unication against
him.[**] These prelates obeyed; though their brethren were deterred from
publishing, as the pope required of them, the sentence in the several
churches of their dioceses.

No sooner was the excommunication known, than the effects of it
appeared. Geoffrey, archdeacon of Norwich, who was intrusted with a
considerable office in the court of exchequer, being informed of it
while sitting on the bench observed to his colleagues the danger of
serving under an excommunicated king; and he immediately left his chair,
and departed the court. John gave orders to seize him, to throw him
into prison, to cover his head with a great leaden cope, and by this and
other severe usage, he soon put an end to his life:[***] nor was there
any thing wanting to Geoffrey, except the dignity and rank of Becket, to
exalt him to an equal station in heaven with that great and celebrated
martyr.

[* M. Paris, p. 160. Trivet, p. 154. M, West. p.
269.]

[** M. Paris, p. 159. M. West. p. 270.]

[*** M. Paris, p. 159.]

Hugh de Wells, the chancellor, being elected by the king's appointment
bishop of Lincoln, upon a vacancy in that see, desired leave to go
abroad, in order to receive consecration from the archbishop of Rouen;
but he no sooner reached France, than he hastened to Pontigny, where
Langton then resided, and paid submissions to him as his primate. The
bishops, finding themselves exposed either to the jealousy of the king
or hatred of the people, gradually stole out of the kingdom; and at
last there remained only three prelates to perform the functions of the
episcopal office.[*] Many of the nobility, terrified by John's tyranny,
and obnoxious to him on different accounts, imitated the example of
the bishops; and most of the others, who remained, were with reason
suspected of having secretly entered into a confederacy against him.[**]
John was alarmed at his dangerous situation; a situation which prudence,
vigor, and popularity might formerly have prevented, but which no
virtues or abilities were now sufficient to retrieve. He desired a
conference with Langton at Dover; offered to acknowledge him as primate,
to submit to the pope, to restore the exiled clergy, even to pay them
a limited sum as a compensation for the rents of their confiscated
estates. But Langton, perceiving his advantage, was not satisfied with
these concessions: he demanded that full restitution and reparation
should be made to all t