The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal SeeWithers, Hartley
History
The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal See
Withers, Hartley
Canterbury Cathedral
Other miracles performed by the saint are pictured in the painted windows
of Trinity Chapel, of which we shall treat fully later on. The fame of the
martyr spread through the whole of Christendom. Stanley tells us that
"there is probably no country in Europe which does not exhibit traces of
Becket. A tooth of his is preserved in the church of San Thomaso
Cantuariense at Verona, part of an arm in a convent at Florence, and
another part in the church of St. Waldetrude at Mons; in Fuller's time
both arms were displayed in the English convent at Lisbon; while Bourbourg
preserves his chalice, Douay his hair shirt, and St. Omer his mitre. The
cathedral of Sens contains his vestments and an ancient altar at which he
said mass. His story is pictured in the painted windows at Chartres, and
Sens, and St. Omer, and his figure is to be seen in the church of Monreale
at Palermo."
In England almost every county contained a church or convent dedicated to
St. Thomas. Most notable of these was the abbey of Aberbrothock, raised,
within seven years after the martyrdom, to the memory of the saint by
William the Lion, king of Scotland. William had been defeated by the
English forces on the very day on which Henry II. had done penance at the
tomb, and made his peace with the saint, and attributing his misfortunes
to the miraculous influence of St. Thomas, endeavoured to propitiate him
by the dedication of this magnificent abbey. A mutilated image of the
saint has been preserved among the ruins of the monastery. This is perhaps
the most notable of the gifts to St. Thomas. The volume of the offerings
which were poured into the Canterbury coffers by grateful invalids who
had been cured of their ailments, and by others who, like the Scotch king,
were anxious to propitiate the power of the saint, must have been
enormous. We know that at the beginning of the sixteenth century the
yearly offerings, though their sums had already greatly diminished, were
worth about L4,000, according to the present value of money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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