for such misconduct of temporal princes as excommunicated, it was no longer lawful would entirely justify pontifical severities, to act in his name.

if it were possible to forget the motives for The laity, however, disregarded these their infliction, and the consequences of fulminations; which so little lessened their success. John's strength, that the only successful

A dispute had for some time subsisted, expeditions of his reign, those against whether the archbishop of Canterbury was Ireland and Wales, occurred during the to be chosen by the monks of St. Augus- period of his proscription by the Roman tin's abbey in that city, or by the suffragan see. bishops of the province. Under this form

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Moved by this firmness, Innocent sent the important question was hidden, whether two legates, Pandolph and Durand, into the nomination was to be in the king or the England. They were admitted to an audipope; for the bishops were very accessible ence of the king at a parliament holden at to the influence of the crown, and the Northampton; and they dared to declare to monks, according to the genius of their him in full parliament, that he was bound order, were devoted to Rome. John re- to obey the holy see as much in temporal solved to raise the bishop of Norwich to affairs as in the concerns of religion. John the primacy; and, when he allowed the refused so monstrous a submission. The monks to make a journey to Rome, had daring legate pronounced sentence of exobliged them to swear that they would re- communication against him with a loud cognize none but that prelate as archbishop. voice, released his people from their oaths When the news of Hubert's death reached of allegiance, degraded him from his regal Rome, Innocent absolved them from an dignity, and declared himself and his posoath which he held it criminal to exact, terity to be for ever excluded from the and commanded them, under pain of the throne. On this occasion, a circumstance heaviest censures, to proceed to an imme- is related* of John which almost surpasses diate election. They chose Stephen Lang-belief. Desirous of intimidating Pandolph, ton, who in the sequel proved himself wor- he ordered a number of prisoners to be thy of the highest stations. John, incensed brought before him, to whom quarters must at this proceeding, took possession of the have been given, and who probably were monastery at Canterbury, seized on its es- either Irishmen or Welshmen, who had tates, and banished the remaining monks. fought for their country under their native He angrily reproached the pope for pre- princes. The king commanded one part of sumption and ingratitude; declared that he them to be hanged, another part to be blindwould sacrifice his life for the rights of his ed, and a third to have their feet chopped kingdom; and announced his determina-off. All these operations were performed tion, if the wrong were not immediately in the presence of Pandolph. He remainrepaired, to break off all intercourse with ed unmoved. But when it was ordered Rome. Innocent was not slow in maintain- that a priest charged with forgery should ing his authority. He laid all John's do- be hanged, the legate's wrath was suddenly minions under an interdict, which, in spite roused. He instantly rushed out of the of John's menaces, was published at Lon- apartment in quest of a candle in order to don on the 23d of March (1208), by the perform his excommunications, and was apbishops of London, Ely, and Worcester. peased only by the surrender of the priest From that moment all churches were shut, into his hands. On the return of the legates, and all the rites of religion were forbidden, in the next year, Innocent solemnly ratifiwith the exception of the baptism of infants, ed all their proceedings against John. In and of the confession, absolution, and unc- a short time afterwards, the pope committion of the dying. To prohibit a great na- ted the execution of his final and irrevocation to perform any office of religion, or to ble sentence to Philip king of France, enter into the most important relations of whom he assured of the pardon of his sins life, was not, however, accounted the last if he executed this pious purpose, and extremity of papal displeasure. After in- promised to grant the kingdom of England flexibly maintaining the interdict for two when it was delivered by his hands from an years, Innocent proceeded to excommuni- impure and unnatural oppressor of the cate, and, by consequence, to depose, the church. On the 21st of April, 1213, Philip king. As the excommunication reached all commanded a great army to assemble at who had any intercourse with him, it Rouen, whence they were to march to amounted to the annihilation of govern- Boulogne, where an armament of sevenment, law, and property, the impunity of teen hundred vessels was prepared to concrimes, and the destruction of all contracts vey and guard them. John collected a large and dealings. Jeffrey archdeacon of Nor- army at Dover. He had every outward wich, one of the barons of the exchequer, declared on the bench that, as the king was

