Jocelin was with the king at Fremantle; and on 3 March the king came again to Wells for two days. It was an anxious moment: for the pope's thunderbolt, long held in suspense owing to John's skill in protracting negociations, was now about to fall. When John had ejected the Canterbury monks in July 1207 and had flatly refused to receive Stephen as archbishop, the pope told the bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester to intercede, and, if they failed, to lay the whole of England under interdict. Negociations followed: on 21 Jan. 1208 the king writes to the three bishops that he is ready to obey the pope, 'saving his royal rights and liberties'; and on 19 Feb. he grants a safe-conduct until Easter to the archbishop's brother, Simon de Langton, in order that he may come over to discuss the situation. On 12 March Simon met the king and the bishops at Winchester—Jocelin no doubt being among them. It was a stormy scene. When the king repeated his readiness to obey with the proviso already mentioned, Simon said that his instructions were to require obedience absolute and unconditional. The king's passion was up, and he swore 'by God's teeth' that he would pack off bishops, clergy, and monks to the pope., the moment the interdict was proclaimed; and would cut off the nose and ears of every Roman ecclesiastic he could find in his realm: as for the bishops, let them be gone at once, as they valued their lives. Two days later in a proclamation to the men of Kent he stated his case calmly and well:
Know ye that Master Simon de Langton came to us at Winchester on the Wednesday before Mid-lent, and in presence of our bishops asked us to receive. Master Stephen de Langton his brother as archbishop of Canterbury; and, when we spoke with him of the saving to us in this matter of our royal rights, he told us he would do nothing for us in the matter except we should place ourselves wholly in his hands (nisi ex toto poneremus nos in misericordiam suam). Now this we send you that ye may know what evil and wrong is done to us in this affair; and we bid you give credence to that which Reginald de Cornhill shall say to you from us, as to that which was there done between us and the bishops aforesaid and Simon, and as to what must now be done in the matter of this our order. Witness myself at Winchester, the fourteenth day of March.
The next days were spent in making preparations for the impending interdict. He was determined to confiscate the property of all bishops, clergy, and monks who should refuse to celebrate divine service as usual. A series of letters may be read in the Patent Roll, all issued from Marlborough and Clarendon on 17 and 18 March, appointing royal bailiffs for the confiscation of the various dioceses.
we might have been misled into connecting this with the proclamation of the Interdict (see below, p. 151).
