THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY
set on fire, and from the fact that it melted the lead the fire must have been considerable. Fortunately we have another reference to this: Edmer (Epis. de corp. S. Dunst. Ang. Sac., Tom. II, p. 225) tells us that the church, though it was despoiled of its ornaments, and profaned, yet it was not consumed by the fire with which the furious band assailed it to drive out the Archbishop and his familia; nor were its walls or its roofs destroyed. Having taken the Archbishop, they abandoned the fire; which apparently died out of itself after destroying part of the roof.
The Archbishop who succeeded Alphage was Livingus; he had been translated from Wells to Canterbury in 1013. He is said to have been held prisoner by the Danes for seven months, which is probably the reason for any neglect by him to repair the damage done to the Cathedral, and when he regained his liberty he fled across the sea, whilst the church lay desolate and in ruins. On his return to Canterbury he renewed the roof of the Cathedral, procuring the timber needed from Hase Church of Athelstane; Athelstane or, as the obituary says, Livingus himself also gave them two villages in Surrey, Merstham and Clayham, towards the reparation of the Cathedral.
Livingus died in 1020 and was succeeded by Ethelnoth (1020–1038), who had been Dean of Canterbury and Chaplain to King Canute. He is stated to have restored the Church of Canterbury to its former dignity. He had been the means of converting King Canute, who had succeeded on the death of Sweyn, from being a bloodthirsty barbarian to that of a humble and consistent Christian. The King completely restored the Cathedral, and, moreover, he gave his royal crown of gold to the church, which Edmer says was kept at "the head of the Great Cross in the nave," and he also says that the Queen, Emma, presented to the church the celebrated relic of the arm of St. Bartholomew, which was kept in a silver-gilt receptacle. There was an altar dedicated to St. Bartholomew in the crypt at one time, and it is probable that the relic was kept there.
In the year 1023, the body of the murdered Archbishop, which had been ransomed by the people of London and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, was translated to Canterbury.
The King was then in London; he, followed by his nobles, went to St. Paul's Cathedral and, as we are told in the Flores Historiarum,[1] lifted
- ↑ Rolls Series.
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