The story of Thomas Becket’s murder in AD 1170 still resonates after 850 years, despite the attempts of Henry VIII to eradicate all memory of the man that Henry II reportedly called ‘this turbulent priest’. Henry VIII called for the destruction of his shrine and the defacing of prayer books referring to his martyrdom. Even so, the Becket cult refused to die, and the British Museum has brought together an array of pilgrim badges and reliquaries, medals, paintings, and stained glass to show us why so many people in medieval Europe flocked to his Canterbury shrine. Current Archaeology’s Chris Catling reports.