Perpendicular.—The towers are generally richly panelled throughout; the buttresses project boldly—sometimes square, or sometimes set at an angle, but not close to each other.
The pinnacles are often richly canopied. The battlements panelled, and frequently pierced. In the middle of the parapet now and then is placed a pinnacle or a canopied niche.
Cantuaria.
("Doomsday Book.")
F all Cathedral cities, Canterbury, or, as it is also called, Christ Church, may possibly be considered the most interesting. Though not the first to spread Christianity in Britain, it nevertheless firmly established it in the end. The earliest authentic evidence of Christians in England is mentioned by Tertullian, in 208. And again, in 304, St. Alban had been martyred during Diocletian's persecution at Verulam, now known as St. Alban's. Then, in 314, Christianity had attained such a position in Britain that it had been considered necessary for the Bishops of York and London to attend at the Council of Arles, in France. So that by the end of the third century to the beginning of the fourth, it is known that there existed bishops, though not till the close of the fourth century was there a "settled Church" in Britain, with churches, altars, Scriptures, and discipline.
These expounded the Catholic Faith, and were in touch with Rome and Palestine. But the arrival of Augustine, in 600, decidedly gave an impetus to the lasting establishment of Christianity in England, and the whole island quickly became converted.