The Indiana State sentinel., 1880-05-19

the King, and the interdict fell. At night
the clergy came together and they chanted
| miserere; the church bell rang out funeral
knell; the pictures and the statues in the
churches were shrowded in black wells. Then
for year over the length and breadth of the
land no church bells were heard; there was
no worship in the churches. and the dead lay
unburied on the ground. Yet the King was
defiant, laughed at the interdict, and i'm
prisoned the relatives of the priests and Blsh-
| ops who had fed across the sea- Then
the Pope took another step and cut the King
off from the pale of the church. And yet
the King was undaunted. He seized the
church property for his own use. When the
Archbishop of Norwich withdrew from his
service, and he had him seized and cape Of
lead soldered around his neck. Underneath
this weight, and from hunger, the Archbishop
died an awful death, but no other Archbishop
withdrew from the Kings service. To retain
his hold on the baronage, he demanded as
hostage the son of one Of his greatest mobiles,
| DeBrasose, in whose domain were great herds
of white cattle with red ears. This nosle's
wife boasted that she could victual besieged
castle for month with her cheeses. She
boldly declared that her son should not 60
as hostage to King who had murdered his
| nephew. Four hundred of the white cattle
|
/ noble Lord was sent to Ireland in exile, and
his wife and grandchildren were starved to
death One more weapon was in the Pope's
hands. He could absolve Johns subjects to
obedience; he could depose an unworthy
| King. This he did, and promised the King
| of France forgiveness for his sins would he
make war against John.
| John allowed the Popes legate to read the
| proclamation before his face and resOlute as
ever, prepared to arm against France. He
was wise and quick in war and a large army
crossed the English Channel and captured
| some French ships and burned the city. We
must remember that John was not the first
English King who had oppressed the people,
| but the church had always before been with
the King. Now it was his enemy Upon
whom John could rely? He had deied tie
mobiles or baronage; he had seized their castles,
he had taken their children as hostages; for
his wars. he had taxed them over and over;
he had exacted unlawful services; he had
given to foreigners the high places they
should have had. If the mobiles felt them
selves under the rule of despot, how must
it have been with the common people who
had no land of their own and had to render
homage and pay taxes to two masters, their
King and their Lord2 So it was that the
King at the very moment of his success,
found himselfat war with Rome, with France
with Scotland. Ireland and Wales, and his
baronage almost TO a man conspiring against
him. and the rank and file in sympathy with
the barons.
He disbanded his army and took refuge in
a castle. He tried to win back his people by
renting their fines. He Inundated himself
before the Pope. He received the Arch
bishop, Stephen Langton. On his knees he
gave England to the Pope, and received it
back in token that the Pope and the church
were over England and its King.
Now he felt with the church on his side
he could compel his barons to cross the chan
mel to fight the French King. But the
barons SAID that the King could compel thsm
to fight at home, but that it had been.the right
of Englishmen not TO be forced to cross the sea
to fight the Kings foreign possessions. The
King found himself again batfied; his justic-
lar, Jeofry, was with the people, and the
Archbishop, Stephen Langton, loved his
country better than he loved his
church, and he was with the people.
1t was Stephen Langton who showed
the barOns the charter of rights that
Johns grandfather had given the people. 1t
was Stephen Langton who got from the
King, on his way to attack the Barons of
the North, the promise to judge them by law
before he tried them in arms. AT this time
Jeoffry died, and John joyfully exclaimed:
"NOw, by Gods feet, am for the fist time
King and Lord of England" But John
was mistaken. 1t went on three years more
before the crisis came In January, 1915,
the Barons in arms appeared before the
King. He begged till Easter TO consider
their demands; in vain in the meantime he
tried to get strength to resist them. Then
h De- loA md xuh hr,
heard their demands, in a fury he cried:
"Why do they not demand my kingdom
also?" Still he delayed, but in little while
he had but seven mobiles for him and whole
Nation against him. He had to yield to a
meeting. "Let the day be the 18th of June,
and the place Runnymede." On one bank
of the Thames was the King, on the
other the Barons. The conference was held
on an island near a marshy meadow by the
riverside, the meadow of Runnymede. The
charter was agreed to in day, and twenty
four Barons were to be chosen to see that the
King observed the charter. The King pas
sionately exclaimed: "They have given me
four and twenty over kingsl" and finging
himself on the floor gnawed sticks and straw
in his rage.
The Great Charter was not new laws.
They were old rights made palmer, with
obIOubCl ulCaHS VI SoAA ghS eHOhi OU1' W
freeman was to be seized or imprisoned with
out a trial by his equals; the ways of getting
justice through the Courts were improved;
the people were not to be taxed save by the
Common Council of the realm. No man
would be imprisoned and not brought to trial.
Prists, Bishops and great tenants were to
meet in this great Council; no longer were
provisions to be forced and labor to be exacted
unlawfully from the people. The Barons
gave to men whose Lords they themselves
were, the same means of getting justice that
they demanded from the King for them
selves. In working for themselves they
helped the people.
We must not think that after this there
were no more injustice and wrong doing
toward the people. 1t has taken centuries
to work ont the rights that the Magma Cnarta
said that the English people should have,
but there it has always stood, when the crisis
has come, declaring what the rights of the
Enylieh neonle were