ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.) 



19 



Immense sums of money were exported into Asia, for 

 the support of this holy war, as it was then denomin- 

 ated ; and numbers of the most powerful families 

 became in consequence extinct, or were involved in 

 poverty and misery. Among those princes who were 

 seized with the mania of crusading, Richard Coeur de 

 Lion, who succeeded his father, Henry II., bore a 

 principal figure. Stimulated by the news of the de- 

 plorable state of the Christians, reduced to the great- 

 est extremities, by the victorious arms of the great 

 Saladin, and ambitious to enter the lists with such a 

 renowned warrior, and thereby celebrate his name, 

 both as a saint and a hero, he assumed the cross. 

 He took, out of-his father's treasures, no less a sum 

 than 900,000 in gold and silver, besides plate, jew- 

 els, and precious stones. To this he added immense 

 sums, by the sale of the royal castles, manors, parks, 

 woods, and forests. All this money, greater in quan- 

 tity than had ever been amassed by any former king 

 of England, was dissipated in this chivalrous expedi- 

 tion. Richard set out on his voyage for the Holy 

 Land, attended by a numerous fleet and army, Dec. 

 llth, A. D. 1190. Many of the English, who had 

 assumed the cross, and were preparing for their 

 intended expedition, imagined that nothing could ren- 

 der tlie Deity more propitious to their enterprise, than 

 to murder all the Jews they could meet, and seize 

 their wealth. In consequence of this sanguinary and 

 interested zeal, many thousands of that unhappy race 

 were inhumanly butchered in cold blood, at Norwich, 

 Stamford, York, and other places ; and these pious 

 murderers escaped the punishment due to their atro- 

 city, by hastily embarking in the fleet. Richard, 

 after a long and stormy passage, in which he lost 

 part 01 his fleet, at last arrived in the neighbourhood 

 of Acre ; (the ancient Accho of the Philistines, and 

 the Ptolemais of ecclesiastical antiquity), which, for 

 two whole years had been invested by the Christians, 

 and had made a most gallant and successful defence. 

 On the arrival of Richard and his valorous host, the 

 siege, which had languished for some time, was 

 pushed with the greatest vigour. The walls were 

 battered night and day, with various machines, the 

 artillery of those times ; frequent furious assaults 

 were given ; and the besieged, despairing of relief, 

 capitulated, five weeks after the arrival of the Eng- 

 lish army, on the following terms : " That the garri- 

 son should be allowed to march out, only in their 

 shirts, leaving their arms and baggage behind them 

 that Saladin should restore the true cross, with 

 2,500 of his Christian prisoners of the greatest note 

 that he should pay to the two kings (Richard, and 

 Philip of France), 200,000 pieces of gold, called 

 Byzantines, for his men, whom they had taken prison- 

 ers ; and that the whole garrison should be detained as 

 hostages, till these conditions were fulfilled." Thus 

 ended the most famous siege recorded in history, 

 whether we consider the length of time, the frenzied 

 valour of the assailants, or the waste of human life ; 

 for, under its walls, no fewer than six archbishops, 

 twelve bishops, forty earls, five hundred barons, and 

 300,000 men perished. 



This pernicious war almost drained England of 

 money and men ; and Richard was so unfortunate, 

 in his voyage home from this glorious, though fruitless 

 war, as to be cast away on the coast of Italy, taken 



Erisoner, and thrown into close confinement, by 

 eopold of Austria; who, upon receiving a most 

 enormous ransom, at last set him at liberty, after a 

 captivity of fifteen months, and an absence of four 

 years, three months, and nine days. The sum raised 

 and paid for his ransom amounted to a million and a 

 half pounds of our money. 



Notwithstanding all the calamities which Europe 

 in general, and England, in particular, had suffered, 



by successive crusades against the infidels, pope 

 Innocent set another on foot. He issued a bull, Dec. 

 27th, A.D. 1199, directed to all the prelates of the 

 Christian church, commanding them, and all their 

 clergy, by the authority of the apostolic see of 

 Abnighty God and of the Holy Ghost, and under the 

 penalty of eternal damnation, to pay the fortieth part 

 of all their revenues, for defraying the expenses of 

 this expedition ; which was to be commanded by two 

 cardinals, named by the pope. 



This papal tax was collected in England ; and the 

 money was carried to Rome by Philip, a Romish 

 notary. John, who succeeded Richard, A.D. 1199, 

 instead of resenting the insult to his rights, as an 

 independent prince, by a foreign power imposing a 

 tax on his own subjects, without his consent, was 

 so weak as to grant a fortieth part of his revenues to 

 the pope, and exhorted his barons to do the same. 

 At the same time that this tax was imposed on the 

 clergy, for the purpose of defraying the expense of 

 the intended crusade, emissaries were sent by the 

 pope into all countries, and particularly into Eng- 

 land, to exhort the laity to take the cross. By 

 these means, a great army was raised, and, con- 

 ducted by the councils of the pope, was not at all 

 employed in rescuing the Holy Land from the hands 

 of the infidels, but in dethroning the Christian em- 

 peror of Constantinople ; who had the misfortune to 

 be a Greek and not a Roman Christian. 



Few events were more to be dreaded by an Eng- 

 lish sovereign, at that period, than a vacancy in the 

 see of Canterbury, as it was commonly productive of 

 violent contests both at home and with the court of 

 Rome. But the death of Hubert, archbishop of 

 Canterbury, which happened A. D. 1205, was pro- 

 ductive of more fatal consequences to regal autho- 

 rity, than any which had taken place, and raised 

 papal influence to a plenitude of power hitherto 

 unknown in England. The Canterburian monks had 

 long claimed a right to elect their archbishops ; but 

 this :-ight had always been opposed by the kings of 

 England, and the prelates of the province. The 

 monks determined, on this occasion, to anticipate 

 their competitors, by a secret and sudden choice, 

 before the vacancy could be generally known ; and, 

 therefore, immediately upon the news of Hubert's 

 death, held a chapter, in the night time, and elected 

 their own superior to be archbishop; and, at the 

 same time, obliged him to swear that he would not 

 divulge his election without their consent ; and sent 

 him off immediately ,with some of their own number, to 

 Rome, to receive the approbation of the pope. But 

 the imprudence of the newly-elected archbishop, in 

 letting out the secret, defeated the whole plan ; and 

 his electors were so displeased at his foolish conduct, 

 that they annulled his election, and chose another, 

 with consent of the king, who immediately put him 

 in possession of the see ; and some of the monks were 

 sent to Rome to obtain the consent of the pope. 

 This affair, rendered sufficiently embarrassing by this 

 double election, was made still more so, by a solemn 

 protest, taken by the bishops, who had never been 

 consulted in either of the elections ; and who also 

 sent their protest to Rome to prevent the consent of 

 the pope to both claims. Nothing could be more 

 agreeable to the court of Rome, than the appear- 

 ance of so many parties, and so many opposing 

 claims. After vast sums of money had been 

 spent by all the parties, and a whole year spent 

 in examining witnesses, a papal bull was issued, 

 depriving the bishops of their right of election, 

 restricting it to the monks, setting aside both the 

 candidates, and declaring Stephen Langton, a crea- 

 ture ot the pope's, archbishop of Canterbury. This 

 raised a dispute between the king and pope Inuo- 

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