The three religious leaders of Oxford and their movements, John Wycliffe, John Wesley, John Henry Newman

Front matter

THE THREE RELIGIOUS LEADERS

OF OXFORD AND THEIR

MOVEMENTS

Preface

This book was suggested by a course of lectures delivered under the auspices of The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences during the Lenten season of 1913. It has since been revised with some care, and would have been issued earlier but for the pressure of pastoral and public duties. It deals with three great Englishmen, great Christians, great Churchmen, and loyal sons of Oxford, who, as it seems to me, are the foremost leaders in religious life and activity that University has yet given to the world. Many prophets, priests, and kings have been nourished within her borders, but none who in significance and contribution to the general welfare compare with Wycliffe, the real originator of European Protestantism; Wesley, the Anglican priest who became the founder of Methodism and one of the makers of modern England and of English-speaking nations ; Newman, the spiritual genius of his century who re-interpreted Catholicism, both Anglican and Roman.

Hence I have named the volume " The Three Religious Leaders of Oxford and their Movements," a title which appears to be vindicated by the facts so far as I have been able to ascertain them. It will probably be said that I omit some of these and misconstrue others. This is more than likely, and if it be so, I must be held wholly responsible. I can only plead in extenuation that I have tried to be as disinterested and as just as my standpoint and the information at my disposal would permit, and that throughout I have sincerely intended to give an impetus to that fraternal spirit which leads to a more

Viii PREFACE

complete apprehension of divine truth. I shall be amply rewarded if those who have any sympathy with the men and the movements I have attempted to portray, whether Roman Catholics or Protestants, are drawn more closely together in the bonds of a common faith and fellowship.

My thanks are due and are here respectfully extended to the Reverend Doctor Herbert B. Workman, Principal of Westminster College, London, who used his unsurpassed knowledge of Wycliffe and of Wesley to correct the first eight chapters ; to my colleague at Central Church, the Reverend David Loinaz, for his constant research in the subjects discussed; to my friends, the Reverend Doctor W. L. Watkinson, formerly Editor of The London Quarterly Review^ the Reverend John L. Belford, rector of the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity, Brooklyn, and the Reverend Doctor Joseph Dunn Burrell, pastor of the Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church, in the same borough, for the loan of valuable volumes and documents ; to Professor Edgar A. Hall, of Adelphi College, and the Reverend Charles Waugh for their fruitful suggestions and verification of quotations ; and to the Reverend Oscar L. Joseph for his scholarly assistance and preparation of the Index.

The reader is asked to remember that the lectures were given before an audience composed of different religious denominations, and this circumstance rendered necessary explanations and details which otherwise might seem superfluous.

S. PARKES CADMAN.

Cektral Congregational Chuech,

Brooklyn, New York City,

September the first, 1916.

Prologue

Among many other benefits for which History hath been honoured, in this one it triumpheth over all human knowledge, that it hath given us life in our understanding, since by it the world itself had life and beginning, even to this day : yea, it hath triumphed over Time, which besides it nothing but Eternity hath triumphed over. For it hath carried our knowledge over the vast and devom-ing space of so many thousands of years and given so fair and piercing eyes to our mind, that we plainly behold living now, as if we had lived then, that great world, magni Dei sapiens opus — 'The wise world,' saith Hermes, 'of a great God ' — as it was then, when but new to itself. By it, I say, it is that we live in the very time when it was created ; we behold how it was governed ; how it was covered with water and again re-peopled ; how kings and kingdoms have flourished and fallen, and for what virtue and piety God made prosperous, and for what vice and deformity He made wretched, both the one and the other. And it is not the least debt which we owe unto History, that it hath made us acquainted with our dead ancestors, and out of the depth and darkness of the Earth delivered us their memory and fame. In a word, we may gather out of History a policy no less wise than eternal, by the comparison and application of other men's aforepassed miseries with our own like errors and ill-deservings. — From the Preface: History ; Its Rights and Dignity.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

PROLOGUE

The study of history cannot give mathematical certainty; yet, rightly pursued, it should instill the serious and reverent temper which lessens the danger of partisan blindness. A sense of the largeness and complexity of the experiences of the past is an aid to the recovery of their vital phases. The more deeply these experiences are pondered, the more completely they are stripped of the accidental and non-essential, the more clearly manifest becomes their fundamental relation to the process of human development.

