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a great chain in his hand; and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that, he must be loosed a little season." Accordingly, our learned men asserted that these thousand years were now fulfilled, and that the Devil was loosed. Woe unto the earth and to the inhabitants thereof, for if the Devil, when bound, has brought so many evils upon the world, how many and how great will he bring when loosed? Let us, therefore, suppliantly pray to God, that in our daily actions He will preserve us from evil-that He will check and curb our tongues-that the dreadful din of strife may not resound-that He will protect and cherish our perception-that He will not allow us to follow after vanity-that the inmost recesses of our hearts may be pure-that folly may be removed afar-that moderation in food and drink may destroy the pride of the flesh-that, when Christ, the Judge, shall come, at the end of the world, He will make us sharers in joy everlasting.

In the month of May, in the same year, on the vigil of the Ascension of our Lord, Walter de Ghent departed this life, the first abbat of the canons regular of the holy Cross at Waltham. In the same year, in the week of Pentecost, when the barons of England were assembled at Portsmouth, for the purpose of crossing over with the king, the king received from each of them the sum of money which they had intended to expend in his service, and allowed them to return home; after which, he sent before him into Normandy, William Marshal, earl of Striguil, with a hundred knights, and Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, with another hundred knights, in order to make head against the attacks of his enemies upon the territories of Normandy. The king also gave to Hubert de Burgh, his chamberlain, a hundred knights, and made him keeper of the marches of England and Wales.

After this, the said king remitted his wrath against Geoffrey, archbishop of York, and restored him his manors and his servants, whom he set at liberty, and by his charter confirmed to him the liberties of the church of York, and of its archbishopric, in such manner as Roger, archbishop of York, had held the same. In return for the said confirmation, the said arch

85 Rev. xx. 1-3

bishop engaged to pay to the king, in the course of one year, one thousand marks sterling, and for the performance thereof, the said archbishop pledged his barony to the king.

Shortly after, the king of England sent Geoffrey, bishop of Chester, Richard Malebise, and Henry Pudsey to William, king of the Scots, and requested that the time for giving an answer to the demand he had made of the county of Northumberland, which the king of England had fixed at Pentecost, might be put off till the feast of Saint Michael. The king of England, and queen Isabel, his wife, then embarked and crossed over, in the second week of Pentecost; but the king landed in the Isle of Wight, while the queen, his wife, embarking in another ship, and having a fair wind, landed in Normandy.

After he had stayed some days longer in England, king John again went on board ship at Portsmouth, and crossed over to Normandy; immediately upon which, a conference was held between him and the king of France, near the isle of Andely, and they came to a full agreement, no one but themselves being aware of what passed at the interview between them. Three days after this, at the invitation of the king of France, king John went to Paris, and was lodged in the palace of the king of France, and honorably entertained; the king of France having removed to take up his dwelling in another quarter. On his departure thence, the king of England proceeded to Chinon; while here, Berengaria, the former queen of England, and wife of king Richard, came to him; on which, John, king of England, made satisfaction to her for her dowry, in conformity with the testimony of Philip, bishop of Durham, and others who had been present at her marriage.

In the meantime, pope Innocent, having the bowels of compassion for the afflicted, wrote to the prelates of the churches to the following effect:

The Letter of pope Innocent on giving aid to the land of Jerusalem.

"Innocent, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brethren, the archbishop and bishops throughout the kingdom of England appointed, health and the Apostolical benediction. Our just and merciful God, who reproves and chastens those whom He loves, forgets neither to show mercy, nor does He withhold His compassion in His wrath. Although He spares not the rod, that He may not seem to hate His sons,

still, so does He moderate the severity of His just judgments against those who offend, that He scourges not so as to destroy, but, as it were, by His scourges to raise those who are fallen; wishing not for the death of sinners, but rather that they may be converted and live, as there is more joy among the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety-nine just persons who need not repentance. For, inasmuch as the senses of all men are prone to evil from their youth upwards, and human nature is more inclined to sin, in order that, if exalted only by prosperity, they may not wax proud and their pride may ever hold the ascendancy over them, He allows them to be humbled, that so, when they shall feel sensible that they are afflicted acording to their deserts, they may recognize the justice of the judge, and, washing away the faults of their repentance with their tears, may be turned unto the Lord, and the Lord may be turned unto them; a thing which in the depopulation of the Eastern lands may readily be perceived by all. For when men who had now grown old in the world, had grown old in well-doing as well, and young men, like boys, had waxed wanton in the paths of vice, for now these hundred years past, and, almost all, like sheep going astray, being given up to the lusts of the flesh, wandered, every one his own way, the Lord willed by the loss of the province of Jerusalem, so to punish our misdeeds, as, by renewing in some measure the mystery of His passion, to open a gate to repentance, and a way unto us to salvation. For He who in his body suffered for our sins upon the Cross of wood, once again suffering crucifixion on that wood for the remission of our sins, allowed himself, as it were, to be afflicted, in suffering the Cross upon which our Salvation hung, and which He stained with His own blood, to be taken by the Saracens, and to be so long held in their possession, that He might see if any one would grieve at his griefs; if there should be any one to seek that his body should be given up to him; if there should be any one to wrap it in a napkin, and to place it in the sepulchre, and, when deposited in the tomb, to place thereupon spices of sweetsmelling savour. But we rejoice in the Lord that He who gave the cause for repentance, has also bestowed upon many the feelings of repentance, and has in His mercy inspired them with a wish, assuming the sign of the Cross, to avenge the injuries done to Jesus Christ, fulfilling the precept of the Gospel, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,

