Thematic Divisions in Book 4
1. Lanfranc2. Gregory VII3. William the Conqueror4. William Rufus5. Henry I6. Stephen and Henry II7. Frederick Barbarossa8. Thomas Becket9. Becket's letters10. Becket's martyrdom and miracles11. Events of 1172-7812. Waldensians13. Other incidents of Henry II's reign14. First year of Richard I's reign15. Strife at Canterbury16. Richard I and Third Crusade17. William Longchamp18. King John19. Henry III's early reign20. Innocent III and mendicant orders21. Papal oppression of the English Church22. Albigensian Crusade23. Hubert de Burgh24. Gregory IX25. Schism between Greek and Latin Church26. Papal exactions from England27. Louis IX on Crusade28. Frederick II29. Opponents of Papacy30. Robert Grosseteste31. Aphorisms of Robert Grosseteste32. Persecution of Jews33. Papal oppression and Alexander IV34. Conflicts in universities and mendicant orders35. Henry III and the barons36. Battle of Lewes37. Battle of Evesham38. End of baronial war39. Ecclesiastical matters and Edward prince of Wales goes on crusade40. Foreign events in Henry III's reign41. First seven years of Edward I's reign42. War with Scotland43. Philip IV and Boniface VIII44. Events of 1305-745. Cassiodorous's letter46. Pierre de Cugniere47. Death of Edward I48. Piers Gaveston49. The Despensers and the death of Edward II50. John XXIII and Clement VI51. Rebellion in Bury St. Edmunds52. Edward III and Scotland53. Edward III and Philip VI54. Edward III and Archbishop Stratford55. Events of 1341-556. Outbreak of the Hundred Years War57. Anti-papal writers58. Quarrel among mendicants and universities59. Table of the Archbishops of Canterbury
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419 [418]

K. Edw.3. Ioan de Poliaco. Rochtaylada, with an other Frier martirs.

pline, there is no absolution nor pardon to be found, but in all hast he must be deposed, as in these stories may partly appeare before. And though the matter be not the weight of a straw, yet what sayth the holy father the wolfe, if it please him to make any matter of it.


Immensum scelus est, iniuria quam peregrino
Feciti, stramen subripiendo sibi.
Non aduertisti quod plura pericula passus,
Plurima passurus, quod peregrinus erat.
Non aduertisti, quod ei per maxima terræ
Et pelagi spacia, sit peragranda via.
Non aduertisti, sanctos, nec limina sancta,
Sanctorum sanctam sed nec Hierusalem.
Ille retransiuit eadem loca, tam violentum
Ex inopinato sensit adesse malum,
De papa taceo, cuius protectio talem
Conduxit, cuius tu vilipendis opem.
Totius Ecclesiæ fuerit quam nuncius iste,
Pertulit abstracto gramine damna viæ. &c.
 

Latin/Greek Translations   *   Close
Anti-papal poem in which the pope makes the emperor and laymen asses
Foxe text Latin

Immensum scelus est ... gramine damna viæ. &c.

Translation

J. Barrie Hall

The injury which you have done to the pilgrim by taking away his straw is a great crime. You did not heed the fact that he had endured many dangers, was destined to endure very many more, and that he was a pilgrim. You did not heed the fact that the journey he had to travel was over very great expanse of land and sea. You took no heed of holy men or of holy temples, nor even of holy Jerusalem which belongs to holy men. In doing this to an unknown pilgrim you are a thief, and you well know in what honour a thief ought to die. You may have confessed, you may have been convicted, but do you have the means to cloak such injuries? He came back through the same places, and realised that so violent an evil was unexpectedly at hand. I say nothing of the pope whose protection hired such an one and whose help you disparage. Though he were the messenger of the whole church, he suffered loss on the road through the taking away of his grass.

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And thus they aggerating and exaggerating the fault to the vttermost, flye vpon the poore Asse & deuoure him. By the which Apology, the tyrannicall and fraudulent practises of these spirituall Romanistes are liuely described.

