incere attempt to maintain the outward authority of law made of
the Council of Northampton a great event in our constitutional history.
It showed that the rule of pure despotism was over. A new step was taken
too in the political education of the nation. Thrown back on the support
of his own officials and of the baronage, Henry used the nobles as he
had once used the Church. Greater and lesser barons sat together in the
King's Council for the first time when Henry summoned sheriffs and
knights from the hall of Northampton Castle to the inner council
chamber. He taught the nobles their strength when he called the whole
assembly of his barons to discuss questions of spiritual jurisdiction.
It was at Northampton that he gave them their first training in political
action--a training whose full results were seen half a century later in
the winning of Magna Charta.

CHAPTER VI

THE ASSIZE OF CLARENDON

The flight of the archbishop marked the opening of a new phase in the
struggle. Thomas sought refuge at the Papal Court at Sens. There
kneeling at Alexander's feet, and surrounded by weeping cardinals, he
delivered into the Pope's hands the written "customs" which had been
forced upon him at Clarendon, and resigned the see of Canterbury to
receive it back again with all honour. Alexander had indeed but limited
sympathy with the fiery zealot, but he had practically no choice of
action in face of the resistance with which the clergy would have met
any sacrifice of ecclesiastical to secular authority. For two years at a
monastery in Pontigny then for four at Sens, the archbishop lived the
life of an austere Cistercian monk, edifying the community with his
fastings, scourgings, and prayers. The canon law again became his
constant study, and throughout the churches of Gaul he sought for books
which might be copied for the library at Canterbury. He was soon
fortified with visions of martyrdom, and prepared himself fitly to
fulfil this glorious destiny. Nor did he forget the uses of political
intrigue; it was easy to enlist on his side the orthodoxy of the French
king and of the house of Blois; and the intimate knowledge which he had
of his master's continental policy was henceforth at the disposal of the
hereditary enemies of Henry. A tumult of political alarms filled the
air. Ambassadors from both sides hurried to every court, to the Emperor,
the Pope, the King of France, the Count of Flanders, the Empress Matilda
at Roue