Sir,--I am desirous of information respecting the religious
veneration paid to the memory of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
cousin-german to King Edward the Second. He was taken in open
rebellion against the King on the 16th of March, 1322, condemned by
a court-martial, and executed, with circumstances of great
indignity, on the rising ground above the castle of Pomfret, which
at the time was in his possession. His body was probably given to
the monks of the adjacent priory; and soon after his death miracles
were said to be performed at his tomb, and at the place of {182}
execution; a curious record of which is preserved in the library of
Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge, and introduced by Brady into
his history of the period. About the same time, a picture or image
of him seems to have been exhibited in St. Paul's Church, in London,
and to have been the object of many offerings. A special
proclamation was issued, denouncing this veneration of the memory of
a traitor, and threatening punishment on those who encouraged it;
and a statement is given by Brady of the opinions of an
ecclesiastic, who thought it very doubtful how far this devotion
should be encouraged by the Church, the Earl of Lancaster, besides
his political offences, having been a notorious evil-liver.
As soon, however, as the King's party was subdued, and the unhappy
sovereign, whose acts and habits had excited so much animosity,
cruelly put to death, we find not only the political character of
the Earl of Lancaster vindicated, his attainder reversed, his
estates restored to his family, and his adherents re-established in
all their rights and liberties, but within five weeks of the
accession of Edward the Third, a special mission was sent to the
Pope from the King, imploring the appointment of a commission to
institute the proper canonical investigation for his admission into
the family of saints. His character and his cause are described, in
florid language, as having been those of a Christian hero; and the
numberless miracles wrought in his name, and the confluence of
pilgrims to his tomb, are presumed to justify his invocation.
In June of the same year (1327), a "king's letter" is given to
Robert de Weryngton, authorising him and his agents to collect alms
throughout the kingdom for the purpose of building a chapel on the
hill where the Earl was beheaded, and praying all prelates and
authorities to give him aid and heed. This sanction gave rise to
imposture; and in December a proclamation appeared, ordering the
arrest and punishment of unauthorised persons collecting money under
this pretence, and taking it for their own use.
In 1330, the same clerical personages were sent again to the Pope,
to advance the affair of the canonization of the Earl, and were
bearers of letters on the same subject from the King to five of the
cardinals, all urging the attention of the Papal court to a subject
that so much interested the Church and people of England.
It would seem, however, that some powerful opposition to this
request was at work at the Roman see. For in the April of the
following year another commission, composed of a professor of
theology, a military personage, and a magistrate of the name of John
de Newton, was sent with letters to the Pope, to nine cardinals, to
the referendary of the Papal court, and to three nephews of his
Holiness, entreating them not to give ear to the invectives of
malignant men ("commenta fictitia maliloquorum"), who here asserted
that the Earl of Lancaster consented to, or connived at, some injury
or insult offered to certain cardinals at Durham in the late king's
reign. So far from this being true, the letters assert that the earl
defended these prelates to the utmost of his power, protected them
from enemies who had designs on their lives, and placed them in
security at his own great peril. The main point of the canonization
is again urged, and allusion made to former repeated supplications,
and the sacred promise, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you,"
appealed to. The vindication of the Earl from the malicious charge
against him is omitted in the letters to two of the cardinals and
the lay personages. Were these the two cardinals who fancied
themselves injured?
This, then, is all I can discover in the ordinary historical
channels respecting this object of ancient public reverence in
England. The chapel was constructed and officiated in till the
dissolution of the monasteries; the image in St. Paul's was always
regarded with special affection; and the cognomen of _Saint_ Thomas
of Lancaster was generally accepted and understood.
Five hundred years after the execution of the Earl of Lancaster, a
large stone coffin, massive and roughly hewn, was found in a field
that belonged of old to the Priory of Pomfret, but at least a
quarter of a mile distant from the hill where the chapel stood.
Within was the skeleton of a full-grown man, partially preserved;
the skull lay between the thighs. There is no record of the
decapitation of any person at Pomfret of sufficient dignity to have
been interred in a manner showing so much care for the preservation
of the body, except the Earl of Lancaster. The coffin may have been
removed here at the time the opposite party forbade its veneration,
from motives of precaution for its safety.
Now, I shall be much obliged for information on the following
points:--
Is any thing known, beyond what I have stated, as to the
communications with Rome on the subject of his canonization, or as
to the means by which he was permitted by the English church to
become a fit object for invocation and veneration?
What are the chief historical grounds that endeared his memory to
the Church or the people? The compassion for his signal fall can
hardly account for this, although a similar motive was sufficient to
bring to the tomb of Edward II., in Gloucester Cathedral, an amount
of offerings that added considerably to the splendour of the
edifice.
Are any anecdotes or circumstances recorded, respecting the worship
of this saint in later times, than I have referred to?
{183} What is the historic probability that the stone coffin,
discovered in 1822, contained the remains of this remarkable man?
I have no doubt that much curious and valuable matter might be
discovered, by pursuing into the remote receptacles of historical
knowledge the lives and characters of persons who have become, in
Catholic times, the unauthorised objects of popular religious
reverence after death.
RICH. MONCKTON MILNES.
26. Pall Mall, Jan. 12th.
[To this interesting communication we may add that "_The Office of
St. Thomas of Lancaster_," which begins,
"Gaude Thoma, ducum decus, lucerna Lancastriæ,"
is printed in the volume of "_Political Songs_" edited by Mr. Wright
for the Camden Society, from a Royal MS. in the British Museum.--MS.
Reg. 12.]
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