apostolic see which greatly degraded the papacy.  Though Clement’s main concern was to fulfil the exacting conditions which, as it was believed, Philip had imposed upon him, he was almost as subservient to Edward as to the King of France.  His deference to his natural lord enabled Edward to renounce the most irksome of the obligations which he had incurred to his subjects, to punish Winchelsea, and to restrain Roman authority by laws which anticipate the legislation of the age of Edward III.

[1] Memoranda de parliamento, preface, p. li.  The statement in the text is an inference suggested by Professor Maitland’s account of the statute De asportis religiosorum.  For the last struggle of Edward and Winchelsea, see Stubbs’s preface to Chron. of Edw.  I. and Edw.  II., i., xcix.-cxiii.

At Clement V.’s coronation at Lyons, in November, England was represented by Winchelsea’s old enemy, Bishop Walter Langton, and by the Earl of Lincoln.  The first result of their work was the promulgation, on December 29, of the bull Regalis devotionis, by which the pope annulled the additions made to the charters in 1297 and succeeding years, and dispensed Edward from the oath which he had taken to observe them, on the ground that it was in conflict with his coronation vows.  Next year Edward took advantage of this bull to revoke the disafforestments made by the parliament of Lincoln in 1301.  It may be a sign either of the moderation, or of the well-grounded fears of the king, that he made no further use of the papal absolution.  But, like his father and grandfather, he used the papal authority to set aside his plighted word, and his conduct in this respect suggests that it was well for England that the renewal of the Scottish troubles reduced for the rest of the reign the temptation, which the bull held out to him, to play fast and loose with the liberties of his subjects.  The standards of contemporary morality were not, however, infringed by Edward’s action, dishonourable and undignified as it seems to us of later times.

Winchelsea’s turn was at last come.  On February 12, 1306, Clement suspended him from his office, and summoned him to appear before the curia.  On March 25 the archbishop humbled himself before Edward and begged for his protection.  But the king overwhelmed him with reproaches and refused to show him any mercy.  Within two months, the primate took ship for France and made his way to the papal court, which was then established at Bordeaux.  He remained in exile, though in the English king’s dominions, for the rest of Edward’s life.  A less harsh punishment was meted out to the Bishop of Durham, who then came back from the court of Clement with the magnificent title of Patriarch of Jerusalem.  For a second time Edward laid violent hands upon the rich temporalities of the see, and Bek, like Winchelsea, remained under a cloud for the remainder of the reign.