ed against the scenes of
violence, let it be seen that he was determined, by constitutional
methods, to defend his clergy from being plundered. On his death,
in 1241, there was a long vacancy, the King wanting one man and
the canons determined on another, and they carried their man, Fulk
Bassett, though he was not consecrated for three years. Pope Innocent
IV., in 1246, sent a demand of one-third of their income from the
resident clergy, and half from non-resident. Bishop Fulk indignantly
called a council at St. Paul's, which declared a refusal, and even the
King supported him. The remonstrance ended significantly with a call
for a General Council. But he was presently engaged in a more serious
quarrel. The King forced the monks of Canterbury, on the death of
Edmund Rich, to elect the queen's uncle, Boniface of Savoy, to the
primacy. He came and at once began to enrich himself, went "on
visitation" through the country demanding money. The Dean of St.
Paul's, Henry of Cornhill, shut the door in his face, Bishop Fulk
approving. The old Prior of the Monastery of St. Bartholomew,
Smithfield, protested, and the Archbishop, who travelled with a
cuirass under his pontifical robe, knocked him down with his fist.[2]
Two canons, whom he forced into St. Paul's chapter, were killed by the
indignant populace. The same year (1259) brave Bishop Fulk died of the
plague. For years the unholy exactions went on, and again and again
one has records of meetings in St. Paul's to resist them.

When Simon de Montfort rose up against the evil rule of Henry III. the
Londoners met in folkmote, summoned by the great bell of St. Paul's,
and declared themselves on the side of the great patriot. They are
said to have tried to sink the queen's barge when she was escaping
from London to join the King at Windsor.

King Edward I. demanded a moiety of the clerical incomes for his war
with Scotland. The Dean of St. Paul's (Montfort) rose to protest
against the exaction, and fell dead as he was speaking. Two years
later, the King more imperiously demanded it, and Archbishop
Winchelsey wrote to the Bishop of London (Gravesend) commanding him to
summon the whole of the London clergy to St. Paul's to protest, and to
publish the famous Bull, "clericis laicos," of Pope Boniface VIII.,
which forbade any emperor, king, or prince to tax the clergy without
express leave of the Pope. Any layman who exacted, or any cleric who
paid, was at once excommunicate. Bonifac