The Canterbury pilgrimages

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A vO c vO O oH -t:

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For him was liever have at his bed's head Tweenty bookes clad in black or red Than robes rich, or fiddle, or gay psaltrie."

PA.OB

xi

Introduction

The breath of Spring blows fresh and sweet, the leaves grow soft and green, while high in heaven the hawk stoops to strike the lordly heron. Year after year it is the same, while Thomas of London climbs to towering heights — and falls.

Pilgrims loiter through the Kentish fields and gardens, over the soft, short sward of the open Surrey downs ; while summoners, pardoners, and other mountebanks win their way by fraud. Century after century it is the same, while the Cult of Thomas the Martyr rises to towering heights — and falls.

The Interest of this book centres around two great tragedies, the fall of Thomas the Archbishop ; and the fall of the worship of Thomas the Martyr. These are bound up with a part of a still greater tragedy ; the collapse of a grand religious movement, which, with all its human imperfections and shortcomings, had done a noble work for those who needed It most — the poor, the weak, the sorrowing.

It is well that we should view these disasters under the guidance of that man who was essentially the poet of the Springtime, whose puppets move serenely under the very shadow of Impending doom, and whose verse breathes of birds and xii INTRODUCTION

sunshine, daisies and open air. He helps us to see how eternal and how indifferent to incidents are nature and human nature. He shows us that his monk and his pardoner, his wife of Bath and his prioress, his gentle knight and his poor parson are people we meet to-day under other names. And he preaches the resurrection and the life : not only for individuals, but for ideas, for thoughts, and for aspirations. He shows that though forms and circumstances change, though truth be veiled at times, the noble man will always be noble, the pure will always be pure.

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGES

Chapter I

Thomas was born in London, on December 21, 1 1 18, In a house standing upon the site nowoccupied by the chapel of the Mercers' Company, on the north of Cheapslde. It was the Feast of St Thomas — which determined the name of the infant — and he was baptised at evensong on the day of his birth. In the church of his parish, St Mary Colechurch. His name is here given as Thomas, because there Is no contemporary authority for the surname ''a Becket " by which he Is generally called, and because although the surname Becket or Beket was applied to his father, it did not necessarily descend to the son, for in that day such a name was a personal, and not a family possession. In only three cases are contemporaries recorded as speaking of him as Becket. In the enormous majority of instances he is simply called Thomas, or, as he attained position, Thomas of London, Thomas the Chancellor, or, Thomas the Archbishop.

' A

His father was Gilbert Becket, the Norman, son of a Norman settler who came from Rouen, and of Matilda, a native of Caen. The mother's name is sometimes i^iven as Rose (Roesa or Rohesia), but the probability seems to be that Gilbert and Rose were the grandparents, and Gilbert and Matilda the parents of Thomas. The name of Rose was i^iven to a sister of Thomas, who survived him until about 1167, and to whom Henry II. i^ranted a pension at the time of his penance at the tomb of her murdered brother.

Around the name of "Thomas a Becket" many interestini^ lei^^ends have arisen. The most persistent is that which tells the romantic adventures of his father in the Holy Land, and how on his return to PLnL^land he was followed by the dauL^hter of his paynim captor, who crossed the whole of Europe and the narrow seas guided by the two words —Gilbert ; London. This story of a maidenly devotion which had scarcely been deserved by Gilbert's desertion of his fair convert, was apparently unknown to the contemporaries of Thomas, and it seems to have been based upon a statement, made after his death, that he united the churches of the East and the West, and because of his adoption as the patron saint of the knights of Acre.

