466 



BECKET BECKM ANN 



negotiation shown in a matter of the highest impor- 

 tance to England the soliciting from the pope the 

 prohibitory letters against the crowning of Eustace, 

 the son of Stephen, by which that design was de- 

 feated. This service not only raised Hi-cket in the 

 esteem of the archbishop, hut in that of king Henry 

 II., and was the foundation of his high fortune. In 



1158, he was appointed high chancellor and precep- 

 tor to prince Henry, and at this time was a complete 

 courtier, conforming, in cvtry respect, to the humour 

 of the king, lie \\.is, in f.ict, liis prime companion, 

 had the same hour- ot eating and going to hcil, held 

 splendid levees, and courted popular applause. In 



1 159, he made a campaign with the king in Toulouse, 

 having in his own pay 700 knights and 1200 horse- 

 men ; and it is siid he advised Henry to seize the 

 person of Louis, king of France, shut up in Toulouse 

 without an army. This counsel, however, so indi- 

 cative of the future martyr, being too bold for the 

 lay counsellors of one of the Ixildest inonurchs of the 

 age, was declined. In the next year, he visited 

 Paris, to treat of an alliance between the eldest 

 daughter of the king of France and prince Henry, 

 and returned with the young princess to England. 

 He had not enjoyed the chancellorship more than 

 four years, when his patron Theobald died, and king 

 Henry was so far mistaken as to raise his favourite 

 to Uie primacy, on the presumption thai he would 

 aid him in those political views, in respect to church 

 power, which all the sovereigns of the Norman line 

 embraced, and which, in fact, caused a continual 

 struggle, until its termination by Henry VIII. It 

 has been asserted, that B. told the king what he was 

 to expect from him ; but, independent of the ap- 

 pointment itself, there is evidence to prove his eager- 

 ness to obtain the dignity, and the disgust entertained 

 by Henry at the first symptoms of the real temper of 

 the man whom he had been so anxious to promote. 



Becket was consecrated archbishop in 1162, and 

 immediately affected an austerity of character which 

 formed a very natural prelude to the part which he 

 meant to play. Pope Alexander III. held a general 

 council at Tours, in 1163, at which B. attended, and 

 made a formal complaint of the infringements by the 

 laity on the rights and immunities of the church. On 

 his return to England, he began to act in the spirit of 

 this representation, and to prosecute several of the 

 nobility and others, holding church possessions, whom 

 he also proceeded to excommunicate. Henry, an 

 able and politic monarch, was anxious to recall cer- 

 tain privileges of the clergy, which withdrew them 

 from the jurisdiction of the civil courts; and it was 

 not without a violent struggle, and the mediation of 

 the pope, that B. finally acquiesced. The king soon 

 after summoned a convocation or parliament at Cla- 

 rendon, to the celebrated constitution of which, al- 

 though the archbishop swore tliat he would never 

 assent, he at length subscribed it, and, alleging some- 

 thing like force for his excuse, by way of penance, 

 suspended himself from his archiepiscopal functions 

 until the pope's absolution could arrive. Finding 

 himself the object of the king's displeasure, he soon 

 after attempted to escape to France ; but, being in- 

 tercepted, Henry, in a parliament at Northampton, 

 charged him with a violation of his allegiance, and 

 all his goods were confiscated. A suit was also com- 

 menced against him for money lent him during his 

 chancellorship, and for the proceeds of the benefices 

 which he had held vacant while in that capacity. In 

 this desperate situation, he, with great difficulty and 

 danger, made his escape to Flanders, and, proceeding 

 to the pope at Sens, humbly resigned his archbishop- 

 ric, which was, however, restored. He then took up 

 liis abode tit the abbey of Pontigny, in Normandy, 

 whence he issued expostulatory letters to the king 



and bishops of England, in which he excommuni- 

 cated all violators of the prerogatives of the church, 

 and included in the censure the principal officers of 

 the crown. Henry was so exasperated, that h: 

 banished all his relations, and obliged the Cistercians 

 to send him away from the abbey of Pontiyny ; from 

 which he removed, on the recommendation of the 

 king of France, to the abbey of Colunibe, and spent 

 four years there in exile. 



After much negotiation, a sort of reconciliation took 

 place in ll?O, on the whole to the advantage of 

 Becket, who, being restored to his see, with all its 

 former privileges, behaved, on the occasion, with 

 excessive haughtiness. After a triumpliant entry 

 into Canterbury, the young king Henry, crowned 

 during the life-time of his father, transmitted him an 

 order to restore the suspended and excommunicated 

 prelates, which he refused to do, on the pretence 

 that the pope alone could grant the favour, although 

 the latter had lodged the instruments ot censure 

 in his hands. The prelates immediately appealed 

 to Henry in Normandy, who, in a suite of extreme 

 exasperation, exclaimed, " What an unhappy prince 

 am I, who have not about me one man of spirit 

 enough to rid me of a single insolent prelate, the 

 perpetual trouble of my life!" These, rasli and 

 too significant words induced four of the atten 

 dant barons, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, 

 Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto, to resolve 

 to wipe out the king's reproach. Having Jaid 

 their plans, they forthwith proceeded to Canter- 

 bury, and having formally required the archbishop 

 to restore the suspended prelates, they returned in 

 the evening of the same day (Dec. 29, 1170), and, 

 placing soldiers in the court-yard, rushed with their 

 swords drawn, into the cathedral, where the arch- 

 bishop was at vespers, and, advancing towards him, 

 threatened him with death if he still disobeyed the 

 orders of Henry. B., without the least token of fear, 

 replied, that he was ready to die for the rights of the 

 church ; and magnanimously added, " I charge you, 

 in the name of the Almighty, not to hurt any other 

 person here, for none of them have been concerned 

 in the late transactions." The confederates then 

 strove to drag him out of the church ; but not being 

 able to do so, on account of his resolute deportment, 

 they killed him on the spot with repeated wounds, all 

 which he endured without a groan. 



The conduct of Henry, and the consequences of 

 this assassination, form a part of English history, 

 wherein the discerning student will perceive the 

 subtle policy of the court of Rome, which eagerly 

 availed itself of this opportunity to advance its gene- 

 ral object, with a due regard to the power of Henry 

 and his strength of character. The perpetrators of 

 the deed, on taking a voyage to Rome, were admit- 

 ted to penance, ana allowed to expiate their enormi- 

 ty in the Holy land. 



Thus perished Thomas Becket, in his fifty-second 

 year, a martyr to the cause which he espoused, and 

 a man of unquestionable vigour of intellect. He was 

 canonized two years after his death, and miracles 

 abounded at his tomb. In the reign of Henry III. 

 his body was taken up, and placed in a magnificent 

 shrine, erected by Archbishop Stephen Langton ; 

 and of the popularity of the pilgrimages to his tomb, 

 the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer will prove an endur- 

 ing testimony. 



BBCKMANN, John, for almost forty-five years pro- 

 fessor of philosophy, economy, policy, finance, and 

 commerce in Gottingen, was born at Hoya in 1739. 

 In 17C3, he was appointed, on Busching's recom- 

 mendation, professor of the Lutheran gymnasium in 

 St Petersburg. In 1766, he became professor in 

 Gottingen, where he lectured with great success. B 



