The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury 1162-1170

This is a major new edition of the letters written and received between 1162 and 1170 by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and victim of the 'murder in the cathedral'. It takes the reader to the very heart of the great dispute that rocked the English kingdom in the twelfth century.

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This new edition of the 329 letters written or received by Archbishop Thomas Becket in the years 1162-1170 entirely supersedes the edition of the 1880s in the Rolls Series. Provided with extensive biographical, biblical, and legal notes, a full English translation, and a completely revised chronology, it will enable scholars for the first time to follow the great dispute with King Henry II, from its origins to the eve of Becket's murder, on the basis of letters and reports written at the time. The controversy raised fundamental questions about papal authority and the respective limits of royal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction–matters of concern for the whole Latin Church. These issues, and the European status of Henry II, as lord of the 'Angevin Empire', gave the dispute a European dimension, and Becket's correspondents included not only Pope Alexander III and the College of Cardinals, but the rulers of England, France, and Sicily, and archbishops, bishops, and ecclesiastics across Europe.

This is a two volume pack.