clergy whose battle I was fighting scarce one." Pope Innocent III.
was far too wary a politician to favour the claims of a small and
distracted nation, already half-subjugated, against the king of a
rich and powerful country. He flattered our poor Gerald, he
delighted in his company, he accepted, and perhaps even read, his
books. But in the end, after five years' incessant fighting, the
decision went against him, and the English king's nominee has ever
since sat on the throne of St. David's. "Many and great wars," said
Gwenwynwyn, the Prince of Powis, "have we Welshmen waged with
England, but none so great and fierce as his who fought the king and
the archbishop, and withstood the might of the whole clergy and
people of England, for the honour of Wales."

Short was the memory and scant the gratitude of his countrymen.
When in 1214 another vacancy occurred at a time when King John was
at variance with his barons and his prelates, the Chapter of St.
David's nominated, not Gerald, their old champion, but Iorwerth, the
Abbot of Talley, from whose reforming zeal they had nothing to fear.
This last prick of Fortune's sword pierced Gerald to the quick. He
had for years been gradually withdrawing from an active life. He
had resigned his archdeaconry and his prebend stall, he had made a
fourth pilgrimage, this time for his soul's sake, to Rome, he had
retired to a quiet pursuit of letters probably at Lincoln, and
henceforward, till his death about the year 1223, he devoted himself
to revising and embellishing his old works, and completing his
literary labours. By his fight for St. David's he had endeared
himself to the laity of his country for all time. The saying of
Llewelyn the Great was prophetic. "So long as Wales shall stand by
the writings of the chroniclers and by the songs of the bards shall
his noble deed be praised throughout all time." The prophecy has