Lectures on the constitution and laws of England / With a commentary on Magna Charta, and illustrations of many of the English statutes

by Francis Stoughton Sullivan

If Alexander the Third shewed the grandeur of the pontifical power in humbling Henry the Second, the displaying it in its full glory was reserved for Innocent the Third who now reigned, and who being promoted to the papacy at the age of thirty seven, had vigour of body and mind to carry every point he engaged in, and was resolved to push his power to the utmost. Having tasted the sweets of English gold, in the collection made under pretence of the holy war, he had a great desire to renew the experiment; and that he might be able to proceed with the less opposition, was resolved to have an archbishop of Canterbury at his devotion; and the See falling vacant, a controverted election furnished him with an opportunity.

The election belonged to the convent of Christ-church, though it was contested with them by the suffragan bishops. The very night the archbishop died, a faction of the younger monks resolving to have an archbishop of their own chusing, assembled, and chose Reginald sub-prior of the convent, and sent him off before morning for Rome, to obtain the Pope’s confirmation, of which they did not entertain any doubt, as it would be plucking a feather from the king’s prerogative, that of a previous licence for proceeding to election; and Innocent had already shewn that he looked on himself as monarch of monarchs. But as they could not expect the Pope would take this stride in support of a clandestine election, they all took an oath of secrecy, to be observed till the confirmation was obtained.

But Reginald’s vanity defeated the scheme, and made him divulge it, which so provoked his electors, that they joined with the others, petitioned the king for a license, and elected, at his recommendation, the bishop of Norwich, and twelve of the monks were dispatched to solicit his confirmation. The suffragan bishops opposed him, as being elected without their concurrence, which point was determined for the convent by Innocent; notwithstanding which, without assigning any invalidity in the second election, he annulled it as well as the first, and recommended to the twelve deputies to elect Stephen Langton, an Englishman and a cardinal. At first they demurred, as having no authority; but the threat of instant excommunication compelled them to obey. And then, as if they had done nothing out of the way, he recommended Langton to John in a very civil letter. The king, enraged to the highest, turned the monks of Canterbury, who were entirely innocent, out of their convent and the kingdom, and threatened the Pope that he would suffer no appeals. Innocent, who had before this humbled Philip of France by an interdict, and knew the man he had to deal with, proceeded very calmly, to order three bishops to exhort the king to receive Langton, and recall the monks; and, in case of non-compliance, to lay the kingdom under an interdict[387].

The name of interdict frightened John, who knew how much he was hated. He offered to comply, if he might be allowed to make a protestation of a saving his dignity and prerogative; but no salvo would be allowed; the interdict was published, Divine service ceased through the kingdom, except in a very few places, where some clergymen were found honest and bold enough to preach against the Pope’s proceedings. John, in revenge, fleeced the clergy in a most horrible manner; and, what is yet more surprising, did not desist from oppressing the laity. However, as to the points in contest, he was not obstinate; he offered more than once to submit; but Innocent had more extensive views. There was no remission without he refunded to the churchmen every farthing he had extorted from them, a thing absolutely out of his power. Then followed, after successive delays calculated to shew that the holy father would give his undutiful son time to repent, a sentence of excommunication by name, a bull absolving his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and commanding all persons to avoid his company; and, lastly, a sentence of deposition, and a grant of all his dominions to the king of France, who had been invited also by John’s subjects, whose patience had been by this time quite exhausted with his tyranny, and the suspension of the performance of Divine service.

Philip was very ready to execute this sentence, and assembled a numerous army. Randulf was sent, as the Pope’s legate, to see the sentence of deposition put in execution; but, in reality, with secret instructions of a very different nature; for it was by no means Innocent’s intention to give England to France, but to subject it to himself. John, terrified with the exaggerated account of Philip’s armament, and the disaffection of his subjects, submitted in every point before in contest, and in one new one, that no clergyman should be outlawed. But this was not sufficient to avert the danger from Philip, and his own disaffected barons. To make him sacred and invulnerable, he became a vassal to the Pope, resigned his kingdom to him by a formal charter, and received it again as a favour, under homage, and a yearly rent of a thousand marks.

