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refuge in the sanctuary of the cathedral. He fairly lost his temper when he
saw them trying to bar the door. "Go away," he said, "cowards! Let the
miserable and the blind rave. We command you by virtue of your obedience not
to shut the door!" The knights rushed in, and when they hesitated to begin
Becket deliberately taunted them as if intending to make them lose control.
He then bent his head, stretching out his neck that they might the more
conveniently strike with their swords. After the first blow he fell face
downwards, as though prostrate in prayer, and in that attitude was
despatched. The terrified monks had fled to the altar fearing that every
moment would be their last; but the knights had no enmity to them. They
broke the arm of the English monk, Edward Grim, who defended Becket to the
last, and another priest, who ran out evidently with some wild idea of
giving help, was half stunned by a blow on the head with the flat of a
sword, otherwise the flustered crowd at the altar received no hurt. The
knights cried out mockingly, when the murder was consummated, "He wished to
be king, he wished to be more than king, just let him be king."
The account continues with a description of the appearance of Becket's body
after death. "He did not seem to be dead, but by the vivid colour, the
closed eyes and mouth, to be asleep. The limbs did not throb, no rigor of
the body, no discharge issuing from the mouth or nostrils, nor was anything
of the kind seen throughout the night by the watchers. But the flexibility
of the fingers, the peace of the limbs, the cheerfulness and graciousness of
the face, declared him a glorified man, even if his life and the cause of
his passion had been silent." This condition is not in accordance with the
appearance of a body after death by the kind of wounds which killed Becket,
but the miraculous condition of the body of a Divine Victim is commented on
not only in the case of Becket but in the cases of Rufus and Joan of Arc.
The body of Rufus dripped blood all the way to Winchester, though bleeding
normally ceases soon after death. Joan's heart was found unconsumed and full
of blood when the ashes were gathered up to be thrown into the river. In all
three cases the miraculous element in the body after death is emphasised.
The ritual beating of the king after the death of his substitute was
transformed by the Church into penance for the murder. Here the ritual
flagellation was, as is always the case, severe enough to draw blood, so
though the king was not killed his blood was shed.
As with Rufus, the death of Becket was known in many places on the same day
on which it occurred or within a few hours of the event. At Argentan a voice
was heard crying horribly, "Behold, my blood cries from the ground to God
more loudly than the blood of righteous Abel who was killed at the beginning
of the world". The very night of the murder the news was known in Jerusalem.
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The most remarkable story is of a small boy of seven in the remote parts of
Devonshire, who announced to the company assembled at dinner that a "very
good priest is dead and is just now killed"; though the company laughed and
were amused, they heard in seven or eight days that the dreadful tidings
were true, and they magnified "God who so wonderfully awakened the spirit of
a young and innocent child to reveal this matter at the very hour". It is
interesting to note that the deaths of both Rufus and Becket were
miraculously known in Devonshire at the very moment that they occurred. It
is suggestive of a preconcerted means of conveying news which was evidently
expected.
The miracles performed by the body of Becket began directly after his death,
and were a source of enormous profit to his shrine at Canterbury. The
.
miracles are interesting as showing the type of mind which could believe
them, a type which belonged even to the educated men who recorded them.
Among the miracles are some performed on animals, including a story of a
starling which had been taught to speak; being caught by a hawk it called
out the name of St. Thomas Becket, and the hawk at once let it escape.
William of Canterbury accounts for the sudden miraculous power of Becket by
propounding the theory that the older saints, having had their fill of
glory, retire in favour of the newer martyrs. The true interest of these
stories lies, however, in showing that the ideas and customs of that period
cannot be judged by the standards of our own times. Belief in the power of
the dead, especially the dead god, was still a living force.
A considerable body of folklore and legend grew up round Becket as it did
round Joan of Arc. The murderers of Becket came to a bad end according to
popular tradition, and the same untrustworthy authority meted out a like
fate to Joan's judges. In a folk-tale poetic justice invariably overtakes
the villains of the piece, but unfortunately the records, where they are
obtainable, show that all Becket's murderers did not die horrible deaths.
Hugh de Moreville is known to have become very wealthy, and died fourteen
years later quite undramatically.
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