We can hardly doubt that, if John had had an adviser like Hubert, he might have tided over the difficulty, but now he plunged deeper and deeper, and at last lost his footing altogether. The Pope let the appeals drag on their weary length. He suffered all the contending bodies to spend their strength and their money, and to involve and compromise themselves as much as they chose. Then after a year and a half he decided the cause. The bishops, he said, had no standing-ground; the canonical electors were the monks of the chapter. The sub-prior Reginald was rejected because he had not been canonically chosen; John de Gray was rejected because he had been elected whilst an appeal was pending. The course was, therefore, clear. The monks were the electors; their proctors, now at the Court of Rome, had full power from them to elect, and the king had promised to confirm their choice, having secretly agreed with them to elect only John de Gray; for thus he had tried to impose on the Pope, sending at the same time large sums of money to clear the eyes of the Pope’s advisers. Innocent III., however, was very wide-awake, and John’s insincerity had put his game in his own hands. It was of no use, he said, to waste time. If they all went back to England they would have to come to Rome again for the confirmation of the election and the gift of the pall. They all had full powers--why should it not be done pleasantly and on the spot? He had a man fit for the place--an Englishman, the first scholar of the day, a cardinal, in whose favor John had more than once written to him on other occasions; let them elect him, he would confirm and consecrate him, and then all would be done. Whether Innocent really expected that John would submit to this we cannot say; probably not. But he did it. Only one of the monks objected, and reminded his brethren of their obligation to the king; the rest, relying on their powers from the king and convent, and overawed by the dignity and urgency of Innocent, elected Langton. Innocent immediately wrote to John to report the decision and ask him to receive Langton as archbishop. John was furious--refused, threatened, and blustered. The Pope, in reply, declared that he had done no more than was his duty to the widowed Church, and, in June 1207, consecrated the archbishop. [Sidenote: The Interdict, 1208. ]