requiring a strong chain and a hard stick to keep him in order; thus at once insulting the person and assailing the authority of one whom he had sworn to honour and defend.

Henry was not deceived by the apparent humility and charity of Becket's letter to himself; and indeed it is very probable that some of his emissaries at the court of the Roman Pontiff furnished him with a copy of all that the Archbishop wrote to the Pope. We know that shortly before this period, a complete transcript of all the correspondence had been brought over from Rome by one of his envoys; and it is not to be doubted that he obtained rapid information of all that was said or done by Becket himself or his agents at this time also. Indignant, therefore, as he well might be, he made an excuse not to give the Archbishop a last meeting before he went over, but sent one of the prelate's bitterest enemies, John of Oxford, to accompany him to England, on the pretence of doing him honour. This was malevolent and unworthy; but at the same time, Henry on essential points demeaned himself with greater generosity. We have reason to know, that John of Oxford was commanded to provide strictly for Becket's safety, and to guard him against any insult or injury at his landing; and he also bore a letter from Henry to his son, who had remained in England, directing him to put the prelate into possession of all that belonged to him, and to amend

all that had been left undone, which ought to have been done.

This, if not as much as could have been expected of the King, was certainly a great concession; but on Becket's arrival at Whitsand, on his way to Sandwich, he was informed that Ranulph de Broc, Reginald de Warrenne, and others, instigated, he was told, by the Bishops of London and Salisbury and the Archbishop of York, were waiting on the opposite shores of England to search his baggage on his landing, and take from him the mandates of the Pope. He was already furious at those prelates, not only on account of their opposition, but on account of a plan which they had drawn up for the King, in regard to filling up the vacant bishoprics, which would have diminished the Archbishop's influence, or have brought him into opposition with a great number of the most respectable members of the clergy. The tidings which he received at Whitsand, acting upon a mind already highly irritated, induced him to take that step which ended fatally for himself. He contrived to find emissaries to carry over the mandates the day before he himself crossed the water, and to deliver them immediately to the Archbishop of York and the two bishops. He then proceeded boldly to Sandwich, where Ranulph de Broc and his companions were waiting, though the threats which the first of those gentlemen had used was not unknown; and some of the prelate's

informants had told him at Whitsand, that it was the intention of de Broc and his comrades to put him to death on his landing. No sooner, however, did John of Oxford perceive them in arms with a large body of followers, than he advanced, and prohibited them, on pain of the King's utmost displeasure, to offer either insult or injury to Becket or any of his followers, and he obliged them to suffer the prelate to proceed without any search whatsoever.

The lower orders of people received the exile on his return with demonstrations of the utmost joy and satisfaction; and both at Sandwich and at Canterbury acclamations and gratulations greeted him as he passed. The inferior clergy came forth to meet him with banners and crucifixes; the monks of his own abbey followed; and hymns and psalms, and texts of Scripture, found a new and somewhat blasphemous application to the return of the Archbishop.

The close of all, however, was now near at hand, and Becket seems to have felt that fate was pressing him hard on every side; yet still he went on in the same course, probably believing that he was serving God, when in truth he was serving only his own pride and resentment. The bishops whom he had excommunicated sent to notify to him their appeal to the Pope; but at the same time it would

*The tremendous sentence of excommunication was pronounced upon these prelates, solely upon the charge of their

appear that they had applied for protection to the young King, for he also sent messengers to Becket, commanding him strictly, to absolve the archbishop and the two bishops, inasmuch as the act of excommunication was injurious to the King and subversive of the laws of the kingdom.

The young King, however, informed him, at the same time, that the two bishops, after having received absolution, should come to him and submit themselves to the canons of the church, saving the honour of the kingdom. Becket now made a double and deceitful reply. It is proved beyond all doubt, that although he had no jurisdiction in the case of the Archbishop of York, he had authority if he thought fit to revoke the sentence upon the other two prelates; but he replied, that an inferior judge

having been present at the coronation of the young King Henry, a ceremony which Becket claimed a right to perform as Archbishop of Canterbury; and in regard to which, the Pope himself was so very uncertain as to where the right lay, that the terms he makes use of in one of his undoubted letters are "contempto eodem archiepiscopo, ad cujus hoc officium de antiquo jure dicitur pertinere;" and in another part of the same letter, he marks it as doubtful, whether the Archbishop of York would not have had a right to perform the ceremony in his own province. Yet merely upon the charge of what he only judges on hearsay to be a fault (ut dicitur) he permits Becket to fulminate the severest sentence that the church could inflict upon two prelates, on one of whom, the Bishop of London, he had himself passed the highest eulogium, and to the other of whom he was bound by old friendship and affection. The tender mercies of his Holiness were certainly somewhat sharp, as well as somewhat capricious.

had not the power to release from the sentence of a superior judge, and that no man could undo what the apostolic see had done. Had he added the words "without the authority of that see," he would have dealt more honestly.

A vehement discussion ensued between Becket and the officers of the young King, in which very violent threats were used towards the Archbishop, who was at length induced to offer to absolve the Bishops upon their taking a certain oath, which the Archbishop of York pronounced to be unlawful and contrary to the King's dignity. Sharp discussions were renewed upon this subject; and at length the bishops determined to proceed to Normandy, and enquire the will of their sovereign. At the same time they sent messengers to the younger Henry at Woodstock, telling him that the Archbishop of Canterbury was endeavouring to tear the crown off his head.

Much has been said about this expression by writers on both sides; but in the only sense in which it could be understood at that time, it was perfectly correct. Becket's view in the whole of these latter proceedings, was at once to take vengeance on the bishops, and to prove the coronation of the young King null and of no effect, thus virtually taking the crown off his head. His object was self-evident; and the imperious youth with whom he had to do was indignant and enraged in proportion. With this result, Becket was much mortified; for he had