No sooner had the sentences of excommunication been promulgated than King Robert took measures to have them revoked or mitigated. He had good friends at Rome. Letters from these had fallen accidentally into the hands of Edward, who, on January 12, 1318-19, sent them to the Pope by the hands of Sir John de Neville, and asked His Holiness to deal suitably with the writers. A few days before, he had urged the two Cardinals to press the Pope to reject the applications that he heard were being made on behalf of Bruce and his friends, and stated that he would presently send envoys to the Pope himself. Neville was graciously received, and the Pope ordered the Scots and their abettors at his court to prison. On April 24, the Pope granted Edward's request for a Bull permitting him to negotiate for peace with the Scots notwithstanding their excommunication. But the pressure was not all on one side; the nuncios in England boldly exercised their powers, and had often to be restrained even by royal menace, while every ecclesiastical office was steadily claimed for the papal nominee. Bruce appears to have deemed it prudent to raise little formal objection to the papal appointment of ecclesiastics up and down Scotland, though some of them evidently had but a seat of thorns. From March to May there was an interesting correspondence between Edward and some minor states and municipalities on the other side of the North Sea, whose people, Edward understood, had harboured, or even assisted, his Scots enemies. They all denied the allegation. The statesmanlike answer of the Count of Flanders, however, is peculiarly notable. 'Our land of Flanders,' he wrote, 'is common to all men, of whatever country, and freely open to all comers; and we cannot deny admission to merchants doing their business as they have hitherto been accustomed, for thereby we should bring our land to desolation and ruin.'