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...LIFE FOR MY SHEEP (341 pp.)-Alfred Duggan-Coward-McCann...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Books: Self-Made Martyr | 10/10/1955 | See Source »

...historians are divided on Becket's role. To many he was a worldly opportunist who, somewhere along the way, underwent a remarkable spiritual conversion. Others saw him as a martyr only to ambition, who lost out in a struggle for power with his King. Britain's Alfred Duggan, a first-rate historical novelist (The Little Emperors), takes a polite middle ground. He does not really care for the business of martyrdom either, and accepts King Henry II's description of Becket as "a very good actor [who] played his part so carefully that he became the character...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Books: Self-Made Martyr | 10/10/1955 | See Source »

...Young Men. Duggan brilliantly sets the scene: the turmoil of 12th century England, in which Norman rule was still insecure. Since the conquerors felt they must stick together, it was possible for an ambitious young Norman lad, though only the son of a Cheapside burgess, to get a helping hand from Norman nobles. Young Thomas managed to acquire both a knight's training and a lawyer's education, a combination which, while he was still in his 30s, had drawn him to the attention of England's brand-new young Norman King, Henry II. Redhaired, red-tempered...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Books: Self-Made Martyr | 10/10/1955 | See Source »

Becket lived high, but only, Biographer Duggan maintains, to uphold his position. He sipped water flavored with lime blossoms while his guests downed Gascon wine. When Henry picked Becket to be Archbishop of Canterbury-largely to get control of the church and church funds-Thomas accepted reluctantly. "The love you now feel for me," he said prophetically, "will turn to bitter hate...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Books: Self-Made Martyr | 10/10/1955 | See Source »

...four knights with a band of brigands approached Canterbury Cathedral. When the prior tried to bar the doors, the archbishop said: "The House of God should not be made a castle. I command you, under holy obedience, to open those doors!" In cold detail, Author Duggan describes how Becket, the trained warrior, suffered the fatal sword blows, and said, with his dying breath: "For the Holy Name of Jesus and the safety of His Church, I offer myself to death...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Books: Self-Made Martyr | 10/10/1955 | See Source »

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