at
sudden and passionate reaction to the other side, often seen in weak
natures, he now threw himself into the arms of the Predicants and
Minorites--until he set up a new favourite, who was not long in
appearing.

Before the winter was over, a second sorrow fell upon Richard de Clare,
in the death of his mother, Isabel, wife of the King's brother.
Cornwall grieved bitterly both for the loss of his wife and for the
miserable state into which England was sinking; and declaring that he
loved his country so much, that he could not bear to stay and see it go
to ruin, he prepared to head a fresh crusade. Perhaps it did not occur
to him that love and patriotism would have been shown better by staying
at home and trying to keep his country from going to ruin. That was
reserved for another Richard--the young Earl of Gloucester.

Another comet, and a violent hurricane, in the spring, made the augurs
shake their heads and prophesy worse calamities than ever. There was a
fresh one on the way, in the shape of a Papal exaction of one-fifth of
the property of foreign beneficed clerks in England, in order to support
the war then waged by the Pope on the Emperor of Germany. The royal
Council was stirred, and told its listless master that he "ought not to
suffer England to become a spoil and a desolation to immigrants, like a
vineyard without a wall, exposed to wild beasts." His Majesty, like a
true son of holy Church, replied that he "neither wished nor dared to
oppose the Pope in any thing." As if to make confusion worse
confounded, the Archbishop of Canterbury (subsequently known as Saint
Edmund of Pontigny) aspired to become a second Becket, and appealed to
the Pope to do away with state patronage, which he of course considered
ought to be vested in the Primate. King Henry, supine as he was, was
roused at last, and sent a message to Rome to the effect that the appeal
of the Archbishop was contrary to his royal dignity. The Pope declined
to entertain the appeal: and the King, we are told (by a monk) "became
more tyrannical than ever," and appointed Bonifacio of Savoy to the See
of Winchester. The defeated Archbishop submitted to the Pope's demand
of a fifth of his income: but when the Pope, emboldened by success,
came, to an agreement with the Italian priests occupying English
benefices, that on condition of their helping him against the Emperor,
all benefices in his gift should be bestowed upon Italians, the
Archbishop cou