Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

214 THE INTERDICT OF 1208.
No sooner was the sentence published than John
issued orders through his sheriffs, condemning every
priest, whether regular or secular, who should
observe the interdict, to leave the kingdom. In
spite of this severity, only three bishops and a few
courtier priests defied the Pope, and sided with the
king. Church lands were awarded to needy foreign
adventurers, courtiers, and harpies of all kinds.
Henry I. had traded on a neglect of the canons, or
rather of one canon, in the clergy. King John did
' the same by throwing into prison one unhappy class
among his subjects,1 in the distinct hope of being
paid for their ransom.
The interdict punished the country rather than
the sinner. Two kingdoms were doing penance for
John's obstinacy : his people were famishing with
every evil example before their eyes. He, who was
thus callous to the sufferings of others, might defy the
interdict, but it was otherwise with the sentence of
personal excommunication, which followed in "its
train. In the days of Christendom an excommunicated
person was morally what a leper was i
physically, an object of abhorrence and disgust,
whom charity itself could not reach except by
prayer, since intercourse was prohibited. The
subjects of an excommunicated prince were no
longer bound to their allegiance. In January, 1213,
Cardinal Langton published this solemn sentence
against King John in the presence of the King of
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