There is a romantic legend that the mother of Thomas Becket was a Saracen princess who followed his father, a pilgrim or crusader, back from the Holy Land, and wandered about
Europe repeating the only English words she knew, "London" and "Becket," until she found him. There is no
foundation for the story. According to a contemporary writer, Thomas Becket was the son of Gilbert Becket, sheriff of London; another relates that both
parents were of Norman blood. Whatever his parentage, we know with certainty that the future chancellor and
archbishop of
Canterbury was born on
St. Thomas day, 1118, of a
good family, and that he was educated at a school of canons regular at Merton
Priory in Sussex, and later at the University of Paris. When Thomas returned from France, his
parents had died. Obliged to make his way unaided, he obtained an appointment as clerk to the sheriff's court, where he showed great ability. All accounts describe him as a strongly built, spirited youth, a lover of field sports, who seems to have spent his leisure
time in hawking and hunting. One day when he was out hunting with his falcon, the bird swooped down at a duck, and as the duck dived, plunged after it into the river. Thomas himself leapt in to save the valuable hawk, and the rapid stream swept him along to a mill, where only the accidental stopping of the wheel saved his life. The episode serves to illustrate the impetuous daring which characterized Becket all through his life.
At the age of twenty-four Thomas was given a post in the household of Theobald,
archbishop of Canterbury, and while there he apparently resolved on a career in the Church, for he took
minor orders. To prepare himself further, he obtained the archbishop's permission to study
canon law at the University of Bologna, continuing his studies at Auxerre, France. On coming back to England, he became
provost of Beverley, and
canon at
Lincoln and St. Paul's cathedrals. His ordination as deacon occurred in 1154.
Theobald appointed him
archdeacon of Canterbury, the highest ecclesiastical office in England after a bishopric or an abbacy, and began to entrust him with the most intricate affairs; several times he was sent on important missions to Rome. It was Thomas' diplomacy that dissuaded Pope Eugenius III from sanctioning the
coronation of Eustace, eldest son of Stephen, and when Henry of Anjou, great grandson of William the Conqueror, asserted his claim to the English crown and became King Henry II, it was not long before he appointed this gifted churchman as chancellor, that is, chief minister. An old chronicle describes Thomas as "slim of growth, and pale of hue, with dark hair, a long nose, and a straightly featured face.
Blithe of countenance was he, winning and lovable in conversation, frank of speech in his discourses but slightly stuttering in his talk, so keen of discernment that he could always make difficult questions plain after a wise manner." Thomas discharged his duties as chancellor conscientiously and well.
Like the later chancellor of the realm, Thomas Moore, who also became a
martyr and a saint, Thomas Becket was the close personal friend as well as the loyal servant of his young sovereign. They were said to have one heart and one
mind between them, and it seems possible that to Becket's influence were due, in part, those reforms for which Henry is justly praised, that is, his measures to secure equitable dealing for all his subjects by a more uniform and efficient system of law. But it was not only their common interest in matters of state that bound them together. They were also boon companions and spent merry hours together. It was almost the only relaxation Thomas allowed himself, for he was an ambitious man. He had a taste for magnificence, and his household was as fine--if not finer--than the King's. When he was sent to
France to negotiate a royal marriage, he took a personal retinue of two hundred men, with a train of several hundred more, knights and squires, clerics and servants, eight fine wagons, music and singers, hawks and hounds, monkeys and mastiffs. Little wonder that the French gaped in wonder and asked, "If this is the chancellor's state, what can the King's be like?" His entertainments, his gifts, and his liberality to the poor were also on a very lavish scale.
In 1159 King Henry raised an army of mercenaries in
France to regain the province of Toulouse, a part of the inheritance of his wife, the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Thomas served Henry in this
war with a company of seven hundred knights of his own. Wearing armor like any other fighting man, he led assaults and engaged in single combat. Another churchman, meeting him, exclaimed: "What do you mean by wearing such a dress? You look more like a falconer than a cleric. Yet you are a
cleric in person, and many times over in office-archdeacon of Canterbury,
dean of Hastings,
provost of Beverley,
canon of this church and that,
procurator of the archbishop, and like to be archbishop, too, the rumor goes!" Thomas received the rebuke with
good humor.
Although he was proud, strong-willed, and irascible, and remained so all his life, he did not neglect to make seasonal
retreats at Merton and took the discipline imposed on him there. His
confessor during this
time testified later to the blamelessness of his private life, under conditions of extreme temptation. If he sometimes went too far in those schemes of the King which tended to infringe on the ancient prerogatives and rights of the Church, at other times he opposed Henry with vigor.
