f them as were obnoxious to
poorer sees, and even to nominal sees, "in partibus infidelium." It
was thus that the archbishop of York, and the bishops of Durham and
Chichester, the king's ministers, had been treated after the prevalence
of Glocester's faction: the bishop of Carlisle met with the same fate
after the accession of Henry IV. For the pope always joined with
the prevailing powers, when they did not thwart his pretensions. The
parliament, in the reign of Richard, enacted a law against this abuse:
and the king made a general remonstrance to the court of Rome against
all those usurpations, which he calls "horrible excesses" of that
court.[**]

It was usual for the church, that they might elude the mortmain act, to
make their votaries leave lands in trust to certain persons, under whose
name the clergy enjoyed the benefit of the bequest: the parliament also
stopped the progress of this abuse.[***] In the seventeenth of the king,
the commons prayed, "that remedy might be had against such religious
persons as cause their villains to marry free women inheritable, whereby
the estate comes to those religious hands by collusion."[****] This was
a new device of the clergy.

* 13 Richard II. cap. 3. 16 Richard II. cap. 4.

** Rymer, vol. vii. p. 672.

**** Knyghton, p. 27, 38. Cotton, p. 355.

**** Cotton, p. 355.

The papacy was at this time somewhat weakened by a schism, which lasted
during forty years, and gave great scandal to the devoted partisans of
the holy see. After the pope had resided many years at Avignon, Gregory
XI. was persuaded to return to Rome; and upon his death, which happened
in 1380, the Romans, resolute to fix, for the future, the seat of the
papacy in Italy, besieged the cardinals in the conclave, and compelled
them, though they were mostly Frenchmen, to elect Urban VI., an Italian,
into that high dignity. The French cardinals, as soon as they recovered
their liberty, fled from Rome, and protesting against the forced
election, chose Robert, son of the count of Geneva, who took the name of
Clement VII., and resided at Avignon. All the Kingdoms of Christendom,
according to their several interests and inclinations, were divided
between these two pontiffs. The court of France adhered to Clement,
and was followed by its allies, the king of Castile and the king
of Scotland: England of course was thrown into the other party, and
declared for Urban. Thus the appellation of Clemen