Saturday 27 October 2018

The Broad Sweep of History


At the huge risk of generalisation, anachronism and non sequiturs here is a broad sweep of some of the historical events near and far, circumstances and persons leading to the Constitutions of Clarendon  :-

Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald troubles with the bishops of the Frankish Empire 

 Carolingian Renaissance - Wikipedia

With the reforms inaugurated by Charlemagne, bishops in the Carolingian empire enjoyed a steady growth in their influence. As the political stability of the Frankish empire deteriorated after 830 the episcopate found itself subjected to new and unfamiliar pressures. A coup against Louis the Pious in that year prompted  later in 1835, the deposition of several prominent clerics, including the emperor’s very own milk-brother, Archbishop Ebbo of Reims, at the Synod of Thionville.

 Charles the Bald - Wikipedia

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Pseudo-Isidore and the False Decretals

 Pseudo-Isidore - An edition-in-progress of the False Decretals

Introduction to Pseudo-Isidore

The False Decretals
U. B.
The Catholic Historical Review
Vol. 9, No. 4 (Jan., 1924), pp. 566-569
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25012012

Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals - Wikipedia

Following the Carolingian civil war that followed Louis the Pious’ death in 840 the Gallican and the German episcopates faced a deep uncertainty. A group of monks in North France known to historians under the pseudonym Pseudo-Isidore responded to these forces in a number of different ways. "He" strove to shore up the legal protections afforded to bishops, by enhancing or by the outright invention of a wide variety of procedural protections for accused prelates. Taken together, Pseudo-Isidore’s procedural programme extended a de facto immunity from temporal authority to all accused bishops everywhere.

The Pseuso-Isidorian forgeries sought to subordinate the Frankish church to a legal oversight by the Roman papacy. Pseudo-Isidore’s view was of a Rome-centered Christendom under the Pope. This was an ideological conviction that "he" shared with some of his contemporaries. Rome physically was at the margins of Carolingian political power. It functioned within the forgeries as a distant venue where appeals could be held. By expanding the legal jurisdiction of the Pope and his Court [the Papal Curia], Pseudo-Isidore hoped to withdraw accused bishops and their trials from the influence of the Carolingian rulers and the provincial synods and bring them to Rome to be judged by the Pope. Additionally, Pseudo-Isidore sought to establish a near absolute authority and autonomy of bishops within their own dioceses, and to protect the property of their churches from the depredations of the lay nobility.

The principal purpose of the forgers of the Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals was to protect the rights of clerics, clerical property, and bishops from lay control and judicial authority.

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Codification of the Laws of the Faith in the Western Roman Catholic Church

Decretum Gratiani
Constitutions of Clarendon: Canon Law and The Canonical System
Ivo of Chartres - Wikipedia
Constitutions of Clarendon: Decretum Gratiani

Many of Pseudo-Isidore's decretals found their way into the set of laws governing the Roman Catholic Church.

 Donation of Constantine
Constitutions of Clarendon: Donation of Constantine

The Donation of  Constantine, although a forgery, confirmed the successors of St. Peter, the Popes the bishops of Rome, as the Supreme Primate of the Roman  Catholic Church.

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Pope Gregory VII and Papal Supremacy

 Pope Gregory VII - Wikipedia
Constitutions of Clarendon: On the origins of the Doctrine of Papal Supremacy
Constitutions of Clarendon: Canonical Decretals which empower the Pope
Constitutions of Clarendon: Dictatus Papae, A.D. 1075
Constitutions of Clarendon: Papal Authority
Constitutions of Clarendon: Libertas Ecclesiae

Pope Gregory VII was the champion of Papal Supremacy. He espoused the monastic tradition within the Church and favoured its cause. He wanted to reform and renew the Church, to return it to the state which it had had at the time of the Golden Age of the Fathers of the Church. He wanted to stamp out the heretical sin of Simony, the purchase of ecclesiastical office for money, and to put an end to marriage by clerics, which he deemed sinful. He wanted the whole of the Church to submit to his spiritual authority. This found itself expressed as Libertas Ecclesiae from the temporal control of the secular authorities, like kings and emperors in the countries of Western Europe. But above all he wanted a hierocracy, with the Church and himself at its pinnacle.

