Interference of the Pope
In the same secret manner, he furnished them with a bull, to be made public if circumstances so required, by which Robert Bruce and his brother Edward were declared excommunicated persons. The pope also directed another bull against the order of Minorite Friars, who, by their discourses, had instigated the Irish to join the" Scottish invaders, and rise in rebellion against the English government. These attempts to deprive him of his just rights, and to overawe him into peace, were met by a firm resistance on the part of Bruce; who, placed in a trying and delicate situation, evinced, in his opposition to the papal interference, a remarkable union of unshaken courage, with sound judgment and good temper, contriving to maintain the independence of his crown; whilst, at the same time, he professed all due respect for the authority of his spiritual father, as head of the church.Charged with their important commissions, the cardinals arrived in England at the time when Lewis de Beaumont was about to be consecrated Bishop of Durham. Their first step was to despatch two nuncios, the Bishop of Corbeil and Master Aumery, who were intrusted with the delivery of the papal letters to the Scottish king, and with the bulls of excommunication. As Durham lay on their road, Master Aumery and his brother nuncio set out with the bishop elect, and a splendid suite of churchmen and barons, intending to be present at the inauguration. But it proved an ill-fated journey for these unfortunate envoys. The Borders at this time were in a wild and disorderly state. Many of the gentry and barons of England, as already noticed, had entered into armed associations for the defence of the marches, against the destructive inroads of the Scots; but the habits of loose warfare, the extremities of famine, and the unpopularity of the king's person and government, had, in the course of years, transformed themselves and their soldiers into robbers who mercilessly ravaged the country.