Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/75

Rh and Paul. (Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, lib. 1, cap. 33.) The monastery arose previous to A.D. 605, the date of Ethelbert's charter. A church of St. Pancras also is stated to have been built by Augustin. In the time of Archb. Dunstan the name of St. Augustin was added to those of St. Peter and St. Paul, which eventually completely absorbed the latter names as the common appellation of the monastery. (Notes to the above chapter of Bede, Oxford, 1846.) St. Mary's Church was erected A.D. 618 by Eadbald, son of Ethelbert, at the instance of Laurence, archbishop. Another church, St. John's, afterwards Christ's Church, is stated to have been built in 746, temp. K. Eadbert, by Cuthbert, archbishop. (Lambarde, who does not give the authority for his assertions, but at the commencement of his work names the records, whence he obtained his information.) For notice of the existence of the church of St. Mary, A.D. 804, see the quotation from Somner in the Note on Liminge. "Twenty churches were antiently in this city and the suburbs thereof; seventeen whereof, viz. St. Alphage, St. Andrew, St. Mary Bredman, St. Mary Breeden, Holy Cross Westgate, St. George, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Mary Northgate, St. Mildred, St. Peter, All Saints, St. Mary Castle, St. Edmund, St. John, St. Mary Queeningate, and St. Michael, were in the city. And the other three, viz. St. Dunstan, St. Martin, and St. Paul, were in the suburbs. All which parishes are still in being, except St. Mary Castle, St. Edmund, St. John, St. Mary Queeningate, and St. Michael, which are demolished." (Kilburne, 301.)

Sir Henry Ellis (Observations on Domesday Book) says, that Archb. Lanfranc founded St. Augustin's Abbey not long before the survey, viz. A.D. 1084. It is manifest, however, that Lanfranc's act could be only the recognition, or at most the reconstruction, of an old foundation, because, in addition to the above citation from Bede, Thorpe (Registrum Roffense) informs us, that King Edgar granted land at Plumsted to the monastery of St. Augustin; and Hasted (referring to Dec. Script. col. 2247) states, that Kennington near Ashford was given to it in 1045; in confirmation whereof we find, that (D. B.) describes "Chenetone" among the possessions of St. Augustin's, and as being "held by the Abbot himself." However (D. B.) itself is conclusive evidence of the existence of St. Augustin's Abbey in the time of the Confessor. For which see the Note on Badlesmere. There is reason to believe the existence also of a