I - General idea of his controversies with the King and Popes.

Summary

Hitherto we have viewed the Bishop of Lincoln confined as it were to his own Diocese. Now we are going to consider him in a larger field, and extending his zeal to the opposing of abuses, not only of his own church, but of the whole national Church of England. An opposition so much the more nice and difficult as the persons he had to struggle with were of the first and most formidable rank. I mean his two sovereigns, that of the state and that of the Church. But with all so much the more glorious to the opposer that in resisting he never exceeded the bounds of respect which he owed to their authority and thereby preserved their esteem, and confidence to the very last, even while he opposed their measures.

The expensive broils of the popes with the Emperor Frederick, and the no less expensive crusades for recovering of the holy land on the one hand, and on the other the lavish conduct and heavy wars of King [Henry] the III, had rendered the two powers, to use Matthew Paris's expression, like two heavy millstones, which ground the clergy and religious almost to nothing by the frequent and ample subsidies which their hard circumstances obliged them to raise. Subsidies, which would appear incredible if not testified by the joint voices of our most faithfull monastick historians. Now these two millstones running frequently, if not continually one with the other it is almost impossible to separate the two articles which relate to the Crown and Tiara, especially in their general transactions. However there are some more private and particular controversies between the King and our strenuous and patriot Prelate, which are worth peculiar notice, and which we shall therefore premise before the general ones in which both potentates were jointly concerned.

These separable controversies of the Bishop of Lincoln with his Prince may be reduced to about six in number, viz the Legitimation of Special Bastards, the freedom of Canonical elections and promotions to Church benefices, the preservation of Ecclesiastick immunities, general remonstrances against their violation and thereupon a withholding of subsidies. All points of no little moment, and therefore managed by our Prelate with a zeal and activity proportioned to their interesting nature, as we are going to see under so many distinct articles in the ensuing Chapter.