Edward Grim was
a clerk from Cambridge who was visiting
Canterbury Cathedral on the day that Thomas
Becket was murdered. Four other men, John
of Salisbury,
William
FitzStephen,
Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury were also in the
cathedral at the time and later wrote about what they saw. However,
only Grim was with Becket when he was murdered. Grim attempted to
protect Becket and during the struggle he was severely wounded. Grim
researched and wrote a biography of Thomas Becket between the years,
1170 and 1177.
The
Normans: Classroom Activities
(1)
Edward Grim, Life of Thomas Becket
(c. 1180)
The four knights with one attendant entered. They were received
with respect as the
servants of the King. The servants who waited on the Archbishop
invited them to the table. They rejected the food, thirsting rather
for blood. The Archbishop
was informed that four men had arrived who wished
to speak with him. He consented and they entered.
The knights sat for a
long time in silence. After a while, however, the Archbishop
turned to them, and carefully scanning the face of each one he greeted
them in a friendly manner, but the wretches, who had made a treaty
with death, answered
his greetings with curses.
Fitz Urse, who seemed
to be the chief and the most eager for crime among them, breathing
fury, broke out in these words, "We have something to say to
thee by the King's command.... The King commands that you depart with
all your men from the kingdom... from this day there can be no
peace with you, or any of yours, for you have broken the peace."
The Archbishop said, "I
trust in the King of heaven, who suffered on the
Cross: for from this day no one will see the sea between me and my
church.... He who
wants me will find me here." The knights sprang up and coming
close to him they said, "We declare to you that you have spoken
in peril of your head." "Do you come to kill me?" he
answered. As they went out, he who was named Fitz Urse, called out,
"In the King's name we order you, both clerk and monk, that you
should take and hold that man."
The Archbishop returned
to where he had sat before, and consoled his clerks, and told them
not to fear; and, as it seemed to us who were present - it was him
alone that they wanted to slay... We asked him to flee, but he did
not forget his promise not to flee from his murderers from fear of
death, and refused to go.
The knights came back with
swords and axes and other weapons fit for the crime which their minds
were set on... The knights cried out, "Where is Thomas Becket,
traitor to the King?" Becket... in a clear voice answered, "I
am here, no traitor to the King, but a priest... I am ready to suffer
in His name... be it far from me to flee from your swords."
Having said this, he turned
to the right under a pillar... and walked to the altar of St. Benedict
the Confessor... The murderers followed him; "Absolve",
they cried, "and restore to communion those whom you have excommunicatec
and restore their powers to those whom you have suspended."
He answered, "I will
not absolve them." "Then you shall die," they cried.
"I am ready," he replied, "to die for my Lord... But
in the name of Almighty God, I forbid you to hurt my people."
They then laid hands on him, pulling and dragging him, that they might
kill him outside the church. But when he could not be forced away
from the pillar, one of them pulled on him. He said "Touch me
not, Reginald; you owe me fealty; you and your accomplices act like
madmen." The knight, fired with terrible rage, waved his sword
over the Archbishop's head.
The wicked knight (William
de Tracy), fearing that the Archbishop would be rescued by the people
in the nave... wounded this lamb who was sacrificed to God... cutting
off the top of the head... by the same blow he wounded the
arm of him that tell this story. For he, when the other monks and
clerks fled, stuck close to the Archbishop...
Then he received a second
blow on his head from Reginald Fitz Urse but he stood firm. At the
third blow he fell on his knees and elbows... and saying in a low
voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church
I am ready to embrace death." Then the third knight (Richard
Ie Bret) inflicted a terrible wound as he lay, by which the sword
was broken against the pavement... the blood white with the brain
and the brain red with blood, dyed the surface of the church. The
fourth knight (Hugh de Morville) prevented any from interfering so
the others might freely murder the Archbishop.
The priest (Hugh of Horsea)
who had entered with the knights... put his foot on the neck of the
holy priest, and, horrible to say, scattered his brains and blood
over the pavement, calling out to the others, "Let us away, knights;
he will rise no more."
Edward Grim was a clerk
from Cambridge who was visiting Canterbury Cathedral on the day that
Becket was murdered. Four other men, John of Salisbury, William Fitz
Stephen, Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury were also
in the cathedral at the
time and later wrote about what they saw. However, only Edward Grim
was with Becket
when he was murdered. Grim attempted to protect Becket and during
the struggle he
was severely wounded. Grim researched and wrote a biography of Thomas
Becket
between the years, 1170 and 1177.
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