l, and to submit his conduct to
their inquiry and jurisdiction: that even should it be found that he
had been guilty of non-appearance, the laws had affixed a very slight
penalty to that offence; and that as he was an inhabitant of Kent, where
his archiepiscopal palace was seated, he was by law entitled to some
greater indulgence than usual in the rate of his fine. Notwithstanding
these pleas, he was condemned as guilty of a contempt of the king's
court, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn to his sovereign;
all his goods and chattels were confiscated; and that this triumph over
the church might be carried to the utmost, Henry, bishop of Winchester,
the prelate who had been so powerful in the former reign, was in spite
of his remonstrances, obliged, by order of the court, to pronounce the
sentence against him. The primate submitted to the decree; and all the
prelates, except Folliot, bishop of London, who paid court to the king
by this singularity, became sureties for him. It is remarkable, that
several Norman barons voted in this council; and we may conclude, with
some probability, that a like practice had prevailed in many of the
great councils summoned since the conquest. For the contemporary
historian, who has given us a full account of these transactions, does
not mention this circumstance as anywise singular; and Becket, in all
his subsequent remonstrances with regard to the severe treatment which
he had met with, never founds any objection on an irregularity, which to
us appears very palpable and flagrant. So little precision was there at
that time in the government and constitution!

The king was not content with this sentence, however violent and
oppressive. Next day he demanded of Becket the sum of three hundred
pounds, which the primate had levied upon the honors of Eye and Berkham,
while in his possession. Becket, after premising that he was not obliged
to answer to this suit, because it was not contained in his summons;
after remarking that he had expended more than that sum in the repairs
of those castles, and of the royal palace at London, expressed, however,
his resolution, that money should not be any ground of quarrel between
him and his sovereign; he agreed to pay the sum, and immediately gave
sureties for it. In the subsequent meeting, the king demanded five
hundred marks, which, he affirmed, he had lent Becket during the war at
Toulouse; and another sum to the same amount, for which that p