I. LETTERS. Of these a collection was made soon after the Archbishop's death by Alan, Abbot of Tewkesbury, who arranged them in the order which he supposed to be that of their composition; and the collection was printed by Wolf from a MS. in the Vatican. Many other letters connected with the subject have since appeared; but (as will be explained hereafter) very much remains to be done by some future editor, in order that this extensive correspondence may be presented in a satisfactory shape.

II. CONTEMPORARY LIVES.-Of these the earliest is probably a metrical French composition, by Garnier, or Guernes, of Pont St. Maxence, who had collected details of the story at Canterbury, and had also visited the

b See above, p. 4. Sir Roger Twysden had before prepared for the press a transcript of the incomplete Lambeth copy (Pref. to Mapes, De Nugis Curialium,' ed. Wright, Camden Soc., 1850, p. xiii.). “I could wonderfully fayn enquire where there is a good one, that I might make it perfect, and so send it to ye presse; for I know no man knowes what past in former tymes so well as by the Epistles then passed between learned men."Ib. xiv.

'La Vie St. Thomas le Martir.' Of this the latter part was edited by Prof. Bekker, from a Wolfen

büttel MS., in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy for 1838. M. le Roux de Lincy published an edition of the whole at Paris in 1843; and Prof. Bekker completed his copy by printing the earlier part from a MS. in the British Museum in 1844. I have used the Berlin edition; the references which are marked with an asterisk applying to the pages of the Transactions for 1844, while the other references belong to the part published in 1838.

d P. 47*. Garnier says that he began his labours in the second year after the martyrdom-that, as he obtained better information, he often retrenched what he had written and that his work was finished in the fourth year (p. 166).

saint's sister, the Abbess Mary of Barking, who, with her nuns, would seem to have won his heart by their hospitality and munificence :

b

The prose biographers are :—

John of Salisbury, one of the most eminent scholars of the age, an intimate friend of Becket, and afterwards Bishop of Chartres. His slight sketch received additions from Alan, Prior of Christchurch, Canterbury, and afterwards Abbot of Tewkesbury.

Benedict, a predecessor of Alan in the Priory of Canterbury, and afterwards Abbot of Peterborough, who wrote an account of the martyrdom, and a book on the miracles of the saint.

с

Edward Grim, a monk of Cambridge, whose conduct in the last scene of the Archbishop's life will be mentioned hereafter.

Herbert of Bosham, whose name will frequently occur in the story. This writer's Life of St. Thomas, although, as his contemporaries complained, it is extremely prolix

and contains much irrelevant matter, is very valuable. Of Herbert's Liber Melorum something has been said above.a

Roger of Pontigny, already mentioned."

William, Subprior of Canterbury, whose work is only known by fragments in the Quadrilogus, of which, indeed, some are identical with passages in the Life by Herbert.

William Fitzstephen, who describes himself as the Archbishop's "fellow-citizen, chaplain, and table-companion, remembrancer (dictator) in his chancery, a subdeacon when he celebrated mass in his chapel, a reader of letters and papers in his court, and sometimes at his desire an advocate of causes, a witness of his trial at Northampton, and of his passion."d

To these may perhaps be added the anonymous writer whose work Dr. Giles has printed from the Lambeth Library; but his pretensions appear to be somewhat doubtful.

III. CONTEMPORARY CHRONICLERS—such as William of Newburgh, Ralph de Diceto, Gervase of Canterbury,1

b Ib.

g

. P. 5. stephen who in the later part of See e. g. Will. in S. T. C. ii. Henry's reign was sheriff of Glou17; Herb. ib. vii. 241. cestershire and a justice itinerant. e See Giles, ii. pref. ix. Dr. Pauli does not reckon him among the contemporaries (Gesch. v. Eng. iii. Anh.).

d S. T. C. i. 171. Fitzstephen's narrative sometimes coincides with John of Salisbury (comp. S. T. C. i. 204 with 323-4). His work was first published in Sparke's Historiæ Anglicana Scriptores,' Lond. 1723. Mr. Foss (Judges of England,' i. 371) supposes him to have been the same William Fitz

Ed. Hamilton, Lond. 1856 (English Historical Society).

In Twysden, 'Hist. Angl. Scriptores Decem,' Lond. 1652. h Ibid.

Benedict of Peterborough (already mentioned as a biographer), and Roger of Hoveden or Howden. One of the most valuable chroniclers of the time, Robert of Thorigny, or of Mont St. Michel, appears intentionally to avoid the subject of Becket's contest with Henry II., and the relation in which he stood to the King may serve to explain his silence.

We shall see at the very outset that, in order to ascertain the real facts of the story, it is necessary to disregard the medieval chroniclers of later date.

a Ed. Hearne, Oxf. 1733. b In Savile, 'Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam,' Lond. 1596.

c Printed as an appendix to Sigebert of Gemblours, in Pertz, 'Monumenta Germaniæ Historica,' vi., and thence copied by Migne, 'Patrologia,' clx.

d Thus he states, under the date 1170, that Prince Henry was

crowned by the Archbishop of York, "for that Thomas of Canterbury sojourned in France for well-nigh six years together," but nothing is said as to the cause of this sojourn; and with a like caution the chronicler, in relating some conferences between the kings of France and England, abstains from mentioning that Becket was present at them.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY LIFE.-A.D. 1118-1154.

THE popular story of Becket's birth is as follows:-His father, Gilbert, became the captive of a Saracen emir in the Holy Land. The emir's daughter and only child fell in love with him, aided him to escape, and some time after followed him, knowing only two words of any European language-the names of London and of Gilbert. By means of these, however, she was able to make her way from Palestine to Cheapside, where Gilbert's house stood, on the ground now occupied by the Mercers' Chapel; and here, as she was wandering about, "quasi bestia erratica" ("like a cow in a fremd loaning," as Scott might have translated the phrase), making the echoes resound with the name of her beloved, and attended by a train of idle boys, she was recognised by Richard, the servant of Gilbert, and companion of his adventures. And the tale ends as it ought to end with her baptism by the name of Matilda, which was solemnised by six bishops in St. Paul's Cathedral, her union with Gilbert, and the birth of a son, who was in due time to be developed into St. Thomas of Canterbury.

a Bromton, as cited below. b'Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Beket,' by Robert of Gloucester,

ed. Black. Lond. (Percy Society), 1845, pp. 1-8; Bromton, ap. Twysden, 1053-5; Quadril. Prior, in