Page:The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein.djvu/44

THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY nave, on either side of which were the aisles, which extended as far as the quasi-transepts or portici, and there would be entrances opening from the vestibule north and south into the aisles. In the western apse was evidently placed the altar at which the officiating priest, when celebrating the Mass, stood facing the West, the congregation in the nave behind him also facing in the same direction—this is proved by the appearance of the floor of the apse, where the position of the altar is marked by a square panel of fine mosaic set in the coarser tessellation of the rest of the floor; and it was the worn condition on the east side of this floor which is in marked contrast to the rest of the panel—sharp and un-worn—which drew the observant eye of the late Sir Wm. St. John Hope to this important fact.

The western part of the Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury as described by Edmer, so resembled the plan of the excavated church at Silchester that there is little doubt that the Romano-British Church at Canterbury was built in similar form. That is, a nave with aisles; a vestibule opening to the west; quasi-transepts or portici at the west end of the nave, only slightly wider than the aisles; and a western apse containing the altar.

It was at this altar then, in this church at Durovernum (now called Canterbury), that the barbarians from the country districts and the Romanized Britons of the towns first heard the gospel preached and the Mass sung, as they, converted from Druidism or from the gods of Rome, sat side by side with the Roman Christians. This was early in the fourth century after Christ, when Christianity, now free from persecution, had crept over again from Gaul, bringing with it the Gallican Liturgy. This Liturgy was derived from that of Ephesus, the Eastern origin of which, together with certain manners and customs from the same source, became matters of controversy later on, between the remnant of the British Christians in Wales, and the Apostle of England from Rome in the person of St. Austin, in the sixth century. 14