In consideration of this submission, John was favoured in the point of indemnifying the clergy, which was what had so long retarded the accommodation. Innocent took the estimating this on himself, and having got all he wanted for the See of Rome, forgot his former clients the clergy, and was very moderate with his new vassal. However, the interdict was not removed, nor the king absolved from his excommunication, till Langton was put into possession; which when done, John was obliged to renew his homage, to swear to defend church and clergy against all their adversaries, and to make restitution; and then he was absolved. But there was one curious addition to this oath, which Langton, who was an Englishman, and a lover of liberty, certainly inserted of his own head, that he should restore the laws of the Confessor: For Innocent would never, we may be well assured, have allowed such privileges to his vassals. John, however, out of fear of Philip, being in an hurry to be absolved, made no objection; and indeed he had no reason to doubt the Pope would absolve him from his oath. But Langton and the nobles were resolved to keep him strictly to it. Soon after, while he was in France, his regents summoned a parliament, wherein the king’s peace was proclaimed, and the laws of Henry the First were revived. These were those he had sworn to restore, being in truth the Confessor’s, with a few additions and alterations by the Conqueror and Henry.

John, however, went on in his old courses, being now sure of the Pope’s protection, and indeed it was hard to charge him with a breach of Henry’s charter, of which, though copies had been lodged in every cathedral and great abbey in England, yet so carefully were they destroyed, that not one appeared. At length archbishop Langton furnished them with one, which had escaped the general calamity; and this the associated barons, who had determined to restrain John, and recover their liberties, made the basis of their demands, and swore to demand, and if refused, to vindicate with the sword, at a meeting they had at Edmundsbury under pretence of devotion. Accordingly, they waited on the king in a military dress, and made their demands; but he, seeing they were only a party among the nobles, and not imagining the rest were of the same sentiments, not only refused, but with haughtiness insisted they should renounce them, by giving under their hands and seals, that they would never make the like demand on him or his successors. But his eyes were opened when he found scarce two or three of those that were with him would comply. He had recourse to procrastination, and promised them satisfaction at the latter end of Easter. In the interim he exacted a new oath of allegiance from his subjects; a feeble precaution; for none refused it, or thought themselves precluded by that act of duty from vindicating their rights in what manner they best might. To secure the clergy, he gave them a charter, confirming their immunities, and the entire freedom of their elections; and yet a great multitude continued zealous for the liberty of the subject against him; but his main dependance was on religion. To render his person sacred, he assumed the cross, as if he intended for the holy war, and implored the protection of his Holiness, to whom the discontented barons also represented the justice of their pretensions. Innocent, in appearance, received them favourably, advised them to represent their hardships in a decent and humble manner to the king, in which case he would interpose in favour of all their just and reasonable petitions; but annulled their association, and forbad them to enter into any new one for the future.

The barons, who sent to the Pope rather out of respect than any expectation of favour, proceeded in the method they began. They and their vassals assembled in array, in such numbers as to compose a formidable army; and when they had particularly specified their demands, and were refused, they proceeded to attack him, by reducing his castles. Against himself, as being under the cross, they made no attempt. On this occasion, archbishop Langton, who was at the bottom of the whole confederacy, outwitted John; who, as they had disobeyed the Pope, was impatient to have them excommunicated, and this the Pope promised to do as soon as the foreign troops, which the king had brought over for his defence, had quitted the kingdom; but when they were gone, he broke his engagement, so that John, left defenceless, was obliged to appoint four nobles to treat with the revolted lords; and, upon conference, some points they had insisted on before being given up, the liberties of the nation were settled, as contained in the two charters of Magna Charta, and Charta de Foresta[388].