216 ROCK li OF WE X DO Y EU. [A.D. 1208. nions under an interdict, lie would immediately send all the prelates of England, clerks as well as ordained persons, to the pope, and confiscate all their property ; he added moreover, that all the clerks of Home or of the pope himself who could be found in England or in his other territories, he would send to Home with their eyes plucked out, and their noses slit, that by these marks they might be known there from other people; in addition to this he plainly ordered the bishops to take themselves quickly from his sight, if they wished to keep their bodies free from harm. The bishops then, not finding any repentance in the king, departed, and. in the Lent following, fearlessly fulfilled the duty required of them by the pope, and accordingly on the morning of Monday in Passion week, which that year fell on the 23rd of March, they laid a general interdict on the whole of England : which, since it was expressed to be by authority of our lord the pope, was inviolably observed by all without regard of person or privileges. Therefore all church services ceased to be performed in England, with the exception only of confession, and the viaticum in eases of extremity, and the baptism of children ; the. bodies of the dead too were carried out of cities and towns, and buried in roads and ditches without prayers of the attendance of priests. What need 1 say more ? The bishops, William of London, Eustace of Ely, Manger of Winchester, Jocclyn of Hath, and Giles Of Hereford, left England privily, thinking it better to avoid the anger of the enraged king for a time, than to dwell without any good effects in a country which lay under interdict. How king John, on account of the interdict, confiscated all the propcrtg of the clergg. The king of England being greatly enraged on account of the interdict, sent his sheriffs, and other ministers of iniquity, to all quarters of England, giving orders with dreadful threats to all priests as well as to those subject to them, to depart the kingdom immediately, and to demand justice to be afforded him by the pope for this injury; he also gave all the bishopries, abbacies, and priories, into the charge of laymen, and ordered all ecclesiastical revenues to be confiscated : but the generality of the prelates of England had cautiously turned their attention to this, and refused to quit their