Such considerations are always of value, but never more so than in the period before us. For during the medieval epoch Church and State were intimately related, and those who would gain a just apprehension of the era must endeavor to attain the state of that practised observer

"... whose even-balanced soul,

From first youth tested up to extreme old age, Business could not make dull, nor passion wild,

Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole."

Again, throughout the Middle Ages the limitation of man's power over his environment is everx'where strikingly apparent. Of means of expression for aspiration and ideal there was no lack, but any practical realization was obstructed by the difficulties and complications imposed by circumstances. How philosophical theories influenced statesmanship and politics, how their seeming triumphs so often ended in disaster, and what qualities either in them or in their advocates clothed them with influence and insured

XU THREE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF OXFORD

permanent benefits, solidifying government and people, the career of Wycliffe may perhaps serve to illustrate; for the Reformer embodied much of the genius of medieval England. The attempt to reproduce the life of the period is materially hampered, however, by the obscurity of perspective in which many lines of action and the chief personalities of the age are alike enveloped. The original authorities upon whom historians must rely for information were, as a rule, advocates of some particular cause. They knew little or nothing about reducing vexed questions of the time to definite limits, nor did they study them in the light of their initiatory circumstances. Swayed by contemporary views, they seldom subordinated their partisan proclivities to fairness of statement, and their work bears the impress of the passions rather than of the intellect. Private opinion or special sympathy biased their judgments, and the chroniclers sought in their records to vindicate policies and individuals agreeable to their peculiar persuasions. Where one group could find nothing but the beneficial, another perceived the portents of grave disaster. Even the best among them did not recognize the superiority, as a historical method, of close observation over empty argument. Their writings ranged from the grotesquely imaginative, credulous of physical prodigies and disdainful of facts, to vapid and colorless recitals without pith or meaning. Evidences of predetermination were rife in the widely differing estimates of pontiffs, princes, prelates, and scholastics whose careers were woven into the tangle of current controversies. And the well-poised, many-sided historian who might have bequeathed to us a detached and comprehensive survey of the ecclesiastical events around which medieval civilization centered, and from which modern ideas were projected, was then scarcely a possibility. Eminent scholars, however, such as Freeman, Stubbs, Creighton, Seeley, and Lord Acton, have recovered the gains of long past centuries and have enabled us to understand medieval men and affairs,

PROLOGUE xiii

not only when they were swayed by unusual circumstances, but also by those common sentiments which influence all ages alike. The process has dwarfed some heroes and robbed some events of a spurious greatness, but the disillusionment was as necessary as it was wise.

Ranke's axiom, which he himself exemplified, "simply to find out how things occurred," requires far more than the perusal of ancient manuscripts. The knowledge of the main lines of history ; of the motives at the root of steadfast national purposes; of constantly interfering factors of influence; and a vivid realization of the continuity of the historical process, and of the shaping power of vigorous personality, are prime requisites for the successful interpretation of the past. Our gratitude is due to the historians who have conformed to these principles ; they recall the Greek adage that truth is the fellow-citizen of the gods.

It was a notable achievement to bridge the gulf made by the Renaissance between the Medieval and the Modern era. The faith and laws, the ideals and practices, the conceits and fancies of our remoter progenitors still appear strange and perplexing to the unaccustomed eye. But the trained and patient interpretation of the nineteenth century scholar has brought them nearer to us, moralized the entire method of research, and taught us to moderate alike our denunciation and our eulogy. The occupants of that era confronted obstacles too great for their resources to surmount. The influx of a larger, freer life had seriously weakened many venerable customs and institutions, and while these slowly succumbed the reconstruction of the social fabric was delayed by treachery, violence, and war. Yet even in this disdainful passage of the irresistible tide, preparatory to impending change, the prunal elements of human progress were not submerged. Amid the chaos, the pretensions of the aristocracy and the delusions of the proletariat were checked; clericalism measured itself against the rapacity and pride of kings and barons; municipalities arose, enxiv THREE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF OXFORD