* Ann. Waverleienses, ad. ann. 1212, apud Quinque Scriptores, 175.

means of defence. But he was known to vessels had gone ashore to plunder. The be without spirit and manliness. Pandolph mariners who rowed and steered them dispatched a knight templar from the French were surprised by the English, who made coast to practise on his fears. These men, prize of three hundred vessels, and burnt who visited all the western and some east- one hundred, with the whole ammunition ern courts, were not without diplomatic ad- and provision of the French army. These dress and insinuation. The legate, who battles, between soldiers embarked on boats followed them privately, filled John with which were navigated by seamen or fisherdismay, by magnifying the French force, men, were not what are called in modern and truly representing the general and language maritime engagements. This acvery just disaffection of the English barons. tion, however, obliged Philip to abandon The trembling king implored the protection his attack, and may be thought curious, as of Rome, whatever submission it might the first conflict on the sea between the cost. The legate assured him that the su- two nations. preme pontiff would require nothing which The issue of the next campaign on the was not absolutely necessary either to the continent was very different. John landed honor of the church or to the safety of the at Rochelle to carry the war into his former king himself. He proposed to withdraw dominions of Poitou, where he boasted of the excommunication immediately, on con- some advantages. But they were reduced dition of John's promising to receive Lang- to insignificance by the event of the invaton, with all the bishops and clergy who sion on the side of Flanders, where the emacknowledged him, and to repair the dam-peror Otho, with an army of 150,000 Gerage which they had suffered; and he mans, English, and Flemings, was comagreed to take off the interdict as soon as pletely routed on the 23d of July by Philip, the promise should be fulfilled. The con- at the head of an army of not half the summation of ignominy was yet to come. number: one of the most signal victories Under the specious pretence of securing of the middle age, and memorable for the England from attacks by Philip, it was sug- importance then first ascribed to the trained gested to the king to surrender his king- bands of towns, and to the foot-soldiers who doms to the pope as to a lord paramount; were not noble; whose importance showed to swear fealty to him; to receive the Brit- that the people were about to emerge. ish islands back as fiefs of the holy see; In this year Innocent III. called together and to pay an annual tribute for them of at Rome the assembly which became memo700 marks of silver for England, and 300 rable under the name of the Fourth Counfor Ireland. On the 15th day of May, John cil of Lateran, which, composed of four duly performed all the degrading ceremo- hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots nials of resignation, homage, and fealty. and priors, might be justly considered as a On his knees he humbly offered his king- full representation of the western church. doms to the pope, and put them into the Here the ambitious pontiff triumphantly hands of the legate, which Pandolph retain- exercised the fullness of his assumed authored for five days. He offered his tribute, ity. The council was principally directed which the legate threw from him, but after- against the Albigeois, who prevailed over wards stooped to gather. The nuncio im- the orthodox in the country from the Loire mediately went to France, to announce to to the Ebro, and numbered the king of ArPhilip that he must no longer molest a ragon and several independent princes prince who was a penitent son and a faith- among their leaders. By the decrees of ful vassal of the holy see, nor presume to this council all persons convicted of heresy molest a kingdom which was now part of were to be delivered for capital punishment the patrimony of St. Peter. to the temporal rulers, who were required, The king of France, yielding to the under pain of excommunication, to make threats of the nuncio, desisted from his pro- oath that they would exterminate such herposed invasion of England. John had now etics; and it was further enacted that if formed alliances on the continent, which he they did not take the oath within a year, owed to the general fear which the progress their contumacy should be reported to the of Philip's power excited. Otho, emperor sovereign pontiff, that he might declare of Germany, his nephew, entered into the these vassals absolved from their oaths of league with the earls of Flanders, Bou- homage and fealty, and bestow their land logne, Auvergne, and Toulouse. on the Catholics who concur in the exter

