Pope did what he could to arrange a
reconciliation, but it was not till 1170 that the King, seriously alarmed
that Thomas would place England under an interdict, agreed to a
reconciliation.

On December 1st the exile was over, and Thomas landed at Sandwich, and went
at once to Canterbury. There were many who doubted whether there could be
lasting peace between the King and the Archbishop, and while the bishops
generally hated the Primate's return, the nobles spoke openly of him as a
traitor to the King.

The end was near. Thomas, asked to withdraw the sentence of excommunication
he had passed against the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London and
Salisbury for violating the privileges of Canterbury, answered that the
matter must go before the Pope. The bishops, instead of going to Rome,
hastened to Henry, who was keeping his Court at Bur, in France.

Henry, at the complaint of the bishops, broke out into one of those
terrible fits of anger which overcame him from time to time, and four
knights left the Court saying, "All this trouble will be at an end when
Thomas is dead, and not before." On December 29th these knights were at
Canterbury, and at nightfall, just when vespers had begun, they slew
Archbishop Thomas by the great pillar in the Cathedral. So died this great
Archbishop for the liberties of the Church, and, as it seemed to him, for
the welfare of the people.

Henry was horrified at the news of the Archbishop's death, and hastened to
beg absolution from Rome for the rash words that had provoked the murder.
In the presence of the Papal legate he promised to give up the
Constitutions of Clarendon, nor in the remaining eighteen years of his
reign did Henry make any fresh attempt to bring the Church under the
subjection of the Crown.

To the great bulk of English people Thomas was a saint and martyr, and
numerous churches were dedicated in his name. More than three hundred years
later Henry VIII. decided that St. Thomas was an enemy of princes, that his
shrine at Canterbury must be destroyed, and his festival unhallowed. But
the fame of Thomas a Becket has survived the censure of Henry VIII., and
his name shines clearly across the centuries. Democracy has been made
possible by the willingness of brave men in earlier centuries to resist, to
the death, an absolutism that would have left England bound and chained to
the king's throne.

STEPHEN LANGTON AND JOHN

Stephen Langton was consecrated Archbishop of