[1] [2] Furthermore, bicause the pope vnderstood, that di|uerse rich beneficed men were of late dead in Eng|land intestate, as Robert Hailes the archdeacon of Lincolne, Almerike the archdeacon of Bedford, and Iohn Hotospe archdeacon of Northhampton, he ordeined a decrée,A decrée of the pope. that all such spirituall per|sons [page 239] as died intestate, their goods should remaine to the pope. The execution of which decrée he comman|ded to the friers preachers and minors but the king would not suffer it to take place, bicause he saw that it should redound to the preiudice of him and his kingdome. Wherein the popes oppression and wrong offered to the dead (by whose deceasse their suruiuing fréends should be benefited) and his cruell couetous|nes extending to the verie senseles corpse dooth ma|nifestlie appeare, so that it is verified of him, by waie of comparison,

Carniuorax tumidis vt gaudet hyaena sepulchris,

Sic instat putidis ille cadaueribus.

Also, where the pope required a talage of the clergie, the king flatlie forbad it by his letters inhibitorie.