Robinson, I. (2004). Reform and the Church, 1073–1122. In D. Luscombe & J. Riley-Smith (Eds.), The New Cambridge Medieval History (The New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 268-334). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521414104.010

The Papacy and Canon Law in the Eleventh-Century Reform
Uta-Renate Blumenthal
The Catholic Historical Review
Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 201-218
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25025208

Oswald Joseph Reichel (1870). The See of Rome in the Middle Ages. Chapter XII Investitures and Jurisdiction - Clerical Taxation: Longmans, Green. pp. 347–.

Margaret Deanesly (2004). A History of the Medieval Church: 590-1500. Chapter VI Growth of Papal Power 604 to 1073: Routledge. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-1-134-95533-6.

Christopher Harper-Bill; Elisabeth Van Houts (2007). A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World. Chapter 9: The Anglo-Norman Church: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 165–. ISBN 978-1-84383-341-3.

Thomas N. Bisson (2009). The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government. The Church: Princeton University Press. pp. 197–. ISBN 0-691-13708-0. https://goo.gl/sog34H

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gregory (Popes)/Gregory VII - Wikisource
...
The whole life-work of Gregory VII. was based on his conviction that the church has been founded by God and entrusted with the task of embracing all mankind in a single society in which His will is the only law; that, in her capacity as a divine institution, she out tops all human structures; and that the pope, qua head of the church, is the vice-regent of God on earth, so that disobedience to him implies disobedience to God—or, in other words, a defection from Christianity. Elaborating an idea discoverable in St Augustine, he looked on the worldly state—a purely human creation—as an unhallowed edifice whose character is sufficiently manifest from the fact that it abolishes the equality of man, and that it is built up by violence and injustice.
...
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Lanfranc, William the Conqueror, Ecclesiastical Courts

 In England Libertas Ecclesiae found expression in the setting up of Ecclesiastical Courts separate from the king's justice.

 Constitutions of Clarendon: Ecclesiastical Courts
David Charles Douglas; George William Greenaway (1996). English Historical Documents, 1042-1189. Psychology Press. pp. 715–. ISBN 978-0-415-14367-7.

 The historian Eadmer described the moral and the material reforms accomplished by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury. The archbishop strove ‘to renew religion and morality among all orders of men throughout the kingdom; nor was he disappointed of his desire. For through his persuasion and teaching religion was increased throughout that country and everywhere new monastic buildings were constructed, as appears today.’

Lanfranc (DNB00) - Wikisource
Lanfranc - Wikipedia

Lanfranc as archbishop of Canterbury, tried to establish his overall authority and Primacy over the Church in England

Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/William the Conqueror - Wikisource

Richard Burn (1763). Ecclesiastical Law. Courts: H. Woodfall and W. Strahan, and sold by A. Millar. pp. 409–.

The constitutional history and constitution of the Church of England


The History of England. James, John and Paul Knapton. 1732. pp. 212–.

W. L. Warren (28 November 1977). Henry II. Chapter 11: Church and State in Norman England: University of California Press. pp. 404–5 ISBN 978-0-520-03494-5.
...
In exercising the functions of their office ; the bishops were subject to a web of customary restrictions, of which the near-contemporary Eadmer selects two as typical: a council of bishop could not 'lay down any ordinance or prohibition unless these were agreeable to the king's wishes and had first been approved by him', nor could any bishop, except with the king's permission, 'take action against or excommunicate one of his barons or officials for incest or adultery or any other cardinal offence or even when guilt was notorious lay upon h im any penalty of ecclesiastical discipline
...

Some of the customary restrictions which William imposed on the clergy helped to ensure that the papacy was kept at arm's length: if prelates were summoned to attend the papal court or general councils they could not obey without his licence; he would not allow anyone to receive a letter from the pope unless it had first been shown to him; he would not allow papal legates to visit his dominions without his permission; even the recognition of a newly-elected bishop of Rome had to await the king's approval.
...

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St. Anselm and the troubles with William Rufus and Henry I of England
Investiture Controversy

 Anselm (later St Anselm) was Lanfranc's successor
Anselm of Canterbury - Wikipedia
On the Continent and in England too there raged the Investiture Controversy 

 Council of London in 1102 - Wikipedia
Constitutions of Clarendon: Conflict of Investitures

Eugene Rathbone Fairweather (1 January 1956). A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham (Eadmer Settlement of the Controversy ed.). Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 211–. ISBN 978-0-664-24418-7.


