Portrait of a Saint

My Life for My Sheep: A Biography of Thomas a Becket, by Alfred Duggan. 341 pp. New York: Coward-McCann. $5.00

The contest between Henry II and Saint Thomas a Becket was vast and complicated. Their long, angry war of wills summed up the drama in Church and State and in the entire life of the years of transition leading to the high Middle Ages. The murder of Becket in 1170 and his quick canonization three years later provided England and all Europe with a classic example of the meaning of tyranny on the one hand, and of loyalty to principle on the other.

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About the Author

Philip Burnham

My Life for My Sheep: A Biography of Thomas a Becket, by Alfred Duggan. 341 pp. New York: Coward-McCann. $5.00

The contest between Henry II and Saint Thomas a Becket was vast and complicated. Their long, angry war of wills summed up the drama in Church and State and in the entire life of the years of transition leading to the high Middle Ages. The murder of Becket in 1170 and his quick canonization three years later provided England and all Europe with a classic example of the meaning of tyranny on the one hand, and of loyalty to principle on the other.