CHAPTER XI

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH IN CANTERBURY

THE conversion of Ethelbert had not taken place till some time after the date of Gregory's letter to Bertha, the internal evidence of which assigns it to the year 597 A.D., and it took place some time before the letter to Ethelbert, which is dated 22nd June, A.D. 601. We are disposed to place it sooner rather than later, within these limits.

The work of the Church, consolidated and stimulated by its possession of the completed episcopal constitution, and encouraged by the very striking success indicated by the baptism of the ten thousand, would naturally be prosecuted with hopeful energy. From the first it had the sympathy of the King, or he would not at once have given the missionaries permission to preach and make proselytes. We can easily imagine the influences which would be brought to bear upon him-the teachings of Augustine, added to those of Liudhard, the powerful influence of Bertha; and we can believe that he had abandoned his old religion and its practice for some time before he took the final step of declaring his conversion, and submitting to baptism. The King had to think of the opinions of his chiefs and counsellors, and of the disposition of the mass of his people; and to give them time to reconcile themselves to the idea

of the new order of things. It does not appear that Ethelbert took the step which King Edwin afterwards took in Northumbria, of formally submitting the question of a general change of religion to discussion in the Witan. But the conversations between the King and Queen and the two bishops would often take place in the King's hall, in the hearing of those who sat at the royal board; and whenever the King finally declared himself convinced, we may be sure that others of his thanes and knights and wise men would be ready to declare their concurrence in his convictions; and when the King was baptized in the Church of St. Martin, they would follow him to the font. That Whitsunday was chosen for the great ceremony, as the monkish historians affirm, may be accepted as true, and that it was the Whitsunday of 598 is a probable statement. Bede expressly says that "after the King believed and was baptized, greater numbers flocked together daily to hear the Word, and, forsaking their heathen rites, were joined to the unity of the Church"; and that "the King so far encouraged their conversion, that, while he compelled none to embrace Christianity, he showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom."

Then we enter upon the history of the measures which the King took on behalf of the Church. Among other things, he allowed Augustine "to build and repair churches in all places." The medieval monks of St. Augustine's say that, as a first step, Ethelbert gave to Augustine a building in which he had been accustomed to practise heathen worship, situated between the east wall of the city and the Church of St. Martin, and that Augustine turned it into a church, and dedicated

it to St. Pancratius. The reason given by Thomas of Elmham for this dedication is, because it was the sight of the English boys in the Roman Forum which caused Gregory to undertake the mission to England, and that Gregory's Monastery of St. Andrew's was built upon the patrimony of St. Pancratius, the popular boy saint of Rome. We know how exiles of all times fondly give to their new settlements the names of their old homes; it is interesting to recognise the feeling in the hearts of these Roman exiles. Their first monastary they dedicate to SS. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome, and the church at Rochester to St. Andrew, and this chapel to St. Pancras.

We learn from Bede's trustworthy History that Ethelbert "gave his teachers a settled residence in his Metropolis of Canterbury, with such possessions of different kinds as were necessary for their subsistence." Hitherto they had had their temporary lodging in the building in the Stable Gate, now they had a settled residence assigned to them. Thorn says that the King gave them his own palace and went to reside at Reculver, where he built himself a new house out of the Roman material which lay ready to use in that ancient Roman town. The mediæval monk appears to be trying to establish a parallel with the legendary story that Constantine on his conversion gave up his palace to the Pope, and left him ruler in Rome while he went and built himself a new capital at Constantinople; but as the latter story is contrary to the facts, so the former is unsupported and not very probable. Hitherto the King's officers had supplied the strangers with what they needed; now the King endowed them with such possessions as were necessary. In

those days the only way to endow a man or a corporation of men with the things necessary for their subsistence, was to give them land; the "possessions of different kinds" may be an obscure statement of what we know was the case in other early ecclesiastical endowments in Kent; that, together with cultivated land in the east, there went a portion of the forest land in the west and of the marsh land in the south. It is the first instance of the endowment of the English-as distinguished from the British-Church. It was probably at the same time that Ethelbert gave to Augustine "a church which he was informed had been built by the ancient Roman Christians, which he reconstructed by the name of Christ Church, and there established a residence for himself and for his successors." We gather that the house given to Augustine and his monks adjoined or was in the immediate neighbourhood of this ancient church.

We have the great good fortune to possess information enough to enable us, with considerable completeness and accuracy, to restore this ancient church; and this is the more interesting, because it is the solitary instance (if we except the doubtful case of Brixworth, North Hants) in which we can recover in its entirety. a church of the Roman British period.

The description of the building occurs in the account by Eadmer, the chanter, of a fire which greatly damaged the interior in 1067 A.D. Omitting details which belong to a later time, this is his description :— "This is that very church which had been built by the Romans, as Bede bears witness, which was arranged in some measure (in quadam parte) in imitation of the blessed Prince of the Apostles, Peter." Under the

east end was a crypt, which the Romans call a Confession, the upper part of which rose above the level of the choir of the singers by several steps... This crypt was made beneath in the likeness of the confession of St. Peter, the vault of which was raised so high that the part above could only be reached by many steps... Thence the choir of the singers was extended westward into the body (aula) of the church, and shut out from the multitude by a suitable enclosure. In the next place, beyond the middle of the length of the body, there were two towers which projected beyond the aisles of the church. The south tower had an altar in the midst of it, which was dedicated in honour of the blessed Pope Gregory. At the side was the principal door of the church, which, as of old, by the English was called the Suthdure, and is often mentioned by this name in the law books of the ancient kings1; for all disputes from the whole kingdom which cannot be legally referred to the King's Court or to the Hundreds or Counties do in this place receive judgment. Opposite to this tower, and on the north, another tower was built in honour of the blessed Martin, and had about it cloisters for the use of the monks. And as the first tower was devoted to legal contentions and judgments of this world, so in the second the younger brethren were instructed in the knowledge of the offices of the Church, for the different seasons and hours of day and night.

The extremity of the church was adorned by the oratory of the Blessed Mother of God, which was so constructed that access could only be had to it by steps. At its eastern part there was an altar, consecrated to 1 See a learned legal disquisition by Selden, Dec. Script. p. 42.