And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.
Ver. 31. Do as he hath said.] Slay him, though it be at the altar. Becket, the traitor, was so served by some that belonged to our Henry II, and thought to gratify him thereby. And although the king constantly protested, se nec mandasse, nec voluisse, nec suo artificio quaesivisse necem Thomae, that he was neither witting nor willing to the taking away of his life in that sort; yet, for a penance, he was, by the command of the Pope's legate, lashed on the bare [back] with rods, each of the priests and friars there present - and they were not a few - giving him three or four stripes, till the blood followed: besides that he was forced to go three miles on his bare feet, which yielded bloody tokens of his devotion, on the way to Becket's sepulchre, which he went to visit. a
a Rev., De Vit. Pontif., 149. Dan., Hist., fol. 101.