ædificandi genere consurgere." The expression, a new style of building, is important in two points of view: the way in which it is introduced shews that churches in another style of building
SUPPOSED ANGLO SAXON TOWERS.
Sompting, Sussex. |
Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire. |
were in existence, and that they were numerous, for William of Malmesbury (who is good authority on this point) does not tell us that the number of churches was at first multiplied greatly by the Normans; and, secondly, it proves that there was a marked difference of style between the ecclesiastical buildings of the Anglo-Saxons and those of the Anglo-Normans. Recent antiquaries have accordingly found architectural remains in several parish churches where other parts of the building are Norman, differing so remarkably from the Nor-
honestas ecclesias ædificavit. We might expect to find good specimens of the earliest Norman in some churches in Kent, in the estates which formerly belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is not probable that the churches built by Lanfranc would need rebuilding before the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. We may identify these estates by Domesday Book.
