churches were exempted from the said tallage; and all escheats of barons which were held in the hands of our lord the king contributed thereto. But serjeanties of our lord the king, which were not attached to knights' fees, were excepted, although they were placed on the register, as also the number of the carucates of land, the values of their lands, and the names of those holding by serjeanty; and all those so holding, were summoned to be at London on the octave at the end of Easter, to hear and perform the king's commands. The persons who were chosen for that purpose, and appointed by our lord the king, according to the estimation of lawful men, set down a hundred acres of land for each carucate of land in cultivation. (Annals of Roger de Hoveden for 1198, ed. cited. II, 420.) CHAPTER IX THE PAPAL AUTHORITY TRIUMPHANT 66. The Struggle between John and Innocent III. Roger of Wendover ROGER OF WENDOVER (d. 1237) left a work known as The Flowers of History (formerly attributed to Matthew Paris). It is the chief contemporary source for the reign of King John. The stormy rule of that king was full of struggles between the Throne and the Church, and the Throne and the Baronage. The first chain of events grew out of the tripartite struggle between the cathedral chapter of Canterbury, the king, and the pope, to seat their respective candidates in the archbishopric of Canterbury, in place of Hubert Walter, deceased. The pope was able to control the clergy, but the king refused to admit the right of Rome to appoint to the vacant see. THE KING OF ENGLAND ADMONISHED BY OUR LORD THE POPE In the same year pope Innocent, on learning that king John's heart was so hardened, that he would not either by persuasion or threats be induced to acquiesce in receiving Stephen as archbishop of Canterbury, was touched to the heart with grief, and, by advice of his cardinals, sent orders to William bishop of London, Eustace bishop of Ely, and Mauger bishop of Winchester, to go to the said king, about the matter of the church of Canterbury, and to give him wholesome counsel to yield to God in this matter, and so secure the Lord's favour; but if they found him contumacious and rebellious as he had hitherto been, he ordered them to lay an interdict on the whole kingdom of England, and to denounce to the said king that, if he did not check his boldness by that means, he, the pope, would lay his hand on him still more heavily; since it was necessary for him to conquer, who for the safety of the holy church had made war on the devil and his angels, and despoiled the cloisters of hell. He also, by letters of the apostolic see, gave orders to the |