...It is IMPOSSIBLE to have a council without the Pope.
Acts 15.
They were countries, the Church didn't own them. ...
"... Another point to be noted is that both before and after the surrender of the kingdom by King John, who made England the fief of the Holy See (see ENGLAND), a certain confusion seems sometimes to have existed between Peterspence and the feudal tribute, called in Latin census, which was paid as the price of the papal protection. ..." - (Roman Catholic Online Encyclopedia) - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Peterspence
"... Henry at the beginning of his reign seems to have been well viewed in Rome, and believing, as the present writer does, that the Bull "Laudabiliter" is unquestionably genuine (see ADRIAN IV, and cf. "The Month", May and June, 1906), the religious mission entrusted to the king, no doubt upon his own representations, in the proposed conquest of Ireland, bears a close resemblance to the pretext advanced for William the Conqueror's invasion of Great Britain. In both cases, also, the Roman pontiff seems to have claimed dominion, granting the land to the invader as a fief upon payment of a certain tribute. The fact, that, according to the Bull "Laudabiliter", Henry himself had admitted (quod tua etiam nobilitas recognoscit) that "Ireland and all other islands upon which Christ, the Sun of Justice, has shone belong to the prerogative of St. Peter and the Holy Roman Church", deserves to be borne in mind in connection with King John's formal surrender of his kingdom to the Holy See at a later date. ..." - (Roman Catholic Online Encyclopedia) - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: England (Before the Reformation)
"... Under these circumstances John made his submission to the legate, Pandulf, promising to receive all the exiled bishops and to make restitution for the injuries and losses the Church had sustained. A few days later, on 13 May, the vigil of the Ascension, 1213, he went even further, for he surrendered his crown and kingdom into the hands of the legate to be received back from him as a fief which he and his successors were to hold of the pope for an annual rent of one thousand marks. It is not unnatural, perhaps, that this transaction should have been denounced by historians in the language of unmeasured indignation. Even Lingard in his day described it as "heaping everlasting infamy on the memory of John", but the considerations he puts forward in extenuation of the act have not been without weight with later students. ..." - (Roman Catholic Online Encyclopedia) - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: England (Before the Reformation)
"... King John’s surrender of his realm in 1213 was symbolised by his agreement to pay an annual tribute to the pope of 1,000 marks (£666). This tribute was paid, albeit irregularly, into the 1290s.
However, kings Edward I and Edward II, John’s grandson and great-grandson, found themselves increasingly at odds with the papacy, partly over their rights to collect their own taxes from the English church and also over the pope’s partisan support for the kings of France. As a result, no tribute was paid in the 30 years before 1330. The last payment ever recorded was a token £1,000 from Edward III in 1333, in expectation of papal favours.
Thereafter, although papal requests were regularly transmitted for settlement, no money was forthcoming. In 1365 parliament debated the latest papal request and concluded that John’s original surrender of the realm had been invalid since it had lacked the assent of the bishops. This marked the formal end to English recognition of the pope’s sovereignty.
However two further facts need to be borne in mind. Since Anglo-Saxon times,
a levy known as Peter’s Pence had been paid by England to Rome, described as ‘census’ and implying subjection to the papacy, albeit collected from the English church rather than from the king.
This ‘census’ was still being paid as late as 1534, on the very eve of Henry VIII’s final breach with Rome. Secondly, before John’s actions of 1213, there were rumours, in England as well as Rome, suggesting that John’s father, King Henry II, had already acknowledged the pope not merely as his spiritual ruler
but also as his feudal overlord. The papacy itself has never formally resigned its claim to tribute, census or overlordship.
As a result – and factoring in inflation and compound interest – the amount of money owed in tribute from 1300 onwards would represent a sum that entirely dwarfs the national debt or the other liabilities of the English crown, were the pope, perhaps on his next visit to England, to obtain full settlement of arrears.
Answered by: Professor Nicholas Vincent, University of East Anglia ..." -
When did the pope rule England?
"... Under mounting political pressure, John finally negotiated terms for a reconciliation, and the papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the
papal legate Pandulf Verraccio in May 1213 at the
Templar Church at
Dover.
[178] As
part of the deal, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to the papacy for a feudal service of 1,000 marks (equivalent to £666 at the time) annually: 700 marks (£466) for England and 300 marks (£200) for Ireland, as well as recompensing the church for revenue lost during the crisis.
[179] The agreement was formalised in the
Bulla Aurea, or Golden
Bull. ..." -
John, King of England - Wikipedia
