CHAPTER VIII.

HENRY II.

STATE OF EUROPE--OF FRANCE.--FIRST ACTS OF HENRY'S GOVERNMENT--

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL POWERS.—THOMAS À BECKET,

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.--QUARREL BETWEEN THE KING AND BECKET.--

CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.--BANISHMENT OF BECKET.--COMPROMISE WITH

HIM.--HIS RETURN FROM BANISHMENT.--HIS MURDER--GRIEF AND SUBMISSION OF

THE KING.

[MN 1154. State of Europe]

The extensive confederacies by which the European potentates are now

at once united and set in opposition to each other, and which, though

they are apt to diffuse the least spark of dissension throughout the

whole, are at least attended with this advantage, that they prevent

any violent revolutions or conquests in particular states, were

totally unknown in ancient ages; and the theory of foreign politics,

in each kingdom, formed a speculation much less complicated and

involved than at present. Commerce had not yet bound together the

most distant nations in so close a chain: wars, finished in one

campaign, and often in one battle, were little affected by the

movements of remote states: the imperfect communication among the

kingdoms, and their ignorance of each other's situation, made it

impracticable for a great number of them to combine in one project or

effort: and above all, the turbulent spirit and independent situation

of the barons or great vassals in each state gave so much occupation

to the sovereign, that he was obliged to confine his attention chiefly

to his own state and his own system of government, and was more

indifferent about what passed among his neighbours. Religion alone,

not politics, carried abroad the views of princes; while it either

fixed their thoughts on the Holy Land, whose conquest and defence was

deemed a point of common honour and interest, or engaged them in

intrigues with the Roman pontiff, to whom they had yielded the

direction of ecclesiastical affairs, and who was every day assuming

more authority than they were willing to allow him.

Before the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy, this island

was as much separated from the rest of the world in politics as in

situation; and except from the inroads of the Danish pirates, the

English, happily confined at home, had neither enemies nor allies on

the continent. The foreign dominions of William connected them with

the king and great vassals of France; and while the opposite

pretensions of the pope and emperor in Italy produced a continual

intercourse between Germany and that country, the two great monarchs

of France and England formed, in another part of Europe, a separate

system; and carried on their wars and negotiations, without meeting

either with opposition or support from the others.

[MN State of France.]

On the decline of the Carlovingian race, the nobles in every province

of France, taking advantage of the weakness of the sovereign, and

obliged to provide, each for his own defence, against the ravages of

the Norman freebooters, had assumed, both in civil and military

affairs, an authority almost independent, and had reduced within very

narrow limits the prerogative of their princes. The accession of Hugh

Capet, by annexing a great fief to the crown, had brought some

addition to the royal dignity; but this fief, though considerable for

a subject, appeared a narrow basis of power for a prince who was

placed at the head of so great a community. The royal demesnes

consisted only of Paris, Orleans, Estampes, Compeigne, and a few

places scattered over the northern provinces: in the rest of the

kingdom, the prince's authority was rather nominal than real: the

vassals were accustomed, nay entitled, to make war, without his

permission, on each other: they were even entitled, if they conceived

themselves injured, to turn their arms against their sovereign: they

exercised all civil jurisdiction, without appeal, over their tenants

and inferior vassals: their common jealousy of the crown easily united

them against any attempt on their exorbitant privileges; and as some

of them had attained the power and authority of great princes, even

the smallest baron was sure of immediate and effectual protection.

Besides six ecclesiastical peerages, which, with the other immunities

of the church, cramped extremely the general execution of justice,

there were six lay peerages, Burgundy, Normandy, Guienne, Flanders,

Toulouse, and Champaigne, which formed very extensive and puissant

sovereignties. And though the combination all those princes and

barons could, on urgent occasions, muster a mighty power; yet it was

very difficult to set that great machine in movement; it was almost

impossible to preserve harmony in its parts; a sense of common

interest alone could, for a time, unite them under their sovereign

against a common enemy; but if the king attempted to turn the force of

the community against any mutinous vassal, the same sense of common

interest made the others oppose themselves to the success of his

pretensions. Lewis the Gross, the last sovereign, marched at one time

to his frontiers against the Germans at the head of an army of two

hundred thousand men; but a petty lord of Corbeil, of Puiset, of

Couci, was able, at another period, to set that prince at defiance,

and to maintain open war against him.

The authority of the English monarch was much more extensive within

his kingdom, and the disproportion much greater between him and the

most powerful of his vassals. His demesnes and revenue were large,

compared to the greatness of his state: he was accustomed to levy

arbitrary exactions on his subjects; his courts of judicature extended

their jurisdiction into every part of the kingdom: he could crush by

his power, or by a judicial sentence, well or ill founded, any

obnoxious baron: and though the feudal institutions which prevailed in

his kingdom had the same tendency as in other states to exalt the

aristocracy and depress the monarchy, it required, in England,

according to its present constitution, a great combination of the

vassals to oppose their sovereign lord, and there had not hitherto

arisen any baron so powerful, as of himself to levy war against the

prince, and to afford protection to the inferior barons.

While such were the different situations of France and England, and

the latter enjoyed so many advantages above the former, the accession

of Henry II., a prince of great abilities, possessed of so many rich

provinces on the continent, might appear an event dangerous, if not

fatal, to the French monarchy, and sufficient to break entirely the

balance between the states. He was master, in the right of his

father, of Anjou and Touraine; in that of his mother, of Normandy and

Maine; in that of his wife, of Guienne, Poictou, Xaintogne, Auvergne,

Perigord, Angoumois, the Limousin. He soon after annexed Britany to

his other states, and was already possessed of the superiority over

that province, which, on the first cession of Normandy to Rollo, the

Dane, had been granted by Charles the Simple, in vassalage to that

formidable ravager. These provinces composed above a third of the

whole French monarchy, and were much superior, in extent and opulence,

to those territories which were subjected to the immediate

jurisdiction and government of the king. The vassal was here more

powerful than his liege lord: the situation which had enabled Hugh

Capet to depose the Carlovingian princes seemed to be renewed, and

that with much greater advantages on the side of the vassal; and when

England was added to so many provinces, the French king had reason to

apprehend, from this conjuncture, some great disaster to himself and

to his family: but in reality, it was this circumstance, which

appeared so formidable, that saved the Capetian race, and, by its

consequences, exalted them to that pitch of grandeur which they at

present enjoy.

The limited authority of the prince in the feudal constitutions

prevented the King of England from employing with advantage the force

of so many states, which were subjected to his government; and these

different members, disjoined in situation, and disagreeing in laws,

language, and manners, were never thoroughly cemented into one

monarchy. He soon became, both from his distant place of residence,

and from the incompatibility of interests, a kind of foreigner to his

French dominions; and his subjects on the continent considered their

allegiance as more naturally due to their superior lord, who lived in

their neighbourhood, and who was acknowledged to be the supreme head

of their nation. He was always at hand to invade them; their

immediate lord was often at too great a distance to protect them; and

any disorder in any part of his dispersed dominions gave advantages

against him. The other powerful vassals of the French crown were

rather pleased to see the expulsion of the English, and were not

affected with that jealousy, which would have arisen from the

oppression of a co-vassal, who was of the same rank with themselves.

By this means, the King of France found it more easy to conquer those

numerous provinces from England, than to subdue a Duke of Normandy or

Guienne, a Count of Anjou, Maine, or Poictou. And after reducing such

extensive territories, which immediately incorporated with the body of

the monarchy, he found greater facility in uniting to the crown the

other great fiefs which still remained separate and independent.

But as these important consequences could not be foreseen by human

wisdom, the King of France remarked with terror the rising grandeur of

the house of Anjou, or Plantagenet; and, in order to retard its

progress, he had ever maintained a strict union with Stephen, and had

endeavoured to support the tottering fortunes of that bold usurper.

But after this prince's death it was too late to think of opposing the

succession of Henry, or preventing the performance of those

stipulations which, with the unanimous consent of the nation, he had

made with his predecessor. The English, harassed with civil wars, and

disgusted with the bloodshed and depredations which, during the course

of so many years, had attended them, were little disposed to violate

their oaths, by excluding the lawful heir from the succession of their

monarchy [a]. Many of the most considerable fortresses were in the

hands of his partisans; the whole nation had had occasion to see the

noble qualities with which he was endowed [b], and to compare them

with the mean talents of William the son of Stephen; and as they were

acquainted with his great power, and were rather pleased to see the

accession of so many foreign dominions to the crown of England, they

never entertained the least thoughts of resisting them. Henry

himself, sensible of the advantages attending his present situation,

was in no hurry to arrive in England; and being engaged in the siege

of a castle on the frontiers of Normandy, when he received

intelligence of Stephen's death, [MN Dec.] he made it a point of

honour not to depart from his enterprise till he had brought it to an

issue. He then set out on his journey and was received in England

with the acclamations of all orders of men, who swore with pleasure

the oath of fealty and allegiance to him.

[FN [a] Matt. Paris, p. 65. [b] Gul. Neubr. p. 381.]

[MN 1155. First acts of Henry’s government.]

The first acts of Henry's government corresponded to the high idea

entertained of his abilities, and prognosticated the re-establishment

of justice and tranquillity, of which the kingdom had so long been

bereaved. He immediately dismissed all those mercenary soldiers who

had committed great disorders in the nation; and he sent them abroad,

together with William of Ypres, their leader, the friend and confidant

of Stephen [c]. He revoked all the grants made by his predecessor

[d], even those which necessity had extorted from the Empress Matilda;

and that princess, who had resigned her rights in favour of Henry,

made no opposition to a measure so necessary for supporting the

dignity of the crown. He repaired the coin, which had been extremely

debased during the reign of his predecessor; and he took proper

measures against the return of a like abuse [e]. He was vigorous in

the execution of justice, and in the suppression of robbery and

violence; and that he might restore authority to the laws, he caused

all the new erected castles to be demolished, which had proved so many

sanctuaries to freebooters and rebels [f]. The Earl of Albemarle,

Hugh Mortimer, and Roger the son of Milo of Gloucester, were inclined

to make some resistance to this salutary measure; but the approach of

the king with his forces soon obliged them to submit.

[FN [c] Fitz-Steph. p. 13. M. Paris, p. 65. Neubr. p. 381. Chron.

T. Wykes, p. 30. [d] Neub. p. 382. [e] Hoveden, p. 491. [f]

Hoveden, p. 491. Fitz-Steph. p. 13. M. Paris, p. 65. Neubr. p. 381.

