not act as archbishop without first receiving special absolution. [Sidenote: Council of Northampton, 1164. ] [Sidenote: Summons of Becket. ] All this had no other effect than to exasperate Henry the more, and to encourage the rapidly increasing crowd of Becket’s enemies. Unfortunately we have no details the next six months, save that the archbishop once or twice saw the king in vain. In October, 1164, at Northampton, the cloud finally broke. Becket’s enemies saw their way to crush him altogether, and Henry yielded to them. The council was formally summoned; all the persons who held of the king directly--that is, who were subject to no lord coming between them and the king--were duly invited; the greater barons probably, as had been usual under Henry I., and as the Great Charter afterwards enjoined, by special letters; the minor ones by a general summons made known through the sheriff in each shire. It was to the archbishop that the first letter of summons ought by ancient rule to have been directed. Instead of that he received a writ through the Sheriff of Kent ordering him to present himself at Northampton to answer the complaint of John the Marshal. [Sidenote: His trial.] However informal this was, Becket complied, rather than by absenting himself from the court to leave his cause in hands he could not trust. He attended, and was overwhelmed. First he was sentenced to pay 500 marks to John the Marshal, who was declared to have proved his claim against him. Then he was called on to present the accounts of the Chancery, of which he had been acquitted by a general discharge when he became archbishop. He now put on the aspect of a martyr, and declared himself ready to die for the rights of his Church. Henry and his agents declared that it was the person, not the prelate, who was aimed at; that they were not assailing the rights of the Church but vindicating the laws of the land. The bishops advised unconditional submission, which would, no doubt have been the wisest course, for it would have disarmed the king without conceding any matter of principle; for Henry was not the man to make an extreme use of victory, and might still perhaps have been induced to act with moderation. Instead of this, as Henry grew more peremptory Thomas grew more provoking; at last he declared himself really in danger, turned and fled. [Sidenote: His flight.] He went off in disguise from Northampton, and, after several trying adventures, landed in Flanders, whence he made his way to join the pope at Sens, and thence to Pontigny. [Sidenote: His exile.] [Sidenote: Henry’s cruel measures. ]