``Where the
Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
Feast of
St. Thomas Becket
On this, the fifth day of Christmas, after having honored the
martyrdom
of St. Stephen, St. John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents, we
remember yet another martyr -- St. Thomas Becket (sometimes known as
"Thomas of Canterbury" or Thomas � Becket").
St. Thomas was born in London on 21 December 1118 to Norman parents
who'd lived in England for some time. The Catholic Encyclopedia gives
this description of him as found in the Icelandic Saga:
To look upon he
was slim of growth and pale of hue, with dark hair, a long nose, and a
straightly featured face. Blithe of countenance was he, winning and
loveable in his conversation, frank of speech in his discourses, but
slightly stuttering in his talk, so keen of discernment and
understanding that he could always make difficult questions plain after
a wise manner.
Educated in
Paris, he later became the clerk of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who sent him to Bologna and Auxerre to study canon law and ordained him
as a deacon.
Around this time, Henry II became King of England and, upon the advice
of Archbishop Theobald, made him his chancellor. Thomas and the King
became great friends due to their mutual interests and love of luxury.
Thomas even took up arms with King Henry when the monarch went to
battle in Toulouse, and is said to have served well as a warrior.
When Archbishop Theobald died in 1161, King Henry did all in his power
to see that Thomas took over his archdiocese. Thomas was not happy
about the idea but, urged on by Cardinal Henry of Pisa, was ordained
priest on a Saturday in Whitweek, and was consecrated as Bishop the
next day, Sunday, 3 June, 1162.
After attaining the See of Canterbury, something changed in him. He
gave up his former life of indulgence and focused on penance and
prayer. His friendship with King Henry, however, became strained after
he resisted various plans that Henry wanted to institute -- but the
issue that led to St. Thomas's martyrdom concerned jurisdiction: King
Henry wanted all clerics to assent to the Constitutions of Clarendon
(1164) which asserted that the King, not the Church, had jurisdiction
over criminal clerks. Thomas at first assented, but later stood tall
and spoke out for the rights of the Church. Threatened with
imprisonment or death, he fled to the Pope for a resolution to the
matter, and then exiled himself for a few years in a French Cistercian
abbey, devoting himself even more deeply to penance. While there, he
also excommunicated the Bishops of London and Salisbury for siding with
the King.
An uneasy peace was worked out between Thomas and Henry, and so Thomas,
amid the cheers of the local people, returned to Canterbury. But he
refused to lift the censures against the Bishops who stood with the
King against the Church.
Meanwhile, the second most powerful cleric -- Roger of York -- had the
King's ear, and told him that as long as Thomas lived, the King would
never have a tranquil kingdom. The King is said to have cried, "Who
will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" -- whereupon, four knights --
William de Tracy, Richard Brito, Hugh de Moreville, and Reginald
FitzUrse -- who overheard the conversation set out to grant the King's
wishes. It was the afternoon of 29 December 1170 when the four knights
entered Canterbury Cathedral. An eyewitness named Edward Grim tells us
what happened next:
After the monks
took [Thomas] through the doors of the church, the four aforementioned
knights followed behind with a rapid pace. A certain subdeacon, Hugh
the Evil-clerk, named for his wicked offense and armed with their
malice, went with them -- showing no reverence for either God or the
saints because by following them he condoned their deed. When the holy
archbishop entered the cathedral the monks who were glorifying God
abandoned vespers -- which they had begun to celebrate for God -- and
ran to
their father whom they had heard was dead but they saw alive and
unharmed.
They hastened to close the doors of the church in order to bar the
enemies from slaughtering the bishop, but the wondrous athlete turned
toward them and ordered that the doors be opened. "It is not proper,"
he said, "that a house of prayer, a church of Christ, be made a
fortress since although it is not shut up, it serves as a fortification
for his people; we will triumph over the enemy through suffering rather
than by fighting -- and we come to suffer, not to resist."