An English fleet of five hundred vessels, mination of the heretics. The same prosent to the succor of the earl of Flanders, visions were extended expressly to those obtained a signal victory over the French who had no superior lords;* an extension ships which conveyed the stores of Philip, applied to sovereign princes by the most and seconded his army as it advanced along

the coast. The soldiers who defended these

* Dupin, Biblioth. ix. 105.

zealous adherents and the bitterest oppo- further innovation, attempted by the parlianents of papal power, but understood by the ment, and successfully executed by the least papistical of Catholics in the equitable council, did indeed heal the wounds of the though perhaps strained sense of being in- church, by closing the schism; but did not tended only for allodial possessors. The effect their purpose without decreeing the latter class seem too inconsiderable to have superiority of general councils over the subeen the object of such a provision; yet it preme pontiffs, and without asserting their is, on the other hand, repugnant to all rules authority by requiring all the pretenders to of construction, whether founded in reason the popedom to resign, and by deposing or in law, to comprehend sovereigns under those who refused to obey. a vague description, in a decree where John was the last and most ignoble optheir inferiors only are expressly named. ponent over whom Innocent triumphed. The most probable solution of the diffi- Early in his reign, he became unpopular; culty is, that the description was made de- and we soon discover the discontent of the signedly ambiguous, in order that it might nobility in their reluctance to follow him in be stretched to kings, or drawn back to al- those expeditions or inroads which were lodial tenants, as fortune varied; and with their chief delight. This rising spirit canthe hope that it might at the moment be not be ascribed to the contagion of popular overlooked till the favorable crisis should government, to which little inclination arrive. The best defence of the independ- seemed yet to be shown anywhere but in ent Catholics, however, is, that these de- Italy. The king owed part of the general crees, relating to immediate measures of dislike to the unnatural murder of his supposed policy, though they were acts of nephew. The cowardice which characgross usurpation against the civil magis- terized that act, if not its cruelty and trates, yet, as they affirmed no general treachery, could hardly fail to be odious to principle of faith or morals (whatever they a nobility not wanting in esteem at least might imply), did not possess that essential for the single virtue of valor. His insolent form without which they were not vested treatment of their own wives and daughters with the awful character of being for ever (for it does not appear that he descended to binding on the church. Though the acts plebeian amours) touched their honor in a and intentions of Innocent and his council susceptible point. By the tenor of the must be sacrificed by this vindication, it charter extorted from him, it evidently apappears to be a valid defence of the liberty pears that he abused the facilities of opof the Roman Catholic church. Innocent pression which belonged to his paramount was the last of the Hildebrandic pontiffs. seigniory; though the monastic historians His successors, indeed, till the end of the were, perhaps, too little acquainted with the century, followed his example in acts of forms of law and the course of business to usurpation, in some of their circumstances particularize these acts of grinding tyranny. still more flagrant than his. But the genius Though he was hated for his crimes, it is and spirit of the Gregories and the Inno- still more certain that he must have been cents departed from the Vatican. The despised for their unfruitfulness. "All that qualities necessary to uphold such preten- I have lost," he said, in 1206, "I shall resions are very rare. In the pontificate of cover in a day." Yet he never recovered Innocent, and at the Council of Lateran, a rood of land. Boasts so loud are ill folthe popedom had reached its zenith. After lowed by failures at once fatal and total. that time, the frontiers of papal power Great governments cannot forfeit the rewere not extended. In the decrees of that spect of foreign states without being lowerusurping assembly, the spirit of Gregory ed in the eyes of their own subjects. The VII. blazed forth with a violence at which chain which in this respect connects the he might have himself wondered. foreign policy with the domestic authority of The whole thirteenth century continued a government may sometimes not be obvious, however to be a flourishing period of papal but it is generally discoverable. When power, which was eminently signalized by John subjected himself to the pope, to prothe defeat of Frederic II. and the destruc- tect him against France, he incurred that tion of the house of Hohenstaufen. The disgust and alienation of his subjects which removal of the popedom to Avignon, its rarely fails to attend those princes who consequent dependence on the kings of throw themselves on foreigners for safety. France, and the great schism which for Discontent had gradually grown into dismany years divided Europe between rival affection. During the last ignominious popes, rendered the decay of the pontifical scenes, disaffection was rapidly ripened into authority conspicuous. The Council of revolt.

