THE PAPAL LEGATE AND THE CLERKS OF OXFORD (1238).
Source.—Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, vol. i., pp. 126-129. (Bohn's Libraries.)
At this time, the legate, having come to Oxford, and been received with the highest honour, as was due to him, was entertained in the house of the canons, which was at Oseney Abbey, where the scholar-clerks before breakfast-time sent him an honourable present, in the way of meat and drink, and after breakfast proceeded to his place of abode to pay their salutation to him, and to visit him out of respect. On their approach, however, a transalpine porter, with unbecoming and improper raillery, raising his voice after the manner of the Romans, and holding the door a little open, said: "What do you want?" To which the clerks replied: "We want his lordship the legate, that we may pay our respects to him;" for they confidently believed that they would receive honour for honour. The doorkeeper, however, with taunting speeches, saucily refused admittance to them all, with haughtiness and abuse; on seeing which, the clerks rushed forward with impetuosity, and forced their way in, whilst the Roman attendants, in their endeavours to keep them back, struck them with their fists and sticks. Whilst the contending parties were engaged in repeated blows and taunts, it happened that a poor Irish chaplain was standing at the door of the kitchen, and had earnestly besought for something to be given to him in God's name, after the custom of a poor and hungry man, when the master of the legate's cooks (who was also his brother, and whom he had placed at the head of that office, that no poison might be given to him, which he, the legate, greatly feared) heard him, but paid no heed to his request; and, becoming angry with the poor man, threw in his face some boiling water drawn from the caldron where fat meat was being cooked. At this injury to the poor man, one of the clerks, a native of the Welsh borders, cried out: "Shame on us to endure anything like this!" and drew a bow which he carried (for, as the tumult had increased, some of the clerks had seized on whatever came to hand), and by an arrow discharged from it, himself pierced the body of the cook (whom the clerks satirically called "Nabuzardan," which means chief of the cooks). On the fall of the dead man a cry was raised, hearing which the legate was astounded, and, struck with fear, which can overtake the boldest man, he betook himself to the tower of the church, clad in his canonical hood, and secured the doors behind him. When the darkness of the night had put an end to the tumult, he put off his canonical dress, quickly mounted his best horse, and under the guidance of some persons who knew the most private fords, crossed the river at the nearest part to him, although with much danger, for the purpose of flying under the protection of the King's wings as soon as possible; for the clerks, carried away by rage, continued to seek for the legate in the most secret hiding-places, crying out: "Where is that simoniacal usurer, that plunderer of revenues, and thirster for money, who perverts the King, subverts the kingdom, and enriches foreigners with spoil taken from us?"... Having crossed the river with much trouble (as above mentioned), and with only a few attendants, owing to the difficulty of the passage, the rest remaining concealed in the convent, the legate came to the King breathless, and in a state of alarm, and with sighs and tears interrupting his discourse, he explained to the King, as well as his attendants, the series of events which had happened, making a serious complaint in the matter. The King was astonished at his pitiable story, and sympathised much with him, and sent the Earl of Warrenne with an armed troop to Oxford, with all haste, to rescue the Romans who were lying concealed there, and to arrest the scholars; amongst the latter, one Master Odo, a lawyer, was roughly seized, and, together with thirty others, was ignominiously consigned to close imprisonment in the Castle of Wallingford, near Oxford; whilst the legate, thus liberated from the broken snare, summoned some of the Bishops, laid Oxford under an interdict, and excommunicated all the abettors of this enormous offence. The prisoners were then, at the instance of the legate, conveyed in carts, like robbers, to London, and were there committed to close confinement, after being deprived of their incomes, and bound by the anathema....
At length it was suggested to the legate, by the Bishops and the whole of the clergy, that the dispute took its risk from his own dependants; but at the end of the dispute the clergy got the worst of it, for, by his orders, a great portion of them were committed to prison; the rest of them, in obedience to his orders, were ready humbly to make submission, at a place about three days' journey from Oxford; to these, on the petition of so many great men, his mind ought to be inclined to mercy. At length it was arranged that the legate would grant this mercy, on condition that all the scholars there assembled should proceed on foot, in company with the Bishops, also on foot, from St. Paul's Church, which was nearly a mile distant from the abode of the legate, until they reached the abode of the Bishop of Carlisle, and from thence should go, without hoods and cloaks, and barefooted, to the abode of the legate, where they would humbly ask pardon, which would be granted them, and they would become reconciled. This was done; and the legate, seeing this humiliation, received them again into his favour, restored the University to its municipal site, mercifully withdrew the interdict, with the sentence of excommunication, and granted them letters that, on this account, no stain of disgrace should at any time be thrown on them.