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DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP GEOFFRY. 139
in London. In York, we are told, he made many
converts. He repeated his counsel about the almsdish
on the table at meals, and urged the setting up
of trunks or coffers in all parish churches to receive
the offerings of the faithful for the relief of the poor
and needy ; and he urgently impressed upon them
the sin they committed by buying and selling their
wares in the churches, or their porches of entrance.
The Lord's Day was to be reckoned from the ninth
hour of Saturday until sunrise on Monday.
When John became king on the death of his
brother Richard in 1199, the relations between him
and Archbishop Geoffry were at first friendly.
But dissensions soon arose. One quarrel followed
another, alternating with temporary periods of amity.
At last an irreparable breach took place when John
demanded a thirteenth of movables from the whole
country. When the proposition for levying this
obnoxious tax was laid before the council, it was
vigorously resisted by Geoffry, but the king persisted
in exacting it. The Archbishop excommunicated
those who attempted to collect it within the
northern province. But he appears to have found
that the attitude he had taken was not unlikely to
endanger his own personal safety, for he soon afterwards
left England, retiring probably to Normandy,
where he had considerable possessions which had
been given him by his father. In Normandy he
died, in 12 12. When he left England the king took
possession of the temporalities of the see, and
they were retained by him until the appointment of
Geoffry's successor.