AD. HOC. POPE ALEXANDEB'S LETTEE IO KIXG UEXKY. 279 expelled from England, and from all the lands of his dominions, all the men and women he could possibly find belonging to the kindred of the blessed Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury; even infants crying in the cradle, and still hanging at the mother's breast, he sent into banishment, that, upon seeing tliem, the grief of the above-named archbishop might be increased. "What art thou doing, thou tyrant ? What madness is it that hath overcome thee, that thou shouldst thus drive away from thy kingdom those who have done thee no injury, and in whose mouths no guile has been found ? There is no reason why the issue of the banished, so long as they observe the laws, should not live in the city ! When the blessed Thomas beheld them, he was greatly afflicted, and, sharing in their sorrows, became more than a martyr. "No wonder was it, then, if his mind, becoming disturbed, melted away, like water dropping from the snow."55 Still, all these sorrows did the man of God endure with great long-suffering. He had hardly remained two years at the abbey of Pontigny, with the abbat Gwarine, and the monks who were there in the service of God, under whose charge he had been placed by Alexander, the Supreme Pontiff, when the king of England sent word to the above-named abbat of Pontigny, that if he any longer harboured the archbishop of Canterbury in his house, he would, in such case, banish all the monies of his order from England. The consequence of this was, that the blessed Thomas, of his own accord, departed from that house, in order that so many houses of the religious might not, on his account, come to ruin. He, therefore, betook himself to Louis, king of the Pranks ; by whom he was hospitably received, and sent to the abbey of Sjdnt Columba, near the city of Sens. The Letter of pope Alexander to Henry, "king of England. " Alexander the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his dearly beloved son Henry, the illustrious king of England, health and the Apostolic benediction. Although your great devotion towards us and your mother the Holy Church seems in some measure to have waxed cool, still, at no season do we relax our paternal feelings towards you and the kingdom entrusted to your government. Inasmuch, then, as the 6tripes β* Nec mirum est igitur si meus sua turbida facta De nive manantis more liqucscit aqux."