You discovered more material online this
morning. Here is an example that you will use to show Merlyn thinking from the
seven hundreds in juxtaposition with the present. - Amorella
1401 hours. This is good stuff found
by serendipity.
***
From:
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CANTERBURY
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC AND A BRIEF
HISTORY
OF THE ARCHIEPISCOPAL SEE
BY HARTLEY WITHERS, B.A.
LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1897
Becket’s Crown. —The circular apse at the extreme east end of the church is known as
Becket’s Crown. The name has caused a good deal of discussion. The theory once
generally received was to the effect that the portion of Becket’s skull which
was cut away by Richard le Breton was preserved here as a relic of special
sanctity. We know that the Black Prince bequeathed, by his will, tapestry
hangings for the High Altar and for three others, viz., “l’autier la ou Mons’r
Saint Thomas gist—l’autier la ou la teste est—l’autier la ou la poynte de l’espie
est.” The first and last are evidently the altars at the shrine and in the
Chapel of the Martyrdom, and it has been contended that the altar “where the
head is” was the altar of which traces may still be seen in the pavement of the
corona, or Becket’s Crown. Against this notion we must place the authority of
Erasmus, whose words plainly show that the martyr’s head was displayed in the
crypt: "hinc digressi subimus cryptoporticum: illic primum exhibetur
calvaria martyris perforata (the martyr’s pierced tonsure): reliqua
tecta sunt argento, summa cranii pars nuda patet osculo.” While Willis
considers that the term corona was a common one for an apse at the
[Pg 89]
end
of a church, citing “Ducange’s Glossary,” which defines “Corona Ecclesiæ” as Pars
templi choro postica, quod ea pars fere desinat in circulum; “at all
events,” he concludes, “it was a general term and not peculiar to Christ
Church, Canterbury. The notion that this round chapel was called Becket’s
Crown, because part of his skull was preserved here as a relic, appears wholly
untenable. There is at least no doubt that a relic of some sort was preserved
here, because we know from a record of the offerings—Oblaciones S. Thomæ—during
ten years in the first half of the thirteenth century, that the richest gifts
were made at the shrine and in the corona. And we know that the spot was one of
peculiar sanctity from the fact that the shrines of St. Odo and St. Wilfrid
were finally transferred thither. Corpus S. Odonis in feretro, ad coronam
versus austrum. Corpus S. Wilfridi in feretro ad coronam versus aquilonem.”
On
the north side of the corona is the tomb of Cardinal Pole, the last Archbishop
of Canterbury who acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. He held office from
1556 to 1558, and died the day after Queen Mary. Here stands also the
patriarchal chair, made out of three pieces of Purbeck marble. It is called St.
Augustine’s chair, and is said to be the throne on which the old kings of Kent
were crowned; according to the tradition, Ethelbert, on being converted, gave
the chair to Augustine, from whom it has descended to the Archbishops of
Canterbury.
[Pg 90]
It is needless to say that this
eminently attractive legend has been attacked and overthrown by modern
criticism. It is pointed out that the original archiepiscopal throne was of one
piece only, and that Purbeck marble did not come into use until some time after
Augustine’s death. From its shape it is conjectured that the chair dates from
the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth, and that it
may have been constructed for the ceremony of the translation of St. Thomas’
relics. It is in this chair, and not in the archiepiscopal throne in the choir,
that the archbishops are still enthroned. From the corona we have a view of the
full length of the cathedral, which measures 514 feet, and is one of the
longest of English cathedrals. Of the windows in Becket’s Crown, the centre one
is ancient, while the rest are modern and afford a most instructive contrast.
CHAPTER
IV.
THE HISTORY OF THE SEE.
The history of the See of Canterbury may be said to have begun with the
coming of Augustine, for there can be no doubt that it is owing to its being
the settling-place of the first messengers of the gospel in Saxon England that
Canterbury has been the metropolis of the English Church. Pope Gregory, with
his usual thoroughness, sent to Augustine, soon after his arrival here, an
elaborate scheme for the division of our island into sees, which were to be
gradually developed as Christianity spread. According to his arrangement, there
were to be two archbishops, one at London and one at York. But we cannot regret
that this scheme was not carried out, as an archiepiscopal see is much more
picturesquely framed by the hills, which encircle Canterbury than it could have
been by the dingy vastness of the political and social capital.
