, the
indignation of a great monarch, who was resolutely bent on his purpose,
and who was determined to take full revenge on every one that should
dare to oppose him. Becket, finding himself deserted by all the
world, even by his own brethren, was at last obliged to comply; and he
promised, "legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve,"
to observe the constitutions; and he took an oath to that purpose.
The king, thinking that he had now finally prevailed in this great
enterprise, sent the constitutions to Pope Alexander, who then resided
in France; and he required that pontiff's ratification of them; but
Alexander, who, though he had owed the most important obligations to
the king, plainly saw that these laws were calculated to establish the
independency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on the
clergy, condemned them in the strongest terms; abrogated, annulled, and
rejected them. There were only six articles, the least important, which,
for the sake of peace, he was willing to ratify.

Becket, when he observed that he might hope for support in an
opposition, expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance; and
endeavored to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to adhere to
their common rights, and to the ecclesiastical privileges, in which he
represented the interest and honor of God to be so deeply concerned. He
redoubled his austerities in order to punish himself for his criminal
assent to the constitutions of Clarendon: he proportioned his discipline
to the enormity of his supposed offence: and he refused to exercise any
part of his archiepiscopal function, till he should receive absolution
from the pope, which was readily granted him. Henry, informed of his
present dispositions, resolved to take vengeance for this refractory
behavior; and he attempted to crush him by means of that very power
which Becket made such merit in supporting. He applied to the pope
that he should grant the commission of legate in his dominions to the
archbishop of York; but Alexander, as politic as he, though he granted
the commission, annexed a clause, that it should not empower the legate
to execute any act in prejudice of the archbishop of Canterbury: and the
king, finding how fruitless such an authority would prove, sent back the
commission by the same messenger that brought it.

The primate, however, who found himself still exposed to the king's
indignation, endeavored twice to escape secretly from t