of selfish rapacity. The following are sentences in this infamous bull:"Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his most dear son in Christ, the illustrious king of England, sendeth greeting and apostolical benediction. We are confident that, by the blessing of God, the success will answer the wisdom and discretion of the undertaking. You have advertised us, dear son, of your intended expedition into Ireland, to reduce that people to the obedience of that christian faith. We, therefore, being willing to assist you in this pious and laudable design, and consenting to your petition, do grant you full liberty to make a descent upon that island, in order to enlarge the borders of the church, &c. &c., for indeed it is certain, as your highness acknowledges, that all the islands enlightened by Christ are unquestionably St Peter's right, and belong to the holy Roman church Henry, in order to insure the concurrence of the pope, appealed to his avarice as well as to his ambition, promising him the due payment of the Peter's pence for every house throughout the territory which conquest might add to his dominions.

Adrian manifested the same ambitious disposition throughout the whole of his pontificate. When monarchs were not quite so willing to acknowledge his sway as Henry of England, he attempted to coerce them into obedience. No sooner, indeed, had he seated himself in the papal chair, than he launched his lightnings against the Roman people, who, at the instigation of Arnold of Brescia, were endeavouring to regain their ancient liberties, and to restore the authority of the senate. Adrian was not a man likely to abandon the contest. He dismissed the deputies who came to assert the rights of the people in haughty silence, and commanded the senators to banish Arnold. At length, provoked by an assault which the populace made on one of his cardinals, Gerard of St Pudentiana, he put the whole city under an interdict; and to the consternation of the people, all religious functions were suspended. This step was decisive; the infant spirit of liberty quailed before the terrors which superstition inspired; the reformers were banished from the city; and the people acknowledged the sovereignty of the pope.' The very same year, Frederic, king of the Romans, tasted of the like discipline. The pope had an interview with that monarch at Sutrium, for the purpose of negotiating a peace. Not content with the punctilious observance of every other customary honour, his holiness insisted that Frederic should hold the stirrup when he alighted. The king at first refused; but the haughty pontiff was inflexible. He refused to dispense with this degrading act of homage, and, after a long conference, Frederic was induced to comply with it. This submission appeased his holiness, and he graciously consented to confer upon his vassal the imperial crown. About the same time, Adrian exercised his prerogative on William, king of the two Sicilies, whom the pope had represented as a vassal of the Roman see, and refusing him the title of king, had insultingly styled him, 'Lord of Sicily. This provoked a war in which the papal troops were defeated. The pope then resorted, with his usual success, to his spiritual weapons.

Fleury.

2. This homage," says Gibbon, "was paid by kings to archbishops, and by vassals to their lords; and it was the nicest policy of Rome to confound the marks of filial and feudal subjection.

Excommunication brought the refractory monarch to his senses; and the king consented not only to receive his crown at the hands of the pope, but to pay him an annual tribute. Circumstances connected with this quarrel renewed the pope's differences with the emperor Frederic. After giving each other mutual provocations, Adrian had the imprudence and insolence to boast that he had conferred on Frederic his crown. The emperor, as well as all the princes and bishops of the empire, deeply resented this language. The papal legates were sent back in dishonour to Rome, and the bishops protested in terms so strong as convinced the pope that he had asserted claims which he was quite unable to sustain. He, therefore, retracted the offensive expressions, in a letter full of miserable subterfuges and evasions. The quarrel, however, soon broke out again, and remained undecided at Adrian's death. This event took place in the year 1159, at Anagni. Adrian left behind him some letters and homilies.3

Little is known of the private life of this pontiff; it is not, however, likely that one whose public conduct was marked by such pride, haugh tiness, and ambition, should have been in private distinguished for the softer virtues. He was evidently possessed of that decision of character, that inflexibility of purpose, that confidence in his own powers, that superiority to trifling and frivolous pursuits, and that severity of manners, which generally distinguish men of lofty ambition. As usual, he felt that power and dignity are not necessarily connected with happiness; and he had the honesty to avow it. To John of Salisbury, his old friend, who boldly reproved his pride and tyranny, he acknowledged hat his " crown seemed to have been put burning on his head." He forgot, however, to add, that all this was the necessary consequence, as it was the just punishment, of his insolent pride and his restless ambition.

Thomas a Becket.

