medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
When I was at Canterbury Cathedral years ago, what struck me was how
close the Sword's Point (the spot venerated as the place of Becket's
martyrdom) was to the cloisters. It seems pretty likely to me that
Becket was trying to flee the church when he was struck down.
Andrew E. Larsen
On Jul 15, 2009, at 9:11 AM, Cormack, Margaret Jean wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Dear Juris,
>
>
> "According to William Fitz Stephen, Thomas was abandoned at this
> point by John of Salisbury and all his clerks except Robert, canon
> of Merton, who was his chaplain and constant companion, Edward
> Grim, and himself."
>
> This is from Kay Slocum, Liturgies in Honour of Thomas Becket.
> University of Toronto Press 2004 66-67. She is quoting the rolls
> series which has a series of volumes called I belive Materials for
> the Biography of Thomas Becket or the like.
>
> Her account continues:
>
> "The biographers note the place where the martyr took his stand.
> It is not, as John of Salisbury reports, and is portrayed in
> countless images, in front of the altar. As stated by Anonymous I,
> it was 'near an altar of St. Benedict," Thomas having 'turned aside
> to the northern par of the church'. William of Canterbury is even
> more definite. "He took his stand in the place where he had long
> ago beheld hismelf crucified in a dream (so it is asserted), having
> on his left the Cross that went before him; at his back, a wall;
> before him, an image of the blessed Mary; on all sides, memorials
> and relics of the saints."" 67
>
> She doesn´t say where John of Salisbury actually was, perhaps one
> of the other chroniclers mentions this.
> Meg
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religious culture on behalf of Juris G. Lidaka
> Sent: Sun 12.7.2009 15:16
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [M-R] John of Salisbury at Becket's martyrdom
>
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> In the preface of Pepin's recent translation of John of Salisbury's
> Life of Becket (PIMS, 2009; ISBN 978 0 88844 298 7) lies this
> sentence:
>
> John was...present in the cathedral when Becket's murder occurred,
> albeit from a rather ignominious position, concealed in the shadows of
> the darkening church.
>
> Dramatic and exciting, but I don't know enough about all this. The
> sentence is also repeated on the back cover and on the half-title
> page. In the Life itself, John has no comment on his location,
> despite his description and quotation of dialogue (although medieval
> historians & chroniclers often invented these for verisimilitude).
> His letter from years before, which he quoted from almost verbatim for
> the Life, also does not locate him (or indicate the time of day when
> it happened). (The version to John of Canterbury, bishop of Poitiers,
> is in Millor & Brooke's ed. of the Letters (Oxford, 1979) 2: 724-39.
>
> Where do these bits of information come from-John's location and the
> time of day? Thanks much!
>
> Juris
> --
> Juris G. Lidaka
> West Virginia State University
> Department of English
> Room 226 Hill Hall
> P.O. Box 1000
> Institute, WV 25112-1000
> USA
>
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