6 Army of God and of the Church,' which took possession of London during the struggle between John, with the Papal party, on one side, and Langton, with the barons and the people, on the other side. CHAPTER IV TROUBLES WITH THE PAPACY FROM HENRY II. TO RICHARD II. THE restless period of Stephen's reign had been fruitful of evils in Church and State. The Church was corrupted by Simony and by malpractices in the spiritual courts, and the Primate, Theobald, was too feeble to redress the wrongs. Henry had chosen as his Chancellor, Thomas Becket, Archdeacon of Canterbury, a man dowered with splendid gifts of body and mind. He proved himself to be capable of fulfilling any duties imposed upon him, and was by turns lawyer, ambassador, soldier, and chief adviser of the King. Between Becket and the King there was also the intimacy of bosom friends, and Henry might naturally think that when the aged Theobald had passed away no man would serve so well in the Primacy as Becket. It was Henry's wish that Becket should retain the Chancellorship, thus bringing into close juxtaposition the highest office of Church and State. But to his intense disappointment Becket declined to remain Chancellor, and declared that, as the spiritual Head of the Church in England, he could not hold two offices which might sometimes involve the clashing of interests. He had served the State well; if he must now serve the Church, he must give his whole soul to the work as he had done to the other service. The cleavage between the King and the Primate, begun with the resignation of the Chancellorship, soon grew wider, for Becket claimed the property of the see which had been alienated during the vacancy, and his proceedings for recovery were duly reported to the King. However, there was yet no open breach, although, doubtless, there was on both sides that irritation. of spirit which forms so often the basis of a quarrel. The first open dispute with the King was upon the question of a land-tax payable to the sheriff of each county, and called the sheriff's aid. This tax the King ordered to be paid into the exchequer, thus diverting a local tax to royal use. In opposing this Becket was taking up the cause of the people, who looked upon this charge as an illegal diversion of local revenue. The King was determined, and declared his intention of going on with his demand, whereupon Becket declared that no money should be paid from Church lands. It is uncertain what the issue was, but Becket had at any rate asserted what afterwards became a principle of the Constitution, i.e. that taxpayers should have a voice in the spending of the revenue. The next dispute was as to the right of the archbishop to excommunicate a tenant-in-chief of the Crown without the consent of the King. The archbishop revoked the sentence he had pronounced on one of the King's tenants, without acknowledging the royal power of veto. But the crisis came in connection with Becket's claim to withdraw clerics from the jurisdiction of the civil courts. We must remember that the term 'clerk' had a much wider signification at that time than it has now, owing to the number of 'minor orders' then in existence. Many men of doubtful character had obtained the position of 'clerks' by being appointed to some more or less important Church office, and owing to the separation of civil and spiritual courts, and to the gradual accumulation of business in the spiritual courts, it had become notoriously common for these men to be tried in spiritual courts, and to escape the penalties which should have been inflicted, for the spiritual courts could only inflict penance, suspension, or excommunication. It Henry had become impressed with the necessity of remedying this abuse, which had become so flagrant that in nine years from his accession more than one hundred murders, besides multitudes of lesser offences, had been committed by 'clerks.' was with the view of having Becket's help in reforming this abuse that Henry had wished him to combine the offices of Chancellor and Primate, and on the other hand Becket saw quite clearly that he could not at the same time as Chancellor demand the surrender of criminal clerks to the civil courts, and as Primate refuse that surrender. must choose between Church and King, between administering civil law and canon law, and he decided to be the champion of the Church and of her canon law. He A case of a 'clerk' guilty of murder brought the question to a clear issue. The King and his justices claimed that a clerk should first be tried by the Church courts, and if found guilty he should be degraded, and then tried as a layman by a civil court. Becket claimed that no clerk could be tried by a civil court for any offence, and argued that if |