york00orns

142 YORK.
pope to dispose of vacant benefices. It was constantly
urged by the legates. It was a gradual and stealthy
process by which this abuse crept in. In the first
instance individuals were recommended, but preces
soon became matidata, and now, in the thirteenth
century, the pope's commands on the subject were
issued in the most peremptory manner. Preferment
after preferment was given in this way to foreigners,
chiefly Italians. The lists of incumbents of many of
the Yorkshire benefices, and particularly those of the
occupants of stalls in the Minster, show unmistakably
how persistently the claim was made. So strong was
the feeling in Yorkshire against this system, especially
with reference to its interference with the rights of
lay patrons, that an outbreak took place, headed by
a knight called Robert de Thweng, for the purpose
of seizing upon certain benefices held by these
strangers—a proceeding which Gregory IX. took
much to heart, and issued a commission to Archbishop
Gray, the bishop of Durham, and John Romanus,
treasurer of York, to excommunicate the
offenders. Romanus himself was one of the sufferers,
and had been in considerable peril. The system had
become too deeply rooted for Gray to do much
against it. The only point he seems to have gained
was to be released from the obligation of attending
to such papal provisions as were not specially directed
to himself; a system having crept in of the pope
claiming the right to present to benefices vacated by
the death of such of their occupants as died at the
papal court, a thing which very often happened. But
the intrusion of foreigners into English benefices