rity of this speech; but, sensible
of his danger, he immediately fled with his wife and son into Ireland,
where he endeavored to conceal himself. Tha king discovered the unhappy
family in their retreat; seized the wife and son, whom he starved to
death in prison; and the baron himself narrowly escaped, by flying into
France.

{1209.} The court of Rome had artfully contrived a gradation of
sentences; by which it kept offenders in awe; still afforded them an
opportunity of preventing the next anathema by submission; and, in case
of their obstinacy, was able to refresh the horror of the people against
them, by new denunciations of the wrath and vengeance of Heaven. As the
sentence of interdict had not produced the desired effect on John,
and as his people, though extremely discontented had hitherto been
restrained from rising in open rebellion against him, he was soon
to look for the sentence of excommunication; and he had reason to
apprehend, that, notwithstanding all his precautions, the most dangerous
consequences might ensue from it. He was witness of the other scenes
which at that very time were acting in Europe, and which displayed the
unbounded and uncontrolled power of the papacy. Innocent, far from being
dismayed at his contests with the king of England, had excommunicated
the emperor Otho, John's nephew;[*] and soon brought that powerful
and haughty prince to submit to his authority. He published a crusade
against the Albigenses, a species of enthusiasts in the south of France,
whom he denominated heretics; because, like other enthusiasts, they
neglected the rites of the church, and opposed the power and influence
of the clergy: the people from all parts of Europe, moved by their
superstition and their passion for wars and adventures, flocked to his
standard: Simon de Montfort, the general of the crusade, acquired to
himself a sovereignty in these provinces: the count of Toulouse, who
protected, or perhaps only tolerated, the Albigenses, was stripped of
his dominions: and these sectaries themselves, though the most innocent
and inoffensive of mankind, were exterminated with all the circumstances
of extreme violence and barbarity. Here were therefore both an army and
a general, dangerous from their zeal and valor, who might be directed
to act against John; and Innocent, after keeping the thunder long
suspended, gave at last authority to the bishops of London, Ely, and
Worcester, to fulminate the sentence of excomm