ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that from the very beginning of his pontificate, Thomas Becket identified with his famous predecessor. However, in many ways Becket faced a very different world from the one that St. Anselm had left some fifty years before. John of Salisbury mentioned Anselm's example several times in correspondence relating to the archbishop's exile. The pontificates of his successors, Ralph d'Escures, William of Corbeil and Theobald of Bec, had resolved some of the issues that had plagued Anselm and had brought others to the fore. During the Anglo-Norman civil war, the conduct not only of Archbishops William and Theobald, but also of Henry of Winchester and the other English bishops, was at first glance less than praiseworthy. Theobald's skillful cooperation with Gilbert Foliot kept open the lines of communication with the Angevins, and his refusal to crown Prince Eustace surely signaled to them his growing support for their cause.
