• DOI:10.1017/S0038713400006679
• Corpus ID: 162716876

Reconstructing and Interpreting a Thirteenth-Century Office for the Translation of Thomas Becket

@article{Reames2005ReconstructingAI,
  title={Reconstructing and Interpreting a Thirteenth-Century Office for the Translation of Thomas Becket},
  author={S. Reames},
  journal={Speculum},
  year={2005},
  volume={80},
  pages={118 - 170}
}

• S. Reames
• Published 1 January 2005
• History
• Speculum

The translation of Thomas Becket's relics from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to the magnificent shrine at the east end of the cathedral proper, on July 7, 1220, was one of the great symbolic events in the life of the medieval English church. The dignitaries who took part in the ceremony included the young king, Henry III; the chief justiciar, Hubert de Burgh; the papal legate, Pandulf; the archbishops of Canterbury, Reims, and an unidentified see in Hungary; most of the diocesan bishops of England and Wales; and many abbots and other prelates, both from England and abroad. For the participants and the hordes of pilgrims who had joined them in Canterbury, the public ceremony and lavish ensuing feast drama tized the restoration "of peace and right order in the English Church and King dom' with the monarchy, secular magnates, papacy, and English clergy all rec onciled after a long period of strife. The translation was also a personal triumph for the host and chief architect of the day's festivities, Archbishop Stephen Lang ton, who had taken St. Thomas as his model and patron. Langton had long been planning this event,2 and the chroniclers are full of superlatives about the care that had gone into the details. The Waverley annalist dwells in particular on the unprecedented scope of the archbishop's hospitality on this occasion: "To this translation so vast an assemblage of men and women came together from various parts of the world, that it is said that never had such a multitude of people been brought together in one spot in England in all previous ages. For an edict had gone forth from the archbishop, and had been published in divers kingdoms and