Α.η. 1209.] KING JOHN EXCOMMUNICATED. thorn by the apostolic mandate, ,-tnd failed to proceed accord ing to the usual course of justice. Nevertheless in u short time the licerci- beciiine known to nil in the roiuls and street-, and even in the places of assembly of the people it afforded a subject of secret conversation to all ; amongst others, as Geoffrey archdeacon of Norwich was one day sitting in the Exchequer at Westminster, attending to the. king's business, he began to talk privately with bis companions who sat with him, of the decree which was sent forth against the king, and said that it was not safe for beneficed persons to remain any longer in their allegiance to an excommunicated king: after saying which, he went to his own house without asking the king's permission. This event coining soon after to the knowledge of the king, he was not a little annoyed, and sent William Talbot n knight, with some soldiers, to seize the archdeacon, and they, after he was taken, bound Ilîm in chains and threw him into prison ; after he had been there a few days, by command of the said king a cap of lead was put on him, and at length, being overcome by want of food as well as by the weight of the leaden cap, he departed to the Lord. Of the evil counsel of the teicked Alexander, During the time of the interdict a pseudo-theologist. one Master Alexander, surnamed the Mason, insinuated himself into the king's favour, and by his iniquitous preachings he in a great measure incited the king to acts of cruelty ; for he said that this universal scourge was not brought on England by any fault of the king's, but by the wickedness of bis subjects; he also declared that he, the king, was the rod of God, and had been made a prince in order to rule his people and others subject to him with a rod of iron, and to break them all "like a potter's vessel," to bind those in power with shackles, and bis nobles with manacles of iron. By some specious arguments he proved that it was not the pope' s business to meddle with the lay estates of kings o r o f an\ potentates whatever, or with the government of their sub jects; especially as nothing, except the power only over the church and church property, had been conferred by the Lord on St. l'cter. Hy these and the like fallacies, he so gained favour with the king, that he obtained scerai belati es