A Canterbury Tale

High above visitors to the Lady Chapel in Chester Cathedral is a medieval ceiling boss depicting the murder of Thomas a Becket which should have been destroyed in 1538. That this remarkable remnant from the Middle Ages still adorns the ceiling of the chapel is probably due to the quick-thinking of some monks and, in one of those ironies of history, a decision of the king who wanted it destroyed.

In the Middle Ages the church, under the authority of the Pope, provided a parallel system of justice to that of the king of England. The church had its own courts, particularly to try the clergy and the so-called moral crimes of lay people. In addition, anyone who had committed a felony would also be able to evade the king’s justice by reaching a central part of a major church, including the Abbey of St Werburgh - now Chester Cathedral - called the sanctuary. From this location criminals, even those who had committed murder, could “claim sanctuary”, which allowed them to evade the king’s justice by leaving the country within 40 days.

It was therefore particularly shocking to European Christendom when in December 1170 an archbishop was murdered, apparently on the orders of a king, in the sanctuary of his own cathedral. Archbishop Thomas a Beckett was in dispute with his (once) good friend Henry II and had excommunicated bishops who had supported the king in their dispute. Henry complained bitterly in public about Beckett challenging his authority and four knights, who overheard his complaints, took it upon themselves to travel to Canterbury to arrest the archbishop. When they arrived in Canterbury they found Beckett at dinner and argued with him. The argument continued as Thomas retreated into the sanctuary of his cathedral and, as the argument became heated, they tried to arrest him. One of the knights drew his sword and sliced the top of Thomas’ head off.

The whole of Europe was shocked by the murder of an archbishop in the sanctuary of his own cathedral. The knights hid in a castle in Yorkshire for a year before travelling to Rome to ask for forgiveness from the Pope. The knights were then forced to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a journey from which they never returned.

Miracles were soon ascribed to a cult of Thomas a Becket, he was made a saint by the Pope in 1173 and his shrine at Canterbury Cathedral became a major European pilgrimage site. In Chester, the Abbey of St Werburgh benefitted indirectly from the cult of pilgrimage to Canterbury because people who were unable to make the journey to Canterbury chose to make journeys to other pilgrimage sites. One of the relics of Thomas was in Chester and the monks at St Werbugh’s chose to emphasise the link with Thomas by decorating one of the ceiling bosses on the roof of their Lady Chapel with an image of his martyrdom.

 In 1174 Henry II was forced to visit Canterbury to make penance and ask forgiveness of the monks. A king of England was humiliated, forced to walk barefoot through Canterbury to the cathedral, kneel in front of the shrine and admit his involvement in the murder.

In 1534 another King of England, Henry VIII, broke with Rome and became the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He then sought posthumous revenge on Becket, that symbol of a monarch’s humiliation. In 1538 Henry VIII visited Canterbury and had the shrine and the martyr’s relics destroyed. The site of the shrine is now marked in Canterbury Cathedral by a solitary burning candle. Henry VIII then ordered all images of St Thomas a Becket and his martyrdom throughout the country to be destroyed.

 Soon after becoming head of the church of England Henry appropriated much of the church’s wealth during the dissolution of the monasteries. The king’s commissioners began the process of dissolving the monasteries, nunneries and friaries in 1536, but only arrived in Chester in 1540. The abbot immediately handed over the keys, the shrine and relics of St Werburgh were destroyed and much of the abbey’s lands were sold off.

So how did the ceiling boss in St Werburgh’s Abbey - now Chester Cathedral - survive? According to a very good source (Nick Fry, a Chester Green Badge Guide who also works for Chester Cathedral) someone had plastered over the image of Becket on the ceiling boss so it was hidden from the king’s commissioners as they toured the abbey in 1540.

Apart from this unknown monk or servant who covered up the image on the ceiling boss of the Lady Chapel, we should also, in one of those ironies of history, be grateful to Henry VIII. Whereas the other four religious houses in Chester were sold off and their buildings destroyed so that the land could be redeveloped, Henry decided in 1541 to create a new diocese of Chester and make the abbey church of St Werburgh its cathedral.

The image of the martyrdom on the ceiling boss remained undiscovered until the Lady Chapel was restored in the 1960s and the image was finally uncovered after being hidden for more than four hundred years.