For the great shrine, which for so long had been the loftiest beacon in England of the Christian Faith, was destroyed.  It was the first work of the last Henry to avenge his namesake, and having made another Thomas martyr in the same cause, to wipe out for ever all memory of the first who had steadfastly withstood his predecessor.  It is strange that the severed head of Blessed Thomas More should lie in the very church whence Henry II. set forth to do penance for the murder of the first Thomas.

We have no authentic record of the final catastrophe, such deeds are usually done in darkness.  All we really know is that in 1538 “the bones, by command of the Lord (Thomas) Cromwell, were there and then burnt ... the spoile of the shrine in golde and precious stones filled two greate chests such as six or seven strong men could doe no more than convey one of them out of the church.”  That the shrine was of unsurpassed magnificence we have many witnesses.  “The tomb of St Thomas the Martyr,” writes a Venetian traveller who had seen it, “surpasses all belief.  Notwithstanding its great size it is wholly covered with plates of pure gold; yet the gold is scarce seen because it is covered with various precious stones as sapphires, balasses, diamonds, rubies and emeralds; and wherever the eye turns something more beautiful than the rest is observed; nor in addition to these natural beauties is the skill of art wanting, for in the midst of the gold are the most beautiful sculptured gems, both small and large as well as such as are in relief, as agates, onyxes, cornelians and cameos; and some cameos are of such size that I am afraid to name it; but everything is far surpassed by a ruby, not larger than a thumb-nail, which is fixed at the right of the altar.  The church is somewhat dark and particularly in the spot where the shrine is placed, and when we went to see it the sun was near setting and the weather cloudy; nevertheless I saw the ruby as if I had it in my hand.  They say it was given by a king of France.”

To carry out the theft with impunity it was first of all necessary to degrade the great national hero and saint and expose his memory to ridicule.  In November 1538 St Thomas was declared a traitor, every representation of him was ordered to be destroyed, and his name was erased from all service books, antiphones, collects and prayers under pain of his Majesty’s indignation, and imprisonment at his Grace’s pleasure.  The saint indeed is said to have been cited to appear at Westminster for treason, and there to have been tried and condemned.  That seems, too superstitiously insolent even for such a thing as Henry.  But we may believe Marillac, the French Ambassador, when he tells us “St Thomas is declared a traitor because his relics and bones were adorned with gold and stones.”

So perished the shrine and memory of St Thomas, and with it the thousand year old religion of England to be replaced by one knows not what.