In 1161
Archbishop Theobald died. King Henry was then in
Normandy with Thomas, whom he resolved to make the next
primate of England. When Henry announced his intention, Thomas, demurring, told him: "Should
God permit me to be the
archbishop of Canterbury, I would soon lose your Majesty's favor, and the affection with which you honor me would be changed into hatred. For there are several things you do now in prejudice of the rights of the Church which make me fear you would require of me what I could not agree to; and envious persons would not fail to make it the occasion of endless strife between us." The King paid no heed to this remonstrance, and sent
bishops and noblemen to the monks of Canterbury, ordering them to labor with the same
zeal to set his chancellor in the see as they would to set the crown on the young prince's head. Thomas continued to refuse the promotion until the
legate of the Holy See,
Cardinal Henry of Pisa, overrode his scruples. The
election took place in May, 1162. Young Prince Henry, then in London, gave the necessary consent in his father's name. Thomas, now forty-four years old, rode to
Canterbury and was first ordained
priest by Walter,
bishop of Rochester, and then on the
octave of
Pentecost was consecrated
archbishop by the
bishop of Winchester. Shortly afterwards he received the
pallium sent by Pope Alexander III.
From this day worldly grandeur no longer marked Thomas' way of life. Next his skin he wore a hairshirt, and his customary dress was a plain black cassock, a linen surplice, and a sacerdotal
stole about his neck. He lived ascetically, spent much
time in the distribution of alms, in reading and discussing the Scriptures with Herbert of Bosham, in visiting the infirmary, and supervising the monks at their work. He took special care in selecting candidates for Holy Orders. As ecclesiastical judge, he was rigorously just.
Although as
archbishop Thomas had resigned the chancellorship, against the King's wish, the relations between the two men seemed to be unchanged for a time. But a
host of troubles was brewing, and the crux of all of them was the
relationship between Church and state. In the past the landowners, among which the Church was one of the largest, for each hide [1] of land they held, had paid annually two shillings to the King's officers, who in return undertook to protect them from the rapacity of
minor tax- gatherers. This was actually a flagrant
form of graft and the King now ordered the money paid into his own exchequer. The
archbishop protested, and there were hot words between him and the King. Thenceforth the King's demands were directed solely against the clergy, with no mention of other landholders who were equally involved.
Then came the affair of Philip de Brois, a
canon accused of murdering a soldier.
According to a long-established law, as a
cleric he was tried in an ecclesiastical court, where he was acquitted by the judge, the
bishop of Lincoln, but ordered to pay a fine to the deceased man's relations. A king's
justice then made an effort to bring him before his civil court, but he could not be tried again upon that indictment and told the king's
justice so in insulting terms. Thereat Henry ordered him tried again both for the original
murder charge--and for his later misdemeanor. Thomas now pressed to have the case referred to his own archiepiscopal court; the King reluctantly agreed, and appointed both lay and clerical assessors. Philip's plea of a previous acquittal was accepted as far as the
murder was concerned, but he was punished for his contempt of a royal court. The King thought the
sentence too mild and remained dissatisfied. In October, 1163, the King called the
bishops of his realm to a council at Westminster, at which he demanded their assent to an edict that thenceforth clergy proved guilty of crimes against the civil
law should be handed over to the civil courts for punishment.
Thomas stiffened the
bishops against yielding. But finally, at the council of Westminster they assented reluctantly to the instrument known as the Constitutions of Clarendon, which embodied the royal "customs" in Church matters, and including some additional points, making sixteen in all. It was a revolutionary document: it provided that no
prelate should leave the kingdom without royal permission, which would serve to prevent
appeals to the Pope; that no tenant-in-chief should be excommunicated against the King's will; that the royal court was to decide in which court clerics accused of civil offenses should be tried; that the custody of vacant Church benefices and their revenues should go to the King. Other provisions were equally damaging to the authority and prestige of the Church. The
bishops gave their assent only with a reservation, "saving their order," which was tantamount to a refusal.
Thomas was now full of remorse for having weakened, thus setting a bad example to the bishops, but at the same
time he did not wish to widen the breach between himself and the King. He made a futile effort to cross the Channel and put the case before the Pope. On his part, the King was bent on vengeance for what he considered the disloyalty and ingratitude of the archbishop. He ordered Thomas to give up certain castles and honors which he held from him, and began a campaign to persecute and discredit him. Various charges of chicanery and financial dishonesty were brought against Thomas, dating from the
time he was chancellor. The
bishop of Winchester pleaded the archbishop's discharge. The plea was disallowed; Thomas offered a
voluntary payment of his own money, and that was refused.