riched by the growth of trade, the magnates of which sometunes thwarted the rulers they lavishly entertained, and for whose campaigns they were financially responsible. Guilds of artisans and tradesfolk, unified by mutual interest and external opposition, flourished in the chief cities of Europe. When clerics were recalcitrant, or where merchants and workmen did not preponderate, their respective organizations still served as counteracting forces, and their union was a factor monarchs and lords were compelled to respect. Feudalism reluctantly yielded to the social impact, while the disguise of chivalry availed it less and less. Slaves became freemen, freemen became burghers, burghers acquired a firmer hold on the sources of national revenue and the control of the State. Education was no longer a clerical monopoly,. and the few learned laymen who had then secured recognition were pioneers of that distribution of knowledge which eventually characterized Humanism. Justice between man and man was not simply exact conformity to preexistent and obligatory law. Legal relations were sifted in the light of advancing intelligence. That vague, uncodified borderland which is now called social justice, as distinguished from the statutes of the realm, was sufficiently defined for the periodical introduction of laws which incorporated some of its claims and validated certain personal and property rights. The baneful dogma which assumed a natural servitude for the vast majority became politically inexpedient among the bold insurgents who threatened Richard the Second's reign. Foreign intercourse disturbed the msularity of England ; the Crusades brought the West face to face with the East, and men began to be aware of the breadth and splendor of the world. The nationalism which arose after the defeat of the Holy Roman Empire by the Papacy vanquished in its turn the schemes of the latter for a consolidated Christendom. No country gave a more generous reception to the new consciousness of the integrity of the State than did England. Her geographical situation

PROLOGUE XV

and the temper of her people had always separated her from the currents of continental opinion, and, while this was a loss in some respects, in most it proved a decided gain. The stages in human evolution are seldom noted until they stand out in the bold relief of a crisis. Their occurrence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was registered, and their changes accomplished, through such intermediaries as St. Francis, Innocent III, Grosseteste, Edward I, Wycliffe, and other great personalities, who focused and intensified the tendencies of their day.

These observations also apply to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. John Wesley expressed the spiritual aspirations and transformed the character of his age more profoundly and permanently than did any other contemporary Englishman. Even the younger Pitt, who defeated Napoleon the Great, and added India to the British Empire, is now seen to have been inferior in lasting influence to the apostolic evangelist who revived the consciousness of a redeeming God. Newman quickened a sense of ecclesiastical universalism which his insular countrymen had deemed obsolete. He linked Anglican to continental Christianity. This achievement has largely determined for the past sixty years the conceptions of the Establishment concerning its ministerial and sacramental eflSciency, its forms of worship, and its relations with other Communions. The reader will expand for himself the consequences following such major events as the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the growth in politics and in morals of those plain and fundamental principles which a series of tragical experiences discovered to be the basis of just government. The everincreasing conviction that sovereignty must reside with the people gave rise to the American Republic, regenerated France, democratized the British nation and its colonies, and still strives for an intelligent formulation in other countries of mankind. Nor were these later centuries deprived of publicists whose passion for leadership was an energetic xvi THREE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF OXFORD

activity both for good and evil. The interregnums between Walpole and Gladstone, Bolingbroke and Russell ; between Louis XIV and Napoleon the Great, or Washington and Webster, filled as they are with prominent personalities and achievements, can be surveyed to-day with a more impartial eye. Few, if any, of these monarchs and statesmen escaped " the contagion of the world's slow stain." At the same time they were in closest fellowship with the erring millions they led in peace and war. And if some among them sacrificed principle to power and ambition, ever and anon others appeared who redeemed the credit of the race and showed what could be effected by untrammeled character and service.

Book I John Wycliffe And

LATER MEDIEVALISM

Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea Loves t' have his sails filled with a lusty wind, Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack, And his rapt ship run on her side so low That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.

George Chapman : Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act III, Sc. I.

Chapter I Heralds Of Reform

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do.

Not light them for ourselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd

But to fine issues, nor nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

Shakespeare : Measure for Measure. Act I, Sc. I.

