Part 2

Two churches were built in the second century. One of these, in 600, was consecrated by the Bishop of Soissons, and dedicated to St. Martin, for Bertha, a daughter of Charibert, a Christian king of Paris. On her marriage with Ethelbert of Kent, the foremost king of the English, it was stipulated that her religious inclinations should be protected. Through her influence the king became converted. To encourage Christianity, and to set a good example to his subjects, Ethelbert welcomed Augustine and his forty monks, in 597, gave him his palace, which was speedily converted into a priory, and helped him to found an abbey without the city walls, and intended as a sepulture for the Archbishops.

This abbey was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. As Canterbury was already recognised as the metropolis, or head of the State of Kent, in that their kings had their royal residence there, it was no difficulty for Augustine, as spiritual head, to make it also a Metropolitan See, the more so as, by the investiture of the Pope, he became the first Archbishop.

Pope Gregory's (the Great) scheme in sending Augustine was to divide England into two Provinces, with Metropolitans of equal dignity at London and York, and twelve Suffragans to each. But all that his emissary could effect was to consecrate two bishops, one at Rochester (Kent) and one at Essex. As Christianity took a firmer hold in England, it was generally to Canterbury that the different portions of England applied for missionaries. In this foundation Augustine has been followed by a succession of prelates, who distinguished themselves equally in spiritual and temporal affairs of the State--men, each of whom made a great stir during his life, and whose names even now are enshrined, as it were, in a halo of romance. They represent the intellect of their times; their lives show us the difficulties they encountered in overcoming the crass ignorance of the people on whose behalf they worked, and the risks and dangers and petty tyranny they suffered at the hands of kings, whose chief amusements were disturbing the peace and licentious living. Those who have played the most prominent part in ecclesiastical as well as in lay history are:

Dunstan, who governed with a tight hand the kingdom during the reigns of Edred and Edwy; Stigand, who, for his opposition to William the Conqueror, was deposed from the See to make room for Lanfranc; Lanfranc, whose memory is perpetuated not only through his abilities as scholar, statesman and administrator, but more especially as one who rebuilt the Cathedral and as founder of several religious establishments; the celebrated Thomas a Becket, who, until he became Archbishop, was the great friend of Henry II., and was Chancellor of England. On the acceptance of the Archbishopric, Becket constituted himself as a champion of the rights and claims of the Church, and would brook no interference from Henry in ecclesiastical matters. This naturally created a coolness between the two, which ended in Becket's retiring to France for six years. On Henry's promise to annul the Constitution of Clarendon, in 1170, Becket returned, only a few days after to be murdered in the Cathedral.

Stephen Langton, who was raised to the See by Pope Innocent III., in defiance of King John, during a quarrel he had with the Church; Cranmer, who, for promoting the Reformation, was burnt at the stake in Mary's reign; and Laud, who was beheaded during the Commonwealth of Cromwell for supporting the measures of his sovereign, Charles I.

Augustine did not live to see the completion of his Cathedral. It was dedicated to Our Saviour, and it is even now usually called Christ Church.

During the ravages of the Danes the city suffered greatly, and the Archbishopric became vacant in 1011, through the violent death dealt out to Archbishop Alphage by the Danes.

Canute, after his usurpation of the throne, rebuilt a great part of the city and restored the Cathedral; and the monks were not forgotten, in that the revenue of the port of Sandwich was made over to them for their support. These benefits greatly helped the city to attain great importance, and in Doomsday Book it is entered under the title of "Civitas Cantuariae."

In 1080 the Cathedral was burnt down, only to be restored with greater splendour, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity, by Archbishop Lanfranc, who rebuilt the monastic edifice, erected the Archbishop's palace, founded and endowed a priory dedicated to St. Gregory, and built the hospitals of St. John and St. Nicholas.

In 1161 the city became almost extinct through fire, and at several subsequent periods it suffered severely from the same cause.

In 1170 the great event which stirred the kingdom, and which conveniently marks the starting-point of the disastrous half of Henry II.'s reign, was the great means of replenishing the treasury of the Cathedral. In that year Becket was murdered as he was ascending the steps leading from the nave into the choir. His name was subsequently canonised. His shrine was visited from far and near by every rank of pilgrim, who seldom left without depositing first some substantial token of their reverence for the saint. Four years after the murder popular feeling was as great as ever, so that it was probably to propitiate the people, as much as to ask for Divine intercession in his troublous affairs, that Henry II. performed a pilgrimage to the shrine and submitted himself to be scourged by the monks.

Another source of great importance to the Cathedral was the institution of the Jubilee by the Pope. It commemorated every fifty years the death of Becket, and till the last one, celebrated in 1520, attracted an immense number of pilgrims, who gave a great impetus to trade in the city. The number and richness of their offerings were incredible.

