Thomas Stearns Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral provides a glimpse at the events surrounding the murder of Archbishop Thomas A. Becket. During the reign of King Henry II, a sporadic fit of rage from their king inspires four knights to set foot from Westminster to the Canterbury cathedral to confront the Archbishop (Farley). The confrontation between the two parties climaxes in Becket's assassination of which the motives and events remain debatable. Richard Brito, the Fourth Knight loyal to the French King Henry II, supplies the citizens of Canterbury with reasoning for Becket's murder that stipulates Becket is responsible for his own death (Eliot 83).

The year 1162 brought about an opening in the See of Canterbury, which is "an instrument of unity of and for the whole Communion," more permanent than the Bishop or Archbishop, and thusly the instilment of Becket as the Archbishop by Henry II to boost the...