Without delay the sacrilegious men entered the house of peace and
reconciliation with swords drawn; indeed the sight alone as well as the
rattle of arms inflicted not a small amount of horror on those who
watched. And those knights who approached the confused and disordered
people who had been observing vespers but, by now, had run toward the
lethal spectacle exclaimed in a rage: "Where is Thomas Becket, traitor
of the king and kingdom?"
No one responded and instantly they cried out more loudly, "Where is
the archbishop?"
Unshaken he replied to this voice as it is written, "The righteous will
be like a bold lion and free from fear," he descended from the steps to
which he had been taken by the monks who were fearful of the knights
and said in an adequately audible voice, "Here I am, not a traitor of
the king but a priest; why do you seek me?" And [Thomas], who had
previously told them that he had no fear of them added, "Here I am
ready to suffer in the name of He who redeemed me with His blood; God
forbid that I should flee on account of your swords or that I should
depart from righteousness."
With these words -- at the foot of a pillar -- he turned to the right.
On one side was the altar of the blessed mother of God, on the other
the altar of the holy confessor Benedict -- through whose example and
prayers he had been crucified to the world and his lusts; he endured
whatever the murderers did to him with such constancy of the soul that
he seemed as if he were not of flesh.
The murderers pursued him and asked, "Absolve and restore to communion
those you have excommunicated and return to office those who have been
suspended."
To these words [Thomas] replied, "No penance has been made, so I will
not absolve them."
"Then you," they said, "will now die and will suffer what you have
earned."
"And I," he said, "am prepared to die for my Lord, so that in my blood
the Church will attain liberty and peace; but in the name of Almighty
God I forbid that you hurt my men, either cleric or layman, in any
way." The glorious martyr acted conscientiously with foresight for his
men and prudently on his own behalf, so that no one near him would be
hurt as he hastened toward Christ. It was fitting that the soldier of
the Lord and the martyr of the Savior adhered to His words when he was
sought by the impious, "If it is me you seek, let them leave."
With rapid motion they laid sacrilegious hands on him, handling and
dragging him roughly outside of the walls of the church so that there
they would slay him or carry him from there as a prisoner, as they
later confessed. But when it was not possible to easily move him from
the column, he bravely pushed one [of the knights] who was pursuing and
drawing near to him; he called him a panderer saying, "Don't touch me,
Rainaldus, you who owes me faith and obedience, you who foolishly
follow your accomplices."
On account of the rebuff the knight was suddenly set on fire with a
terrible rage and, wielding a sword against the sacred crown said, "I
don't owe faith or obedience to you that is in opposition to the fealty
I owe my lord king." The invincible martyr -- seeing that the hour
which would bring the end to his miserable mortal life was at hand and
already promised by God to be the next to receive the crown of
immortality -- with his neck bent as if he were in prayer and with his
joined hands elevated above -- commended himself and the cause of the
Church to God, St. Mary, and the blessed martyr St. Denis.
He had barely finished speaking when the impious knight, fearing that
[Thomas] would be saved by the people and escape alive, suddenly set
upon him and, shaving off the summit of his crown which the sacred
chrism consecrated to God, he wounded the sacrificial lamb of God in
the head; the lower arm of the writer was cut by the same blow. Indeed
[the writer] stood firmly with the holy archbishop, holding him in his
arms -- while all the clerics and monks fled -- until the one he had
raised in opposition to the blow was severed.
Behold the simplicity of the dove, behold the wisdom of the serpent in
this martyr who presented his body to the killers so that he might keep
his head, in other words his soul and the church, safe; nor would he
devise a trick or a snare against the slayers of the flesh so that he
might preserve himself because it was better that he be free from this
nature! O worthy shepherd who so boldly set himself against the attacks
of wolves so that the sheep might not be torn to pieces! and because he
abandoned the world, the world -- wanting to overpower him --
unknowingly elevated him.
Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But
with the third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering
himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the Name of
Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death."
But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with
this blow he shattered the sword on the stone and his crown, which was
large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the
brain yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the
appearance of the church with the colors of the lily and the rose, the
colors of the Virgin and Mother and the life and death of the confessor
and martyr.
