A History of Canterbury Cathedral ed. by Patrick Collinson, Nigel Ramsay, and Margaret Sparks (review)

BOOK REVIEWS285 Cypriot history and an eye for reading lessons about Cyprus's current situation out of the past. Derek Krueger The University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro A History ofCanterbury Cathedral. Edited by Patrick Collinson, Nigel Ramsay, and Margaret Sparks. (NewYork: Oxford University Press. 1995. Pp. xxxii, 602. $39.95.) A Christian church has existed in the Roman town of Canterbury, later capital ofthe Jutish kingdom of Kent in southeast England, since the fourth century, but the recorded history of Canterbury as an episcopal see began in 597 with the arrival of the monk-missionaryAugustine and King Ethelbert of Kent's grant to him of Christ Church.The present cathedral serves as the spiritual center of the English Church and of the world-wide AngUcan communion. Constructed ca. 1070-1080 under Archbishop Lanfranc, rebuUt after a disastrous fire in 1174, and continually expanded and remodeUed between 1379 and 1503, the magnificent late-Gothic building has attracted the attention of several architectural historians, most recently Francis Woodman, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (1982; reviewed ante, LXX [January, 1984], 149-150). The book under review purports to study the cathedral "as a community of people" (p. v). In fact, the twelve authors of the various articles comprising the volume apply a very traditional ecclesiological understanding and identify "church" with administrators: the priors of the monastic community of Christ Church, and the deans and canons who governed the cathedral. If some attention is perforce given to the cathedral as a pilgrimage center, the most efficacious prayerhouse in England, this work does not explore the beUefs and attitudes of "the sUent majority," what historians have long called popular religion . Seven chapters treat the history ofthe cathedral from 602 to 1994; the remaining five chapters discuss its archives and library; Uturgy and music; medieval and post-Reformation monuments; and the cathedral school. From the days ofAugustine to March 20, 1540, when the community was dissolved in an atmosphere of "squalid pathos," the Benedictine monks of Christ Church constituted the cathedral staff. Since the monks carried out a Uturgy which since the days of Lanfranc, if not Dunstan, had been elaborate and exhausting , conducted a school, and provided hospitaUty for thousands ofvisitors, the judgment of one scholar that "normal monastic concerns of performing the Uturgy, overseeing the revenues, and criticizing the archbishop" (p. 56) seems harsh and refuted by the evidence.Very close ties with the monarchy—long the community's greatest political asset, proved ultimately, under Henry VIII, its greatest weakness.The shrine of the martyred ArchbishopThomas Becket drew a steady stream of distinguished visitors: Louis VII in 1179, setting the French 286book reviews monarchy's seal of approval on the cult; King John II of France in 1360;Aeneas Silvius (later Pope Pius II) in 1436; and Emperor CharlesV,whom HenryVIII entertained at Canterbury during the Pentecost season in 1520—these, in addition to the tens of thousands of noble and ordinary visitors. In 1541, Canterbury became a secular, i.e., non-monastic foundation. Since the Protestant Reformation attributed salvation to faith alone and denied the value of good works, including art, what purpose should the cathedral serve? It took more than a century of upheavals and destruction for this issue to be resolved. In the Restoration atmosphere that stressed stabiUty and the reestablishment of the world that had been lost, ParUament determined that a dean and twelve canons or prebendaries had responsibUity for the fabric, the daUy worship, and hospitality.The authors evaluate the interests and contributions of aU the deans since 1661 . In synthesizing recent revisionist research, this volume makes at least three significant contributions to an understanding of the AngUcan Church between the ancien régime and the twentieth century. First, in the eighteenth century the church worked to create stabiUty and order, and, reflecting public opinion, fought CathoUc Emancipation and what the church perceived as the destructive influence of UberaUsm. Secondly, theTractarian movement did not so much react against enlightenment thought as it drew upon eighteenth-century Anglican ideas. Thirdly, the clergy developed for the first time into a professional group, set apart by education, interests, status, and close marriage connections. And, as in the days of Becket and...