Concordat of Worms - Wikipedia
The King was recognised as having the right to invest bishops with secular authority ("by the lance") in the territories they governed, but not with sacred authority ("by ring and staff"). The result was that bishops owed allegiance in worldly matters both to the pope and to the king, for they were obliged to affirm the right of the sovereign to call upon them for military support, under his oath of fealty.

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 Thomas Becket Controversy, Henry II, Constitutions of Clarendon, Liberty of the Church

 This Blog

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King John and Magna Carta




References




Ott, M. (1909). Ebbo. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved October 27, 2018 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05241a.htm

Introduction to Pseudo-Isidore - Decretum GratianiJames A Brundage (11 June 2014). Medieval Canon Law. Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals: Routledge. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-1-317-89534-3.


Anselm of Canterbury - Wikipedia
Brooke, Z. (1989). St Anselm. The rise of a papal party. In The English Church and the Papacy:From the Conquest to the Reign of John (pp. 147-163). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 



Zachary N. Brooke; Zachary Nugent Brooke (13 July 1989). The English Church and the Papacy: From the Conquest to the Reign of John. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-521-36687-8.

Norman Frank Cantor (2015). Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England, 1089-1135. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7699-0.
Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England, 1089-1135 on JSTOR

Uta-Renate Blumenthal (1988). The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1386-6.

Walter Ullmann (15 April 2013). The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 35). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-02630-1.

 Wilfred Lewis Warren (1973). Henry II. Chapter 13: Archbishop Thomas Becket: University of California Press. pp. 447–517. ISBN 978-0-520-02282-9.



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Tuesday 23 October 2018

Letter Queen Alice of France to Pope Alexander III, 1168


Letter Queen Alice , Consort of Louis VII King of France, to Pope Alexander III, 1168

From
Albert L'Huillier (1892). Saint Thomas de Cantorbéry. Volume 2. V. Palmé. pp. 116–.
https://archive.org/details/saintthomasdecan02lhui/page/116

Translated from the French

I speak to you as a lord and a father whose honour is as dear to my lord the King and to myself as our own honour. We have received you indeed for father and lord; for God and for you we have despised the friendship of kings who shudder around us and seek only your downfall. Deign therefore to listen to your daughter, and not to despise her words as a woman's words, but to hear them as those of a loving and devoted daughter. Last year a serious scandal was caused in the Gallican Church by John of Oxford, whose perjury had so easily triumphed over the Roman Church. After him came two cardinals, whose good works are still a mystery in this country; and please God that we should not speak of the wicked! The scandals have been multiplied. Now, by his last agents, the King of England has obtained letters patent [papal bulls], which one would like to believe to be false, and by which you take from the Archbishop of Canterbury, exiled for four years for justice, all power to enact no sentence against the King and his kingdom, to strike any person with his estates, until that day Archbishop [Thomas], it says, is returned to grace, O my father, these letters do they not seem to give to the King of England the right to sin with impunity and to hold the Archbishop in exile eternally? For henceforth [they say] he remains free to receive him or not to receive him in grace. So the Church has been scandalized in our country to the point that we cannot imagine greater trouble, because a bad precedent has thus been created for princes. My lord the King, to whom you have confided about the Archbishop, is greatly irritated, because your sentence, if you hold it, comes to slaughter the innocence between his royal hands. Consternation is by all the kingdom, because our enemies have prevailed with you. My lord the King is still waiting for the fulfillment of your promises; and if he does not see it promptly, he will know, he and his descendants, what he must hope for from the Roman Church. Farewell, most holy and dear father; dare to help the Archbishop [Thomas] of Canterbury.

Extract from
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Oxford,_John_of_(DNB00)

 Protests reached Rome from every quarter against this change in the papal attitude; but the dean of Salisbury returned in triumph, boasting everywhere of his success (Materials, vi. 246 et passim). 'Gravissimum in ecclesia Gallicana scandalum fecit Johannes de Oxeneford qui suo perjurio de Romana tam facile triumphavit,' wrote Alice, queen of Louis VII, to the pope (ib. p. 468). In England he was still more vigorous in action. In January 1167 he had an interview with the king in Guienne, and was sent into England. Landing at Southampton, he found the Bishop of Hereford waiting to cross over to Becket. 'On finding him he forbade him to proceed, first in the name of the king, and then of the pope. The bishop then inquired .. . whether he had any letters to that purpose. He asserted that he had, and that the pope forbade him and the other bishops as well either to attend [Becket's] summons or obey [him] in any particular until the arrival of a legate de latere domini papie. . . . The bishop insisted on seeing the letters; but he said that he had sent them on with his baggage to Winchester. . . . When the Bishop of London saw the letters, he cried aloud as if unable to restrain himself, “Then Thomas shall no more be my archbishop”' (ib. vi. 151-2).

 Notes
At least one of the members of the Papal Curia in Rome was corrupt and venal. Henry had obtained by means of gold a papal bull which suspended the powers of the archbishop of Canterbury from issuing interdicts and excommunicating the king himself. The bull was, in fact, authentic. But under what circumstances hadit been written and how had it got into circulation? In reality Pope Alexander III had entrusted it to the members of an earlier papal commission who had been directed to keep it secret, and only to deliver it after they had established a definite change in the conduct of the king, and if by its publication it could establish a climate of peace.

 Letter of John of Salisbury to Master Lombard of Piacenza, Summer 1168

Extract from

Peters, Mary Josephine, "Historical Background and Translation of Letters 245-291 of John of Salisbury" (1943). Master's Theses. Paper 318 p.41-. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/318/


John narrates the happenings at the conference of the French and English Kings at La Ferté-Bernard on July 1-2, 1168, and the subsequent boasts of King Henry. He also relates the opinions of the French on the scandalous machinations of the Cardinals John of Naples and John of Sutri. ... He [King Henry ii] even boasted of having such friends in the court [Papal Curia] who would void all efforts of tbe Archbishop of Canterbury. They are so zealous in promoting his business, that not a single petition could be submitted or anything asked which is hot sent to him by his friends~ We know the names of those whose advice he follows and what they recently demanded in the court, that the cause of God and the poor of Christ are sold out at a cheap price; and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them. Would that those ounces of gold never existed, by which those were led to fa11l8 who should have been pillars of the Church! The King was so elated over his triumph that no secret was made in his own home who the Cardinals were that did not receive any of that obnoxious and base gold, or who they were that saw how it was doled out, to some more, to others less in proportion as they merited more or less in their subversion of justice.
A fact that did not escape the notice of the King of the French was that the messenger of Bishop John of Naples went over from his camp to the King of England and certain persecutors of the Church, while we were at Montmirail. When the religious who are on the side of the King of Bngland heard the above-mentioned letter, they grieved very much and called down curses upon John of Naples and lohn of SS. John and Pau1 who were said to have fooled the Lord Pope. Master Geoffrey of Poitiers, a priest of Lord William Cardinal, did not consent with the plan and acts of the King's messengers, since he is looking for the kingdom of God. He openly protested that they were condemned by an anathema, b~cause they had sworn that the command ot the Lord Pope would be kept secret, and because the Lord Pope had.en~oined upon them by virtue ot obedience and under an anathema that it be kept secret. To make us despicable Betore all and to remove the comfort ot friends, who almost despair ot our peace, they together with their King praise the victories of their own malice and glory over the distress ot the Church. Would that the ears ot the Cardinals were at the mouths ot the French to whom the proverb ot this phrase might opportunely be applied: "The princes ot the Church are faithless; they are companions ot thieves." For they permit and give power to persecutors ot the Church to strike, to rob, and pillage the patrimony ot the Crucified, to share in damnable gain. Would that you, too, listened to the most Christian King who I fear cannot be recalled any more without bringing about the marriage between their children at the request ot the Emperor [Barbarosa] ...



References

 Gilbertus Episcopus Londoniensis Foliot (1845). Epistolae (etc.): 23-24  Epistola DIX. Parker. pp. 312–.
James Craigie Robertson (15 November 2012). 

Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (Canonized by Pope Alexander III, AD 1173). Volume 6. Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-1-108-04930-6.
-- MTB 440 https://archive.org/details/materialsforhist06robe/page/468
-- MTB 331 https://archive.org/details/materialsforhist06robe/page/245

Saint Thomas Becket; Anne Duggan tr and ed (2000). The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162-1170: Letters 1-175. Volume 1. Letter CTB 150 Thomas Becket to Pope Alexander III, ca 11 Dec 1167: Clarendon Press. pp. 694–. ISBN 978-0-19-820892-1.
Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter X John of Oxford's Proceedings at the Court of Rome: publisher not identified. pp. 233–.


Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XI Arrival of the Legates: publisher not identified. pp. 254–.

Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XIV Suspension of the Archbishop: publisher not identified. pp. 333–.

Richard Hurrell Froude (1839). Remains. Chapter XV Conferences at Montmirail: publisher not identified. pp. 365–.

 John Morris; Saint Thomas (à Becket) (1859). The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Etc. Chapter XXIV The Cardinal Legates. pp. 214–.

John Morris; Saint Thomas (à Becket) (1859). The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Etc. Chapter XXV Meanwhile. pp. 227–.

 Elizabeth Missing Sewell (1876). Popular History of France: Fr. the Earliest Period to the Death of Louis XIV. Longmans, Green, and Company. pp. 92–.

Michael Staunton (7 December 2001). The Lives of Thomas Becket. 37. Conference at Montmirail 6th January 1169: Manchester University Press. pp. 154–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5455-6.

Michael Staunton (7 December 2001). The Lives of Thomas Becket. 36. Conference between Gisors and Trie 18 November 1167: Manchester University Press. pp. 150–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5455-6.

John Thomas Noonan (1987). Bribes. Bribing the Cardinals: University of California Press. pp. 168–. ISBN 978-0-520-06154-5.
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Thursday 4 October 2018

Garnier - Attempts at Reconciliation


Extract from
http://txm.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/bfm/pdf/becket.pdf
Stanzas 797-814
Lines 3981-4070

797
Mais li honurez reis de France, Loëwis,
Endementieres s’est durement entremis
Que il fesist le rei e saint Thomas amis.
L’apostolies i ad sovent ses briefs tramis
3985 As concilies qu’il unt de l’acorde entre els pris.

798
Un parlement dut estre a Punteise asemblez.
Tresqu’a Paris en est l’apostolies alez ;
L’arcevesques i fu, pur qui fu purparlez.
Mais quant li reis Henris en fu bien acertez
3990 Que la pape i sereit, ariere est returnez.

799
En Nujem le Rotrout out un parlement pris
Entre le rei Henri e le rei Loëwis ;
Pur sa besuigne faire l’out pris li reis Henris.
L’arcevesque i mena li reis de Saint Denis,
3995 Qu’il feïst, s’il peüst, lui e le rei amis.

800
Mais li reis d’Engleterre n’out suing de l’acorder ;
Preia le rei de France qu’il l’en laissast ester
De Thomas l’arcevesque, qu’il n’en volsist parler,
E il li frea tut quanqu’il volt demander.
4000 « E jel larrai tresbien, fait Loëwis li ber.

801
Jo ne sui pas de lui ne des suens anuiez,
E de lui retenir sui je tut aaisiez ;
Car de sun grant sens est mis regnes enhauciez,
Li vostres suffreitus e forment enpeiriez :
4005 Greignur mestier que jo certes en avrïez. »

802
Quant vint a l’arcevesque li gentilz reis de France,
Fait il : « De vostre acorde n’avrai ja mes fiance ;
Mais ainceis en oi jo tut adès esperance.
Car al rei d’Engleterre truis jo si grant bobance
4010 Qu’il ne m’en volt oïr, n’en conseil n’en oiance.

803
Alcune feiz vus ai e preié e requis
Que vus remansissiez el regne saint Denis ;
Or vus abandoins jo mun regne e mun païs,
Estampes e Orliens e Chartres e Paris ;
4015 Del mien e de mes rentes ert vostre estuveir pris. »

804
A Muntmirail unt puis un parlement eü.
Dui chardenal de Rume i sunt al rei venu :
Vuillames de Pavie e dan Johans i fu
De Naples, qui al rei se sunt del tut tenu,
4020 E l’arcevesque eüssent volentiers deceü.

805
Li reis lur dist que tant se volt humilïer
Qu’il frea l’arcevesque quanqu’il voldrunt jugier,
E quanque saint’iglise en voldra otrïer,
Se c’est que l’arcevesques s’i volsist apuier.
4025 « Si fera, funt li il ; ço ne puet il laissier. »

806
La nuit que l’endemain dut estre l’asemblee,
Jut saint Thomas a Chartres od gent qu’il ot menee.
Un’itel visiun li aveit Deus mustree
Qu’il sout certainement, sil dist sa gent privee,
4030 A quel chief la parole sereit le jur finee.

