" In the presence of the young
Henry III., too young himself to bear a part, the coffin in which lay
the relics of St Thomas was borne on the shoulders of the Papal
Legate, the Archbishop Stephen Langton, the Grand Justiciary Hubert de
Burgh, and the Archbishop of Rheims, from the crypt up to the Trinity
Chapel in the presence of every Bishop and Abbot of England, of the
great officials of the kingdom and of the special ambassadors of every
state in Europe.
Of bishops and abbots, prior and parsons,
Of earls and of barons and of many knights thereto,
Of sergeants and of squires and of his husbandmen enow,
And of simple men eke of the land--so thick hither drew.
So was St Thomas vindicated and God avenged. And St Thomas reigned as
was thought for ever on high, in the new sanctuary of his Cathedral
Church.
I say he reigned on high. The choir and sanctuary of Canterbury had
even in St Anselm's time as we have seen, been high above the nave.
William of Sens designed the new choir, as high as the old, but very
nobly raised still higher, the great altar, and higher yet the Chapel
of the Trinity in which stood the shrine.
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