Canterbury Cathedral (Part Two)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

The Warrior Chapel,

South Side, Canterbury Cathedral, 

commemorates the War Dead and is the site of Regimental Colours.

Photo: July 2005.

Source: Flickr

Author: Heather from Atlanta, US

Reviewer: Shizhao.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Norman period

The Cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1067, a year after the Norman Conquest. Rebuilding began in 1070 under the first Norman Archbishop, Lanfranc (1070–1077). He cleared the ruins and reconstructed the Cathedral to a design based closely on that of the Abbey of St. Etienne in Caen, where he had previously been Abbot, using stone brought from France.

The new Church was a cruciform building, with an aisled Nave of nine bays, a pair of Towers at the West end, Transepts with apsidal Chapels, a low Crossing Tower, and a short Choir, ending in three Apses. It was dedicated in 1077.

Following the election of Prior Ernulf, in 1096, Lanfranc's inadequate East end was demolished, and replaced with an Eastern arm, 198 feet long, doubling the length of the Cathedral. It was raised above a large and elaborately decorated Crypt. Ernulf was succeeded as Prior in 1107, by Conrad, who completed the work by 1126. 

The West Front in 1821, showing the Norman North-West Tower

 prior to rebuilding, (coloured engraving).

Canterbury Cathedral, view of the Western Towers, engraved by J. LeKeux, 

after a picture by G. Cattermole, 1821.

The new Choir took the form of a complete Church in itself, with its own Transepts; the East end was semi-circular in plan, with three Chapels opening off an Ambulatory A free-standing Campanile was built on a mound in the Cathedral precinct about 1160.

As with many Romanesque Church buildings, the interior of the Choir was richly embellished. William of Malmesbury wrote: "Nothing like it could be seen in England, either for the light of its glass windows, the gleaming of its marble pavements, or the many-coloured paintings which led the eyes to the panelled Ceiling, above."

Though named after the 6th-Century founding-archbishop, The Chair of St. Augustine may date from the Norman period. Its first recorded use is in 1205.

Cloisters, Canterbury Cathedral.

April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons).

Martyrdom of Thomas Becket

The income from Pilgrims (such as those portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"), who visited Becket's shrine, which was regarded as a place of healing, largely paid for the subsequent rebuilding of the Cathedral and its associated buildings. This revenue included the sale of Pilgrim Badges depicting Becket, his martyrdom, or his shrine.

A pivotal moment in the history of Canterbury Cathedral was the murder of Thomas Becket in the North-West Transept (also known as "the Martyrdom") on Tuesday, 29 December 1170, by knights of King Henry II. 

The king had frequent conflicts with the strong-willed Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own Cathedral. 

Becket was the second of four Archbishops of Canterbury who were murdered (see also Alphege).

The shrine was removed in 1538. King Henry VIII summoned the dead Saint to Court to face charges of Treason. In his absence, he was found guilty, and the treasures of his shrine confiscated, carried away in two coffers and twenty-six carts.

Canterbury Cathedral.

Photo: April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)

PART THREE FOLLOWS

Canterbury Cathedral (Part One)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

Canterbury Cathedral: West Front, Nave and Central Tower.

Seen from the South. Image assembled from 4 photos.

Photo: September 2005.

Source: Picture taken and post-processed by Hans Musil.

Author: Hans Musil.

Permission: Author is copyright owner.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the Cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.

Founded in 597 A.D., the Cathedral was completely rebuilt 1070-77. The East End was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th-Century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic Style following a fire in 1174. The Norman Nave and Transepts survived until the late-14th-Century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

Canterbury Cathdral's 12th-Century Choir.

This photo was taken by Nina-no.

Please credit this photo Nina Aldin Thune in the immediate vicinity of the image.

Distribution: Creative Commons

Kunsthistorie.com Farmasihistorie.com

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral's first Archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, previously abbot of St. Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome. He was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 A.D., as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine founded the Cathedral in 597 A.D., and dedicated it to Jesus Christ, the Holy Saviour.

Augustine also founded the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul outside the city walls. This was later re-dedicated to St. Augustine, himself, and was for many centuries the burial place of the successive Archbishops. The Abbey is part of the World Heritage Site of Canterbury, along with the Cathedral and the ancient Church of St. Martin.

Anglo-Saxon Cathedral

Bede recorded that Augustine re-used a former Roman Church. The oldest remains found during excavations beneath the present Nave in 1993 were, however, parts of the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon building, which had been constructed across a Roman road. They indicate that the original Church consisted of a Nave, possibly with a Narthex, and Side-Chapels to the North and South. A smaller subsidiary building was found to the South-West of these foundations.

Fulk de Cantelupe and Henry de Cornhill, Sheriff of Kent, are sent by King John 

to expel the monks from Christchurch, Canterbury.

Engraving: 1864.

Source: Doyle, James William Edmund (1864) 

"John " in A Chronicle of England: B.C. 55 – A.D. 1485, 

London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, pp. p. 215 

Retrieved on 12 November 2010.

Artist: James William Edmund Doyle (1822–92).

Engraver: Edmund Evans (1826 - 1905).

(Wikimedia Commons)

During the 9th- or 10th-Century, this Church was replaced by a larger structure (49 metres by 23 metres) with a squared West End. It appears to have had a square Central Tower. The 11th-Century chronicler,  Eadmer, who had known the Saxon Cathedral as a boy, wrote that, in its arrangement, it resembled St Peter's in Rome, indicating that it was of Basilican form, with an Eastern Apse.

During the reforms of Archbishop St. Dunstan (circa 909 A.D. - 988 A.D.), a Benedictine Abbey, named Christ Church Priory, was added to the Cathedral. But the formal establishment as a Monastery seems to date to circa 997 A.D., and the community only became fully monastic from Lanfranc's time onwards (with monastic constitutions addressed by him to Prior Henry). St. Dunstan was buried on the South side of the High Altar.

The Screen, leading to the Choir, 

Canterbury Cathedral, England.

Photo: April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral was badly damaged during Danish raids on Canterbury in 1011. The Archbishop, Alphege, was held hostage by the raiders and eventually killed at Greenwich, London, on 19 April 1012, the first of Canterbury's five martyred Archbishops. After this, Lyfing (1013–1020) and Aethelnoth (1020–1038) added a Western Apse as an Oratory of St. Mary.

The 1993 excavations revealed that the Apse was polygonal and flanked by hexagonal towers, forming a westwork. It housed the Archbishop's throne, with an altar of St Mary just to the East. The arcade walls were strengthened and towers added to the Eastern corners at around the time the westwork was built.


PART TWO FOLLOWS