y against John, on account of the
long opposition made by that prince to his election; or thought that an
acquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and secure
the privileges of the church; had formed the plan of reforming the
government, and had prepared the way for that great innovation, by
inserting those singular clauses above mentioned, in the oath which he
administered to the king, before he would absolve him from the sentence
of excommunication. Soon after, in a private meeting of some principal
barons at London, he showed them a copy of Henry I.'s charter, which,
he said, he had happily found in a monastery; and he exhorted them to
insist on the renewal and observance of it: the barons swore that
they would sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable a
demand.[**]

[* Chron. Mailr. p. 188. T. Wykes, p. 36. Ann.
Waverl. p. 181 W. Heming. p. 657.]

[** M. Paris, p. 167.]

The confederacy began now to spread wider, and to comprehend almost all
the barons in England; and a new and more numerous meeting was summoned
by Langton at St. Edmondsbury, under color of devotion. He again
produced to the assembly the old charter of Henry; renewed his
exhortations of unanimity and vigor in the prosecution of their purpose;
and represented in the strongest colors the tyranny to which they had
so long been subjected, and from which it now behoved them to free
themselves and their posterity.[*] The barons, inflamed by his
eloquence, incited by the sense of their own wrongs, and encouraged by
the appearance of their power and numbers, solemnly took an oath, before
the high altar, to adhere to each other, to insist on their demands, and
to make endless war on the king till he should submit to grant them.[**]
They agreed that, after the festival of Christmas, they would prefer in
a body their common petition; and in the mean time they separated,
after mutually engaging that they would put themselves in a posture
of defence, would enlist men and purchase arms, and would supply their
castles with the necessary provisions.

{1215.} The barons appeared in London on the day appointed, and demanded
of the king, that, in consequence of his own oath before the primate,
as well as in deference to their just rights, he should grant them
a renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of the laws of St.
Edward. The king, alarmed with their zeal and unanimity, as well as with
their power, requir