Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas Becket) (1118–70), archbishop and martyr. Born in London of a wealthy Norman family, Thomas was educated at Merton Abbey and at Paris. He was a financial clerk for a while and then joined the curia of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, notable for the quality of its personnel and the skill of their legal expertise. He was sent to study law at Bologna and Auxerre; after being ordained deacon, he became archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154. In this position of administration he was notably successful and was used by Theobald as a negotiator with the Crown. When Henry II succeeded to the throne of England in 1154 at the age of twenty-one, he chose Thomas, at Theobald's suggestion, as Chancellor of England in 1155. Thomas's close friendship with the young king, his employment on embassies such as that for the marriage of the infant prince Henry to Margaret, the French princess, and on military expeditions in which he actually led his troops into battle, apparently presaged a brilliant future in the political sphere. His personal efficiency, lavish entertainment and support for the king's interests even, on occasion, against those of the Church, made him a quite outstanding royal official.
In 1162, Henry, expecting the same relationship to continue, obtained his election as archbishop of Canterbury. But from this time Becket deliberately adopted an austere way of life and immediately, to the king's annoyance, resigned the chancellorship. However, the hairshirt, discipline, vigils, and maundies which he adopted did not end his previous magnificence or determination. In character he was sensitive and intransigent, ready in speech and thorough in action.
Now that he was archbishop, through no choice of his own, he was determined to carry through, at whatever cost, what he saw as the proper duties of his state. These included the paternal care of the soul of the king, tactlessly presented by his friend of yesterday, in a way which caused considerable annoyance. Thomas also opposed Henry in matters of taxation, on the claims of secular courts to punish ecclesiastics for offences already dealt with by church courts, also, and most important, on freedom to appeal to Rome. Henry for his part claimed to be acting according to the customs of his grandfather, Henry I, which he codified in the Constitutions of Clarendon. In the view of Henry's mother, Matilda, this codification was a mistake. It also failed to take into account developments in Church–State relations in the previous forty years caused by the Gregorian Reform and the Investiture controversy. Becket, however, first accepted these Constitutions (1164), but then seeing their implications, rejected them. A long and bitter struggle followed; neither king nor archbishop would give way. Henry demanded money which he claimed was owing to him from Becket's chancellorship. Petty persecution of his followers ensued. At a council in Northampton Becket, nearly alone, withstood the royal claims and appealed to the pope. He then escaped to France.
His exile lasted for over six years. He was befriended by the king of France, lived first in the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny and from 1166 at Sens. Both sides appealed to Pope Alexander III, who tried hard to find an acceptable solution. But the dispute grew in bitterness. The king was bent on Becket's ruin, while the archbishop used ecclesiastical censures against the king's supporters among the higher clergy and even attempted to obtain an interdict. His lands had been alienated and his supporters persecuted. But in exile he came to realize that Canon Law alone would never settle the issue and, under the influence of his more intransigent followers, appealed more and more to the deepest issues of principle which were, he believed, at stake. These were the claims of Church and State, ultimately of God and Caesar.
Although peace was eventually patched up in 1170 and Thomas returned to his diocese, the reconciliation was superficial. In defiance of the rights of Canterbury, Prince Henry had been crowned; Becket answered by excommunicating the bishops most concerned. In a rage Henry asked his courtiers who would rid him of this turbulent priest. Four barons took him at his word; after an altercation with Becket, they killed him in his own cathedral. Although he had not always lived like a saint, he certainly died like one, commending his cause to God and his saints, accepting death ‘for the name of Jesus and for the Church’.
The news of his death shocked Christendom. Miracles were soon reported at his tomb: within ten years, they numbered 703. His faults were forgotten and he was hailed as a martyr for the cause of Christ and the liberty of the Church. He was canonized in 1173. Although the king did public penance for his death, and had to admit the freedom of appeals to Rome, in other ways he lost little in practice, accepting compromises, but retaining most of his real power. Becket's relics were translated in 1220.
Representations of Becket's martyrdom rapidly appeared all over Europe: early examples survive not only from France and Germany, but also from Iceland, Sicily, and even Armenia. Several fine caskets for relics made of Limoges enamel survive (e.g. at the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries, London); there are notable cycles in manuscript books such as the Queen Mary Psalter and in stained-glass windows both at Canterbury and Chartres. English murals were also common. At Canterbury Thomas more or less displaced the following of the earlier local saints by the extreme popularity of the pilgrimage, which soon became one of the most important in Europe. The Pilgrims' Way, from London or Winchester to Canterbury, can still be traced; the stained-glass windows that depict it at Canterbury are a rich source for many details of medieval life; while Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales immortalized both its practice and its personnel. Erasmus later attacked several elements of the cult and Henry VIII destroyed the rich shrine, prohibited and defaced images of Thomas, and ordered all mention of his name in liturgical books to be erased. But eighty ancient English churches were dedicated to him. Feast: 29 December; translation, 7 July; there was also a local feast to commemorate his return from exile (1 December).
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- J. C. Robertson and J. B. Sheppard, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket,
7 volumes (R.S., 1875–85); E. Magnusson, Thomas Saga Erkibyscups (R.S., 1875); E. Walberg, La Vie de saint Thomas le Martyr par Guernes de Pont Sainte Maxence (1922); L. Halphen, ‘Les Biographes de Thomas Becket’, Revue Historique, cii (1909), pp. 35–45; E. Walberg, La Tradition hagiographique de saint Thomas Becket avant la fin du douzième siècle (1929); A. Duggan, Thomas Becket: a textual history of his Letters (1980) and The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, 1162–70 (2 vols. 2000); biographies by R. Winston (1967), D. Knowles (1970), F. Barlow (1986). Recent studies include C. Duggan, Canon Law in Medieval England (1982). For the cult and miracles see E. A. Abbott, St. Thomas: his Death and Miracles (1898) and R. Foreville, Le Jubilé de S. Thomas Becket du xiii au xv siècles (1958); for the iconography see T. Borenius, St. Thomas Becket in Art (1932) and ‘Some further aspects of the Iconography of St. Thomas of Canterbury’, Archaeologia, lxxxvii (1934), 1–86. See also W. L. Warren, Henry II (1973); B. Smalley, The Becket Conflict and the Schools (1973); R. Foreville, Actes du Colloque internationale de Sédières (1975)
