A.D. 1191. MESSENGERS SENT TO POPE CELESTINCTS. 241 cially in England, -which, receiving you poor enough, amplified you with mighty honors. Also, when speaking to those who were in the Babylonish captivity, he says : ' Seek the peace of the city, in which the Lord hath caused you to be carried away captives, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.''1 On another occasion I wrote to you, and with salutary warning entreated you to abstain from such courses. However, the harp of David never fully allayed the madness of Saul ; and your hand has been extended to the commission of such deeds as these. Therefore, remember, man, if only man you are, remember, I say, your condition ; remember the shortness of this life ; remember the strict and dreadful judge ; remember the punishment so fearful, so terrible, so interminable, and so intolerable, which is reserved for you to everlasting, if you desist not from such a course of wickedness." In eight days after this, John, earl of Mortaigne, gave orders that the chancellor should be liberated from prison, and should take his departure. Accordingly, he took his departure, and, crossing the sea, landed at Witsand, in Flanders. But while he was on his road, some nobles of that country, whom he had injured while in England, laid hands upon him, and kept him till he had made satisfaction to them. Proceeding thence, he arrived at Paris, and gave to Mauricius, the bishop, sixty marks of silver, upon condition that he should be received there with a procession, which was accordingly done. After this, he returned into Normandy ; but, by the command of the archbishop of Eouen, he was considered there as an excommunicated person, and in every place to which he came, throughout the whole of the archbishopric of Rouen, an end was put to Divine service as long as he was staying there. On this, he sent messengers to pope Celestinus, and to his lord the king of England, informing them, how John, earl of Mortaigne, and his accomplices, had expelled him from the kingdom; and, complaining of the injuries done him, he demanded restitution of what had been taken from him, at the same time making offer, on his part, to obey the law, and further stating, that if his acts and expenditure should not prove satisfactory to his lord the king, he would in all things give satisfaction according to his demands. Upon this, the Supreme Pontiff was provoked to anger, and wrote, to the following effect, to all the archbishops and bishops of England :— M Jer. xxxix. 7. vot. n. n