A.D.1164. ] ARCHBISHOP THOMAS GOES TO ROME. 547 London and Norwich shall be summoned to appear before our justices to do what is right, for having, contrary to the statutes of the realm, laid an interdict on the lands of earl Hugh, and passed a sentence of anathema against the earl himself. Let Peter's pence be still collected and kept, until you shall learn our royal pleasure thereon. The king also commanded the church of Canterbury, and all the goods of the archbishop and his clerks to be confiscated, and banished all his kindred—an act unheard of in all former history—without regard to condition, sex, or age ; and, notwithstanding that the catholic church is wont to pray for heretics, schismatics, and unbelieving Jews, the king now forbade any one to pray for the archbishop. Of the statements made by the blessed archbishop Thomas before our lord the pope. The blessed Thomas, therefore, under all these injuries, and deprived of the prayers of his suffragans, set out for the Roman court, and there, in the presence of our lord the pope, made the following address : " To your presence, holy father, do I fly for refuge, lamenting that the church and its privileges are destroyed at the will of princes ; for which cause I have thought it right to oppose myself in the way of the approaching evil. I was summoned as a layman bef re the king, to answer for certain wardships which I had in my charge when I was chancellor ; though, at the time of my promotion, I wa3 declared, as bishop elect, free from all civil obligations, by the king's eldest son and the justiciary of the kingdom ; and now I am deserted in the quarter to which I had looked for support ; for I perceived my brethren the bishops siding with the court, and prepared to pronounce judgment against me. Thus, almost crushed by the multitude of my foes, I have fled to your presence, which is the last refuge of the distressed. Under your protection will I prove that I was not amenable to that tribunal, nor to their judgment. For what , else would this be but to rob the church of her right? it would be to subject the spiritual power to the temporal. Once established, this pernicious precedent would be of general application. The bishops say that those things which are Caesar's should be rendered unto Caesar. Be it so ι 11 2