Taking advantage of this lax state of affairs, the Barons built a surfeit of romantic castles, into which they lured everybody and then put them to the torture; nor is it recorded that the Sword was once sheathed, right to the bottom, during the whole of this dreadful reign. Hence the memorable greeting so common among the Barons of the time--“Merrie Englande!” CHAPTER XV HENRY II. A JUST KING Henry II was a great Lawgiver, and it was he who laid down the great Legal Principle that everything is either legal or (preferably) illegal. He also made another very just arrangement about trials:-- Before Henry II’s time there were two kinds of legal trial, (_a_) the Ideal and (_b_) the Combat. The Ideal form of trial consisted in making a man plunge his head in boiling ploughshares, in order to see whether he had committed a crime or not. According to Henry’s reformed system a man was tried first by a jury of his equals and only had to plunge his head into the ploughshares afterwards (in order to confirm the jury’s opinion that he had committed the crime). This was obviously a much _Better Thing_. The Combat was a system by which in civil cases the litigants decided their dispute by mortal combat, after which the defeated party was allowed to fly the country. But Henry altered all this and declared that a Grand Jury must decide first what the parties were fighting about: a reform which naturally gave rise to grave discontent among the Barons, who believed in the Combat, the whole Combat and nothing but the Combat. THOMAS À BELLOC It was at this time that Thomas à Belloc, the great religious leader, claimed that clergymen, whatever crimes they might commit, could not be punished at all; this privilege, which was for some reason known as Benefit of Clergy, was in full accord with the devout spirit of the age. Henry II, however, exclaimed to some of his Knights one day, “Who will rid me of this Chesterton beast?” Whereupon the Knights pursued Belloc and murdered him in the organ at Canterbury Cathedral. Belloc was therefore made a Saint and the Knights came to be called the Canterbury Pilgrims. Shortly afterwards Henry died of despair on receiving news that his sons were all revolting. CHAPTER XVI THE AGE OF PIETY The Chapters between William I (1066) and the Tudors (Henry VIII, etc.) are always called the _Middle Ages_, on account of their coming at the beginning; this was also _The Age of Piety_, since Religious fervour was then at its height, people being (1) burnt alive with faggots (The Steak), (2) bricked up in the walls of Convents (Religious Foundations) and (3) tortured in dungeons (The Confessional). All this was not only pious but a Good Thing, as many of the people who were burnt, bricked, tortured, etc., became quite otherworldly. Nowadays people are not so pious, even sinners being denied the benefits of fervent Religion. CHAPTER XVII RICHARD I. A WILD KING