The site of the archbishop’s palace is commemorated by the name of the street—Palace Street—in which a ruined archway, all that remains of the building, may still be seen. This mansion, in which so many royal and imperial guests had been entertained with “solemne dauncing” and other good cheer, was pillaged and destroyed by the Puritans; since then the archbishops have had no official house in their cathedral city.
CHAPTER III.
INTERIOR.
Dean Stanley tells us that in the days of our Saxon forefathers and for some time after, “all disputes throughout the whole kingdom that could not be legally referred to the king’s court or to the hundreds of counties” were heard and judged on in the south porch of Canterbury Cathedral. This was always the principal entrance, and was known in early days as the “Suthdure” by which name it is often mentioned in “the law books of the ancient kings.” Through this door we enter the nave of the cathedral; this part of the building was erected towards the end of the fourteenth century; Lanfranc’s nave seems to have fallen into an unsafe and ruinous state, so much so that in December, 1378, Sudbury, who was then archbishop, “issued a mandate addressed to all ecclesiastical persons in his diocese enjoining them to solicit subscriptions for rebuilding the nave of the church, ‘propter ipsius notoriam et evidentem ruinam’ and granting forty days’ indulgence to all contributors.” Archbishop Courtenay gave a thousand marks and more for the building fund, and Archbishop Arundell gave a similar contribution, as well as the five bells which were known as the “Arundell ryng.” We are told also that “King Henry the 4th helped to build up a good part of the Body of the Chirch.” The immediate direction of the work was in the hands of Prior Chillenden, already frequently mentioned; his epitaph, quoted by Professor Willis, states that “Here lieth Thomas Chyllindene formerly Prior of this Church, Decretorum Doctor egregius, who caused the nave of this Church and divers other buildings to be made anew. Who after nobly ruling as prior of this Church for twenty years twenty five weeks and five days, at length on the day of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary closed his last day. In the year of the Lord 1411.” It is not certain that Chillenden actually designed the buildings which were erected under his care, with which his name is connected. For we know that work which was conceived and executed by humble monks was ascribed as a matter of course to the head of the monastery, under whose auspices and sanction it was carried out. Matthew Paris records that a new oaken roof, well covered with lead, was built for the aisles and tower of St. Alban’s by Michael of Thydenhanger, monk and camerarius; but he adds that “these works must be ascribed to the abbot, out of respect for his office, for he who sanctions the performance of a thing by his authority, is really the person who does the thing.” Prior Chillenden became prior in 1390, and seems at any rate to have devoted a considerable amount of zeal to the work of renovating the ruined portions of the church.
