SHORT STUDIES. 
producer] no effect on Henry. He went to Normandy 
to the Chinon conference immediately after Easter 
17166, hoping there to meet Becket and to speak 
with him and with the other prelates as with reason- 
able men. He did not find Becket there, but he 
found a second letter from him, which, if coming 
from a saint would have tried the temper of 2 more 
patient sovereign than Henry, and from a man whom 
he had known so lately as a defaulting chancellor 
and unserupulous politician was insolent and absurd. 
After reproaching the king for allowing him to live 
on the charity of Lewis of France, the archbishop 
procecded :— 
You are my king, my lord, and my spiritual son. As 
you are my king, I owe you reverence and admonition; as 
you are my lord, I owe you such obedience as consists with 
the honour of God; as you are my son, I owe you the chas- 
tisement which is due from the father to the child. You 
hold your authority from the Church, which consists of clergy 
and laymen. The clergy have sole charge of things spiritual : 
kings, earls, and counts have powers delegated to them from 
Ihe Church, to preserve peace and the Church’s unity. Dele- 
yated from the Church, I say. Therefore it rests not with 
you to tell bishops whom they may excommunicate, or to 
force clergy to their answers in secular courts, or to interfere 
with tithes, or do any of those things to which you pretend 
in the name of custom. Remember your coronation onth,. 
Restore my property ; allow me to return to Canterbury ; and 
I will obey you as far as the honour of God and the Holy