Prologue

After the most blessed martyr of Christ, Thomas, rested from his labors [Rv 14:13] and migrated from the transitory festival of the Nativity of the Lord to the joys of the inner and eternal festival,1 By “the transitory festival of the Nativity of Our Lord,” Benedict means the celebration of Christmas from December 25 to 31. our dancing was turned into mourning [Lam 5:15] and our organ into the voice of those who weep [Jb 30:31]. The crown fell from our head [Lam 5:16], the glory of the English, indeed even of the angels, the matchless flower of our pastors, the ornament and the splendor of the entire church. For us, our floods of tears were matched with many reasons for weeping, because we were made orphans without a father [Lam 5:3], and the Lord had closed the mouths of the singers [Est 13:17] since his holy church was polluted by the shameful act of parricide.2 Blood shed inside a church desecrates it, meaning that it cannot be used for services until it is reconsecrated in a formal ceremony. Monks would normally hold eight services (the “monastic offices”) within their church per day, plus more for feast days and Sundays, but Becket’s murder in the cathedral’s northwest transept brought this all to a halt for almost a year. The cathedral was not reconsecrated until December 21, 1171. The mother lamented and the daughters did not mourn [Mt 11:17], and she looked for someone who would share her sorrows, and there was none, and who would console her, and found none [Ps 68:21]. The mother was mourning, and the daughters’ singing increased the maternal suffering; she only experienced in herself music in mourning, a tale out of time [Sir 22:6].3 By the “mother mourning” and “daughters singing,” Benedict meant that while no church services could be held in the desecrated “mother” cathedral, all the churches under Canterbury’s jurisdiction, the “daughters,” continued to conduct services. We had to mourn the effusion of innocent blood, the contempt of the temple and of God, the continuing silence of our most noble church, the cruel audacity of those applauding this. The house of our holiness was desolate, the lady of the nations sat in sorrow, all her friends scorned her, nor was there one who would console her out of all those dear to her [Lam 1:1–2]. You would think that Canterbury, as much as Jerusalem, was lamented by the dirges of the prophets. All our ways of Sion mourned, because there was no one who might come to the feast [Lam 1:4]. The Lord caused feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in her [Lam 2:6], and she who was accustomed to bless the Lord in hymns and confessions [2 Mc 10:38], clothed in gold, a multi-coloured garment [Ps 44:10] before the many churches of the earth, was now consumed day and night with tears and mourning and was filled with disgrace.

