Word: beckets
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...Becket concurred with the King's wishes, we should have had an almost ideal state; a union of spiritual and temporal administration, under the central government . . . And what happened? The moment that Becket, at the King's instance, had been made Archbishop . . . and he became more priestly than the priests, he ostentatiously and offensively adopted an ascetic manner of life, he openly abandoned every policy that he had heretofore supported; he affirmed immediately that there was a higher order than that which our King, and he as the King's servant, had for so many years striven to establish...
Saturday's clever Vagabond on the fireside chat of Henry II that led so unfortunately to the assassination of Thomas a Becket suggests an interpretation of the analogy to Roosevelt's court reforms that was perhaps not quite the one the Vagabond had in mind. I do not have enough of his facile subtlety to maintain the anonymity of his analogy, so I hope I will be excused if I have to treat mine more explicitly...
First, Henry's reforms were among the most important and beneficial in England's history. Second, Becket's opposition was based on a narrow class privilege, wholly at odds with progress and the general welfare. Third, there was considerable support of precedent for both sides in the conflict. The superior legality of one or the other was a matter of such tenuous interpretation that it might easily have merited a five-to-four decision in a modern Supreme Court. Impetuously, the twelfth century politicians sought to solve the conflict of reform and the existence of a strategically-placed individual...
...years. You have seen the way the jurisdiction of England has passed into my hands until all that is left outside are the courts of the Church. If we are to be happy, these too, must be given up to me. But it can not be while Thomas a Becket maintains the last word in this kingdom. Jealous of the power he has usurped, he will not step aside...
...leading part, that of the tragic Thomas a Becket, will be played by E. Irving Locke, of Boston, veteran Broadway player. New additions to the cast are Richmond Holder '40; David Langworthy '40; Robert W. Woodward '40; and Miss Marjorie Sanford, of Boston. The director of the current T. S. Eliot drama is William B. Berssenbrugge '37, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin...