able to repress the fury of the Tartars; he also sent a Saracen messenger from his own company to the king of England, who had arrived in England, to tell these events, and to say, that if they themselves could not withstand the attacks of such people, nothing remained to prevent their devastating the countries of the West: according to the saying of the poet,

Tunc tua res agitur paries quum proximus ardet.

[For when your neighbour's house doth burn,
The fire will seize on yours in turn.]

He therefore asked assistance in this urgent and general
emergency, that the Saracens, with the assistance of the
Christians, might resist the attacks of these people. The
bishop of Winchester, who happened to be then present, and
wearing the sign of the cross, interrupted his speech, and
replied jocosely, "Let us leave these dogs to devour one
another, that they may all be consumed, and perish;
and we,
when we proceed against the enemies of Christ who remain,
will slay them, and cleanse the face of the earth, so that all
the world will be subject to the one Catholic church, and
there will be one shepherd and one fold."

Death of Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester.

On the ninth of June, in the same year, died Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester, who, after having governed the church of Winchester for about thirty-two years, and having laudably fulfilled his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in company with the bishop of Exeter, and having built several houses for religious persons, and made a noble testament, closed his life, full of years, at his manor of Farnham. He was buried in his church at Winchester, where he had, during his life, chosen an humble tomb. By his death, the whole council, as well regal as ecclesiastical, of the English kingdom incurred an irreparable loss; and it must not be omitted, that whatever honour or advantage was contributed to the Church, either during peace, or a truce, or even during the war in the Holy Land, when the emperor Frederick went there, was nobly brought about and prudently carried into effect by the counsels and assistance of this same bishop. Besides this, when, some time afterwards, a disagreement, which had sprung up between the pope and the emperor, threatened

misfortune to the whole Church, he happily, by the grace of God, restored peace between these illustrious personages. The names of the religious houses which he built, and endowed with possessions, buildings, and revenues, are as follow :-Hales, of the order of Præmonstratensians; Tykeford, of the same order; Selburn, of the order of St. Augustine, that is, of Regular Canons; and the famous hospital of Portsmouth. In the Holy Land, too, by transferring the church of St. Thomas the martyr, from an improper to a suitable place, he changed the order of the brothers of that church to a more competent order, so that, relying on the assistance of the patriarch of Jerusalem, those who had been formerly seculars in deed and dress, now carry the cross on their breasts, and are subject to the order of the Templars : he strengthened Joppa, a renowned place of refuge for the Christians; he made a remarkable testament, and bequeathed such an immense sum of money to each of the aforesaid places, that to the house of St. Thomas, at Acre, to which he bequeathed the least, he assigned five hundred marks. Besides this, he left to his successor a rich bishopric, with no diminution of its plough cattle. The king, when he heard of the death of Peter of Winchester, caused William, bishop elect of Valentia, to be appointed to that bishopric; but the chancellor, Ralph de Neville, bishop of Chichester, having been duly demanded, against the wish of the king, by the convent of Winchester, to whom the right of election belonged, the king dismissed him they wished to have from his council and his court, after taking from him the seal which had been intrusted to the said chancellor by the advice of the whole kingdom; and by means of his Romefooted lawyers, and by the expenditure of a large sum of money, caused the demand of the convent to be annulled by the pope.

The siege of the city of Milan.

At the same time of the year, the emperor having continued the siege of Milan, almost all the Christian princes sent him auxiliary troops; the king of England, his brotherin-law, sent a hundred knights, handsomely equipped with horses and arms, under the command of Henry de Trubleville, together with a large sum of money, to his assistance. The bishop elect of Valentia, too, who knew more of tem

poral than spiritual arms, hastened there with the knights whom the counts of Toulouse and Provence had sent to the emperor's assistance. The emperor being attended by such a numerous host of nobles, to the astonishment of many, wasted a long time in the siege with great loss, except that in one battle, Henry de Trubleville, with the triumphal standard of the king of England, followed by the English troops under his command, bravely repelled the attacks of the enemy, and put them to a hopeless flight; on which the emperor returned thanks by letter to the king, declaring that this bold attack was the cause of his safety and honour ; and not long after, he betook himself, with his large army, to lay siege to Brescia, the citizens of which place had succoured the Milanese in all their emergencies. The Milanese, in the mean time, were not idle, but surrounded their city with deep trenches, and continued frequently to assist the citizens of Brescia. In this way the summer season was spent and ended, so that on the approach of winter, a truce was agreed to by consent of both parties, and those who had come to the assistance of the emperor, went away without effecting their purpose; and the emperor himself, as he could not conquer and subject to his rule the city of Brescia, which was a small one in comparison to the other cities, became less formidable to his enemies, and less respected by his friends.

