he was canonised, and his name is found in the calendar of our Prayer Book against November 17th. His remains were deposited in a superb silver shrine within the choir of his cathedral, which is "the earliest dated example in England of the pure Lancet Gothic,' or early English architecture, without any trace of Norman influence." 3. Pope Innocent III.-King Richard had been killed the year before Hugh died, and was succeeded by his brother John, of whom historians, especially church historians, are compelled to record unpalatable truths. He was unfortunate in his battles and lost all his father's dominions in France north of the Loire. These reverses made him ill-tempered and cruel, and desirous of acquisition in other ways; chiefly by plundering his English subjects, and exacting heavy taxes from them. The occupant of the papal throne at this time was Innocent III., the most remarkable and powerful pontiff that ever attained that position. He was raised to the popedom in 1198, and at once claimed temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction over all the world. He had exercised some authority over Richard I., but nothing compared with that which he obtained over King John. It came about in this way: Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1205, and King John requested the monks of Christ Church to appoint the Bishop of Norwich in his room. But they, preferring to exercise their ancient freedom of election, appointed their sub-prior instead, and sent him to Rome that his appointment might be confirmed by the pope. This man was so proud of his election that he told every one about it before he reached Rome, and when king John heard the news, he came down upon the monks of Canterbury in his fury and forced them to accept his nominee; who also was sent to Rome for the pall. Here was an opportunity for Innocent III.; he refused to confirm the sub-prior's election because he was a foolish man, and declined to accept the Bishop of Norwich on the ground that kings should have nothing to do with the appointment of spiritual persons. He then ordered the Canterbury monks to elect an Englishman named Stephen Langton, who was then chancellor of the University of Paris, which they did. But John would not receive Langton and expelled the Canterbury monks for having elected him, confiscating their possessions. Innocent III. then did a very bold act, he laid the kingdom under an Interdict; that is to say, he prohibited the English clergy from performing spiritual duties in this country until such times as John would submit to papal authority. 4. The Humiliation of King John.-The result of this action of Innocent III. is generally overstated. No doubt there were many persons who believed that the pope had such power as Innocent claimed, and obeyed his mandate; but there were a large number of others, well acquainted with the struggles that the Church had made for many generations to retain its national independence against the aggrandisement of the papacy, who cared very little for its denunciations. John and Innocent were each determined to try who could hold out the longest. All prelates or clergy who obeyed the pope were expelled from this realm and their benefices seized. In this the king was upheld by the bishops of Durham, Winchester, and Norwich, who agreed that the pope had no legal right to issue such an edict. Innocent then excommunicated the king, but though this may have inconvenienced John a little it did not trouble him much, except that it made him still more bitter against the pope. For four years this state of things continued, but each year the tyrannies and exactions of John increased, so that to escape from them the clergy and barons decided to ask the pope to adopt still stronger measures. The pope had now a large standing army, the result mainly of the Crusades ; with this he was in the habit of fighting against kings and emperors as if he were a temporal prince; he could therefore enforce his will by an appeal to arms, as John knew very well. In the year 1212 the pope declared John's deposition, and absolved his subjects from their allegience. Soon after, Innocent gave the kingdom of England to Philip Augustus, King of France, and invited him to invade this country and dethrone John. Philip was not generally an obedient servant of the pope, but now that it suited his purpose he obeyed with considerable alacrity. John knew that as he had alienated the sympathies of the barons and prelates by his extortions, and could only rely upon the broken reed of mercenary forces, he would have no chance against the combined power of Philip and Innocent. He therefore offered his submission to the pope and agreed to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. But Innocent required more than this. Through his legate, Pandulph, he demanded the surrender of the insignia of royalty, and that John should consent to hold the English realm as feudatory vassal of the papal see, and pay a large annual tribute of Peter's-pence to the papal exchequer. To all this the terrified king agreed; he surrendered his crown, robes, sword, and ring to Pandulph, and received them back after a day or two as a favour from the pope. When England heard what its king had done, it tingled with a sense of shame. "The king has become the pope's man," the people cried, "he has degraded himself to the level of a serf." But the king's action was to some extent politic, for it prevented another foreign invasion. Philip was ordered back, and John received his absolution from the new archbishop in the Chapter House of Winchester, July 20th, 1213; but the interdict was not removed for some time after, not until the papal legate was satisfied with the restitution John had made. 5. Stephen Langton.—Archbishop Langton was now a very important personage, but he used his powers judiciously. He must have greatly astonished both the king and the pope by his line of conduct. Considering the enormous trouble which Innocent had taken to obtain the primacy for him, we might have expected him to uphold the papal claims; but as soon as he had entered upon the temporalities of his see he adopted an independent attitude towards the king on the one hand, and the pope on the other. He was an Englishman, and therefore refused to do anything which would dishonour his country, or injure his countrymen, or harm the national Church. John and the barons were at enmity. John was in the wrong, and therefore Langton supported the barons in demanding their ancient liberties. On the occasion of John's absolution Langton had administered an oath to him, by which the king promised to renew the laws of Edward the Confessor; but the archbishop knew John's character too well to be content with a verbal promise made under compulsion. No one quite knew what the ancient laws were, but Langton searched the archives of the nation and produced the charter of Henry I., which recited those laws, and stipulated what privileges the prelates and barons respectively might claim for their order. This he laid before a private council of the nobles held at St. Paul's, London, August 25th, 1213. The barons declared themselves ready to die for these liberties. "Swear it!" said Langton, and they did so. Meantime the papal legate had been traversing the country, filling up all the vacant benefices by appointing friends of John and the pope, in defiance of the rights of patrons and the prerogatives of bishops. This was more than Langton could quietly submit to, and therefore he appealed to the pope against such uncanonical intrusions, and inhibited the legate from making further appointments. John had promised to pay the bishops and clergy a large indemnity for the revenues he had abstracted from their benefices and sees, in order to have the interdict removed; but now that the clergy and barons under Langton and Robert Fitz-Walter had marshalled themselves against the king and legate, thus forming what was called The Army of God and Holy Church, John determined to make a second abject submission to the papacy, and take the vow of a crusader, in order to counteract their plans. In return for this subserviency the pope reduced the indemnity John had covenanted to pay to the clergy, from a hundred thousand to forty thousand marks, and removed the interdict June 29th, 1214. When Langton presented to the king the people's claim for their traditional liberties John, feeling himself strong in the might of his new suzerain, repudiated his promise to ratify the ancient English laws. This was "the last straw," and the barons and prelates took the field in defence of their rights. Only seven knights were with the king, while the whole nation was against him, |
