all that we wish to say, we send to the foot of your fatherly seat our confidential servants Reginald archdeacon of Salisbury, and Richard de Barre, who will explain to you by word of mouth all that has happened, and all other matters that we wish to communicate." How the king's messengers very much damped the cause of the archbishop. The king's messengers, arriving at the Roman court, laid before the pope their master's letter, together with other things that had been entrusted to them, and sought by presents and flattering language to incline him in the king's favour, but what they did will be found in the letter which the pope sent back to archbishop Thomas, in the beginning of which occurs the following : " Your zeal knows what energy and care our dearest son in Christ, Henry king' of England, shows in the government of his kingdom, and he has requested us to give it strength on the authority of the Boman church, and that the ancient customs and privileges of his kingdom may remain unimpaired. Whereas, moreover, he has earnestly requested of me to grant the legatine power over all England to the archbishop of York, we, considering the critical state of the times, have granted the legatine authority to the archbishop of York at the king's request, but with the previous promise of his ambassadors, on the word of truth, and confirmed by oath, that the letters should never be given to the archbishop of York without your consent." In another letter, also, the pope commanded the archbishop aforesaid, by virtue of his obedience, not to pronounce a sentence of interdict, excommunication, or suspension against the king, his kingdom, or subjects, unless the king, persisting in his obstinacy, should before the beginning of Lent, refuse to restore him his favour, together with all the goods both of himself and his clerks, to the salvation of his own soul and the tranquillity of his reign and that of his heirs for ever.* Of the mental sufferings of the blessed archbishop. Such, then, was the fire of tribulation and mental suffer * Matthew Paris has here inserted the letter which pope Alexander sent to the eultan of Iconium, to he found among the works of Peter of Blois, under the name of Instructio fidei. [Vide Petri Blesensis Opera, 8vo. Lond. et Oxon. 1847, vol. II. p. xxi. adfinem vol.]