Canterbury

It is known principally as the see of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and head of the Anglican Church.

Indeed Canterbury is rightly regarded as the cradle of English Christianity - it was here that St Augustine (not to be confused with the even more famous Father of the Church, Bishop Augustine of Hippo in Africa) made his first converts while on his mission to the pagan Anglo Saxons, and where, in 597, he became the first bishop. His burial place in St Augustine's Abbey, just outside the city walls, was for centuries a much revered shrine until, following the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and his canonization soon afterwards, the neighboring cathedral came to overshadow it. The pilgrims who flocked to Becket's tomb brought enduring cultural and economic benefits in their wake.

Today the city is a colorful blend of urban vitality and religious tradition, attracting 2.5 million visitors a year.

In Roman times Canterbury was known as Darovernon or Durovernum, later being christened Cantwaraburg (town of the people of Kent) by the Saxons. There is evidence of a church here even before the pagan King Ethelbert of Kent (560-616) married Bertha, Christian daughter of the Frankish King Haribert. It was this church which St Augustine refounded, following his successful missionizing among the Saxons.

From then on the history of Canterbury has been linked inextricably with that of the Church.

It was another Archbishop of Canterbury, St Dunstan (959-988), who revived Christian culture in England after the ravages of the Viking incursions. His less fortunate successor Alphegus (1005-12) was murdered while held prisoner by the Danes, thus providing Canterbury with yet another martyr.

In the year after the Norman Conquest, Canterbury's old Saxon church burned down, leaving Archbishop Lanfranc, appointed by William the Conqueror, with the task of building a new cathedral. Later this too suffered a similar fate (only the crypt has survived).

Archbishop Thomas Becket, a friend of the Angevin-Plantagenet Henry II (1154-89) since youth, had at first to be persuaded by Henry to accept the post. Once installed however, Becket saw it as his duty to defend the interests of the Church against the king. In December 1170, after returning to Canterbury from a period of voluntary exile in France, Becket was murdered by four of Henry's knights in the northwest transept of the Cathedral. The martyr's blood was immediately pronounced miraculous and for centuries thereafter pilgrims flocked to his shrine.

This widespread veneration of Thomas Becket ended with the Reformation. Henry VIII ordered a posthumous trial at which Becket was found guilty of high treason. His shrine was destroyed, his remains ignominiously thrown into the river, and any reminder of him obliterated. Interest in the rebellious churchman, less easily suppressed, has survived unbroken to the present day.

During the Second World War Canterbury suffered considerable damage, but the Cathedral remained unscathed.