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 After
the monks took [Thomas] through the doors of the church, the four
aforementioned knights followed behind with a rapid pace. A certain
subdeacon, Hugh the Evil-clerk, named for his wicked offense and armed
with their malice, went with them - showing no reverence for either
God or the saints because by following them he condoned their deed.
When the holy archbishop entered the cathedral the monks who were
glorifying God abandoned vespers - which they had begun to celebrate
for God - and ran to their father whom they had heard was dead but
they saw alive and unharmed. They hastened to close the doors of the
church in order to bar the enemies from slaughtering the bishop, but
the wondrous athlete turned toward them and ordered that the doors
be opened. "It is not proper," he said, "that a house
of prayer, a church of Christ, be made a fortress since although it
is not shut up, it serves as a fortification for his people; we will
triumph over the enemy through suffering rather than by fighting -
and we come to suffer, not to resist." Without delay the sacrilegious
men entered the house of peace and reconciliation with swords drawn;
indeed the sight alone as well as the rattle of arms inflicted not
a small amount of horror on those who watched. And those knights who
approached the confused and disordered people who had been observing
vespers but, by now, had run toward the lethal spectacle exclaimed
in a rage: "Where is Thomas Becket, traitor of the king and kingdom?"
No one responded and instantly they cried out more loudly, "Where
is the archbishop?" Unshaken he replied to this voice as it is
written, "The righteous will be like a bold lion and free from
fear," he descended from the steps to which he had been taken
by the monks who were fearful of the knights and said in an adequately
audible voice, "Here I am, not a traitor of the king but a priest;
why do you seek me?" And [Thomas], who had previously told them
that he had no fear of them added, "Here I am ready to suffer
in the name of He who redeemed me with His blood; God forbid that
I should flee on account of your swords or that I should depart from
righteousness." With these words - at the foot of a pillar -
he turned to the right. On one side was the altar of the blessed mother
of God, on the other the altar of the holy confessor Benedict - through
whose example and prayers he had been crucified to the world and his
lusts; he endured whatever the murderers did to him with such constancy
of the soul that he seemed as if he were not of flesh. The murderers
pursued him and asked, "Absolve and restore to communion those
you have excommunicated and return to office those who have been suspended."
To these words [Thomas] replied, "No penance has been made, so
I will not absolve them." "Then you," they said, "will
now die and will suffer what you have earned." "And I,"
he said, "am prepared to die for my Lord, so that in my blood
the church will attain liberty and peace; but in the name of Almighty
God I forbid that you hurt my men, either cleric or layman, in any
way." The glorious martyr acted conscientiously with foresight
for his men and prudently on his own behalf, so that no one near him
would be hurt as he hastened toward Christ. It was fitting that the
soldier of the Lord and the martyr of the Savior adhered to His words
when he was sought by the impious, "If it is me you seek, let
them leave."
With rapid motion they laid sacrilegious hands on him, handling
and dragging him roughly outside of the walls of the church so that
there they would slay him or carry him from there as a prisoner,
as they later confessed. But when it was not possible to easily
move him from the column, he bravely pushed one [of the knights]
who was pursuing and drawing near to him; he called him a panderer
saying, "Don't touch me, Rainaldus, you who owes me faith and
obedience, you who foolishly follow your accomplices." On account
of the rebuff the knight was suddenly set on fire with a terrible
rage and, wielding a sword against the sacred crown said, "I
don't owe faith or obedience to you that is in opposition to the
fealty I owe my lord king." The invincible martyr - seeing
that the hour which would bring the end to his miserable mortal
life was at hand and already promised by God to be the next to receive
the crown of immortality - with his neck bent as if he were in prayer
and with his joined hands elevated above - commended himself and
the cause of the Church to God, St. Mary, and the blessed martyr
St. Denis.
He had barely finished speaking when the impious knight, fearing
that [Thomas] would be saved by the people and escape alive, suddenly
set upon him and, shaving off the summit of his crown which the
sacred chrism consecrated to God, he wounded the sacrificial lamb
of God in the head; the lower arm of the writer was cut by the same
blow. Indeed [the writer] stood firmly with the holy archbishop,
holding him in his arms - while all the clerics and monks fled -
until the one he had raised in opposition to the blow was severed.
Behold the simplicity of the dove, behold the wisdom of the serpent
in this martyr who presented his body to the killers so that he
might keep his head, in other words his soul and the church, safe;
nor would he devise a trick or a snare against the slayers of the
flesh so that he might preserve himself because it was better that
he be free from this nature! O worthy shepherd who so boldly set
himself against the attacks of wolves so that the sheep might not
be torn to pieces! and because he abandoned the world, the world
- wanting to overpower him - unknowingly elevated him. Then, with
another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the
third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself
as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name
of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace
death." But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the
fallen one; with this blow he shattered the sword on the stone and
his crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the
blood turned white from the brain yet no less did the brain turn
red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church with
the colors of the lily and the rose, the colors of the Virgin and
Mother and the life and death of the confessor and martyr. The fourth
knight drove away those who were gathering so that the others could
finish the murder more freely and boldly. The fifth - not a knight
but a cleric who entered with the knights - so that a fifth blow
might not be spared him who had imitated Christ in other things,
placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr
and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood
across the floor, exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this
place, knights, he will not get up again."
But during all these incredible things the martyr displayed the
virtue of perseverance. Neither his hand nor clothes indicated that
he had opposed a murderer - as is often the case in human weakness;
nor when stricken did he utter a word, nor did he let out a cry
or a sigh, or a sign signaling any kind of pain; instead he held
still the head that he had bent toward the unsheathed swords. As
his body - which had been mingled with blood and brain - laid on
the ground as if in prayer, he placed his soul in Abraham's bosom.
Having risen above himself, without doubt, out of love for the Creator
and wholly striving for celestial sweetness, he easily received
whatever pain, whatever malice, the bloody murderer was able to
inflict. And how intrepidly - how devotedly and courageously - he
offered himself for the murder when it was made clear that for his
salvation and faith this martyr should fight for the protection
of others so that the affairs of the church might be managed according
to its paternal traditions and decrees.
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