own convent. And the pope, as if taking their words out of their mouth, said : " Know ye that ye have plenary power in the church of Canterbury, inasmuch as ye are selected as the first men in your convent ; nor is it customary to wait for the consent of princes to elections which are celebrated at the Apostolic See. On which account, we do command ye, being of such a number and character as ye are, inasmuch as ye are amply sufficient for the election, by virtue of your obedience, and under the penalty of anathema, to elect him archbishop, whom we give you to be the shepherd of your souls." The monks then, being in a strait, fearing the sentence of excommunication, although unwillingly and grumblingly, nevertheless gave a consent, such as it was. Alone of all of them, Master Elias de Brantefeld, who had come on the part of the king and the bishop of Norwich, refused his consent. All the rest chaunting the hymn, " Te Deum Laudamus," conducted the archbishop elect to the altar, who, on the seventeenth of June, received consecration in the city of Viterbo, ât the hands of the pope himself. After these events, the pope, as he had promised the monks, sent a most elegant letter to John, king of England, to desire him to receive, as archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, who had been regularly elected and consecrated, a native of England, an imcomparable master in learning and morals. But when these circumstances came to the knowledge of king John, he ordered all the monks to be expelled from the monastery of Canterbury, and having been expelled, to be forcibly banished from the kingdom as guilty of lése majesté. About this time died Simon, bishop of Chichester. The monks of Canterbury were expelled on the day of Saint Swithin, and their goods were confiscated. The same year, on the day of Saint Remigius, Isabella, queen of England, bore to king John his first born son, and he was called Henry, after the name of his grandfather. AU England and Wales are hid under an interdict. A.D . 1208. King John celebrated the feast of the nativity at Windsor. At the beginning of March, in this year, there was an eclipse of the sun. All England and Wales were subjected to an interdict, without any exemption whatever being allowed, on the vigil of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary; and the execution of the decree was committed to William, bishop of London, Edward, bishop of Ely, and Mauger, bishop