I speak in Christ before God – the sons of the church were not even able to restrain their tears at table, but eating they silently mourned, and mixed their drink with tears. Unless the East had visited us from on high [Lk 1:78] and from the kernel of our grain left to us a seed of blessing,4 See the parable of the grain of wheat, John 12:24–6. the house of the Lord would have been stained with eternal disgrace and would not have survived further to rise again. But blessed be the Lord who did not suffer us to be tempted above that which we were able: but made also with temptation a way of escape, that we might be able to bear it [I Cor 10:13]. Blessed be the Lord, who looked on the sad, and healed our sadness, who turned to us and gave pardon, who left blessing in his wake. Behold, for this all generations will call us blessed, since he who is mighty did great things for us [Lk 1:48–9]. For shortly after his martyrdom, our young men saw visions and our old men dreamed dreams [Acts 2:17], and from this, we breathed up to the time of hope of a greater consolation. Miracles ensued, and we knew that the Lord had indeed lifted on high the horn of his Christ [1 Sm 2:10] and that in his hand he directed our salvation [1 Mc 3:6] – and not only ours, but that of the entire English church. For when the flowers of virtues had been eradicated, and the seed of the one who had come forth from the bosom of the Father to sow his seed had been trampled down and eaten, dried, and choked,5 See the parable of the Sower, Luke 8:4–18; esp. verses 5–8 in which the seed is trampled, eaten, dried, and choked. the nettles of crimes filled the field of the church. Wolves raged in the Lord’s sheepfold, and those who sat in the watchtowers did nothing, like mute dogs that were not able and did not even wish to bark. The sheep were dispersed and the hirelings fled, and there was no one to stand up against the foe,6 This passage has close resonances with John 10:12–13, a passage in the parable of the Good Shepherd. no one to stand with the lord of Canterbury against the workers of iniquity. The apostate, I say, who had set himself up in the throne of pestilence, to the injury of the apostolic see, also polluted a very large portion of the world by his worship of the idol Baal, which the schismatics set up and adored.7 This is a reference to the papal schism of 1159–78. Of the rest of the evil deeds, who can comprehend them, when they were without number? By means of the blood of the lamb of Canterbury [Rv 7:14/Rv 12:11]8 The Christian idea of Christ’s blood as “the blood of the lamb,” evoked the lambs sacrificed in the ancient Jewish festival of Passover (see Exodus 12). By referring to “the blood of the lamb of Canterbury,” Benedict is making a direct association between Becket and Christ. the benevolence of the Almighty provided for everyone, and either corrected each person, or invited them to correction. For with the flashing of miracles, little by little the darkness of vices ceased, the seed of the word of God grew in the good earth, and the buds of reviving virtues sprouted in the field of the church. By the flashing of miracles, every day innumerable people are turned from their evil ways [Jer 26:3], and, striking their breasts, they return to the Lord [Lk 23:48]. By the flashing of miracles, every day wolves are made into sheep in the passages of the Lord’s sheepfold, and persecutors become the defenders of the church. Finally, at this late hour, led at least by the example of their subjects, the priests of the Lord may be clothed in justice, having before them an example of patience in the long tribulation of their fellow priest, an example of constancy from his death,9 The text reads ex morte constantiam here. Robertson wondered whether ex morte constantiae was what was meant (see MTB, p. 23 n. 7), an emendation I have utilized here. and from the signs of miracles, hope of a glorious reward.

The schismatics, too, may look to our lamp which the Lord placed on the lampstand [Mt 5:15], and they may see whether they are set in the bosom of the church, or whether they are cut off from the communion of ecclesiastical unity. For Christ our Gideon carried in his hand, as long as it pleased him, a pitcher with this lamp inside of it, but when the clay of the flesh of the martyr was broken,10 See Judges 7: 16–22 for the story of Gideon’s army carrying clay pitchers with lamps hidden inside of them. When the army attacked an enemy camp, they broke the pitchers and revealed the lamps’ light. it was not only the light of his religion and sanctity that shone out, but also the light of miracles, and he showed the people who walked in darkness [Is 9:2] the way of truth. For this is the light that shone through the western church at the beginning of the schism by which it divided light from darkness [Gn 1:4], and, with Octavian repulsed, chose the catholic pope Alexander for its pastor.11 This is a reference to the contest between Pope Alexander III (1159–81) and Octaviano Monticelli, an Italian cardinal who took the title Pope Victor IV. If he had been a schismatic, our martyr would by no means have been able to pass by untouched by such a stain, nor would he have been able to touch tar without being polluted by it. The frequency of miracles proves every day that he was unpolluted, for no-one can perform such miracles as he has unless God is with him. But if the hand of God is with him [Lk 1:66], who was the special son of Pope Alexander and the staff of his old age [Tb 5:23] in the western regions,12 For the pope’s relationship with Becket, see Duggan, “Alexander ille meus,” pp. 25–37. they err who bow their knees before the idol [Rom 11:4] in contempt of the Lord who destroyed their Baal and slew the dragon [Dn 14:27]. And so, return, transgressors, to the heart [Is 46:8] and let there not be among you a new god [Ps 80:10] and do not adore any strange god [Ex 34:14]. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know [Jn 4:22], since the Lord he is God [Ps 99:3], he who found in Alexander a man after his own heart [1 Sm 13:14] and chose him above all flesh [Sir 45:4] to feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance [Ps 77:71]. If he were not chosen by the Lord, how could the blessed martyr Thomas be both a supporter of his election and a saint? How could he both adhere to a schismatic father and please the Most High Father? How could he both die a schismatic and after his death shine forth with miracles?13 John of Salisbury made a similar argument in a letter he wrote to the archbishop William of Sens: see LJS no. 308, p. 751. It is certain that, unless he were from God, he would not be able to do any of it. Therefore, it is clear that the cause of his sanctity is his zeal for catholic unity and defense of ecclesiastical liberty. For he would not abandon unity, and he rooted out, as he could, both old and new abuses which seemed to detract from the dignities of the church of Canterbury, the English church, the Roman church, and indeed the universal church. Nevertheless, though he died for the defense of the universal church, yet he devoted himself especially to obtaining justice for Canterbury.

