BECKET

Thomas, the most celebrated Roman Catholic prelate in the English annals, was bom in London 1117 or 1119. He was the son of Gilbert, a London merchant. His mother is said to have been a Saracen lady, to whose father Gilbert was prisoner in Jerusalem, having become a captive during the Crusades. The lady is said to have fallen in love with the prisoner, to have a isted him in obtaining his liberty, and afterwards to have followed him to London, where she found him by repeating the only two European words she knew, 'London' and 'Gilbert.' So runs the legend. Aiter studying at Oxford and Paris, Becket was sent, by the favour of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, to study civil law at Bologna in Italy, and on his return was made Archdeacon of Canterbury and Provost of Beverley. His claim to the good opinion of Theobald was founded on his skill in negotiation shown in a matter of the highest importance to England — the soliciting from the pope the prohibitory letters against the crowning of Eustace, the son of Stephen, by which that design was defeated. This service not only raised Becket in the esteem of the archbishop, but in that of King Henry II., and was the foundation of his high fortune. In 1158 he was appointed high chancellor and preceptor to Prince Henry, and at this time was a complete courtier, conforming in every respect to the humour of the king. He was in fact his prime companion, had the same hours of eating and going to bed, held splendid levees, and courted popular applause. In 1159 he made a campaign with the king in Toulouse, having in his own pay 700 knights and 1200 horsemen; and it is said he advised Henry to seize the person of Louis, king of France, shut up in Toulouse without an army. This coimsel, however, so indicative of the future martyr, being too bold for the lay counseUors of one of the boldest monarchs of the age, was declined. In the next year he visited Paris to tare at of an alliance between the eldest daughter of the King of France and Prince Henry, and returned with the young prince to England. He had not enjoyed the chancellorship more than four years when his patron Theobald died, and King Henry was so far mistaken OB to raise his favourite to the primacy, on the presumption that he would aid hun in those political views, in respect to church power, which all the sovereigns of the Norman line embraced, and which, in fact, caused a continual struggle until its termination by Henry YIIL It hals been a erted that Becket told the king what he was to expect from him; but, independent of the appointment itself, there is evidence to prove his eagerne to obtain the dignity, and the disgust entertained by Henry at the first symptoms of the real temper of the man whom he had been so anxious to promote. Becket was consecrated archbishop in 1162, and immediately affected an austerity of character which formed a very natural prelude to the part which he meant to play. Pope Alexander III. held a general council at Tours in 1163, at which locket attended and made a formal complaint of the infringements by the laity on the rights and immunities of the church. On his return to England he began to act in the spirit of this representation, and to prosecute several of the nobility and others holding church po e ions, whom he also proceeded to excommunicate. Henry, an able and politic monarch, was anxious to recall certain privileges of the clergy, which withdrew them from the jurisdiction of the civil courts; and it was not without a violent struggle, tuid the mediation of the pope, that Becket finsJly acquiesced. The king soon after summoned a convocation or parliament at Clarendon, to the celebrated ' constitutions' of which, although the archbishop swore that he would never a ent, he at length subscribed, and alleging something like force for his excuse, by way of penance suspended himself from his archiepiscopal functions until the pope's absolution arrive. Finding himself the object of the king's pleasure, he soon after attempted to escape to France; but being intercepted, Henry, in a parliament North amp ton, charged him with a violation allegiance, and all his goods were confiscated. suit was also commenced against him for money him during his chancellorship, and for the proceeds of the benefices which he had held vacant while that capacity. In this desperate situation he great difficulty and danger made his escape to ders, and, proceeding to the pope at Sens, humbly resigned his archbishopric, which was, however, stored. He then took up his abode at the Abbey Pontigny, in Normandy, whence he i ued expostulatory letters to the King and bishops of England, in which he excommunicated all violators prerogatives of the church, and included in the sure the principal officers of the crown. Henry so exasperated that he banished all his relations, and obliged the Cistercians to send him away the Abbey of Pontigny; from which he removed, the recommendation of the King of France, Abbey of Columbe, and spent four years there exile. After much negotiation a sort of reconciliation took place in 1170, on the whole to the advantage Becket, who, being restored to his see, with former privileges, behaved on the occasion with ce ive haughtine . After a triumphant entry Canterbury the young Prince Henry, crowned the lifetime of his father, transmitted him an to restore the suspended and exoonmiunicated lates, which he refused to do, on the pretence the pope alone could grant the favour, although latter had lodged the instruments of censure hands. The prelates immediately appealed to in Normandy, who in a state of extreme exasperation exclaim^ 'What an unhappy prince who have not about me one man of spirit enough rid me of a single insolent prelate, the perpetual trouble of my life!' These rash and too significant words induced four of the attendant barons, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto, to resolve to wipe out the reproach. Having laid their plans, they forthwith proceeded to Canterbury, and having formally (|uired the archbishop to restore the suspended lates, they returned in the evening of the day (Dec. 29, 1170), and placing soldiers courtyard, rushed with their swords drawn into cathedral, where the archbishop was at vespers, advancing towards him threatened him with if he still disobeyed the orders of Henry. Becket, without the least token of fear, replied that he ready to die for the rights of the church; and nanimously added, ' I charge you in the name Almighty, not to hurt any other person here, none of them have been concerned in the transactions.' The confederates then strove to him out of the church; but not being able to on account of his resolute deportment, they him on the spot with repeated wounds, all which endured without a groan. The conduct of Henry, and the consequences this asHastti nation, form a part of English history wherein tlie discerning student will {lerccive subtle iM)licy of the court of Rome, which eagerly availed itnelf of this o])i)ortunity to advance general object, with a due rej^anl to the power Honry and his strength of character. 'Hie trat*»r9 of the deed, on taking a voyage to were admitte<l to penance, and allowed to expiate tlu'ir enormity in the Holy Land. I'lius pcriwhed Tliomas Becket in his fifty-Kocond year, a martyr to the cause which he espoused, and could a man of unquestionable vigour of intellect. He was dis canonized two years after his death, and miracles at aboimded at his tomb. In the reign of Henry III. of his his body was taken up and placed in a magnificent A shrine erected by Archbishop Stephen Langton; an<l lent of the popularity of the pilgrimages to his tomb the Canterbuiy Tales of Chaucer will prove an enduring testimony. 121