MarginaliaGerhardus. Ridder, a writer agaynst monkes and friers.Not long after these aboue rehearsed, about the yeare of our Lord. 1350. Gerhardus Ridder, wrote also against the Monkes and Friars a booke intituled, Lachrima Ecclesiæ: wherin he disputeth agaynst the foresayd religious orders, namely agaynst the beggyng friers: prouyng that kinde of life to be farre from Christiā perfection, for that it is against charitie to liue vpō other, when a man may liue by his owne labours. And affirmeth them to be hipocrites, filthy liuers, and such as for mās fauour, and for lucre sake, do mixt with true Diuinitie: fables, Apochryphas, and dreames of vanitie. Also, that they vnder pretence of long prayer, deuour widdowes houses: and with their confessions, sermons, and burials do trouble the Church of Christ manifold wayes. And therfore perswaded the Prelates to bridle and keepe short the inordinate licence and abuses of these Monasticall persons. &c.

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MarginaliaMichael Cesenas. Petrus de Corbaris. condemned of the Pope.
Ioannes de Poliaco
Yet I haue made no mention of Michael Cesenas, prouinciall of the Gray Friars, nor Petrus de Corbaris, of whom writeth Antoninus, in quarta parte summæ & sayth, they were condemned in the Extrauagant of Pope Iohn, with one Ioannes de Poliaco. Their opinions sayth Antoninus were these: That Peter the Apostle was no more the head of the Church, then the other Apostles: And that Christ left no vicare behind him or head in his Church: And that the Pope hath no such autoritie to correct and punnish, to institute or depose the Emperour. Item, that all Priestes of what degree so euer, are of equall autoritie, power, and iurisdiction by the institution of Christ: but by the institution of the Emperour, the Pope to be superiour, which by the same Emperour also may be reuoked agayne: Item, that neither the Pope nor yet the Church may punish any man, punitione coactiua, That is, by externe coaction: vnlesse they receaue licence of the Emperour. MarginaliaThe opinion of Michael against the Pope.This foresayd Michael, generall of the gray friers, wrote against the tyranny, pride, and primacie of the Pope, accusing him to be Antichrist: and the church of Rome, to be the whore of Babylon, dronke with the bloud of saintes. He sayd there were two Churches, one of the wicked, florishyng, wherin reigned the Pope: the other of the godly afflicted. Item, that the veritie was almost vtterly extinct: MarginaliaMichael Celenas depriued and condemned of the popeAnd for this cause he was depriued of his dignitie and condemned of the pope. Notwithstanding, he stode constant in his assertions. This Michael was about the yeare of our Lord. 1322. And left behind him many fautours and folowers of his doctrine, of whom a great part were slayne by the Pope: MarginaliaMartyrs. Ioannes de Castilione Franciscus de Arcatara burned.Some were condemned, as William Ockam, some were burned as Ioannes de Castilione, and Franciscus de Arcatara. In Eztrauag. Ioan. 23.

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With him also was condemned in the sayd Extrauagāt Ioannes de Poliaco, aboue touched, whose assertions, were these: That the Pope could not geue licence to heare confessions to whom he would, but that euery pastour in his owne Church ought to suffice. Item, that pastours and byshops had their autoritie, immediatly from Christ and his Apostles, and not from the Pope. Item, that the constitutiō of pope Benedict the xi. wherin he graūteth larger priuilegies to the friers aboue other pastours, was no declaratiō of the law, but a subuersiō. And for this he was by the sayd friers oppressed, about the yeare of our Lord. 1322.

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After Symon Mepham Archbyshop of CanterburyMarginaliaArchbishops of Cant. the one succeeding the other.before mentioned, who liued not lōg: succeeded Iohn Stretford. After whom came Iohn Offord, who lyued but. x. monethes. In whose rowme succeeded Thomas, and remained but one yeare. an. 1350. And after him Symō Iselyp was made Archbyshop of Canterbury, by Pope Clement the. vj. who sat. xvij. yeares, and builded Canterbury Colledge in Oxford. MarginaliaNew colledge in Oxford founded. an. 1366.Whych Symon Islyp succeeded the Byshop of Ely named Symon Langham, who within two yeares was made Cardinall. In whose stede Pope Vrbane the fift ordeined William Wittlesey Byshop of Worceter to be Archbyshop of Cāterbury. an. 1366. In which yeare, William Byshop of Winchester elected and founded the new Colledge in Oxford.

