THE P RTAL
June 2014
Page 7
The Popes and the Ordinariate
Dr Harry Schnitker unpacks the conflict
between Thomas Becket and Henry II
I
n our
overview of the relationship between England and the Papacy, we have reached, perhaps, the
most famous conflict prior to the divorce question of King Henry VIII: the assassination of St Thomas
Becket. In the previous instalment of this series, we saw how St Anselm and King Henry I managed to settle
their differences amicably. The question arises why Becket and Henry II could not. To understand this, we
have to understand a little about the two protagonists.
Thomas Becket
Becket came from a very wealthy
Anglo-Norman family, merchants and
very much part of the elite of London.
He was, therefore, not an aristocrat but
part of a rising power in the medieval
world: the merchants.
happened very frequently, Becket
was the de facto power in the land.
He fostered the King’s young son,
Henry, and oversaw the kingdom’s
finances. Nothing suggested that he
was anything but committed to the
Angevin dynasty.
Henry II
cause to regret
Henry was born in Anjou in France.
He was the grandson of Henry I, but
was very much a Continental ruler.
Politically active from the age of 14, he
was, by the age of 17, one of the most
powerful men in Europe. He had married
Eleanor of Aquitaine, the heiress of most
of south-western France, and his own
lands straddled most of the north-west.
Between them, husband and wife ruled
two-thirds of the French kingdom. To
this was added England, where he was
crowned King in 1154, aged only 21.
He was an obvious choice as the
next Archbishop of Canterbury, and
Henry lobbied hard to have him
appointed: he lobbied and got his
way. The minor inconvenience that
Becket had not even been ordained a
priest was swiftly dealt with, and he
now occupied the most important
ecclesial post in the Angevin
domains. Henry soon had cause to
regret his choice. Becket began to
resist the jurisdiction of the courts
over the clergy, and opposed moves
by the King to reduce the power of
Rome in the Church.
passionate and stubborn
The two protagonists in the Churchstate confrontation, then, could not
have been more different. In one thing
they resembled each other: King and Archbishop
were both passionate and passionately stubborn.
Becket rose to a position of power partly as the result
of his father’s financial difficulties. Simply put, he
required a job and became a clerk in the household of
Archbishop Theobald of Bec and later of Canterbury.
This gave him the chance to shine, and by his early
thirties he occupied several benefices. The Archbishop
then recommended him for the vacant post of Lord
Chancellor, which Henry II approved.
All other bishops gave in, but not
Becket. He fled to the Continent like
Anselm before him, where Pope Alexander III tried to
negotiate a compromise. Becket returned to England,
but proceeded to excommunicate all who supported
royal control over the Church. It was an affront too
many to the King, who was the most powerful man in
Europe.
What followed is well-known: Becket fell to the
assassins’ sword, a martyr. However, in death Becket
was more powerful than in life. Soon the King recanted,
and a cult of Becket grew that extended across Europe.
It had been a meteoric rise, for the post of He became the symbol of the freedom of the Church
Chancellor was the second highest in government from worldly control, and his shrine a major pilgrimage
after the Justiciar. Becket became one of the lynchpins destination, at least until Henry VIII finally managed
of Henry’s royal government in England, and when to achieve what Henry II failed to.
the King was in his Continental domains, which
Harry Schnitker
contents page