^{page 7 note 1} The dates vary between December 21, 1117, 1118, and 1119.

^{page 7 note 2} The Norman descent of Becket rests on contemporary testimony, and is accepted by Giles, Lingard, Robertson, Milman, Hook, Freeman, Reuter, Hefele. The commercial advantages of London attracted emigrants from Normandy. Lord Lyttleton, Thierry, Campbell, and J. H. Froude make Becket a Saxon, but without authority. Becket is a surname and may be Norman as well as Saxon. The prefix à seems to be of later date, and to have its origin (according to Robertson and Hook) in vulgar colloquial usage.

^{page 9 note 1} Tennyson describes Stephen's reign as

“A reign which was no reign, when none could sit

By his own hearth in peace; when murder common

As nature's death, like Egypt's plague, had filled

All things with blood.”

^{page 9 note 2} She poisoned Henry's favorite concubine, Rosamund de Clifford (1177), who, with her labyrinthine bower, figures largely in the literature of romance, also in Tennyson's Becket. On her tomb are inscribed the lines:

“Hic jacet in tumba Rosa Mundi, non Rosa Munda,

Non redolet, sed olet, qua redolere solet.”

“Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes;

The smell that rises is no smell of roses.”

^{page 12 note 1} Freeman, who exalts him as chancellor, thinks that he failed as archbishop; but his martyrdom was his greatest triumph.

^{page 12 note 2} Tennyson ingeniously introduces his drama with a game of chess between Henry and Becket, during which the king informs the chancellor of the fatal illness of Theobald, and speaks of the need of a mightier successor, who would punish guilty clerks; while the chancellor quietly moves his bishop and checkmates the king; whereupon Henry kicks over the board, saying:—

“Why, there then—down go bishop and king together.”

^{page 13 note 1} “Though of Norman blood, his whole feeling, his whole character is English, and it is clear that no man looked on him as a stranger.” Freeman (l.c., p. 101 sg.).

^{page 14 note 1} Dean Milman (bk. viii. ch. viii.) says: “Henry II. was a sovereign who, with many noble and kingly qualities, lived more than even most monarchs of his age in direct violation of every Christian precept of justice, humanity, conjugal fidelity. He was lustful, cruel, treacherous, arbitrary. But throughout this contest there is no remonstrance whatever from primate or pope against his disobedience to the laws of God, only to those of the Church.”

^{page 15 note 1} Tennyson makes Beckett say:—

“This Almoner hath tasted Henry's gold.

The cardinals have fingered Henry's gold.

And Rome is venal even to rottenness.”

^{page 16 note 1} They are found in Matthew Paris, Ad ann. 1164; Mansi, xxi., 1187; Wilkins, , Concilia M. Britanniœ, vol. i.Google Scholar; Gieseler, , ii. 89sqq. (Am. ed. ii. 289 sq.)Google Scholar; Reuter, , i., 371–375, 573–577Google Scholar; Hefele-Knöpfler, , v., 623–628 (in German)Google Scholar; Giles, , ii., 390–392 (in English)Google Scholar; Hook, , ii., 406—408Google Scholar. Baronius, Ad ann. 1164, No. 37, gives the text from a Vatican codex with the papal addition of Damnamus or Toleramus to the several articles.

^{page 22 note 1} See the pope's letter to the archbishop of York in the Memorials, vol. vi., 206Google Scholarsq., and Robertson's note; also Reuter, , ii., 683Google Scholarsq. The letter is not in the Vatican, but in other MSS., and is admitted as genuine by Jaffé. It was probably written in the beginning of 1170, when Alexander was hard pressed by Barbarossa in the siege of Rome. See the other letters on the subject in Memorials, vol. vii., 257, 305Google Scholarsqq., 399.

^{page 23 note 1} According to the Vulgate reading and rendering, hominibus bona voluntatis (not bona voluntas). The Greek MSS. in Luke 2: 14 vary between the genitive εὐδοиας and the nominative εὐδοиα.

^{page 24 note 1} On the murder of Becket we have the reports of five eye-witnesses,— Edward Grim (a Saxon monk of Cambridge), William Fitz-Stephen (Becket's chaplain), John of Salisbury (his faithful friend), William of Canterbury, and the anonymous author of a Lambeth MS. Two other biographers, Herbert of Bosham and Roger of Pontigny, though absent from England at that time, were on intimate terms with Becket, and took great pains to ascertain the facts to the minutest details. The most graphic modern account from these sources is given by Dean Stanley in his article, “The Murder of Becket” in Historical Memorials of Canterbury, pp. 67–146 (American ed. 1889).Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 2} Cubicularii, gentlemen of the bed-chamber.

^{page 25 note 1} The biographers say he was more fit to be called “the Brute.”

^{page 25 note 2} Tuesday was considered a day of ill omen for Becket. It was on that day of the week that he was born and baptized, that he fled from Northampton, that he departed from England for his exile, that he received warning of his martyrdom in a vision at Pontigny, that he returned from exile, that he was murdered, that his relics were translated; and it was the day which afterwards at his festival became the high day.

^{page 27 note 1} “Lenonem appellans.” Becket was wont to use violent language. He called Geoffrey Riddell, the archdeacon of Canterbury, “archdevil.” Three years after Becket's death, Riddell was made bishop of Ely.

^{page 29 note 1} See his Vita S. Th. in the Memorials, etc., ii., 322Google Scholar: “In loco passionis eius … paralytici curantur, cœci vident, surdi audiunt, loquuntur muti, claudi ambulant, lefrosi mundantur … et quod a diebus patrum nostrorum non est auditum, mortui resurgunt.”

^{page 29 note 2} William, 's long Vita et Passio S. Th. is printed in the Memorials, vol. i., 173–546Google Scholar. The credulous Alban Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, quotes from an old English MS. of a pretended eye-witness, who records two hundred and sixty-three miracles wrought by the intercession of St. Thomas, — many more than are found in the whole Bible.

^{page 30 note 1} It is stated by Gervase that the envoys secured an interview with the pope at Tusculum by a bribe of five hundred marks. Stanley, , l. c., p. 136.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 2} A granite pillar in the Norman cathedral at Avranches bears an inscription in memory of the event. It is given by Stanley, , p. 136.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 1} Some doubt has been thrown by Froude and others on the trial and the burning; but it is intrinsically probable and consistent with the character of Henry VIII. The Council of Constance had committed the same barbarous outrage on the bones of Wiclif in 1415, and Queen Mary dealt in the same way with the remains of Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge in 1554.

^{page 33 note 2} For further information and documents, see Stanley, , The Shrine of Becket in Hist. Mem. of Canterbury, 220–354.Google Scholar