forced to yield up a part of his dominions to reward the army of the papacy, which had ravaged one part of his country, and put himself and all the rest in danger.

That which is still more surprising, is, that whilst the court of Rome thus treated the princes of Christendom like slaves, or at the best like children and pupils, and dashed in pieces and broke the secular powers one against another, and gave such proofs, that that court thought of nothing less than to captivate and enslave all the rest; such was the infatuation, such the blindness, to which God was pleased to give up the Western princes, that their wealth and their people were turned against them, and they were themselves made parties to their own dishonour, and helped forward the designs against the secular power, which the tamest and most bigoted princes in Christendom would resist with their blood, if the court of Rome should ever attempt to act them over again.

But having said this, partly to give the reader a view of the unchristian and bloody spirit which at this time animated the court of Rome, and to lay open the methods by which they enlarged their dominions and increased their power, and partly to cover the reproach and dishonour of the English nation and monarchy, by showing that our princes were not singular and alone in their fate, and only bore their part in the common vassalage of Europe, it will be time to return and pursue our story.

The aforesaid transactions abroad, and what they felt at home, could not but give king John and the whole English nation a formidable idea of the papal power; and this served to forward the arts which were every where set on foot, to raise an opinion, that it was in vain to resist it. And lest the posture and turn of affairs abroad should lose their effect upon the king, in several epistles written upon that occasion, pope Innocent took care to magnify the successes of the papacy, and to let the king know what ill success those princes had met with, who attempted to oppose it and there was but too much ground for an insinuation of this kind. The conduct of the king was such as would lead one to think, he was willing to have it believed, that if not his honour, yet at least his indignation and resentment had raised him above impressions of this kind, and left no room for his fears; yet do all he could, the course of his actions gave such proof of the uneasiness and frightful apprehensions which he had of this affair, as will not permit one to doubt thereof.

But if the king took care of his own defence, pope Innocent did every thing that was thought needful to ruin and to undo him: in order whereto his emissaries used all endeavours to blacken the king and lessen his forces, and to magnify the interest and strength and conduct of the court of Rome. The king was represented as an apostate from religion; as one who had offered to renounce his faith to preserve his sovereignty; as an enemy to religion, to the liberties of the church, and to the rights of his people and a wicked impostor, named Peter the Hermit, was set up to prophesy, that before Ascension next coming he should cease to be king, and none of his posterity ever come to the crown.

In short there was nothing of this kind wanting, which might either encourage the enemies of the king, or discourage and withdraw his friends: and the wicked reports raised upon this occasion made such impressions and took such root, that our historians who wrote his story, have generally spoken of him as the vilest and most despicable miscreant in the world. But because it was not easy to libel and rail a prince out of his kingdom, who had a fleet and an army at his command, pope Innocent applied himself to that known method, which had now for near an age served all the purposes of the court of Rome, under the colour of destroying infidels and promoting the interest of Christ and His religion; and this was the Holy War; for with this art that court had frighted Philip king of France, and forced the king of Arragon to give up the rights of his crown; they had massacred the subjects of the earl of Tholouse, given away the possession of his country to the general of the army, and taken the sovereignty thereof to themselves, and subdued the Eastern empire to the Latins.

And now (1212) the time was come when the English nation was to have its turn, and to feel the dire effects of that fury which had before consumed its blood and treasure; for, seeing no other way to accomplish his wicked purposes, the pope sent his emissaries into France and Germany, to preach up the cross, and to persuade Europe to believe that it was a service to God and to religion, to enslave the king and kingdom of England.—But well knowing that considerations of this kind began to lose their force in France, by a bull directed to king Philip, pope Innocent entreated and conjured that prince, as he tendered the hopes of salvation, to take up arms and to drive the king of England from his throne; and besides the promises of heaven, he did by the same

bull grant to him, and his heirs, the kingdom of England as a reward for his services a.

The French king, who wanted no ill-will to the king of England, and had lately dispossessed him of his dominions in France, was very inclinable to secure his late conquests at home, by carrying his arms into England. But the relation and strict alliance betwixt the emperor Otho and the king of England, and the league betwixt that prince and the king of Arragon, were a check upon him, and gave him reason to dread leaving his own dominions, whilst he had such neighbours to leave behind him. Nor were these ill-grounded jealousies; for the emperor Otho had a good army, and, as Æmilius saith, maintained at the charge of the king of England; and which is more, that prince had declared that so soon as he had quieted his affairs in Germany, he would assist his uncle the king of England in the recovery of his dominions in France. To remove these difficulties, pope Innocent, who had before forced Otho to promise obedience to him, did about this time depose him a, and set up Frederic king of Sicily in his stead; and if the French historian be not mistaken, this was done at the instance of the French king; and by thus finding the emperor work enough at home, he delivered the French king from the fears of that prince.

