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and returned to England, where, in a short time, he was discovered by the enamoured lady who had contrived to elude the vigilance of her father, and was conducted to London in the vessel of an English merchantman. Such proof of zeal and affection was irresistible, and, on embracing the Christian faith, she became the wife of Gilbert, and the happy mother of Becket. This narrative has little appearance of probability, though it may have passed for truth in an ignorant and barbarous age.

The young Becket received the rudiments of his education at Merton abbey in Surrey; and afterwards studied at Oxford and Paris. By some means he had gained the favour of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to study the civil law at Bologna in Italy. He had given proofs both of industry and capacity, and, on his return, he appeared to have made such proficiency in knowledge that, besides some other offices and preferments, he was advanced by his patron to the archdeaconry of Canterbury, then one of the richest benefices in England.' Theobald afterwards employed him with success in transacting business at Rome; and on Henry's accession he was recommended to that prince as worthy of farther preferment. The king, who was naturally of a haughty disposition, was at that time surrounded with advisers, who urged him to make what the clergy considered encroachments on the rights and authority of the church. To these evil counsels Archbishop Theobald was anxious to oppose the virtues and abilities of Becket; and, as his rank gave him free access to the court, he took every opportunity of possessing the royal mind with a high esteem for the archdeacon of Canterbury. Henry, who knew that Becket had been instrumental in supporting that resolution of the archbishop which had tended so much to facilitate his own advancement to the throne, was already predisposed in his favour; and finding, on better acquaintance, that his spirit and talents entitled him to any trust, he soon promoted him (in 1158) to the dignity of high chancellor, an office whose jurisdiction extended to every business of importance in church Besides exercising these high functions, Becket was made provost of Beverley, dean of Hastings, and constable of the Tower. He was also put in possession of the honours of Eye and Berkham, large baronies that had escheated to the crown; and, to complete his grandeur, he was intrusted with the education of prince Henry, the king's eldest son.

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On obtaining these high and envied appointments he laid aside the ecclesiastical habit and way of living, and affected both the dress and manners of a courtier. In every thing he conformed himself entirely to the king's humours,-hunted with him, partook of all his diversions, and even observed the same hours of eating and sleeping. Henry, on the other hand, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy; and whenever he was disposed to relax himself by gaming, hawking, horsemanship, or sports of any kind, he admitted his chancellor to the party. An instance of their familiarity is mentioned by Fitz-Stephens, which is not unworthy of notice as showing the manners of the age. One day as the king and Becket were riding together through the streets of London, they observed a half-naked

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beggar shivering with cold. "Would it not be very praiseworthy," said the king, "to give that poor man a warm coat in this severe season?" "It would surely," replied the chancellor, "and you do well, Sir, in thinking of such good actions." “Then he shall have one presently," cried the king: and seizing the skirt of Becket's coat, which was of scarlet lined with ermine, he began to pull it violently. The chancellor defended himself for some time; and they had both of them nearly tumbled off their horses on the street, when Becket, after a vehement struggle, let go his coat, which the king bestowed on the beggar; the poor man, ignorant of the quality of his benefactors, being not a little surprised at the present. In his style of living, Becket displayed a princely magnificence. He had numerous and splendid levees, and courted applause by every popular art. The pomp of his retinue the sumptuousness of his furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents, corresponded to his elevated rank, or rather exceeded any thing that England had before seen in any subject. When he rode on horseback he used a silver bridle, and in the gaiety and opulence of his entertainments he surpassed the greatest nobles. His historian and secretary, Fitz-Stephens, mentions, among other particulars, that his apartments were, every day in winter, covered with clean straw or hay, and in summer with green rushes, or boughs, lest the gentlemen who paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of the vast concourse, find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor. A numerous body of knights were retained in his service; the greatest barons were proud of being his guests; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobility, and the king himself frequently deigned to partake of his hospitality. In the cavalier spirit of the age he made a campaign with Henry in his expedition against Thoulouse, (A. D. 1159,) and exposed his person in several military actions. At his own charge he carried over seven hundred knights to attend the king. In the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy, he maintained, during forty days, twelve hundred knights and four thousand of their train, displaying both tact and courage, and commanding in person at the sieges of several places of strength. In 1160, he was sent by the king to Paris to treat of a marriage between prince Henry, then but seven years old, and the princess Margaret, daughter to the king of France, who was only in her third year. In this negotiation Becket succeeded, and returned with the young princess to England. By his complaisance and good humour, he had rendered himself agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful to his master, and on the death of Theobald, (A. D. 1162,) he appeared to Henry the fittest person to fill the vacant see. The chancellor was then with the king in Normandy, and on being informed of his majesty's design he smiled, and pointing to the secular habit he wore, said, " Truly, Sire, you have pitched upon a very reformed and holy person to govern the first church in England!" The king's intention was opposed by the queen and many of the ministers, and even Becket himself is said to have remonstrated against the appointment, and predicted the unhappy consequences that would ensue from it in creating a breach of their friendship. But Henry, who had made no secret of his wishes to retrench, or rather confine within their ancient bounds all ecclesiastical privileges, and had found the chancel

