The 275
1227, there was great the
lest he might attempt act of repudiation. In
that year the administration of
the subject of critical
sheriffs;1 in 1237 a notable confirming
in exchange for a tax, the ceremony of
excommunication, with the crying out dramatically,
jp/<rf, Jutt—amen, amen, and the great Edmund con-
tinuing the tradition in the church; in 1242, in
connection with refusal of a tax, and in an assembly
notable for the maturity of its political thought, references
to the acts of 1237 and how poorly the had his
agreement3; in 1244 the well-known
was minded to appoint ministers, the repeatedly
referring to the Charters and to
better, and articles agreed upon miiich were in the nature
of a supplement to Magna Carta—the such; in 1253
a most notable instance of the ceremony of excommunica-
tion and anathema against infringers of the Charters,
with the king participating and the terror of
the church at their height and the Charters referred to
in words that stamp them as fundamental and unchange-
able by any earthly power—followed by the king's
attempt to gain from the pope a release from his oaths;
in 1254 the papal support of the Charters made clear, and
measures taken in some of the bishoprics for renewed
publicity—reading in county and hundred courts and
wherever people gathered and in both English and French
translations; and in 1258, the crisis of the reign reached,
confirmation of the Charters was demanded in the Pro-
visions of Oxford Parliament. There followed the rise
of Simon de Montforts the civil war, and the last seven
peaceful years, when the results of the conflict appeared
1 See below, pp. 360-362.
* Matthew Paris's account of the discussions in this council Is highly
interesting. See Stubbs, Select Charters, pp. 360-362. Whatever this and
the assembly of 1244 may have been formally standing for, there was an
atmosphere of nationality and maturity in them, if the chronicler reported
them aright, which foreshadowed a new era.