Brompton, p. 1043.]

[MN 1156.] Every thing being restored to full tranquillity in

England, Henry went abroad in order to oppose the attempts of his

brother Geoffrey, who, during his absence, had made an incursion into

Anjou and Maine, had advanced some pretensions to those provinces, and

had got possession of a considerable part of them [g]. On the king’s

appearance, the people returned to their allegiance; and Geoffrey,

resigning his claim for an annual pension of a thousand pounds,

departed and took possession of the county of Nantz, which the

inhabitants, who had expelled Count Hoel, their prince, had put into

his hands. [MN 1157.] Henry returned to England the following year:

the incursions of the Welsh then provoked him to make an invasion upon

them; where the natural fastnesses of the country occasioned him great

difficulties, and even brought him into danger. His vanguard, being

engaged in a narrow pass, was put to rout. Henry de Essex, the

hereditary standard-bearer, seized with a panic, threw down the

standard, took to flight and exclaimed, that the king. was slain: and

had not the prince immediately appeared in person, and led on his

troops with great gallantry, the consequences might have proved fatal

to the whole army [h]. For this misbehaviour, Essex was afterwards

accused of felony by Robert de Montfort; was vanquished in single

combat; his estate was confiscated; and he himself was thrust into a

convent [i]. The submissions of the Welsh procured them an

accommodation with England.

[FN [g] See note [O], at the end of the volume. [h] Neubr. p. 383.

Chron. W. Heming. p. 492. [i] M. Paris, p. 70 Neubr. p. 383.]

[MN 1158.] The martial disposition of the princes in that age engaged

them to head their own armies in every enterprise, even the most

frivolous; and their feeble authority made it commonly impracticable

for them to delegate, on occasion, the command to their generals.

Geoffrey, the king's brother, died soon after he had acquired

possession of Nantz: though he had no other title to that county than

the voluntary submission or election of the inhabitants two years

before, Henry laid claim to the territory as devolved to him by

hereditary right, and he went over to support his pretensions by force

of arms. Conan, Duke or Earl of Britany, (for these titles are given

indifferently by historians to those princes,) pretended that Nantz

had been lately separated by rebellion from his principality, to which

of right it belonged; and immediately on Geoffrey's death he took

possession of the disputed territory. Lest Lewis, the French king,

should interpose in the controversy, Henry paid him a visit; and so

allured him by caresses and civilities, that an alliance was

contracted between them; and they agreed that young Henry, heir to the

English monarchy, should be affianced to Margaret of France though the

former was only five years of age, and the latter was still in her

cradle. Henry, now secure of meeting with no interruption on this

side, advanced with his army into Britany; and Conan, in despair of

being able to make resistance, delivered up the county of Nantz to

him. The able conduct of the king procured him farther and more

important advantages from this incident. Conan, harassed with the

turbulent disposition of his subjects, was desirous of procuring to

himself the support of so great a monarch; and he betrothed his

daughter and only child, yet an infant, to Geoffrey, the king's third

son, who was of the same tender years. The Duke of Britany died about

seven years after; and Henry being MESNE lord, and also natural

guardian to his son and daughter-in-law, put himself in possession of

that principality, and annexed it for the present to his other great

dominions.

[MN 1159.] The king had a prospect of making still farther

acquisitions; and the activity of his temper suffered no opportunity

of that kind to escape him. Philippa, Duchess of Guienne, mother of

Queen Eleanor, was the only issue of William IV., Count of Toulouse;

and would have inherited his dominions, had not that prince, desirous

of preserving the succession in the male line, conveyed the

principality to his brother, Raymond de St. Gilles, by a contract of

sale which was in that age regarded as fictitious and illusory. By

this means the title to the county of Toulouse came to be disputed

between the male and female heirs; and the one or the other, as

opportunities favoured them, had obtained possession. Raymond,

grandson of Raymond de St. Gilles, was the reigning sovereign; and on

Henry’s reviving his wife’s claim, this prince had recourse for

protection to the King of France, who was so much concerned in policy

to prevent the farther aggrandizement of the English monarch. Lewis

himself, when married to Eleanor, had asserted the justice of her

claim, and had demanded possession of Toulouse [k]; but his sentiments

changing with his interest, he now determined to defend, by his power

and authority, the title of Raymond. Henry found that it would be

requisite to support his pretensions against potent antagonists; and

that nothing but a formidable army could maintain a claim which he had

in vain asserted by arguments and manifestoes.

[FN [k] Neubr. p. 387. Chron. W. Heming. p. 494.]

An army, composed of feudal vassals, was commonly very intractable and

undisciplined, both because of the independent spirit of the persons

who served in it, and because the commands were not given, either by

the choice of the sovereign, or from the military capacity and

experience of the officers. Each baron conducted his own vassals: his

rank was greater or less, proportioned to the extent of his property:

even the supreme command under the prince was often attached to birth;

and as the military vassals were obliged to serve only forty days at

their own charge; though if the expedition were distant, they were put

to great expense; the prince reaped little benefit from their

attendance. Henry, sensible of these inconveniences, levied upon his

vassals in Normandy, and other provinces which were remote from

Toulouse, a sum of money in lieu of their service; and this

commutation, by reason of the great distance, was still more

advantageous to his English vassals. He imposed, therefore, a scutage

of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds on the knight’s fees, a

commutation to which, though it was unusual, and the first perhaps to

be met with in history [l], the military tenants willingly submitted;

and with this money he levied an army which was more under his

command, and whose service was more durable and constant. Assisted by

Berenger, Count of Barcelona, and Trincaval, Count of Nismes, whom he

had gained to his party, he invaded the county of Toulouse; and after

taking Verdun, Castlenau, and other places, he besieged the capital of

the province, and was likely to prevail in the enterprise: when Lewis,

advancing before the arrival of his main body, threw himself into the

place with a small reinforcement. [MN 1160.] Henry was urged by some

of his ministers to prosecute the siege, to take Lewis prisoner, and

to impose his own terms in the pacification; but he either thought it

so much his interest to maintain the feudal principles, by which his

foreign dominions were secured, or bore so much respect to his

superior lord, that he declared he would not attack a place defended

by him in person; and he immediately raised the siege [m]. He marched

into Normandy, to protect that province against an incursion which the

Count of Dreux, instigated by King Lewis, his brother, had made upon

it. War was now openly carried on between the two monarchs, but

produced no memorable event: it soon ended in a cessation of arms, and

that followed by a peace, which was not, however, attended with any

confidence or good correspondence between those rival princes. The

fortress of Gisors, being part of the dowry stipulated to Margaret of

France, had been consigned by agreement to the Knights Templars, on

condition that it should be delivered into Henry's hands after the

celebration of the nuptials. The king, that he might have a pretence

for immediately demanding the place, ordered the marriage to be

solemnized between the prince and princess, though both infants [n];

and he engaged the Grand Master of the Templars, by large presents, as

was generally suspected, to put him in possession of Gisors [o]. [MN

1161.] Lewis, resenting this fraudulent conduct, banished the

Templars, and would have made war upon the King of England, had it not

been for the mediation and authority of Pope Alexander III., who had

been chased from Rome by the anti-pope, Victor IV., and resided at

that time in France. That we may form an idea of the authority

possessed by the Roman pontiff during those ages, it may be proper to

observe, that the two kings had, the year before, met the pope at the

castle of Torci, on the Loire; and they gave him such marks of

respect, that both dismounted to receive him, and holding each of them

one of the reins of his bridle, walked on foot by his side, and

conducted him in that submissive manner into the castle [p]. A

SPECTACLE, cries Baronius in an ecstasy, TO GOD, ANGELS AND MEN; AND

SUCH AS HAD NEVER BEFORE BEEN EXHIBITED TO THE WORLD!

[FN [l] Madox, p. 435. Gervase, p. 1381. See Note [P], at the end of

the volume. [m] Fitz-Steph. p. 22. Diceto, p. 531. [n] Hoveden, p.

492. Neubr. p. 400. Diceto, p. 532. Brompton, p. 1450. [o] Since

the first publication of this history, Lord Lyttelton has published a

copy of the treaty between Henry and Lewis, by which it appears, if

there was no secret article, that Henry was not guilty of any fraud in

this transaction. [p] Trivet, p. 48.]

[MN 1162.] Henry, soon after he had accommodated his differences with

Lewis, by the pope's mediation, returned to England; where he

commenced an enterprise which, though required by sound policy, and

even conducted in the main with prudence, bred him great disquietude,

involved him in danger, and was not concluded without some loss and

dishonour.

[MN Disputes between the civil and ecclesiastical powers.]

The usurpations of the clergy, which had at first been gradual, were

now become so rapid, and had mounted to such a height, that the

contest between the regale and pontificale was really arrived at a

crisis in England, and it became necessary to determine whether the

king or the priests, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, should

be sovereign of the kingdom [q]. The aspiring spirit of Henry, which

gave inquietude to all his neighbours, was not likely long to pay a

tame submission to the encroachments of subjects; and as nothing

opened the eyes of men so readily as their interests, he was in no

danger of falling, in this respect, into that abject superstition

which retained his people in subjection. From the commencement of his

reign, in the government of his foreign dominions, as well as of

England, he had shown a fixed purpose to repress clerical usurpations,

and to maintain those prerogatives which had been transmitted to him

by his predecessors. During the schism of the papacy between

Alexander and Victor, he had determined, for some time, to remain

neuter: and when informed that the Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishop

of Mans had, from their own authority, acknowledged Alexander as

legitimate pope, he was so enraged, that, though he spared the

archbishop on account of his great age, he immediately issued orders

for overthrowing the houses of the Bishop of Mans and Archdeacon of

Rouen [r]; and it was not till he had deliberately examined the

matter, by those views which usually enter into the councils of

princes, that he allowed that pontiff to exercise authority over any

of his dominions. In England, the mild character and advanced years

of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, together with his merits in

refusing to put the crown on the head of Eustace, son of Stephen,

prevented Henry, during the lifetime of that primate, from taking any

measures against the multiplied encroachments of the clergy; but after

his death, the king resolved to exert himself with more activity, and

that he might be secure against any opposition, he advanced to that

dignity Becket, his chancellor, on whose compliance he thought he

could entirely depend.

[FN [q] Fitz-Stephen, p. 27. [r] See note [Q], at the end of the

volume.]

[MN June 3. Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.]

