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Henry II Versus Thomas Becket
Who was right in what is called the Becket Controversy? I’m not asking if the knights of Henry II should have killed Becket at Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170. I’m asking which side was right. A controversy bubbled into the English Reformation, which would say that Henry won in the end.
Thomas Becket’s dad, Gilbert, fell on financial hard times. He needed the employment of his twenty-something son. After succeeding in a first job as a clerk, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec, noticed him and then engaged him in many different notable capacities. When Henry II needed a new Lord Chancellor, Theobald recommended Becket. Henry hired him in 1155. Becket was essentially England’s second man and very loyal to his boss.
Henry II established common law in England. Russell Fowler writes:
Henry came to believe that justice was not only a fair resolution of disputes and punishment of the wicked, but it was also equal access to this justice. And these courts, staffed by his experienced and accountable judges, for the first time roved the land applying uniform rules and following the guide of recorded precedent in deciding similar cases.
Becket went right along with Henry under his employ. Henry expected him to continue when he appointed him Archbishop to replace Theobald in 1162.
The Roman Catholic Church functioned as a powerful entity in England, maybe greater than the King. Henry could not enforce common law on criminal priests operating with immunity under a different jurisdiction. This undermined the vision of Henry for the nation. He hoped Becket would help him, who instead betrayed him.
When Becket became Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, he defended the interests of the Pope in England. While Henry applied the law in a uniform manner among varied classifications, he could not include officers of Roman Catholicism. His former loyal assistant would not cooperate and this sabotaged his effort.
Without judging the outcome of the death of Becket, which side was right? The English Reformation occurred under a later King Henry, who became head of the Church of England. Today in Canterbury Cathedral, where the shrine to Becket once stood, a candle remains lit. The Church of England memorializes a Roman Catholic Archbishop with a candle.
I had two interesting visits in England, one to St. Augustine’s Abbey and the other to Dover Castle. The Pope sent Augustine to proselytize England in 598 from Canterbury, which originated the center of Christendom there. While my wife and I looked at the ruins, which included Augustine’s burial place, we spoke with a retired Anglican priest, now tour guide. I asked about the great respect for Becket all over Canterbury. One comment he made was that the state Church of England is less a state church than the non state church of the United States.
A fortification existed in Dover, England for the Romans as early as AD 43. Military planned both the Dunkirk evacuation and the Normandy invasion in miles of tunnels built under Dover Castle. In between first century Rome and World War 2, Henry II built the castle visible today between 1179 and 1189, the largest in all of England perhaps only second to Windsor.
Dover Castle is about thirty minutes from Canterbury by train, a very easy and beautiful ride. In a bit of irony, Henry II built up Dover Castle to protect and even accommodate important pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas Becket. This helped continue a good standing with the Pope, who canonized Becket as a saint in 1173. He built a chapel to Becket in the Great Tower, the centerpiece of the Castle. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales in 1387 about the varied characters making their way via this route. Henry VIII destroyed the shrine to and the bones of Becket in 1538, as well as ordering the termination of all further mention of his name.
I asked a tour guide at Dover Castle about Becket. I wondered out loud who supported Henry and who Becket in England today. He smiled and said that it probably depended on who you were and what you did. The controversy continues.
Populist support opposes the immunity of a religious hypocrite flouting common law. Of all people, the law should punish church officers. This may be why a 2006 BBC History poll called Becket the second worse Briton of the previous millennium behind Jack the Ripper (see also here and here).
When my wife and I visited Salisbury Cathedral, there we saw one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta, a document signed by King John, the son of Henry II, in June of 1215. At least another copy sits for display in the British Library in London. The Church of England keeps its candle lit for Becket and houses the Magna Carta, perhaps two pieces of contradiction. This foundational document, a heritage of liberty in the United States, says everyone is under the law, a particular notion rejected by Becket in his rebellion against Henry II.
The Tale of Two Archbishops of Canterbury
Most, I believe, would argue that Thomas Becket is the most famous archbishop of Canterbury. More than any other figure, he put Canterbury itself on the map in England. Fame came from his brutal death at the hands of knights of King Henry II.
In his late thirties, early forties, Becket, not even a Roman Catholic priest, served Henry II as the chancellor of England. When the opportunity came to insert a new Archbishop at Canterbury, Henry was happy to choose Becket. Henry II brought many important features to English civil rights and a just legal system. He had no jurisdiction over the misbehavior of Roman Catholic leaders. He expected Becket to help him with that.
Becket instead defended the power of Roman Catholicism against state intervention, even in criminal cases. Years Becket antagonized the King. Then Henry said aloud in his knight’s presence, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Whatever their original intentions, four of the knights killed Becket on December 29, 1170.
Monks took blood of Becket poured out in the Cathedral, mixed it with water, and used it for the anointing of the sick. Apparently men witnessed miracles. In stain glass at Canterbury is a portrayal of a death bed where the man drank the concoction and vomited out the cause. He walked away well.
The Pope venerated Becket as saint and martyr. Thousands took a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Becket. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about these pilgrims in Canterbury Tales. King Henry did penance of hundreds of blows with a rod. A memorial still decorates the place where Becket died in Canterbury Cathedral. A candle remains perpetually lit where Becket’s shrine once sat.
Almost no one cares about the death of another Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. He held that office during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and shortly Mary I. Cranmer opposed the power of the Roman Catholic Church. He led the English Reformation. He wrote the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, the official liturgy for the Church of England. If you try to find the place in Oxford where Queen Mary, Roman Catholic “Bloody Mary,” executed him, it will not be easy.
Shortly before his execution, Cranmer said:
And now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more than any other thing that I said or did in my life, and that is the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death and to save my life if it might be; and that is all such bills which I have written or signed with mine own hand since my degradation: wherein I have written many things untrue. And foreasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished, for if I may come to the fire, it shall be first burned. And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy and anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine. And as for the Sacrament. . . .
As he died in the flames, burnt at the stake, he cried: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Whatever Cranmer may have believed, he attempted to distinguish himself from Roman Catholicism at least and wrote the following in the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.
I don’t write this to advocate for the Church of England, just to provide a distinction between the way England treats these two Archbishops, even though the former was Roman Catholic.
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