Λ. η. 12lô.] BARONS REBUKED DY TUE ΓΟΙ·Ε. reprobato and entindy condemn an agreement of this kind, and forbid the said king, under penalty of excommunication, to keep, and the barons and their accomplices to compel him to keep cither the charter, or the bonds or securities, which have been given for its observance, and we altogether annul and «piash the same so that they may never have any validity. Let none therefore, &C. Whoever, Scc. Given at Agnano on the 24th of August in the eighteenth year of our pontificate." The pope's rebuke to the barons of England for their persecution of the king. Having thus annulled the aforesaid liberties, the pope wrote to the barons of England in the following terms:— " Innocent, bishop, servant of the. servants of God, to the nobles of England, the spirit of a wiser counsel. Would that, in the persecution which you have rashly practised against your lord the king, you had more carefully attended to your oath of fealty, the, right of the apostolic see, and the privilege granted to those who have assumed the cross ; because, without doubt, you have not proceeded so to act, but that all who see it flete.st the offence, especially since in your cause you have made yourselves both judges and executioners, although the said king was prepared to grant you ample justice in his own court, and by the decision of your peers, according to the laws and customs of the kingdom, or in the presence of us to whom the decision of this cause belonged by right of dominion, or even in the presence of arbiters, to be chosen on both sides, who would proceed in the matter conjointlywith us. Therefore, since you would not try any one of these plans, he appealed to our bearing, placing himself and the kingdom, with all its dignities and rights, under the protection of tin" apostolic see ; and he openly declared that, since the sovereignty of the said kingdom belonged to the church of Koine, he could not and ought not to make any alterations in it to our injury. Seeing then that the agreement of whatever sort it is, which you have by violence and threats induced him to make, is not only vile and base, but also unlawful and unjust, so that it ought to be justly reprobated by all, chiefly on account of the means used to obtain it, we, who are bound to provide for the spiritual as well as