276 ANNALS OF B.OGEB DE HOVEDEN. A.D. 1165. frequently by letters and messages, and other means, as was our duty, we have endeavoured to recall him from the pcrversc-ness of his course. But since we have been hardly heard by him, much more listened to, after invoking the grace of the Holy Spirit, we have publicly condemned, and have made null and void that writing in which are contained, not those customs, but rather those corruptions by which at the present time the Church of England is disturbed and put to confusion, as also the authority of the said writing. All who observe, or enforce, or counsel, or aid, or defend the same, we do likewise excommunicate; and all you bishops, by the authority of God and of ourselves, we do absolve from the promises, by which, against the rules of the Church, you bound yourselves to the observance thereof. For who is there that can doubt that the priests of Christ are appointed to be the fathers and masters of kings and princes, and of all the faithful ? Is it not understood to be an act of lamentable madness for the son to attempt to make his father, or the disciple his master, obedient,to him, and by unrighteous means of compulsion to render him subject to his power ? One, too, whom he believes to have power to bind and to loose him not only on earth, but even in heaven as well ? Therefore, in order that we may not fall into the commission of this error, we have rendered of no effect, and have made null and void the authority of that writing, as also the writing itself, together with all the corruptions that are therein contained ; and more especially the following :—' Appeal shall not in any case be made to the Apostolic See, except with the king's permission. It shall not be lawful for an archbishop or bishop to depart from the kingdom, to attend the summons of our lord the pope, without the king's permission. It shaU not be lawful for a bishop to excommunicate any person who holds of the king in capite, or to lay an interdict upon any one of his officers, without the king's permission. It shall not be lawful for a bishop to take cognizance of perjury or breach of faith. The clergy are to be brought before secular tribunals. Laymen, whether the king or other persons, are to take cognizance of causes as to churches and tithes, and other enactments to a like effect. We do also denounce as excommunicated, and have excommunicated by name, the man called John of Oxford, who has fallen into a damnable heresy, by tendering an oath to schismatics, through whom a schism that had almost died out has re-