Similarities Between St. Thomas à Becket & St. Thomas More

St. Thomas More was named after his patron saint, St. Thomas à Becket. Both men were born in the same district in London--Cheapside--and both men undertook formal studies in law, where they distinguished themselves by their intelligence and astuteness. Both men rose to prominence in government by being named Chancellor of England, and each one was promoted by a King Henry--Becket under King Henry II, and More under King Henry VIII.

Both Becket and More were close and trusted friends to their respective kings--until the king claimed to exercise authority over the Church that exceeded his limits. King Henry II demanded that Becket take the oath to the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would restrict papal authority in England. King Henry VIII demanded that Thomas More take the oath to the Act of Supremacy, which also would have severely restricted papal authority in England. Both men refused. And for their refusal, they were persecuted, and ultimately executed by the King's men.

St. Thomas à Becket, pray for us.

Undervelier

Hilaire Belloc, in the midst of his pilgrimage by foot to Rome, stopped in a small village tucked away among the Jura mountains.

As I was watching that stream against those old stones, my cigar being now half smoked, a bell began tolling, and it seemed as if the whole village were pouring into the church. At this I was very much surprised, not having been used at any time of my life to the unanimous devotion of an entire population, but having always thought of the Faith as something fighting odds, and having seen unanimity only in places where some sham religion or other glozed over our tragedies and excused our sins. Certainly to see all the men, women, and children of a place taking Catholicism for granted was a new sight, and so I put my cigar carefully down under a stone on the top of the wall and went in with them. I then saw that what they were at was vespers.

All the village sang, knowing the psalms very well, and I noticed that their Latin was nearer German than French; but what was most pleasing of all was to hear from all the men and women together that very noble good-night and salutation to God which begins--
'Te, lucis ante terminum'
My whole mind was taken up and transfigured by this collective act, and I saw for a moment the Catholic Church quite plain, and I remembered Europe, and the centuries. Then there left me altogether that attitude of difficulty and combat which, for us others, is always associated with the Faith. The cities dwindled in my imagination, and I took less heed of the modern noise. I went out with them into the clear evening and the cool. I found my cigar and lit it again, and musing much more deeply than before, not without tears, I considered the nature of Belief.

Of its nature it breeds a reaction and an indifference. Those who believe nothing but only think and judge cannot understand this. Of its nature it struggles with us. And we, we, when our youth is full on us, invariably reject it and set out in the sunlight content with natural things. Then for a long time we are like men who follow down the cleft of a mountain and the peaks are hidden from us and forgotten. It takes years to reach the dry plain, and then we look back and see our home.

What is it, do you think, that causes the return? I think it is the problem of living; for every day, every experience of evil, demands a solution. That solution is provided by the memory of the great scheme which at last we remember. Our childhood pierces through again.... But I will not attempt to explain it, for I have not the power; only I know that we who return suffer hard things; for there grows a gulf between us and many companions. We are perpetually thrust into minorities, and the world almost begins to talk a strange language; we are troubled by the human machinery of a perfect and superhuman revelation; we are over-anxious for its safety, alarmed and in danger of violent decisions.

... The Catholic Church will have no philosophies. She will permit no comforts; the cry of the martyrs is in her far voice; her eyes that see beyond the world present us heaven and hell to the confusion of our human reconciliations, our happy blending of good and evil things.

By the Lord! I begin to think this intimate religion as tragic as a great love.

~The Path to Rome, 1902