had been, as it were, pedagogues to the king, to such a degree, that he removed them all from his court. And in the same melancholy line of conduct, the king also, despising his various oaths, and 'having violated every treaty, caused all the charters of all the provinces of the kingdom of England, on the subject of the liberties of the forest, to be cancelled and annulled, after they had been in use throughout the whole realm for two years, alleging the following as his reason for such a proceeding ; that all these charters and liberties had been granted generally, and signed on written deeds, while he himself was only a child and under guardianship, and while he had no power of his own person or over his seal, on which account that which had been established without reason ought to be void of effect. On this a great murmuring arose in the council, and most bitter indignation, that the counsel of malignant advisers and the childish levity of a prince should at one breath blow away and dissipate a regulation of such importance, on the procuring the ratification of which so much diligence was expended, so much blood shed, and so much money lavished ; and yet there was no one who was able to resist with effect, because the party of the wrong-doers was the strongest. All men, however, suspected that the justiciary was the author of this confusion ; for from that time forth he was united to the king in such close intimacy, that he thought none of the councillors of the kingdom, except him, of any account whatever. At this time, too, notice was given to the men of religious orders and to others, who wished to enjoy their liberties, to procure the charters to be sealed anew with the king's seal, knowing that the king considered the ancient charters to be of no account. And for the renewal of these charters they were compelled to pay, not according to the faculty granted by the seals, according to custom, but whatever the justiciary chose to levy The same year, pope Honorius the Third died, and was succeeded by Gregory the Ninth, bishop of Ostia, on the eighteenth of March. Gregory, the same year, established the order of the Minors, and drew up, and gave them a certain code of regulations, as brother Francis, the original founder and principal of the order, died the same year. And when he was despised by men, it is said that a great crowd of birds flocked to his preaching. And after he had breathed forth