THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY
direction as the resting place of the blessed Dunstan, who was afterwards buried just in front of the entrance. His tomb and grave of six feet in depth below the pavement was separated from the crypt itself by the strong masonry of the wall of steps, leading from the pavement of the transept up to the presbytery, and those leading down to the crypt itself.
The whole length of the eastern side of this wall of steps, forming the western boundary of the crypt, was built so as to form a passageway, ambulatory, or polyandrium (as it was called when used as a place of burial), which was continued from each end of the straight part of the passage, and was bounded by the whole of the curvature of the crypt, surrounding a small chapel within its area called the confessio access to which was probably through a narrow door directly opposite the passage of entrance to the crypt beneath the steps. This passage of entrance turned directly on entering the crypt to the right and to the left, so that anyone on entering the crypt and turning to the right, would have the east side of the wall of the steps on his right and then the greater curve of the apse, and on his left the west wall of the crypt chapel or confessio, and then the lesser curve of the crypt chapel, until he had encircled the apse right round to the other side and arrived at the door of the entrance again. There was probably a small window looking from the passageway into the crypt chapel at the east end and one on either side, so that pilgrims could hear Mass and see the relic which would be exposed on the altar of the confessio through these windows, but would not be allowed into the chapel itself. The vaulting of the passageway, and of the confessio or chapel was the plain trunk-headed vault, springing not from insulated piers or supports at intervals, but from continuous parallel walls as are found in the crypts at Ripon and Hexham of the time of St. Wilfrid in the seventh century. The ashlar of Prior Ernulf (1096) covering the broken masonry which possibly formed the spandrils of the head of the three vaults may yet be seen at the west end of the present crypt unevenly separated by two of the four small columns set against the west wall of the crypt. Two of these columns, possibly part of the stone screen of the Saxon Cathedral, are of much more ancient date than the others, and one at least shows marks of fire, which would be that of 1067.[1]
- ↑ It is true that in the old church of St. Peter at Rome, in addition to a direct west to east passage leading to the confessio, there were also north and south entrances, from the
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