Constance, which resembled the English Stephen Langton, though raised to the parliament of 1641 in blows against mon- primacy under circumstances which might archical usurpations, and in severity against have thrown doubts over his fealty to his

country, exercised his great power as be- parade of war.‡ Having come into his came an Englishman. When the king presence, they required of him that he was absolved at Winchester, Langton, should restore the old laws, abolish the new probably suspecting collusion between the oppressions, and fulfil all that he had lately civil and spiritual tyrants, administered an and solemnly sworn at Winchester to peroath to the king, by which that monarch form. The king, contrary to his nature, bound himself to abolish unjust laws, and but perceiving that the warlike petitioners to restore the good laws of Edward. In a were ready to constrain him by force, if great council holden at St. Alban's, on the by no gentler means they could prevail, 4th of August following, the king com- thought it safer to turn their minds from manded that the laws of Henry I. should immediate violence by gaining time, which be observed; a form more grateful to a they granted till Easter. Both parties had Plantagenet than one which involved a applied to the pope, who openly and heartily reference to a Saxon prince. The pro- espoused the cause of his vassal, and exvisions of the charter of Henry I., or horted the barons in a circular letter (of rather the inferences which might be made which the copy addressed to Eustace de from it, were probably as little understood Vescy is still extant) to lay aside conby the king as by the barons. On the 25th spiracies against their liege lord, now the day of August, at a meeting of prelates dear son of his holiness. Both parties, also, and peers at St. Paul's, Langton apprized distrusting negotiation, made such prepathem (not of the existence of that charter rations for war as they could. In these but) of the extensive application of the preparations, however, the_barons had an principles and express words of Henry's immeasurable superiority. In Easter-week charter to their present grievances. It was they brought together a large and wellno wonder that they should rejoice at find-appointed force of their followers at Staming means of redress in an appeal to those ford, composed of two thousand knights, very concessions of a Norman sovereign with every other sort of force in just prowhich the king had just issued orders to portion, and on Monday the 27th of April observe. Langton became henceforward marched to Brackley; while John, restless the guide of the confederated barons. Fuel and friendless, had stopped for short repose was added to the flame by the attempt of at Oxford, from which the baronial army John on the beautiful wife of Eustace de was distant only fifteen miles. He sent Vescy, a distinguished baron.† When John, the archbishop and the earl of Pembroke, with his accustomed insolence, boasted of who had not ceased to attend him, to learn his success over a woman celebrated for their demands. They sent in writing the her faithful attachment as well as her articles afterwards presented to him for his charms, De Vescy could not refrain from assent. They announced to him, also, that, saying, that she had substituted in her stead unless these rights and liberties were ima loose and low female, disguised in the mediately granted under his seal, they apparel of the high-born dame. John threat- should proceed, by the capture of the king's ened him with death for this bold stratagem. castles, lands, and possessions, to compel De Vescy, with other sufferers from the him to do justice in the premises. The like outrages, flocked to the councils of the archbishop brought these threatening conconfederates. An assembly of that body ditions to the king; and though he was the met on the 20th of November (St. Ed-bearer of written propositions, he repeated mund's day) at the abbey of St. Edmunds- the articles gravely and aloud, from his bury, where they solemnly swore upon the thorough remembrance of what he probahigh altar to withdraw themselves from bly composed. The king, with a scornful the king's fealty, and to wage war against sneer,|| exclaimed, "And why do they not him till he should confirm by a charter the also demand my kingdom?" He then fuliberties which they demanded. In pur-riously swore¶ "that he should never grant suance of their confederacy, they proceed- liberties which would make himself a slave." ed to present their petition to the king, and On learning this refusal from the illustrientered London for that purpose on the ous mediators, it was unanimously deterFeast of Epiphany, with all the array and mined to appoint Robert Fitzwalter to be

