offence”.  But in higher matters he pursued a wise policy.  In recognising that the great interest of the Church was peace, he truly expressed the policy of the mild Honorius.  For more than two years he kept Englishmen from flying at each other’s throats.  If they paid for peace by the continuance of foreign rule, it was better to be governed by Pandulf than pillaged by Falkes.  The principal events of these years were due to papal initiative.[1] Honorius looked askance on the maimed rites of the Gloucester coronation, and ordered a new hallowing to take place at the accustomed place and with the accustomed ceremonies.  This supplementary rite was celebrated at Westminster on Whitsunday, May 17, 1220.  Though Pandulf was present, he discreetly permitted the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown Henry with the diadem of St. Edward.  “This coronation,” says the Canon of Barnwell, “was celebrated with such good order and such splendour that the oldest magnates who were present declared that they had seen none of the king’s predecessors crowned with so much goodwill and tranquillity.”  Nor was this the only great ecclesiastical function of the year.  On July 7 Langton celebrated at Canterbury the translation of the relics of St. Thomas to a magnificent shrine at the back of the high altar.  Again the legate gave precedence to the archbishop, and the presence of the young king, of the Archbishop of Reims, and the Primate of Hungary, gave distinction to the solemnity.  It was a grand time for English saints.  When Damietta was taken from the Mohammedans, the crusaders dedicated two of its churches to St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Edmund the King.  A new saint was added to the calendar, who, if not an Englishman, had done good work for the country of his adoption.  In 1220 Honorius III. canonised Hugh of Avalon, the Carthusian Bishop of Lincoln, on the report of a commission presided over by Langton himself.

    [1]:  H.R.  Luard, On the Relations between England and Rome
    during the Earlier Portion of the Reign of Henry III. (1877),
    illustrates papal influence at this period.

No real unity of principle underlay the external tranquillity.  As time went on Peter des Roches bitterly resented the growing preponderance of Hubert de Burgh.  Not all the self-restraint of the legate could commend him to Langton, whose obstinate insistence upon his metropolitical authority forced Pandulf to procure bulls from Rome specifically releasing him from the jurisdiction of the primate.  In these circumstances it was natural for Bishop Peter and the legate to join together against the justiciar and the archbishop.  Finding that the legate was too strong for him, Langton betook himself to Rome, and remained there nearly a year.  Before he went home he persuaded Honorius to promise not to confer the same benefice twice by papal provision, and to send no further legate to England during his lifetime.  Pandulf was at once recalled, and left England in July, 1221, a month before