What Became of the Bones of St. Thomas ? By
A. J. Mason (Cambridge University Press. 8s. net.)—Canon Mason has put together the documents relating to Thomas Becket's murder on December 29th, 1170, to his venerated shrine at Canterbury, to the destruction of the shrine at the Reformation, and to the supposed discovery of his remains in 1888 in the eastern part of the crypt. It is, of course, impossible to prove that the bones --those of a tall man, whose skull had been cleft by a sharp and heavy weapon like a broadsword—were Becket's, but Canon Mason's examination of the evidence makes the theory plausible, and even probable. The story that Becket's remains were burnt when his shrine was defaced was officially denied by the Privy Council in 1538, in reply to Papal slanders which were doing harm at foreign Courts. The portion of the crypt where the bones were found had been used from 1546 to 1864 as the private cellar of the house of the First Prebendary, and had presumably, been undisturbed. Canon Mason thinks that Henry like a sensible Englishman, had no quarrel with Becket's bones and was content to know that they had been " taken away and bestowed in such place as the same should cause no super- stition afterwards."
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