IX

AUTHORITIES

175

and of his clerks; and not content with these harsh measures, he had the cruelty and meanness to order all his kinsfolk and dependents to be expelled from the kingdom.

AUTHORITIES.-Materials for the history of Thomas Becket, seven volumes in Rolls series, ed. by Rev. J. C. Robertson. These contain the contemporary lives by William of Canterbury, John of Salisbury, Edward Grim, William Fitz-Stephen, Herbert of Bosham, and two anonymous writers, together with a large collection of letters from the pope, the king, Becket himself, John of Salisbury, Gilbert Foliot, and others. Also contemporary is Vie de St. Thomas, in French verse, by Garnier de Pont Sainte-Maxence, ed. Hippeau, Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph de Diceto, William of Newburgh (Rolls series); the latter writer is remarkably discriminating in his estimate of Henry II. and Thomas Becket. Amongst modern works the most noteworthy are Bp. Stubbs's Preface to Rog. of Howden, vol. ii. (Rolls series), and The Early Plantagenets; see also his Select Charters and Constit. Hist., ch. xii. and xiii. ; Miss K. Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings, vol. ii. ch. i. ; E. A. Freeman's St. Thomas of Canterbury and his Biographers (Historical Essays, first series); Hook's Archbishops, vol. ii.; Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, by Professor Maitland, who has thrown much light on the real meaning of Article iii. in the Constitutions of Clarendon.

CHAPTER X

THE MURDER AND AFTER

THE tangled story of the strife between Henry and Archbishop Thomas during the next six years can be recorded

here only in outline. With the exception of the Complexity of archbishop himself, nearly all the actors in the drama were embarrassed by conflicting interests and duties. The English bishops were distracted between their twofold allegiance, to the king and to the archbishop. Most of them, under the leadership of the cautious and astute Bishop of London, Gilbert Foliot, considered that the primate was contending for a right cause but in a wrong way, wrecking his chances of success by his intemperate vehemence, driving the king to extreme measures of retaliation, and urging him into the party of the emperor and the antipope. The pope could not decently reject the appeal of Becket, but hampered as he was by his own strife with the emperor, he could not afford to quarrel with the king of England, the lord of half France, so his policy was wavering and shifty. To Louis, King of France, the quarrel became a convenient handle for directing popular feeling against his rival, and fomenting discord and disaffection in Henry's vast and scattered dominions which he always found it difficult to hold firmly together. The emperor, on the other hand, saw an opportunity of cultivating alliance with Henry, and arranged a marriage between his cousin, Henry the Lion Duke of Bavaria, and the eldest daughter of the English king.

Thomas never deviated from the course upon which he had entered. Smarting under a sense of remorse for having

CHAP. X

THOMAS IN EXILE

of aim.

177

yielded too much, he was now resolved to yield nothing. The liberty and life of the Church seemed to him to be at stake. Compromise was abhorrent to him; con- Becket's cession, which some might have regarded as only singleness statesmanlike prudence, he would have disdained as a base betrayal of a sacred trust. Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of his conduct, it had at least the merit of being straightforward, honest, courageous. It was this singleness of aim, this disinterested devotion, as it was believed, to the cause of liberty, which captivated the popular imagination and won the popular sympathy during the archbishop's life, and when his long struggle was ended by a violent death, created an enthusiasm for the hero and martyr which has rarely been equalled.

Becket at

Thomas having retired to the Cistercian monastery of Pontigny, addressed letter after letter to Henry of mingled entreaties, warnings, and threats, asking for an interview, or demanding the restoration to the Pontigny. English Church of her privileges and her chief pastor; else the sword of the Church would be unsheathed against his kingdom, and even against his own person. Driven to extremity, Henry by the advice of Arnulf, Bishop of Lisieux, resolved to appeal to the pope, thus inconsistently adopting a practice which by the Constitutions of Clarendon he had endeavoured to restrain. The Bishops of Lisieux and Seez were despatched to Pontigny to stay Thomas from executing his threats, pending the appeal. But they were too late. After a pilgrimage to Soissons, where he spent three nights in vigils and prayers before the shrines of the Blessed Virgin, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Drausius, who was credited with the power of bestowing invincible might on his devotees, Thomas had gone to the great Abbey of Vézelay near Avallon, on Whitsun eve, June 1166. On the morrow, after celebrating mass and preaching to a great crowd of pilgrims in the abbey church, he solemnly cursed the obnoxious customs and all who adhered to them. He further excommunicated seven persons as being special enemies of the Church, including the great justiciar, Richard de Lucy, and other personal friends and councillors of the king. Henry himself would have been included in the list, but hearing

N

that he was seriously ill the archbishop contented himself with a solemn call to repentance, and a threat of instant excommunication if it was not obeyed.

commission.

