Becket and other plays | Page 8

the realm. Thy sending back the Great Seal madden'd him, He all but pluck'd the bearer's eyes away. Take heed, lest he destroy thee utterly.
BECKET. Then shalt thou step into my place and sign.
ROGER OF YORK. Didst thou not promise Henry to obey These ancient laws and customs of the realm?
BECKET. Saving the honour of my order--ay. Customs, traditions,--clouds that come and go; The customs of the Church are Peter's rock.
ROGER OF YORK. Saving thine order! But King Henry sware That, saving his King's kingship, he would grant thee The crown itself. Saving thine order, Thomas, Is black and white at once, and comes to nought. O bolster'd up with stubbornness and pride, Wilt thou destroy the Church in fighting for it, And bring us all to shame?
BECKET. Roger of York, When I and thou were youths in Theobald's house, Twice did thy malice and thy calumnies Exile me from the face of Theobald. Now I am Canterbury and thou art York.
ROGER OF YORK. And is not York the peer of Canterbury? Did not Great Gregory bid St. Austin here Found two archbishopricks, London and York?
BECKET. What came of that? The first archbishop fled, And York lay barren for a hundred years. Why, by this rule, Foliot may claim the pall For London too.
FOLIOT. And with good reason too, For London had a temple and a priest When Canterbury hardly bore a name.
BECKET. The pagan temple of a pagan Rome! The heathen priesthood of a heathen creed! Thou goest beyond thyself in petulancy! Who made thee London? Who, but Canterbury?
JOHN OF OXFORD. Peace, peace, my lords! these customs are no longer As Canterbury calls them, wandering clouds, But by the King's command are written down, And by the King's command I, John of Oxford, The President of this Council, read them.
BECKET. Read!
JOHN OF OXFORD (_reads_). 'All causes of advowsons and presentations, whether between laymen or clerics, shall be tried in the King's court.'
BECKET. But that I cannot sign: for that would drag The cleric before the civil judgment-seat, And on a matter wholly spiritual.
JOHN OF OXFORD. 'If any cleric be accused of felony, the Church shall not protect him: but he shall answer to the summons of the King's court to be tried therein.'
BECKET. And that I cannot sign. Is not the Church the visible Lord on earth? Shall hands that do create the Lord be bound Behind the back like laymen-criminals? The Lord be judged again by Pilate? No!
JOHN OF OXFORD. 'When a bishoprick falls vacant, the King, till another be appointed, shall receive the revenues thereof.'
BECKET. And that I cannot sign. Is the King's treasury A fit place for the monies of the Church, That be the patrimony of the poor?
JOHN OF OXFORD. 'And when the vacancy is to be filled up, the King shall summon the chapter of that church to court, and the election shall be made in the Chapel Royal, with the consent of our lord the King, and by the advice of his Government.'
BECKET. And that I cannot sign: for that would make Our island-Church a schism from Christendom, And weight down all free choice beneath the throne.
FOLIOT. And was thine own election so canonical, Good father?
BECKET. If it were not, Gilbert Foliot, I mean to cross the sea to France, and lay My crozier in the Holy Father's hands, And bid him re-create me, Gilbert Foliot.
FOLIOT. Nay; by another of these customs thou Wilt not be suffer'd so to cross the seas Without the license of our lord the King.
BECKET. That, too, I cannot sign.
DE BROC, DE BRITO, DE TRACY, FITZURSE, DE MORVILLE, _start up--a clash of swords_.
Sign and obey!
BECKET. My lords, is this a combat or a council? Are ye my masters, or my lord the King? Ye make this clashing for no love o' the customs Or constitutions, or whate'er ye call them, But that there be among you those that hold Lands reft from Canterbury.
DE BROC. And mean to keep them, In spite of thee!
LORDS (_shouting_). Sign, and obey the crown!
BECKET. The crown? Shall I do less for Canterbury Than Henry for the crown? King Stephen gave Many of the crown lands to those that helpt him; So did Matilda, the King's mother. Mark, When Henry came into his own again, Then he took back not only Stephen's gifts, But his own mother's, lest the crown should be Shorn of ancestral splendour. This did Henry. Shall I do less for mine own Canterbury? And thou, De Broc, that holdest Saltwood Castle--
DE BROC. And mean to hold it, or--
BECKET. To have my life.
DE BROC. The King is quick to anger; if thou anger him, We wait but the King's word to strike thee dead.
BECKET. Strike, and I die the death of martyrdom; Strike, and ye set these customs by my death