Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/188

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CANTEEAC. 154 CANTERBURY. He was a member of tlie cabal which in 1821 obtained the deposition of Pezucla from the vice- royalty and the appoinlnieut of !La Soma to that office. As lieutenant-general and commander- in-chief of the Royalist forces, he was utterly de- feated by Bolivar at the Plain of .Tunin. He was subsequent!}- in command of the reserves at the final battle of Ayacucho (December 9, 1824), and, after his return to Spain, was shot during 3 nuitiny in ^hidrid. CANTERBURY, kan'ter-ber'i (AS. Cantwar- ahurli, burg of the Kents, from Canticara, gen. pi. of Cantwar, Kentisli man + hurh, town). A municip.al and Parliamentary borough, civic county, and cathedral city in Kent, England, on the river Stour, 56 miles east-southeast of Lon- don, on the highroad from London to Dover (Map: England, H 5). It is the arcliiepiscopal see of the primate, and the ecclesiastical metrop- olis of all England. The city, traversed by two main branches of the river, stands on an mdu- lating plain between hills of moderate height. It dates from the early period of English his- tory, and retains many of the aspects of an old towni, High Street containing several medi;e- val houses with gabled ends and projecting fronts. One of the gates and some remains of the an- cient city wall still exist, and near the wall is an artificial mound, 80 feet high, kiio™ as the Dane John (probably Donjon), from the summit of which a line view of the country around is obtained. Connected with this mound is a pub- lic garden, laid out in the end of the Eighteenth Century. The ruins of a Norman castle also stand near the city wall. Christchurch Cathedral, the crowning archi- tectural feature of Canterbury, occupies almost the central point of the city. It stands amid its own precincts, to which admission is obtained through a beautiful gate of Perpendicular archi- tecture erected in lol7. The cathedral is a magnificent building, 545 feet long and 150 feet broad at the eastern transepts, tts general as- pect is of the Perpendicular style of architecture, although it represents various phases of the architectural development of several centuries. Tile noble proportions of its nave, choir, corona, its lofty <'entral tower, its double set of tran- septs, and its northwest and southwest towers are particularly impressive, as viewed from the entrance gateway. W'lien Saint Augustine became Archbishop of Cantcrl)ury (about GOO), he consecrated, under the name of Christ's Church, Queen Bertha's Church on Saint Martin's Hill, which had been formerly used by Uoman Christians. Cuthbert, the eleventh Archbishop (740), added a church to the east of this. In the course of ages it re- ceived numerous additions, until it assumed its present magnificent form. Among those who helped to repair, enlarge, and rebuild it were Archbishops Odo (940), Lanfrane (1070), and Anselm (1093). In 1174 the choir was de- stroyed by fire, and a number of French and English artificers w'ere employed to rebuild it. Among the former was William of Sens, a man of real genius, to whom the work was intrusted. The church was rich in relics. Plegenmnd had broiight hither the body of the martyr Blasius from Kome ; there were the relics of Saint Wil- fred, Saint Dunstan, and Saint Elfege; while the murder of Thomas ft Beeket (q.v. ) added a still more popular name to the list of martyrs. The olTerings at these shrines, especially the last, contributed greatly to defray the expenses of the nmgnificcnt work. William of Sens did not, however, live to see its completion, dying from injuries received through a fall from' the clerestory. He was succeeded bv another Wil- liam, an Englishman, and to him we owe the completion of the existing unique and beautiful choir, terminated by the corona or circular chapel called Becket's Crown. Gervasius, a monk, who witnessed the fire of 1174, has left an account of it, relating that the parts of Lan- franc's church which remained in his time were the nave, the central and western towers, the western transepts, and their eastern chapels. In the Fourteenth Century the nave and tran- septs were transformed into the Perpendicular style of that period. The central tower (called the Angel Steeple) was carried up (148G-I504) to about double its original height, also in the Perpendicular style; it is 234 feet high and 35 feet in diameter. The northwest tower, taken down in 1834, was replaced by the existing one to match its southwest neighbor; the old tower was 113 feet high, and divided into five stories. The Norman plinth still remains on each side of the nave, in the side aisle, and portions of Nor- man ashlaring may still be seen about the tran- septs outside the west wall, and on the eastern piers of the great tower. The indiscriminate use of the round or Norman, and the pointed or early English arch, is also a very striking fea- ture in the eastern part of the building. Tle Lady Chapel (now called the Dean's Chapel), with its beautiful fan-vaulted roof, stands on the north side of the church, and was built in 1308. The north transept, where Beeket was murdered on Tuesday, December 29, 1170, is called the Martyrdom. Fiftj' years later his re- mains were removed from the crypt to a shrine < in the newly erected Trinity Chapel, eastward of the choir. About the year 1500 the yearly of- ferings at this shrine amounted to ,$20,000; but they had then declined nuich in value. A mosaic pavement still remains in front of the place where the .shrine stood, and the stone steps which lead uj) to it are «orn by the knees of countless pilgrims ; but during the Ileforma- tion period the shrine itself was demolished (1538) by Henry VIII. 's commissioners; and, according to tradition, the saint's remains were bunied. In 1043 the building as further 'puri- fied,' as it was called, by order of Parliament. Still, many interesting monuments remain, such as the tomb of Stephen Langton; that which is conuiionly, but wrongly, supposed to be the tomb of Archbishop Theohald ; with those of the Black Prince, of Henry IV., of .rchbisho[)s .Maphan, Pcckham, Chicheley, Courtenay, Sudbury, Strat- ford, Kemp, Bourchier, Warham, and of Car- dinal Pole. The crypt is of greater extent and loftier than any other in England, owing to the choir being raised by numerous steps at the east end. Here, in 1888, a stone coffin containing the remains of a skeleton, supposed to be Beck- et's, was discovered and reintcrred. In 1501 this crypt was given up by Elizat)eth to a con- gregation of French and Flemish Protestant refugees, and a French service is still held here. In 1872 the church narrowly escaped destruc- tion for the fourth time bv fire. Other build-