poor man a warm coat in
this severe season? It would, surely, replied the chancellor; and you
do well, sir, in thinking of such good actions. Then he shall have
one presently, cried the king; and seizing the skirt of the
chancellor's coat, which was scarlet, and lined with ermine, began to
pull it violently. The chancellor defended himself for some time; and
they had both of them liked to have tumbled off their horses in the
street, when Becket, after a vehement struggle, let go his coat; which
the king bestowed on the beggar, who, being ignorant of the quality of
the persons, was not a little surprised at the present [a].
[FN [z] Fitz-Steph. p. 16. Hist. Quad. p. 8. [a] Fitz-Steph. p. 16.]

Becket, who, by his complaisance and good humour, had rendered himself
agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master,
appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by
the death of Theobald. As he was well acquainted with the king's
intentions [b] of retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient
bounds, all ecclesiastical privileges, and always showed a ready
disposition to comply with them [c], Henry, who never expected any
resistance from that quarter, immediately issued orders for electing
him Archbishop of Canterbury. But this resolution, which was taken
contrary to the opinion of Matilda, and many of the ministers [d],
drew after it very unhappy consequences; and never prince of so great
penetration appeared, in the issue, to have so little understood the
genius and character of his minister.
[FN [b] Ibid. p. 17. [c] Ibid p. 23. Epist. St. Thom. p. 232. [d]
Epist. St. Thom. p. 167.]

No sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity, which rendered
him for life the second person in the kingdom, with some pretensions
of aspiring to be the first, than he totally altered his demeanour and
conduct, and endeavoured to acquire the character of sanctity, of
which his former busy and ostentatious course of life might, in the
eyes of the people, have naturally bereaved him. Without consulting
the king, he immediately returned into his hands the commission of
chancellor; pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from
secular affairs, and be solely employed in the exercise of his
spiritual function; but in reality, that he might break off all
connexions with Henry, and apprize him, that Becket, as Primate of
England, was now become entirely a new personage. He maintai