Becket, after
a vehement struggle, let go his coat; which the king bestowed on the
beggar, who, being ignorant of the quality of the persons, was not a
little surprised at the present.

Becket, who, by his complaisance and good humor, had rendered himself
agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master,
appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by the
death of Theobold. As he was well acquainted with the king's intentions
of retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient bounds, all
ecclesiastical privileges, and always showed a ready disposition to
comply with them, Henry, who never expected any resistance from that
quarter, immediately issued orders for electing him archbishop of
Canterbury. But this resolution, which was taken contrary to the opinion
of Matilda, and many of the ministers, drew after it very unhappy
consequences; and never prince of so great penetration appeared, in
the issue, to have so little understood the genius and character of his
minister.

No sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity, which rendered
him for life the second person in the kingdom, with some pretensions
of aspiring to be the first, than he totally altered his demeanor and
conduct, and endeavored to acquire the character of sanctity, of which
his former busy and ostentatious course of life might, in the eyes of
the people, have naturally bereaved him. Without consulting the king,
he immediately returned into his hands the commission of chancellor;
pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from secular affairs,
and be solely employed in the exercise of his spiritual function; but in
reality, that he might break off all connections with Henry, and apprise
him that Becket, as primate of England, was now become entirely a new
personage. He maintained, in his retinue and attendants alone, his
ancient pomp and lustre, which was useful to strike the vulgar; in
his own person he affected the greatest austerity and most rigid
mortification, which he was sensible would have an equal or a greater
tendency to the same end. He wore sackcloth next his skin, which, by his
affected care to conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by all
the world: 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 further unpalatable by the mixture of unsavory herbs: he tore
his back with the frequent discipline