ly, sent out a list of persons who
might be allowed to take part in the proceedings, and these with difficulty
made their way to the entrance. A rush was made by the others as they were
going in, and there was a scuffle, which ended for the moment in the
victory of the officials: but the triumph was of brief duration; the
excluded clergy were now encouraged by the people; they returned vigorously
to the attack, broke down the doors, "struck the bishop's officers over the
face," and the whole crowd, priests and laity, rushed together, storming
and shouting, into the Chapter-house. The scene may be easily imagined;
dust flying, gowns torn, heads broken, well-fed faces in the hot September
weather steaming with anger and exertion, and every voice in loudest
outcry. At length the clamour was partially subdued, and the bishop,
beautifully equal to the emergency, arose bland and persuasive.

"My brethren," he said, "I marvel not a little why ye be so heady. Ye know
not what shall be said to you, therefore I pray you keep silence, and hear
me patiently. My friends, ye all know that we be men, frail of condition
and no angels; and by frailty and lack of wisdom we have misdemeaned
ourselves towards the king our sovereign lord and his laws; so that all we
of the clergy were in premunire, by reason whereof all our promotions,
lands, goods, and chattels were to him forfeit, and our bodies ready to be
imprisoned. Yet his Grace, moved with pity and compassion, demanded of us
what we could say why he should not extend his laws upon us.

"Then the fathers of the clergy humbly besought his Grace for mercy, to
whom he answered he was ever inclined to mercy. Then for all our great
offences we had but little penance; for when he might, by the rigour of his
laws, have taken all our livelihoods, he was contented with one hundred
thousand pounds, to be paid in five years. And though this sum may be more
than we may easily bear, yet, by the rigour of his law, we should have
borne the whole burden; whereupon, my brethren, I charitably exhort you to
bear your parts of your livelihood and salary towards payment of this sum
granted."[338]

The ingenuity of this address deserved all praise; but the beauty of the
form was insufficient to disguise the inconclusiveness of the reasoning. It
confessed an offence which the hearers knew to be none; the true
provocation which had led to the penalty--the unjust extortion of the high
church officials--was i