Pilgrimage to Canterbury and the Death of Thomas Becket

Feb 21, 2011 Michael Streich

People Still Visit Sacred Sites of the Middle Ages - Mike Streich Photo Image

The cult of Thomas Becket spread throughout Europe after his murder at Canterbury and the many miracles attributed to the English saint.

By the time the Parson was finishing his tale, Chaucer’s pilgrims had arrived at Canterbury, a very different group from those pilgrims that journeyed to England’s most famous pilgrimage site after the 1170 murder of Thomas Becket. Becket was canonized three years after his death yet even before being proclaimed a saint, word of his miracles spread throughout Europe. He was the great saint of the late 12th Century and would endure into the next. Once the king’s chancellor, Becket came to represent everything significant about the pilgrimage, miracles, and relics.

Religious Pilgrimages Provided Grace to the Faithful

Thomas Becket was murdered by knights of King Henry II. After being appointed archbishop, the highest Church office in the land, Becket experienced a spiritual conversion that led him to challenge Henry’s increasing power over the English Church. The final break resulted in Becket’s murder at Canterbury Cathedral.

As word of Becket’s murder spread, so did his miracles. The monks at Canterbury kept a cistern filled with water that was diluted with the slain archbishop’s blood. Pilgrims drank the sacred water and there were reports of blind persons having sight restored after the water was smeared across their eyelids.

Canterbury became the fourth most popular pilgrimage destination in Christendom after Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago da Compostella. It was also the wealthiest. The cult of Becket may have been the last major devotion in the Middle Ages. After Becket’s canonization, the process leading to sainthood was greatly extended and so-called hearsay evidence of miracles was frequently excluded.

The Legacy of Thomas Becket

Chaucer’s pilgrims traveled to Canterbury at the end of the 14Th Century. It was a time of religious schism and heretics. Early Church reformers not only challenged Becket, but cast doubt on his miracles and the efficacy of his relics. For secular leaders, Becket was also an enemy, a powerful yet humble Church apologist who sought to maintain the power and control of the Church over the state.

Becket’s most vocal disagreements concerned the Constitutions of Clarendon, established by the king to weaken the power of the Church. The final point was most important: degrading a member of the clergy accused of an ecclesiastical offense and then turning over the churchman to secular authorities for punishment. This action was the root cause of the legal term “double jeopardy.”

Becket’s Power After his Murder and Canonization

Becket was said to appear to those who called upon him in prayer. In one case, he healed a falcon, connecting him to God’s creation in a similar way St. Francis was connected through his ministry to animals. In a case involving hearsay evidence, Becket brought back to life a dead child.

Medieval saints deemed extraordinary achieved great notoriety in death. Often, they emerged as champions of the downtrodden peasants. Saints like Becket rivaled popes and kings even in death. Much of this ended under King Henry VIII and the destruction of Becket’s elaborate tomb at Canterbury.

Sources:

• Rosalind and Christopher Brooke, Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300 (Thames and Hudson, 1984)
• G.G. Coulton, Chaucer and His England (Methuen & Co LTD, 1970)
• Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion (Rowman and Littlefield, 1975)
• Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475, Fifth Edition (McGraw-Hill Inc., 1992)

Copyright Michael Streich. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication