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over his barons was not subject to the Church. With renewed furyalthough it did not seem to those with him that the fury needed renewalJohn left Northampton and set out for Nottingham. Grimly, Langton pursued him and, openly defiant, told the full court that the violation of an oath sworn on holy relics was the business of the Church whether the oath concerned secular or religious matters. Furthermore, said Langton, he would excommunicate every single man in the entire army if they moved one step farther with the intention of illegally punishing men who had not been tried or given an opportunity to explain or defend themselves. |
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At this point John realized what kind of man he was dealing with. This was no mere mouthpiece of the pope. The king's most faithful supporters, the Cantelus, de Bréaute, even Salisbury, had backed away. They would not have done so in the face of a full army, John knew. Yet before a single man, unarmed, gaunt and tired, dressed in a simple priest's robe covered with dust, they quailed like children about to be beaten. John looked at his archbishop, at the firm mouth, the hard jaw, the burning dark eyes and conceived a hatred that put all his other animosities into the class of love. |
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For one long moment John was tempted to cry out, "Kill him! Kill him!" as his father had cried out in rage when Becket spited him, but the king's voice was frozen in his throat by Langton's glance. Then the insane impulse passed. John remembered what it had cost Henry to make peace with the Church after Becket's murder and the difficulties he had himself undergone to bring himself into the pope's good graces. There were other, far more effective ways to deal with Langton. Slowly, the king swallowed the hot bile of his rage until it coiled, cold and purposeful, under his heart. |
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Softly and reasonably, he spoke to the archbishop about the rights of a king in the face of overt rebellion. Langton replied more gently but no less firmly that there was no rebellion. No man had raised a weapon or uttered a threat. The king had left the men, and they had taken that as dismissal and had gone home. Put it aside, for now, John said |
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