consent, with the view of preferring a complaint on this head, and of claiming the rights which had belonged to him as king from ancient times, sent Master Laurence of Saint Martin's as his procurator to the court of Borne. Many prelates in England, with abbots and bishops, excused themselves fro m attending the general council, some by a petition to the king, others because they were declared invalids, and others by valuable gifts obtained permission to absent themselves. About the same time died the cardinal Godfrey de Frane, than whom the lord the pope had no more intimate or useful friend. An d also there died in England, in the northern part of the kingdom, one of the greatest of the nobles, by name Gilbert de Humfra ville. In those days the Templars and Hospitallers, by way of replacing the losses of their brethren, received many of the secular clergy whom they were able to elect, into their order, and sent them as a reinforcement to the Holy Land, to the defence of those cities which were desolate, and of those castles which were now expecting a siege or surrender. Earl Richard, too, sent a thousand pounds to the aid of that land, out of the promptings of his own affection. But as the period of that time passed on, while the lord the pope was remaining at Lyons, his chamber was destroyed by fire, with all its contents. And it was asserted by many persons, that that detestable charter which was drawn up in the time of king John on the subject of the tribute from England, which was to be paid every year to the church of Rome, was reduced to ashes in that fire. At this time too, the doorkeeper of the lord the pope, having answered some one who requested admission to the pope in an improper manner, became a cripple. The same year, Master Elias de Derham, canon of Salisbury, died ; and Master Martin, the kinsman of the lord the pope, before mentioned, immediately laid his rapacious hands on the revenues of the stall while vacant, to have them to distribute himself. On the day of Pentecost, the lord the king held a most noble festival in London, and invested Richard de Clare, who had been already made earl of Gloucester, with forty other novices, with the belt of a knight ; and Richard joyfully gave a banquet to celebrate the beginning of his no vice ship. But as the lord the king heard that many persons murmured and complained bitterly of the insolence of the afore