During this century and the following one, the Crusades. which had first been preached in the days of Ansehn. attracted many recruits from England, and the monastic spirit was evidenced in the establishment of military religions orders. The knights Templar and the knights of Saint John were the only ones that obtained any foot hold in England. The Crusades led oftentimes to the sale of lands to the monasteries that their owners might obtain the means for their ex peditions, and not a few churches were built and restored in fulfilment of their pious vows.
After the mart yrdom of Becket there was a long vacancy in the primacy, caused largely by the claim of Odo, the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, that the election should be left to the monks. The power of Rome had meanwhile been growing, part ly from the desire of the kings to strengthen their disputed claims to the throne by oldnining the powerful influence of the Pope, as also from a desire to have him side with them against the recalcitrant bishops and other clergy. During the reign of King John the contest be t WITH :11111 t he throne broke out over the appointment of Stephen Langton to the See of Canterbury. John obstinately refused to acquiesce in the Pope's decision favoring Lang ton's election to the see, and defied the Papal envoys sent to adjust the differences between Pontiff and sovereign. The Pope in eimsequience laid an interdict upon the whole Kingdom, which lasted more than six years. and John only yielded under threat of deposition.
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1228), stood with the barons against both monarch and Pontiff in the demand for Magna Charta. For the Magna Charta, extorted from King John, England is more indebted to the ('lunch than to any other agency. Indeed, it is doubtful whether without its aid any such guar anty of liberties would then have been obtained. Translated into English, its first clause runs: "The Church of England shall be free, and hold its right entire, and its liberties inviolate." During the reigns of the thirteenth century there was much controversy over, and protest against, the frequent levies of tallage, an eccle siastical tax for the support of the Papal See. The popes resorted to this tax at large to re plenish their exhausted coffers. So frequent were these calls that the English clergy found them very burdensome, and protested vigorously, but to very little effect. Numerous protests also arose in England over the Papal nominations of for eigners to English benefices, which hail resulted in many abuses.
The clergy, as a rule, were treated harshly by Edward I., whose pecuniary exactions from them led to continued irritation. Under Edward 11., the limits between the ecclesiastical and civil jurisdictions were defined by the statute called Artieuli Cleri. By the statute of Prmmunire, passed in the reign of Edward III. (in 1351), the nationality of the Church of England was for the first time recognized and guaranteed by civil law. To this period belong Wiclif and the
Lollards, whose influence upon the Reformation is well known.
Throughout the fourteenth century, the popes continued to assert their authority in various ways, but the great schism of the Nest, which divided Christendom over the claims of rival popes, greatly weakened the prestige and author ity of the Roman Pontiffs in England as well as elsewhere in Europe. In England the duration of the schism had allowed the statutes of pra munire to be executed with but little opposition. The ecclesiastical confusions resulting from this schism contributed much to prepare the way for the religious changes of the sixteenth century. In treating of that period technically styled the Reformation (q.v.), one must not eonfine the review to the reign of Henry VIII. The movement extended also over the three subse quent reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. That some kind of reformation was greatly needed, in the interests of both Church and State, was generally admitted. There was, however, much difference of opinion as to how it could best be accomplished. so many were in terested in the work, and with such a variety of motives, it is not surprising that the results should have had about them a mixture of good and bad. Among the chief points to which the reformers took exception were the Papal su premacy, enforced clerical celibacy, worship of images, invocation of saints. indulgences, com pulsory auricular confession, and transubstan tiation. When Henry VIII. became wearied of the delay on (lie part of the Pope (Clement VII.) in granting him a divorce from Catharine of Aragon, his brother's widow, lie appealed to Cranmer, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, who, in concurrence with many divines and casuists and several European universities, declared the marriage null and void (1533). His opinion was also approved by the English Convocation. Henry then mar vied Anne 'Boleyn, and presently the Pope pronounced his first marriage lawful, and excommunieated him for adultery. The King now turned a deaf ear to Rom e's anathema, and Parliament proceeded, under royal command, to enact laws formally renouncing the Papal supremacy. Convocation (which then met simultaneously with the Parliament, that ec clesiastical laws might receive the joint sanc tion of the two bodies) concurred in this action. An appeal was made from the Pope to a General Council, and in its course the assertion was made that "the Bishop of Rome hath not any more authority conferred upon him by God in Holy Scripture, in the realm of Eng land, than any other foreign bishop." Doubtless, many of the clergy were moved to this action not so much by their real sentiments as by dread of death if they demurred. Under the auspices of Crannier, and with the King's approval, an English version of the Bible was published.