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diff --git a/41811-0.txt b/41811-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a22d146 --- /dev/null +++ b/41811-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3854 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41811 *** + +Transcriber's note: Sidenotes are identified as: [SN: text of sidenote]. + + + + + Life of + THOMAS À BECKET. + + BY + + HENRY HART MILMAN, D.D. + Dean of St. Paul's. + + NEW YORK: + SHELDON & COMPANY + 1860. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Page + Editor's Preface iii + Life of Thomas à Becket 9 + Footnotes following 246 + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE. + + +Perhaps the chapter of English history fullest of romantic interest, is +that containing the life of Thomas à Becket. In fact, the great struggle +between Becket and Henry II.,--between individual genius and sovereign +power, between a subject and his king, between religion and the sword, +between the Church and the State, is scarcely equaled in the annals of +the world. And nowhere do we find a parallel to the strange story of +Becket's life, beginning in Oriental legend, ending in heroic tragedy. +By an accident of position, he questioned with the terrible power of +genius the divine right of kings, and the grateful people of England, a +hundred thousand at a time, flocked as pilgrims to his tomb. + +The biography here presented has been taken from Dean Milman's great +history of Latin Christianity. The style is at once dignified, terse, +and eloquent. The learning of Milman is abundant and accurate, his +judgment singularly sound and free from prejudice. One of the gems of +his history is this life of Becket. A biography of the biographer is +part of our plan, and we gladly transfer to our pages, from the English +Cyclopedia, a sketch of Milman's life. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. HENRY HART MILMAN, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, was +born February 10th, 1791, in London. He is the youngest son of Sir +Francis Milman, first baronet, who was physician to George III., and is +brother to Sir William George Milman. He was educated at Dr. Burney's +academy at Greenwich, at Eton College, and at Brazenose College, Oxford, +where he took his degrees of B. A. and M. A., and of which he was +elected a Fellow. In 1812 he received the Newdegate prize for his +English poem on the Apollo Belvidere. In 1815 he published "Fazio, a +Tragedy," which was performed with success at Covent Garden Theatre, at +a period when theatrical managers seized upon a published play, and +produced it without an author's consent. Mr. Milman could not even +enforce the proper pronunciation of the name of "Fazio." He took holy +orders in 1817, and was appointed vicar of St. Mary's, Reading. In the +early part of 1818 he published "Samor, Lord of the Bright City, an +Heroic Poem," of which a second edition was called for in the course of +the same year. The hero of this poem is a personage of the legendary +history of Britain in the early part of the Saxon invasions of England. +The fullest account of his exploits is given in Dugdale's "Baronage," +under his title of Earl of Gloucester. Harrison, in the "Description of +Britain," prefixed to Holinshed's "Chronicle," calls him Eldulph de +Samor. The Bright City is Gloucester, (Caer Gloew in British.) In 1820 +Mr Milman published "The Fall of Jerusalem," a dramatic poem founded on +Josephus's narrative of the siege of the sacred city. This, in some +respects his most beautiful poem, established his reputation. In 1821, +he was elected Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, and +published three other dramatic poems, "The Martyr of Antioch," +"Balshazzar," and "Anne Boleyn." In 1827 he published sermons at the +"Bampton Lecture," 8vo., and in 1829, without his name, "The History of +the Jews," 3 vols. 18vo. A collected edition of his "Poetical Works," +was published in 1840, which, besides the works above mentioned, and his +smaller poems, contains the "Nala and Damayanti," translated from the +Sanskrit. In the same year he published his "History of Christianity +from the Birth of Christ, to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman +Empire," 3 vols. 8vo., in which he professes to view Christianity as a +historian, in its moral, social, and political influences, referring +to its doctrines no further than is necessary for explaining the +general effect of the system. It is the work of an accomplished and +liberal-minded scholar. At the commencement of 1849 appeared "The Works +of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, illustrated chiefly from the Remains of +Ancient Art, with a Life by the Rev. H. H. Milman," 8vo., a beautiful +and luxurious edition. Mr. Milman's Life of Horace, and critical remarks +on the merits of the Roman poet, are written with much elegance of +style, and are very interesting. + +In November 1849, Mr. Milman, who had for some years been Rector of St. +Margaret's, Westminster, and a Canon of Westminster, was made Dean of +St. Paul's. Dean Milman's latest publication is a "History of Latin +Christianity, including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas +V.," 3 vols. 8vo. 1854. This work is a continuation of the author's +"History of Christianity," and yet is in itself a complete work. To +give it that completeness he has gone over the history of Christianity +in Rome during the first four centuries. The author states that he is +occupied with the continuation of the history down to the close of the +pontificate of Nicholas V., that is, to 1455.[1] Besides the works +before mentioned, Dean Milman is understood to have contributed numerous +articles to the "Quarterly Review;" and his edition of Gibbon's "Decline +and Fall of the Roman Empire," presented the great historian with more +ample illustrations than he had before received. This edition has been +republished, with additional notes and verifications, by Dr. W. Smith. + +Dean Milman is destined to become a household word in historical +literature, and we are glad to present the many with this favorable +specimen of his work. + + May, 1859. + O. W. WIGHT. + + + + +LIFE OF THOMAS À BECKET. + + +[SN: Legend.] + +Popular poetry, after the sanctification of Becket, delighted in +throwing the rich colors of marvel over his birth and parentage. It +invented, or rather interwove with the pedigree of the martyr, one of +those romantic traditions which grew out of the wild adventures of the +crusades, and which occur in various forms in the ballads of all +nations. That so great a saint should be the son of a gallant champion +of the cross, and of a Saracen princess, was a fiction too attractive +not to win general acceptance. The father of Becket, so runs the legend, +a gallant soldier, was a captive in the Holy Land, and inspired the +daughter of his master with an ardent attachment. Through her means he +made his escape; but the enamored princess could not endure life without +him. She too fled and made her way to Europe. She had learned but two +words of the Christian language, London and Gilbert. With these two +magic sounds upon her lips she reached London; and as she wandered +through the streets, constantly repeating the name of Gilbert, she was +met by Becket's faithful servant. Becket, as a good Christian, seems to +have entertained religious scruples as to the propriety of wedding the +faithful, but misbelieving, or, it might be, not sincerely believing +maiden. The case was submitted to the highest authority, and argued +before the Bishop of London. The issue was the baptism of the princess, +by the name of Matilda (that of the empress queen,) and their marriage +in St. Paul's, with the utmost publicity and splendor. + +But of this wondrous tale, not one word had reached the ears of any of +the seven or eight contemporary biographers of Becket, most of them his +most intimate friends or his most faithful attendants.[2] It was neither +known to John of Salisbury, his confidential adviser and correspondent, +nor to Fitz-Stephen, an officer of his court in chancery, and dean of +his chapel when archbishop, who was with him at Northampton, and at his +death; nor to Herbert de Bosham, likewise one of his officers when +chancellor, and his faithful attendant throughout his exile; nor to the +monk of Pontigny, who waited upon him and enjoyed his most intimate +confidence during his retreat in that convent; nor to Edward Grim, his +standard-bearer, who on his way from Clarendon, reproached him with his +weakness, and having been constantly attached to his person, finally +interposed his arm between his master and the first blow of the +assassin. Nor were these ardent admirers of Becket silent from any +severe aversion to the marvelous; they relate, with unsuspecting faith, +dreams and prognostics which revealed to the mother the future greatness +of her son, even his elevation to the see of Canterbury.[3] + +To the Saxon descent of Becket, a theory in which, on the authority of +an eloquent French writer,[4] modern history has seemed disposed to +acquiesce, these biographers not merely give no support, but furnish +direct contradiction. The lower people no doubt admired during his life, +and worshiped after death, the blessed Thomas of Canterbury, and the +people were mostly Saxon. But it was not as a Saxon, but as a Saint, +that Becket was the object of unbounded popularity during his life, of +idolatry after his death. + +[SN: Parentage and education.] + +The father of Becket, according to the distinct words of one +contemporary biographer, was a native of Rouen, his mother of Caen.[5] +Gilbert was no knight-errant, but a sober merchant, tempted by +commercial advantages to settle in London: his mother neither boasted of +royal Saracenic blood, nor bore the royal name of Matilda: she was the +daughter of an honest burgher of Caen. His Norman descent is still +further confirmed by his claim of relationship, or connexion at least, +as of common Norman descent, with Archbishop Theobald.[6] The parents of +Becket, he asserts himself, were merchants of unimpeached character, not +of the lowest class. Gilbert Becket is said to have served the +honorable office of sheriff, but his fortune was injured by fires and +other casualties.[7] [SN: Born A. D. 1118.] The young Becket received +his earliest education among the monks of Merton in Surrey, towards whom +he cherished a fond attachment, and delighted to visit them in the days +of his splendor. The dwelling of a respectable London merchant seems to +have been a place where strangers of very different pursuits, who +resorted to the metropolis of England, took up their lodging: and to +Gilbert Becket's house came persons both disposed and qualified to +cultivate in various ways the extraordinary talents displayed by the +youth, who was singularly handsome, and of engaging manners.[8] A +knight, whose name, Richard de Aquila, occurs with distinction in the +annals of the time, one of his father's guests, delighted in initiating +the gay and spirited boy in chivalrous exercises, and in the chase with +hawk and hound. On a hawking adventure the young Becket narrowly escaped +being drowned in the Thames. At the same time, or soon after, he was +inured to business by acting as clerk to a wealthy relative, Osborn +Octuomini, and in the office of the Sheriff of London.[9] His +accomplishments were completed by a short residence in Paris, the best +school for the language spoken by the Norman nobility. To his father's +house came likewise two learned civilians from Bologna, no doubt on some +mission to the Archbishop of Canterbury. They were so captivated by +young Becket, that they strongly recommended him to Archbishop +Theobald, whom the father of Becket reminded of their common honorable +descent from a knightly family near the town of Thiersy.[10] Becket was +at once on the high road of advancement. [SN: In the household of the +Archbishop.] His extraordinary abilities were cultivated by the wise +patronage, and employed in the service of the primate. Once he +accompanied that prelate to Rome;[11] and on more than one other +occasion visited that great centre of Christian affairs. He was +permitted to reside for a certain time at each of the great schools for +the study of the canon law, Bologna and Auxerre.[12] He was not, +however, without enemies. Even in the court of Theobald began the +jealous rivalry with Roger, afterwards Archbishop of York, then +Archdeacon of Canterbury.[13] Twice the superior influence of the +archdeacon obtained his dismissal from the service of Theobald; twice he +was reinstated by the good offices of Walter, Bishop of Rochester. At +length the elevation of Roger to the see of York left the field open to +Becket. He was appointed to the vacant archdeaconry, the richest +benefice, after the bishoprics, in England. From that time he ruled +without rival in the favor of the aged Theobald. Preferments were heaped +upon him by the lavish bounty of his patron.[14] During his exile he +was reproached with his ingratitude to the king, who had raised him from +poverty. "Poverty!" he rejoined; "even then I held the archdeaconry of +Canterbury, the provostship of Beverley, a great many churches, and +several prebends."[15] The trial and the triumph of Becket's precocious +abilities was a negotiation of the utmost difficulty with the court of +Rome. The first object was to obtain the legatine power for Archbishop +Theobald; the second tended, more than almost all measures, to secure +the throne of England to the house of Plantagenet. Archbishop Theobald, +with his clergy, had inclined to the cause of Matilda and her son; they +had refused to officiate at the coronation of Eustace, son of King +Stephen. Becket not merely obtained from Eugenius III. the full papal +approbation of this refusal, but a condemnation of Stephen (whose title +had before been sanctioned by Eugenius himself,) as a perjured +usurper.[16] + +[SN: Accession of Henry II. Dec. 19, 1154.] + +But on the accession of Henry II., the aged Archbishop began to tremble +at his own work; serious apprehensions arose as to the disposition of +the young king towards the Church. His connexion was but remote with the +imperial family (though his mother had worn the imperial crown, and some +imperial blood might flow in his veins); but the Empire was still the +implacable adversary of the papal power. Even from his father he might +have received an hereditary taint of hatred to the Church, for the Count +of Anjou had on many occasions shown the utmost hostility to the +Hierarchy, and had not scrupled to treat churchmen of the highest rank +with unexampled cruelty. In proportion as it was important to retain a +young sovereign of such vast dominions in allegiance to the Church, so +was it alarming to look forward to his disobedience. The Archbishop was +anxious to place near his person some one who might counteract this +suspected perversity, and to prevent his young mind from being alienated +from the clergy by fierce and lawless counselors. He had discerned not +merely unrivaled abilities, but with prophetic sagacity, his +Archdeacon's lofty and devoted churchmanship. Through the recommendation +of the primate, Becket was raised to the dignity of chancellor,[17] an +office which made him the second civil power in the realm, inasmuch as +his seal was necessary to countersign all royal mandates. Nor was it +without great ecclesiastical influence, as in the chancellor was the +appointment of all the royal chaplains, and the custody of vacant +bishoprics, abbacies, and benefices.[18] + +[SN: Becket Chancellor.] + +But the Chancellor, who was yet, with all his great preferments, only in +deacon's orders, might seem disdainfully to throw aside the habits, +feelings, restraints of the churchman, and to aspire as to the plenitude +of secular power, so to unprecedented secular magnificence.[19] Becket +shone out in all the graces of an accomplished courtier, in the bearing +and valor of a gallant knight; though at the same time he displayed the +most consummate abilities for business, the promptitude, diligence, and +prudence of a practiced statesman. The beauty of his person, the +affability of his manners, the extraordinary acuteness of his +senses,[20] his activity in all chivalrous exercises, made him the +chosen companion of the king in his constant diversions, in the chase +and in the mimic war, in all but his debaucheries. The king would +willingly have lured the Chancellor into this companionship likewise; +but the silence of his bitterest enemies, in confirmation of his own +solemn protestations, may be admitted as conclusive testimonies to his +unimpeached morals.[21] The power of Becket throughout the king's +dominions equaled that of the king himself--he was king in all but name: +the world, it was said, had never seen two friends so entirely of one +mind.[22] The well-known anecdote best illustrates their intimate +familiarity. As they rode through the streets of London on a bleak +Winter day they met a beggar in rags. "Would it not be charity," said +the king, "to give that fellow a cloak, and cover him from the cold?" +Becket assented; on which the king plucked the rich furred mantle from +the shoulders of the struggling Chancellor and threw it, to the +amazement and admiration of the bystanders, no doubt to the secret envy +of the courtiers at this proof of Becket's favor, to the shivering +beggar.[23] + +But it was in the graver affairs of the realm that Henry derived still +greater advantage from the wisdom and the conduct of the Chancellor.[24] +To Becket's counsels his admiring biographers attribute the pacification +of the kingdom, the expulsion of the foreign mercenaries who during the +civil wars of Stephen's reign had devastated the land and had settled +down as conquerors, especially in Kent, the humiliation of the +refractory barons and the demolition of their castles. The peace was so +profound that merchants could travel everywhere in safety, and even the +Jews collect their debts.[25] The magnificence of Becket redounded to +the glory of his sovereign. In his ordinary life he was sumptuous beyond +precedent; he kept an open table, where those who were not so fortunate +as to secure a seat at the board had clean rushes strewn on the floor, +on which they might repose, eat, and carouse at the Chancellor's +expense. His household was on a scale vast even for that age of +unbounded retainership, and the haughtiest Norman nobles were proud to +see their sons brought up in the family of the merchant's son. [SN: +Ambassador to Paris A. D. 1160.] In his embassy to Paris to demand the +hand of the Princess Margaret for the king's infant son, described with +such minute accuracy by Fitz-Stephen,[26] he outshone himself, yet might +seem to have a loyal rather than a personal aim in this unrivaled pomp. +The French crowded from all quarters to see the splendid procession +pass, and exclaimed, "What must be the king, whose Chancellor can +indulge in such enormous expenditure?" + +[SN: War in Toulouse.] + +Even in war the Chancellor had displayed not only the abilities of a +general, but a personal prowess, which, though it found many precedents +in those times, might appear somewhat incongruous in an ecclesiastic, +who yet held all his clerical benefices. In the expedition made by King +Henry to assert his right to the dominions of the Counts of Toulouse, +Becket appeared at the head of seven hundred knights who did him +service, and foremost in every adventurous exploit was the valiant +Chancellor. Becket's bold counsel urged the immediate storming of the +city, which would have been followed by the captivity of the King of +France. Henry, in whose character impetuosity was strangely molded up +with irresolution, dared not risk this violation of feudal allegiance, +the captivity of his suzerain. The event of the war showed the policy as +well as the superior military judgment of the warlike Chancellor. At a +period somewhat later, Becket, who was left to reduce certain castles +which held out against his master, unhorsed in single combat and took +prisoner a knight of great distinction, Engelran de Trie. He returned to +Henry in Normandy at the head of 1200 knights and 4000 stipendiary +horsemen, raised and maintained at his own charge. If indeed there were +grave churchmen even in those days who were revolted by these +achievements in an ecclesiastic (he was still only in deacon's orders), +the sentiment was by no means universal, nor even dominant. With some +his valor and military skill only excited more ardent admiration. One of +his biographers bursts out into this extraordinary panegyric on the +Archdeacon of Canterbury: "Who can recount the carnage, the desolation, +which he made at the head of a strong body of soldiers? He attacked +castles, razed towns and cities to the ground, burned down houses and +farms without a touch of pity, and never showed the slightest mercy to +any one who rose in insurrection against his master's authority."[27] + +[SN: Wealth of Becket.] + +The services of Becket were not unrewarded; the love and gratitude of +his sovereign showered honors and emoluments upon him. Among his grants +were the wardenship of the Tower of London, the lordship of the castle +of Berkhampstead and the honor of Eye, with the service of a hundred and +forty knights. Yet there must have been other and more prolific sources +of his wealth, so lavishly displayed. Through his hands as Chancellor +passed almost all grants and royal favors. He was the guardian of all +escheated baronies and of all vacant benefices. It is said in his +praise that he did not permit the king, as was common, to prolong those +vacancies for his own advantage, that they were filled up with as much +speed as possible; but it should seem, by subsequent occurrences, that +no very strict account was kept of the king's monies spent by the +Chancellor in the king's service and those expended by the Chancellor +himself. This seems intimated by the care which he took to secure a +general quittance from the chief justiciary of the realm before his +elevation to the archbishopric. + +But if in his personal habits and occupations Becket lost in some degree +the churchman in the secular dignitary, was he mindful of the solemn +trust imposed upon him by his patron the archbishop, and true to the +interests of his order? Did he connive at, or at least did he not +resist, any invasion on ecclesiastical immunities, or, as they were +called, the liberties of the clergy? did he hold their property +absolutely sacred? It is clear that he consented to levy the scutage, +raised on the whole realm, on ecclesiastical as well as secular +property. All that his friend John of Salisbury can allege in his +defence is, that he bitterly repented of having been the minister of +this iniquity.[28] "If with Saul he persecuted the Church, with Paul he +is prepared to die for the Church." But probably the worst effect of +this conduct as regards King Henry was the encouragement of his fatal +delusion that, as archbishop, Becket would be as submissive to his +wishes in the affairs of the Church as had been the pliant Chancellor. +It was the last and crowning mark of the royal confidence that Becket +was intrusted with the education of the young Prince Henry, the heir to +all the dominions of the king. + +[SN: April, 1161.] + +Six years after the accession of Henry II. died Theobald Archbishop of +Canterbury. On the character of his successor depended the peace of the +realm, especially if Henry, as no doubt he did, already entertained +designs of limiting the exorbitant power of the Church. Becket, ever at +his right hand, could not but occur to the mind of the king. Nothing in +his habits of life or conduct could impair the hope that in him the +loyal, the devoted, it might seem unscrupulous subject, would +predominate over the rigid churchman. With such a prime minister, +attached by former benefits, it might seem by the warmest personal love, +still more by this last proof of boundless confidence, to his person, +and as holding the united offices of Chancellor and Primate, ruling +supreme both in Church and State, the king could dread no resistance, or +if there were resistance, could subdue it without difficulty. + +Rumor had already designated Becket as the future primate. A churchman, +the Prior of Leicester, on a visit to Becket, who was ill at Rouen, +pointing to his apparel, said, "Is this a dress for an Archbishop of +Canterbury?" Becket himself had not disguised his hopes and fears. +"There are three poor priests in England, any one of whose elevation to +the see of Canterbury I should wish rather than my own. I know the very +heart of the king; if I should be promoted, I must forfeit his favor or +that of God."[29] + +The king did not suddenly declare his intentions. The see was vacant for +above a year,[30] and the administration of the revenues must have been +in the department of the Chancellor. At length as Becket, who had +received a commission to return to England on other affairs of moment, +took leave of his sovereign at Falaise, Henry hastily informed him that +those affairs were not the main object of his mission to England--it was +for his election to the vacant archbishopric. Becket remonstrated, but +in vain; he openly warned, it is said, his royal master that as Primate +he must choose between the favor of God and that of the king--he must +prefer that of God.[31] In those days the interests of the clergy and of +God were held inseparable. Henry no doubt thought this but the decent +resistance of an ambitious prelate. The advice of Henry of Pisa, the +Papal Legate, overcame the faint and lingering scruples of Becket: he +passed to England with the king's recommendation, mandate it might be +called, for his election. + +All which to the king would designate Becket as the future Primate could +not but excite the apprehensions of the more rigorous churchmen. The +monks of Canterbury, with whom rested the formal election, alleged as an +insuperable difficulty that Becket had never worn the monastic habit, as +almost all his predecessors had done.[32] The suffragan bishops would no +doubt secretly resist the advancement, over all their heads, of a man +who, latterly at least, had been more of a soldier, a courtier, and a +lay statesman. Nor could the prophetic sagacity of any but the wisest +discern the latent churchmanship in the ambitious and inflexible heart +of Becket. It is recorded on authority, which I do not believe doubtful +as to its authenticity, but which is the impassioned statement of a +declared enemy, that nothing but the arrival of the great justiciary, +Richard de Luci, with the king's peremptory commands, and with personal +menaces of proscription and exile against the more forward opponents, +awed the refractory monks and prelates to submission. + +[SN: Gilbert Foliot.] + +At Whitsuntide Thomas Becket received priest's orders, and was then +consecrated Primate of England with great magnificence in the Abbey of +Westminster. The see of London being vacant, the ceremony was performed +by the once turbulent, now aged and peaceful, Henry of Winchester, the +brother of King Stephen. One voice alone, that of Gilbert Foliot, Bishop +of Hereford,[33] broke the apparent harmony by a bitter sarcasm--"The +king has wrought a miracle; he has turned a soldier and a layman into an +archbishop." Gilbert Foliot, from first to last the firm and unawed +antagonist of Becket, is too important a personage to be passed lightly +by.