ding upon the defensive, he resolved,
by beginning the attack, to show the king that he knew the privileges
of his character, and had courage to maintain them. He issued a general
sentence of excommunication against all who, on any pretext, exercised
violence on the person or goods of clergymen; who infringed those
privileges secured by the Great Charter, and by ecclesiastical canons;
or who accused a prelate of treason or any other crime, in order to
bring him under the king's displeasure.[*]

* Heming* p. 339. Ang* Sacra, vol. i. p. 21, 22. Walsing. p.
153.

Even Edward had reason to think himself struck at by this sentence;
both on account of the imprisonment of the two bishops and that of other
clergymen concerned in levying the taxes, and on account of his seizing
their lands and movables, that he might make them answerable for any
balance which remained in their hands. The clergy, with the primate at
their head, were now formed into a regular combination against the king;
and many calumnies were spread against him, in order to deprive him of
the confidence and affections of his people. It was pretended that
he meant to recall the general pardon, and the remission which he had
granted of old debts, and to impose new and arbitrary taxes without
consent of parliament. The archbishop went so far, in a letter to the
king himself, as to tell him, that there were two powers by which the
world was governed, the holy pontifical apostolic dignity, and the
royal subordinate authority: that of these two powers, the clerical was
evidently the supreme; since the priests were to answer, at the tribunal
of the divine judgment, for the conduct of kings themselves: that the
clergy were the spiritual fathers of all the faithful, and amongst
others of kings and princes; and were entitled, by a heavenly charter,
to direct their wills and actions, and to censure their transgressions:
and that prelates had hitherto cited emperors before their tribunal,
had sitten in judgment on their life and behavior, and had anathematized
them for their obstinate offences.[*] These topics were not well
calculated to appease Edward's indignation; and when he called a
parliament, he sent not to the primate, as to the other peers, a summons
to attend it. Stratford was not discouraged at this mark of neglect or
anger: he appeared before the gates, arrayed in his pontifical robes,
holding the crosier in his hand and accompanied by a pompous trai