A.D. 1154-1162.

THOMAS A BECKET.

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secure of meeting with no interruption on this side, advanced with his army into Brittany; and Conan, in despair of being able to make resistance, not only delivered up the county of Nantes to him, but also betrothed his daughter and only child, yet an infant, to Geoffrey, the king's third son, who was of the same tender years. The Duke of Brittany died about seven years after; and Henry, being mesne lord, and also natural guardian to his son and daughter-in-law, put himself in possession of that principality, and annexed it to his other great dominions.

§ 3. In 1162 Henry commenced his long and memorable struggle with the papal power. On the death of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, the king resolved to take rigorous measures against the multiplied encroachments of the clergy; and that he might be secure against any opposition, he advanced to that dignity Becket, his chancellor, on whose compliance he thought he could entirely depend.

Thomas à Becket, the first man of English descent who, since the Norman conquest, had, during the course of a whole century, risen to any considerable station, was born of reputable parents in the city of London; and, being endowed with industry and capacity, he early insinuated himself into the favor of Archbishop Theobald, and obtained from that prelate some preferments and offices. By their means he was enabled to travel for improvement to Italy, where he studied the civil and canon law at Bologna; and on his return he appeared to have made such proficiency in knowledge, that he was promoted by his patron to the archdeaconry of Canterbury, an office of considerable trust and profit. He was afterward employed with success by Theobald in transacting business at Rome; and on Henry's accession was promoted by the influence of the archbishop to the dignity of chancellor. Besides exercising this high office, Becket was put in possession of large baronies that had escheated to the crown; and to complete his grandeur, he was intrusted with the education of Prince Henry, the king's eldest son, and heir of the monarchy. The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents, corresponded to these great preferments, or, rather, exceeded any thing that England had ever before seen in any subject. His historian and secretary, Fitz-Stephens, mentions, among other particulars, that his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs, lest the gentlemen who paid court to him, and could not, by reason of their great number, find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor. A great number of knights were retained in his service; the greatest barons were proud of being re

ceived at his table; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobility; and the king himself frequently vouchsafed to partake of his entertainments.

Becket, who by his complaisance and good-humor had rendered himself agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master, appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by the death of Theobald. As he was well acquainted with the king's intentions of retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient bounds, all ecclesiastical privileges, Henry, who never expected any resistance from that quarter, immediately issued orders for electing him Archbishop of Canterbury (May 24, 1162). But no sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity than he totally altered his demeanor and conduct. Without consulting the king, he immediately returned into his hands the commission of chancellor, pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from secular affairs, and be solely employed in the exercise of his spiritual functions; but in reality that he might break off all connections with Henry, and apprise him that Becket, as primate of England, was now become entirely a new personage. He maintained, in his retinue and attendants alone, his ancient pomp and lustre, which were useful to strike the vulgar; in his own person he affected the greatest austerity and most rigid mortification, which, he was sensible, would have an equal or a greater tendency to the same end. He wore sackcloth next his skin; he changed it so seldom that it was filled with dirt and vermin; his usual diet was bread, his drink water, which he even rendered unpalatable by the mixture of unsavory herbs; he tore his back with the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it; he daily on his knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars, whom he afterward dismissed with presents; and his aspect wore the appearance of seriousness and secret devotion. Becket waited not till Henry should commence those projects against the ecclesiastical power which he knew had been formed by that prince; he was himself the aggressor in several matters, and endeavored to overawe the king by the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprises.

The question between them was at length brought to an issue by the following case: A clerk in Worcestershire, having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had proceeded to murder the father; and the general indignation against this crime moved the king to require that the clerk should be delivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magistrate. Becket insisted on the privileges of the Church; confined the criminal in the bishop's prison, lest he should be seized by the king's officers; maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on him than degra

4.D. 1162-1164. CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.

113

dation; and when the king demanded that, immediately after he was degraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the primate asserted that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the same accusation and for the same offense.

§ 4. Henry, laying hold of so plausible a pretense, resolved to determine at once those controversies which daily multiplied between the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates of England, and he put to them this concise and decisive question, Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom? The bishops unanimously replied that they were willing, saving their own order; a device by which they thought to elude the present urgency of the king's demand, yet reserve to themselves, on a favorable opportunity, the power of resuming all their pretensions.

Henry was not content with a declaration in these general terms; he resolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs with which he required compliance. For this purpose he summoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon (Jan. 25, 1164), in which the laws, commonly called the Constitutions of Clarendon, were voted without opposition. The articles, 16 in number, established the following principal points: Clerical offenders were again brought under secular jurisdiction, from which they had been removed at some period since the Conquest. This step was imperatively demanded by the enormous increase of crime among the clergy, no fewer than 100 murders having been committed by men of that profession since the king's accession; and as the spiritual courts could inflict only spiritual penalties, these crimes met with no adequate punishment. Other articles regarded the cognizance by civil courts of clerical contracts and rights of advowson. The king asserted the power of approving the election of bishops, and of receiving their homage as barons; he forbade that any of his tenants in chief should be excommunicated without his consent, or that any of the clergy should leave the kingdom without his permission. At the same time was passed the Assize of Clarendon,* a series of regulations respecting civil affairs, which, however, was not confirmed till the year 1176.

