St. Thomas Becket Holding a Sword (M 033)

On 16 November 1538, by Royal Proclamation, Henry VIII proscribed St. Thomas Becket (1120-1170). Proscription meant Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral was dismantled and destroyed; his bones were burned and his ashes scattered; his images and inscriptions were defaced; and all liturgical commemorations of him were forbidden. Churches that had been named in his honor were rededicated to his namesake St. Thomas the Apostle. + To be sure, Becket’s proscription was a part of the King’s more general program known as the Dissolution of Monasteries. Given how Becket was singled out, however, and the vehemence of his proscription, historians cannot help but speculate that there was also a more personal grudge against the prelate at work: Becket’s case was too close for comfort to recent events. + In 1535, Henry VIII had had St. Thomas More martyred by beheading. Aside from the coincidence of their names, the two Henrys (II and VIII) and the two Thomases (Becket and More) had much in common: Both Thomases had been friends with their respective monarchs. Both had served as Chancellor of England. Both had upheld Church over State. Both were considered traitors to the Crown. And, both Henrys had felt betrayed on a deeply personal level. Ironically, today, both Thomases are not only venerated as saints in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the Anglican Communion. + No representations of Becket exist from during his lifetime. All portraits are posthumous and either derived from a lost original or imaginary. Nevertheless, the iconography of the earliest works is remarkably consistent between the few surviving monumental works in England and Continental paintings and sculptures. In these, Becket is usually portrayed in his prime: tall, slim, clean-shaven, garbed for Mass in chasuble and pallium, and carrying a lectionary or Gospel book. Sometimes, he wears his miter; sometimes, he carries his archiepiscopal cross. No reference is made to his martyrdom. It was unnecessary. Everyone knew the story. + The image here is one of the few to have survived the purge in England. It is an engraving of a painting that was once covered over with whitewash ostensibly to preserve it. Dating from the 16th-century, it represents a further stage in the development of the saint’s iconography. Here, St. Thomas dressed in full canonicals holds his archiepiscopal cross in his left hand and an inverted sword, the instrument of his martyrdom, in his right. Alas, the sword is no longer to be seen. Still, the mere presence of a sword in an artwork is hardly individuating. In one two-volume iconographical study of some 1000 saints, a sword is associated with more than 15% or 150 of them! Of that 150--which includes Early Christian female virgin-martyrs and male soldier saints, some 35 or more are bishops or archbishops. Among these, St. Thomas would eventually receive a motif all his own: a sword piercing his mitered head from side to side (See P 005). + Feast: December 29 + Image Credit (M 033): Antique engraving by Francis Joseph Baigent in 1853 of a painting of St. Thomas Becket discovered at Stoke Charity Church, Hampshire, England, in 1845, originally published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Vol. X (1855), Plate 6, f. p. 74. The painting is on the left front of the Mural Tomb of John Waller, Esq., c. 1525. We have given the trefoil arch a much wider outline here.