OUTLAWRY AND EXCOMMUNICATION: JANUARY TO JULY 1297

The ecclesiastical council, at which a decision had to be made about a grant to the king, met at St Paul's London on 13 January 1297. That Winchelsey had issued mandates for the publication of ‘Clericis laicos’ before the council serves to emphasise his acceptance of the bull. But he had proceeded with caution. Although the bull had been discussed in the parliament of early November, the surviving mandates of the archbishop for its publication in the dioceses of his province are dated 10 December, 5 and 11 January. And the responsibility for publication had apparently been handed down from the bishops to the archdeacons and from the archdeacons to the rural deans so that the bull, in some dioceses at least, may have received hardly any proper publication. One main reason for reluctance to publish is clear enough. Could the bishops actually enforce the bull? There are no indications that Winchelsey in any way questioned that the bull should be obeyed, but he knew of the dangers which lay ahead. He no doubt realised that he would get some support from the prelates and clergy of his province. Bishop Sutton of Lincoln, on 26 December, ordered that the collection in his diocese of the arrears of the moiety of 1294 and of the tenth of 1295 should cease.