Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/205

Rh at the Rheims council and had there, it seems, made John's acquaintance. He accordingly received him on his return to England the more readily and at once attached him to his clerical establishment. For the next fifteen years or so John was constantly employed not only in the administrative routine of the primate's court, but also in delicate negotiations with the Roman curia. He was the firm and intimate friend of the English pope Hadrian the Fourth, and was the agent by means of whom the latter's sanction was obtained to king Henry the Second's conquest of Ireland. Writing in 1159 he says, I have ten times passed the chain of the Alps on my road from England; I have for the second time traversed Apulia, The business of my lords and friends I have often transacted in the Roman church, and as sundry causes arose I have many times travelled round not only England but also Gaul.

John's position as secretary to archbishop Theobald, and afterwards to his successors, Thomas Becket and Richard, doubtless disposed him to form those hierarchical views which we find expressed with such emphasis in his Policraticus. Nowhere could he find the conflicting claims of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction more clamorous for solution; nor had he any hesitation in deciding that the independence, the supremacy, of the church was essentially bound up with the existence of Christianity. Holding these principles, it does not surprise us to learn that for some reason—the details have not survived—he fell into the king's displeasure. Whether for the time he had to give up his post we are not told; but it is certain that his income was withdrawn, and that he had to struggle with poverty and debt, as well as with danger menacing his personal safety. It is to this interval