But nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence of
Langton, archbishop of Canterbury; a man whose memory, though he was
obtruded on the nation by a palpable encroachment of the see of Rome,
ought always to be respected by the English. This prelate, whether he
was moved by the generosity of his nature and his affection to public
good; or had entertained an animosity against John, on account of the
long opposition made by that prince to his election; or thought that an
acquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and secure
the privileges of the church; had formed the plan of reforming the
government, and had prepared the way for that great innovation, by
inserting those singular clauses above mentioned, in the oath which he
administered to the king, before he would absolve him from the sentence
of excommunication. Soon after, in a private meeting of some principal
barons at London, he showed them a copy of Henry I.'s charter, which,
he said, he had happily found in a monastery; and he exhorted them to
insist on the renewal and observance of it: the barons swore that
they would sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable a
demand.
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