d when another Council met at Northampton, in
October, 1164, the King was ready to drive Thomas out of office. Before
this Council Thomas was charged with having refused justice to John, the
Treasury-Marshall, and with contempt of the King's court, and was heavily
fined. It was difficult to get sentence pronounced, for the barons declined
to sit as judges on an archbishop; but at length, Henry, Bishop of
Winchester, on the King's order, declared the sentence. Henry followed up
the attack next day by calling upon Thomas to account for 30,000 marks
spent by him while Chancellor. In vain he proved that the Justiciar had
declared him free of all claims when he laid down the Chancellorship, that
the charge was totally unexpected; the King refused to stay the proceedings
unless Thomas would sign the Constitutions of Clarendon.

Consultation with the bishops brought no help. "The King has declared, so
it is said, that he and you cannot both remain in England as king and
archbishop. It would be much safer to resign everything and submit to his
mercy"; thus spake Hilary, of Chichester, and his fellow-bishops all urged
resignation or submission.

Two days later the Archbishop came into the Council in full robes with the
Cross in his hand. Earl Robert, of Leicester, rose to pass sentence upon
him and at once the Archbishop refused to hear him. "Neither law nor reason
permit children to pass sentence on their father," he declared. "I will not
hear this sentence of the King, or any judgment of yours. For, under God, I
will be judged by the Pope alone, to whom before you all here I appeal,
placing the Church of Canterbury under God's protection and the protection
of the Pope."

There were shouts of anger at these words, and some tore rushes from the
floor and flung at him, but no one dared to stop the Archbishop's passage
as he passed from the hall. It was useless to look for help or justice in
England, and that very night Thomas left England for Flanders to appeal to
Rome.

But Pope Alexander could do no more for Thomas than his predecessor had
done for Anselm; only he would not allow any resignation from Canterbury.
Henry himself appealed to the Pope in 1166, fearing excommunication by the
Archbishop; "thus by a strange fate it happened that the King, while
striving for those 'ancient customs' by which he endeavoured to prevent any
right of appeal (to the Pope), was doomed to confirm the right of appeal
for his own safety." The