ice established by the Conqueror, and maintained
ever since by his successors, be subjected to that terrible sentence
without the previous consent of the sovereign. Henry, who had now broken
off all personal intercourse with Becket, sent him, by a messenger, his
orders to absolve Eynsford; but received for answer, that it belonged
not for the king to inform him whom he should absolve and whom
excommunicate; and it was not till after many remonstrances and menaces
that Becket, though with the worst grace imaginable, was induced to
comply with the royal mandate.

Henry, though he found himself thus grievously mistaken in the character
of the person whom he had promoted to the primacy, determined not to
desist from his former intention of retrenching clerical usurpations. He
was entirely master of his extensive dominions: the prudence and vigor
of his administration, attended with perpetual success, had raised his
character above that of any of his predecessors: the papacy seemed to
be weakened by a schism which divided all Europe; and he rightly judged
that, if the present favorable opportunity were neglected, the crown
must, from the prevalent superstition of the people, be in danger of
falling into entire subordination under the mitre.

The union of the civil and ecclesiastical power serves extremely, in
every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and
prevents those mutual encroachments which, as there can be no ultimate
judge between them, are often attended with the most dangerous
consequences Whether the supreme magistrate who unites these powers
receives the appellation of prince or prelate, is not material.
The superior weight which temporal interests commonly bear in the
apprehensions of men above spiritual, renders the civil part of his
character most prevalent; and in time prevents those gross impostures
and bigoted persecutions which, in all false religions, are the
chief foundation of clerical authority. But during the progress of
ecclesiastical usurpations, the state, by the resistance of the civil
magistrate, is naturally thrown into convulsions; and it behoves the
prince, both for his own interest and for that of the public, to provide
in time sufficient barriers against so dangerous and insidious a rival.
This precaution had hitherto been much neglected in England, as well as
in other Catholic countries; and affairs at last seemed to have come to
a dangerous crisis: a sovereign of t