Fulfilling one and two went without saying. But what was surprising about Henry was he took vows three and four just as seriously. Before Henry, justice was, "Do what I want, I'm the king." By the end of Henry's reign, getting the king's justice didn't depend on the king being there in person. Henry had established permanent, professional courts, sitting at Westminster or touring the counties, acting reliably in his name. Now law became, "Listen to what my judges have to say." By 1180, those judges could consult England's first legal textbook full of precedents on which to base their decisions. The law now had its own kind of majesty. It was vow Number One though, the protection of the Church, which quite unpredictably would cause Henry II the greatest grief. It was to provoke a kind of spiritual civil war, in its way every bit as unsettling as the feudal civil war, and which in its most dreadful hour would end with bloodshed in the Cathedral.


完成一两项自然不在话下，但令人震惊的是亨利郑重发誓要做到三四项。在亨利以前，审判只是"国王所言，照做便是"。到了亨利统治的晚期，国王的审判，不再依赖于国王亲自到场主持。亨利设立了固定的职业法庭，坐镇威斯敏斯特，或在各地巡回开庭，以他的名义主持审判。如今，法律成为"听听法官怎么说"。1180年，法官们可以查阅英格兰第一本合法的教材，以其中的判例作为审判的依据，法律终于有了自己的尊严，而正是第一条誓言，保护教会，谁都没有想到造成了亨利二世最大的悲剧，由此爆发的信仰之战，其激烈程度丝毫不亚于国土之争，直接导致了最后的惨剧，以大教堂的流血事件收场。