ome big
royal hall of Westminster, Winchester, or wherever it might be, with log
fires, huge rounds of roast and boiled, not lacking malmsey and other
generous liquor, they took counsel concerning the arduous matters of the
kingdom."]

[Footnote 11: Hume, Appendix 2.]

[Footnote 12: This point will be more fully established hereafter.]

[Footnote 13: It is plain that the king and all his partisans looked
upon the charter as utterly prostrating the king's legislative supremacy
before the discretion of juries. When the schedule of liberties demanded
by the barons was shown to him, (of which the trial by jury was the most
important, because it was the only one that protected all the rest,)
"the king, falling into a violent passion, asked, _Why the barons did
not with these exactions demand his kingdom?_ * * _and with a solemn
oath protested, that he would never grant such liberties as would make
himself a slave_." * * But afterwards, "seeing himself deserted, and
fearing they would seize his castles, he sent the Earl of Pembroke and
other faithful messengers to them, to let them know _he would grant them
the laws and liberties they desired_." * * But after the charter had
been granted, "the king's mercenary soldiers, desiring war more than
peace, were by their leaders continually whispering in his ears, _that
he was now no longer king, but the scorn of other princes; and that it
was more eligible to be no king, than such a one as he_." * * He applied
"to the Pope, that he might by his apostolic authority make void what
the barons had done. * * At Rome he met with what success he could
desire, where all the transactions with the barons were fully
represented to the Pope, and the Charter of Liberties shown to him, in
writing; which, when he had carefully perused, he, with a furious look,
cried out, _What! Do the barons of England endeavor to dethrone a king,
who has taken upon him the Holy Cross, and is under the protection of
the Apostolic See; and would they force him to transfer the dominions of
the Roman Church to others? By St. Peter, this injury must not pass
unpunished._ Then debating the matter with the cardinals, he, by a
definitive sentence, damned and cassated forever the Charter of
Liberties, and sent the king a bull containing that sentence at
large."--_Echard's History of England_, p. 106-7.

These things show that the nature and effect of the charter were well
understood by the king and his friends; that t