for his sins. The Pope demanded the immediate reinstatement of the Bishop of Limoges in his office and lands.[553:1] He treated the Constitutions of Clarendon as if they had been repealed and waited for his opportunity to humble the haughty English ruler.
In 1205 (July 13), Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury died. That same night the monks of the Cathedral elected their sub-prior as archbishop and hurried him off to Rome for papal confirmation. King John, backed by the suffragan bishops of the diocese, appointed and invested the Bishop of Norwich as archbishop and he also started for Rome to get the papal sanction. Here was the opportunity for which Innocent III. was looking. Both elections were declared void and the fifteen monks of Canterbury were brought to Rome where they were forced to choose Cardinal Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.[553:2] The Pope consecrated Langton to the new office and demanded King John's approval. John's rage was unbounded. He impeached the monks for treason and expelled them from England on pain of death. He confiscated the property of the see and the chapter of Canterbury and told the Pope bluntly that he would never permit the illegally elected stranger to set foot on English soil. The Pope first threatened the king with an interdict, which merely produced angry and obstinate counter threats from John, and then in 1208 actually published the interdict.[553:3] The king retaliated by seizing Church property, abusing the clergy, exiling
the bishops, and confiscating the estates of their relatives.
Determined to humble the stubborn monarch, Innocent III. in 1210 formally excommunicated John and deposed him from the kingship.[554:1] The English crown was given to Philip II. of France who at once prepared an army to invade England. At the same time John's followers deserted him and in this desolation he was compelled to accept humiliating terms of unconditional surrender.[554:2] He agreed to reinstate all prelates to office and property; to pay a full indemnity to all laity and clergy, eight thousand pounds being paid down as a guarantee; to make the Pope arbiter about all sums of restitution; to give the Pope all right to Church patronage in England; to reverse all outlawries; and to surrender his crown and kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope and then to receive them back as the sworn vassal of Rome, paying therefore the annual sum of one thousand marks of silver.[554:3]
When the English barons wrested from the stubborn king the great Magna Charta in 1215,[554:4] Pope Innocent III. championed the cause of the king, his vassal, against the barons. He called a council, annulled the Magna Charta, issued a manifesto against the barons, and ordered the bishops to excommunicate them.[554:5] He suspended Archbishop Langton from office for siding with the barons against the king and directly appointed
the Archbishop of York. At the same time Prince Louis of France, who had invaded England with an army, was summarily excommunicated for having entered a domain of the Holy See. As a result of the Pope's policy King John of England became a suppliant vassal of Rome, the English clergy were subjected to the Pope, the resources of England were put at the Pope's command, the nobles and the people were thwarted in their efforts to check John in his tyranny, and Magna Charta was declared illegal though not invalidated.
In the East the Latin rulers in Palestine and at Constantinople were papal vassals. The Pope asserted his supremacy over the Eastern Empire in refusing to restore the Isle of Cyprus and in demanding a council to heal the schism.[555:1] Leo, King of Armenia, threw both his church and his kingdom into the Pope's arms for protection.[555:2] Bulgaria was won away from the Greek Church and her king was given a crown independent of the Eastern Empire.[555:3] Hungary was treated as a vassal kingdom and papal protection was extended to her king.
In the North the King of Norway had been slain by a priest who then compelled the bishops in 1184 to crown him king. Innocent III. took up the case and appointed the King of Denmark and the Archbishop of Norway a court to try the murderer on the charge of having forged papal bulls to favour his coronation. His supporters were excommunicated, he himself was put under the ban, and all places giving him shelter were interdicted. Even the Bishop of Ireland was
rebuked for having permitted his clergy to communicate with the "accursed apostate." The Pope reorganised the northern churches and tied the clergy to St. Peter's Chair. In Poland the archbishop was censured for neglecting to draw the spiritual sword in favour of Duke Bolesas who had been ill treated by his subjects. The Duke of Holland, a faithful vassal, was in turn assisted against his rebellious subjects.
No occupant of St. Peter's Chair was more sincerely impressed with the beauty and necessity of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels than Innocent III. He sent preachers all over Europe to stir up a holy war. He laboured incessantly to pacify and unite all rulers under his guidance in this great enterprise. He attempted to eliminate the mercenary character of the crusade by forbidding the Venetians to traffic with the Mohammedans.[556:1] But he strove in vain to prevent the secular diversions and consequent failure of the Fourth Crusade. When the crusaders in fulfilment of their bargain with the Venetians,[556:2] left Venice to attack Zara, a Christian city, he threatened them with excommunication. After the deed was done, however, he granted conditional pardon.[556:3] The capture of Constantinople was likewise censured but in the end lauded,[556:4] although he strongly urged the crusaders to fulfil their original vow.[556:5] So skillfully did he manipulate affairs that both Greek and Latin Emperors recognised his overlordship, the Greek Church was