Becket Page #7

signifying God's presence

in the tabernacle.

(laughs)

Do you take me for one of

your sheep, Holy Pastor?

I like playing games,

but only with boys of my own age.

The one for whom

that little red lamp burns

has seen into your innermost heart

and mine a long time ago.

Of my hatred of Thomas Becket

and your envy of him,

he knows all there is to know.

Strange. I'd always taken

Your Highness

for a perennial adolescent

who cared only for his pleasures.

One can be wrong about people,

Bishop. I made the same mistake.

Now, if it could be proved

that Becket had committed some

gross impropriety as Chancellor,

say embezzlement,

what would the church do?

If that were established -

I say, if -

the bishops could legally dissolve

their allegiance to him

pending their report to the Pope.

- And beyond that?

- You, you would go beyond that?

The whole way.

In his guilt -

if he were found guilty -

he would then be charged

under canon law.

And the penalty?

That would be for Your Majesty

to decide.

- Thomas.

- You love him, don't you?

You still love him. That impostor,

that Saxon guttersnipe, that mitered hog.

Hold your tongue, Priest.

All I confided to you

was my hate, not my love.

For England's sake,

you'll help me get rid of him,

but don't ever insult him to my face.

He will be accused,

and you will play your proper part.

According to law.

I would spit

if I were not in God's house.

(bell ringing)

My brothers,

as you have been told,

your presence here is voluntary.

If any of you have second thoughts,

you may retire now.

Thank you for attending.

Good day, My Lords.

I did not expect to see you

at Canterbury.

Do you still disagree

with my decision?

Your Grace, can nothing

persuade you to delay?

Oh, yes. The king's arrest

of Lord Gilbert

on the charge of sacrilegious murder.

There will be an arrest,

but not Lord Gilbert's.

The sheriff of London

is waiting in the sacristy.

He has orders to summon you

before the king's grand justicer

the instant

you pronounce the excommunication.

- How curious. On what charge?

- Embezzlement.

The king finds that there are large

sums of money missing from the treasury

during your administration

as Chancellor.

- How much?

- 40,000 pounds in fine gold.

(chuckles)

There was never that much gold

in the whole treasury.

I beg of you, do not do this.

You will strike a blow that will split

church and state for a generation.

If I do not strike it now,

the church as we know it

will not survive a generation.

God will see that it survives.

No, the kingdom of God

must be defended

like any other kingdom.

Gentlemen,

it is a supreme irony

that the worldly Becket,

the profligate and libertine,

should find himself

standing here at this moment.

But here he is,

in spite of himself.

But the King, for good or ill,

chose to pass the burden

of the church onto me,

and now I must carry it.

I've rolled up my sleeves

and taken the church on my back.

Nothing will ever make me

set it down again.

Now, Lords,

if you will forgive me.

(chanting in Latin)

Lord Gilbert,

baron of England, by the grace

of His Majesty, King Henry II,

seized upon the person of a priest

of the holy church

and unlawfully did hold him in custody.

Furthermore,

in the presence of Lord Gilbert

and by his command,

his men seized upon this priest

when he tried to escape

and put him to death.

This is the sin

of murder and sacrilege.

In that

Lord Gilbert has rendered

no act of contrition or repentance

and is at the moment

at liberty in the land,

we do here and now separate him

from the precious body and blood

of Christ

and from the society of all Christians.

We exclude him

from our Holy Mother Church

and all her sacraments

in heaven or on Earth.

We declare him excommunicate

and anathema.

We cast him into the outer darkness.

We judge him damned with the devil

and his fallen angels

and all the reprobate

to eternal fire

and everlasting pain.

(all) So be it.

(chanting in Latin)

As the Lord Sheriff of London,

I'm commanded to summon you,

Thomas Becket, to the king's court

on the charges herein set forth,

stamped with the king's seal.

I, Robert de Beaumont,

Duke of Leicester,

Grand Justicer of the Realm,

do now summon Thomas Becket

to this court of law

for the third and last time.

Thomas Becket, step forward.

He's doomed, isn't he?

- Yes.

- At last.

I forbid you to gloat.

At seeing your enemy perish?

Why not?

Becket is my enemy,

but in the human balance,

traitor that he is

and naked as his mother made him,

he's worth 100 of you, madam,

with your crown and your jewels

and your august uncle the emperor

into the bargain.

I'm forced to fight him now

and crush him,

but at least he gave me

with open hands

everything that is at all good in me,

and you have never given me anything

but your carping mediocrity

and your everlasting obsession

with your puny little person

and what you thought was due to it!

That's why I forbid you to smile

while Becket is being destroyed!

I gave you my youth.

I gave you your children.

I don't like my children!

And as for your youth,

that withered flower

pressed between the pages of

a hymn book since you were 12 years old

with its watery blood

and stale insipid scent,

you can bid farewell to that

without a tear.

Your body was an empty desert,

madam,

which duty forced me

to wander in alone.

But you have never been a wife to me.

And Becket was my friend -

red-blooded,

generous and full of strength.

- Oh, my Thomas.

- And I?

I have given you nothing, I suppose?

Life, yes.

Thank you.

But after that I never saw you except

in a passageway on your way to a ball,

or in your crown and ermine mantle

when you were forced to

tolerate my presence.

No! No one on this earth has ever

loved me except Becket!

Call him back then.

Absolve him if he loves you.

Give him back his power,

but do something.

I am.

I'm learning to be alone.

(d trumpets)

By the authority granted me,

I, Robert de Beaumont,

servant of the crown,

do now, before this council,

charge Thomas Becket

with the crimes of -

Robert.

- I charge you, Thomas Becket -

- Robert de Beaumont,

hear me for the sake of your soul,

which is in the gravest danger.

All in this assembly know how faithfully

I've served my lord the king.

It was he who willed

that I be archbishop,

and it was for love of him alone

that I accepted.

I am innocent of any wrongdoing

in my administration of the king's treasury

as chancellor or at any other time.

I therefore refuse to plea

to these trumped-up charges.

I will be judged

by the Pope alone,

to whom before you all

I now appeal and place myself

and my church under his protection.

As head of the Church of England

and as your spiritual father,

I forbid you to pass judgment on me.

I command you

and all who would charge me

to hold your peace

on pain of endangering

your immortal souls.

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