ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



came later, was welcomed with enthusiasm/ and the majority of the constitu- 

 tions of Clarendon, which he exhibited in a full consistory, were solemnly 

 condemned.^ The incidents connected with the council of Northampton, 

 and the subsequent struggles culminating in his murder at Canterbury, served 

 to stamp the name and memory of St. Thomas of Canterbury deeper on the 

 minds of the mass of the people than that of any other figure in Church or 

 State from the Conquest to the Reformation. 



The troubles of the reign of John must have been keenly felt in 

 Northamptonshire, for he spent much of his time at Northampton and 

 Rockingham every year that he was in England, making this county, indeed, 

 more his residence than any other part of the kingdom. In the second year 

 of his reign died St. Hugh of Lincoln, whose beneficent rule that diocese had 

 enjoyed for fourteen years. ^ The see remained vacant till 1203, was then 

 held by William of Blois (elected in opposition to the king's nominee) till 

 1206, and was then vacant again for three years.* In 1208 the quarrel 

 between John and the pope about the appointment of Stephen Langton 

 to the primacy came to a head, and England was laid under an interdict, in 

 consequence of which the hfe of the Church, though perhaps less affected 

 than has sometimes been supposed,^ nevertheless suffered considerably. As a 

 counterblast the king confiscated the property of the clergy, both religious 

 and secular. Most of the bishops left the country. The clergy throughout 

 the land were oppressed and insulted by the king's emissaries, and many, both 

 of the clergy and of the laity, went into exile like the bishops.* Archbishop 

 Langton, consecrated by the pope in 1207 to succeed Hubert Walter, who 

 had died in 1205, was obliged to remain in exile till the king should give 

 way. The see of Lincoln was already vacant when the interdict was 

 pubUshed ; but even when it was filled by the election of Hugh Wells, in 

 I 209, the new bishop so annoyed John by obtaining consecration from Arch- 

 bishop Langton at Melun, that the king declared the see again vacant and 

 confiscated its revenues.'' 



In I 210 ineffectual negotiations for the reconciliation of the crown and 

 the clergy took place between John and two papal emissaries, Pandulf and 

 Durand, at Northampton.^ In 121 3 John submitted to the pope, and Arch- 

 bishop Langton, the bishops (including Hugh of Lincoln), and the exiled 

 clergy and laity generally returned to England.' 



Except for the three years 1203-6, the huge diocese to which 

 Northamptonshire belonged had now been without actual supervision since 

 the death of St. Hugh ; and from 1208 it had been suffering presumably in 

 almost every parish, from the interruption, consequent upon the interdict, of 

 most of the ministrations of the Church,^" as well as from the results of the 

 king's ill-treatment of the clergy and the general spoliation of church property." 

 On the bishops' return, those who had inclined to the king's side in each 



' Materials fir Hist, of Thomas Becket, (Rolls Ser.), iii, 76, 3+0. ' Ibid. 3+0-2. 



' Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 309 ; iv, 141. 



* Stubbs, op. cit. 33, 36, 37. ' Stephens, op. cit. 211-12. 



' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 521-3 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 199-200, 213. 

 ' Ibid. 200 ; Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 528. ' Ibid. 531-2. 



' Ibid. 550 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 211, 213. 



'" Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 522. The interdict was mitigated more than once. {Walter of 

 Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 201, 205). 



" Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 52;?. 



