he went even farther than William the Conqueror had
done (S118). After protracted debate the council, composed of a
committee of bishops and barons, passed the measures which the King
demanded. The new laws were entitled the Constitutions of Clarendon.
They consisted of sixteen articles which clearly defined the powers
and jurisdiction of the King's courts and the Church courts. Their
great object was to secure a more uniform administration of justice
for all classes of men. (See the Constitutional Summary in the
Appendix, pp. viii and xxxii.)

Becket, though bitterly oppsed to the new laws, finally assented, and
swore to obey them. Afterward, feeling that he had conceded too much,
he retracted his oath and refused to be bound by the Constitutions.
The other Church dignitaries became alarmed at the prospect, and left
Becket to settle with the King as best he might. Henceforth it was a
battle between the King and the Archbishop, and each resolved that he
would never give up until he had won the final victory (S170).

166. The King enforces the New Laws; Becket leaves the Country.

Henry at once proceeded to put the Constitutions of Clarendon into
execution without fear or favor. A champion of the Church of that day
says, "Then was seen the mournful spectacle of priests and deacons who
had committed murder, manslaughter, robbery, theft, and other crimes,
carried in carts before the comissioners and punished as thogh they
were ordinary men."[1]

[1] William of Newburgh's "Chronicle."

Furthermore, the King sems now to have resolved to ruin Becket or
drive him from the kingdom. He accordingly summoned the Archbishop
before a royal council at Northampton to answer to certain charges
made against him. Becket answered the summons, but he refused to
acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, and appealed to the
Pope. "Traitor!" cried a courtier, as he picked up a bunch of muddy
rushes from the floor and flung them at the Archbishop's head. Becket
turned and, looking him sternly in the face, said, "Were I not a
churchman, I would make you repent that word." Realizing, however,
that he was now in serious danger, he soon after left Northampton and
fled to France.

167. Banishment versus Excommunication (1164).

Finding Becket beyond his reach, Henry next proceeded to banish the
Archbishop's kinsmen and friends, without regard to age or sex, to the
number of nearly four hundred. These miserable exiles, many o