"Most gentle lord, please you to know that the most sovereign thing, that holdeth kings and princes in due and fitting estate, is good and wise counsel.... Sire, in your own time, you had certain counsellors by whom you did near lose the hearts of your people; from whom God delivered you as it pleased Him. And then, even till now, by good avisement of the prelates, peers, the great men and wise of the Council of the land, your affairs have been brought into such a state that you entirely have the hearts of your people, who, as well clerks as others, have given you aid, even as you shall have henceforth, or more, as never had King of England; so that by means of your good Council, the help of your people, and the grace which God hath given you, you have had the victory in presence of your enemies of Scotland, and of France, and of all parts; so that this day, honour be to God, you are held the most noble prince of Christendom. And now, by evil counsel, abetted by certain people of this land, which are not so wise as were needful, and by counsel of others, which seek rather their own profit than your honour or the safety of the land, you begin to seize divers clerks, peers and other folk of the land and to make suit, nothing fitting, against the law of the land ... the which things are done at the great peril of your soul and the minishing of your honour.... And forasmuch as certain, who are near to you, do falsely charge us with treason and falsehood, therefore they are excommunicate ... and also they say of some others that they have evilly and falsely served you, whereby you have lost the toun of Tournay and many other honours that you might have had there; be willing, Sire, if it please you, to make come the prelates, great men, and peers of the land, in fitting place, where we and others may securely come, and cause, if it please you, to see and enquire in whose hands, since the beginning of your war, wools moneys, and other things whatsoever, which have been granted to you in aid of your war even to this day, have come and have been expended, and by whose default you thus departed from Tournay; and those which shall be found guilty in any whit before you, as a good lord, make them to be chastised well according to law. And in whatsoever concerneth us, we will stand in all points at the judgment of our peers, saving always the estate of holy Church, of us, and of our order.... "Written at Canterbury the first day of January, by your chaplain, the Archbishop of Canterbury." THE "LIBELLUS FAMOSUS" (FEBRUARY 10, 1340-1). SOURCE.--Wharton's _Anglia Sacra_, i. 23-27. [The following is a passage from the _libellus famosus_ put forth by Edward III. against Archbishop Stratford, and directed to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.]