Canterbury Cathedral [antikvár]

The Cradle of English ChristianityThe supremacy of Canterbury amongst the cathedrals of England is due in large part to the sacrifice of Thomas the Martyr. Without his bloody death in 1170 (óf which more later) and his canonisation as a saint in 117 3, pilgrims and their money would not have found their way to Canterbury. As it was, the fire that devastated the cathedral in 1174 provided the monks with a mar-vellous opportunity to reconstruct a magnificent setting for a Shrine of Thomas of Canterbury, Saint and Martyr, whose fame was spreading through-out Christendom.The Cathedral Church of Christ, Canterbury, of course, existed long before Becket's time. Augustine in 597, on a missionary expedition to convert the heathen English, had made his way to Canterbury, the home of King Ethelbert and his French wife, Bertha. The Vener-able Bede, a conscientious historian, tells us: 'There was nearby on the east of the city a church built in ancient times inhonour of St. Martin while the Romans were still in Britain, in which the Queen [Bertha] who as has been said was a Christian, used to pray. In this church they first began to meet, to chant the psalms, to pray, to say mass, to preach and to baptize until, when the King had been converted to the faith, they re-