he will do nothing to the prejudice of the king or nation. And all
appeals shall be tried at home.

These are the most material of the Constitutions or Assizes of
Clarendon, famous for having been the first legal check given to the
power of the clergy in England. To give these constitutions the greater
weight, it was thought proper that they should be confirmed by a bull
from the Pope. By this step the king seemed to doubt the entireness of
his own authority in his dominions; and by calling in foreign aid when
it served his purpose, he gave it a force and a sort of legal sanction
when it came to be employed against himself. But as no negotiation had
prepared the Pope in favor of laws designed in reality to abridge his
own power, it was no wonder that he rejected them with indignation.
Becket, who had not been prevailed on to accept them but with infinite
reluctance, was no sooner apprised of the Pope's disapprobation than he
openly declared his own; he did penance in the humblest manner for his
former acquiescence, and resolved to make amends for it by opposing the
new constitutions with the utmost zeal. In this disposition the king saw
that the Archbishop might be more easily ruined than humbled, and his
ruin was resolved. Immediately a number of suits, on various pretences,
were commenced against him, in every one of which he was sure to be
foiled; but these making no deadly blow at his fortunes, he was called
to account for thirty thousand pounds which he was accused of having
embezzled during his chancellorship. It was in vain that he pleaded a
full acquittance from the king's son, and Richard de Lucy, the guardian
and justiciary of the kingdom, on his resignation of the seals; he saw
it was already determined against him. Far from yielding under these
repeated blows, he raised still higher the ecclesiastical pretensions,
now become necessary to his own protection. He refused to answer to the
charge, and appealed to the Pope, to whom alone he seemed to acknowledge