At this moment the King sent him word by his knights to come to him without delay, and render to him a full account of all the receipts of the revenues of the kingdom during the time that he had been his Chancellor. And, in particular, he was questioned with reference to thirty thousand pounds of silver; on which the archbishop made answer: "My lord the King knows that I have often rendered him an account with reference to all the demands he is now making upon me before my election to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. But, upon my election to that See, the King's son, Henry, to whom the kingdom was bound by its oath, and all the barons of the exchequer, and Richard de Lucy, the justiciary of England, released me before God and the Holy Church, from all receipts and reckonings, and from all secular exactions on behalf of our lord the King, and thus, free and acquitted, was I elected to the administration of the duties of this office; and for that reason do I refuse to plead any further." The King, upon hearing this, said to his barons: "Make haste and pronounce judgment upon this person, who, being my liege-man, refuses to take his trial in my court"; on which they went forth and pronounced that he deserved to be arrested and placed in confinement. On hearing this, the King sent to him Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, and Robert, Earl of Leicester, to inform him of the judgment that had been pronounced upon him: who accordingly said to him: "Listen to the judgment pronounced upon you." To this, the bishop made answer: "In the name of Almighty God, and under penalty of excommunication, I forbid you this day to pronounce judgment upon me, inasmuch as I have appealed unto the presence of our lord the Pope." While the above-named earls were carrying this answer to the King, the archbishop went forth from the chamber, and going through the midst of them, reached his palfrey, and mounting it, left the palace, all the people shouting after him and saying: "Where are you going, traitor? Stop and hear your sentence!"
When, however, he had arrived at the outer gates, he found them shut, and was in great apprehension of being taken by his enemies, but Almighty God delivered him. For, Peter de Munctorio, one of his servants, espied a number of keys hanging on a nail near the gate, and taking them down, opened it, on which the archbishop sallied forth on horseback, the King's porters standing by, and uttering not a word. The archbishop made all haste to arrive at the house of some canons regular, where he was hospitably entertained, and commanded the tables to be set out and all the poor that were to be found before the gates to be introduced to eat and drink in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was accordingly done; and he, together with them and his people, becomingly partook of the repast in the refectory of the canons, and, when it was finished, made his bed in the Church, between the nave and the altar. In the meantime, he had secretly ordered preparations to be made for his journey, as it was his intention to depart by night. At twilight, therefore, when the King and the rest were supping in the town, taking with him two friars of the Cistercian Order, the name of one of whom was Robert de Caune, and of the other, Scainen, and a single servant, who was called Roger de Broc, he went out of the town through the gate, which was left entirely without guards, and at daybreak arrived at Lincoln, and was entertained at the house of James. Here the archbishop changed his dress, and, changing his name, ordered himself to be called by that of Dereham; and being recognized by few persons, taking remote ways and bye-paths, he hastened towards the sea-shore, he and his attendants riding on at night, and concealing themselves in the day among his friends and acquaintances. At last they arrived at the sea-shore, and reaching the port of Sandwich, secretly embarked on board of a ship, and then, secretly setting sail, in the morning landed in Flanders, whence he immediately made his way to France.
Before, however, he had arrived at the court of Louis, King of the Franks, Gilbert Folliet, bishop of London, and William, Earl of Arundel, had arrived on behalf of the King of England, to prevent the King of France from receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury in his kingdom, and to request him to beg our lord the Pope, out of his love for him, not to receive the Archbishop of Canterbury into his favour. But the more pains the above-named envoys of the King of England took to have Archbishop of Canterbury expelled from the kingdom of France, the more did the King of France favour him and his cause.
THE RETURN (1170).
Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. I., p. 330. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the meantime, Louis, King of the Franks, and the archbishops, bishops, and nobles of the kingdom of France, besought the Roman Pontiff in behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the love which they bore him, and with protestations of implicit obedience, no longer to admit the excuses and delays which the King of England continually put forward, as he loved the kingdom of France and the honour of the Apostolic See. William, the bishop of Sens, also, being astonished at the desolate condition of the English Church, repaired to the Apostolic See, and obtained of the Roman Church, that, an end being put to all appeals, the King of the English should be subjected to excommunication, and his kingdom to interdict, unless peace were restored to the Church of Canterbury. Thus, at last, it pleased God, the dispenser of all things, to recompense the merits of His dearly beloved Thomas, and to crown his long labours with the victorious palm of martyrdom. He, therefore, brought the King of England to a better frame of mind, who, through the paternal exhortation of our lord the Pope, and by the advice of the King of the Franks, and of many bishops, received the archbishop again into favour, and allowed him to return to his church.
BECKET'S LIFE (1170).
Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. I., p. 333. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
As for his life, it was perfectly unimpeachable before God and man. To arise before daybreak did not seem to him a vain thing, as he knew that the Lord has promised a crown to the watchful. For every day he arose before daybreak, while all the rest were asleep, and entering his oratory would pray there for a long time; and then returning, he would awake his chaplains and clerks from their slumbers, and, the matins and the hours of the day being chaunted, devoutly celebrate the mass; and every day and night he received three or five flagellations from the hand of a priest. After the celebration of the mass, every day he re-entered his oratory, and, shutting the door after him, devoted himself to prayer with abundant tears; and no one but God alone knew the manner in which he afflicted his flesh. And thus did he do daily unto his flesh until the hour for dining, unless some unusual solemnity or remarkable cause prevented it. On coming forth from his oratory, he would come to dine among his people, not that he might sate his body with costly food, but that he might make his household cheerful thereby, and that he might fill the poor ones of the Lord with good things, whom, according to his means, he daily increased in numbers. And although costly and exquisite food and drink were set before him, still his only food and drink were bread and water.
One day, while the archbishop was sitting at the table of Alexander, the Supreme Pontiff, a person who was aware of this secret, placed before him a cup full of water. On the Supreme Pontiff taking it up, and tasting it, he found it to be the purest wine, and delicious to drink; on which he said: "I thought that this was water"; and on replacing the cup before the archbishop, the wine immediately returned to its former taste of water. Oh wondrous change by the right hand of the Most High!