d the apostolic see. He issued
orders to his justiciaries, inhibiting, under severe penalties, all
appeals to the pope or archbishop; forbidding any one to receive any
mandates from them, or apply in any case to their authority; declaring
it treasonable to bring from either of them an interdict upon the
kingdom, and punishable in secular clergymen by the loss of their eyes
and by castration, in regulars by amputation of their feet, and in
laics with death; and menacing, with sequestration and banishment, the
persons themselves, as well as their kindred, who should pay obedience
to any such interdict: and he farther obliged all his subjects to
swear to the observance of those orders [x]. These were edicts of the
utmost importance, affected the lives and properties of all the
subjects, and even changed, for the time, the national religion, by
breaking off all communication with Rome: yet were they enacted by the
sole authority of the king, and were derived entirely from his will
and pleasure.
[FN [x] Hist. Quad. p. 88, 167. Hoveden, p. 496. M. Paris, p. 73.]

The spiritual powers, which, in the primitive church, were, in a great
measure, dependent on the civil, had, by a gradual progress, reached
an equality and independence; and though the limits of the two
jurisdictions were difficult to ascertain or define, it was not
impossible, but, by moderation on both sides, government might still
have been conducted in that imperfect and irregular manner which
attends all human institutions. But as the ignorance of the age
encouraged the ecclesiastics daily to extend their privileges, and
even to advance maxims totally incompatible with civil government [y],
Henry had thought it high time to put an end to their pretensions, and
formally, in a public council, to fix those powers which belonged to
the magistrate, and which he was for the future determined to
maintain. In this attempt, he was led to re-establish customs, which,
though ancient, were beginning to be abolished by a contrary practice,
and which were still more strongly opposed by the prevailing opinions
and sentiments of the age. Principle, therefore, stood on the one
side; power on the other; and if the English had been actuated by
conscience more than by present interest, the controversy must soon,
by the general defection of Henry's subjects, have been decided
against him. Becket, in order to forward this event, filled all
places with exclamations against t