Augustine reached England in 597, and found that his path had been made easy by
the fact that Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was a Christian. He soon
effected the conversion of the king himself, and his labours were so rapidly
successful that at Christmas, 597, no less than ten thousand Saxons were
baptized at the mouth of the Medway. The archiepiscopal pall, and a papal Bull,
creating Augustine first English archbishop, were duly sent from Rome, and the
royal palace in Canterbury, with an old church—Roman or British—close by, were
handed over to him by Ethelbert. The first archbishop died in 605, and was
buried, according to the old Roman custom, by the side of the high road which
had brought him to Canterbury. A few years later, however, his remains were
transferred to the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, which had then just been
completed.
[Pg 104]
Augustine
was succeeded by one of the monks who had originally come with him from Rome.
The new archbishop’s name was Lawrence; he had been already consecrated
by Augustine in his lifetime. This unusual measure was thought to be necessary,
as the Church had hardly yet established itself in a strong position. Indeed,
so weak was its hold over its rapidly acquired converts, that when Ethelbert’s
son, who succeeded his father in 616, backslid into the path of heathendom, the
great majority of the people followed the royal example, and Lawrence, together
with the Bishops of London and Rochester, prepared to leave England altogether,
as a country hopelessly abandoned to paganism. However, the archbishop
determined to make one more attempt to maintain his position, and succeeded in
terrifying the king, by a pretended miracle, into becoming a Christian. He then
recalled the two bishops who had already crossed to France, and on his death,
in 619, was succeeded by the Bishop of London, Mellitus. Mellitus only
held the Primacy till 624, when his place was filled by Justin, who also
had a brief archiepiscopal life, being succeeded in 627 by Honorius.
This archbishop held the see for twenty-six years, till 653, and it was not
until 655 that his successor was appointed.
So
far the archbishops had all been foreigners who had come over either with
Augustine or with the second company of missionaries who were despatched by
Gregory soon after Ethelbert’s conversion. In 655, however, a native
Englishman, named Frithona, was consecrated by the Saxon Bishop of Rochester,
and adopted the name of Deus Dedit. He ruled at Canterbury till 664, and
after his death the see remained vacant for four years, probably owing to the
plague which was then wasting all Europe, and caused the death of Wighard, a
Saxon, who had started for Rome to receive his consecration there. But in 668, Theodore,
a native of Tarsus in Cecilia, was appointed, and was welcomed by the members
of the torn and divided English Church. He devoted all his energy to
centralizing and consolidating the power of the archbishop, which had been
hitherto largely nominal. He journeyed all over England, correcting the
prevalent laxity of discipline and establishing the control of the metropolitan
authority. He went so far as to interfere with the Archbishopric of York, and
with the help of the king attempted to divide it into three sees.
[Pg 105]
He
was, moreover, an enthusiastic scholar, and first diffused the study of Greek
in England. He had brought a copy of Homer with him, and is said to have established
a school of Greek in Canterbury. He died in 690, and after his death there was
no archbishop for three years. In 693, one Brethwald, an English monk,
some time Abbot of Reculver, was appointed to the see. The Saxon Church shows
that it had benefited by Theodore’s rigorous discipline, in that it was
henceforth able to supply its own archbishops; it had now securely established
itself all over the country, and the last home of paganism, which, curiously
enough, held its own longest in Sussex, had been finally converted in Theodore’s
time. Brethwald ruled till 731, and was followed by Tatwin (731-734) and
Nothelm (734-740). In 740 Cuthbert became archbishop. He seems to
have been an interesting personage with a good deal of zeal for reform; he is
recorded to have assembled a synod at Cliff to discuss measures for the
improvement of the lives and behaviour both of clergy and laity. Probably at
his instigation the synod ordained that the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed should
be taught in the vulgar tongue; he was the first archbishop buried in the
cathedral. He was succeeded by Bregwin, who held the see from 759 to
765. He was an exception among the series of English primates, being of German
origin. During the rule of the next archbishop, Jaenbert, an attempt was
made to transfer the primacy from Canterbury. Offa, the King of Mercia, had
established himself in a position of commanding power, and wishing that the
seat of the chief ecclesiastical authority should be within his own dominion,
obtained a Bull from Pope Adrian I. by which an Archbishop of Lichfield was
created, with a larger see than that of Canterbury. Jaenbert seems to have
acquiesced, though doubtless most unwillingly, in this arrangement, but in
spite of the central situation of Lichfield, the traditional claims of
Canterbury were too strong, and Adulf was the first and last Archbishop of
Lichfield. Athelard, who succeeded Jaenbert in 790, had the primacy
restored to him. The Northmen began their raids on the English coasts at this
time, and their ravages probably continued through the days of his successors, Wulfred,
Feologild, Ceolnoth, and Ethelred (805-889).
