: the bishops were
terrified, and expected still farther effects of his resentment.
Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but the interposition of the
pope's legate and almoner, Philip, who dreaded a breach with so
powerful a prince at so unseasonable a juncture, could have prevailed
on him to retract the saving clause, and give a general and absolute
promise of observing the ancient customs [p].
[FN [o] Fitz-Steph. p. 31. Hist. Quad. p. 34. Hoveden, p. 492. [p]
Hist. Quad. p. 37. Hoveden, p. 493. Gervase, p. 1385.]

But Henry was not content with a declaration in these general terms:
he resolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs
with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical
usurpations before they were fully consolidated, and could plead
antiquity, as they already did a sacred authority, in their favour.
The claims of the church were open and visible. After a gradual and
insensible progress during many centuries, the mask had at last been
taken off; and several ecclesiastical councils, by their canons which
were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had positively
defined those privileges and immunities which gave such general
offence, and appeared so dangerous to the civil magistrate. Henry,
therefore, deemed it necessary to define with the same precision the
limits of the civil power; to oppose his legal customs to their divine
ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival
jurisdictions; and for this purpose he summoned a general council of
the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted this
great and important question.

[MN 1164. 15th Jan. Constitutions of Clarendon.]
The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasons
which he urged, or by his superior authority: the bishops were
overawed by the general combination against them: and the following
laws, commonly called the CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON, were voted
without opposition by this assembly [q]. It was enacted, that all
suits concerning the advowson and presentation of churches should be
determined in the civil courts: that the churches belonging to the
king's see should not be granted in perpetuity without his consent:
that clerks, accused of any crime, should be tried in the civil
courts: that no person, particularly no clergyman of any rank, should
depart the kingdom without the king's licence: that excommunicated
persons should not be bound to give