The return of Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, from the Roman court.

About the same time, Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, returned from the court of Rome and came to England. Although he had left England with the good-will of the conventual assembly, he obtained from the pope a decree in his favour against the monks of Canterbury; owing to which an irregular and unbecoming disagreement arose between the shepherd and his flock, and the Church suffered much loss and dishonour, suspense and ignominy. On this the legate was invited to correct this deformity, and, whilst presiding at the chapter at Canterbury, because a certain book, containing a privilege obtained in the time of St. Thomas, had been imprudently burned by some persons, he deposed the prior of that place, and sent him to a more rigorous order, there to perform continual penance, and dispersed some of the monks; for (as was stated) he had privily erased from the

aforesaid privilege the things which plainly appeared to be against them, and had inserted other things which seemed to plead in their favour; and because such erasures, in such an authentic book, could not escape the notice of persons who carefully examined it, one of the brothers unadvisedly burned it, that the convent might not incur the brand of infamy and of falsehood. Wherefore, on the archbishop's making mention of that book, and asking for it, and when, on its not being found, they made a true confession of what had occurred, the legate was justly enraged, and, in punishment for such a great fault (as has been above mentioned), removed the prior from his office, dispersed some of the brethren who appeared guilty, ordering them to live more strictly and in continual penance. Afterwards, because the prior entered the chapterhouse with some seculars to make an election, against the approved custom of the house, the conventual assembly elected a prior over them, without the consent of the archbishop. The archbishop then, on hearing this, disapproved and quashed the election, and not only suspended, but also excommunicated both the prior elect and the electors; but the conventual assembly boldly appealed, in this matter, against the archbishop to the pope.

The king endeavours to effect the election of William elect of Valentia, to the bishopric of Winchester.

At this time, the king (although he had often before sworn to dismiss, and not to advance the interest of, foreigners) applied all possible industry, more than he ought, and by improper means, to obtain the promotion and election of William elect of Valentia (who was said to be a man of blood), to the bishopric of Winchester. But this the monks, to whom the right of election is known to belong, firmly refused amongst themselves, and went to the king, as was the custom, demanding permission to elect their bishop; the king, however, before giving them any reply, begged of them to elect William, bishop elect of Valentia, whom he called his uncle; the monks dissembled, and demanded time to deliberate on the matter with the rest of the conventual assembly, to whom the right of election belonged. The king, however, felt that, by granting them this respite, his entreaties would fail of effect, turned off to his usual cavillings, and in reply to the petition of the monks said, "I have

been informed that two archdeacons of the bishopric of Winchester are bound to be present at your election; these I do not see in the present case, therefore I cannot comply with your petition.' To this the monks replied, that, "although they ought to be present at the election (which to us seems absurd and inconsistent with justice), they need not be present at the demand for an election ;" and thus the king, although he kicked against it for a long time, could not oppose their just demand. But some time afterwards, when he was credibly informed that the monks seriously entertained the idea of electing William de Ræle, a man altogether praiseworthy, for their bishop, and that all had consented to it, he was greatly enraged, and sneeringly replied, "You refused the bishop elect of Valentia, saying that he was a man of blood, and have now elected William de Ræle, who has killed more men with his tongue than any one else with a sword;" and so he haughtily and abusively swore that he would never, by any means, endure this. The monks, therefore, fearing the king's anger, turned aside from their intention, and, in the mean time, the king destroyed the possessions and improvements of the bishopric, and often lay in the manors belonging to it, attended by a numerous company.

The king causes the election of Ralph, bishop of Chichester, to be

quashed.

The monks then, seeing the injurious effects of delay, began diligently to consider about choosing a pastor for themselves, on learning which the king hastened thither immediately, and, entering the chapter-house more eagerly than became him, demanded of the monks, with threats and promises, that they should elect his uncle, the bishop elect of Valentia. They, however, cunningly wishing to turn aside the king's anger, endeavoured to soften his indiscreet violence by delay; but not being willing to consent to his unjust demands, they, by unanimous consent, demanded Ralph de Neville, bishop of Chichester, and the king's chancellor, for their bishop and the pastor of their souls. The king, finding that his entreaties had again failed in their effect, opposed the just demand of the monks, and heaped much abuse on the said bishop, saying, that he was impetuous, passionate, and perverse, and called them fools for having demanded him for a bishop. Besides this, he forcibly took away his seal, which