"than separate from Agnes." The pope threatened him with the
interdict,--that is, the suspension of all religious ceremonies,
festivals, and forms in the Church of France. Philip resisted not only
the threat, but also the sentence of the interdict, which was actually
pronounced, first in the churches of the royal domain, and afterwards in
those of the whole kingdom. "So wroth was the king," says the chronicle
of St. Denis, "that he thrust from their sees all the prelates of his
kingdom, because they had assented to the interdict." "I had rather turn
Mussulman," said Philip; "Saladin was a happy man, for he had no pope."
But Innocent III. was inflexible; he claimed respect for laws divine and
human, for the domestic hearth and public order. The conscience of the
nation was troubled. Agnes herself applied to the pope, urging her
youth, her ignorance of the world, the sincerity and purity of her love
for her husband. Innocent III. was touched, and before long gave
indisputable evidence that he was, but without budging from his duty and
his right as a Christian. For four years the struggle went on. At last
Philip yielded to the injunction of the pope and the feeling of his
people; he sent away Agnes, and recalled Ingeburga. The pope, in his
hour of victory, showed his sense of equity and his moral appreciation;
taking into consideration the good faith of Agnes in respect of her
marriage, and Philip's possible mistake as to his right to marry her, he
declared the legitimacy of the two children born of their union. Agnes
retired to Poissy, where, a few months afterwards, she died. Ingeburga
resumed her title and rights as queen, but without really enjoying them.
Philip, incensed as well as beaten, banished her far from him and his
court, to Etampes, where she lived eleven years in profound retirement.
It was only in 1212 that, to fully satisfy the pope, Philip, more
persevering in his political wisdom than his domestic prejudices,
restored the Danish princess to all her royal station at his side. She
was destined to survive him.

There can be little doubt but that the affection of Philip Augustus for
Agnes of Merania was sincere; nothing can be better proof of it than the
long struggle he maintained to prevent separation from her; but, to say
nothing of the religious scruples which at last, perhaps, began to prick
the conscience of the king, great political activity and the government
of a kingdom are a powerful c