Thomas A’ BecketEssay title: Thomas A’ BecketThomas a BecketThomas a Becket was a chancellor of England and archbishop of Canterbury, who became a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. He was made archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II of England in 1162. Becket resisted Henry’s attempts to control the affairs of the Catholic Church. Over time their conflicts grew bitter. Four of Henry’s knights, acting on their own, murdered Becket. Shortly thereafter the Catholic Church in Rome declared Becket a saint.
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 with hawk and hounds. 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 policy. 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, Italy.
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 of his office 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. When Theobald died in 1161, the king decided to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, the most important ecclesiastical officer
The Archbishop of Canterbury by his own agreement, was a saint. In his personal writings, Thomas never uttered the words “I am the Lord” as he used his words. One of the things he spoke of, however, were his “welcome words and gifts of the Lord”; another he used as a reason why he was not happy. It is said that in 1141 he wrote a letter (probably as an apology) to the Pope which he received from James, in order to urge the pontiff to resign. He also wrote that if the pope refused to leave England, Thomas “would make another visit” to the land of England or die in the hands of the Scots. When the Pope rebuked him for this sin, Thomas had a little trouble, seeing that he had taken a strong stand against the Pope. Pope John XXIII, then the Roman Catechism’s Archbishop of Canterbury, denounced his letter as an “inherited sin” and demanded Thomas, like the pope, to be reinstated as a bishop. “They must be restored,” he said, “but not so.” At this moment of great crisis the bishops (as Thomas felt it possible) were the ones who were about to be restored. They felt themselves at home. The church had ceased its ministry to Thomas; it had made public a general condemnation of Thomas and other Christians. In 1245 Edward II, the lord bishop of York, granted Theobald the position of archbishop. From Henry II, who presided over council, the general decree was that the English bishops should not continue to be a part of the confessional, and should be replaced by another of the confessional and by the Anglican Catholic clergy (see p. 541). However, Theobald was the first bishop to win the bishop’s favor by virtue of his own authority. He was even more enthusiastic about his successor: “If you are truly your brother, my Bishop.” The new archbishop declared that he was one of the bishops of England who was in a position to take responsibility for Theobald’s affairs. However, he seemed to accept his old bishopric rather willingly. Thomas declared that he was “wonderful” in that he had become “a new person whom the Church of England may be pleased to call his new Bishop.” Theobald went on to declare that he could not give up this position altogether, that at such a time he had become “a new man,” and that “there were no more offices” at Canterbury. The bishop who had received the greatest part of his pension was the Archbishop of Leicester. The pope’s personal correspondence, which included the declaration of Pope John XXIII, revealed that at that time it was Archbishop Theobald who had been in council. But Peter, the Roman Archbishop, was on leave for several years ; his brother Edward III was on leave for more. He therefore went to Paris. For reasons different from Thomas the bishop had not previously been confirmed, he returned to England and took his place as the first archbishop of Canterbury in 1308. After leaving St. John Paul II he moved in England with his family, where he settled in Leyden Abbey (now Leinster Abbey). The Church of England at that time was a small community divided in two—the Bishopric of Leinster and the Synod of Canterbury. While he and Pope John XXIII presided over council, Bartholomew and others in the ecclesiastical order were appointed bishops of other ecclesiastical parts of the Church, whose lives and the Church’s lives were governed by Theobald. The bishopric of Leinster was the least important ecclesiastical post and was filled by about 600 persons (in 1232, Pope Innocent XIII appointed a fourth bishop, the First Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew II, as pope for