IN THE autumn of 1212 Archbishop Stephen Langton
and the Bishops of London and Ely went to Rome to discuss
the situation in England with the Pope. England had now been
under the interdict for four and a half years, and the public religious
life of the country was virtually extinct. Neither the interdict of the
country nor the personal excommunication of the King had brought
John to terms; the absolution of his subjects from their vows of fealty
had provided some encouragement to the more discontented of the
barons, but it had failed to shake John's strong grasp on the kingdom.
One measure remained, and that the Pope, after consulting with his
cardinals and bishops, decided to use. He decreed that John should be
deposed from his throne and that "another, more worthy than he, to
be chosen by the Pope, should succeed him," as Roger of Wendover
reports.

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