ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together three great figures, Pope Innocent III who took the papacy to the peak of its power and prestige, King John who inherited the centralised organisation of the kingdom from Henry II but lacked the judgement to sustain it, and Stephen Langton a scholarly archbishop of Canterbury who was forced to be a bystander in the opening conflicts over papal authority. This conflict was fought in the vortex of three great forces, growing canon law, effective royal justice and coherence in the kingdom in the exercise of power. The first great conflict between pope and king concerned who could appoint and consecrate the archbishop of Canterbury. The second great conflict was over the governance of England and involved the king, the barons and the archbishop of Canterbury and led to the Magna Carta. The first conflict looked to the past, the second foreshowed the future.