Thomas à Becket, the first man of English descent who, since the

Norman conquest, had, during the course of a whole century, risen to

any considerable station, was born of reputable parents in the city of

London; and being endowed both with industry and capacity, he early

insinuated himself into the favour of Archbishop Theobald, and

obtained from that prelate some preferments and offices. By their

means he was enabled to travel for improvement to Italy, where he

studied the civil and canon law at Bologna; and on his return, he

appeared to have made such proficiency in knowledge, that he was

prompted by his patron to the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, an office of

considerable trust and profit. He was afterwards employed with

success by Theobald, in transacting business at Rome; and, on Henry's

accession, he was recommended to that monarch as worthy of farther

preferment. Henry. who knew that Becket had been instrumental in

supporting that resolution of the archbishop, which had tended so much

to facilitate his own advancement to the throne, was already pre-

possessed in his favour; and finding, on farther acquaintance, that

his spirit and abilities entitled him to any trust, he soon promoted

him to the dignity of chancellor, one of the first civil offices in

the kingdom. The chancellor, in that age, besides the custody of the

great seal, had possession of all vacant prelacies and abbeys; he was

the guardian of all such minors and pupils as were the king's tenants;

all baronies which escheated to the crown were under his

administration; he was entitled to a place in council, even though he

were not particularly summoned; and as he exercised also the office of

secretary of state, and it belonged to him to countersign all

commissions, writs, and letters patent, he was a kind of prime

minister, and was concerned in the despatch of every business of

importance [s]. Besides exercising this high office, Becket, by the

favour of the king or archbishop, was made Provost of Beverley, Dean

of Hastings, and Constable of the Tower: he was put in possession of

the honours of Eye and Berkham, large baronies that had escheated to

the crown: and, to complete his grandeur, he was intrusted with the

education of Prince Henry, the king’s eldest son, and heir of the

monarchy [t]. The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his

furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents,

corresponded to these great preferments; or rather exceeded any thing

that England had ever before seen in any subject. His historian and

secretary, Fitz-Stephens [u], mentions, among other particulars, that

his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or

hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs; lest the gentlemen who

paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of their great number,

find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a

dirty floor [w]. A great number of knights were retained in his

service; the greatest barons were proud of being received at his

table; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief

nobility; and the king himself frequently vouchsafed to partake of his

entertainments. As his way of life was splendid and opulent, his

amusements and occupations were gay, and partook of the cavalier

spirit, which, as he had only taken deacon's orders, he did not think

unbefitting his character. He employed himself at leisure hours in

hunting, hawking, gaming, and horsemanship; he exposed his person in

several military actions [x]; he carried over, at his own charge,

seven hundred knights to attend the king in his wars at Toulouse; in

the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy he maintained, during

forty days, twelve hundred knights, and four thousand of their train

[y]; and in an embassy to France, with which he was intrusted, he

astonished that court with the number and magnificence of his retinue.

[FN [s] Fitz-Steph. p. 13. [t] Fitz-Steph. p. 15. Hist. Quad. p. 9,

14. [u] P. 15. [w] John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsfee, in

Aylesbury, of the king by soccage, by the service of finding litter

for the king's bed, viz. in summer, grass or herbs, and two grey

geese; and in winter, straw, and three eels, thrice in the year if the

king should come thrice in the year to Aylesbury. Madox, Bar.

Anglica, p. 247. [x] Fitz-Steph. p. 23. Hist. Quad. p. 9. [y] Fitz-

Steph. p. 19, 20, 22, 23.]

Henry, besides committing all his more important business to Becket's

management, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy; and

whenever he was disposed to relax himself by sports of any kind, he

admitted his chancellor to the party [z] An instance of their

familiarity is mentioned by Fitz-Stephens, which, as it shows the

manners of the age, it may not be improper to relate. One day, as the

king and the chancellor were riding together in the streets of London,

they observed a beggar, who was shivering with cold. Would it not be

very praiseworthy, said the king, to give that poor man a warm coat in

this severe season? It would, surely, replied the chancellor; and you

do well, sir, in thinking of such good actions. Then he shall have

one presently, cried the king; and seizing the skirt of the

chancellor's coat, which was scarlet, and lined with ermine, began to

pull it violently. The chancellor defended himself for some time; and

they had both of them liked to have tumbled off their horses in the

street, when Becket, after a vehement struggle, let go his coat; which

the king bestowed on the beggar, who, being ignorant of the quality of

the persons, was not a little surprised at the present [a].

[FN [z] Fitz-Steph. p. 16. Hist. Quad. p. 8. [a] Fitz-Steph. p. 16.]

Becket, who, by his complaisance and good humour, had rendered himself

agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master,

appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by

the death of Theobald. As he was well acquainted with the king's

intentions [b] of retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient

bounds, all ecclesiastical privileges, and always showed a ready

disposition to comply with them [c], Henry, who never expected any

resistance from that quarter, immediately issued orders for electing

him Archbishop of Canterbury. But this resolution, which was taken

contrary to the opinion of Matilda, and many of the ministers [d],

drew after it very unhappy consequences; and never prince of so great

penetration appeared, in the issue, to have so little understood the

genius and character of his minister.

[FN [b] Ibid. p. 17. [c] Ibid p. 23. Epist. St. Thom. p. 232. [d]

Epist. St. Thom. p. 167.]

No sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity, which rendered

him for life the second person in the kingdom, with some pretensions

of aspiring to be the first, than he totally altered his demeanour and

conduct, and endeavoured to acquire the character of sanctity, of

which his former busy and ostentatious course of life might, in the

eyes of the people, have naturally bereaved him. Without consulting

the king, he immediately returned into his hands the commission of

chancellor; pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from

secular affairs, and be solely employed in the exercise of his

spiritual function; but in reality, that he might break off all

connexions with Henry, and apprize him, that Becket, as Primate of

England, was now become entirely a new personage. He maintained in

his retinue and attendants alone his ancient pomp and lustre, which

was useful to strike the vulgar: in his own person he affected the

greatest austerity and most rigid mortification, which, he was

sensible, would have an equal or a greater tendency to the same end.

He wore sackcloth next his skin, which, by his affected care to

conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by all the world: he

changed it so seldom, that it was filled with dirt and vermin: his

usual diet was bread; his drink water, which he even rendered farther

unpalatable by the mixture of unsavoury herbs: he tore his back with

the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it: he daily on his

knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars,

whom he afterwards dismissed with presents [e]: he gained the

affections of the monks by his frequent charities to the convents and

hospitals: every one who made profession of sanctity was admitted to

his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility as

well as on the piety and mortification of the holy primate: he seemed

to be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, or

in perusing religious discourses: his aspect wore the appearance of

seriousness and mental recollection, and secret devotion: and all men

of penetration plainly saw that he was meditating some great design

and that the ambition and ostentation of his character had turned

itself towards a new and more dangerous object.

[FN [e] Fitz-Steph. p. 25. Hist. Quad. p. 19.]

[MN 1163. Quarrel between the king and Becket.]

Becket waited not till Henry should commence those projects against

the ecclesiastical power, which, he knew, had been formed by that

prince: he was himself the aggressor; and endeavoured to overawe the

king by the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprises. He summoned

the Earl of Clare to surrender the barony of Tunbridge, which, ever

since the Conquest, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but

which, as it had formerly belonged to the see of Canterbury, Becket

pretended his predecessors were prohibited by the canons to alienate.

The Earl of Clare, besides the lustre which he derived from the

greatness of his own birth, and the extent of his possessions, was

allied to all the principal families in the kingdom; his sister, who

was a celebrated beauty, had farther extended his credit among the

nobility, and was even supposed to have gained the king's affections;

and Becket could not better discover, than by attacking so powerful an

interest, his resolution of maintaining with vigour the rights, real

or pretended, of his see [f].

[FN [f] Fitz-Steph. p. 28 Gervase, p. 1384.]

William de Eynsford, a military tenant of the crown, was patron of a

living which belonged to a manor that held of the Archbishop of

Canterbury: but Becket, without regard to William's right, presented,

on a new and illegal pretext, one Laurence to that living, who was

violently expelled by Eynsford. The primate, making himself, as was

usual in spiritual courts, both judge and party, issued, in a summary

manner, the sentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who

complained to the king, that he who held IN CAPITE of the crown

should, contrary to the practice established by the Conqueror, and

maintained ever since by his successors, be subjected to that terrible

sentence, without the previous consent of the sovereign [g]. Henry,

who had now broken off all personal intercourse with Becket, sent him,

by a messenger, his orders to absolve Eynsford; but received for

answer, that it belonged not to the king to inform him whom he should

absolve and whom excommunicate [h]: and it was not till after many

remonstrances and menaces, that Becket, though with the worst grace

imaginable, was induced to comply with the royal mandate.

[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 7. Diceto, p. 536. [h] Fitz-Steph. p. 28.]

Henry, though he found himself thus grievously mistaken in the

character of the person whom he had promoted to the primacy,

determined not to desist from his former intention of retrenching

clerical usurpations. He was entirely master of his extensive

dominions: the prudence and vigour of his administration, attended

with perpetual success, had raised his character above that of any of

his predecessors [i]: the papacy seemed to be weakened by a schism

which divided all Europe: and he rightly judged, that if the present

favourable opportunity were neglected, the crown must, from the

prevalent superstition of the people, be in danger of falling into an

entire subordination under the mitre.

[FN [i] Epist. St. Thom. p. 130.]

The union of the civil and ecclesiastic power serves extremely, in

every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and

prevents those mutual encroachments which, as there can be no ultimate

judge between them, are often attended with the most dangerous

consequences. Whether the supreme magistrate, who unites these

powers, receives the appellation of prince or prelate, is not

material: the superior weight which temporal interests commonly bear

in the apprehensions of men above spiritual, renders the civil part of

his character most prevalent; and in time prevents those gross

impostures and bigoted persecutions, which, in all false religions,

are the chief foundation of clerical authority. But during the

progress of ecclesiastical usurpations, the state, by the resistance

of the civil magistrate, is naturally thrown into convulsions; and it

behoves the prince, both for his own interest and for that of the

public, to provide, in time, sufficient barriers against so dangerous

and insidious a rival. This precaution had hitherto been much

neglected in England, as well as in other Catholic countries; and

affairs at last seemed to have come to a dangerous crisis: a sovereign

of the greatest abilities was now on the throne: a prelate of the most

inflexible and intrepid character was possessed of the primacy: the

contending powers appeared to be armed with their full force, and it

was natural to expect some extraordinary event to result from their

conflict.

