I.

Introduction

Becket, Thomas à (c. 1118-1170), Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury, canonized in 1173.

Thomas was born in London, on December 21, probably in 1118. His parents were Norman by birth, his father, Gilbert Becket, being a London merchant of wealth and position.

II.

Education and Early Life

Thomas was destined by his parents for the Church and was educated at Merton Priory in Surrey, then one of the leading schools of London, and later in Paris. On his return to England, he served as secretary to the Lord of Pevensey, who inducted him into the life of a gentleman, hunting, and hawking. Because his father had suffered financial reverses, Thomas worked for three years as a clerk and auditor in the City. Then, when he was 25 years old, he determined to apply for a place in the household of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec, a distant relative. There he entered the world of power and politics. He accompanied the archbishop to the papal council held at Reims in 1148, made several trips to Rome, and was sent to study law at Bologna.

III.

Chancellor

Thomas's life changed again in 1154 when the new king, Henry II, appointed him his chancellor. Theobald and other bishops had recommended him, hoping that the Church would find in him a protector and defender at the king's right hand. The eight years he spent as the king's principal minister were a time of unstinting service. In return, Thomas was rewarded with great wealth, which he displayed in unprecedented magnificence of ceremony. Churchmen grumbled that the Chancellor gave little heed to the interests of the Church. Yet his biographers say that he preserved his chastity amid the promiscuous court; that he was personally sparing of food and drink despite the plenitude of his official hospitality; that he prayed often at night and attended masses at dawn; and that he employed clerks to scourge him as penance for his sins.

IV.

Archbishop

When Theobald died in 1161, the king decided to make his chancellor Archbishop of Canterbury, the most important ecclesiastical officer in England. Much to Henry's surprise and annoyance, Thomas resigned the chancellorship almost as soon as he was consecrated archbishop in 1162. No open break between the king and the archbishop occurred, however, until 1163, when they quarrelled over the relations of Church and State. Then, at a council at Clarendon on January 13, 1164, Henry set forth 16 written articles of law, the so-called Constitutions of Clarendon, which he claimed represented the customs of the realm in relation to the Church in the days of his grandfather, Henry I, and which affected Church privileges, especially benefit of clergy (immunity of clergy to prosecution in lay courts). The king wanted Thomas and his fellow bishops to accept these articles, but Thomas, although he at first acquiesced, later repudiated them as contrary to canon law as it had developed.

Deeply angered, the king determined to break Thomas, and charged him with various offences. Thomas fled the court and, disguised, made his way circuitously to France, to begin an exile of six years, while the conflict between archbishop and king divided more and more of the Western world.

V.

Martyr and Saint

At last, under threat of papal sanctions, Henry and Thomas agreed to a reconciliation of sorts, and on November 3, 1170, Thomas returned to England. However, when he excommunicated some of the king's bishops and barons, Henry raged against this “low-born clerk”. Four of the king's men, acting on their own accord, crossed over from France to Canterbury and, in Canterbury Cathedral, murdered Thomas on December 29, 1170. Thus, Thomas à Becket became a martyr, and after miracles were said to have been worked at his tomb, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III in February 1173. Pilgrims then began to visit Canterbury in such numbers that it became one of the three most popular shrines in Europe. Henry himself did penance there for Becket's murder in 1174, though not held personally accountable for the crime. Only the Reformation, when Becket's shrine was destroyed and all its treasures confiscated by Henry VIII, brought the pilgrimages to an end.

Not even Henry VIII, however, ended the benefit of clergy, which Henry II had to accept after Becket's death. The pope and king compromised: the pontiff allowed most of the English customs, but Henry had to bow to canon law and the jurisdiction of Church courts over accused clergy. As historians have attempted to understand people in the context of the times, the whole controversy has come to seem tragic—a conflict between the growing self-consciousness of Church and State personified in the figures of Henry and Thomas.