Page:The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein.djvu/37

DUROVERNUM. CANTWARABYRIG and situate between it and the apses; these are provided with windows, as is the building itself. There is a definite string course or set-off between the upper and lower stories extending from transept to transept.

It has been stated that seals were not used till the twelfth century in England, but there is evidence of an earlier use. Offa, King of the Mercians, granted a Charter to the Abbey of St. Denis in France A.D. 790—the seal attached is probably a forgery—Ethelwulf, A.D. 836-858, and Ethelred, A.D. 866-871, both sealed with antique gems; and the monks of Bath Abbey, about the time of the tenth century, used a seal on which was depicted the Abbey buildings. But sealing in England was not the custom at this date, it was probably attributable to foreign influences.

This picture of the south front is so remarkably like the wordpicture given by the eleventh-century monk Edmer, in his description of the Romano-Saxon Church, as altered by Archbishop Odo (942–960), that one is impelled to dissect the building into its possible three periods.

First, that portion to the west of the central tower, namely the western apse, the main building as high as the string course with its porticus at the west, and the site of the central tower and porch. This would correspond with the Romano-British portion of the Church.

Secondly, the eastern extension from the central tower, comprising the eastern apse, the eastern porticus and the main part of the building as high as the string course, extending from the transept to the central tower. This, together with the first portion, would represent the extension to the east and the inclusion of the old building by St. Austin as probably planned by him to form his Cathedral Church.

And, thirdly, the raising of the walls to the altitude shown on the seal, and the high pitched roof, tower and spire; the work of St. Odo in the tenth century.

These suggestions are, in the following pages, worked out in detail from Edmer's historical account of the Cathedral and may be of sufficient interest to be set out in a continuous narrative. 11