Veritas et Sapientia-How The Martyrdom of St Thomas Beckett Saved Catholicity In England

Mandeville, LA – “The Two Swords debate was a dispute between two types of rulers about which one had supreme power. But the best-selling book of the twelfth century, Policraticus, transcended the dispute, by arguing that the fundamental question was not who had supreme power, but instead what were the people’s remedies when any ruler exceeded his rightful powers or failed to perform his duties.

The book was written by the most important political philosopher of the twelfth century, John of Salisbury. A cosmopolitan and very well-educated English bishop,41 he was “the most accomplished scholar and stylist of his age.”42

His book Policraticus (“Statesman’s Book”), published in 1159, was the first serious book of political science in the West for many centuries, and was perhaps the most influential book written since the Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s legal treatise Corpus Juris had been compiled six centuries before. The book “created an immediate sensation throughout Europe.”43 “For over a century Policraticus was considered throughout the West to be the most authoritative work on the nature of government”; Thomas Aquinas, whose work later displaced Salisbury, consciously built on Salisbury’s foundation.44 Throughout the Middle Ages, John of Salisbury’s “writings were extensively studied and repeatedly pillaged by jurists, preachers, reforming barons and humanists.”45

As an English bishop, John of Salisbury saw first-hand the tremendous Church vs. State struggle in England. King Henry II (1154-1189) was determined to rule the church. Policraticus did not mention Henry II by name, but the book was dedicated to Thomas Becket, the great English courtier and archbishop with whom Salisbury served for many years.

In 1162 the King appointed Thomas Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest position in the English church. In 1164, King Henry forced Becket and other leaders to proclaim the Constitutions of Clarendon, which reasserted extensive royal authority over the church. Because the Constitutions of Clarendon were contrary to canon law (church law, discussed infra), Becket later repudiated the Constitutions. He publicly declared that King Henry was usurping power.

A bitter conflict ensued, and in 1170 an enraged Henry roared, “Will no one rid me of this pestilential priest?” Four knights heard the King’s remarks, and promptly rode off to assassinate Becket, at Canterbury Cathedral. (The story is retold in T.S. Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral.) Eleven years after Policraticus was published, John of Salisbury was present in Canterbury Cathedral when Becket was murdered.

The murder of Becket horrified public opinion in England and the Continent, and Henry accurately saw that his throne was in grave danger. He did penance, allowing himself to be scourged by some monks. The King worked out a compromise with the Church in which he revoked the Constitutions of Clarendon, and was allowed to claim that he never wanted Becket killed, but he did take responsibility for indirectly inciting Becket’s death by proclaiming the Constitutions in the first place.

Even before Becket’s death, Policraticus was the bestseller of the century. The author’s personal witness to the most infamous tyrannical crime of the twelfth century doubtless caused even more interest in what John of Salisbury had to say about resistance to tyranny.

The book was a shot at contemporary monarchs who oppressed the Catholic Church: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (the teutonicus tyrannus), Roger II (the harsh Norman king of Sicily), Stephen of Blois (who ruled England, more or less, from 1136 to 1154 after starting a civil war to usurp the throne from his cousin Matilda, and who plundered the church and threw bishops in prison), Eustace (Stephen’s son, who was killed while pillaging the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds), and Henry II (Matilda’s son).

“All tyrants reach a miserable end,” John announced. For proof, he pointed to contemporary examples, such as Eustace, Geoffrey de Mandeville (the plundering Earl of Essex, who was killed in 1144), and Ranulf of Chester (another participant in the Stephen/Matilda war, killed in 1153). And then there were many stories from the past: the anti-Christian Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate was said to have been stabbed to death with a lance by the martyr Mercurius “on the command of the Blessed Virgin.” The Danish tyrant Swain, who imposed the Danegeld (a tax) on the British was slain by “the most glorious martyr and king Edmund.” And “Where is Marmion [another contemporary Briton] who, pushed by the Blessed Virgin, fell into the pit which he had prepared for others? Where are the others whose mere names would consume a book? Their wickedness is notorious, their infamy is renowned, their ends are unhappy.…” – Dave Kopel, The Catholic Second Amendment

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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