ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Ely,' and it was on this occasion that Baldwin made his claim, which he 

 supported by an appeal to the pope, that the right to consecrate to the see 

 of York belonged to the archbishops of Canterbury.^ 



On Sunday, ij September, John, bishop elect of Whithern (Galloway), 

 was consecrated in the abbey of Pipewell by the bishop of Enaghdune and the 

 archbishops of Dublin and Treves/ After the appointment of justiciars by 

 the king, the council was dissolved * and shortly afterwards Richard set forth 

 on the crusade. 



The next crusade with which Northampton was associated was the 

 seventh. Many of the nobles, headed by Richard earl of Cornwall, brother 

 of Henry III, took the cross in 1236.' Various causes, however, delayed 

 their departure, and it was not till 12 November, 1239, that the crusaders 

 assembled at Northampton to discuss their impending expedition. To prevent 

 being inveigled by papal influence into engaging in other warfare on the way, 

 Richard and his companions bound themselves by a solemn oath, sworn upon 

 the high altar in the church of All Saints ' to take their journey to the Holy 

 Land for the deliverance of the holy church of God in that year.'* In spite 

 of this oath, the crusaders were not able to start till 10 June, 1240.^ 



About thirty years later, the same town played the most considerable 



part, so far as England was concerned, in the ninth and last crusade. On 



24 June, 1268, a great assembly was held here to kindle religious enthusiasm 



against the renewed successes of the infidel. The fullest description of the 



scene as given by a chronicler of the time may be thus rendered in English : 



There assembled on Sunday, the festival of St. John Baptist, at Northampton, the papal 

 legate the bishop of Winchester, and an innumerable multitude of English knights, and there, 

 after a solemn preaching, Prince Edward, and Prince Edmund his brother, sons of the king. 

 Prince Henry, the eldest son of the king of the Romans, the earls of Gloucester and Warenne, 

 Lord William de Valence, and other knights to the number of one hundred and twenty, much 

 troubled by the havoc wrought in the Holy Land — especially by the capture of Antioch by 

 the Saracens — received on their shoulders the sign of the Holy Cross, in token of their intended 

 expedition. Aroused by the example of the nobility, a vast number of people of both sexes, 

 and of all conditions, rushed forward to receive the cross. Of the number of the knights, 

 twenty-two were of the superior rank termed knights-banneret. The enthusiasm thus roused 

 in Northampton was carried throughout the cities, boroughs, and towns of the whole kingdom, 

 by the preaching of the Dominican and Franciscan friars, so that a great and innumerable 

 multitude soon bore upon their shoulders the sign of the cross.' 



Not the least interesting incident in the ecclesiastical history of North- 

 ampton at this period — a period when education was largely the monopoly of 

 the church — was the establishment here of a university. About the year 

 I 26 1 a quarrel at Cambridge between the northern and southern scholars, led 

 to a serious riot in which the townsfolk joined, and a number of the masters 



' These were assigned respectively to GeofFrey (the king's natural brother), Godfrey de Lucy, Richard Fitz- 

 Nigel, Hubert Walter, and William de Longchamp, who (except Geoffrey) were all consecrated later at West- 

 minster and Lambeth {Ralfih de Diceto (Rolls Ser.), ii, 71, 75). 



' Geoffrey, however, was consecrated 18 August, 1 191, at Tours, by the archbishop of Tours (Ibid. 96). 

 Baldwin was then dead and the see of Canterbury vacant. A protest had, however, been made by William de 

 Longchamp, bishop of Ely, as legate {Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 496-7). 



^ Fulmar, archbishop of Treves, died soon after this council while staying at Northampton, and was buried 

 in the priory of St. Andrew (Ralph de Diceto (Rolls Ser.), ii, 70 ; Gesta Hen. II et Rk. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 89). 



• Gesta Hen. II et Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 85-7 ; Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), iii, i 5-16 ; Gervase of Cant. 

 (Rolls Ser.), i, 458. 



' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 368. 



' Ibid. 620. In the following year Northampton was the scene of a meeting of the bishops to protest 

 against an unwarrantable exaction by the pope (Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 437). 



' Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 437. ' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 217. 



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