BAPAUME. 203 



which was attended with the same result; namely, the 

 submission of the king to the authority of the church. 



Philip Augustus, having lost his first wife, married 

 Ingerburge of Denmark ; but on the day after his 

 nuptials, without any reason assigned, he dismissed her, 

 assembled a council of bishops devoted to him, induced 

 them to pronounce the dissolution of his marriage, and 

 immediately espoused Agnes de Meranie. The unfortu- 

 nate Danish lady, being ignorant of the French language, 

 could only comprehend the proceedings through the 

 medium of expressive signs; and when fully aware of 

 her cruel fate, merely exclaimed, in the accents of suppli- 

 cation, "Rome, Rome!" 



The appeal was not made in vain. Innocent III., 

 exercising the extraordinary powers which appertained 

 to the Romish church in those times, excommunicated 

 Philip for his conduct on this occasion; and in conse- 

 quence of his obstinacy and contumacy, placed the entire 

 kingdom under an interdict. 



We may imagine at least those who are at all 

 acquainted with the practical operation of the Romish 

 church we may imagine, but it must be impossible to 

 describe, the consternation and misery a measure of this 

 nature must necessarily have inflicted upon the nation. 

 By the Roman Catholic system, when in full and 

 unchecked vigour, as in the time of Philip Augustus, the 

 two characters, or rather, to speak more strongly and yet 

 more justly, the two existences of Christian and Citizen were 

 inseparably united, and, indeed, completely confounded; 

 and therefore, in issuing this stern interdict, the church 

 did in reality suspend all the common acts of the civil, as 

 well as the more solemn offices of the religious life. The 

 clergy, in obedience to the mandate of the Pope, held 





