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BECKET, THOMAS (c. 1118—1170)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 610 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BECKET, See also:THOMAS (c. 1118—1170) , by his contemporaries more commonly called Thomas of See also:London, See also:English See also:chancellor and See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury under See also:Henry II., was See also:born about the See also:year 1118 in London. His See also:mother was a native of See also:Caen; his See also:father, who came of a See also:family of small See also:Norman landowners, had been a See also:citizen of See also:Rouen, but migrated to London before the See also:birth of Thomas, and held at one See also:time the dignified See also:office of See also:port-See also:reeve, although he ended his See also:life in straitened circumstances. The See also:young Thomas received an excellent See also:education. At the See also:age of ten he was put to school with the canons of Merton priory in See also:Surrey. Later he spent some time in the See also:schools of Lor_don, which enjoyed at that time a high reputation, and finally studied See also:theology at See also:Paris. Returning at the age of twenty-two he was compelled, through the misfortunes of his parents, to become a See also:notary in the service of a wealthy kinsman, Osbert Huit Deniers, who was of some importance in London politics. About 1142 a family friend brought Thomas under the See also:notice of Archbishop See also:Theobald, of whose See also:household he at once became an inmate. He accompanied the See also:primate to See also:Rome in 1143, and also to the See also:council of See also:Reims (1148), which Theobald attended in See also:defiance of a See also:prohibition from the See also:king. It appears to have been at some time between the See also:dates of these two journeys that he visited See also:Bologna and See also:Auxerre, and began those studies in the See also:canon See also:law to which he was in no small degree indebted for his subsequent See also:advancement and misfortunes. Although the See also:bent of his mind was legal, he never made himself an See also:expert jurist; but he had the See also:art of turning his knowledge, such as it was, to excellent See also:account. In 1151 he was sent to Rome by the archbishop with instructions to dissuade the See also:Curia from sanctioning the See also:coronation of See also:Stephen's eldest son Eustace.

It is said that Thomas distinguished himself by the ability with which he executed his See also:

commission; in any See also:case it gave him a claim on the gratitude of the Angevin party which was not forgotten. In 1154 he was promoted to be See also:archdeacon of Canterbury, after first taking See also:deacon's orders. In the following year Henry II., at the primate's recommendation, bestowed on him the important office of chancellor. In this capacity Thomas controlled the issue of royal writs and the See also:distribution of ecclesiastical patronage; but it was more important for his future that he had ample opportunities of exercising his See also:personal See also:fascination upon a See also:prince who was comparatively inexperienced, and thirteen or fourteen years his junior. He became Henry's bosom friend and was consulted in all affairs of See also:state. It had been the See also:hope of Theobald that Becket's See also:influence would be exercised to support the extensive privileges which the See also:Church had wrested from Stephen. But the chancellor, although preserving friendly relations with his old See also:patron, subordinated the interests of the Church to those of his new See also:master. Under his See also:administration the Church was severely taxed for the See also:prosecution of Henry's See also:foreign See also:wars; and the chancellor incurred the reproach " of plunging his See also:sword into the bowels of his mother." Like See also:Wolsey he identified him-self with the military aspirations of his See also:sovereign. It was Thomas who organized the See also:Toulouse See also:campaign of 1159; even in the See also:field he made himself conspicuous by commanding a See also:company of knights, directing the See also:work of devastation, and superintending the conduct of the See also:war after the king had with-See also:drawn his presence from the See also:camp. When there was war with See also:France upon the Norman border, the chancellor acted as Henry's representative; and on one occasion engaged in single combat and unhorsed a See also:French See also:knight of reputation. Later it See also:fell tc his See also:part to arrange the terms of See also:peace with France. He discharged the duties of an See also:envoy with equal magnificence and dexterity; the treaty of May 116o, which put an end to the war, was of his making.

In 1162 he was transferred to a new See also:

sphere of See also:action. Henry bestowed on him the see of Canterbury, See also:left vacant by the See also:death of Theobald. The See also:appointment caused some murmurs; since Becket, at the time when it was made, was still a See also:simple deacon. But it had been desired by Theobald as the one means of averting an attack on clerical privileges which had been impending almost since the See also:accession of Henry II.; and the bishops accepted it in silence. Henry on his See also:side looked to find in Becket the archbishop a coadjutor as loyal as Becket the archdeacon; and anticipated that the Church would once more be reduced to that state of dependence in which she had stood during the latter years of Henry I. Becket, however, disappointed all the conflicting expectations excited by his appointment. He did not allow himself to be made the king's See also:tool; nor on the other See also:hand did he See also:attempt to protect the Church by humouring the king in See also:ordinary matters. He devoted himself to ascetic practices, confined himself to the society of churchmen, and resigned the chancellorship in spite of a papal See also:dispensation (procured by the king) which authorized him to hold that office concurrently with the primacy. By nature a violent See also:partisan, the archbishop now showed himself the uncompromising See also:champion of his See also:order and his see. Hence he was on the worst of terms with the king before a year had elapsed. They came into open conflict at the council of See also:Woodstock (See also:July 1163), when Becket successfully opposed the king's proposal that a See also:land-tax, known as the See also:sheriff's aid, which formed part of that See also:official's See also:salary, should be henceforth paid into the See also:Exchequer. But there were more serious See also:differences in the background.

