Location: / - Date:about 1172-1173, written after the murder of Thomas Becket (29 December 1170) but before his consecration as a saint (21 February 1173) - Commission:dedicated to a high ecclesiastic. Perhaps Pope Alexander III or the archbishop of Reims, William 'of the Whitehands'.

/

/

Life of St. Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. The poem recounts the main events of Becket's episcopal career: his membership in the council of Northampton, the period of his exile and ascetic life in France, etc. In addition, the vita is a satirical indictment of the moral depravity of the English bishops, who compromisers with financial gain and violated celibacy.

WOLLIN (C.) (ed.), Saints' lives by Walter of Châtillon : Brendan and Alexis, edited from London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian D.ix; Thomas Beckett, edited from Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS. Reginensis latinus 344 (Toronto, 2002) 73-96

BONE (Q.), 'Saint Thomas Becket: English statesman and archbishop of Canterbury (1162-1170)', in: S. Wolbrink (ed.), Great Lives From History: The Middle Ages, 477-1453 (Pasadena, 2005) 147-150
BRIDGES (V.), ''Goliardic' poetry and the problem of historical perspective: medieval adaptations of Walter of Châtillon's quotation poems', Medium Aevum, 81 (2012) 249-270
DIDIER (J.-C.), 'Gauthier de Chatillon', in: Dictionnaire de théologie catholique. Tables générales (Paris, 1951)
DUGGAN (J.A.), Thomas Becket : Friends, Networks, Texts and Cult (Aldershot, 2007)
DUGGAN (J.A.), Thomas Becket (Londres, 2004)
HASELDINE (J.-P.), 'Thomas Becket: martyr, saint -- and friend?', in: R. Gameson, H. Leyser (eds.), Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies presented to Henry Mayr-Harting (Oxford, 2001) 305-317
HAYES (D.M.), 'Body as champion of church authority and sacred place: the murder of Thomas Becket', in: M.D. Meyerson, et al. (eds.), A Great Effusion of Blood? Interpreting Medieval Violence (Toronto, 2004) 190-215
HUGH (M.), 'Shame, masculinity, and the death of Thomas Becket', Speculum, 87 (2012) 1050-1088
MARIQUE (P.J.), 'Walter of Châtillon', in: The Catholic Encyclopedia, 15 (New York, 1912)
OPPITZ-TROTMAN (G.), 'Birds, beasts and Becket: falconry and hawking in the lives and miracles of St. Thomas Becket', Studies in church history, 46 (2010) 78-88
PHILIPP-SCHAUWECKER (H.), 'Walter v. Châtillon', in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 (Freiburg, 1965 2de druk)
PICHARD (L.), DOLBEAU (F.), 'Gautier de Châtillon', in: Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le Moyen Age (Paris, 1992)
ROERSCH (L.), 'Gautier de Lille ou de Châtillon', in: Biographie Nationale, 7 (Brussel, 1880-3)
ROUSSEL (H.), SUARD (F.), eds. Alain de Lille, Gautier de Châtillon, Jakemart Giélée et leur temps, Bien dire et bien apprandre. Revue de médiévistique, 2 (Lille, 1980)
SCULLY (R.E.), 'The unmaking of a saint: Thomas Becket and the English Reformation.', Catholic Historical Review 86 (2000) 579-602
SLOCUM (K.B.), 'The making, re-making and un-making of the cult of Saint Thomas Becket', Hagiographica, 7 (2000) 3-16
STAUNTON (M.), 'Exile in the Lives of Anselm and Thomas Becket', in: L. Napran, E. Van Houts (eds.), Exile in the Middle Ages: Selected Proceedings from the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 8-11 July 2002 (International Medieval Research, 13) (Turnhout, 2004)
STAUNTON (M.), 'Thomas Becket's conversion.', in: C. Harper-Bill (ed.), Anglo-Norman Studies, XXI: Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1998 (Woodbridge, 1999) 193-211
STAUNTON (M.), Thomas Becket and his Biographers, 28 (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, (Woodbridge, 2006)
STRECKER (K.), 'Walter von Châtillon und seine Schule', in: Zeitschrift für deutsche Altertum, 64 (1927)
TILLIETTE (J.-Y.), 'Gautier de Châtillon', in: Dictionnaire universel des littératures, 2 (Paris, 1994)
TRAILL (D.A.), Walter of Châtillon. The Shorter Poems: Christmas Hymns, Love Lyrics, and Moral-Satirical Verse (Oxford, 2013)
VAN DER LINDEN (S.), De Heiligen (Antwerpen, 1999) 857-858
VOLLRATH (H.), 'Was Thomas Becket chaste? Understanding episodes in the Becket lives', in: J. Gillingham (ed.), Anglo-Norman Studies, XXVII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 2004 (Woodbridge, 2005) 198-209
VOLLRATH (H.), Thomas Becket. Höfling und Heiliger (Göttingen/Zürich, 2004)
WOLLIN (C.) (ed.), Saints' lives by Walter of Châtillon : Brendan and Alexis, edited from London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian D.ix; Thomas Beckett, edited from Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS. Reginensis latinus 344 (Toronto, 2002)