316 ConUUvtional ITi-Uori/. [chap.
Gradual sus-
pension or
extinction
of the elec-
tive lights
of chapters.
Papal
lights on
tɪanslatɪon.
increase their own influence, and the result was the extinction,
for more than a century, of the elective right of the chapters1.
The practice of translating bishops from one see to another, a
practice which had been very rare until now, gave an opportu-
nity for a new claim. Only papal authority could loose the tie
that bound the bishop to the church of his consecration2; it was
the pope’s duty and privilege to see that the divorced church
should not remain unconsoled, and when, on the petition of the
king or the chapter, he had authorised the translation, he filled
up the vacancy so caused8. Thus in 1299, when, on a double
election at Ely, both candidates had surrendered their rights to
the pope, Boniface VIII nominated the bishop of Norwich to
Ely, and filled up Norwich with one of the two complaisant
disputants from Ely4. On the next vacancy at Ely, in 1302,
he appointed a candidate, Kobert Orford, whose election arch-
bishop Winchehey had refused to confirm, but who had re-
l Xhe most famous case in the first half of Edward’s reign was the papal
provision of John of Pontoise to the see of Winchcster, which the pope
made after quashing an election ; he had great difficulty in obtaining his
temporalities; Prynne, Records, iii. 292, 1255, 1261; Foed. i. 610. In
1280 the chapter of Carlisle elected without royal licence, damaging the
interest of the crown, as it was alleged, to the amount of £60,000 ; ib.
ρ. 1230 ; Foed. i. 579.
2 Anselm, Epp. iii. 126 ; Decr. Greg. IX. lib. i. tit. 7. Nicolas IV
ordered that all postulations, that is, elections of persons disqualified, in-
cluding translations, should be personally sued out at Rome. In 1287
Honorius IV, on a case of the kind arising, reserved, the provision to the
see of Emly ; Theiner, Vet. Mon. p. 138.
3 The only translations, except to the archiépiscopal sees, which took
place from the Conquest to the reign of Edward I, were the following:
Hervey from Bangor to Ely in 1109 (Anselm, Epp. iɪɪ. 126); Gilbert
Foliot from Herefoid to London in 1163 (see the pope’s letter in R. Diceto,
i. 309) ; Richard Ic Poor from Chichester to Salisbury in 1217, and thence
to Durham in 1228 (Aug. Sac. i. 731) ; William of Raleigh from Norwich
to Winchester in 1244, having been elected to Winchester before he was
bishop of Norwich (Aug. Sac. i. 307) ; Nicolas of Ely from Worcester to
Winchcster i per Ordinationem dmuini papae Clementis,’ in 1268 (ibid,
p. 312). In all these cases the pope was consulted ; but he did not in all
of them fill up the see vacated by translation. In the last case the king
exacted an acknowledgment of the same kind as that obtained from arch-
bishop Kihvardby ; Prynne, Records, iii. 122.
4 The monks of Ely were divided, the majority chose their prior John,
the minority John Langton, the king’s treasurer; the prior appealed to
the pope, who, having failed to make them unanimous, translated the
bishop of Norwich and appointed the prior to Norwich; Ang. Sac. i. 639;
Prynne, Records, iii. 799.
P(i∣mI claihi on Teιnjjυral'die<s.
317
pounced the election by the chapter before he accepted the
nomination by the pope1. Nearly at the same time the see of ≡∞ifa^3θ
AVorcester was vacant, and a monk of the house, named John >ides to sees,
of S. German, was elected to fill it. He was accepted by the
king, but made such a show of reluctance that Winchelsey
delayed his confirmation, and the matter was carried to Home.
There Boniface VIII obtained from John the renunciation of his
claim, and immediately consecrated to the see a Franciscan
named William Gainsborough.
Boniface was not content with the substance of supreme He attempt-!
. . . 1 . to confer the
power ; he took ɪn both these cases a further step in which he temporal!-
i^ 1 , ι 1 . j ι . ties as well
directly attacked the king s constitutional relation to the epi- as the spixit∙
s,copate. We have seen that Innocent IV, in confirming the
election of Boniface to the see of Canterbury in 1243, had
ventured to commit to him the administration of his church
in temporals as well as spirituals2. We are not told how this
assumption was regarded in England, or whether it was noticed
at all. Nor did it immediately become a precedent in the
appointments to English sees. Gradually however the form
was introduced into the bulls by which Scottish and Irish pre-
lates were nominated sj and expressions similar in terms but not
1 Wmchelsey rejected Orford on account of his literary insufficiency ;
Ang. Sac. i. 640; Prynne, Records, iii. 919.
2 Cont. Gervas. ii. 200 : i Rogamus itaque Iiniversitatem Vestrain et Iior-
tamur attendus, per apostolica scripta vobis praecipiendo mandantes, qua-
tinus praefatum electum ad saepe dictam ecclesiam, cujus in Spiritualibus
et temporalibus plenam sibi administrationem commisimus, cum bene-
dictionis nostrae gratia procedentem, devote ac hilariter admittentes et
honeste tractantes, sibi obedientiam et reverentiam debitam impendatis ; ’
Sept. 16, 1243.
j In the letters confirming the election of a bishop of Killaloe in 1253,
Innocent IV used the form i plena tibi ejusdenι ecclesiae tarn in Spirituali-
bus quam in temporalibus administratione concessa ;, Theiner, Vet. Mon.
P∙ 58 ; yet this is accompanied by a letter to the king requesting him to
grant the temporalities. In the bulls for the Scottish sees at the same
time the claim is insinuated but not definitely expressed ; ibid. pp. 60, 61.
In the appointment to Cashel in 1254, the pope exhorts the archbishop
quatenus ecclesiaιn tibi eoɪnɪnissam in Spiritualibus et temporalibus ita
Btudeas gubernare quod,’ &c. ; ibid. p. 62. Alexander IV in some cases
uses the direct form without any circumlocution ; instances will be found
both in Theiner,s Vetera Monumenta, p. 66, and for foreign churches in
the Bullaria of the Mendicant orders. A still earlier case occurs in an
election to the see of Cashel in 1237. Gregory IX empowers the legate