derision in that self-same land, to afford efficacious aid. Wherefore, following in the footsteps of your predecessors, by the aid of the Lord, let that land be preserved in the worship of the great God by means of your diligence, which they rescued from the jaws of the prince of darkness. In such straits of oppression it befits your highness to labour with the more earnest zeal, inasmuch as you are aware that the land is deprived of the protection of a king, and the powerful men have thought proper to centre all their hopes of defending it in the protection of your mightiness. And this your serene highness may be the better enabled to understand, from the fact that they have despatched to your excellency the chief men of that land and the mighty defenders thereof, namely, our venerable brother Heraclius, the Patriarch, and our dearly beloved son, the Master of the Hospital, that from their dignified presence you may be enabled to take under consideration the present state of affairs, and to see how great and extreme is the necessity, on account of which they have so long endured to be without protection ; to the end that in person they might the more easily incline your devotedness to comply with their desires. Receive, therefore, the persons before-named with all kindness, as though sent to you by the Lord Himself, treat them in all things with that brotherly love which is their due, and show yourself ready to acquiesce in their requests, according as, having regard to their weight and their probity, you shall think them deserving of your grace and favour. And further, let your prudence call to mind, and with anxious meditation thereon ponder over those pro mises by which you have so often bound your highness as to undertaking the protection of the land so often named ; and show yourself in this respect so wary and so zealous, that, at the terrible day of judgment your conscience may not accuse you, and the question put to you by that searching Judge who is not to be deceived, may not lead to your condemnation." After hearing these requests, our lord the king made answer that, God willing, all things would yet be well, and appointed a time for his answer, namely, the first Sunday in Lent, at London. Accordingly, on this day," our lord the king, the Patriarch, the bishops, abbats, earls, and barons of the kingdom of England, William, king of Scotland, and his brother David, together with the earls and barons of his kingdom, met at H This council was held at Clerkenwell.