[34] This sally was attributed no doubt by some at the time, as it +was the subject afterwards of many fierce taunts from Becket himself, +and of lofty vindication by Foliot, to disappointed ambition, as though +he himself aspired to the primacy. Nor was there an ecclesiastic in +England who might entertain more just hopes of advancement. He was +admitted to be a man of unimpeachable life, of austere habits, and great +learning. He had been Abbot of Gloucester and then Bishop of Hereford. +He was in correspondence with four successive Popes, Coelestine II., +Lucius II., Eugenius III., Alexander, and with a familiarity which +implies a high estimation for ability and experience. He is interfering +in matters remote from his diocese, and commending other bishops, +Lincoln and Salisbury, to the favorable consideration of the Pontiff. +All his letters reveal as imperious and conscientious a churchman as +Becket himself, and in Becket's position Foliot might have resisted the +king as inflexibly.[35] He was, in short, a bold and stirring +ecclesiastic, who did not scruple to wield, as he had done in several +instances, that last terrible weapon of the clergy which burst on his +own head, excommunication.[36] It may be added that, notwithstanding his +sarcasm, there was no open breach between him and Becket. The primate +acquiesced in, if he did not promote, the advancement of Foliot to the +see of London;[37] and during that period letters of courtesy which +borders on adulation were interchanged at least with apparent +sincerity.[38] + +The king had indeed wrought a greater miracle than himself intended, or +than Foliot thought possible. Becket became at once not merely a decent +prelate, but an austere and mortified monk: he seemed determined to make +up for his want of ascetic qualifications; to crowd a whole life of +monkhood into a few years.[39] Under his canonical dress he wore a +monk's frock, haircloth next his skin; his studies, his devotions, were +long, regular, rigid. At the mass he was frequently melted into +passionate tears. In his outward demeanor, indeed, though he submitted +to private flagellation, and the most severe macerations, Becket was +still the stately prelate: his food, though scanty to abstemiousness, +was, as his constitution required, more delicate; his charities were +boundless. Archbishop Theobald had doubled the usual amount of the +primate's alms, Becket again doubled that; and every night in privacy, +no doubt more ostentatious than the most public exhibition, with his +own hands he washed the feet of thirteen beggars. His table was still +hospitable and sumptuous, but instead of knights and nobles, he admitted +only learned clerks, and especially the regulars, whom he courted with +the most obsequious deference. For the sprightly conversation of former +times were read grave books in the Latin of the Church. + +But the change was not alone in his habits and mode of life. The King +could not have reproved, he might have admired, the most punctilious +regard for the decency and the dignity of the highest ecclesiastic in +the realm. But the inflexible churchman began to betray himself in more +unexpected acts. While still in France Henry was startled at receiving a +peremptory resignation of the chancellorship, as inconsistent with the +religious functions of the primate. This act was as it were a bill of +divorce from all personal intimacy with the king, a dissolution of their +old familiar and friendly intercourse. It was not merely that the holy +and austere prelate withdrew from the unbecoming pleasures of the court, +the chase, the banquet, the tournament, even the war; they were no more +to meet at the council board, and the seat of judicature. It had been +said that Becket was co-sovereign with the king, he now appeared (and +there were not wanting secret and invidious enemies to suggest, and to +inflame the suspicion) a rival sovereign.[40] The king, when Becket met +him on his landing at Southampton, did not attempt to conceal his +dissatisfaction; his reception of his old friend was cold. + +It were unjust to human nature, to suppose that it did not cost Becket a +violent struggle, a painful sacrifice, thus as it were to rend himself +from the familiarity and friendship of his munificent benefactor. It was +no doubt a severe sense of duty which crushed his natural affections, +especially as vulgar ambition must have pointed out a more sure and safe +way to power and fame. Such ambition would hardly have hesitated between +the ruling all orders through the king, and the solitary and dangerous +position of opposing so powerful a monarch to maintain the interests and +secure the favor of one order alone. + +[SN: Becket at Tours. May 19, 1163.] + +Henry was now fully occupied with the affairs of Wales. Becket, with the +royal sanction, obeyed the summons of Pope Alexander to the Council of +Tours. Becket had passed through part of France at the head of an army +of his own raising, and under his command; he had passed a second time +as representing the king; he was yet to pass as an exile. At Tours, +where Pope Alexander now held his court, and presided over his council, +Becket appeared at the head of all the Bishops of England, except those +excused on account of age or infirmity. So great was his reputation, +that the Pope sent out all the cardinals except those in attendance on +his own person to escort the primate of England into the city. In the +council at Tours not merely was the title of Alexander to the popedom +avouched with perfect unanimity, but the rights and privileges of the +clergy asserted with more than usual rigor and distinctness. Some +canons, one especially which severely condemned all encroachments on +the property of the Church, might seem framed almost with a view to the +impending strife with England. + +[SN: Beginning of strife.] + +That strife, so impetuous might seem the combatants to join issue, broke +out, during the next year, in all its violence. Both parties, if they +did not commence, were prepared for aggression. The first occasion of +public collision was a dispute concerning the customary payment of the +ancient Danegelt, of two shillings on every hide of land, to the +sheriffs of the several counties. The king determined to transfer this +payment to his own exchequer: he summoned an assembly at Woodstock, and +declared his intentions. All were mute but Becket; the archbishop +opposed the enrolment of the decree, on the ground that the tax was +voluntary, not of right. "By the eyes of God," said Henry, his usual +oath, "it shall be enrolled!" "By the same eyes, by which you swear," +replied the prelate, "it shall never be levied on my lands while I +live!"[41] On Becket's part, almost the first act of his primacy was to +vindicate all the rights, and to resume all the property which had been +usurped, or which he asserted to have been usurped, from his see.[42] It +was not likely that, in the turbulent times just gone by, there would +have been rigid respect for the inviolability of sacred property. The +title of the Church was held to be indefeasible. Whatever had once +belonged to the Church might be recovered at any time; and the +ecclesiastical courts claimed the sole right of adjudication in such +causes. The primate was thus at once plaintiff, judge, and carried into +execution his own judgments. The lord of the manor of Eynsford in Kent, +who held of the king, claimed the right of presentation to that +benefice. Becket asserted the prerogative of the see of Canterbury. On +the forcible ejectment of his nominee by the lord, William of Eynsford, +Becket proceeded at once to a sentence of excommunication, without +regard to Eynsford's feudal superior the king. [SN: Claims of Becket.] +The primate next demanded the castle of Tunbridge from the head of the +powerful family of De Clare; though it had been held by De Clare, and it +was asserted, received in exchange for a Norman Castle, since the time +of William the Conqueror. The attack on De Clare might seem a defiance +of the whole feudal nobility: a determination to despoil them of their +conquests, or grants from the sovereign. + +[SN: Immunities of the clergy.] + +The king, on his side, wisely chose the strongest and more popular +ground of the immunities of the clergy from all temporal jurisdiction. +He appeared as guardian of the public morals, as administrator of equal +justice to all his subjects, as protector of the peace of the realm. +Crimes of great atrocity, it is said, of great frequency, crimes such as +robbery and homicide, crimes for which secular persons were hanged by +scores and without mercy, were committed almost with impunity, or with +punishment altogether inadequate to the offence by the clergy; and the +sacred name of clerk, exempted not only bishops, abbots, and priests, +but those of the lowest ecclesiastical rank from the civil power. It was +the inalienable right of the clerk to be tried only in the court of his +bishop; and as that court could not award capital punishment, the utmost +penalties were flagellation, imprisonment, and degradation. It was only +after degradation, and for a second offence (for the clergy strenuously +insisted on the injustice of a second trial for the same act,)[43] that +the meanest of the clerical body could be brought to the level of the +most highborn layman. But to cede one tittle of these immunities, to +surrender the sacred person of a clergyman, whatever his guilt, to the +secular power, was treason to the sacerdotal order: it was giving up +Christ (for the Redeemer was supposed actually to dwell in the clerk, +though his hands might be stained with innocent blood) to be crucified +by the heathen.[44] To mutilate the person of one in holy orders was +directly contrary to the Scripture (for with convenient logic, while the +clergy rejected the example of the Old Testament as to the equal +liability of priest and Levite with the ordinary Jew to the sentence of +the law, they alleged it on their own part as unanswerable.) It was +inconceivable, that hands which had but now made God should be tied +behind the back, like those of a common malefactor, or that his neck +should be wrung on a gibbet, before whom kings had but now bowed in +reverential homage.[45] + +The enormity of the evil is acknowledged by Becket's most ardent +partisans.[46] The king had credible information laid before him that +some of the clergy were absolute devils in guilt, that their wickedness +could not be repressed by the ordinary means of justice, and were daily +growing worse. + +Becket himself had protected some notorious and heinous offenders. A +clerk of the diocese of Worcester had debauched a maiden and murdered +her father. Becket ordered the man to be kept in prison, and refused to +surrender him to the king's justice.[47] Another in London, guilty of +stealing a silver goblet, was claimed as only amenable to the +ecclesiastical court. Philip de Brois, a canon of Bedford, had been +guilty of homicide. The cause was tried in the bishop's court; he was +condemned to pay a fine to the kindred of the slain man. Some time +after, Fitz-Peter, the king's justiciary, whether from private enmity or +offence, or dissatisfied with the ecclesiastical verdict, in the open +court at Dunstable, called De Brois a murderer. De Brois broke out into +angry and contumelious language against the judge. The insult to the +justiciary was held to be insult to the king, who sought justice, where +alone he could obtain it, in the bishop's court. Philip de Brois this +time incurred a sentence, to our notions almost as disproportionate as +that for his former offence. He was condemned to be publicly whipped, +and degraded for two years from the honors and emoluments of his +canonry. But to the king the verdict appeared far too lenient; the +spiritual jurisdiction was accused as shielding the criminal from his +due penalty. + +[SN: Character of the King.] + +Such were the questions on which Becket was prepared to confront and to +wage war to the death with the king; and all this with a deliberate +knowledge both of the power and the character of Henry, his power as +undisputed sovereign of England and of continental territories more +extensive and flourishing than those of the king of France. These +dominions included those of the Conqueror and his descendants, of the +Counts of Anjou, and the great inheritance of his wife, Queen Eleanor, +the old kingdom of Aquitaine; they reached from the borders of Flanders +round to the foot of the Pyrenees. This almost unrivaled power could not +but have worked with the strong natural passions of Henry to form the +character drawn by a churchman of great ability, who would warn Becket +as to the formidable adversary whom he had undertaken to oppose,--"You +have to deal with one on whose policy the most distant sovereigns of +Europe, on whose power his neighbors, on whose severity his subjects +look with awe; whom constant successes and prosperous fortune have +rendered so sensitive, that every act of disobedience is a personal +outrage; whom it is as easy to provoke as difficult to appease; who +encourages no rash offence by impunity, but whose vengeance is instant +and summary. He will sometimes be softened by humility and patience, but +will never submit to compulsion; everything must seem to be conceded by +his own free will, nothing wrested from his weakness. He is more +covetous of glory than of gain, a commendable quality in a prince, if +virtue and truth, not the vanity and soft flattery of courtiers, awarded +that glory. He is a great, indeed the greatest of kings, for he has no +superior of whom he may stand in dread, no subject who dares to resist +him. His natural ferocity has been subdued by no calamity from without; +all who have been involved in any contest with him, have preferred the +most precarious treaty to a trial of strength with one so pre-eminent +in wealth, in the number of his forces, and the greatness of his +puissance."[48] + +A king of this character would eagerly listen to suggestions of +interested or flattering courtiers, that unless the Primate's power were +limited, the authority of the king would be reduced to nothing. The +succession to the throne would depend entirely on the clergy, and he +himself would reign only so long as might seem good to the Archbishop. +Nor were they the baser courtiers alone who feared and hated Becket. +The nobles might tremble from the example of De Clare, with whose +powerful house almost all the Norman baronage was allied, lest every +royal grant should be called in question.[49] Even among the clergy +Becket had bitter enemies; and though at first they appeared almost as +jealous as the Primate for the privileges of their order, the most able +soon espoused the cause of the King; those who secretly favored him were +obliged to submit in silence. + +[SN: Parliament of Westminster.] + +The King, determined to bring these great questions to issue summoned a +Parliament at Westminster. He commenced the proceedings by enlarging on +the abuses of the archidiaconal courts. The archdeacons kept the most +watchful and inquisitorial superintendence over the laity, but every +offence was easily commuted for a pecuniary fine, which fell to them. +The King complained that they levied a revenue from the sins of the +people equal to his own, yet that the public morals were only more +deeply and irretrievably depraved. He then demanded that all clerks +accused of heinous crimes should be immediately degraded and handed over +to the officers of his justice, to be dealt with according to law; for +their guilt, instead of deserving a lighter punishment, was doubly +guilty: he demanded this in the name of equal justice and the peace of +the realm. Becket insisted on delay till the next morning, in order that +he might consult his suffragan bishops. This the King refused: the +bishops withdrew to confer upon their answer. The bishops were disposed +to yield, some doubtless impressed with the justice of the demand, some +from fear of the King, some from a prudent conviction of the danger of +provoking so powerful a monarch, and of involving the Church in a +quarrel with Henry at the perilous time of a contest for the Papacy +which distracted Europe. Becket inflexibly maintained the inviolability +of the holy persons of the clergy.[50] The King then demanded whether +they would observe the "customs of the realm." "Saving my order," +replied the Archbishop. That order was still to be exempt from all +jurisdiction but its own. So answered all the bishops except Hilary of +Chichester, who made the declaration without reserve.[51] The King +hastily broke up the assembly, and left London in a state of +consternation, the people and the clergy agitated by conflicting +anxieties. He immediately deprived Becket of the custody of the Royal +Castles, which he still retained, and of the momentous charge, the +education of his son. The bishops entreated Becket either to withdraw or +to change the offensive word. At first he declared that if an angel from +Heaven should counsel such weakness, he would hold him accursed. At +length, however, he yielded, as Herbert de Bosham asserts out of love +for the King,[52] by another account at the persuasion of the Pope's +Almoner, said to have been bribed by English gold.[53] He went to Oxford +and made the concession. + +[SN: Jan. 1164.] + +[SN: Council of Clarendon.] + +The King, in order to ratify with the utmost solemnity the concession +extorted from the bishops, and even from Becket himself, summoned a +great council of the realm to Clarendon, a royal palace between three +and four miles from Salisbury. The two archbishops and eleven bishops, +between thirty and forty of the highest nobles, with numbers of inferior +barons, were present. It was the King's object to settle beyond dispute +the main points in contest between the Crown and the Church; to +establish thus, with the consent of the whole nation, an English +Constitution in Church and State. Becket, it is said, had been assured +by some about the King that a mere assent would be demanded to vague and +ambiguous, and therefore on occasion disputable customs. But when these +customs, which had been collected and put in writing by the King's +order, appeared in the form of precise and binding laws, drawn up with +legal technicality by the Chief Justiciary, he saw his error, wavered, +and endeavored to recede.[54] The King broke out into one of his +ungovernable fits of passion. One or two of the bishops who were out of +favor with the King and two knights Templars on their knees implored +Becket to abandon his dangerous, fruitless, and ill-timed resistance. +The Archbishop took the oath, which had been already sworn to by all the +lay barons. He was followed by the rest of the bishops, reluctantly +according to one account, and compelled on one side by their dread of +the lay barons, on the other by the example and authority of the +Primate, according to Becket's biographers, eagerly and of their own +accord.[55] + +[SN: Constitutions of Clarendon.] + +These famous constitutions were of course feudal in their form and +spirit. But they aimed at the subjection of all the great prelates of +the realm to the Crown to the same extent as the great barons. The new +constitution of England made the bishops' fiefs to be granted according +to the royal will, and subjected the whole of the clergy equally with +the laity to the common laws of the land.[56] I. On the vacancy of every +archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, or priory, the revenues came into the +King's hands. He was to summon those who had the right of election, +which was to take place in the King's Chapel, with his consent, and the +counsel of nobles chosen by the King for this office. The prelate elect +was immediately to do homage to the King as his liege lord, for life, +limb, and worldly honors, excepting his order. The archbishops, bishops, +and all beneficiaries, held their estates on the tenure of baronies, +amenable to the King's justice, and bound to sit with the other barons +in all pleas of the Crown, except in capital cases. No archbishop, +bishop, or any other person could quit the realm without royal +permission, or without taking an oath at the King's requisition, not to +do any damage either going, staying, or returning, to the King or the +kingdom. + +II. All clerks accused of any crime were to be summoned before the +King's Courts. The King's justiciaries were to decide whether it was a +case for civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Those which belonged to +the latter were to be removed to the Bishops' Court. If the clerk was +found guilty or confessed his guilt, the Church could protect him no +longer.[57] + +III. All disputes concerning advowsons and presentations to benefices +were to be decided in the King's Courts; and the King's consent was +necessary for the appointment to any benefice within the King's +domain.[58] + +IV. No tenant in chief of the King, none of the officers of the King's +household, could be excommunicated, nor his lands placed under +interdict, until due information had been laid before the King; or, in +his absence from the realm, before the great Justiciary, in order that +he might determine in each case the respective rights of the civil and +ecclesiastical courts.[59] + +V. Appeals lay from the archdeacon to the bishop, from the bishop to the +Archbishop. On failure of justice by the Archbishop, in the last resort +to the King, who was to take care that justice was done in the +Archbishop's Court; and no further appeal was to be made without the +King's consent. This was manifestly and avowedly intended to limit +appeals to Rome. + +All these statutes, in number sixteen, were restrictions on the +distinctive immunities of the clergy; one, and that unnoticed, was +really an invasion of popular freedom; no son of a villein could be +ordained without the consent of his lord. + +Some of these customs were of doubtful authenticity. On the main +question, the exorbitant powers of the ecclesiastical courts and the +immunity of the clergy from all other jurisdiction, there was an +unrepealed statute of William the Conqueror. Before the Conquest the +bishop sate with the alderman in the same court. The statute of William +created a separate jurisdiction of great extent in the spiritual court. +This was not done to aggrandize the Church, of which in some respects +the Conqueror was jealous, but to elevate the importance of the great +Norman prelates whom he had thrust into the English sees. It raised +another class of powerful feudatories to support the foreign throne, +bound to it by common interest as well as by the attachment of race. But +at this time neither party took any notice of the ancient statute. The +King's advisers of course avoided the dangerous question; Becket and the +Churchmen (Becket himself declared that he was unlearned in the +customs), standing on the divine and indefeasible right of the clergy, +could hardly rest on a recent statute granted by the royal will, and +therefore liable to be annulled by the same authority. The Customs, they +averred, were of themselves illegal, as clashing with higher +irrepealable laws. + +To these Customs Becket had now sworn without reserve. Three copies were +ordered to be made--one for the Archbishop of Canterbury, one for York, +one to be laid up in the royal archives. To these the King demanded the +further guarantee of the seal of the different parties. The Primate, +whether already repenting of his assent, or under the vague impression +that this was committing himself still further (for oaths might be +absolved, seals could not be torn from public documents), now +obstinately refused to make any further concession. The refusal threw +suspicion on the sincerity of his former act. The King, the other +prelates, the nobles, all but Becket,[60] subscribed and sealed the +Constitutions of Clarendon as the laws of England. + +[SN: April 1.] + +As the Primate rode from Winchester in profound silence, meditating on +the acts of the council and on his own conduct, one of his attendants, +who has himself related the conversation, endeavored to raise his +spirits. "It is a fit punishment," said Becket, "for one who, not +trained in the school of the Saviour, but in the King's court, a man of +pride and vanity, from a follower of hawks and hounds, a patron of +players, has dared to assume the care of so many souls."[61] De Bosham +significantly reminded his master of St. Peter, his denial of the Lord, +his subsequent repentance. On his return to Canterbury Becket imposed +upon himself the severest mortification, and suspended himself from his +function of offering the sacrifice on the altar. He wrote almost +immediately to the Pope to seek counsel and absolution from his oath. He +received both. The absolution restored all his vivacity. + +But the King had likewise his emissaries with the Pope at Sens. He +endeavored to obtain a legatine commission over the whole realm +of England for Becket's enemy, Roger Archbishop of York, and a +recommendation from the Pope to Becket to observe the "customs" of the +realm. Two embassies were sent by the King for this end: first the +Bishops of Lisieux and Poitiers; then Geoffrey Ridel, Archdeacon of +Canterbury (who afterwards appears so hostile to the Primate as to be +called by him that archdevil, not archdeacon), and the subtle John of +Oxford. The embarrassed Pope (throughout it must be remembered that +there was a formidable Antipope), afraid at once of estranging Henry, +and unwilling to abandon Becket, granted the legation to the Archbishop +of York. To the Primate's great indignation, Roger had his cross +borne before him in the province of Canterbury. On Becket's angry +remonstrance, the Pope, while on the one hand he enjoined on Becket the +greatest caution and forbearance in the inevitable contest, assured him +that he would never permit the see of Canterbury to be subject to any +authority but his own.[62] + +Becket secretly went down to his estate at Romney, near the sea-coast, +in the hope of crossing the straits, and so finding refuge and +maintaining his cause by his personal presence with the Pope. Stormy +weather forced him to abandon his design. He then betook himself to the +King at Woodstock. He was coldly received. The King at first dissembled +his knowledge of the Primate's attempt to cross the sea, a direct +violation of one of the constitutions; but on his departure he asked +with bitter jocularity whether Becket had sought to leave the realm +because England could not contain himself and the King.[63] + +The tergiversation of Becket, and his attempt thus to violate one of the +Constitutions of Clarendon, to which he had sworn, showed that he was +not to be bound by oaths. No treaty could be made where one party +claimed the power of retracting, and might at any time be released from +his covenant. In the mind of Henry, whose will had never yet met +resistance, the determination was confirmed, if he could not subdue the +Prelate, to crush the refractory subject. Becket's enemies possessed +the King's ear. Some of those enemies no doubt hated him for his former +favor with the King, some dreaded lest the severity of so inflexible a +prelate should curb their license, some held property belonging to or +claimed by the Church, some to flatter the King, some in honest +indignation at the duplicity of Becket and in love of peace, but all +concurred to inflame the resentment of Henry, and to attribute to Becket +words and designs insulting to the King and disparaging to the royal +authority. Becket, holding such notions as he did of Church power, would +not be cautious in asserting it; and whatever he might utter in his +pride would be embittered rather than softened when repeated to the +King. + +Since the Council of Clarendon Becket stood alone. All the higher +clergy, the great prelates of the kingdom, were now either his open +adversaries or were compelled to dissemble their favor towards him. +Whether alienated, as some declared, by his pusillanimity at Clarendon, +bribed by the gifts or overawed by the power of the King, whether +conscientiously convinced that in such times of schism and division it +might be fatal to the interests of the Church to advance her loftiest +pretensions, all, especially the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of +London, Salisbury and Chichester, were arrayed on the King's side. +Becket himself attributed the chief guilt of his persecution to the +bishops. "The King would have been quiet if they had not been so tamely +subservient to his wishes."