Henry at once proceeded to put the Constitutions of Clarendon into
execution without fear or favor. A champion of the Church of that day
says, "Then was seen the mournful spectacle of priests and deacons who
had committed murder, manslaughter, robbery, theft, and other crimes,
carried in carts before the comissioners and punished as thogh they
were ordinary men."[1]
[1] William of Newburgh's "Chronicle."
Furthermore, the King sems now to have resolved to ruin Becket or
drive him from the kingdom. He accordingly summoned the Archbishop
before a royal council at Northampton to answer to certain charges
made against him. Becket answered the summons, but he refused to
acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, and appealed to the
Pope. "Traitor!" cried a courtier, as he picked up a bunch of muddy
rushes from the floor and flung them at the Archbishop's head. Becket
turned and, looking him sternly in the face, said, "Were I not a
churchman, I would make you repent that word." Realizing, however,
that he was now in serious danger, he soon after left Northampton and
fled to France.