807
Vis li fu qu’en un liu il e li reis esteit.
Un mult bel hanap d’or, u doré, li offreit
Li reis, tut plain de vin, e beivre li roveit.
Il esguardout le vin : si truble le veeit
4035 Que beivre ne l’osout ne prendre nel voleit.

808
Quant il ot esguardé le hanap tut entur
E vit le vin si truble qu’il en out grant hisdur,
Dous iraignes vit surdre des funz d’une tenur ;
Sur l’un ur s’asist l’une, e l’altre sur l’autre ur.
4040 « Ostez, fait il ; ne voil beivre ceste puur. »

809
Al matin ses privez e ses clers apela ;
Cel sunge que la nuit out sungié lur cunta.
« Bien sai, fait il, coment cest parlement prendra.
Mult beaus offres, fait il, li reis nus offerra,
4045 Mais jo nes prendrai pas ; car grant engin i a.


810
Li beaus hanas dorez qu’il me voleit puirier,
Ço erent li bel offre que ne voldrai baillier,
Li trubles vins, engins qu’il volt apareillier ;
E les dous granz iraignes sunt li dui paltenier
4050 Cardenal, qui nus volent, s’il poent, enginnier. »

811
Quant il vint al concilie, les cardenals trova.
Li reis dit qu’en ces dous volentiers se metra,
E quanqu’il jugerunt volentiers ensiwra,
E quanque saint’iglise esguarder en voldra.
4055 Il vit bien les engins e tresbien se guarda.

812
En ces laz le voleient li cardenal buter :
Dient que lur esguard ne pet il refuser,
Ne ço que saint’iglise en voldra esguarder.
E dit qu’a saint’iglise ne volt il contrester,
4060 Ne al rei ne volt il fors raisun demander ;

813
Mais il ne volt, ço dit, n’en plait n’en cause entrer,
Tresque li reis li ait fait del tut restorer,
E a lui e as suens, e rendre e renformer
Lur chose, ensi cum il la laissierent ester
4065 A l’ure qu’il les fist d’Engleterre turner.

814
Car dessaisiz ne volt pur nule rien plaidier.
Ço ne voleit li reis en nul sens otrïer,
Mais a ces dous voleit qu’il se laissast jugier.
Mais il ne se volt pas a lur diz apuier.
4070 Ensi s’en departi ; n’i pout plus espleitier.

Translation
797
Meanwhile the highly respected [most Christian] king of France, Louis [le Jeune, VII] during this time applied himself in particular to trying to establish amicable relations between the king [of England] and St. Thomas. The Pope often sent letters [of encouragement] to the meetings [in the hope] that they would reach an accord between them. 3985

798
A council was convoked to meet at Pontoise. The Pope therefore came as far as Paris because of it; archbishop [Thomas] went there, in order to consult with him. But when king Henry was reliably informed that he [Becket] would be there, he about turned and went back. 3990

799
In Nogent-le-Rotrou a[nother] conference was held between king Henry and king Louis; King Henry had accepted [to come to] this in principle in order to further his business. The king [of France] brought the archbishop with him there from Saint Denis in order to try to make them friends if he could. 3995

 800
But the king of England cared not to come to an accord [with Thomas]; and begged the king of France that he would leave off discussing about archbishop Thomas, for he did not want to. And that he would yield to him everything whatsoever he might want to ask for
<< And I [also] would very much like to leave that issue be.>> Said the virtuous king Louis. 4000

 801
>>I am not worried for either him or his people, and I would be completely happy to retain [his services] as his great sense [of morality] enhances the reputation of my kingdom. That of yours is bereft and sorely impaired [by his absence] and is in very much greter need of his skills. It is certain that you have more need of him than I do.>>

802

Afterwards the noble king of France went to the archbishop. He [the king of France] said [to him]: <<I would never swear [I could obtain] your reconciliation [with the king of England] but rather I always had [great] hope for it, but in the king of England I have discovered so great a vanity that he doesn't want to listen to me about it, neither in a private council, nor at an open hearing.>>

803
Many times I have both urged and demanded that you should remain in the kingdom of Saint Denis; now I place at your disposal my kingdom and my country: Étampes and Orleans, Chartres and Paris, your needs will be met from my treasury and out of my income. 4015