There are stories — recorded not long after his martyrdom — of many miraculous occurrences accompanying the birth of Thomas. The story of the Saracen maiden is accompanied by an enthusiastic prophecy, said to have been spoken by the Bishop of Chichester when sitting with six other bishops, to decide whether Gilbert might conscientiously marry the converted pagan ; there are tales of wonderful dreams which came to the mother of the child before his birth, and of a fire which broke out in his father's house on the day he was born, destroying not only his birthplace but also a good part of the city. All these things — including the very unfriendly omen of the conflagration — were supposed to have been sent especially to show that the child was to be a burning and a shining light, and a builder of churchesv Fortunately he knew nothing about these things, so that they did not affect his life ; and this is probably true of another story, although his friend and biographer, Herbert of Bosham, records it as from the lips of Thomas himself; — that when as a boy he lay sick of a fever, the Virgin Mary appeared unto him, promising recovery from the illness, and giving him two golden keys, which she said were the keys of paradise, thereafter to be in his keeping. These keys have also been connected with the churches of the East and the West, of which mention has been made.

When ten years old, Thomas was taken to the Priory of St Mary's, at Mcrton, in Surrey, where he made one of his most valued and life-lonoattachments ; for Robert, the prior who was charged with his education, became his private confessor, and was one of the very few who stood by him to the last on the day of his murder. This Robert of Mcrton has told us that the personal life of Thomas was pure and upright, and that as a schoolboy he was bright and intelligent, with a great memory, but also with a preference for idleness and sport rather than

4 CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGRS

for study. The facts, that when Thomas was consecrated archbishop he made Robert his chaplain, and that the Priory of Merton was visited and materially helped by Henry II. at Thomas's su<^^gestion, show that the bri;(ht boy long retained pleasant memories of his first school, and that gratitude had a place in his character.

An occurrence which has a natural explanation, but which the chroniclers consider miraculous, was connected with the lad's love of sport. In this he was encouraged by Richer de I'Aigle, a wealthy knight or baron of Pevensey Castle, who stayed at the house of Gilbert Becket on his visits to London, and who took the l)()y to his Sussex home for at least one considerable visit. On one such occasion, while the two were hawking, *'they came to a mill-stream spanned by naught save a plank. Richer, who went first, passed across the plank. Thomas came after, all hooded. But the foot of his horse slipjx^d, and he, with the horse as well, fell into the stream. Torn from his horse, he was drawn fast toward the mill-wheel. Just as he was bound to be dragged under the wheel, the miller turned off the water. The knight and his retinue followed with cries along the bank. Hearing their voices the miller came out, and dragged out Thomas half dead."

This account is taken from two of the chroniclers, whose records supplement each other in certain small details. As shewing how a simple incident may become miraculous, it may be well to quote the same story from a third chronicler, Edward Grim, who was with Thomas at his death, and who is notably and exactlyaccurate whenever recording matters within his own knowledge. He writes : *' On a certain day, when Thomas was hawking with [Richer], the hawk, chasing a wild duck, and seizing it just as it dived, was itself pulled Into the water. The young man, sorry that the hawk should perish, leapt from his horse and threw himself into the stream. At once he was in danger, now sinking under the water, anon rising to the surface, and none was able to stretch him a hand. Toward the mill-wheel he was drawn by the rushing water, but just as he approached the outflow, the wheel stood, and moved Itself no more imtil, alive indeed, but greatly injured, the young man was pulled out. Hut the unfortunate youth was cherished by the healing hand of the Saviour, who In this time of danger would not allow the future light in Israel to be extinguished, from whose precious death we have seen so many benefits aj)pear."

From Mcrton, Thomas went to one of the great schools in London, where the recognised sports of the boys included C(^ck-fighting and the roui^hest of football, and thence to Paris, where he remained until he was twenty-one. To this season in Paris has been assigned an occurrence which is probably only a later version of a vision already mentioned. It is told that when one of the fashionable feasts of love occurred, and all his school-fellows received presents from friends and sweethearts, Thomas alone had no such gift. He prayed to his Lady the Virgin for a token of her favour that might be shown to his fellows, and thereupon appeared nn the altar a casket containing ecclesiastical ornaments, while a voice bade him use the gift when he should become a priest. One of the chronicles records the name of one of his school-fellows, Everlin, afterward Abbot of St Laurence, Liege, who dedicated an altar to St Thomas in memory of their schooldays, while another old writer says that Ludolf, who became Archbishop of Magdeburg in ii94» was taught by Thomas, in Paris. Another man who was to become a fast friend and biographer - John of Salisbury — was studying in Paris during part of the time that Thomas was there, and it is possible that their acquaintance began in those student days, although the fact is not recorded.

