The blessed Thomas, therefore, as in the office of Chancellor, or
Archdeacon, he proved incomparably strenuous {204} in the conduct of
affairs, so after he had undertaken the office of pastor, he became
devoted to God beyond man's estimation. For, when consecrated, he
suddenly is changed into another man: he secretly put on the hair shirt,
and wore also hair drawers down to the knee. And under the respectable
appearance of the clerical garb, concealing the monk's dress, he
entirely compelled the flesh to obey the spirit; studying by the
exercise of every virtue without intermission to please God. Knowing,
therefore, that he was placed a husbandman in the field of the Lord, a
shepherd in the fold, he carefully discharged the ministry entrusted to
him. The rights and dignities of the Church, which the public authority
had usurped, he deemed it right to restore, and to recall to their proper
state. Whence a grave question on the ecclesiastical law and the customs
of the realm, having arisen between him and the king of the English, a
council being convened, those customs were proposed which the king
pertinaciously required to be confirmed by the signatures as well of the
archbishop as of his suffragans. The archbishop with constancy refused,
asserting that in them was manifest the subversion of the freedom of the
Church. He was in consequence treated with immense insults, oppressed
with severe losses, and provoked with innumerable injuries.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248