Note (42) — Chapter II
Reading edition
On the religious reverence paid to Earl Waltheof, see Norman Conquest, ii. 602. I have there referred to the office of Thomas of Lancaster, which will be found in Political Songs, 268. Some of the pieces are what we should think most daring parodies of parts of the Church Service, but we may be sure that what was intended was reverence and not irreverence. There is another parody of the same kind in honour of Earl Thomas, a little earlier back in the volume, p. 258. It was a matter of course that Thomas of Lancaster should be likened to Thomas of Canterbury.
“Gaude, Thoma, ducum decus, lucerna Lancastriæ, Qui per necem imitaris Thomam Cantuariæ; Cujus caput conculcatur pacem ob ecclesiæ, Atque tuum detruncatur causa pacis Angliæ.”