Of the instructors we are even more ignorant than of the fellow-students, though we know that one, Robert of Melun, "taught dialectic and the sacred page" in Paris at the time. He had John of Salisbury as one of his pupils, and at a later date he was invited to England by Henry II. at the instance of Thomas, who afterward preferred him to the Bishopric of Hereford. This was probably a second instance o( gratitude to a teacher.

When Thomas was about twenty-one, his mother died. His father had been much reduced in worldly circumstances as the result of various fires, and the son became a clerk to one of his relatives, Osbern Huitdeniers, a very wealthy and influential merchant. He seems also to have been clerk in the portreeve's office, and it is recorded that he was for some time notary to Richer I'Aigle, his sporting friend, but this part of the career is not very certainly known. Probably the supposed engagement with I'Aigle is an error, founded on the story of their earlier friendship, and it is possible that Huitdenier held the office of portreeve during part (at least) of Thomas's service with him. From 1 140 to 1143 he was engaged in commercial work, but shortly before November in the last-named year he had a stroke of good fortune which paved the way to his ultimate immense success.

Amongst the visitors to the house of Gilbert were a certain Master Eustace of Boulogne, and his brother the Archdeacon Baldwin, who noted the ability of Thomas, and suggested that he should find a position in the service of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury. The application seems to have been made by Gilbert in person, who reminded the archbishop that they were both Normans, and natives of the same city.^ The candidate was further supported by a friend already in a lowly position in the archbishop's service, and, on the strength of this multiple recommendation, Thomas obtained a position in what was at the moment the most powerful and influential household in the kingdom. In those days of trouble between Stephen and Matilda, both claimants for the throne, only Henry, Bishop of Winchester, rivalled Theobald in political importance.

Natural ability, added to the experience of affairs gained in the service of Huitdeniers and in the companionship of men like I'Aigle and the Archdeacon Baldwin, had fitted Thomas to be

' " Tierrici villam " or Thiersy, in the account of Fitzstephen. But it is also suggested that the reminder was really of their connection with Bee Hellouin, where Theob:iid first becime a monk, and from which Gilbert may have taken liis surname, since Bccket is the diminutive of Bee. In any case, Thiersy is close to Bee.

useful in a political household ; but for the first few years he owed more to his wonderful personal power of attracting those with whom he associated than to his recognised usefulness, for twice he was dismissed from the service owing to the malice and false representations of Roger Pont riwcque (afterward Archbishop of York), who seems to have become jealous of his popularity, but on each occasion was reinstated through the friendship of Walter, Archdeacon of Canterbury, brother oi the archbishop. Theobald had drawn around him many young men of great ability, so that his palace has been described as the "home and training College of a new generation of P^nglish scholars and English statesmen," and although Pont lEveque was unfriendly, at least two other members of the household in addition to Walter the archdeacon, soon recognised the sterling qualities of their new companion. These were Richard, then chaplain to Theobald, and after waril successor to Thomas as Archbishop of Canterbury, and John Belmeis, afterward Archbishop of Lyons. At first, Thomas, John, and Roger (Pont I'Eveque) had banded themselves together for mutual aid in securing those ambitious aims which they frankly admitted ; but as we have seen, Roger soon became jealc^us, and his enmity and emulation lasted through life, just as did the friendship of those whom Thomas attached to himself. Amongst such companions, and others who afterward occupied many of the most important sees in England, only supreme personal ability could find much recognition, yet very soon after joining the household Thomas was employed

PORTION OF KKMAINS OF AKCHinSHOPS" PALACE AT OTFOKI-.

upon diplomatic services demanding great skill and tact. His personality was all In his favour. Unusually tall and powerful, handsome and manly, with strongly-marked features, fine prominent eyes, large, slightly aquiline nose, and hands of unusual softness and whiteness, he had abnormal quickness of sense, in sight, hearing, touch, and smell ; a peculiarity which remained with him to the last. His bearing was naturally majestic, his voice clear and resonant, his conversation alert and fluent, with great command of language, and his expression quickly changing from the animation of debate to an impressive calm in repose.

