his own free will, and by the common
advice and consent of his barons, he had, for remission of his own
sins, and those of his family, resigned England and Ireland, to God,
to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to Pope Innocent and his successors in
the apostolic chair: he agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of
the church of Rome, by the annual payment of a thousand marks; seven
hundred for England, three hundred for Ireland: and he stipulated that
if he or his successors should ever presume to revoke or infringe this
charter, they should instantly, except upon admonition they repented
of their offence, forfeit all right to their dominions [k].
[FN [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 176. M. Paris, p. 165.]

[MN 15th May.] In consequence of this agreement, John did homage to
Pandolf, as the pope's legate, with all the submissive rites which the
feudal law required of vassals before their liege lord and superior.
He came disarmed into the legate's presence, who was seated on a
throne; he flung himself on his knees before him; he lifted up his
joined hands, and put them within those of Pandolf; he swore fealty to
the pope; and he paid part of the tribute which he owed for his
kingdom as the patrimony of St. Peter. The legate, elated by this
supreme triumph of sacerdotal power, could not forbear discovering
extravagant symptoms of joy and exultation: he trampled on the money,
which was laid at his feet as an earnest of the subjection of the
kingdom; an insolence of which, however offensive to all the English,
no one present, except the Archbishop of Dublin, dared to take any
notice. But though Pandolf had brought the king to submit to these
base conditions, he still refused to free him from the excommunication
and interdict, till an estimation should be taken of the losses of the
ecclesiastics, and full compensation and restitution should be made
them.

John, reduced to this abject situation under a foreign power, still
showed the same disposition to tyrannize over his subjects, which had
been the chief cause of all his misfortunes. One Peter of Pomfret, a
hermit, had foretold that the king, this very year, should lose his
crown; and for that rash prophecy he had been thrown into prison in
Corfe-castle. John now determined to bring him to punishment as an
impostor; and though the man pleaded that his prophecy was fulfilled,
and that the king had lost the royal and independent crown which he
formerly wore, the defence was suppo