Rebuilding of the choir of Christ Church.
Ernulf Prior 1096? Abbot of Peterborough, 1107; Bishop of Rochester, 1115. minsters of the same date. The church of Lanfranc had followed the usual Norman plan; the short eastern limb, the monks' choir, was under the tower.[1] The arrangements of the minster were now recast after a new pattern which did not commonly prevail till many years later. The eastern limb was rebuilt on a far greater scale, itself forming as it were a cruciform church, with its own transepts, its own towers, one of which in after days received the name of Anselm. This work, begun by Anselm before his banishment, was carried on in his absence by the prior of his appointment, Ernulf—Earnwulf—a monk of his old house of Bec, but perhaps of English birth, who rose afterwards to be Abbot of Peterborough and Bishop of Rochester.[2] In marked contrast to the speed with which Lanfranc had carried through his work, the choir begun by Ernulf and carried on by his successor Prior Conrad was not consecrated till late in the days of Henry.[3]
Comparison of the trials of William of Saint-Calais, Anselm, and Thomas. After reading the accounts of these two great debates or trials, at Rockingham and at Winchester, it is impossible to avoid looking both backwards and forwards. The story of these proceedings must be told, as I have throughout tried to tell it, with an eye to the earlier proceedings against William of Saint-Calais, to the later proceedings against Thomas of London. The three stories
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. p. 359.
- ↑ Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 35) describes the new building as "novum opus quod a majori turre in orientem tenditur, quodque ipse pater Anselmus inchoasse dinoscitur." Its minute history must be studied in Gervase and Willis.
- ↑ This was the time when Henry the First broke out into the fit of devout swearing of which I spoke in N. C. vol. v. p. 844; Ann. Osney, 1130; "Rex Henricus ecclesiam Christi Cantuariensis nobiliter dedicari fecit, adeo ut, coruscante luminaribus ecclesia, et singulis altaribus singulis episcopis deputatis, cum simul omnes inciperent canticum 'Terribilis est locus iste,' et classicum mirabiliter intonaret, rex illustris, præ lætitia se non capiens, juramento per mortem Domini regio affirmaret vere terribilem esse."
