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MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER
The flowers of history, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain. Vol. II. A.D. 1066 to A.D. I307.

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MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER
The flowers of history, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain. Vol. II. A.D. 1066 to A.D. I307.
page 253



procurators of the emperor answered with great wisdom to each of the charges, as well as their case admitted. But as the papal arguments prevailed, they nearly all gnashed their teeth against the emperor, though àie English were grieved at their own confusion, because of the relationship which existed between their lord the king of England and the emperor, and the treaty of friendship which had been made between them, and the offspring which the emperor had by the empress Isabella, and accordingly they for some time concealed their feelings and held their peace. Nevertheless, the enemies of the emperor, who were rising up on all sides, prevailed, nor could the imperial ambassadors obtain any hearing or attention. So that Thaddeus, seeing that the condemnation of his master was at hand, said, " Surely this day will be a day of wrath, calamity, and misery.1 present with the high-born procurators of the lord the king of England, earl Roger, and his other companions, wishing to interrupt, so as to postpone the aforesaid measures, rose in the middle of the council, and in very elegant language brought forward the grievances of the king and the kingdom of England, complaining bitterly that tribute was very injuriously extorted by the Roman court, in the time of war, from king John, while he was tortured by exceeding agony of mind ; which tribute was openly opposed and refused on the part of the whole, population of the kingdom, by the mouth of the venerable Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, than whom there was not at the moment a greater man in the kingdom, on the ground that the king had no power to grant it at all. " And our fathers," said he, " never consented to this tribute, and they never will consent to it." And on this account he earnestly demanded justice and a remedy for the evil. But the pope neither lifted up his eyes nor said a word in reply to all this, but dissembled till he should first of all settle the matters which caused him the greatest vexation. And a short time afterwards, Master William brought forward a very serious complaint of the great extortion of all kinds of revenues and money from the prelates of England by the Roman court, as if those prelates were slaves of the lowest class, producing this elegantly worded letter on the part of the whole population of England. " To the reverend father Innocent, by the grace of God supreme pontiff, we, the nobles and the whole population of


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