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Canterbury Cathedral

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture

   Canterbury Cathedral from the southwest.
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   Canterbury Cathedral from the southwest.

   Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian
   structures in England. It is the Cathedral of the Anglican Archbishop
   of Canterbury, the Primate of All England and religious leader of the
   Church of England. As well as being the mother church of the Diocese of
   Canterbury (east Kent) it is the focus for the Anglican Communion. The
   formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at
   Canterbury.

History

Augustine

   The Cathedral's first Archbishop was St. Augustine, previously abbot of
   St. Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome, sent to England by Pope Gregory
   the Great, arriving in AD 597.

   St. Bede the Venerable (The Ecclesiastical History of the English
   People) records how the Cathedral was founded by St.Augustine, the
   first Archbishop. Archaeological investigations under the Nave floor in
   1993 revealed the remains of this first Saxon Cathedral which had been
   built across a former Roman road by way of foundations. This church was
   dedicated to St. Saviour.

   Augustine also directed the foundation of a Benedictine Abbey of Ss.
   Peter and Paul to be built outside the city walls. This was later
   rededicated to St. Augustine himself and was for many centuries the
   burial place of the successive archbishops. The remains are in the care
   of English Heritage and form part of the World Heritage Site along with
   the ancient Church of St. Martin, which appears to contain Roman work,
   although this is disputed.

   The main subsequent phases of building are listed below (year ranges
   are the periods during which the relevant office was held):
   View from the north west circa 1890-1900.
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   View from the north west circa 1890-1900.

Later Saxon and Viking

     * Second building on same axis added by Archbishop Cuthbert ( 740-
       760) as a baptistry and dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

     * Oda ( 941- 958) renewed the building, greatly lengthening the Nave.

     * The Cathedral community was reorganised as Benedictine Abbey during
       the reforms of Abp. St. Dunstan. St. Dunstan was buried on the
       south side of the High Altar.

     * Lyfing ( 1013- 1020) and Aethelnoth ( 1020- 1038) added a western
       apse as an oratory of St. Mary.

Norman

     * Lanfranc ( 1070- 1077),the first Norman archbishop, rebuilt the
       ruined Saxon church.

     * St. Anselm greatly extended the Quire to the east to give
       sufficient space for the monks of the greatly revived monastery.
       The crypt of this church survives as the largest of its kind in
       England.

Thomas Becket

   Becket in a window in Canterbury Cathedral
   Becket in a window in Canterbury Cathedral

   A dark chapter in the history of the Cathedral was the decapitation of
   Thomas Becket in the north-east Transept on Tuesday 29 December 1170 by
   guards that overheard King Henry II say "Who will rid me of this
   meddlesome priest?" when he was having troubles with Becket. The guards
   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). Alphege's shrine was set on the north side of the High
   Altar.
     * Following the disastrous fire of 1174 which destroyed the Eastern
       end, William of Sens rebuilt the Quire with a much more modern,
       Gothic design, including high pointed arches, flying buttressed,
       and rib vaulting, emphasizing vertical lines of tall pillars and
       spires to create greater interior heights. Later, William the
       Englishman added the Trinity Chapel as a shrine for the relics of
       St. Thomas the Martyr. Over time other significant burials took
       place in this area such as Edward Plantagenet (The ' Black Prince')
       and King Henry 4th. The Corona ('crown') Tower was built at the
       eastern end to contain the relic of the crown of St. Thomas's head
       which was struck off during his murder.

   The income from pilgrims (including Geoffrey Chaucer's in " The
   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.

14th-16th centuries

     * Prior Thomas Chillenden ( 1390- 1410) rebuilt the Nave in the
       Perpendicular style of English Gothic during his priorate.

     * Lanfranc's original Norman central tower, the 'Angel Steeple', was
       demolished in the 1430s. Reconstruction took place over 50 years
       later, beginning in 1490, and completed in 1510, with a height of
       297 feet. This new tower is known as the named 'Bell Harry Tower',
       after Prior Henry of Eastry who organised the work, and was onced
       called 'the finest tower in Christendom'. The bell still tolls 100
       strokes, from about 8.55p.m. to sound the city's curfew.

Dissolution of the Monasteries

   It ceased to be an abbey during the Dissolution of the Monasteries when
   all religious houses were suppressed. Canterbury surrendered in March
   1539, the last abbey to do so and reverted to its previous status of 'a
   college of secular canons'.

18th century to Present

     * The original Norman Northwest Tower was demolished in the late
       1700s due to structural concerns, and was replaced during the 1830s
       with a Perpendicular style twin of the Southwest tower, currently
       known as the 'Arundel Tower'. This was the last major structural
       alteration to the cathedral to be made.
     * The Romanesque monastic dormitory ruins were replaced with a
       Neo-Gothic Library and Archives building in the 19th Century. This
       building was later destroyed by a high-explosive bomb in the Second
       World War, which had been aimed at the Cathedral itself but missed
       by yards, and was rebuilt in similar style several years later.

