St Thomas the Martyr, Archbishop of Canterbury,was born at London, 21 December, 1118 and martyred at Canterbury, 29 December, 1170.
He was born of parents who, coming from Normandy, had settled in England some years previously.In after life his humble birth was made the subject of spiteful comment, though his parents were not peasants, but people of some mark, and from his earliest years their son had been well taught and had associated with gentlefolk. He learned to read at Merton Abbey and then studied in Paris. On leaving school he employed himself in secretarial work, first with Sir Richer de l'Aigle and then with his kinsman, Osbert Huitdeniers, who was "Justiciar" of London. Somewhere about the year 1141, under circumstances that are variously related, he entered the service of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and in that household he won his master's favour and eventually became the most trusted of all his clerks. A description embodied in the Icelandic Saga and derived probably from Robert of Cricklade gives a vivid portrait of him at this period.
To look upon he was slim of growth and pale of hue, with dark hair, a long nose, and a straightly featured face. Blithe of countenance was he, winning and loveable in his conversation, frank of speech in his discourses, but slightly stuttering in his talk, so keen of discernment and understanding that he could always make difficult questions plain after a wise manner.
Theobald recognized his capacity, made use of him in many delicate negotiations, and, after allowing him to go for a year to study civil and canon law at Bologna and Auxerre, ordained him deacon in 1154, after bestowing upon him several preferments, the most important of which was the Archdeaconry of Canterbury (see Radford, "Thomas of London", p. 53).
It was just at this period that King Stephen died and the young monarch Henry II became unquestioned master of the kingdom. He took "Thomas of London", as Becket was then most commonly called, for his chancellor, and in that office Thomas at the age of thirty-six became, with the possible exception of the justiciar, the most powerful subject in Henry's wide dominions. The chroniclers speak with wonder of the relations which existed between the chancellor and the sovereign, who was twelve years his junior. People declared that "they had but one heart and one mind". Often the king and his minister behaved like two schoolboys at play. But although they hunted or rode at the head of an army together it was no mere comradeship in pastime which united them.
Both were hard workers, and both, we may believe, had the prosperity of the kingdom deeply at heart. Whether the chancellor, who was after all the elder man, was the true originator of the reforms to the law which Henry introduced is not clear In many matters they saw eye to eye. The king's imperial views and love of splendour were quite to the taste of his minister. When Thomas went to France in 1158 to negotiate a marriage treaty, he travelled with such pomp that the people said: "If this be only the chancellor what must be the glory of the king himself?"
Deacon though he was,he was also a soldierwith Henry in France and he led the most daring attacks in person, and Edward Grim also gives us to understand that in laying waste the enemy's country with fire and sword the chancellor's principles did not materially differ from those of the other commanders of his time. But although, as men then reported, "he put off the archdeacon", in this and other ways, he was very far from assuming the licentious manners of those around him. No word was ever breathed against his personal purity. Foul conduct or foul speech, lying or unchastity were hateful to him, and on occasion he punished them severely. He seems at all times to have had clear principles with regard to the claims of the Church, and even during this period of his chancellorship he more than once risked Henry's grievous displeasure. For example, he opposed the dispensation which Henry for political reasons extorted from the pope, and strove to prevent the marriage of Mary, Abbess of Romsey, to Matthew of Boulogne. But to the very limits of what his conscience permitted, Thomas identified himself with his master's interests, and Tennyson is true to history when he makes the archbishop say:
I served our Theobald well when I was with him:
I served King Henry well as Chancellor:
I am his no more, and I must serve the Church.
______________________________________________________Archbishop Theobald died in 1161, and in the course of the next year Henry seems to have decided that it would be good policy to prepare the way for further schemes of reform by securing the advancement of his chancellor to the primacy. Our authorities are agreed that from the first Thomas drew back in alarm. "I know your plans for the Church," he said, "you will assert claims which I, if I were archbishop, must needs oppose." But Henry would not be gainsaid, and Thomas at the instance of Cardinal Henry of Pisa, who urged it upon him as a service to religion, yielded in spite of his misgivings
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Thomas Becket is made Priest and institutes a papal custom in the Church
He was ordained priest on Saturday in Whitweek and consecrated bishop the next day, Sunday, 3 June, 1162. It seems to have been St. Thomas who obtained for England the privilege of keeping the feast of the Blessed Trinity on that Sunday, the anniversary of his consecration, and more than a century afterwards this custom was adopted by the papal Court, itself and eventually imposed on the whole world.
