all clergymen that refused to comply with his demands. The king, who
relied on the pope for the support of his tottering authority, never
failed to countenance those exactions.

Meanwhile all the chief benefices of the kingdom were conferred on
Italians; great numbers of that nation w