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matter to what order they belonged or what dignity they possessed, they were immediately suspended and deprived of their benefices. The legate lavishly distributed their livings among his own clerks, and by means of these condemnations all his own followers were enriched. Hugh, the bishop of Lincoln, when his See was restored to him, had to pay a thousand marks to the pope and a hundred to the legate. With this example before them many bishops and religious reconciled themselves to the legate by heavy and disastrous payments." According to Matthew Paris, Gualo gathered in 12,000 marks, and Walter de Coventry, the Barnwell annalist, adds that when summoned back to the pope, he took with him an immense sum of money, got together in some way or other."

This done Gualo returned to Rome. After his departure, the king, or more probably the earl of Pembroke in his name, wrote to the pope expressing his thanks for all that the kingdom owed to him and to his legate; he would never cease to remember it, he says. It is the pope who has brought light out of darkness, and who has established him upon the throne of his father. He will most gladly pay the tribute to the Holy See, which indeed he is of course bound to do, "as to a most dear overlord," and he is greatly grieved that at the moment it is impossible, as he has charged the English envoys to explain. He is all the more sorry for the delay because "our beloved and venerated Lord Gualo, cardinal-priest and legate of the Holy See," has so often impressed on him the need of paying promptly. Gualo's "watchful prudence" has been most necessary in the times now past, and Henry renders Honorius his grateful thanks for sending, or rather for allowing, "so Roger de Wendover, ii. 240. 2 Chron. Mag., iii. 32. 3 Walter de Coventria, Memoriale, ii. 217.

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fitting and excellent a guardian" to remain and to help him in the government of the kingdom. He trusts the pope will not misunderstand the meaning of the delay in making the due payment of the tribute, for he protests that he regards the pope “as being under heaven his supreme protector." He is sure that the pope will rejoice to hear that the country generally is returning to its allegiance.1

It will be noticed that in this document the pope's position is more than freely acknowledged, and that there appears no indication of any disposition to repudiate the annual tribute in acknowledgement of his suzerainty; on the contrary, it is declared to be a debt that must be paid as soon as it should be possible to do so.

1 Royal Letters, etc., i. p. 6.

CHAPTER III

PANDULPH REPLACES GUALO AS LEGATE

GUALO left England about the middle of November, 1218.1 His last act before quitting the country was to interpose his authority on behalf of the barons of the Cinque Ports who, against the terms of the peace settlement, were still kept in prison by Louis. They had appealed to him as papal legate, pointing out their miserable condition and begging him to use his power in their behalf. Although by this time Gualo's special faculties had been withdrawn, apparently he did not hesitate to write at once to the earl of Pembroke " ordering him and warning him" to see to this matter, "as touching the honour of the king and kingdom."

Even before the late legate had left the country, Pope Honorius had appointed a successor. His choice fell upon Pandulph, already well known in England and well acquainted with the condition of things in the country. By birth the new legate was a Roman, and had been a clerk of the papal court under Innocent III. In the fifth year of the struggle between King John and that pope, on account of the appointment of Cardinal Langton to the See of Canterbury, Pandulph, who is described as a sub-deacon attached to the papal household, was sent into England to endeavour to put an end to the deadlock which had existed for so long a time. He and the companions of his expedition were 1 Chron. de Waverleia (Ann. Mon., ii.), 291.

received with every mark of popular pleasure and reverence.1 They met the king at Northampton in August, on his return from Wales, and, if we are to credit the annalist of Burton,2 the papal envoys had a long conference with John in the presence of his barons. According to this account the king had asked the pope to send some one to England to discuss with him the possibility of coming to terms and obtaining relief from the interdict, which pressed heavily upon all classes in the kingdom. At the outset of the interview, however, he declared that he would never consent to Langton's appointment, and that if the archbishop came into the country he would have him hanged. It was in vain that Pandulph reminded him that it was at his royal request the pope had sent his representatives, and that in asking for such a mission, John had sworn to make full satisfaction to the Church, if it could be shown that he had acted in any way against its rights and privileges. Under the circumstances of the king's continued hostility to the archbishop appointed by Innocent, it was obviously impossible for him to remove the ecclesiastical interdict from the land. To all this the king replied; "I fully confess that the pope is my spiritual father; that he holds the place of St. Peter, and that in spiritual matters I am bound to obey him; but I am not bound to do so in temporal things, which are the prerogatives of my crown." Amongst these latter is the bestowal of archbishoprics, bishoprics, and abbacies, which former kings of England have always claimed to be able to do.

Pandulph would not allow that the obedience due from a Christian sovereign to the pope was confined to spiritual matters. "I say," he replied, "that you should obey the

Chron. Thomae Wykes (Ann. Mon., iv.), 56. 2 Ann. Mon., i. 207-217.

lord pope in temporals as well as in spirituals. When you took the government of the kingdom, did you not swear before God to be obedient to him and to rule according to the laws of the Church?" But the king still maintaining his attitude of hostility to Cardinal Langton, and refusing to accept him as archbishop, Pandulph declared him excommunicate and ordered the sentence to be published everywhere. He declared him to be deposed, and he absolved the people from their allegiance to him.

In spite of threats, John did not dare to lay hands on the papal envoys, and they were allowed to return to Rome. In a short time, however, a fresh crisis in the king's affairs made him apply once more to the pope; and on 27th February, 1213, Innocent III announced the appointment of the same nuncio, Pandulph, to confer with the king. He brought with him the conditions of reconciliation drawn up in conjunction with the royal messengers at Rome. On 13th May, Pandulph met John at Dover and threatened him with the immediate invasion of the kingdom by the French, should the conditions not be accepted. Two days later John had made his humble submission, and England became, as has been related, a fief of the Holy See. Although Pandulph, after a brief visit to France to bring back Langton and the exiled bishops, returned to this country, Innocent III appointed Nicholas, cardinal-bishop of Tusculum, to conclude the business of reconciliation, and Pandulph was relegated to a secondary position, chiefly connected with the gathering of ecclesiastical dues and fees into the papal exchequer.

In 1214 the mission of Cardinal Nicholas was brought to an end. Langton had appealed to Rome against the interference of the legate in appointments to vacant churches. Pandulph was dispatched to oppose the archbishop in the

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