s obliged to have an iron gorget, a cap of iron, and a lance; all
burgesses were to have a cap of iron, a lance, and a wambais; that is,
a coat quilted with wool, tow, or such like materials.[***] It appears
that archery, for which the English were afterwards so renowned, had
not at this time become very common among them. The spear was the chief
weapon employed in battle.

[* Hoveden, p. 590].

[** Benedict. Abbas, p. 202. Diceto p. 585.]

[*** Benedict, Abbas, p. 305. Annal. Waverl. p.
181.]

The clergy and the laity were, during that age, in a strange situation
with regard to each other, and such as may seem totally incompatible
with a civilized, and indeed with any species of government. If a
clergyman were guilty of murder, he could be punished by degradation
only: if he were murdered, the murderer was exposed to nothing but
excommunication and ecclesiastical censures; and the crime was atoned
for by penances and submission.[*] Hence the assassins of Thomas
a Becket himself, though guilty of the most atrocious wickedness, and the
most repugnant to the sentiments of that age, lived securely in their
own houses, without being called to account by Henry himself, who was
so much concerned, both in honor and interest, to punish that crime, and
who professed or affected, on all occasions, the most extreme abhorrence
of it. It was not till they found their presence shunned by every one
as excommunicated persons, that they were induced to take a journey to
Rome, to throw themselves at the feet of the pontiff, and to submit to
the penances imposed upon them; after which, they continued to possess
without molestation their honors and fortunes, and seem even to have
recovered the countenance and good opinion of the public. But as the
king, by the constitutions of Clarendon, which he endeavored still
to maintain,[**] had subjected the clergy to a trial by the civil
magistrate, it seemed but just to give them the protection of that
power, to which they owed obedience: it was enacted, that the murderers
of clergymen should be tried before the justiciary, in the presence of
the bishop or his official; and besides the usual punishment for murder,
should be subjected to a forfeiture of their estates, and a confiscation
of their goods and chattels.[***]

[* Petri Bles. epist. 73, apud Bibl. Patr. torn.
xxiv. p. 992.]

[** Gervase, p. 1433. ]

[*** Diceto, p. 592. Gervase, p. 1433]