The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket: Being the Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in Hilary Term 1949

First published in 1951, Professor Knowles introduces his subject with these words: 'On three decisive occasions at least - at Clarendon and Northampton in 1164, and for a third time in the autumn of 1169 - the bishops were called upon as a body - at Clarendon in association with the Archbishop, at Northampton and in 1169 in dissociation from him - to take their stand at a crisis of policy. Had they resolutely and unanimously opposed the King in 1164, or as unanimously fallen in with his wi...