By giving new vigour to the holy warriors on the borders and in part of that kingdom, pope Innocent frustrated the expectations of the king of England from that of Arragon, and left France nothing to fear from thence: and if his designs upon England were not the views upon which pope Innocent acted in those instances, the perpetual jars there had been between that prelate and the French king, and the unhappy event of that expedition, incline one to think that these great favours to France owe their beginning to a resolution the pope had taken to enslave the king of England, and to render his dominions a fee of the papacy, notwithstanding the fair promise which he had made to king Philip. However that matter be, the French king, being thus delivered from the fears of an invasion in his absence, appointed the meeting

C

Ibid.

d Ibid.

Paulus Æmil. de gestis Franc. vit. Philip. Aug. fol. 130. Lutet. ann. 1551. • Ibid.

of his great council, which assembled at Soissons a, and being enlightened by pope Innocent and the emissaries whom he had sent to preach the cross, Ferdinand earl of Flanders only excepted, that assembly concluded it was an act of piety to sail with their forces into England, to restore the exiled bishops ".

Nor was the resentment of pope Innocent bounded here, but he sent his letters and emissaries all over Europe, and all the great men were invited to attend the French king in the Holy War against the king of England: and the same methods that had given such success to their former undertakings of this kind were again set on foot. "The pardon of sins, the indulgences and protection of the holy see, and the privileges usually granted to those who engaged in the expeditions to the Holy Land, were the promised recompence :" and this unchristian and wicked undertaking was called revenging the wrong done to the universal church; and that they might be distinguished who engaged in this enterprise, they all wore the cross upon their breast, as they had done in the inhuman undertaking against the Albigenses. The French king having fallen in with the example of pope Innocent, and covered his ambition and revenge under the umbrage of religion, a numerous fleet and a powerful army were provided for the execution of this great design'.

King John, who had for some years not only withstood but despised the censures of the court of Rome, and who had reason to expect the last efforts of its rage, was not a stranger to the preparations made against him: and as he could not but see that all this sprang from the designs of a court which never knew what mercy meant but when they gained by it; and that the execution was put into the hands of one who had given him abundant proof of the ill-will which he bore to him, he applied himself to the most likely methods to provide for his own security; and besides those whom he had in his pay, and five hundred men brought him from Ireland by John Gray bishop of Norwich, his lieutenant in that kingdom, he summoned all that held of him in knight's service, and drew together an army (as M. Paris saith) of threescore thousand men; and that he might not only stand the shock of the enemy, but keep him at a distance, he caused all the ships that could

* Paulus Æmil. de gestis Franc. vit. Philip. Aug. fol. 130. Lutet. ann. 1551. b Ibid. c Matth. Paris. ann. 1212. d Ibid. Mezeray, Life of Philip, ann. 1212.

e Ibid.

be met with to be drawn together, and manned out a fleet to dispute the passage of the French at sea.

Preparations being thus made on all sides, and every thing ready to decide this quarrel by the sword, Pandulphus the pope's legate, who was charged with a dark and secret errand, much against the will of the French, came over into England about the beginning of May, where he found the king at the head of his army near Dover waiting the coming of the French; and having made known his character, he delivered a letter to the king from pope Innocent, in which that prelate tells him, that "blessing and cursing were set before him," and that "it was yet in his power to choose," but that "if he did not submit to the terms he prescribed and had sent inclosed, he would deliver the church of England, as God did that of Israel out of Egypt, by a strong hand :" and the better to give the impressions intended, he further minded the king, how he had humbled all the princes who had presumed to oppose him. In short, the whole letter carries an air of haughtiness and arrogance that might have become a pagan emperor, but it has not the least mark or taste of the Christian spirit.

a

The aforesaid letter and the message of the crafty nuncio having somewhat shocked the steadiness and resolution of the king, and awakened his fears, the legate applied himself to set such impressions upon him, as might best serve the purposes of the court which sent him: in order whereto he magnified the strength and the appointment of king Philip's army, and so artfully represented the assurances, which, as he pretended, that prince had received from the nobility of England, that they would come in to his assistance so soon as he landed, that he brought king John to believe, that his danger was no less from his own army than from that of king Philip, and that he had no other way to be safe than by throwing himself into the arms of the church.

As the insinuation of the dangers which might arise from the defection of his own army was one of the chief artifices on which the court of Rome founded their hopes, all possible care had been taken to cultivate and improve the king's jealousy and distrust of his people and, besides an intimation of this kind, which Pandulph had let fall in his former conference with the king at Northampton, things were so ordered, that the king received letters from several hands to the same effect. And the truth is,

Innoc. Epist. lib. xv. epist. 233. p. 726.