The fourth knight drove away those who were gathering so that the
others could finish the murder more freely and boldly. The fifth -- not
a knight but a cleric who entered with the knights -- so that a fifth
blow might not be spared him who had imitated Christ in other things,
placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr and
(it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the
floor, exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this place, knights, he
will not get up again."
But during all these incredible things the martyr displayed the virtue
of perseverance. Neither his hand nor clothes indicated that he had
opposed a murderer -- as is often the case in human weakness; nor when
stricken did he utter a word, nor did he let out a cry or a sigh, or a
sign signaling any kind of pain; instead he held still the head that he
had bent toward the unsheathed swords.
As his body -- which had been mingled with blood and brain -- laid on
the ground as if in prayer, he placed his soul in Abraham's bosom.
Having risen above himself, without doubt, out of love for the Creator
and wholly striving for celestial sweetness, he easily received
whatever pain, whatever malice, the bloody murderer was able to
inflict. And how intrepidly -- how devotedly and courageously -- he
offered himself for the murder when it was made clear that for his
salvation and faith this martyr should fight for the protection of
others so that the affairs of the Church might be managed according to
its paternal traditions and decrees.
Canterbury
Cathedral
The famous
medieval chronicler, Gervase of Canterbury, who knew Thomas Becket, is
our eye-witness as to how Becket's clothing revealed his penitential
nature:
His dead body
was removed and placed in the shrine before the altar of Christ. On the
morrow it was carried by the monks and deposited in a tomb of marble
within the crypt. Now, to speak the truth -- that which I saw with my
eyes, and handled with my hands -- he wore hair-cloth next his skin,
then stamin, over that a black cowl, then the white cowl in which he
was consecrated; he also wore his tunic and dalmatic, his chasuble,
pall, and miter; Lower down, he had drawers of sack-cloth, and over
these others of linen; his socks were of wool, and he had on sandals.
The Golden
Legend, written in A.D. 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of
Genoa, relates the tale of how the Pope came to know of Thomas's death:
...the Pope
would daily look upon the white chasuble that S. Thomas had said Mass
in, and the same day that he was martyred he saw it turned into red,
whereby he knew well that that same day he suffered martyrdom for the
right of holy church, and commanded a Mass of requiem solemnly to be
sung for his soul. And when the quire began to sing requiem, an angel
on high above began the office of a martyr: Letabitur justus, and then
all the quire followed singing forth the mass of the office of a
martyr. And the Pope thanked God that it pleased him to show such
miracles for his holy martyr, at whose tomb by the merits and prayers
of this holy martyr our blessed Lord hath showed many miracles. The
blind have recovered their sight, the dumb their speech, the deaf their
hearing, the lame their limbs, and the dead their life.
The murder
outraged all of Europe, and pilgrimages
to the site began almost immediately, with miracles following in
abundance.
He was canonized in 1173. King Henry repented and made public penance
at the tomb, allowing himself to be scourged there. Canterbury became
the third greatest site of pilgrimage in all of Europe (Chaucer's
"Canterbury Tales" concerns pilgrimage to his shrine). His relics are
said to have been destroyed in 1538 during the Protestant rebellions
foreshadowed by King Henry's attitudes, but some believe that a
skeleton found in the crypt there in 1888 belongs to the martyr.
St. Thomas is one of the patrons of priests. He is symbolized in art
with an axe or sword over or in his head, or with a wounded head, and
is usually depicted at the time of his martyrdom.
Customs
A prayer for the day:
O God, for the
sake of Whose Church the glorious Bishop Thomas fell by the sword of
ungodly men: grant, we beseech Thee, that all who implore his aid, may
obtain the good fruit of his petition. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever. Amen.
A bit of music for the day is the 15th century "St. Thomas,
We Honor Thee":
Seynt Thomas
honour we,
Thorgh whos blod Holy Chyrch ys made fre.
Al Holy Chyrch was bot a thrall
Thorgh kyng and temperal lordys all,
To he was slane in Cristys hall
And set all thing in unite:
Hys deth hath such auctorite.
