present Archbishop of Canterbury, who
went off between him and the Cistertian commissioners before the
matter could be finished. In the end the king himself came also unto
the said commissioners as they sat in their chapterhouse, and there
with tears fell down at their feet, craving pardon for his trespasses
against them, and heartily requiring that they would (from henceforth)
commend him and his realm in their prayers unto the protection of the
Almighty, and receive him into their fraternity, promising moreover
full satisfaction of their damages sustained, and to build an house of
their order in whatsoever place of England it should please them to
assign. And this he confirmed by charter bearing date the
seven-and-twentieth of November, after the Scottish king was returned
into Scotland, and departed from the king. Whereby (and by other the
like, as between John Stratford and Edward the Third, etc.) a man may
easily conceive how proud the clergymen have been in former times, as
wholly presuming upon the primacy of their pope. More matter could I
allege of these and the like broils, not to be found among our common
historiographers. Howbeit, reserving the same unto places more
convenient, I will cease to speak of them at this time, and go forward
with such other things as my purpose is to speak of. At the first,
therefore, there was like and equal authority in both our archbishops,
but as he of Canterbury hath long since obtained the prerogative above
York (although I say not without great trouble, suit, some bloodshed,
and contention), so the Archbishop of York is nevertheless written
Primate of England, as one contenting himself with a piece of a title
at the least, when all could not be gotten. And as he of Canterbury
crowneth the king, so this of York doth the like to the queen, whose
perpetual chaplain he is, and hath been from time to time, since the
determination of this controversy, as writers do report. The first
also hath under his jurisdiction to the number of one-and-twenty
inferior bishops; the other hath only four, by reason that the
churches of Scotland are now removed from his obedience unto an
archbishop of their own, whereby the greatness and circuit of the
jurisdiction of York is not a little diminished. In like sort, each of
these seven-and-twenty sees have their cathedral churches, wherein the
deans (a calling not known in England before the Conquest) do bear the
chief rule, being men especially ch