a
vacancy in that see, desired leave to go abroad, in order to receive
consecration from the Archbishop of Rouen; but he no sooner reached
France than he hastened to Pontigny, where Langton then resided, and
paid submissions to him as his primate. The bishops, finding
themselves exposed either to the jealousy of the king or hatred of the
people, gradually stole out of the kingdom; and, at last, there
remained only three prelates to perform the functions of the episcopal
office [z]. Many of the nobility, terrified by John's tyranny, and
obnoxious to him on different accounts, imitated the example of the
bishops; and most of the others who remained were, with reason,
suspected of having secretly entered into a confederacy against him
[a]. John was alarmed at his dangerous situation; a situation which
prudence, vigour, and popularity might formerly have prevented, but
which no virtues or abilities were now sufficient to retrieve. He
desired a conference with Langton at Dover; offered to acknowledge him
as primate, to submit to the pope, to restore the exiled clergy, even
to pay them a limited sum as a compensation for the rents of their
confiscated estates. But Langton, perceiving his advantage, was not
satisfied with these concessions: he demanded that full restitution
and reparation should be made to all the clergy; a condition so
exorbitant, that the king, who probably had not the power of
fulfilling it, and who foresaw that this estimation of damages might
amount to an immense sum, finally broke off the conference [b].
[FN [y] M. Paris, p. 159. [z] Ann. Waverl. p. 170. Ann. Marg. p. 14.
[a] M. Paris, p. 162. M. West. p. 270, 271. [b] Ann. Waverl. p.
171.]

[MN 1212.] The next gradation of papal sentences was to absolve
John's subjects from their oaths of fidelity and allegiance, and to
declare every one excommunicated who had any commerce with him in
public or in private; at his table, in his council, or even in private
conversation [c]; and this sentence was accordingly, with all
imaginable solemnity, pronounced against him. But as John still
persevered in his contumacy, there remained nothing but the sentence
of deposition; which, though intimately connected with the former, had
been distinguished from it by the artifice of the court of Rome; and
Innocent determined to dart this last thunderbolt against the
refractory monarch. But as a sentence of this kind required an armed
force to execute it, the po