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MarginaliaPope Innocēt 6. Two Franciscanes burned at Auinion.
Ioan. Rochetaylada Martyr.
Agayne in the order of the popes, next vnto Pope Clement the. vj. before mētioned, about the same time. an. 1353. succeeded pope Innocent the. vi. In the first yeare of which Pope two friers Minors or Franciscans wer burned at Auinion, pro opinionibus (as myne author sayth) erroneis, prout D. papæ& eius Cardinalibus videbatur. i. for certain opinions, as seemed to the Pope and his Cardinals, erroneous. Ex Chron. Wals. Of the which two friers, I finde in the Chronicles De actis Rom. pōtificum, and in the history of Præmonstratensis, that the one was Ioannes Rochetaylada. Or rather as I finde in Catal. testiū cited out of þe Chronicle of Henricus de Herfordia, his name to be Hayabalus. MarginaliaEx chron. Henryci de Erphordia.Who beyng (as he recordeth) a frier Minorite, began first in the tyme of Pope Clement the. vj. an. 1345. to preach and affirme openly that he was by Gods reuelation charged and commaunded to preach: MarginaliaThe church of Rome declared to be the whore of Babilon by gods reuelation.that the Church of Rome was the whore of Babylon, and the Pope with his Cardinals to be very Antichrist. And that Pope Benedict & the other before him his predecessours were dāned, with other such like wordes, tendyng much agaynst the Popes tyrannicall maiesty. And that the foresayd Hayabalus being brought before the Popes face, constantly did stand in the same, saying, that he was commaunded by Gods reuelation so to say, & also that he would preach the same, if he might. MarginaliaRochetaylada with an other frier. Martyrs.To whom it was then obiected that he had some hereticall bookes, and so was committed to prison in Auiniō. In the tyme of his accusation it happened, that a certain Priest cōmyng before the Pope, cast the Popes Bull downe before his feete, saying: Lo here, take your Bull vnto you, for it doth me no good at all. I haue laboured now these 3. yeares withall, and yet notwithstandyng for all this your Bull I cannot be restored to my right. MarginaliaA priest for casting the popes bull before the popes feete scourged cast in prison and after burned at Auinion.The Pope hearyng this, commaunded the poore Priest to be scourged, and after to be layd in prison with the foresayd frier. What became of them afterward, the foresayd writer Henricus de Herfordia maketh no mentiō. But I may probably coniecture this Priest, and this frier Rochetayladus, or rather Hayabalus were the two, whom myne author Tho. Walsingham, writeth to be burned at this tyme in Auinion, MarginaliaAn. 1354.about the first begynnyng of this Pope Innocentius the. vj. Of this Rochtaylada, I thought good here to inferre the testimony and mention of Iohn Froysayd, written of him in his first volume, chap. 211. in these wordes.

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MarginaliaEx Ioan. Frosiardo volu. 1. cap. 211.There was (sayth Froysard) a Frier Minor full of great Clergy in the Citie of Auinon, called Frier Iohn of Rochetaylada, the which Frier Pope Innocent the vi. held in prison in the Castell of Baignour for shewyng of many meruailes after to come, principally he shewed many things to fall on the Prelates of the Church for the great superfluitie and pride, that was as then vsed among them. And also he spake many thinges to fall of the Realme of Fraūce and of the great Lordes of Christendome, for the oppressiōs that they did to the poore common people. This Frier sayd he would proue all his sayinges by the autoritie of the Apocalips & by other bookes of holy Saintes and Prophets, the which were opened to him by the grace of the holy ghost: he shewed many thynges hard to beleue, & many thyngs fell after as he sayd. He sayd them not as a Prophet but he shewed them by authoritie of aūcient Scriptures and by the grace of the holy ghost, who gaue him vnderstandyng to declare the auncient prophesies & to shew to all Christen people the yeares and tymes when such thyngs should fall, he made diuers bookes founded on greate sciences and Clergy, wherof one was made the yeare of our Lord. 1346. wherein was written such meruailes that it were hard to beleue them howbeit many thynges accordyng therto fell after. And when he was demaunded of the warres of Fraunce he said that all that had bene sene was not like that should be sene after. For he sayd that the warres in Fraunce should not be ended till the Realme were vtterly wasted & exiled in euery part. The which saying was well sene after, for the noble Realme of Fraūce was sore wasted and exiled: and specially in the terme that the sayd Frier had set. The which

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was