erted in defence of their own. He wrote letters, therefore, to
the prelates, to the nobility, and to the king himself. He exhorted the
first to employ their good offices in conciliating peace between the
contending parties, and putting an end to civil discord: to the second
he expressed his disapprobation of their conduct in employing force to
extort concessions from their reluctant sovereign: the last lie advised
to treat his nobles with grace and indulgence, and to grant them such of
their demands as should appear just and reasonable.

[* Rymer, vol. i. p. 197.]

[** Rymer, vol. i. p. 200. Trivet, p. 162. T.
Wykes, p. 37. M West. p. 273.]

[*** Rymer, vol i. p. 184]

[**** Rymer, vol i. p. 184]

The barons easily saw, from the tenor of these letters, that they must
reckon on having the pope, as well as the king, for their adversary; but
they had already advanced too far to recede from their pretensions, and
their passions were so deeply engaged, that it exceeded even the power
of superstition itself any longer to control them. They also foresaw,
that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded by the efforts of the
English ecclesiastics, would be of small avail against them and they
perceived that the most considerable of the prelates, as well as all
the inferior clergy, professed the highest approbation of their cause.
Besides that these men were seized with the national passion for laws
and liberty, blessings of which they themselves expected to partake,
there concurred very powerful causes to loosen their devoted attachment
to the apostolic see. It appeared, from the late usurpations of the
Roman pontiff, that he pretended to reap alone all the advantages
accruing from that victory, which under his banners, though at their own
peril, they had every where obtained over the civil magistrate. The
pope assumed a despotic power over all the churches; their particular
customs, privileges, and immunities were treated with disdain; even the
canons of general councils were set aside by his dispensing power; the
whole administration of the church was centred in the court of Rome;
all preferments ran, of course, in the same channel; and the provincial
clergy saw, at least felt, that there was a necessity for limiting these
pretensions. The legate, Nicholas, in filling those numerous vacancies
which had fallen in England during an interdict of six years, had
proceeded in the most arbitrary manner; and