Thomas’ life becomes more and more sanctified by his apostolic office
A great change took place in the saint's way of life after his consecration as archbishop. Even as chancellor he had practised secret austerities, but now in view of the struggle he clearly saw before him he gave himself to fastings and disciplines, hair shirts, protracted vigils, and constant prayers.
Before the end of the year 1162 he stripped himself of all signs of the lavish display which he had previously affected. On 10 Aug. he went barefoot to receive the envoy who brought him the pallium from Rome. Contrary to the king's wish he resigned the chancellorship.
Things begin to go Wrong
Whereupon Henry seems to have required him to surrender certain ecclesiastical preferments which he still retained, notably the archdeaconry, and when this was not done at once showed bitter displeasure. Other misunderstandings soon followed. The archbishop, having, as he believed, the king's express permission, set about to reclaim alienated estates belonging to his see, a procedure which again gave offence. Still more serious was the open resistance which he made to the king's proposal that a voluntary offering to the sheriffs should be paid into the royal treasury. As the first recorded instance of any determined opposition to the king's arbitrary will in a matter of taxation, the incident is of much constitutional importance. The saint's protest seems to have been successful, but the relations with the king only grew more strained.
The king's officials try to assert jurisdiction over clerks who misbehave
Soon after this the great matter of dispute was reached in the resistance made by Thomas . He himself had no wish to be lenient with criminous clerks. It was with him simply a question of principle. St. Thomas seems all along to have suspected Henry of a plan to strike at the independence of what the king regarded as a too powerful Church.
With this view Henry summoned the bishops at Westminster (1 October, 1163) to sanction certain as yet unspecified articles which he called his grandfather's customs (avitæ consuetudines), one of the known objects of which was to bring clerics guilty of crimes under the jurisdiction of the secular courts. The other bishops, as the demand was still in the vague, showed a willingness to submit, though with the condition "saving our order", upon which St. Thomas inflexibly insisted. The king's resentment was thereupon manifested by requiring the archbishop to surrender certain castles he had hitherto retained, and by other acts of unfriendliness. In deference to what he believed to be the pope's wish, the archbishop in December consented to make some concessions by giving a personal and private undertaking to the king to obey his customs "loyally and in good faith". But when Henry shortly afterwards at Clarendon (13 January, 1164) tried to get the saint to formally the "Constitutions of Clarendon", the name given to the sixteen articles, the avitæ consuetudines there was uncompromising resistance.
Persecution
Then followed a period of unworthy and vindictive persecution. When opposing a claim made against him by John the Marshal, Thomas upon a frivolous pretext was found guilty of contempt of court. For this he was sentenced to pay £500; other demands for large sums of money followed, and finally, though a complete release of all claims against him as chancellor had been given on his becoming archbishop, he was required to render an account of nearly all the moneys which had passed through his hands in his discharge of the office. Eventually a sum of nearly £30,000 was demanded of him.Thomas ,however, knew Henry was trying to assert control over the church.
St Thomas flees England and implores Pope Alexander III for permission to resign
His fellow bishops summoned by Henry to a council at Northampton, implored him to throw himself unreservedly upon the king's mercy, but St. Thomas, instead of yielding, solemnly warned them and threatened them. Then, after celebrating Mass, he took his archiepiscopal cross into his own hand and presented himself thus in the royal council chamber. The king demanded that sentence should be passed upon him, but in the confusion and discussion which ensued the saint with uplifted cross made his way through the mob of angry courtiers. He fled away secretly that night (13 October, 1164), sailed in disguise from Sandwich (2 November), and after being cordially welcomed by Louis VII of France, he threw himself at the feet of Pope Alexander III, then at Sens, on 23 Nov.
