he clergy, meanwhile, though their rage was happily diverted from
falling on the king, were not idle in magnifying the sanctity of
Becket; in extolling the merits of his martyrdom; and in exalting him
above all that devoted tribe, who in several ages had, by their blood,
cemented the fabric of the temple. Other saints had only borne
testimony by their sufferings to the general doctrines of
Christianity; but Becket had sacrificed his life to the power and
privileges of the clergy; and this peculiar merit challenged, and not
in vain, a suitable acknowledgment to his memory. Endless were the
panegyrics on his virtues; and the miracles wrought by his relics were
more numerous, more nonsensical, and more impudently attested, than
those which ever filled the legend of any confessor or martyr. Two
years after his death he was canonized by Pope Alexander; a solemn
jubilee was established for celebrating his merits; his body was
removed to a magnificent shrine, enriched with presents from all parts
of Christendom; pilgrimages were performed to obtain his intercession
with Heaven; and it was computed, that in one year above a hundred
thousand pilgrims arrived in Canterbury, and paid their devotions at
his tomb. It is indeed a mortifying reflection to those who are
actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the last infirmity
of noble minds, that the wisest legislator, and most exalted genius
that ever reformed or enlightened the world, can never expect such
tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints,
whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or
contemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuit
of objects pernicious to mankind. It is only a conqueror, a personage
no less entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of
equal renown and glory.

It may not be amiss to remark, before we conclude the subject of
Thomas a Becket, that the king, during his controversy with that
prelate, was on every occasion more anxious than usual to express his
zeal for religion, and to avoid all appearance of a profane negligence
on that head. He gave his consent to the imposing of a tax on all his
dominions for the delivery of the Holy Land, now threatened by the
famous Saladine: this tax amounted to two-pence a pound for one year,
and a penny a pound for the four subsequent [a]. Almost all the
princes of Europe laid a like imposition on their subjects, which