Letter Queen Alice of France to Pope Alexander III, 1168

Letter Queen Alice , Consort of Louis VII King of France, to Pope Alexander III, 1168

From
Albert L'Huillier (1892). Saint Thomas de Cantorbéry. Volume 2. V. Palmé. pp. 116–.
https://archive.org/details/saintthomasdecan02lhui/page/116

Translated from the French

I speak to you as a lord and a father whose honour is as dear to my lord the King and to myself as our own honour. We have received you indeed for father and lord; for God and for you we have despised the friendship of kings who shudder around us and seek only your downfall. Deign therefore to listen to your daughter, and not to despise her words as a woman's words, but to hear them as those of a loving and devoted daughter. Last year a serious scandal was caused in the Gallican Church by John of Oxford, whose perjury had so easily triumphed over the Roman Church. After him came two cardinals, whose good works are still a mystery in this country; and please God that we should not speak of the wicked! The scandals have been multiplied. Now, by his last agents, the King of England has obtained letters patent [papal bulls], which one would like to believe to be false, and by which you take from the Archbishop of Canterbury, exiled for four years for justice, all power to enact no sentence against the King and his kingdom, to strike any person with his estates, until that day Archbishop [Thomas], it says, is returned to grace, O my father, these letters do they not seem to give to the King of England the right to sin with impunity and to hold the Archbishop in exile eternally? For henceforth [they say] he remains free to receive him or not to receive him in grace. So the Church has been scandalized in our country to the point that we cannot imagine greater trouble, because a bad precedent has thus been created for princes. My lord the King, to whom you have confided about the Archbishop, is greatly irritated, because your sentence, if you hold it, comes to slaughter the innocence between his royal hands. Consternation is by all the kingdom, because our enemies have prevailed with you. My lord the King is still waiting for the fulfillment of your promises; and if he does not see it promptly, he will know, he and his descendants, what he must hope for from the Roman Church. Farewell, most holy and dear father; dare to help the Archbishop [Thomas] of Canterbury.

Extract from
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Oxford,_John_of_(DNB00)

Protests reached Rome from every quarter against this change in the papal attitude; but the dean of Salisbury returned in triumph, boasting everywhere of his success (Materials, vi. 246 et passim). 'Gravissimum in ecclesia Gallicana scandalum fecit Johannes de Oxeneford qui suo perjurio de Romana tam facile triumphavit,' wrote Alice, queen of Louis VII, to the pope (ib. p. 468). In England he was still more vigorous in action. In January 1167 he had an interview with the king in Guienne, and was sent into England. Landing at Southampton, he found the Bishop of Hereford waiting to cross over to Becket. 'On finding him he forbade him to proceed, first in the name of the king, and then of the pope. The bishop then inquired .. . whether he had any letters to that purpose. He asserted that he had, and that the pope forbade him and the other bishops as well either to attend [Becket's] summons or obey [him] in any particular until the arrival of a legate de latere domini papie. . . . The bishop insisted on seeing the letters; but he said that he had sent them on with his baggage to Winchester. . . . When the Bishop of London saw the letters, he cried aloud as if unable to restrain himself, “Then Thomas shall no more be my archbishop”' (ib. vi. 151-2).

Notes
At least one of the members of the Papal Curia in Rome was corrupt and venal. Henry had obtained by means of gold a papal bull which suspended the powers of the archbishop of Canterbury from issuing interdicts and excommunicating the king himself. The bull was, in fact, authentic. But under what circumstances hadit been written and how had it got into circulation? In reality Pope Alexander III had entrusted it to the members of an earlier papal commission who had been directed to keep it secret, and only to deliver it after they had established a definite change in the conduct of the king, and if by its publication it could establish a climate of peace.

