A.D. 1265. NEW TEEMS OE PEACE PROPOSED. own salvation, and set to work to busy themselves about new ordinances for the kingdom, among other things enacting that two earls and one bishop, elected on the part of the community, should elect nine persons, three of whom should assist the king, and from that council of three and nine every measure, either in the kingdom or in the king's palace, should proceed, and that nothing should be done by the king without their advice, or at least without that of three of them. And after these ordinances had been made by the earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and by the bishop of Chichester,, who was said, on the day preceding the battle above mentioned, to have absolved from all their sins all those who were going to fight against their lord the king, being the principal counsellors and captains of the kingdom, the king, having been threatened with the election of another king, and the eldest son of the king having been threatened with perpetual imprisonment, if they did not consent, were compelled to give assent to this dishonest proposition ; all the bishops, and earls, and barons likewise consenting, and affixing their seals to an instrument drawn up to that effect. And letters were sent to the lord the cardinal bishop of Sabionetta, at that time legate of the Apostolic See, and the illustrious king of France, concerning the complete recall of the compromise at Lewes, and the settlement of a new peace, by the amicable agreement of both parties. And after an earnest supplication had been addressed by the bishops of London, Winchester, Worcester, and some other dioceses of the province of Canterbury, to the aforesaid lord legate, that he would endeavour to promote that peace, he severely reproved the aforesaid bishops for having presumed to consent to such a depression of the king's power, and because he had no entrance into the kingdom, he, by public edicts published at Boulogne, formally cited them to appear on the third day at Boulogne, to discuss with him the affairs of the kingdom. And when they had been for some time expected at the appointed time and place, being waited for even beyond the proper day, and as they did not choose to appear either by themselves or by their proctors, the legate suspended them from the celebration of divine service ; and he pronounced sentences of excommunication and interdict against the aforesaid earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and their partisans, and against the citizens of London, and of the Cinque Ports, who had presumed to hinder his entrance into England. But the aforesaid bishops, earls, and E r 2