CHAPTER I

HERALDS OF REFORM

Wycliffe's place in history — His protest against religious and political oppression — Sketch of development of Anglican resistance to Papal claims — Hildebrand — His conception of a theocracy — Relations with William the Conqueror — Controversy regarding lay investiture — Henry H and Becket — Constitutions of Clarendon — Becket's influence on his countrymen — King John — His quarrel with Innocent HI — Papal interdict on England — John's excommunication and his abject surrender — Great Charter — Grosseteste — His resistance to Innocent IV — Henry de Bracton — Simon de Montfort — Edward I

— His conflict with Boniface VIII — The development of English nationalism under his rule — Contrast between 13th and 14th centuries — Period of Wycliffe's birth one of general decadence — Birthplace of the Reformer — Early years — Entrance at Oxford — Early history of Oxford — Origin of the University — Medieval meaning of the terms "University" and "College" — Founding of English college system — Walter de Merton — William de Wykeham — Physical characteristics of Medieval Oxford — Conditions of living — Beneficent influence of College Founders — Obscurity of Wycliffe's Oxford life — The "Nations" — Resources of Medieval students — Laical spirit of the Colleges — Their freedom from class-distinctions — Wycliffe as the Master of Balliol — Election to benefices — Obtains degree in theology

— His position as a scholar.

The paramount interest of Wycliffe's work as a reformer centers in his courageous stand for religious and political freedom during the quarrel between the English government and the Papacy. This recurrent conflict had its sordid and repulsive phases, which were relieved by the devotion of the few who, concentrating their energies on the principles involved, gave the dispute a moral significance, and largely determined the outcome. A brief resume of the points at issue in this protracted strife is in place here.

The origin of the struggle is traceable to the extravagant claims of the Holy See and the characteristically independent spirit of the Anglican Church. This age-long rivalry explains the powerful yet ineffective protest of Wycliffe, and also the later revolt under Henry VHI, which, unjustified as it was in some respects, met a national demand and culminated in an English Reformation. The degree of liberty enjoyed from the beginning by the English hierarchy should not be exaggerated, for there was a connection with the Papacy which served distinct purposes and was neither feebly nor thoughtlessly established. Nothing is gained by trying to prove that the relationship never existed, any more than by disregarding the substantial reasons for its severance.

Hildebrand, who gave a definite enunciation to the Papal claims, was elevated to the throne of St. Peter in 1073 and assumed the title of Gregory VH. As an ecclesiastic he was at once philosophical and practical, large-minded enough to conceive or revive far-reaching policies, and possessed of a penetrative knowledge of mankind and a prophetic understanding of the spirit of his age. The purity of his personal life, the strength of his character, and the force of his will cooperated with his zeal for service to make him a born leader of men. Before his lofty vision arose the stupendous ideal of a theocratic State, embracing the entire world, over which, as God's Vicegerent, he asserted his sovereignty. Civil or religious rulers might not question the prerogatives of his oflSce, since they were conferred by the Deity Himself, to Whom alone the Pontiff was responsible. Far from being content to leave these august designs in the realm of remote theory, Hildebrand strove to make them actual, and to bring them into closest touch with those days of violent disruption and constant change. No man could have been selected as the Vicar of Christ who was better fitted by nature and circumstances to act for the cause with which his name is associated. Sagacious and ardent, he knew how to conform to the immemorial traditions of the Papacy, and also how to stamp upon its fabric and diplomacy the impress of his commanding nature. Although he failed in certain directions, he nevertheless succeeded in investing the Holy See with a spiritual influence which overawed and yet in a measure cemented the continental nationalities. He accomplished by the subtle suggestions and definite claims of sacerdotal authority a task which armed hosts would have found impossible. But the defects latent in Hildebrand's statecraft began to appear even during his own administration, and increased in after times. He could not induce England to bow to his spiritual autocracy : then as now she was sheltered by that splendid isolation which has always guarded her from continental ecclesiasticism. The inherent sense of freedom which the Anglo-Saxon people cherished survived even the Norman Conquest and prevented the feudal system from taking deep root on English soil.

