by his mild and persuasive eloquence persuaded them
to preserve the peace. FitzOsbert, finding himself deserted, clove the
head of the man sent to arrest him, and shut himself up in the church
of St. Mary-le-Bow. His followers kept aloof, and a three-days' siege
was ended by the church being set on fire. On his attempt to escape he
was severely wounded by the son of the man he had killed, was dragged
away, and burned alive. But his memory was long cherished by the poor.
Paul's Cross was silent for many years from that time.

In 1213, a great meeting of bishops, abbots, and barons met at St.
Paul's to consider the misgovernment and illegal acts of King John.
Archbishop Langton laid before the assembly the charter of Henry I.,
and commented on its provisions. The result was an oath, taken with
acclamation, that they would, if necessary, die for their liberties.
And this led up to Magna Charta. But it was a scene as ignominious as
the first surrender before Pandulf, when Pope Innocent accepted the
homage of King John as the price of supporting him against his barons,
and the wretched King, before the altar of St. Paul, ceded his kingdom
as a fief of the Holy See. The Archbishop of Canterbury protested both
privately and publicly against it.

Henry III. succeeded, at the age of ten years, to a crown which his
father had degraded. The Pope addressed him as "Vassallus Noster," and
sent his legates, one after another, to maintain his authority. It was
in St. Paul's Cathedral that this authority was most conspicuously
asserted. Before the high altar these legates took their seat, issued
canons of doctrine and discipline, and assessed the tribute which
clergy and laity were to pay to the liege lord enthroned at the
Vatican. But the indignation of the nation had been waxing hotter and
hotter ever since King John's shameful surrender. Nevertheless, in the
first days of the boy King's reign, the Papal pretensions did good
service. The barons, in wrath at John's falseness, had invited the
intervention of France, and the Dauphin was now in power. In St.
Paul's Cathedral, half England swore allegiance to him. The Papal
legate, Gualo, by his indignant remonstrance, awoke in them the sense
of shame, and the evil was averted. Then another council was held in
the same cathedral, and the King ratified the Great Charter.

Henry III. grew to manhood, and gave himself up to the management of
foreign favourites, and in 1237, instigated by th