1.η. 1231.] REVENUES TO ROME rROIlItìlTEl). 545 slavery, to interfere in the case of those who introduce themselves in matters concerning the Romans and their revenues ; and rest assured that if you by any chance transgress this order, which Clod forbid, all your property will he liable to be burnt, and the punishment which the Romans incur in their persons you will incur. Farewell." Tlit; prohibition against the paging of farms or revenues to the Romans, "T o the religious men, and others who hold churches in farm from the Roman priests, the above community, greeting. Whereas, after the innumerable oppressions and injuries, which as you know have liccn inflicted by the Romans on the kingdom of England up to this time, to the injury of tho king and the nobles of the kingdom, in tho matter of their advowsons and their alms, and since they are endeavouring to deprive the clergy of this kingdom of their benefices, in order to confer them on the Romans, to the greater prejudice and shame of the kingdom and ourselves, we, by the common consent of the nobles, have determined, late as it is, to oppose them, rather than henceforth to submit to their intolerable oppression, and so to check them by withdrawing from them all their benefices throughout tho whole kingdom, that they may cease from harassing it any longer. Wherefore we strictly order you henceforth not to pay to the Romans the farms of the churches or the revenues of the lands which you hold from them or own to them, but to have the said farms and revenues ready, and deliver them to our agent appointed by us hy letter for the purpose on the Sunday on which is chanted the psalm, ' Let Jerusalem rejoice ;' the abbate and priors in their own churches, and the other presbyters, and the clergy, and laity in their own churches ; and rest assured that if ye do not obey this, your property will be liable to he burnt, and you will incur the danger to which the Romans in person are liable. Farewell." After this the community aforesaid by means of their knights and agents promulgated these letters, scaled with a new seal, on which were engraved two swords, and between the swords was this inscription, " Behold two swords are here," as was the custom with citations to cathedral churches, signifying, that whomsoever they found opposing them they would punish according to their decrees. Of the consistory court held at St. Allan's, and of the capture of Cincius. Alxiut tho same time on the 17th of December, a large consistory court was held at St. Alban's consisting of the abbats, priors, archdeacons, and almost all the nobility of the kingdom, who had all assembled by command of the pope, for the purpose of effecting a divorce between the countess of Essex and her husband, if there were good reason for it. On the following day after the council was dissolved, as they were all returning to their différent homes, a Roman clerk, named Ciucine a canon of St. Paul's church at London, was, by the agency of the above-mentioned society, as was VOL. II. .\ .V