The English Church was indeed at his mercy. Boniface of Canterbury lived abroad, and was completely in the Papal interest, the Archbishopric of York was vacant, the Bishops of Winchester and Hereford were creatures of the King. Henry himself was acting in complete harmony with the Pope, who had several times granted him a tenth from the clergy, and had given him the incomes of all vacant benefices, and of intestates. The Church was driven into close union with the rapidly rising baronial opposition, and was obliged to regard its temporalities as ordinary baronies. Scotland and Wales were again becoming troublesome, and the lukewarmness of the English Barons prevented successful resistance to their inroads. To add to the difficulties of England, 1257 was a year of fearful want. The weather was so bad that the harvest stood rotting in the fields even in November. Wheat rose from two shillings to fifteen or twenty the quarter. The harvest of 1258 promised to be as bad. Thousands were dying of hunger.[36] And when, in the midst of this misery, the Pope’s Legate (who in 1257 had stated the amount of debt to the Pope to be 136,000 marks, and had succeeded in wringing 52,000 marks from the clergy) repeated his demand the following year, and threatened an interdict unless the debt was at once paid, Englishmen of all classes felt that the time for action had arrived, and, taking advantage of the absence of the Earl of Cornwall, who was abroad attempting to make good his election to the German Empire, the Barons assembled at a Parliament held at Westminster determined upon reform. [Sidenote: Parliament at Westminster.] It was a stormy scene. William de Valence and Simon de Montfort almost came to blows. William spoke of Montfort as “an old traitor, and the son of a traitor.” “No, no,” said Simon, “I am no traitor, nor traitor’s son; my father was very different from yours,” referring to the constant treasons of the old Count de la Marche. He then poured out his grievances, the squandering of the royal property on favourites, the folly, in the face of such financial difficulties, of accepting the Sicilian throne, and the admission of Papal legates to rob the clergy. At length a sort of compromise was arrived at, and aid was promised if the Pope would lower his demands, and the King on his side promised reform, a promise to which several of his chief favourites had to put their signatures. The King also pledged himself to give full consideration to the Barons’ demands at a Parliament to be assembled at Oxford at Whitsuntide, and to leave the question at issue to be decided by a commission of twelve from either side, whose verdict should be final. [Sidenote: Mad Parliament. 1258.] [Sidenote: Provisions of Oxford.]