SIMON OF SUDBURY 209 



on the road that the plenary indulgence which they 

 were pressing forward to gain would be of no avail to 

 purge their sins. The people who heard this heretical 

 and previously unheard-of doctrine issuing from the 

 mouth of an Archbishop, turned upon him in fear and 

 rage, and cursed him as he w^nt. A Kentish squire 

 among the throng rode up and indignantly said, 

 " My Lord Bishop, for this act of yours, stirring the 

 people to sedition against St. Thomas, I stake the 

 salvation of my soul that you will close your life by a 

 most terrible death." To this all the people replied 

 with a fervent Amen ! 



Saint Thomas was indeed avenged upon the Arch- 

 bishop. Eleven years later, when Wat Tyler's rebels 

 pillaged London, and forced themselves into the 

 Tower, they found Simon of Sudbury there, among 

 others. Dragging him out, they beheaded him with 

 revolting barbarity, and here he lies in the Choir, 

 where his headless body was seen, years ago, the place 

 of the missing head supplied with a leaden ball. 



The spirit of irreverence grew fast. In 1512 

 Erasmus made, ^\dth Dean Colet, a pilgrimage to 

 Canterbury, not so much from piety as from curiosity. 

 Descending the hill of Harbledown, they came into 

 the city, wondering at the majesty of the Cathedral 

 tower and at the booming of the bells resounding 

 through the surrounding country. They entered the 

 south porch, discussing the stone statues of Becket's 

 murderers, then to be seen there ; they entered the 

 great naA^e, where Erasmus noted satirically the 

 apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus chained to a pillar ; 

 and, armed with a letter of introduction from Arch- 

 bishop Warham, they were shown many things not 

 usually exhibited to the crowd. Passing through the 

 iron gates which then as now divided the nave from 

 the more holy portion of the building, they were 

 taken to the Chapel of the Martyrdom, where they 

 kissed the sacred rust that remained on the broken 

 point of Brito's sword. From here they descended 



