.D. 1162.]

Amidst this general acquiescence one man was found bold enough to oppose
him, who for eight years together embroiled all his affairs, poisoned
his satisfactions, endangered his dominions, and at length in his death
triumphed over all the power and policy of this wise and potent monarch.
This was Thomas a-Becket, a man memorable for the great glory and the
bitter reproaches he has met with from posterity. This person was the
son of a respectable citizen of London. He was bred to the study of the
civil and canon law, the education, then, used to qualify a man for
public affairs, in which he soon made a distinguished figure. By the
royal favor and his own abilities, he rose, in a rapid succession
through several considerable employments, from an office under the
sheriff of London, to be High Chancellor of the kingdom. In this high
post he showed a spirit as elevated; but it was rather a military spirit
than that of the gownman,--magnificent to excess in his living and
appearance, and distinguishing himself in the tournaments and other
martial sports of that age with much ostentation of courage and expense.
The king, who favored him greatly, and expected a suitable return, on
the vacancy, destined Becket, yet a layman, to the see of Canterbury,
and hoped to find in him a warm promoter of the reformation he intended.
Hardly a priest, he was made the first prelate in the kingdom. But no
sooner was he invested with the clerical character than the whole tenor
of his conduct was seen to change all at once: of his pompous retinue a
few plain servants only remained; a monastic temperance regulated his
table; and his life, in all respects formed to the most rigid austerity,
seemed to prepare him for that superiority he was resolved to assume,
and the conflicts he foresaw he must undergo in this attempt.

It will not be unpleasing to pause a moment at this remarkable period,
in order to view in what consisted that greatness of the clergy, which
enabled them to bear so very considerable a sway in all public
affairs,--what foundations supported the weight of so vast a
power,--whence it had its origin,--what was the nature, and what the
ground, of the immunities they claimed,--that we may the more fully
enter into this important controversy, and may not judge, as some have
inconsiderately done, of the affairs of those times by ideas taken from
the present manners and opinions.

It is sufficiently known, that the first Chr