Seynt Thomas honour we,
Thorgh whos blod Holy Chyrch ys made fre.
The kyng exilyed hym owt of land
And toke hys good in hys hond,
Forbedyng both fre and bond
That no prayer for hym schuld be,
So fers he schewyd hys crewelte.
Seynt Thomas honour we,
Thorgh whos blod Holy Chyrch ys made fre.
Al ben exilyd that to hym lang,
Wemen, chyldryn, old men among,
Yong babys that wepyd insted of song,
Seynt Thomas said, 'Welcom ye be;
Ilk lond is now your awen contre.
There are no special foods that I am aware of, but just for
fun, I double-dog dare you to make this 12th century sauce -- one
described as a "lordly" sauce, that is, a sauce for lords. I haven't
made this sauce myself, and have no idea what one is supposed to do
with it (I assume it's for dipping meats), but, well, here it is:
One takes cloves
and nutmeg, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon—that is canel—and ginger, all in
equal amounts, except that there should be as much canel as all the
other spices; and add twice as much toasted bread as of everything
else, and grind them all together, and blend with strong vinegar, and
place it in a cask. This is a lordly sauce, and it is good for half a
year.
As to entertainment for the day, T. S. Eliot wrote a play --
"Murder in the Cathedral" -- about St. Thomas's life, and a movie -- "Becket"
(1964) -- starring Peter O'Toole and
Richard Burton has been made, too.
Another Martyr comes in today, to take his place round the Crib of our
Jesus. He does not belong to the first ages of the Church : -- his name
is not written in the Books of the New Testament, like those of
Stephen, John, and the Innocents of Bethlehem.Yet does he stand most
prominent in the ranks of that Martyr-Host, which has been receiving
fresh recruits in every age, and is one of those visible abiding proofs
of the vitality of the Church, and of the undecaying energy infused
into her by her divine Founder. This glorious Martyr did not shed his
blood for the faith ; he was not dragged before the tribunals of Pagans
or Heretics, there to confess the Truths revealed by Christ and taught
by the Church. He was slain by Christian hands ; it was a Catholic King
that condemned him to death ; it was by the majority of his own
Brethren, and they his country-men, that he waas abandoned and blamed.
How, then, could he be a Martyr ? How did he gain a Palm like Stephen's
? He was the Martyr for the Liberty of the Church.
Every Christian is obliged to lay down his life rather than deny any of
the Articles of our holy Faith: it was the debt we contracted with
Jesus Christ, when he adopted us, in Baptism, as his Brethren. All are
not called to the honour of Martyrdom, that is, all are not required to
bear that testimony to the Truth, which consists in shedding one's
blood for it : but all must so love their Faith, as to
be ready to die rather than deny it, under pain of incurring the
eternal death, from which the grace of our Redeemer has already
delivered us. The same obligation lies still more heavily on the
Pastors of the Church. It is the pledge of the truth of their
teachings. Hence, we find, in almost every page of the History of the
Church, the glorious names of saintly Bishops, who laid down their
lives for the Faith they had delivered to their people. It was the last
and dearest pledge they could give of their devotedness to the Vineyard
entrusted to them, and in which they had spent years of care and toil.
The blood of their Martyrdom was more than a fertilising element -- it
was a guarantee, the highest that man can give, that the seed they had
sown in the hearts of men was, in very truth, the revealed Word of God.
But beyond the debt, which every Christian has, of shedding his blood
rather than deny his Faith, that is, of allowing no threats or dangers
to make him disown the sacred ties which unite him to the Church and,
through her, to Jesus Christ -- beyond this, Pastors have another debt
to pay, which is that of defending the Liberty of the Church. To Kings,
and Rulers, and, in general, to all Diplomatists and Politicians, there
are few expressions so unwelcome as this of the Liberty of the Church ;
with them, it means a sort of conspiracy. The world talks of it as
being an unfortunate scandal, originating in priestly ambition. Timid
temporising Catholics regret that it can elicit any one's zeal, and
will endeavour to persuade us, that we have no need to fear anything,
so long as our Faith is not attacked. Nowithstanding all this, the
Church has put upon her altars the glorious St. Thomas of Canterbury,
who was slain in his Cathedral, in the 12th century, because he
resisted a King's infringements on the extrinsic Rights of the Church.
