s by
secular judges; that the clergy were not to regard any prohibitions
from civil courts; that lay patrons had no right to confer spiritual
benefices; that the magistrate was obliged, without further inquiry, to
imprison all excommunicated persons; and that ancient usage, without any
particular grant or charter, was a sufficient authority for any clerical
possessions or privileges.[**] About a century before, these claims
would have been supported by the court of Rome beyond the most
fundamental articles of faith: they were the chief points maintained
by the great martyr Becket; and his resolution in defending them had
exalted him to the high station which he held in the catalogue of Romish
saints. But principles were changed with the times: the pope was become
somewhat jealous of the great independence of the English clergy, which
made them stand less in need of his protection, and even imboldened them
to resist his authority, and to complain of the preference given to the
Italian courtiers, whose interests, it is natural to imagine, were the
chief object of his concern. He was ready, therefore, on the king's
application, to annul these new constitutions of the church of
England.[***] And, at the same time, he absolved the king and all his
subjects from the oath which they had taken to observe the provisions of
Oxford.[****]

* Rymer, vol. i. p. 755.

** Ann. Burt. p. 389.

*** Rymer, vol. i. p. 755.

**** Rymer, vol. i. p. 722. M. Paris, p. 666. W. Heming. p,
580. Ypod. Neust. p; 468. Knyghton, p. 2446.

Prince Edward, whose liberal mind, though in such early youth, had
taught him the great prejudice which his father had incurred by his
levity, inconstancy, and frequent breach of promise, refused for a
long time to take advantage of thus absolution; and declared that the
provisions of Oxford, how unreasonable soever in themselves, and how
much soever abused by the barons, ought still to be adhered to by those
who had sworn to observe them:[*] he himself had been constrained by
violence to take that oath; yet was he determined to keep it. By this
scrupulous fidelity the prince acquired the confidence of all parties,
and was afterwards enabled to recover fully the royal authority, and
to perform such great actions both during his own reign and that of his
father.

The situation of England, during this period, as well as that of most
European kingdoms, was somewhat peculiar. There was n