The scourge of Papal taxation fell heavier on the clergy.

After vain appeals to Rome and to the king, Archbishop Edmund retired to an exile of despair at Pontigny, and tax-gatherer after tax-gatherer with powers of excommunication, suspension from orders, and presentation to benefices, descended on the unhappy priesthood.

The wholesale pillage kindled a wide spirit of resistance.

Oxford gave the signal by hunting a Papal legate out of the city amid cries of "usurer" and "simoniac" from the mob of students.

Fulk Fitz-Warenne in the name of the barons bade a Papal collector begone out of England.