no
power shall move us to right or left, until justice be done." A papal
legate was now sent to France, threatening excommunication and
interdict, were Ingeborg not immediately reinstated in her place. For
a few months the Pope hesitated, moved, no doubt, by his Italian and
German troubles, and fearful lest his action against a Christian
prince should delay the hoped-for crusade. But he gradually turned the
leaders of the French clergy from their support of Philip, and at
last, in February, 1200, an interdict was pronounced forbidding the
public celebration of the rites of the Church in the whole lands that
owed obedience to the King of France.

Philip Augustus held out fiercely for a time, declaring that he would
rather lose half his lands than be separated from Agnes. Meanwhile he
used pressure on his bishops to make them disregard the interdict, and
vigorously intrigued with the cardinals, seeking to build up a French
party in the papal curia. Innocent so far showed complacency that the
legate he sent to France was the King's kinsman, Octavin,
Cardinal-bishop of Ostia, who was anxious to make Philip's humiliation
as light as possible. His labors were eased by the partial submission
of Philip, who in September visited Ingeborg, and promised to take her
again as his wife, and so gave an excuse to end the interdict. Philip
still claimed that his marriage should be dissolved; though here again
he suddenly abandoned a suit which he probably saw was hopeless. The
death of Agnes of Meran in July, 1201, made a complete reconciliation
less difficult. Next year the Pope legitimated the children of Agnes
and Philip, on the ground that the sentence of divorce, pronounced by
the French bishops, gave the King reasonable grounds for entering in
good faith on his union with her. Ingeborg was still refused the
rights of a queen, and constantly besought the Pope to have pity on
her forlorn condition. The Pope was now forced to content himself with
remonstrances. Philip declared that a baleful charm separated him from
Ingeborg, and again begged the Pope to divorce him from a union based
on sorcery and witchcraft.

The growing need of the French alliance now somewhat slackened the
early zeal of Innocent for the cause of the Queen. But no real
cordiality was possible as long as the strained relations of Ingeborg
and Philip continued. At last, in 1213, in the very crisis of his
fortunes, Philip completed his tardy reconciliation with h