Thomas is sheltered by the Cistercian Order, who are threatened by Henry II
The pope, who had given a cold reception to certain episcopal envoys sent by Henry, welcomed the saint very kindly, and refused to accept his resignation of his see. On 30 November, Thomas went to take up his residence at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy, though he was compelled to leave this refuge a year later, as Henry, after confiscating the archbishop's property and banishing all the Becket kinsfolk, threatened to wreak his vengeance on the whole Cistercian Order if they continued to harbour him.
Four Years of negotiations between Henry, the Pope and Thomas
The negotiations between Henry, the pope, and the archbishop dragged on for the next four years without the position being sensibly changed. Although the saint remained firm in his resistance to the principle of the Constitutions of Clarendon, he was willing to make any concessions that could be reasonably asked of him, and on 6 January, 1169, when the kings of England and France were in conference at Montmirail, he threw himself at Henry's feet, but as he still refused to accept the obnoxious customs Henry repulsed him.
Reconciliation
At last in 1170 some sort of reconciliation was patched up. The question of the customs was not mentioned and Henry professed himself willing to be guided by the archbishop's council as to amends due to the See of Canterbury for the recent violation of its rights in the crowning of Henry's son by the Archbishop of York. On 1 December, 1170, St. Thomas again landed in England, and was received with every demonstration of popular enthusiasm. But trouble almost immediately occurred in connection with the absolution of two of the bishops, whose sentence of excommunication St. Thomas had brought with him, as well as over the restoration by the de Broc family of the archbishop's castle at Saltwood.
The Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket
. How far Henry was directly responsible for the tragedy which soon after occurred on 20 December is not quite clear. Four knights who came from France demanded the absolution of the bishops. St. Thomas would not comply. They left for a space, but came back at Vesper time with a band of armed men. To their angry question, "Where is the traitor?" the saint boldly replied, "Here I am, no traitor, but archbishop and priest of God." They tried to drag him from the church, but were unable, and in the end they slew him where he stood, scattering his brains on the pavement. His faithful companion, Edward Grim, who bore his cross, was wounded in the struggle.
A tremendous reaction of horror at the sacrilege followed this deed of blood. In an extraordinary brief space of time devotion to the martyred archbishop had spread all through Europe. The pope promulgated the bull of canonization, little more than two years after the martyrdom, 21 February, 1173.
Henry does public penance
On 12 July, 1174, Henry II did public penance, and was scourged at the archbishop's tomb. An immense number of miracles were worked, and for the rest of the Middle Ages the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury was one of the wealthiest and most famous in Europe. The martyr's holy remains are believed to have been destroyed in September, 1538, when nearly all the other shrines in England were dismantled; but the matter is by no means clear, and, although the weight of learned opinion is adverse, there are still those who believe that a skeleton found in the crypt in January, 1888, is the body of St. Thomas. I am making a pilgrimage there in two weeks' time and will report on the shrines of St Thomas Becket and St Thomas More.
Pope John Paul at Canterbury, prays at the tomb of St Thomas Becket
The visit of Pope John Paul to Canterbury in the 1980’s was the first time a Catholic Mass has been held in the Cathedral for some centuries. Catholics still have mass in the Crypt on st Thomas’ feast day (or so I understand) and a member of the Benedictine order is on the council at the Cathedral and former Abbey Church.
It seems with the ongoing interference in Church affairs at the moment, a new devotion to St Thomas the Martyr and that other Martyr who defied Henry VIII’s wish (to marry his mistress and leave his wife of 35 years), St Thomas More (whose head is buried in Canterbury in a local church, belonging to the Roper family)is long overdue.
The Legend
The story that Henry VIII in 1538 summoned the archbishop to stand his trial for high treason, and that when, in June, 1538, the trial had been held and the accused pronounced 'guilty', the body was ordered to be disinterred and burnt, is probably apocryphal.He did, however,cause desecration of St Thomas shrines, had the people scratch out reference to St Thomas in the books of the Hours or prayerbooks carried by the Faithful, as recorded in Eamon Holmes book.It may be for this reason, the chapel in Overmonnow was sidelined for a number of years, until the advent of the Oxford Movement.
