ædificia infra ambitum curiæ consistentia cum ipso ambitu mirabiliter miranda ædificavit." [Obit. in Ang. Sac. T. 1, p. 55. "Lanfrancus autem Arcps in tabula plumbea ponderosa valde inventus est in qua a die prime sepulture sue intactis membris mitratus spindulatus usque in illum diem jacuerat annis videlicet sexaginta novem c aliquot msibz. "Lanfrancus autm levatus est ut predixi de sarcofogo suo in tabula plumbea in qua jacuerat a die prime sepulture sue intactus usq. in illum diem annis scilicet sexaginta novem.' [Gervas MS. Brit. Mus. Vespas. B. xix.] The preceding passages relating to Lanfranc may be thus almost literally translated. 66 In the third year, after the fire,* Lanfranc undertook the government of this church.' "Lanfranc, therefore, when he first came to Canterbury, and found that the Church of the Saviour which he had undertaken to govern was reduced almost to nothing by fire and decay, felt great consternation of mind. But when the magnitude of the disaster had driven him almost to despair, he rallied the energies of his mind, and being endowed with great fortitude, and disregarding his own accommodation, he speedily completed the houses necessary for the accommodation of the monks. Those which they had used for many years, were now found much too small for the increased numbers of the convent. Having therefore destroyed those, he erected others which greatly excelled them in beauty and magnitude. He built also a palace † for himself. The church likewise (which in the space of seven years he had almost completed from the foundations) he nobly adorned with copes, chasubles, dalmatics, tunics, magnificently embroidered with gold, pallia, and many other precious ornaments." 66 Religion greatly increased throughout all the land, and everywhere new monasteries were erected, as now appear. To the founders of which he (Lanfranc) first set an example, and built the Church of Christ at Canterbury, with all the offices *The conflagration referred to is that of the Romano-British cathedral, and of the Saxon church of St. John the Baptist, which occurred A. D. 1067. "Edificavit et curiam sibi" may mean that Lanfranc erected a palace for himself (as in the text), or that he prepared a court for the monks. Somner, p. 122, says, "He built a palace for himself and his successors.' "The Professor takes no notice of the matter. which are within the wall of the court, and also the wall itself." "After that lamentable fire,* the bodies of the beforementioned pontiffs rested undisturbed in their coffins until that most energetic of men, Lanfranc, was raised to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Having levelled to the ground all the remains which he had found of the burnt monastery, whether buildings, or the ruined remains of buildings, and having dug up the very foundations which were underground, he built them all anew, and directed his before-mentioned predecessors to be raised and placed in safety until the church which he had begun should be completed, wherein they might be decently deposited. And it was so done. After a few years they were brought into the newly founded church, and were placed each under a separate wooden shrine, above a vault in the north part of the church, where the mystery of the sacrifice of salvation is daily celebrated." "Lanfranc desirous of entirely destroying, and of rebuilding in a more noble manner the Church of the Saviour, which the before-mentioned conflagration as well as its great age, had rendered useless, commanded that the bodies of the saints which were buried in the eastern part of the church should be removed to the western part, where stood the renowned oratory of Mary, the blessed mother of God and perpetual virgin. Wherefore, having celebrated a three days' fast, the bodies of the most precious pontiffs of Christ, Dunstan and Elphege, were raised in the presence of an innumerable multitude of people, and were then translated to their destined place of sepulture, and the lips of all present sang gloriously to the praise of the Lord." "Those most sacred bodies, therefore, being thus decently entombed, the whole day was passed in joy and festivity." "For I [Edmer] am a witness of all these things, because I was then a little boy in the schools." "On the V. calend. of June [A.D. 1089] died Archbishop Lanfranc of blessed memory, who founded and completed that * The conflagration in A.D. 1067. + Probably during the seven years employed in building the church. See remarks in Chap. I, on "singuli sub singulis locellis ligneis." We have rendered "memoria" by oratory, because we meet with the following passage in p. 12 of the Professor's history: "Finis ecclesiæ ornabatur oratoric beatæ matris dei Mariæ." church from its foundations. He likewise erected in an admirable manner, cloisters, butteries, refectories, dormitories, and all other requisite offices, and all the buildings standing within the circuit of the court, together with the wall thereof.' But Archbishop Lanfranc was discovered in a very ponderous leaden coffin, in which, from the day of his first burial, [he died A.D. 1089] he had lain undisturbed, mitred and sandaled to that very day, [c. A.D. 1180] that is to say, for sixty-nine years and some months."* "But Lanfranc was raised, as I have before mentioned, from his sarcophagus in the leaden coffin, in which he had lain undisturbed from the day of his first burial to that day, that is to say, for sixty-nine years."