The Cult of Thomas Becket: History and Historiography through Eight Centuries

353 Pages·2018·7.315 MB·English

by  Kay Brainerd Slocum

The Cult of Thomas Becket
On December 29, 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury,
was brutally murdered in his own cathedral. News of the event was
rapidly disseminated throughout Europe, generating a widespread cult
which endured until the reign of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century, and
engendering a fascination which has lasted until the present day. The Cult
of Thomas Becket: History and Historiography through Eight Centuries
contributes to the lengthy debate surrounding the saint by providing a
historiographical analysis of the major themes in Becket scholarship, tracing
the development of Becket studies from the writings of the twelfth-century
biographers to those of scholars of the twenty-first century.
The book offers a thorough commentary and analysis which demonstrates
how the Canterbury martyr was viewed by writers of previous generations
as well as our own, showing how they were influenced by the intellectual
trends and political concerns of their eras, and indicating how perceptions
of Thomas Becket have changed over time. In addition, several chapters are
devoted a discussion of artworks in various media devoted to the saint, as
well as liturgies and sermons composed in his honor.
Combining a wide historical scope with detailed textual analysis, this
book will be of great interest to scholars of medieval religious history, art
history, liturgy, sanctity, and hagiography.
Kay Brainerd Slocum is Professor Emerita at Capital University, USA, where
she was previously the Gerhold Professor of Humanities. She is the author
of three books and multiple journal articles on music and medieval and
religious history.
Sanctity in Global Perspective
Series Editors:
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Alison Frazier, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Phyllis Granoff, Yale University, USA
Richard McGregor, Vanderbilt University, USA
Published under the aegis of The Hagiography Society, this series is dedi-
cated to exploring the concept of sanctity in literary, artistic, ideational,
and sociohistorical dimensions. ‘Sanctity in Global Perspective’ publishes
monographs and edited volumes that illuminate the lives of saintly figures,
the communities dedicated to those figures, and the material evidence of
their cults. Our aim is to foster critical scholarship that offers novel con-
ceptualizations and the possibility of crosspollination of ideas across tradi-
tions, geographical regions, and academic disciplines. The series is open to
all areas of scholarship, without restriction as to religious traditions or time
periods.
The Cult of St. Anne in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Jennifer Welsh
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Hagiographical Strategies
A Comparative Study of the ‘Standard Lives’ of St. Francis
and Milarepa
Massimo A. Rondolino
Peter Paul Rubens and the Counter-Reformation Crisis
of the Beati moderni
Ruth S. Noyes
The Cult of Thomas Becket
History and Historiography through Eight Centuries
Kay Brainerd Slocum
For more information about this series, please visit:
www.routledge.com/Sanctity-in-Global-Perspective/book-series/SANCGLBPER
The Cult of Thomas Becket
History and Historiography
through Eight Centuries
Kay Brainerd Slocum
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Kay Brainerd Slocum
The right of Kay Brainerd Slocum to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Slocum, Kay Brainerd, author.
Title: The cult of Thomas Becket : history and historiography
through eight centuries / Kay Brainerd Slocum.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, [2019] |
Series: Sanctity in global perspective | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018034968 (print) | LCCN 2018035485 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315102870 (e-book) | ISBN 9781351593397 (PDF) |
ISBN 9781351593380 ( ePub) | ISBN 9781351593373 (Mobi) |
ISBN 9781138103283 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Thomas, à Becket, Saint, 1118?–1170. | Christian
martyrs—Cult—History of doctrines—Middle Ages, 600–1500. |
Great Britain—History—Henry II, 1154–1189—Historiography. |
Christian martyrs—England—Canterbury—Historiography. |
Christian saints—England—Canterbury—Historiography. |
Christian hagiography—History—To 1500.
Classification: LCC DA209.T4 (ebook) | LCC DA209.T4 S56 2019
(print) | DDC 942.03/1092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018034968
ISBN: 978-1-138-10328-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10287-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my granddaughters
Sonora, Orla and Finja Slocum

Contents
List of figures ix
Preface and acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
PART I
Saint and cult 15
1 The creation of St Thomas of Canterbury 17
2 Thirteenth-century translations 43
3 “Hooly blisful martir”: the development
of the Becket cult 67
4 Liturgies, sermons, and the translation of 1220 89
5 Becket and iconography 110
PART II
Becket and the Reformation 141
6 Henry VIII and the specter of Thomas Becket 143
7 Becket as a symbol for the Catholic opposition 170
PART III
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century views of Becket 193
8 Rationalism and the Canterbury martyr 195
9 Victorian biographers and antiquarians 216
viii Contents
PART IV
Becket in the modern and postmodern world 243
10 Becket in legal and intellectual history 245
11 Biographies of the Canterbury martyr in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries 265
12 Becket scholarship in the postmodern world
and beyond 289
Conclusion 307
Selected Bibliography 310
Index 330
Figures
2.1 Henry II exiles Becket’s kin/Becket lies ill at Pontigny
Abbey. Becket Leaves, British Library Loan MS 88, f. 1r.
PBL Collection/Alamy Stock Photo 45
5.1 Martyrdom of Becket, Cotton, Claudius B II, f. 341.
© The British Library Board 111
5.2 Martyrdom of Becket, British Library, Harley 5102, f. 32.
© The British Library Board 113
5.3 Reliquary, French (Limoges), c. 1180. M.66–1997.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London 114
5.4 Ampulla, lead alloy, 1170–1200. 1921, 0216.62.
© The Trustees of the British Museum 118
5.5 Pilgrim Badge: Head of St Thomas Becket, lead alloy,
thirteenth century. Photograph by the author – collection
of the author 119
5.6 Pilgrim Badge: Shrine of St Thomas Becket, lead alloy,
thirteenth century. 1921, 0216.64. © The Trustees
of the British Museum 121
5.7 Seal of Archbishop Thomas Arundel (1397–1414). By kind
permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London 123
7.1 Giovanni Battista de Cavalleriis, “The martyrdom of
St Thomas Becket,” from Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea,
Rome, n.d. (1584), 25. Collection of the author 183