A.i). 1-22H.] II'.I'.l.TTIONS OF WKLSII. they had chosen a man who was useless to himself and to the kingdom ; the second was that the fattier of their elected had been convicted of theft and been hung ; the third was that he had taken part against king John, his father, at the time of the interdict. The suffragan bishops of the Canterbury church, moreover, objected to the election of the said Walter, because he had formerly violated a nun and had had children by her ; and they also added that the election of an archbishop ought not to take place without their being present. The archbishop elect however firmly adhered to the election, and an appeal having been made, he took some of the monks of Canterbury with him and made bis appearance in the presence of the pope, asking him to confirm his election ; the pope, however, on hearing that the election was opposed by the king and bishops, postponed the business till be could learn the facts of the matter. The king and the bishops when they learned that the archbishop elect bad gone to the court of Rome, committed the above-mentioned objections to writing, and sent, them, under the seals of the king and the bishops, to the pope in the care of the bishops of Rochester and Chester, and appointed master John archdeacon of Bedford to manage this business. These messengers then went to Rome, and delivered the letters of the king and the bishops to the pope, who, after a careful inspection of them, by the advice of his cardinals fixed on the day after Ash Wednesday for the parties to appear, that he might then with due regard to justice definitively decide the dispute. During the whole of the summer of this year dreadful storms of thunder and lightning happened, which set fire to numbers of buildings in various places, and destroyed men and cattle. In the following autumn constant deluges of rain fell, which did much harm to the farmers at harvest time. Of the irruptions of the Welsh. In the month of August of the same year the knights and soldiers of the garrison of the castle of Montgomery, situated on the Welsh borders, sallied forth with the inhabitants of the district, to widen and render mori' safe a road near the castle, on account of the Welsh banditti who robbed and murdered travellers there. They therefore marched to the place with swords, axes, staves, and other