Pope Honorius having formerly courted King Henry with a grant of a competent Subsidy from the Clergy to supply his necessities, soon after discovered his design therein, by dispatching Otto his Legate into England with Letters to the King for his own filthy lucre; the King knowing their contents, refused to give him any answer alone, it concerning the whole Church and Kingdom of England, but only in a Par∣liamentary Council of his Prelates and Nobles; thus related by Matthew Paris.
EOdem Anno, Magister Otto, Domini Papae Nuncius, in Angliam veniens; pro* 1.1 magnis Ecclesiae Romanae negotiis Regi Literas praesentavit: Sed Rex cognito Literarum tenore, respondit, quod solus non potuit diffinire, nec debuit, negotium quod omnes Clericos et Laicos generaliter totius Regni tangebat. Tunc per consilium Stephani Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, datus est dies a Rege in octavis Epiphaniae; ut convocatis omnibus Clericis et Laicis, super praefato negotio tunc tractarent apud Westmonasterium, et ibi∣dem fieret quod justum singulis videretur.
In the mean time the Pope and his Legate, bribed by Falcatius, made intercession for him to the King, for his return into England, from * 1.2 whence he was judicially ba∣nished, adjured, and restitution to his Wife, and what lands and goods he had lost.