She sanctions the noble maxim of St. Anselm, one of St. Thomas'
predecessors in the See of Canterbury : Nothing does God love so much
in this world, as the Liberty of his Church; and the Apostolic See
declares by the mouth of Pius the 8th, in the 19th century, the very
same doctrine she would have taught by St. Gregory the 7th, in the 11th
century: The Church, the spotless Spouse of Jesus Christ the immaculate
Lamb, is, by God's appointment, Free, and subject to no earthly power.
But in what does this sacred Liberty consist? It consists in the
Church's absolute independence of every secular power in the ministry
of the Word of God, which she is bound to preach in season and out of
season, as St. Paul says, to all mankind, without distinction of
nation, or race, or age, or sex : -- in the administration of the
Sacraments, to which she must invite all men, without exception, in
order to the world's salvation : -- in the practice, free from all
human control, of the Counsels, as well as of the Precepts, of the
Gospel : -- in the unobstructed intercommunication of the several
degrees of her sacred hierarchy : -- in the publication and application
of her decrees and ordinances in matters of discipline : -- in the
maintenance and development of the Institutions she has founded : -- in
the holding and governing her temporal patrimony : -- and lastly, in
the defence of those privileges, which have been adjudged to her by the
civil authority itself, in order that her ministry of peace and charity
might be unembarrassed and respected.
Such is the Liberty of the Church. It is the bulwark of the Sanctuary.
Every breach there, imperils the Hierarchy, and even the very Faith, A
Bishop may not flee, as the hireling, nor hold his peace, like those
dumb dogs, of which the Prophet Isaias speaks, and which are not able
to bark. He is the Watchman of Israel: he is a traitor if he first lets
the enemy enter the citadel, and then, but only
then, gives the alarm and risks his person and his life. The obligation
of laying down his life for his flock, begins to be in force at the
enemy's first attack upon the very out-posts of the City, which is only
safe when they are strongly guarded.
The consequence of the Pastor's resistance may be of the most serious
nature ; in which event, we must remember a truth, which has been
admirably expressed by Bossuet, in his magnificent Panegyric on St.
Thomas of Canterbury, which we regret not being able to give from
beginning to end. "It is an established law," he says, " that every
success the Church acquires costs her the life of some of her children,
and that in order to secure her rights, she must shed her own blood.
Her Divine Spouse redeemed her by the Blood he shed for her ; and he
wishes that she should purchase, on the same terms, the graces he
bestows upon her. It was by the blood of the Martyrs that she extended
her conquests far beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. It was her
blood that procured her, both the peace she enjoyed under the
Christian, and the victory she gained over the Pagan, Emperors. So
that, as she had to shed her blood for the propagation of her teaching,
she had also to bleed for the making her authority accepted. The
Discipline, therefore, as well as the Faith, of the Church, was to have
its Martyrs."
Hence it was that St. Thomas, and the rest of the Martyrs for
Ecclesiastical Liberty, never once stopped to consider how it was
possible, with such weak means as were at their disposal, to oppose the
invaders of the rights of the Church. One great element of Martyrdom is
simplicity united with courage; and this explains how there have been
Martyrs amongst the lowest classes of the Faithful, and that young
girls, and even children, can show their rich Palm-branch. God has put
into the heart of a Christian a capability of humble and inflexible
resistance, which makes every opposition give way. What, then, must
that fidelity be, which the Holy Ghost has put into the souls of
Bishops, whom he has constituted the Spouses of his Church, and the
defenders of his beloved Jerusalem? “St. Thomas,” says Bossuet, “yields
not to injustice, under the pretext that it is armed with the sword,
and that it is a King who commits it; on the contrary, seeing that its
source is high up, he feels his obligation of resisting it to be the
greater, just as men throw the embankments higher when the torrent
swells.”
