504 MATTHEW OF WESTMÏX8TBB. A.D. 1294. presume to mount a borse or mule, but only a donkey ; and when he had dismounted from that, and entered the church, a certain cripple cried out, and begged the people to put him on the ass on which the pope had been sitting, out of regard to charity. But the byestanders reproved him, and bade hint hold his peace. But he cried out all the more, begging that, for the love of the Son of David, who had sanctified the folding doors, entering Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of an ass, they would put him on the ass's back. A marvellous thing happened. The cripple being placed on the ass, immediately received soundness in his limbs, and his legs and feet being strengthened, he who had been lame went forth, praising God for the merits of his servant, Celestine. By this pope Celestine, Master Robert of Winchilsea, archbishop elect of Canterbury, was confirmed in his diocese and consecrated. On the vigil of Saint Matthew the Apostle, all the clergy and laity having been assembled at Westminster, the king demanded of the whole church, throughout the whole kingdom of England, a moiety of all their possessions, both temporal and spiritual. But when this, which was a measure without a precedent in all ages, was heard of, the pontiffs and prelates were disturbed and alarmed, and groaning in anguish of spirit, not daring to offend or contradict the king, but consenting to the royal demands, they granted him a moiety of all their revenues which came in in one year. Which moiety, however, if they had thought more prudently and properly, and had not omitted to consult the Apostolic See, they would by no means have dared to grant to the king. Therefore, having arranged and appointed certain periods for this payment, they returned to their own homes. And the king lost no time ; but as soon as the first instalments, according to the taxation of this previously taxed tithe, had been paid, he ordered the goods of the secular knights to be taxed, aud a tenth to be paid to him throughout all England. And he levied a tax for the relief of his necessities on all merchants, and on all citizens dwelling in their walled cities and market towns, to the amount of the sixth penny of all that they possessed. It is also said that Master William de Montfort, dean of St. Paul's, in London, coming safe and sound to the court, in the hope of softening the disposition of the monarch, or, at all events, of lightening such an insupportable yoke of slavery, like a good son of the church, and coming before the king in order to deliver the speech which he had conceived in his mind,