[64] + +[SN: Parliament at Northampton. Oct. 6, 1164.] + +Before the close of the year Becket was cited to appear before a great +council of the realm at Northampton. All England crowded to witness +this final strife, it might be between the royal and the ecclesiastical +power. The Primate entered Northampton with only his own retinue; the +King had passed the afternoon amusing himself with hawking in the +pleasant meadows around. The Archbishop, on the following morning after +mass, appeared in the King's chamber with a cheerful countenance. The +King gave not, according to English custom, the kiss of peace. + +The citation of the Primate before the King in council at Northampton +was to answer a charge of withholding justice from John the Marshall +employed in the king's exchequer, who claimed the estate of Pagaham from +the see of Canterbury. Twice had Becket been summoned to appear in the +king's court to answer for this denial of justice: once he had refused +to appear, the second time he did not appear in person. Becket in vain +alleged an informality in the original proceedings of John the +Marshall.[65] The court, the bishops, as well as the barons, declared +him guilty of contumacy; all his goods and chattels became, according to +the legal phrase, at the king's mercy.[66] The fine was assessed at 500 +pounds. Becket submitted, not without bitter irony: "This, then, is one +of the new customs of Clarendon." But he protested against the +unheard-of audacity that the bishops should presume to sit in judgment +on their spiritual parent; it was a greater crime than to uncover their +father's nakedness.[67] Sarcasms and protests passed alike without +notice. But the bishops, all except Foliot, consented to become sureties +for this exorbitant fine. [SN: Demands on Becket.] Demands rising one +above another seemed framed for the purpose of reducing the Archbishop +to the humiliating condition of a debtor to the King, entirely at his +disposal. First 300 pounds were demanded as due from the castles of Eye +and Berkhampstead. Becket pleaded that he had expended a much larger sum +on the repairs of the castles: he found sureties likewise for this +payment, the Earl of Gloucester, William of Eynsford, and another of +"his men." The next day the demand was for 500 pounds lent by the King +during the siege of Toulouse, Becket declared that this was a gift, not +a loan;[68] but the King denying the plea, judgment was again entered +against Becket. At last came the overwhelming charge, an account of all +the monies received during his chancellorship from the vacant +archbishopric and from other bishoprics and abbeys. The debt was +calculated at the enormous sum of 44,000 marks. Becket was astounded at +this unexpected claim. As chancellor, in all likelihood, he had kept no +very strict account of what was expended in his own and in the royal +service; and the King seemed blind to this abuse of the royal right, by +which so large a sum had accumulated by keeping open those benefices +which ought to have been instantly filled. Becket, recovered from his +first amazement, replied that he had not been cited to answer on such +charge; at another time he should be prepared to answer all just demands +of the Crown. He now requested delay, in order to advise with his +suffragans and the clergy. He withdrew; but from that time no single +baron visited the object of the royal disfavor. Becket assembled all the +poor, even the beggars, who could be found, to fill his vacant board. + +[SN: Takes counsel with the bishops.] + +In his extreme exigency the Primate consulted separately first the +bishops, then the abbots. Their advice was different according to their +characters and their sentiments towards him. He had what might seem an +unanswerable plea, a formal acquittance from the Chief Justiciary De +Luci, the King's representative, for all obligations incurred in his +civil capacity before his consecration as archbishop.[69] The King, +however, it was known, declared that he had given no such authority. +Becket had the further excuse that all which he now possessed was +the property of the Church, and could not be made liable for +responsibilities incurred in a secular capacity. The bishops, however, +were either convinced of the insufficiency or the inadmissibility of +that plea. Henry of Winchester recommended an endeavor to purchase the +King's pardon; he offered 2000 marks as his contribution. Others urged +Becket to stand on his dignity, to defy the worst, under the shelter of +his priesthood; no one would venture to lay hands on a holy prelate. +Foliot and his party betrayed their object.[70] They exhorted him as the +only way of averting the implacable wrath of the King at once to resign +his see. "Would," said Hilary of Chichester, "you were no longer +archbishop, but plain Thomas. Thou knowest the King better than we do; +he has declared that thou and he cannot remain together in England, he +as King, thou as Primate. Who will be bound for such an amount? Throw +thyself on the King's mercy, or to the eternal disgrace of the Church +thou wilt be arrested and imprisoned as a debtor to the Crown." The next +day was Sunday; the Archbishop did not leave his lodgings. On Monday the +agitation of his spirits had brought on an attack of a disorder to which +he was subject: he was permitted to repose. On the morrow he had +determined on his conduct. At one time he had seriously meditated on a +more humiliating course: he proposed to seek the royal presence +barefooted with the cross in his hands, to throw himself at the King's +feet, appealing to his old affection, and imploring him to restore peace +to the Church. What had been the effect of such a step on the violent +but not ungenerous heart of Henry? But Becket yielded to the haughtier +counsels more congenial to his own intrepid character. He began by the +significant act of celebrating, out of its due order, the service of +St. Stephen, the first martyr. It contained passages of holy writ (as no +doubt Henry was instantly informed) concerning "kings taking counsel +against the godly." The mass concluded; in all the majesty of his holy +character, in his full pontifical habits, himself bearing the +archiepiscopal cross, the Primate rode to the King's residence, and +dismounting entered the royal hall. [SN: Becket in the King's hall.] The +cross seemed, as it were, an uplifting of the banner of the Church, in +defiance of that of the King, in the royal presence;[71] or it might be +in that awful imitation of the Saviour, at which no scruple was ever +made by the bolder churchmen--it was the servant of Christ who himself +bore his own cross. "What means this new fashion of the Archbishop +bearing his own cross?" said the Archdeacon Lisieux. "A fool," said +Foliot, "he always was and always will be." They made room for him; he +took his accustomed seat in the centre of the bishops. Foliot endeavored +to persuade him to lay down the cross. "If the sword of the King and the +cross of the Archbishop were to come in conflict, which were the more +fearful weapon?" Becket held the cross firmly, which Foliot and the +Bishop of Hereford strove, but in vain, to wrest from his grasp. + +The bishops were summoned into the King's presence: Becket sat alone in +the outer hall. The Archbishop of York, who, as Becket's partisans +asserted, designedly came later that he might appear to be of the +King's intimate council, swept through the hall with his cross borne +before him. Like hostile spears cross confronted cross.[72] + +During this interval De Bosham, the archbishop's reader, who had +reminded his master that he had been standard-bearer of the King of +England, and was now the standard-bearer of the King of the Angels, put +this question, "If they should lay their impious hands upon thee, art +thou prepared to fulminate excommunication against them?" Fitz-Stephen, +who sat at his feet, said in a loud clear voice, "That be far from thee; +so did not the Apostles and Martyrs of God: they prayed for their +persecutors and forgave them." Some of his more attached followers +burst into tears. "A little later," says the faithful Fitz-Stephen of +himself, "when one of the King's ushers would not allow me to speak to +the Archbishop, I made a sign to him and drew his attention to the +Saviour on the cross." + +[SN: Condemnation of Becket.] + +The bishops admitted to the King's presence announced the appeal of the +Archbishop to the Pope, and his inhibition to his suffragans to sit in +judgment in a secular council on their metropolitan.[73] These were +again direct infringements on two of the constitutions of Clarendon, +sworn to by Becket in an oath still held valid by the King and his +barons. The King appealed to the council. Some seized the occasion of +boldly declaring to the King that he had brought this difficulty on +himself by advancing a low-born man to such favor and dignity. All +agreed that Becket was guilty of perjury and treason.[74] A kind of low +acclamation followed which was heard in the outer room and made Becket's +followers tremble. The King sent certain counts and barons to demand of +Becket whether he, a liegeman of the King, and sworn to observe the +constitutions of Clarendon, had lodged this appeal and pronounced this +inhibition? The Archbishop replied with quiet intrepidity. In his long +speech he did not hesitate for a word; he pleaded that he had not been +cited to answer these charges; he alleged again the Justiciary's +acquittance; he ended by solemnly renewing his inhibition and his +appeal: "My person and my Church I place under the protection of the +sovereign Pontiff." + +The barons of Normandy and England heard with wonder this defiance of +the King. Some seemed awe-struck and were mute; the more fierce and +lawless could not restrain their indignation. "The Conqueror knew best +how to deal with these turbulent churchmen. He seized his own brother, +Odo Bishop of Bayeux, and chastised him for his rebellion; he threw +Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, into a fetid dungeon. The Count of +Anjou, the King's father, treated still worse the bishop elect of Seez +and many of his clergy: he ordered them to be shamefully mutilated and +derided their sufferings." + +The King summoned the bishops, on their allegiance as barons, to join in +sentence against Becket. But the inhibition of their metropolitan had +thrown them into embarrassment, and perhaps they felt that the offence +of Becket, if not capital treason, bordered upon it. It might be a +sentence of blood, in which no churchman might concur by his +suffrage--they dreaded the breach of canonical obedience. They entered +the hall where Becket sat alone. The gentler prelates, Robert of Lincoln +and others, were moved to tears; even Henry of Winchester advised the +archbishop to make an unconditional surrender of his see. The more +vehement Hilary of Chichester addressed him thus: "Lord Primate, we have +just cause of complaint against you. Your inhibition has placed us +between the hammer and the anvil: if we disobey it, we violate our +canonical obedience; if we obey, we infringe the constitutions of the +realm and offend the King's majesty. Yourself were the first to +subscribe the customs at Clarendon, you now compel us to break them. We +appeal, by the King's grace, to our lord the Pope." Becket answered "I +hear." + +They returned to the King, and with difficulty obtained an exemption +from concurrence in the sentence; they promised to join in a +supplication to the Pope to depose Becket. The King permitted their +appeal. Robert Earl of Leicester, a grave and aged nobleman, was +commissioned to pronounce the sentence. Leicester had hardly begun when +Becket sternly interrupted him. "Thy sentence! son and Earl, hear me +first! The King was pleased to promote me against my will to the +archbishopric of Canterbury. I was then declared free from all secular +obligations. Ye are my children; presume ye against law and reason to +sit in judgment on your spiritual father? I am to be judged only, under +God, by the Pope. To him I appeal, before him I cite you, barons and my +suffragans, to appear. Under the protection of the Catholic Church and +the Apostolic See I depart!"[75] He rose and walked slowly down the +hall. A deep murmur ran through the crowd. Some took up straws and threw +them at him. One uttered the word "Traitor!" The old chivalrous spirit +woke in the soul of Becket. "Were it not for my order, you should rue +that word." But by other accounts he restrained not his language to this +pardonable impropriety--he met scorn with scorn. One officer of the +King's household he upbraided for having had a kinsman hanged. Anselm, +the King's brother, he called "bastard and catamite." The door was +locked, but fortunately the key was found. He passed out into the +street, where he was received by the populace, to whom he had endeared +himself by his charities, his austerities, perhaps by his courageous +opposition to the king and the nobles, amid loud acclamations. They +pressed so closely around him for his blessing that he could scarcely +guide his horse. He returned to the church of St. Andrew, placed his +cross by the altar of the Virgin. "This was a fearful day," said +Fitz-Stephen. "The day of judgment," he replied, "will be more fearful." +After supper he sent the Bishops of Hereford, Worcester, and Rochester +to the King to request permission to leave the kingdom: the King coldly +deferred his answer till the morrow. + +[SN: Flight of Becket. Oct. 13.] + +Becket and his friends no doubt thought his life in danger: he is said +to have received some alarming warnings.[76] It is reported, on the +other hand, that the King, apprehensive of the fierce zeal of his +followers, issued a proclamation that no one should do harm to the +archbishop or his people. It is more likely that the King, who must have +known the peril of attempting the life of an archbishop, would have +apprehended and committed him to prison. Becket expressed his intention +to pass the night in the church: his bed was strewn before the altar. At +midnight he rose, and with only two monks and a servant stole out of the +northern gate, the only one which was not guarded. He carried with him +only his archiepiscopal pall and his seal. The weather was wet and +stormy, but the next morning they reached Lincoln, and lodged with a +pious citizen--piety and admiration of Becket were the same thing. At +Lincoln he took the disguise of a monk, dropped down the Witham to a +hermitage in the fens belonging to the Cistercians of Sempringham; +thence by crossroads, and chiefly by night, he found his way to Estrey, +about five miles from Deal, a manor belonging to Christ Church in +Canterbury. He remained there a week. On All Souls Day he went on board +a boat, just before morning, and by the evening reached the coast of +Flanders. To avoid observation he landed on the open shore near +Gravelines. His large, loose shoes made it difficult to wade through the +sand without falling. He sat down in despair. After some delay was +obtained for a prelate, accustomed to the prancing war-horse or stately +cavalcade, a sorry nag without a saddle, and with a wisp of hay for a +bridle. But he soon got weary and was fain to walk. He had many +adventures by the way. He was once nearly betrayed by gazing with +delight on a falcon upon a young squire's wrist: his fright punished him +for his relapse into his secular vanities. The host of a small inn +recognized him by his lofty look and the whiteness of his hands. At +length he arrived at the monastery of Clair Marais, near St. Omer: he +was there joined by Herbert de Bosham, who had been left behind to +collect what money he could at Canterbury; he brought but 100 marks and +some plate. While he was in this part of Flanders the Justiciary, +Richard de Luci, passed through the town on his way to England. He tried +in vain to persuade the archbishop to return with him: Becket suspected +his friendly overtures, or had resolutely determined not to put himself +again in the King's power. + +In the first access of indignation at Becket's flight the King had sent +orders for strict watch to be kept in the ports of the kingdom, +especially Dover. The next measure was to pre-occupy the minds of the +Count of Flanders, the King of France, and the Pope against his fugitive +subject. Henry could not but foresee how formidable an ally the exile +might become to his rivals and enemies, how dangerous to his extensive +but ill-consolidated foreign dominions. He might know that Becket would +act and be received as an independent potentate. The rank of his +ambassadors implied the importance of their mission to France. They were +the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Exeter, Chichester, and +Worcester, the Earl of Arundel, and three other distinguished nobles. +The same day that Becket passed to Gravelines, they crossed from Dover +to Calais.[77] + +[SN: Becket in exile.] + +The Earl of Flanders, though with some cause of hostility to Becket, had +offered him a refuge; yet perhaps was not distinctly informed or would +not know that the exile was in his dominions.[78] He received the King's +envoys with civility. The King of France was at Compiègne. The strongest +passions in the feeble mind of Louis VII. were jealousy of Henry of +England, and a servile bigotry to the Church, to which he seemed +determined to compensate for the hostility and disobedience of his +youth. Against Henry, personally, there were old causes of hatred +rankling in his heart, not the less deep because they could not be +avowed. [SN: From 1152 to 1164.] Henry of England was now the husband of +Eleanor, who, after some years of marriage, had contemptuously divorced +the King of France as a monk rather than as a husband, had thrown +herself into the arms of Henry and carried with her a dowry as large as +half the kingdom of France. There had since been years either of fierce +war, treacherous negotiations, or jealous and armed peace, between the +rival sovereigns. + +[SN: Louis of France.] + +Louis had watched, and received regular accounts of the proceedings in +England; his admiration of Becket for his lofty churchmanship and +daring opposition to Henry was at its height, scarcely disguised. He +had already in secret offered to receive Becket, not as a fugitive, but +as the sharer in his kingdom. The ambassadors appeared before Louis and +presented a letter urging the King of France not to admit within his +dominions the traitor Thomas, late Archbishop of Canterbury. "Late +Archbishop! and who has presumed to depose him? I am a king, like my +brother of England; I should not dare to depose the meanest of my +clergy. Is this the King's gratitude for the services of his Chancellor, +to banish him from France, as he has done from England?"[79] Louis wrote +a strong letter to the Pope, recommending to his favor the cause of +Becket as his own. + +[SN: Ambassadors at Sens.] + +The ambassadors passed onwards to Sens, where resided the Pope +Alexander III., himself an exile, and opposing his spiritual power to +the highest temporal authority, that of the Emperor and his subservient +Antipope. Alexander was in a position of extraordinary difficulty: on +the one side were gratitude to King Henry for his firm support, and the +fear of estranging so powerful a sovereign, on whose unrivaled wealth he +reckoned as the main strength of his cause; on the other, the dread of +offending the King of France, also his faithful partisan, in whose +dominions he was a refugee, and the duty, the interest, the strong +inclination to maintain every privilege of the hierarchy. To Henry +Alexander almost owed his pontificate. His first and most faithful +adherents had been Theobald the primate, the English Church, and Henry +King of England; and when the weak Louis had entered into dangerous +negotiations at Lannes with the Emperor; when at Dijon he had almost +placed himself in the power of Frederick, and his voluntary or enforced +defection had filled Alexander with dread, the advance of Henry of +England with a powerful force to the neighborhood rescued the French +king from his perilous position. And now, though Victor the Antipope was +dead, a successor, Guido of Crema, had been set up by the imperial +party, and Frederick would lose no opportunity of gaining, if any +serious quarrel should alienate him from Alexander, a monarch of such +surpassing power. An envoy from England, John Cummin, was even now at +the imperial court.[80] + +Becket's messengers, before the reception of Henry's ambassadors by Pope +Alexander, had been admitted to a private interview. The account of +Becket's "fight with beasts" at Northampton, and a skillful parallel +with St. Paul, had melted the heart of the Pontiff, as he no doubt +thought himself suffering like persecutions, to a flood of tears. How in +truth could a Pope venture to abandon such a champion of what were +called the liberties of the Church? He had, in fact, throughout been in +secret correspondence with Becket. Whenever letters could escape the +jealous watchfulness of the King, they had passed between England and +Sens.[81] + +[SN: The King's ambassadors at Sens.] + +The ambassadors of Henry were received in state in the open consistory. +Foliot of London began with his usual ability; his warmth at length +betrayed him into the Scriptural citation,--"The wicked fleeth when no +man pursueth." "Forbear," said the Pope. "I will forbear him," answered +Foliot. "It is for thine own sake, not for his, that I bid thee +forbear." The Pope's severe manner silenced the Bishop of London. +Hilary, Bishop of Chichester, who had overweening confidence in his +eloquence, began a long harangue; but at a fatal blunder in his Latin, +the whole Italian court burst into laughter.[82] The discomfited orator +tried in vain to proceed. The Archbishop of York spoke with prudent +brevity. The Count of Arundel, more cautious or less learned, used his +native Norman. His speech was mild, grave, and conciliatory, and +therefore the most embarrassing to the Pontiff. Alexander consented to +send his cardinal legates to England; but neither the arguments of +Foliot, nor those of Arundel, who now rose to something like a menace of +recourse to the Antipope, would induce him to invest them with full +power. The Pope would entrust to none but to himself the prerogative of +final judgment. Alexander mistrusted the venality of his cardinals, and +Henry's subsequent dealing with some of them justified his mistrust.[83] +He was himself inflexible to tempting offers. The envoys privately +proposed to extend the payment of Peter's Pence to almost all classes, +and to secure the tax in perpetuity to the see of Rome. The ambassadors +retreated in haste; their commission had been limited to a few days. The +bishops, so strong was the popular feeling in France for Becket, had +entered Sens as retainers for the Earl of Arundel: they received +intimation that certain lawless knights in the neighborhood had +determined to waylay and plunder these enemies of the Church, and of the +saintly Becket. + +[SN: Becket at Sens.] + +Far different was the progress of the exiled primate. From St. Bertin he +was escorted by the Abbot, and by the Bishop of Terouenne. He entered +France; he was met, as he approached Soissons, by the King's brothers, +the Archbishop of Rheims, and a long train of bishops, abbots, and +dignitaries of the church; he entered Soissons at the head of three +hundred horsemen. The interview of Louis with Becket raised his +admiration into passion. As the envoys of Henry passed on one side of +the river, they saw the pomp in which the ally of the King of France, +rather than the exile from England, was approaching Sens. The cardinals, +whether from prudence, jealousy, or other motives, were cool in their +reception of Becket. The Pope at once granted the honor of a public +audience; he placed Becket on his right hand, and would not allow him to +rise to speak. Becket, after a skillful account of his hard usage, +spread out the parchment which contained the Constitutions of Clarendon. +They were read; the whole Consistory exclaimed against the violation of +ecclesiastical privileges. On further examination the Pope acknowledged +that six of them were less evil than the rest; on the remaining ten he +pronounced his unqualified condemnation. He rebuked the weakness of +Becket in swearing to these articles, it is said, with the severity of a +father, the tenderness of a mother.[84] He consoled him with the +assurance that he had atoned by his sufferings and his patience for his +brief infirmity. Becket pursued his advantage. The next day, by what +might seem to some trustful magnanimity, to others, a skillful mode of +getting rid of certain objections which had been raised concerning his +election, he tendered the resignation of his archiepiscopate to the +Pope. Some of the more politic, it was said, more venal cardinals, +entreated the Pontiff to put an end at once to this dangerous quarrel by +accepting the surrender.[85] But the Pontiff (his own judgment being +supported among others by the Cardinal Hyacinth) restored to him the +archiepiscopal ring, thus ratifying his primacy. He assured Becket of +his protection, and committed him to the hospitable care of the Abbot of +Pontigny, a monastery about twelve leagues from Sens. "So long have you +lived in ease and opulence, now learn the lessons of poverty from the +poor."[86] Yet Alexander thought it prudent to inhibit any proceedings +of Becket against the King till the following Easter. + +[SN: Effect on King Henry.] + +Becket's emissaries had been present during the interview of +Henry's ambassadors with the Pope. Henry, no doubt, received speedy +intelligence of these proceedings with Becket. He was at Marlborough +after a disastrous campaign in Wales.[87] [SN: Wrath of Henry.] He +issued immediate orders to seize the revenues of the Archbishop, and +promulgated a mandate to the bishops to sequester the estates of all the +clergy who had followed him to France. He forbade public prayers for the +Primate. In the exasperated state, especially of the monkish mind, +prayers for Becket would easily slide into anathemas against the king. +The payment of Peter's Pence[88] to the Pope was suspended. All +correspondence with Becket was forbidden. But the resentment of Henry +was not satisfied. He passed a sentence of banishment, and ordered at +once to be driven from the kingdom all the primate's kinsmen, +dependents, and friends. Four hundred persons, it is said, of both +sexes, of every age, even infants at the breast were included (and it +was the depth of winter) in this relentless edict. Every adult was to +take an oath to proceed immediately to Becket, in order that his eyes +might be shocked, and his heart wrung by the miseries which he had +brought on his family and his friends. This order was as inhumanly +executed, as inhumanly enacted.