he violence which he had suffered.
He compared himself to Christ, who had been condemned by a lay
tribunal [z], and who was crucified anew in the present oppressions
under which his church laboured: he took it for granted, as a point
incontestable, that his cause was the cause of God [a]: he assumed the
character of champion for the patrimony of the Divinity: he pretended
to be the spiritual father of the king and all the people of England
[b]: he even told Henry that kings reigned solely by the authority of
the church [c]: and though he had thus torn off the veil more openly
on the one side than that prince had on the other, he seemed still,
from the general favour borne him by the ecclesiastics, to have all
the advantage in the argument. The king, that he might employ the
weapons of temporal power remaining in his hands, suspended the
payment of Peter's pence; he made advances towards an alliance with
the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who was at that time engaged in
violent wars with Pope Alexander; he discovered some intentions of
acknowledging Pascal III., the present anti-pope, who was protected by
that emperor; and by these expedients he endeavoured to terrify the
enterprising though prudent pontiff from proceeding to extremities
against him.
[FN [y] QUIS DUBITET, says Becket to the king, SACERDOTES CHRISTI
REGUM ET PRINCIPUM OMNIUMQUE FIDELIIUM PATRES ET MAGISTROS CENSERI,
Epist St. Thom. p. 97, 148. [z] Epist. St. Thom. p. 63, 105, 194.
[a] Ibid. p. 29, 30, 31, 226. [b] Fitz-Steph. p. 46. Epist. St Thom.
p. 52, 148. [c] Brady's Append. No. 36. Epist. St. Thom. p. 94, 95,
97, 99, 197. Hoveden, p. 497.]

[MN 1166.] But the violence of Becket, still more than the nature of
the controversy, kept affairs from remaining long in suspense between
the parties. That prelate, instigated by revenge, and animated by the
present glory attending his situation, pushed matters to a decision,
and issued a censure, excommunicating the king's chief ministers by
name, and comprehending in general all those who favoured or obeyed
the constitutions of Clarendon: these constitutions he abrogated and
annulled; he absolved all men from the oaths which they had taken to
observe them; and he suspended the spiritual thunder over Henry
himself, only that the prince might avoid the blow by a timely
repentance [d].
[FN [d] Fitz-Steph. p. 56. Hist. Quad. p. 93. M. Paris, p. 74.
Beaulieu, Vie de St. Thom. p. 213. Epist. St. Thom. p