The Catholic Church and Civil Liberty [pp. 232-239]

I886.] THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CIVIL LIBERTY.
possible ways by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in every other
manner they can, till the grievance is redressed according to their plea sure; saving harmless our person and the persons of our queen and chil dren; and when it is redressed they shall obey us as before. And any
person whatsoever in the land may swear that he will obey the orders of
the five-and-twenty barons aforesaid, in the execution of the premises, and
will distress us jointly with them to the utmost of his power; and we pub licly and freely give liberty to any one that shall please to swear this, and
never will hinder any person from taking the same oath. And as to all
those in the land who will not of their own accord swear to join the five and-twenty barons in distraining and distressing us, we will issue orders
to make them take the same oath as aforesaid."
All will agree that this was a singular compact to be made
between sovereign and subject, the sovereign himself swearing
to force his subjects to make him do right. Its simplicity, in
comparison with the wisdom of the attendant circumstances, is
not the least curious part of the whole affair; the parties appa rently not reflecting that if the king really proposed to redress
the grievances complained of, it would be much easier to do so
directly and of his own accord than to compel his subjects to
force him to do it. The king did not reserve any right to con test the complaint of the barons and show that there was no real
grievance, but he obliged himself to do whatever they demanded,
grievance or no grievance.
But this contrivance, as might have been expected, proved
worthless. John did not submit to have his castles and property
seized and distressed, but he hired a body of trained mercenaries
and fought the barons with them. Their discipline and familiarity with warlike operations gave them an advantage over the
valiant but raw soldiers of the barons; and but for the death of
John the work of forming and promulgating the Charter might
have gone for naught or the result been postponed for years.
From the reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Henry VI.
was a period of about four centuries, during which time the structutre of civil liberty was being surely but slowly built by Catholic kings, churchmen, barons, and people. The Confessor gave
it the first impulse, and Henry the final confirmation. Four more
centuries have elapsed since Henry's day, and Protestant England finds nothing to alter in, nothing to add to, nothing to take
away from, the work of Catholic England.
No greater step in human progress was ever made than in the
council of August 25, I213, nor has there yet appeared a greater
apostle of human liberty than Stephen Langton, the Catholic
bishop.
239