at kingdom, but by supporting so base and degenerate a prince,
who was willing to sacrifice every consideration to his present
safety; and he foresaw that if the administration should fall into the
hands of those gallant and high-spirited barons, they would vindicate
the honor, liberty, and independence of the nation, with the same
ardor which they now exerted in defence of their own. He wrote
letters, therefore, to the prelates, to the nobility, and to the King
himself. He exhorted the first to employ their good offices in
conciliating peace between the contending parties, and putting an end
to civil discord. To the second he expressed his disapprobation of
their conduct in employing force to extort concessions from their
reluctant sovereign; the last he advised to treat his nobles with
grace and indulgence, and to grant them such of their demands as
should appear just and reasonable.

The barons easily saw, from the tenor of these letters, that they must
reckon on having the Pope, as well as the King, for their adversary;
but they had already advanced too far to recede from their
pretensions, and their passions were so deeply engaged that it
exceeded even the power of superstition itself any longer to control
them. They also foresaw that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded
by the efforts of the English ecclesiastics, would be of small avail
against them; and they perceived that the most considerable of the
prelates, as well as all the inferior clergy, professed the highest
approbation of their cause. Besides that these men were seized with
the national passion for laws and liberty, blessings of which they
themselves expected to partake, there concurred very powerful causes
to loosen their devoted attachment to the apostolic see. It appeared,
from the late usurpations of the Roman Pontiff, that he intended to
reap alone all the advantages accruing from that victory, which under
his banners, though at their own peril, they had everywhere obtained
over the civil magistrate.

The Pope assumed a despotic power over all the churches; their
particular customs, privileges, and immunities were treated with
disdain; even the canons of general councils were set aside by his
dispensing power; the whole administration of the Church was centred
in the court of Rome; all preferments ran, of course, in the same
channel; and the provincial clergy saw, at least felt, that there was
a necessity for limiting these pretensions.

T