Thomas early took minor orders, for he saw that the path to power lay through the Church, and his support was amply provided for by the gift of the livings of St Mary-in-the-Strand, and Sf Otford, in Kent, in 1143; and of prebendal stalls in St Paul's and in Lincoln before the end of I 1 54, in which year he was appointed Archdeacon of Canterbury, and Provost of^ Beverley, to which were added many lucrative posts, actually filled, as was the custom, wllh Ill-paid deputies.

Some time before this, however, Thomas had found the results of his partially neglected education, and had applied himself with great earnestness to such studies as should make him, at least, the equals of his companions.

About 1 145, with the assistance of Theobald, who took great interest in Roman Law and who afterward established a lectureship at Oxford, he spent more than a year on the Continent, at Bologna and Auxerre, studying ecclesiastical and lo CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGES

civil law. In view of the fact that he was to become the great champion of the legal powers of the Church as opposed to those of the Crown, this experience was most important, for upon it were based the phenomenal success and the tragic end of one of the strongest and most rugged characters in England's history.

At this time the administrative authority of the Church was very great, and its labour in matters of litigation was constantly increasing. Diocesan courts had to be supplemented by many archidiaconal courts, and, to quote Dr Stubbs, ''there was a vast increase in ecclesiastical litigation, great profits and fees to be made out of it ; a craving for canonical jurisprudence . . . and with it the accomi)anying evils of ill-trained judges and an ill-understood system. . . . The archdeacons were worldly, mercenary, and unjust ; the law was uncertain and unauthoritative ; the procedure was hurried and irregular." To remedy this state of affairs. Theobald imported his masters of law, and established lectures in Oxford ; but he also found them useful in his embittered contests with King Stephen ; with Henry, brother of the king, and Bishop of Winchester, who, as legate of the pope, superseded the archbishop in certain matters, even in his own see; and with Hugh, Abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, who successfully maintained that he was independent of the archbishop, and subject only to the pope. In these involved intrigues Thomas soon took a part, and there can be no doubt that his sound judgment and quick appreciation of subtle points were highly valued by Theobald, who had the

THOMAS OF LONDON ii

tact and self-control which were sometimes lacking when Thomas became his own master.

An early recognition of his services is shown by the fact that Thomas of London accompanied Theobald to Rome in November 1143, to oppose the claim of Henry of Winchester to be legate of the new pope, Celestine H., as he had been of Innocent II. In 1144, Lucius II. succeeded Celestine, and the case was reheard, as was also the quarrel between Theobald and the Abbot of St Augustine's, which was decided in favour of the archbishop. In June 1144, Theobald returned to England, confirmed in his position, without a rival or active opponent, and at some later date he was appointed papal legate.

In 1 148 there was a convocation at Rheims by the pope, Eugenius III., to consider, inter alia, the election of William, nephew of the king, to the Archbishopric of York, which was opposed as illegal by Theobald. The king forbade Theobald to leave the country, and threatened that if he did so he should be permanently banished. The ports were watched lest he should escape in disguise, but eventually, accompanied by Thomas of London and Roger of Canterbury (Pont I'Eveque) he crossed in a small boat, and was heartily welcomed by the pope as one who for the honour of St Peter had crossed the sea, thous^h it was ''more like a swim than a sail." For a long time Theobald and his companions were obliofed to remain abroad. Confiscations by the king were met by threats of excommunication by the archbishop, who carried on much of the business of his see from St Omer, and who impressed English and Normans alike with his

12 CANTHRHURY PILGRIMAGES

dignity, firmness, gentleness, and generosity to the poor. After a time, Theobald and his companions returned to England, and he was reconciled to the king.

