men of truth said that several of them suffered with great injustice, but our Lord God Almighty, who seeth and knoweth all hidden things, seeth that the miserable people is oppressed with all unrighteousness; first men are bereaved of their property, and then they are slain. Full heavy a year was this; he who had any property was bereaved of it by heavy taxes and assessments, and he who had none, starved with hunger.
A. 1125. Before Christmas, this year, king Henry sent from Normandy to England, and commanded that all the mint-men of England should be deprived of their limbs, namely of their right hands and of certain other members. And this because a man might have a pound, and yet not be able to spend one penny at a market. And Roger bishop of Salisbury sent over all England, and desired all of them to come to Winchester at Christmas; and when they came thither his men took them one by one, and cut off their right hands. All this was done within the twelve days, and with much justice, because they had ruined this land with the great quantity of bad metal which they all bought. This year the pope of Rome sent John of Crema, a cardinal, to this land. He first came to the king in Normandy, and the king received him with much honour, and commended him to William archbishop of Canterbury, who conducted him to Canterbury; and he was there received with much pomp, and a great procession, and he sang the high mass at Christ's altar on Easter day; and then he journeyed over all England, to all the bishoprics and abbacies, and he was honourably received every where, and all gave him great and handsome gifts; and in September he held his council in London full three days, (beginning) on the Nativity of St. Mary, with the archbishops, bishops, and abbats, and the clergy and laity, and he sanctioned the laws which archbishop Anselm had made, and he enacted many others, though they remained in force but a little while. Thence he went over sea soon after Michaelmas, and so to Rome. William archbishop of Canterbury, and Thurstan archbishop of York, and Alexander bishop of Lincoln, and John bishop of Lothian (Glasgow), and Geoffrey abbat of St. Alban's accompanied him, and were received with great honour by the pope Honorius, and they remained there the whole winter. The same year there was so great a flood on
