deacon of Norwich, who was consecrated at Westminster, on the day of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The same year, Baldwin, count of Flanders, who was also emperor of Constantinople, after a pilgrimage of a year returned to Flanders, haying received the homage, and fealty, and submission of many cities. But his daughter and heiress adhering to Louis, king of France, as her guardian, put in practice all kinds of intrigues for the purpose of destroying her father ; and disregarding the relationship to her parent, she at last arrested him, and caused him to be hung. About this time, too, the earl of Salisbury, who had staid some time in the territories of Gascony with Richard, earl o f Cornwall, escaped with difficulty from incalculable peril at sea, and in a wonderful manner reached the land in safety. And not long afterwards, this same earl died. But his wife, the countess Eia, after the death of her husband, rejected every suitor, and chose to continue in a life of chastity, in a religious house, which she herself had built from its foundations ; and after the lapse of a few years, she took on herself the gait and veil of a nun. CH. IX.—FROM A.D. 1226 το A.D. 1232. Louis of France persecutes the Albigenses—The pope excommunicates the emperor—War between the pope and emperor ,—The pilgrims are allowed free access to Jerusalem—The duke of Saxony takes refuge in England—Hubert de Burgh loses the king's favour. A.D . 1226. King Henry the Third, at the Nativity of our Lord, celebrated his feast, at Winchester ; and after it was over, he went to Marlborough, where he was seized with a severe illness, so that he lay with his life quite despaired of for several days. In the meantime, the period arrived for the council which had been fixed beforehand to be held at Westminster, on the festival of Saint Hilary, where the king, with the clergy and nobles of his kingdom, were bound to appear, to hear the commands of the lord pope. Accordingly, many bishops being assembled in the before-mentioned place, with other prelates, and a large body of laymen, Master Otho, the nuncio of the lord pope, recited the letters openly, in the presence of all ; in which the pope spake of the scandal and most inveterate disgrace of the holy Roman church, to wit, the