Dear Graham,
There's an explicit reference to John the Baptist as a model for Thomas
Becket in at least one of the early short lives of Thomas [the first
anonymous Passio in PL 190: 317ff]-- and this passage would have been very
familiar in late-medieval England, since it was used in the York breviary
lessons for Thomas's feast day and also in the Sarum commemorative lessons
for Thomas that were supposed to be read every week.
[beginning of commem. lesson 3 in Procter and Wordsworth's edition of the
Sarum breviary, vol. 2, col. 316]: "Et qui exemplo Baptistae cum
constantia justiciae zelum perfectae conceperat in corde, parificari quoque
ei studuit in veste poenitentiae. Rejecta namque syndone qua hactenus dum
mollia regum blandiretur uti consueverat: cilicio asperrimo super nudum
vestiebatur. [etc]
The image of Thomas as both an ascetic [secretly] and a martyr who stood up
to his king, and was murdered for it, may have made parallels with John the
Baptist fairly inevitable to Thomas's hagiographers, of course, whether or
not he had any particular attachment to John during his lifetime.
It might be worth contacting Phyllis Roberts, who's done a lot of work on
the preaching tradition on Thomas, to ask her whether she's encountered
sermons on Thomas that shed more light on this connection. (Maybe she's
even lurking on the list?)
Sherry Reames (Dept. of English, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison)
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