his passions must and might easily be tamed; and that he
knew how necessary he himself was to a king incapable of guiding the
reins of government without his assistance. It was not that these men
were in reality friends to Henry. They are said to have been equally
enemies to him and to the Church. They sighed after the licentiousness
of the last reign, of which they had been deprived, and sought to
provoke a contest, in which, whatever party should succeed, they would
have to rejoice over the defeat either of the clergy, whom they
considered as rivals, or of the King, whom they hated as their
oppressor.

The ruin of a single bishop was now the principal object that occupied
and perplexed the mind of this mighty monarch. By the advice of his
counsellors it was resolved to waive the controversy respecting the
"customs," and to fight with those more powerful weapons which the
feudal jurisprudence always offered to the choice of a vindictive
sovereign. A succession of charges was prepared, and the Primate was
cited to a great council in the town of Northampton. With a misboding
heart he obeyed the summons; and the King's refusal to accept from him
the kiss of peace admonished him of his danger.

At the opening of the council, October 13th, John of Oxford presided;
Henry exercised the office of prosecutor. The first charge regarded
some act of contempt against the King, supposed to have been committed
by Becket in his judicial capacity. The Archbishop offered a plea in
excuse; but Henry swore that justice should be done him; and the
obsequious court condemned Becket to the forfeiture of his goods and
chattels, a penalty which was immediately commuted for a fine of five
hundred pounds. The next morning the King required him to refund three
hundred pounds, the rents which he had received as warden of Eye and
Berkhamstead. Becket coolly replied that he would pay it; more,
indeed, had been expended by him in the repairs, but money should
never prove a cause of dissension between himself and his sovereign.

Another demand followed of five hundred pounds received by the
Chancellor before the walls of Toulouse. It was in vain that the
Archbishop described the transaction as a gift. Henry maintained that
it was a loan; and the Court, on the principle that the word of the
sovereign was preferable to that of a subject, compelled him to give
security for the repayment of the money. The third day the King
required an account of all