BECON
715
BED
Becket's devotion to the king. But, once consecrated, it devolved upon him to decide whether ho would serve the Church or the state, and he declared for the former without hesitation. The king and his late minister were equally matched for their inflexibility, quickness of resolution, undaunted courage, and statesmanlike abilities ; and both were influenced, farther than their own consciences extended, by the spirit of the age. Three years of strife led to the council of Clarendon, convoked by Henry in 1164, when Becket yielded to the entreaties or menaces of the barons, and signed the famous " Constitutions of Clarendon" [see Clarendon], by which the differences between the Church and state were regulated. These articles, which were, in real- ity, nothing but a formal statement of the ancient usages of England, not only rendered the state su- preme in all that concerned the general government of the nation, but virtually separated England from Borne, so far as the temporal authority of the pope was concerned. The pope, therefore, refused to ratify them, and Becket, seeing his opportunity, and really repenting of the compliance that had been wrung from him, refused to perform his office in the Church, and endeavored to leave the kingdom, in which, at last, he succeeded, only to draw down the vengeance of Henry upon his connections. The progress of the quarrel belongs rather to the history of the times than a single life. Becket remained in exile six years, and, mat- ters being in some measure accommodated, returned to England in 1170, shortly after the coronation of the king's son, which had been designed by Henry as a means of securing the succession. Becket's refusal to remove the censures with which the agents in this transaction had been visited, his haughty contempt of the crown, and the sentences of excommunication which he continued to fulminate from the altar of Can- terbury cathedral, provoked anew the indignation of the king. It is idle to judge the actions of men in those iron times by the formulas of the present day. The question, stripped of all disguise, was simply this : whether the pope or Henry" Plantagenet was hence- forth to be king in England; whether the canon law or the ancient usages should govern the realm. The Norman lords resolved the matter in their own rude way, when at length four of them left the royal pres- ence in hot anger, after hearing of some fresh indig- nity, and determined on bringing the controversy to a bloodj- close. Becket was murdered during the cel- ebration of the vesper service on the 29th of Decem- ber, 1170. He was canonized by Alexander III in 1174. The pope excommunicated the murderers and their accomplices, and the king, who was generally looked, upon as implicated, purchased absolution by conceding to Rome the freedom of its judicial proceed- ings, and by doing penance at the grave of Becket. Becket soon became one of the most popular English saints, and his shrine the richest in England. Four centuries later Henry VIII, 1538, had proceedings in- stituted against him for treason, his bones burned, and the gold and jewels which adorned his shrine carried to the royal treasury. His life may be found in all the English histories, which give various views of his char- acter, accordingto the ecclesiastical views of the writers. In 1859 Prof. Hippeau, of Caen, published La Vie de Saint Thomas le Martyr, par Gamier de Punt Saint Mayence, a poem of the 12th century, now issued for the first time. The introduction by 'the editor is full of interest.— Rich, s. v. ; Giles, Life and Letters of Th. a Becket (Lond. 184G, 2 vols. 8vo); Opera, ed. 'Giles (Lond. 1846-48, 5 vols. 8vo); Southey, Book of the Church ; Gieseler, Ch. Hist. per. iii, div. iii, § 52 ; Hase, Ch.Hist.§ 189; Rule, Studies from History, i, 4-78 ; Buss, Der H. Thomas (Mentz, 1856, 8vo) ; Bataille, I te de St. Th. Becket (Paris, 1843) ; English Cychp. s. v. ; N. Am. Rev. Ixiv, 118.
Becon, Thomas, D.D., prebend of Canterbury, •was born 1511 or 1512, place unknown. He graduated
at St. John's College, Cambridge, 1530, was ordained 1538, and obtained the vicarage of Brensett, Kent. He had imbibed the principles of the Reformation from Stafford and Latimer at Cambridge, but was cautious in expressing his views, publishing under the name of Theodore Basil. Nevertheless, he was imprison- ed, and in 1541 recanted at Paul's Cross, and burned his books. On the accession of Edward VI he was made rector of bt. Stephen's, Walbrook, 1547, and chaplain to Cranmer. He was again imprisoned in Queen Mary's time, but escaped in 1554 and went to Strasburgh. His writings were denounced in a royal proclamation of 1555. On the accession of Elizabeth he was restored to his old rectory, but the strong Prot- estant principles which he professed hindered his ad- vancement under a government which persecuted Pu- ritanism. He died at Canterbury, 1563 (or 1567?). He was a very voluminous writer in the Reformation controversy, and his vigor, earnestness, and erudition have kept his books in demand. They were collected in 3 vols. fol. (Lond. 1563-4), and have been recently reprinted by the Parker Society (Camb. 1843-4, 2 vols. 8vo), with a sketch of Becon's life. — Princeton Rev. v, 504.