ot in
England. The result of this conduct was the publication of the celebrated
Interdict, followed soon after by the personal excommunication of the king
and the absolution of his subjects from their oath of allegiance by the
pope. Philip of France was ordered to depose the English king, whose crown
was declared forfeited. Hard pressed by his enemies, and having alienated
his people from his cause, King John was driven to humiliating submission:
he promised to receive Langton and to restore the Church property, and
finally, formally resigned his crown into the hands of Pandulph, the Papal
Legate. Archbishop Langton was received with honour, and King John threw
himself at his feet and reconciled himself with the Church. He also
ordered a great council to meet at St. Alban's to settle finally the
restitution of the church property. Here, however, he was met by an open
declaration of the complaints of all classes. Langton, though elevated to
the primacy, entirely through the influence of the pope, proved himself a
staunch Englishman, and posed as the champion of national liberty against
the claims of both pope and king. It was he who produced to the
malcontents the Coronation Charter of Henry I., which the barons accepted
as a declaration of the views and demands of their party. He was at the
head of the barons in their struggle with the king, and his name appears
as that of the first witness to the famous Magna Charta. John at once
applied to the pope, and obtained from him the abrogation of the charter
and a papal order to Langton to excommunicate the king's enemies. This he
refused to do. John overran the country with foreign mercenaries, and his
cruelties eventually resulted in the barons summoning Louis of France to
their assistance. Langton was summoned to Rome to attend the Lateran
Council, and was detained there until the deaths of Innocent III. and King
John, after which he was permitted to return to his see and passed the
remainder of his life in comparative tranquillity, siding strongly with
the national party under Hubert de Burgh. He presided at the translation
of Becket's remains from the crypt to Trinity Chapel; he rebuilt much of
the archiepiscopal palace at Canterbury and he lies buried in his own
cathedral. He was the first who divided the Bible into chapters.

#Richard de Wethershed# (1229-1231), Chancellor of Lincoln, was next
appointed, but died on his way back from Italy. After three more elections
by