At the council of Rheims, Theobald and Thomas almost certainly met John of Salisbury, who was to become one of the best friends, and a biographer of the younger man ; and who came to England in 1 1 50 to take the position of secretary to Theobald.

Soon after this a most important piece of political business was undertaken by Theobald, who is said to have employed Thomas as his envoy to the pope. As was to be expected, after his quarrel with the king, the archl)ishop favoured the i)arty of Henry, Duke of Normandy (later Henry 1 1.), to whom he had pledged or renewed his promise of support when at St Omer. Theobald opposed the succession of Stephen's son, I^ustace, and sent Thomas to Rome for letters from the po[K', forbidding his coronation. Inconsequence, when the nobles had sworn fealty to Eustace at a great council in 1 152, and Theobald and the bishops were called upon to crown the young man, Thei^bald refused. He and his companicjns were imprisoned in a house until they should decide to obey the king, and when many of the bishops protested against the refusal, Theobald and those who sided with him escaped from the house, dropped down the Thames in a small boat, and took ship for Flanders. Again there was confiscation on one side, and threat to excommunicate the king and lay the country under a papal interdict on the other side. Stephen relented, and recalled the archbishop, who in the next year, when Henry, Duke of Normandy, was in England, arranged a treaty whereby the duke was to succeed Stephen. In 11 54, during Lent, he entertained the king and the duke at Canterbury, when he oppointed Roger, one of the companions of his wanderings, to be Archbishop of York, and the other, Thomas, to succeed Roger as Archdeacon of Canterbury and Provost of Beverley, with other posts, as already mentioned.

On the death of Stephen on October 25, IT 54, Theobald took the lead in inviting Henry of Normandy to occupy the throne, and during the weeks in which he was delayed at the siege of a castle in Normandy, Theobald acted informally as regent, and was very successful in maintaining peace amongst a very turbulent lot of almost independent nobles, and of mercenaries who were {)ractically leaderless.

The new king landed in Hampshire, hastened to Winchester, and thence had a magnificent progress and triumphal entry into London, where he was crowned by Theobald on December 19. The king doubtless realised that the policy of the archbishop had been latterly guided by the keen brain of Thomas of London, and showed sound judgment in accepting the services of Thomas when recommended to him by Theobald. From the archbishop, patient, tenacious, wise and good, rather than brilliant, we must now part for awhile, but this chapter cannot close more fitly than with a quotation from a letter of several years later (1161), dictated on his deathbed, and written by John of Salisbury. It reproaches the king and Thomas for their long absence from the country, but it shows the feclincr of love and trust with which Thomas was still regarded, after several years in the king's service, and it throws a pleasant light upon the character of the archbishop, of whom our record has been mostly of quarrel and stubbornness. He writes to the king : " Let your loyalty move you, together with the affection for your children, from whom the sternest parent could hardly bear so long a separation. Let the love of your wife move you, the beauty of the country, and that union of dcliL,dus which it is impossible to enumerate — not to forget my own case; let my desolation move you, for my age and sickness will not enable me to wait long for your coming. In this hope I wait. With many a sigh I say, Will not my Christ give me to see him whom, at my desire, Me gave me to anoint.^" And of Thomas he says : " He is the only one we have, and he is the first of our council. He ought to have come without a summons, and unless your need of him had excused him, he had been guilty of disobedience to God and man. But since we have ever preferred your will to our own, and have determined to further it in all that is lawful, we forgive him his fault. We wish him to remain in your service as long as you stand in need of his services, and we order him to give his whole zeal and attention to your wants. But permit him to return as soon as ever you can spare him."

