Monday 16th. Dreadfully cold. Walked up to town, & got to the
Musm. by 1/2 past 10. A thick fog came on shortly afterwards, so
that we could with difficulty see to write. I copied a fragment
of a curious piece “De obsidione Castri de Bedfordia, contra
Falcasium de Brent“,+ paper, Sec. XV. occurring amidst a variety
of other tracts of nearly the same age in MS. Cott. Tit. D. 19. . At
the end are some pieces of Wicliff in English, ######on vellum. On my
return home, ^I found a letter from Mr Roscoe, in which he
wishes me to proceed to Cambridge & Norwich first, & meet him
at Holkham about the beging of March, at which time ^should ###
he not be well enough to come there, he will send me the
MS. Catalogue.
I must see Mr Petrie before I can determine anything.
##### Mrs. Jilbert came to dine with us, therefore was idle.
+ In a contemporary Chronicle of which there are copies at
Cambridge, in the Heralds’ College & in the Museum, there
is a curious account of the fate of the prisoners, unnoticed
by Historians, & which ######exhibits strikingly the power & audacity of Langton
the Abp of Canty. ########################## On
the prisoners’ surrendering themselves (except Falc de Breaute
who escaped, & afterwards addressed ^himself to the Pope) the Abp absolved them
from their sentence of excommunication, & then turning to ^King Henry ^III (who was
then a boy) said: “I have now done my duty, it remains for your majesty to do yours”.
“What is my duty?” asked the monarch. “Your chief justiciary will tell you”, answered
Langton. However, not coming to an immediate decision – on account of many####
of Henry’s adherents having friends & relations among the prisoners, – they adjourned
to dinner, when on a sudden, they heard a violent outcry, & running out, beheld
the whole of the prisoners, ninety in number, suspended ^from gallows – by order of the Abp !
Some were cut down, & fortunate enough to recover, but the greater part
perished. Such an instance of arbitrary jurisdiction is unparalleled.
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