The sanctity of the church had been broken, and the assassins were upon Thomas Becket. There was nothing left for him to do but to incline his neck to the blade. Then, an eyewitness wrote, a knight put a foot on the “precious martyr, and, horrible to say, scattered his brain and blood”.

Now, the garment Becket is traditionally believed to have worn as he lay dead on the cold altar step of Canterbury Cathedral is returning to the scene of medieval Europe’s most notorious crime. The vestment is set to be loaned by the Vatican to the cathedral this summer, to mark the 850th anniversary of his murder. It will be displayed to tourists and pilgrims, in what organisers of Canterbury’s Becket2020 programme hope