with more security, and arrived before Montauban, a most noble castle, in which the whole military nobility of the province, and especially of the king of France, was shut up. And immediately he surrounded it with his battalions, and began to attack it with vigorous and frequent assaults. And, at last, by the unceasing prowess of the English, that impregnable castle was taken, which Charlemagne had not been able to reduce in a seven years' siege, as those who have written an account of his exploits assert. And the castle was taken on the day of the feast of Saint Peter ad Vincula, on the fifteenth day of the arrival of king John before it. The same year, John of Ferentum, legate of the Apostolic See, came into England, and traversed it, extorting a vast sum of money, and, at last, that he might not seem to have done nothing else, he held a council at Reading, on the day after the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist. And when he had done this, having filled and carefully carried off all his baggage, he returned to his own country. The same year, some discreet, and religious, and dignified men from the countries beyond the sea, going between the two kings, with great anxiety for the establishment of peace, on the day of the feast of All Saints, established a truce between them for two years. King John returned to England, and landed at Portsmouth, on the twelfth of December. This year also, William, bishop of Lincoln, went the way of all flesh. Jocelin of Wells was made bishop of Bath, and received consecration at the hands of William, bishop of London. Henry Marischal, bishop of Exeter, died, and was succeeded by Simon of Apulia, dean of York. This year, the queen of the French, the mother of king Philip, died. The same year, a simple and upright man, living in the bishopric of Lincoln, being conducted by Saint Julian, saw some wonderful visions, which would require a special treatise. The Emperor Otho comes to England. The order of Minore1 begins. A.D . 1207. King John celebrated the nativity of the Lord at Winchester, in the presence of the nobles of the kingdom. After that, on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mary, thinking only of rapine, and placing his hope and strength in treasures of money, he seized, throughout all England, a thir Minors was a name assumed by the Franciscans, to show their humility.