Phoenix-squares

Becket had not shrunk from excommunicating a See also:

tenant in See also:chief who had encroached upon the lands of Canterbury, and had protected 111. 20bog against the royal courts a clerk named See also:Philip de Brois who was charged with an See also:assault upon a royal officer. These disputes involved questions of principle which had See also:long occupied Henry's See also:attention, and Becket's defiant attitude was answered by the famous Constitutions of See also:Clarendon (q.v.), in which the king defined, professedly according to See also:ancient use and custgm, the relations of Church and State. Becket and the bishops were required to give these constitutions their approval. Henry's demands were more defensible in substance than might be supposed from the manner in which he pressed them on the bishops. On the most burning question, that of criminous clerks, he offered a See also:compromise. He was willing that the accused should be tried in the courts See also:Christian provided that the See also:punishment of the guilty were left to the See also:lay See also:power. Becket's opposition rested upon a casuistic See also:interpretation of the canon law, and an extravagant conception of the dignity attaching to the priesthood; he showed, moreover, a disposition to quibble, to equivocate, and to make promises which he had no intention of fulfilling. His conduct may be excused on the ground that the bishops were subjected to unwarrantable intimidation. But when he renounced his promise to observe the constitutions his conduct was reprobated by the other bishops, although approved by the See also:pope. It was fortunate for Becket's reputation that Henry punished him for his See also:change of front by a systematic persecution in the forms of law. The archbishop was thus enabled to invoke the pope's assistance, and to quit the See also:country with some show of dignity.

Becket fled to France in See also:

November 1164. He at once succeeded in obtaining from See also:Alexander III. a formal condemnation of the constitutions. But Alexander, a fugitive from See also:Italy and menaced by an See also:alliance of the See also:emperor with an antipope, was indisposed to take extreme See also:measures against Henry; and six years elapsed before the king found himself definitely confronted with the choice between an See also:interdict and a surrender. For the greater part of this time the archbishop resided at the Burgundian monastery of Pontigny, constantly engaged in negotiations with Alexander, whose hand he desired to force, and with Henry, from whom he hoped to See also:extract an unconditional submission. In 1166 Becket received from the pope a commission to publish what censures he thought See also:fit; of which he at once availed himself to excommunicate the king's See also:principal counsellors. In 1169 he took the same step against two of the royalist bishops. In more sweeping measures, however, the pope refused to support him, until in 1170 Henry infringed the rights of Canterbury by causing Archbishop See also:Roger of See also:York to See also:crown the young king. In that year the threats of the pope forced Henry to a reconciliation which took See also:place later at Freteval on the 22nd of July. It was a hollow truce, since the subject of the constitutions was not mentioned; and Thomas returned to See also:England with the determination of See also:riding roughshod over the king's supporters. If he had not given a definite See also:pledge to forgive the bishops who had taken part in the young king's coronation, he had at least raised expectations that he would overlook all past offences. But the archbishop prevailed upon the pope to suspend the bishops, and before his return published papal letters which, in announcing these sentences, spoke of the constitutions as null and void. It was only to be expected that such a step, which was virtually a See also:declaration of war against the king, should arouse in him the strongest feelings of resentment.

The archbishop's See also:

murder, perpetrated within a See also:month of his return to England (29th See also:December 1170), was, however, the work of over zealous courtiers and regretted by no one more than Henry. Becket was canonized in 1172. Within a See also:short time his See also:shrine at Canterbury became the resort of innumerable pilgrims. Plenary indulgences were given for a visit to the shrine, and an official See also:register was kept to See also:record the miracles wrought by the See also:relics of the See also:saint. The shrine was magnificently adorned with the See also:gold and See also:silver and jewels offered by the pious. It was plundered by Henry VIII., to whom the memory of Becket was specially See also:obnoxious; but the reformers were powerless to expunge the name of the saint from the See also:Roman See also:calendar, on which it still remains. Even to those who are in sympathy with 11 the principles for which he fought, the See also:posthumous reputation of Becket must appear strangely exaggerated. It is evident that in the course of his long struggle with the state he fell more and more under the dominion of personal motives. At the last he fought not so much for an See also:idea as for the humiliation of an opponent by whom he had been ungenerously treated.

End of Article: BECKET, THOMAS (c. 1118—1170)

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