Hildebrand knew that Englishmen would not willingly permit the imposition upon them of any system, however impressive in its scope and purpose, which jeopardized their national autonomy ; and in the hope of counteracting this sentiment he had advised his predecessor, Alexander H, to bestow his blessing upon the expedition of the Duke of Normandy in 1066. The desires of the two ecclesiastics were frustrated by the Conqueror himself, who so quickly absorbed the leaven of his new realm that when the three legates were despatched from Rome by the Pope to demand homage from the king for his new island dominion, they met with the severe rebuff, — " Homage to thee I have not chosen, nor do I choose to do. I never made a promise to that effect, nor do I find that it was ever performed by my predecessors to thine." The Norman bishops who were appointed to English sees were careful to adopt their monarch's policy. The Primates of Canterbury and York had always been supreme in their archiepiscopates, and there were no indications in the tenor of previous Papal decrees or edicts that the Pope claimed the right of overlordship. Thus sustained by precedent, the civil power, both before and after the Conquest, retained certain rights in England which it did not possess in Germany. It should be added, however, that the Anglican Church was far from being locally independent, and that no one was more anxious than the Conqueror to bring it into touch with continental Catholicism.

Hildebrand resorted to other measures: in 1075 a bull was issued denying to the laity the right of investiture for churches ; three years later investitures were pronounced invalid when thus bestowed, and the penalty of excommunication was passed upon those disobeying the edict. Lay investiture originated when bishops and abbots became temporal lords and bestowed upon laymen extensive church properties in return for military service. Ecclesiastical office was then held to be of the nature of a fief for which homage was due to the king. If a Chapter's choice of its bishop or abbot was displeasing to the monarch, he could refuse to ratify the election, whereupon during the interval the income of the benefice reverted to the Crown. William Rufus, the unscrupulous son and successor of the Conqueror, was a notorious transgressor in this respect. He kept the see of Canterbury vacant four years that he might appropriate its emoluments. In a fit of remorse, due to his fear of death, he nominated to the Primacy the saintly and learned Anselm, abbot of Bee in Normandy, a thinker, a sensitive pietist of the character which Englishmen seldom appreciate sympathetically, but one who, to quote the phrase of Ronsard, "had traveled far on the green path that leads men into remembrance." Upon the king's recovery from sickness his compunction vanished, and he resumed an open and shameless barter of spiritual dignities. Anselm's gentle and sincere nature was not devoid of sterner qualities : he opposed the despotism of Rufus, and defended not only the clerical order, but also the imperiled rights of the subject.

Finding it unsafe to remain in residence, the Archbishop appealed in person to Pope Urban II. It was during his absence from Canterbury that the prelate, who was predominantly the quiet scholar, found leisure to write his celebrated treatise, "Cur Deus Homo." After the death of Rufus, he refused to do homage to Henry I, or receive investiture at his hands. Pope Paschal II sanctioned the Primate's action, and eventually a compromise was effected. After the vexed reign of Stephen, during which the armies of the bishops fought against those of the king, the next open breach with the Papacy occurred under Henry II. The clergy now demanded trial in their own courts, which, in accordance with the unwise legislation enacted at the Conquest, were separated from the regular jurisdiction. The flagrant partiality of the clerical judiciary, its frequent miscarriages of justice, and the number and influence of those tonsured miscreants who were thus exempt from the common law, constituted a grave menace to peace and order by making the sacerdotal office a haven for criminals. The higher clergy surrounded themselves with retinues of armed retainers, among whom were warrior priests and not a few of the baser sort. In the ranks of the lower clergy were numerous rascals who had escaped punishment for offenses of which they were palpably guilty. While the controversy was at its height Henry bestowed the archbishopric upon his chancellor, Thomas a Becket, succinctly described by William of Newburgh as one "burning with zeal for justice, but whether altogether according to wisdom, God knows."

Becket at once became the champion of the extreme clerical party, and his sturdy resistance of Henry's efforts to subdue it strained their friendship to the breaking point. In January, 1164, a Great Council was convened at Clarendon, near Salisbury, to reduce the friction between Church and State. The resolutions then framed, and subsequently placed upon the statute-book, were termed the "Constitutions of Clarendon." They provided that accused clerics, when condemned and degraded by their own courts, should be transferred to the King's court to receive sentence ; to which Becket properly objected that this would be trying a man twice for the same offense. Civil cases involving their members were to be adjusted before the ordinary tribunals. The clergy were forbidden to leave the country without the monarch's consent, neither could appeals be taken to Rome without the royal license. The agreement concerning investiture, under the terms of which the Pope allowed bishops and abbots to do homage to the king for their temporal properties, was confirmed. After repeated quibblings and equivocations Becket gave a reluctant assent to these changes, and then, speedily repentant, refused to affix his official seal. Pope Alexander III encouraged the Archbishop's refractory attitude, and Becket fled to France in November, 1164, to escape Henry's anger. There he remained six years in exile. Upon his return to Canterbury the townsfolk went in procession to meet him outside the city, and escorted him in triumph to his church.