The affair was building up to a crisis, when, on October 13, 1164, the King called another great council at Northampton. Thomas went, after celebrating Mass, carrying his archbishop's cross in his hand. The Earl of Leicester came out with a message from the King: "The King commands you to render your accounts. Otherwise you must hear his judgment." "Judgment?" exclaimed Thomas. "I was given the church of
Canterbury free from temporal obligations. I am therefore not liable and
will not plead with regard to them. Neither
law nor
reason allows
children to judge and condemn their fathers.
Wherefore I refuse the King's judgment and yours and everyone's. Under God, I
will be judged by the Pope alone."
Determined to stand out against the King, Thomas left
Northampton that night, and soon thereafter embarked secretly for Flanders. Louis VII, King of France, invited Thomas into his dominions. Meanwhile King Henry forbade anyone to give him aid.
Gilbert,
abbot of Sempringham, was accused of having sent him some relief. Although the
abbot had done nothing, he refused to swear he had not, because, he said, it would have been a
good deed and he would say nothing that might seem to brand it as a criminal act. Henry quickly dispatched several
bishops and others to put his case before Pope Alexander, who was then at Sens. Thomas also presented himself to the Pope and showed him the Constitutions of Clarendon, some of which Alexander pronounced intolerable, others impossible. He rebuked Thomas for ever having considered accepting them. The next day Thomas confessed that he had, though unwillingly, received the see of
Canterbury by an
election somewhat irregular and uncanonical, and had acquitted himself badly in it. He resigned his office, returned the episcopal ring to the Pope, and withdrew. After deliberation, the Pope called him back and reinstated him, with orders not to abandon his office, for to do so would be to abandon the
cause of God. He then recommended Thomas to the Cistercian
abbot at Pontigny.
Thomas then put on a monk's habit, and submitted himself to the strict rule of the monastery. Over in England King Henry was busy confiscating the goods of all the friends, relations, and servants of the archbishop, and banishing them, first binding them by oath to go to Thomas at Pontigny, that the sight of their distress might move him. Troops of these exiles soon appeared at the abbey. Then Henry notified the
Cistercians that if they continued to harbor his enemy he would sequestrate all their houses in his dominions. After this, the
abbot hinted that Thomas was no longer welcome in his abbey. The
archbishop found refuge as the guest of King Louis at the royal
abbey of St. Columba, near Sens.
This historic quarrel dragged on for three years. Thomas was named by the Pope as his
legate for all England except York, whereupon Thomas excommunicated several of his adversaries; yet at times he showed himself conciliatory towards the King. The French king was also drawn into the struggle, and the two
kings had a conference in 1169 at Montmirail. King Louis was inclined to take Thomas' side. A
reconciliation was finally effected between Thomas and Henry, although the lines of power were not too clearly drawn. The
archbishop now made preparations to return to his see. With a premonition of his fate, he remarked to the
bishop of
Paris in parting, "I am going to England to die." On December 1, 1172, he disembarked at Sandwich, and on the journey to
Canterbury the way was lined with cheering people, welcoming him home. As he rode into the
cathedral city at the head of a triumphal procession, every bell was ringing. Yet in spite of the public demonstration, there was an atmosphere of foreboding.
At the
reconciliation in France, Henry had agreed to the punishment of Roger,
archbishop of York, and the
bishops of London and Salisbury, who had assisted at the
coronation of Henry's son, despite the long-established
right of the
archbishop of
Canterbury to perform this
ceremony and in defiance of the Pope's explicit instructions. It had been another attempt to lower the prestige of the primate's see. Thomas had sent on in advance of his return the papal letters suspending Roger and confirming the
excommunication of the two
bishops involved. On the
eve of his arrival a deputation waited on him to ask for the withdrawal of these sentences. He agreed on
condition that the three would swear thenceforth to obey the Pope. This they refused to do, and together went to rejoin King Henry, who was visiting his domains in France.
