The Peasants' Revolt was the first sign of growing discontent with the
state.*During the next century discontent with the Church also grew. There had
already been a few attacks on Church property in towns controlled by the
Church. In 1381 one rebel priest had called for the removal of all bishops and
archbishops, as well as all the nobles.
The greed of the Church was one obvious reason for its unpopularity. The
Church was a feudal power, and often treated its peasants and townspeople with
as much cruelty as the nobles did. There was another reason why the people of
England disliked paying taxes to the pope. Edward's wars in France were
beginning to make the English conscious of their "Englishness" and
the pope was a foreigner. To make matters worse the pope had been driven out of
Rome, and was living in Avignon in France. It seemed obvious to the English
that the pope must be on the French side, and that the taxes they paid to the
Church were actually helping France against England. This was a matter on which
the king and people in England agreed. The king reduced the amount of tax money
the pope could raise in Britain, and made sure that most of it found its way
into his own treasury instead.
