The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is placed in the public domain. But this was not the sole nor even the chief object of his mission. On the eve of his departureβso the story was told by his friends in later daysβThomas had gone to take leave of the king at Falaise.
I will have you to be archbishop of Canterbury. I know your plans concerning the Church; you will assert claims which I as archbishop must needs oppose; and the breach once made, jealous hands would take care that it should never be healed again. Thomas was appalled. For twelve months he had known that the primacy was within his reach; he had counted the cost, and he had no mind to pay it.
He was incapable of undertaking any office without throwing his whole energies into the fulfilment of its duties; his conception of the duties of the primate of all Britain would involve the sacrifice not only of those secular pursuits which he so keenly enjoyed, but also of that personal friendship and political co-operation with the king which seemed almost an indispensable part of the life of both; and neither sacrifice was he disposed to make. He had said as much to an English friend who had been the first to hint at his coming promotion, [3] and he repeated it now with passionate earnestness to Henry himself, but all in vain.
The council in London was no sooner ended than Richard de Lucy and three of the bishops [5] hurried to Canterbury, by ii. The monks of Christ Church were never very easy to manage; in the days of the elder King Henry they had firmly and successfully resisted the intrusion of a secular clerk into the monastic chair of S. Augustine; and a strong party among them now protested that to choose for pastor of the flock of Canterbury a man who was scarcely a clerk at all, who was wholly given to hawks and hounds and the worldly ways of the court, would be no better than setting a wolf to guard a sheepfold.
But their scruples were silenced by the arguments of Richard de Lucy and by their dread of the royal wrath, and in the end Thomas was elected without a dissentient voice. Roger of York, who till now had stood completely aloof, claimed it as a privilege due to the dignity of his see; but the primate-elect and the southern bishops declined to accept his services without a profession of canonical obedience to Canterbury, which he indignantly refused. Early next morning the consecration took place.
