The Tortoise and the Finch: The Teachers' Tale

The River Stour

Canterbury packs an enormous amount of history into to a relatively small area. It has been occupied since the Stone Age. It was a capital city for the Celts, Jutes, and an important Roman center as well. Today it is still the epicenter of the Anglican Church. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Our objective, much like Chaucer’s pilgrims, was the cathedral. Saint Augustine was shipped to England by the Pope to convert King Ethelbert. He set up shop in Canterbury and became the first Archbishop, building an abbey and the first cathedral. In the late 9^th century the Danes destroyed a great deal of the city. Archbishop Dunstan rebuilt the cathedral which was destroyed, again by the Danes, in the 10^th century. The natives, if not actually welcoming, certainly made no attempt to fight of William the Conqueror – doubtless feeling sure he could keep the Danes at bay. Or perhaps they were just sure he could raze the entire town if they resisted.

The ceiling over the alter

William invested Lanfranc as the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury and he started putting the cathedral back together again, this time in stone (Yeah, Normans!) imported from Caen. The cathedral was almost continuously being expanded, improved, ornamented and the like – especially after the 12^th century murder of Thomas Becket transformed the cathedral into one of the premiere pilgrimage destinations in Europe. His shrine and tomb was the point of the epic journey taken by Chaucer’s 14^th century characters.

Other notable burials include: St. Dunstan, St. Alphege, the Black Prince, Edward Plantagenet, and King Henry IV. Contemporary sources describe unexampled richness in decoration, votive offerings, chapel and service appointments, as well as architectural and sculptural achievement.

The cathedral suffered the typical Reformation traumas, actually Henry VIII took a very personal interest in the shakedown of this site. He put Thomas Becket on trial for treason, and when the Saint didn’t appear at his trial, (due to having been dead for some centuries at this point) he had him convicted in absentia and confiscated his treasure. In spite of all this, the cathedral looks magnificent today.

The screen in front of the quire

It is a beautiful blend of Romanesque and Gothic with the usual sweeping vista of nave and soaring vaulted ceiling. The most extraordinary aspect is the cathedral’s windows. Canterbury Cathedral has Britain’s oldest stained glass window. This is the Ancestors of Christ window that occupies the south transept. It dates from the early 12^th century, is 55 feet tall and 25 feet wide, and shows 56 predecessors of Jesus in truly glorious glass. In 2009 the window was completely dismantled because of the need for extensive repairs. Some of the pieces were stored, some put on display in other parts of the church, and some made part of a traveling exhibition. The problems was that centuries of piecemeal fixes to the window which consisted of a wide range of materials, techniques, and abilities have not reacted well to one another. About a dozen and a half Ancestors are on view in the cathedral and they are amazing, but they also make the need for repairs abundantly clear. There are places on some of them where the window bows out more than an inch which is not something one wants in a stained glass window.

One of the Ancestor windows looking good at 800 years old

We attended Evensong passing through the magnificently ornamented quire screen and seated ourselves in the stalls. Once again the experience of sitting beside the choir, their exquisite voices combining with the organ to fill the vast space, surrounded by the rainbow glory of almost 100’ of stained glass and the wealth of intricately carved stone vaulting was all that the medieval builders and archbishops could have desired. You are swept out of your drab quotidian existence and transported to another reality. So, yes…good service.