he clergy; a condition so exorbitant, that the
king, who probably had not the power of fulfilling it, and who foresaw
that this estimation of damages might amount to an immense sum, finally
broke off the conference.[***]

{1212.} The next gradation of papal sentences was to absolve John's
subjects from their oaths of fidelity and allegiance, and to declare
every one excommunicated who had any commerce with him, in public or
in private; at his table, in his council, or even in private
conversation:[****] and this sentence was accordingly, with all
imaginable solemnity, pronounced against him. But as John still
persevered in his contumacy, there remained nothing but the sentence of
deposition; which, though intimately connected with the former had been
distinguished from it by the artifice of the court of Rome; and Innocent
determined to dart this last thunderbolt against the refractory monarch.

[* Ann. Waverl. p. 170. Ann. Marg. p. 14.]

[** M. Paris, p. 162. M. West p. 270, 271.]

[*** Ann. Waverl. p. 171.]

[**** M. Paris, p. 161. M. West. p. 270.]

But as a sentence of this kind required an armed force to execute it,
the pontiff, casting his eyes around, fixed at last on Philip, king of
France, as the person into whose powerful hand he could most properly
intrust that weapon, the ultimate resource of his ghostly authority.
And he offered the monarch, besides the remission of all his sins, and
endless spiritual benefits, the property and possession of the kingdom
of England, as the reward of his labor.[*]

{1213.} It was the common concern of all princes to oppose these
exorbitant pretensions of the Roman pontiff, by which they themselves
were rendered vassals, and vassals totally dependent, of the papal
crown: yet even Philip, the most able monarch of the age, was seduced by
present interest, and by the prospect of so tempting a prize, to accept
this liberal offer of the pontiff, and thereby to ratify that authority
which, if he ever opposed its boundless usurpations, might next day
tumble him from the throne. He levied a great army; summoned all the
vassals of the crown to attend him at Rouen; collected a fleet of one
thousand seven hundred vessels, great and small, in the seaports of
Normandy and Picardy; and partly from the zealous spirit of the age,
partly from the personal regard universally paid him, prepared a force
which seemed equal to the greatness of his enterprise. The king, on