§ 5. Becket at first obstinately withheld his assent to the Constitutions; but, finding himself deserted even by his own brethren, he was at last obliged to comply; and he promised, legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve, to observe the Constitu

The Constitutions will be found in Lord Lyttelton's History of Henry II., App. to book iii., No. 2; the Assize in Palgrave's English Commonwealth, vol. ii., p. 168.

tions; and he took an oath to that purpose. When the Pope, however, not only refused to ratify, but absolutely annulled the Constitutions, Becket expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance, and endeavored to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to support their ecclesiastical privileges. On the other hand, Henry, being determined to prosecute the archbishop to the utmost, summoned, at Northampton, a great council, which he purposed to make the instrument of his vengeance against the inflexible prelate (Oct. 12, 1164). Becket was condemned as guilty of a contempt of the king's court for not having personally appeared in a suit instituted against him respecting some lands, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn to his sovereign; and all his goods and chattels were confiscated. The king, not content with this sentence, however violent and oppressive, farther demanded back from him, on various pretexts, several large sums of money; and finally required him to give in the accounts of his administration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had, during that time, been subjected to his management. Becket, by the advice of the Bishop of Winchester, offered 2000 marks as a general satisfaction for all demands; but this offer was rejected by the king. After a few days spent in deliberation, Becket, having gone to church and said mass, proceeded thence to court, arrayed in his sacred vestments. As soon as he arrived within the palace gate he took the cross into his own hands, bore it aloft as his protection, and marched in that posture into the royal apartments. The king, who was in an inner room, was astonished at this parade, by which the primate seemed to menace him and his court with the sentence of excommunication; and he sent some of the prelates to remonstrate with him on account of such audacious behavior. The king would probably have pushed the affair to the utmost extremity against him; but Becket asked Henry's immediate permission to leave Northampton; and upon meeting with a refusal, he withdrew secretly, wandered about for some time disguised as a monk, under the name of Brother Christian, and at last took shipping and arrived safely at Gravelines.

§ 6. Louis, King of France, jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, and the Pope, whose interests were more immediately concerned in supporting Becket, received him with the greatest marks of distinction. A war ensued between Louis and Henry; and the Pope menaced Henry with excommunication. But after three years' time peace was concluded between the two monarchs, and the Pope and Henry began at last to perceive that, in the present situation of affairs, neither of them could expect a final and deci

A.D. 1164-1170. EXILE AND RETURN OF BECKET.

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sive victory over the other, and that they had more to fear than to hope from the duration of the controversy. After much negotiation, all difficulties were finally adjusted between the parties (1170), and the king allowed Becket to return, after he had been six years in banishment, on conditions which may be esteemed both honorable and advantageous to that prelate. But the king attained not even that temporary tranquillity which he had hoped to reap from these expedients. During the heat of his quarrel with Becket, while he was every day expecting an interdict to be laid on his kingdom, and sentence of excommunication to be fulminated against his person, he had thought it prudent to have his son, Prince Henry, associated with him in the royalty, and to make him be crowned king by the hands of Roger, Archbishop of York (June 15, 1170). But Becket, claiming the sole right, as Archbishop of Canterbury, of officiating in the coronation, had inhibited all the prelates of England from assisting at this ceremony, and had procured from the Pope a mandate to the same purpose. Henry had promised that the ceremony should be renewed; but the violent spirit of Becket, elated by the power of the Church, and by the victory which he had already obtained over his sovereign, was not content with this voluntary compensation. On his arrival in England, at the beginning of December, he met the Archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury, who were on their journey to the king in Normandy. He notified to the archbishop the sentence of suspension, and to the two bishops that of excommunication, which, at his solicitation, the Pope had pronounced against them. He then proceeded, in the most ostentatious manner, to take possession of his diocese. In Rochester, and all the towns through which he passed, he was received with the shouts and acclamations of the populace. As he approached Southwark, the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and ages, came forth to meet him, and celebrate with hymns of joy his triumphant entrance.

§ 7. When the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived at Baieux, where the king then resided, and complained to him of the violent proceedings of Becket, he instantly perceived the consequences; and being vehemently agitated, burst forth into an exclamation against his servants, whose want of zeal, he said, had so long left him exposed to the enterprises of that ungrateful and imperious prelate. Four gentlemen of his household, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Moreville, and Richard Brito, or the Breton, taking these passionate expressions to be a hint for Becket's death, immediately communicated their thoughts to each other; and swearing to avenge their prince's quarrel, secretly withdrew from court. Some menacing expressions which