The encroachment of the civil power, both in England and France, was bitterly felt by the popes.

Boniface VIII endeavored to stem the flood by the bull _Clericis laicos_ [Sidenote: 1296] forbidding the taxation of clergy by any secular government, and the bull _Unam Sanctam_ [Sidenote: 1302] asserting the universal monarchy of the Roman pontiff in the strongest possible terms.

But these exorbitant claims were without effect.

The Statute of Provisors [Sidenote: 1351 and 1390] forbade the appointment to English benefices by the pope, and the Statute of Praemunire [Sidenote: 1353 and 1393] took away the right of {42} English subjects to appeal from the courts of their own country to Rome.

The success of Wyclif's movement was largely due to his patriotism.