exchanged for the duke of Gloucester, was again acknowledged by them as king, and Matilda in her turn excommunicated with her adherents. This change foon rendered her affairs fo desperate, that she was obliged to quit this kingdom, and leave Stephen in poffeffion of a crown, which he firft obtained, afterwards loft, and again recovered by the intrigues and power of the ecclefiafticks.

The power the church affumed to itself in the next reign, and the entire independence on the ftate, that it laid claim to, evidently. appears in the contest between Henry II. and Becket. The laity were reduced to a kind of flavery by the clergy: whatever outrages they fuffered from them, they durft not repel for fear of excommunication (the effects of which were at that time fo terrible) nor could they expect any redrefs from the laws, fince the ecclefiafticks claimed a privilege of being tried only in their own courts; there every thing was carried on with the most open' partiality; the ecclefiafticks were only liable to flight corrections, and for the moft heinous crimes punifhed no further than with degradation, fhort fufpenfion, or short confinement.

It was proved, there had been above a hundred murders committed by churchmen fince the king's acceffion to the throne, of whom not one had been punished fo much as by degradation.

For attempting to redress fuch an unparalleled enormity, the king and the whole body of peers in parliament, were treated by this haughty prelate with that infolence, and open contempt of their authority, as fills every reader of this part of our history with the utmoft indignation.

Of fuch confequence is it at all times to prevent every step, which may infenfibly tend to procure fuch wealth and power in the clergy, or any other fet of men, as may create an independency in them; fince we see a prince of fo much fpirit, as Henry II. is allowed to be, for endeavouring to retrench that part of ecclefiaftical ufurpation, which protected criminals from juftice, forced to attone for this fo unchriftian and wicked attempt, by the moft abject condefcenfion and fubmiffion ; though his defign had the good wishes and concurrence of all the nobility in the king

Rapin, vol. 1. 226. Tind, tranfl

dom,

dom, who at this time groaned under the ecclefiaftical yoke.

Richard I's was a reign, in which we find very little faid of ecclefiaftical affairs or perfons. That prince was but a few months in England after he came to the crown. The accounts of that time chiefly concern that romantic expedition of his to the Holy-land, fo expensive to his country, and fatal to himself in being made prifoner by the em peror.

The tyrannical government of king John made the oppofition, which he met with from his barons, an indifpenfable duty, they owed themfelves, their country, and pofterity. The tem

per of this monarch was fuch a mixture of folly, pride, and meannefs, that it was impoffible, but he fhould embroil himself with all fets of men, however different and oppofite their interefts might be. Therefore though the clergy seem to have a great share in the events of this reign, we should however carefully distinguish the motives of their conduct, as well as confequences of it, from that of the barons. The first troubles of importance in this reign were omerely ecclefiaftical. The pope's nominating cardinal Langton to the fee of Canterbury, plunged the kingdom into very

great

great difficulties and mifery. The king's refu fal to admit him as archbishop, brought an interdict on the kingdom; and the clergy were fo far from being displeased at this ufurpation in the pope, that thofe few of them, who would willingly have leffened the general confufion occafioned by the interdict, by continuing to perform the duties of their office, fuch as reading prayer, burying the dead, and the like, met with continual infults from the zealots *. drew upon the ecclefiafticks the king's utmoft feverity, who feized on their lands, imprifoned their perfons, and committed all manner of outrages on them. The interdict was foon after followed by an excommunication of the king, and the people were abfolved by the pope from their oath of allegiance.

This

The nation in general had been fo much oppreffed, that the barons took this occafion to throw off all obedience to king John. Had he been a prince in the efteem of his fubjects, no doubt they would have greatly refented this infult to their fovereign. But the confequence was, the king to fupport himself against the lords, found himself obliged to fubmit to the holy fee, whose reconciliation was to be purchased on no other terms than a

* Rapin, vol. 1. p. 269.

refignation

refignation of his crown after the most ignominious manner to the pope, in the person of his legate; which he was to receive back, and hold ever after as his vaffal, and as fuch to pay a yearly tribute. The general defection of the barons, which followed, though they made a political use of these troubles, yet was a thing quite diftinct from them, and founded wholly on principles of liberty. And as the grounds were different, fo were the confequences: the first rendered the kingdom tributary to the fée of Rome, the latter procured the figning of Magna Charta, that bafis of the liberty of England ever fince.

It will perhaps be faid, that after the reconciliation of John to the pope, from which time he condemned the barons oppofition, and fent a legate to reconcile the king to the clergy, yet they ftill refused to comply with the terms proposed, and several of them adhered firmly to the cause of the barons.

But we may with great reafon conclude the confideration of their own particular interest: was what influenced them chiefly on that occafion; for the reparations fettled by the pope for the damages, the clergy had sustained from

* M. Paris.

the