[...]Daie for answer herof being appointed at last by the king at London, manie as well knights as of common sort, by the admonish|ments of the patriarch, as the sermons of Baldwin the archbishop were croised to the seruice of Christ. At the last the patriarch receiued this an|swer of the king, that it was not good to leaue his realme without defense and gouernement, & leaue open his lands beyond sea to the rapacitie of the Frenchmen that hated him: but as concerning monie, he would giue both that which he sent thi|ther, to be reserued for him, and more also for the defense of the holie land. To whome the patriarch answered by following this aduise. O king you doo nothing: and by this meanes you shall neither saue your selfe, nor reserue Christes patrimonie. We come to séeke a prince, and not monie. Euerie part of the world almost sendeth vs monie, but none sen|deth vs a prince. Therfore we desire a man that may want monie, and not monie that may want a man. This was the saieng of The mis [...]o|cles. But, when the patriarch could get no other answer of the king, he taketh an other deuise: he desireth him to giue to their aid one of his sonnes, and if none other, yet his yoongest sonne Iohn, that the bloud descending from the An [...]owes might in a new branch raise vp the kingdome.
Iohn himselfe, albeit he was readie to passe into Ireland giuen him by his father, with a great armie, (prostrating himselfe at his fathers féet) desired (as they saie) that he might be sent to Ierusalem, but he obteined it not. So the patriarch séeing he could doo nothing, and draw no oile out of the hard stone, hée spake thus against the king, in th'audience of manie, with a threatfull and propheticall spirit. O glorious king, thou hast reigned hitherto among the princes of the world with incomparable glorie, and your princelie honour hath hither to dailie increased to the type of highnesse. But now doubtlesse is this triall being forsaken of God, whom you forsake, and desti|tute of all heauenlie grace. From hensefoorth shall your glorie be turned into sorrow, and your honor to reproch so long as you liue. I would to God the king had auoided this threat by penance, like the king of Niniuie, and had caused this sentence to be altered!
[page 50] The holie man spake this thing thrise, first at Lon|don, then at Douer, and lastlie at Chinon castell be|yond the sea. And I would to God the patriarch had béene a man without that propheticall spirit, & had ra|ther spoken a lesing, that we may for more euidence touch such things brieflie as were before spoken by that true forespeaker, which we saw shortlie to take effect. Whereas the king reigned thirtie and fiue yeares, thirtie years were granted him for worldlie glorie, expectation of his conuersion, & triall of his de|notion; but the last fiue years fell vpon him, as vpon an vngratefull, reprobate, and abiect seruant, in re|uengement, sorrow, & ignominie. For in the two and thirtith yeare of his reigne, immediatlie after the comming of the patriarch, his first enterprise of sen|ding his sonne Iohn into Ireland, both the labour and cost was frustrate and lost. The thrée and thir|tith yeare, whereas he neuer lost land before, he lost to king Philip (being but a child) almost all Aniou. The foure and thirtith yéere he lost the castell Rader, and welnéere all Be [...]ie. The fiue and thirtith yeare of his reigne, and the fourth yéere after the comming of the parriarch, not onelie king Philip of France, but his son Richard of Poitiers rising against him, he lost the cities of Towres and Maine, with manie castels, and himselfe also; according to that in saint Gregorie: Those that the Lord hath long forborne, that they might be conuerted, if they doo not conuert, he condemneth them the more greeuouslie.