it; the laity partook of no religious rite, except baptism to new-born infants, and the communion to the dying; the dead were not interred in consecrated ground; they were thrown into ditches, or buried in common fields, and their obsequies were not attended with prayers or any hallowed ceremony; marriage was celebrated in church yards, the people were prohibited the use of meat as in Lent, or times of the highest penance; they were debarred from all pleasures and entertainments, and forbidden even to salute each other, to shave their beards, and give any decent attention to their person and apparel.

The king, opposing temporal to spiritual terrors, confiscated immediately from his own authority, the estates of all the clergy who obeyed the interdict, banished the prelates, confined the monks into their convent with a very scanty allowance, treated with the utmost rigour all Langton's adherents, and every one that showed any disposition to obey the commands of Rome; and, to expose the clergy both to reproach and ridicule, he threw into prison all their concubines, and required high fines as the price of their liberty.

During this violent contention which increased the king's natural propensity to tyranny, he attempted to make a diversion to the discontents of the people, by military expeditions against Scotland, against Ireland, and against the Welch; in which he commonly prevailed, more from the weakness of his enemies than from his own vigour or abilities. Meanwhile, he more and more alienated, and wantonly disgusted all orders of men, especially his nobles, whose families he dishonoured by his licentious amours. He published edicts prohibiting them from hunting feathered game, ordering all the hedges and fences near his forests to be levelled, that his deer might have more ready access to the fields for pasture, and

he continually loaded the nation with arbitrary impositions.

Ann. 1209, 1210, 1211.

The sentence of excommunication is fulminated against the king. The bishops, finding themselves exposed either to his jealousy or to the hatred of the people, take refuge on the continent. Many of the nobility imitate the example or go into voluntary exile. John, alarmed at his situation, desires a conference with Langton at Dover, offers to acknowledge him as primate, to submit to the Pope, to restore the exiled clergy, to pay them a limited sum as a compensation for the rents of their confiscated estates. Langton, not satisfied with these concessions, proposes conditions so exorbitant, that the king breaks off the conference.

The hour of dinner at that time even at court and in the families of the greatest barons, was at nine in the forenoon, and that of supper at five in the afternoon, according to the following verses which were then often repeated:

To rise at five, to dine at nine,
To sup at five, to bed at nine,
Makes a man live to ninety-nine.

Lever à cinq, dinner à neuf,
Souper à cinq, coucher à neuf,
Fait vivre d'ans nonante neuf.

Ann. 1212, 1213.

Innocent issues a third sentence to absolve John's subjects from their oath of fidelity and allegiance, and to declare every one excommunicated who had any commerce with him in public or in private, at his table, in his council, or even in private conver

sation. But as John still persevered in his contumacy, there remained nothing but the sentence of deposition, which Innocent determined to issue; but as it required an armed force to have it executed, the Pope applied for it to the king of France, and offered him, besides the remission of all his sins and endless spiritual benefits, the property and possession of the kingdom of England, as a reward for his labour.

Philip accepted this liberal offer, and accordingly, collected a fleet of one thousand seven hundred vessels, great and small, in the sea ports of Normandy and Picardy, summoned all the vassals of the crown to attend him at Rouen, and prepared a force adequate to the greatness of the enterprise. John, on the other hand summoned all his military tenants to attend him at Dover. A great number appeared, out of which he selected an army of sixty thousand men, a sufficient number indeed, but not to be relied on by a prince so generally hated and despised.

It had not escaped the policy of the Pope, that he would derive more advantages from his agreement with a prince so abject both in character and fortune, than from his alliance with a great and victorious monarch, who, having nothing else left to conquer, might convert his power against his benefactor. Therefore, the legate Pandolph, appointed by the Pope to head this important expedition, was secretly commissioned by his holiness to admit of John's submission in case it should be offered, and had confidential instructions about the terms which would be proper for him to impose. In consequence of this, Pandolph passed through France, where he beheld Philip's great armament ready to set sail, and highly commended that monarch's zeal and expedition. From thence he went to Dover, had a conference with the king, and represented to

him with so much energy the dangers of his situation, that he subscribed to all the conditions which the legate was pleased to impose upon him. He promised among other articles, that he would submit himself entirely to the judgment of the Pope, acknowledge Langton for primate, restore all the exiled clergy and laity banished on account of the contest, make them full restitution for their goods and compensation for all damages, and instantly consign eight thousand pounds as a part of the payment, and that every one out-lawed or imprisoned for his adherence to the Pope, should immediately be received into grace and favour. In the mean time he passed a charter, in which he said, that not constrained by fear, but of his own free will and by the common advice and consent of his barons, he had, for remission of his own sins and those of his family, resigned England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to Pope Innocent, and to his successors in the apostolic chair; he agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of the church of Rome, by the annual payment of a thousand marks, seven hundred for England, and three hundred for Ireland; and he stipulated, that if he or his successors should ever presume to revoke or infringe this charter, they should instantly, except upon admonition they repented of their offence, forfeit all right to their dominions.

These shameful transactions being over, Pandolph returned to France, and informed Philip that John had returned to obedience under the apostolic see, and even consented to do homage to the Pope for his dominions, and having thus made his kingdom a part of St. Peter's patrimony, had rendered it impossible for any christian prince to attack him, without the most manifest and flagrant impiety. Philip, enraged at being thus over-reached, resolved to prosecute the war in opposition to the Pope and

to all his censures. All his vassals vowed to second his enterprise, except the earl of Flanders, whó declared against the impiety of such an undertaking. Philip, who would not leave so dangerous an enemy behind him, first turned his arms against the dominions of that prince. In the mean time, the English admiral attacked the French fleet in their harbours, took three hundred ships and destroyed a hundred more. Philip finding it impossible to prevent the rest from falling into the hands of the enemy, set fire to them, and gave up his enterprise.

John exulting in his present security, thought of no less than invading France in his turn, and recovering his former dominions in that kingdom. He proposed this expedition to his barons, but they refused to second it, pretending that their time of service was elapsed. The king, however, embarked with a few followers, and set sail to Jersey, expecting that the barons would at last be ashamed to stay behind. But finding himself disappointed, he returned to England, and raising some troops, threatened to take vengeance on all his nobles for their desertion and disobedience. The archbishop of Canterbury, who was in a confederacy with the barons, here interposed, and threatened him with a new excommunication, if he thought of such an attempt before the sentence of interdict was repealed, which did not take place until his restitutions towards the clergy was finally settled, and after he had sworn again into the hands of the primate fealty and obedience to Pope Innocent, &c. and engaged that he would re-establish the good laws of his predecessors, particularly those of St. Edward, and abolish the wicked ones.

Ann. 1214, 1215.

The king goes over to Poitou, and carries war