exhaustive and unanswerable argument against the papal claims, “Our ancestors,” said the first lord, “won this realm, and held it against all foes by the sword. Julius Cæsar exacted tribute by force; but force gives no perpetual right. Let the Pope come and take it by force; I am ready to stand up and resist him.” The second lord thus reasoned: “The Pope is incapable of such feudal supremacy. He should follow the example of Christ, who refused all civil dominion; the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air their nests, but He had not where to lay His head. Let us rigidly hold the Pope to his spiritual duties, boldly oppose all his claims to civil power.” In support of this the third lord said: “The Pope calls himself the Servant of the servants of the Most High: his only claim to tribute from this realm is for some service done; but what is his service to this realm? Not spiritual edification, but draining away money to enrich himself and his Court, showing favor and counsel to our enemies.” To this the fourth lord added: “The Pope claims to be the suzerain of all estates held by the Church; these estates, held on mortmain, amount to one-third of the realm. There cannot be two suzerains; the Pope, therefore, for these estates is the King’s vassal; he has not done homage for them; he may have incurred forfeiture.” The fifth argument is more subtle: “If the Pope demands this money as the price of King John’s absolution, it is flagrant simony; it is an irreligious act to say, ‘I will absolve you on payment of a certain annual tribute.’ But the King pays not this tax; it is wrung from the poor of the realm: to exact it is an act of avarice rather than salutary punishment. If the Pope be lord of the realm, he may at any time declare it forfeited, and grant away the forfeiture.” Following up this view of the case, the sixth lord says: “If the realm be the Pope’s, what right had he to alienate it? He has fraudulently sold it for a fifth part of its value. Moreover, Christ alone is the suzerain; the Pope being fallible, yea, peccable, may be in mortal sin. _It is better as of old to hold the realm immediately of Christ._” The seventh lord concluded the argument by a bold denial of the right of King John to surrender or give way the sovereignty of the realm: “He could not grant away the sovereignty of England; the whole thing—the deed, the seals, the signatures—is an absolute nullity.”[15]