favour which he enjoyed, and in the boundless magnificence of his life; but his character was compounded of stronger elements, and his mind of a higher class.

Though Becket already held several lucrative appointments in the Church, he was only in Deacon's orders, and had imbibed little of the spirit of his profession. Hitherto he had been soldier, courtier, statesman, anything rather than churchman; the boon companion of the King, his confidential counsellor, and the faithful minister of his will. If he desired this farther elevation, he dreaded it also; but the apprehension of difficulty and undefined danger operates as an incentive to ambitious zeal, especially in a mind like his. To his friends he said, that he must either lose the King's favour, or sacrifice to it the service of his God; and to Henry himself he expressed a like anticipation; but it was said with a smile, so that, whether intentionally or not, the manner conveyed a meaning which invalidated the words. Henry, indeed, believed that in raising Becket to the primacy, he promoted one who, knowing and approving his views, would continue to further them; and under that persuasion he issued a peremptory mandate for his appointment, in opposition to the advice of the Empress Queen his mother, the opinion of the nation, and of the clergy,... the very men in whom the ostensible right of election resided, opposing it as strongly as they could, and declaring it was indecent that a man, who was rather a soldier than a priest, and who spent his time in hunting and hawking, should be made an Archbishop. They, as well as Henry, mistook the character of the man.

Becket on one day was ordained Priest, and consecrated Archbishop on the next. From that hour he devoted himself to the cause of the Church, the sense of duty being perfectly in accord with his ambitious disposition. To all outward appearance, the change in his life which ensued, was not less total and immediate than that which the grace of God effects in a repentant sinner; but the inner man remained unchanged. The costliest splendour was still displayed in his apparel; beneath his canonical dress he wore the Benedictine habit; under that, sackcloth well stocked with vermin (for vermin were among the accompaniments of monastic sanctity); and within were the daring spirit, the fiery temper, and the haughty heart. Every

part of his conduct now indicated the aspirant saint; his food was of the coarsest kind; bitter herbs were boiled in water to render his drink nauseous; he flogged himself; he washed the feet of the poor; he visited the sick; and the large sum which his predecessor had annually disbursed in alms was doubled by his munificent charity. His determination to oppose the King was intimated by sending back the seals of office, and desiring that he would provide himself with another Chancellor, for he could hardly suffice, he said, to the duties of one office, far less of two. Upon this, the King called upon him to surrender also the archdeaconry of his own see, an office much more incompatible with his new dignity than the Chancellorship; it was the richest benefice in England, under a bishopric, and Becket withheld his resignation till it was forced from him. He must have acted undoubtedly upon some imagined right; covetousness could have no place in a mind like his.

Henry had made an impolitic choice between the rival Popes, in acknowledging Alexander III., who had assisted in compiling the Decretals, and had been chosen by the Guelph party as a fit person to support the loftiest pretensions of the papacy. That Pontiff held a council at Tours, in which the reformation of abuses, or the suppression of errors, was less the object than to assist and strengthen what were called the liberties of the Church. Becket, who obtained permission to attend, presented to the council a book of the life and miracles of Anselm, composed by his directions, as the miraculous life of Dunstan had been in like manner by Lanfranc's orders; and upon the ground that Anselm's sanctity was established by the miracles fabricated for the purpose, solicited canonization for him. As Anselm's chief merit consisted in the firmness with which he had supported the papal against the kingly power, this proposal for canonizing him carried with it a sort of defiance to the King. The Pope, not deeming it prudent to disgust Henry by an act in itself gratuitously offensive, referred it to the decision of a Synod in England; but Becket soon found himself too deeply engaged in other disputes to pursue this point, and more than two centuries elapsed before Anselm was enrolled in the Kalendar.

Immediately on his return from the Council, he instituted proceedings for the recovery of church-lands, in pursuance of a

canon passed there against all persons by whom such property was either usurped or detained. Had he proceeded temperately like Lanfranc, the laws and public feeling would in like manner have supported him. But he asserted the maxim of the canon law, that no grant and no length of possession can hold against the claims of the Church; and upon that ground, sought to recover castles, towns, honours, and manors from the barons, and even from the crown itself, which had devolved to them in the regular course of descent; although such claims may in themselves have been well-founded, it is to be presumed, that unless there had been strong reasons for waiving them, they would not have been left dormant by his predecessors. He insisted also, that it was his right to present to all benefices in the manors of his tenants, and in maintenance of the assumed right, excommunicated a lord who refused to let possession be taken by a clergyman thus appointed. This lord held also under the King, and Henry, in support of an acknowledged prerogative, ordered Becket to withdraw the sentence. A haughty answer was returned, that it was not for the King to command who should be absolved or who excommunicated; but the law was explicit in this case, and Becket yielded after a warm contention, which served only to show a spirit of aggression on his part, and thereby increased the King's displeasure.

