Thus spoke a bishop to his pontiff: his obedience to the word of God forbade him to obey the pope. This was the principle of the Reformation. "Who is this old driveller that in his dotage dares to judge of my conduct?" exclaimed Innocent, whose wrath was appeased by the intervention of certain cardinals. Grostête on his dying bed professed still more clearly the principles of the reformers; he declared that a heresy was "an opinion conceived by carnal motives, _contrary to Scripture_, openly taught and obstinately defended," thus asserting the authority of Scripture instead of the authority of the church. He died in peace, and the public voice proclaimed him "a searcher of the Scriptures, an adversary of the pope, and despiser of the Romans."[146] Innocent, desiring to take vengeance on his bones, meditated the exhumation of his body, when one night (says Matthew of Paris) the bishop appeared before him. Drawing near the pontiff's bed, he struck him with his crosier, and thus addressed him with terrible voice and threatening look:[147] "Wretch! the Lord doth not permit thee to have any power over me. Woe be to thee!" The vision disappeared, and the pope, uttering a cry as if he had been struck by some sharp weapon, lay senseless on his couch. Never after did he pass a quiet night, and pursued by the phantoms of his troubled imagination, he expired while the palace re-echoed with his lamentable groans. [146] Scripturarum sedulus perscrutator diversarum, Romanorum malleus et contemptor. (Matth. Paris, vol. ii, p. 876, fol. Lond. 1640.) A thorough searcher of the various Scriptures, a hammer to and a despiser of the Romans. Sixteen of his writings (Sermones et epistolæ) will be found in _Brown_, _app. ad Fasciculum_. [147] Nocte apparuit ei episcopos vultu severo, intuitu austero, ac voce terribili. Ibid. 883. [Sidenote: OPPOSITION TO THE POPE.] Grostête was not single in his opposition to the pope. Sewal, archbishop of York, did the same, and "the more the pope cursed him, the more the people blessed him."[148]--"Moderate your tyranny," said the archbishop to the pontiff, "for the Lord said to Peter, _Feed_ my sheep, and not _shear them_, _flay them_, or _devour them_."[149] The pope smiled and let the bishop speak, because the king allowed the pope to act. The power of England, which was constantly increasing, was soon able to give more force to these protests. [148] Quanto magis a papa maledicebatur, tanto plus a populo benedicebatur. Ibid. ad ann. 1257. [149] _Pasce_ oves meas, non _tonde_, non _excoria_, non _eviscera_, vel devorando _consume_. Ibid. ad ann. 1258.