The Cathedral Church of Canterbury | Page 8

straightway restore his legs and feet,

bases et plantas, to the same Alexander."
Other miracles performed by the saint are pictured in the painted
windows of Trinity Chapel, of which we shall treat fully later on. The
fame of the martyr spread through the whole of Christendom. Stanley
tells us that "there is probably no country in Europe which does not
exhibit traces of Becket. A tooth of his is preserved in the church of
San Thomaso Cantuariense at Verona, part of an arm in a convent at
Florence, and another part in the church of St. Waldetrude at Mons; in
Fuller's time both arms were displayed in the English convent at Lisbon;
while Bourbourg preserves his chalice, Douay his hair shirt, and St.
Omer his mitre. The cathedral of Sens contains his vestments and an
ancient altar at which he said mass. His story is pictured in the painted
windows at Chartres, and Sens, and St. Omer, and his figure is to be
seen in the church of Monreale at Palermo."
In England almost every county contained a church or convent
dedicated to St. Thomas. Most notable of these was the abbey of
Aberbrothock, raised, within seven years after the martyrdom, to the
memory of the saint by William the Lion, king of Scotland. William
had been defeated by the English forces on the very day on which
Henry II. had done penance at the tomb, and made his peace with the
saint, and attributing his misfortunes to the miraculous influence of St.
Thomas, endeavoured to propitiate him by the dedication of this
magnificent abbey. A mutilated image of the saint has been preserved
among the ruins of the monastery. This is perhaps the most notable of
the gifts to St. Thomas. The volume of the offerings which were poured
into the Canterbury coffers by grateful invalids who had been cured of
their ailments, and by others who, like the Scotch king, were anxious to
propitiate the power of the saint, must have been enormous. We know
that at the beginning of the sixteenth century the yearly offerings,
though their sums had already greatly diminished, were worth about
£4,000, according to the present value of money.
The story of the fall of the shrine and the overthrow of the power of the
martyr is so remarkable and was so implicitly believed at the time, that
it cannot be passed over in spite of the doubts which modern criticism

casts on its authenticity. It is said that in April, A.D. 1538, a writ of
summons was issued in the name of King Henry VIII. against Thomas
Becket, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, accusing him of treason,
contumacy, and rebellion. This document was read before the martyr's
tomb, and thirty days were allowed for his answer to the summons. As
the defendant did not appear, the suit was formally tried at Westminster.
The Attorney General held a brief for Henry II., and the deceased
defendant was represented by an advocate named by Henry VIII.
Needless to relate, judgment was given in favour of Henry II., and the
condemned Archbishop was ordered to have his bones burnt and all his
gorgeous offerings escheated to the Crown. The first part of the
sentence was remitted and Becket's body was buried, but he was
deprived of the title of Saint, his images were destroyed throughout the
kingdom, and his name was erased from all books. The shrine was
destroyed, and the gold and jewels thereof were taken away in
twenty-six carts. Henry VIII. himself wore the Regale of France in a
ring on his thumb. Improbable as the story of Becket's trial may seem,
such a procedure was strictly in accordance with the forms of the
Roman Catholic Church, of which Henry still at that time professed
himself a member: moreover it is not without authentic parallels in
history: exactly the same measures of reprisal had been taken against
Wycliffe at Lutterworth; and Queen Mary shortly afterwards acted in a
similar manner towards Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge.
The last recorded pilgrim to the shrine of St. Thomas was Madame de
Montreuil, a great French dame who had been waiting on Mary of
Guise, in Scotland. She visited Canterbury in August, A.D. 1538, and
we are told that she was taken to see the wonders of the place and
marvelled at all the riches thereof, and said "that if she had not seen it,
all the men in the world could never 'a made her believe it." Though
she would not kiss the head of St. Thomas, the Prior "did send her a
present of coneys, capons, chickens, with divers
fruits--plenty--insomuch that she said, 'What shall we do with so many
capons? Let the Lord Prior come, and eat, and help us to eat them
tomorrow at