of the people, nor the charges committed vnto them: was called vp to Rome, and there excommunicated, who then appealing from the pope, shortly after departed, which was an. 1253. MarginaliaThe pope stroken with the staffe of Grost. bysh of Lincolne.It chaunced within two yeares after his decease, the sayd Pope Innocent beyng a sleepe: a certayne byshop apparelled byshop like, appeared vnto hym, & striking him with hys staffe on hys left side, sayd: Surge miser veni in iudicium. That is. Rise wretch and come to thy iudgement. The next day after, the Pope was found amased as a man stroken on the side with the strokes of a staffe. This Rob. though he was greatly commended for his sanctimony, and as Cestrensis sayth, for his myracles: yet was he not permitted in the court of Rome to be ascribed in the Cataloge of Saintes. And thus much out of Cestrensis concernyng this matter. But Math. Paris. and the author of Flores historiarum prosecuting this story more at large, addeth thys more vnto it and sayth. Marginalia1254.That pope Innocēt the next yeare folowing, which was an. 1254. being passing angry: contrary to the mynde of his brethren the Cardinals, woulde haue the bones of the foresayd byshop of Lincolne cast out of the Church: and purposed to bring him into such spite and hatred of the people that he should be counted an ethnike, a rebell, and disobedient person through the whole worlde. And therupon caused hys letters to be written and sent downe to the kyng of England, knowyng that the kyng would gladly serue hym therin to haue the spoyle of the bishop and of hys church. But the night followyng, the sayd B. of Linc. appeared vnto him as comming in his pōtificalibus, and with a seuere countenance and sterne looke & terrible voyce speaketh vnto him beyng in his rest, and smityng hym on the side with a vehement stroke with the ende of hys crossestaffe thus sayd. MarginaliaEx Matheo Paris.
Ex Flor. hist. Senibalde papa miserime.
The Popes new & true stile geuē by Grost. Bish. of Lincolne.O thou scourfie, lazie, old, bald, lowsie, wretched, dotyng Pope. Hast thou purposed to cast out my bones out of the Church to the shame and slaunder of me? How commeth this rash wilfulnesse in thy head? It were more mete for thee beyng thus aduaunced by God & honoured, to make much of the zelous seruauntes of God, although departed. The Lord will not suffer thee hēceforth to haue any more power ouer me. I haue written vnto thee in the spirite of humilitie and loue, that thou shouldest correct thy manifold errors: But thou with a proude eye and disdainfull hart has dispised my wholesome admonitions. Woe to thee that dispisest, shalt not thou also be dispised? And so the Bishop departyng from the Pope stroken as is sayd on the side, left hym for halfe dead and so lying in sorow and lamentation. Wherupon hys chamberlaines being amased hearing these things, came running to the Pope to know what him ayled. MarginaliaThe pope disquieted in hys mynde.To whom the Pope much troubled & vexed in his spirite, sayd: that great terrors in hys slepe, vehemently disturbed and molested hym, in such sorte, that hee thought he should neuer recouer it, nor be restored to hymselfe agayne. Oh (sayth he) how sore is my side, and how egerly it vexeth me, as beyng runne through with a speare. Neither did the pope eate or drinke all that day, but feyning hymselfe to be sicke of a burning ague, kept in. And yet the indignation of the irefull hand of God (sayth the story) so left hym not.
MarginaliaThe reuenge of God vpō pope InnocentFor after those wholesome admonitions geuen to hym by the seruaunt of God: the Pope not regarding them, but all set vpon warre, suppression of hys enemies, and secular affaires, gaue his mynd wholy vnto them. And yet all hys labours, counsailes, and expenses bestowed vpon thē, could neuer prosper after that day, in that he went about. For the Pope the same tyme hauyng warre with the Apulians, MarginaliaThe popes army vanquished and confoundedall his army fighting vnder the Popes nephew their captaine, were slayne and cōfounded the number of many thousands. Whose lamentable slaughter, all þe countrey of the Romains dyd much bewayle. The Pope not yet quiet in his mynde, directeth his iorney toward Naples, although sore vexed in his side like a man sicke of a pleurisie, or smitten rather with a speare. Neither could any phisicke of his Cardinals helpe hym. For Robert of Lincolne (sayth the story) did not spare hym. And he that would not heare hym gently correctyng him, beyng aliue, his stripes did he feele when he was dead. So that he neuer after that enioyed any lucky or prosperous day, till tyme of hys death: nor yet any prosperous or quiet night vntill the mornyng. MarginaliaThe death of pope Innocent 4.
