A .D. 1195. LETTER 03? Ρ0ΓΕ CELESTUTT/S. the liberties and approved customs of his church he nullifies and subverts ; appeals which are wont to be the refuge of the oppressed, he has, to the injury of the Roman See, brought into contempt. Many, because they have made appeals to ourselves, he has ordered to be thrown into prison and placed in irons ; the beneficed clergy of his church, after appeal made to us, he has spoiled of honors and benefices, and some of the canons, despising their appeal, he had subjected to excommunication. In his presence, the privileges of the Roman Pontiffs are utterly deprived of all authority ; and he, who otherwise would probably have been safe by pleading our privileges in his presence, loses the benefit of the protection he thereby hoped to gain. When it so happens that any one has been restored to a church or2 6 possession by the judges delegated by our authority, the person by whom the said judgment is to be put in execution, he immediately looks upon as an enemy. Indeed, many so restored, he has reduced to destitution; and entering their churches by force, by means of his servants, is said to have broken down the doors of the churches, and to have by violent means expelled them. Many persons also he has perniciously made to incur the danger of perjury, withdrawing them by means of violent compulsion from the obedience which by oath they had canonically promised his archdeacons to observe. Still more, attacking the greater church with a multitude of armed men, he has caused the doors of the chapter-house to be broken open by force and carried away ; the property of the canons, and that of many other persons who had deposited their possessions in the church as in a treasury, he has caused by violence to be withheld from them ; respecting all which matters, the chapter of York has made appeal to our presence. We have also understood from the testimony of the persons before-named, that sometimes when churches have been vacant, he has not admitted fit and proper persons when presented by those to whom the presentation belongs, but has given the same to either youths or persons of bad character, thus discharging the duty both of him who presents and of him who institutes ; or else at his own sole will he causes them to be vacated, in order that their revenues may be applied to his own use, and that which was intended for the sustenance of some worthy clerk, he does not hesitate to retain in his own hands. They 2 9 " Ut" is probably a misprint for " aut.