Jocelin, 1142—1184. 187 | 
the warmth of anger rather than the path of justice, you have hurled 
the penalties of suspension or condemnation before an enquiry has 
taken place as to their faults.” And in their appeal to the Pope, 
Alexander III., they complain that their “ brother the Bishop of 
Sarum when absent and undefended, having neither confessed to 
or being convicted of any crime had been suspended from the sacer- 
dotal and episcopal office before the grounds of his suspension had 
been submitted to the judgments of his brother bishops of the 
province, or indeed of anyone else.” ? 
So matters seem to have remained, the archbishop refusing to 
_ yield, and still sending his messages, couched in no courteous or 
| guarded terms, warning the faithful from holding communion with 
_ the Bishop of Sarum. Other bishops, in due course, were included 
_ with Jocelin in a similar sentence of suspension and excommunication 
—the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London and of Rochester. 
A step however which Jocelin took a few years afterwards, in 1170, 
of assisting in the coronation, at Westminster, of Henry, the son of 
the reigning king, seems to have brought upon our bishop excom- 
_ munication from the Pope himself. In that ceremony the Arch- 
_ bishop of Canterbury, to whom of course by right of his see the 
coronation and consecration of Prince Henry as the future king 
belonged, was entirely passed over. Becket’s anger was then fairly 
roused; he made complaint to the Supreme Pontiff, and through 
his influence, obtained a formal sentence of excommunication against 
-Jocelin and others from the holy See. 
Jocelin made great efforts on the return of the archbishop to 
_ England, at the close of that year, to be reconciled to him. To- 
_ gether with the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London he 
_ went to Dover to meet him, but the archbishop, hearing of their 
H ‘purpose, landed elsewhere and so prevented an interview. 
Two years afterwards, in 1172, Jocelin succeeded in obtaining a 
' removal of the sentence of excommunication. The letters of abso- 
| lution were addressed to the Archbishop of Bourges and the Bishop 
of Nivernais. It is stated in them that Jocelin was “ worn out with 
1 Hoveden sub anno 1167. 
2Tbid, sub anno 1167. 