Letter of John of Salisbury to Master Lombard of Piacenza, Summer 1168

Extract from

Peters, Mary Josephine, "Historical Background and Translation of Letters 245-291 of John of Salisbury" (1943). Master's Theses. Paper 318 p.41-. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/318/


John narrates the happenings at the conference of the French and English Kings at La Ferté-Bernard on July 1-2, 1168, and the subsequent boasts of King Henry. He also relates the opinions of the French on the scandalous machinations of the Cardinals John of Naples and John of Sutri. ... He [King Henry ii] even boasted of having such friends in the court [Papal Curia] who would void all efforts of tbe Archbishop of Canterbury. They are so zealous in promoting his business, that not a single petition could be submitted or anything asked which is hot sent to him by his friends~ We know the names of those whose advice he follows and what they recently demanded in the court, that the cause of God and the poor of Christ are sold out at a cheap price; and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them. Would that those ounces of gold never existed, by which those were led to fa11l8 who should have been pillars of the Church! The King was so elated over his triumph that no secret was made in his own home who the Cardinals were that did not receive any of that obnoxious and base gold, or who they were that saw how it was doled out, to some more, to others less in proportion as they merited more or less in their subversion of justice.
A fact that did not escape the notice of the King of the French was that the messenger of Bishop John of Naples went over from his camp to the King of England and certain persecutors of the Church, while we were at Montmirail. When the religious who are on the side of the King of Bngland heard the above-mentioned letter, they grieved very much and called down curses upon John of Naples and lohn of SS. John and Pau1 who were said to have fooled the Lord Pope. Master Geoffrey of Poitiers, a priest of Lord William Cardinal, did not consent with the plan and acts of the King's messengers, since he is looking for the kingdom of God. He openly protested that they were condemned by an anathema, b~cause they had sworn that the command ot the Lord Pope would be kept secret, and because the Lord Pope had.en~oined upon them by virtue ot obedience and under an anathema that it be kept secret. To make us despicable Betore all and to remove the comfort ot friends, who almost despair ot our peace, they together with their King praise the victories of their own malice and glory over the distress ot the Church. Would that the ears ot the Cardinals were at the mouths ot the French to whom the proverb ot this phrase might opportunely be applied: "The princes ot the Church are faithless; they are companions ot thieves." For they permit and give power to persecutors ot the Church to strike, to rob, and pillage the patrimony ot the Crucified, to share in damnable gain. Would that you, too, listened to the most Christian King who I fear cannot be recalled any more without bringing about the marriage between their children at the request ot the Emperor [Barbarosa] ...





References

Gilbertus Episcopus Londoniensis Foliot (1845). Epistolae (etc.): 23-24  Epistola DIX. Parker. pp. 312–.
James Craigie Robertson (15 November 2012). 

Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (Canonized by Pope Alexander III, AD 1173). Volume 6. Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-1-108-04930-6.
-- MTB 440 https://archive.org/details/materialsforhist06robe/page/468
-- MTB 331 https://archive.org/details/materialsforhist06robe/page/245

Saint Thomas Becket; Anne Duggan tr and ed (2000). The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162-1170: Letters 1-175. Volume 1. Letter CTB 150 Thomas Becket to Pope Alexander III, ca 11 Dec 1167: Clarendon Press. pp. 694–. ISBN 978-0-19-820892-1.


Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter X John of Oxford's Proceedings at the Court of Rome: publisher not identified. pp. 233–.


Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XI Arrival of the Legates: publisher not identified. pp. 254–.

Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XIV Suspension of the Archbishop: publisher not identified. pp. 333–.

Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XV Conferences at Montmirail: publisher not identified. pp. 365–.

John Morris; Saint Thomas (à Becket) (1859). The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Etc. Chapter XXIV The Cardinal Legates. pp. 214–.

John Morris; Saint Thomas (à Becket) (1859). The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Etc. Chapter XXV Meanwhile. pp. 227–.

Elizabeth Missing Sewell (1876). Popular History of France: Fr. the Earliest Period to the Death of Louis XIV. Longmans, Green, and Company. pp. 92–.

Michael Staunton (7 December 2001). The Lives of Thomas Becket. 37. Conference at Montmirail 6th January 1169: Manchester University Press. pp. 154–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5455-6.

Michael Staunton (7 December 2001). The Lives of Thomas Becket. 36. Conference between Gisors and Trie 18 November 1167: Manchester University Press. pp. 150–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5455-6.

John Thomas Noonan (1987). Bribes. Bribing the Cardinals: University of California Press. pp. 168–. ISBN 978-0-520-06154-5.