Excerpt from An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Vol. 4 of 9: Chiefly of England, From the First Planting of Christianity, to the End of the Reign of King Charles the Second; With a Brief Account of the Affairs of Religion in Ireland The year following, the king, in his writs, directed to the archbishops and bishops, takes notice the pope had attempted to tax the English clergy, and ordered the bishops to assist in levying the money. His majesty complains of this as a new and unwarrantable imposition; that' the parliament had ad dressed him upon this head, and made a provision against such demands. He therefore requires the lords spiritual, under the highest forfeitures, to desist from executing the pope's bull, and not contribute themselves in the least proportion for that purpose. The last thing I shall observe under this prince is his majesty's writ issued to the high sheriff of Devonshire, and to the mayor and bailiffs of Exeter, to support the chapter of that see in the free choice of a bishop; and that those who dis turb the election should be committed. This order was sent to prevent the pope's provision from taking place. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.