roposal, and gave the pope
unlimited credit to expend whatever sums he thought necessary for
completing the conquest of Sicily. Innocent, who was engaged by his
own interests to wage war with Mainfroy, was glad to carry on his
enterprises at the expense of his ally: Alexander IV., who succeeded him
in the papal throne, continued the same policy, and Henry was surprised
to find himself on a sudden involved in an immense debt, which he had
never been consulted in contracting. The sum already amounted to a
hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and forty-one marks,
beside interest;[***] and he had the prospect, if he answered this
demand, of being soon loaded with more exorbitant expenses if he refused
it, of both incurring the pope's displeasure, and losing the crown of
Sicily, which he hoped soon to have the glory of fixing on the head of
his son.

* M. Paris, p.650.

** Rymer, vol. i. p. 502, 512, 530. M. Paris, p. 599, 613

*** Rymer, vol i. p. 587. Chron. Dunst vol. i. p. 319.

He applied to the parliament for supplies; and that he might be sure not
to meet with opposition, he sent no writs to the more refractory barons:
but even those who were summoned, sensible of the ridiculous cheat
imposed by the pope, determined not to lavish their money on such
chimerical projects; and making a pretext of the absence of their
brethren, they refused to take the king's demands into consideration.[*]
In this extremity the clergy were his only resource; and as both their
temporal and spiritual sovereign concurred in loading them, they were
ill able to defend themselves against this united authority.

The pope published a crusade for the conquest of Sicily; and required
every one who had taken the cross against the infidels, or had vowed to
advance money for that service, to support the war against Mainfroy, a
more terrible enemy, as he pretended, to the Christian faith than
any Saracen.[**] He levied a tenth on all ecclesiastical benefices in
England for three years; and gave orders to excommunicate all bishops
who made not punctual payment. He granted to the king the goods of
intestate clergymen; the revenues of vacant benefices, the revenues of
all non-residents.[***] But these taxations, being levied by some rule,
were deemed less grievous than another imposition, which arose from the
suggestion of the bishop of Hereford, and which might have opened the
door to endless and intolerable abuses.

This p