In
889 the learned Plegmund, formerly tutor of Alfred,
[Pg 106]
was by
his quondam pupil’s influence made Archbishop of Canterbury. It was during his
time that the sees of Wells for Somerset and Crediton for Devonshire were
established.
Selected
and edited from - The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral Church of Canterbury
[2nd ed.]., by Hartley Withers
** **
Post before heading to lunch. - Amorella
More information after lunch at
Panera/Chipotle. - Amorella
** **
Theodore
of Tarsus (602 – 19 September 690) was Archbishop of
Canterbury from 668 to 690, best known for his reform of the English Church and
establishment of a school in Canterbury.
Theodore's life can be divided into the time before
his arrival in Britain as Archbishop of Canterbury, and his archiepiscopate.
Until recently, scholarship on Theodore had focused on only the latter period
since it is attested in Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History of the English and also in Stephen of Ripon’s Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, whereas no source directly mentions
Theodore's earlier activities. However, Michael Lapidge and Bernard Bischoff
have reconstructed his earlier life based on a study of texts produced by his
Canterbury School.
Canterbury School
Theodore
and Hadrian established a school in Canterbury, providing instruction in both
Greek and Latin, resulting in a "golden age" of Anglo-Saxon
scholarship:
They
attracted a large number of students, into whose minds they poured the waters
of wholesome knowledge day by day. In addition to instructing them in the Holy
Scriptures, they also taught their pupils poetry, astronomy, and the calculation
of the church calendar ... Never had there been such happy times as these
since the English settled Britain.
Theodore
also taught sacred music, introduced various texts, knowledge of Eastern
saints, and may even have been responsible for the introduction of the Litany
of the Saints, a major liturgical innovation, into the West. Some of his
thoughts are accessible in the Biblical Commentaries, notes compiled by his
students at the Canterbury School. Of immense interest is the text, recently
attributed to him, called Laterculus
Malalianus. Overlooked for many years, it was rediscovered in the 1990s,
and has since been shown to contain numerous interesting elements reflecting
Theodore's trans-Mediterranean formation. A record of the teaching of Theodore
and Adrian is preserved in the Leiden Glossary.
Pupils
from the school at Canterbury were sent out as Benedictine abbots in southern
England, disseminating the curriculum of Theodore.
Theodore
called other synods, in September 680 at Hatfield Hertfordshire, confirming
English orthodoxy in the Monothelite controversy, and circa 684 at Twyford,
near Alnwick in Northumbria. Lastly, a penitential composed under his direction
is still extant.
Theodore died in 690 at the remarkable age of 88,
having held the archbishopric for twenty-two years, and was buried in
Canterbury at Saint Peter's church.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia - Theodore of Tarsus
** **
You have also taken the time to download and read from a PDF work: “Augustine of Canterbury converting the Anglo-Saxons: A
contribution to the identity of the medieval missionary”. - Amorella
1730
hours. This is more focus on the 7th Century. I have read this sort
of thing before but it was decades ago. Perhaps I can use some poetic license
here and have Canterbury School, Augustine in the same Merlyn memory of
Canterbury in those days.
You have more than enough information,
orndorff. – Post. – Amorella
**
**
Anglo-Saxon Cathedral
By far the most important find was the remains of the Anglo-Saxon
cathedral, just 0.20m below the 1786 floor. The remains may be divided into
four main phases. The earliest, Phase I, is represented by narrow wall
foundations at the east end of the nave. These foundations cut into post Roman
`dark earth' deposits which sealed the Romano British deposits. They may well
be part of the original church of St Augustine constructed soon after his
arrival in A.D. 597, which comprised a nave with possible narthex to the
west and porticus to the north and south. The foundations were of
re-used Roman stone with mortared stone and Roman bricks above. The plan and
scale of the building are similar to the early church of St Peter and St Paul
at St Augustine's Abbey (Sparks 1990, 8)
http://www.hillside.co.uk/arch/cathedral/nave.html
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