30
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io th s. n. JULY 9,
MARTYRDOM OF ST. THOMAS.
(10 th S. i. 388, 450.)
DR. WOODWARD, in 'A Treatise on Eccle- siastical Heraldry ' (8vo, 1894), says (p. 107) :
"The mitre of S. Thomas, Archbishop of Canter- bury, formerly in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Sens, was presented by the Archbishop of that See to Cardinal Wiseman. 'It is low and angular; composed of white silk, embroidered with golden flowers and scroll-work, with a broad band of red silk down the centre and round the margin.' This mitre is engraved in De Caumont, ' Abecedaire d'Archeplogie,' and in Viollet-le-Duc, ' Dictionnaire du Mobilier Frangais.' "
At p. 68 of the same work Dr. Woodward, quoting from Dr. Kock, refers to a mitre of {St. Thomas preserved at Bruges.
There is a large coloured drawing of his mitre and his robes in vol. i. of Shaw's book on 'Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages.'
In 1538 Henry VIII. ordered his arms and name to be erased wherever it appeared ; but S. Newington Church, near Banbury, has a fresco of him (see Antiquary, Nov., 1902, p. 324). On the subject of erasure see Gasquet, ' Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,' vol. i. pp. 400-1.
In Harl. MS. 2900 there was an illumination representing his murder, but it has been obliterated according to command (see Cata- logue Harl. MSS.).
In another MS. in the same collection (Harl. 5102) is a picture of his death. This is reproduced as a frontispiece to Dr. E. A. Abbott's 'St. Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles ' (8vo, 1898).
In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is a MS. (Douce 24) containing at folio 141 V a miniature representing a Becket kneeling in prayer before an altar on which is a chalice. By his side stands an acolyte holding a cross on high ; behind him a soldier in chain-mail, with a sword in each hand, in the act of striking off a Becket's head. This has
^" w *,7 ** wi..ixo
formerly belonged to a Becket (see Dr fetokess history of the college, published by Robinson, p. 192).
IntheMunimentRoomofCanterburyCathe-
dralare some seals one of which appears to
be the earlier seal of Christ Church Priory. It
had a well-executed relief of the martyrdom
impressed by a separate punch. When in
537 Henry VIII. began to show that to him
B name of a Becket was odious, the Chapter,
as a matter of policy, ceased to use this
separate punch (see the Globe, 18 Oct., 1902).
The Common Seal of the City of London
Corporation formerly had on the reverse
" in its base a view of the City surmounted by an arch, and on the top of the arch, seated on a throne or chair of state, a figure of St. Thomas a Becket, with figures kneeling on either side." J. J. Badde- ley's 4 Guide to Guildhall.'
But in 1539 (28 Sept.) there is an entry in the Journal of the Corporation that the image of St. Thomas should, in accordance with the king's proclamation against images of him, be altered, and the City arms should take its place.
In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, there are some seventeenth-century copies of his letters (see Summary Catalogue MS. 27,594).
Mention of a reliquary of his appears at pp. 166-9 of Francis A. Knight's ' The Sea- board of Mendip ' (Dent & Co., 1902).
One of the statuette figures in the new reredos erected at Cheltenham College as a memorial to old Cheltonians who fell in the South African War is of a Becket (see the Architect, 22 April, p. 272, where there is an illustration of the reredos).
In "La Vie de S. Thomas par C. du
Cando" (St. Omer, 1615, 4to), is a full-length portrait of a Becket kneeling at the altar.
His arms appear to have been Argent, three Cornish choughs sable, beaked and legged gules. This may have been in allusion to his Christian name and patron saint (Dr. Woodward's 'Treatise on Eccl. Her.,' p. 432, ut supra).
Some account is given of his shrine in Gasquet's 'Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,' vol. ii. pp. 405 and 407-8, quoting 'The Relics of St. Thomas,' by the Rev. J. Morris, S.J.
The same authority (vol. ii. p. 399) mentions a crozier of silver, ornamented, called Thomas Beckett's staff, and a note on p. 409 is as follows :
" In the inventory (at Canterbury) made in 1315 the pastoral staff of St. Thomas is thus described : ' Item. Baculus Sancti Thomse de pyro. cum capite de nigro cornu.' It was thus made of pear- wood, with a crook of black horn. Erasmus says : 'There (in the sacristy) we saw the pastoral staff of Saint Thomas. It appeared to be a cane covered with silver plate ; it was of very little weight and no workmanship, nor stood higher than to the waist.' Nichols, p. 44, and note, p. 175," i.e., J. Gough Nichols, 2nd ed. of Erasmus's ' Pilgrimages.'
At the time of the Dissolution there was a glass window in the Lady Chapel of the church at Henley-on-Thames with an image of Thomas a Becket (' Henry VIII. and the Eng. Mon.,' vol. i. p. 401).