BORN A. D. 1119.-DIED A. D. 1170.

THOMAS BECKET, so famous in ecclesiastical history for his martyrdom and miracles, was born in London in the year 1119. His father Gilbert was a merchant, and some time sheriff of that city. A romantic story is narrated by Brompton of his mother Maud, or Matilda, whom he represents as a Saracen lady of considerable quality. Gilbert, according to this author, had, in his youth, visited Jerusalem, where he was taken prisoner by the infidels, and treated with great severity. He had the good fortune, however, to attract the favour of his master, and subsequently to make an impression on the heart of his daughter, who, captivated with his conversation and his religion, told him frankly she intended to turn Christian and abandon her native country for his sake. This declaration surprised the English merchant; but his doubts about her sincerity led him to treat the proposal with indifference. Finding an opportunity of breaking his chains he made his escape,

Contfl. tom, x.-Leland de Script. Brit. Adr.

and returned to England, where, in a short time, he was discovered by the enamoured lady who had contrived to elude the vigilance of her father, and was conducted to London in the vessel of an English merchantman. Such proof of zeal and affection was irresistible, and, on embracing the Christian faith, she became the wife of Gilbert, and the happy mother of Becket. This narrative has little appearance of probability, though it may have passed for truth in an ignorant and barbarous age.

The young Becket received the rudiments of his education at Mertoi. abbey in Surrey; and afterwards studied at Oxford and Paris. By some means he had gained the favour of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to study the civil law at Bologna in Italy. He had given proofs both of industry and capacity, and, on his return, he appeared to have made such proficiency in knowledge that, besides. some other offices and preferments, he was advanced by his patron to the archdeaconry of Canterbury, then one of the richest benefices in England. Theobald afterwards employed him with success in transacting business at Rome; and on Henry's accession he was recommended to that prince as worthy of farther preferment. The king, who was naturally of a haughty disposition, was at that time surrounded with advisers, who urged him to make what the clergy considered encroachments on the rights and authority of the church. To these evil counsels Archbishop Theobald was anxious to oppose the virtues and abilities of Becket; and, as his rank gave him free access to the court, he took every opportunity of possessing the royal mind with a high esteem for the archdeacon of Canterbury. Henry, who knew that Becket had been instrumental in supporting that resolution of the archbishop which had tended so much to facilitate his own advancement to the throne, was already predisposed in his favour; and finding, on better acquaintance, that his spirit and talents entitled him to any trust, he soon promoted him (in 1158) to the dignity of high chancellor, an office whose jurisdiction extended to every business of importance in church or state. Besides exercising these high functions, Becket was made provost of Beverley, dean of Hastings, and constable of the Tower. He was also put in possession of the honours of Eye and Berkham, large baronies that had escheated to the crown; and, to complete his grandeur, he was intrusted with the education of prince Henry, the king's eldest son.

Ön obtaining these high and envied appointments he laid aside the ecclesiastical habit and way of living, and affected both the dress and manners of a courtier. In every thing he conformed himself entirely to the king's humours,-hunted with him, partook of all his diver sions, and even observed the same hours of eating and sleeping. Henry, on the other hand, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy;2 and whenever he was disposed to relax himself by gaming, hawking, horsemanship, or sports of any kind, he admitted his chancellor to the party. An instance of their familiarity is mentioned by Fitz-Stephens, which is not unworthy of notice as showing the manners of the age. One day as the king and Becket were riding together through the streets of London, they observed a half-naked

Stephanides, 11.

Stephan. 11-17.-Epist. S. Thom. i. 126.