The jubilations were scarcely ended before the smouldering fires broke out again, only to be quenched by the assassination of the fearless prelate in one of the chapels of the Cathedral. The crime excited universal horror and execration : the four knights whose ferocious daring in the king's service prompted the murder had absolutely ruined their master's projects. Henry quailed before the storm of indignation which swept over Europe; he submitted to the Papal decrees, annulled the Constitutions of Clarendon, and made an open expiation in his dolorous pilgrimage to Becket's tomb. The popular admiration which had followed Becket during his later life was due to his courageous determination and steadfast zeal for what he held to be justice against king and barons. Nothing could have enhanced that admiration more than the manner of his ending. No Englishman of the Middle Ages made so indelible an impression on his countrymen as did Thomas of Canterbury. It has been well said that if Anselm was a saint whose superiority to ordinary motives made him a statesman, Becket was a statesman whose political audacity was transformed by the popular imagination into sainthood.

II

A deeper humiliation awaited the Crown in the reign of the second Henry's son John, whose folly and wickedness plunged the nation into turbulence and dishonor. After the death of Archbishop Hubert Walter, which occurred on July 12, 1205, a dispute arose between the king and the Chapter of the see in reference to Walter's successor. The younger monks met in haste before the deceased Primate was buried, and without applying for the royal warrant elected their sub-prior Reginald. They even went so far as to install him, and then secretly dispatched him to Rome to obtain the Papal confirmation. During his passage through Flanders, Reginald violated the confidence of his brethren by publicly announcing himself as the Archbishopelect. In the ensuing tumult the king nominated John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, the bishops and the older monks of the Chapter acquiescing, and a second deputation at once set out for the Vatican to push the claims of the king's candidate.

The Pontiff, Innocent III, was a consummate administrator, in counsel wary, in fidelity to his office impregnable, and an unflinching advocate of absolutism as enunciated by Hildebrand. "Regal dignity," said Innocent, "should be but a reflection of the Papal authority and entirely subordinate to it." He was not prone to deceive himself, and he was not liable to be deceived by others. His fame has been clouded by the contention that he originated the Inquisition, and it is beyond question that he gave impetus to the extirpation of heresy by physical violence, deeming it high treason against Heaven. The Livonians and the Albigenses felt the weight of his hand ; the continental rulers bent before his inflexible sway, and he was more than a match for the irresolute and demoralized John.

During the week before Christmas, 1206, the rivals for the archbishopric were heard at the Papal court, where the king's duplicity precipitated his defeat. While openly protesting that the Pontiff's decision would be acceptable to all, he attempted to bribe the oflficials of the Curia, and enjoined the monks whom he had commissioned to elect no one but Grey. The futility of such double dealing was demonstrated in this negotiation with the astute Innocent, who could neither be cajoled nor affrighted by it. The election of Reginald was quashed as informal, that of Bishop de Grey was pronounced illegal on the ground that it occurred while the appeal was pending ; ^ and Cardinal Stephen Langton, an Englishman by birth, and the first scholar in the foremost university of Europe, was named by Innocent for the see. The representatives of the Chapter concurred, regardless of their secret pact with John, and accordingly Langton was chosen. It is beyond reasonable doubt that Innocent was aware of the treachery of the English monarch, and he seems to have been sincerely solicitous that the throne of Augustine should be filled by a man of Langton's worth and caliber. He proceeded cautiously and declined to complete the election by consecrating Langton until the king had given his approval. This John emphatically refused to bestow, and, notwithstanding his previous professions of admiration for the Archbishop, he now complained that he did not even know the obscure person who was being thrust upon him. At this unblushing prevarication, the Pope took the initiative and consecrated his nominee, whereupon the fury of the reckless king fell upon the monks who had dared to disobey his mandate. Innocent countered his assaults