CANTERBURY  , a

city and county of a city, the metropolis of an archdiocese of the Church of England, and a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Kent, England, 62 m . E.S.E. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham railway . Pop . (1901) 24,889 . It lies on the river Stour, which here debouches from a beautiful narrow valley of the North Downs, the low but abrupt elevations of which command fine views of the city from the west and south, while the river presently enters upon the flat belt of land which separates the elevated Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent . This belt represents the existence, in early historic times, of a sea-strait, and Fordwich, little more than 2 M. north-east of Canterbury, was once accessible for ship-ping . The city surrounds the precincts of the great cathedral . The Cathedral.—It was to Canterbury, as the capital of IEthelberht, the fourth Saxon king of Kent, that in 597 Augustine and his fellow-missionaries came from Rome, and their settlement by £Ethelberht in his capital became the origin of its position, held ever since, as the metropolis of the Church of England . IEthelberht, whose queen, Bertha, was already a Christian, gave the missionaries a church whose mythical founder was King Lucius . Augustine was a Benedictine and established the monastery of that order attached to the cathedral; this foundation was set upon a firm basis after the Norman Conquest by Archbishop Lanfranc, who placed its charge (as distinct from that of the diocese) in the hands of a prior . Preparatory to the description of the cathedral, the principal epochs in the history of its erection may be noted . The Romano- British church occupied by St Augustine, of basilica History form, remained long in use, though it was largely of the building. rebuilt by Archbishop Odo, c .

950; after further vicissitudes it was destroyed by

fire in 1067 . Arch-bishop Lanfranc, taking up his office in 1070, undertook the building of an entirely new church, but under Anselm (c . 1100) Prior Ernulf rebuilt the eastern part, and his successor Conrad carried on the work . A fire destroyed much of this part of the building in 1174, and from that year the architect, William of Sens, took up the work of rebuilding until 1178, when, on his suffering serious injury by falling from a scaffold, another William, commonly distinguished as the Englishman, carried on the work and completed it in 1184 . In 1376 Archbishop Sudbury entered upon the construction of a new nave, and Prior Chillenden continued this under Archbishop Courtenay . The ibuilding of the central tower was undertaken c . 1495 by Prior Goldstone, with the counsel of Selling, his predecessor, and Archbishop Morton . This Perpendicular tower is the most notable feature of the exterior . It rises in two storeys to a height of 235 ft. from the ground, and is known variously as Bell Harry tower Exterior. from the great bell it contains, or as the Angel steeple from the gilded figure of an angel which formerly adorned the summit . The Perpendicular nave is flanked at the west front by towers, whose massive buttresses, rising in tiers, serve to enhance by contrast the beautiful effect of the unbroken straight lines of Bell Harry tower . The south-western of these towers is an original Perpendicular structure by Prior Goldstone, while the north-western was copied from it in 1834-1840, replacing a Norman tower which had carried a spire until 1705 and had become unsafe . The north-west and south-west transepts are included in Chillenden's Perpendicular reconstruction; but east of these earlier work is met with .

The south-east

transept exhibits Norman work; the projecting chapel east of this is known as Anselm's tower . The cathedral terminates eastward in a graceful apsidal form, with the final addition of the circular eastern chapel built by William the Englishman, and known as the Corona or Becket's Crown . St Andrew's tower or chapel on the north side, corresponding to Anselm's on the south, is the work of Ernulf . From this point westward the various monastic buildings adjoin the cathedral on the north side, so that the south side is that from which the details of the exterior must be examined . When the nave of the cathedral is entered, the complete separation of the interior into two main parts, not only owing to the distinction between the two main periods of interior. building; but by an actual structural arrangement, is realized as an unusual and, as it happens, a most impressive feature . In most English cathedrals the choir is separated from the nave by a screen; at Canterbury not only is this the case, but the separation is further marked by a broad flight of steps leading up to the screen, the choir floor (but not its roof) being much higher than that of the nave . Chillenden, in rebuilding the nave, retained only the lower parts of some of the early Norman walls of Lanfranc and the piers of the central tower arches . These piers were encased or altered on Perpendicular lines . In the choir, the late 12th-century work of the two Williams, the notable features are its great length, the fine ornamentation and the use of arches both round and pointed, a remarkable illustration of the transition between the Norman and Early English styles; the prolific use of dark marble in the shafts and mouldings strongly contrasting with the light stone which is the material principally used; and, finally, the graceful incurve of the main arcades and walls at the eastern end of the choir where it joins the chapel of the Trinity, an arrangement necessitated by the preservation of the earlier flanking chapels or towers of St Anselm and St Andrew . From the altar eastward the floor of the church is raised again above that of the choir . The choir screen was built by Prior de Estria, c . 1300 .

