The wrath of the king and of his nobles was roused by this bold, though perhaps necessary, act. But the primate was of an intrepid temper, and quite prepared to share, if necessary, the fate of our Thomas à Becket. In the next diet a number of frivolous and two or three substantial charges were made against him; and he begged time until the next meeting of the states to prepare his answers. In the interim efforts were made to reconcile the two; and they sometimes met. But Erlandsen, by excommunicating a lady of Scania, a favourite of the king, again rekindled the half-smothered wrath of Christopher. Repairing to Lund, the latter held his tribunal, invited all who had any complaint against the archbishop to appear before him, and summoned the archbishop himself to appear and answer whatever might be urged against him. As ecclesiastics were, by a regulation of some standing, amenable to their own laws alone, the churchman denied the competency of the tribunal. In revenge the king revoked the concessions of privileges, immunities, and even of domains, made by his ancestors to the cathedral of Lund—a strange and lawless measure, which, if sanctioned by the nation at large, must have occasioned the entire ruin of the church. As well might a private gentleman revoke his father’s will, and reclaim property of which the bequest has been sanctioned by the laws of society. The officer who served the act of revocation was excommunicated by the primate, who had also the people on his side. Two or three of the bishops were gained by the court; the rest adhered to their spiritual head. Every day widened the breach between the two chief personages in the nation. The states being convoked at Odinsey to swear allegiance to Eric, eldest son of the king, Erlandsen refused to appear, and commanded his suffragans also to refuse. The rage of the king was unbounded. From the states which he now convoked at Copenhagen he obtained permission to seize the primate with the other bishops, and imprison them. A brother of the primate’s was the instrument of his apprehension, and he was conveyed to a fortress in Fionia. The dean and archdeacon of Lund, with the bishop of Rypen, were next secured; but the two spiritual peers of Odinsey and Roskild had time to flee from the realm. [Sidenote: 1258 to 1259.]