Understanding the world of cathedrals: the Cathedral of Canterbury in Kent (England)

What about the problems with the monks?

Under Lanfranc the number of monks went from 60 to 140. No other churches had as many monks during his time in England. After and during the rest of the Medieval ages, it went down to 60 or 70.

Archbishop Baldwin in 1185 wanted to remove all monks from the cathedral to start something outside of the town. The monks kept fighting to remain there and finally won in 1205.

Nevertheless, under King Henry VIII the monastery ceased and Canterbury became in 1541 a Protestant Cathedral. When the king appointed the new archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the latter did not care too much for monks and was responsible for the closure of the monastery in Canterbury cathedral.

From the Medieval Ages:

There were some difficult times during the 1640’s civil war and also with the Puritans who caused much damage in the cathedral.

Due to a problem with the North Tower in the 19th century it was demolished in 1831 and rebuilt in Perpendicular style in 1834.

In 1872, there was a fire in the roof.

During World War II a fire destroyed the surroundings of the Cathedral and the library.

 

Cult of Thomas Becket:

Canterbury has been since the 12th century a place of pilgrimage since Thomas Becket’s murder. But who was he and why was he so important to so many people?

Becket was archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until he was martyrized and murdered by the 4 knights of King Henry II on Dec. 29th 1170.

With Becket it was a premiere in Canterbury: before him all archbishops had been monks – Thomas had not.

At the time of his death, he was in the cathedral with other monks as it was during vespers.

Why would the king dislike Becket so much to have him killed? The two men had a severe disagreement regarding justice, punishment and Becket was fighting for the independence of the church.

Thomas Becket’s murder was quite brutal and bloody. It happened in the North West Transept, called Chapel of Martyrdom.

 

Becket was buried in the Western Crypt in the Eastern part and was removed when the shrine in the Trinity chapel was finished in 1220 under Henry III. It is at that spot that Becket had become archbishop.

Miracles started to happen at the shrine: people started to see and to walk again. Thomas became a hero in all of Europe and everyone had heard of Becket in countries such as France, Spain, Poland and even Sweden. You can see the miracles of St. Thomas in the magnificent stain glasses in the Trinity Chapel.

Becket was canonized in 1173. The martyrdom is shown in stain glass windows everywhere in Europe such as in France in the Angers and Chartres cathedrals.

Pilgrims came to Canterbury to worship his tomb from 1220 to 1538 on their way to Rome. However that year Henry VIII destroyed the shrine because the pope did not allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon.

A festival anniversary was celebrated in memory of Thomas until 1532.

Today you can see just above where the murder happened, a sculpture at the spot made of swords.

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