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lor always ready to comply with his designs, never expected to meet with resistance from that quarter, and accordingly issued orders for electing him archbishop of Canterbury; and so well did his agents manage the matter with the monks and the clergy, that no opposition was made except by the bishop of London. His consecration by the bishop of Winchester took place in the cathedral church of Canterbury; the young prince Henry, and a great concourse of the nobility, being present at the solemnity.

The new archbishop received his pall from Pope Alexander III., then residing in France; and immediately after his consecration sent messengers to the king in Normandy, resigning the seal and office of chancellor, a step which surprised the king, as he seems to have intended him still to hold that dignity. Installed in his high functions, which rendered him the second person in the kingdom, Becket immediately betook himself to quite a different mode of life, and endeavoured by his altered demeanour to acquire the character of sanctity, which might naturally be supposed to be somewhat incompatible with his former habits. The gaiety and amusements of the courtier were exchanged for the gravity and austerities of the monk. He maintained in his retinue and attendants alone his former pomp and lustre, which was useful to impose on the vulgar. In his own person he affected the most rigid abstinence and mortification, which he was sensible would have an equal perhaps greater effect in attracting the reverence of a superstitious people. He wore sackcloth next his skin, which by a pretended care to conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by every body. He changed it so seldom that it was filled with dirt and vermin. His usual diet was bread; his drink water, which he even rendered more unpalatable by a mixture of unsavoury herbs. He lacerated his back with the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it. He daily on his knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars whom he afterwards dismissed with presents. The affection of the monks he gained by his frequent charities to the convents and hospitals. Every one who made profession of sanctity was admitted to his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility as well as on the piety and mortification of the holy primate. He seemed to be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, or in perusing religious discourses. His countenance wore the appearance of seriousness, mental reflection, and inward devotion; and all men of penetration clearly saw that he was meditating some great design, and that the ambition and ostentation of his character had turned itself towards a new and more dangerous object. His resigning his commission of chancellor without even consulting the king, which he pretended was necessary, in order to detach himself from all secular affairs, and leave him to the sole exercise of his spiritual duties, was in reality intended to break off his connections with Henry, and show him that the primate of England was no longer to continue an obsequious courtier. His first public appearance as a churchman was at the council of Tours, which was held to consider the schism theu existing in regard to the papacy, which was claimed by two competitors. Cardinal Roland had been elected under the name of Alexander

Bies. Ep. 27.-Gervase, 1384.

