which see. while it was vacant, as they were still levied, Master Martin, one of the clerks of the lord the pope, whom many persons, in witty phrase, used to call Master Mastiff, on account of his rapacity, laid his hands, for some unknown relation of the pope. And on the day of Saint Denis, Fulk Basset, dean of York, was consecrated bishop of London. About the same time, Adam, bishop of Cuver, died at Wardon, of which place he had been formerly abbot. About the same time also, John, bishop of Hereford, died ; who, having been deprived of his bishopric, had by the command of the pope sojourned at Saint Alban's for about twenty years. Likewise, about the same time, the bishop of Lincoln went to the court of Rome, for the sake of terminating the dispute which existed between him and his canons, in the presence of the lord the pope ; and in like manner there went to oppose him, the dean of Lincoln and some canons of that church. Also the same year, on the Monday next before the feast of AU Saints', some persons came to the synod of the bishop of Rochester, professing a new sect of religion, and assuming the name of Cross Bearers, from a cross which each man bore tied to his staff. About the same time, the pope delivered himself from the imperial guards, and removed to the city of Asti ; and soon afterwards, he withdrew in haste, and by night, to Lyons ; and from that time forth, he entertained the idea of assembling a general council, chiefly with a view of deposing the emperor, and precipitating him from the summit of the imperial authority with disgrace, while in the lower parts of Gaul. But the king of France, when he found that the lord the pope was approaching his dominions, knowing that no good could arise from his arrival to either king or kingdom, convoked his nobles, and consulted them as to what should be done in these circumstances ; and when they were assembled, lo ! a petition from the pope was presented to the king and his nobles, requesting that he might be allowed to proceed to the city ot Rheims, which was at that time deprived of its prelate. And when the French had heard this request with amazement, they immediately made a firm reply that they would by no means permit any such thing. Therefore, the king of France wrote an answer to the lord the pope, couched in temperate language, that his nobles were by no means willing to consent that he should come into France. For they were afraid lest he should reward his entertainers like a mouse in a sack, or a