racters, crimes of the
deepest dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily
committed with impunity by the ecclesiastics. It had been found, for
instance, on inquiry, that no less than a hundred murders had, since
the king's accession, been perpetrated by men of that profession, who
had never been called to account for these offences [l]; and holy
orders were become a full protection for all enormities. A clerk in
Worcestershire, having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had, at this
time, proceeded to murder the father: and the general indignation
against this crime moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abuse
which was become so palpable, and to require that the clerk should be
delivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magistrate [m].
Becket insisted on the privileges of the church; confined the criminal
in the bishop's prison, lest he should be seized by the king's
officers; maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on
him than degradation; and when the king demanded, that, immediately
after he was degraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the
primate asserted, that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the
same accusation, and for the same offence [n].
[FN [l] Neubr. p. 394. [m] Fitz-Steph. p. 33. Hist. Quad. p. 32.
[n] Fitz-Steph. p. 29. Hist. Quad. p. 33, 45. Hoveden, p. 492. M.
Paris, p. 72. Diceto, p. 536, 537. Brompton, p. 1058. Gervase, p.
1384. Epist. St. Thom. p. 208, 209.]

Henry, laying hold of so plausible a pretence, resolved to push the
clergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had raised to
an enormous height, and to determine at once those controversies,
which daily multiplied between the civil and the ecclesiastical
jurisdictions. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates of
England; and he put to them this concise and decisive question,
Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and
customs of the kingdom? The bishops unanimously replied, that they
were willing, SAVING THEIR OWN ORDER [o]: a device by which they
thought to elude the present urgency of the king's demand, yet reserve
to themselves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of resuming all
their pretensions. The king was sensible of the artifice, and was
provoked to the highest indignation. He left the assembly, with
visible marks of his displeasure: he required the primate instantly to
surrender the honours and castles of Eye and Berkham