St Thomas Dedications in Gwent
There are, or were formerly, a number of dedications to St Thomas Becket in the area, others being at Shirenewton, Wolvesnewton, Wyesham, Ganarew and (probably) Penrhos.
Mr F.R.Handcombe of Monmouth has made an extensive research of the history of this Church, formerly Chapel of Ease to the Priory of Our Lady and St Florent up on the Hill, a former Benedictine Priory I have written about on a previous blog.
Here are some extracts. The whole article can be read at the Priory Church Website and is available in the porch of the church.
The Church is open every day in daylight hours. It can be found by getting off the A 40 at Trellech and Wonastow Industrial Estate turn off and then going back into Monmouth. There is short term parking to the left of the famous Monnow Bridge, next to the restored Preaching Cross.
St Thomas the Martyr Church mmentioned in Bull of Pope Urban III
The present church, or part of it, is known to have been in use in 1186 when it was mentioned in the Bull of Pope Urban III. Its original construction can therefore be dated as having taken place in all probability between 1170 and 1186. There may well have been an earlier structure on the site.The first priests to say Mass in the present building would have been the monks of the priory Church, who were French from the Abbey of Saumur. The recorded Anglican Vicars from mid way through the nineteenth century, begin at 1830 with Joseph Fawcett Beddy down to the present Vicar David McGladdery appointed in 2009. Renewed interest in the church may have been due to the interest in the Oxford Movement, and perhaps a more Anglo Catholic form of worship needing a church with a different style-though this is just a speculation in view of the date. Twenty years before the reestablishment of the Catholic hierarchy in Britain, and a formal end of the persecution of Catholics.
Charles Heath, writing in 1800, claimed to identify Saxon features in the arches and windows, but the evidence for this is uncertain.
Fire Damage
Some fifty years after being built, in 1233, the church was damaged by fire (as was Monnow Bridge) in the course of the Battle of Monmouth, an action in the baronial uprising against Henry III. In the following year the King authorised the Constable of St Briavels to supply thirteen oaks from the Forest of Dean to repair the damage. In the year 1256 there is an unusual reference to the fact that anchorites were living in St Thomas's.
John Leland
For the next five hundred years, or more, information about the church is sparse.
In 1479 an Indulgence was granted by the Bishop of Hereford for the repair of the church, but in 1543 John Leland wrote (of the Monnow Gate) "beyond this gate is a suburb in the diocese of Llandaff where once stood the parish church of Saint Thomas, but now only a little chapel dedicated to the saint."
The Monmouth Cap
At about this time the Monmouth Cap came into prominence. There is a widespread belief that manufacture of the famous cap was centred in Overmonnow which, as a result, became known as Cappers' Town and Saint Thomas's as Cappers' Church. Mr Kissack however has pointed out (a) that nowhere in the known records is Overmonnow referred to as Cappers' Town, nor is the term used in an contemporary accounts of Monmouth.
In 1611 John Speed published a map of Monmouth, believed to be reasonably accurate, which showed St Thomas's Church with a square castellated tower at the Western end of a small building.
Decline and Restoration
The present church, or part of it, is known to have been in use in 1186 when it was mentioned in the Bull of Pope Urban III. Its original construction can therefore be dated as having taken place in all probability between 1170 and 1186. There may well have been an earlier structure on the site.
Charles Heath, writing in 1800, claimed to identify Saxon features in the arches and windows, but the evidence for this is uncertain.
Some fifty years after being built, in 1233, the church was damaged by fire (as was Monnow Bridge) in the course of the Battle of Monmouth, an action in the baronial uprising against Henry III. In the following year the King authorised the Constable of St Briavels to supply thirteen oaks from the Forest of Dean to repair the damage. In the year 1256 there is an unusual reference to the fact that anchorites were living in St Thomas's.
For the next five hundred years, or more, information about the church is sparse.