beggar shivering with cold. "Would it not be very praiseworthy," said the king, "to give that poor man a warm coat in this severe season?" "It would surely," replied the chancellor, "and you do well, Sir, in thinking of such good actions." "Then he shall have one presently," cried the king: and seizing the skirt of Becket's coat, which was of scarlet lined with ermine, he began to pull it violently. The chancellor defended himself for some time; and they had both of them nearly tumbled off their horses on the street, when Becket, after a vehement struggle, let go his coat, which the king bestowed on the beggar; the poor man, ignorant of the quality of his benefactors, being not a little surprised at the present. In his style of living, Becket displayed a princely magnificence. He had numerous and splendid levees, and courted applause by every popular art. The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents, corresponded to his elevated rank, or rather exceeded any thing that England had before seen in any subject. When he rode on horseback he used a silver bridle, and in the gaiety and opulence of his entertainments he surpassed the greatest nobles. His historian and secretary, Fitz-Stephens, mentions, among other particulars, that his apartments were, every day in winter, covered with clean straw or hay, and in summer with green rushes, or boughs, lest the gentlemen who paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of the vast concourse, find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor. A numerous body of knights were retained in his service; the greatest barons were proud of being his guests; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobility, and the king himself frequently deigned to partake of his hospitality. In the cavalier spirit of the age he made a campaign with Henry in his expedition against Thoulouse, (A. D. 1159,) and exposed his person in several military actions. At his own charge he carried over seven hundred knights to attend the king. In the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy, he maintained, during forty days, twelve hundred knights and four thousand of their train, displaying both tact and courage, and commanding in person at the sieges of several places of strength. In 1160, he was sent by the king to Paris to treat of a marriage between prince Henry, then but seven years old, and the princess Margaret, daughter to the king of France, who was only in her third year. In this negotiation Becket succeeded, and returned with the young princess to England. By his complaisance and good humour, he had rendered himself agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful to his master, and on the death of Theobald, (a. D. 1162,) he appeared to Henry the fittest person to fill the vacant see. The chancellor was then with the king in Normandy, and on being informed of his majesty's design he smiled, and pointing to the secular habit he wore, said, " Truly, Sire, you have pitched upon a very reformed and holy person to govern the first church in England!" The king's intention was opposed by the queen and many of the ministers, and even Becket himself is said to have remonstrated against the appointment, and predicted the unhappy consequences that would ensue from it in creating a breach of their friendship. But Henry, who had made no secret of his wishes to retrench, or rather confine within their ancient bounds all ecclesiastical privileges, and had found the chancel

lor always ready to comply with his designs, never expected to meet with resistance from that quarter, and accordingly issued orders for electing him archbishop of Canterbury; and so well did his agents manage the matter with the monks and the clergy, that no opposition was made except by the bishop of London. His consecration by the bishop of Winchester took place in the cathedral church of Canterbury; the young prince Henry, and a great concourse of the nobility, being present at the solemnity.

The new archbishop received his pall from Pope Alexander III., then residing in France; and immediately after his consecration sent messengers to the king in Normandy, resigning the seal and office of chancellor, a step which surprised the king, as he seems to have intended him still to hold that dignity. Installed in his high functions, which rendered him the second person in the kingdom, Becket immediately betook himself to quite a different mode of life, and endeavoured by his altered demeanour to acquire the character of sanctity, which might naturally be supposed to be somewhat incompatible with his former habits. The gaiety and amusements of the courtier were exchanged for the gravity and austerities of the monk. He maintained in his retinue and attendants alone his former pomp and lustre, which was useful to impose on the vulgar. In his own person he affected the most rigid abstinence and mortification, which he was sensible would have an equal perhaps greater effect in attracting the reverence of a superstitious people. He wore sackcloth next his skin, which by a pretended care to conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by every body. He changed it so seldom that it was filled with dirt and vermin. His usual diet was bread; his drink water, which he even rendered more unpalatable by a mixture of unsavoury herbs. He lacerated his back with the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it. He daily on his knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars whom he afterwards dismissed with presents. The affection of the monks he gained by his frequent charities to the convents and hospitals. Every one who made profession of sanctity was admitted to his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility as well as on the piety and mortification of the holy primate. He seemed to be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, or in perusing religious discourses. His countenance wore the appearance of seriousness, mental reflection, and inward devotion; and all men of penetration clearly saw that he was meditating some great design, and that the ambition and ostentation of his character had turned itself towards a new and more dangerous object. His resigning his commission of chancellor without even consulting the king, which he pretended was necessary, in order to detach himself from all secular affairs, and leave him to the sole exercise of his spiritual duties, was in reality intended to break off his connections with Henry, and show him that the primate of England was no longer to continue an obsequious courtier. His first public appearance as a churchman was at the council of Tours, which was held to consider the schism then existing in regard to the papacy, which was claimed by two competi-" tors. Cardinal Roland had been elected under the name of Alexander

Bles. Ep. 27.-Gervase, 1384.