t of Rome, they laid before the Pope at Rome, and
later at Avignon, their spiritual and temporal difficulties; the most
important abbeys were "exempt," that is to say, under the direct
jurisdiction of the Pope without passing through the local episcopal
authority. This was the case with St. Augustine of Canterbury, St.
Albans, St. Edmund's, Waltham, Evesham, Westminster, &c. The clergy of
England had its eyes constantly turned Romewards.

This clergy was very numerous; in the thirteenth century its ranks were
swelled by the arrival of the mendicant friars: Franciscans and
Dominicans, the latter representing more especially doctrine, and the
former practice. The Dominicans expound dogmas, fight heresy, and
furnish the papacy with its Grand Inquisitors[223]; the Franciscans do
charitable works, nurse lepers and wretches in the suburbs of the towns.
All science that does not tend to the practice of charity is forbidden
them: "Charles the Emperor," said St. Francis, "Roland and Oliver, all
the paladins and men mighty in battle, have pursued the infidels to
death, and won their memorable victories at the cost of much toil and
labour. The holy martyrs died fighting for the faith of Christ. But
there are in our time, people who by the mere telling of their deeds,
seek honour and glory among men. There are also some among you who like
better to preach on the virtues of the saints than to imitate their
labours.... When thou shalt have a psalter so shalt thou wish for a
breviary, and when thou shalt have a breviary, thou shalt sit in a chair
like a great prelate, and say to thy brother: 'Brother, fetch me my
breviary.'"[224]

Thirty-two years after their first coming there were in England twelve
hundred and forty-two Franciscans, with forty-nine convents, divided
into seven custodies: London, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford,
Newcastle, Worcester.[225] "Your Holiness must know," writes Robert
Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, to Pope Gregory IX., "that the friars
illuminate the whole country by the light of their preaching and
teaching. Intercourse with these holy men propagates scorn of the world
and voluntary poverty.... Oh! could your Holiness see how piously and
humbly the people hasten to hear from them the word of life, to confess
their sins, and learn the rules of good conduct!..."[226] Such was the
beginning; what followed was far from resembling it. The point to be
remembered is another tie with Rome, represented by these