Unpublished Works of Roger Bacon (Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, Compendium Studii)

"appeal at Reading, also having communicated in the counsel of the whole clergy, is recited and approved, and strengthened with all seals. The barons, also having deservedly held the arrival of the legate as suspect and denying him entry, approve the aforementioned appeal, and because the affair of the whole community was being handled, they strengthened the same with the protection of seals. As it is said, the signs of the abbots, both exempt and non-exempt, were appended, except for the abbot of St. Albans, who did not at all strengthen the aforementioned appeals with his seal, due to reverence for the apostolic see, which he did not dare to offend, just as he ought not to, although he was struck in many ways by many, and he feared to incur the loss of both spiritual and temporal goods, together with the indignation of the barons and bishops, irreconcilably. Pope Alexander having paid the debt of all flesh a phrase meaning 'having died', the said legate, having suffered a rebuff in the aforementioned manner, returning, was elected as Supreme Pontiff, namely on the day of St. Agatha the Virgin, and was enthroned on the Sunday before Lent, who later directed Ottobono, cardinal of the apostolic see, as legate into England, of whom will be spoken below."

The cardinal's own account of his mission will be found in his Epist. xxxiii. cxc. Compare also cxlviii.