Henry II: A Just King

亨利二世：一名公正的国王

HENRY II was a great Lawgiver, and it was he who laid down the great Legal Principle that everything is either legal or (preferably) illegal.

亨利二世是一位著名的立法者，也正是他确立著名的法律原则：任何事情要么是合法的，要么（最好）是不合法的。

He also made another very just arrangement about trials:

同样的，他对审判作了另一种公正的安排：

Before Henry II’s time there were two kinds of legal trial, (a) the Ideal and (b) the Combat. The Ideal form of trial consisted in making a man plunge his head in boiling ploughshares, in order to see whether he had committed a crime or not. According to Henry’s reformed system a man was tried first by a jury of his equals and only had to plunge his head into the ploughshares afterwards (in order to confirm the jury’s opinion that he had committed the crime). This was obviously a much Better Thing.

在亨利二世之前，有两种类型的司法审判：1）理念上的，以及 2）决斗。审判的理念形式包括让一个人把头放在烧热的犁刃上，来看看他是否犯了罪。根据亨利的改革体系，一个人首先要经过陪审团的审议，陪审团由与嫌疑人相同地位的人组成，之后再把头放到烧热的犁刃上（用以证实陪审团的观点，即嫌疑人的确犯了罪）。这显然是一件进步的事情。

The Combat was a system by which in civil cases the litigants decided their dispute by mortal combat, after which the defeated party was allowed to fly the country. But Henry altered all this and declared that a Grand Jury must decide first what the parties were fighting about: a reform which naturally gave rise to grave discontent among the Barons, who believed in the Combat, the whole Combat and nothing but the Combat.

决斗是另一个体系。在民事案件中，涉事的双方选择用生死决斗的方式来解决争端，落败的那一方被允许远离所在的国度。但亨利改变了一切，他宣布双方决斗的内容，必须先由一个最高陪审团的来决定：这项改革自然会在伯爵群体间引发深深的不满，他们相信决斗就是决斗，没有其他内容。

Thomas à Belloc

托马斯·贝克特

It was at this time that Thomas à Belloc, the great religious leader, claimed that clergymen, whatever crimes they might commit, could not be punished at all; this privilege, which was for some reason known as Benefit of Clergy, was in full accord with the devout spirit of the age. Henry II, however, exclaimed to some of his Knights one day, ‘Who will rid me of this Chesterton beast?’ Whereupon the Knights pursued Belloc and murdered him in the organ at Canterbury Cathedral. Belloc was therefore made a Saint and the Knights came to be called the Canterbury Pilgrims.

在这个时期，托马斯·贝克特，一位著名的宗教领袖，宣称教会人员无论犯了什么罪，都不应该受到惩罚；这项特权完全符合那个时代的神圣精神，在某种意义上被认作是教会人员的福利。但是有一天，亨利二世突然愤愤地对他的骑士说：“谁能帮我摆脱这只切斯特顿野兽¹？”于是骑士们便追赶贝克特，并在坎特伯雷大教堂将其杀害。贝克特因此被封为圣徒，骑士们的追杀路线由此也被称坎特伯雷朝圣之路。

Shortly afterwards Henry died of despair on receiving news that his sons were all revolting.

此事刚过不久，亨利二世收到消息，自己所有的儿子都起来反叛。他便在绝望中去世了。