294 ANNALS OF ROGER DE EOTEDEN. A.D. 1167. provide us with food. For he has written to the ahbat of the Cistercians,65 that as he loves those abbeys of his order which are in his power, so must he withhold from us all services and attentions on part of his order. But why enlarge? For, notwithstanding my long suffering, to that degree has the harshness of the king and his officers proceeded, that even if any number of religious men whatsoever were to inform you thereupon, even upou oath, I should be much surprised if even then your Holiness would give any belief to their assertions. Beflecting, therefore, upon these things with great anxiety of mind, and the danger ensuing therefrom, both to the king and to yourself, I have publicly condemned these pernicious, I will not say customs, but perversions or corruptions, by whieh the Church of England is disturbed and confounded, together with the writing and the authority of the writing by which they were confirmed ; as also the observers, enforcers, and defenders of the same. I have also in general terms excommunicated his abettors, advisers, and coadjutors, whosoever they may chance to be, whether clergy or laity, and have absolved my bishops from the oath by which they have been violently forced to the observance of the said customs. But these are the points which, in this writing, I have especially condemned : 1 Appeal shall not in any case be made to the Apostolic See, except with the king's permission. It is not lawful for a bishop to take cognizance of perjury or breach of faith. It is not lawful for a bishop to excommunicate any person who holds aught of the king in capite, or his lands, or to lay an interdict upon any one of his officers without the king's permission. Clerks, or those of the religious orders, are to be brought before secular tribunals; laymen, whether the king or other persons, are to take cognizance of causes as to churches or tithes. It is not lawful for an archbishop or bishop to depart from the kingdom, to attend the summons of our lord the pope, without the king's permission ; ' and other enactments to a like effect. By name also I have excommunicated John of Oxford, who has held communion with that schismatic and excommunicated person, Reginald of Cologne ; and who, contrary to the mandate of our lord the pope, and of ourselves, has taken unlawful possession of the deanery of the church of Salisbury, and, at the court of the emperor, has administered the oath for the 65 At Pontigny.