Among their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had

inculcated the necessity of penance as an atonement for sin; and

having again introduced the practice of paying them large sums as a

commutation, or species of atonement, for the remission of those

penances, the sins of the people, by these means, had become a revenue

to the priests; and the king computed that, by this invention alone,

they levied more money upon his subjects than flowed, by all the funds

and taxes, into the royal exchequer [k] That he might ease the people

of so heavy and arbitrary an imposition, Henry required that a civil

officer of his appointment should be present in all ecclesiastical

courts, and should, for the future, give his consent to every

composition which was made with sinners for their spiritual offences.

[FN [k] Fitz-Steph. p. 32.]

The ecclesiastics, in that age, had renounced all immediate

subordination to the magistrate: they openly pretended to an

exemption, in criminal accusations, from a trial before courts of

justice; and were gradually introducing a like exemption in civil

causes: spiritual penalties alone could be inflicted on their

offences; and as the clergy had extremely multiplied in England, and

many of them were consequently of very low characters, crimes of the

deepest dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily

committed with impunity by the ecclesiastics. It had been found, for

instance, on inquiry, that no less than a hundred murders had, since

the king's accession, been perpetrated by men of that profession, who

had never been called to account for these offences [l]; and holy

orders were become a full protection for all enormities. A clerk in

Worcestershire, having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had, at this

time, proceeded to murder the father: and the general indignation

against this crime moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abuse

which was become so palpable, and to require that the clerk should be

delivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magistrate [m].

Becket insisted on the privileges of the church; confined the criminal

in the bishop's prison, lest he should be seized by the king's

officers; maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on

him than degradation; and when the king demanded, that, immediately

after he was degraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the

primate asserted, that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the

same accusation, and for the same offence [n].

[FN [l] Neubr. p. 394. [m] Fitz-Steph. p. 33. Hist. Quad. p. 32.

[n] Fitz-Steph. p. 29. Hist. Quad. p. 33, 45. Hoveden, p. 492. M.

Paris, p. 72. Diceto, p. 536, 537. Brompton, p. 1058. Gervase, p.

1384. Epist. St. Thom. p. 208, 209.]

Henry, laying hold of so plausible a pretence, resolved to push the

clergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had raised to

an enormous height, and to determine at once those controversies,

which daily multiplied between the civil and the ecclesiastical

jurisdictions. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates of

England; and he put to them this concise and decisive question,

Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and

customs of the kingdom? The bishops unanimously replied, that they

were willing, SAVING THEIR OWN ORDER [o]: a device by which they

thought to elude the present urgency of the king's demand, yet reserve

to themselves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of resuming all

their pretensions. The king was sensible of the artifice, and was

provoked to the highest indignation. He left the assembly, with

visible marks of his displeasure: he required the primate instantly to

surrender the honours and castles of Eye and Berkham: the bishops were

terrified, and expected still farther effects of his resentment.

Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but the interposition of the

pope's legate and almoner, Philip, who dreaded a breach with so

powerful a prince at so unseasonable a juncture, could have prevailed

on him to retract the saving clause, and give a general and absolute

promise of observing the ancient customs [p].

[FN [o] Fitz-Steph. p. 31. Hist. Quad. p. 34. Hoveden, p. 492. [p]

Hist. Quad. p. 37. Hoveden, p. 493. Gervase, p. 1385.]

But Henry was not content with a declaration in these general terms:

he resolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs

with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical

usurpations before they were fully consolidated, and could plead

antiquity, as they already did a sacred authority, in their favour.

The claims of the church were open and visible. After a gradual and

insensible progress during many centuries, the mask had at last been

taken off; and several ecclesiastical councils, by their canons which

were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had positively

defined those privileges and immunities which gave such general

offence, and appeared so dangerous to the civil magistrate. Henry,

therefore, deemed it necessary to define with the same precision the

limits of the civil power; to oppose his legal customs to their divine

ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival

jurisdictions; and for this purpose he summoned a general council of

the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted this

great and important question.

[MN 1164. 15th Jan. Constitutions of Clarendon.]

The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasons

which he urged, or by his superior authority: the bishops were

overawed by the general combination against them: and the following

laws, commonly called the CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON, were voted

without opposition by this assembly [q]. It was enacted, that all

suits concerning the advowson and presentation of churches should be

determined in the civil courts: that the churches belonging to the

king's see should not be granted in perpetuity without his consent:

that clerks, accused of any crime, should be tried in the civil

courts: that no person, particularly no clergyman of any rank, should

depart the kingdom without the king's licence: that excommunicated

persons should not be bound to give security for continuing in their

present place of abode: that laics should not be accused in spiritual

courts, except by legal and reputable promoters and witnesses: that no

chief tenant of the crown should be excommunicated, nor his lands be

put under an interdict, except with the king's consent: that all

appeals in spiritual causes should be carried from the archdeacon to

the bishop, from the bishop to the primate, from him to the king; and

should be carried no farther without the king's consent: that if any

lawsuit arose between a layman and a clergyman concerning a tenant,

and it be disputed whether the land be a lay or an ecclesiastical fee,

it should first be determined by the verdict of twelve lawful men to

what class it belonged; and if it be found to be a lay-fee, the cause

should finally be determined in the civil courts: that no inhabitant

in demesne should be excommunicated for non-appearance in a spiritual

court, till the chief officer of the place where he resides be

consulted, that he may compel him by the civil authority to give

satisfaction to the church: that the archbishops, bishops, and other

spiritual dignitaries, should be regarded as barons of the realm;

should possess the privileges and be subjected to the burdens

belonging to that rank; and should be bound to attend the king in his

great councils, and assist at all trials, till the sentence, either of

death or loss of members, be given against the criminal: that the

revenue of vacant sees should belong to the king; the chapter, or such

of them as he pleases to summon, should sit in the king's chapel till

they made the new election with his consent, and that the bishop-elect

should do homage to the crown: that if any baron or tenant IN CAPITE

should refuse to submit to the spiritual courts, the king should

employ his authority in obliging him to make such submissions; if any

of them throw off his allegiance to the king, the prelates should

assist the king with their censures in reducing him: that goods

forfeited to the king should not be protected in churches or

churchyards: that the clergy should no longer pretend to the right of

enforcing payment of debts contracted by oath or promise; but should

leave these lawsuits, equally with others, to the determination of the

civil courts: and that the sons of villains should not be ordained

clerks, without the consent of their lord [r].

[FN [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 33. [r] Hist. Quad. p. 163. M. Paris, p. 70,

71. Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 63. Gervase, p. 1386, 1387. Wilkins,

p. 321.]

These articles, to the number of sixteen, were calculated to prevent

the chief abuses which had prevailed in ecclesiastical affairs, and to

put an effectual stop to the usurpations of the church, which,

gradually stealing on, had threatened the total destruction of the

civil power. Henry, therefore, by reducing those ancient customs of

the realm to writing, and by collecting them in a body, endeavoured to

prevent all future dispute with regard to them; and by passing so many

ecclesiastical ordinances in a national and civil assembly, he fully

established the superiority of the legislature above all papal decrees

or spiritual canons, and gained a signal victory over the

ecclesiastics. But as he knew that the bishops, though overawed by

the present combination of the crown and the barons, would take the

first favourable opportunity of denying the authority which had

enacted these constitutions, he resolved that they should all set

their seal to them, and give a promise to observe them. None of the

prelates dared to oppose his will, except Becket, who, though urged by

the Earls of Cornwall and Leicester, the barons of principal authority

in the kingdom, obstinately withheld his assent. At last, Richard de

Hastings, Grand Prior of the Templars in England, threw himself on his

knees before him; and with many tears entreated him, if he paid any

regard, either to his own safety or that of the church, not to

provoke, by a fruitless opposition, the indignation of a great

monarch, who was resolutely bent on his purpose, and who was

determined to take full revenge on every one that should dare to

oppose him [s]. Becket, finding himself deserted by all the world,

even by his own brethren, was at last obliged to comply; and he

promised, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT FRAUD OR RESERVE [t],

to observe the constitutions; and he took an oath to that purpose [u].

The king, thinking that he had now finally prevailed in this great

enterprise, sent the constitutions to Pope Alexander, who then resided

in France; and he required that pontiff's ratification of them: but

Alexander, who, though he had owed the most important obligations to

the king, plainly saw that these laws were calculated to establish the

independency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on the

clergy, condemned them in the strongest terms; abrogated, annulled,

and rejected them. There were only six articles, the least important,

which, for the sake of peace, he was willing to ratify.

[FN [s] Hist. Quad. p. 38. Hoveden, p. 493. [t] Fitz-Steph. p. 35.

Epist. St. Thom. p. 25. [u] Fitz-Steph. p. 45. Hist. Quad. p. 39.

Gervase, p. 1386.]

Becket, when he observed that he might hope for support in an

opposition, expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance; and

endeavoured to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to adhere

to their common rights, and to the ecclesiastical privileges, in which

he represented the interest and honour of God to be so deeply

concerned. He redoubled his austerities, in order to punish himself

for his criminal assent to the constitutions of Clarendon: he

proportioned his discipline to the enormity of his supposed offence;

and he refused to exercise any part of his archiepiscopal function,

till he should receive absolution from the pope; which was readily

granted him. Henry, informed of his present dispositions, resolved to

take vengeance for this refractory behaviour; and he attempted to

crush him, by means of that very power which Becket made such merit in

supporting. He applied to the pope, that he should grant the

commission of legate in his dominions to the Archbishop of York; but

Alexander, as politic as he, though he granted the commission, annexed

a clause, that it should not empower the legate to execute any act of

prejudice of the Archbishop of Canterbury [w]; and the king, finding

how fruitless such an authority would prove, sent back the commission

by the same messenger that brought it [x].

[FN [w] Epist. St. Thom. p. 13, 14. [x] Hoveden, p.493. Gervase, p.

1388.]

The primate, however, who found himself still exposed to the king's

indignation, endeavoured twice to escape secretly from the kingdom,

but was as often detained by contrary winds; and Henry hastened to

make him feel the effects of an obstinacy which he deemed so criminal.

He instigated John, mareschal of the exchequer, to sue Becket in the

archiepiscopal court for some lands, part of the manor of Pageham; and

to appeal thence to the king's court for justice [y]. On the day

appointed for trying the cause, the primate sent four knights to

represent certain irregularities in John's appeal; and at the same

time to excuse himself, on account of sickness, for not appearing

personally that day in the court. This slight offence (if it even

deserve the name) was represented as a grievous contempt; the four

knights were menaced and with difficulty escaped being sent to prison,

as offering falsehoods to the court [z]. And Henry, being determined

to prosecute Becket to the utmost, summoned, at Northampton, a great

council, which he purposed to make the instrument of his vengeance

against the inflexible prelate.

