ST. THOMAS BECKET IN ART By Tancred Borenius
Henry VIII, in his reforming zeal, not merely looted the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury and ordered all memorials of him to be defaced, but also proclaimed that he was no martyr. The King's anxiety to discredit the most popular of English saints is partly explained by Professor Borenius' learned and interesting monograph on St. Thomas Becket in Art (Methuen, 12s. 6d.). Here he shows by a wealth of examples how rapidly the cult of St. Thomas—murdered in 1170 and canonized in 1173—spread throughout Europe, from Sicily to Iceland. The earliest representation of the saint is a mosaic figure at Monreale, dated not later than 1182 : the Norman King who built the cathedral had mairied Henry Ers daughter Joan. The common seal of the City bore the figure of St. Thomas from a few years later down to the Reformation, Throughout Eutope, the author thinks, St. Francis alone' among : mediaeval saints gave so much occupation to artists of all kinds as our martyred Archbishop. The book is a good and instructive piece of research, admirably illustrated.
Previous page
