"On the 1170, the morrow of the , that is to say, Tuesday, 29 December, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, of the whole of England and of the , was murdered in his cathedral church by four noble knights from the household of his lord and former patron and friend, King Henry II. He had just celebrated what was thought to be his fiftieth birthday. The horror which the killing inspired and the miraculous cures performed at his tomb transfigured the victim into one of the most popular saints in the late-medieval calendar and made one of the greatest pilgrim shrines in the West. The modern , although doubtless better organized, gives some idea of medieval Canterbury with its phials of water tinctured, if faintly, with the blood of the martyr, and its highly charged atmosphere, a combination of the pathetic hopes of the sick and the jollity of the holiday-makers. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales kept the saint's memory green after the Reformation, and the drama has attracted distinguished modern playwrights."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Historians from EnglandAcademics from EnglandBiographers from EnglandUniversity College London facultyUniversity of Exeter faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
(334 pages)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Barlow_(historian)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Frank Barlow (historian)
(19 April 1911 – 27 June 2009) was one of the world's leading medieval historians, a prolific author, and a British Army major. He is known for his biographies of medieval kings and saints. Appointed in 1989 , he was elected in 1970 a Fellow of the and in 1971 a Fellow of the .
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Frank Barlow (historian) →
Related Quotes
"The lantern which William of Malmesbury used to guide his steps when he was writing his ' ... was the Anglo-Saxon Chr…"
"William Rufus had a remarkable career, even for the late eleventh century, when opportunities for the adventurous and…"
"Barlow's intellectual and scholarly qualities are arguably most evident in his editions of complex and technically di…"
"It is clear that there are as many different languages as peoples in this island. The Scots, however, and the Welsh, …"
"In the days of my early acquaintance with Henley, some fourteen or fifteen years ago, I could never look at him witho…"
"When men live in small communities, ... they cannot avoid personal participation in some public functions. So it was …"
"It is impossible to maintain that these attributes [caution and progress] have been constant in the two great English…"
"Kynge Henry beynge in Normādy, after some wryters fell from, or with his horse, whereof he caughte his deth: but Ranu…"
"The duke of Clarence and seconde brother to the kynge thanne beynge prysoner in the towre, was secretely put to deth …"
"Fabyan's own merits are little more than those of an industrious compiler, who strung together the accounts of his di…"