of the clergy, the great impoverishment of the realm, and the
irrecoverable ruin of the holy church of England."[37]

[Footnote 36: It is curious at the same time to
observe what extraordinary notions the Commons, who
presented this petition, had formed of freedom; how
jealous they were of the lower orders, and how
determined to exclude them from sharing with
themselves the good things of the church's
temporalities. The Commons pray that (no nief or
vileyn) no bondswoman or bondsman, be allowed to
send a son to school with a view of being advanced
in the church; and that for the maintenance and
safety of the honour of all the free men of the
land.]

[Foonote 37: 15 Richard II. (1391.)]

A case argued before the judges in the time of Henry IV, very
interesting in itself, and closely connected in many points with the
subject of this chapter, is recorded in the Year Books. The argument
arose on a writ of Quare impedit, directed against Halomm (Hallam)
Bishop of Salisbury and Chichel (Chicheley) Bishop of St. David's,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The question at issue regarded
the voidance of a prebend in the church of Salisbury, caused by
Chicheley being created Bishop of St. David's, who held that prebend,
to which he had been presented by Richard Medford, a former Bishop of
Sarum. Against the King's claim of right of presentation to the void
prebend, the defendants answered that the Pope had granted to
Chicheley licence to enjoy all the preferments which he held before,
together with his bishopric. For the King's right it was pleaded, (p. 042)
that the creation of Chicheley took place whilst the temporalities of
Sarum were in the hands of the King, on the translation of Hallam from
York to Sarum;[38] but the question at length turned virtually upon
the power of the see of Rome to dispense with the laws of England.

[Footnote 38: Some persons would probably be
surprised, among the facts recorded in this cause,
(all which however are confirmed by the
ecclesiastical registers,) to find that by a sort
of retrograde promotion, according to our usual
ideas of