tions to bishopricks
should be free as in time past, that the rights of patrons should be
preserved, and penalties of imprisonment, forfeiture, or outlawry,
according to the complexion of the offence, should be attached to all
impetration of benefices from Rome by purchase or otherwise.[452]

If statute law could have touched the evil, these enactments would have
been sufficient for the purpose; but the influence of the popes in England
was of that subtle kind which was not so readily defeated. The law was
still defied, or still evaded; and the struggle continued till the close of
the century, the legislature labouring patiently, but ineffectually, to
confine with fresh enactments their ingenious adversary.[453]

At length symptoms appeared of an intention on the part of the popes to
maintain their claims with spiritual censures, and the nation was obliged
to resolve upon the course which, in the event of their resorting to that
extremity, it would follow. The lay lords[454] and the House of Commons
found no difficulty in arriving at a conclusion. They passed a fresh penal
statute with prohibitions even more emphatically stringent, and decided
that "if any man brought into this realm any sentence, summons, or
excommunication, contrary to the effect of the statute, he should incur
pain of life and members, with forfeiture of goods; and if any prelate made
execution of such sentence, his temporalities should be taken from him, and
should abide in the king's hands till redress was made."[455]

So bold a measure threatened nothing less than open rupture. The act,
however, seems to have been passed in haste, without determined
consideration; and on second thoughts, it was held more prudent to attempt
a milder course. The strength of the opposition to the papacy lay with the
Commons.[456] When the session of parliament was over, a great council was
summoned to reconsider what should be done, and an address was drawn up,
and forwarded to Rome, with a request that the then reigning pope would
devise some manner by which the difficulty could be arranged.[457] Boniface
IX. replied with the same want of judgment which was shown afterwards on an
analogous occasion by Clement VII. He disbelieved the danger; and daring
the government to persevere, he granted a prebendal stall at Wells to an
Italian cardinal, to which a presentation had been made already by the
king. Opposing suits were instantly instituted between the claimants in th