[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 494. M. Paris, p. 72. Diceto, p. 537. [z] See

note [R], at the end of the volume.]

The king had raised Becket from a low station to the highest offices,

had honoured him with his countenance and friendship, had trusted to

his assistance in forwarding his favourite project against the clergy;

and when he found him become of a sudden his most rigid opponent,

while every one beside complied with his will, rage at the

disappointment, and indignation against such signal ingratitude,

transported him beyond all bounds of moderation; and there seems to

have entered more of passion than of justice, or even of policy, in

this violent prosecution [a]. The barons, notwithstanding, in the

great council, voted whatever sentence he was pleased to dictate to

them; and the bishops themselves, who undoubtedly bore a secret favour

to Becket, and regarded him as the champion of their privileges,

concurred with the rest in the design of oppressing their primate. In

vain did Becket urge that his court was proceeding with the utmost

regularity and justice in trying the maresehal's cause; which,

however, he said, would appear, from the sheriff's testimony, to be

entirely unjust and iniquitous: that he himself had discovered no

contempt of the king's court; but, on the contrary, by sending four

knights to excuse his absence, had virtually acknowledged its

authority: that he also, in consequence of the king's summons,

personally appeared at present in the great council, ready to justify

his cause against the mareschal, and to submit his conduct to their

inquiry and jurisdiction: that even should it be found that he had

been guilty of non-appearance, the laws had affixed a very slight

penalty to that offence: and that, as he was an inhabitant of Kent,

where his archiepiscopal palace was seated, he was by law entitled to

some greater indulgence than usual in the rate of his fine [b].

Notwithstanding these pleas, he was condemned as guilty of a contempt

of the king's court, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn

to his sovereign; all his goods and chattels were confiscated [c]; and

that this triumph over the church might be carried to the utmost,

Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the prelate who had been so powerful in

the former reign, was, in spite of his remonstrances, obliged, by

order of the court, to pronounce the sentence against him [d]. The

primate submitted to the decree; and all the prelates, except Folliot,

Bishop of London, who paid court to the king by this singularity,

became sureties for him [e]. It is remarkable that seven Norman

barons voted in this council; and we may conclude, with some

probability, that a like practice had prevailed in many of the great

councils summoned since the Conquest. For the contemporary historian,

who has given us a full account of these transactions, does not

mention this circumstance as anywise singular [f]; and Becket, in all

his subsequent remonstrances with regard to the severe treatment which

he had met with, never founds any objection on an irregularity which

to us appears very palpable and flagrant. So little precision was

there at that time in the government and constitution!

[FN [a] Neubr. p. 394. [b] Fitz-Steph. p. 37, 42. [c] Hist. Quad. p.

47 Hoveden, p. 494. Gervase, p. 1389. [d] Fitz-Steph. p. 37. [e]

Ibid. [f] Ibid. p. 36.]

The king was not content with this sentence, however violent and

oppressive. Next day, he demanded of Becket the sum of three hundred

pounds, which the primate had levied upon the honours of Eye and

Berkham, while in his possession. Becket, after premising that he was

not obliged to answer to this suit, because it was not contained in

his summons; after remarking that he had expended more than that sum

in the repair of those castles, and of the royal palace at London;

expressed however his resolution, that money should not be any ground

of quarrel between him and his sovereign; he agreed to pay the sum;

and immediately gave surety for it [g]. In the subsequent meeting,

the king demanded five hundred marks, which, he affirmed, he had lent

Becket during the war at Toulouse [h]; and another sum in the same

amount for which that prince had been surety for him to a Jew.

Immediately after these two claims, he preferred a third of still

greater importance: he required him to give in the accounts of his

administration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the

revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had, during

that time, been subjected to his management [i]. Becket observed,

that, as this demand was totally unexpected, he had not come prepared

to answer it; but he required a delay, and promised in that case to

give satisfaction. The king insisted upon sureties; and Becket

desired leave to consult his suffragans in a case of such importance

[k].

[FN [g] Ibid. p. 38. [h] Hist. Quad. p. 47. [i] Hoveden, p. 494.

Diceto, p. 537. [k] Fitz-Steph. p. 38.]

It is apparent, from the known character of Henry, and from the usual

vigilance of his government, that, when he promoted Becket to the see

of Canterbury, he was on good grounds, well pleased with his

administration in the former high office with which he had entrusted

him; and that, even if that prelate had dissipated money beyond the

income of his place, the king was satisfied that his expenses were not

blameable, and had in the main been calculated for his service [l].

Two years had since elapsed; no demand had, during that time, been

made upon him; it was not till the quarrel arose concerning

ecclesiastical privileges that the claim was started, and the primate

was, of a sudden, required to produce accounts of such intricacy and

extent before a tribunal which had showed a determined resolution to

ruin and oppress him. To find sureties that he should answer so

boundless and uncertain a claim, which in the king's estimation

amounted to forty-four thousand marks [m], was impracticable; and

Becket's suffragans were extremely at a loss what counsel to give him

in such a critical emergency. By the advice of the Bishop of

Winchester, he offered two thousand marks as a general satisfaction

for all demands: but this offer was rejected by the king [n]. Some

prelates exhorted him to resign his see, on condition of receiving an

acquittal: others were of opinion that he ought to submit himself

entirely to the king’s mercy [o]: but the primate, thus pushed to the

utmost, had too much courage to sink under oppression: he determined

to brave all his enemies, to trust to the sacredness of his character

for protection, to involve his cause with that of God and religion,

and to stand the utmost efforts of royal indignation.

[FN [l] Hoveden, p. 495. [m] Epist. St. Thom. p. 315.

[n] Fitz-Steph. p. 38. [o] Ibid. p. 39. Gervase, p. 1390.]

After a few days spent in deliberation, Becket went to church and said

mass, where he had previously ordered that the introit to the

communion service should begin with these words, PRINCES SAT, AND

SPAKE AGAINST ME; the passage appointed for the martyrdom of St.

Stephen, whom the primate thereby tacitly pretended to resemble, in

his sufferings for the sake of righteousness. He went thence to

court, arrayed in his sacred vestments: as soon as he arrived within

the palace gate, he took the cross into his own hands, bore it aloft

as his protection, and marched, in that posture, into the royal

apartments [p]. The king, who was in an inner room, was astonished at

this parade, by which the primate seemed to menace him and his court

with the sentence of excommunication; and he sent some of the prelates

to remonstrate with him on account of such audacious behaviour. These

prelates complained to Becket, that, by subscribing himself to the

constitutions of Clarendon, he had seduced them to imitate his

example; and that now, when it was too late, he pretended to shake off

all subordination to the civil power, and appeared desirous of

involving them in the guilt which must attend any violation of those

laws, established by their consent, and ratified by their

subscriptions [q]. Becket replied, that he had indeed subscribed the

constitutions of Clarendon, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT

FRAUD OR RESERVE; but in these words was virtually implied a salvo for

the rights of their order, which, being connected with the cause of

God and his church, could never be relinquished by their oaths and

engagements: that if he and they had erred in resigning the

ecclesiastical privileges, the best atonement they could now make was

to retract their consent, which, in such a case, could never be

obligatory, and to follow the pope's authority, who had solemnly

annulled the constitutions of Clarendon, and had absolved them from

all oaths which they had taken to observe them: that a determined

resolution was evidently embraced to oppress the church; the storm had

first broken upon him; for a slight offence, and which too was falsely

imputed to him, he had been tyrannically condemned to a grievous

penalty; a new and unheard-of claim was since started, in which he

could expect no justice; and he plainly saw, that he was the destined

victim, who, by his ruin, must prepare the way for the abrogation of

all spiritual immunities; that he strictly inhibited them who were his

suffragans from assisting at any such trial, or giving their sanction

to any sentence against him; he put himself and his see under the

protection of the supreme pontiff; and appealed to him against any

penalty which his iniquitous judges might think proper to inflict upon

him: and that, however terrible the indignation of so great a monarch

as Henry, his sword could only kill the body; while that of the

church, intrusted into the hands of the primate, could kill the soul,

and throw the disobedient into infinite and eternal perdition [r].

[FN [p] Fitz-Steph. p. 40. Hist. Quad. p. 53. Hoveden, p. 404.

Neubr. p. 394. Epist. St. Thom. p. 43. [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 35. [r]

Fitz-Steph. p. 42, 44, 45, 46. Hist. Quad. p. 57. Hoveden, p. 495.

M. Paris, p. 72. Epist. St. Thom. p. 45, 195.]

Appeals to the pope, even in ecclesiastical causes, had been abolished

by the constitutions of Clarendon, and were become criminal by law;

but an appeal in a civil cause, such as the king's demand upon Becket,

was a practice altogether new and unprecedented; it tended directly to

the subversion of the government, and could receive no colour of

excuse, except from the determined resolution, which was but too

apparent, in Henry and the great council, to effectuate, without

justice, but under colour of law, the total ruin of the inflexible

primate. The king, having now obtained a pretext so much more

plausible for his violence, would probably have pushed the affair to

the utmost extremity against him; but Becket gave him no leisure to

conduct the prosecution. He refused so much as to hear the sentence,

which the barons, sitting apart from the bishops, and joined to some

sheriffs and barons of the second rank [s], had given upon the king's

claim: he departed from the palace; [MN Banishment of Becket.] asked

Henry's immediate permission to leave Northampton, and upon meeting

with a refusal, he withdrew secretly, wandered about in disguise for

some time; and at last took shipping, and arrived safely at

Gravelines.

[FN [s] Fitz-Steph. p. 46. This historian is supposed to mean the

more considerable vassals of the chief barons: these had no title to

sit in the great council, and the giving them a place there was a

palpable irregularity; which, however, is not insisted on in any of

Becket's remonstrances. A farther proof how little fixed the

constitution was at that time.]