1255.And so continued he vnto hys death, which shortly after ensued, he beyng at Naples. an. 1255 or as N. Triuet recordeth. an. 1254. And thus haue ye the whole dicourse betwene Robert Grosted, and Pope Innocent. MarginaliaA note to the reader cōcerning the appearing of dead men.¶ In the which story is to be noted (gentle reader) that although in the story of Cestrensis, of Mathew Paris, and of Flor. histor. it is expresly testified and reported, that the pope was smitten with the staffe of Robert the foresayd byshop of Lincolne: yet thou must wisely vnderstand, that how soeuer Gods hand dealeth here in this world in punishing his enemies, or how so euer the Image of thinges not sene but phātased, offer themselues to the secrete cogitation of man (his senses beyng a slepe) by the operation or permission of God, workyng after some spirituall influence in our imaginations: certaine it is, that no dead man materially can euer rise agayne, or appeare, before the iudgement day, to any man with hys staffe or without his staffe to worke any feate, after he haue once departed this lyfe.
MarginaliaDissensiō betwene the Archb of Cāt & the church of Lincolne.After the death of this Robert Grosted bishop of Lincolne, great dissention fell betwene the Archb. of Cant. Boniface, and the canons of the sayd church of Lincolne, about the right of geuing prebendships, and about the reuenewes of the sayd church, in tyme of the bishops see being now vacant. Which right and power the Archbishop claimed to him selfe, but the canons of that church (maintainyng the contrary side) stood against hym, MarginaliaExcommunication abused.
Appellation made to Romeand for the same were excommunicated of the Archbishop. Among whom, one M. Wolf resisting the Archb. to the face, in the name of all the other canons, made vp his appeale to Rome, where much money on both sides was sent. At length, after this Grosted, was elected Henry Lexinton in the see of Lincolne.
MarginaliaHenry Lexinton B. of Lincolne.About which tyme, the wicked Iewes
These brief accounts of Jewish activities in the thirteenth century were strategically placed to make a polemical point about the superstitions of the Roman Church. As examined in Sharon Achinstein, 'John Foxe and the Jews', Renaissance Quarterly, 54:1 (2001), pp. 86-120, the tale of a Jew falling into a privy in Tewkesbury on a Sabbath day was a direct parallel to the subsequent story of Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, taken from Flores Historiarum II, pp. 406, 408-9. Grey died when he over-fasted and Foxe describes this, in parallel to the Jews of the time, as the result of the inanity of blind superstition by both Christians and Jews. For the most part Foxe concentrates here on Jewish ceremony as an example of their superstition. Various instances of blood libel are noted, such as in the story of Hugh of Lincoln taken from Walter of Guisborough, p. 185, and the Jews of Norwich taken from Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora III, p. 305-6, and Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon VIII, p. 249. The account from Flores Historiarum II, pp. 381, 397, 407, on the removal of the Jews from France and Henry III charging the Jews 8,000 marks whether they left the kingdom or not further emphasised the characteristics of Jews as greedy and as having a destabilising influence in both kingdoms. The story of the Jews in Northampton, who planned to burn the city of London at Lent, was taken from Eulogium III, p. 120.
[Back to Top]Matthew Phillpott
University of Sheffield
And to note that blynd superstition of that tyme not only among the Iewes, but also among the christians, to omit diuers other stories as of Walter Gray, Archbish. of Yorke, MarginaliaSuperstitious fasting noted in Walter Archb. of Yorke.who commyng vp to the Parliament at Lōdō an. 1255. wt vnordinate fasting, did so ouercharge nature, & pyned himself, & (as the story mētioneth) did so dry vp his brayne: that he losing therby all appetite of stomacke, goyng to Fulham, there within 3. dayes died, as is in the compiler of Flor. histo.MarginaliaEx Flor hist.is both storied and reprehended. Let this also be adioyned, which the forenamed author, and in the same yeare is recorded of one named Peter Chaceporce, who dying in France an. 1255. left in bequest of his testament. 600. Markes for landes to be purchased to the house of Merton, for God to be serued there perpetually pro anima eius, & omnium fidelium. i. for his soules health, and all faythful soules. MarginaliaSuperstition in seeking saluation by wrong meanes.As who would say, Christian fayth were not the ordinary meanes sufficient to saluation of faythfull soules, without the quire seruice of the Monkes of Merton.
[Back to Top]Ye haue heard it often complayned before, howe the vsur-