271. Rochester.—Of this place it is said that "The city of Rochester was worth an hundred shillings in the time of K. Edward. When the bishop received it the same. Its value is now twenty pounds, but the tenant pays forty pounds: Civitas Rovecestre T. R. E. valebat c solidos; quando episcopus recepit similiter; modo valet xx libras, tamen ille qui tenet reddit xl libras." (D.B. 2, p. 1, c. 1.) Bede styles this place "civitas Dorubrevis," stating (Hist. Eccl., 1. 2, c. 3), that it obtained from the English the name of Hrofæcæstræ from a former chief, called Hrof. He says (Ib.) that the church of St. Andrew (the cathedral) was built by K. Ethelbert, about A.D. 604, who also procured much endowment for both this church and that of Canterbury, as well as for the bishops. (Reg. Roff.) enumerates many benefactions to the church of Rochester in Saxon times; "ante adventum Normannorum."—Another statement is, that the first Christian church here was begun about A.D. 600, and completed four years afterwards: that it was made episcopal by K. Æthelbert; that Gundulph, bishop of Rochester in 1077, ejected the secular canons, who were the original owners of the priory, and replaced them with Benedictine monks; that he rebuilt and enlarged the priory; and recovered from Odo, bishop of Bayeux, sundry manors and estates, which had been unjustly alienated from the cathedral establishment. (Monast. I, 153, 155.)
In A.D. 1264, during the wars between K. Henry III and his barons, this city was besieged by Montfort, Earl of Leicester, when the church was plundered and defaced, many of the monks were murdered, and the church was converted into a stable. (Monast. I, 156.) Thus we perceive, that the discreditable conduct of the parliamentarian forces during the Great Rebellion was not the first and only instance of such proceedings in this country.
The priory was erected in 1077 by Bp. Gundulph (Lambarde), who rebuilt the cathedral and priory about 1080. (Kilburne.) These two statements must refer to the same act of Bp. Gundulph, and imply merely a renovation of the priory, as well as of the cathedral.
St. Nicholas, although a parish (so early as 1070, Hasted) was long without a church, having only an altar in the cathedral; but A.D. 1418 Bp. Rich. Yong gave license to build a church "in cimiterio dicte ecclesie nostre in parte boreali—in the cemetery of our said church on the northern side" (of the cathedral, where the church of St. Nicholas now stands) the
