their souls, and one that would promote the welfare of the English church, on which the monks returned and told their brethren how they had been foiled in their wishes. Of the inso'ence of the Roman e'eryy. About this time there arose in England a great excitement, yea, we may truly call it an indiscreet act of presumption, on account of the insolence of the Roman clergy, which drove the nobles of the kingdom as well as those of inferior rank, to a rash mode of punishment, as is related in the following writing:—''To such a bishop and such a chapter, the whole community of those who would rather die than be put to shame by the Romans, greeting. How the Roman pontiffs and their legates have hitherto behaved themselves towards us and other ecclesiastics of England, we are sure is no secret to you, and how you have conferred the benefices of the kingdom on their followers, at their pleasure, to the great prejudice and injury of yourselves and all others of the kingdom ; and that they have fulminated sentences of excommunication against you and your fellow bishops and other ecclesiastics, to whom the collation of benefices properly belongs, to the intent that you shall confer no benefices on a native until five Romans, wdiose names are not yet known, namely, the son of Rumfred. and the sons of such and such persons, shall have leen provided for in each of your churches throughout England, each of them with a revenue of a hundred pounds, besides other burdens which they have imposed, both on the laity and nobles of the kingdom, in the matter of their advowsons and charities bequeathed by them and their ancestors for the maintenance of the poor, as well as on clerks and other religious persons, concerning their property and benefices. And not content with this, they wish to take away from the clergy of the kingdom, to the very last, the benefices which they hold in order to bestow them on their Roman followers, not according to justice but at their own pleasure, and in this way they endeavour to fulfil the prophecy, 'They have robbed the Egyptians to enrich the Hebrews, multiplying their people, not increasing their joy ;' and thus they heap sorrow upon sorrow on us and you, so that it seems to us to be better to die than to live to be thus oppressed. Wherefore, although it may be difficult for us 'to kick against the pricks.' since he who wipes his nose too hard draws blood, we, considering the severity of those wdio first came here as Roman strangers, but who now aim not only at judging but also condemning us, imposing on us unbearable burdens, which they will not move with even one of their fingers, have, by common consent, determined, late as it is, to oppose them, rather than any longer to subject ourselves to their intolerable oppression or to endure a worse slavery. We therefore strictly forbid you, when we are cndeivouring to rescue the church, as well as the king and kingdom from the yoke of such oppressive