Thomas Becket's Clergy

My fellow clergy members and I stand accused of praemunire. His Royal Highness has accused, both spiritual and lay, of having offended the prerogative of the English law. His Grace expressed three offenses against the clergy in particular, they go as follows; the first is for having recognized the legatine power of the former Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wolsey, the second is for having fealty to the Roman Pope, and the final charge is for exercising and utilizing ecclesiastical courts and legislatures. His Grace has generously offered us the option of royal pardon upon the payment of £100,000 as reimbursement to the debts incurred while trying to secure the annulment for his divorce. It only seems fit that this stipend be payed to restore debts

St. Becket upheld the belief that both spiritual and temporal states required cooperation with one another through sensible and reasonable manner rather than bickering and petty squabbling. When King Henry II heard news that a clergy member was charged with the murder of a knight, and his case was brought forth by the Bishop of Lincoln who acquitted him of the crime, King Henry II demanded justice for the act. There were several attempts to re-open the case in the Royal court, but the accuser refused the summons. In order to try and quell the situation, Becket suggested banishing the clergyman from England, to no

The proposals were an obvious an attack on the Bishops of England in order to force them to comply to the trial procedure along with several other oppressive laws. The actions St. Becket took preceding this event was incomprehensible, he convinced his fellow Bishops to sign the Constitution because they had no other choice. St. Becket attempted to gain the focus of Henry’s wraith and divert it away from his Bishops so he dressed himself in his garb of penitent and began fasting. He publicly repented for the decision he had made which he openly opposed despite him instructing his Bishops otherwise. His plan worked, but ultimately his actions preceding his act of penitence would lead to his own demise as King Henry II in a rage, emboldened his knights to take up arms against the former Archbishop of Canterbury and slaughter him in his own cathedral. St. Becket’s murder would immortalize him in history as a martyr of his faith. The lesson we learn from St. Becket’s life is that cooperative relationships between temporal and spiritual are essential to creating a stabilized, country under one unified