Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/119

Rh dioceſs which are ſo many as can hardly be numbered; and the ſentence was ſuch as was enough to make the ears of thoſe that heard it to tingle, and to quail their hearts not a little.

parliament being thus ended, the King preſently uſes the worſt council that could be, and refolves to overthrow all that had been thus eſtabliſhed: for it was told him, that he ſhould not be King, at leaſt lord in England, if the ſaid charters were kept; and his father had experience of it, and choſe rather to die than thus to be trampled under foot by his ſubjects. And thoſe whiſperers of Satan added moreover, “Take no care though you incur this ſentence of excommunication: for a hundred, or for a brace of hundred pounds the pope will abſolve you: who, out of the plenitude of his power, what he pleaſes can either looſe or bind: for the greater cannot command a greater than he. You will have your tenth to a farthing, which will amount to very many thouſand marks: and what leſſening will it be of that ineſtimable ſum, to give the pope a ſmall driblet, who can abſolve you though he himſelf had confirmed the ſentence, ſeeing it belongs to him to annul, who can enact; nay, for a ſmall