The older sons saw the labor of the father and the imperiled liberty of the mother, and they set aside their birthright for a worthless pottage of lentils,14 In a biblical story (Genesis 25:25–34), Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, his younger brother, for a bowl of lentils. and turned to a crooked bow [Ps 77:57]. But the most powerful champion of God, not wishing, like the sons of Ephraim, to bend and shoot with the bow and turn back in the day of battle [Ps 77:9], acted manfully, and his heart was strengthened, such that he was no less reluctant to embrace a death of unheard-of cruelty, than he had been before to take up an exile of unprecedented harshness.15 Becket was in exile in France from 1164 to 1170. Whoever succeeds our martyr in the seat of Canterbury should not fear to fight again for its dignities which the martyr defended to the death, nor should he condemn the rights of the universal church, nor should he shrink from subjection to the lord pope Alexander and his successors.16 After Becket’s death, the archbishopric remained vacant until Richard, a former Christ Church monk and the prior of Dover, was elected archbishop in June 1173. Richard received his pallium from Alexander III on April 9, 1174. For the great deeds of our martyr are seen both to commend Alexander and to protect the rights of the whole church, and to bear the witness of justice to the dignities of the martyr of Canterbury.

And so, let the holy fatherhood of the highest see rejoice to have had such a son at the ends of the earth and the end of the ages. Let the sons of the church of Canterbury rejoice to be given the consolation of such miracles. Let the whole orb of the earth, and all those who live on it, rejoice to be under the patronage of such a martyr. For who is there, of whatever status in the church, whatever sex or age, whatever grade or order, who has not found something useful in this our treasury? He has given the light of truth to the schismatics, confidence to fearful pastors, health to the ill, and pardon to petitioners and the penitent. By his merits, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are risen up, the mute speak, the poor are evangelized [Mt 11:5], the paralytic healed, the dropsical cease to swell, the mad return to their senses, the epileptic are cured, the feverish recover, and, to conclude in brief, all manner of infirmity is cured. By his merits, nearly all the miracles of the gospel are fulfilled multiple times. And what was more admirable to all, and unheard of in all ages, new eyes and new genitals were created for a certain one who constantly invoked the martyr, his eyes and genitals having been mutilated.17 A reference to the story of Eilward of Westoning: see below, IV.2. Nor have we read that any other saint of earlier times flashed out with so great and so many miracles so suddenly and in such a short time after his death. Therefore, by the will and precept of the brothers, I am compelled to commend them to the memory of letters. Although my wisdom does not suffice nor my eloquence assist me, I take up the burden freely and with devotion, trusting in him who said, “Open your mouth and I will fill it” [Ps 80:11]. I will come first to the visions and revelations of the Lord, by which his mourning servants were consoled and the sanctity and glory of his martyr were gradually made known to the world. And let no-one be enflamed against me, as if I were someone who put dreams at the base of the following work, for I do not lay the foundation of my narration on dreams. Rather, as a prelude, I begin with certain great and wonderous visions. And since among the saints whose way of life is in heaven, I am still in the body, and regard my life as still being earthly, let me begin by speaking of something concerning myself, so that my narrative might rise from lesser to greater things.