OHIO SKETCHES. 



THE MURDER OF THOMAS A BECKET. 



HISTORIC SKETCHES. II. 



THOMAS A BECKET AND THE CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON. 



IT was a grand scene that presented itself in Westminster Hall 

 when, in the spring of the year 1163, King Henry II. met 

 Thomas a, Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest of 

 the bishops of England. On the one side appeared, in all the 

 pomp and magnificence of prelates of the Roman Church, the 

 whole of the representatives of spiritual power in the country ; 

 on the other appeared, in an equally magnificent simplicity, the 

 highest representative of the temporal power. Church and 

 State were confronted. Why ? 



The kimg had a question to ask the bishops, one in which not 



ie only, nor the people living at the time, but we also, had a 



keen personal interest ; and in order that he might get their 



collective answer at one and the same time, he bade them meet 



m at Westminster in a body. The question he had to ask was 



y simple, but also very important: "Would the bishops 



conform to the law and ancient customs of the land, or would 



they not?" Timely warning had been given to the bishops of 



the nature of the question to be asked, and, under the guidance 



of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they had framed an answer. 



They would observe the law and the ancient customs of the 



realm, samng their own order. Only one prelate, Hilary, Bishop 



of Chichester, was found to give an unqualified answer in the 



affirmative, and for doing so he received the warm upbraidinps 



of the primate. 



Henry, who thought by putting a straightforward question to 

 get an equally straightforward answer, was exceedingly dis- 

 gusted at the trick of the primate, which left the whole matter 

 is much at large as it had been before the meeting. In vain he 

 toed to change the mind of the bishops ; and, baffled in his hope 

 binding them by their own admissions, he left the hall in a 

 rage, and determined to take other means of bringing them to 

 vot.U 



submission. To submission! But in what were the bishops 

 opposed to him ? What law or ancient custom of the kingdom 

 had they disregarded ? What need was there to summonthem 

 to Westminster, and to catechise them so severely ? Above all, 

 what harm was there in the saving clause inserted by the 

 prelates in their answer, that it should so greatly incense the 

 king ? Let us see. 



For many years the clergy had been striving to effect in 

 England what they had actually effected in other countries an 

 independence of the civil courts, and a recognition of their 

 superiority above the civil power. Steadily they worked toward* 

 the attainment of these great objects, their doctrine of the supe- 

 riority of the spiritual over the temporal power ultimately 

 blooming out into an assertion of right even to depose princes, 

 and to absolve subjects from their allegiance. As yet this 

 monstrous claim had not been advanced in England, but steps 

 were being taken which were meant to lead up, and actually did 

 lead up, to it. With some show of colour, perhaps, the clergy 

 claimed that all questions of right to present to ecclesiastical 

 benefices should be tried in the ecclesiastical courts. They also 

 claimed that, as guardians of property which was heM for reli- 

 gions purposes, they should not be taxed nor be compelled to do 

 military service, whether in kind or by commutation, nor k""H 

 they be obliged to sit with laymen in the grand council of the 

 kingdom that was to say, a House of Lords. The deans *d 

 chapters of cathedrals churned the sole and exclusive right tr 

 elect the bishop of their see; privilege of sanctuary both to 

 person and property was claimed for all churches and church- 

 yards ; and the clergy also asserted the unquestioned right to 

 ' excommunicate whomsoever they pleased. These and certain 

 | other privileges, of which the tendency was to render clerks in 

 1 holy orders independent of the state, were not, though perti. 

 i naciously advanced, sufficient to arouse the resolute opposition 

 i of Henry II. There were two other nlums of the churchmen 



