Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/164

118 by the lord in the prophet, I have ſet thee up over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and deſtroy, to build and to plant, he proceeds to damn as well the charter as the obligations and cautions in behalf of it; forbidding the King under the penalty of an anathema to keep it, or the barons to require it to be kept.”

barons might well ſay that the pope went upon falſe ſuggeſtions; for he is out in every thing. For firſt, there was no winning of King by ſeeking to him: he would not have granted them their liberties, if they had kiſſed his toe. The barons had really borne longer with him than they ought: for having ſtipulated to have their rights reſtored to them before they admitted him to the crown, it was too long to ſtay above fifteen years for them, and to ſuffer ſo much miſchief to be done in the mean time through their neglect. In the third year of his reign, they met indeed at Leiceſter, and uſed a ſort of negative means to come at their rights; for they ſent him word, “That unleſs he would reſtore them their rights, they would not attend him into France.” But upon this, as ſays, the King uſing ill counſel, required their caſtles; and beginning with, demanded