[135] Arreptos baculos et stipites more furiosi nunc corrodere, nunc corrosos confringere. Ibid. 222.
The barons, unmoved alike by the insolence of the pope and the despair of the king, replied that they would maintain the charter. Innocent excommunicated them. "Is it the pope's business to regulate temporal matters?" asked they. "By what right do vile usurers and foul simoniacs domineer over our country and excommunicate the whole world?"
The pope soon triumphed throughout England. His vassal John having hired some bands of adventurers from the continent, traversed at their head the whole country from the Channel to the Forth. These mercenaries carried desolation in their track: they extorted money, made prisoners, burnt the barons' castles, laid waste their parks, and dishonoured their wives and daughters.[136] The king would sleep in a house, and the next morning set fire to it. Blood-stained assassins scoured the country during the night, the sword in one hand and the torch in the other, marking their progress by murder and conflagration.[137] Such was the enthronization of popery in England. At this sight the barons, overcome by emotion, denounced both the king and the pope: "Alas! poor country!" they exclaimed. "Wretched England!... And thou, O pope, a curse light upon thee!"[138]
[136] Uxores et filias suas ludibrio expositas. Ibid. 231.
[137] Discurrebant sicarii cæde humana cruentati, noctivagi, incendiarii, strictis ensibus. Ibid.
[138] Sic barones lacrymantes et lamentantes regem et papam maledixerunt. Matth. Paris, 234.
The curse was not long delayed. As the king was returning from some more than usually successful foray, and as the royal waggons were crossing the sands of the Wash, the tide rose and all sank in the abyss.[139] This accident filled John with terror: it seemed to him that the earth was about to open and swallow him up; he fled to a convent, where he drank copiously of cider, and died of drunkenness and fright.[140]
[139] Aperta est in mediis fluctibus terra et voraginis abyssus, quæ absorbuerunt universa cum hominibus et equis. Ibid. 242.
[140] Novi ciceris potatione nimis repletus. Ibid. ad ann. 1216.
Such was the end of the pope's vassal--of his armed missionary in Great Britain. Never had so vile a prince been the involuntary occasion to his people of such great benefits. From his reign England may date her enthusiasm for liberty and her dread of popery.