Either following the Frenchman's plans or adapting them to his own
ideas, he finished the eastern parts of the church as they stand
to-day in the year 1184. To one or both of these architects is due the
unusual device of narrowing the choir to avoid altering the site of
the Trinity Chapel of Becket's time. When the reconstruction of
Conrad's Norman choir began, the Gothic style was just beginning to
appear--an incipient tendency towards a pointed arch here and there
which grew into what is called the Transitional Period; and to this
style--in between the Romanesque semicircular arch, with its
accompanying massiveness, and the first style of Gothic known as Early
English, distinguished by the pointed arch, detached pillars
decorating the triforium and clerestory, and elaborate mouldings and
capitals--the choir belongs.
When the whole of the east end of the cathedral was finished, nearly
two centuries elapsed before any further change took place beyond the
beginning of the chapter-house. At the commencement of that period,
however, one of Canterbury's most magnificent scenes of ecclesiastical
pomp occurred in connection with the remains of Becket. The summer of
1220 saw the completion of the new shrine, and on July 7, the
translation of the saint's remains was accomplished amid scenes of the
most astonishing splendour, described by those who were present as
being without a parallel in the history of England, the crowds
including people from many foreign countries. Money was spent so
lavishly on the entertainment of the innumerable persons of
distinction who were present or took part in the great ceremony that
for several years the finances of the see were unpleasantly
reminiscent of the vast expenditure. Henry III. was present, but he
was not old enough to be a bearer of the great iron-bound chest
containing the poor remnants of Becket's human guise. In the presence
of nearly every ecclesiastical dignitary in the land the remains were
placed in the newly finished shrine all aglow with jewels set in gold
and silver.
Throughout the centuries succeeding this crowning glory of Canterbury,
the little walled city saw many great functions apart from the yearly
stream of pilgrims of every grade of society, and the huge doles of
food and drink given away by the two great monasteries and the lesser
houses of the city must have brought together an unwholesome concourse
of the needy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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