[Sidenote:  Edward and the Church]

Acts as significant announced Edward’s purpose of carrying out another side of Henry’s policy, that of limiting in the same way the independent jurisdiction of the Church.  He was resolute to force it to become thoroughly national by bearing its due part of the common national burthens, and to break its growing dependence upon Rome.  But the ecclesiastical body was jealous of its position as a power distinct from the power of the Crown, and Edward’s policy had hardly declared itself when in 1279 Archbishop Peckham obtained a canon from the clergy by which copies of the Great Charter, with its provisions in favour of the liberties of the Church, were to be affixed to the doors of churches.  The step was meant as a defiant protest against all interference, and it was promptly forbidden.  An order issued by the Primate to the clergy to declare to their flocks the sentences of excommunication directed against all who obtained royal writs to obstruct suits in church courts, or who, whether royal officers or no, neglected to enforce their sentences, was answered in a yet more emphatic way.  By falling into the “dead hand” or “mortmain” of the Church land ceased to render its feudal services; and in 1279 the Statute “de Religiosis,” or as it is commonly called “of Mortmain,” forbade any further alienation of land to religious bodies in such wise that it should cease to render its due service to the king.  The restriction was probably no beneficial one to the country at large, for Churchmen were the best landlords, and it was soon evaded by the ingenuity of the clerical lawyers; but it marked the growing jealousy of any attempt to set aside what was national from serving the general need and profit of the nation.  Its immediate effect was to stir the clergy to a bitter resentment.  But Edward remained firm, and when the bishops proposed to restrict the royal courts from dealing with cases of patronage or causes which touched the chattels of Churchmen he met their proposals by an instant prohibition.

[Sidenote:  Conquest of Wales]

The resentment of the clergy had soon the means of showing itself during a new struggle with Wales.  The persuasions of his brother David, who had deserted him in the previous war but who deemed his desertion insufficiently rewarded by an English lordship, roused Llewelyn to a fresh revolt.  A prophecy of Merlin was said to promise that when English money became round a Prince of Wales should be crowned in London; and at this moment a new coinage of copper money, coupled with a prohibition to break the silver penny into halves and quarters, as had been commonly done, was supposed to fulfil the prediction.  In 1282 Edward marched in overpowering strength into the heart of Wales.  But Llewelyn held out in Snowdon with the stubbornness of despair, and the rout of an English force which had crossed into Anglesea prolonged the contest into the winter.  The cost of the war