Henry in alarm despatched a message from Normandy to Richard de Lucy, directing him to summon a meeting of the bishops and clergy, and compel them to His legatine appeal to the pope against the primate. Under the guidance of Bishop Gilbert Foliot, an appeal was drawn up and sent to the pope in the name of all the English bishops and clergy. Thomas retorted with a crushing blow. He obtained a legatine commission for himself from the pope. The brief containing it was put into the hands of Bishop Gilbert as he was celebrating mass in his cathedral on St. Paul's day January 25, 1167. It required the absolute submission of the bishops to their primate, and the restitution of all Church property confiscated by the king and committed to their custody. Henry, however, paid no heed to the papal mandate. He was in a thoroughly vindictive mood, and had threatened the Cistercians, at their general chapter, that, if they continued to shelter Thomas at Pontigny, he would expel their Order from his dominions. On hearing this, the archbishop quitted Pontigny and became the guest of King Louis at Sens, where he was lodged in the Abbey of St. Columba.

A gleam of hope shone upon the strife in January 1169, when the two kings made a treaty at Montmirail. Thomas, who was still the guest of Louis, attended the Meeting at Montmirail, meeting and suddenly prostrated himself before 1169. Henry, offering submission; but just as all present were rejoicing at the conclusion, as they hoped, of the quarrel, the archbishop repeated the obnoxious words, "saving God's honour and my order." Henry was enraged and the assembly was dissolved. Three months afterwards the archbishop, being at Clairvaux on Palm Sunday, launched another set of excommunications, including the name of Gilbert Foliot. A special messenger to England, eluding the guards that were posted at all the sea-ports, got into St. Paul's on Ascension Day, and thrust the letter containing the excommunication of the bishop into the hands of the celebrant during high mass. Foliot now threatened to revive an ancient right, as he

X

RETURN OF THOMAS

179

asserted, of metropolitical dignity for his see. Envoys came from the pope to try and settle the question, but as usual effected nothing.

Coronation

son, 1170.

Henry at last determined to employ a weapon which he had obtained from the pope three years before when he was in the extremity of distress, being blockaded in Rome by the forces of the emperor. This was a of Henry's brief authorising the Archbishop of York to crown Henry the king's son, which was a direct infringement of the rights of Canterbury. Thomas, hearing of the king's intention, proclaimed an interdict and the pope confirmed it, and both pope and primate forbade the English bishops to take part in the act as unlawful. But their efforts were in vain; the ports were so strictly watched by the king's officials that no messenger could get through. At last the pope's letter was conveyed by a nun, and presented to the Archbishop of York at Westminster on June 13, 1170. It was too late. All the arrangements for the coronation had been made, and on the following day the ceremony was performed by Archbishop Roger; Gilbert Foliot and other prelates approving. This proceeding irritated every one. The King of France was enraged because his daughter was not crowned with her husband, while Thomas angrily demanded strong measures from the pope and cardinals. The demand could not be refused, and a sentence of suspension was pronounced upon all the prelates concerned in this supreme insult to the see of Canterbury.

Return of

Becket to

England.

Henry saw that he had gone too far. On July 22 he made peace with Louis and Becket in a personal interview near Fréteval. It was arranged that the archbishop's estates should be restored and that he should return to England; for the king was wise enough to see that Thomas in exile was a more dangerous opponent than Thomas in England. Difficulties, however, arose about the restitution of the property, and reconciliation with the excommunicated bishops; and when at last Becket embarked at Wissant on December 1, it was in the face of warnings of danger from the King of France and even from the pilot of the vessel which conveyed him. He landed at Sandwich, and on the way to Canterbury was greeted by