Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/118

72 was accordingly rehearſed and confirmed. The form of the excommunication is ſomewhat large, as being ſtrongly drawn up, and the anathemas well laid on; it is in p. 131. And all the while the ſentence was reading, the King laid his hand ſpread upon his breaſt, chuſing to aſſiſt with that ceremony, and not with holding a wax-candle, to ſhew, as he ſaid, “That his heart went along with it;” and when it was ended, he ſaid theſe words, “So help me, I will faithfully keep all theſe things inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a chriſtian, as I am a knight, and as I am a King crowned and anointed.”

and are wonderfully taken with the manner of this confirmation of the charters; and ſay, that there was never ſuch a ſolemn ſanction of laws, “ſince the law was delivered at Mount Sinai.” But the renowned, biſhop of Lincoln, divining and foreboding in his heart that the King would fly off from his covenants, immediately, as ſoon as he got down into his biſhopric, cauſed all the breakers of the charters, and eſpecially all the prieſts that were ſo, to be ſolemnly excommunicated in every pariſh church throughout his dioceſs,