case, and with an offer which
Henry made to submit his cause to the French clergy, that he could not
forbear condemning the primate, and withdrawing his friendship from
him during some time: but the bigotry of that prince, and their common
animosity against Henry, soon produced a renewal of their former good
correspondence.

[MN 1170. 22d July.] All difficulties were at last adjusted between
the parties; and the king allowed Becket to return, on conditions
which may be esteemed both honourable and advantageous to that
prelate. [MN Compromise with Becket.] He was not required to give up
any rights of the church, or resign any of those pretensions which had
been the original ground of the controversy. It was agreed that all
these questions should be buried in oblivion; but that Becket and his
adherents should, without making farther submission, be restored to
all their livings, and that even the possessors of such benefices as
depended on the see of Canterbury, and had been filled during the
primate's absence, should be expelled, and Becket have liberty to
supply the vacancies [h]. In return for concessions which intrenched
so deeply on the honour and dignity of the crown, Henry reaped only
the advantage of seeing his ministers absolved from the sentence of
excommunication pronounced against them, and of preventing the
interdict, which, if these hard conditions had not been complied with,
was ready to be laid on all his dominions [i]. It was easy to see how
much he dreaded that event, when a prince of so high a spirit could
submit to terms so dishonourable in order to prevent it. So anxious
was Henry to accommodate all differences, and to reconcile himself
fully with Becket, that he took the most extraordinary steps to
flatter his vanity, and even, on one occasion, humiliated himself so
far as to hold the stirrup of that haughty prelate while he mounted
[k].
[FN [h] Fitz-Steph. p. 68, 69. Hoveden, p. 520. [i] Hist. Quad. p.
104. Brompton, p. 1062. Gervase, p. 1408. Epist. St. Thom. p. 704,
705, 706, 707, 792, 793, 794. Benedict. Abbas, p. 70. [k] Epist. 45.
lib. 5.]

But the king attained not even that temporary tranquillity which he
had hoped to reap from these expedients. During the heat of his
quarrel with Becket, while he was every day expecting an interdict to
be laid on his kingdom, and a sentence of excommunication to be
fulminated against his person, he had thought it prudent to have his
son,