But, the Pastor may lose his life in the contest! Yes, it may be so he
may possibly have this glorious privilege. Our Lord came into this
world to fight against it and conquer it -- but he shed his blood in
the contest, he died on a Cross. So likewise were the Martyrs put to
death. Can the Church, then, that was founded by the Precious Blood of
her Divine Master, and was established by the blood of the Martyrs —
can she ever do without the saving laver of blood, which reanimates her
with vigour, and vests her with the rich crimson of her royalty? St.
Thomas understood this : and when we remember how he laboured to
mortify his flesh by a life of penance, and how every sort of privation
and adversity had taught him to crucify to this world every affection
of his heart, we cannot be surprised at his possessing, within his
soul, the qualities which fit a man for martyrdom -- calmness of
courage, and a patience proof against every trial. In other words, he
had received from God the Spirit of Fortitude, and he faithfully
corresponded to it.
“In the language of the Church,” continues Bossuet, “Fortitude has not
the meaning it has in the language of the world. Fortitude, as the
world understands it, is the undertaking great things; according to the
Church, it goes not beyond the suffering every sort of trial, and there
it stops. Listen to the words of St. Paul: Ye have not yet resisted
unto blood; a though he would say: ‘You have not resisted your enemies
unto blood.’ He does not say, ‘You have not attacked your enemies and
shed their blood;’ but, ‘Your resistance to your enemies has not yet
cost you your blood.’
“These are the high principles of St. Thomas; but see how he makes use
of them. He arms himself with this sword of the Apostle’s teaching, not
to make a parade of courage, and gain a name for heroism, but simply
because the Church is threatened, and he must hold over her the shield
of his resistance. The strength of the holy Archbishop lies not, in any
way, either in the interference of sympathizers, or in a plot ably
conducted. He has but to publish the sufferings he has to patiently
borne, and odium will fall upon his persecutor: certain secret springs
need only to be touched by such a man as this, and the people would be
roused to indignation against the King! but the Saint scorns both
plans. All he has on his side is the prayer of the poor, and the sighs
of the widow and the orphan: these, as St. Ambrose would say, these are
the Bishop’s defenders, these his guard, these his army! He is
powerful, because he has a soul that knows not either how to fear or
how to murmur. He can, in all truth, say to Henry, King of England,
what Tertullian said, in the name of the whole Church, to a magistrate
of the Roman Empire, who was a cruel persecutor of the Church: We
neither frighten thee, nor fear thee: we Christians are neither
dangerous men, nor cowards; not dangerous, because we cannot cabal, and
not coward, because we fear not the sword.”
Our Panegyrist proceeds to describe the victory won for the Church by
her intrepid Martyr of Canterbury. We can scarcely be surprised when we
are told that during the very year in which he preached this eloquent
Sermon, Bossuet was raised to the episcopal dignity. We need offer no
apology for giving the following fine passage.
“Christians! give me your attention. If there ever were a Martyrdom
which bore the resemblance to a Sacrifice, it was the one I have to
describe to you. First of all, there is the preparation: the Bishop is
in the Church with his Ministers, and all are robed in the sacred
Vestments. And the Victim? The Victim is near at hand -- the Bishop is
the Victim chosen by God, and he is ready. So that all is prepared for
the Sacrifice, and they that are to strike the blow enter the Church.
The holy man walks before them, as Jesus did before his enemies. He
forbids his Clergy to make the slightest resistance, and all he asks of
his enemies is that they injure none of them that are present: it is
the close imitation of his Divine Master, who said to them that
apprehended them: If it be I whom ye seek, suffer these to go their
way. And when all this had been done, and the moment for the sacrifice
was come, St. Thomas begins the ceremony. He is both Victim and Priest
-- he bows down his head, and offers the prayer. Listen to the solemn
prayer, and the mystical words, of the sacrifice: And I am ready to die
for God, and for the claims of justice, and for the Liberty of the
Church, if only she may gain peace and Liberty by this shedding of my
blood! He prostrates himself before God: and as in the Holy Sacrifice
there is the invocation of the Saints our Intercessors, Thomas omits
not so important a ceremony; he beseeches the Holy Martyrs and the
Blessed Mary ever a Virgin to deliver the Church from oppression. He
can pray for nothing but the Church; his heart beats but for the
Church; his lips can speak nothing but the Church; and when the blow
has been struck, his cold and lifeless tongue seems still to be saying:
The Church!”
