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Ecclesiastical: France

The most splendid shrine of which England could boast in olden times was that of Thomas a Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral, of which not a trace now remains. It was the object of countless pilgrimages; a hundred thousand devotees visited it in one year; men of every rank, even to the crowned head. Louis VII., of France, came there in 1179, in guise of a common pilgrim, and presented the famous precious stone, carbuncle, ruby, or diamond, called "the Regale of France," said to be as large as a bird's egg or a thumb-nail, which Henry VIII. set, and wore as a thumb-ring. Erasmus, who visited the shrine, tells us, "A coffin of wood, which covered a coffin of gold, was drawn up by ropes and pullies, and then an invaluable treasure was discovered; gold was the meanest thing to be seen there; all shined and glittered with the rarest and most precious jewels, of an extraordinary bigness; some were larger than the egg of a goose."

Stow says: "The timber work of this shrine, on the outside, was covered with plates of gold, damasked and embossed with wires of gold, garnished with brooches, images, chains, precious stones, and orient pearls; spoils of which shrine (in gold and jewels of inestimable value) filled two great chests, one of which six or eight strong men could do no more than convey out of the church; all of which were taken to the king's use."