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049 - 18 Thomas Becket · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part one, Chapter eighteen of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter eighteen Thomas Becket. The English Church
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  Speaker 1: underwent important changes during the twelfth century. The central figure
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  Speaker 1: was Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England.
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  Speaker 1: During the reign of the more capable Norman Kings, who
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  Speaker 1: succeeded William the Conqueror, the English Church was under the
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  Speaker 1: full control of the throne. The popes had little to
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  Speaker 1: do except to watch and wait. When Stephen became king,
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  Speaker 1: it was at once seen that he lacked the capacity
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  Speaker 1: to rule, and more especially to oppose the vigorous policy
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  Speaker 1: of such of the English clergy as wished to ally
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  Speaker 1: themselves with Rome as against the authority of the Kings
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  Speaker 1: of England. There was a complete sundering of the relations
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  Speaker 1: of the clergy with the crown. The pope was claimed
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  Speaker 1: to be the ecclesiastical head of England. When Henry the
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  Speaker 1: Second came to the throne, he undertook to restore the
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  Speaker 1: old relation and to break up the bondage to Rome.
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  Speaker 1: The Diet of Clarendon, which met in eleven sixty four
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  Speaker 1: carried out his wishes. Its principal act was to order
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  Speaker 1: the election of bishops in the Royal Chapel with the
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  Speaker 1: King's consent. In civil matters and in all disputes, the
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  Speaker 1: clergy should be amenable to the king. No cause could
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  Speaker 1: be carried to a foreign jurisdiction for decision without the
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  Speaker 1: King's consent. The same condition was required when any clergyman
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  Speaker 1: left the Kingdom, and no member of the Royal Council
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  Speaker 1: could be excommunicated. This was a direct thrust at the
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  Speaker 1: power of the papacy over England. The battle now began
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  Speaker 1: in great fierceness. Thomas Beckett was born in eleven eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: His education was purely secular, and he never became a theologian.
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  Speaker 1: His tastes were all in the line of military and
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  Speaker 1: diplomatic life. He became, however, Archdeacon of Canterbury and Provost
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  Speaker 1: of Beverly. The Pope wanted Stephen's son Eustace to be
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  Speaker 1: Stephen's successor to the throne, and to Beckett belongs the
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  Speaker 1: responsibility of preventing it. For this service, Henry the second
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  Speaker 1: appointed him Chancellor of England in eleven fifty five. He
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  Speaker 1: was now Henry's most willing agent. He went on a
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  Speaker 1: foreign campaign in the War of Toulouse and led the
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  Speaker 1: English soldiers to success. He spared no foes. He went
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  Speaker 1: again to France to secure the marriage of Henry's son
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  Speaker 1: to the daughter of the King of France. He was
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  Speaker 1: the most intimate and trusted friend of the King, and
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  Speaker 1: there was no difficult or delicate service in which he
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  Speaker 1: was not called upon to take the lead. In eleven
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  Speaker 1: sixty two he was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury, and was
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  Speaker 1: thus the ecclesiastical head of England. We now find this
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  Speaker 1: man of the world in a new position. He had
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  Speaker 1: no more fitness for our religious office than the average
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  Speaker 1: soldier or diplomat. But he felt his new position and
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  Speaker 1: immediately placed himself on the side of the Pope in
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  Speaker 1: his conflict with the King. He considered it his duty
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  Speaker 1: to be now a loyal churchman, as before he had
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  Speaker 1: been a loyal chancellor. That Becket was entirely conscientious in this,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no doubt. Henry could hardly believe his
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  Speaker 1: own eyes. Beckett, from being the fastidious courtier the luxurious diplomat,
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  Speaker 1: threw off all his old methods and assumed the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of the saintly character, he was at once transformed into
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  Speaker 1: the squalid penitent, who wore haircloth next his skin, fed
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  Speaker 1: on room roots, drank nauseous water, and daily washed the
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  Speaker 1: feet of thirteen beggars. He surrendered to the King his
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  Speaker 1: office of Chancellor, and placed himself at the head of
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  Speaker 1: the party of the Pope. It was a duel of giants.
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  Speaker 1: Henry had on his side the Norman nobility and the
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  Speaker 1: decrees of the Diet of Clarendon. Beckett had with him
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  Speaker 1: the Saxon masses and the agents of the Pope. It
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  Speaker 1: was a grave question, long undecided which should win. Beckett
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  Speaker 1: made due penitence for endorsing the decrees of Clarendon, and
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  Speaker 1: was granted pardon by the Pope. A charge for an
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  Speaker 1: old offense was brought against Beckett by the King at
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  Speaker 1: a council in Northampton, to the effect that when Beckett
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  Speaker 1: was chancellor, he had appropriated to himself forty four thousand marks.
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  Speaker 1: Beckett replied that he was not going to answer to
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  Speaker 1: charges for offenses while he was not consecrated to the
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  Speaker 1: service of the church. He appealed to the Pope for
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  Speaker 1: justice and fled to France. While in France, Beckett's cause
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  Speaker 1: gained great strength. The Pope aided him in every possible way,
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  Speaker 1: and he had many supporters At home. Henry consented to
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  Speaker 1: an interview with him, but failed to appear. The King
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  Speaker 1: had agreed that Beckett should return to his see, and
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  Speaker 1: that he would pay all Beckett's debts and the expenses
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  Speaker 1: of his journey. Beckett returned to Canterbury and met with
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  Speaker 1: a cordial reception. Henry was frightened. He exclaimed, of all
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  Speaker 1: the cowards who eat my bread, is there not one
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  Speaker 1: who will free me from this turbulent priest. Henry's agents,
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  Speaker 1: four Knights, went to Canterbury, and, finding Beckett unwilling to compromise,
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  Speaker 1: slew him in the Canterbury Cathedral. In eleven seventy, Reverence
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  Speaker 1: was paid the memory of Beckett in a way new
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  Speaker 1: to England. Popular indignation amounted to a national uprising. Henry
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  Speaker 1: was regarded by the people as a murderer, though no
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  Speaker 1: proof has ever yet been produced which can convict him
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  Speaker 1: of intending that crime. His remark was made in great anger,
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  Speaker 1: and it is unfair to suppose that by getting rid
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  Speaker 1: of the priest his murder was meant much less endorsed
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  Speaker 1: and directed. But the people are never logicians. They rushed
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  Speaker 1: to conclusions and so charged Henry with the crime. The king,
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  Speaker 1: to conciliate them, made a pilgrimage to Beckett's grave and
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  Speaker 1: did ample penance for real or imaginary hostility. Two years later,
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  Speaker 1: Beckett was canonized as Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Henceforth, his
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  Speaker 1: tomb in the cathedral became the most popular place of
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  Speaker 1: pilgrimage in the whole Christian world. Rome alone accepted miracles
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  Speaker 1: were claimed to be rot at his grave. At one time,
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  Speaker 1: it was alleged that as many as one hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: pilgrims worshiped at the tomb of Saint Thomas. These pilgrims
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  Speaker 1: were warmly encouraged by the Court of Rome. They were
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  Speaker 1: regarded as helpful to the cause of papal supremacy in
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  Speaker 1: the British Isles, and plenary indulgence was granted every pilgrim
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  Speaker 1: to the shrine of the latest English saint. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen