days after being warned "they refuse to make their peace with their sovereign.”1 Before this letter could reach England, and, indeed, before it was penned, it had been stipulated by the barons at Runnymede that all foreign mercenaries were to be disbanded and forthwith sent out of the country, and that, for two months before the provision of the Charter became effective, London should remain in the keeping of the barons, Cardinal Langton holding the Tower. Further, that twenty-four of their number should be constituted guardians of the liberties of their country, with power, should there be any attempt to ignore the provisions of the Charter, to declare war against the king. John did not rest calmly under these repressive measures. The sequel shows that he had never meant to keep faith with the barons. He had only sworn to the provisions of Magna Charta because he could not help himself, and to gain the time necessary for once more invoking papal assistance. By 27th June, and before the reply of the pope to his former letter could have reached England, his messengers, including Pandulph, then bishop-elect of Norwich, and the agent for the Curia in England, were on their way to Rome with a fresh appeal for help. "We humble ourselves," the king writes, "in the sight of your Paternity. As far as we know how and are able, we thank you deeply for the care and solicitude which your paternal loving kindness has unceasingly devoted to our defence and that of our kingdom of England. But the hard-heartedness of the English prelates and their malicious disobedience prevents your loving designs from having effect. "We, however, eagerly turn once more to your clemency, knowing the true affection you have for us. Although for 1 P.R.O. Papal Bulls, Box lii. No. 2. the moment you are looked upon by the proud and evilminded, in their folly, as powerless, by God's help you will protect us and secure us peace, and bring terror and confusion upon our enemies. Though indeed Pandulph, your trusty subdeacon and the elect of Norwich, is most necessary here in England, faithfully and devotedly to further the interests and honour of the Roman Church and yours, as well as that of our whole kingdom, still because in no better way could your Paternity be made acquainted with our state and that of our realm than through him, we have unwillingly dispatched him to your feet. We earnestly beg that when, through him and our other trusted messengers, you shall have understood the injury offered to you in our person, you will stretch forth the hand of your paternal care to secure the right order of our kingdom and our dignity, in whatsoever way your discretion shall think best, as through God's grace you ever laudably do and have done. "Know for certain, that, after God, we have in you and in the authority of the Apostolic See our one and only protection and we live trusting to your patronage." " 1 2 Pandulph and the king's envoys related in detail to Innocent III the discussions which had taken place between the king and his barons. They told him that King John "had publicly protested that England in a special manner belonged to the Roman Church as to an overlord," and that for this reason he―John-neither could nor ought to pass any new law, or change anything in the kingdom to the prejudice of the Lord Pope, without his knowledge. For this reason, "when having made his appeal, he had put himself and the rights of his kingdom under the pope's protection," the barons at once seized London, the capital 1 Rymer, i. 135. 2 Ratione dominii. of the kingdom, and forcibly "demanded from the king confirmation of the privileges they claimed. And he, fearing their violence, did not dare to refuse what they demanded."1 John's messengers then pointed out to the pope certain articles in the Great Charter which they suggested were plainly subversive of all royal authority. After Innocent III had carefully examined these he exclaimed with energy: "Do these English barons want to drive from his kingdom one who has taken the cross and thus placed himself under the protection of the Holy See? Do they desire to transfer to someone else the dominion of the Roman Church? By St. Peter, we cannot allow this injury to pass unpunished." Then "after deliberating with the cardinals, by a definitive sentence he condemned and annulled the aforesaid Charter which granted certain liberties in the kingdom of England, and as evidence of this judgement" he issued a bull on the subject addressed to the whole world.2 In this document, dated 24th August of this year, 1215, Innocent III recorded the humiliation and penitence of John for his former misdeeds; his free gift of the kingdoms of England and Ireland to St. Peter and the Roman Church; his public profession of fealty and his promise of annual tribute. More than this: the king had taken the cross and had really intended to go to the war in the Holy Land, if the devil had not stirred up these dissensions in his kingdom, by which he was prevented from carrying out his design. When made acquainted with these troubles he, the pope, wrote to Cardinal Langton and the other English bishops to put a stop to the disorder, even if they had to have recourse to the spiritual sword. And at the same time he had warned the king to treat his subjects well and redress any substantial grievance, in accordance with the 1 1 Roger de Wendover, Chronica, ii. 138. C 2 Ibid. 139. laws and customs of the realm. "But," he continues, "before the messengers with this just and prudent order could return to King John, the nobles rejected their oaths of allegiance. Even had the king oppressed them unjustly, they ought not to have acted against him as they had done, presuming to band themselves in arms with his known enemies, occupying and despoiling his lands, and even seizing the city of London, the capital of the kingdom, which was traitorously betrayed into their hands." Furthermore: when on the return of our messengers the king offered them full justice, in accordance with the tenure of our commands, they rejected these overtures for peace, with others of a similar nature. Finally, seeing that the dominion over the kingdom belongs to the Roman Church, and that consequently he neither could nor ought to act in prejudice to our rights, the king proposed that they should appeal to us. When this, too, was of no avail, he "asked the archbishop and bishops to obey our order to defend the rights of the Roman Church and to protect him, according to the privileges of all who had taken the cross." At length, when they had refused to do this, he, finding himself left without help, no longer dared to refuse what was demanded of him. In this way "he was compelled by force, and by that fear which may seize upon even the boldest of men, to enter into a treaty with them. This treaty is not only vile and disgraceful, but unlawful and wicked, and calculated to greatly diminish, and gravely to derogate from his royal rights and honour." Wherefore, "because to us has been said by the Lord that of the prophet: I have set you over peoples and kingdoms, that you may raise up and destroy, may build up and plant, as also those words of another prophet: Loose the bands of wicked1 ' Jerem. i. 10. 1 ness, undo the bundles that oppress" (we are forced to take action). "We are unwilling to pass over such brazen wickedness perpetrated in contempt of the Apostolic See, to the destruction of all royal prerogatives, to the scandal of the English nation, and to the grave danger of all Christian people, unless everything is revoked by our authority. We consequently condemn and utterly reject this composition, forbidding the king under an anathema to observe it, or the barons and their accomplices to require its observance. We annul and declare void not only the Charter itself, but the obligations and pledges given by the king for its performance." " On the same day the pope addressed a brief, couched in almost identical terms, to the English barons. At the close of this letter he suggested that, when the archbishop and bishops were present at the General Council which was shortly to be held, the barons might send proctors to represent their grievances to him, and he pledged himself to examine into them and to redress them. "But," writes the chronicler, "when through the king's instrumentality the nobles of England received these condemnatory and threatening letters, they were unwilling to surrender what they had gained, but began the more strenuously to band themselves together against" the king.* 3 So far as the influence of Cardinal Langton was concerned, matters were not improved at the Roman Curia by the sympathy shown in the North for the archbishop's attitude. The see of York was vacant; and the canons, having obtained the royal licence to elect, set aside the candidate suggested to them by the king, and made choice of Simon Langton, the cardinal's brother, as their 1 Is. lviii. 6. 4 2 Roger de Wendover, ii. 139-143; cf. Rymer, i. 135. Roger de Wendover, ii. 145. |