The

organ is not seen, being hidden in the triforium and played from the choir . There are several tombs of archbishops in the choir . The south-east transept serves as the chapel of the King's school and exhibits the work of William of Sens in alteration of that of Ernulf . Anselm's chapel or tower, already mentioned, may be noticed again as containing a Decorated window (1336) . This style is not common in the cathedral . Behind the altar is Trinity Chapel, in the centre of which stood the celebrated shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury . The priory owed its chief fame to the murder of Archbishop Becket (1170) in the church, his canonization as St Thomas of Canterbury, and the resort of the Christian world on pilgrimage to his shrine . Miracles were almost immediately said to be worked at his grave in the crypt and at the well in which his garments had been washed; and from the time when Henry II. did his penance for the murder in the church, and the battle of Alnwick was gained over the Scots a few days afterwards—it was supposed as a result— the Becket's shrine . Pilgrim-ages . fame of the martyr's power and the popularity of his worship became established in England . On the rebuilding of the cathedral after the fire of 1174, a magnificent shrine was erected for him in Trinity Chapel, which was built for the purpose, and became thronged for three centuries by pilgrims and worshippers of all classes, from kings and emperors downward . Hence-forward the interests of the city became bound up in those of the cathedral, and were shown in the large number of hostels for the accommodation of pilgrims, and of shops containing wares especially suited to their tastes .

A pilgrimage to Canter-

bury became not only a pious exercise, but a favourite summer excursion; and the poet Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, gives an admirable picture of such pilgrimages, with the manners and behaviour of a party of pilgrims, leisurely enjoying the journey and telling stories on the road . The English language even preserved two words originating in these customs—a "canterbury," or a "canterbury tale," a phrase used for a fiction, and a " canter," which is a short form for a " canterbury -gallop," an allusion to the easy pace at which these pilgrimages were performed . The shrine with its vast collected wealth was destroyed, and every reminiscence connected with it as far as possible effaced, by King Henry VIII.'s commissioners in 1538 . But some of the beautiful old windows of stained glass, illustrating the miracles wrought in connexion with the saint, are pre-served . The north-west transept was the actual scene of Becket's murder; the spot where he fell is shown on the floor, but this part of the building is of later date than the tragedy . Close to the site of the shrine is the fine tomb of Edward the Black Prince, with a remarkable portrait effigy, and above it his helmet, shield and other equipment . There is also in this chapel the tomb of King Henry IV . The Corona, at the extreme cast of the church, contains the so-called St Augustine's chair in which the archbishops are enthroned . It is of marble, but its name is not deserved, as it dates probably from c . 1200 . The western part of the crypt, beneath the choir, is the work of Ernulf, and perhaps incorporates some of Lanfranc's work . The chapel of St John or St Gabriel, beneath Anselm's tower, is still used for service, in which the French language is used; it was devoted to this purpose in 1561, on behalf of French Protestant refugees, who were also permitted to carry on their trade as weavers in the crypt .

The eastern and loftier part of the crypt, with its apsidal termination, is the work of William the Englishman . Here for some time

lay the body of Becket, and here the celebrated penance of Henry II. was performed . The chief entrance to the precincts is through an ornate gate-way at the south-west, called Christchurch gateway, and built by Prior Goldstone in 1517 . Among the remains of Monastic the monastic buildings there may be mentioned the builddings ~' Norman ruins of the infirmary, the fine two-storeyed treasury and the lavatory tower, Norman in the lower part and Perpendicular in the upper . The cloisters are of various dates, containing a little rich Norman work, but were very largely rebuilt by Prior Chillenden . The upper part of the chapter-house is also his work, but the lower is by Prior de Estria . The library is modern . The site of the New Hall of the monastery is covered by modern buildings of King's schocl, but the Norman entry-stair is preserved---a magnificent example of the style, with highly ornate arcading . The principal dimensions of the cathedral are: length (out-side) 522 ft., nave 178 ft., choir 18o ft . The nave is 71 ft. in breadth and 8o ft. in height . The archbishop of Canterbury is primate of all England; the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury covers England Simon Sudbury, 1375 to 1381 . 6o .

William Courtenay, 1381 to 1396 . 61 . Thomas

Arundel, 1396 to 1414 . 62 . Henry Chicheley, 1414 to 1443 63 . John Stafford, 1443 to 1452 . 64 . John Kemp, 1452 to 1454 . 65 . Thomas Bourchier, 1454 to 1486 . 66 . John Morton, 1486 to 1500 .

