IlOGEli 01·' WEN'DOVER . [A.D . 1210. had." At length as the pope refused to absolve the emperor from the oath which all emperors at their consecration are bound to take on the holy gospel, the emperor on the other hand refused to give; up the rights of the empire, which lie had, for the most part, recovered by force ; the said pope, therefore, pronounced the sentence of excommunication against the emperor, ami absolved all the nobles of Germany, as well as of the Roman empire, from allegiance to him. Iloxc the king of England led an army into /reland. Τη this same year king John assembled a large army at Pembroke in Wales, and set out for Ireland, where he arrived on the sixth of June. On his arrival at the city of Dublin, more than twenty of the chiefs of that district met him in the greatest alarm, and did homage, and swore fealty to him ; some few of them however would not do this, scorning to come to the king because they dwelt in impregnable places. lie there made and ordained English laws and customs, appointing sheriffs and other agents to govern the people of that kingdom according to English laws; he appointed John, bishop of Xorw iclij justiciary there, who causivi a penny to be coined for that country the same weight as the English penny, ami he also ordered a halfpenny and a round farthing to be coined. The king also ordered that that money should be Used in common by all, as well in England as in Ireland, and that the penny of both kingdoms should be placed alike in his treasury. Of the roundness of this money the prophet Merlin prophesied—"The form of commerce shall be divided, and the half will be round." After this the king proceeded in great force, and took several of the fortresses of bis enemies, and Walter de Lucy, a man of noble race, fled before him, together with several others, who were afraid of falling into his hands. When he came to the county of Mcath, he besieged the wife of William de lirause, and William her son, with his wife in a fortress there, and making prisoners of them he sent them loaded with chains into England, and ordered them to be closely confined in Windsor Castle. At length king John, after arranging matters at his pleasure throughout the greatest part of all Ireland, embarked triumphantly, and lauded in England on tin; twenty-ninth of August; he then hurried oil' to London and ordered all tho