Unpublished Works of Roger Bacon (Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, Compendium Studii)

Matthew of Westminster, who narrates the circumstances with greater minuteness and accuracy than any other of the monastic chroniclers,¹ the pope had ill qualified himself to act as a mediator on so difficult an occasion. He was incensed against the barons; he was ill inclined to do justice to their motives. His indignation had been roused against them by the spoliation of the churches; and he was reported to have exclaimed, "that he would die sooner than fail in bringing back the English to their obedience." The cardinal seems to have entered fully into the spirit of his master; on reaching the coast he gave ominous indications of his pacificatory intentions, forbidding, under pain of excommunication, the importation of wine and corn into this island. As the barons prepared to resist his landing, he peremptorily cited the English bishops to appear before him; fulminated the sentence of interdict against London and the Cinque Ports; and excommunicated the adherents of the Earl of Leicester. The sentence was confirmed by the pope after a fruitless appeal on the part of the condemned; but the bishops charged with carrying it into execution had the instrument taken from them as they landed at Dover. It was torn into a thousand pieces by the infuriated multitude, and cast into the sea.

Hatred of Clement for the adherents of De Montfort.

The legate, who within a year after was advanced to the papacy under the title of Clement IV., did not easily digest his resentment. Throughout his lengthy correspondence, published by Father Martene in his "Thesaurus Anecdotorum,"² he alludes more than once, with undisguised bitterness, to the unceremonious rejection of his mission. His indignation

¹ The story is noticed very briefly by the continuator of Matthew Paris and in the chronicle of Lanercost.
² ii. 96.