Thus did our glorious Martyr, the type of a Bishop of the Church,
consummate his sacrifice, thus did he gain his victory; and his victory
will produce the total abolition of the sinful laws which would have
made the Church the creature of the State, and an object of contempt to
the people. The tomb of the Saint will become an Altar; and at the foot
of that Altar there will one day kneel a penitent King, humbly praying
for pardon and blessing. What has wrought this change? Has the death of
Thomas of Canterbury stirred up the people to revolt? Has his Martyrdom
found its avengers? No. It is the blood of one, who died for Christ,
producing its fruit. The world is hard to teach, else it would have
long since learned this truth—that a Christian people can never see
with indifference a Pastor put to death for fidelity to his charge; and
that a Government that dares to make a Martyr will pay dearly for the
crime. Modern diplomacy has learned the secret; experience has given it
the instinctive craft of waging war against the Liberty of the Church
with less violence and more intrigue -- the intrigue of enslaving her
by political administration. It was this crafty diplomacy which forged
the chains wherewith so many Churches are now shackled, and which, be
they ever so gilded, are insupportable. There is but one way to unlink
such fetters -- to break them. He that breaks them will be great in the
Church of heaven and earth, for he must be a Martyr: he will not have
to fight with the sword, or be a political agitator, but simply, to
resist the plotters against the Liberty of the Spouse of Christ, and
suffer patiently whatever may be said or done against him.
Let us give ear once more to the sublime Panegyrist of our St. Thomas:
he is alluding to this patient resistance, which made the Archbishop
triumph over tyranny.
“My Brethren, see what manner of men the Church finds rising up to
defend her in her weakness, and how truly she may say with the Apostle:
When I am weak, then am I powerful. It is this blessed weakness which
provides her with invincible power, and which enlists in her cause the
bravest soldiers and the mightiest conquerors this world has ever seen
-- I mean, the Martyrs. He that infringes on the authority of the
Church, let him dread that precious blood of the Martyrs, which
consecrates and protects it.”
Now, all this Fortitude, and the whole of this Victory, come from the
Crib of the Infant Jesus: therefore it is that we find St. Thomas
standing near it, in company with the Protomartyr Stephen. Any example
of humility, and of what the world calls poverty and weakness, which
had been less eloquent than this of the mystery of God made a Little
Child, would have been insufficient to teach man what real Power is. Up
to that time, man had no other idea of power than that which the sword
can give, or of greatness than that which comes of riches, or of joy
than such as triumph brings: but when God came into this world and
showed himself weak and poor and persecuted—everything was changed. Men
were found who loved the lowly Crib of Jesus, with all its
humiliations, better than the whole world besides: and from this
mystery of the weakness of an Infant God they imbibed a greatness of
soul which even the world could not help admiring.
It is most just, therefore, that the two laurel-wreaths of St. Thomas
and St. Stephen should intertwine round the Crib of the Babe of
Bethlehem, for they are the two trophies of his two dear Martyrs. As
regards St. Thomas, divine Providence marked out most clearly the place
he was to occupy in the Cycle of the Christian Year by permitting his
martyrdom to happen on the day following the Feast of the Holy
Innocents; so that the Church could have no hesitation in assigning the
29th of December as the day for celebrating the memory of the saintly
Archbishop of Canterbury. As long as the world lasts, this day will be
a Feast of dearest interest to the whole Church of God; and the name of
Thomas of Canterbury will be, to the day of judgment, terrible to the
enemies of the Liberty of the Church, and music breathing hope and
consolation to hearts that love that Liberty, which Jesus bought at the
price of his Precious Blood.