The dissolution of the priory of Christ Church was gradually effected; the festivals in honour of the martyr were one by one abolished; his shrine was stripped of its gorgeous ornaments, and the bones of the saint were burnt to ashes and scattered to the winds.

A part of the monastery of St. Augustine was converted into a royal palace by Henry VIII. In this palace Queen Elizabeth held her court for a short time. During her reign there was an influx of Walloons, who, persecuted for their religious tenets, had fled from the Netherlands and settled in Canterbury.

They introduced the weaving of silk and stuffs. To them Queen Elizabeth allotted the crypt under the Cathedral as their place of worship, where the service is still performed in French to their descendants.

In this Cathedral was solemnised the marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria of France, in 1625. During the war between Charles I. and Cromwell the Cathedral was wantonly mutilated and defaced by the followers of Cromwell, who converted the sacred edifice into stables for his horses. At the Restoration, Charles II., on his return from France, held his court in the royal palace at Canterbury for three days. This monarch, in 1676, granted a charter of incorporation to the refugee silk-weavers settled in the city. These refugees, a few years after, were considerably increased by French artisans, who came over consequent on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

To those admirers of form and beauty the wonderful architecture of the present Cathedral must satisfy their every craving. To students the study of this colossal building must be a work of love, encouragement, and continued interest. Rebuilt soon after the Conquest by Archbishop Lanfranc, and worthily enlarged and enriched by his several successors, the Cathedral is a crowning work of grandeur and magnificence, exhibiting, in its highest perfection, every specimen of architecture, from the earliest Norman to the latest English. In form it is that of a double cross. Where the nave and the western transepts intersect, there springs up a lofty and elegant tower in the Later English style, with a spired parapet and pinnacles, with octagonal turrets at the angles, terminating in minarets. In the west end are two massive towers, of which the north-west is Norman, and the south-west is similar in character, though embattled, and little inferior to the central tower.

Perhaps the most noteworthy portions of this Cathedral, though it is hardly possible to make a distinction, are the Chapel of Henry IV., with its beautiful fan tracery depending from the roof; the small but beautiful Lady Chapel, which is separated from the eastern side of the transept by the interposition of a finely carved stone screen; and in that part of the Cathedral, called Becket's Crown, is the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, famous as the site of the gorgeous Shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. In "Becket's Crown" a softened light steals through the painted window. The interest in this window lies in the fact that most of the glass shown is ancient, and it is the fifth of the twelve windows in the Trinity Chapel which suffered severely at the hands of the Puritans in 1642.

What remained of the ancient glass was replaced, as far as possible in the original position, by the late Mr. George Austen, subsequently to 1853.

These windows represent the miracles of St. Thomas a Becket between the years 1220 and 1240.

Between the western towers there is a narrow entrance spanned over by a sharply pointed arch, enriched with deeply recessed mouldings. Above this are canopied niches, over which is a lofty window of six lights with richly stained glass.

The south-west porch constitutes the principal entrance, and is highly enriched with niches of elegant design. It belongs to a late period of English architecture. The roof is most elaborately groined, and shields are attached at the intersections of the ribs. In the same period of Late English must be included the fine nave and the western transepts. A gorgeous effect is given by the richly groined roof supported by eight lofty piers, which divide it off on each side from the aisles. From the eastern part numerous avenues lead to the many chapels in different parts of the interior, and give a truly magnificent effect. All these chapels deserve the closest study, like the rest of the building, to thoroughly appreciate the subtlety of design, and the marvellous skill of the architect.

Durham

Dunholme. ("Doomsday Book.") Hac sunt in fossa Bedae Venerabilis ossa.

Though Durham dates from the tenth century, yet it is necessary, to understand the growth of its power, to go back to the seventh century.

The exact date of the birth of St. Cuthbert is unknown. As a youth he was admitted into Melrose Abbey, where in the course of fourteen years he became monk and prior. From there he passed another fourteen years in the Convent of Lindisfarne, after which he retired to Farne for nine years. At the end of this period he was persuaded, most unwillingly, by Egrid, King of Northumbria, to become Bishop of Lindisfarne, a See in Bernicia, as Durham County was then called.

But after two years' office he retired to Farne. There died St. Cuthbert on March 20, A.D. 687, in the thirty-ninth year of his monastic life, still undecided as to where he should be buried. However, the remains were reverently preserved in the Church of Lindisfarne, till the monks were compelled to flee, owing to the invasion of the Danes, towards the end of the ninth century. Though in dire dread and confusion, the monks forgot not their sacred trust, but carried the holy remains of St. Cuthbert with them.

They wandered many a weary day throughout the North of England in search of "Dunholme," which Eadner, a monk of their order, declared to them had been divinely revealed to him as the lasting place of rest for the holy and incorruptible body of St. Cuthbert. They seemed to have had great difficulty in locating the whereabouts of Dunholme, for according to tradition they were miraculously delivered from their nomadic life. As they proceeded they heard a woman inquire of another if she had seen her cow, which had gone astray. Much to their joy and relief they heard the reply, "In Dunholme."

