ANNALS OP KOGEB BE ΠΟΥΕΒΕΝ. A .D. 1196. questions for the hearing of our dearly beloved son, Simon, dean of York, and to receive his judgment thereon with humility and firmness ; knowing that we, in accordance with the customary mercy of the Apostolic See, have shewn indulgence in appointing the said dean, that, with the advice of the canons residing in the church of York, he may correct the excesses of the clergy, and may settle such questions of them and the laity in the diocese of York as require an ecclesiastical decision. Given at the Lateran, on the tenth day before the calends of January, in the fifth year of our pontificate." Another Letter of the same pope on the same subject. "Celestinus, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brother, the bishop of Lincoln, and his dearly beloved sons, the archdeacon of Northampton and the prior of Pontefract, bealth and the Apostolic bîhediction. Inasmuch as the holy Roman Church, being founded with perpetual stability upon an immoveable foundation, that is to say, upon a stone squared and true, the Truth, thus speaking of Himself—' Upon tliis rock will I build my church,'" has, through the merits of Saint Peter, received the governance and primacy over all other churches, the Lord commanding the chief of the Apostles, ' If thou lovest me, feed my sheep ;' 4 2 and has received judicial power not only over bodies, but over souls, the same Chief of the Apostles hearing it said by the Lord, ' Whatever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven'43—we, whom not our own merits, but the Divine mercy alone, has summoned to the elevation of the Supreme Pontificate, if we wish to form our judgments with true and prudent deliberation, and not to abuse the power to us entrusted, ought, so far as human frailty will permit us, to follow the example of him by whom the Apostolic See was founded, and from whom she has received the care of the other churches, and the fulness of the power of binding and of loosing. Por God is wondrous above all things, and inscrutable are the depths of the divine wisdom; and yet, although incomprehensible are His judgments, andunsearchable His ways, still, from the things that He works among us here below, if we look upon them aright, He suggests to us and the other prelates of the churches something for imitation in the form of His judgments ; inasmuch as, when, according to the 4 1 St. Matt, xviii. 18. « St. John, xxi. 16, 17. 4 3 St. Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18.