t controversy, now, when the minds of men were
exasperated and inflamed, were capable of affording matter to the
greatest revolutions. The affairs of the Church, the winds which mostly
governed the fluctuating people, were to be regarded with the utmost
attention. Above all, the person who filled the see of Canterbury, which
stood on a level with the throne itself, was a matter of the last
importance. Just at this critical time died Hubert, archbishop of that
see, a man who had a large share in procuring the crown for John, and in
weakening its authority by his acts at the ceremony of the coronation,
as well as by his subsequent conduct. Immediately on the death of this
prelate, a cabal of obscure monks, of the Abbey of St. Augustin,
assemble by night, and first binding themselves by a solemn oath not to
divulge their proceedings, until they should be confirmed by the Pope,
they elect one Reginald, their sub-prior, Archbishop of Canterbury. The
person elected immediately crossed the seas; but his vanity soon
discovered the secret of his greatness. The king received the news of
this transaction with surprise and indignation. Provoked at such a
contempt of his authority, he fell severely on the monastery, no less
surprised than himself at the clandestine proceeding of some of its
members. But the sounder part pacified him in some measure by their
submission. They elected a person recommended by the king, and sent
fourteen of the most respectable of their body to Rome, to pray that the
former proceedings should be annulled, and the later and more regular
confirmed. To this matter of contention another was added. A dispute had
long subsisted between the suffragan bishops of the province of
Canterbury and the monks of the Abbey of St. Austin, each claiming a
right to elect the metropolitan. This dispute was now revived, and
pursued with much vigor. The pretensions of the three contending parties
were laid before the Pope, to whom such disputes were highly pleasing,
as he knew that all claimants willingly conspire to flatter and
aggrandize that authority from which they expect a confirmation of
their own. The first election, he nulled, because its irregularity was
glaring. The right of the bishops was entirely rejected: the Pope looked
with an evil eye upon those whose authority he was every day usurping.
The second election was set aside, as made at the king's instance: this
was enough to make it very irregular. The canon law