Α.η. 1196. ΙΕΤΤΕΒ OF POPE CFXESTIiTr/S. religious and honest men are despised and condemned, •while low and suspected persons easily obtain his familiar acquaintanceship and favour. Wherefore we, hearing of rumours so disgraceful, not once but many times, and that by the letters both of the aforesaid parties as also of others in the kingdom of England and in the province of York, after having frequently given ear thereto, wishing to withhold him from these excesses, and to recall him to the performance of the duties of tho pastoral office, have thought proper to entrust to you the inquiry into these reports, that convening the abbats, priors, and other ecclesiastical persons of the diocese of York, you might make diligent enquiry on the matters aforesaid, and if lawful accusers should come forward against him, after hearing what is alleged on the one side and on the other, reducing the deposition of the witnesses to writing, make it your duty to transmit to the Apostolic See their attestations, signed with your seals, assigning to each party a fitting time within which to present themselves before us, for the purpose of hearing sentence pronounced. We also remember that there was inscribed in the some letters, that in case of accusers not being forthcoming, and if public report should be in his disfavour, you were, all obstacle of appeal removed, to call upon him to clear himself with [the oaths of] three bishops and as many abbats. And if he should chance to make any default therein, you were of our own authority to denounce him as suspended from all pontifical duties, and the management of the archbishopric. But inasmuch as the said archbishop, before he was cited by you to a hearing, as he informed us by his letters and his deputies, had thought fit to appeal to the ApostoBc See, and you assigned him the calends of January as the term for prosecuting the said appeal, being disposed to be considerate of his exertions and expenses, and fearing that if he should come to the city in the hot season, some danger might result to his person from the inclemency of the weather, as soon as it had been intimated to us that he had set out upon his journey, for the purpose of coming to the Apostolic See, and was prepared to make answer on the offences imputed to him, we, in accordance with the wonted beneficence of the Apostolic See, thought proper to put off the time of making his appeal from then untB the octave of Saint Martin last past, suspending all that had been determined on against him untB the said time, and recalling to its