Early Medieval Books, The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis

The Martyrdom of St. Thomas

Raymond pursuing his journey and having arrived at court with the earl's letter, the king received him with great coldness, and being as usual much occupied with business, deferred his reply.

About that time, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, in England, perished by the hands of impious men, to the dismay of the great men of the realm, both lay and clerical; after having undergone the sufferings of banishment for nearly seven years in much grief, wearing sackcloth on every part of his body, and giving himself up to reading and prayer, besides, the most severe of all afflictions, a grievous proscription which spared no one, of whatever age or sex, his martyrdom at last filled up the measure of his sufferings and glory. He himself threw open the doors of the sanctuary to his furious enemies, and meeting boldly their drawn swords, bowed his consecrated head to their violence. This took place in the mother and metropolitan church, and before the altar. There he received four wounds on the crown of his head, the shaven crown which used to be regarded as a token of the protection due to the clergy, inflicted by four brutal retainers of the court, with more than brutal rage.¹ The illustrious soldier and martyr of Christ was thus distinguished by intrepidly suffering in that part of the body which betokened Christ's sufferings during his passion, and exchanged a corruptible for an incorruptible crown. He also hallowed the holy week of Christmas by then shedding his blood; and as the fifth day before Christmas is consecrated to the memory of the first Thomas, so the second Thomas shed glory on the fifth day after Christmas.² The one was the light of the East, the other of the West; one illuminated the infant church, the other the church of the latter days; and as the one cemented the foundations of the rising church with his blood, so the other, by shedding his blood, renewed the primitive virtues, and restored the edifice which in the lapse of so many ages had fallen to decay by the injuries of time, and the violence of the storms to which it had been exposed. The first Thomas was actuated by an ardent faith, the second was more than fervent when faith was now growing old. The one submitted to cruel torments while erecting the frame of the church, the other did not shrink from meeting death in order to preserve that frame uninjured. His triumphant claims to such glory are well summed up in the two following verses:

Pro Christi sponsa, Christi sub tempore, Christi

In templo Christi verus amator obit.

In Christ church, and at Christmas tide,

For Christ's spouse, Christ's true servant died.

Among his numerous miracles, there was one which was very memorable, and is well worthy of being mentioned namely, the marvellous way in which he restored organs which had been actually lost; for by this novel kind of miracle it plainly appeared that he was a new martyr. Hence some one has said,

Miratur rediisse virum neutratus, ocelli [He is surprised that the husband has returned, neutral, blind]

Succedunt oculis, albus hic, ille niger [The eyes succeed, this white, that black]

In order that no caviller might object that they were the same eyes which the sufferer had before, and to shew that they were not merely injured but actually plucked out, the new organs of sight were smaller and of a different colour, and had the power of seeing not only in the light of day, but in the dark.

Note 1. A quatuor aulicis canibus, rabie plusquam canina furentibns. [From the four court dogs, more rabid than canines]

Note 2. The feast of St. Thomas, the apostle, is held on the 21st December, and that of St. Thomas a Becket on the 29th December.