[89] It was intrusted to Randulph de +Broc, a fierce soldier, the bitterest of Becket's personal enemies. It +was as impolitic as cruel. The monasteries and convents of Flanders and +of France were thrown open to the exiles with generous hospitality. +Throughout both these countries was spread a multitude of persons +appealing to the pity, to the indignation of all orders of the people, +and so deepening the universal hatred of Henry. The enemy of the Church +was self-convicted of equal enmity to all Christianity of heart. + +[SN: Becket at Pontigny.] + +In his seclusion at Pontigny Becket seemed determined to compensate by +the sternest monastic discipline for that deficiency which had been +alleged on his election to the archbishopric. He put on the coarse +Cistercian dress. He lived on the hard and scanty Cistercian diet. +Outwardly he still maintained something of his old magnificence and the +splendor of his station. His establishment of horses and retainers was +so costly, that his sober friend, John of Salisbury, remonstrated +against the profuse expenditure. Richer viands were indeed served on a +table apart, ostensibly for Becket; but while he himself was content +with the pulse and gruel of the monks, those meats and game were given +away to the beggars. His devotions were long and secret, broken with +perpetual groans. At night he rose from the bed strewn with rich +coverings, as beseeming an archbishop, and summoned his chaplain to the +work of flagellation. Not satisfied with this, he tore his flesh with +his nails, and lay on the cold floor, with a stone for his pillow. His +health suffered; wild dreams, so reports one of his attendants, haunted +his broken slumbers, of cardinals plucking out his eyes, fierce +assassins cleaving his tonsured crown.[90] His studies were neither +suited to calm his mind, nor to abase his hierarchical haughtiness. He +devoted his time to the canon law, of which the False Decretals now +formed an integral part; sacerdotal fraud justifying the loftiest +sacerdotal presumption. John of Salisbury again interposed with friendly +remonstrance. He urged him to withdraw from these undevotional +inquiries; he recommended to him the works of a Pope of a different +character, the Morals of Gregory the Great. He exhorted him to confer +with holy men on books of spiritual improvement. + +[SN: Negotiations with the Emperor.] + +King Henry in the meantime took a loftier and more menacing tone towards +the Pope. "It is an unheard of thing that the court of Rome should +support traitors against my sovereign authority; I have not deserved +such treatment.[91] I am still more indignant that the justice is denied +to me which is granted to the meanest clerk." In his wrath he made +overtures to Reginald, Archbishop of Cologne, the maker, he might be +called, of two Antipopes, and the minister of the Emperor, declaring +that he had long sought an opportunity of falling off from Alexander, +and his perfidious cardinals, who presumed to support against him the +traitor Thomas, late Archbishop of Canterbury. + +[SN: Diet at Wurtzburg, A. D. 1165, Whitsuntide.] + +The Emperor met the advances of Henry with promptitude, which showed the +importance he attached to the alliance. Reginald of Cologne was sent to +England to propose a double alliance with the house of Swabia, of +Frederick's son, and of Henry the Lion, with the two daughters of Henry +Plantagenet. The Pope trembled at this threatened union between the +houses of Swabia and England. At the great diet held at Wurtzburg, +Frederick, asserted the canonical election of Paschal III., the new +Antipope, and declared in the face of the empire and of all Christendom, +that the powerful kingdom of England had now embraced his cause, and +that the King of France stood alone in his support of Alexander.[92] In +his public edict he declared to all Christendom that the oath of +fidelity to Paschal, of denial of all future allegiance to Alexander, +administered to all the great princes and prelates of the empire, had +been taken by the ambassadors of King Henry, Richard of Ilchester, and +John of Oxford.[93] Nor was this all. A solemn oath of abjuration of +Pope Alexander was enacted, and to some extent enforced; it was to be +taken by every male under twelve years old throughout the realm.[94] The +King's officers compelled this act of obedience to the King, in +villages, in castles, in cities. + +If the ambassadors of Henry at Wurtzburg had full powers to transfer the +allegiance of the King to the Antipope; if they took the oath +unconditionally, and with no reserve in case Alexander should abandon +the cause of Becket; if this oath of abjuration in England was generally +administered; it is clear that Henry soon changed, or wavered at least +in his policy. The alliance between the two houses came to nothing. Yet +even after this he addressed another letter to Reginald, Archbishop of +Cologne, declaring again his long cherished determination to abandon the +cause of Alexander, the supporter of his enemy, the Archbishop of +Canterbury. He demanded safe-conduct for an embassy to Rome, the +Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, John of Oxford, De Luci, the +Justiciary, peremptorily to require the Pope to annul all the acts of +Thomas, and to command the observance of the Customs.[95] The success of +Alexander in Italy, aversion in England to the abjuration of Alexander, +some unaccounted jealousy with the Emperor, irresolution in Henry, which +was part of his impetuous character, may have wrought this change. + +The monk and severe student of Pontigny found rest neither in his +austerities nor his studies.[96] The causes of this enforced repose are +manifest--the negotiations between Henry and the Emperor, the +uncertainty of the success of the Pope on his return to Italy. It would +have been perilous policy, either for him to risk, or for the Pope not +to inhibit any rash measure. + +[SN: Becket cites the King.] + +In the second year of his seclusion, when he found that the King's heart +was still hardened, the fire, not, we are assured by his followers, of +resentment, but of parental love, not zeal for vengeance but for +justice, burned within his soul. Henry was at this time in France. Three +times the exile cited his sovereign with the tone of a superior to +submit to his censure. Becket had communicated his design to his +followers:--"Let us act as the Lord commanded his steward:[97] 'See, I +have set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and +to pull down, and to destroy, and to hew down, to build and to +plant.'"[98] All his hearers applauded his righteous resolution. In the +first message the haughty meaning was veiled in the blandest words,[99] +and sent by a Cistercian of gentle demeanor, named Urban.[100] The King +returned a short and bitter answer. The second time Becket wrote in +severer language, but yet in the spirit, 'tis said, of compassion and +leniency.[101] The King deigned no reply. His third messenger was a +tattered, barefoot friar. To him Becket, it might seem, with studied +insult, not only intrusted his letter to the King, but authorized the +friar to speak in his name. With such a messenger the message was not +likely to lose in asperity. The King returned an answer even more +contemptuous than the address.[102] + +[SN: Nov. 11, 1165.] + +But this secret arraignment of the King did not content the unquiet +prelate. He could now dare more, unrestrained, unrebuked. Pope Alexander +had been received at Rome with open arms: at the commencement of the +present year all seemed to favor his cause. The Emperor, detained by +wars in Germany, was not prepared to cross the Alps. In the free cities +of Italy, the anti-imperialist feeling, and the growing republicanism, +gladly entered into close confederacy with a Pope at war with the +Emperor. The Pontiff (secretly it should seem, it might be in defiance +or in revenge for Henry's threatened revolt and for the acts of his +ambassadors at Wurtzburg[103]) ventured to grant to Becket a legatine +power over the King's English dominions, except the province of York. +Though it was not in the power of Becket to enter those dominions, it +armed him, as it was thought, with unquestionable authority over Henry +and his subjects. At all events it annulled whatever restraint the Pope, +by counsel or by mandate, had placed on the proceedings of Becket.[104] +The Archbishop took his determination alone.[105] As though to throw an +awful mystery about his plan, he called his wise friends together, and +consulted them on the propriety of resigning his see. With one voice +they rejected the timid counsel. Yet though his most intimate followers +were in ignorance of his designs, some intelligence of a meditated blow +was betrayed to Henry. The King summoned an assembly of prelates at +Chinon. The Bishops of Lisieux and Seez, whom the Archbishop of Rouen, +Rotran, consented to accompany as a mediator, were dispatched to +Pontigny, to anticipate by an appeal to the Pope, any sentence which +might be pronounced by Becket. They did not find him there: he had +already gone to Soissons, on the pretext of a pilgrimage to the shrine +of St. Drausus, a saint whose intercession rendered the warrior +invincible in battle. Did Becket hope thus to secure victory in the +great spiritual combat? One whole night he passed before the shrine of +St. Drausus: another before that of Gregory the Great, the founder of +the English Church, and of the see of Canterbury; and a third before +that of the Virgin, his especial patroness. + +[SN: Becket at Vezelay.] + +From thence he proceeded to the ancient and famous monastery of +Vezelay.[106] The church of Vezelay, if the dismal decorations of the +architecture are (which is doubtful) of that period, might seem +designated for that fearful ceremony.[107] There, on the feast of the +Ascension,[108] when the church was crowded with worshipers from all +quarters, he ascended the pulpit, and with the utmost solemnity, +condemned and annulled the Constitutions of Clarendon, declared +excommunicate all who observed or enforced their observance, all who had +counseled, and all who had defended them; absolved all the bishops from +the oaths which they had taken to maintain them. This sweeping anathema +involved the whole kingdom. But he proceeded to excommunicate by name +the most active and powerful adversaries: John of Oxford, for his +dealings with the schismatic partisans of the Emperor and of the +Antipope, and for his usurpation of the deanery of Salisbury; Richard of +Ilchester Archdeacon of Poitiers, the colleague of John in his +negotiations at Wurtzburg (thus the cause of Becket and Pope Alexander +were indissolubly welded together); the great Justiciary, Richard de +Luci, and John of Baliol, the authors of the Constitutions of Clarendon; +Randulph de Broc, Hugo de Clare, and others, for their forcible +usurpation of the estates of the see of Canterbury. He yet in his mercy +spared the King (he had received intelligence that Henry was dangerously +ill), and in a lower tone, his voice, as it seemed, half choked with +tears, he uttered his Commination. The whole congregation, even his own +intimate followers, were silent with amazement. + +This sentence of excommunication Becket announced to the Pope, and to +all the clergy of England. To the latter he said, "Who presumes to doubt +that the priests of God are the fathers and masters of kings, princes, +and all the faithful?" He commanded Gilbert, Bishop of London, and his +other suffragans, to publish this edict throughout their dioceses. He +did not confine himself to the bishops of England; the Norman prelates, +the Archbishop of Rouen, were expressly warned to withdraw from all +communion with the excommunicate.[109] + +[SN: Anger of the King.] + +The wrath of Henry drove him almost to madness. No one dared to name +Becket in his presence.[110] Soon after, on the occasion of some +discussion about the King of Scotland, he burst into a fit of passion, +threw away his cap, ungirt his belt, stripped off his clothes, tore the +silken coverlid from his bed, and crouched down on the straw, gnawing +bits of it with his teeth.[111] Proclamation was issued to guard the +ports of England against the threatened interdict. Any one who should be +apprehended as the bearer of such an instrument, if a regular, was to +lose his feet; if a clerk, his eyes, and suffer more shameful +mutilation; a layman was to be hanged; a leper to be burned. A bishop +who left the kingdom, for fear of the interdict, was to carry nothing +with him but his staff. All exiles were to return on pain of losing +their benefices. Priests who refused to chant the service were to be +mutilated, and all rebels to forfeit their lands. An oath was to be +administered by the sheriffs to all adults, that they would respect no +ecclesiastical censure from the Archbishop. + +[SN: Becket driven from Pontigny.] + +A second time Henry's ungovernable passion betrayed him into a step +which, instead of lowering, only placed his antagonist in a more +formidable position. He determined to drive him from his retreat at +Pontigny. He sent word to the general of the Cistercian order that it +was at their peril, if they harbored a traitor to his throne. The +Cistercians possessed many rich abbeys in England; they dared not defy +at once the King's resentment and rapacity. It was intimated to the +Abbot of Pontigny, that he must dismiss his guest. The Abbot +courteously communicated to Becket the danger incurred by the Order. He +could not but withdraw; but instead now of lurking in a remote +monastery, in some degree secluded from the public gaze, he was received +in the archiepiscopal city of Sens; his honorable residence was prepared +in a monastery close to the city; he lived in ostentatious communication +with the Archbishop William, one of his most zealous partisans.[112] + +[SN: Controversy with English clergy.] + +But the fury of haughtiness in Becket equaled the fury of resentment in +the King: yet it was not without subtlety. Just before the scene at +Vezelay, it has been said, the King had sent the Archbishop of Rouen and +the Bishop of Lisieux to Pontigny, to lodge his appeal to the Pope. +Becket, duly informed by his emissaries at the court, had taken care to +be absent. He eluded likewise the personal service of the appeal of the +English clergy. An active and violent correspondence ensued. The +remonstrance, purporting to be from the Primate's suffragans and the +whole clergy of England, was not without dignified calmness. With covert +irony, indeed, they said that they had derived great consolation from +the hope that, when abroad, he would cease to rebel against the King and +the peace of the realm; that he would devote his days to study and +prayer, and redeem his lost time by fasting, watching, and weeping; they +reproached him with the former favors of the King, with the design of +estranging the King from Pope Alexander; they asserted the readiness of +the King to do full justice, and concluded by lodging an appeal until +the Ascension-day of the following year.[113] Foliot was no doubt the +author of this remonstrance, and between the Primate and the Bishop +of London broke out a fierce warfare of letters. With Foliot Becket +kept no terms. "You complain that the Bishop of Salisbury has been +excommunicated, without citation, without hearing, without judgment. +Remember the fate of Ucalegon. He trembled when his neighbor's house was +on fire." To Foliot he asserted the pre-eminence, the supremacy, the +divinity of the spiritual power without reserve. "Let not your liege +lord be ashamed to defer to those to whom God himself defers, and calls +them 'Gods.'"[114] Foliot replied with what may be received as the +manifesto of his party, and as the manifesto of a party to be received +with some mistrust, yet singularly curious, as showing the tone of +defence taken by the opponents of the Primate among the English +clergy.[115] + +The address of the English prelates to Pope Alexander was more moderate, +and drawn with great ability. It asserted the justice, the obedience to +the Church, the great virtue and (a bold assertion!) the conjugal +fidelity of the King. The King had at once obeyed the citation of the +Bishops of London and Salisbury, concerning some encroachments on the +Church condemned by the Pope. The sole design of Henry had been to +promote good morals, and to maintain the peace of the realm. That peace +had been restored. All resentments had died away, when Becket fiercely +recommenced the strife; in sad and terrible letters had threatened the +King with excommunication, the realm with interdict. He had suspended +the Bishop of Salisbury without trial. "This was the whole of the +cruelty, perversity, malignity of the King against the Church, declaimed +on and bruited abroad throughout the world."[116] + +[SN: John of Oxford at Rome.] + +The indefatigable John of Oxford was in Rome, perhaps the bearer of this +address. Becket wrote to the Pope, insisting on all the cruelties of the +King; he calls him a malignant tyrant, one full of all malice. He dwelt +especially on the imprisonment of one of his chaplains, for which +violation of the sacred person of a clerk, the King was _ipso facto_ +excommunicate. "Christ was crucified anew in Becket."[117] He complained +of the presumption of Foliot, who had usurped the power of primate;[118] +warned the Pope against the wiles of John of Oxford; deprecated the +legatine mission, of which he had already heard a rumor, of William of +Pavia. And all these letters, so unsparing to the King, or copies of +them, probably bought out of the Roman chancery, were regularly +transmitted to the King. + +John of Oxford began his mission at Rome by swearing undauntedly, that +nothing had been done at Wurtzburg against the power of the Church or +the interests of Pope Alexander.[119] He surrendered his deanery of +Salisbury into the hands of the Pope, and received it back again.[120] +John of Oxford was armed with more powerful weapons than perjury or +submission, and the times now favored the use of these more irresistible +arms. The Emperor Frederick was levying, if he had not already set in +motion, that mighty army which swept, during the next year, through +Italy, made him master of Rome, and witnessed his coronation and the +enthronement of the Antipope.[121] Henry had now, notwithstanding his +suspicious--more than suspicious--dealings with the Emperor, returned to +his allegiance to Alexander. Vast sums of English money were from this +time expended in strengthening the cause of the Pope. The Guelfic cities +of Italy received them with greedy hands. By the gold of the King of +England, and of the King of Sicily, the Frangipani and the family of +Peter Leonis were retained in their fidelity to the Pope. Becket, on the +other hand, had powerful friends in Rome, especially the Cardinal +Hyacinth, to whom he writes, that Henry had boasted that in Rome +everything was venal. [SN: Dec. 1166.] It was, however, not till a +second embassy arrived, consisting of John Cummin and Ralph of Tamworth, +that Alexander made his great concession, the sign that he was not yet +extricated from his distress. He appointed William of Pavia, and Otho, +Cardinal of St. Nicholas, his legates in France, to decide the +cause.[122] Meantime all Becket's acts were suspended by the papal +authority. At the same time the Pope wrote to Becket, entreating him at +this perilous time of the Church to make all possible concessions, and +to dissemble, if necessary, for the present.[123] + +If John of Oxford boasted prematurely of his triumph (on his return +to England he took ostentatious possession of his deanery of +Salisbury[124]), and predicted the utter ruin of Becket, his friends, +especially the King of France,[125] were in utter dismay at this change +in the papal policy. John, as Becket had heard (and his emissaries were +everywhere), on his landing in England, had met the Bishop of Hereford +(one of the wavering bishops), prepared to cross the sea in obedience to +Becket's citation. To him, after some delay, John had exhibited letters +of the Pope, which sent him back to his diocese. On the sight of these +same letters, the Bishop of London had exclaimed in the fullness of his +joy, "Then our Thomas is no longer archbishop!" "If this be true," adds +Becket, "the Pope has given a death-blow to the Church."[126] To the +Archbishop of Mentz, for in the empire he had his ardent admirers, he +poured forth all the bitterness of his soul.[127] Of the two cardinals +he writes, "The one is weak and versatile, the other treacherous and +crafty." He looked to their arrival with indignant apprehension. They +are open to bribes, and may be perverted to any injustice.[128] + +John of Oxford had proclaimed that the cardinals, William of Pavia, and +Otho, were invested in full powers to pass judgment between the King and +the Primate.[129] But whether John of Oxford had mistaken or exaggerated +their powers, or the Pope (no improbable case, considering the change of +affairs in Italy) had thought fit afterwards to modify or retract them, +they came rather as mediators than judges, with orders to reconcile the +contending parties, rather than to decide on their cause. The cardinals +did not arrive in France till the autumn of the year.[130] Even before +their arrival, first rumors, then more certain intelligence had been +propagated throughout Christendom of the terrible disaster which had +befallen the Emperor. Barbarossa's career of vengeance and conquest had +been cut short. [SN: A. D. 1167. Flight of Frederick.] The Pope a +prisoner, a fugitive, was unexpectedly released, restored to power, if +not to the possession of Rome.[131] The climate of Rome, as usual, but +in a far more fearful manner, had resented the invasion of the city by +the German army. A pestilence had broken out, which in less than a month +made such havoc among the soldiers, that they could scarcely find room +to bury the dead. The fever seemed to choose its victims among the +higher clergy, the partisans of the Antipope; of the princes and nobles, +the chief victims were the younger Duke Guelf, Duke Frederick of Swabia, +and some others; of the bishops, those of Prague, Ratisbon, Augsburg, +Spires, Verdun, Liege, Zeitz; and the arch-rebel himself, the +antipope-maker, Reginald of Cologne.[132] Throughout Europe the clergy +on the side of Alexander raised a cry of awful exultation; it was God +manifestly avenging himself on the enemies of the Church; the new +Sennacherib (so he is called by Becket) had been smitten in his pride; +and the example of this chastisement of Frederick was a command to the +Church to resist to the last all rebels against her power, to put forth +her spiritual arms, which God would as assuredly support by the same or +more signal wonders. The defeat of Frederick was an admonition to the +Pope to lay bare the sword of Peter, and smite on all sides.[133] + +[SN: Becket against the legates.] + +There can be no doubt that Becket so interpreted what he deemed a sign +from heaven. But even before the disaster was certainly known he had +determined to show no submission to a judge so partial and so corrupt as +William of Pavia.[134] That cardinal had urged the Pope at Sens to +accept Becket's resignation of his see. Becket would not deign to +disguise his contempt. He wrote a letter so full of violence that John +of Salisbury,[135] to whom it was submitted, persuaded him to destroy +it. A second was little milder; at length he was persuaded to take a +more moderate tone. Yet even then he speaks of the "insolence of princes +lifting up their horn." To Cardinal Otho, on the other hand, his +language borders on adulation. + +[SN: Meeting near Gisors.] + +The cardinal Legates traveled in slow state. They visited first Becket +at Sens, afterwards King Henry at Rouen. At length a meeting was agreed +on to be held on the borders of the French and English territory, +between Gisors and Trie. The proud Becket was disturbed at being hastily +summoned, when he was unable to muster a sufficient retinue of horsemen +to meet the Italian cardinals. The two kings were there. Of Henry's +prelates the Archbishop of Rouen alone was present at the first +interview. Becket was charged with urging the King of France to war +against his master. [SN: Octave of St. Martin. Nov. 23.] On the +following day the King of France said in the presence of the cardinals, +that this impeachment on Becket's loyalty was false. To all the +persuasions, menaces, entreaties of the cardinals[136] Becket declared +that he would submit, "saving the honor of God, and of the Apostolic +See, the liberty of the Church, the dignity of his person, and the +property of the churches. As to the Customs he declared that he would +rather bow his neck to the executioner than swear to observe them. He +peremptorily demanded his own restoration at once to all the honors and +possessions of his see." The third question was on the appeal of the +bishops. Becket inveighed with bitterness on their treachery towards +him, their servility to the King. "When the shepherds fled all Egypt +returned to idolatry." Becket interpreted these "shepherds" as the +clergy.[137] He compares them to the slaves in the old comedy; he +declared that he would submit to no judgment on that point but that of +the Pope himself. + +[SN: The Cardinals before the King.] + +The Cardinals proceeded to the King. They were received but coldly at +Argences, not far from Caen, at a great meeting with the Norman and +English prelates. The Bishop of London entered at length into the King's +grievances and his own; Becket's debt to the King,[138] his usurpations +on the see of London. At the close Henry, in tears, entreated the +cardinals to rid him of the troublesome churchman. William of Pavia +wept, or seemed to weep from sympathy. Otho, writes Becket's emissary, +could hardly suppress his laughter. The English prelates afterwards at +Le Mans solemnly renewed their appeal. Their appeal was accompanied +with a letter, in which they complain that Becket would leave them +exposed to the wrath of the King, from which wrath he himself had +fled;[139] of false representations of the Customs, and disregard of all +justice and of the sacred canons in suspending and anathematizing the +clergy without hearing and without trial. William of Pavia gave notice +of the appeal for the next St. Martin's Day (so a year was to elapse), +with command to abstain from all excommunication and interdict of the +kingdom till that day.[140] Both cardinals wrote strongly to the Pope in +favor of the Bishop of London.[141] + +[SN: Dec. 29.] + +At this suspension Becket wrote to the Pope in a tone of mingled grief +and indignation.[142] He described himself as the most wretched of men; +applied the prophetic description of the Saviour's unequaled sorrow to +himself. He inveighed against William of Pavia:[143] he threw himself on +the justice and compassion of the Pope. But this inhibition was +confirmed by the Pope himself, in answer to another embassage of Henry, +consisting of Clarembold, Prior elect of St. Augustine's, the +Archdeacon of Salisbury, and others.[144] This important favor was +obtained through the interest of Cardinal John of Naples, who expresses +his hope that the insolent Archbishop must at length see that he had no +resource but in submission. + +[SN: May 19. Becket to the Pope.] + +Becket wrote again and again to the Pope, bitterly complaining that the +successive ambassadors of the King, John of Oxford, John Cummin, the +Prior of St. Augustine's, returned from Rome each with larger +concessions.