and only regarded them as the instruments of their private ambition. For these reasons therefore, during the times we speak of, the side of the clergy was always espoused by the people; and Becket, upon the present occasion, secretly relied on their encouragement and support.

;

The intrepidity of Becket, joined to his apparent sanctity, gained him a very favourable reception upon the continent, both from the people and their governors. The king of France, who hated Henry, very much affected to pity his condition and the pope, whose cause he had so strenuously defended, honoured him with the greatest marks of distinction: while he treated Henry's ambassadors with coolness and contempt. Becket, sensible of his power, was willing to shew all possible humility; and even resigned his see of Canterbury into the pope's hands, in order to receive it back from him with greater solemnity; and with an investiture of more apparent sanctity. Such favours bestowed upon an exile, and a perjured traitor, for such had been his sentence of condemnation in England, excited the indignation of Henry beyond measure. He saw his ambassadors slighted, all his endeavours to procure a conference with the pope frustrated, and his subjects daily excited to discontents, in consequence of the king's severity to a sanctified character. In this state of resentment, Henry resolved to throw off all dependence upon the pontiff at once; and to free himself, and his people from a burden that had long oppressed them without pity. He accordingly issued orders to his justiciaries, inhibiting, under severe penalties, all appeals to the pope or the archbishop; and forbidding any of them to receive mandates from them, or to apply to their authority. He declared it treasonable, to bring over from either of them any interdict upon the kingdom. This he

made punishable in secular clergymen by the loss of their eyes and by castration, in regulars by the amputation of their feet, and in laymen by death.

The pope and the archbishop were not remiss on their side to retort these fulminations, and to shake the very foundation of the king's authority. Becket compared himself to Christ, who had been condemned by a lay tribunal; and who was crucified a-new in the present oppressions under which the church laboured. But he did not rest in complaints only. He issued out a censure, excommunicating the king's chief ministers by name, all that were concerned in sequestering the revenues of his see, and all who obeyed or favoured the Constitutions of Clarendon. He even threatened to excommunicate the king himself, if he did not immediately repent; and to give his censures the greater energy, he got them to be ratified by the

pope.

Whatever Henry's contempt of these fulminations might be in the beginning, he, after some deliberation, began to find them more formidable than he had supposed, and secretly wished for an accommodation. Yet there seemed no other way for terminating these disputes, but by the king's appealing to the pope, as umpire between him and the archbishop, and this promised no very favourable decision. However, perceiving that his authority was beginning to decline among his subjects, and that his rivals on the continest had actually availed themselves of his perplexities, he resolved at any rate to apply to the pope A. D. for his mediation. The pope, on the other hand, was every day threatened himself by the machinations of an antipope. He was apprehensive that the king of England might join against him; he knew his great abilities, and was sensible that as yet no insurrection had been VOL. I. H

1167.

made in consequence of the threats and exhortations of Becket. Thus the disposition of both parties produced frequent attempts towards an accommodation; but the mutual jealousies that each bore the other, and their anxiety not to lose the least advantage in the negociation, often protracted this desirable treaty. At one time the terms being agreed on, were postponed by the king's refusing to sign; but with a salvo to his royal dignity. At another time they were accommodated, but broke off by Becket's refusing to submit; but with a salvo to the honour of God. A third and a fourth negociation succeeded without effect. In this last, all the terms were completely adjusted, when Becket took it into his head to demand a kiss of peace. This the king refused to grant; and both parties once more prepared for mutual annoyance.

These disturbances continued for some time longer; Becket never losing an opportunity of impeaching the king's ministers, and obstructing all his measures. At length, however, by the mediation of the pope's legate, all difficulties were adjusted; and while the king allowed Becket to return, that prelate consented to wave the kiss of peace. The ceremonial of the interview being regulated, when the archbishop approached, the king advanced to meet him in the most gracious manner; and conversed with him for some time; with great ease, familiarity and kindness. All material points being adjusted, Becket attended Henry on horseback; and as they rode together, the prelate begged some satisfaction for the invasions of his right by the archbishop of York, who had some time before crowned the young prince. To this Henry replied, that what was past could not be undone; but that he would take care that none but he should crown the young queen, which

Becket,

ceremony was soon to be performed. transported at this instance of the king's condescension, alighted instantly, and threw himself at the feet of his sovereign, who, leaping from his horse at the same time, lifted him from the ground and helped him to remount. The terms of their present agreement was very advantageous to the prelate; and this might have inspired him in the ardour of his gratitude to such an humiliation. It was agreed, that he should not give up any of the rights of the church, or resign any of those pretensions which had been the original ground of the quarrel; that Becket and his adherents should be restored to their livings; and that all the possessors of such benefices belonging to the see of Canterbury, as had been installed since the primate's absence, should be expelled, and Becket have liberty to supply the vacancies. In return for these concessions, the king only reaped the advantage of seeing his ministers absolved from the sentence of excommunication, and of preventing. an interdict which was preparing to be laid upon

all his dominions.

Becket having thus, in 'some measure, triumphed over the king, was resolved to remit nothing of the power which he had acquired. He soon began to shew, that not even a temporal tranquillity was to be the result of his reconciliation. Nothing could exceed the insolence with which he conducted himself upon his first landing in England. Instead of retiring quietly to his diocese, with that modesty which became a man just pardoned by his king, he made a progress through Kent, in all the splendour and magnificence of a sovereign pontiff. As he approached Southwark, the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and ages, came forth to meet him, and celebrate his triumphal entry with hymns of joy. Thus, confident of the voice and

the hearts of the people, he began to launch forth his thunders against those who had been his former opposers. The archbishop of York, who had crowned Henry's eldest son in his absence, was the first against whom he denounced sentence of suspension. The bishops of London and Salisbury he actually excommunicated. Robert de Broc, and Nigel de Sackville, were exposed to the same censures; and many of the most considerable prelates and ministers, who had assisted at the late coronation of the young prince, were partakers in the common calamity. One man he excommunicated for having spoken against him; and another, for having cut off the tail of one of his horses.

Henry was then in Normandy, while the primate was thus triumphantly parading through the kingdom; and it was not without the utmost indignation that he received information of his turbulent insclence. When the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived with their complaints, his anger knew no bounds. He broke forth into the most acrimonious expressions against that arrogant churchman, whom he had raised from the lowest station, to be the plauge of his life, and the continual disturber of his government. The archbishop of York remarked to him, that so long as Becket lived, he could never expect to enjoy peace or tranquillity; and the king himself burst out into an exclamation, that he had no friends about him, or he would not so long have been exposed to the insults of that ungrateful hypocrite. These words excited the attention of the whole court; and armed four of his most resolute attendants to gratify their monarch's secret inclinations. The names of these knights and gentlemen of his houshold, were Reginal Fitz Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Moreville, and Richard Brito, who immediately communicated their thoughts to each other. They