The violent and unjust prosecution of Becket had a natural tendency to

turn the public favour on his side and to make men overlook his former

ingratitude toward the king, and his departure from all oaths and

engagements, as well as the enormity of those ecclesiastical

privileges, of which he affected to be the champion. There were many

other reasons which procured his countenance and protection in foreign

countries. Philip, Earl of Flanders [t], and Lewis, King of France

[u], jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, were well pleased to

give him disturbance in his government; and, forgetting that this was

the common cause of princes, they affected to pity extremely the

condition of the exiled primate; and the latter even honoured him with

a visit at Soissons, in which city he had invited him to fix his

residence [w]. The pope, whose interests were more immediately

concerned in supporting him, gave a cold reception to a magnificent

embassy which Henry sent to accuse him; while Becket himself, who had

come to Sens in order to justify his cause before the sovereign

pontiff, was received with the greatest marks of distinction. The

king, in revenge, sequestered the revenues of Canterbury; and, by a

conduct which might be esteemed arbitrary, had there been at that time

any regular check on royal authority, he banished all the primate's

relations and domestics, to the number of four hundred, whom he

obliged to swear, before their departure, that they would instantly

join their patron. But this policy, by which Henry endeavoured to

reduce Becket sooner to necessity, lost its effect: the pope, when

they arrived beyond sea, absolved them from their oath, and

distributed them among the convents in France and Flanders: a

residence was assigned to Becket himself in the convent of Pontigny,

where he lived for some years in great magnificence, partly from a

pension granted him on the revenues of the abbey, partly from

remittances made him by the French monarch.

[FN [t] Epist. St. Thom. p. 35. [u] Ibid. p. 36, 37. [w] Hist. Quad.

p. 76.]

[MN 1165.] The more to ingratiate himself with the pope, Becket

resigned into his hands the see of Canterbury, to which, he affirmed,

he had been uncanonically elected by the authority of the royal

mandate; and Alexander, in his turn, besides investing him anew with

that dignity, pretended to abrogate, by a bull, the sentence which the

great council of England had passed against him. Henry, after

attempting in vain to procure a conference with the pope, who departed

soon after for Rome, whither the prosperous state of his affairs now

invited him, made provisions against the consequences of that breach

which impended between his kingdom and the apostolic see. He issued

orders to his justiciaries, inhibiting, under severe penalties, all

appeals to the pope or archbishop; forbidding any one to receive any

mandates from them, or apply in any case to their authority; declaring

it treasonable to bring from either of them an interdict upon the

kingdom, and punishable in secular clergymen by the loss of their eyes

and by castration, in regulars by amputation of their feet, and in

laics with death; and menacing, with sequestration and banishment, the

persons themselves, as well as their kindred, who should pay obedience

to any such interdict: and he farther obliged all his subjects to

swear to the observance of those orders [x]. These were edicts of the

utmost importance, affected the lives and properties of all the

subjects, and even changed, for the time, the national religion, by

breaking off all communication with Rome: yet were they enacted by the

sole authority of the king, and were derived entirely from his will

and pleasure.

[FN [x] Hist. Quad. p. 88, 167. Hoveden, p. 496. M. Paris, p. 73.]

The spiritual powers, which, in the primitive church, were, in a great

measure, dependent on the civil, had, by a gradual progress, reached

an equality and independence; and though the limits of the two

jurisdictions were difficult to ascertain or define, it was not

impossible, but, by moderation on both sides, government might still

have been conducted in that imperfect and irregular manner which

attends all human institutions. But as the ignorance of the age

encouraged the ecclesiastics daily to extend their privileges, and

even to advance maxims totally incompatible with civil government [y],

Henry had thought it high time to put an end to their pretensions, and

formally, in a public council, to fix those powers which belonged to

the magistrate, and which he was for the future determined to

maintain. In this attempt, he was led to re-establish customs, which,

though ancient, were beginning to be abolished by a contrary practice,

and which were still more strongly opposed by the prevailing opinions

and sentiments of the age. Principle, therefore, stood on the one

side; power on the other; and if the English had been actuated by

conscience more than by present interest, the controversy must soon,

by the general defection of Henry's subjects, have been decided

against him. Becket, in order to forward this event, filled all

places with exclamations against the violence which he had suffered.

He compared himself to Christ, who had been condemned by a lay

tribunal [z], and who was crucified anew in the present oppressions

under which his church laboured: he took it for granted, as a point

incontestable, that his cause was the cause of God [a]: he assumed the

character of champion for the patrimony of the Divinity: he pretended

to be the spiritual father of the king and all the people of England

[b]: he even told Henry that kings reigned solely by the authority of

the church [c]: and though he had thus torn off the veil more openly

on the one side than that prince had on the other, he seemed still,

from the general favour borne him by the ecclesiastics, to have all

the advantage in the argument. The king, that he might employ the

weapons of temporal power remaining in his hands, suspended the

payment of Peter's pence; he made advances towards an alliance with

the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who was at that time engaged in

violent wars with Pope Alexander; he discovered some intentions of

acknowledging Pascal III., the present anti-pope, who was protected by

that emperor; and by these expedients he endeavoured to terrify the

enterprising though prudent pontiff from proceeding to extremities

against him.

[FN [y] QUIS DUBITET, says Becket to the king, SACERDOTES CHRISTI

REGUM ET PRINCIPUM OMNIUMQUE FIDELIIUM PATRES ET MAGISTROS CENSERI,

Epist St. Thom. p. 97, 148. [z] Epist. St. Thom. p. 63, 105, 194.

[a] Ibid. p. 29, 30, 31, 226. [b] Fitz-Steph. p. 46. Epist. St Thom.

p. 52, 148. [c] Brady's Append. No. 36. Epist. St. Thom. p. 94, 95,

97, 99, 197. Hoveden, p. 497.]

[MN 1166.] But the violence of Becket, still more than the nature of

the controversy, kept affairs from remaining long in suspense between

the parties. That prelate, instigated by revenge, and animated by the

present glory attending his situation, pushed matters to a decision,

and issued a censure, excommunicating the king's chief ministers by

name, and comprehending in general all those who favoured or obeyed

the constitutions of Clarendon: these constitutions he abrogated and

annulled; he absolved all men from the oaths which they had taken to

observe them; and he suspended the spiritual thunder over Henry

himself, only that the prince might avoid the blow by a timely

repentance [d].

[FN [d] Fitz-Steph. p. 56. Hist. Quad. p. 93. M. Paris, p. 74.

Beaulieu, Vie de St. Thom. p. 213. Epist. St. Thom. p 149, 229.

Hoveden, p. 499.]

The situation of Henry was so unhappy, that he could employ no

expedient for saving his ministers from this terrible censure, but by

appealing to the pope himself, and having recourse to a tribunal whose

authority he had himself attempted to abridge in this very article of

appeals, and which, he knew, was so deeply engaged on the side of his

adversary. But even this expedient was not likely to be long

effectual. Becket had obtained from the pope a legatine commission

over England; and in virtue of that authority, which admitted of no

appeal, he summoned the Bishops of London, Salisbury, and others, to

attend him, and ordered, under pain of excommunication, the

ecclesiastics, sequestered on his account, to be restored in two

months to all their benefices. But John of Oxford, the king's agent

with the pope, had the address to procure orders for suspending this

sentence: and he gave the pontiff such hopes of a speedy reconcilement

between the king and Becket, that two legates, William of Pavia and

Otho, were sent to Normandy, where the king then resided, and they

endeavoured to find expedients for that purpose. But the pretensions

of the parties were, as yet, too opposite to admit of an

accommodation: the king required, that all the constitutions of

Clarendon should be ratified: Becket, that previously to any

agreement, he and his adherents should be restored to their

possessions: and as the legates had no power to pronounce a definitive

sentence on either side, the negotiation soon after came to nothing.

The Cardinal of Pavia also, being much attached to Henry, took care to

protract the negotiation; to mitigate the pope, by the accounts which

he sent of that prince's conduct; and to procure him every possible

indulgence from the see of Rome. About this time, the king had also

the address to obtain a dispensation for the marriage of his third

son, Geoffrey, with the heiress of Britany; a concession which,

considering Henry's demerits towards the church, gave great scandal

both to Becket, and to his zealous patron, the King of France.

[MN 1167.] The intricacies of the feudal law had, in that age,

rendered the boundaries of power between the prince and his vassals,

and between one prince and another, as uncertain as those between the

crown and the mitre; and all wars took their origin from disputes,

which, had there been any tribunal possessed of power to enforce their

decrees, ought to have been decided only before a court of judicature.

Henry, in prosecution of some controversies, in which he was involved

with the Count of Auvergne, a vassal of the duchy of Guienne, had

invaded the territories of that nobleman, who had recourse to the King

of France, his superior lord, for protection, and thereby kindled a

war between the two monarchs. But this war was, as usual, no less

feeble in its operations than it was frivolous in its cause and

object; and after occasioning some mutual depredations [e], and some

insurrections among the barons of Poictou and Guienne, was terminated

by a peace. The terms of this peace were rather disadvantageous to

Henry, and prove that that prince had, by reason of his contest with

the church, lost the superiority which he had hitherto maintained

over the crown of France: an additional motive to him for

accommodating those differences.

[FN [e] Hoveden, p. 517. M. Paris, p. 75. Diceto, p. 547. Gervase,

p. 1402, 1403. Robert de Monte.]

The pope and the king began at last to perceive, that, in the present

situation of affairs, neither of them could expect a final and

decisive victory over the other, and that they had more to fear than

to hope from the duration of the controversy. Though the vigour of

Henry's government had confirmed his authority in all his dominions,

his throne might be shaken by a sentence of excommunication; and if

England itself could, by its situation, be more easily guarded against

the contagion of superstitious prejudices, his French provinces at

least, whose communication was open with the neighbouring states,

would be much exposed, on that account, to some great revolution or

convulsion [f]. He could not, therefore, reasonably imagine that the

pope, while he retained such a check upon him, would formally

recognize the constitutions of Clarendon, which both put an end to

papal pretensions in England, and would give an example to other

states of asserting a like independency [g]. [MN 1168.] Pope

Alexander, on the other hand, being still engaged in dangerous wars

with the Emperor Frederic, might justly apprehend that Henry, rather

than relinquish claims of such importance, would join the party of his

enemy; and as the trials hitherto made of the spiritual weapons by

Becket had not succeeded to his expectation, and every thing had

remained quiet in all the king's dominions, nothing seemed impossible

to the capacity and vigilance of so great a monarch. The disposition

of minds on both sides, resulting from these circumstances, produced

frequent attempts towards an accommodation; but as both parties knew

that the essential articles of the dispute could not then be

terminated, they entertained a perpetual jealousy of each other, and

were anxious not to lose the least advantage in the negotiation. The

nuncios, Gratian and Vivian, having received a commission to endeavour

a reconciliation, met with the king in Normandy; and after all

differences seemed to be adjusted, Henry offered to sign the treaty,

with a salvo to his royal dignity; which gave such umbrage to Becket,

that the negotiation, in the end, became fruitless, and the

excommuications were renewed against the king's ministers. Another

negotiation was conducted at Montmirail, in presence of the King of

France, and the French prelates; where Becket also offered to make his

submissions, with a salvo to the honour of God and the liberties of

the church; which, for the like reason, was extremely offensive to the

king, and rendered the treaty abortive. [MN 1169.] A third

conference, under the same mediation, was broken off, by Becket's

insisting on a like reserve in his submissions; and even in a fourth

treaty, when all the terms were adjusted, and when the primate

expected to be introduced to the king, and to receive the kiss of

peace, which it was usual for princes to grant in those times, and

which was regarded as a sure pledge of forgiveness, Henry refused him

that honour; under pretence that, during his anger, he had made a rash

vow to that purpose. This formality served, among such jealous

spirits, to prevent the conclusion of the treaty; and though the

difficulty was attempted to be overcome by a dispensation which the

pope granted to Henry from his vow, that prince could not be prevailed

on to depart from the resolution which he had taken.

