Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE KING. 197
serious alarm to those who ruled the State. Henry and
Becket had met again and again in hope of reconciliation ;
but always one thing stood in the way. Becket always
made open or secret reservation of the rights of the
Church, or the honour of his God/ and Henry felt it ;
when he heard the dreaded phrase, Saving the honour of
my God/ he broke forth into furious imprecations. He
knew that there was a rock there against which both his
passion and his force might spend themselves in vain.
Alas ! that
the rights of the Church and the rights of
the State in a world which Christ came to save, should
be so constantly paraded as opposing powers ! Alas !
that man s pride, ambition and avarice have in all ages
marred so miserably
the benediction which the Saviour
brought to mankind !
The history of the Constitutions of Clarendon is quite too
large
and intricate a matter to be treated in a brief lecture.
We may simply note that in the Constitutions, the right of
the King s court over criminal ecclesiastics was recognised,
and Becket in some way was induced to accept them, though
probably with a mental reservation, subject to the dispen
sation of the Church/ He bitterly repented his acquiescence,
and the whole struggle of his life from that time was to
recover for the Church the position which he felt
that he had
weakly betrayed. His long exile and his return in something
like a popular whirlwind of triumph
are familiar matters of
history. He knew, probably, that he was returning to die.
He was solemnly warned before he embarked that he would
be certainly slain. It is of no consequence to me/ he
answered, for if I am torn limb from limb I will go/
He returned with a battery of suspensions and anathemas
which he discharged at his enemies. Tt was to be war to
the death ;
and we may conjecture
that Becket saw his
death might triumph where his life had failed. Warnings