[145] The Pope acknowledged that the concessions had been +extorted from him. The ambassadors of Henry had threatened to leave the +Papal Court, if their demands were not complied with, in open hostility. +The Pope was still an exile in Benevento,[146] and did not dare to +reoccupy Rome. The Emperor, even after his discomfiture, was still +formidable; he might collect another overwhelming Transalpine force. The +subsidies of Henry to the Italian cities and to the Roman partisans of +the Pope could not be spared. The Pontiff therefore wrote soothing +letters to the King of France and to Becket. He insinuated that these +concessions were but for a time. "For a time!" replied Becket in an +answer full of fire and passion: "and in that time the Church of England +falls utterly to ruin; the property of the Church and the poor is +wrested from her. In that time prelacies and abbacies are confiscated to +the King's use: in that time who will guard the flock when the wolf is +in the fold? This fatal dispensation will be a precedent for all ages. +But for me and my fellow exiles all authority of Rome had ceased +forever in England. There had been no one who had maintained the Pope +against kings and princes." His significant language involves the Pope +himself in the general and unsparing charge of rapacity and venality +with which he brands the court of Rome. "I shall have to give an account +at the last day, where gold and silver are of no avail, nor gifts which +blind the eyes even of the wise."[147] [SN: To the Cardinals.] The same +contemptuous allusions to that notorious venality transpire in a +vehement letter addressed to the College of Cardinals, in which he urges +that his cause is their own; that they are sanctioning a fatal and +irretrievable example to temporal princes; that they are abrogating all +obedience to the Church. "Your gold and silver will not deliver you in +the day of the wrath of the Lord."[148] On the other hand, the King and +the Queen of France wrote in a tone of indignant remonstrance that the +Pope had abandoned the cause of the enemy of their enemy. More than one +of the French prelates who wrote in the same strain declared that their +King, in his resentment, had seriously thought of defection to the +Antipope, and of a close connexion with the Imperial family.[149] +Alexander determined to make another attempt at reconciliation; at least +he should gain time, that precious source of hope to the embarrassed and +irresolute. His mediators were the Prior of Montdieu and Bernard de +Corilo, a monk of Grammont.[150] It was a fortunate time, for just at +this juncture, peace and even amity seemed to be established between the +Kings of France and England. Many of the great Norman and French +prelates and nobles offered themselves as joint mediators with the +commissioners of the Pope. + +[SN: Meeting at Montmirail.] + +A vast assembly was convened on the day of the Epiphany in the plains +near Montmirail, where in the presence of the two kings and the barons +of each realm the reconciliation was to take place. Becket held a long +conference with the mediators. He proposed, instead of the obnoxious +phrase "saving my order," to substitute "saving the honor of God;"[151] +the mediators of the treaty insisted on his throwing himself on the +King's mercy absolutely and without reservation. With great reluctance +Becket appeared at least to yield: his counselors acquiesced in silence. +With this distinct understanding the Kings of France and England met at +Montmirail, and everything seemed prepared for the final settlement of +this long and obstinate quarrel. [SN: Jan. 6, 1169.] The Kings awaited +the approach of the Primate. But as he was on his way, De Bosham (who +always assumes to himself the credit of suggesting Becket's most haughty +proceedings) whispered in his ear (De Bosham himself asserts this) a +solemn caution, lest he should act over again the fatal scene of +weakness at Clarendon. Becket had not time to answer De Bosham: he +advanced to the King and threw himself at his feet. Henry raised him +instantly from the ground. Becket, standing upright, began to solicit +the clemency of the King. He declared his readiness to submit his whole +cause to the judgment of the two Kings and of the assembled prelates and +nobles. After a pause he added, "Saving the honor of God."[152] + +[SN: Treaty broken off.] + +At this unexpected breach of his agreement the mediators, even the most +ardent admirers of Becket, stood aghast. Henry, thinking himself duped, +as well he might, broke out into one of his ungovernable fits of anger. +He reproached the Archbishop with arrogance, obstinacy, and ingratitude. +He so far forgot himself as to declare that Becket had displayed all his +magnificence and prodigality as chancellor only to court popularity and +to supplant his king in the affections of his people. Becket listened +with patience, and appealed to the King of France as witness to his +loyalty. Henry fiercely interrupted him. "Mark, Sire (he addressed the +King of France), the infatuation and pride of the man: he pretends to +have been banished, though he fled from his see. He would persuade you +that he is maintaining the cause of the Church, and suffering for the +sake of justice. I have always been willing, and am still willing, to +grant that he should rule his Church with the same liberty as his +predecessors, men not less holy than himself." Even the King of France +seemed shocked at the conduct of Becket. The prelates and nobles, having +in vain labored to bend the inflexible spirit of the Primate, retired in +sullen dissatisfaction. He stood alone. Even John of Poitiers, his most +ardent admirer, followed him to Etampes, and entreated him to yield. +"And you, too," returned Becket, "will you strangle us, and give triumph +to the malignity of our enemies?"[153] + +The King of England retired, followed by the Papal Legates, who, though +they held letters of Commination from the Pope,[154] delayed to serve +them on the King. Becket followed the King of France to Montmirail. He +was received by Louis; and Becket put on so cheerful a countenance as to +surprise all present. On his return to Sens, he explained to his +followers that his cause was not only that of the Church, but of +God.[155] He passed among the acclamations of the populace, ignorant of +his duplicity. "Behold the prelate who stood up even before two kings +for the honor of God." + +[SN: War of France and England.] + +Becket may have had foresight, or even secret information of the +hollowness of the peace between the two kings. Before many days, some +acts of barbarous cruelty by Henry against his rebellious subjects +plunged the two nations again in hostility. The King of France and his +prelates, feeling how nearly they had lost their powerful ally, began +to admire what they called Becket's magnanimity as loudly as they had +censured his obstinacy. The King visited him at Sens: one of the Papal +commissioners, the Monk of Grammont, said privately to Herbert de +Bosham, that he had rather his foot had been cut off than that Becket +should have listened to his advice.[156] + +[SN: Excommunication.] + +Becket now at once drew the sword and cast away the scabbard. "Cursed is +he that refraineth his sword from blood." This Becket applied to the +spiritual weapon. On Ascension Day he again solemnly excommunicated +Gilbert Foliot Bishop of London, Joscelin of Salisbury, the Archdeacon +of Salisbury, Richard de Luci, Randulph de Broc, and many other of +Henry's most faithful counselors. He announced this excommunication to +the Archbishop of Rouen,[157] and reminded him that whosoever presumed +to communicate with any one of these outlaws of the Church by word, in +meat or drink, or even by salutation, subjected himself thereby to the +same excommunication. The appeal to the Pope he treated with sovereign +contempt. He sternly inhibited Roger of Worcester, who had entreated +permission to communicate with his brethren.[158] "What fellowship is +there between Christ and Belial?" He announced this act to the Pope, +entreating, but with the tone of command, his approbation of the +proceeding. An emissary of Becket had the boldness to enter St. Paul's +Cathedral in London, to thrust the sentence into the hands of the +officiating priest, and then to proclaim with a loud voice, "Know all +men, that Gilbert Bishop of London is excommunicate by Thomas +Archbishop of Canterbury and Legate of the Pope." He escaped with some +difficulty from ill-usage by the people. Foliot immediately summoned +his clergy; explained the illegality, injustice, nullity of an +excommunication without citation, hearing, or trial, and renewed his +appeal to the Pope. The Dean of St. Paul's and all the clergy, excepting +the priests of certain monasteries, joined in the appeal. The Bishop of +Exeter declined, nevertheless he gave to Foliot the kiss of peace.[159] + +[SN: Henry's intrigues in Italy.] + +King Henry was not without fear at this last desperate blow. He had not +a single chaplain who had not been excommunicated, or was not +virtually under ban for holding intercourse with persons under +excommunication.[160] He continued his active intrigues, his subsidies +in Italy. He bought the support of Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Parma, +Bologna. The Frangipani, the family of Leo, the people of Rome, +were still kept in allegiance to the Pope chiefly by his lavish +payments.[161] He made overtures to the King of Sicily, the Pope's ally, +for a matrimonial alliance with his family: and finally, he urged the +tempting offer to mediate a peace between the Emperor and the Pope. +Reginald of Salisbury boasted that, if the Pope should die, Henry had +the whole College of Cardinals in his pay, and could name his +Pope.[162] + +[SN: New Legatine Commission. Mar. 10, 1169.] + +But no longer dependent on Henry's largesses to his partisans, +Alexander's affairs wore a more prosperous aspect. He began, yet +cautiously, to show his real bias. He determined to appoint a new +legatine commission, not now rapacious cardinals and avowed partisans of +Henry. The Nuncios were Gratian, a hard and severe canon lawyer, not +likely to swerve from the loftiest claims of the Decretals; and Vivian, +a man of more pliant character, but as far as he was firm in any +principle, disposed to high ecclesiastical views. At the same time he +urged Becket to issue no sentences against the King or the King's +followers; or if, as he hardly believed, he had already done so, to +suspend their powers. + +[SN: English prelates waver.] + +The terrors of the excommunication were not without their effect in +England. Some of the Bishops began gradually to recede from the King's +party, and to incline to that of the Primate. Hereford had already +attempted to cross the sea. Henry of Winchester was in private +correspondence with Becket: he had throughout secretly supplied him with +money.[163] Becket skillfully labored to awaken his old spirit of +opposition to the Crown. He reminded Winchester of his royal descent, +that he was secure in his powerful connexions; "the impious one would +not dare to strike him, for fear lest his kindred should avenge his +cause."[164] Norwich, Worcester, Chester, even Chichester, more than +wavered. This movement was strengthened by a false step of Foliot, which +exposed all his former proceedings to the charge of irregular ambition. +He began to declare publicly not only that he never swore canonical +obedience to Becket, but to assert the independence of the see of London +and the right of the see of London to the primacy of England. Becket +speaks of this as an act of spiritual parricide: Foliot was another +Absalom.[165] He appealed to the pride and the fears of the Chapter of +Canterbury: he exposed, and called on them to resist, these machinations +of Foliot to degrade the archiepiscopal see. At the same time he warned +all persons to abstain from communion with those who were under his ban; +"for he had accurate information as to all who were guilty of that +offence." Even in France this proceeding strengthened the sympathy with +Becket. The Archbishop of Sens, the Bishops of Troyes, Paris, Noyon, +Auxerre, Boulogne, wrote to the Pope to denounce this audacious impiety +of the Bishop of London. + +[SN: Interview of the new Legates with the King. Aug. 23.] + +The first interview of the new Papal legates, Gratian and Vivian, with +the King, is described with singular minuteness by a friend of +Becket.[166] On the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day they arrived at +Damport. On their approach, Geoffrey Ridel and Nigel Sackville stole out +of the town. The King, as he came in from hunting, courteously stopped +at the lodging of the Legates: as they were conversing the Prince rode +up with a great blowing of horns from the chase, and presented a whole +stag to the Legates. The next morning the King visited them, accompanied +by the Bishops of Seez and of Rennes. Presently John of Oxford, Reginald +of Salisbury, and the Archdeacon of Llandaff were admitted. The +conference lasted the whole day, sometimes in amity, sometimes in +strife. Just before sunset the King rushed out in wrath, swearing by the +eyes of God that he would not submit to their terms. Gratian firmly +replied, "Think not to threaten us; we come from a court which is +accustomed to command Emperors and Kings." The King then summoned his +barons to witness, together with his chaplains, what fair offers he had +made. He departed somewhat pacified. The eighth day was appointed for +the convention, at which the King and the Archbishop were again to meet +in the presence of the Legates. + +[SN: Aug. 31.] + +It was held at Bayeux. With the King appeared the Archbishops of Rouen +and Bordeaux, the Bishop of Le Mans, and all the Norman prelates. The +second day arrived one English bishop--Worcester. John of Poitiers kept +prudently away. The Legates presented the Pope's preceding letters in +favor of Becket. The King, after stating his grievances,[167] said, "If +for this man I do anything, on account of the Pope's entreaties, he +ought to be very grateful." The next day at a place called Le Bar, the +King requested the Legates to absolve his chaplains without any oath: on +their refusal, the King mounted his horse, and swore that he would never +listen to the Pope or any one else concerning the restoration of Becket. +The prelates interceded; the Legates partially gave way. The King +dismounted and renewed the conference. At length he consented to the +return of Becket and all the exiles. He seemed delighted at this, and +treated of other affairs. He returned again to the Legates, and demanded +that they, or one of them, or at least some one commissioned by them, +should cross over to England to absolve all who had been excommunicated +by the Primate. Gratian refused this with inflexible obstinacy. +The King was again furious: "I care not an egg for you and your +excommunications." He again mounted his horse, but at the earnest +supplication of the prelates he returned once more. He demanded that +they should write to the Pope to announce his pacific offers. The +Bishops explained to the King that the Legates had at last produced a +positive mandate of the Pope, enjoining their absolute obedience to his +Legates. The King replied, "I know that they will lay my realm under an +interdict, but cannot I, who can take the strongest castle in a day, +seize any ecclesiastic who shall presume to utter such an interdict?" +Some concessions allayed his wrath, and he returned to his offers of +reconciliation. Geoffry Ridel and Nigel Sackville were absolved on the +condition of declaring, with their hands on the Gospels, that they would +obey the commands of the Legates. The King still pressing the visit of +one of the Legates to England, Vivian consented to take the journey. The +bishops were ordered to draw up the treaty; but the King insisted on a +clause "Saving the honor of his Crown." They adjourned to a future day +at Caen. The Bishop of Lisieux, adds the writer, flattered the King; the +Archbishop of Rouen was for God and the Pope. + +Two conferences at Caen and at Rouen were equally inconclusive; the King +insisted on the words, "saving the dignity of my Crown." Becket +inquired if he might add "saving the liberty of the Church."[168] + +The King threw all the blame of the final rupture on the Legates, who +had agreed, he said, to this clause,[169] but through Becket's influence +withdrew from their word.[170] He reminded the Pope that he had in his +possession letters of his Holiness exempting him and his realm from all +authority of the Primate till he should be received into the royal +favor.[171] "If," he adds, "the Pope refuses my demands, he must +henceforth despair of my good will, and look to other quarters to +protect his realm and his honor." Both parties renewed their appeals, +their intrigues in Rome; Becket's complaints of Rome's venality became +louder.[172] + +Becket began again to fulminate his excommunications. Before his +departure Gratian signified to Geoffry Ridel and Nigel Sackville that +their absolution was conditional; if peace was not ratified by +Michaelmas, they were still under the ban. Becket menaced some old, some +new victims, the Dean of Salisbury, John Cummin, the Archdeacon of +Llandaff, and others.[173] But he now took a more decisive and terrible +step. [SN: Nov. 2, 1170.] He wrote to the bishops of England,[174] +commanding them to lay the whole kingdom under interdict; all divine +offices were to cease except baptism, penance, and the viaticum, unless +before the Feast of the Purification the King should have given full +satisfaction for his contumacy to the Church. This was to be done with +closed doors, the laity expelled from the ceremony, with no bell +tolling, no dirge wailing; all church music was to cease. The act was +specially announced to the chapters of Chichester, Lincoln, and Bath. Of +the Pope he demanded that he would treat the King's ambassadors, +Reginald of Salisbury and Richard Barre, one as actually excommunicate, +the other as contaminated by intercourse with the excommunicate.[175] + +The menace of the Interdict, with the fear that the Bishops of England, +all but London and Salisbury, might be overawed into publishing it in +their dioceses, threw Henry back into his usual irresolution. There +were other alarming signs. Gratian had returned to Rome, accompanied +by William, Archbishop of Sens, Becket's most faithful admirer. +Rumors spread that William was to return invested in full legatine +powers--William, not only Becket's friend, but the head of the French +hierarchy. If the Interdict should be extended to his French dominions, +and the Excommunication launched against his person, could he depend on +the precarious fidelity of the Norman prelates? Differences had again +arisen with the King of France.[176] Henry was seized with an access of +devotion. [SN: Henry at Paris.] He asked permission to offer his prayers +at the shrines and at the Martyrs' Mount (Montmartre) at Paris. The +pilgrimage would lead to an interview with the King of France, and offer +an occasion of renewing the negotiations with Becket. [SN: Nov. 1169.] +Vivan was hastily summoned to turn back. His vanity was flattered by +the hope of achieving that reconciliation which had failed with Gratian. +He wrote to Becket requesting his presence. Becket, though he suspected +Vivian, yet out of respect to the King of France, consented to approach +as near as Château Corbeil. After the conference with the King of +France, two petitions from Becket, in his usual tone of imperious +humility, were presented to the King of England. The Primate +condescended to entreat the favor of Henry, and the restoration of the +Church of Canterbury, in as ample a form as it was held before his +exile. The second was more brief, but raised a new question of +compensation for loss and damage during the archbishop's absence from +his see.[177] [SN: Negotiations renewed.] Both parties mistrusted each +other; each watched the other's words with captious jealousy. Vivian, +weary of those verbal chicaneries of the King, declared that he had +never met with so mendacious a man in his life.[178] Vivian might have +remembered his own retractations, still more those of Becket on former +occasions. He withdrew from the negotiation; and this conduct, with the +refusal of a gift from Henry (a rare act of virtue), won him the +approbation of Becket. But Becket himself was not yet without mistrust; +he had doubts whether Vivian's report to the Pope would be in the same +spirit. "If it be not, he deserves the doom of the traitor Judas." + +Henry at length, agreed that on the question of compensation he would +abide by the sentence of the court of the French King, the judgment of +the Gallican Church, and of the University of Paris.[179] This made so +favorable an impression that Becket could only evade it by declaring +that he had rather come to an amicable agreement with the King than +involve the affair in litigation. + +[SN: Kiss of peace.] + +At length all difficulties seemed yielding away, when Becket demanded +the customary kiss of peace, as the pledge of reconciliation. Henry +peremptorily refused; he had sworn in his wrath never to grant this +favor to Becket. He was inexorable; and without this guarantee Becket +would not trust the faith of the King. He was reminded, he said, by the +case of the Count of Flanders, that even the kiss of peace did not +secure a revolted subject, Robert de Silian, who, even after this sign +of amity, had been seized and cast into a dungeon. Henry's conduct, if +not the effect of sudden passion or ungovernable aversion, is +inexplicable. Why did he seek this interview, which, if he was insincere +in his desire for reconciliation, could afford but short delay? and from +such oaths he would hardly have refused, for any great purpose of his +own, to receive absolution.[180] On the other hand, it is quite clear +that Becket reckoned on the legatine power of William of Sens and the +terror of the English prelates, who had refused to attend a council in +London to reject the Interdict. He had now full confidence that he could +exact his own terms and humble the King under his feet.[181] + +[SN: King's proclamation.] + +But the King was resolved to wage war to the utmost. Geoffry Ridel, +Archdeacon of Canterbury, was sent to England with a royal proclamation +containing the following articles:--I. Whosoever shall bring into the +realm any letter from the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury is guilty +of high treason. II. Whosoever, whether bishop, clerk, or layman, shall +observe the Interdict, shall be ejected from all his chattels, which are +confiscate to the Crown. III. All clerks absent from England shall +return before the feast of St. Hilary, on pain of forfeiture of all +their revenues. IV. No appeal is to be made to the Pope or Archbishop of +Canterbury under pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of all chattels. +V. All laymen from beyond seas are to be searched, and if anything be +found upon them contrary to the King's honor, they are to be imprisoned; +the same with those who cross to the Continent. VI. If any clerk or monk +shall land in England without passport from the King, or with anything +contrary to his honor, he shall be thrown into prison. VII. No clerk or +monk may cross the seas without the King's passport. The same rule +applied to the clergy of Wales, who were to be expelled from all schools +in England. Lastly, VIII. The sheriffs were to administer an oath to all +freemen throughout England, in open court, that they would obey these +royal mandates, thus abjuring, it is said, all obedience to Thomas, +Archbishop of Canterbury.[182] The bishops, however, declined the oath; +some concealed themselves in their dioceses. Becket addressed a +triumphant or gratulatory letter to his suffragans on their firmness. +"We are now one, except that most hapless Judas, that rotten limb +(Foliot of London), which is severed from us."[183] Another letter is +addressed to the people of England, remonstrating on their impious +abjuration of their pastor, and offering absolution to all who had sworn +through compulsion and repented of their oath.[184] The King and the +Primate thus contested the realm of England. + +[SN: The Pope still dubious.] + +But the Pope was not yet to be inflamed by Becket's passions, nor quite +disposed to depart from his temporizing policy. John of Oxford was at +the court in Benevento with the Archdeacons of Rouen and Seez. From that +court returned the Archdeacon of Llandaff and Robert de Barre with a +commission to the Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishop of Nevers to make +one more effort for the termination of the difficulties. On the one hand +they were armed with powers, if the King did not accede to his own terms +within forty days after his citation (he had offered a thousand marks as +compensation for all losses), to pronounce an interdict against his +continental dominions; on the other, Becket was exhorted to humble +himself before the King; if Henry was inflexible and declined the +Pope's offered absolution from his oath, to accept the kiss of peace +from the King's son. The King was urged to abolish in due time the +impious and obnoxious Customs. And to these prelates was likewise +intrusted authority to absolve the refractory Bishops of London and +Salisbury.[185] This, however, was not the only object of Henry's new +embassy to the Pope. He had long determined on the coronation of his +eldest son; it had been delayed for various reasons. He seized this +opportunity of reviving a design which would be as well humiliating to +Becket as also of great moment in case the person of the King should be +struck by the thunder of excommunication. The coronation of the King of +England was the undoubted prerogative of the Archbishops of Canterbury, +which had never been invaded without sufficient cause, and Becket was +the last man tamely to surrender so important a right of his see. John +of Oxford was to exert every means (what those means were may be +conjectured rather than proved) to obtain the papal permission for the +Archbishop of York to officiate at that august ceremony. + +The absolution of the Bishops of London and Salisbury was an astounding +blow to Becket. He tried to impede it by calling in question the power +of the archbishop to pronounce it without the presence of his colleague. +The archbishop disregarded his remonstrance, and Becket's sentence was +thus annulled by the authority of the Pope. Rumors at the same time +began to spread that the Pope had granted to the Archbishop of York +power to proceed to the coronation. Becket's fury burst all bounds. He +wrote to the Cardinal Albert and to Gratian: "In the court of Rome, now +as ever, Christ is crucified and Barabbas released. The miserable and +blameless exiles are condemned, the sacrilegious, the homicides, the +impenitent thieves are absolved, those whom Peter himself declares that +in his own chair (the world protesting against it) he would have no +power to absolve.[186] Henceforth I commit my cause to God--God alone +can find a remedy. Let those appeal to Rome who triumph over the +innocent and the godly, and return glorying in the ruin of the Church. +For me I am ready to die." Becket's fellow exiles addressed the Cardinal +Albert, denouncing in vehement language the avarice of the court of +Rome, by which they were brought to support the robbers of the Church. +It is no longer King Henry alone who is guilty of this six years' +persecution, but the Church of Rome.[187] + +The coronation of the Prince by the Archbishop of York took place in the +Abbey of Westminster on the 15th of June.[188] The assent of the clergy +was given with that of the laity. The Archbishop of York produced a +papal brief, authorising him to perform the ceremony.