[FN [f] Epist. St. Thom. p. 230. [g] Ibid. p. 276.]

In one of these conferences, at which the French king was present,

Henry said to that monarch: "There have been many kings of England,

some of greater, some of less authority than myself; there have also

been many Archbishops of Canterbury, holy and good men, and entitled

to every kind of respect: let Becket but act towards me with the same

submission which the greatest of his predecessors have paid to the

least of mine, and there shall be no controversy between us." Lewis

was so struck with this state of the case, and with an offer which

Henry made to submit his cause to the French clergy, that he could not

forbear condemning the primate, and withdrawing his friendship from

him during some time: but the bigotry of that prince, and their common

animosity against Henry, soon produced a renewal of their former good

correspondence.

[MN 1170. 22d July.] All difficulties were at last adjusted between

the parties; and the king allowed Becket to return, on conditions

which may be esteemed both honourable and advantageous to that

prelate. [MN Compromise with Becket.] He was not required to give up

any rights of the church, or resign any of those pretensions which had

been the original ground of the controversy. It was agreed that all

these questions should be buried in oblivion; but that Becket and his

adherents should, without making farther submission, be restored to

all their livings, and that even the possessors of such benefices as

depended on the see of Canterbury, and had been filled during the

primate's absence, should be expelled, and Becket have liberty to

supply the vacancies [h]. In return for concessions which intrenched

so deeply on the honour and dignity of the crown, Henry reaped only

the advantage of seeing his ministers absolved from the sentence of

excommunication pronounced against them, and of preventing the

interdict, which, if these hard conditions had not been complied with,

was ready to be laid on all his dominions [i]. It was easy to see how

much he dreaded that event, when a prince of so high a spirit could

submit to terms so dishonourable in order to prevent it. So anxious

was Henry to accommodate all differences, and to reconcile himself

fully with Becket, that he took the most extraordinary steps to

flatter his vanity, and even, on one occasion, humiliated himself so

far as to hold the stirrup of that haughty prelate while he mounted

[k].

[FN [h] Fitz-Steph. p. 68, 69. Hoveden, p. 520. [i] Hist. Quad. p.

104. Brompton, p. 1062. Gervase, p. 1408. Epist. St. Thom. p. 704,

705, 706, 707, 792, 793, 794. Benedict. Abbas, p. 70. [k] Epist. 45.

lib. 5.]

But the king attained not even that temporary tranquillity which he

had hoped to reap from these expedients. During the heat of his

quarrel with Becket, while he was every day expecting an interdict to

be laid on his kingdom, and a sentence of excommunication to be

fulminated against his person, he had thought it prudent to have his

son, Prince Henry, associated with him in the royalty, and to make him

be crowned king by the hands of Roger, Archbishop of York. By this

precaution he both insured the succession of that prince, which,

considering the many past irregularities in that point, could not but

be esteemed somewhat precarious; and he preserved at least his family

on the throne, if the sentence of excommunication should have the

effect which he dreaded, and should make his subjects renounce their

allegiance to him. Though this design was conducted with expedition

and secrecy, Becket, before it was carried into execution, had got

intelligence of it; and being desirous of obstructing all Henry's

measures, as well as anxious to prevent this affront to himself, who

pretended to the sole right, as Archbishop of Canterbury, to officiate

in the coronation, he had inhibited all the prelates of England from

assisting at this ceremony, had procured from the pope a mandate to

the same purpose [l], and had incited the King of France to protest

against the coronation of young Henry, unless the princess, daughter

of that monarch, should at the same time receive the royal unction.

There prevailed in that age an opinion, which was akin to its other

superstitions, that the royal unction was essential to the exercise of

royal power [m]: it was therefore natural both for the King of France,

careful of his daughter's establishment, and for Becket, jealous of

his own dignity, to demand, in the treaty with Henry, some

satisfaction in this essential point. Henry, after apologizing to

Lewis for the omission with regard to Margaret, and excusing it on

account of the secrecy and despatch requisite for conducting that

measure, promised that the ceremony should be renewed in the persons

both of the prince and princess: and he assured Becket that, besides

receiving the acknowledgments of Roger and the other bishops for the

seeming affront put on the see of Canterbury, the primate should, as a

farther satisfaction, recover his rights by officiating in this

coronation. But the violent spirit of Becket, elated by the power of

the church, and by the victory which he had already obtained over his

sovereign, was not content with this voluntary compensation, but

resolved to make the injury which he pretended to have suffered a

handle for taking revenge on all his enemies. [MN Becket’s return

from banishment.] On his arrival in England, he met the Archbishop of

York, and the Bishops of London and Salisbury, who were on their

journey to the king in Normandy: he notified to the archbishop the

sentence of suspension, and to the two bishops that of

excommunication, which, at his solicitation, the pope had pronounced

against them. Reginald de Warenne, and Gervase de Cornhill, two of

the king's ministers who were employed on their duty in Kent, asked

him, on hearing of this bold attempt, whether he meant to bring fire

and sword into the kingdom? But the primate, heedless of the reproof,

proceeded, in the most ostentatious manner, to take possession of his

diocese. In Rochester, and all the towns through which he passed, he

was received with the shouts and acclamations of the populace. As he

approached Southwark, the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and

ages, came forth to meet him, and celebrated with hymns of joy his

triumphant entrance. And though he was obliged, by order of the young

prince, who resided at Woodstoke, to return to his diocese, he found

that he was not mistaken when he reckoned upon the highest veneration

of the public towards his person and his dignity. He proceeded,

therefore, with the more courage, to dart his spiritual thunders: he

issued the sentence of excommunication against Robert de Brock, and

Nigel de Sackville, with many others, who either had assisted at the

coronation of the prince, or been active in the late persecution of

the exiled clergy. This violent measure, by which he in effect

denounced war against the king himself, is commonly ascribed to the

vindictive disposition and imperious character of Becket; but as this

prelate was also a man of acknowledged abilities, we are not, in his

passions alone, to look for the cause of his conduct, when he

proceeded to these extremities against his enemies. His sagacity had

led him to discover all Henry's intentions; and he proposed, by this

bold and unexpected assault, to prevent the execution of them.

[FN [l] Hist. Quad. p. 103. Epist. St. Thom. p. 682. Gervase, p.

1412. [m] Epist. St. Thom. p. 708.]

The king, from his experience of the dispositions of the people, was

become sensible that his enterprise had been too bold in establishing

the constitutions of Clarendon, in defining all the branches of royal

power, and in endeavouring to extort from the Church of England, as

well as from the pope, an express avowal of these disputed

prerogatives. Conscious also of his own violence in attempting to

break or subdue the inflexible primate, he was not displeased to undo

that measure which had given his enemies such advantage against him;

and he was contented that the controversy should terminate in that

ambiguous manner, which was the utmost that princes, in those ages,

could hope to attain in their disputes with the see of Rome. Though

he dropped, for the present, the prosecution of Becket, he still

reserved to himself the right of maintaining that the constitutions of

Clarendon, the original ground of the quarrel, were both the ancient

customs and the present law of the realm: and though he knew that the

papal clergy asserted them to be impious in themselves, as well as

abrogated by the sentence of the sovereign pontiff, he intended, in

spite of their clamours, steadily to put those laws in execution [n],

and to trust to his own abilities, and to the course of events, for

success in that perilous enterprise. He hoped that Becket's

experience of a six years' exile would, after his pride was fully

gratified by his restoration, be sufficient to teach him more reserve

in his opposition; or, if any controversy arose, he expected

thenceforth to engage in a more favourable cause, and to maintain with

advantage, while the primate was now in his power [o], the ancient and

undoubted customs of the kingdom against the usurpations of the

clergy. But Becket determined not to betray the ecclesiastical

privileges by his connivance [p], and apprehensive lest a prince of

such profound policy, if allowed to proceed in his own way, might

probably in the end prevail, he resolved to take all the advantage

which his present victory gave him, and to disconcert the cautious

measures of the king, by the vehemence and vigour of his own conduct

[q]. Assured of support from Rome, he was little intimidated by

dangers which his courage taught him to despise, and which, even if

attended with the most fatal consequences, would serve only to gratify

his ambition and thirst of glory [r].

[FN [n] Epist. St. Thom. p. 837, 839. [o] Fitz-Steph. p. 65. [p]

Epist. St. Thom. p. 345. [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 74. [r] Epist. St. Thom.

p. 818, 848.]

When the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived at Baieux,

where the king then resided, and complained to him of the violent

proceedings of Becket, he instantly perceived the consequences; was

sensible that his whole plan of operations was overthrown; foresaw

that the dangerous contest between the civil and spiritual powers, a

contest which he himself had first aroused, but which he had

endeavoured, by all his late negotiations and concessions, to appease,

must come to an immediate and decisive issue; and he was thence thrown

into the most violent commotion. The Archbishop of York remarked to

him, that, so long as Becket lived, he could never expect to enjoy

peace or tranquillity: the king himself being vehemently agitated,

burst forth into an exclamation against his servants, whose want of

zeal, he said, had so long left him exposed to the enterprises of that

ungrateful and imperious prelate [s]. Four gentlemen of his

household, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Traci, Hugh de Moreville,

and Richard Brito, taking these passionate expressions to be a hint

for Becket's death, immediately communicated their thoughts to each

other; and swearing to revenge their prince's quarrel, secretly

withdrew from court [t]. Some menacing expressions which they had

dropped gave a suspicion of their design; and the king despatched a

messenger after them, charging them to attempt nothing against the

person of the primate [u]: but these orders arrived too late to

prevent their fatal purpose. The four assassins, though they took

different roads to England, arrived nearly about the same time at

Saltwoode, near Canterbury; and being there joined by some assistants,

they proceeded in great haste to the archiepiscopal palace. They

found the primate, who trusted entirely to the sacredness of his

character, very slenderly attended; and though they threw out many

menaces and reproaches against him, he was so incapable of fear, that,

without using any precautions against their violence, he immediately

went to St. Benedict’s church to hear vespers. They followed him

thither, attacked him before the altar, and having cloven his head

with many blows, retired without meeting any opposition. [MN 1170.

