304 Constitutional Tlistor//. [chap.
Method of
elections.
Restitution
of spiritual-
ities and
temporal-
ities.
Profession
and fealty.
a bribe to the bishops a shorter charter confirming the right of
free election, subject to the royal licence and approval, neither
of which was to be withheld without just cause1. This charter
of John may be regarded as the fullest and final recognition of
the canonical right which had been maintained as the common
law of the church ever since the Conquest ; which had been
ostensibly respected since the reign of Henry I2; and which
the crown, however often it evaded it, did not henceforth
attempt to override. The earlier practice, recorded in the
Constitutions of Clarendon3, according to which the election was
made in the Curia Regis, in a national council, or in the royal
chapel before the justiciar, a relic perhaps oζ,the custom of
nominating the prelates in the Witenagemot, was superseded by
this enactment : the election took place in the chapter-house of
the cathedral, and the king’s wishes were signified by letter or
message, not as before by direct dictation. When the elected
prelate had obtained the royal assent to his promotion, the
election was examined and confirmed by the metropolitan ; and
the ceremony of consecration completed the spiritual character of
the bishop. On his confirmation the elected prelate received
the spiritualities of his see, the right of ecclesiastical jurisdiction
in his diocese, which during the vacancy had been in the hands
of the archbishop or of the chapter4 ; and at his consecration he
made a profession of obedience to the archbishop and the metro-
politan church. From the crown, before or after consecration, he
received the temporalities of his see, and thereupon made to the
king a promise of fealty answering to the homage and fealty of
a temporal lords.
ɪ Select Charters (ed. ʒ), p. 288 ; Statutes, i. 5 ; Foed. i. 126, 127 : this
charter was confirmed by Innocent III and also by Gregory IX.
2 Bishop Kcger of Salisbury is said to have been the first prelate canoni-
cally elected since the Conquest. 3 Select Charters, p. 140.
4 The question to whom the custody of the spiritualities belonged during
the vacancy of the see was disputed between the archbishop and the
chapters, and was settled in the course of the thirteenth century by
separate agreement with the several cathedral bodies. The archbishops
moreover regarded the restitution of spiritualities before consecration as
an act of grace ; see Gibson, Codex, p. 133.
5 See above, vol. i. p. 386, and the forms of oath given by Mr. Lea in
his essay mentioned above, p. 302.
XlX.]
The Pal/.
305
379. It was not until the thirteenth century that the popes
began to interfere directly in the appointment to the suffragan
sees. Over the metropolitans they had long before attempted to Papaiinter-
. . ɪ n ∙j tji . z. ferencθ with
exercise a controlling influence, in two ways,. by the gift of the the appoi∏t-
, , . . _ . .. mi и . « ment of me-
pall, and by the institution of legations. Ihe pall was a sort of tropoiitans.
collar of white wool, with pendant stripes before and behind,
embroidered with four purple crosses ɪ. The lambs from whose
wool it was made were annually presented by the nuns of
S. Agnes, blessed by the pope, and kept under the care of the
apostolic subdeacons; and the pall, when it was ready for use, ThopaU.
was again blessed at the tomb of S. Peter and left there all night.
It was presented to the newly-appointed metropolitans at first
as a compliment, but it soon began to be regarded as an emblem
of metropolitan power, and by and by to be accepted as the
vehicle by which metropolitan power was conveyed. The
bestowal of the pall was in its origin Byzantine, the right to
wear some such portion of the imperial dress having been be-
stowed by the emperor on his patriarchs : in the newer form it
had become a regular institution before the foundation of the
English church; S. Gregory sent a pall to Augustine, and so
important was the matter that, even after the breach with Rome,
archbishop Holdegate of York in 1545 went through the form
of receiving one from Cranmer2. Until he received the pall the ⅛ ɪɪɪɪport-
11 ∙ 1 Ti 1 τ ■ ance.
archbishop did not, except under very peculiar circumstances,
venture to consecrate bishops4. On the occasion of its reception
1 See Maskell, MonumentaRitualia, iii. p. cxxxv; AlbanButlerjLivesof
the Saints, Jan. 21, and June 8 ; Decr. p. i. dist. Ioo ; Greg. IX. lib. i.
tit. 6. c. 4.
2 The ceremony used on the occasion is printed from Cranmer’s Register
in the Gentleman’s Magazine for November i860, p. 523. The oath taken
by Holdegate on the occasion is printed in the Concilia. The oath taken
by Cranmer and his protest at the same time are given in Strype’s Me-
morials of Cranmer, Appendix, nos. v. and vi.
3 Thus in 1382 archbishop Courtenay was present at the consecration of
the bishops of London and Durham, but did not lay on his hands, because
he had not received the pall; Ang. Sac. i. 121. It did not prevent
the suffragans from acting ; Greg. IX. lib. i. tit. 6. c. II. It was a question
whether the archbishop of Canterbury might carry his cross before he
received the pull. It was ruled that if he were a bishop when elected he
might not, as his translation would require papal confirmation : if he were
not a bishop at the time of election, he might carry his cross as soon as
he was consecrated to the archiépiscopal see. See Gervase, i. 521. The
VOL. III.