Thereupon they climbed to the summit of the "Hill Island," at the base of which they had arrived, as they wished to deposit their corruptible burden on a spot so close to Heaven that it should remain incorruptible, and by its incorruptibility be a fitting foundation on which to build a shrine worthy of their Saint and the God who honoured him.

About 995 their idea was realised by Bishop Ealdhune. He founded a church, built in the style usual then in Italy, of brick or stone with round arches. This style, based directly on Italian models, became prevalent throughout all Western Europe till the eleventh century, and in England was known as Anglo-Saxon. This church was erected over the Saint's resting-place, upon the rock eminence called Dunholme (Hill Island). Later on the Normans changed this into "Duresne," whence Durham. And a representation of a dun cow and two female attendants was placed upon the building. At the same period the See was transferred from Lindisfarne, and, together with the growing fame of the presence of the "incorruptible body" of the Saint, attracted pilgrims, who settled there with their industries. Thus were laid the foundations of the great city. In this wise St. Cuthbert became the patron Saint of Durham, as well as of the North of England and of Southern Scotland.

In 1072 William the Conqueror found it necessary to erect, across the neck of the rock-eminence, the castle, to guard the church and its monastery.

In 1093 Bishop Carileph built a church of Norman structure in place of Ealdhune's Anglo-Saxon church, and changed the Anglo-Saxon establishment of married priests into a Benedictine abbey.

After the Norman Conquest the county became Palatinate, and acquired the independence peculiar to Counties Palatine.

The bishops of Durham were invested with temporal and spiritual powers, exercising the royal prerogatives, such as paramount property in lands, and supreme jurisdiction, both civil and military, waging war, right of forfeiture, and levying taxes. These privileges were granted, owing to the remoteness of Durham from the metropolis and its proximity to the warlike kingdom of Scotland, and allowed of justice being administered at home, thereby doing away with the obligation of the inhabitants quitting their county, and leaving it exposed to hostile invasions.

They were also excused from military service across the Tees or Tayne, on the plea that they were specially charged to keep and defend the sacred body of St. Cuthbert. Those engaged on this service were called "Haliwer folc" (Holy War folk). But in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. the power of the See was much curtailed; and eventually, on the death of Bishop Van Milvert in 1836, it was deprived of all temporal jurisdictions and privileges.

Around Carileph's fine Norman church numerous additions were made from time to time, namely:

The Galilee or Western Chapel, of the Transitional Period.

The gradual change from the Norman to the Pointed style, which took place between 1154 and 1189, during Henry II.'s reign.

The Eastern Transept, or "Nine Altars."

The Western Towers, built in "The Early English Style," which was a further development of "The Transitional."

It was carried out in the reigns of Richard I. to Henry III., 1189 to 1272. It is also known as "First Pointed" or "Lancet."

The Central Tower (Perpendicular).

The Windows (Decorated and Perpendicular).

From 1154, the commencement of Henry II.'s reign, architecture acquired new characteristics in each reign, or rather the architects of each reign attempted to improve on the style of their predecessors. It began with the "Transition from Norman to Pointed." From that it passed to "First Pointed or Early English." Then to "Complete or Geometrical Pointed." This was succeeded, in Edward III.'s time, by a more flowing style called "Middle Pointed," "Curvilinear," or "Decorated." The graceful flowing lines of this period culminated in what is known as "The Third Pointed," "Rectilinear," or "Perpendicular Style." This period existed from 1399 to 1546, that is to say, from the beginning of the reign of Henry IV. to the end of the reign of Henry VIII.

The Galilee or Western Chapel was built and dedicated as an offering to "The Blessed Virgin," by Bishop Pudsey, between 1153 and 1195; and served as the allotted place of worship for women, who were strictly forbidden to approach the sacred shrine of St. Cuthbert.

In the south-west corner of this chapel there is an altar-tomb of blue marble. This is revered as the abiding-place of the earthly remains of the great monk and historian, the Venerable Bede. Concerning him, tradition relates how Elfred, "The Sacrist" of Durham, in 1022, stole these remains from Jarrow and preserved them in St. Cuthbert's coffin till 1104. They were afterwards placed in a gold and silver shrine by Bishop Pudsey, which was left in the refectory till 1370, when Richard of Barnard Castle, a monk afterwards buried under the blue stone on the west of the present tomb, influenced its removal to the Galilee Chapel.

There upon the altar-tomb, mentioned before, the casket was placed, and was covered by a gilt cover of wainscot, which was drawn up by a pulley when the shrine was visited by pilgrims.