Architectural plan of the present building

   Plan of Canterbury shows the richly complicated ribbing of Prior
   Chillenden's Perpendicular vaulting.
   Enlarge
   Plan of Canterbury shows the richly complicated ribbing of Prior
   Chillenden's Perpendicular vaulting.

   A curious bird's-eye view of Canterbury Cathedral and its annexed
   conventual buildings, taken about 1165, is preserved in the Great
   Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. As elucidated by
   Professor Willis, it exhibits the plan of a great Benedictine monastery
   in the 12th century, and enables us to compare it with that of the 9th
   as seen at the abbey of Saint Gall. We see in both the same general
   principles of arrangement, which indeed belong to all Benedictine
   monasteries, enabling us to determine with precision the disposition of
   the various buildings, when little more than fragments of the walls
   exist. From some local reasons, however, the cloister and monastic
   buildings are placed on the north, instead, as is far more commonly the
   case, on the south of the church. There is also a separate
   chapter-house, which is wanting at St Gall.

   The buildings at Canterbury, as at St Gall, form separate groups. The
   church forms the nucleus. In immediate contact with this, on the north
   side, lie the cloister and the group of buildings devoted to the
   monastic life. Outside of these, to the west and east, are the halls
   and chambers devoted to the exercise of hospitality, with which every
   monastery was provided, for the purpose of receiving as guests persons
   who visited it, whether clergy or laity, travellers, pilgrims or
   paupers.
   The central tower and south transept circa 1821.
   Enlarge
   The central tower and south transept circa 1821.

   To the north a large open court divides the monastic from the menial
   buildings, intentionally placed as remote as possible from the
   conventual buildings proper, the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse,
   brewhouse, laundries, &c., inhabited by the lay servants of the
   establishment. At the greatest possible distance from the church,
   beyond the precinct of the convent, is the eleemosynary department. The
   almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, forms
   the paupers' hospitium.

   The most important group of buildings is naturally that devoted to
   monastic life. This includes two Cloisters, the great cloister
   surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life
   of the monks,---the church to the south, the refectory or frater-house
   here as always on the side opposite to the church, and farthest removed
   from it, that no sound or smell of eating might penetrate its sacred
   precincts, to the east the dormitory, raised on a vaulted undercroft,
   and the chapter-house adjacent, and the lodgings of the cellarer to the
   west. To this officer was committed the provision of the monks' daily
   food, as well as that of the guests. He was, therefore, appropriately
   lodged in the immediate vicinity of the refectory and kitchen, and
   close to the guest-hall. A passage under the dormitory leads eastwards
   to the smaller or infirmary cloister, appropriated to the sick and
   infirm monks.

   Eastward of this cloister extend the hall and chapel of the infirmary,
   resembling in form and arrangement the nave and chancel of an aisled
   church. Beneath the dormitory, looking out into the green court or
   herbarium, lies the "pisalis" or "calefactory," the common room of the
   monks. At its north-east corner access was given from the dormitory to
   the necessarium, a portentous edifice in the form of a Norman hall, 145
   ft. long by 25 broad, containing fifty-five seats. It was, in common
   with all such offices in ancient monasteries, constructed with the most
   careful regard to cleanliness and health, a stream of water running
   through it from end to end.

   A second smaller dormitory runs from east to west for the accommodation
   of the conventual officers, who were bound to sleep in the dormitory.
   Close to the refectory, but outside the cloisters, are the domestic
   offices connected with it: to the north, the kitchen, 47 ft. square,
   surmounted by a lofty pyramidal roof, and the kitchen court; to the
   west, the butteries, pantries, &c. The infirmary had a small kitchen of
   its own. Opposite the refectory door in the cloister are two
   lavatories, an invariable adjunct to a monastic dining-hall, at which
   the monks washed before and after taking food.

   The buildings devoted to hospitality were divided into three groups.
   The prior's group "entered at the south-east angle of the green court,
   placed near the most sacred part of the cathedral, as befitting the
   distinguished ecclesiastics or nobility who were assigned to him." The
   cellarer's buildings were near the west end of the nave, in which
   ordinary visitors of the middle class were hospitably entertained. The
   inferior pilgrims and paupers were relegated to the north hall or
   almonry, just within the gate, as far as possible from the other two.

The Foundation

   The Foundation is the authorised staffing establishment of the
   Cathedral, few of whom are clergy. The Head of the Cathedral is the
   Dean, currently the Very Rev'd Robert Willis, who is assisted by a
   Chapter of 24 Canons, four of whom are Residentiary, the others being
   honorary appointments of senior clergy in the diocese. There are also a
   number of Lay Canons who altogether form the Greater Chapter which has
   the legal responsibility both for the Cathedral itself and also for the
   formal election of an archbishop when there is a vacancy-in-see. By
   English law and custom they may only elect the person who has been
   nominated by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister. The
   foundation also includes the Kings's Scholars and a range of other
   officers, some of these posts are moridbund, such as that of the
   Cathedral Barber. The Cathedral has a full-time work force of 250
   making it one of the largest employers in the district.

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