Yet if Henry suspected Thomas of getting above himself, and if he did, he wasn't alone. It didn't get in the way of Becket coming to mind for the top job in the country, the newly-vacated post of Archbishop of Canterbury. In fact, Becket's worldliness must have made him seem precisely the right kind of man for the job Henry wanted to do, which was to put the Church in its place. Monarchs had long taken it for granted that they were directly anointed by God, safely above the Church. But the Popes of this period begged to differ. Kings, they said, reported to Popes, not the other way around. This wasn't just an academic quibble. This was a fight to the death. There were two flashpoints. The first was whether law-breaking clergymen could be judged in the King's courts like everyone else. The second was whether bishops had the power to excommunicate royal officials.


而如果亨利怀疑托马斯自视甚高，若真是如此，并非他一人作此想法。这也未能阻碍贝克特，获得举国高位的决心，即最新空缺的坎特伯雷大主教一职。事实上，贝克特的老成持重，使其看上去是最适合的人选。亨利对于此项职位的要求，是希望教会与他立场一致。长久以来，君王都理所当然地认为，他们直接由上帝挑选，地位高于教会。但那个时期的教皇则意见相左，他们认为，国王应听命于教皇，反之则差诶。这并非学术争论，而是生死之战。有两个敏感问题，首先是违反法律的牧师，是否该如同大众，由国王的法庭审判。第二则是主教是否有权，将王室官员驱逐出教，认命贝克特为坎特伯雷大主教。