How to Visit the English CathedralsSingleton, Esther
History
How to Visit the English Cathedrals
Singleton, Esther
Cathedrals -- England
After landing in 567, St. Augustine preached in Rochester, where
Ethelbert soon founded the church of St. Andrew for secular canons. In
604, a bishop was appointed,--St. Augustine’s companion, Justus. Justus
became Archbishop of Canterbury in 624, and was succeeded in Rochester
by Paulinus; and he, in his turn, by the first English bishop, St.
Ythamar (644-655). Rochester’s three chief saints in early days were,
therefore, Justus, Paulinus and Ythamar.
Gundulf, a monk of Bec in Normandy, was appointed to Rochester in 1076.
He immediately turned it into a Benedictine monastery and built a church
for his monks. Gundulf was one of the greatest architects of his day: he
also built the great Keep of Rochester Castle, portions of the Tower of
London and the Castle of Dover. The Saxon Cathedral had suffered from
the ravages of the Danes and upon the ruins, Gundulf, with assistance
from Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, completed a larger cathedral
between 1080 and 1089. The plan was peculiar: it was neither English nor
Norman.
“All this work of Gundulf’s is now gone except portions of the
crypt, the keep and the nave. Of Gundulf’s nave there remain on the
south side five arches, together with the lower parts of the walls
of both aisles. It is very doubtful whether he built any part of
the triforium or clerestory. At present his work can only be seen
in its original condition from the side of the aisles. The
pierarches had originally two square orders, which remain unaltered
on the side of the aisle (cf. Winchester transept). Gundulf’s
masonry was in rough tufa.”--(F. B.)
Gundulf placed the relics of St. Paulinus in a silver shrine at the
eastern end of his new cathedral.
Ernulf, Prior of Canterbury, began the second Norman church about 1120.
This was continued by his successor, John of Canterbury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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