drew after it very unhappy confequences; and never prince of fo great penetration, appeared, in the iffue, to have fo little understood the genius and character of his minifter.

;

No fooner was Becket inftalled in this high dignity, which rendered him for life the second perfon in the kingdom, with fome pretenfions of aspiring to be the firft, than he totally altered his demeanor and conduct, and endeavoured to retrieve the character of fanctity, of which his former bufy and oftentatious course of life might, in the eyes of the people, have naturally bereaved him. Without confulting the King, he immediately returned into his hands the commiffion of chancellor "; pretending, that he must henceforth detach himself from fecular affairs, and be folely employed in the exercife of his facred function but in reality, that he might break off all connexions with Henry, and apprise him, that Becket, as primate of England, was now become entirely a new perfonage. He maintained, in his retinue and attendants alone, his antient pomp and luftre, which was useful to ftrike the vulgar: In his own perfon he affected the greatest austerity, and most rigid mortification, which, he was fenfible, would have an equal or a greater tendency to the fame end. He wore fack-cloth next his fkin, which, by his affected care to conceal it, was neceffarily the more remarked by all the world*: He changed it fo feldom, that it was filled with dirt and vermin: His ufual died was bread ; his drink water", which he even rendered farther unpalatable

СНАР.

VIII.

. 1162.

CHAP.
VIII.

1162.

tween the

King and
Becket.

by the mixture of unfavoury herbs: He tore his back with the frequent difcipline which he inflicted on it: He daily on his knees washed, in imitation of Chrift, the feet of thirteen beggars, whom he afterwards difmiffed with presents: He gained the affections of the monks by his frequent charities to the convents and hofpitals: Every one who made profeffion of fanctity was admitted to his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility, as well as the piety and mortification, of the holy primate: He feemed to be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, or in perusing religious discourses: His aspect wore the appearance of seriousnefs, and mental recollection, and fecret devotion: And all men of penetration plainly faw, that he was meditating some great. defign, and that the ambition and oftentation of his character had turned itself towards a new and more dangerous object,

pro

BECKET waited not till Henry fhould commence those Quarrel be- jects against the ecclefiaftical power, which, he knew, had been formed by that prince: He was himself the aggreffor; and endeavoured to overawe the King by the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprizes. He fummoned the earl of Clare to furrender the barony of Tunbridge,, which, ever fince the conqueft, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but which, as it had formerly belonged to the fee of Canterbury,, the primate pretended his predeceffors were prohibited by the canons to alienate. The earl of Clare, befides the luftre which he derived from the greatness of his own birth, and the extent of his poffeffions, was allied to all the chief families in the kingdom;

t

his

1

HENRY II.

his fifter, who was a celebrated beauty, had farther extended his credit among the nobility, and was even fuppofed to have gained the King's affections; and Becket could not better difcover, than by attacking fo powerful an intereft, his refolution to maintain with vigour the rights, real or pretended, of his fee ".

WILLIAM de Eynsford, a military tenant of the crown, was patron of a living, which belonged to a manor that held of the archbishop of Canterbury; and Becket, without regard to William's right, prefented, on a new and illegal pretext, one Laurence to that living, who was violently expelled by Eynfford. The primate, making himself, as was usual in spiritual courts, both judge and party, iffued out, in a fummary manner, the sentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who complained to the King, that he, who held in capite of the crown, fhould, contrary to the practice eftablished by the Conqueror, and maintained ever fince by his fucceffors, be fubjected to that terrible sentence, without the previous confent of the fovereign. Henry, who had now broken off all perfonal intercourse with Becket, fent him, by a meffenger, his orders to abfolve Eynfford; but received for anfwer, that it belonged not to the King to inform him whom he should abfolve and whom excommunicate: And it was not till after many remonftrances and menaces, that Becket, though with the worst grace imaginable, was induced to comply with the royal mandate.

HENRY, though he found himself thus grievously mistaken in the character of the person whom he had promoted to the < M. Paris, p. 70. Diceto,

b Fitz-Steph. p.28. Gervafe, p. 1384.

425

CHAP.

VIIL

1163.

p. 536.

VOL. I.

Fitz-Steph. p. 28.
Iii

primacy,

VIII.

1163.

CHAP. primacy, determined not to defift from his former intention of retrenching clerical ufurpations. He was entirely master of his extenfive dominions: The prudence and vigour of his adminiftration, attended with perpetual fuccefs, had raised his character above that of any of his predeceffors: The papacy seemed to be weakened by a fchifm, which divided all Europe: And he rightly judged, that, if the present favourable opportunity were neglected, the crown muft, from the prevalent superstition of the people, be in danger of falling into an entire fubordination under the mitre.

THE union of the civil and ecclefiaftical powers ferves extremely, in every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and prevents thofe mutual incroachments, which, as there can be no ultimate judge between them, are often attended with the moft dangerous confequences. Whether the fupreme magiftrate, who unites these powers, receives the appellation of prince or prelate, it is not material: The fuperior weight, which temporal interefts commonly bear in the apprehenfions of men above spiritual, renders the civil part of his character moft prevalent; and in time prevents those gross impoftures and bigotted perfecutions, which, in all falfe religions, are the chief foundation of clerical authority. But during the progrefs of ecclefiaftical ufurpations, the ftate, by the resistance of the civil magiftrate, is naturally thrown into convulfions; and it behoves the prince, both for his own intereft, and for that of the public, to provide in time sufficient barriers against so dangerous and infidious a rival. This precaution had been hitherto much neglected in England, as well as in other catholic countries; and affairs at laft feemed to

C Epift. St. Thom. p. 130.

have

have come to a dangerous crifis: A fovereign of the greatest abilities was now on the throne: A prelate of the most inflexible and intrepid character was poffeffed of the primacy: The contending powers appeared to be armed with their full force, and it was natural to expect fome extraordinary event to result from

their rencounter.

1

AMONG their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had inculcated the neceffity of penance as an atonement for fin; and having again introduced the practice of paying them large fums as a commutation, or species of atonement, for the remiffion of these penances, the fins of the people, by these means, had become a revenue to the priests; and the King computed, that, by this invention alone, they levied more money from his fubjects, than flowed, by all the funds and taxes, into the royal exchequer. That he might eafe his fubjects of fo heavy and arbitrary an impofition, Henry required, -that a civil officer of his appointment fhould be present in all ecclefiaftical courts, and fhould, for the future, give his confent to every compofition which was made with finners for their spiritual offences.

THE ecclefiaftics, in that age, had renounced all immediate fubordination to the magiftrate: They openly pretended to an exemption, in criminal accufations, from a trial before courts. of justice; and were gradually introducing a like exemption in civil causes: Spiritual penalties alone could be inflicted on their offences: (And as the clergy had extremely multiplied in England, and many of them were confequently of very low characters, crimes of the deepeft dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily committed with impunity by the ecclefiaftics. It had been found, for inftance, by enquiry, that no