relate, who resided at the court of Rome by a deputation from
the English church, drew bills of different values but amounting on the
whole to a hundred and fifty thousand five hundred and forty marks on
all the bishops and abbots of the kingdom; and granted these bills to
Italian merchants, who, it was pretended, had advanced money for the
service of the war against Mainfroy.[****] As there was no likelihood
of the English prelates' submitting, without compulsion, to such an
extraordinary demand, Rustand the legate was charged with the commission
of employing authority to that purpose, and he summoned an assembly of
the bishops and abbots whom he acquainted with the pleasure of the pope
and of the king.

* M. Paris, p. 614

** Rymer, vol. i. p. 547, 548, etc.

*** Rymer, vol. i. p. 597, 598.

**** M. Paris, p. 612, 628. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 54.

Great were the surprise and indignation of the assembly: the bishop of
Worcester exclaimed, that he would lose his life rather than comply: the
bishop of London said, that the pope and king were more powerful than
he; but if his mitre were taken off his head, he would clap on a helmet
in its place.[*] The legate was no less violent on the other hand; and
he told the assembly, in plain terms, that all ecclesiastical benefices
were the property of the pope, and he might dispose of them, either
in whole or in part, as he saw proper.[**] In the end, the bishops and
abbots, being threatened with excommunication, which made all their
revenues fall into the king's hands, were obliged to submit to the
exaction; and the only mitigation which the legate allowed them was,
that the tenths already granted should be accepted as a partial payment
of the bills. But the money was still insufficient for the pope's
purpose: the conquest of Sicily was as remote as ever: the demands which
came from Rome were endless: Pope Alexander became so urgent a creditor,
that he sent over a legate to England, threatening the kingdom with an
interdict, and the king with excommunication, if the arrears, which he
pretended to be due to him, were not instantly remitted;[***] and at
last Henry, sensible of the cheat, began to think of breaking off the
agreement, and of resigning into the pope's hands that crown which
it was not intended by Alexander that he or his family should ever
enjoy.[****]

* M. Paris, p. 614.

** M. Paris, p. 619

*** Rymer, vol. i. p. 624. M. Par