On the 9th of October, 1170 Pope Alexander III resided in Anagni, which had been the ancient residence of the court of the Popes for at least two centuries. He wrote to two influential local archbishops for help in pacifying King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket, who had been in dispute for six years. Sensing Becket’s looming tragic fate, Alexander III began slowly to encircle the archbishop with rhetoric of the new martyr of Libertas Ecclesiae. When he had to flee from Rome besieged by factions led by Frederick I, the pope found refuge in Segni, where he canonised Thomas Becket on 21 February 1173. However, it was in faithful Anagni that he settled on and off from March 1173 through the following years (November 1176; December 1177–March 1178; September 1179). It was here that he decided to elaborate a powerful speech in images. In an oratory in the crypt of the grandiose cathedral, Alexander III had the last painful moments of the Archbishop’s death painted in a program imitating that of St. Peter’s in the Vatican. Becket thus became the new imitator of Christ, the new Peter, the new martyr on the altar of the Church of Rome.

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“Pro Honore et Libertate Ecclesiae Invicta Fortitude Sustinuit”——圣托马斯贝克特在阿纳尼大教堂的演讲

1170 年 10 月 9 日，教皇亚历山大三世住在阿纳尼 (Anagni)，这里曾是至少两个世纪以来教皇宫廷的古宅。他写信给两位有影响力的当地大主教，寻求帮助安抚国王亨利二世和大主教托马斯贝克特，他们已经争论了六年。亚历山大三世感觉到贝克特的悲惨命运迫在眉睫，开始缓慢地用新的自由教会殉道者的言辞包围大主教. 当他不得不逃离被腓特烈一世领导的派系围困的罗马时，教皇在塞尼找到了避难所，并于 1173 年 2 月 21 日将托马斯·贝克特封为圣徒。然而，他从 1173 年 3 月到 1173随后几年（1176 年 11 月；1177 年 12 月至 1178 年 3 月；1179 年 9 月）。正是在这里，他决定用图像来阐述一个强有力的演讲。在宏伟的大教堂地下室的演讲中，亚历山大三世在模仿梵蒂冈圣彼得大教堂的节目中描绘了大主教去世的最后痛苦时刻。贝克特因此成为基督的新模仿者、新彼得、罗马教会祭坛上的新殉道者。