Dec. 29. Murder of Thomas à Becket.] This was the tragical end of

Thomas à Becket, a prelate of the most lofty, intrepid, and inflexible

spirit, who was able to cover to the world, and probably to himself,

the enterprises of pride and ambition under the disguise of sanctity

and of zeal for the interests of religion: an extraordinary personage,

surely had he been allowed to remain in his first station, and had

directed the vehemence of his character to the support of law and

justice; instead of being engaged, by the prejudices of the times, to

sacrifice all private duties and public connexions to ties which he

imagined or represented as superior to every civil and political

consideration. But no man who enters into the genius of that age can

reasonably doubt of this prelate's sincerity. The spirit of

superstition was so prevalent, that it infallibly caught every

careless reasoner, much more every one whose interest, and honour, and

ambition were engaged to support it. All the wretched literature of

the times was enlisted on that side: some faint glimmerings of common

sense might sometimes pierce through the thick cloud of ignorance, or

what was worse, the illusions of perverted science, which had blotted

out the sun, and enveloped the face of nature: but those who preserved

themselves untainted by the general contagion proceeded on no

principles which they could pretend to justify: they were more

indebted to their total want of instruction than to their knowledge,

if they still retained some share of understanding: folly was

possessed of all the schools as well as all the churches; and her

votaries assumed the garb of philosophers, together with the ensigns

of spiritual dignities. Throughout that large collection of letters,

which bears the name of St. Thomas, we find, in all the retainers of

the aspiring prelate, no less than in himself, a most entire and

absolute conviction of the reason and piety of their own party, and a

disdain of their antagonists: nor is there less cant and grimace in

their style, when they address each other, than when they compose

manifestos for the perusal of the public. The spirit of revenge,

violence, and ambition, which accompanied their conduct, instead of

forming a presumption of hypocrisy, are the surest pledges of their

sincere attachment to a cause, which so much flattered these

domineering passions.

[FN [s] Gervase, p. 1414. Parker, p. 207. [t] M. Paris, p. 86.

Brompton, p. 1065. Benedict. Abbas, p. 10. [u] Hist. Quad. p. 144.

Trivet, p. 55.]

[MN Grief,] Henry, on the first report of Becket's violent measures,

had purposed to have him arrested, and had already taken some steps

towards the execution of that design: but the intelligence of his

murder threw the prince into great consternation; and he was

immediately sensible of the dangerous consequences which he had reason

to apprehend from so unexpected an event. An archbishop of reputed

sanctity, assassinated before the altar, in the exercise of his

functions, and on account of his zeal in maintaining ecclesiastical

privileges, must attain the highest honours of martyrdom; while his

murderer would be ranked among the most bloody tyrants that ever were

exposed to the hatred and detestation of mankind. Interdicts and

excommunications, weapons in themselves so terrible, would, he

foresaw, be armed with double force when employed in a cause so much

calculated to work on the human passions, and so peculiarly adapted to

the eloquence of popular preachers and declaimers. In vain would he

plead his own innocence, and even his total ignorance of the fact: he

was sufficiently guilty, if the church thought proper to esteem him

such; and his concurrence in Becket's martyrdom, becoming a religious

opinion, would be received with all the implicit credit which belonged

to the most established articles of faith. These considerations gave

the king the most unaffected concern; and as it was extremely his

interest to clear himself from all suspicion, he took no care to

conceal the depth of his affliction [w]. He shut himself up from the

light of day, and from all commerce with his servants: he even

refused, during three days, all food and sustenance [x]: the

courtiers, apprehending dangerous effects from his despair, were at

last obliged to break in upon his solitude; and they employed every

topic of consolation, induced him to accept of nourishment, and

occupied his leisure in taking precautions against the consequences

which he so justly apprehended from the murder of the primate.

[FN [w] Ypod. Neust. p. 447. M. Paris, p. 87. Diceto, p. 556.

Gervase, p. 1419. [x] Hist. Quad. p. 143.]

[MN 1171. and submission of the king.] The point of chief importance

to Henry was to convince the pope of his innocence; or rather, to

persuade him that he would reap greater advantages from the

submissions of England, than from proceeding to extremities against

that kingdom. The Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Worcester and

Evreux, with five persons of inferior quality, were immediately

despatched to Rome [y], and orders were given them to perform their

journey with the utmost expedition. Though the name and authority of

the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe,

which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were entirely unacquainted

with its character and conduct; the pope was so little revered at

home, that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself,

and even controlled his government in that city; and the ambassadors,

who, from a distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble or

rather abject submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found

the utmost difficulty to make their way to him, and to throw

themselves at his feet. It was at length agreed, that Richard Barre,

one of their number, should leave the rest behind, and run all the

hazards of the passage [z]; in order to prevent the fatal consequences

which might ensue from any delay in giving satisfaction to his

holiness. He found, on his arrival, that Alexander was already

wrought up to the greatest rage against the king; that Becket's

partisans were daily stimulating him to revenge; that the king of

France had exhorted him to fulminate the most dreadful sentence

against England; and that the very mention of Henry's name before the

sacred college was received with every expression of horror and

execration. The Thursday before Easter was now approaching, when it

is customary for the pope to denounce annual curses against all his

enemies; and it was expected that Henry should, with all the

preparations peculiar to the discharge of that sacred artillery, be

solemnly comprehended in the number. But Barre found means to appease

the pontiff, and to deter him from a measure, which, if it failed of

success, could not afterwards be easily recalled: the anathemas were

only levelled in general against all the actors, accomplices, and

abettors of Becket's murder. The Abbot of Valasse, and the

Archdeacons of Salisbury and Lisieux, with others of Henry's

ministers, who soon after arrived, besides asserting their prince's

innocence, made oath before the whole consistory that he would stand

to the pope's judgment in the affair, and make every submission that

should be required of him. The terrible blow was thus artfully

eluded; the Cardinals Albert and Theodin were appointed legates to

examine the cause, and were ordered to proceed to Normandy for that

purpose; and though Henry's foreign dominions were already laid under

an interdict by the Archbishop of Sens, Becket's great partisan, and

the pope's legate in France, the general expectation that the monarch

would easily exculpate himself from any concurrence in the guilt, kept

every one in suspense, and prevented all the bad consequences which

might be dreaded from that sentence.

[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 526. M. Paris, p. 87. [z] Hoveden, p. 26.

Epist. St. Thom. p. 863.]

The clergy, meanwhile, though their rage was happily diverted from

falling on the king, were not idle in magnifying the sanctity of

Becket; in extolling the merits of his martyrdom; and in exalting him

above all that devoted tribe, who in several ages had, by their blood,

cemented the fabric of the temple. Other saints had only borne

testimony by their sufferings to the general doctrines of

Christianity; but Becket had sacrificed his life to the power and

privileges of the clergy; and this peculiar merit challenged, and not

in vain, a suitable acknowledgment to his memory. Endless were the

panegyrics on his virtues; and the miracles wrought by his relics were

more numerous, more nonsensical, and more impudently attested, than

those which ever filled the legend of any confessor or martyr. Two

years after his death he was canonized by Pope Alexander; a solemn

jubilee was established for celebrating his merits; his body was

removed to a magnificent shrine, enriched with presents from all parts

of Christendom; pilgrimages were performed to obtain his intercession

with Heaven; and it was computed, that in one year above a hundred

thousand pilgrims arrived in Canterbury, and paid their devotions at

his tomb. It is indeed a mortifying reflection to those who are

actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the last infirmity

of noble minds, that the wisest legislator, and most exalted genius

that ever reformed or enlightened the world, can never expect such

tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints,

whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or

contemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuit

of objects pernicious to mankind. It is only a conqueror, a personage

no less entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of

equal renown and glory.

It may not be amiss to remark, before we conclude the subject of

Thomas à Becket, that the king, during his controversy with that

prelate, was on every occasion more anxious than usual to express his

zeal for religion, and to avoid all appearance of a profane negligence

on that head. He gave his consent to the imposing of a tax on all his

dominions for the delivery of the Holy Land, now threatened by the

famous Saladine: this tax amounted to two-pence a pound for one year,

and a penny a pound for the four subsequent [a]. Almost all the

princes of Europe laid a like imposition on their subjects, which

received the name of Saladine's tax. During this period, there came

over from Germany about thirty heretics of both sexes, under the

direction of one Gerard; simple ignorant people, who could give no

account of their faith, but declared themselves ready to suffer for

the tenets of their master. They made only one convert in England, a

woman as ignorant as themselves; yet they gave such umbrage to the

clergy, that they were delivered over to the secular arm, and were

punished by being burned on the forehead, and then whipped through the

streets. They seemed to exult in their sufferings, and, as they went

along, sung the beatitude, BLESSED ARE YE, WHEN MEN HATE YOU AND

PERSECUTE YOU [b]. After they were whipped, they were thrust out

almost naked in the midst of winter and perished through cold and

hunger; no one daring or being willing, to give them the least relief.

We are ignorant of the particular tenets of these people; for it would

be imprudent to rely on the representations left of them by the

clergy, who affirmed that they denied the efficacy of the sacraments,

and the unity of the church. It is probable that their departure from

the standard of orthodoxy was still more subtle and minute. They seem

to have been the first that ever suffered for heresy in England.

[FN [a] Chron. Gervase, p. 1399. M. Paris, p. 74. [b] Neubr. p. 391.

M. Paris, p. 74. Heming. p. 494.]

As soon as Henry found that he was in no immediate danger from the

thunders of the Vatican, he undertook an expedition against Ireland; a

design which he had long projected, and by which he hoped to recover

his credit, somewhat impaired by his late transactions with the

hierarchy.