The building measured 29 feet in length, 161⁄3 feet in width and 19 feet from the floor to the roof, and probably shares with S. Mary's Church in Dover Castle, and S. Martin's, Canterbury, the honour of being one of the earliest links we possess with the ancient British Church. S. Mary's, Dover, appears to have been built of Roman bricks and cement, a combination which antiquaries consider is found only in those buildings which were erected during the Roman occupation.S. Martin's, Canterbury. S. Martin's Church, Canterbury has many claims to be considered one of our most interesting churches, no less on account of its associations than for its structural interest. The date of its building has been a source of endless controversy, as it contains many features attributable to either Roman or Saxon architecture. It is thought that it may possibly have been used for worship by the Christian soldiers of the Roman army. Be this as it may, it is established beyond doubt that it was the oratory of Queen Bertha, the first English Christian queen, who here worshipped, with her chaplain Liudhard, long before the advent of S. Augustine, who himself in later times preached here; and within the walls of this cradle of English Christianity, Ethelbert, King of Kent, the husband of Queen Bertha was baptized. The Venerable Bede, writing within a hundred years of the death of S. Augustine states that there was in 597 A.D. in Canterbury, a church "dedicated to the honour of S. Martin and built while the Romans still occupied Britain." On the departure of the Romans it is probable that the church was still used by a small band of Christian worshippers until the heathen Jutes overran the Isle of Thanet in 449.
Little is known of the progress of Christianity on this island from that date until the landing of S. Augustine in 597, and the first fruits of his mission, as we have seen, was the conversion and baptism of King Ethelbert. As one would naturally expect, the aspect of the structure to-day, though suggestive of antiquity, is lacking in uniformity of treatment. The brick courses in the nave are at irregular intervals, varying from nine to twenty inches apart, the spaces being filled with Kentish rag-stone and occasional blocks of chalk. The chancel extends eighteen or twenty feet east of the arch and is composed of Roman bricks, evenly laid and averaging four bricks to a foot. The chancel was lengthened at the beginning of the thirteenth century and again at a more recent date, so that its architecture to-day is of three distinct periods. Outside may be seen five flat pilaster buttresses and one semi-circular one, a square-headed Roman doorway, a Saxon doorway and two Early English porches; and there is also a nearly circular panel on the south side of the nave, and a Norman squint at the west end. There are many other features of interest which bear evidences of a great antiquity, and the only question which is seriously disputed is whether the earliest portion of the present nave was built about the end of the Roman occupation of Britain or during the mission of S. Augustine.
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An Ancient Window built with Roman Brickwork. Swanscombe, Kent. Photograph Mr. G. H. Smith. Click to [ENLARGE] |
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The Rev. Charles F. Routledge, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of Canterbury Cathedral, writes: "Whatever may finally be determined to be the date of the church's foundation, it can never lose its unique association with S. Augustine, King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, nor its undisputed claim to be the oldest existing church in England. From it flowed the tiny spring of English Christianity, which has since widened out into a mighty river, and penetrated the remotest parts of the civilized and uncivilized world."
Among other churches which show signs of having been built during the Roman occupation are those ofOther Early Churches. Reculver, Richborough and Lyminge, while the foundations of an undoubted early church have been discovered in the old Roman city of Silchester, in Hampshire. See [frontispiece.] The old church at Reculver stood originally within the Roman castrum, the fortress which guarded the northern mouth of the Wantsume, now a small stream, but once an arm of the sea dividing the Isle of Thanet from the mainland. The greater part of this church was pulled down in 1809, but the western towers, known as "the sisters" were repaired by Trinity House, as they constitute a useful landmark for mariners, being visible at a great distance.
Reculver church was built about A.D. 670, and from the existing walls and foundations it is clear that its plan was basilican. The church is now a ruin, but some stone pillars which supported the arches are preserved in the Cathedral Close at Canterbury.
As Reculver guarded the northern mouth of the watercourse, so Richborough protected the south, and here traces of a chapel in the form of a cross are plainly discernible amongst ruins known to be of Roman workmanship. The old church at Lyminge in the same county is thus described by Canon Jenkyns, in his "History of Lyminge":—"The Roman foundations discoverable at the south-east angle of the chancel, together with the remarkable half-arch that intervenes, marked the site of the aquilonalis porticus—the title of basilica already given to it in the seventh century establishes its claim to great antiquity."
We thus see that although remains of the actual buildings in which the British Christians worshipped are few in number, yet enough are left us to prove conclusively that there was a very active and zealous Christian community established in these islands during at least the period immediately preceding that in which Rome withdrew her legions from Britain in order to defend Italy against the Goths, and abandoned our island to the mercy of her foes.