Α.Ό. 1215. A GENERAL COUNCIL IS HELD AT HOME. 121 » year, William of Trumpington, a monk who was taken out of the bosom of the same church, and was a man eminent for every kind of virtue, succeeded John, as abbot of the church of St. Alban's ; and on Saint Andrew's day, received the pontifical benediction from Eustace, bishop of Ely, in the church of Saint Alban's. King John coming again to himself, on account of his perplexity, assumes the sign of the cross, and many of his nobles with him. A.D . 1215. King John, at the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, held his court at Worcester, but kept the feast for scarcely one day. After that, he came in haste to London, when the nobles of England earnestly requested him to confirm the promises which he had made to them humbly and in good faith. But the king, seeking for grounds of objection, and asserting that it was a hard thing that they asked, and one that required great deliberation, cunningly asked for a truce till the close of Easter, and obtained it. In the mean time, that he might be the more surely protected under the wings of his lord the pope, - and be more completely armed against his subjects, he took upon himself the sign of the cross, and many of the nobles with him did the same, on the fourth of March. The same^rear, Eustace, bishop of Ely, went the way of all flesh at Beading. This year a great discussion on the question of the peace of the kingdom took place between the king and the barons, between Staines and Windsor, in a meadow which is called Runnymede ; which means the meadow of counsel, because from old time counsels about the peace of the kingdom were frequently held there ; the lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, being the mediator between them, and some other bishops. And the first day of this discussion was the day of March before the feast of Saint John the Baptist. And it was protracted and spun out till the Wednesday after the feast of Saint Bartholomew, the king, however, being absent. And •when the barons demanded the fulfilment of the promises that had been made to them, the king, with a laugh of derision, replied, " Why do not these men demand the kingdom ?" The same year, on St. Martin's day, a general council was held at Rome, under pope Innocent the Third, consisting of sixty-one private archbishops, four hundred and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots and priors, in which council the