Felix locus, felix ecclesia,
In qua Thomæ vivit memoria,
Felix terra quæ dedit præsulem,
Felix illa quæ fovit exulem.
[492] “La vie de Saint Thomas le Martyr, par Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, poète du XIIe siècle,” ed. C. Hippeau, Paris, 1859.
[493] Epilogue, p. 205.
[494] On which see, e.g. “The Old Road,” by H. Belloc, London, 1904; Sidney Heath, “Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages,” London, 1911, chap. viii. A characteristic decree of the Venetian Senate, showing the popularity of this pilgrimage abroad, authorizes on Aug. 3, 1402, Lorenzo Contarini, captain of the Venetian galleys setting sail for Flanders, to visit St. Thomas’s shrine, in accomplishment of a vow, to go thither and return in one day while the galleys would be at Sandwich, but not to sleep away from his vessel. “Calendar of Venetian State papers relating to English Affairs,” ed. Rawdon Brown, Rolls series, 1864, I, 42.
[495] Garnier, ibid. pp. 210 ff.
[496] The original charter of Louis VII has disappeared, but the confirmation by his son still exists. It reads: “Noverint igitur universi, presentes pariter et futuri, quod intuitu beati martiris quondam Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, ad cujus tumulum pro salute anime et sanitate corporis impetranda, pater noster in multa devotione fuerat profectus, conventui monachorum Sancte Trinitatis ibidem Deo servientium centum modios vini, ad mensuram Parisiensem, singulis annis tempore vendemiarum, in castellaria Pissiaci accipiendos, in elemosynam concessit . . . quod factum patris nostri ne aliqua possit oblivione deleri et aliqua malignantium invidia violari, manu nostre confirmationis apposita, precipimus immutabiliter custodiri.” Given at Nantes, year 1180. Text, facsimile and comment in “Archæologia Cantiana,” vol. IV, 1861, p. 127.