+ Lanfranc, the venerable founder of Canterbury Cathedral, whose works are recorded in the preceding notices, is one of the most interesting characters in English history, whether we consider the indomitable energy of his mind, the soundness of his judgment, the benevolence of his heart, his exalted piety, the important office to which he was called, or the eventful period at which he first appears upon the scene. Edmer, the Saxon historian, says, in the bitterness of his soul, "misfortunes fell thick upon all parts of England." These misfortunes, unhappily, were not the transient visitations of storm and tempest, of plague, pestilence, or famine, which, however calamitous, soon pass away, and leave no other memorial of their ravages than the page of history in which they are recorded. They were of far deeper and more lasting importance, and the influence of those events, after a lapse of nearly eight centuries, still continues to agitate the people. The ancient throne of a long line of Saxon princes lay prostrate on the dust. The sceptre of the descendants of the Scandinavian Woden had fallen from their grasp. The flower of the Saxon chivalry (to whom victory and defeat were alike disastrous) had perished on the banks of the Ouse and in the fatal field of Hastings, and the royal diadem which had encircled the brows of an Alfred became at once the prey and the reward of the Norman conqueror; while the rich inheritances of the Saxon nobles and warriors who had perished in *Here is clearly an error of about twenty years in the computation, which we shall notice more fully hereafter. + Ibid. the struggle rewarded the valour of his numerous followers. To add to this fearful catalogue of "misfortunes," Stigand, the Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, was deposed, and the other Saxon prelates were ejected from their sees, to be supplanted and replaced by Norman successors. In the midst of these misfortunes an accidental fire broke out in Canterbury, and the flames extending to the cathedral church, involved that venerable Romano-British edifice, together with the surrounding monastic buildings in one common ruin.* Such was the tempestuous ocean upon which (leaving his peaceful retirement at Caen, in Normandy) Lanfranc embarked to fulfil his high destiny in subjugated England. He is first presented to our view on his arrival at Canterbury surveying the ruins of his cathedral church. With what affecting simplicity has the historian described this venerable and excellent man contemplating the scene of desolation around him! The emotions of his mind and the bitter anguish of his heart are depicted with a master's hand. His astonishment and consternation, amounting almost to despair, at the enormous magnitude of the disaster, and the energy with which he boldly grapples with the difficulties which surround him, form one of the most sublime and interesting pictures which English history presents to our imagination. "Ecce spectaculum dignum ad quod respiciat intentus operi suo Deus! Ecce par deo dignum, vir fortis cum malâ fortunâ compositus! Non video, inquam, quod habeat in terris Jupiter pulchrius, quam ut spectet LANFRANCUM * Well indeed might Edmer exclaim that "misfortunes fell thick upon all parts of England," for they occurred almost within the space of a year. A.D. 1066. On the eve of the Epiphany died King Edward the Confessor. Harold (the valiant son of Earl Godwin) seizes the vacant throne. Sept. 20. Harrald, King of Norway, and Tostig (brother to Harold) invade England, and defeat Edwin and Morcar, the English earls, at the battle of the Ouse, near York, with prodigious slaughter. Sept. 24. Harold, King of England, arrives at York with his army to encounter the King of Norway and the traitor Tostig. Sept. 25. Battle near York, in which the King of Norway and Tostig were defeated and slain, with the greater part of their army. Sept. 28. William, Duke of Normandy, invades England with a powerful army to assert his claim to the throne. Oct. 14. The Battle of Hastings. Harold slain. William the Conqueror ascends the throne of England. confirms to the Kentish men the free tenure of their lands and liberties. A.D. 1067. The Cathedral Church of Canterbury destroyed by fire. A.D. 1070-1077. The Norman cathedral built by Archbishop Lanfranc. jam partibus non semel fractis, nihilominus inter ruinas publicas erectum !"-Seneca.* A man of less firmness and energy than Lanfranc would have sunk under the accumulated difficulties of his position. In that case the cathedral would probably have remained in its state of desolation, and the metropolitical chair which had been established at Canterbury by St. Augustine, would have been removed for ever to London, the central seat of Norman government. To the firmness and energy of Lanfranc, therefore, must be attributed the continuance of the archiepiscopal and metropolitical see in that city where Christianity was first preached by St. Augustine to our Pagan Saxon ancestors. We will in the first place consider the plan which Lanfranc laid down for the restoration and re-establishment of the church and monastery of Canterbury; and, in the next, show that that plan was fully carried out and perfected by Lanfranc in his lifetime. To those who consider that we have already satisfactorily shown that Anselm and his Priors did not erect those portions of the Norman cathedral which the Professor has attributed to them, this further investigation may appear a work of supererogation, and perfectly unnecessary; but we consider it due to the learned Professor that we should attempt to show, affirmatively, that those portions of the Norman cathedral are part of Lanfranc's original structure. We learn from the historians whom we have already cited, that Lanfranc, in the first place, "levelled to the ground all the remains of the burnt monastery, whether buildings, or the ruined remains of buildings, and dug up the very foundations which were under ground. It therefore seems clear that no remains of Roman or Saxon architecture are now existing. In accordance with the spirit and feelings of the age, "Lanfranc contemplating the ruins of Canterbury Cathedral" offers a fine subject for an historical painting. In the architectural accessories to his picture, the artist will remember that the cathedral itself was not wholly consumed by the fire, “it was reduced almost to nothing by fire and decay." The ruins therefore to be introduced must be of the Roman architectural style of (probably) the fourth century, with the exception only of the clerestory and roof, which having been added by Odo (circ. A. D. 950) were in the Saxon style of architecture. The baptistery, or church of St. John the Baptist, which stood near the eastern end of the cathedral was also Saxon, having been built by Cuthbert (circ. A.D. 750.) The cloisters and monastic buildings were likewise of the Saxon style of architecture. These remarks are intended to prevent the introduction, of Norman or Gothic architecture into the design. |