At
Canterbury Thomas was subjected to insult by one Ranulf de Broc, from whom he had demanded the restoration of Saltwood Castle, a manor previously belonging to the archbishop's see. After a week's stay there he went up to London, where Henry's son, "the young King," refused to see him. He arrived back in
Canterbury on or about his fifty-second birthday. Meanwhile the three
bishops had laid their complaints before the King at Bur, near Bayeux, and someone had exclaimed aloud that there would be no peace for the realm while Becket lived. At this, the King, in a fit of rage, pronounced some words which several of his hearers took as a rebuke to them for allowing Becket to continue to live and thereby disturb him. Four of his knights at once set off for England and made their way to the irate
family at Saltwood. Their names were Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and
Richard le Bret.
On St. John's day Thomas received a letter warning him of danger, and all southeast Kent was in a state of ferment. On the afternoon of December 29, the four knights came to see him in his episcopal palace. During the interview they made several demands, in particular that Thomas remove the censures on the three bishops. The knights withdrew, uttering threats and oaths. A few minutes later there were loud outcries, a shattering of doors and clashing of arms, and the archbishop, urged on by his attendants, began moving slowly through the
cloister passage to the cathedral. It was now twilight and
vespers were being sung. At the door of the north
transept he was met by some terrified monks, whom he commanded to get back to the choir. They withdrew a little and he entered the church, but the knights were seen behind him in the dim light. The monks slammed the door on them and bolted it. In their confusion they shut out several of their own brethren, who began beating loudly on the door.
Becket turned and cried, "Away, you cowards ! A church is not a castle." He reopened the door himself, then went towards the choir, accompanied by Robert de Merton, his aged teacher and confessor, William Fitzstephen, a
cleric in his household, and a monk, Edward Grim. The others fled to the
crypt and other hiding places, and Grim alone remained. At this point the knights broke in shouting, "Where is Thomas the traitor?" "Where is the archbishop?" "Here I am," he replied, "no traitor, but
archbishop and
priest of God!" He came down the steps to stand between the altars of Our Lady and St. Benedict.
The knights clamored at him to absolve the bishops, and Thomas answered firmly, "I cannot do other than I have done. Reginald, you have received many favors from me.
Why do you come into my church armed?" Fitzurse made a threatening gesture with his axe. "I am ready to die," said Thomas, "but God's curse on you if you harm my people." There was some scuffling as they tried to carry Thomas outside bodily.
Fitzurse flung down his axe and drew his sword. "You pander, you owe me fealty and submission!" exclaimed the archbishop. Fitzurse shouted back, "I owe no fealty contrary to the King ! " and knocked off Thomas' cap. At this, Thomas covered his face and called aloud on
God and the saints. Tracy struck a blow, which Grim intercepted with his own arm, but it grazed Thomas' skull and blood ran down into his eyes. He wiped the stain away and cried, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit!" Another blow from Tracy beat him to his knees, and he pitched forward onto his face, murmuring, "For the name of
Jesus and in defense of the Church I am willing to die." With a vigorous thrust Le Bret struck deep into his head, breaking his sword against the pavement, and Hugh of Horsea added a blow, although the
archbishop was now dying. Hugh de Morville stood by but struck no blow. The murderers, brandishing their swords, now dashed away through the cloisters, shouting "The King's men! The King's men!" The
cathedral itself was filling with people unaware of the catastrophe, and a thunderstorm was breaking overhead.[2] The archbishop's body lay in the middle of the transept, and for a
time no one dared approach it. A deed of such
sacrilege was bound to be regarded with horror and indignation. When the news was brought to the King, he shut himself up and fasted for forty days, for he knew that his chance remark had sped the courtiers to England bent on vengeance. He later performed public
penance in
Canterbury Cathedral and in 1172 received
absolution from the papal delegates.
Within three years of his death the
archbishop had been canonized as a martyr. Though far from a faultless character, Thomas Becket, when his
time of testing came, had the courage to lay down his
life to defend the ancient rights of the Church against an aggressive state. The discovery of his
hairshirt and other evidences of austerity, and the many miracles which were reported at his tomb, increased the veneration in which he was held. The shrine of the "holy blessed martyr," as Chaucer called him, soon became famous, and the old Roman road running from London to
Canterbury known as "Pilgrim's Way." His
tomb was magnificently adorned with gold, silver, and jewels, only to be despoiled by Henry VIII; the
fate of his
relics is uncertain. They may have been destroyed as a part of Henry's policy to subordinate the English Church to the civil authority. Mementoes of this saint are preserved at the
cathedral of Sens. The feast of
St. Thomas of
Canterbury is now kept throughout the Roman
Catholic Church, and in England he is regarded as the protector of the secular clergy.