18 



ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.) 



struck at the absolute independence of the clergy on 

 tlio civil powers, were strenuously opposed by the 

 clergy, headed by the famous Becket, archbishop of 

 Canterbury, who pleaded, that they were subject 

 only to the laws or the church, were to be judged 

 only in spiritual courts, and to be punished only by 

 ecclesiastical censures. II enry made various attempts 

 to obtain the papal sanction to these constitutions, 

 but in vain. Becket had reluctantly sworn obedience 

 and assent to them ; but the pope sent him a dispen- 

 sation, freeing him from his oath, and enjoining him 

 to perform the duties of his sacred office. Becket 

 having obtained this dispensation, openly opposed 

 these constitutions, and protected the clergy from 

 the punislunents they deserved, in spite of Henry ; 

 and liaving taken a solemn protest, and appealed to 

 the pope, he, shortly after, left the kingdom and 

 went to Rome ; which obliged the king to send an 

 embassy to counteract Becket's influence at the papal 

 court. 



After various attempts, made by Henry, to soften 

 the archbishop, and to induce him to comply with 

 some kind of subjection to civil authority, he was 

 compelled to give way to the pertinacious firmness of 

 Becket, supported by the thunders of the Vatican, 

 and to receive that ambitious prelate upon his own 

 terms ; who, as soon as he returned, behaved with 

 such insolence, excommunicating all the superior 

 clergy of the kingdom, who were willing, in some 

 small degree, to comply with the regulations of Clar- 

 endon, that these last, throwing themselves at the 

 royal feet, implored protection from the wrath of 

 Becket, in such strong terms, that, at last, the king, 

 in a violent burst of passion, exclaimed, " What an 

 unhappy prince am I, who have not about me one 

 man of spirit enough to rid me of this insolent pre- 

 late!" This passionate exclamation made so deep 

 an impression on those who heard it, that four barons 

 immediately resolved either to terrify the primate 

 into submission, or to put him to death. To prevent 

 any suspicion of their design, they left the court at 

 different tunes, and arrived at Canterbury, with a 

 chosen band of determined men, with arms concealed 

 under their clothes, who were posted in different parts 

 of the city, to prevent interruption from the citizens. 

 The four barons, attended by twelve of their com- 

 pany, went unarmed to the archi episcopal palace, 

 and were admitted into an apartment, where the arch- 

 bishop sat, conversing with some of his clergy, and 

 told him their errand, which was either to make satis- 

 faction to the king for his insolent conduct, and to 

 absolve the prelates whom he had excommunicated, 

 or suffer death. Becket remained undaunted hi his 

 refusal, upon which the barons retired, when his 

 friends earnestly pressed him to make his escape, 

 which he refused to do. The barons, with their ac- 

 complices, finding that threats and intercessions were 

 equally vain, put on their coats of mail, and each, 

 armed with a sword and axe, returned to the palace, 

 but found the gate shut. When they were preparing 

 to break it open, they were conducted up a back 

 way, and were let in at a window by Robert de Broc. 

 A cry then arose, " they are armed, they are armed;" 

 and Becket was hurried into the church by his clergy, 

 hoping that the sacredness of the place would pro- 

 tect him from violence. The conspirators having 

 searched the palace, came to the church ; and one of 

 them crying, " where is that traitor ! where is the 

 archbishop ?" Becket advanced boldly, and said, 

 " Here I am, an archbishop, but no traitor ;" " Fly, 

 or you are a dead man," said one of the conspirators ; 



I will never fly," replied Becket. One of the con- 

 spirators then took hold of his robe, saying, " You 

 are my prisoner; c6me along with me. " But Becket, 

 taking him by the collar, shook him so violently, that 



lie almost threw him down. Knraged at this resist- 

 ance, the baron aimed a blow with his sword, and cut 

 off the arm of an attendant priest, and slightly 

 wounded the primate on the head. By tliree other 

 blows, received from the tliree other barons, his skull 

 was almost cloven in two, and his brains scattered 

 about the pavement of the church. Thus fell Thomas 

 Becket, December 29th, A.D. 1170, the great cham- 

 pion of the independence of the clergy upon civil 

 authority ; and who endeavoured to subject his king 

 and country to a foreign jurisdiction. 



None expressed greater grief, at the tragical end 

 of the prelate, than the king himself. He refused to 

 see any company, take any food, or admit of any 

 consolation for three days. He also drew up a full 

 and pathetic narrative of the case, transmitting it to 

 the pope, conjuring him to suspend censure, till he 

 had inquired into the truth, and, at the same time, 

 most solemnly protesting his innocence. Every 

 method was taken to sooth the pope, and ward oft' the 

 dreadful sentence of excommunication ; which, in 

 these days, would have entirely ruined Henry's affairs. 

 At last, after a long and expensive negotiation, he got 

 matters made up with the papal court, by solemnly 

 swearing on the gospels, in presence of the pope's 

 legates, and in a great assembly of princes, prelates, 

 nobles, and others, hi the church of St Andrew, that 

 he had neither commanded nor desired the death of 

 the archbishop of Canterbury ; and that when he had 

 heard of it, he was very much grieved. In order to 

 atone for his offence, and to procure full reconciliation 

 with the church,he bound himself to give to the knights 

 templars as much money as would pay two hundred 

 knights for one year, to serve in the Holy Land ; and, 

 at next Christmas, to take the cross, and go in person 

 into the Holy Land the following summer, unless he 

 obtained a dispensation from the pope ; to permit ap- 

 peals to be made to the pope, in good faith, and with- 

 out fraud ; to abolish such evil customs as had been 

 introduced in his own time, (the Clarendon constitu- 

 tions) ; to restore all the possessions of the church of 

 Canterbury, and of all the clergy and laity, who had 

 been deprived of their estates on account of Becket; 

 and to this, a condition was added, a secret one, of 

 doing penance at the tomb of Becket, which Henry, 

 after his arrival from France, performed in the fol- 

 lowing manner : " Leaving Southampton, he took the 

 road to Canterbury ; and was no sooner hi sight of 

 that city, than alighting from his horse, though yet at 

 a league's distance, and, pulling oft" his boots, he 

 walked barefooted, in extreme pain, the road being 

 purposely strewed with sharp gravel stones, to the 

 holy tomb ; where, after he had taken a little rest, 

 he submitted to be scourged on the bare back with 

 forty stripes, by the prior and the monks of St Augus- 

 tine ; after which, he passed the night in prayer, 

 lying on the pavement of the church ; and next 

 morning, after liaving attended a procession round the 

 holy tomb, he set out for London." 



As Becket had fallen in defence of clerical immu- 

 nity from civil jurisdiction, his memory could not fail 

 to be revered by all his spiritual brethren ; and he 

 was, accordingly, canonized, and his relics preserved 

 in a silver shrine at Canterbury, which, as usual, were 

 endowed with miraculous powers ; and his interces- 

 sions were supposed to be more efficacious than those 

 of all the other saints, whose names are enrolled in 

 the Romish calendar. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 

 sufficiently demonstrate the popularity, in these days, 

 of pilgrimages to Becket's tomb. 



The rage for crusading had, for a century, been 

 fanned into flame by ambitious pontiffs ; and was 

 incalculably detrimental to the civil interests of man- 

 kind, and the cause of religion. By these, Europe 

 was deprived of a vast number of its inhabitants. 



