how your highnes vpon circumspect consideration (manifestly beholding our iust and rightful doyng, and the straight dealing and obstinate purpose & iniury of the sayd Phillip) with vs and in our behalf against the sayd Philip, your graces highnes made a special league: adopting vs of your great and bountifull loue towardes our person, to be one of your sonnes: Wherfore thus againe to to altar and breake the same, we cannot sufficiently maruell. Seeing your inuincible highnes being instituted of God to the laude and comendation of good men, and reuenge of euill and wicked doers, hath made a league against vs with the sayd Philip de Valois our notorious and iniurious enemye. And as touching that which you say, without your assignement & consent we tooke a truce or dayes of respite with the said Philip which we ought not to haue done: If your grace well consider the circumstance of the matter, we haue done but as we might therein. For when we layd our siege to Tourney, it was requisite we followed their aduise whose ayde and societie therein we had. Besides, the soden and imminent necessitie which we there stoode in, and the distance of the place betwixt your highnesse and vs further more was such, as that by no meanes we might attayne the same nor vse your assent therin. Yea & further, if your grace wel remember your selfe, your graunt vnto vs was such: that when soeuer oportunitie therunto should serue, we myght entreat of any peace, & graunt what time we thought mete therunto, without your consent therin: So that to conclude any finall peace wyth the sayd Philip de Valois, without eyther your consent or otherwise makyng your highnes priuie therunto, it mighte not be lawful for vs: Which thing, without your sayd counsaile, consent and aduise, we neuer mynded or purposed to do. But haue in all our doings done that which vs beseemed, so farre as by any meanes our power would stretch: hoping likewise, that your brotherly beneuolence for a time would haue more louingly supported vs. It is thought also by some, that the reuoking backe againe or restraint of your foresaid Lieftenantshop, was prematurate or done all out of time: whē as accordyng to your promise made to vs herein by your letters imperiall, you ought not so to haue done before the realme & kyngdome of Fraunce (or at the least the greatest part therof) were of vs obtayned and quietly in peaceable wyse enioyed. These premised therfore we desire you, according to your nobilitie duely to consider, and hereafter to do that which shalbe thought both meete and conuenient: because that (God willing) we meane to recompence and gratifie both you & yours, according to the measure of your beneuoleuce bestowed vpon vs. The almightie graunt vnto your Celsitude so much felicitie as your hart desireth. Dated at London the xviij. day of Iuly in the 2. yere of the raigne of our kingdome of Fraunce, and of England. 15.

MarginaliaPope Clemēt 6.In this meane tyme dyed Pope Benedict the 12. mentioned a litle before: after whom succeded in that roume Pope Clement the 6. Of whom it is reported in stories, that he was very liberall and bountifull to hys Cardinals of Rome in riching and heapyng them with goods and possessions, not of hys owne, but with the Ecclesiasticall dignities and preferments of the Churches of England. For so recordeth the author, MarginaliaEx Chron. Albanēs.that he bestowed vpon his Cardinals the lyuings and promotions, such as were or should be vacant in churches of England, and went about to set vp new titles for his Cardinals, here within this realm. MarginaliaThe king dissenuleth the popes prouisionBut the kyng beyng offended therwith made voyd and frustrate, all those foresayd prouisions of the Pope, chargyng moreouer and commaunding no person whatsoeuer, to busy hym self with any such prouisions, vnder payne of prisonement & of losing his lyfe. Which law was made the next yere folowing, which was an. 1344.

It followed then, that the sayd Pope Clement, agayne began to make new prouisions for two of his Cardinals of benefices and Churches that should be next vacant, beside Bishoprikes, and Abbotships, to the extent of two thousand Markes. Wherupon, the procurators of the sayd Cardinals were sent down for the same. MarginaliaThe Popes procurators driuen out of EnglandBut the kyng and nobility of the realme not sufferyng that, vnder payne of imprisonement caused the sayd procuratours forthwith to depart the realme: wherupon, the nobles and commons shortly after, writeth a fruitfull Epistle to the Pope, for the liberties and the mainteinance of þ^e English Church: Wherunto, as sayth the author, the Pope and the Cardinals wer not able to aunswere. The argument and tenor of which letter out of French, we haue caused to be translated into English, as insueth.

