[11] “With regard to Thomas’ dealings with the Church, if one thing is clear it is this--that he was not in the least a man who pushed his Order at the expense of his loyalty. More than once he refused to listen to an ecclesiastical claim against the king, even when his old friend Theobald was behind it: he was perfectly impartial: he taxed churchmen as he taxed laymen, and in fact, so loyal and reasonable was he that Henry, when he made him archbishop, seems to have thought that he was wholly on his side. There were innumerable questions to be decided between Church and State. Again and again small points came up as to the appointment of this man or the other, as to the infliction or remission of a fine; and again and again Thomas decided the cause and advised the king on the merits of the case.... He was as zealous now for the State as he was for the Church afterwards. There he stood Chancellor of England; his business was to administer the laws, and he knew and did his business.”--R. H. Benson, _St. Thomas of Canterbury_. [12] “The only instance which has occurred of the chancellorship being voluntarily resigned either by layman or ecclesiastic.”--Campbell, _Lives of the Chancellors_. [13] “It must be held in mind that the archbisholp had on his side the Church or _Canon Law_, which he had sworn to obey, and certainly the law courts erred as much on the side of harshness and cruelty as those of the Church on that of foolish pity towards evil-doers.”--F. York Powell. “We have to take ourselves back to a state of society in which a judicial trial was a tournament, and the ordeal an approved substitute for evidence, to realise what civilization owes to the Canon Law and the canonists, with their elaborate system of written law, their judicial evidence, and their written procedure.”--Rashdall, _Universities of Europe during the Middle Ages_. [14] W. H. Hutton. [15] This conversation is reported by Roger of Pontigny, who ministered to St. Thomas when the latter was in exile at that place. [16] Garnier was a poet, and he protests passionately against this law, maintaining that God has called us all to His service. Much more worth is the villein’s son who is honourable than a nobleman’s son who is false. [17] W. FitzStephen. [18] W. FitzStephen. [19] Dean Stanley. [20] Freeman, _Historical Essays_. First series. [21] “Hubert was very gracious in the eyes of all the host that lay before Acre, and in warlike things so magnificent that he was admired even by King Richard. He was in stature tall, in council prudent, and though not having the gift of eloquence, he was an able and shrewd wit. His mind was more on human than divine things, and he knew all the laws of the realm.”--Gervase.