804
At Montmirail a conference was held. Two cardinals came from Rome to king Henry: they were William of Pavia and His Eminence John of Naples, who sided with the king in everything and who were willing to deceive the archbishop. 4020

 805
The king said he was willing to humble himself thus far: that he would make a deal with the archbishop in whatever way they judged fit and in whatever way pleased Holy Church. He wondered if the archbishop would be in favour of this.
<<He must comply.>> they [the Cardinals] said,<<He cannot avoid doing this.>> 4025

806
On the night before the day set for the meeting St. Thomas lodged at Chartres together with the people he had brought with him. [That night] he had a vision. God had revealed this to him in a dream so that he would know with some certainty what would happen to him on the following day, what would be the main outcome of the discussions at the end of the day.  He related this [vision] to his private circle [of companions]. 4030

807
[In his dream] it seemed to him that he was with the king in some place and that the king held out a very fine golden or gilded goblet full of wine and asked him to drink from it. [Thomas] looked at the thing and saw that it was very cloudy so much so that he had no wish to dare to imbibe or take it. 4035

808
After he had examined the goblet all round and saw that the wine was [indeed] very cloudy [it was then] that he had a [very] great shock. [He saw] two spiders emerge from the bottom of the goblet with one intent [to climb the sides of the goblet.] One sat on one side of the rim and the other sat on the other side of the same.
He cried out: <<Take this away. I have no wish to drink this putrid potion.>> 4040

809
In the morning he summoned his private circle of close companions to relate to them this vision which he had had that night.
<<I know well,>> he said <<how this conference will turn out. The king will make many fine offers to us but I will not accept any, because in them lie a great deceit [trap] 4045

810
>> The fine golden goblet which he wishes to give me was a fine offer which I cannot accept, the cloudy wine are traps which he wanted to set up. And the two large spiders are the two cardinals who want to plot against us if they can.>> 8050

811
When he [Thomas] arrived at the conference [council] he [indeed] found the cardinals were there.The king said he was willing to submit himself to these two's judgement and that whatever decision they came to he would willingly abide by it, and whatever decision Holy Church came to he would consider it. He [Thomas] well saw the scheming and guarded himself against them. 4055

812.
The cardinals wanted to push him into this snare, saying that he could not refuse to accept their decision nor any decision which Holy Church might want. And he said that he did not want to oppose any decision of Holy Church, nor did he want to demand anything from the king other than [his] lawful rights. 8060

813
But he did not wish, so he said, to enter into any legal plea [appeal] or to start a case about it until the king had restored all those things belonging to him and his people, both giving back and restoring their belongings in that same state just as they had left them at that time when they had been forced to leave England. 4065

814
for he [Becket] had no wish to make a legal plea for anything as a dispossessed person.The king [Henry II] in no sense wanted to agree to this. But he wanted to leave it to these two [cardinals] to make a judgement, But he [Becket] had no wish himself to accept their pronouncements. So he made his exit, as he could do no more. 4070


References

Immanuel Bekker (1838). La vie St. Thomas le martir: altfranzosisches gedicht aus einer wolfenbüttler handschrift. pp. 104–.

La vie de Saint Thomas le martyr; poème historique du 12e siècle (1172-1174) Publié par E. Walberg : Guernes, de Pont-Sainte-Maxence. p. 134-

La vie de Saint Thomas le martyr; poème historique du 12e siècle (1172-1174) Publié par E. Walberg : Guernes, de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, p. 277- 

Guernes (de Pont-Sainte-Maxence); Gouttebroze & Quefelec tr (1990). La vie de saint Thomas Becket. Libr. H. Champion. p. 107- ISBN 978-2-85203-111-1.

 Guernes (de Pont-Sainte-Maxence); Jacques Thomas tr (2002). La vie de Saint Thomas de Canterbury. Peeters. pp. 237–. ISBN 978-90-429-1188-8.

 Richard Barber (2003). Henry Plantagenet. Boydell Press. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-0-85115-993-5.


----

Saint Thomas (à Becket); Saint Thomas Becket; Thomas (Becket.) (2000). The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162-1170: Letters 1-175. Volume 1. CTB 68 April 1166 Letter Becket to king Henry II Loqui de Deo: Clarendon Press. pp. 267–. ISBN 978-0-19-820892-1.
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