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 h 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[1] 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 k 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 Whether for the time he had to give up his post we are not told ; but it is certain that his income was withdrawn, and that he had to struggle with poverty and debt, as well as with danger menacing his personal safety.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
- ↑ John was in Apulia before 1154 regnante Rogero, Policr. vii. 19 vol. 2. 173; and again in company with pope Hadrian, i. e. between 1154 and 1159, ibid., lib, vi. 24 vol. 2. 67,
the business of the court : Policr., prol., vol. 1. 14. [it is probable that Eugenius when at Rbeims took him into his employment and that for some time he was engaged as a clerk in the papal chancery. See my article on John in the Dictionary of national Biography, 29. 440 sq. ; 1892.]