67 . Henry

Dean (Dene), 1501 to 1503 . 68 . William Warham, 1503 to 1532 . 69 . Thomas Cranmer, 1533 to 1556 . Reginald Pole, 1556 to 1558 . Matthew Parker, 1559 to 1575 . 72 . Edmund Grindal, 1575 to 1583 . John Whitgift, 1583 to 1604 . Richard Bancroft, 1604 to 1610 .

George Abbot, i610 to 1633 . William Laud, 1633 to 1645 . William Juxon, 166o to 1663 . Gilbert Sheldon, 1663 to 1677 . 79 . William Sancroft, 1678 to 1691 . 80 . John Tillotson, 1691 to 1694 . 81 . Thomas Tenison, 1694 to 1715 . 82 . William Wake, 1716 to 1737 .

83 . John

Potter, 1737 to 1747 . 84 . Thomas Herring, 1747 to 1757 . 85 . Matthew Hutton, 1757 to 1758 . 86 . Thomas Seeker, 1758 to 1768 . 87 . Frederick Cornwallis, 1768 to 1783 . 88 . John Moore, 1783 to 1805 .

89 .

Charles Manners-Sutton, 1805 to 1828 . 90 . William Howley, 1828 to 1848 . John Bird Sumner, 1848 to 1862 . 92 . Charles Thomas Longley, 1862 to 1868 . Archibald Campbell Tait, 1868 to 1882 . Edward White Benson, 1882 to 1896 . Frederick Temple, 1896 to 1903 . Randall Thomas Davidson . The archbishop has a seat at Lambeth Palace, London .

There are fragments in Palace

Street of the old archbishop's palace which have been incorporated with a modern palace . Other Ecclesiastical Foundations . -- Canterbury naturally abounded in religious foundations . The most important, apart from the cathedral, was the Benedictine abbey of St Augustine . This was erected on a site granted by King AEthelberht outside his capital, in a tract called Longport . Augustine dedicated it to St Peter and St Paul, but Archbishop Dunstan added the sainted name of the founder to the dedication, and in common use it came to exclude those of the apostles . The site is now occupied by St Augustine's Missionary College, founded in 1844 when the property was acquired by A . J . B . Beresford Hope . Some ancient remnants are preserved, the principal being the entrance gateway (1300), with the cemetery gate, dated a century later, and the guest hall, now the refectory; but the scanty ruins of St Pancras' chapel are of high interest, and embody Roman material . The chapel is said to have received its dedication from St Augustine on account of the special association of St Pancras with children, and in connexion with the famous story of St Gregory, whose attention was first attracted to Britain Province and Wales south of Cheshire and Yorkshire; and the and diocese .

diocese covers a great part of Kent with a small part of

Sussex . The following is a list of archbishops of Canterbury: I . Augustine, 597 to 605 . 6 . Deusdedit (Frithona), 655 2 . Lawrence (Laurentius), 605 to 664 . to 619 . 7 . Theodore, 668 to 690 . 3 . Mellitus, 619 to 624 . 8 .

Brethwald (Bcrhtuald), 693 4 .

Justin . 624 to 627. to 731 . 5 . Honorius, 627 to 653 . 9 . Taetwine, 731 to 734 . 37 . 38-39 . 40 . 41 . 42 .

43 . 44 . 45 . 46 . 47 . 48 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 53 . 54 .

55 . 56 . 57 . 58 . io . Nothelm, 734 to 740 . II .

Cuthbert, 740 to 758 . 12 . Breogwine, 759 to 762 . 13 . Jaenberht, 763 to 790 .

14 . ./Ethelhard, 790 to 803 . 15 . Wulfred, 803 to 829 . 16 . Fleogild, 829 to 830 . 17 . Ceolnoth, 83o to 870 . 18 . !

Ethelred, 870 to 889 . 19 . Plegemund, 889 to 914 .

20. r'Ethelm, 914 to 923 . 21 . Wulfelm, 923 to 942 . 22 . Odo, 942 to 959 . 23. fElsine, 959 . 24 . Dunstan, 96o to 988 . 25 . IEthelgar, 988 to 989 . 26 . Sigeric, 990 to 994 .

27 .

IElfric, 995 to 1005 . 28 . Alphege (iElfeah), 1005 to I012 . Lyfing, 1013 to 1020. fEthelnoth, 1020 to 1038 . Eadsige, 1038 to 1050 . Robert of Jumieges, 1051 to 1052 . Stigand, 1052 to 1070 . Lanfranc, 1070 to 1089 . Anselm, Io93 to 1109 .