[189] An inhibitory +letter, if it reached England, only came into the King's hand, and was +suppressed; no one, in fact (as the production of such papal letter, as +well as Becket's protest to the archbishop and to the bishops +collectively and severally, was by the royal proclamation high treason +or at least a misdemeanor) would dare to produce them. + +The estrangement seemed now complete, the reconciliation more remote +than ever. The Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishop of Nevers, though +urged to immediate action by Becket and even by the Pope, admitted delay +after delay, first for the voyage of the King to England, and secondly +for his return to Normandy. Becket seemed more and more desperate, the +King more and more resolute. Even after the coronation, it should seem, +Becket wrote to Roger of York,[190] to Henry of Worcester, and even to +Foliot of London, to publish the Interdict in their dioceses. The latter +was a virtual acknowledgment of the legality of his absolution, which in +a long letter to the Bishop of Nevers he had contested:[191] but the +Interdict still hung over the King and the realm; the fidelity of the +clergy was precarious. + +[SN: Treaty of Fretteville.] + +The reconciliation at last was so sudden as to take the world by +surprise. The clue to this is found in Fitz-Stephen. Some one had +suggested by word or by writing to the King that the Primate would be +less dangerous within than without the realm.[192] The hint flashed +conviction on the King's mind. The two Kings had appointed an interview +at Fretteville, between Chartres and Tours. The Archbishop of Sens +prevailed on Becket to be, unsummoned, in the neighborhood. Some days +after the King seemed persuaded by the Archbishops of Sens and Rouen +and the Bishop of Nevers to hold a conference with Becket.[193] As soon +as they drew near the King rode up, uncovered his head, and saluted the +Prelate with frank courtesy, and after a short conversation between the +two and the Archbishop of Sens, the King withdrew apart with Becket. +Their conference was so long as to try the patience of the spectators, +so familiar that it might seem there had never been discord between +them. Becket took a moderate tone; by his own account he laid the faults +of the King entirely on his evil counselors. After a gentle admonition +to the King on his sins, he urged him to make restitution to the see of +Canterbury. He dwelt strongly on the late usurpation on the rights of +the primacy, on the coronation of the King's son. Henry alleged the +state of the kingdom and the necessity of the measure; he promised that +as his son's queen, the daughter of the King of France, was also to be +crowned, that ceremony should be performed by Becket, and that his son +should again receive his crown from the hands of the Primate. + +At the close of the interview Becket sprung from his horse and threw +himself at the King's feet. The King leaped down, and holding his +stirrup compelled the Primate to mount his horse again. In the most +friendly terms he expressed his full reconciliation not only to Becket +himself, but to the wondering and delighted multitude. There seemed an +understanding on both sides to suppress all points which might lead to +disagreement. The King did not dare (so Becket writes triumphantly to +the Pope) to mutter one word about the Customs.[194] Becket was equally +prudent, though he took care that his submission should be so vaguely +worded as to be drawn into no dangerous concession on his part. [SN: +July.] He abstained, too, from all other perilous topics; he left +undecided the amount of satisfaction to the church of Canterbury; and on +these general terms he and the partners of his exile were formally +received into the King's grace. If the King was humiliated by this quiet +and sudden reconcilement with the imperious prelate, to outward +appearance at least he concealed his humiliation by his noble and kingly +manner. If he submitted to the spiritual reproof of the prelate, he +condescended to receive into his favor his refractory subject. Each +maintained prudent silence on all points in dispute. Henry received, but +he also granted pardon. If his concession was really extorted by fear, +not from policy, compassion for Becket's six years' exile might seem not +without influence. If Henry did not allude to the Customs, he did not +annul them; they were still the law of the land. The kiss of peace was +eluded by a vague promise. Becket made a merit of not driving the King +to perjury, but he skillfully avoided this trying test of the King's +sincerity. + +[SN: Becket's schemes of vengeance.] + +But Becket's revenge must be satisfied with other victims. If the +worldly King could forget the rancor of this long animosity, it was not +so easily appeased in the breast of the Christian Prelate. No doubt +vengeance disguised itself to Becket's mind as the lofty and rightful +assertion of spiritual authority. The opposing prelates must be at his +feet, even under his feet. The first thought of his partisans was not +his return to England with a generous amnesty of all wrongs, or a gentle +reconciliation of the whole clergy, but the condign punishment of those +who had so long been the counselors of the King, and had so recently +officiated in the coronation of his son. + +The court of Rome did not refuse to enter into these views, to visit the +offence of those disloyal bishops who had betrayed the interests and +compromised the high principles of churchmen.[195] It was presumed that +the King would not risk a peace so hardly gained for his obsequious +prelates. [SN: Dated Sept. 10.] The lay adherents of the King, even the +plunderers of Church property were spared, some ecclesiastics about his +person, John of Oxford himself escaped censure: but Pope Alexander sent +the decree of suspension against the Archbishop of York, and renewed the +excommunication of London and Salisbury, with whom were joined the +Archdeacon of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester, as guilty of +special violation of their allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury, +the Bishop of St. Asaph, and some others. Becket himself saw the policy +of altogether separating the cause of the bishops from that of the King. +He requested that some expressions relating to the King's excesses, and +condemnatory of the bishops for swearing to the Customs, should be +suppressed; and the excommunication grounded entirely on their +usurpation of the right of crowning the King.[196] + +[SN: Interview at Tours.] + +About four months elapsed between the treaty of Fretteville and the +return of Becket to England. They were occupied by these negotiations at +Rome, Veroli, and Ferentino; by discussions with the King, who was +attacked during this period with a dangerous illness; and by the mission +of some of Becket's officers to resume the estates of the see. Becket +had two personal interviews with the King: the first was at Tours, +where, as he was now in the King's dominions, he endeavored to obtain +the kiss of peace. The Archbishop hoped to betray Henry into this favor +during the celebration of the mass, in which it might seem only a part +of the service.[197] Henry was on his guard, and ordered the mass for +the dead, in which the benediction is not pronounced. The King had +received Becket fairly; they parted not without ill-concealed +estrangement. At the second meeting the King seemed more friendly; he +went so far as to say, "Why resist my wishes? I would place everything +in your hands." Becket, in his own words, bethought him of the tempter, +"All these things will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and +worship me." + +The King had written to his son in England that the see of Canterbury +should be restored to Becket, as it was three months before his exile. +But there were two strong parties hostile to Becket: the King's officers +who held in sequestration the estates of the see, and seem to have +especially coveted the receipt of the Michaelmas rents; and with these +some of the fierce warrior nobles, who held lands or castles which were +claimed as possessions of the Church of Canterbury. Randulph De Broc, +his old inveterate enemy, was determined not to surrender his castle of +Saltwood. It was reported to Becket, by Becket represented to the King, +that De Broc had sworn that he would have Becket's life before he had +eaten a loaf of bread in England. The castle of Rochester was held on +the same doubtful title by one of his enemies. The second party was that +of the bishops, which was powerful, with a considerable body of the +clergy and laity. They had sufficient influence to urge the King's +officers to take the strongest measures, lest the Papal letters of +excommunication should be introduced into the kingdom. + +It is perhaps vain to conjecture, how far, if Becket had returned to +England in the spirit of meekness, forgiveness, and forbearance, not +wielding the thunders of excommunication, nor determined to trample on +his adversaries, and to exact the utmost even of his doubtful rights, +he might have resumed his see, and gradually won back the favor of the +King, the respect and love of the whole hierarchy, and all the +legitimate possessions of his church. But he came not in peace, nor was +he received in peace.[198] [SN: Becket prepares for his return.] It was +not the Archbishop of Rouen, as he had hoped, but his old enemy John of +Oxford, who was commanded by the King to accompany him, and reinstate +him in his see. The King might allege that one so much in the royal +confidence was the best protector of the Archbishop. The money which had +been promised for his voyage was not paid; he was forced to borrow £300 +of the Archbishop of Rouen. He went, as he felt, or affected to feel, +with death before his eyes, yet nothing should now separate him from his +long-divided flock. Before his embarkation at Whitsand in Flanders, +he received intelligence that the shores were watched by his enemies, +it was said with designs on his life,[199] but assuredly with +the determination of making a rigid search for the letters of +excommunication.[200] [SN: Letters of excommunication sent before him.] +To secure the safe carriage of one of these perilous documents, the +suspension of the Archbishop of York, it was intrusted to a nun named +Idonea, whom he exhorts, like another Judith, to this holy act, and +promises her as her reward the remission of her sins.[201] Other +contraband letters were conveyed across the Channel by unknown hands, +and were delivered to the bishops before Becket's landing. + +The prelates of York and London were at Canterbury when they received +these Papal letters. When the fulminating instruments were read before +them, in which was this passage, "we will fill your faces with +ignominy," their countenances fell. They sent messengers to complain to +Becket, that he came not in peace, but in fire and flame, trampling his +brother bishops under his feet, and making their necks his footstool; +that he had condemned them uncited, unheard, unjudged. "There is no +peace," Becket sternly replied, "but to men of good will."[202] It was +said that London was disposed to humble himself before Becket; but +York,[203] trusting in his wealth, boasted that he had in his power the +Pope, the King, and all their courts. + +[SN: Lands at Sandwich. Dec. 1.] + +Instead of the port of Dover, where he was expected, Becket's vessel, +with the archiepiscopal banner displayed, cast anchor at Sandwich. Soon +after his landing, appeared in arms the Sheriff of Kent, Randulph de +Broc, and others of his enemies. They searched his baggage, fiercely +demanded that he should absolve the bishops, and endeavored to force the +Archdeacon of Sens, a foreign ecclesiastic, to take an oath to keep the +peace of the realm. John of Oxford was shocked, and repressed their +violence. On his way to Canterbury the country clergy came forth with +their flocks to meet him; they strewed their garments in his way, +chanting, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." [SN: At +Canterbury.] Arrived at Canterbury, he rode at once to the church with a +vast procession of clergy, amid the ringing of the bells, and the +chanting of music. He took his archiepiscopal throne, and afterwards +preached on the text, "Here we have no abiding city." The next morning +came again the Sheriff of Kent, with Randulph de Broc, and the +messengers of the bishops, demanding their absolution.[204] Becket +evaded the question by asserting that the Excommunication was not +pronounced by him, but by his superior the Pope; that he had no power to +abrogate the sentence. This declaration was directly at issue with the +bull of excommunication: if the bishops gave satisfaction to the +Archbishop, he had power to act on behalf of the Pope.[205] But to the +satisfaction which, according to one account, he did demand, that they +should stand a public trial, in other words place themselves at his +mercy, they would not, and hardly could submit. They set out immediately +to the King in Normandy. + +The restless Primate was determined to keep alive the popular fervor, +enthusiastically, almost fanatically, on his side. [SN: Goes to +London.] On a pretext of a visit to the young King at Woodstock, to +offer him the present of three beautiful horses, he set forth on a +stately progress. Wherever he went he was received with acclamations and +prayers for his blessings by the clergy and the people. In Rochester +he was entertained by the Bishop with great ceremony. In London +there was the same excitement: he was received in the palace by +the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark. Even there he scattered some +excommunications.[206] The Court took alarm, and sent orders to the +prelate to return to his diocese. Becket obeyed, but alleged as the +cause of his obedience, not the royal command, but his own desire to +celebrate the festival of Christmas in his metropolitan church. The +week passed in holding sittings in his court, where he acted with his +usual promptitude, vigor, and resolution against the intruders into +livings, and upon the encroachments on his estates; and in devotions +most fervent, mortifications most austere.[207] + +His rude enemies committed in the mean time all kinds of petty +annoyances, which he had not the loftiness to disdain. Randulph de Broc +seized a vessel laden with rich wine for his use, and imprisoned the +sailors in Pevensey Castle. An order from the court compelled him to +release ship and crew. They robbed the people who carried his +provisions, broke into his park, hunted his deer, beat his retainers; +and, at the instigation of Randulph's brother, Robert de Broc, a +ruffian, a renegade monk, cut off the tail of one of his state horses. + +On Christmas day Becket preached on the appropriate text, "Peace on +earth, good will towards men." The sermon agreed ill with the text. He +spoke of one of his predecessors, St. Alphege, who had suffered +martyrdom. "There may soon be a second." He then burst out into a +fierce, impetuous, terrible tone, arraigned the courtiers, and closed +with a fulminating excommunication against Nigel de Sackville, who had +refused to give up a benefice into which, in Becket's judgment, he had +intruded, and against Randulph and Robert de Broc. The maimed horse was +not forgotten. He renewed in the most vehement language the censure on +the bishops, dashed the candle on the pavement in token of their utter +extinction, and then proceeded to the mass at the altar.[208] + +[SN: The bishops with the King.] + +In the mean time the excommunicated prelates had sought the King in the +neighborhood of Bayeux; they implored his protection for themselves and +the clergy of the realm. "If all are to be visited by spiritual +censures," said the King, "who officiated at the coronation of my son, +by the eyes of God, I am equally guilty." The whole conduct of Becket +since his return was detailed, and no doubt deeply darkened by the +hostility of his adversaries. All had been done with an insolent and +seditious design of alienating the affections of the people from the +King. Henry demanded counsel of the prelates; they declared themselves +unable to give it. But one incautiously said, "So long as Thomas lives, +you will never be at peace." The King broke out into one of his terrible +constitutional fits of passion; and at length let fall the fatal words, +"Have I none of my thankless and cowardly courtiers who will relieve me +from the insults of one low-born and turbulent priest?" + +[SN: The King's fatal words.] + +These words were not likely to fall unheard on the ears of fierce, and +warlike men, reckless of bloodshed, possessed with a strong sense of +their feudal allegiance, and eager to secure to themselves the reward of +desperate service. Four knights, chamberlains of the King, Reginald +Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Moreville, and Reginald Brito, +disappeared from the court.[209] On the morrow, when a grave council was +held, some barons are said, even there, to have advised the death of +Becket. Milder measures were adopted: the Earl of Mandeville was sent +off with orders to arrest the Primate; and as the disappearance of these +four knights could not be unmarked, to stop them in the course of any +unauthorized enterprise. + +But murder travels faster than justice or mercy. They were almost +already on the shores of England. It is said that they met in Saltwood +Castle. On the 28th of December, having, by the aid of Randulph de Broc, +collected some troops in the streets of Canterbury, they took up their +quarters with Clarembold, Abbot of St. Augustine's. + +The assassination of Becket has something appalling, with all its +terrible circumstances seen in the remote past. What was it in its own +age? The most distinguished churchman in Christendom, the champion of +the great sacerdotal order, almost in the hour of his triumph over the +most powerful king in Europe; a man, besides the awful sanctity inherent +in the person of every ecclesiastic, of most saintly holiness; soon +after the most solemn festival of the Church, in his own cathedral, not +only sacrilegiously, but cruelly murdered, with every mark of hatred and +insult. Becket had all the dauntlessness, none of the meekness of the +martyr; but while his dauntlessness would command boundless admiration, +few, if any, would seek the more genuine sign of Christian martyrdom. + +[SN: The knights before Becket.] + +The four knights do not seem to have deliberately determined on their +proceedings, or to have resolved, except in extremity, on the murder. +They entered, but unarmed, the outer chamber.[210] The Archbishop had +just dined, and withdrawn from the hall. They were offered food, as was +the usage; they declined, thirsting, says one of the biographers, for +blood. The Archbishop obeyed the summons to hear a message from the +King; they were admitted to his presence. As they entered, there was no +salutation on either side, till the Primate having surveyed, perhaps +recognized them, moved to them with cold courtesy. Fitz-Urse was the +spokesman in the fierce altercation which ensued. Becket replied with +haughty firmness. Fitz-Urse began by reproaching him with his +ingratitude and seditious disloyalty in opposing the coronation of the +King's son, and commanded him, in instant obedience to the King, to +absolve the prelates. Becket protested that so far from wishing to +diminish the power of the King's son, he would have given him three +crowns and the most splendid realm. For the excommunicated bishops he +persisted in his usual evasion that they had been suspended by the Pope, +by the Pope alone could they be absolved; nor had they yet offered +proper satisfaction. "It is the King's command," spake Fitz-Urse, "that +you and the rest of your disloyal followers leave the kingdom."[211] "It +becomes not the King to utter such command: henceforth no power on earth +shall separate me from my flock." "You have presumed to excommunicate, +without consulting the King, the King's servant's and officers." "Nor +will I ever spare the man who violates the canons of Rome, or the rights +of the Church." "From whom do you hold your archbishopric?" "My +spirituals from God and the Pope, my temporals from the King." "Do you +not hold all from the King?" "Render unto Cæsar the things that are +Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's." "You speak in peril of +your life!" "Come ye to murder me? I defy you, and will meet you front +to front in the battle of the Lord." He added, that some among them had +sworn fealty to him. At this, it is said, they grew furious, and gnashed +with their teeth. The prudent John of Salisbury heard with regret this +intemperate language: "Would it may end well!" Fitz-Urse shouted aloud, +"In the King's name I enjoin you all, clerks and monks, to arrest this +man, till the King shall have done justice on his body." They rushed +out, calling for their arms. + +His friends had more fear for Becket than Becket for himself. The gates +were closed and barred, but presently sounds were heard of those +without, striving to break in. The lawless Randulph de Broc was hewing +at the door with an axe. All around Becket was the confusion of terror: +he only was calm. Again spoke John of Salisbury with his cold +prudence--"Thou wilt never take counsel: they seek thy life." "I am +prepared to die." "We who are sinners are not so weary of life." "God's +will be done." The sounds without grew wilder. All around him entreated +Becket to seek sanctuary in the church. He refused, whether from +religious reluctance that the holy place should be stained with his +blood, or from the nobler motive of sparing his assassins this deep +aggravation of their crime. They urged that the bell was already tolling +for vespers. He seemed to give a reluctant consent; but he would not +move without the dignity of his crosier carried before him. [SN: Becket +in the Church.] With gentle compulsion they half drew, half carried him +through a private chamber, they in all the hasty agony of terror, he +striving to maintain his solemn state, into the church. The din of the +armed men was ringing in the cloister. The affrighted monks broke off +the service; some hastened to close the doors; Becket commanded them to +desist--"No one should be debarred from entering the house of God." John +of Salisbury and the rest fled and hid themselves behind the altars and +in other dark places. The Archbishop might have escaped into the dark +and intricate crypt, or into a chapel in the roof. There remained only +the Canon Robert (of Merton), Fitz-Stephen, and the faithful Edward +Grim. Becket stood between the altar of St. Benedict and that of the +Virgin.[212] It was thought that Becket contemplated taking his seat on +his archiepiscopal throne near the high altar. + +[SN: The murder.] + +Through the open door of the cloister came rushing in the four, fully +armed, some with axes in their hands, with two or three wild followers, +through the dim and bewildering twilight. The knights shouted aloud, +"Where is the traitor?"--No answer came back.--"Where is the +Archbishop?" "Behold me, no traitor, but a priest of God!" Another +fierce and rapid altercation followed: they demanded the absolution of +the bishops, his own surrender to the King's justice. They strove to +seize him and to drag him forth from the church (even they had awe of +the holy place), either to kill him without, or to carry him in bonds to +the King. He clung to the pillar. In the struggle he grappled with De +Tracy, and with desperate strength dashed him on the pavement. His +passion rose; he called Fitz-Urse by a foul name, a pander. These were +almost his last words (how unlike those of Stephen and the greater than +Stephen!) He taunted Fitz-Urse with his fealty sworn to himself. "I owe +no fealty but to my King!" returned the maddened soldier, and struck the +first blow. Edward Grim interposed his arm, which was almost severed +off. The sword struck Becket, but slightly, on the head. Becket received +it in an attitude of prayer--"Lord, receive my spirit," with an +ejaculation to the Saints of the Church. Blow followed blow (Tracy seems +to have dealt the first mortal wound), till all, unless perhaps De +Moreville, had wreaked their vengeance. The last, that of Richard de +Brito, smote off a piece of his skull. Hugh of Horsea, their follower, a +renegade priest surnamed Mauclerk, set his heel upon his neck, and +crushed out the blood and brains. "Away!" said the brutal ruffian, +"it is time that we were gone." They rushed out to plunder the +archiepiscopal palace. + +[SN: The Body.] + +The mangled body was left on the pavement; and when his affrighted +followers ventured to approach to perform their last offices, an +incident occurred which, however incongruous, is too characteristic to +be suppressed. Amid their adoring awe at his courage and constancy, +their profound sorrow for his loss, they broke out into a rapture of +wonder and delight on discovering not merely that his whole body was +swathed in the coarsest sackcloth, but that his lower garments were +swarming with vermin. From that moment miracles began. Even the populace +had before been divided; voices had been heard among the crowd denying +him to be a martyr; he was but the victim of his own obstinacy.[213] The +Archbishop of York even after this dared to preach that it was a +judgment of God against Becket--that "he perished, like Pharaoh, in his +pride."[214] But the torrent swept away at once all this resistance. The +Government inhibited the miracles, but faith in miracles scorns +obedience to human laws. The Passion of the Martyr Thomas was saddened +and glorified every day with new incidents of its atrocity, of his holy +firmness, of wonders wrought by his remains. + +[SN: Effects of the murder.] + +The horror of Becket's murder ran throughout Christendom. At first, of +course, it was attributed to Henry's direct orders. Universal hatred +branded the King of England with a kind of outlawry, a spontaneous +excommunication. William of Sens, though the attached friend of Becket, +probably does not exaggerate the public sentiment when he describes +this deed as surpassing the cruelty of Herod, the perfidy of Julian, +the sacrilege of the traitor Judas.[215] + +It were injustice to King Henry not to suppose that with the dread as to +the consequences of this act must have mingled some reminiscences of the +gallant friend and companion of his youth and of the faithful minister, +as well as religious horror at a cruel murder, so savagely and impiously +executed.[216] He shut himself for three days in his chamber, +obstinately refused all food and comfort, till his attendants began to +fear for his life. He issued orders for the apprehension of the +murderers,[217] and dispatched envoys to the Pope to exculpate himself +from all participation or cognizance of the crime. His ambassadors found +the Pope at Tusculum: they were at first sternly refused an audience. +The afflicted and indignant Pope was hardly prevailed on to permit the +execrated name of the King of England to be uttered before him. The +cardinals still friendly to the King with difficulty obtained knowledge +of Alexander's determination. It was, on a fixed day, to pronounce with +the utmost solemnity, excommunication against the King by name, and an +interdict on all his dominions, on the Continent as well as in England. +The ambassadors hardly obtained the abandonment of this fearful purpose, +by swearing that the King would submit in all things to the judgment of +his Holiness. With difficulty the terms of reconciliation were arranged. + +[SN: Reconciliation at Avranches.] + +In the Cathedral of Avranches in Normandy, in the presence of the +Cardinals Theodin of Porto, and Albert the Chancellor, Legates for that +especial purpose, Henry swore on the Gospels that he had neither +commanded nor desired the death of Becket; that it had caused him +sorrow, not joy; he had not grieved so deeply for the death of his +father or his mother.