power. But a favorable incident soon after happened, which enabled so
aspiring a pontiff as Innocent to extend still farther his usurpations
on so contemptible a prince as John.

[* Rymer, vol. i. p. 119.]

Hubert, the primate, died in 1205; and as the monks or canons of
Christ-church, Canterbury, possessed a right of voting in the election
of their archbishop, some of the juniors of the order, who lay in wait
for that event, met clandestinely the very night of Hubert's death;
and without any conge d'elire from the king, chose Reginald, their
sub-prior, for the successor; installed him in the archiepiscopal throne
before midnight; and having enjoined him the strictest secrecy, sent
him immediately to Rome, in order to solicit the confirmation of his
election.[*] The vanity of Reginald prevailed over his prudence; and he
no sooner arrived in Flanders than he revealed to every one the purpose
of his journey, which was immediately known in England.[**] The king
was enraged at the novelty and temerity of the attempt, in filling so
important an office without his knowledge or consent: the suffragan
bishops of Canterbury, who were accustomed to concur in the choice of
their primate, were no less displeased at the exclusion given them in
this election: the senior monks of Christ-church were injured by the
irregular proceedings of their juniors: the juniors themselves, ashamed
of their conduct, and disgusted with the levity of Reginald, who
had broken his engagements with them, were willing to set aside his
election:[***] and all men concurred in the design of remedying the
false measures which had been taken. But as John knew that this affair
would be canvassed before a superior tribunal, where the interposition
of royal authority in bestowing ecclesiastical benefices was very
invidious; where even the cause of suffragan bishops was not so
favorable as that of monks; he determined to make the new election
entirely unexceptionable, he submitted the affair wholly to the
canons of Christ-church; and departing from the right claimed by his
predecessors, ventured no farther than to inform them, privately, that
they would do him an acceptable service if they chose John de Gray,
bishop of Norwich, for their primate.[****]

[* M. Paris, p 148. M. West. p. 266.]

[** M. Paris, p. 148. M. West. p. 266.]

[*** M. West. p. 266.]

[**** M. Paris, p. 149. M. West. p. 266.]

The election of that prelate was