With characteristic suddenness he gave way.

He endeavoured by remission of fines to win back his people.

He negotiated eagerly with the Pope, consented to receive the Archbishop, and promised to repay the money he had extorted from the Church.
[Sidenote: John becomes vassal of Rome] But the shameless ingenuity of the king's temper was seen in his resolve to find in his very humiliation a new source of strength.

If he yielded to the Church he had no mind to yield to the rest of his foes; it was indeed in the Pope who had defeated him that he saw the means of baffling their efforts.

It was Rome that formed the link between the varied elements of hostility which combined against him.