THE

cflash 6-1700

BOOK OF THE CHURCH.

BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq. LL.D.

Poet Laureate,

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY, OF THE ROY-
AL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, of the ROYAL INSTITUTE OF
THE NETHERLANDS, OF THE CYMMRODORION, OF THE MASSACHU-
SETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUA-
RIAN SOCIETY, OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, of
THE BRISTOL PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITE-

RARY SOCIETY, &c.

FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

BOSTON:

WELLS AND LILLY-COURT-STREET.

1825.

1

THE

Book of the Church.

CHAPTER XII.

OVERTHROW OF THE PAPAL POWER IN ENGLAND.

WHILE the Clergy, by these cruelties, excited in the people a just hatred of a system which was supported by such means, other causes were preparing the way for a religious revolution. The Government, though it permitted and even encouraged persecution, never deviated from that course of policy which Edward I. had begun, for limiting the Papal authority in England, and checking its extortions. Full efficacy to what he intended was given by the statute of Præmunire, in Richard the Second's reign; which, though mainly designed to prevent the Pope from granting English benefices in reversion, struck at the root of his power, by making it highly penal to procure from him any instrument in diminution