priory, a London grammar school, and Paris in its
preuniversity days. From 1143 to 1145 he was appren-
ticed to a London banker, enjoying a wild, frivolous
life; he supported the Angevin side in the civil war of
Stephen’s reign. Thereafter he joined the household
of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, where his
companions included John of Salisbury, Gilbert Foliot,
Roger of Pont l’Évêque, John of Pagham, and John of
Canterbury—scholars and future bishops who together
suggested a protouniversity. He learned superb admin-
istrative skills, derived from Theobald’s training at the
hands of his own predecessors, Lanfranc and Anselm.
Theobald supported the Angevins against Stephen and
went into exile; Thomas accompanied him to Rome,
learning international diplomacy. As papal legate after
1150 Theobald arranged Henry of Anjou’s succession
as Henry II.
When Henry acceded in 1154 at age 22, his English
backers, seeking to control, counsel, and educate him,
chose Thomas as the chancellor (1155–62). Becket be-
came almost Henry’s alter ego and best friend, raising
the offi ce of chancellor to new heights of power and
responsibility. His magnifi cent lifestyle—the grandeur
and ostentation befi tting the king’s constant companion
in hunting, gaming, feasting, and joking—would haunt
him later. But he counseled Henry to rule justly for the
welfare of kingdom and church, and Henry obeyed.
Theobald is said to have designated Thomas as his
successor.
Henry chose Thomas for Canterbury, primate of the
English church, on Theobald’s death (1162). Immedi-
ately Thomas underwent a surprising transformation;
from model courtier he became model archbishop. His
lavish extravagance became lavish charity, his house-
hold of courtiers became one of scholars and learned
lawyers. Days of hunting and feasting became days of
study, devotion, and prayer. Scholars still cannot explain
this metamorphosis.
Becket, now a fanatic reformer, clashed with Henry
over royal and ecclesiastical rights. Thomas claimed
his duty was to rule the church according to “law and
right”—by which he may have meant the canon law
just then being systematized by the papal court. Henry
insisted on his duty to preserve England’s “ancestral
customs”—later the “precedents” of English common
law—as crystallized in the Constitutions of Clarendon
(1163). Thomas protested violently, fl eeing into exile
(1164). During the next six years both men sent secret
missions to Pope Alexander III, the French king, the
German emperor, and counts, abbots, bishops, and
archbishops throughout Europe to gain allies. Reams
of propagandistic letters fl ew from court to court, re-
plete with deceptions, half-truths, and manipulations
of public and private opinion. Neither man displayed
statesmanlike talents in this contest, both remaining
volatile and infl exible on minor points. Thus repeated
attempts to compromise failed over obscure sometimes
silly demands.
While Henry grudgingly yielded on specifi c issues
––at last virtually acceding to Thomas’s demands—he
underhandedly resurrected Becket’s worldly reputation
as chancellor and torpedoed one settlement by refusing
the Kiss of Peace. While Thomas was admired for his
immovable, righteous stance, he so offended nearly
everyone that he was hated almost universally in his
victory. When compromise came (at Freteval, 1170),
Thomas ruined it, returning to England and promptly
excommunicating all Henry’s supporters—including
most of the bishops. This further enraged the four al-
ready-infuriated knights who took Henry’s exasperated
statement that none of his household were helping him
against Thomas as a signal for murder.
Becket’s supporters declared him a martyr. But no
modern historian has yet explained satisfactorily his
motivations and actions. He claimed, following his
predecessor Anselm, to fi ght for God and Right. In-
deed he succeeded in forcing Henry to submit to papal
formulations of canon law and partial papal control,
yet only at the near-destruction of the English church,
of which Thomas was shepherd and guardian. Thus
Thomas still remains a mystery, a mass of contradic-
tions and controversies—as his companions suggested,
a “sacred monster,”
See also Henry II; Lanfranc of BecFurther Reading
Barlow, Frank. Thomas Becket. London: Weidenfi eld & Nicol-
son, 1986.
Knowles, David. The Episcopal colleagues of Archbishop Thomas
Becket. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Knowles, David. Thomas Becket. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1970.
Radford, Lewis B. Thomas of London before His Consecration.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1894.
Saltman, Avram. Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury. London:
Athlone, 1956.
Smalley, Beryl, The Becket Confl ict and the Schools: A Study of
Intellectuals in Politics. Oxford: Blackwell, 1973.
Wilks, Michael, ed. The Wo r l d of John of Salisbury. Oxford:
Blackwell, for the Ecclesiastical History Society, 1984.
Sally N. VaughnBEDE THE VENERABLE (CA. 673–735)
Honored as “the Venerable” even in his own day, Bede
(Baeda Beda in earliest sources) was the foremost educa-
tor, exegete and historian of his epoch, the Northumbrian
Golden Age. Of his life Bede himself provides nearly all
we know, in the short autobiographical note he appended
to the last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, with a list of his numerous writings. HeBECKET, THOMAS