III.; but Cardinal Octavian had the support of a powerful faction who were determined to maintain him in his usurpation. For several days he besieged Alexander in St Peter's church, and at length obliged him to take refuge in France. The synod of Tours put an end to the controversy. In this assembly, Becket figured among the most eminent prelates. At his entrance into the city, he was received by the magistrates and most of the members of the council. The pope showed him particular marks of affection and esteem; and through his interest he procured several canons and decrees to be made in favour of ecclesiastics, whom he represented as oppressed and deprived of their right through the ambition and avarice of the laity. Immediately on his return to England, he began to exert himself with great vigour in defence of the privileges of the church; nor did he wait till any encroachments had been offered on the part of the crown. Besides prosecuting at law several of the nobility and others for lands and tene ments which he pretended they had usurped from the see of Canterbury, he laid claim to the custody of the castle and tower of Rochester, then in the king's hands. He summoned the earl of Clare to surrender the barony of Tunbridge, which had remained in the family of that nobleman since the Conquest; and he excommunicated William, lord of the manor of Aynsford in Kent, for disputing with him the right of patronage to that church. In this emergency, William applied to the king, who wrote to Becket, expressing his displeasure that he had not acquainted him before passing the censure, and desiring that it might be removed. The archbishop replied by letter-for they had broken off all personal intercourse-that it belonged to the church, and not to the king, to direct him whom he should absolve, and whom excommunicate; and it was not till after many threats and entreaties that Becket was induced to comply with the royal mandate. Henry now became aware how little he had understood the character and genius of his minister; but though he found himself grievously mistaken, he was resolved not to desist from his former intention of restraining clerical usurpation. The violence and obstinacy of Becket had greatly alienated the minds both of the king and the nobility; and it wanted but a plausible occasion to bring them to an open rupture. There was at that time no distinct line of separation between the civil and ecclesiastical power; and their mutual encroachment on each other was the cause of perpetual dissension, and frequently of gross violations of order. The clergy had renounced all immediate subordination to the magistrate; they openly declined in criminal accusations, to appear on trial before the courts of justice, and were gradually introducing a similar exemption in civil causes. Spiritual penalties, they contended, were the proper punishment for their offences, which the church alone had the authority to inflict. Holy orders thus became a full protection for all sorts of vices and enormities, for as ecclesiastics had extremely multiplied in England, and many of them were consequently of very low character, crimes of the deepest dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, and rapes, were daily committed by them with impunity. Since the king's accession, it was found that not less than a hundred murders had been perpetrated by men of that profession, who had never been called to account for their offences. Among other instances of these atrocities, a clerk in Worcestershire had debauched a

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gentleman's daughter, and afterwards murdered the father. The king demanded that the criminal should be delivered up, and tried in the civil court. Becket refused to comply; ordered the malefactor to be confined in the prison of the bishop of the diocese, instead of being committed to the hands of the king's officers, and insisted that the censure of the church superseded the jurisdiction of the magistrate, since it would be iniquitous to try a man twice upon the same accusation, and for the same offence. These privileges, which the clergy had carried to such an extravagant height, Henry determined to curtail; but he met with a decided opposition by the archbishop, who stood firmly in defence of their immunities, and would not submit to the least infringement of them. The king was equally decided, and having summoned an assembly of all the prelates of England to meet at Westminster, he put to them the concise and direct question:-Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom? The bishops unanimously replied, that they were willing, saving their own order," an answer which provoked the king to the highest indignation. He instantly quitted the assembly; nor could his threats or displeasure extort any thing beyond a general and indefinite promise of obedience to the ancient customs.* Not content with a declaration so vague, and in order to define expressly those customs with which he required compliance, Henry summoned a general council, or convention of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted the same important question. The barons all adhered to the king's party, and most of the bishops were gained over by the court, or overawed by the general combination against them. At this convention, several laws were enacted relative to the privileges of the clergy, commonly called 'the constitutions of Clarendon,' by which the boundary between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities was more clearly defined. By passing so many ecclesiastical ordinances in a national assembly composed of clergy and laity, Henry fully established the superiority of the legislative, above all papal decrees, or spiritual canons, and gained a signal victory over the usurpations of the church. But as he knew the bishops would take the earliest opportunity of disputing the legality of these constitutions, he resolved that they should all set their seal to them, and give a promise to observe them. Το this none of the prelates dared to object, except Becket, who, though urged by all the principal barons and nobles in the kingdom, obstinately withheld his assent. The tears and entreaties of his friends, and the desertion of his own brethren, at length obliged him to comply; and he promised with an oath, "legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve," to obey the constitution. Henry thinking that every thing was now firmly adjusted, sent to France to request the ratification of Pope Alexander; but that pontiff, though he was under the most important obligations to the king, plainly saw that these laws were calculated to establish the independency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on the clergy, and condemned them in the strongest terms; and with the exception of six articles out of sixteen, which he agreed to ratify for the sake of peace, he abrogated, annulled, and rejected them.

Stephan. 29.-Gervase 1385.

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