at Avignon was too great to allow any
relaxation in the Papal claims. Almost on the eve of Crecy Edward took the
decisive step of forbidding the entry into England of any Papal bulls or
documents interfering with the rights of presentation belonging to private
patrons. But the tenacity of Rome was far from loosening its grasp on this
source of revenue for all Edward's protests. Crecy however gave a new
boldness to the action of the State, and a Statute of Provisors was passed
by the Parliament in 1351 which again asserted the rights of the English
Church and enacted that all who infringed them by the introduction of Papal
"provisors" should suffer imprisonment. But resistance to provisors only
brought fresh vexations. The patrons who withstood a Papal nominee in the
name of the law were summoned to defend themselves in the Papal Court. From
that moment the supremacy of the Papal law over the law of the land became
a great question in which the lesser question of provisors merged. The
pretension of the Court of Avignon was met in 1353 by a statute which
forbade any questioning of judgements rendered in the King's Courts or
any prosecution of a suit in foreign courts under pain of outlawry,
perpetual imprisonment, or banishment from the land. It was this act of
Praemunire--as it came in after renewals to be called--which furnished so
terrible a weapon to the Tudors in their later strife with Rome. But the
Papacy paid little heed to these warnings, and its obstinacy in still
receiving suits and appeals in defiance of this statute roused the pride
of a conquering people. England was still fresh from her glory at Bretigny
when Edward appealed to the Parliament of 1365. Complaints, he said, were
constantly being made by his subjects to the Pope as to matters which were
cognizable in the King's Courts. The practice of provisors was thus
maintained in the teeth of the laws, and "the laws, usages, ancient
customs, and franchises of his kingdom were thereby much hindered, the
King's crown degraded, and his person defamed." The king's appeal was
hotly met. "Biting words," which it was thought wise to suppress, were
used in the debate which followed, and the statutes against provisors and
appeals were solemnly confirmed.

[Sidenote: Wyclif]

What gave point to this challenge was the assent of the prelates to the
proceedings of the Parliament; and the pride of Urban V. at once met it by
a counter-defiance. He demanded with threats