Chapter II Whom The King Delighteth To Honour

Tine new khvy had more than once had good opportunities of noting the abih'ties of Thomas. His earnest partisanship, his fidelity, his courage and resource under difficulties and temporary defeat, his quickness and clearness of judgment, and his power of swaying men, were qualities marking him as a most valuable assistant in the great work of settling and managing a disorganised kingdom. There are differences of opinion as to the extent to which Henry or Thomas was the real leader in the many important works they carried out, but it seems clear that however much he may have been helped and influenced by Thomas, Henry, who was brilliant, capable, and persistent, knew and initiated his own policy, and deliberately chose for his chancellor the one man in the kingdom who had proved his capacity for the work to be done. He probably overlooked one very important feature in the strong character of Thomas, one which was to cause great trouble between them, ending in the terrible death of one, and the almost equally terrible humih'ation of the other. This was that curious fidelity to the master or the cause of the moment which was perhaps the strongest point, while, at the same time, it was in a sense the weakness, of a very fine nature. To a large extent it took the place of any theory of right or wrong : — when serving Theobald, the interests of Theobald were the only guide ; when serving the king, no personal preferences were allowed to stand in the way ; when serving the Church, not even his affection for the king, which was probably a far stronger influence than any fear of death, could make him deviate from the path he believed to be right in the interests of the Church. Thomas has been lauded as a saintly paragon, a m.ui of unblemished perfection, and he has been decried as an unprincipled self-seeker, with a career of success checked only by his own overweening vanity and obstinacy. In reality, he stands between the two estimates — a strong, manly man, but very human, with the faults th.a correlate and in part spring from the very virtues that made him great.

We have seen how Theobald, the first great employer of Thomas, longed for his presence, even when at death's door, and we may be sure he telt that he was giving of his best when he offered his faithful and favoured archdeacon to the new king. This was quite in line with Theobald's general character. He had worked and waited, not only for the predominance of his see in ecclesiastical matters, but for the maintenance of peace in England, and for the consolidation of the royal power. Supporting Stephen on the throne, even while opposed by him in certain church matters, he had refused to recognise Eustace, because in the compromise whereby

Stephen was to be maintained during his life, with succession to Henry, the son of his rival the Empress Matilda, he saw the one hope for peace in the country of his adoption. By fidelity to this idea Theobald had become the leader of the Angevin party ; the cause for which he had worked and waited, and even suffered, was established by the accession of Henry H., and it was only a step in the same course when he recommended to the king the vr ^-y best man he knew.

It has been charged against Thomas that in deserting the Church for diplomacy, he was in some way untrue to his allegiance, but this is one of the very last accusations that should be brought against such a man. Though miracles and devotion, and the divine call have been embroidered upon the story of his early life by writers who wished to represent him as wholly saintly, the fact is that he deliberately chose ''affairs" for his avocation. When he left his studies in Paris he did not enter into holy orders, but began business with Huitdenier. When he joined Theobald it was not to seek ecclesiastical preferment, but as a member of the household, and he soon took to the study of law. Even when Theobald was prepared to confer upon him the Archdeaconry of Canterbury — the most lucrative position below a bishopric in the whole Church of England — it was necessary to first make him a deacon. Thus diplomacy and politics were his proper, chosen sphere, and although his life was always chaste and regular, and became austerely religious after he was made archbishop, even in the Church his own proper work was guidance and government rather than spiritual ministration.

We do not know exactly when Thomas of London became Thomas the Chancellor, but it must have been immediately after the king's accession, for a certificate issued in January 1155 bears his attestation with the new title. Though nominally the chancellor yielded precedence to the lord chief-justice and a few other officials, practically he was the most influential man in the kingdom when he had the ability (as in the present case) to make the most of the position. Mis duties were a peculiar mixture. He was superintendent of the Chapel Royal, custodian of all sees, abbacies, and baronies that might be vacant, keeper of the great seal, and responsible for all royal grants. He had the right of attending all royal councils without summons, and had access at all times to the private car of the king. In fact, he was the prime minister of an active sovereign, taking a leading part in every act of the king, and the intimacy that sprang up between Henry and Thomas at once appears natural and inevitable if we look through any collection of the deeds, grants, and charters of the time. For while the great names attached as witnessing the documents are constantly changing, one name --''Thomas the Chancellor," or sometimes " Thomas the King's Chancellor," appears in every one. Thus, while archbishops, bishops, constable, chamberlain, nobles, and gentles of varying degrees are frequently with the king, the chancellor is ever at his hand.