champ at Bedford, where deputies came to that day, the 15th of June, both parties adannounce to them the important accession vanced to a plain called Runnymede, on of the city of London to the league, and the banks of the Thames, where they ensecretly intimated to them that if they camped apart from each other, like declared wished to possess the capital, they should enemies, and opened conferences which speedily appear before the gates. They were not concluded till Friday the 19th accordingly advanced by hasty marches, of June, 1215. The preliminaries being and took possession of London on Monday agreed upon, the barons presented heads the 22d of May. In the midst of these of their grievances, and of the means of rehostile measures, advice was received, that, dress, in the nature of the bills now offered in spite of the remonstrances of Eustace by both houses for the royal assent, except de Vescy, the ambassador of the confed- that the king, instead of a simple assent, erates, it had pleased the pope to issue a directed, according to a custom which prebull in favor of his vassal. In England, vailed long after, that the articles should these tidings were received only with in- be reduced to the form of a charter; in dignation. The barons dispatched sum- which state he issued it as a regal grant, monses to all the peers, who, however with all the formalities and solemnities lukewarmly or only apparently, still ad- which in that age attended the promulgahered to their king, requiring them, under tion of fundamental laws. Copies were pain of being treated as public enemies, to forthwith dispatched to the counties and leave a perjured king to his fate, and join diocesses of the kingdom. those who had taken up arms to secure the Measures still more decisive were adoptliberties of the people, and establish the ed to curb a faithless king, who had surquiet of the kingdom. The far greater passed even his own forefathers in falsepart obeyed the summons of the deliverers hood. John was compelled to surrender of their country, and repaired to the con- the city and tower of London, to be kept federates assembled at London. John re- by the barons till the 15th of August, or tired to Odiham, where his humble court until he had completely executed the charwas now reduced to seven attendants, of ter. A still more rigorous provision for whom some are known to have been in security, involving in it a most solemn detheir hearts in the barons' camp. claration of the lawfulness of resistance to

The king now looked round his unquiet oppression, was required by the barons, and retirement with dismay. Appalled by the yielded by the king, which empowered general secession, he at the same moment them to name twenty-five of their number contracted a vindictive hatred against the to be guardians of the liberties of the kingbarons, and discovered the necessity of dom, with power to these extraordinary hiding his revengeful purposes under the magistrates, if they saw any breach of the mask of conciliation.* At the moment charter, and if redress was denied or withwhen his negotiations with them were ap- held, to make war on the king, to seize his parently advancing, he secretly labored, by castles and lands, and to distress and annoy application to Rome, to stir up the most him in every possible way, till justice was formidable of enemies against them. "It done; "saving only the person of the said is needless," say the ancient writers, "to lord the king, the person of the queen, and enumerate the barons who composed 'the the persons of the royal progeny." army of God and of Holy church:' they Many parts of the Great Charter were were the whole nobility of England;"-a pointed against the abuses of the power of phrase nearly equivalent to what in modern the king as lord paramount, and have lost language would be called the nobility and their importance since the downfall of the gentry. Their followers comprehended all system of feuds, which it was their purpose the yeomanry and free peasantry, while to mitigate. But it contains a few maxims the accession of the capital was a pledge of just government, applicable to all places of the adherence of the citizens and bur- and times, of which it is hardly possible to gesses. A safe-conduct was granted by overrate the importance of the first promulJohn at Merton on the 8th of June to the gation by the supreme authority of a powdeputies of the barons, who were to meet erful and renowned nation. Some clauses, him at Staines; and two days afterwards, though limited in words by feudal relations, he, being at Windsor, agreed to a prolong- yet covered general principles of equity ation of the truce to Trinity Monday. On which were not slowly unfolded by the example of the charter, and by their obvious *"Cepit adversus barones corde odium inexora- application to the safety and well-being of bile. Simulavit autem in dolo pacem ad tempus facere ut cum fortior surrexerit in dissipata agmina the whole community.

acrius se vindicaret."-Matt. Par. 214.

Rym. i. 129. Lit. Reg. ad Pap. Odiham, 29th

May, 1215.

Rym. i. 129.

VOL. I.

9

Aids, or assistance in money, were due