In 1479 an Indulgence was granted by the Bishop of Hereford for the repair of the church, but in 1543 John Leland wrote (of the Monnow Gate) "beyond this gate is a suburb in the diocese of Llandaff where once stood the parish church of Saint Thomas, but now only a little chapel dedicated to the saint."
At about this time the Monmouth Cap came into prominence. There is a widespread belief that manufacture of the famous cap was centred in Overmonnow which, as a result, became known as Cappers' Town and Saint Thomas's as Cappers' Church. Mr Kissack however has pointed out (a) that nowhere in the known records is Overmonnow referred to as Cappers' Town, nor is the term used in an contemporary accounts of Monmouth.
In 1611 John Speed published a map of Monmouth, believed to be reasonably accurate, which showed St Thomas's Church with a square castellated tower at the Western end of a small building.
For the next two hundred years or more there is little information......Monmouth lost four of its mediaeval churches and Saint Thomas's probably came close to suffering the same fate. A contemporary picture shows a scene of neglect and decay. The church was for many years a Chapel of Ease to what was now the Anglican Saint Mary's Parish Church, and was used for services only on Tuesday.
In 1830 Saint Thomas's again became a separate Anglican parish and major restoration of the church was undertaken by Thomas Henry Wyatt, a prolific architect whose uncle was agent to the Duke of Beaufort at Troy House.
It has been stated that the galleries came from Raglan Castle which had been dismantled nearly two hundred years earlier at the end of the Parliamentary War, but this is believed to be unlikely. Wyatt rebuilt the West front in brick and added a turret. This turret, depicted in a print of c.1850 has been described as being "curiously slavonic".
Further extensive restoration was carried out in 1874/5 by John Pritchard an architect who had been assistant to the famous Augustus Pugin. Wyatt's turret was replaced and the West doorway reconstructed in stone.
The vestries were added in 1887/8. The present East window dates from 1957.
In 1989-91 an extensive restoration was carried out costing £72,000, under the direction of Jonathan Price, an architect of the firm of Hook Mason of Hereford.
As the church stands at present its most noteworthy feature is the Norman chancel arch, regarded as a fine specimen of its kind. There is a Norman piscina in the South Wall, and the two doorways in the North face have been described as original work. In general the nineteenth century restoration work was carried out with a good deal of sympathy and regard for the character of the church. (from F R Handscombe's information )
The South Wall Font is unusual.The pillar is covered with basket work decoration and the bowl has faces of a man and woman, together with serpents and birds. It is probably a Garden of Eden scene. Such decoration was popular in the Celtic period, but the font's state of preservation suggests that it is not of great antiquity.
There are two carved figures in the church; they were found in recent years in a loft at the church hall, and they were on one of the earlier turrets of the church - their style has something in common with the three heads under the so-called 'Geoffrey's Window' in Priory Street, Monmouth.
I hope everyone will visit this absolutely fascinating and ancient church, which carries so many of the features our ancestors would have known
In our present age we should ask for St Thomas' help..
St David Pray for us
St Thomas Becket Pray for us
St Thomas More Pray for us
St Paul Pray for us
St Peter Pray for us
I would like to thank Mr Handscombe for all his hard work in researching the above and hope it may inspire others to do even more detailed work.
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Llantarnam Abbey
formerly a Cistercian foundation, now the home of the Sisters of Joseph of Annecy.
I have just posted about this, and also about the Chapel of St Dial in Cwmbran , now under the police college. It is believed tpo have been dedicated to St Duellus. But
within the boundaries of the parish of St Thomas the Martyr, there was another Chapel of St Dial or Duellus. (Might even at a push be St Dewi) This eas definitely in existence in 1186 and stood above the River Trothy near the A40 Tunnels. Little is known of it but parts of it were still standing in 1956 when it was bulldozed into a local well. I remember seeing an artist'ss repesentation of it on the web on the Monmouth churches site-so if you know where the originals are, I would be grateful. The name of the Chapel survives in the names St Dial's Farm and Holywell wood. There are two fonts in St Thomas'Church itself and one of them may have come from this Chapel, and there are various other articles in the vicinity
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