MarginaliaA letter of the Nobles and cōmons of England to the pope.TO the most holy father in God, Lord Clement by the grace of God of the holy Church of Rome, and of the vniuersall church, chiefe and high bishop: His humble & deuout children, the Princes, Dukes, Earles, Barons, Knightes, Citizens, Burgeses, and all the comminaltie of the realm of England assembled at the Parliament holden at Westminster the 15. day of May last past: Deuout kissings of his holy feete, with all humble reuerence and humility. Most holy father, the holy discretion, gouerument and equity which appeareth to be in you and ought of duety so to be (beyng so high and holy a prelate and head of the holy church) by whom the holy vniuersal church and people of God, ought to be, as by the sunne beames inlightned: Geueth vs good hope and lykelyhode, that the iust petitions (to the honour of Iesus Christ and holy Church, and your holines also) by vs declared: shalbe of you graciously heard and considered. And that all errours and other iniquities quite taken away and remoued: in stede therof, fruitfull exploites and necessary remedies (by the grace of the holy spirite, which you in so high an estate haue receaued) may be by you likewise graciously ordeyned and disposed. Wherfore most holy father, all we (vpon great deliberation and common assent) come vnto your holynes: shewyng and declaryng that the noble kyngs of England our progenitours, our auncitours, and we (accordyng to the grace of the holy spirite to them and vs geuen, euery one accordyng to his deuotion) haue established, founded, and endowed within the realme of England: Churches Cathedrals, Colleges, Abbeys, Priories, & other diuers houses of religion in the same ordayned: and to the Prelates and gouernours of the same places, haue geuen landes, possessions, patrimonies, franchesies, aduowsons, and patronages of dignities, reuenues, offices, churches, with many and diuers other benefices vnto them geuen: wherby the seruice of God, and fayth of Christ might haue ben honoured and had in reuerence: that the Hospitals & almes houses that are made, with all the churches and edifices, might be honestly kept and maintayned: and that deuout prayers might in those places be made for the founders, & the poore parishioners ayded and comforted. And such only ought to haue the cure therof, as are able to heare confessions, and in their owne naturall toung otherwise mete to informe and teach their parishioners. And for so much as (most holy father) that you cannot well come to the notice of diuers such errours and defaultes, neither yet vnderstand the condition of the places beyng so farre of, vnles your holines be enformed and aduertised: We hauyng the perfect intelligence and vnderstandyng of the said errours and defaults, of the places aboue sayd, within the sayd realme: haue thought mete to signify the same vnto your holines. That diuers reseruatiōs, prouisions, and collations, by your predecessours Apostolike of Rome, and by you most holy father in your tyme haue bene graunted (and that more largely then they haue bene accustomed to be) vnto diuers persons, as well straungers & of sundry nations, as vnto some such as are our enemies, hauyng no vnderstandyng at all of the tong and conditions of them, of whom they haue the gouernment and cure. MarginaliaDecay of the church of England by the pope.Wherby, a great number of soules are in perill, a great many of their parishioners in daunger, the seruice of God destroyed, the almes and deuotion of men diminished, the hospitals perished, the churches with their apurtenances decayed, charity withdrawen, the good and honest persons of our realme vnaduaunced, the charge and gouernment of soules not regarded, the deuotion of the people restrayned, many poore scholers vnpreferred and the treasure of the realme caried out against the myndes and intents of the founders. All which errours, defaults, and slaunders most holy father, we neyther can nor ought to suffer nor indure. We therfore most humbly require your holynes, that the slaunders, errors, and defaults, which we haue declared vnto you, may be through your great discretion considered: and that it may please you that such reseruations, prouisions, and collations may be vtterly repelled, that from henceforth, the same be no more amongst vs vsed. But to take such order and remedy therin, that the sayd benefices, edifices, rightes, with their apertinents, may be to the honour of GOD, by our owne countreymen cured, defended & gouerned. And that it may further please your holines, by your letters to signify vnto vs without delay & other detract of tyme, what your pleasure is touchyng this our lawfull request and demaund: and that we may do our indeuour with diligence herein for the remedy, correction, and amendment of those enormities aboue specified. In witnes wherof, vnto these letters patentes