Upon this altar-tomb there is an inscription in Latin, in current use of the period, which runs thus:

"Hac sunt in fossa Bedae Venerabilis ossa." ("In this tomb are the bones of the Venerable Bede.")

In connection with this inscription there is a legend that the sixth word, "Venerabilis," was miraculously supplied by divine intervention to the tired and till then uninspired monk who was penning it. Hence Bede is known generally as "The Venerable Bede."

Close by there was an altar to the Venerable Bede.

The Reformation swept away the original tomb, leaving only a few traces behind, and the bones were buried under its site; and an altar-tomb, which still exists, was erected over them.

Every Sunday and holiday at noon a monk was accustomed to ascend the iron pulpit beneath the great west window, and from it to preach.

Though this pulpit is gone, there still exists in close proximity a small chamber of the time of Bishop Langley, which was obviously the robing-room of the preacher.

From 1775 to 1795 this magnificent pile was given over to the tender mercies of one James Wyatt, architect, who, but for timely intervention on the part of John Carter, would have left little of it to our present view; but, alas! by his chiselling and interference with the superficial details of the exterior, he has taught us a lesson in vandalism. The Cathedral still survives with surpassing beauty, and the name of the would-be destroyer is dead.

The Galilee Chapel was happily rescued in time from utter destruction at the hands of James Wyatt. This gentleman had already commenced to pull down a portion of it to make room for a coach-road, which he had planned to facilitate the connection between the castle and the college.

Unhappily the spirit of utility of a most material age allowed the Chapter House to be demolished, but, oddly enough, this demolition, together with the peeling of the exterior, the removal, so to speak, of details and minor embellishments of the grand edifice, have robbed us of nothing of its impressiveness, but indeed remind us, as the mutilated Parthenon marbles do, of the irony of man's vain predilection to mutilate the beautiful, which must last for ever. Thus again there is evidence in the interior of man's destructive power in the mutilation of the Neville tombs.

It seems strange that the House of God the Peacemaker and the shrine of St. Cuthbert the "incorruptible" should have been used as a prison-house of corruptible beings and peace-breakers,--legitimised murderers,--for here were interned the Scotch prisoners to the number of forty-five hundred, after the battle of Dunbar, and ample scope of amusement was given for their empty brains, as their ruthless exercise of the privilege records.

The Chapel of the Nine Altars still contains the remains of St. Cuthbert. When the tomb was opened in 1827 a number of curious and interesting books and MSS., the portable altar, vestments, and other relics were found. These are now placed in the Cathedral Library. The Cathedral Library was formerly the dormitory and refectories of the abbey, as it was originally styled.

In this connection one is led to speculate upon the possible early evolution of religious thought of early Christianity, and to half suspect that the "Nine Altars" in the Galilee Chapel and the "Woman's Bar" were the remnants of symbols of pre-Christian era, retained for the obvious purpose of satisfying converts to the faith still young.

There is a strong flavour of the worship of the Nine Muses of pagan times, and of the Judaical laws with regard to women either within or without the places of worship.

Tradition has it that St. Cuthbert was a misogynist, and so strong was it that the precincts of St. Cuthbert were strictly guarded against the encroachment of women. To enforce this "The Boundary Cross" or "Woman's Bar" was constructed to limit their approach, in the south of the nave.

By this attitude towards women St. Cuthbert, as a priest, only foreshadowed the present regime of the Church of Rome as regards matrimonial obligations on the part of its servants. For so saintly a man must not be taken as a hater of women, or his beatification as the son of a woman would have no sense, and would call his incorruptibility into question, and his saintliness of character in grave doubt.

The chief entrance to the Cathedral was originally in the west end, but when Bishop Pudsey built the Galilee Chapel, a doorway was constructed in the north end, framed in a rich and deeply recessed Norman arch, doing away with the necessity of the great entrance. Fixed to the door is the famous Norman knocker, suspended from the mouth of a grotesque monster, by which offenders seeking sanctuary made their presence known.

One of the most marvellous features, perhaps, of the whole Cathedral is the impressive grandeur of its appearance to the traveller, approaching from any quarter, who sees this Island Hill capped by the mighty structure, soaring up, as it were, into the heavens, yet dominating by its protecting shadows the city round its base--the symbol most beautifully conceived of the affinity between earth and heaven, and truly the noblest form of monument of reverential design that the human brain could have possibly conceived.

Lichfield

Licefelle.

("Doomsday Book.")

Lichfield, the ancient cathedral city of Staffordshire, has the best existing type of the fourteenth-century English church. It is memorable also as the birthplace of Dr. Johnson. Through the generosity of Alderman Gilbert the Corporation has purchased the house in which Dr. Johnson was born, with his statue opposite it, and has opened it to the public, much in the same way as that of Shakespeare's at Stratford-on-Avon. Lichfield is about sixteen miles to the north of Birmingham, and lies in a fertile valley, on a small tributary of the Trent.