[218] He stipulated--I. To maintain two hundred +knights at his own cost in the Holy Land. II. To abrogate the Statutes +of Clarendon, and all bad customs introduced during his reign.[219] III. +That he would reinvest the Church of Canterbury in all its rights and +possessions, and pardon and restore to their estates all who had +incurred his wrath in the cause of the Primate. IV. If the Pope should +require it, he would himself make a crusade against the Saracens in +Spain. [SN: Ascension Day, May 22, 1172.] In the porch of the church he +was reconciled, but with no ignominous ceremony. + +Throughout the later and the darker part of Henry's reign the clergy +took care to inculcate, and the people were prone enough to believe, +that all his disasters and calamities, the rebellion of his wife and of +his sons, were judgments of God for the persecution if not the murder +of the Martyr Thomas. The strong mind of Henry himself, depressed by +misfortune and by the estrangement of his children, acknowledged with +superstitious awe the justice of their conclusions. Heaven, the Martyr +in Heaven, must be appeased by a public humiliating penance. The deeper +the degradation the more valuable the atonement. In less than three +years after his death the King visited the tomb of Becket, by this time +a canonized saint, renowned not only throughout England for his +wonder-working powers, but to the limits of Christendom. [SN: Penance at +Canterbury. Friday, July 12, 1174.] As soon as he came near enough to +see the towers of Canterbury, the King dismounted from his horse, and +for three miles walked with bare and bleeding feet along the flinty +road. The tomb of the Saint was then in the crypt beneath the church. +The King threw himself prostrate before it. The Bishop of London +(Foliot) preached; he declared to the wondering multitude that on his +solemn oath the King was entirely guiltless of the murder of the Saint: +but as his hasty words had been the innocent cause of the crime, he +submitted in lowly obedience to the penance of the Church. The haughty +monarch then prayed to be scourged by the willing monks. From the one +end of the church to the other each ecclesiastic present gratified his +pride, and thought that he performed his duty, by giving a few +stripes.[220] The King passed calmly through this rude discipline, and +then spent a night and a day in prayers and tears, imploring the +intercession in Heaven of him whom, he thought not now on how just +grounds, he had pursued with relentless animosity on earth.[221] + +Thus Becket obtained by his death that triumph for which he would +perhaps have struggled in vain through a long life. He was now a Saint, +and for some centuries the most popular Saint in England: among the +people, from a generous indignation at his barbarous murder, from the +fame of his austerities and his charities, no doubt from admiration of +his bold resistance to the kingly power; among the clergy as the +champion, the martyr of their order. Even if the clergy had had no +interest in the miracles at the tomb of Becket, the high-strung faith of +the people would have wrought them almost without suggestion or +assistance. Cures would have been made or imagined; the latent powers of +diseased or paralyzed bodies would have been quickened into action. +Belief, and the fear of disbelieving, would have multiplied one +extraordinary event into a hundred; fraud would be outbid by zeal; the +invention of the crafty, even if what may seem invention was not more +often ignorance and credulity, would be outrun by the demands of +superstition. There is no calculating the extent and effects of these +epidemic outbursts of passionate religion.[222] + +[SN: Becket martyr of the clergy.] + +Becket was indeed the martyr of the clergy, not of the Church; of +sacerdotal power, not of Christianity; of a caste, not of mankind.[223] +From beginning to end it was a strife for the authority, the immunities, +the possessions of the clergy.[224] The liberty of the Church was the +exemption of the clergy from law; the vindication of their separate, +exclusive, distinctive existence from the rest of mankind. It was a +sacrifice to the deified self; not the individual self, but self as the +centre and representative of a great corporation. Here and there in the +long full correspondence there is some slight allusion to the miseries +of the people in being deprived of the services of the exiled bishops +and clergy:[225] "there is no one to ordain clergy, to consecrate +virgins:" the confiscated property is said to be a robbery of the poor: +yet in general the sole object in dispute was the absolute immunity of +the clergy from civil jurisdiction,[226] the right of appeal from the +temporal sovereign to Rome, and the asserted superiority of the +spiritual rulers in every respect over the temporal power. There might, +indeed, be latent advantages to mankind, social, moral, and religious, +in this secluded sanctity of one class of men; it might be well that +there should be a barrier against the fierce and ruffian violence of +kings and barons; that somewhere freedom should find a voice, and some +protest be made against the despotism of arms, especially in a +newly-conquered country like England, where the kingly and aristocratic +power was still foreign: above all, that there should be a caste, not an +hereditary one, into which ability might force its way up, from the most +low-born, even from the servile rank; but the liberties of the Church, +as they were called, were but the establishment of one tyranny--a +milder, perhaps, but not less rapacious tyranny--instead of another; a +tyranny which aspired to uncontrolled, irresponsible rule, nor was above +the inevitable evil produced on rulers as well as on subjects, from the +consciousness of arbitrary and autocratic power. + +[SN: Verdict of posterity.] + +Reflective posterity may perhaps consider as not the least remarkable +point in this lofty and tragic strife that it was but a strife for +power. Henry II. was a sovereign who, with many noble and kingly +qualities, lived, more than even most monarchs of his age, in direct +violation of every Christian precept of justice, humanity, conjugal +fidelity. He was lustful, cruel, treacherous, arbitrary. But throughout +this contest there is no remonstrance whatever from Primate or Pope +against his disobedience to the laws of God, only to those of the +Church. Becket _might_, indeed, if he had retained his full and +acknowledged religious power, have rebuked the vices, protected the +subjects, interceded for the victims of the King's unbridled passions. +It must be acknowledged by all that he did not take the wisest course to +secure this which might have been beneficent influence. But as to what +appears, if the King would have consented to allow the churchmen to +despise all law--if he had not insisted on hanging priests guilty of +homicide as freely as laymen--he might have gone on unreproved in his +career of ambition; he might unrebuked have seduced or ravished the +wives and daughters of his nobles; extorted, without remonstrance of the +Clergy any revenue from his subjects, if he had kept his hands from the +treasures of the Church. Henry's real tyranny was not (would it in any +case have been?) the object of the churchman's censure, oppugnancy, or +resistance. The cruel and ambitious and rapacious King would doubtless +have lived unexcommunicated and died with plenary absolution. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] The "History of Latin Christianity," is now completed in six +volumes.--ED. + +[2] There are no less than seven full contemporary, or nearly +contemporary, Lives of Becket, besides fragments, legends, and +"Passions." Dr. Giles has reprinted, and in some respects enlarged, +those works from the authority of MSS. I give them in the order of his +volumes. I. Vita Sancti Thomæ. Auctore Edward Grim. II. Auctore Roger de +Pontiniaco. III. Auctore Willelmo Filio Stephani. IV. Auctoribus Joanne +Decano Salisburiensi, et Alano Abbate Teuksburiensi. V. Auctore Willelmo +Canterburiensi. VI. Auctore Anonymo Lambethiensi. VII. Auctore Herberto +de Bosham. Of these, Grim, Fitz-Stephen, and Herbert de Bosham were +throughout his life in more or less close attendance on Becket. The +learned John of Salisbury was his bosom friend and counsellor. Roger of +Pontigny was his intimate associate and friend in that monastery. +William was probably prior of Canterbury at the time of Becket's death. +The sixth professes also to have been witness to the death of Becket. +(He is called Lambethiensis by Dr. Giles, merely because the MS. is in +the Lambeth Library.) Add to these the curious French poem, written five +years after the murder of Becket, by Garnier of Pont S. Maxence, partly +published in the Berlin Transactions, by the learned Immanuel Bekker. +All these, it must be remembered, write of the man; the later monkish +writers (though near the time, Hoveden, Gervase, Diceto, Brompton) of +the Saint. + +[3] Brompton is not the earliest writer who recorded this tale; he took +it from the Quadrilogus I., but of this the date is quite uncertain. The +exact date of Brompton is unknown. See preface in Twysden. He goes down +to the end of Richard II. + +[4] Mons. Thierry, Hist. des Normands. Lord Lyttelton (Life of Henry +II.) had before asserted the Saxon descent of Becket: perhaps he misled +M. Thierry. + +[5] The anonymous Lambethiensis, after stating that many Norman +merchants were allured to London by the greater mercantile prosperity, +proceeds: "Ex horum numero fuit Gilbertus quidam cognomento Becket, +patriâ Rotomagensis .... habuit autem uxorem, nomine Roseam natione +Cadomensem, genere burgensium quoque non disparem."--Apud Giles, ii. p. +73. + +[6] See below. + +[7] "Quod si ad generis mei radicem et progenitores meos intenderis, +cives quidem fuerunt Londonienses, in medio concivium suorum habitantes +sine querelâ, nec omnino infimi."--Epist. 130. + +[8] Grim, p. 9. Pontiniac, p. 96. + +[9] Grim, p. 8. + +[10] "Eo familiarius, quod præfatus Gilbertus cum domino archipræsule de +propinquitate et genere loquebatur: ut ille _ortu Normannus_ et circa +Thierici villam de equestri ordine natu vicinus."--Fitz-Stephen, p. 184. +Thiersy or Thierchville. + +[11] Roger de Pontigny, p. 100. + +[12] Fitz-Stephen, p. 185. + +[13] According to Fitz-Stephen, Thomas was less learned (minus +literatus) than his rival, but of loftier character and morals.--P. 184. + +[14] "Plurimæ ecclesiæ, præbendæ nonnullæ." Among the livings were one +in Kent, and St. Mary le Strand; among the prebends, two at London and +Lincoln. The archdeaconry of Canterbury was worth 100 pounds of silver +a-year. + +[15] Epist. 130. + +[16] Lord Lyttelton gives a full account of this transaction.--Book i. +p. 213. + +[17] This remarkable fact in Becket's history rests on the authority of +his friend, John of Salisbury: "Erat enim in suspectu adolescentia regis +et juvenum et pravorum hominum, quorum conciliis agi videbatur ... +insipientiam et malitiam formidabat ... cancellarium procurabat in curiâ +ordinari, cujus ope et operâ novi regis ne sæviret in ecclesiam, impetum +cohiberet et consilii sui temperaret malitiam."--Apud Giles, p. 321. +This is repeated in almost the same words by William of Canterbury, vol. +ii. p. 2. Compare what may be read almost as the dying admonitions of +Theobald to the king: "Suggerunt vobis filii sæculi hujus, ut ecclesiæ +minuatis auctoritatem, ut vobis regni dignitas augeatur." He had +before said, "Cui deest gratia Ecclesiæ, tota creatrix Trinitas +adversatur."--Apud Boquet, xvi. p. 504. Also Roger de Pontigny, p. 101. + +[18] Fitz-Stephen, p. 186. Compare on the office of chancellor Lord +Campbell's Life of Becket. + +[19] De Bosham, p. 17. + +[20] See a curious passage on the singular sensitiveness of his hearing, +and even of his smell.--Roger de Pontigny, p. 96. + +[21] Roger de Pontigny, p. 104. His character by John of Salisbury is +remarkable: "Erat supra modum captator auræ popularis ... etsi superbus +esset et vanus et interdum faciem prætendebat insipienter amantium et +verba proferret, admirandus tamen et imitandus erat in corporis +castitate."--P. 320. See an adventure related by William of Canterbury, +p. 3. + +[22] Grim, p. 12. Roger de Pontigny, p. 102. Fitz-Stephen, p. 192. + +[23] Fitz-Stephen, p. 191. Fitz-Stephen is most full and particular on +the chancellorship of Becket. + +[24] It is not quite clear how soon after the accession of Henry the +appointment of the chancellor took place. I should incline to the +earlier date, A. D. 1155. + +[25] Fitz-Stephen, p. 187. + +[26] P. 196. + +[27] Edward Grim, p. 12. + +[28] John of Salisbury denies that he sanctioned the rapacity of the +king, and urges that he only yielded to necessity. Yet his exile was the +just punishment of his guilt. "Tamen quia eum ministrum fuisse +iniquitatis non ambigo, jure optimo taliter arbitror puniendum ut eo +potissimum puniatur auctore, quem in talibus Deo bonorum omnium auctori +præferebat.... Sed esto; nunc poenitentiam agit, agnoscit et confitetur +culpam pro ea, et si cum Saulo quandoque ecclesiam impugnavit, nunc, cum +Paulo ponere paratus est animam suam."--Bouquet, p. 518. + +[29] Fitz-Stephen, p. 193. + +[30] Theobald died April 18, 1161. Becket was ordained priest and +consecrated on Whitsunday, 1162. + +[31] Yet Theobald, according to John of Salisbury, designed Becket for +his successor,-- + + "hunc (_i. e._ Becket Cancellarium) successurum sibi sperat et orat, + Hic est carnificum qui jus cancellat iniquum, + Quos habuit reges Anglia capta diu, + Esse putans reges, quos est perpessa, tyrannos + Plus veneratur eos, qui nocuere magis." + + _Entheticus_, l. 1295. + +Did Becket decide against the Norman laws by the Anglo-Saxon? Has any +one guessed the meaning of the rest of John's verses on the Chancellor +and his Court? I confess myself baffled. + +[32] Roger de Pontigny, p. 100. + +[33] In the memorable letter of Gilbert Foliot, Dr. Lingard observes +that Mr. Berington has proved this letter to be spurious. I cannot see +any force in Mr. Berington's arguments, and should certainly have paid +more deference to Dr. Lingard himself if he had examined the question. +It seems, moreover (if I rightly understand Dr. Giles, and I am not +certain that I do), that it exists in more than one MS. of Foliot's +letters. He has printed it as unquestioned; no very satisfactory +proceeding in an editor. The conclusive argument for its authenticity +with me is this: Who, after Becket's death and canonization, would have +ventured or thought it worth while to forge such a letter? To whom was +Foliot's memory so dear, or Becket's so hateful, as to reopen the whole +strife about his election and his conduct? Besides, it seems clear that +it is either a rejoinder to the long letter addressed by Becket to the +clergy of England (Giles, iii. 170), or that letter is a rejoinder to +Foliot's. Each is a violent party pamphlet against the other, and of +great ability and labor. + +[34] Foliot's nearest relatives, if not himself, were Scotch; one +of them had forfeited his estate for fidelity to the King of +Scotland.--Epis. ii. cclxxviii. + +[35] Read his letters before his elevation to the see of London. + +[36] See, _e.g._, Epis. cxxxi., in which he informs Archbishop Theobald +that the Earl of Hereford held intercourse with William Beauchamp, +excommunicated by the Primate. "Vilescit anathematis authoritas, nisi et +communicantes excommunicatis corripiat digna severitas." The Earl of +Hereford must be placed under anathema. + +[37] Lambeth, p. 91. The election of the Bishop of Hereford to London is +confirmed by the Pope's permission to elect him (March 19) rogatu H. +regis et Archep. Cantuarensis. A letter from Pope Alexander on his +promotion rebukes him for _fasting too severely_.--Epist. ccclix. + +[38] Foliot, in a letter to Pope Alexander, maintains the superiority of +Canterbury over York.--cxlix. + +[39] See on the change in his habits, Lambeth, p. 48; also the strange +story, in Grim, of a monk who declared himself commissioned by a +preterhuman person of terrible countenance to warn the Chancellor not to +dare to appear in the choir, as he had done, in a secular dress.--p. 16. + +[40] Compare the letter of the politic Arnulf, Bishop of Lisieux: "Si +enim favori divino favorem præferritis humanum, poteratis non solum cum +summâ tranquillitate degere, sed ipso etiam magis quam olim, Principe +conregnare."--Apud Bouquet, xvi. p. 229. + +[41] This strange scene is recorded by Roger de Pontigny, who received +his information on all those circumstances from Becket himself, or from +his followers. See also Grim, p. 22. + +[42] Becket had been compelled to give up the rich archdeaconry of +Canterbury, which he seemed disposed to hold with the archbishopric. +Geoffrey Ridel, who became archdeacon, was afterwards one of his most +active enemies. + +[43] The king was willing that the clerk guilty of murder or robbery +should be degraded before he was hanged, but hanged he should be. The +archbishop insisted that he should be safe "a læsione membrorum." +Degradation was in itself so dreadful a punishment, that to hang also +for the same crime was a double penalty. "If he returned to his vomit," +after degradation, "he might be hanged."--Compare Grim, p. 30. + +[44] "De novo judicatur Christus ante Pilatum præsidem."--De Bosham, p. +117. + +[45] De Bosham, p. 100. + +[46] The fairness with which the question is stated by Herbert de +Bosham, the follower, almost the worshiper of Becket, is remarkable. +"Arctabatur itaque rex, arctabatur et pontifex. Rex etenim populi sui +pacem, sicut archipræsul cleri sui zelans libertatem, audiens +sic et videns et ad multorum relationes et querimonias accipiens, +per hujuscemodi castigationes, talium clericorum immo verius +caracterizatorum, dæmonum flagitia non reprimi vel potius indies per +regnum deterius fieri." He proceeds to state at length the argument on +both sides. Another biographer of Becket makes strong admissions of the +crimes of the clergy: "Sed et ordinatorum inordinati mores, inter regem +et archepiscopum auxere malitiam, qui _solito abundantius_ per idem +tempus apparebant publicis irretiti criminibus."--Edw. Grim. It was said +that no less than 100 of the clergy were charged with homicide. + +[47] This, according to Fitz-Stephen, was the first cause of quarrel +with the king. p. 215. + +[48] See throughout this epistle of Arnulf of Lisieux, Bouquet, p. 230. +This same Arnulf was a crafty and double-dealing prelate. Grim and Roger +de Pontigny say that he suggested to Henry the policy of making a party +against Becket among the English bishops, while to Becket he plays the +part of confidential counsellor.--Grim, p. 29. R. P., p. 119. Will. +Canterb., p. 6. Compare on Arnulf, Epist. 346, v. 11, p. 189. + +[49] These are the words which Fitz-Stephen places in the mouths of the +king's courtiers. + +[50] Herbert de Bosham, p. 109. Fitz-Stephen, p. 209, _et seq._ + +[51] "Dicens se observaturos regias consuetudines bonâ fide." + +[52] Compare W. Canterb., p. 6. + +[53] Grim, p. 29. + +[54] Dr. Lingard supposes that Becket demanded that the customs should +be reduced to writing. This seems quite contrary to his policy; and +Edward Grim writes thus: "Nam domestici regis, dato consentiente +consilio, securem fecerant archepiscopum, quod _nunquam scriberentur_ +leges, nunquam illarum fieret recordatio, si eum verbo tantum in +audientiâ procerum honorâsset," &c.--P. 31. + +[55] See the letter of Gilbert Foliot, of which I do not doubt the +authenticity. + +[56] According to the Cottonian copy, published by Lord Lyttelton, +Constitutions xii. xv. iv. + +[57] Constitution iii. + +[58] Constitutions i. and ii. + +[59] Constitution vii., somewhat limited and explained by x. + +[60] Herbert de Bosham. "Caute quidam non de plano negat, sed +differendum dicebat adhuc." + +[61] "Superbus et vanus, de pastore avium factus sum pastor ovium; dudum +fautor histrionum et eorum sectator tot animarum pastor."--De Bosham, p. +126. + +[62] Read the Epistles, apud Giles, v. iv. 1, 3, Bouquet, xvi. 210, to +judge of the skillful steering and difficulties of the Pope. There is a +very curious letter of an emissary of Becket, describing the death of +the Antipope (he died at Lucca, April 21). The canons of San Frediano, +in Lucca, refused to bury him, because he was already "buried in hell." +The writer announces that the Emperor also was ill, that the Empress had +miscarried, and that therefore all France adhered with greater devotion +to Alexander; _and the Legatine commission to the Archbishop of York had +expired without hope of recovery_. The writer ventures, however, to +suggest to Becket to conduct himself with modesty; to seek rather than +avoid intercourse with the king.--Apud Giles, iv. 240; Bouquet, p. 210. +See also the letter of John, Bishop of Poitiers, who says of the Pope, +"Gravi redimit poenitentiâ, illam qualem qualem quam Eboracensi +(fecerit), concessionem."--Bouquet, p. 214. + +[63] I follow De Bosham. Fitz-Stephen says that he was repelled from the +gates of the king's palace at Woodstock; and that he _afterwards_ went +to Romney to attempt to cross the sea. + +[64] "Quievisset ille, si non acquievissent illi."--Becket, Epist. ii. +p. 5. Compare the whole letter. + +[65] He had been sworn not on the Gospels, but on a troplogium, a book +of church music. + +[66] Goods and chattels at the king's mercy were redeemable at a +customary fine: this fine, according to the customs of Kent, would have +been larger than according to those of London.--Fitz-Stephen. + +[67] "Minus fore malum verenda patris detecta deridere, quam patris +ipsius personam judicare."--De Bosham, p. 135. + +[68] Fitz-Stephen states this demand at 500 marks, and a second 500 for +which a bond had been given to a Jew. + +[69] Neither party denied this acquittance given in the King's name by +the justiciary Richard de Luci. This, it should seem, unusual +precaution, or at least this precaution taken with such unusual care, +seems to imply some suspicion that without it, the archbishop was liable +to be called to account; an account which probably, from the splendid +prodigality with which Becket had lavished the King's money and his own, +it might be difficult or inconvenient to produce. + +[70] In an account of this affair, written later, Becket accuses Foliot +of aspiring to the primacy--"et qui adspirabant ad fastigium ecclesiæ +Cantuarensis, ut vulgo dicitur et creditur, in nostram perniciem, utinam +minus ambitiosè, quam avidè." This could be none but Foliot.--Epist. +lxxv. p. 154. + +[71] "Tanquam in proelio Domini, signifer Domini, vexillum Domini +erigens; illud etiam Domini non solum spiritualiter, sed et figuraliter +implens. 'Si quis,' inquit, 'vult meus esse discipulus, abneget semet +ipsum, tollat crucem suam et sequatur me.'"--De Bosham, p. 143. Compare +the letter of the Bishops to the Pope.--Giles, iv. 256; Bouquet, 224. + +[72] "Quasi pila minantia pilis," quotes Fitz-Stephen; "Memento," +said De Bosham, "quondam te extitisse regis Anglorum signiferum +inexpugnabilem, nunc vero si signifer regis Angelorum expugnaris, +turpissimum."--p. 146. + +[73] "Dicebant enim episcopi, quod adhuc, ipsâ die, intra decem dies +datæ sententiæ, eos ad dominum Papam appellaverat, et ne de cetero eum +judicarent pro seculari querelâ, quæ de tempore ante archipræsulatum ei +moveretur, auctoritate domini Papæ prohibuit."--Fitz-Stephen, p. 230. + +[74] Herbert de Bosham, p. 146. + +[75] De Bosham's account is, that notwithstanding the first +interruption, Leicester reluctantly proceeded till he came to the word +"perjured," on which Becket rose and spoke. + +[76] De Bosham, p. 150. + +[77] Foliot and the King's envoys crossed the same day. It is rather +amusing that, though Becket crossed the same day in an open boat, and, +as is incautiously betrayed by his friends, suffered much from the rough +sea, the weather is described as in his case almost miraculously +favorable, in the other as miraculously tempestuous. So that while +Becket calmly glided over, Foliot in despair of his life threw off his +cowl and cope. + +[78] Compare, however, Roger of Pontigny. By his account, the Count of +Flanders, a relative and partisan of Henry ("consanguineus et qui partes +ejus fovebat") would have arrested him. He escaped over the border by a +trick.--Roger de Pontigny, p. 148. + +[79] Giles, iv. 253; Bouquet, p. 217. + +[80] Epist. Nuntii; Giles, iv. 254; Bouquet, p. 217. + +[81] Becket writes from England to the Pope: "Quod petimus, summo +silentio petimus occultari. Nihil enim nobis tutum est, quum omnia ferè +referuntur ad regem, quæ nobis in conclavi vel in aurem dicuntur." There +is a significant clause at the end of this letter, which implies that +the emissaries of the Church did not confine themselves to Church +affairs: "De Wallensibus et Oweno, qui se principem nominat, +_provideatis_, quia Dominus Rex super hoc maximè motus est et +indignatus." The Welsh were in arms against the King: this borders on +high treason.--Apud Giles, iii. 1. Bouquet, 221. + +[82] The word "oportuebat" was too bad for monkish, or rather for Roman, +ears. + +[83] According to Roger of Pontigny, there were some of them "qui +acceptâ a rege pecuniâ partes ejus fovebant," particularly William of +Pavia.--p. 153. + +[84] Herbert de Bosham. + +[85] Alani Vita (p. 362); and Alan's Life rests mainly on the authority +of John of Salisbury. Herbert de Bosham suppresses this. + +[86] The Abbot of Pontigny was an ardent admirer of Becket. See letter +of the Bishop of Poitiers, Bouquet, p. 214. Prayers were offered up +throughout the struggle with Henry for Becket's success at Pontigny, +Citeaux, and Clairvaux.--Giles, iv. 255. + +[87] Compare Lingard. Becket on this news exclaimed, as is said, "His +wise men are become fools; the Lord hath sent among them a spirit of +giddiness; they have made England to reel to and fro like a drunken +man."--Vol. iii. p. 227. No doubt, he would have it supposed God's +vengeance for his own wrongs. + +[88] There are in Foliot's letters many curious circumstances about the +collection and transmission of Peter's Pence. In Alexander's present +state, notwithstanding the amity of the King of France, this source of +revenue was no doubt important.--Epist. 149, 172, &c. Alexander wrote +from Clermont to Foliot (June 8, 1165) to collect the tax, to do all in +his power for the recall of Becket: to Henry, reprobating the +Constitutions; to Becket, urging prudence and circumspection. This was +later. The Pope was then on his way to Italy, where he might need +Henry's gold. + +[89] Becket, Epist. 4, p. 7. + +[90] Edw. Grim. + +[91] Bouquet, xvi. 256. + +[92] The letters of John of Salisbury are full of allusions to the +proceedings at Wurtzburg.--Bouquet, p. 524. John of Oxford is said to +have denied the oath (p. 533); also Giles, iv. 264. He is from that time +branded by John of Salisbury as an arch liar. + +[93] John of Oxford was rewarded for this service by the deanery of +Salisbury, vacant by the promotion of the dean to the bishopric of +Bayeux. Joscelin, Bishop of Salisbury, notwithstanding the papal +prohibition that no election should take place in the absence of some of +the canons, chose the safer course of obedience to the King's mandate. +This act of Joscelin was deeply resented by Becket. John of Oxford's +usurpation of the deanery was one of the causes assigned for his +excommunication at Vezelay. See also, on the loyal but somewhat +unscrupulous proceedings of John of Oxford, the letter (hereafter +referred to) of Nicholas de Monte Rotomagensi. It describes the attempt +of John of Oxford to prepossess the Empress Matilda against Becket. It +likewise betrays again the double-dealing of the Bishop of Lisieux, +outwardly for the King, secretly a partisan and adviser of Becket. On +the whole, it shows the moderation and good sense of the empress, who +disapproved of some of the Constitutions, and especially of their being +written, but speaks strongly of the abuses in the Church. Nicholas +admires her skillfulness in defending her son.--Giles, iv. 187. Bouquet, +226. + +[94] "Præcepit enim publicè et _compulit_ per vicos, per castella, per +civitates ab homine sene usque ab puerum duodenum beati Petri +successorem Alexandrum abjurare." William of Canterbury alone of +Becket's biographers (Giles, ii. p. 19) asserts this, but it is +unanswerably confirmed by Becket's Letter 78, iii. p. 192. + +[95] The letter in Giles (vi. 279) is rather perplexing. It is placed by +Bouquet, agreeing with Baronius, in 1166; by Von Raumer (Geschichte der +Hohenstauffen, ii. p. 192) in 1165, before the Diet of Wurtzburg. This +cannot be right, as the letter implies that Alexander was in Rome, where +he arrived not before Nov. 1165. The embassy, though it seems that the +Emperor granted the safe-conduct, did not take place, at least as +regards some of the ambassadors. + +[96] "Itaque per biennium ferme stetit." So writes Roger of Pontigny. It +is difficult to make out so long a time.--p. 154. + +[97] Herbert de Bosham.--p. 226. + +[98] Jer. i. 10. + +[99] "Suavissimas literas, supplicationem solam, correptionem vero +nullam vel _modicam_ continentes."--De Bosham. + +[100] Urbane by disposition as by name.--Ibid. + +[101] Giles, iii. 365. Bouquet, p. 243. + +[102] "Quin potius dura propinantes, dura pro duris, immo multo plus +duriora prioribus, reportaverunt."--De Bosham. + +[103] The Pope had written (Jan. 28) to the bishops of England not to +presume to act without the consent of Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury. +April 5, he forbade Roger of York and the other prelates to crown the +King's son. May 3, he writes to Foliot and the bishops who had received +benefices of the King to surrender them under pain of anathema; to +Becket in favor of Joscelin, Bishop of Salisbury: he had annulled the +grant of the deanery of Salisbury to John of Oxford. May 10, to the +Archbishop of Rouen, denouncing the dealings of Henry with the Emperor +and the Antipope.--Giles, iv. 10 _a_ 80. Bouquet, 246. + +[104] The inhibition given at Sens to proceed against the King, before +the Easter of the following year (A. D. 1166), had now expired. Moreover +he had a direct commission to proceed by Commination against those who +forcibly withheld the property of the see of Canterbury.--Apud Giles, +iv. 8. Bouquet, xvi. 844. At the same time the Pope urged great +discretion as to the King's person. Giles, iv. 12. Bouquet, 244. + +[105] At the same time Becket wrote to Foliot of London, commanding him +under penalty of excommunication to transmit to him the sequestered +revenues of Canterbury in his hands.--Foliot appealed to the +Pope.--Foliot's Letter. Giles, vi. 5. Bouquet, 215. + +[106] The curious History of the Monastery of Vezelay, by Hugh of +Poitiers (translated in Guizot, Collection des Mémoires), though it +twice mentions Becket, stops just short of this excommunication, 1166. +Vezelay boasted to be subject only to the See of Rome, to have been made +by its founder part of the patrimony of St. Peter. This was one great +distinction: the other was the unquestioned possession of the body of +St. Mary Magdalene, "l'amie de Dieu." Vezelay had been in constant +strife with the Bishop of Autun for its ecclesiastical, with the Count +of Nevers for its territorial, independence; with the monastery of +Clugny, as its rival. This is a document very instructive as to the life +of the age. + +[107] A modern traveller thus writes of the church of Vezelay: "On voit +par le choix des sujets qui ont un sens, quel était l'esprit du temps et +la manière d'interpréter la religion. Ce n'était pas par la douceur ou +la persuasion qu'on voulait convertir, mais bien par la terreur. Les +discours des prêtres pourraient se résumer en ce peu de mots: 'Croyez, +ou sinon vous périssez misérablement, et vous serez éternellement +tourmentés dans l'autre monde!' De leur côté les artistes, gens +religieux, ecclésiastiques même pour la plupart, donnaient une forme +réelle aux sombres images que leur inspirait un zèle farouche. Je ne +trouve à Vezelay aucun de ces sujets que les ames tendres aimeraient à +retracer, tels que le pardon accordé au repentir, la récompense du +juste, &c.; mais au contraire, je vois Samuel égorgeant Agag; des +diables écartelant des damnés, ou les entraînant dans l'abîme; puis des +animaux horribles, des monstres hideux, des têtes grimaçantes exprimant +ou les souffrances des reprouvés, ou la joie des habitans de l'enfer. +Qu'on se représente la dévotion des hommes élevés au milieu de ces +images, et l'on s'étonnera moins des massacres des Albigeois."--Notes +d'un Voyage dans le Midi de la France, par Prosper Merimée, p. 43. + +[108] Diceto gives the date Ascension Day, Herbert de Bosham St. Mary +Magdalene's Day (July 22d). It should seem that De Bosham's memory +failed him. See the letter of Nicolas de M. Rotomagensi, who speaks of +the excommunication as past, and that Becket was expected to +excommunicate _the King_ on St. Mary Magdalene's Day. This, if done at +Vezelay (as it were, over the body of the Saint, on her sacred day), had +been tenfold more awful. + +[109] See the curious letter of Nicolas de Monte Rotomagensi, Giles iv., +Bouquet, 250. This measure of Becket was imputed by the Archbishop of +Rheims to pride or anger ("extollentiæ aut iræ"): it made an unfavorable +impression on the Empress Matilda.--Ibid. + +[110] Epist. Giles, iv. 185; Bouquet, 258. + +[111] Epist. Giles, iv. 260; Bouquet, 256. + +[112] Herbert de Bosham, p. 232. + +[113] Epist. Giles, vi. 158; Bouquet, 259. + +[114] "Non indignetur itaque Dominus noster deferre illis, quibus summus +omnium deferre non dedignatur, Deos appellans eos sæpius in sacris +literis. Sic enim dixit, 'Ego dixit, Dii estis,' et 'Constituti te Deum +Pharaonis,' et 'Deis non detrahere.'"--Epist. Giles, iii. p. 287; +Bouquet, 261. + +[115] Foliot took the precaution of paying into the exchequer all +that he had received from the sequestered property of the see of +Canterbury.--Giles, v. p. 265. Lyttelton in Appendice. + +[116] "Hæc est Domini regis toto orbe declamata crudelitas, hæc ab eo +persecutio, hæc operum ejus perversorum rumusculis undique divulgata +malignitas."--Giles, vi. 190; Bouquet, 265. + +[117] Giles, iii. 6; Bouquet, 266. Compare letter of Bishop Elect of +Chartres.--Giles, vi. 211; Bouquet, 269. + +[118] Foliot obtained letters either at this time or somewhat later from +his own Chapter of St. Paul, from many of the greatest dignitaries of +the English Church, the abbots of Westminster and Reading, and from some +distinguished foreign ecclesiastics, in favor of himself, his piety, +churchmanship, and impartiality. + +[119] The German accounts are unanimous about the proceedings at +Wurtzburg and the oath of the English ambassadors. See the account in +Von Raumer (_loc. cit._), especially of the conduct of Reginald of +Cologne, and the authorities. John of Oxford is henceforth called, in +John of Salisbury's letters, jurator. Becket repeatedly charges him with +perjury.--Giles, iii. p. 129 and 351; Bouquet, 280. Becket there says +that John of Oxford had given up part of the "customs." He begs John of +Poitiers to let the King know this. See the very curious answer of John +of Poitiers.--Giles, vi. 251; Bouquet, 280. It appears that as all +Becket's letters to the Pope were copied and transmitted from Rome to +Henry, so John of Poitiers, outwardly the King's loyal subject, is the +secret spy of Becket. He speaks of those in England who thirst after +Becket's blood. + +[120] The Pope acknowledges that this was extorted from him by fear of +Henry, and makes an awkward apology to Becket.--Giles, iv. 18; Bouquet, +309. + +[121] He was crowned in Rome August 1. Compare next chapter--Sismondi, +Républiques Italiennes, ii. ch. x.; Von Raumer, ii. p. 209, &c. + +[122] Giles, iii. 128; Bouquet, 272. Compare Letters to Cardinals Boso +and Henry.--Giles, iii. 103, 113; Bouquet, 174. Letter to Henry +announcing the appointment, December 20. + +[123] "Si non omnia secundum beneplacitum succedant, ad præsens +dissimulet."--Giles, vi. 15; Bouquet, 277. + +[124] See the curious letter of Master Lombard, Becket's instructor in +the canon law, who boldly remonstrates with the Pope. He asserts that +Henry was so frightened at the menace of excommunication, his subjects, +even the bishops, at that of his interdict, that they were in despair. +Their only hope was in the death or some great disaster of the +Pope.--Giles, iv. 208; Bouquet, 282. + +[125] See Letters of Louis; Giles, iv. 308; Bouquet, 287. + +[126] "Strangulavit," a favorite word.--Giles, iii. 214; Bouquet, 284. + +[127] Giles, iii. 235; Bouquet, 285. + +[128] Compare John of Salisbury, p. 539. "Scripsit autem rex Domino +_Coloniensis_, Henricum Pisanum et Willelmum Papiensem in Franciam +venturos ad novas exactiones faciendas, ut undique conradant et +contrahant, unde Papa Alexander in urbe sustentetur; alter, ut nostis, +levis est et mutabilis, alter dolosus et fraudulentus, uterque cupidus +et avarus: et ideo de facili munera coenabunt eos et ad omnem +injustitiam incurvabunt. Audito eorum detestando adventu formidare cæpi +præsentiam eorum causæ vestræ multum nocituram; et ne vestro et +vestrorum sanguine gratiam Regis Angliæ redimere non erubescant." He +refers with great joy to the insurrection of the Saxons against the +Emperor. He says elsewhere of Henry of Pisa, "Vir bonæ opinionis est, +sed Romanus et Cardinalis."--Epist. cc. ii. + +[129] The English bishops declare to the Pope himself that they had +received this concession, _scripto formatum_, from the Pope, and that +the King was furious at what he thought a deception.--Giles, vi. 194; +Bouquet, 304. + +[130] The Pope wrote to the legates to soothe Becket and the King of +France; he accuses John of Oxford of spreading false reports about the +extent of their commission; John Cummin of betraying his letters to the +Antipope.--Giles, vi. 54. + +[131] So completely does Becket's fortune follow that of the Pope, that +on June 17 Alexander writes to permit Roger of York to crown the King's +son; no sooner is he safe in Benevento, August 22 (perhaps the fever had +begun), than he writes to his legates to confirm the excommunications of +Becket, which he had suspended. + +[132] Muratori, sub ann. 1167; Von Raumer, ii. 210. On the 1st of August +Frederick was crowned; September 4, he is at the Pass of Pontremoli, in +full retreat, or rather flight. + +[133] In a curious passage in a letter written by Herbert de Bosham in +the name of Becket, Frederick's defeat is compared to Henry's +disgraceful campaign in Wales. "My enemy," says Becket, "in the +abundance of his valor, could not prevail against a breechless and +ragged people ('exbraccatum et pannosum')."--Giles, viii. p. 268. + +[134] "Credimus non esse juri consentaneum, nos ejus subire judicium vel +examen qui quærit sibi facere commercium de sanguine nostro, de pretio +utinam non iniquitatis, quærit sibi nomen et gloriam."--D. Thom. Epist. +Giles, iii. p. 15. The two legates are described as "plus avaritiæ quam +justitiæ studiosi."--W. Cant. p. 21. + +[135] Giles, iii. 157, and John of Salisbury's remarkable expostulatory +letter upon Becket's violence.--Bouquet, p. 566. + +[136] Herbert de Bosham, p. 248; Epist. Giles, iii. 16; Bouquet, 296. + +[137] Giles, iii. p. 21. Compare the whole letter. + +[138] Foliot rather profanely said, the primate seems to think that as +sin is washed away in baptism, so debts are cancelled by promotion. + +[139] "Ad mortem nos invitat et sanguinis effusionem, cum ipse mortem, +quam nemo sibi dignabatur aut minabatur inferre, summo studio +declinaverit et suum sanguinem illibatum conservando, ejus nec guttam +effundi voluerit."--Giles vi. 196. Bouquet, 304. + +[140] Giles, vi. 148. Bouquet, 304. + +[141] Giles, vi. 135, 141. Bouquet, 306. William of Pavia recommended +the translation of Becket to some other see. + +[142] Giles, iii. 28. Bouquet, 306. + +[143] One of his letters to William of Pavia begins with this fierce +denunciation: "Non credebam me tibi venalem proponendum emptoribus, ut +de sanguine meo compareres tibi compendium de pretio iniquitatis, +faciens tibi nomen et gloriam."--Giles, iii. 153. Becket always +represents his enemies as thirsting after his blood. + +[144] Giles, iv. 128; vi. 133. Bouquet, 312, 313. + +[145] Epist. Giles, ii. 24. + +[146] He was at Benevento, though with different degrees of power, from +August 22, 1167, to Feb. 24, 1170. + +[147] Giles, iii. p. 55. Bouquet, 317. Read the whole letter beginning +"Anima mea." + +[148] Bouquet, 324. + +[149] Epist. Giles, iv. Bouquet, 320. + +[150] Their instructions are dated May 25, 1168. See also the wavering +letters to Becket and the King of France.--Giles, iv. p. 25, p. 111. + +[151] "Sed quid? Nobis ita consilium suspendentibus et hæsitantibus quid +agendum a pacis mediatoribus, multis et magnis viris, et præsertim qui +inter ipsos a viris religiosis et aliis archipræsuli amicissimis et +familiarissimis, adeo sicut et supra diximus, suasus, tractus et +impulsus est, ut haberetur persuasus."--De Bosham, p. 268. + +[152] "Sed mox adjecit, quod nec rex nec pacis mediatores, vel alii, vel +etiam sui propriè æstimaverunt, ut adjiceret videlicet 'Salvo honore +Dei.'"--De Bosham, p. 262. In his account to the Pope of this meeting, +Becket suppresses his own tergiversation on this point.--Epist. Giles, +iii. p. 43. Compare John of Salisbury (who was not present). Bouquet, +395. + +[153] "Ut quid nos et vos strangulatis?"--Epist. Giles, iii. 312. + +[154] Throughout the Pope kept up his false game. He privately assured +the King of France that he need not be alarmed if himself (Alexander) +seemed to take part against the archbishop. The cause was safe in his +bosom. See the curious letter of Matthew of Sens.--Epist. Giles, iv. p. +166. + +[155] "Nunc præter ecclesiæ causam, expressam ipsius etiam Dei causam +agebamus."--De Bosham, 272. + +[156] De Bosham, 278. + +[157] Giles, iii. 290; vi. 293. Bouquet, 346. + +[158] Giles, iii. 322. Bouquet, 348. + +[159] Epist. Giles, iv. 225. + +[160] Fragm. Vit. Giles, i. p. 371. + +[161] "Et quod omnes Romanos datâ pecuniâ inducant ut faciant +fidelitatem domino Papæ, dummodo in nostrâ dejectione regis Angliæ +satisfaciat voluntati."--Epist. ad Humbold. Card. Giles, iii. 123. +Bouquet, 350. Compare Lambeth, on the effect of Italian affairs on the +conduct of the Pope.--p. 106. + +[162] Epist. 188, p. 266. + +[163] Fitz-Stephen, p. 271. + +[164] "Domo vestra flagellum suspendit impius, ne quod promereret, +propinquorum vestrorum ministerio veniat super eum."--Giles, iii. 338. +Bouquet, 358. + +[165] Giles, iii. 201. Bouquet, 361. + +[166] "Amici ad Thomam."--Giles, iv. 277. Bouquet, 370. + +[167] Henry, it should be observed, waived all the demands which he had +hitherto urged against Becket, for debts incurred during his +chancellorship. + +[168] Epist. Giles, iv. 216. Bouquet, 373. + +[169] "Revocato consensu," writes the Bishop of Nevers, a moderate +prelate, who regrets the obstinacy of the nuncios. Giles, vi. 266. +Bouquet, 377. Compare the letter of the clergy of Normandy to the +Pope.--Giles, vi. 177. Bouquet, 377. + +[170] Becket thought, or pretended to think, that under the +"dignitatibus" lurked the "consuetudinibus."--Giles, iii. 299. Bouquet, +379. + +[171] "Ceteras vestras recepimus, et ipsas adhuc penes nos habemus, in +quibus terram nostram et personas regni a præfata Cantuarensis potestate +eximebatis, donec ipse in gratiam nostram rediisset."--Epist. Giles, vi. +291. Bouquet, 374. + +[172] "Nam quod mundus sentit, dolet, ingemiscit, nullus adeo iniquam +causam ad ecclesiam Romanam defert, quin ibi spe lucri concepta ne +dixerim odore sordium, adjutorem inveniat et patronum."--Epist. iii. +133; Bouquet, 382. + +[173] Giles, iii. 250; Bouquet, 387. + +[174] Giles, iii. 334; Bouquet, 388. + +[175] Giles, iii. 42; Bouquet, 390. Reginald of Salisbury was an +especial object of Becket's hate. He calls him one born in fornication +("fornicarium"), son of a priest. Reginald hated Becket with equal +cordiality. Becket had betrayed him by a false promise of not injuring +his father. "Quod utique ipsi non plus quam cani faceremus."--This +letter contains Reginald's speech about Henry having the College of +Cardinals in his pay.--Giles, iii. 225; Bouquet, 391. + +[176] Becket writes to the Pope, January 1170. "Nec vos oportet de +cætero vereri, ne transeat ad schismaticos, quod sic eum Christus in +manu famuli sui, regis Francorum subegit, ut ab obsequio ejus non possit +amplius separari."--p. 48. + +[177] Many difficult points arose. Did Becket demand not merely the +actual possessions of the see, but all to which he laid claim? There +were three estates held by William de Ros, Henry of Essex, and John the +Marshall (the original object of dispute at Northampton?), which Becket +specifically required and declared that he would not give up if exiled +for ever.--Epist. Giles, iii. 220; Bouquet, 400. + +[178] Epist. Giles, iii. 262; Bouquet, 199. + +[179] Epist. ibid.; Radulph de Diceto. + +[180] According to Pope Alexander, Henry offered that his son should +give the kiss of peace in his stead.--Giles, iv. 55. + +[181] See his letter to his emissaries at Rome.--Giles, iii. 219; +Bouquet, 401. + +[182] Ricardus Dorubernensis apud Twysden. Lord Lyttelton has another +copy, in his appendix; in that a ninth article forbade the payment of +Peter's Pence to Rome; it was to be collected and brought into the +exchequer. + +[183] Epist. Giles, iii. 195; Bouquet, 404. + +[184] Giles, iii. 192; Bouquet, 405. + +[185] Dated February 12, 1170. + +[186] Epist. Giles, iii. 96; Bouquet, 416; Giles, iii. 108; Bouquet, +419. "Sed pro eâ mori parati sumus." He adds: "Insurgant qui voluerint +cardinales, arment non modo regem Angliæ, sed totum, si possent orbem in +perniciem nostram.... Utinam via Romana non gratis peremisset tot +miseros innocentes. Quis de cetero audebit illi regi registere quem +ecclesia Romana tot triumphis animavit, et armavit exemplo pernitioso +manante ad posteros." + +[187] "Nec persuadebitur mundo, quod suasores isti Deum saperent; +sed potius pecuniam, quam immoderato avaritiæ ardore sitiunt, +olfecerunt."--Giles, iv. 291; Bouquet, 417. + +[188] Becket's depression at this event is dwelt upon in a letter of +Peter of Blois to John of Salisbury. Peter traveled from Rome to Bologna +with the Papal legates. From them he gathered that either Becket +would soon be reconciled to the King or be removed to another +patriarchate.--Epist. xxii. apud Giles, i. p. 84. + +[189] Dr. Lingard holds this letter, printed by Lord Lyttelton, and +which he admits was produced, to have been a forgery. If it was, it was +a most audacious one; and a most flagrant insult to the Pope, whom Henry +was even now endeavoring to propitiate through the Lombard Republics and +the Emperor of the East (see Giles, iv. 10). It is remarkable, too, that +though the Pope declares that this coronation, contrary to his +prohibition (Giles, iv. 30), is not to be taken as a precedent, he has +no word of the forgery. Nor do I find any contemporary assertion of its +spuriousness. Becket, indeed, in his account of the last interview with +the King, only mentions the general permission granted by the Pope at an +early period of the reign; and argues as if this were the only +permission. Is it possible that a special permission to York to act was +craftily interpolated into the general permission? But the trick may +have been on the side of the Pope, now granting, now nullifying his own +grants by inhibition. Bouquet is strong against Baronius (as on other +points) upon Alexander's duplicity.--p. 434. + +[190] Giles, iii. 229. + +[191] Giles, iii. 302. + +[192] "Dictum fuit aliquem dixisse vel scripsisse regi Anglorum de +Archepiscopo ut quid tenetur exclusus? melius tenebitur inclusus quam +exclusus. Satisque dictum fuit intelligenti."--p. 272. + +[193] Giles, iv. 30; Bouquet, 436. + +[194] "Nam de consuetudinibus quas tanta pervicaciâ vindicare +consueverat nec mutire præsumpsit." Becket was as mute. The issue of the +quarrel seems entirely changed. The Constitutions of Clarendon recede, +the right of coronation occupies the chief place.--See the long letter, +Giles, 65. + +[195] Humbold Bishop of Ostia advised the confining the triumph to the +depression of the Archbishop of York and the excommunication of the +Bishops.--Giles, vi. 129; Bouquet, 443. + +[196] "Licet ei (regi sc.) peperceritis, dissimulare non audetis +excessus et crimina sacerdotum." This letter is a curious revelation of +the arrogance and subtlety of Becket.--Giles, iii. 77. + +[197] It is called the Pax. + +[198] Becket disclaims vengeance: "Neque hoc dicimus, Deo teste, +vindictam expetentes, quum scriptum esse noverimus, non quæres ultionem +... sed ut ecclesia correctionis exemplo possit per Dei gratiam in +posterum roborare, et poena paucorum multos ædificare."--Giles, iii. 76. + +[199] See Becket's account.--Giles, iii. p. 81. + +[200] Lambeth says: "Visum est autem nonnullis, quod incircumspectè +literarum vindictâ post pacem usus est, que _tantum pacis desperatione +fuerint datæ_"--p. 116. Compare pp. 119 and 152. + +[201] Lord Lyttelton has drawn an inference from these words unfavorable +to the purity of Idonea's former life; and certainly the examples of the +Magdalene and the woman of Egypt, if this be not the case, were +unhappily chosen. + +[202] Fitz-Stephen, pp. 281, 284. + +[203] Becket calls York his ancient enemy: "Lucifer ponens sedem suum in +aquilone." + +[204] Becket accuses the bishops of thirsting for his blood! "Let them +drink it." But this was a phrase which he uses on all occasions, even to +William of Pavia. + +[205] "Si vero ita eidem Archiepiscopo et Cantuarensi Ecclesiæ +satisfacere inveniretis, ut poenam istam ipse videat relaxandam, vice +nostrâ per illum volumus adimpleri."--Apud Bouquet, p. 461. + +[206] "Ipse tamen Londonias adiens, et ibi missarum solenniis +celebratis, quosdam excommunicavit."--Passio, iii. p. 154. + +[207] Since this passage was written an excellent and elaborate paper +has appeared in the Quarterly Review, full of local knowledge. I +recognize the hand of a friend from whom great things may be expected. I +find, I think, nothing in which we disagree, though that account, having +more ample space, is more particular than mine. (Reprinted in Memorials +of Canterbury, by Rev. A. P. Stanley.) + +[208] Fitz-Stephen, De Bosham, Grim, _in loc._ + +[209] See, on the former history of these knights, Quarterly Review, +vol. xciii. p. 355. The writer has industriously traced out all that can +be known, much which was rumored about these men. + +[210] Tuesday, Dec. 29. See, on the fatality of Tuesday in Becket's +life, Q. R. p. 357. + +[211] Grim, p. 71. Fitz-Stephen. + +[212] For the accurate local description, see Quarterly Review, p. 367. + +[213] Grim, 70. + +[214] John of Salisbury. Bouquet, 619, 620. + +[215] Giles, iv. 162; Bouquet, 467. It was fitting that the day after +that of the Holy Innocents should be that on which should rise up this +new Herod. + +[216] See the letter of Arnulf of Lisieux.--Bouquet, 469. + +[217] The Quarterly reviewer has the merit of tracing out the +extraordinary fate of the murderers. "By a singular reciprocity, the +principle for which Becket had contended, that priests should not be +subjected to the secular courts, prevented the trial of a layman for the +murder of a priest by any other than a clerical tribunal." Legend +imposes upon them dark and romantic acts of penance; history finds them +in high places of trust and honor.--pp. 377, _et seqq._ I may add that +John of Oxford five years after was Bishop of Norwich. Ridel too became +of Ely. + +[218] Diceto, p. 557. + +[219] This stipulation, in Henry's view, canceled hardly any; as few, +and these but trifling customs, had been admitted during his reign. + +[220] The scene is related by all the monkish chroniclers.--Gervaise, +Diceto, Brompton, Hoveden. + +[221] Peter of Blois was assured by the two cardinal legates of Henry's +innocence of Becket's death. See this letter, which contains a most +high-flown eulogy on the transcendent virtues of Henry.--Epist. 66. + +[222] On the effect of the death, and the immediate concourse of the +people to Canterbury, Lambeth, p. 133. + +[223] Herbert de Bosham, writing fourteen years after Becket's death, +declares him among the most undisputed martyrs. "Quod alicujus martyrum +causa justior fuit aut apertior ego nec audivi, nec legi." So completely +were clerical immunities part and parcel of Christianity. + +[224] The enemies of Becket assigned base reasons for his opposition to +the King. "Ecclesiasticam etiam libertatem, quam defensatis, non ad +animarum lucrum sed ad augmentum pecuniarum, episcopos vestros +intorquere." See the charges urged by John of Oxford.--Giles, iv. p. +188. + +[225] Especially in Epist. 19. "Interim." + +[226] It is not just to judge the clergy by the crimes of individual +men, but there is one case, mentioned by no less an authority than John +of Salisbury, too flagrant to pass over: it was in Becket's own +cathedral city. Immediately after Becket's death the Bishops of Exeter +and Worcester were commissioned by Pope Alexander to visit St. +Augustine's, Canterbury. They report the total dilapidation of the +buildings and estates. The prior elect "Jugi, quod hereticus damnat, +fluit libidine, et hinnit in foeminas, adeo impudens ut libidinem, nisi +quam publicaverit, voluptuosam esse non reputat." He debauched mothers +and daughters: "Fornicationis abusum comparat necessitati." In one +village he had seventeen bastards.--Epist. 310. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +The original book is an excerpt of the author's "History of Latin +Christianity, Vol. IV.," chapter VIII, pages 309-424. A copy of that +volume at http://archive.org/details/historylatinchri04milm was used to +help correct typographical errors in this eBook. + +Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant +preference was found in this book or its source; otherwise they were not +changed. + +Sidenotes are identified as: [SN: text of sidenote] + +Sidenotes originally appearing near the start of a paragraph are +positioned at the beginning of the paragraph; sidenotes in the middle +of long paragraphs usually are positioned just before the nearest +sentence. + +Footnotes have been renumbered in a single sequence for the entire book. + +Table of Contents added by Transcriber; the original book did not have a +Table of Contents, an Index, or any illustrations. + +Page vi: "18vo." changed from "18mo." + +Footnote 107: changed "écartelent" to "écartelant," as spelled in +"History of Latin Christianity" and in the cited book, "Notes d'un +Voyage dans le Midi de la France." The name of the author of +"Notes" appears as "Merimée" in this book and in "History of Latin +Christianity," but is spelled "Mérimée" in that author's own book, +"Notes." + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Life of Thomas à Becket, by Henry Hart Milman + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41811 *** |