Perhaps he obtained this office because he was very fond of soldiers, and when he was a little boy he wanted to become one.
This was a very natural wish, for he was the son of a powerful Baron, who had an estate and ‘manor’ in Buckinghamshire, and to become a soldier was the common lot of most boys in his position.
He had an uncle, or great-uncle, however, who was Bishop of Worcester, and this Prelate had other hopes for his nephew’s career.
One day, when little Thomas was staying with him, he asked the child what he would like to be.
‘A soldier,’ said the boy promptly, looking up in the Bishop’s face.
The old man patted him gently on the head.
‘Then, sweetheart, thou shalt be a soldier, but a soldier of the King of kings,’ he replied, ‘and thou shalt fight under the banner of thy namesake, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and thy harness shall be the cassock of a priest.’
So the little fellow put the idea of earthly warfare out of his head, and set himself to study Greek and Latin instead, and when he was older he went to Oxford, and then to Paris with his brother Hugh, and soon became a very distinguished student.
When he returned to England he became Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and a very good Chancellor he was, for he knew how to rule the students who were often very high-spirited and turbulent, just as students are nowadays.
But their high spirits took rougher and more dangerous forms, just as the times were rougher and more dangerous, for they used to fight with one another with swords, and bows and arrows, and the Chancellor used to get hold of these weapons and confiscate them, until such time as their owners came to beg them back on condition that they kept the peace.