The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-17

drals until some verger is obliged to
ask him to remove it. or to finger
some marble tomb, though repeatedly
requested not to do SO. The camera
fend also has to be continually told
to leave his instrument at the entrance.
We saw the tomb of Black Prince,
of Henry " and his queen, and of
many of the earlier archbishops and
other dignitaries of the cathedral. No
other church in Christendom has such
men connected with it's history. Au-
gustine, Dunstan, Anseim. Lanfranc.
| Cranmer. Laud-what memories of
! England's past are bound with these
{, names! The great revolutions in
church and in State have had their
| origin in Kent Here, in the tenth
! century, the Saxon Archbishop Dun
| life; here the mad priest of Kent for
! twenty years proclaimed that all men
We're created equal
When Adam delved and Eve spun,
Who was then gentleman"
John Ball, who said that things will
! never go Well in England as long as
there be villains and gentlemen" was
/ the first British socialist. It was from
Canterbury that 1000 Kentish men
| went with Wat Tyler to London to
demand of Richard II redress from the
| excessive taxation of that day. Here
| in sight Of this cathedral were burned
some fifty martyrs in Mary's reign.
That more Kentish men and women
| died at the stake than in any other
part of England, shows the spirit of
| liberty was strongest in this county.
Here Charles 1 and Archbishop Laud
met the greatest resistance. Green, the
historian, says, Kent stood out to a
man" against the king. Kent has al
ways been the home of high think
ing" and Shakespeare alludes to this
| when he says, Kent is the civilest
place in ali this isle"
The verger who acted as our guide
| traced for US the course of Thomas a
Beckett when pursued by the four as
I
| place of his martyrdom. 1t was not
at the high altar as most of the paint
ers of the scene have depicted, but by
| the altar of St. Benedict in a minor
chapel of the cathedral.
| 1t was apparently a brilliant stroke
conflict between church and state for
the supremacy, to appoint as primate
his bosom friend and adviser, Thomas
, a Beckett. Now the struggle would be
ended, the monarch had reasonto sup
! pose. But no sooner did Beckett sit in
the archbishop's chair than he made
| it throne rivalling his liege lords.
/ The battle was fiercer than before.
! Henry won at Clarendon when it was
voted that the clergy should be tried
for crimes before the civil courts. In
an irritable moment he was heard to
ask, will none of my friends rid me
of this insolent priest?"-of course,
never intending the death of the arch
bishop. Thus the story goes; but four
of his friends, whom he quickly de-
serted, misunderstood him or under
stood him, as the reader of history
may decide for himself and Archbish-
OPP Beckett was slain in the cathedral.
We cannot in our day fully under
stand how the popular mind was at
fected in those superstitious times. The
pope, quick to take advantage, canon
lied Beckett. The four assassins fled
piatory pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
where they died, perhaps q natural
death, and over the ditch into which
their bodies were flung, stone was
erected stating that Here lie the
wretches who murdered st. Thomas of
Canterbury" King Henry found him
self the object of loathing among his
own people. But he was an able start
egist in politics, as well as on the
field. He ostentatiously went upon
pilgrimage to Canterbury. When near
ing the cathedral he dismounted and
approached barefooted, and afterward
allowed himself to be f1agellated before
the shrine by priests.
At the same time he sent a powerful
army against the Scots who, he knew,
were not in position to resist him. He
contrived that the news of this vic
tory should follow Immediately after
his penance, and thus public opinion
as changed. The people looked upon
his success as proof of Heavens for
giveness.
From that time for many ages sal
walton seemed to depend upon pilgrim
ages, and Canterbury became the relig
ious center of English life. Upon this
thread Chaucer hangs his Canterbury
Tales and by his rich descriptions
seems to lift the veil and give US
glimpse of his times.
F. A. HOSMER