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and take up his cross and follow me:' that so, leaving behind the burden of its hump, the camel may pass through the eye of the needle, and the rich man, becoming poor, may enter the kingdom of heaven, and may for things temporal receive the things eternal. But because many, as we have heard, and with grief we mention it, have gone back and have laid aside the emblem of the Cross, that they may not appear to have come in vain, if they do not perform that which they intended, we do by these Apostolic writings strictly command and enjoin your brotherhood, all indulgences to the contrary notwithstanding (in case it should appear that there have been surreptitiously obtained any such from our predecessors), that you are to compel all such to assume the sign of the Cross, after due warning given, by means of sentence of excommunication and interdict, all power of appeal being withdrawn; and that you are on each Lord's day and on festivals, with bells ringing and candles lighted, stating the names of those of whom you have or shall have notice, publicly to denounce the same as excommunicated, and to forbid Divine service to be celebrated in their presence wheresoever they shall come. You are also strictly to warn all who have received the sign of the Cross, and, if it shall be necessary, by ecclesiastical rigour to compel them, at the time at which our dearly beloved sons, those noble men the earls of Flanders, Champagne, and Blois, and the others, shall, after prudent deliberation, by the advice of the wise, have determined, during the ensuing summer, to perform their intended. pilgrimage, to the end that, in the way which shall be considered to be most conducive to the interests of the Holy Land, they may together pay their obedience unto the Lord. The punishment, also, which we command to be inflicted upon those who have laid aside the sign of the Cross, in order to compel them to resume the same, you are, in like form, to inflict upon those who, within the next five years, shall presume to frequent tournaments, and are not to revoke the sentence which you shall have pronounced on such persons, until they shall have solemnly abjured tournaments for the said period, that so the blood that should be consecrated to the Lord, and whereby, at these times, a heavenly reward may easily be obtained, may not be shed unto devils, to the injury of the body and the danger of the soul. Each of you in his dio

86 St. Matt. xvi. 24. St. Mark viii. 34, x. 21. St. Luke ix. 23.

cese is healthfully to remind the members thereof thus to do, and diligently to exhort them, frequently explaining to them the tenor of the Apostolical remission, to assume the sign of the vivifying Cross, in order that at least they may, with their property, according to their means, give some assistance to the Holy Land; lest, if they shall, in this moment of emergency, refuse to assist Christ, they may now and hereafter in vain ask for assistance at His hands. Also, as to all these matters, brother of Canterbury, we do appoint you our delegate, diligently to arouse the negligent to the performance of the same. We do further strictly enjoin and command you, that, in accordance with the commands which, in our other letters, we have given you, you will, each of you, in his respective diocese, urgently demand the fortieth part of all the revenues of churches and ecclesiastical persons, and of the incomes of clerks, and, after obtaining it, diligently collect the same, and, after collecting it, have the same trustily kept, without any diminution thereof, to be laid out in giving assistance to the Holy Land; and so fulfil the Apostolic mandate, that, from your works we may perceive your obedience, and may fully understand how you proceed as regards others in this emergency, not so much your own as of Christ. Given at the Lateran, on the third day before the nones of May, in the fourth year of our pontificate."

In the same year, Eustace, abbat of Flaye, returned to England, and preaching therein the word of the Lord from city to city, and from place to place, forbade any person to hold a market of goods on sale upon the Lord's day. For he said that the commandment under-written, as to the observance of the Lord's day, had come down from heaven.

On the observance of the Lord's day.

"The holy commandment as to the Lord's day, which came from heaven to Jerusalem, and was found upon the altar of Saint Simeon, in Golgotha, where Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. The Lord sent down this Epistle, which was found upon the altar of Saint Simeon, and after looking upon which, three days and three nights, some men fell upon the earth, imploring mercy of God. And after the third hour, the Patriarch arose, and Acharias, the archbishop, and they opened the scroll, and received the holy Epistle from God. And when they had taken the same they found this writing therein :