Herbert of Bosham's is the ultimate Life of Thomas. Completed between 1184 and 1186, it is the last Life to be written by someone who knew Thomas well, and the last original contribution to the twelfth-century corpus of Becket Lives. At around 80,000 words, it is by far the longest, and while it echoes many features of the earlier Lives – for example the combination of observation with reflection, and response to criticism of Thomas – it is far more ambitious than any other. Herbert clearly believed he had written a great and important work, but worried that others might not see it in the same way. Towards the end of his book he makes fevered pleas against its abridgement. If you are incapable of writing you own Life, he asks, what makes you qualified to abridge mine? And if you are qualified to write a Life of Thomas, write your own! Herbert's concerns were fully justified. Within little over a decade, his work was abridged as part of the composite Life, the Quadrilogus, and it is in this form that it gained most currency, with his original composition only surviving in two manuscripts. In the nineteenth century Robertson printed it in full in his Rolls Series edition, but his introductory comments suggest that he did so grudgingly: