820 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
protest, directed to him, complained that " an endless num ber of Italians " held appointments in England and that they took out of the kingdom 60,000 marks yearly or more than half the amount realized by the king from the realm.1
As early as 1256, the pope claimed the first-fruits of bishoprics, the claim to be in force for five years. Later they were made a fixed rule.2 The papal legates could not be expected to fall behind their unscrupulous or complaisant masters. When Martin arrived in 1244, he asked for 30,000 marks and seized benefices worth more than 3000 marks a year. These officials were freely denominated indefatigable extortioners, bloodsuckers, and " wolves, whose bloody jaws were consuming the English clergy."3 Money-getting was also esteemed the chief business of the papal representatives in Scotland.4 Matthew Paris compared the " bloodsucking extortion " to the work of a harlot, vulgar and shameless, venally offering herself to all, and bent upon staining the purity of the English Church. The people, he says, were es tranged in body, though not in heart, from the pope who acted in the spirit of a stepfather and from the Roman Church who treated England like a stepmother.5 The popular indigna tion at times found vent in something more significant than words. Martin, after receiving textures, vases, furniture, and horses, as well as gold and silver, was given short shrift by the barons to get out of the kingdom. When he applied to the king for safe conduct, the king replied, " The devil give you safe conduct to hell and all the way through it."
The Norman Conquest exerted a wholesome influence upon the Church in England, and introduced a new era of church building and the erection of monasteries and the regular and canonical observance of the church's ritual. The thirteenth century was a notable period of church extension. The system of endowed vicarages was developed.
i M. Paris, IV. 285, 443. 2 Stubbs, III. 348.
8 M. Paris, II. 229, IV. 60, 100, 136, 160, 284, 626, etc.
4 M. Pario, II. 210, IV. 610, says of Geoffrey, bishop of Bethlehem, legate to Scotland, that it was hoped that as "adamant attracts iron, so he would draw to himself the much coveted monies of Scotland." 6 V. 233.
§ 128. CHURCH AND CLERGY IN ENGLAND. 821
Hugh de Wells created several hundred vicarages and Grosseteste continued the policy and provided for their maintenance out of the revenues of the older churches. Chantries were endowed where mass was said for the repose of the souls of the dead, and in time these were often united to constitute independent vicarages or parishes. The synod of Westminster, 1102, provided for a more just treatment of the ill-paid vicars. The Constitutions of Otho forbade the tearing down of old historic buildings and the erection of new ones without the consent of the bishop.
The Normans also introduced a new era of clerical educa tion. Before their arrival, so William of Malmesbury says,1 the clergy were content with a slight degree of learning and could scarcely stammer the words of the sacraments. A satisfactory idea of the extent and dispersion of learning among the clergy it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. A high authority, Dr. Stubbs,2 makes the doubtful statement that every one admitted even to minor orders must have been able to read and write. It happened, however, that bishops were rejected for failing in their examinations and others were admitted to their sees though they were unable to read.3 As for preaching, a sermon from an English parochial priest in the Middle Ages was probably a rare thing. There were at all times some men of literary ability among the English clergy as is attested by the chronicles that have come down to us, by such writers as John of Salis bury, Walter Map, and Peter of Blois (who was imported from France), and by the Schoolmen who filled the chairs at Oxford in its early history.
In spite of the measures of Anselm and other prelates, clerical marriage and concubinage continued in England. Writing to Anselm, Pascal II. spoke of the majority of the English priests as married. Laws were enacted forbidding the people to attend mass said by an offending priest ; and women who did not quit priestly houses were to be treated as adulteresses and denied burial in sacred ground. An
i III. 245. 2 HI. 283.
« M. Paris, III. 170. See Stubbs, III. 383, note.