He had been deem'd, but what we've proved him since. Those spheres in molten fragments on mankind, But that 'twould crush the guiltless with the guilty! Henry. Thank heaven we have one milk-white soul among us! Thou scarlet sinner!-why-my gorge is swoln With names, not huge enough for thy vast insolence!— Vacant i' the calendar,—this, immaculate !— Thou didst subscribe in these law-guarded terms If they did hurl their hissing firestones at us? Henry. Hear this! hear this! Sun-dwelling truth, hast thou not one bright dart To strike him through the brain with ?-ye, grave Suffragans ! Did [To the Bishops. your supreme here (give me your corporate voice), Swear to our constitutions, vea or no? Bishops. Yea! Becket. Foolish children that would judge their father!— I kept to what I swore, those constitutions, While they were such but when a power beyond Thine to enact, annull'd them, how could I Observe non-entities ? Henry. Fraud within fraud ! In this same wise you may play fast and loose My very true, sworn subject, on proviso, Henry. Bear in one sleeve a permit to kill kings, And in the other a poniard ? To save the church, man !-Did the Romish altar Burn for thy sovereign, as a sacrifice, Thou'rt bound to slaughter him!-O Thomas! Thomas! Could I e'er think that thou would'st pierce the heart Of thy kind, loving, generous, royal master? Becket. Not generous now to say I'd pierce thy heart! More poignant still!—But 'tis no matter: go! There is a gulf as wide as heaven from hell Of ever shaking hands !—I am thy enemy, So would betake me into banishment, And save a sacrilege unto thy soul. Henry. Good man!—Thou would'st betake thyself to Louis, Fast as Lutetian filth breeds vermin vile, Against my kingdom.-Twice thou hadst fled thither, My very seas rose up, upon my side, Against thy steps !-Stay, and be baited here, And breach of fealty, in not attending Our summons, when John Mareschal appeal'd thee Becket. On that summons I, being sick, sent four good household knights Becket. Sir! sir! 'tis truth; and he who here By royal subornation brings that cause, Would blush for it,—but before this grave council, Like it iniquitous ! [The Barons start up, and Becket's train advance. Becket raises his Crosier and Henry his Sceptre between them. Not unanointed swords, decide the fray! Archbishop, from thy last words, if no more, I see thou art a seif-devoted man Unto destruction imminent !-Take your way. Winchester. My liege, accept two thousand marks from him, Henry. I will not, Winchester ! But thou another froward priest, de Blois, [They retire some paces. Norwich (to Becket). My lord, beseech you on my knees, submit, Or you, the church, and all of us are lost! Salisbury (to him). We cannot be thy sureties for such sum, Though for the less we might. York (to him). Take exhortation From one a Primate like thyself, and moved By most disinterested love,-resign Thy see, to gain full peace, release, and pardon. London (to him). 'Twas thou thyself who led'st us to subscribe The constitutions, yet, when all too late, Would'st have us now proclaim ourselves, with thee, Rebels to royal power, and renegades To our own oaths! Becket. Folliott, thou shalt be ever A stench i' the nostril of posterity! Thou art corrupted, man! Primate of York, Keeping thy claw fast on thy hoarded gold! Poor Norwich, thou art pitiful!-ye suffragans, [Turning to the other Bishops who implore him. Ay, who will suffer again, again, again, York. There's no stopping some men Becket. "Tis plain, sir King! lord of these lower skies! Bears with mild brow the elemental brunt To shield his fane beneath! Thou hast resolved, Thy Babel-towering throne, from which shall come Perish eternally! Henry. At thy behest? Becket. There is a throne, compared to earthly ones, Henry. All this, because I summon a state debtor, To crush the church in me!-I do appeal Becket. Sword of the militant church, which I do wield, Henry. Pronounce his sentence straight! He is deprived of all his lands and holdings! Becket. I will not drink pollution through mine ears! Breathe it not, Winchester! till I am gone, Lest it scorch up thy lips to whitest ashes! Henry. Hear how the wolf can howl! Whom strength makes wrongful, wrongfulness makes strong, At Saltwood Park, to touch which we are Titans ! Their mounting step to that assault sacrilegious,— Henry. Why thou wert far above our reach but now? Becket. Since prayer, plaint, rhetoric's mingled honey and gall, Cannot withhold them from the fathomless pit Gaping beneath their steps,-if they must follow Satan's dark inspirations to such deeds, Flagitious, dreadless, godless-which mute heaven Permits, but weeps at-good men's mazement, Becket. Since then, perverse! thou seem'st Desperate on self and state destruction both, What more but this can parting Becket say, Henry. [Exit. The wolf's dog-mad! [Scene closes. 67. THE GREATNESS OF THE CLERGY. BURKE. It will not be unpleasing to pause a moment at this remarkable period, in order to view in what consisted that greatness of the clergy, which enabled them to bear so very considerable a sway in all public affairs; what foundations supported the weight of so vast a power; whence it had its origin; what was the nature, and what the ground, of the immunities they claimed; that we may the more fully enter into this important controversy, and may not judge, as some have inconsiderately done, of the affairs of those times by ideas taken from the present manners and opinions. It is sufficiently known, that the first Christians, avoiding the Pagan tribunals, tried most even of their civil causes before the bishop, who, though he had no direct coercive power, yet, wielding the sword of excommunication, had wherewithal to enforce the execution of his judgments. Thus the bishop had a considerable sway in temporal affairs, even before he was armed by the temporal power. But the emperors no sooner became Christian, than, the idea of profaneness being removed from the secular tribunals, the causes of the Christian laity naturally passed to that resort where those of the generality had been before. But the reverence for the bishop still remained, and the remembrance of his former jurisdiction. It was not thought decent, that he, who had been a judge in his own court, should become a suitor in the court of another. The body of the clergy likewise, who were supposed to have no secular concerns, for which they could litigate, and removed by their character from all suspicion of violence, were left to be tried by their own ecclesiastical superiors. This was, with a little variation sometimes in extending, sometimes in restraining the bishops' jurisdiction, the condition of things whilst the Roman empire subsisted. But, though their immunities were great, and their possessions ample, yet living under an absolute form of government they were powerful only by influence. No jurisdictions were annexed to their lands; they had no place in the senate, they were no order in the state. From the settlement of the northern nations, the clergy must be considered in another light. The barbarians gave them large landed possessions; and by giving them land, they gave them jurisdiction, which, according to their notions, was inseparable from it. They made them an order in the state; and as all the orders had their privileges, the clergy had theirs, and were no less sturdy to preserve, and ambitious to extend them. Our ancestors, having united the church dignities to the secular dignities of baronies, had so blended the ecclesastical with the temporal power in the same persons, that it became almost impossible to separate them. The ecclesiastical was however prevalent in this composition, drew to it the other, supported it, and was supported by it. But it was not the devotion only, but the necessity, of the times, that raised the clergy to the excess of this greatness. The little learning, which then subsisted, remained wholly in their hands. Few among the laity could even read; consequently the clergy alone were proper for public affairs. They were the statesmen, they were the lawyers; from them were often taken the bailiffs of the seignorial courts; sometimes the sheriffs of counties, and almost constantly the justiciaries of the kingdom. The Norman kings, always jealous of their order, were always forced to employ them. In abbeys the law was studied; abbeys were the palladiums of the public liberty by the custody of the royal charters, and most of the records. Thus, necessary to the great by their knowledge, venerable to the poor by their hospitality, dreadful to all by the power of excommunication, the character of the clergy was exalted above every thing in |