The Cathedral Church of Canterbury | Page 7

of society alike making the
pilgrimage--the knight, the yeoman, the prioress, the monk, the friar,
the merchant, the scholar from Oxford, the lawyer, the squire, the

tradesman, the cook, the shipman, the physician, the clothier from Bath,
the priest, the miller, the reeve, the manciple, the seller of indulgences,
and, lastly, the poet himself--all these various sorts and conditions of
men and women we find journeying down to Canterbury in a sort of
motley caravan. Foreign pilgrims also came to the sacred shrine in
great numbers. A curious record, preserved in a Latin translation, of the
journey of a Bohemian noble, Leo von Rotzmital, who visited England
in 1446, gives a quaint description of Canterbury and its approaches.
"Sailing up the Channel," the narrator writes, "as we drew near to
England we saw lofty mountains full of chalk. These mountains seem
from a distance to be clad with snows. On them lies a citadel, built by
devils, 'a Cacodæmonibus extructa,' so stoutly fortified that its peer
could not be found in any province of Christendom. Passing by these
mountains and citadel we put in at the city of Sandwich (Sandvicum)....
But at nothing did I marvel more greatly than at the sailors climbing up
the masts and foretelling the distance, and approach of the winds, and
which sails should be set and which furled. Among them I saw one
sailor so nimble that scarce could any man be compared with him."
Journeying on to Canterbury, our pilgrim proceeds: "There we saw the
tomb and head of the martyr. The tomb is of pure gold, and
embellished with jewels, and so enriched with splendid offerings that I
know not its peer. Among other precious things upon it is beholden the
carbuncle jewel, which is wont to shine by night, half a hen's egg in
size. For that tomb has been lavishly enriched by many kings, princes,
wealthy traders, and other righteous men."
Such was Canterbury Cathedral in the middle ages, the resort of
emperors, kings, and all classes of humble folk, English and foreign. It
was in the spring chiefly, as Chaucer tells us, that
"Whanne that April with his showres sote The droughte of March hath
perced to the rote, And bathed every veine in swiche licour, Of whiche
vertue engendred is the flour; When Zephyrus eke with his sote brethe
Enspired hath in every holt and hethe The tendre croppes, and the
yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foules
maken melodie That slepen alle night with open eye, So priketh hem
nature in hir corages; Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages And

palmeres for to seken strange strondes To serve hauves couthe in
sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of Englelonde, to
Canterbury they wende The holy blissful martyr for to seke, That hem
hath holpen when that they were seke."
The miracles performed by the bones of the blessed martyr are stated
by contemporary writers to have been extraordinarily numerous. We
have it on the authority of Gervase that two volumes full of these
marvels were preserved at Canterbury, and in those days a volume
meant a tome of formidable dimensions; but scarcely any record of
these most interesting occurrences has been preserved. At the time of
Henry VIII.'s quarrel with the dead archbishop--of which more
anon--the name of St. Thomas and all account of his deeds was erased
from every book that the strictest investigation could lay hands on. So
thoroughly was this spiteful edict carried out that the records of the
greatest of English saints are astonishingly meagre. A letter, however,
has been preserved, written about A.D. 1390 by Richard II. to
congratulate the then archbishop, William Courtenay, on a fresh
miracle performed by St. Thomas: "Litera domini Regis graciosa missa
domino archiepiscopo, regraciando sibi de novo miraculo Sancti
Thome Martiris sibi denunciato." The letter refers, in its quaint
Norman-French, to the good influence that will be exercised by such a
manifestation, as a practical argument against the "various enemies of
our faith and belief"--noz foie et creaunce ount plousours enemys.
These were the Lollards, and the pious king says that he hopes and
believes that they will be brought back to the right path by the effect of
this miracle, which seems to have been worked to heal a distinguished
foreigner--en une persone estraunge.
Another document (dated A.D. 1455) preserves the story of the
miraculous cure of a young Scotsman, from Aberdeen, Allexander
Stephani filius in Scocia, de Aberdyn oppido natus. Alexander was
lame, pedibus contractus, from his birth, we are told that after
twenty-four years of pain and discomfort--vigintiquatuor annis
penaliter laborabat--he made a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and there
"the sainted Thomas, the divine clemency aiding him, on the second
day of the month of May did