In the cathedral of St.Sophia he presumed to place his throne on the right hand of the patriarch; and this presumption excited the sharpest censure of Pope Innocent the Third.

By a salutary edict, one of the first examples of the laws of mortmain, he prohibited the alienation of fiefs: many of the Latins, desirous of returning to Europe, resigned their estates to the church for a spiritual or temporal reward; these holy lands were immediately discharged from military service, and a colony of soldiers would have been gradually transformed into a college of priests.

[35] [Footnote 31: Villehardouin, No.257.I quote, with regret, this lamentable conclusion, where we lose at once the original history, and the rich illustrations of Ducange.

The last pages may derive some light from Henry's two epistles to Innocent III., (Gesta, c.

106, 107.)] [Footnote 32: The marshal was alive in 1212, but he probably died soon afterwards, without returning to France, (Ducange, Observations sur Villehardouin, p.