Undeceived when too late in the character of his former minister and friend, Henry, in pursuing his plans of salutary reform, had to encounter opposition where he had reckoned upon assistance. Plain reason, however, and evident justice, and public opinion, were on his side, and he had a strong case to begin with. A priest had debauched the daughter of a respectable man, and then murdered the father that he might not be disturbed in his guilty intercourse with her. The King demanded that this atrocious criminal should be brought before a civil tribunal, and suffer condign punishment upon conviction; but Becket placed the culprit under custody of his diocesan, that he might not be delivered to the King's justice. Upon this Henry summoned the Bishops to attend him. He complained to them of the corruption of their courts, and of the practice of commuting all punishments for money, whereby, he said, they levied in a year more money from the people than he did. He observed

that a clerical offender, instead of being screened from punishment by his sacred character, ought to be more severely punished, because he had abused that character. And he required that in future ecclesiastical persons accused of heinous crimes should be delivered into the hands of the. Bishop, and if by him found guilty, be degraded, and then transferred to the civil power for punishment.'

The Prelates would have assented to this considerate and equitable proposal, which saved the honour of the Church, while it vindicated the rights of the law. But Becket conferred with them apart, and in deference to him they returned for answer, that no clergyman ought to suffer death, or loss of limb, for any crime whatsoever; nor to be judged in a secular court. The reason which they assigned was compounded of legal subtilty and ecclesiastical pride: it was a maxim, they said, that no one ought to be punished twice for the same offence; but ecclesiastical censures were a punishment, and of all punishments the most grievous, because they touched the soul. The only concession they made was to admit that a clergyman, who had been degraded, became amenable to the common law for any offence committed after his degradation. Henry had inherited the irritable temper of the Norman Kings. Provoked at such a reply, he demanded of them whether they would obey the ancient customs of the realm? Becket replied, "Saving the privileges of his order" and the other Prelates, all but one, returned the same answer; upon which the King remarked, that there was venom in the exception, and that he saw they were drawn up against him in battle array. The dispute, for it was no longer a council, continued all day; and Henry at last left the hall in anger. The following morning he manifested his strong displeasure against the Primate by depriving him of the castles which had been intrusted to him as Chancellor, and which he had continued to hold after his resignation of that office.

But the Prelates re-considered the matter when they were no longer awed by Becket's presence, nor under the control of his commanding spirit: they felt the justice of the King's pretensions, and perceiving that he was bent upon effecting what he had undertaken, they represented to the Primate the propriety Lyttleton, vol. iv. p. 16.

of making some concession. His answer was, that if an Angel were to descend from Heaven, and advise him to make the acknowledgment which the King required, without that saving clause, he would anathematize the Angel. Yet he was prevailed upon to relax this haughty resolution by the representations of his friends, and by the Pope's almoner, who affirmed that he had instructions from Rome to persuade him to submission... The King, they said, had no intention of touching the immunities of the Church: a nominal concession was all that he required; it was only a point of honour on his part that was at stake. Becket could hardly have believed this, acquainted as he well was both with the temper and the settled purpose of the King. Howbeit he yielded, waited on him at Woodstock, and told him he would observe the royal customs. Henry received him, not with the cordial affability of former times, . . . that was impossible, . . . but as one who was gladly disposed to accept the proffered conciliation; he expressed his satisfaction at the promise, and only required that Becket should repeat it before the Great Council of the realm.

Three months afterwards the Great Council was assembled at Clarendon, a palace not far from Salisbury, which is supposed to have derived its name from a fortification there erected by Constantine Chlorus,' and from which, in after years, one of the best and wisest of British statesmen and historians took his title. During the interval they who had acted as mediators with Becket supposed their work was done, and he had been left to take counsel with his own ambitious heart. To act in concert with Henry, and to promote the general good by the surrender of usurped immunities which were neither consistent with justice nor with decency, was a part less congenial to his temper than to stand forward, like Anselm, in the face of Europe, and brave the King as champion for the Church's privileges. When, therefore, the Parliament met, and Henry called upon the Bishops for that unqualified promise of observing the customs, which it had been understood they were to make, Becket again required that it should be made with the saving clause. It was not likely that the King should render justice to the sense of ecclesiastical duty which was thus manifested by a breach of faith; however Becket may have stood self-justified, he had deceived the King;.

'Hist. of Allchester.