hich he had been compelled to
sign, and to complain, before that tribunal, of the violence which had
been imposed upon him.

Innocent, considering himself as feudal lord of the kingdom, was
incensed at the temerity of the barons, who, though they pretended to
appeal to his authority, had dared, without waiting for his consent,
to impose such terms on a prince, who, by resigning to the Roman
pontiff his crown and independence, had placed himself immediately
under the papal protection. He issued, therefore, a bull, in which,
from the plenitude of his apostolic power, and from the authority
which God had committed to him, to build and destroy kingdoms, to
plant and overthrow, he annulled and abrogated the whole charter, as
unjust in itself, as obtained by compulsion, and as derogatory to the
dignity of the apostolic see. He prohibited the barons from exacting
the observance of it; he even prohibited the King himself from paying
any regard to it; he absolved him and his subjects from all oaths
which they had been constrained to take to that purpose; and he
pronounced a general sentence of excommunication against everyone who
should persevere in maintaining such treasonable and iniquitous
pretensions.

The King, as his foreign forces arrived along with this bull, now
ventured to take off the mask; and, under sanction of the Pope's
decree, recalled all the liberties which he had granted to his
subjects, and which he had solemnly sworn to observe. But the
spiritual weapon was found upon trial to carry less force with it than
he had reason from his own experience to apprehend. The Primate
refused to obey the Pope in publishing the sentence of excommunication
against the barons; and though he was cited to Rome, that he might
attend a general council there assembled, and was suspended, on
account of his disobedience to the Pope and his secret correspondence
with the King's enemies; though a new and particular sentence of
excommunication was pronounced by name against the principal
barons--John still found that his nobility and people, and even his
clergy, adhered to the defence of their liberties and to their
combination against him; the sword of his foreign mercenaries was all
he had to trust to for restoring his authority.

The barons, after obtaining the Great Charter, seem to have been
lulled into a fatal security, and to have taken no rational measures,
in case of the introduction of a foreign force, for reassembling the