Page:The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein.djvu/47

THE ROMANO-BRITISH AND SAXON CHURCH from the eastern wall of this new building, to project an eastern apse. In the building and arranging of his cathedral, Edmer, who had been with Archbishop Anselm to Rome and had visited the churches there, says that St. Austin to a certain extent arranged his church after the pattern of that of St. Peter's at Rome, a church which in fact St. Austin was well acquainted with from his long residence there. That of course was the old church of St. Peter (demolished in the sixteenth century); Edmer proceeds to give details and descriptions of the eastern extension of Austin's Church, especially his apse and crypt, which have baffled archæologists to interpret his meaning down to the present day. It must, however, be remembered, that Edmer gives his recollection of the building only as it struck him as a schoolboy, and in the attempt to unravel his description I think his words must be taken as literally as possible. The translation I have used for that part of the narrative relating to the crypt is that given by the late Sir Wm. St. John Hope in his article referred to above. (See also Appendix.)

It is to be understood therefore that this eastern apse was constructed with a crypt beneath, and a platform to form the presbytery above. There is reason to believe, although it is not mentioned by Edmer, that Austin or one of his successors built quasi-transepts or portici at the east end of his nave, after the same fashion as that which belonged to the old building at its west end. The platform, to serve as a presbytery, was approached by an ascent of several steps from the choir of the singers, which appears to have been formed in the three or four bays of the nave westward of the eastern portici or transepts; and the platform itself seems to have projected some feet in front of the apse, and so encroached into the transept. Edmer says that this particular kind of crypt upon which the presbytery was built was called by the Romans a "confessio," and that it was formed after the manner of that at St. Peter's at Rome. The vault of this crypt was raised so high above the crypt floor, that to reach the parts above (i.e. the platform) many steps were required. The wall, which supported the western diameter of the apse platform, was almost entirely occupied by steps leading up to the platform, except at its centre where was a space with several steps leading down to a passage upon the western edge of which the curvature of the crypt bounded, which passage extended as far in a westerly 17